The Three Magic Knights
Part 5
Dan vs. The Legendary Spring of Eterna.
Zagato frowned as he stared at the mirror and watched the magic knights
walk towards the spring.
"Alcione has been destroyed my lord, what should we do now?" asked Inova
as he kneeled behind his master.
"I had once thought of these magic knights as mere children, but the
male is a most worthy adversary," said the robed figure as he continued
to watch their travels.
"Indeed, perhaps I should go and remove him personally?" Inova had a
hint of anticipation in his eyes as he said this.
"I don't think that will be necessary just yet," Zagato turned away from
the image and smiled at Alcione's old place in the waterfall. "Don't you
agree Xellos?"
"You catch on fast," said the mage cheerfully as he emerged from his
hiding place. "I can see you are keeping busy to help you cope with the
grief of your lost comrade."
The elfin servant jumped to his feet and snarled at the man angrily.
"You dare return here after getting Alcione killed?!"
Xellos snorted and smirked at him lazily. "I know you know what's coming
now; really Inova-chan, I'd think you would learn after a while." He
raised his hand and blasted a bolt of energy into the man's chest sending
him to the floor in pain as it seemed to make various parts of his body
glow for a moment before subsiding. The elfin man slumped to the ground
and tried desperately to catch his breath as the pain slowly subsided.
"Alcione got herself killed by toying with the male magic knight despite
my warnings."
"What do you want?" asked Zagato calmly as he turned back to the mirror
yet again. He didn't care much for the mage, but he had a slowly growing
respect for his power, it could be useful to him in the future.
"Nothing much, just checking up on things as usual," Xellos jumped down
next to the imposing figure and glanced at the mirror. "Oh, the Spring of
Eterna? They must be after Escudo. Useful stuff for a magic knight, once
it's formed into weapons that is. I'd suggest removing the possibility of
that happening," Xellos smiled warmly as he looked up at the much larger
man.
"How do you suggest I do that?" asked Zagato calmly.
"Why, simply remove the only person who can make weapons from Escudo
before she has the chance to do so," the mage smiled as he looked
directly at the waterfall behind him. The shadowy figure cringed slightly
behind it.
"Assassinate Precea?" said Inova in shock as he finally recovered from
the painful spell.
"Of course," said Xellos with a smile.
"How? She is protected by the forest of silence!" snapped the elfin man
angrily.
Zagato seemed to ignore the conversation as he stared intently at his
opposition in the mirror.
"It's a secret," said the mage cheerfully.
Finally the high priest spoke up. "If you aren't going to offer anything
useful..."
"Oh, all right. The Forest of Silence is not immune the powers of a
summoner. Young Askot should fit your needs quite nicely," once again he
turned his eyes towards the waterfall and watched the shadow jump in
surprised fear.
Zagato turned away with his cloak billowing dramatically behind him.
"Askot go," he said without looking up at the boy.
"Y-yes Lord Zagato," said the boy uneasily.
Xellos smirked and turned to look at him again as the waters parted
revealing a small child with sandy blonde hair that covered his eyes. He
was dressed in very baggy clothes and had a large hat on top of his head.
The mage had a strange smile on his face as he stared the boy down with
his disturbing golden eyes.
Dan frowned as the group continued to follow Mokona through the
wilderness, he sighed heavily as he glanced back at the cheerfully
chatting girls behind him. "Would you three shut up? You're going to
attract every monster from here to those mountains straight to us!"
"You worry to much Mr. Dan," said Fuu with a snort.
"Yea, we can defeat any monsters that attack us!" agreed Umi cheerfully.
"Whatever, I recall you getting your butts whipped most of the time," he
turned and saw a small body of water in front of him. "Hey, dirt rat, is
this the Spring of Eterna?" Mokona looked up at him and Puu'ed again
shaking its head from side to side. He was at the end of his rope, Carrot
had sent him into this particular anime not only because he hated it; but
also because it was one of the few that he had never finished watching.
He had only seen the first tape so anything else that happened from now
on would be a complete surprise.
"At last we found the Legendary Spring of Eterna!" chimed Umi happily,
Fuu was dancing with her merrily while Hikaru looked apprehensive.
"This isn't the Spring of Eterna," said the boy after slapping both
girls in the back of the head.
"What do you mean Mr. Dan?" asked Fuu with an uncertain look on her
face.
"I agree with him," said Hikaru with a shrug.
"You'd agree with anything he said!" snapped Umi, Hikaru shrunk back
with an embarrassed blush, but said nothing. "What do you mean this isn't
it? We've been following Mokona forever!"
"I mean this isn't the spring of Eterna, it's just a pond," snapped the
boy with a snort.
"How do you know this?" asked Fuu warily.
"How do you think braniac? I asked our guide," he jerked his thumb back
at Mokona who was currently playing with the water in the spring
cheerfully.
"You can understand Mokona?" asked Fuu looking bewildered.
"I can't understand it when it talks no, but any idiot can tell the
difference between a nod and a shake." He turned and continued to walk
around the edge of the water ignoring any further protest.
Mokona burst through the brush and puu'ed again, this time indicating a
strange rock formation in the center of a clearing.
"This must be it," muttered Dan as he glanced around at the site and
noticed there was no water.
"Are you certain?" asked Fuu looking skeptical as usual.
"This is where the rabbit led us," replied the boy with a shrug.
"There is nothing here that resembles water," said Fuu reluctantly.
Hikaru blinked and stepped forward from the group. "What's that line?"
"What are you talking about?" snapped Umi.
"I think she means this thing," replied Dan as he walked up to the
strange phenomenon and pointed directly at it.
"What's this line doing here?" asked Umi bitchily.
"I do not know, the line is simply there," said Fuu as she walked up next
to him and inspected it closer.
Dan had to resist the urge to shove her into it in the hope that it would
cut her in half or something. "Somehow I doubt it," he sighed to himself.
"What was that Mr. Dan?" asked the girl looking at him quizzically.
"Huh? Oh, nothing just thinking out loud," he replied nervously. "Oh,
what the hell."
Gently he shoved at her back and she fell forward through the line. Umi
and Hikaru gasped as Fuu sat on the ground sputtering and coughing up
water. Her head and the upper part of her torso were drenched. "What
happened?" she gasped.
"I'd say you just fell into the Spring of Eterna," replied Dan with
thinly disguised disappointment in his voice. He glanced around and
noticed Hikaru was missing, a small smile crossed his face as the hope of
another magic knight eating monster appeared in his head. The hope was
crushed when he heard her call to them from the top of a rock formation
just next to the spring.
"Hey you guys! You've got to come and look at this!" she cried
excitedly.
A few moments later they all stood on top of the rocks looking down at
the waters of the spring from above. The two girls gasped in shock and
Dan frowned. "I figured it out before I shoved you into the spring wind
bag," actually it was immediately after that, but he wasn't going to say
anything.
"But there wasn't anything there a second ago!" cried Umi.
"It's flat, this must be that line we saw, I can't believe it took you
guys this long to figure it out, especially since one of you is supposed
to be a genius," he gave them all a disappointed look and sighed heavily.
"Yes, it must be two dimensional!" cried Fuu looking proud of herself.
"Actually there's no such thing as two dimensional, every object has
depth, even if it's only a molecule or less deep. If it was truly two
dimensional we wouldn't have seen it from the side either," the boy's
grin widened as her face fell.
"Well, it is really flat," said Umi, this seemed to cheer Fuu up
slightly and she stared back down at the spring.
"Well in what part of this completely flat, completely weird Spring of
Eterna do we find the ore Escudo?" said Umi.
Mokona hopped cheerfully by them making its trademark sound as it dove
into the water. Dan smirked to himself slightly and stared into the
waters. "Maybe we'll meet a dangerous monster in there?"
"It must be inside the spring!" said Hikaru as she watched the creature
disappear under the surface.
"But we don't even know how deep it is, and how are we supposed to
breathe under the water?" whined Umi. Dan frowned, the girl was a bitch,
and god did she whine!
"She dies first!" he thought to himself as he looked her up and down
planning many ways to kill her, none of which could actually be used
without turning him into a villain.
"Yes..." said Fuu looking thoughtful. "I guess we'll never know until we
try!"
Umi dropped her head in frustration, "Oh, this is just one disaster
after another!"
"I'm gonna go in!" said Hikaru suddenly.
"What?" cried Umi in shock.
"I believe that Mokona is trying to tell us that we'll find the
legendary ore inside the spring! I've decided that I'm going to become
a..."
Hikaru was cut off as Dan promptly kicked all three of them in the butt
sending them into the water. "Shut up and get in the damn spring!" He
snorted and dove in immediately after them.
The four knights found themselves sinking rapidly in a seemingly
bottomless pool of water. One by one they vanished into thin water. [The
couldn't very well vanish into thin air at the time now could they?]
Hikaru stood up in the strange room she found herself in, "Where am I?"
she gasped as she searched around the room. The whole area seemed to glow
with a red light that grew into a fog surrounding her and keeping the
shadows hidden away. A lone figure approached her and she stared at it
for a moment before gasping in shock. "No way!"
Umi frowned as she stood with her weapon drawn in her own room, this
time it was a blue haze and two figures approached her from the shadows.
"Mom? Dad?" she gasped as they became clear.
Fuu stared at her reflection in the green room she had found herself in.
A shocked and horrified look crossed her face as she looked into her own
vacant eyes. "It can't be!"
Dan frowned deeply and lit a cigarette as he stared at the strange
yellow room he had found himself in. Surprisingly he and his property
were completely dry, he had cursed himself when he jumped into the water
without removing his smokes first, but it was already too late when he
realized it. Glancing over to one side of the room he noticed various
small objects were piled up and strewn across the floor. He walked over
to the mess and gasped in horror at what he saw.
"MY GOD! IT'S MY ANIME COLLECTION; AND IT'S COMPLETELY DISORGANIZED!" he
almost fell over in horrified shock as the Dragon Ball Z tapes mixed in
with the Ranma 1/2 episodes, and horror of horrors, a single Pokemon tape
was actually touching Ninja Scroll. "NOOOOOOOO!" He jumped into the mess
and screamed out his battle cry. "Katsu Tenshin Amaguriken Revised!
Anything Goes Speed Organization!"
He promptly assorted all the various tapes in their proper places and
sighed in relief; that is until the tapes moved and formed themselves
into a giant monster that loomed over him angrily. "Well, shit."
Dan backed away as the creature's fist slammed into the ground in front
of him, it froze suddenly and watched him. "Magic knights!" cried a small
feminine voice.
"Uh oh, this can't be good," he muttered to himself.
"Young girls from another world!" called the young blonde girl who
appeared before him.
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!? FIREBALL!" he attacked it, but the energy simply
passed through the image.
"I am Princess Emerad of Cephero, magic knights you must not let sorrow
take control of your hearts no matter what happens! Young girls from
another world..."
"Stop calling me that!" screamed Dan in frustration.
"You must ask yourself are these the ones who you hold most dear to
you?" Dan frowned as the girl went on, he raised his hand and frowned
muttering something under his breath. "Silence," he finished at last
causing the girl to stop making noise as her message continued to play.
Hikaru killed her dog realizing that her beloved pet would never really
hurt her, so it wasn't really her dog.
Umi had about the same realization about her parents and killed the two
of them.
And Fuu, well Fuu realized that she was a self-centered bitch and
promptly killed anyone who would dare to look like her. That's not her
version of the story, but hey, I'm trying to cut corners here.
He frowned when he looked at the monster and glanced on either side of
him. "This has got to be some kind of test!" he growled to himself as he
avoided the strike. "If I don't get it right I'll be stuck with this
dinky knife!" He charged forward and his mind reached far back into its
darkest neither regions. "Fiend! I value all life more than my personal
belongings! My friends are more important than stupid toys! Using
someone's darkest secrets and personal desires against them is
unforgivable! On behalf of the moon I shall punish you! Fireball!" He
blasted the creature to a melted mass of plastic and a single tear ran
down his face as he watched the anime burn for a moment. "Such a waste."
Finally he found himself standing in the middle of a large room with the
girls. He glanced over at them and they all had proud looks on their
faces. Above them over the spring the Escudo hung suspended in the air.
"Umi, Fuu, Mr. Dan, you're all here?" asked Hikaru in shock.
"Yea, yea, let's just get this stuff and jet," he muttered angrily.
"What was that we were just fighting?" asked Umi looking bewildered.
"I have a feeling we were being tested, to see if our hearts were worthy
of becoming magic knights. I am relieved to see Mr. Dan could pass such a
test despite his gruff nature," she actually looked visibly relieved and
Dan gawked at her in shock. It was now clear that until now she had been
onto him.
"I hate tests! Especially pop quizzes!" snarled the boy as he slammed
his fist into the ground in frustration. He grimaced slightly when he
realized that if he encountered another such test...well let's just say
he might not have seen enough Sailor Moon to sneak by again.
The Escudo started to glow and was promptly pulled into the gloves.
"The Escudo!" cried Fuu.
"It's being absorbed!" continued Hikaru.
"Into the ornaments on our gloves!" finished Umi.
"You jerks didn't leave anything for me to explain for no reason!" cried
Dan. The girls looked at him and blushed slightly when the armor on their
chests started to glow as well.
"Our armor! It's changing!" cried Hikaru.
Dan turned to face the other two girls with a fireball in his hands.
"Don't you two dare start!" They wisely kept silent until the armor
completed its transformation. A light formed around them and they were
transported out of the spring with Mokona. Dan watched the creature and
wondered where the hell it had been for a moment before dismissing the
matter. He calmly stepped down from the spring as the three girls fell on
their faces.
"It's inside our gloves! Escudo!" said Hikaru in wonder.
"Yea, let's hurry back and get our weapons! Besides, Precea is waiting
for us!" Dan had a slight daze to his eyes as he said this. Hikaru took
notice of it and growled while she held her breath for a moment.
"He's right, let's go!" cried Umi as she started forward again.
TBC...
Next time: Dan attempts to put the moves on Precea, but is interrupted
by a rude little boy. Gee, do you think he might be angry with the little
kid?
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com
To find the rest of this fic visit:
Http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/fountain/3203