(Scene:  SKJAM's study in the Rock of Perpetuity.  There's now a 
tea set on a small table between the chairs.  The wizard, Saori and Hima 
are sipping tea.  Chuchu (the monkey-thing from Utena) is roasting 
marshmallows in the fireplace.)

Saori:  So, you're Ranma's son?

Hima:  Yep!

Saori:  How many fiancees do you have?

Hima:  None.  Pops learned by example.

Saori:  Girlfriends?

Hima:  Between romances at the moment.

Saori:  Oh, surely there's some girl you're interested in.

Hima:  I don't want to talk about it.

Saori:  Come on, I won't tell anyone.

Hima:  I *said* I didn't want to talk about it.

	(Hima now has a flickering red aura surrounding him.  Chuchu 
begins roasting marshmallows on that instead.)

Saori:  Ohh-kay.

SKJAM!:  Teatime is over, back to the fic.  Oh, and Chuchu, you'll have 
to get back to the set of "Ma Vie et Roses" before they notice you're 
missing.

Chuchu:  Chu?

SKJAM!:  Yes, now.

Chuchu:  Chuu.  Ch-chu.

SKJAM!:  No.  I am not going to subtitle your comments, you little 
hentai. 

Chuchu:  Chu.  Chu.

	(The creature leaves.)

On Fri, 29 Jan 1999, Jeffrey Hosmer wrote:

Juuban District, Tokyo, Japan
199X

Saori:  The same year my series happened!

     She flung her light, the light of the Moon Princess, against the
huge creature formed of mud.

     And nothing happened.

     The monster didn't even seem inconvenienced.  UPSET, but --

     And then, as she stared in shock, the beast grabbed hold of a
nearby bus, and flung it at her.  She turned to flee and --

     It struck.

     And then the universe became dark and red...

Hima:  I don't remember that in the history books.

                                   *****

     Usagi awoke from her nightmare, gasping in fear.

SKJAM!:  She vowed never again to eat pickles and ice cream while 
watching Rayearth.

  For a brief

moment, she thought she was back home, in her own bed...

SKJAM!:  Instead of in the one shared by the entire cast of Fuushigi Yuugi 
in yet another Biles lemon crossover.

He needed his sleep at nights far more than she did, largely because she
had nothing to do with her days than sleep.  A very long time ago -- a
week -- she would have thought that was a GOOD thing.

Saori:  That was before the nightmares, obviously.

     Usagi hated hospitals.  She hated hospital food -- bad tasting, and
the portions were so small -- and the generally patronizing attitude of
the hospital workers.  She DEFINITELY hated having to use a bedpan.

Hima:  I guess the bus incident really happened then.

     And she really hated the fact that her friends were in danger, and
that she couldn't help them.

     Her subconscious had realized that she would need time to heal the
injuries that she'd sustained in the fight against that... whatever it
had been.  That was ANOTHER frustrating thing about all this.  While the
Senshi were out there in the trenches, doing their usual routine of
battling the forces of evil and slowly but surely learning what the
enemy was actually up to, she was stuck here.  Even when the Senshi or
Luna visited, they usually didn't want to trouble her with the details
of their fights... which only made her more nervous, ultimately.

Saori:  (Luna voice)  Yes, we don't want to tell her how much better 
we're doing with her out of the way.

     It was, she supposed, a good 

thing that her subconscious had

quickly found someone else to take over the role of Sailor Moon.  Even
if that person was... rather strange.

Hima:  Like how, instead of saying "in the name of the Moon, I'll punish 
you", she normally yelled "SPOON!" when attacking.
 > 

     Still, she could've wished for a little excitement.

SKJAM!:  Well, if you and Mamoru are *very* careful, you might be able to 
handle a *little* excitement.
 > 

     Usagi should have remembered that Minako had once said, "Be careful
what you wish for, you might break your mother's back!"  Of course, if

Hima:  Yeah, I remember the time Aunt Mina told me that.  Don't see much 
of her, but she definitely has a way with words.

     There was a shimmering in the air at the foot of Usagi's bed, and
then a woman appeared from nowhere.  Her hair was an orange-red, her
skin was exceedingly pale, and her eyes were two large crystals.  She
carried a scythe-like staff.

Saori:  Sure *looks* like a Sailor Moon monster.

     "Give me the Silver Crystal and I will not kill you slowly," she
said in a voice that sounded like a kazoo being played by a corpse.

SKJAM!:  Obviously the vocal chords have begun to crystallize.

     Usagi was too frightened to even scream.

Hima:  That's a surprise.

     Lina sidestepped the rose almost completely.  Her face grew greatly
wroth as she felt the blood well up on the tiny cut where it had nicked
her cheek.  "You looked MUCH better when you wore your lavender suit,"

Hima:  Actually, I think Endymion looks kind of silly in it, but Mom said 
it was impolite to giggle.

     He didn't waste much more than a second considering this, deciding
at once that this must be some survivor of the Black Moon Family seeking
vengeance.  He angrily reached into subspace for another rose.

Saori:  So, if Lina were a member of the Black Moon Family, what would 
her name be?

SKJAM!:  Rock Salt?

     He couldn't find any.

     "Oh dear, did I not mention that the reason that outfit looks so
spiffy is that it doesn't have certain accessories?" Lina asked, before
laughing her head off at Tuxedo Kamen's predicament.

Hima:  I think he can still do the Smoking Bomber attack, though.

     She had forgotten that there was considerably more to the man
before her than just roses thrown at dramatic moments.  Lina was
forcibly reminded of this when he leapt at her, whacking at her with
both his cane and his fists.  He got in several good hits before she
blasted him with a wave of pure force, smashing him into the wall of the
hospital room.

Saori:  Yay, Mamoru!  I kind of wish there'd been someone like him in my 
series.  The only guy older than me in the team was Ikki, and Mr. 
Romantic he wasn't.
 > 

     Seething with power, she turned back to glare at Usagi.  "Now...
are you going to give me the Crystal, or do I have to get MEAN?"

     Panicking, but unable to flee due to her injuries, Usagi blurted
out, "I don't have it!  I don't HAVE the Crystal!"

     Lina sneered.  "Sure, sure, that's what they all say." Of course,
the last five that I asked really DIDN'T have it...

Hima:  Because they had all forgotten where they put it.

     "No!  I REEEALLY don't have the Crystal!  I --"  Usagi abruptly
clammed up.  There was no way in the world she was going to give up the
Crystal's location to a monster like her.

     "You WHAT?" Lina barked.

     Even though she was right on the edge of a panic fit that would
leave her dissolving in tears, Usagi kept her mouth firmly shut.

     "All right," Lina said in a low voice.  "We're going to do this the
HARD way.  Now, which of your bones HASN'T been broken recently?"

SKJAM!:  The ones in the inner ear.

     It was at that point that Usagi let out her shriek of sheer panic.
Everyone in the hospital heard it, and orderlies by the dozens descended
on the door to Usagi's room, which Lina had quietly barred with a
sustained telekinesis spell the instant she arrived.

Saori:  Thinking ahead?  That's unlike the Lina we've seen so far.

     In fact, Usagi's shriek was sufficiently powerful that a number of
people OUTSIDE of the hospital heard it.

Hima:  I can believe that one.  According to Luna-sensei, early on her 
whining could actually stop monsters in their tracks.
 > 

     At an otherwise empty house, Minako sat straight up in bed,
disturbing Artemis who was asleep on her stomach.  "Usagi-chan!" she
gasped.

SKJAM!:  BTW, thanks for not crossing over any Oscar fics in this story.

     And at a certain dojo in a certain rather famous part of Tokyo...

     Ranma woke up.

Hima:  Say what?  Pops?

     This in itself was rather odd.  Ranma normally didn't awaken in the
mornings until he had been either yelled at several times or violently
assaulted, usually by his father or by Akane.  And he almost NEVER woke
up before the sun rose, unless he was training for something.  "Early to
bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, but he still dies," was one
of the few pearls of wisdom from his father that he had adopted as his
own.

Saori:  Actually, acto Takahashi, he's usually sparring with his father 
about 5 AM.

SKJAM!:  How do you know?

Saori:  I'm rich, so naturally I was able to afford the "Perfect Memory" 
book.

     So Ranma was already rather puzzled by the fact that he had woken
up at this hour of the night without having someone's voice in his ear
or being attacked, when he realized that he was getting the strangest
feeling that someone important was in danger.

Hima:  Mom!

     He was about to go check on Akane, rationalizing this by developing
a theory that Ryouga might try to do something REALLY perverted to her
while she was sleeping.  Not that he CARED or anything...

Hima:  Oh, her.  Did he *really* think about her like that?

SKJAM!:  Sure seems like it.

     He momentarily rooted through the pile of clothes on his floor,
until he found the wristwatch device.  He flipped open the top, and was
presented with the imaged of a panicked Ami.  "Ranma!" she squeaked, her
voice even higher pitched than normal thanks to the poor audio quality,
"Usagi-chan's in trouble!  We need you to come to the hospital right
away!"

SKJAM!:  And this time, don't bring your supporting cast!

     "Right!" Ranma grunted, grabbing the other piece of girly costume
jewelry from his pile of clothes.  He then dashed out of his room, down
the stairs, and leaped out the back door to the pond.

     SPLASH.

     Words bubbled up to the surface of the pond.

     "MOON PRISM POWER... MAKEUP!"

Saori:  Whoa.

     There was a flash of polychromatic light, and Ranma, now female,
arose from the pond, and leapt into the night sky. She was garbed in the
easily recognizable garb of Shin Sailor Moon -- a sailor-fuku with a red
bow, a blue skirt, and red knee-length boots.  White gloves covered her
arms to the elbow, and a golden tiara graced her forehead.  The end of
her pigtail was adorned with a round, ruby ornament.

     Soun, sitting on the porch and enjoying a quiet smoke, decided to
pretend he hadn't seen that.

SKJAM!:  Hash didn't *normally* cause him to have hallucinations.

                                   *****

     In a way, Makoto mused, there wasn't really that much difference
between Shin Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon.  They both tended to be late.
The difference being, she supposed, that Shin Sailor Moon had something
of an excuse, living in Nerima and having to cross town like she did.

     He did.

     Whatever.

Hima:  Pops always did make pronouns hard.  It's better in Japanese, 
where they don't use feminine/masculine distinctions so often.

     It doesn't make getting beaten up any less crushing to my ego, she
thought, as she flung another "Vital Pressure" at the weird-eyed
sorceress who had assaulted Usagi and Mamoru, and watched as the
lightning rebounded off her like bullets off Godzilla's hide.  It DID

SKJAM!:  In fact, it rather reminded her of the times she'd battled 
Godzilla, over in Flashman's fics.

     The sorceress then made a gesture oddly like one brushing crumbs
away, and a wall of force slammed into Sailor Jupiter.  Makoto's teeth
were ringing when she struck the wall of the hospital, and for a few

Saori:  What kind of fillings does she have, silver?

     There was a pulse of energy off to one side, and the sound of two 
sets of feet hitting the ground.  Makoto lifted her head to see the
sorceress looming over her...

     "MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"

Hima:  Yes, it's Lina's long-lost daughter, looking for her back child 
support. 

     ...and then a red headed sonic boom slammed into the sorceress,
howling battlecries as it passed.

SKJAM!:  The humans arrived later.

     Gee, Shin Sailor Moon seems to be really upset that I'm hurt,
Makoto thought, confusedly.  And you know, when she's a guy, he looks
just like--

Saori:  Johnny Depp?

Hima:  Jackie Chan?

SKJAM!:  Your father?

     "Dammit, Lina!" she heard the woman cry out.  "Stop this!  This is
insane!  Don't you know what will happen if you --"

     "SHUT UP, SHEILA!  I know that you just want to take my preciouses
for yourself!" the sorceress retorted. She easily evaded all of the
warrior's blows.

Saori:  Gollum.  Gollum.

     "Okay, then we'll do this the hard way!  ATHENA, GO!"

Hima:  Unfortunately, this caused Athena to leave the area.

     A bolt of water that almost seemed to RADIATE icy cold slammed into
the side of the sorceress, enveloping her and congealing around her so
that she looked as though she were imprisoned in a crystal.

     "That seemeth to me poetically just, dost thou not agree, Sheila-
chan?" a familiar voice -- speaking in a very UNfamiliar accent --
asked.

     Makoto craned her head over to look at Ami, standing a few feet
away, with a satisfied expression on her face.  She then turned to look
in the opposite direction, to see Ami staring at her doppleganger with a
confused expression.

SKJAM!:  You're certainly getting the mileage out of this joke...

     "MACHINASAI!" came from a few feet away.

Hima:  Ouch.

     The sorceress almost seemed to slump.  "Is there no END to this?"

Saori:  No, you still have the Outers, the Asteroid Senshi and the 
Starlights to go...

she asked herself as she turned to glare at the new arrival.  When she
had placed the telekinetic barrier on the door, she had forgotten that
Sailors preferred unconventional entrances like windows... and walls.

SKJAM!:  I always wondered why they didn't ask Shampoo to join.

     The new arrival was standing a few feet away.  Performing silly
poses, she said, "A hospital is a place for healing and peace!  Your
actions have disturbed the sleep of countless sick and injured people!
Even if Dr. Kildare forgives you, I won't!  Ai to seigi no, sailor-fuku
bishoujo senshi...Shin Sailor Moon!  Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo!"

     Under her breath, Shin Sailor Moon mumbled, "Boy, do I feel silly
doing this."

Hima:  I'm feelin' for ya, Pops.

     "The CRYSTAL," the sorceress hissed.  In the next instant, she
leaped towards Ranma, a savage grin on her face.

Saori:  Savage but not stupid, it quickly moved to a safer place.

     Sheila crawled out of the hole in the wall, her body and her pride
wounded.  Dammit, when am I gonna get a handle on my temper? she
thought.  A quick look told her that both Athena and her mo-- this
universe's version of Sailor Jupiter were all right.  Then she saw the
one who was fighting with Lina.

     Ranma-sensei? she thought, confusedly.  Wait a minute!  What's
going on here?

SKJAM!:  (rolls his eyes)  It's a long story.

     "Hey!" Makoto shouted as she saw Sheila emerge.  "Are you okay?"

     Sheila flashed her a quick grin.  "Fine!  I LIKE getting smashed
into buildings!"

Saori:  Would you like a position with the Saints?  They do that a lot.

     Off in the distance, Sheila could see that Ranma was just barely
holding off Lina.  "Who IS that, anyway?" she asked Sailor Jupiter.

     "Haven't you been reading the newspapers?"

     "I'm from out of town."

Hima:  Well, technically, it's the same location, just a thousand years 
removed...
 > 

     "That's Shin Sailor Moon," Jupiter said simply.

     Sheila had a brief, hilarious image of her former martial arts
instructor reacting to the idea of becoming one of the Sailor Senshi in
his cursed form, and had to work hard to repress the attack of the
giggles that image provoked.

Hima:  Well, there *is* that one photograph.

Saori:  And?

Hima:  When I ask about it, he just rolls his eyes and says "Long story." 

     Athena had been looking at the fight between Shin Sailor Moon -- A
Senshi of the MOON?  What an odd development THIS is... -- and the mad

SKJAM!:  Ah, yes, she's from before that...

sorceress, waiting for an opening which the younger warrior didn't seem
inclined to provide.  "Whatever is the matter with her?" she finally
protested.  "Doth she intend to fight against the monster which did best
all of her companions ALONE?"

Hima:  Yeah, Pops is like that.

     "You... you look JUST like me..." she heard a quieter version of
her own voice behind her.

     Athena turned to look at Sailor Mercury.  They exchanged a long 
look.  "Nay, not truly," Athena said distractedly.  "Thy bosom is much
less --"

Saori:  Are you sure she's not related to Ranma?

     Ami's face turned bright red.

     Oh, Powers, please tell me that not EVERY version of myself in the
myriad worlds is going to be as prudish as Aurora is..., Athena thought

SKJAM!:  Apparently, in most of the worlds, it was Aurora who got the 
Mercury job...and don't worry, Athena, there's always lemon universes.

silently.  "Hast thy companion no concept of strategy?  Wherefore dost
she not set her opponent up for attacks from me, or thee?"

Hima:  It's a guy thing.  You wouldn't understand.

	(Saori bops him with her staff.)

     Ami blinked.  That definitely did make sense.  "Well, Shin Sailor
Moon just joined us recently, and she doesn't have much experience
fighting --"

     "Why hast a NOVICE been entrusted with such a formidable power?"

Saori:  The same reason Usagi was.  Cosmic irony.

     "-- fighting in a GROUP, at least..."

     "IYAAAA!"

     All eyes immediately swiveled to see what had produced that
horrible cry.

     Lina was trying to whack Shin Sailor Moon with a large energy
mallet, which she was directing with the Silence Glaive.  "So!" she
cackled. "THIS is your weakness, is it?" The fact that Shin Sailor Moon
was desperately trying to dodge the attack gave support to the theory.

SKJAM!:  Yep, flat-chested tomboys that can't cook wielding mallets.  Yup.

     "Dammit!" Sheila swore as she arrived by the side of Ranma, who had
detransformed into the clothes she'd been wearing before, and just
waking up.

Saori:  T-shirt and shorts, then...

     "What WAS that?" Ranma asked, confused.

Hima:  Long story, Pops.  (grins)

     "Athena, get over here!  We've got to hurry!" Sheila called.
Athena nodded, and started to run, with Ami and Makoto following close
on her heels.

     "Wait a minute, who ARE you guys?" Ranma demanded, coming to her
feet.

     "That's a long story," Sheila began.

Hima:  Told you so.

     "I know who you are," Makoto interrupted.  And then she smiled
broadly.  "I heard you!  You called me Mom!  You're my daughter from
Crystal Tokyo, aren't you?"

SKJAM!:  (Makoto voice)  Finally, I get a man!  (normal voice)  
Fortunately for her, Lurker is likely to be nicer in that respect.

Saori:  (Makoto voice)  Wait a minute.  My daughter has red hair, and 
fights like Ranma.  That means...oh, Ranma-sempai!  (normal voice)  Hey, 
I thought of something, Raye used Instant Nanniichuan and she's actually 
your father!

Hima:  No way!  Pops ain't like that!

SKJAM!:  Besides, technically, if Raye did that, she'd still be "shooting 
blanks."

     Sheila flinched.  

"Yeah, sort of..." > 

     "Crystal Tokyo?" Ranma asked.

Saori:  Apparently they haven't fully briefed him yet.

     "And you're Sailor Mercury from the future, right?" Makoto asked,
turning to Athena.

     "From the future?" Ranma asked.

     Athena was about to answer a negative to that, when Sheila stepped
between the two of them.  "I'm sorry, we can't really answer any
questions you might have... we've got to get moving, or several
dimensions are going to be destroyed."

     "Dimensions?" Ranma asked.

Hima:  They didn't brief him on much, it looks like.

     "We'll come with you!" Makoto volunteered.

SKJAM!:  That way we can all die one at a time, and Usagi can save our 
butts like usual!

     Sheila shook her head.  "Sorry, but our traveling device only
carries two people," she lied.  "Listen, I promise that I'll bring your
world's Silver Crystal back, okay?"

Saori:  Not "era's", notice.

     "What's happening?" Rei asked wearily as she helped Minako to walk
over to where the rest of them were standing.

     "At least I'm not the ONLY one who has no idea what's going on,"
Ranma muttered.

     "The woman whom thou didst battle against hast stolen yon Shin
Sailor Moon's Silver Crystal, and departed.  We two must hasten to
pursue her, or her act shall doom this world," Athena explained calmly.

Saori:  Sure.  She'll answer Rei's question, but not any of Ranma's.

     "I liked it better when I had no idea what was going on," Ranma
sighed.

Hima:  Can't blame you.

     "So NOW what?" Minako asked.  "Without the Silver Crystal, you
can't become Shin Sailor Moon, Ranma!"

     "Well, if I can't, I can't, y'know?  Panicking about it ain't gonna
get me anywhere."

SKJAM!:  True, true.

     The cats, Luna and Artemis, along with the small black pig who was
channeling the spirit of their long-dead friend Charon, trotted up at
that point, and they had to explain the whole thing to them.  By the
time they were done, Ranma finally decided to turn back to her normal
form, via a small kettle of hot water that she'd carried in her
backpack.  She upended the contents over her head.

Hima:  No one mentioned a backpack before.

     Nothing happened.

     THEN Ranma started to panic.

Saori:  (onna Ranma voice)  Aaagh!  Seppuku time!

                                   *****

Juuban District, Tokyo, Japan
Another world

SKJAM!:  Soap opera time, hmm?

                                   *****

     Emerald leaned against the park bench, his eyes closed.  His face
was relaxed as he drew power from the elements.  The soft wind blowing
through his hair and ruffling his slightly grimy, now off-white shirt.
The electricity from the nearby sputtering streetlights.  The steady
heartbeat of the earth beneath him, the gently swirling water of the
large park lake...

SKJAM!:  Oh, this guy.

Hima:  You recognize him?  Good guy or bad guy?

SKJAM!:  Well, he's there to help...

     "Serenity..." he hissed, his eyes narrowing as he slowly turned his
body towards the tower.  He stood slowly, never taking his gaze off the
tall building.  His fists clenched and unclenched as he stared at the
monolith.

Saori:  But you said--

SKJAM!:  I didn't say *who* he was there to help.

     Energy flooded through his body, but it was the WRONG kind of
energy.  The WORST kind.  The silver energy of the Ginzuishou snapped
and crackled around him while a green aura fought back against it.  The
two types of energy spun around him, actually lifting him into the air
as they fought.  The bench he had been sitting on exploded into flame as
the green aura struck it.  A nearby tree was split in half by silver
lightning.  Car windows blew outward.

Hima:  There can be only one.

     Does she somehow know I'm after her?  Is she that powerful, to try
and strike me down from a distance?

SKJAM!:  Naah.

     After a moment he discarded that thought.  Even in Crystal Tokyo,
Serenity had never tried to destroy him like that.  If she had been
capable of it, he knew that Mars would have insisted that she do it.  So
what?

Saori:  But of course, Serenity, being the nice person she is, would've 
refused.

     He looked around at the devastation around him for the first time
and decided to leave, now, before the authorities arrived.  He was
standing in the middle of a blasted crater.  It even felt dead to him.
Curiously, he reached out with his senses.  The area around him, the
area scoured by the mystical energies, was utterly dead.  There was no
energy to be drained.  The implications staggered him.

     He then checked his power levels and was surprised again.  He was
full of energy.  He hadn't had this much even when he had faced the
Great Enemy.  Somehow, the freak interaction of his power with the
Ginzuishou's had supercharged him, leaving a dead crater in its wake.

     "Interesting," he muttered before stepping into a shadow and
disappearing.  He needed to think about this.

Hima:  into the all-concealing shadows...

                                   *****

     She considered what to do next.  She could sense this world's
Silver Crystal.  Serenity was using it, but at a very low level of
power.  At least she was assured that this world was not a total waste
of time like so many others.  In fact, the energy she had received from
the interaction of her power, the green energy, and her currently
blasted surroundings would help prolong her quest.  Should she seek out
this strange new power or go for the Crystal first?

SKJAM!:  I'll take Door Number Three, Bob!

     Then everything exploded in green light again.

Saori:  Darn that GL Corps anyway.

                                   *****

     Emerald convulsed as he fell out of a shadow in front of the high
tower, silver sparks gathering around him.  It was nowhere near as bad
as the last time, but it still sent waves of agony through his limbs.
To make it worse, more energy was flowing into his system, draining the
surroundings, and he was already topped off.  Green energy leaked from
his eyes and mouth as he screamed his pain to the uncaring sky.  Then,
unable to contain it any longer, he threw the energy out of him and into
the night sky.

SKJAM!:  (old man)  Pillar of green energy tweren't there last night.

Hima:  (old man)  Nope.  Purty, ain't it?

                                   *****

     "Her Crystals are reacting with some power native to this
universe."  Athena read the analysis off her computer.  "It is like the
power of the Silver Crystal, but opposed somehow.  When they interact,
huge amounts of power are drained from the environment.  Tis dangerous
to get too close."

Saori:  It's the Revlis Crystal!

     "Just take mine hand!" Athena said, grabbing her friend.  Then,
unable to resist, she pressed her body very closely against Sheila's.
"We must be close together to teleport."

SKJAM!:  I thought it took at least three Senshi to teleport.

                                   *****

     "That... hurt..." Emerald said, gasping for breath like a landed
fish.  He had just let loose a bolt of energy more powerful than any he
had ever used, except the one against the Great Enemy, and he still felt
full to bursting.  A trembling hand reached to grasp his crystal.

     "What?" he said to it.  "We have to leave?  Why?"  He listened for
a moment.  "Who's coming?"

Hima:  The Spanish Inquisition.

     The doors to the tower suddenly burst open in front of him,
disgorging five Sailors who had had a very bad night.  Then there was a
flash of light and two women, one clad in a Sailor fuku, appeared behind
him.  Then, to top it all off, a redhead with silver eyes came flying
out of the sky.

     "Oh, everyone," he said, answering his own question of a moment
before.  Elsewhere seemed to be a good place to visit at the moment.

Saori:  Or even Philadelphia.

     Then his senses told him about the aura of the flying woman.

     Two... no THREE Ginzuishou's? he thought.  The power is not quite
the same... but she...  Is that Serenity?

SKJAM!:  No, it's Insanity, her close relative.

     The moment of confusion would have cost him dearly if Sailor Moon
hadn't taken that moment to interrupt with one of her trademark
speeches.  "Hold it!  I don't know what all of you are doing here, but
I've had a VERY bad night, so don't do ANYTHING or in the name of the
Moon, I'll punish you!"

     The flying redhead threw her head back and laughed.  "Oh, how
convenient.  Wait a moment, green-hair," she called to Emerald.  "I'll
deal with you in a moment."

Saori:  I'll give you two Miyazakis for your Tezuka.

     "Lina, don't do this!" Sheila cried, hoping to distract the
sorceress.

     Athena, meanwhile, ran over to Emerald.  "Sir, I suggest that you
take cover.  Thou dost not want to get caught in the middle of this."
She then took a moment to look the man over.  "Twould be a very great
shame for such a handsome man to get fried."

     Emerald stared at her, his green-on-green eyes almost bugging out.
Did Sailor Mercury just come on to me?  Then he regained control of
himself.  "I could NOT agree more with either statement," he said before
running for the shadows.

Hima:  I kinda feel sorry for Emerald.  That's probably the nicest 
anyone's treated him in years.

     "MERCURY ICE BLADE!"

     Suddenly, a six foot long spear of ice slammed into Lina's back,
driving its point through her body and coming out the front, its clear
sides stained red.  Lina gave a gurgling cry and fell down on top of
Sailor Moon's prison.  Her blood ran down its sides.

SKJAM!:  Ouch.  But we still have a long ways to go in this story, so I 
doubt there's any permanent damage.

     "ATHENA!" Sheila screamed.

Saori:  (Sheila voice) You didn't leave any for me!
]

     The Senshi of Ice stood trembling in a throwing stance, then she
lowered her hands and held them before her.  "I... I never used that on
a human..." she said.  "Oh, gods..."  She sank to her knees.  "What have
I done?"

Hima:  Used an effective attack.
 

     "You... you killed her!" the other Sailor Mercury cried out,
aghast.

SKJAM!:  Naah.

     Sheila ran to her friend's side.  She couldn't believe that Athena
had done that.  "Athena, are you okay?" she asked, grabbing her friend
by the shoulders.

     The usually flirtatious Senshi was sobbing in great big heaves.
"Oh, Sheila... I... I killed her.  I killed a human being... oh,
gods..."

     "Shhhh... shhhh..." Sheila rocked Athena back and forth gently.
"It's okay."  Then she said quietly.  "Why?  Why did you do it?"

Saori:  Because it felt good, silly.

     "B-because... Sailor Moon was so inexperienced here and Lina was so
strong... I couldn't stop her last time... if she got a fourth Crystal,
how could we stop her?  I just wanted to wound her...."

     Sheila looked over at Lina, then turned back to Athena, hugging her
tight.  "I understand.  We had to stop her.  I just wish..."

     Her wish was never voiced, for at that moment, Lina Inverse opened
her eyes.  "AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!" she yelled, vaporizing the ice
blade with her power.  Then, inside the crystal prison, the Ginzuishou
rose from Sailor Moon's body and floated up through the Crystal toward
Lina.  Everyone, including the mostly forgotten Emerald, watched in
horror as the Ginzuishou entered Lina's wound... and then replaced the
gaping hole with crystalline flesh.

Hima:  Yep, you were right, SKJAM!

     "Ha ha... hahahahaha.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed Lina, floating
over the trapped Sailor Moon.  "You tried and failed to kill me,
Sheila!" she screamed.  "Now you've lost your best chance!  I WILL
ascend and then the universe will be MINE!"  With a flash of silver
light, she vanished.

SKJAM!:  Umm, no, *Athena* tried to kill you and failed.  Sheila gets her 
chance later.
 > 

     Emerald watched from the shadows, more confused than ever, as
Sailor Mercury noticed him and blew him a kiss before she and her
redheaded companion vanished.

     "What a night," he said.

     Then Mars noticed him.  "Hey!"

     "And it's not over yet," he groaned.

SKJAM!:  Actually, from Emerald's POV, if he can fast talk his way 
through the next few minutes, things are ideal.  He can use his jewel to 
rescue Moon from the crystal, and since she no longer has the Ginzuishou, 
she can't become Serenity and brainwipe the entire planet in the future.
All he has to do then is figure out a way to beat Metallia without the 
Silver Crystal...

                                   ***** > > Berlin Airspace,
April, 1992

Saori:  Berlin?  Not Tokyo?

     ...then paused.  Her preciouses were speaking to her.  Of the four
of them, three could clearly remember being sundered into smaller
crystals, and then reunited -- just recently, in the case of her latest
precious.  Hesitantly, she sent out a scan for the Rainbow Crystals, as
she learned the shards were called.

SKJAM!:  Hmmm....Sailor Moon/Rainbow Brite xover...

     The scan came back, sending her into paroxysms of joy.  The shards
were there for the taking.  Consulting her preciouses confirmed that she
only had to remove them from the bodies of their "carriers" -- which
would, intriguingly, cause them to mutate into hideous demons -- and
then expose them to a sincerely shed tear of the Moon Princess.

Hima:  There's two steps to the plan.  One step too many.

     And Lina knew just who that was.  How hard can it be to get that
crybaby to shed a tear or ten? she thought happily.

Saori:  That depends if she's alive in this dimension, doesn't it?

     Moments later, Sheila and Athena defolded onto the empty street
below.  "Shit!" Sheila cursed as she looked around anxiously.  "Pluto
said that after she'd gotten enough crystals in her, the tracker would
become inaccurate, but --"

SKJAM!:  Not sending us to a completely different city...

     "Sheila, what are we going to do?!" Athena cried.  "We have
attempted to incapacitate her... we have attempted to kill her!  Nothing
which we have done has affected her at all!"

Hima:  Not true.  Trying to kill her slowed her down for several seconds.

     Sheila spread her hands helplessly.  "I don't know, Athena.  I
honestly have no idea how in the world we're supposed to stop her,
beyond keeping her from getting her hands on more crystals.  But... we
have to try."  She took a long breath.  Inspiration suddenly struck, and
she pointed to the D-hopper.  "Did you happen to make a note of the
settings on this thing for that last dimension?"

Saori:  (Athena voice)  No, I was too busy trying to make time with 
Emerald. 

     Athena thought quickly.  "I believe that I could call them to
memory, yes."

     "Okay.  SOMETHING about that dimension --"

     "Methinks it was that cute male."

     Sheila blinked.  "I didn't notice any... anyway, SOMETHING back

SKJAM!:  Obviously, Sheila isn't into green eyes.  Either that, or she 
didn't notice Emerald at all (I don't think he and she ever spoke...)

there affected the Silver Crystal's power.  If we get a chance, we might
want to trick her into going back there."

Hima:  "Don't go there!  You'll destroy us all!" ought to work.

     "It's no big deal, I'm THIS close --" Sheila held her finger and
thumb a centimeter apart.  "-- to freaking out myself."  Impulsively,
she bent down to press her lips between Athena's eyebrows.  "It's no big
deal," she said, in a softer tone.

     Some of the flirtation returned to Athena's face.  "Thy aim, dear
lady, is sadly some few inches above thy proper target --"

Saori:  She much prefers to be kissed on the nose.

     "Not now, Athena," Sheila said, glad to have her back.  "First off,
let's find out where we --"  She looked up, and saw a flag that she'd
missed when she'd been looking around for Sheila.

SKJAM!:  A warning flag noting that the city was actually a test site for 
nuclear explosions.

 > 

     A red flag, with a white circle in the center, on which was placed
an ancient symbol in black.  Even if she hadn't been an historian,
Sheila couldn't have failed to recognize that symbol, and all that it
represented.

     The swastika.

Athena:  Ancient fertility symbol.  But I don't think that's what she's 
thinking of.
 > 

     "Oh, Goddess," she muttered, horrified.

Hima:  What's wrong?

SKJAM!:  Didn't they teach you that in History?

Hima:  Maybe, but I pretty much slept through any of that that didn't 
directly involve a relative.
 > 

                                   *****

Crystal Tokyo
September, 2980

     "Look, I don't CARE about the thaumatological implications of this,
I just want to know what happened to Sheila, ASAP!" Misa von Fogler
yelled, brushing a stray strand of purple-black hair out of her eyes.

SKJAM!:  Ah, the "meanwhile" sequence.

certain what caused the interruption in the process or what its affects
were.  Necroscopic examination showed that no spiritual remnants of
either Ms. Inverse or Ms. Ten'kai could be found... which given the
state of the room, would tend to indicate that nobody died here."

Saori:  What about physical remnants, you goofball?

     "And that's all you can say for certain?" Misa asked again.

     "Yes.  Major Fogler, believe me, I do empathize, but we're doing
the best we can with our resources.  When Takeo-chan -- er, the Dean
gets back from his conference in Britain this evening, he may be able to
determine more." Aburatsubo's face indicated that he doubted his own
words.

SKJAM!:  This character brought to you by the Association for More Yaoi 
Characters in Davies Fics.

Hima:  (facetiously) Actually, he didn't start out that way, but it's like 
being in prison or trapped on a ship for a long time....

SKJAM!:  I understand much the same tends to happen to all males except 
Ranma in Donny Cheng's "Life and Times" series....
 > 

     "Okay," Misa sighed, after a moment of staring at the room.
"Please, call me as soon as you find out ANYTHING..." 

Saori:  Look!  My lucky dime!

 She then stepped

out of the laboratory, to give the investigators room to operate.
Outside, in the hallway, she clutched the Star of David that hung from
her neck, and whispered a quiet prayer for Sheila.

SKJAM!:  Is that a regular Star of David, or the Project A-ko version?
 

     That was when her beeper went off.

Hima:  Leveling a four-square mile radius.

                                   *****

Berlin, S.S. Headquarters
April, 1992

     Tristan moved swiftly yet deliberately through the chaos that this
morning had wrought.  The only sign of any confusion on his part was a
slight amount of muss in his hair, and one of the buttons on his uniform
being only half-done.

     In contrast, Andreas was a wreck as he fell into step beside him.
Under any other circumstances, that amount of sheer messiness could have
gotten one dishonorably discharged via a bullet, but today was very
different.

Saori:  Today, they were drawing and quartering messy people instead.

     "So a signature larger than anything our detectors ever picked up
before this point showed up in downtown Berlin early this morning?"
Tristan asked.

SKJAM!:  It said "John Hancock."

     "Right," Andreas gulped.

Hima:  Coffee?  Beer?

     "Could those energy vampires we've been observing have been the
vanguard for some kind of an invasion?" Tristan wondered aloud.

Saori:  Well, *duh*.

     "Combined with the other thing --"

     "The abduction."

     "Abductions," Andreas corrected quietly.

     Tristan paused, turning to look at his confederate.

SKJAM!:  Wishing he'd chosen a Union friend instead.

  "I'd heard

about Josef... who else--"

     "Josef is the only one of us who's been taken, but... when I woke
up this morning, I was alone.  And I wasn't alone when I went to sleep,
if you take my meaning."

Hima:  Lucky bastard.  Well, up until she dumped him this morning.

     "Erika?" Tristan asked, startled.  "That doesn't make any sense --
why would --"

Saori:  It could have something to do with Andreas falling asleep.

     "There've been a swath of missing persons reports, Tristan.  A
painter for the Reichskulturkammer, the son of IG Farben mid-level
executive -- there's no pattern --"

     "No obvious pattern, you mean.  Very well, what do we do?"

Hima:  Take out a map of the city, plot the kidnapping points, draw lines 
connecting them, and look in the center of the septagram.  It always 
works in the movies.

 >                                    ***** > 

     Rachel prayed.  Clutching her rosary tightly to her, she murmured
the Latin words as though her life depended on them -- an irony in and
of itself, as there was a fairly good chance that she would have been
beaten to death if she'd done this in public.  If she'd APPEARED in
public.

SKJAM!:  She looks familiar.

     So far, none of the other people who were in the small room with
her had taken issue with it, although the young man in the glasses and
the SS uniform periodically glared in her direction when her Latin
prayers caught his ears.

Saori:  But stopped glaring when the prayers let go.

  The next youngest person in the room was a boy

whom Rachel judged to be about her own age.  He was crouching with his
hands over his eyes in the corner across the room from her, muttering,
"It's getting even worse," over and over.

Hima:  He must have read the script.

     The only one who seemed CALM was a large cat with strangely
greenish fur, who was curled up and seemed to be almost asleep.  An old
man was petting its fur, with a strangely resigned expression.  Two
young women rounded out the group, and were speaking together in hushed
tones.  They had glanced at her novitiate robes and at the SS man and
then stayed as far away from her as possible.

SKJAM!:  They were afraid of being taken for lesbians.

     Suddenly the doors at the front of the room opened.  The SS
Unterleutenant whipped around to stare at the... person who was there.

     Rachel wasn't sure how else to think of her.  Whatever that person
was, it wasn't human, so it was probably a mistake to think of it as a
woman, despite the surface similarities.  No woman born had eyes of
gleaming crystal.

Saori:  So she must be a woman made.

     "All right, now I don't want any --" the person began to say.

Hima:  Girl Scout cookies.

     The SS man snarled in her direction, and seemed to be concentrating
fiercely.  The person turned to look at him with an expression that
seemed to be almost annoyed.  'She' lifted her eyebrows, and he let out
a short gasp of pain, then collapsed.

SKJAM!:  Must have picked up that trick from Raoh.

     "Very tough," 'she' said in a brusque manner.  "But if you're a
telekinetic wrestler, I'm a telekinetic sumotori!"  'She' laughed, then,
a long cackling laugh.

     Everyone stared.  The laughter trailed off.  "Sumotori?" she said,
guessing why Rachel, at least, was confused.  "You know?  Those big
guys?  With loin cloths?  Dosu-koi?"  She blinked.  "Oh, wait.  This
isn't Japan, is it?"

Saori:  Japan?  Where's that?  Oh, that was one of the places we 
atom-bombed, wasn't it?

     I've been abducted by an INSANE sorcerer, Rachel thought numbly,
and continued to pray.  The light glinting off the sorcerer's pole arm
kept distracting her, however.  It looked VERY sharp.

Hima:  There's something awfully familiar about this woman.

     "What do you want with us?" asked one of the women, who was wearing
a rather revealing nightgown.

SKJAM!:  This must be Erika then.

     "Oh, not much.  Just a small crystal that's located in each of your
hearts," the sorcerer answered brightly.

     "A... crystal?  In our hearts?" the other woman, dressed in a
painter's smock, asked.  She had an odd look on her face.

Saori:  She was calculating how much money heart crystals could fetch on 
the black market.

     "Yep!  This'll just take a few seconds, and --"

Hima:  Then we can Rumba!

     "NO!"  The shriek came from the boy, who had shoved himself up onto
his feet.  The look on his face was so frightened that it made Rachel
stop her invocation for a moment.  "You can't -- you don't know what
you're doing!  It's... this is... this world is wrong enough!  You can't
--"

SKJAM!:  Mess up our continuity!

     "I can, and will," the sorceress said, any trace of a friendly
manner vanishing in an instant.  "Don't worry, though... this won't
hurt."  She lifted her pole arm.  "I think."

     And then a bolt of silvery light burst from the pole arm, to strike
into each of their chests simultaneously.

     The final thought that Rachel had before the pain erased all other
sensations was annoyance at having been lied to.

Hima:  Wait a minute.  Mom?  Mom!!  You hurt my mother!  (bursts into flame.)

	(The wizard hoses him down.  Notably, Hima does not turn into 
anything.) 

SKJAM!:  Remember, this all happened well before you were born.

                                   *****

     Kani Schmitt had just finished when the cat climbed through the
bathroom window.  "Kani!  There's trouble!" the cat announced.

Saori:  Unfortunately, Kani had just finished committing suicide, so it 
didn't make much of an impression on her.

     "Already?" the short-haired teenager asked.  "Don't they normally
wait until after dark?"

Hima:  She fights the nosferatu?  Kani is the Slayer?

     Luna shook her head.  "I don't think it's them, this time... I have
a terrible feeling that it's something worse."

     "Worse how?" Kani asked flatly.

SKJAM!:  Imagine every cell in your body turning inside out simultaneously.

     Luna might have tried clutching her hair in frustration had she had
opposable thumbs.  "I don't know!  I just sense that this is even more
horrible than the monsters we've been fighting so far!"

     "All right," Kani sighed.  "I guess I'd better go see about it."  A
spasm of guilt for abandoning her mother to the chores passed through
her.  "I'll be out in the alley in a few seconds."

Saori:  Have the Moonmobile gassed and ready.

     She slipped out of the bathroom, and just in time, as one of her
younger siblings was just about to start rapping at the door.  Holding
her breath, she made her way to the door of the house -- and then out.

Hima:  Her sibling had truly noisome body odor.

     It was oddly anticlimactic for her first successful evasion of
responsibility.  She dashed into the alley.  "Okay, where do I go from
here?"

SKJAM!:  I recommend the abandoned warehouse district.  Either that, or 
the spooky ruined castle.

Saori:  Or if there's a volcano in the area, that'd be good too.

     "Ummm..." Luna temporized.

     "Luna, do you mean to tell me that you don't know where this
horrible danger IS?"

     "Well, I --"

     Kani let out yet another sigh.  "All right, we'll just have to look
for it, and hope that no one sees me running around like this."  She
produced the brooch, raised it above her head, and cried,
"MondprismenMacht, schminke!"

Hima:  Huh?

Saori:  German transformation phrase, for some reason, even though the 
Japanese Senshi had to use English.

     Swiftly she was transformed into Matrose Mond, and gathered Luna
into her arms.  Matrose Mond leapt up onto the rooftops, and began to
run.

SKJAM!:  Narrowly evading the searchlights.  No one escapes Stalag 13!

                                   *****

     "I confess that I do not understand... what is it about this place
that you find so repellent?" Athena asked as she watched Sheila peering
out of the alley into which she had hustled both of them a few minutes
before.  "Though the decor leaves much to be desired, it doth not seem
THAT much poorer than didst the town of Blut --"

SKJAM!:  Yes, but there blood was a *natural* part of the diet.

     Sheila held up a hand.  "Okay, short version.  Roughly half a
century before I was born, there was a major war fought among most of
the nations of the Earth against... well, ONE of the most vile,
inhumane, EVIL regimes to have ever existed in humanity's history."  She
hated to reduce the Nazis to "one of the worst", but her sense of
historical honesty forced her to consider the acts of the Soviet Union
at the same time, to say nothing of the Khmer Rouge and the much later
Second Chinese Republic and the Nodachi Nation... "Anyway, judging from

Hima:  Okay, them I remember.

the technology that I've seen so far... this world is one in which that
regime wasn't crushed in that war... but prospered."

     "What was so terrible about it?" Athena asked, concerned.  "Didst
they worship the Things from Beyond, or --"

SKJAM!:  This is debatable.

     Sheila shook her head.  "No, theirs was a far more pragmatic
philosophy.  It'd surprise me if they have any interest in magic at all.
Their ideals were repulsive, but it was how they acted on those ideals
that was --"

     "Sheila, thou art being obfuscatory."

Saori:  Damn straight.

     She couldn't meet Athena's eyes.  "Among other things they did was
to..."  She took a deep breath, and described the Holocaust, in brief.
Images from photos and film footage she had seen, both in her youth in
the twenty-first century and in the thirtieth, passed through her mind
as she did.

Hima:  (turns green as the pictures go by)  uggh.

     When she was done, Athena stared blankly for a moment.  "And they
did not worship the Things from Beyond?" she asked, faintly.

     "No.  Some of them claimed to be following the ancient religious
traditions of their people, but --"

     "I do not feel well," Athena announced.  She walked to the side of
the alley and was noisily sick.  Sheila watched sympathetically.

Hima:  Excuse me.  (leaves)

SKJAM!:  Men's room to the left!

     After a few moments, Athena stood and brushed herself off.  She
turned back to look at Sheila.  "Excuse me.  I... it seems that I had
greatly underestimated the potential of the human race when it comes to
atrocity."

Saori:  Never underestimate the human race.

     "It's okay," Sheila said, quietly.  "You wouldn't be the first."

     Athena let out a shuddering breath.  "Very well.  Quite apart from
the horrors that this world holds, there remains our problem of how to
discover where Lina is, to say nothing of a way to defeat her.  What
shall we do?"

SKJAM!:  See if they have N2 mines in this reality.

     "Your computer!"  Sheila said, snapping her fingers.  "You can set
it to track the energy of the Silver Crystal, right?  Well then you
could -- track it over a map of this city... if we had a map of this
city," Sheila trailed off.

     "That would be a problem," Athena agreed.

     Sheila looked up at the smog-filled skies and sighed heavily.  "I
don't --"

Saori:  C'mon, you're not men!  You can ask for directions!

     A red, white, and blue shape leaped across the mouth of the alley.

SKJAM!:  Captain America?  He's alive!  Earth is saved!

Sheila blinked, then lunged up the side of the building herself,
clinging to the edge and popping her head over it.  The figure was
already quite a ways away, but the cut of her uniform was unmistakable -
- even if the absurdly short ponytails confused her momentarily.

     Sheila looked down at where Athena was staring up.  "Come on, I've
figured out how we're going to find where she is.  We're following HER!"

Saori:  Miss France?

     "Who?" Athena asked, confused.

     "The pretty -- sort-of -- sailor suited warrior of love and justice
-- or what passes for them here -- Sailor Moon, of course."

SKJAM!:  Oh.

                                   *****

     Rachel was in Hell.

Hima:  (returning)  You killed my mother?  ARRH~~!

     That was the only conclusion she could come to as the silver light
tore into her.  Around her gaped and gibbered creatures from the foulest
pits, those who had formerly been her fellow prisoners.

     The Unterleutenant had been the first to change, as a red crystal
flew from his chest.  Swirling black clouds had surrounded him, then
when they parted, he had changed.  He was wearing a form-fitting black
uniform, the jagged lightning-styled SS on his chest.  Silver gauntlets
bristling with weapons covered his hands and his face was covered by a
metal mask.  Scarlet eyes gleamed maliciously from the mask's slits.

SKJAM!:  This is actually pretty cool-looking.

     The old man had changed second, an orange crystal flying from his
chest.  Pink smoke had surrounded him for a moment.  When it cleared,
the golden wings of the Reich's >der Adler< had sprouted from his back.
A spiked helmet, the >pikelhaube<, was on his head and a >Feldgrau
Wehrmacht< uniform covered his body.  His hands were covered with boxing
gloves, however.  His legs ended in golden eagle talons.  He smacked his
fists together.

Saori:  What gives with the >oddenmarken<?  We all know those are German 
words...Unless those are supposed to be HTML tags.
 > 

     The young boy, screaming in agony, had succumbed to the sorceress
next.  Red smoke had billowed forth from his body as a yellow crystal
appeared before him.  When it cleared, he had become a giant reptilian
monster clad in the armor of a Teutonic Knight.  Instead of hands, his
arms ended in wickedly sharp swords and he clanged them together
menacingly.

     With a shriek, the girl in the paint-smeared smock had surrendered
a green crystal to the insane sorceress.  Emerald light had played
around her and then she had sprouted wings, like the old man.  Hers,
however had black feathers, like Wotan's ravens in Wagner's pagan
operas.  Her face was one of unearthly beauty, framed by glossy black
hair, but her lips were curled in a cruel smile.

     The other girl, the one in the shamefully immodest lingerie, bore

Hima:  Nothing wrong with immodest lingerie...as long as it's on a girl.

	(Saori bops him with her staff again.)

her transformation soundlessly, but the agony showed on her face as a
blue crystal flew from her.  Azure light surrounded her, then faded to
reveal her transformed as well.  She now wore a riding uniform, complete
with red jacket, white jodhpurs, and shiny black boots.  The only
inhuman things about her was her light green skin and red and orange

SKJAM!: "things about her were", I think.

hair.  There was a feral cast to her face now, however, her ears
slightly pointed and fangs showing when she smiled.

     The fat cat was not ignored.  A purple crystal flew from him as a
grey whirlwind closed around him.  When it parted, a fierce beast, all
fur and claws and sharp teeth slavered menacingly where the fat cat had
lain.

Saori:  It's the Tasmanian Devil!

     As terrible as her fellow prisoner's transformations were, Rachel's
suffering was worse, for the silver lightning played over her, stabbing
deep inside her again and again with no results.

Hima:  What's wrong with Mom?  Why doesn't she transform?

     Lina finally lowered her Glaive, letting the lightning fade away.
"Curious," she muttered.

     The SS man, or what had been the SS man, began to speak.  "I am--"

SKJAM!:  SS-Man!  Defender of injustice and cruelty!

     Lina, who was muttering to herself, glared at him.  "Look, I don't
care WHO you guys are.  You're working for me now, so sit down and shut
up!"  Her silver eyes glittered menacingly.  The SS man backed down
quickly.

     She glared at Rachel.  "I don't get it.  It worked on these other
morons.  How can you resist?"

Saori:  Maybe she's not a moron.

     "Maybe--" began the riding outfit woman.

     "SHUT UP!" she screamed.  She glared at all the monsters.  "You
jerks rate as pond scum to me.  IF you make yourself useful, I may let
you live to do whatever it is monsters do."

Hima:  Rampage mindlessly, mostly.

     The monsters slunk back and tried to make themselves unobtrusive.
Even Rachel could sense the power the sorcerer possessed.

SKJAM!:  Mostly because it kept zapping her.

     After much muttering, Lina turned back to the monsters.  "Make
yourself useful, why don't you.  Go out and find Sailor Moon."

     "Um, who?" the boxer said, cautiously.

Saori:  (boxer voice)  I didn't know there was a Senshi of the Moon, too...

     "DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING?" the sorcerer screamed.  She waived
her glaive and three images appeared in mid air.  Rachel gasped at the
sheer beauty and serenity of the first one, a beautiful blonde woman
wearing a jeweled tiara and wearing a long white gown.  The second image
appeared to be of the same woman, except as a young girl in a leotard
and short blue skirt.  The last was of the girl again, but in a simple
blouse and dress combination.  "HER.  ANY MORE QUESTIONS?"

Hima:  Yeah.  Do you do bar mitzvahs?

     "N-no," the boxer said.

     "Good!  Now get going, Groucho."

     "My name is--"

SKJAM!:  Zeppo.

     "I told you, I. DON'T. CARE.  Your names are now... Groucho, Harpo,
Chico, Zeppo, Gummo and... Margaret, OK  now SCRAM!"

Saori:  Apparently she absorbed Jinnai's crystal at some point....

     The monsters left very hastily.

     The sorcerer sighed and looked over at Rachel.  "Well, now..." she
said, raising her crystalline hand.  The hand slowly changed shape,
becoming a long and sharp blade.  "Does it hurt?" she giggled as the
blade entered Rachel's chest.

Hima:  Die slowly and in great pain....

                                   *****

     Matrose Mond was not stupid.  Inexperienced, perhaps, but she had
grown up in the school of hard knocks.  And, in any case, it didn't
really take much to notice two people following you when you are
traveling the rooftop highway.

     She ducked behind a chimney as a helicopter roared by, its
spotlight sweeping across the rooftops, looking for enemies of the state
or voyeurs... if they were not one in the same thing.

SKJAM!:  It's usually said "one and the same thing."

     "Kani, what's wrong?" Luna asked.

Saori:  This entire world!  And I'm supposed to have odangos on my head!

     "Shhh!" Matrose Mond whispered.  "We're being followed."

     "Do you think that they're the Enemy?"

     "No, WE are the enemy!" shouted another voice.

Hima:  The cleverest thing he'll get to say all night.

     Matrose Mond looked up and saw SIX monsters standing before her.
She had never faced more than one at a time.  This did not look good.

SKJAM!:  Finally, the monsters get smart.

     "Luna, if I have any escape powers, this would be a good time for
you to tell me," she said.

Saori:  Zeus knows, I've often wanted escape powers.  It is so annoying 
to be kidnapped or incapacitated time after time...

     "RUN!" the cat screamed.

     Matrose Mond tried to do so, but when she turned, the reptilian
Teutonic Knight was already standing before her.  She was soon
surrounded on all sides by the monsters.

     "So, you thought you could hide from us with a simple hair cut?"

Hima:  Well, I was hoping the fake nose and Groucho glasses would help 
too. 

the monstrous SS man asked.  "Ha!  My friend here," he indicated the
Teutonic Knight, "can see the future!  How do you escape that?"

SKJAM!:  By not appearing in it.

     Suddenly, a red missile was thrown into the midst of the circle of
monsters.  Everyone looked up in surprise.  Perched on a chimney stood a
man in a top hat and tails, his arms crossed over his chest.  With the
exception of being perched on a chimney 40 feet above the street, he
looked like a wealthy gentleman on his way to see an opera.

     ">Ich bin der Smokingmaske!<" he intoned.  "Why do you monsters
insist on disturbing the peace of Berlin's night?"

Saori:  (swoon)  Smokingmaske-sama!  (recovers)  Too bad he's a Nazi in 
his secret ID.

     The SS monster was the first to regain his wits and opened his
mouth to challenge the fashionable defender of Berlin, but whatever he
was going to say was drowned by another interruption.

     "SHABON SPRAY!"

     Thick white fog filled the rooftop.  Before Matrose Mond could do
anything, she felt someone grab her.  She let out a small shriek, but a
hand covered her mouth before she could do anything more.  "Come on,
we're getting you out of here!" a voice whispered in her ear.  Then,
despite her struggles, her captor carried her effortlessly away.

     When the fog finally cleared, the Shadows were NOT happy to be
alone on the roof top.

SKJAM!:  Teutonic Knight, this is all your fault!

                                   *****

     Lina sat back and sighed.  Blood dripped down her crystalline hand
as the knife blade slowly changed back into four fingers and a thumb.
"You are being SO difficult," she said to Rachel.

Hima:  Good for you, Mom!

     Rachel just lay there, gasping for breath.  Her throat felt like it
was on fire.  She had screamed until her voice gave out.  Her clothes
were cut down the front, shamelessly exposing her bloody chest.  But
that was the least of her worries.

     "Ave Maria, gratia plena," she whispered.  She could still remember
what that crystal blade had felt like, slicing through her flesh.
"Dominus tecum."  The wounds had closed immediately, but oh the blood!
"Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus."
The horrible staccato feeling of her heart struggling to beat as the
blade pierced it.  "Sancta Maria, Mater Dei."  The liquid weight of her
blood filling her lungs and then being burned away.  "Ora pro nobis
peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae."  And the insane woman
giggling as she defiled her body.  "A-amen."

     "Is that some sort of prayer?" Lina asked.

Saori:  You really should have paid more attention in Comparative 
Mythology, Lina.

     "Ave Maria," Rachel began again.  "Gratia plena--"

     The crystal hand grabbed her throat.  "I asked a question, you
know."

     "D-dominus... tecum.  B-ben... e... dic... ta... tu... in...
mul..."  The hand tightened its grip, choking off her air.

     Lina looked closely at the young girl's face as it began to turn
blue.  A pretty face, except that she lacked eyebrows for some reason.
Suddenly, recognition dawned on her face.  "Oh ho!  So THAT'S why."  She
dropped Rachel back down.

SKJAM!:  It's because you have no eyebrows!  You're a Throckmorton!

     The young girl gasped for breath, still mumbling her prayers.

     "I can help you, you know," Lina said, eyeing the girl.  "If you
just let me in, past your defenses, I can get what I want and end this.
Really, all that you're accomplishing is the continuation of your own
suffering.

Saori:  I believe the Catholics teach that suffering is good for the 
soul. 

     "A-ave Maria--"

     "Again and again with that!  You should study more, you know,
because it seems that your spell isn't summoning any help."

Hima:  I wouldn't bet on that.  Mom says that the kami's aid isn't always 
immediately visible...
 > 

     The door to Lina's hastily prepared hideout burst open as she said
that.  Lina looked up, in surprise and annoyance.  For a moment, Rachel
wondered if her prayers had been answered.  On seeing the six Shadows
troop sheepishly in, her hopes died again.

     "WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE?" Lina thundered.

SKJAM!:  (Maxwell Smart voice)  Would you believe we were attacked and 
defeated by the Cosmic Avengers?  No?  Would you believe the Powerpuff 
Girls?
 > 

     The SS monster quailed slightly, but then stiffened his spine.
With a glare at the Teutonic Reptile, who shuffled his feet, he began.
"We met with... resistance and had to make a strategic withdrawal--"

Saori:  Or in plain German, >wie bin awayrunnen<.

     Lina through up her hands.  "Youma!  Of all the demons, devils,
monsters, oni, mazoku, and pit fiends in the many hells, I have to get
the most pathetic specimens!"

Hima:  Well, you get the underlings you deserve.

     "We found the one you sought, but she had friends!" the SS monster
said.  "A man in a tuxedo and someone else who summoned up a fog to
blind us."

     "Damn!  Why can't Sheila just go away?!  I mean--"  Lina stopped as

SKJAM!:  She thinks Sheila can be described as a man in a tuxedo?

a thought occurred to her.  "Were you followed?"

     "Of course not!  We were very careful!" the SS monster, whom the
others seemed to have elected spokesman, said.

     "OK, they should be here soon, then," Lina said, smiling.

Hima:  Yup.

                                   *****

     "JUST LET ME GO!" Matrose Mond screamed.

SKJAM!:  And they dropped her 20 stories to the street.

     Sheila sighed and dropped this world's version of her queen on the
hard slate roof.  Mond almost immediately began to slide down, but she
scrabbled for a hold.  Sheila was unnerved watching her because she
would have expected a wail or tears from her, given how the other Sailor
Moons she had met acted, but this one merely grunted.

Saori:  Obviously a tougher model.

     "Look, I'm sorry," Sheila began, "but it was the quickest way to
get away from those things."

     Mond took a deep breath and checked Luna.  She studied her captors
carefully, looking for any sign of who they worked for and how much
trouble she was in.  Then she and Luna both noticed the VERY familiar
uniform the one with short blue hair was wearing.

     "Matrose Merkur?" Luna asked.

Hima:  What happened to your eyepatch?  And you have arms!

     "Nay, I am Senshi Mercury, of the Moon Kingdom," Athena said.

     "The Moon Kingdom?" Mond asked.

Saori:  Not the >MondReich<?

     "Look, we don't have time to explain, and you wouldn't understand
if we did.  We're chasing someone, a girl with red hair and eyes of
crystal.  We THINK she may be responsible for those monsters you just
faced.  If we don't stop her--"

SKJAM!:  The Nazis will win the war!  Wait, they already did that.

     "Sheila, love, methinks this quest doth wear on thy social skills.
Thou art being quite rude," Athena said.

Saori:  (Athena voice)  You should kiss her first.

     "Athena, we don't have TIME."

     "Hold it!"  Both of them looked at Mond.  "The monsters are
leaving," she said, pointing back over the rooftop at the place they had
just vacated.  "If we follow them instead of arguing, we can find their
leader and stop them."

Hima:  Are you sure that's a version of Aunt Serenity?

     Athena and Sheila boggled at her.

     "You're taking this very well," Sheila said.

     Mond shrugged.  "Either I trust you and we defeat this evil, so I
can go home, or you're going to kill me.  You could have done that
already.  And if you're in league with those monsters, this is still my
best chance to find out where they come from and stop them."  She
shrugged fatalistically.

Saori:  Boy, living in Naziworld sure changed her attitude.

     Athena and Sheila exchanged glances, surprised at how resigned this
Sailor Moon seemed to be.  "Very well, lead on," Sheila said.  "You know
this city better than us."

SKJAM!:  Well, except for the 75% of it civilians aren't allowed to enter.

                                   *****

     Lina brought the Silence Glaive up and spun it around her head.
All the candles she had had the Shadows place lit as she did so.  The
Rainbow Crystals were now imbedded in the Glaive and sparkled brightly
in the light.  Rachel was now strapped naked to a table, on which Lina
had scrawled a few mystical signs.  The young girl, now without her head
covering, was revealed to be quite bald.  In fact, no hair grew anywhere
on her body.  The Shadows stood around her, shuffling uneasily as she
worked.

Hima:  They were freaked by the baldness.  (obviously not looking.)

     Satisfied, Lina began chanting.  The symbols she had inscribed
began to glow with silver light as she did.  Rachel began to scream--

Saori:  I'm firing my agent!

     "Lina!" Sheila cried.

     "Mein Gott!"  Matrose Mond said.

SKJAM!:  I sure hope Lina isn't your god...

     All Athena said was succinctly put in a blast of icy water that
congealed and hardened into clear ice around the Shadows.

     And a symbol flickered into life on Rachel's brow.

     "That sign!  She's Matrose Mars!" Luna exclaimed.

Hima:  Just in case anyone didn't know.  But why did she detect for the 
Rainbow Crystal?
 > 

     Sheila wasted no more time.  She leapt at the deranged proto-
goddess, cocked back her fist, and punched Lina across the jaw as hard
as she could.  She never, EVER, hit a living being that hard.  As she
felt Lina's jaw practically disintegrate beneath her blow, becoming a
pulpy mess of flesh, she knew she never wanted to do it again.  She
quietly steeled herself to do just that, however, if Lina tried anything
more.  A memory of a song Aunt Raye had written about bloody red hands
crossed her mind, then faded.

Saori:  Don't wanna know.

     Luna and Matrose Mond ran over to the poor girl.  Luna produced a
red wand from nowhere and gave it to Mond.  "Quick, get her to hold this
and say >Marsprismen-Macht, schminke!<"

SKJAM!:  It's a great joke!

     Matrose Mond did not question.  She put the wand into Rachel's
hand.  "If you want to help us stop her, say >Marsprismen-Macht,
schminke!<" she said.

     Rachel could hardly see, she was in so much pain.  Over and over,
she had repeated her prayers, prayers God had not seen fit to answer.

Hima:  Not quite true.  Just obliquely.

Now, a face, surrounded by a golden halo, was urging her to say
something.  An Angel?  Slowly, Rachel said the words.  ">M-
marsprismenMacht... schminke.<"

     Burning fire surrounded her, permeating her body.  She felt it
scouring through her body, burning away the pain, filling her with its
power.

     Then the fire reached her heart and the agony began again.
Something was wrong.  The mystical signs around her flared even brighter
as she writhed in pain.  Something did not belong there.  The fire
sought to burn it, but it resisted.  The agony mounted until finally it
burst out of her, ejected by the fire.

     An indigo crystal.

Saori:  Oh, I see.  Apparently her grandfather is dead in this reality, 
and the crystal lodged in her instead.

     "YES!" exulted Lina.  Her jaw, which had been a bloody mess of raw
flesh a moment ago, knitted itself back together.  The indigo crystal
flew toward her --

     And Sheila snatched it out of the air with a desperate expression.
The attraction that it felt towards its brethren, mounted on the silver
blade of the Silence Glaive, made it dig into her palm, and she
suppressed a grimace as she fought to hold it.

     The unholy rapture on Lina's face turned instantly to a look of
almost psychotic hatred.  "You --" she sputtered.

SKJAM!:  Are such a lovely person!

     Lina howled, and brandished the Silence Glaive.  "Sheila you
BITCH!" she screamed.  At her words, all candles in the room suddenly
burned with the head of a blowtorch.  The walls began to catch fire.

Hima:  Good thing Mom has fire powers herself.

     For a moment after that, Lina said nothing, her face dimly lit by
the burning flames in a mask of rage.  "All right," she hissed finally.
"TWO can play hide-and-seek."  She vanished in a spray of silver light.
Once she was gone, the fires died back down, the mass of ice in the room
damping them.

     "Was--?" Mond began.

Saori:  Yes, it was.

     Matrose Mars was not taking things too calmly, either.  "Holy
Father, what has happened?  What am I wearing?" she shrieked, looking at
the indecently short red skirt, high heels, and tight leotard that now
covered her body.  Her head was tingling.  She reached up to feel it and
instead of finding her normally smooth scalp, her fingers encountered a
short buzz cut.  Hair.  She had hair!  "A m-miracle!"

Juri:  But miracles don't exist!

	(everyone boggles)

Juri:  I take it this is not the CSICOP meeting?

SKJAM!:  Third door down on your left.

	(she leaves.)

     Sirens filled the night, coming closer.  "The real miracle will be
if we can get out of here," Mond said.  "Come on, I'll explain
everything... well, almost everything."

     The two leapt out into the night.

Hima:  Leaving poor Luna to explain to the Gestapo.

                                   *****

     Tristan and Andreas viewed the chaos.  Three entire units of SS had
been called out to handle the... monsters they had found encased in ice.
They seemed safe enough, but refrigeration units had been airlifted in
to make sure they stayed that way.

     "Just when you thought things couldn't get any weirder, eh,
Tristan?" Andreas said, his voice dull and leaden.  His missing
girlfriend still wore heavily on him.

Saori:  Poor Andreas.  If he only knew...

     Tristan merely grunted.  He had seen these monsters earlier, when
he had succumbed once again to the strange power that afflicted him.
Was he some kind of werewolf?  What kind of werewolf wore a tuxedo?

Hima:  Werewolf of London!

Still, something had felt... right, when he saved that girl again.

SKJAM!:  Yes!  Turn to the light, Smokingmaske!

                                   *****

Tokyo, Japan
The not-too-distant past

Saori:  Not too distant from when?

     With a faint sound of displaced air, Athena and Sheila appeared.
They both sank to their knees, clutching each other tightly.

     "Whoa," Sheila finally said, once she had gotten her breath back
somewhat.  Running from an insane goddess-wannabe certainly got the
adrenaline going.  Her hands were still shaking.  Athena didn't seem
much better off.  The Senshi of Ice was shivering in Sheila's arms.

Hima:  Too bad Aunt Sheila already took off her jacket.

     "You OK, Athena?"

     "Just let me catch mine breath," Athena said, holding herself close
to Sheila.  In truth, Athena just wanted to enjoy one quiet moment with
Sheila holding her.  She suspected that if they were successful in their
quest that Pluto would separate them.  The idea of such separation
already seemed too horrible to contemplate.

SKJAM!:  Foreshadow, foreshadow.

     Mizuno Ami opened her eyes.  Dark shadows surrounded her, their
shapes strange and unfamiliar.  Then she began to recognize her bedroom.
It was late, well past midnight, and she wondered what had woken her.

Hima:  Then she noticed the youma standing on her chest.

     Then it came again.  An insistent beeping from her computer.
Reaching down under her mattress, she pulled it out.  Activating it, she
tried to find out what was wrong.  If it woke her mother, she didn't
know how she would explain its presence.

Saori:  (Ami voice) I got it at Sharper Image!

     "Ami-chan?" came a sleepy voice from the foot of the bed.  For a
moment, Ami froze, thinking it WAS her mother.  But instead she saw a
pair of luminous eyes topped by a crescent moon.  It was just Luna.

SKJAM!:  Who in this universe has the same seiyuu as Mrs. Mizuno.

     Luna leapt toward the head of the bed and rubbed her head against
Ami's side.  "What's wrong, Ami-chan?"

     Ami scanned the display on her computer.  "It detected a
dimensional portal, not too far away."  That's right, she thought to
herself.  Ever since Umino... I've been refining its search program to
watch for the Dark Kingdom's attempts to enter this world.  If only they
could be proactive instead of reactive for once, they could stop Beryl
and the Generals before anyone else died.

Hima:  So this Umino guy died in this universe?

     "It wasn't your fault, Ami-chan," Luna said, sensing her protege's
thoughts.

SKJAM!:  Guess so.

     "I'm going to call Jupiter and Crystal, Luna," Ami said, picking up
her communicator from her night stand.  She stared at it for a moment,
then turned to her guardian.  "You know, sometimes I wish you had never
found me and told me I was Sailor Mercury."

     I wish I could have spared all of you this, Luna thought.

Saori:  But the Moon Princess seems to have been missing...

                                   *****

     Sheila should have slept the sleep of the dead, but she had been
operating in survival mode too long for that.  The sound of voices woke
her instantly and she immediately grabbed the sleeping senshi close to
her.  Then, with a mighty spring, she leapt to the roof of one of the
nearby buildings.  Athena didn't even stir, she noticed.  Maybe she was
really tired, or maybe she felt secure in Sheila's arms--

Hima:  Or maybe she's really hard to wake up.

     Sheila brushed the thought aside.  They had no time for such
things.  No matter how she might wish otherwise.  She turned her
attention to the people entering the alley.  Two of them were very
familiar; Sailors Mercury and Jupiter.  The other wore a white uniform
with a red heart over her breast.

SKJAM!:  Fencer Woman?

     Sheila set Athena down on the rooftop and looked at the Senshi of
Ice fondly.  After planting a light kiss on her companion's forehead,
the senshidottir bounded away.  She was determined to make it easy for
Lina to find her, so they could have this out for once and for all.

Saori:  Just stand next to a Silver Crystal.

     Behind her, Athena opened her eyes and stared after her friend.
Getting to her feet, she followed, determined not to let her friend risk
her life alone.

Hima:  Oh, she was playing possum...

                                   *****

     Queen Beryl was not pleased.  She was not pleased with how the
campaign against Earth was going, she was not pleased with how her
underlings were performing and she was definitely not pleased that 'not
pleased' was becoming her most common state of mind.

SKJAM!:  Late in the first season then...

     "Tell me again, Zoisite," she said archly, "how you let things get
so out of control."

Hima:  (Zoisite voice)  Well, it all started when I was little and Mommy 
dressed me funny...
 > 

     "My Queen," Kunzite began, stepping forward beside his lover.

     "I did not ask you, Kunzite!" Beryl thundered.  "I want Zoisite to
explain his failure.  And it had better be a good explanation, Zoisite,
or Jadeite and Nephrite's fates will seem easy by comparison with
yours."

Saori:  She still has a barrel of Distilled Essence of Care Bear in the 
storeroom, you know.
 > 

     Zoisite struggled to not reveal his anger to his Queen.  The pain
lancing through his still unhealed hand, the one that had been burned to
a blackened claw by the Star Crystal when Osaka Naru had taken it from
him to become Senshi Crystal, focused his mind wonderfully.  He directed

SKJAM!:  Go Naru!

     "My Queen, all is not as bad as it appears," he began.  "It is true

Hima:  (Zoisite voice) You still have me!

Saori;  (Beryl voice)  I was trying to forget that.

that the Sailor brats have three Crystals to our two.  It is also true
that Tuxedo Kamen has used his two crystals to empower someone to be his
aide, this Tuxedo Staff."  Zoisite gestured and the images of their
enemies appeared: Sailor Jupiter, Senshi Crystal in her white mockery of
a General's uniform, Tuxedo Kamen, and the blonde in the top hat, tails,
and fishnet stockings who called herself Tuxedo Staff, her two Rainbow
Crystals glittering at the ends of the black staff she bore.  In front

SKJAM!:  Nahh, couldn't be.

 of them all was their first foe, the brains of the operation, Sailor

Mercury.

     "A recitation of your failures will not impress me, Zoisite.  Give
me a reason to allow you to continue breathing or I will end your
pathetic existence now!"

Hima:  I make a great cannoli?

     "'Pathetic?'" came a strange voice from the shadows above the
throne.  "Yeah, I guess that about sums you all up.  Especially you,
Queenie."

Saori:  Gotta be lina.

     "Who dares--!"

SKJAM!:  Wins!

     "Zip it," Lina ordered with a wave of her crystalline hand.
Immediately Beryl's mouth sealed itself shut with what looked like a
giant zipper.  Lina seemed very amused by this.  "A bit too literal of
my power, but it works for me.  Now, where's the boss of this
operation?"

Saori:  338th youma from the left.  A very clever stratagem.

     "Look, Queen of Flunkies, you're only still alive because I'm not
annoyed enough yet to justify the energy it would take to snuff out your
existence.  Note the emphasis on 'yet.'  Keep trying and I'll work you
into the budget."  With that, Lina reached over and grabbed the front of
Beryl's dress and pulled her close.  "Take me to Metallia NOW...
please."

Hima:  Wouldn't you rather meet Bon Jovi?

     Beryl looked into the glittering crystalline eyes and, for the
first time in millennia, truly felt fear.  Before she could respond,
another voice answered for her.

     <I AM HERE.>

SKJAM!:  AND I TALK IN ALL CAPS.

     It was silent, speaking only in their minds, yet at the same time
it drowned out all other sounds.  It spoke of centuries of pain, blood,
and terror.  It was darkness, evil, entropy and violence.  It crept into
the dark corners of your soul and spoke to the evil within you.

     Lina did not seem impressed.

Hima:  Having fought two or three of these guys before.

     "Finally," she said.  "It's about time you showed up."

     <I LIKE NOT YOUR TONE, MORTAL.>

Saori:  Try it in B-flat.

     Lina burst out laughing.  She actually bent over, clutching her
sides as she did so.  "Boy, you REALLY have no clue, do you?" she asked
finally, when she caught her breath again.

SKJAM!:  (Metallia voice)  YES I DO.  I HAPPEN TO KNOW IT WAS *NOT* 
COLONEL MUSTARD.

     <WHAT DO YOU WANT HERE?>

     "Oh, business at last?  Good," Lina said, all traces of humor
fleeing.  "I have the power to free you, Metallia."

Hima:  From the burden of life!

     <IN RETURN FOR WHAT?>

     Lina spun the Glaive around in a circle.  "Oh, two small, almost
insignificant things, neither of which will be very important to you."

Saori:  Your soul and your power.

     <AND THOSE WOULD BE?>

     Beryl and her Generals watched in disbelief as their goddess
treated with this upstart as if she were an equal.

     "The Silver Crystal... and my good friend Sheila Ten'kai's head on
a platter."

SKJAM!:  (Metallia voice)  I DON'T HAVE A PLATTER.  WOULD A USED SHIELD 
DO? 

                                   *****

     Two junior high school students were sitting together, studying.
The boy was thin and short, with dark brown hair and serious eyes.  The
girl was Mizuno Ami.  They were reading from separate books, but they
were sitting more closely together than was absolutely necessary.
Suddenly, the boy looked up, his eyes glazing over.

Hima:  Information overload.  Bane of students everywhere.

     "Ryo-kun?  What's wrong?" Ami asked.

Saori:  Other than that you're the repressed version of Mercury?  Nothing.

     Urawa Ryo slowly refocused on the here and now.  He was as pale as
a ghost.  "Ami-chan... I think you and the others should get to the
Tokyo Tower right now."

Hima:  The Magic Knights want a showdown.

     Used to her boyfriend's prophetic sight, Ami reached for her
communicator.  "What did you see, Ryo-kun?" she asked as she pushed the
button for Sailor Jupiter.

     "The end of the world."

SKJAM!:  o/~as we know it, and I'm feeling fine~\o

                                   *****


     "We have to go, Usagi-chan," Chiba Mamoru said, producing a rose
from his dark green coat.  Almost instantly, he transformed into Tuxedo
Kamen.

     Tsukino Usagi nodded and reached into her blouse pocket to produce
two rainbow crystals.  She held one in each hand and stretched them as
far apart as she could.  "Rainbow Crystal Power!" she said.  A black rod
formed connecting the crystals.  Usagi felt the power rush through her,
remaking her, forging her on a crystal anvil.  Her hair came undone and

Saori:  (Usagi voice)  Owie!  No hitting!

fell down in a great golden wave, a top hat appearing on her head.  Her
clothing unraveled and reformed into her tuxedo and tights.  She spun
about involuntarily and posed, staff in hand.

     Neither she nor Tuxedo Kamen knew how she was capable of
manipulating the Rainbow Crystals in this manner.  They assumed that it
was merely a function of the crystals.  But after Umino had died at
Zoisite's hands during the search for the Crystals, Usagi knew she could
not remain on the sidelines while Sailor Mercury and the Sailor Senshi
fought against the forces of evil.

SKJAM!:  Obviously the Tuxedo Umino idea wasn't so hot in this universe.

     "Ready, Usagi-chan?"

     "Ready, Tuxedo Kamen-sama... but, where are we going?  What's
wrong?"

     "Everything, Usagi-chan... everything."

Saori:  Starting with your costume...

                                   *****

     Clouds began to form, dark and ominous clouds, accompanied by gusts
of wind.  The streets of Tokyo emptied quickly as the weather turned
foul.  Weathermen protested their innocence, stating over and over that
such a change in the weather pattern was impossible.

Hima:  Except in Nerima.

     "And what wilt thou do when she comes, hmmm?" asked a familiar
voice.

SKJAM!:  Cower and plead.

     Sheila spun around to see Athena watching her closely.  "Athena, I-
-"

     "--sought to leavest me behind, didst thou not?"

Saori:  You betcha!

     Fortunately, her internal debate was soon stopped.

Hima:  As her little devil skewered the little angel.

     "Well, isn't this cozy.  Couldn't you two have found a love motel
somewhere?"

SKJAM!  They won't take Crystal Express.

     The two of them turned to face Lina, who was floating above them,
barely ten feet away.

     "Lina--" Sheila began.

     "Spare me the speeches," Lina said.  "You have something that
belongs to me.  I want it, NOW."

Saori:  Oh, you mean this can of whoop-ass?  Here, let me open it for you.

     "The Silver Crystals do NOT belong to one such as you!" spat
Athena, gathering her powers.

     "Oh, goody.  I was hoping you'd say something like that.  Before
you go any further, let me introduce you to my new ally."

     "MACHINASAI!"

Hima:  Her new ally is named Machinasai?

     All three of them turned to face Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter,
Senshi Crystal, Tuxedo Kamen, and Tuxedo Staff.

     Sailor Mercury boggled for a moment at the sight of an exact
duplicate of herself, but quickly thrust that aside.  "Jupiter, Crystal,
take out the flyer.  Tuxedo Kamen, Staff, the redhead.  I'll take my
doppelganger."  Urawa had told her how many foes to expect, though he
had kept muttering about darkness and evil.  ""Sailor Team," she said,
"go!"

Saori:  Wish I'd had a tactical genius on my team.

                                   *****

     "Hey, waittasec!" Sheila protested as Tuxedo Kamen and Staff
charged her.  I didn't know that Endymion had a sister, she thought as
she evaded a thrown rose and Tuxedo Staff's bowler.  "Hey!  I'm not the
bad guy here!"

SKJAM!:  I'm a girl!  

     "Silence!" Tuxedo Staff said.  "Changing the weather from clear
blue skies to icky clouds is unforgivable!  Even if God forgives you, I
will not.  In the name of the earth, I'll punish you!"

     The speech made it all click.  For some reason, her Queen, the
future ruler of Crystal Tokyo, was parading around in a magician's stage
assistant's outfit.  The concept was so strange that Sheila almost burst
out laughing... and got rapped on the head by a staff for her
inattention.

Hima:  Next lesson.  Do not laugh at the Queen of the World, even if she 
is silly.

                                   *****

     Athena, meanwhile, was evading her opponent's blows with ease.
"This fight is pointless," she pointed out, hoping to reason with her
double.  "We are both Senshi Mercury, why shouldst we fight?"

SKJAM!:  Do the words "evil twin" mean anything to you?

     "Sailor Mercury activated her visor.  "Because you're an impostor,
and I'll prove it."

Saori:  Show me the birthmark on your butt!

     "And if thy scan proves me right, what then?" Athena asked.  She
stopped, her attention drawn by a brilliant flash toward Lina and the
two attacking her.

     Sailor Mercury stopped dead in her tracks, for her visor was
telling her that the person in front of her was Sailor Mercury.  "But,
that's not poss--"

     Anything further was drowned out by a blast of icy wind and the
wail of millions of souls, crying out in agony.

Hima:  But that was Alderaan.  Meanwhile, back on Earth...

                                   *****

     "CRYSTAL POWER STRIKE!"

     "SUPREME THUNDER!"

     Senshi Crystal and Sailor Jupiter both looked startled as Lina
absorbed their attacks without even flinching.  "Puh-lease," Lina said.
"I've grown so far beyond your pathetic little power's it's not even

SKJAM!:  "powers"

funny."

     "I'll show you pathetic!" Senshi Crystal screamed.  Holding up the
Star Crystal, she summoned forth its power, asking for everything it had
to give.  Forged in starlight by Nephrite to find and resonate with the
Silver Crystal, it had led him to his true love, instead.  But it still
had its original purpose and, as far as it was concerned, Lina WAS the
Silver Crystal.

Hima:  neat trick...

     The Star Crystal flashed brightly and Lina gasped.  For one second,
her normal eyes appeared instead of the multi-faceted crystal that had
replaced them.  Her human eyes were filled with terror, darting back and
forth, seeking some escape.  Then the crystalline facets were back.

     "Very... good..." Lina gasped.  "But not good enough!"  Lina
whirled around, spinning the Silence Glaive above her head, and then
bringing it down in a mighty slash that tore through space and time.  A
dark chasm opened in mid-air.  Icy winds tore out of it, followed by the
scream of all the souls who died at the end of the Silver Millennium.
Then a horrible blackness billowed forth.  Two feral read eyes, each as
large as a city block, gleamed malevolently out.

     <AT LAST!  FREE!>

SKJAM!:  Time to conquer Angel Grove!

     Everyone else was frozen as their worst nightmare oozed through the
rift.  Metallia, the sum of all evil and darkness, the power that had
brought low the Silver Millennium, was back.  And they did not have the
Silver Crystal to stop her.  The cloudy skies turned pitch black and the

Hima:  Well, they do, but it's on the wrong side.

weather turned even colder than before.

     Athena acted fast.  "Excuse me," she said, tapping Senshi Crystal
on the shoulder.  Senshi Crystal turned and Athena cold-cocked her right
on the chin.  "I think we will have need of this more than thou."  She
took the Star Crystal, which was still burning brightly.  "I am sorry,"
she said.  Then she ran over to Sheila.  "Sheila!  Get the D-hopper!
NOW!"

     "But, we can't just leave--" Sheila protested, as she pulled out
the D-hopper.

     "Dost thou want to face Lina AND that?"

     "But--!"

     Lady of Light, please, let us be able to put this right once Lina
is defeated, Athena thought to herself.  Then she grabbed the D-hopper
and pushed its button.  With a flash, Sheila and Athena went Elsewhere.

Saori:  Oh my.  Athena suddenly gets very cold.

                                   *****

Inevitable Outcome Studios, Holographic Soundstage #51
Now.  When else?

     "Sheila!  Get the D-hopper!  NOW!"

     "But, we can't just leave--" Sheila protested, as she pulled out
the D-hopper.

     "Dost thou want to face Lina AND that?"

     "But--!"

Hima:  Didn't we just do this bit?

     Athena grabbed the D-hopper and pushed its button.  She and Sheila
then visibly winced.

     "Annnnnd -- CUT!"

     Sheila Ten'kai and Mizuno Ami stepped apart, and took their bows as
applause broke out from the crew.  Jeff Hosmer sat in the director's
chair with a satisfied smile as the twentieth take of "Sheila-Athena X-
Time", Part II, Act 4, Scene 7 was printed.

Hima:  Oh.

     The director arose, to thunderous applause, and made his way
through the crowds of production workers to the holodeck's exit.
Outside, Jeff's co-director was waiting, still wearing his heavy black
coat despite the warmth of the June afternoon.  "Sounds like it went
pretty good," Chris Davies opined.

     Jeff shrugged, modestly.  "We'll find out for sure when it actually
gets shown."

Saori:  And the rioting crowds of peasants storm the castle.

     They strolled down the corridor, discussing the implications for
the overall story line posed by the most recent addition.  Chris frowned
briefly as he realized that the destruction of "BSS Mercury" meant that
the end he'd planned for one of his segments had been upstaged, but
shrugged.  He'd work that out when he came to it.

     "So what is up next?  You've been pretty sneaky about it so far,"
Jeff reminded him.

     "Well, since we've had a lot of action, I thought it might be a
good idea to put them down somewhere where they can... well, you know,
talk."

     "Talk."

     "Discuss the relationship, in other words."

     "Uh-huh."

     Chris gave a quiet cough.  "Yeah."

SKJAM!:  Still forgot to put on that lemon label, hmm?

     "Negotiations to use the UF-SM story you thought up fell through,
didn't they?" Jeff asked, trying hard not to smirk.

     Chris sagged.  "When those guys say, 'Closed universe,' they really
mean it.  Even pointing out who I dedicated TA: 2937 to didn't help."

Hima:  Not that I can blame him...

     "So, instead of a grim and apocalyptic tale of cloning and psi-
research by multi-stellar corporations, you thought a nice bit of girl
talk would work well," Jeff mused.  "Sounds good to me.  Of course,
right now, you could be talking about bringing in 'The Oscar Chronicles'
and it'd sound good to me, because I am primed for my vacation!  Yes yes
yes, indeed."  He did a brief jig.

     Chris sighed.  "I still don't see what the big deal is about
spending a week on Togenkyou Island  --"

     "Ah, Hosumeru-sama," Tendou Nabiki said, standing a short distance
away in the costume she'd worn during the bridal competition in 'Nihao
My Concubine.'  "Shall we get moving, then?"

     "It's all in the company one keeps," Jeff assured him, and trotted
to catch up to the fetchingly clad financial mastermind.

SKJAM!:  Just avoid drinking the water...

     Chris watched them until they stepped through the gate to
Togenkyou.  "And to think that he used to complain that he never got the
girls," he muttered.  Shrugging, he turned and headed back to the
holodeck.

     All the actual props had been taken off the soundstage, leaving
only the holographic mock-up of the tower's observation deck and a few
cameras.  The image of Metallia was still glowering in the "sky", which
made Chris rather uncomfortable, even though he knew it wasn't real.  "I
think Bandai's Industrial Magic Division may have done too good a job on
that particular effect," he murmured.

     He produced the Universal Remote from his coat pocket, pointed at
"Metallia", and pressed the off switch.  Immediately, the hologram
vanished.  "Okay, now... where to set this next bit?  Cynosure?"  A
series of taps produced the image of the crossroads of realities.  "Too
grim.  Tanelorn?"  Another series of taps.  "Nnn.  Too sedate.
Warriors' bar?"  He paused.  "No, I don't think exposing either of them
to Guy Gardner would work well.  Earhart's is really only for officers
on B5...  Cheers might work well... I just don't --"

     FLASH!

All:  Ah-ah!  The most incredible--

     After Chris cleared his eyes, resolving as he did to flay and then
fire the idiot who'd set off the flashpan, he turned around to see a
familiar looking red- and blue-haired couple, clutched closely together
as though their lives depended on it.  (Which it had, not that Chris
knew this.)

     He let out a long, slow sigh.  "Okay, you two, very cute.  Immature
as all HELL, but very cute."

     Sheila lifted her head and looked around with a confused air.
"Well... not an alley, this time," she muttered.  Then she realized that
someone was talking to her, and turned to stare at Chris.

     "Now cut it out," Chris continued, not having heard Sheila's
murmured words.  "We FINALLY got the last scene right, and we're not
going to re-shoot the last few minutes again because you two have been
doing some improv work and came up with a reason that you'd look
different if you were clutched together like that."

Saori:  "you'd look better" would probably work more smoothly in this 
sentence.
 > 

     "Huh?" Sheila asked.

     Chris blinked.  Why in the world did they seem so disoriented?
Unless... Chris groaned.  "All right, okay, enough with making fun of me
-- it was Jeff's idea to have the two of you wind up together, not
mine."

Hima:  Really?  Interesting.

     Sheila stared.  Whose idea to have the two of us wind up together?
she thought.  What?  Who is this strange person?

SKJAM!:  For all intents and purposes, god.

     Athena looked up as well.  "Kind sir, I fear thou hast mistaken us
for others whom thou dost know well."

     Chris nodded impatiently.  "Uh huh, very nice accent, Ami-chan, but
it--"

     And then he paused.  No matter how well Ami had studied the archaic
accent Jeff had invented for Athena's dialogue, whenever she spoke in
it, there was always a faint note of hesitation -- which was completely
absent in this woman's voice.

Hima:  The penny drops.

     "You're... not Ami, are you?" he said hesitantly.

     Athena and Sheila shook their heads simultaneously.

     "Um... are the two of you by chance dimensional travelers who have
just come from a dimension where Metallia broke free thanks to--"

     The image of Metallia looming against the sky filled Sheila's mind
once more, and she took a step away from Athena, and out of her embrace.
She left them.  She left them there to die.

     And she made me come with her.

     Athena stared with wordless pain at Sheila as she backed away from
her.

SKJAM!:  And some of the messy stuff comes up.

     And above their heads, there was a faint glistening in the air.

     "Oh fuck," Chris said conversationally.  "Oh, fuckety-fuck-fuck."
He snapped up the Universal Remote, and stabbed a single button on its
surface.

     From nowhere, there was a brief bleating alarm.  A calm voice
spoke.  "Warning.  Warning.  All gates closing and anti-magic shell
activating in five four three two one.  Thank you.  Inevitable Outcome
Studios is now sealed against magical entry."

Saori:  and just how effective is that?

     Athena felt a short stabbing sensation, which passed quickly.

SKJAM!:  It was Sheila, expressing her anger at the situation with a 
handy dagger.

     Chris stared up at the glistening in the air... which slowly faded.
He let out a long sigh of pure relief.  "Well, best case scenario, she's
trapped in Etherspace -- worst case, she managed to get diverted to some
point in this dimension outside the complex.  Either way, you're safe,
ladies."

Hima:  This is some new definition of "safe" they hadn't heard of 
before... 

     Sheila blinked.  "Huh?" she asked again.  "Who the hell are you?
What's going on here?"

     Chris opened his mouth to explain who he was... and then remembered
what Sheila had almost done to Sean for having broadcast her life on the
radio. Now, what would she do to the fellow who WROTE the things that he
was broadcasting?  Best to be anonymous.  "Nobody special," he said.

Saori:  Oh, buck up.  Everyone's special.  Some of us are just *more* 
special.
 > 

     There came a tapping on his right shoulder.  "Excuse US, Mr. Nobody
Special.  Could we have a word?"

     Behind him stood three people.  Their spokesperson was a tall woman
with short-cropped golden hair -- and a metallic hand and eye-patch to
match.  The metallic hand was dangling uselessly at her side, and she
had tapped with her flesh-and-bone one.  With her stood a slightly
shorter woman, dressed in a pink dress and a red jacket, carrying a
staff in her right hand.  She was frowning, but the tension in her face
suggested that she was more accustomed to smiling.  The third was a
heavily robed, blue haired --

     <Go ahead,> Lythande sent.  <Think it.  I'd welcome the excuse.>

SKJAM!:  Chris Davies annoyed my homework!

     "I'm truly sorry," he said, meaning it.  "But the situation which
prompted it didn't give me any warning."  Curiosity warred with common
sense.  "So what were you working on?"

     Rali opened her mouth to snap a response, but Aerith Gainsborough
politely cut her off by replying, "That's not really any of your
business, now is it, Mr. Davies?"

     Davies? thought Sheila.  Why does that name sound familiar?

     Lythande's head jerked in Sheila's direction, and the magic wielder

Hima:  And telepath....

     "What?" the Guardswoman and Evocator asked, confused by the sudden
shift in her associate's manner.  Then she followed Lythande's gaze and
realized who she was staring at -- and smiled the sort of smile that an
uncharitable person might call 'vicious'.  "Oh," she said.  "Right.  I
think we can trust her to deal with --"

     "CHRIS DAVIES," they said in unison.

Saori:  And meanies.

     "Excuse me?" Aerith asked, confused.  "Why are you both so --"

     "Don't worry about it, lass," Rali said calmly.  "One of our
sisters has it well in hand."

     Chris Davies?

     "Our?"

     "You haven't actually read the script for the FF7 story he has
planned, have you, child?" Lythande asked, not unkindly, as they headed
out of the holodeck.

SKJAM!:  (Aerith voice)  But I like *Cloud!!*

     CHRIS Davies?

     "Well, no -- OH NO!" Aerith exclaimed as the implication sank in.
"You can't be serious!"

Saori:  Actually, I'm Lythande.

     "What's the matter?  I think Tifa's cute too," Rali said, grinning.

Hima:  Oh, sure, make her feel worse.

     CHRIS DAVIES?!?

     "But -- but -- aghhhh.  I wish I were dead."

     "I think you are, actually."  Lythande turned to look back to see
that Sheila was energetically strangling Chris.  "You're in bad company,
though."

     "YOU!" Sheila hissed.  "You're the one who wrote all those damn
stories that that Gaffney person was broadcasting!"

SKJAM!:  Go, Sheila!

     "Aggh... urrrk," Chris agreed.

     "It's your fault that everyone in two dimensions knows all about my
life -- particularly my love life!"

Hima:  Come to think of it, SKJAM!, weren't you the one who came up with 
the idea for my love life?

SKJAM!:  Er, yes, I believe so.  Why?

	(Hima leaps up and starts choking SKJAM!)

Hima:  I'm kinda ticked too.

SKJAM!:  You *urk* have a point *gack* there....

     "Orrggg... nnnnnnn," Chris noted in passing.

     "I oughta --"

     "Sheila, please!" Athena interrupted.  "Have we not seen enough
death this day?"  She was genuinely frightened that Sheila's hands would
be as covered in blood as she felt her own were.

Saori:  No, she's several billion people behind you yet...

     Sheila grimaced... then reluctantly let the struggling, purple-
faced writer drop to the ground.  Over the sound of Chris taking large
gulps of oxygen, she turned to look at Athena.  "So what is that thing
that you grabbed from... whoever the hell that was in that weird world?"
she asked, trying hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice. I
promised that I wouldn't sacrifice others for my mission.  I SWORE.  And
she's made me break my oath...

	(Hima lets SKJAM! go too.)

Hima:  But you never swore Athena wouldn't sacrifice others.

     "I know not," Athena said slowly, "but when 'twas pointed at the
sorceress' form, I did perceive a momentary difference in her eyes --
for a fragment of a moment, they were HUMAN, once more.  And I thought
that... it might be useful if it were in our hands."

     Sheila considered this, and slowly, tensely nodded.  "I see your
point.  Okay.  But --"

     Chris shakily pulled himself to his feet.  "Is it safe to assume
that you're not going to kill me?"

Saori:  No.  To assume makes an ass out of you and me.

     "I haven't decided yet," Sheila snarled.

     Athena quickly stepped between Sheila and the strange man -- the
strangely REPELLENT man -- and began to speak in calming tones.  "Thou

Hima:  Hmm, wonder what's up there...

art the one who hast written tales of my Sheila-chan?"

     Chris nodded.

     NOW Athena frowned.  "Art thou also the one who hast written tales
of ME?"

SKJAM!:  Not up till now...

     Chris shook his head rapidly.  "No, no!  That's all Hosmer's and
Biles' doing --"

     "Gaffney did mention those names also..."

     "-- um... unless you count the adventure you're on now.  I kind
of... co-write that."

     Athena stared, clearly not understanding.  "The... adventure upon
which we are embarked?  Thou art... writing it already?"

     "Filming, actually.  We just got the most recent bit -- uh, I mean
the universe you just visited, in the can before you showed up."

     "Wait a minute," Sheila interjected.  "How the hell can you be
writing stories about us that we haven't even had yet?"

Hima:  You'd have to ask Aunt Setsuna about that.  Causality theory just 
makes my head hurt.
 > 

     Chris shrugged and grinned nervously.  "Why are you asking me, for
Heaven's sake?  I'm just --"

     A dreadful possibility occurred to Athena.  "Art thou a god?" she
asked in a whisper.

Saori:  (Venkman voice) Say yes!

     He gave the question serious thought.  "I don't think so," he said
at last.  "If I were a god, I think I'd be carrying a lot less extra
weight and quite a bit more cash.  Seriously -- uh, can I call you
Sheila?"

Saori:  Obviously, Mr. Davies has never met Bacchus.

     "No."

     "Ten'kai-sama, you've read Heinlein, right?"

     She shrugged.  "I loved the film of 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'
when it came out in 2006.  I've read a bit of his other works --"

     "How about 'The Number of the Beast'?  In that one, he basically
suggests that anything that's been conceived and believed in by a large
number of people is REAL, somewhere.  So, I did create you --"

SKJAM!:  (Sheila voice)  No, Mr. Heinlein stuck to juveniles in my 
universe. 

     "He IS a god.  Sheila, thou didst try to strangle a god."

     "-- but it was other people who made you REAL.  Other people who
read the stories I wrote."

     "Stories about my breaking my heart over... people.  Stories about
my losing my parents.  Stories about my watching my mom -- thanks
heaps," Sheila replied, her voice bitter and angry.

     Chris considered moving out of range, then realized that since she
could run at 200 kph, he'd have to get a fair amount of distance before
that happened.  Instead, he shrugged helplessly, and said, "I'm sorry."

     Sheila shook her head.  "It's too late for apologies.  Just tell me
what happens next in THIS adventure."

Hima:  Lina attacks the studio.  Duh.

     Chris sadly shook his head.  "I can't."

     "Don't give me that," Sheila growled.  "You're not Pluto, you can--
"

     "No, you don't understand.  I'm not using 'can't' for 'could but
won't'.  I CANNOT tell you what happens next, because the next section
is supposed to be written by my co-writer, and he's on vacation for the
rest of the week.  So all I can really do is offer the two of you a
chance to rest."

Saori:  (Davies voice) As long as I get to watch! 

     "Rest?" Athena snapped.  "We shouldst rest whilst Lina is out among
the universes hunting Crystals and --"

     "Whoa... calm down.  First of all, in neither of the last two
universes you visited did Lina get a Silver Crystal -- in both cases, it
was still in pieces.  Two, even if she managed to get all the Rainbow
Crystals from the universe you two just visited, it's gonna be hard to
get a tear from the Moon Princess to put them together, considering that
she was probably one of the first to die when Metallia started eating
the world."  They both flinched at that, and Chris wished he hadn't been
so blunt, but his throat still hurt.

Hima:  I am just so sympathetic.

     "Third, you should realize that you're probably giving Lina credit
for having more power than she possesses.  There's a price for using the
Silver Crystal, you know -- and she's paying it.  The other Crystals are
fueling her, and so is the power she stole from Ms. Tomoe-Gaffney, but
she's burning the candle at both ends.  All this hopping around through
the dimensions, unleashing the Seven Shadows, letting Metallia loose for
the love of God -- unless she gets some more power real soon now, she'll
never make it back to Sheila's home universe in time to --"

Saori:  Not her own?

     The fact that hands were once more gripping his throat was Chris'
first clue that he might have given too much plot exposition.  "WHAT?"
Sheila hissed.

     "Arr... hhhhhhh," Chris opined.

     "Sheila, methinks he cannot explain if thou dost not permit him to
breathe."

SKJAM!:  And this is a problem how?

     After a moment, Chris continued, warily.  "Lina's going to try and
Ascend on my -- er, your Earth, Sheila, because it's EASIER for a
sufficiently powerful mortal to become a divine being there than it is
anywhere else in the multiverse."

Saori:  That he knows of.

     "If it's soooo easy, why will that blow up the planet?" Sheila
snapped.

     "Because the way she's chosen to do it will involve consuming the
essence of your world's magical energy --"

     "The Silver Crystal," Sheila sighed.  "It always comes back to
that, doesn't it?"

     "They don't call it the Key to the Universe because it's an idol
singer who thinks she's a robot."

Hima:  Huh?

Saori:  You'll probably meet her eventually.

     "Huh?"

     "Nevermind.  And the last reason that you should rest is that the
two of you are ALSO running on empty.  You collapsed when you were in
that last world, remember?  You're going to need every bit of energy you
have in the final battle, and right now every bit you have isn't a lot."

     Sheila frowned.  What he was saying was true, but --

     "Look at it from another perspective.  She can't get you here.  And
there's nothing she wants here, other than the two of you, anyway --"

     Athena stepped forward.  "Not even another Silver Crystal?"

     Chris opened his mouth to explain.

     His mouth was still hanging open a minute later when the alarms
began to sing.  "Warning.  Warning.  Severe seismic disturbance."

SKJAM!:  It's a Studioquake!

     "What's happening?" Sheila demanded.

     Chris tapped out a certain code on the Universal Remote, and the
Holodeck began to project the images of what was going on outside the
complex.

     Lina, looking as though she was completely wigged out, was hovering

Hima:  This is easy, under the circumstances.

a few hundred yards from the holographic camera (which, Chris knew was
mounted on the main gate), and projecting blasts of starbright force
through the Silence Glaive into the ground.  Her mouth was also moving,
but no sound was coming out.

     "How can this be?" Athena gasped.  "Are we scrying her presence?"

Saori:  No, her image.

     "Something like that, probably," Sheila replied.  "Can you get an
audio feed?"

     Chris obediently used the Universal Remote, and the booming noise
of the explosive blasts came through quite clearly, as did the sound of
Lina's screeching voice.  "GIVE IT TO ME!  I KNOW THAT IT IS IN THERE!
I FELT IT, EVEN THOUGH I CAN'T FEEL IT ANYMORE!  GIVE ME MY PRECIOUS!"

     "Thou DOST have a Silver Crystal here, dost thou not?" Athena
accused.

     "Well, Usagi-chan does --"

     "IF I DON'T GET IT NOW, I WILL TEAR APART YOUR SUN!"

SKJAM!:  And then I will call you unpleasant names!

     "And that's the other side of her being low on power, isn't it?"
Sheila snapped.  "She'll do anything to get more."

     "Well, yes..."

     "So what are/art you/thou gonna/going to do about it?" they said in
rough stereo.

Hima:  Waffle.

     "Me?" Chris squawked.  "This is not my job!  I'm not the wandering
interdimensional problem solver here!"

Saori:  You're the writer, write your way out of it.

     "I'M WAITING!"

     "You certainly manage to come up with enough weird problems for me
to deal with!" Sheila sneered.

     Chris glared down at her.  "Would you rather go through life
without any challenge at all?  Would you rather get through everything
without any danger?  Would you rather be BORED?!"

SKJAM!:  For a week, at least.

     Sheila opened her mouth to snap back an affirmative.

     And couldn't.

     "AHEM!"

     She was the daughter of Sailor Senshi.  Though she had never been
called on to serve as one herself, she knew... deep in her heart, she
knew that if she ever was, she would gladly take up that burden.

Hima:  (sing-song) You'll be sorree...

     "Sheila?" Athena whispered beside her.

     "Okay," the red-haired daughter of Uranus and Neptune said at last.
"Okay, then.  What would you SUGGEST that we do?  You know what you have
available better than we do --"

     "Right.  Here's a plan."

Saori:  We dress Misato in a giant penguin costume and shove her out the 
airlock, allowing our combined forces to get in a free shot while Lina's 
distracted.  It's so crazy, it just might work!"
 > 

                                   ***** > 
     "Um... are you really sure that this is a good idea?" Tsukino Usagi
asked as costuming got her into the full gown -- slightly damaged --
that she'd worn in "Celebration".

Hima:  They didn't get it resewn yet?

     "Don't talk to me, it's her plan," Chris lied calmly as he gestured
towards Sheila.

SKJAM!:  Also, I'm not the one who made your Silver Millenium father an 
evil overlord.

simply go out there, give your lines, and hold the fake Silver Crystal
up for her to take.  When she complains that she can't reach it, toss it
to her--and she'll be in such a hurry to absorb it into herself that she
won't even notice that it's not a real Silver Crystal -- and the magic
aura that it has will keep her from realizing it."

Saori:  Then the thermonuclear device inside will go *boom*!

     "But..."

     "Is something the matter?" Athena asked, feeling strangely fond of
this uncertain young girl who reminded her of her princess

Hima:  Because they are the same person, to the first approximation.

     "Um... is this really the best plan that you could come up with?"
Usagi asked hesitantly.

SKJAM!:  We're doomed.

     They all nodded.

     "...okay, then."

     Makeup applied the indications of tears to Usagi's face, and pasted
a golden moon to her forehead.  Then she was marched to the front door,
and gently sent out.

     "Aaaaaaah," Lina hissed.  "So you've come out at last.  Good...
very good..."

     Usagi drew a deep breath.  "You have come for the Silver Crystal?"
She produced it.  "Here!  Take it!  I never wish to lay eyes on it
again.  It could not save my beloved Mamo-chan without --"

     "I don't care!  I can't reach it through this damned force field!
Throw it to me, or I'll --"

     Usagi wound up, and tossed the Crystal through the anti-magic shell
surrounding the complex.  Lina caught it with ease, lifted it up to her
mouth, and swallowed it.

Hima:  then felt the subtle fizz of antacid...

     "Ah, yes... the wonderful taste of power," Lina murmured through
rapidly crystallizing lips.  "Now to track down that damn Sheila!"

Saori:  I suppose I should be grateful she keeps forgetting Athena...

     "I... I would have brought it up before, but I didn't want to ruin
your plan... that wasn't the fake Silver Crystal I was given by props
when I started working here."

     Chris turned oddly pale.  Sheila didn't notice.  "So?  You got
another one, right?"

SKJAM!:  Sure, the one in the vault marked "Genuine Crystal, Do Not Touch."

     "What happened to the fake?" Chris shouted, panicked.

     "Yuffie stole it this morning... she thought it was Materia..."

Hima:  It was.  For a "Make Fake Crystal" spell...

     It was at that point that the aforementioned Materia Hunter (read
kleptomaniac) wandered through the entrance passage with a suspiciously
bulging pack strapped to her back.  She paused as she noticed that Chris
was staring at her with something akin to psychotic fury on his face.
"Anooooo," she said, "is something the matter?"

     "OSHIOKI DA!" Chris shrieked, and began chasing her with the clear
intent to main, judging by the size of the battle-axe he was carrying.

SKJAM!:  Fortunately made of foam rubber.

     Sheila sighed. Well, she won this round.  But we've denied her two
Crystals... sort of.

     How many can she NEED, anyway?

Saori: It depends on whether she wants the optional extras on her 
godhood. 

HyperTokyo, Japan
2095

Hima:  HyperTokyo?

SKJAM!:  Maybe it a "Hyper-police" crossover.

     Kadokawa Misa took a deep breath and tried not to yawn.  It was a
slow night at the underground headquarters of the Magical Girl Corps.
For once, the youma seemed to be content to skulk in the shadows, rather
than draining the energy of HyperTokyo's inhabitants and producing huge
amounts of property damage.

Saori:  They have an entire corps of those things?

     She ran a hand through her short green hair.  The Exquisite
Soldiers did try their best... and they did have a large number of
successes under their belt.  But the BILLS associated with those
successes!

Hima:  they must have recruited Aunts Kei and Yuri.

     Still, tonight looked to be a quiet peaceful night.  Time to get
caught up on some of the never-ending paperwork that always threatened
to swamp her in-box.  It was easier back in her days as Starlight Ranger
Pegasus.  There were times she missed the excitement of those days.
With a sigh, she took a sip of her coffee

SKJAM!:  Should be either a period or a double-dash here....

     "Sound the alarm and summon your Chief," a voice said suddenly from
behind her.

Saori:  she really had to stop listening to "Police Cops" at work.

     Misa's half-swallowed coffee spewed out over her desk as she spun
around in shock.  A moment before she had been alone in her office!

     That was no longer the case.  A sailor-suited figure now stood
behind her.  If her black-and-white outfit and long green hair weren't
enough of a reminder, the long garnet-topped staff she bore made her
identity quite clear: Sailor Pluto.

     "What...?" Misa began.

Hima:  Oh, this can't be good.

     "We are about to have two guests.  Mars should be here to greet
them.  We do not have much time," Pluto interrupted.  Her violet-red
eyes bored into Misa's brown ones, and the MGC's second-in-command found
herself obeying without any more second thoughts.

SKJAM!:  I wasn't aware Pluto had mind control...

     The Senshi of Ice looked down at her hands and wondered if her
white gloves should be red with all the blood on them.  Before this
adventure she had killed monsters, but never humans.  Now she had used
her powers with lethal force on a human being and ran while a world was
devoured by evil.  She had sworn oaths to defend a world against the
forces of Darkness, but she had abandoned another to just that fate.

     Sheila is right to ignore me, she thought bitterly.  I dost not
deserve to be loved by anyone, not Zoisite nor Sheila.

Saori:  I wouldn't go that far.  (especially the way Zoisite turned 
out...) 

     Her stomach churned as she saw again the dark cloud that was
Metallia blot out a world not terribly unlike the one she had been born
in.  If that had been a victory, she would rather lose.

Hima:  You wouldn't get off lucky enough to die in it...

     "Ten'kai-san?  Athena-san?" came a very familiar voice.  The two
dimensional travelers looked up to see Sailor Pluto standing at the
mouth of the alley.

     "Pluto?  What are you doing here?" Sheila asked.

SKJAM!:  Being enigmatic and manipulative.

     Lina Inverse appeared over HyperTokyo in a flash of silver light.
A steady stream of curses fell almost unnoticed from her crystalline
lips.  It seemed that Sheila and that Sailor Mercury had dropped off the
face of the multiverse, despite her best attempts to find them.  To make
matters worse, that BITCH Metallia had reneged on their deal!  All that
energy... WASTED!  Once she became a goodess, she was going back to that

Saori: "goddess"

world and would show that skanky piece of negative karma a thing or two!

Hima:  Her new, improved breasts!'

     But first, she had to collect more Silver Crystals.  Already the
law of diminishing returns was affecting her.  Each new crystal gave her
less of a 'boost' than the previous one.  Her all too mortal spirit
simply didn't have much more to give and all of her precious crystals
exacted a price.

SKJAM!:  (Crystal-sounding voice) I won't merge with you for less than 
15% of your soul!

     Still, she didn't need many more.  She was past the halfway mark.
It would only take four or five more Crystals for her to reach her goal.
Looking around, she was amused to see she was over Tokyo AGAIN.  With
the exception of that weird city with the Seven Shadows, she always
seemed to end up here.  Reaching out with her senses, she sought Crystal
number six... THERE!

Hima:  Cleverly disguised as an ice cream truck.

     Eyes alight with unholy glee, made worse by the faceted crystal
that had replaced her flesh-and-blood ones, she rocketed through the
HyperTokyo sky.  The Crystal was buried beneath the city somewhere,
under tons of steel and concrete and glass.  Somewhere beneath the six
towers that reached for the sky in a five-pointed star pattern.  No 
matter.  Lina had ways of getting to her objective.  It was time to use
a little of her magic instead of relying on her Crystals.

Saori:  wouldn't her magic be getting weaker with her brain turning to 
crystal?
 > 

     "EARTH SPIRIT ROAD!" she chanted as she hovered over the spot.
Immediately, a great circle burned its way through the tower beneath
her.  Then it burned through the next floor, and the next down deep into
the bowels of the city.  Faintly she could hear the screams of people as
their homes and workplaces disintegrated, but Lina was beyond caring.
She could sense her precious shining in the depths and flew toward it.

     At the end of the path her spell had burned through the once-mighty
arcology, she found what she was looking for.

SKJAM!:  The ladies' room.

     "Looking for this?" Sheila Ten'kai asked, holding up the Silver
Crystal.

Saori:  (Lina voice) Not really, move aside so I can use the facilities!

     The faux Sailor Mercury was also there, standing next to four young
girls in very abbreviated senshi outfits and a young man in a lavender
bodysuit.  The foremost of them had lavender hair and wore something
resembled a silvery one-piece swimsuit with a white micro-skirt
attached.  The suit's neckline came down in a v-cut all the way down to
just below her navel, exposing her belly button as well as a large
amount of cleavage.  It was also cut high at the legs, exposing most of
her hips as well.  White elbow-length gloves, knee-high boots and a
green plexiglass eye mask covering her face completed the outfit.

     "I am Exquisite Soldier Lovely Freesia!" the leader began.

Hima:  Exquisite Soldier is a really dumb name.

Saori:  You've just guaranteed a crossover, you know.

Hima:  D'oh!

     "I am Exquisite Soldier Crimson Rose!" said the second, slightly
taller girl with long black hair.  She wore a red strapless one-piece
swimsuit with a plunging neckline and high-cut at the legs with a loose,
white miniskirt and a green plexiglas eye mask.  Despite the brevity of
her outfit, it was still less revealing than the leader's.

     "I am Exquisite Soldier Pretty Daisy!" said the third, and tallest
of them.  She was striking for not being human.  Instead she was of some
bipedal feline species with tan fur spotted like a cheetah's and red
hair, like a human's, on her head.  Her outfit was like the second's,
only green in color.

     "Ano, who am I again?" asked the last girl, a blonde in an orange
one-piece swimsuit with a halter-style neckline and a loose white skirt.

SKJAM!:  Spot the blonde cliche.

     "Golden Poppy, you ditz!" growled the cat-girl.

     "And I am Wild Orchid!" the boy exclaimed. He wore a lavender
bodysuit with a white sash across the chest, white knee-length boots and
elbow-length gloves.

     Lina laughed.  Did these people truly expect to stop her?

Saori:  No, they just want to delay you getting relief for as long as 
possible.
 > 

     Then the pain truly began.

Hima:  They pulled out their portable karaoke machine.

                                   *****

Earlier.

SKJAM!:  Grok invented fire.

     "Functional.  Certainly better than that cave that the United Earth
Federation tried to foist off on us when we were just getting started,"

Saori:  Used to belong to some outfit called the Justice League.

Chief Hino replied.  She stared at Sheila and shook her head.  "I still
can't get over it... red hair?  Where did you get that from?  Haruka is
blonde and Michiru --"

     Sheila shrugged, as she was not really comfortable with the
different names that they gave her parent's analogues in this universe.
"In my universe, Uranus was New Zealander on her mother's side, so it's
probably from that direction."  She decided to change the subject.
"When will these... Ekusukuijite Senshi get here?"

SKJAM!:  Ouchie.

     "Fairly shortly."  The Soldier of Fire and Passion paused, and a
look of consternation crossed her face.  "Um.  I just thought of
something -- are you like your parents in your --"

Hima:  Lack of concern for innocent bystanders?

     "Yep," Sheila replied with a half-smile.  There were differences,
but this woman was just as blunt as her aunt and role-model,

     Rei frowned.  "Could be trouble, then.  One of the Soldiers is a
myanaran -- they're extremely prejudiced against non-heterosexuals.  So
if you --"

Saori:  Make mad, passionate love to her, everything should turn out fine.

     Sheila frowned right back.  "Wait a minute, you're letting
HOMOPHOBES in the Sailor Senshi?"

SKJAM!:  The requirements say "good-hearted", not "perfect."

     Rei shrugged, exasperatedly.  "It's a case of biology determining
their attitudes.  They can't help being that way any more than you can
change who you are.  Besides, it's not like -I- have much say anymore in
who's in the Corps, thanks to that Pretty Boy lawsuit."

Hima:  brr...

     Sheila snorted in disgust.  "I suppose there is some call for
Tuxedo Kamens, but--"  She turned to look at Athena who hadn't said word
one since they'd been escorted into Chief Hino's presence.  The blue
haired Senshi had been staring at nothing after she'd stopped looking at
the Chief with a certain expression of dread on her face.  "Um, Athena?"
Sheila asked tentatively.

Saori:  Hmm, wonder how Athena and her Mars get along.

     Athena started as she heard Sheila's voice.  "Yes?" she replied.

     "Were you paying attention?  One of the senshi they're bringing to
help us is gonna be pissed off if she gets any hints that either of us -
- well, you get the idea.  So don't flirt with her when --"

SKJAM!:  She puts her hand up your skirt.  In her species, that's a 
normal greeting for strangers.

     (Neither of them saw Rei's eyes bulge out at this revelation.)

     "I wouldn't dream of it," Athena quickly assured her.

Hima:  She's either lying, or ill.

     Sheila stared a moment.  "Are you okay?"

     "Fine," Athena lied.

Saori:  Ill.

     Sheila turned to look at Rei, and casually said, "Could you give
the two of us a moment alone?"

     "Right," Rei replied, just a bit unsteadily as she backed away.

     The daughter of Neptune and Uranus turned back to look at Athena
and frowned.  "Don't say you're fine.  What's the matter?"

SKJAM!:  (Athena voice)  We're more than halfway through this fic and I 
haven't boinked anyone since my first appearance!

     Athena opened her mouth to deny that anything was wrong, and heard
herself say instead, "Thou hast to ASK what is wrong?  I am a WORLD-
killer!" 

Saori: (With a strange coldness in her eyes) Sometimes in war, sacrifices 
must be made.

     "I thought thou hated me," she whispered.

Hima:  Naw, just wasn't attracted for a few minutes.

     Sheila was silent for the longest moment of Athena's life.  "Hate
you?" she finally said, her voice thick with emotion.  "Goddess,
Athena... I could never hate you.  I was angry when you pulled us out of
that universe, but... but..."

     Athena was only vaguely listening.  I'm so warm, she thought.  I've
never been so warm...

     Time seemed to stand still as they gazed into each other's eyes,
and their lips slowly drew closer together --

     "WHAT THE HELL?!?"

SKJAM!:  Aww...

     And then time started up again, and they jolted apart.  Sheila's
head whipped around to glare at the four girls and one guy who were
standing at the entrance -- specifically at the red-haired felinoid who
had yelled.

     "I was having a brief discussion with my FRIEND, here," Sheila
snarled in reply.  "Got a problem with that?"

Saori:  (Daisy voice)  Given that I become physically ill when I see 
slash, yes!

     "You bet your --" the felinoid snapped.

     "Give it a rest, PRETTY DAISY!" snapped the girl who was wearing
the skimpiest outfit.  Sheila blinked as she suddenly recognized her --
the girl was practically identical (except for the immodest outfit) to
her friend, Catty!

Hima:  Oh, Hi, Catty!

     Well, Sheila thought, Chief Hino did mention that they had boomers
in this Magical Girls Corps... though on a closer examination she
realized there were a few differences between this magical girl and
Catty.  She looked over at the other Exquisite Soldiers and received
another shock.  One of them, slightly older than the rest, had the same
dark hair and similar facial features to Rei!  So, she thought, this is
what a daughter of Aunt Rei's would look like.  A momentary sadness
passed through her as she thought of what her Aunt could never have.

Saori:  I really gotta know about this...

     Just as well, she finally thought.  If Aunt Rei DID have a
daughter, I'd be hard pressed not to hit on her if she looked like that!

Hima:  So that's why she looked so sad in my baby pictures....

The thought of how her aunt would have reacted caused a small smile to
cross her face.

     "Ahem," Chief Hino interrupted the somewhat-less-than-mild squabble
that was breaking out between the two Exquisite Soldiers (and the eye-
leaking of the blonde member of the team).  "Well, these are the
Exquisite Soldiers, Ms. Ten'kai.  I'll leave the introductions to you --
I have to go join the Senshi and the others."

SKJAM!:  Away from you lunatics.

     "Of course," Sheila said with a nod.

     "But first -- well, here IT is."

Saori:  The cherry-flavored lubricant you asked for.

     And Rei held IT out for Sheila to take.

     "So," Athena said, moving next to the Catty look-alike... very
close to her, in fact.  Sheila watched incredulously as Athena put her
arms around "Catty's" neck.  "Who is thy tailor, lovely one?  Methinks I
could use some fittings from him, hmmm?"

     'Catty' turned bright red in what was clearly a full-body blush,

Hima:  I'm not sure our Catty can do that.

which only grew redder as Athena leaned over to whisper something in her
ear.  Sheila wanted to reach over and tear her companion away... then
she got a good look at Athena, really listened to her voice.

     She was faking.

     Oh, it was very good.  Almost anyone else would be fooled by the
coy looks, veiled (and not-so-veiled) innuendo, and erotic touches.  But
Sheila had been through life and death with Athena... and she knew
Athena was trying now to hide from all the pain and horror the only way
she knew how.  So, it was with more understanding than jealousy that she
reached over and gently (ok, not THAT gently, she was still a little
peeved by her l--friend's roving eye) pulled Athena off 'Catty' by her
ear.

     "Owowowowow!  Sheila-chan!  Thou said nothing about hitting on the
OTHER Exquis--"

     "I'll hit YOU, you freak!" the cat girl screamed.

Hima:  Sure, pick on the poor girl with the birth defect...

     "This was a whole lot easier when it was just odango-atamas and
tears," Sailor Mars commented, sure no one was listening.

SKJAM!:  Sadly, her Usagi was, and whacked her.

                                   *****

     Sheila looked at the small faceted crystal in her hand and
swallowed.  There was power enough in that small crystal to destroy the
world for all its innocent appearance.

Saori:  In fact, its innocent appearance was part of its power.

     She and Athena had come to this universe because Davies had said it
was the next universe on the list.  He had been willing to do almost
anything to help them, even contacting his Sailor Pluto to tell the
Sailor Pluto of this universe they were coming and alert the troops.

     The Sailor Pluto of this universe had been more than helpful, which
was a welcome surprise from the norm.  The problem was that the Sailor
Moon of this universe had recently given birth to her daughter, so she
was in no shape to face Lina or call upon the power of the Crystal.
That was bad enough, but what made it worst was that they had to depend
upon a second-string of Sailor Senshi wannabes.  The first string were
either guarding their Queen, couldn't arrive in time, or were missing.

Hima:  Or at least that's what they told her.

     She was tempted to remove the earplugs she was wearing, but Freesia
was still speaking.  She had heard that her Queen had once been given to
long speeches before attacking, but had dismissed it because no monster
would allow someone to lecture without taking advantage of the moment to
attack.  But now, after seeing Lina stop in mid-laugh while Freesia
spoke, she was prepared to believe it.  It was a wonderful tactic...
except it seemed no one else could attack while Freesia spoke.

SKJAM!:  But all of them could heal wounds...

     Finally, Freesia stopped.  This was the moment.  There was no time
for finesse, no time for pleas.  Lina had to go down hard.

     "MERCURY ICE BLADE!" Athena cried, sending a mighty spear of ice at
Lina.

     "MAGIC SOUL BLADE!" Freesia screamed and a large blade of energy
formed in her hands and shot out to a length of over ten feet and aimed
directly at the mad sorceress.

     "THORNY VINE WHIPLASH!" cried Crimson Rose, sending giant vine
spiked with thorns to entangle Lina.

Saori:  "a giant vine"

     "LASERWHIP!" Pretty Daisy cried, sending a beam of energetic light
at her foe.

     "POPPY SEED SHOWER!" Golden Poppy yelled, and a dark cloud appeared
out of nowhere to pelt Lina.

     "LEAF BLADE CASTRATION!" Wild Orchid cried, sending a stream of
razor sharp leaves at Lina.

Hima:  Geez, guy, scary attack, but I don't think it'll work on Lina.

     The attacks swirled around the wizardress and she screamed in
surprise.  Her crystalline hand reached out and grabbed the Soul Blade,
its power squealing against the impenetrable surface.  Her other hand
reached up to shield herself against Mercury's ice spear, but that hand
was just flesh and bone, and the magical ice smashed it aside.  Lina
screamed again, this time in pain.  The ice blade smashed against her
crystal torso, but the damage was done.  Her useless arm was then pinned
to her side as the thorny vine and the laser whip wrapped around her
body.  Then the poppy seed pods slashed down at Lina at hypersonic
speeds as she was cut to ribbons by Wild Orchid's leaves.

     When it was done, Sheila could only look with horror at what was
held in place before them.  It appeared to be an apparition of blood and
crystal, nothing else being visible.  Could even Lina have survived
that?

SKJAM!:  Yes.

     The Exquisite Soldiers, with the exception of Pretty Daisy, all
looked sick.

Saori:  Instead of lesbianism, her species is into blood sports.

  Athena swallowed, but didn't say anything.  She looked at

Sheila, whose face was grave and set as if stone.

     Then Lina's crystal lips began to move.  "Heed me, oh spirits
darker than dusk."  Red light began to glow around her.  "Red beyond
crimson flow like blood.  In the name of those reduced to dust," she
said as blue lights began to swirl around, like fireflies caught in a
cyclone, "I pray to the shadows."

Hima:  Run.  Now.

     "Oh, shit!" Sheila cried.  "Hit her again!  Quick!"

     "She doth shield herself!" Athena cried, scanning Lina with her
computer.

SKJAM!:  That's not the point!  Attack anyways!

     "Mark ye these villains that bar our way,

Saori:  No villains here...well, except Athena the Worldkiller.

" Lina continued, her body

healing and reforming even as she spoke, her voice becoming louder and
stronger, "and to my small strength thine own ally, to deliver doom,
folly repay, come judgment from the grave..."

     "SHEILA!" Athena cried, running between her friend and their foe,
knocking the red-haired senshidottir down.  The Silver Crystal fell from

Hima:  I've always wondered where that term came from.

Sheila's grasp in surprise.

     "DRAGON SLAVE!" Lina yelled, completing the spell.

SKJAM!:  Ouch.

                                   *****

     HyperTokyo was a city of marvels, sporting six huge arcology towers
and home to millions of humans, myanarans, and boomers, and arguably the
most sophisticated and advanced city in the world.

     All that was wiped away in a moment as a massive explosion smashed
its way up through the city streets.  The arcology towers shattered and
fell, except the center most which shot up like a rocket.  The explosion
shaped itself into the awful image of a dragon ascending, it mouth open
in a scream which, the few survivors reported, sounded as if all the
souls of the dead were fueling it.

     Then there was silence.

Hima:  This does not look good.

                                   *****

     Lina stood in the center of a vast crater and limped slowly over to
the only other object to survive her spell.  The battered, but healing
sorceress looked down at the Silver Crystal and then at her missing left
arm.  The battered flesh had not been able to survive the mighty blast,
but neither had her foes, apparently.

     "Finally," she said, picking up the Crystal.  "Sheila is DEAD!"

Saori:  Not for long, since we still have another chapter to go.

The exultant laughter she expected to mark this moment did not come,
however.  Instead, she felt empty.  Well, absorbing this Crystal should
see to that.

     The Crystal sank into her crystalline arm.  She took a deep breath,
then screwed her face up in an act of extreme concentration.  From the
ragged stump of her left shoulder crystal began to grow.  The crystal
extended out to arm's length, hinged in the middle where an elbow would
be.  The crystal then began to grow thicker, like a tree, with layer
after layer thickening it to the shape and form of a normal human arm. A
hand formed at the end.  Lina looked at it with her crystal eyes, flexed
the hand, then disappeared.

Hima:  Hoo boy.

                              END PART TWO

SKJAM!:  Well, that's another one finally under our belts.  Next one 
could be a while.




bye,
SKJAM!
"Relationships aren't supposed to be simple.  Even I know that, and I'm 
just a vegetable!"--Susan Wayne