And here's the next CMD chapter. Things can't be the same after this one.
C&C away, but keep an open mind.
=======================================================================
Childhood of a Modern Dynasty
Chapter 30: The Wedding in the Storm's Belly; Kiss Me Before I Die
Ranma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by Rumiko
Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permission
Childhood of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, and
copyright 1998-2000 by Jim Lazar
An ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime.
<Speech text in angle brackets is thought by character.>
"Speech text in double quotes is spoken as Japanese."
E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: mailto:jimlazar@animeprime.com
Make sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website for
all released CMD stories, graphics files, and other information:
http://www.animeprime.com/ff/md
=======================================================================
>From the personal journal of James Davidson:
November 2, 2057
Hanaki and I walked out of our hotel with Akane and Yohachi. As the
morning sun peeked through the tall buildings, I looked around and saw
the squad of Task Force members slide in front of and behind us to take
up their sentry duties. "No Sanma today?" I asked, trying not to look at
Akane's cleavage where her husband sometimes traveled.
Akane shook her head. "No, he's going to stay in the hotel's pond
today. He's a bit miffed that his blessing hasn't changed him out of his
frog form yet."
"Does soaking in water speed the change?"
Yohachi laughed. "Nope, but that doesn't keep the old croaker from
trying."
I laughed and could see Akane resisting the urge to join us. "I
thought it might be that he didn't want to discuss what happened after
he found out that Shuma was his child."
Akane sighed. "Yes, there is that too."
***********************************************************************
Inside the Buyierfei Monolith
Ranma sent a couple chi balls into Shuma's body to buy Sanma some
time. "Sanma, don't let your anger get out of control!!"
Sanma smiled and sent some more energy into her single spatula.
"It's not anger that drives me... it's love." She briefly glanced back
at Ukyo and then jumped into the air, laying down a carefully positioned
series of blasts to get Shuma into the right position. She landed by
Shuma's side and lashed out with the handle of the spatula.
Shuma avoided the handle's blow. He had expected that move because
Sanma had used a similar attack during their first battle. But he didn't
expect the leg sweep that Sanma followed up with. Shuma crashed to the
ground and then saw the sharp blade descend towards his neck.
Sanma's eyes glowed with hate, not love, as the blade neared her
hated enemy's neck.
Shuma grabbed the handle of the spatula just below the wide blade,
stopping it just before it sliced off his head. The flesh of Shuma's
hand sizzled as the energy from Sanma's spatula burned into his flesh.
"Can you really kill your own offspring?"
"Of course I..." Sanma's eyes went wide as Shuma's words sunk in.
"What?!"
Shuma sneered, ignoring the burning flesh of his hand. "I was
created from the infant collector you carried when you first intruded
into and unlocked our realm." Shuma tilted his head. "So, can you still
kill me... Mother?"
Sanma trembled. "No... you're trying to trick me." She pressed down
on the handle, but Shuma's grip was firm and the blade didn't budge.
"We had wanted to take the other infant collector too, but you
broke the seal earlier than any mere cattle should have been able to."
Ranko gasped and put her hand over her stomach and said one word.
"Daiji."
Sanma shuddered and dropped onto her knees, the spatula held
tightly in her clenched fist. "No..."
A scream rang out across the group.
Sanma still stared at Shuma, unable to tear her eyes from her
'child'.
Ranma looked over and saw Deedee supporting a very distressed
Akane.
"What's wrong?!" Ranma shouted.
"Her... her water just broke." Deedee looked down at the ground,
which was covered with glowing water.
"Oh no..." Ranma gasped. He backed up a few steps when he saw what
was happening to the water.
The glowing water started to cause the ground to bubble and churn,
as if a chemical reaction was taking place. The reaction spread out
from where Akane and Deedee stood.
Deedee helped Akane to sit down and then touched the glowing
ground. "Weird."
"Don't touch it!" Ranma yelled.
But it was too late. It was also a wasted warning. Nothing happened
to Deedee's hand. "It's okay."
Ranma watched the glow spread out under Ukyo and then under his
feet. The ground bubbled as the glowing reached him, but didn't seem to
affect his shoes at all. But when it passed Mousse and the Amazons
something strange happened. Several Buyierfei that were attacking the
Amazons suddenly became fully visible. Their tentacles that were
touching the glowing ground suddenly started to bubble. The effect
flowed up their tentacles and engulfed their whole body. After a few
seconds, the bubbles stopped and the creatures disintegrated into a fine
black dust.
Yukiko was a little amazed when her latest sword thrust caused her
opponent to disintegrate. Then she looked around and saw that other
Buyierfei were also disintegrating as the glowing ground spread out.
"What's happening?"
Ranma yelled out the answer to Yukiko's question. "Akane's water
just broke and... it seems to be killing the Buyierfei."
"Her water caused this?" Yukiko frowned, but then smiled as she
looked around and saw countless numbers of nearby Buyierfei
disintegrate. "We have a chance to get out of this alive now!!"
Deeod looked at Yukiko oddly. "We didn't have a chance before?"
Yukiko looked at her warrior and tried to regain her Matriarchal
posture. "Um... of course we did. I meant that this will just make our
escape easier."
-C- -M- -D-
While the others were preoccupied with Akane going into labor and
the spreading of the glowing ground, Sanma had become oblivious to
everything around her. "You can't be my child..."
Ranko stood half way between Shuma and Akane, torn between helping
her wife and helping Sanma fight Shuma.
"I am much more than the infant collector. It provided us with the
ability to bridge the gap between our realm and yours." Shuma stood a
few meters in front of Sanma. "Before the bridge was formed, we could
only manage to pull the cattle in. We originally were going to use your
body, but the infant was much easier to convert into a form suitable for
our purposes." He tapped his chest twice.
"No..." Sanma thought back to when she had first awoken in the
Australian monolith. She had been naked and a felt tentacles moving all
over her body. At the time, she had felt disgusted and for some reason
ashamed at what they were doing to her, but she had no idea what they
were really doing and why. "You... ripped my... child from my womb." Her
words came out flat and shallow, as if Sanma couldn't really believe it
was possible even while everything Shuma was saying fit perfectly with
her memories of her first encounter with the Buyierfei.
Shuma nodded. "Until you touched the portal all the others we drew
in were worthless cattle. But we could sense the power within you and
your child. So we drew you in and harvested the fetus."
"Harvested?" Sanma growled. "You molested me. No... you violated me
and cost me my best chance to marry..." She paused. <But then I wouldn't
have fallen in love with Ukyo...>
"Actually, I have more power like this than I could ever have hoped
to have as a mere collector. I doubt one of you puny creatures could
have blasted out that valley where my followers worshiped me."
Sanma's jaw dropped. "You couldn't have... it was too large to be
man built."
Shuma grinned. "Yes, it was. But we are not cattle and such things
are easy for those of my kind. We were amazed to find cattle that had
such potential for power within your frail bodies, but you collectors
can still only collect, store, and utilize just a small fraction of what
we can. Not only were you and your infant so powerful, but so were the
other two collectors and the other infant." Shuma looked at Ranko, who
was again staring at Shuma with her hand on her stomach.
Ranko finally found her voice after hearing this bit of news.
"You're what Daiji will look like when he grows up?"
Shuma nodded. "All five collectors are identical. Well, we were
until I merged with the Buyierfei. Now, I am so much more than you."
"Huh? What do you mean we are identical?"
"You three adult collectors and the infant collectors all share a
common physical makeup."
Ranko gasped. "So Daiji... is another split. Just another copy."
Sanma suddenly stood upright and looked at Ranko with fire in her
eyes. "No! Daiji is your child!" She turned towards Shuma. "And my
child-" She started running towards Shuma with her spatula aimed at the
Buyierfei leader's neck. "-was killed by this bastard here!!"
Shuma transformed into his girl form and batted her eyelashes
sweetly. "I'm right here, Mommy." At that moment, she appeared to be in
her early teens instead of her late teens as Sanma and Ranko were.
Sanma hesitated, unable to carry thorough with her attack.
"Dammit... I can't do it!" She let the tip of her spatula drop to the
ground and stared at Shuma. <Is she younger looking than before?> She
clenched her teeth and then looked down at her spatula, as if willing it
to attack for her. That was when she noticed the glowing ground. She
looked a little confused and looked around and saw that the glow was
slowly spreading outward from where Akane and Ukyo were. "Huh? What
is..."
"Come on, Mommy, join us and you can be as powerful as I am." Shuma
held out a hand to Sanma.
Ranko screamed. "No!"
"We can be together as mother and son, just like Ranko is with
Daiji?" Sanma asked, as if intrigued.
"Of course..."
"Don't do it Sanma... he's not your son anymore!" Ranko pleaded,
ignoring the fact that Shuma was female at that moment. But then she
ignored Daiji's current sex most of the time as well.
"Show me my baby then..."
Ranko smirked, suddenly realizing what Sanma was up to.
Shuma nodded and transformed into a small baby. His black clothes
pooled around his body and provided a cushion for the baby's bottom. It
started to cry.
"I'm fire!" Sanma shouted as she sprang to her feet and then ran
towards the baby, generating a hot beam of chi energy in front of her.
Generating hot energy at that moment was easy for Sanma. In fact, her
rage at that moment almost made the beam too hot.
Ranko smiled and ran forward, generating a cold beam of energy from
her unbroken arm. "Hiryu Hibashira Ha!!"
"Hiryu Hyouchuu Ha!!" Sanma shouted as the two pillars of energy
touched at the spot the baby sat. Two powerful vortexes formed and
blasted Shuma with wave upon wave of energy.
The baby twisted and writhed in pain in the center of the twin
vortexes. It intermittently cried, causing both Ranko and Sanma to wince
in sympathy. Since the baby was identical to Daiji, Ranko had to force
herself to keep blasting the infant by reminding herself that this
wasn't a simple baby and that it wasn't Daiji. That didn't keep her
vortex from becoming unstable as her concentration faltered.
Sanma could see Ranko's vortex fluctuating. "Don't be fooled!! We
can beat the Buyierfei within my baby!!"
Ranko's heart almost leapt out of her chest when she heard how
Sanma said 'my baby'. <I hope so, but... I'm not sure this is a simple
possession.> She had been horrified when the Buyierfei were going after
her own child and could only guess at the horror that Sanma must be
going through internally. Ranko refocused her attention on her vortex.
"I'm doing my best, but I can't keep it as steady with only one arm."
Sanma nodded her understanding and glanced at Ranma. "Ranma, we
could use your help here, dammit!!"
Ranma looked up from where he was kneeling over Akane. "Um...
Akane's in labor here!!"
Ranko swore. "It takes hours to give birth after the water breaks!!
Get over here!!"
"How would you know?"
Ranko glared at Ranma. "I just had a baby, you idiot!"
"Oh... yeah..." Ranma looked down at Akane and spoke fast. "I'll be
back as soon as possible." He looked at Deedee. "Take care of her,
Deedee."
"What?!" Deedee shouted, looking awkwardly at Akane. "I don't know
nothing about birthing no babies!"
"Do it!" Ranma replied and ran towards Ranko and Sanma.
Deedee looked down at Akane. "Um... do you have any idea what I
should do?"
Akane tensed as a contraction rippled through her body. "First..."
Deedee leaned in closer.
"Forget about Ranma, he's my fiancee."
Deedee frowned.
"Second... don't take anything I say in the next few hours
personally." Akane clenched her teeth suddenly and her whole body
tensed. "Third... help me clean up down there... cause I think this
one's in a hurry."
Deedee gulped. "Okay... but I'm not a lesbian so don't get the
wrong idea about this." She reached down and lifted the shirt covering
Akane's lap. "Gross."
Akane smirked, but it quickly turned into a grimace when a
contraction rippled through her body. "You... errrrrrrgghhhh... haven't
seen the worse part yet."
-C- -M- -D-
After temporarily leaving Akane in the hopefully capable hands of
Deedee, Ranma joined Ranko and Sanma. "How do we do this with three of
us?" He tried to raise his right arm, but winced when a shooting pain
rippled through his body. <Damn... I can't even lift it anymore, let
alone feel it.>
Ranko spoke. "Come over here and use your good arm to generate a
cool vortex next to mine. Together we may be able to keep it stable."
"There's nothing wrong with my right arm!!" Ranma insisted.
Ranko smirked briefly, trying not to lose her concentration.
"Right... I can tell the way you're moving around that it's painful for
you to move it. I'm in the same boat..." She glanced at her broken left
arm.
"Alright... but I won't let this damn arm stop me from protecting
everyone." Ranma stood by Ranko and put his left arm close to Ranko's
right arm and concentrated. "Are we sure this is going to work?"
Sanma looked over briefly. "No, but my baby is resisting now...
look." She used her head to gesture to the baby, who was crying in pain.
The baby's skin was alternating between black and it's normal human
appearance. "We can do this!!" The desperation in her voice was evident.
As Ranma's energy mixed with Ranko's, the cold vortex intensified
and caused more energy to wash over the baby's body. Ranma looked at
Ranko and frowned.
The look that Ranko returned showed she had the same concerns about
Sanma's current state of mind.
"Come on... come on... fight it!"
Several black forms suddenly appeared and tackled Sanma. Their
victory was short-lived since they touched down on the glowing ground
and disintegrated. Unfortunately, they did cause the two vortexes to
release the baby long enough for it to do an impressive--for a baby or
an adult--back flip and get out of the range of his attackers. In
mid-flip, Shuma transformed back into his adult male form.
He looked at his attackers as soon as he touched down. "Impressive
power, but not nearly enough." He built up a black chi ball and tossed
it at the trio.
Ranma was preparing to jump out of the way, but then noticed that
that the chi ball would hit Akane if he did. He stood his ground.
Sanma saw the same thing and jumped in front of Ranma with his
spatula glowing bright green. The chi ball hit the flat blade and
rebounded, returning to this source. Unfortunately, Shuma had already
moved out of the way.
Shuma casually strolled towards the trio. "You might as well give
up. The collector and I are inseparable. To kill me, you have to kill
the infant.." He took one last step and then stopped and shuddered. He
looked down at the ground to find that he had stepped on the still
spreading glowing ground. The flesh on his legs suddenly turned black
and started to bubble. Shuma screamed a cry of utter torment.
Sanma's gut tightened as she heard the cry. A part of her wanted to
rush and help him and a part of her wanted to see him die as painfully
as possible. She was stalemated and just watched the bubbles flow up
Shuma's legs.
"I'm sorry, Sanma." Ranma said as he shot off a chi ball at Shuma.
"Ranko, we have to force the rest of his body onto the glowing ground."
Ranko nodded. "It has to end here." Her chi ball followed Ranma's
almost perfectly. Both hit Shuma's chest, causing him to wobble on his
stuck feet.
"I can't die!!"
"But... you must." Sanma's words were barely audible over the rapid
series of chi blasts from Ranma and Ranko.
The black bubbles were up to Shuma's knees when his eyes and skin
turned completely black. He flinched backwards under one of the chi
blasts, just barely managing to avoid falling backwards onto the glowing
ground. When he regained his vertical stature, he looked into the
distance. "Come!"
Ranma got a bad feeling suddenly and looked around. "Shit!" He
pointed at a fast moving object heading towards them. Unlike the vague
shadows, this Buyierfei was fully visible. Ranma had never seen it in
flight, but he did recognize the mouth filled with tentacles from the
creature that had thrown him and Deedee into the Florida monolith.
"Damn... those huge things can fly?"
But Yukiko had seen it in flight before. "Blast it!! It's an avian
like the one that attacked me in Nerima."
Ranko and Ranma's chi blasts left their hands before Yukiko had
even finished speaking. They struck the avian seconds later.
As it drew nearer, the large avian opened its tentacle filled maw,
almost as if it was laughing at their feeble attack. It was also visibly
larger than their first sight of it seemed to indicate.
Another series of chi balls impacted the avian as it roared
overhead, the air displaced by its close flyby knocking Yukiko and the
three Ranmas off their feet. When they looked up, they noticed that it
had knocked Shuma off his feet. Literally.
'What the..." Ranma gasped as he saw Shuma's feet--just his
feet--stuck to the glowing ground. They were already starting to
dissolve.
"Did he die?" Ranko asked, glancing at Sanma to see how he was
handling it.
Sanma trembled and pointed at the receding avian. "No... that thing
has him in his mouth."
Yukiko bowed her head. "He'll be back."
-C- -M- -D-
"Push... push... relax."
Akane relaxed and fell back into Ranma's arms. "Dammit... I can't
do this."
Ranko looked up from between Akane's legs. "Yes you can."
"No... not here... not like this."
"It's not my first choice of location either, but we have no
choice."
Ranma wiped Akane's forehead off. "You're doing great, Akane."
"That's easy for you to say!! You're not pushing a kid with a huge
head out of your uterus!!"
Ranma frowned. "How do you know it has a large head?"
"I don't!!" Akane growled.
"But why did..."
"Ranma-" Ranko interrupted. "-just agree with everything she says
and comfort her."
"But..."
"Just comfort her already!! I'm kind of busy down here!"
"Are you sure you can handle that?"
"I'm doing better than your girlfriend!!" Ranko looked at Deedee,
who was resting nearby after having fainted when blood started to appear
from the birth canal.
"She's not my girlfriend! I just wasn't sure if you were okay doing
that sort of thing."
"All those who have taken an untold number of boring Lamaze
classes, given birth to a child, and seen this procedure in a real gory
movie please raise your hands." Ranko raised her hand.
Ranma frowned. "Fine."
"I never had that chance..." Sanma muttered from where he knelt
next to Ukyo, holding the injured woman's hand.
Ranko gasped and looked at her sister. "Sanma... I'm sorry. I
didn't..."
"It's okay... maybe I don't deserve happiness." Sanma looked down
at Ukyo, who was sleeping. "I got the short straw when I split from you.
I got my baby stolen from me. That baby turned into a murdering
bastard." She brushed an errant strand of hair out of Ukyo's eyes. "And
I've lost a woman I loved desperately and may lose another."
"You..." Akane suddenly clenched her teeth and pushed.
"Push.. push.. push... relax."
Akane panted a few times and then spoke. "You haven't lost me,
Sanma. I still love you."
Sanma didn't look at Akane. "And if I can't love you anymore?" She
looked down at Ukyo.
Akane cringed. "Why?"
"I can't just toss aside my feelings for Ukyo."
Any further conversation was postponed when Yukiko strode up. "No
sign of Sh... the Buyierfei's leader."
Sanma cringed. "Just say his name. It's not the name of my child.
It's the name of an inhuman monster." A tear dripped down her cheek and
splashed against Ukyo's face. "My child is dead and that thing is a
walking, talking corpse."
Yukiko frowned. "I'm sorry, Sanma." She looked over at the others.
"The glowing ground has spread out for about two hundred meters or so.
As best that we can determine, there are Buyierfei moving around the
perimeter." She gestured towards the edge of the glowing zone, where
Mousse and the Amazons patrolled for signs of Shuma or any kind of
attack. "Since Shuma was whisked off, we have had several small pipers
like the ones they fought in the Middle East attack from the air, but
we've managed to dispatch them without incident. Without Shuma around
they don't seem to be able to see us to coordinate a direct attack and
the safe zone provided by the glowing ground helps keep them from doing
their hit and run attacks from the ground."
Ranma looked down at the glowing ground. "Why do you think that
Akane's water caused that?"
Yukiko shook her head. "I don't know. Mousse seems to think it's a
chemical reaction of some sort, but the ancient scrolls that the Elders
and I have been studying since the attack on the village don't mention
anything like this glowing ground." She glanced at the ground, which was
still glowing as bright as it was when Akane's water first broke. "There
are a lot of scrolls to sort through and even more that have been lost
over the years, but so far I don't recall mention of any Amazon giving
birth inside a monolith."
Akane smirked. "Figures I'd have to be the first." She gritted her
teeth.
"Push... push... relax."
Yukiko looked over at Ukyo. "Unfortunately, we haven't been able to
capture a Buyierfei yet to use the Heartspice on yet, but it's only a
matter of time."
Sanma looked up from Ukyo's side. "We don't have any more time!!"
"I know... we're trying."
"Relax, Sanma, I'm not dead yet."
Sanma looked own and saw that Ukyo's eyes were open. "Ukyo!!" She
bent down and gave Ukyo a long kiss.
After the kiss ended, Ukyo coughed. "How's Akane doing?"
"She's fine. You just get some rest."
"I feel better..." Ukyo tried to rise, but winced and fell back to
the glowing ground. "Arghhhhh..."
"Don't move." Sanma kissed Ukyo's forehead and stood up. She looked
around. "I'm going to go get a Buyierfei and rip out its heart so we can
get out of this nightmare," she said flatly and then walked calmly away.
The others watched Sanma walk away, unable and unwilling to stop
her.
Akane screamed.
"Push... push... push... relax."
Akane breathed heavily. "Damn... why can't I have my baby as easy
as you did?"
Ranko laughed. "Easy? You call what I went through easy? A month of
bed rest, going into labor at your father's wedding, and then hours upon
hours of labor?"
"Mr. Tendo got married?" Ranma asked.
"Yes... oh no!!" Akane suddenly gasped.
"What's wrong?" Ranma asked, looking worriedly at Akane.
"I... I can't give birth to our child before we get married!"
Ranma looked around the shadowy realm. "I don't think we have much
choice."
"No... no... I have to be married before I have your child."
"But..."
"Arghhhhhhhhhh!!!"
-C- -M- -D-
Later, Sanma walked back into the group carrying a pulsating mass
of black flesh in her hand. "Got one." She used her free hand to rub the
black blood off her forehead, but only ended up making her face messier.
Deedee looked over from where she was talking to Ranma and Ranko
and saw the heart. She fainted.
Ranko swore. "Dammit, she had just managed to deal with all the
blood from the birth!!" Ranko patted Deedee's face, trying to wake the
young girl up.
Deedee opened her eyes. "Uh? What happened?"
"Sorry about that." Sanma hid the pulsating mass behind his back,
both amazed and horrified that the thing was still beating after being
out of its previous owner for a good ten minutes. She looked around.
"Who's got the Heartspice?"
Ranko and Ranma shrugged their shoulders. They looked at Akane, who
shook her head. Ranma looked over to where Yukiko was. "Yukiko, do you
have any Heartspice?!"
Yukiko shook her head. She checked with the others on patrol and
then ran back to the group in the center of the glowing area. "You mean
none of you brought any with you?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Ranko was the first to comment. "We weren't expecting to be thrown
into a monolith after school, you know."
"Who carries something like that around with them?" Ranma remarked.
"Don't look at me, my doctor has me on a strict diet," Akane
explained. She looked around and sighed. "He wanted me to avoid
stressful situations too." She frowned when she saw Ukyo. She tensed up.
"Arghhhh...."
Ranko looked down. "Looking good..." Her outward calm was not
repeated inside her mind. <The doctor kept saying that to me, I hope
every thing is okay because I have no idea what it should look like down
here.> She frowned. <Maybe I shouldn't have looked away from this part
of Nabiki's video of Daiji's birth after all.>
Yukiko waited for Akane to relax and then dropped her bad news.
"Well, then we have a problem. I lost the bag containing my supply in
the fight outside of the Nerima monolith and my warriors ran out long
ago. I assumed at least one of you had some."
"What the hell did I rip this thing out for if we don't have any
damned salt?!" Sanma shouted and threw the heart down to the glowing
ground. It started to bubble and sizzle as it disintegrated.
"Salt? I think I've got some."
Everyone looked around at Deedee. Their jaws dropped when she dug
into her small backpack and produced some little packets of salt like
the kind found at fast food restaurants. They had little Mickey Mouse
drawings on them.
"The heart!" Yukiko shouted.
Sanma swore and dived for the ground. But so did Ranma and Ranko.
All three of their heads hit with a loud thud. Unfortunately, the heart
was already reduced to dust by the time they got to it.
"Damn it..." Ranko muttered and rubbed her head.
Sanma got to her feet and walked off into the distance. "I'll bring
back another one."
Yukiko rushed after Sanma. "I'll help."
Deedee chose that moment to ask a question. "I've got some pepper
too, will that help?"
Everyone just stared blankly at the girl.
Deedee cringed backwards under the irritated stares. "What?"
-C- -M- -D-
Ryoga opened his eyes and shut them right way to keep the bright
light out. <Why's it so bright? Are we out of the monolith?> He opened
his eyes more carefully and saw the shifting shadows above him and then
the ground glowing beneath him. <Odd...>
He looked around and saw that he was halfway under a blanket and
lying next to a woman. He sniffed the air. <Ukyo?> He squealed loudly
when he identified the other smell that assailed his keen pig sense of
smell. <Blood!!>
"Oh... Ryoga, you're awake." Ukyo's voice was week and hollow. She
slid her arm up slowly and caressed the pig's back. "I'm glad you're
awake, they're going to need your help."
Ryoga let out a questioning squeal.
Ukyo quickly explained the situation. "There are three monoliths,
Shuma's not dead, Akane's in labor, her water has produced a 'safe-zone'
that the Buyierfei can't come into, we're almost out of salt, Sanma and
Yukiko are out ripping the heart out of a Buyierfei so they can reveal
the monolith's heart, I'm dating Sanma, and... I guess that's all that's
happened since you've been unconscious."
Ryoga's little pig eyes when wide as he tried to absorb the
information. Then he got a good look at Ukyo and saw the blood caked on
the blanket. He let out a terrified squeal.
"Oh... yeah.. I'm probably going to die..." Ukyo coughed deeply.
Ryoga squealed loudly and looked between her wounded side and her
face. Tears started to form in his eyes and he looked around
frantically. Then he saw Ranko and Ranma kneeling around Akane.
Ranma was suddenly tackled by a very angry pig and stumbled
backwards away from Akane. "I'm not Shuma, dammit!" Before the pig could
sink its teeth into his arm, Ranma grabbed the yellow bandana and pulled
the pig away from him. "I'm not the Buyierfei's leader!"
Akane called out. "Ryoga... please, he's telling you the truth."
Ryoga looked over at Akane and knew she wouldn't lie to him. He
looked over at Ukyo and squealed with concern.
Ranma put Ryoga down and sighed. "Don't worry, she'll be okay. I'll
get us all out of here, but we'll have to do it together as a team.
Okay?"
Ryoga nodded and trotted over to Akane. He squealed softly.
Akane smiled and stroked the pigs back. "Thanks for helping protect
Daiji, Yukiko told meeeeeeeeeee..." As she started to have a
contraction, she grabbed the pig's neck and squeezed. Hard.
"Bweeeeeeeee!!"
Ranko and Ranma tried to cover their ears to block out the stereo
squeals. Since they only had one good arm each, they didn't quite manage
to avoid hearing the horrible sound.
-C- -M- -D-
Sanma and Yukiko were covered in black blood when they returned.
Sanma didn't even seem to be aware of the red blood flowing down her
forehead. "Where's that fucking salt?!"
"Sanma..." Two concerned voices called out. Akane and Ukyo
exchanged an uneasy look between themselves. Their voices expressed
their concern they had for Sanma's dark and distant attitude. Their eyes
expressed their mutual concern that Sanma might never be the same after
this.
Deedee tried not to look at the pulsing, black mass in Sanma's
hands as she handed the packets of salt to Yukiko. She rushed back to
helping Ranko with Akane, not wanting to stay close to the black heart
for long.
Yukiko slipped most of the packets into a pocket on her armored
skirt and then tore the top off one. She tipped it over the black heart
and watched it shrivel up and turn to dust. She looked up at the
shifting shadows.
Everyone followed her gaze and waited. After several minutes the
shadows had visibly started to thin out.
Suddenly, Akane pointed. "Look there's the heart!"
Ranma nodded and gestured with his good arm. "Yeah... it's brighter
than the last one."
Sanma frowned. "Huh? No it's not... it's actually looks pretty dull
to me."
Yukiko looked around and swore using an ancient Amazon word for the
worst possible shit one could find themselves in. "Lewinski... there are
three hearts!"
The other all looked around and realized that they had each seen a
different heart.. The one Sanma had seen was sparkling slightly as it
rotated slowly in a small spiral pattern. The one Akane had seen first
was shining and shifting though all the colors of the rainbow just like
the one they had destroyed in Australia.
The one Ranma had pointed to was brighter than the sun and instead
of cycling through different colors was throbbing between a bright fiery
orange and a deep red. More remarkable was the fact that there were an
uncountable number of black specks orbiting around the huge heart.
"This is not good..." Ranko said needlessly.
Ranma pointed to the bright one. "I think those are Buyierfei
around that one. Why would they vanish from everywhere else except from
around that one?"
"I don't..." Yukiko went silent when lightning flashes of every
possible color suddenly started flashing between the three hearts.
Slowly the two dimmer ones started to pulse and grow brighter.
"This is not good..."
Sanma snapped his head around and glared at Ranko. "Will you stop
saying that? Of course it's not good!! How can we possibly destroy three
hearts in our condition!!"
Ranko shook her head. "No... not that..." She looked down at
Akane's stomach. "It's a breach... the baby never had a chance to turn
or something the Buyierfei did prevented it from turning." She ran her
hand across Akane's stomach, feeling for the head, which wasn't down
near Akane's cervix where it should be.
Akane shuddered as she remembered her doctor talking about how the
baby hadn't turned at her last exam. It hadn't been a big deal at the
time since there had been plenty of time until her due date, but her
doctor hadn't taken the possibility of Akane having to give birth in the
middle of a shadowy realm full of demonic creatures from hell.
Unfortunately, the doctor hadn't been working in Nerima long enough to
take such things into account. "No... not here..."
"What does that mean?" Deedee asked.
Sanma looked around. "It means we have to find a way to get out of
here."
Akane screamed as she had a contraction.
"Fast," Sanma added.
Before they could even start to discuss a plan, the brightest heart
suddenly tripled in size and brightness. It started to strobe and they
felt a powerful force pulling them towards the heart. The black specks
were being drawn into the raging heart, which was now sending huge
lightning blasts at the other two hearts.
Ranma felt Akane slip away from him. He reached out and grabbed
her, but had nothing to stop himself from being pulled towards the heart
so they both slid together.
Ranko found herself pulled away from Akane despite her best efforts
to grab onto her wife. "Akane!!"
Deedee suddenly skidded by, her limbs flaying wildly. "Help!!"
Ranko stretched her good arm out and caught hold of the girl's
blouse. "Grab my arm!!"
Deedee tried, but couldn't overcome the pull from the heart.
Ranko swore and pulled on her arm. After several attempts, she
finally managed to get Deedee into a hug. "Hang on."
Sanma had jumped on top of Ukyo as soon as she felt the pull. The
two of them slowly started to slide across the ground. "Dammit... we'll
be killed for sure."
Ukyo winced at the pain that was shooting though her body and then
gasped one word. "Spatula..."
Sanma frowned and looked at the spatula that she still held in her
hand and then she saw Ukyo's other spatula slide across the ground
towards the raging heart. "Don't worry about that now... just hang on!"
"No... drive yours into the ground."
Sanma's eyes widened in surprise. <I should have thought of that.>
In one quick movement, she drove the blade of the spatula she held into
the ground and pulled Ukyo up against the blade opposite the pull of the
heart. "Hang on!!"
Yukiko saw Sanma drive the spatula into the ground and started to
reach for it with her hand, but suddenly stopped and twisted around so
her leg would pass within Sanma's reach. "Sanma, grab my leg!!"
Sanma was a little surprised to see Yukiko twist away from her, but
she did reach out and just managed to grab the Amazon's ankle. Then she
saw why Yukiko had turned around when the Amazon's leader reached out
and grabbed Ranma's arm as he and Akane slid by.
"Arghhhhh!" Ranma cried out as she yanked on his injured arm. He
clung onto Akane with his other hand, determined not to let go no matter
what happened.
"Ranma, my grip is slipping!! Can you grab my hand?!" Yukiko
shouted, hoping to be heard over the roar of the wind and thunderclaps
that accompanied the lightning blasts that flashed between the hearts.
Ranma grimaced as he tried and failed to move his injured arm. "I
can't... my arm... is injured..."
Yukiko swore again as she felt her grip weakening. "Lewinski!"
-C- -M- -D-
When the heart had first erupted and started pulling everything
into it, Mousse had wasted no time in driving a long blade attached to a
chain into the glowing ground. He was pulled back until the chain became
taut. He grunted as the chain dug into his waist where it was attached.
"Deeod, catch!" He shot another long chain with a lead weight at the end
at the two Amazon warriors, who were holding each other tightly.
He swore when he saw Deeod ignore the chain. "Dammit, Deeod, forget
about my being an outcast and grab this chain or you and your wife will
die!!"
He retracted the chain and then paused long enough to see Deeod
finally make eye contact with him. The chain shot out and landed right
in Deeod and Rant's path.
Deeod reached for it and managed to wrap her fingers around it. She
clung tightly to the chain and pulled Rant tighter against her body.
Mousse braced for the strain and then grimaced when the chain was
pulled taut. "Shit..." He swore again when he saw Deedee and Ranko
sliding by. "Ranko!!"
Ranko paused in her attempts to find a way to halt their slide and
saw Mousse anchored nearby. "Mousse!!"
Mousse knew they were out of range of his chains, so he thought
frantically about how to help them. Using his free hand, he searched his
cavernous pockets and smiled. "Catch!!"
Ranko instinctively reached out and caught the item that Mousse had
thrown with a precision that would get him signed as a NFL quarterback
in a heartbeat.
"What the..." Ranko gasped when she finally got a good look at the
duck-shaped training potty. "What can I do with this?!"
"Drive the neck into the ground!!"
Ranko mentally slapped herself for not realizing that as she turned
the training potty over and drove its long neck into the soft ground.
She then hung onto it and Deedee as the pull of the heart raged around
them. "Hang on!"
Deedee shouted back. "I'm trying!"
All around the struggling people, black shadows shot by and were
sucked into the raging heart. The storm raged for what seemed like hours
until everything suddenly went quiet and the storm stopped pulling them.
Ranko looked around and spotted what looked like all of their
group. "Is everyone alright?!"
People started to call out their status, but stopped when a loud
warning from Sanma caught their attention. "Don't relax yet, look at the
heart!!"
Everyone looked at the heart that had just been trying its best to
suck them into its brilliance and gasped in unison. The huge glowing and
pulsing heart was now surrounded with fine strands of a gold,
crystalline substance that were woven into a very intricate pattern that
almost looked like a three dimensional spider web.
"It's like your robe, Yukiko," Ukyo commented looking between the
crystal web and Yukiko's golden robe.
Yukiko nodded her head. "That must be what they made the First
Matriarch's armor out of."
Akane suddenly screamed. "Arghhhh..."
Ignoring the chance of another explosion, Ranko ran towards Akane.
"Hang on, I'm coming!"
Before Ranko reached Akane, the heart exploded again. Instead of
pulling them toward the heart, the blast pushed them away and sent
energy surging though the Buyierfei's realm. Then were all tossed around
for several minutes until the blast subsided.
Sanma poked her head up and found herself covered in the finger
thick strands of the crystalline material. She looked down at Ukyo. "Are
you okay?"
"Yes..." Ukyo pulled her hand up and then changed her answer. "No."
She showed Sanma the blood that covered her hand.
"Shit!" Sanma quickly checked Ukyo's wounds. "Damn... it started
bleeding again."
While Sanma attended to Ukyo's wounds, everyone else regrouped.
They were relieved to find everyone had managed to avoid being sucked
in, but there were scores of minor and not so minor injuries to attend
to.
"What was that all about?" Deedee asked.
No one had an answer.
***********************************************************************
>From the personal journal of James Davidson:
November 2, 2057
I swallowed hard and then spoke my suspicions about the exploding
heart. "Was that the First?"
Akane and my mom nodded in unison.
"Why... did it happen right after you revealed the heart?"
Akane smirked. "In other words, you're asking if we caused it?"
"Um..."
"The answer is that we just don't know. We may have hastened it,
but it would have probably happened even if we did nothing. And it might
have been even worse."
I frowned. "Is that possible?"
Akane nodded silently and looked at my mother. "Deedee's salt
packets might have saved us all."
My mother shook her head. "I was more of a nuisance than a help."
Akane smiled. "Nonsense. I owe you a lot and I've always wanted to
tell you how much I appreciated your help when we were inside the
monoliths." She slid down the couch and gave my mother a big hug.
"I appreciate hearing that."
I saw a tear drip down my mother's cheek. I've read reports of some
of the things that happened on Earth when the monoliths appeared,
including my grandmother's notes, but until now I could only imagine how
they compared to the problems faced by those inside.
Of course, some of those problems suffered by those within the
Buyierfei realm were compounded by the events that unfolded on Earth.
***********************************************************************
December 24-29, 1999 - Southern Florida, USA
A family huddled around their television set, intently watching a
news report. The two children, a boy and a girl, giggled as the screen
graphic showed a sleigh icon being pulled by twelve reindeer icons. A
little 'graphics courtesy of Microsoft' banner could be seen in the
corner.
A male voice was heard from the television. "NORAD has been
tracking the unidentified object for the past hour."
The little girl giggled. "It's Santa!!"
The mother smiled and stroked her daughter's hair. "Yes, he'll be
here soon."
The television report continued. "We cannot confirm at this point
if it is in fact Santa and his reindeer, but one source--who wished to
remain anonymous--has confirmed that the radar trace does appear
'sleigh-like'."
"Alright! I hope he brings my Super Pokemon Extra-Special
Collector's Edition Charazard card! There were only five made, but I'm
sure Santa can get one for me!"
The mother and father exchanged a worried look.
"We now go to a live feed from the aircraft that are helping track
the object."
"Blue one, do you have the target in sight?"
"Roger, control, target sighted."
"Blue one, blue two, permission to fire is granted. One each."
"Understood. Blue one, fox one away!"
"Blue two, fox one away!"
The jaws of the family dropped.
The little girl looked up at her mother with puppy dog eyes. "Why
are they firing on Santa?"
The mother shook her head. "I don't know."
The father clutched his daughter's shoulder to reassure her. "Don't
worry, Santa can't be hurt."
"This is blue one, fox one did not explode on impact."
"Say again, blue one?"
"Fox one went through the target without exploding. Blue two had
similar results."
A pause. "Blue one, blue two. Fire two each at the target. Manual
detonate on visual confirmation of impact."
"Understood. Blue one, fox two and three away!"
"Blue two, fox two and three away!"
The family huddled together for the seconds it took the pilot to
report back. "This is blue one, target avoided all but one fox. Some
apparent damage to left side of..." The transmission dissolved into
static.
"This is blue two, one is down! Repeat, blue one is down! I am
taking evasive action!"
"Understood, two. What happened to blue one?"
"The target shot some kind of black fireball at him. It came from
the mouth of that... thing. Permission to..." Two's transmission
dissolved into static.
"Did Santa Claus get away from them, Mommy?" the little girl asked.
The mother looked away from the screen, which now had a 'please
stand by' message displayed on it. She exchanged a very worried look
with her husband before smiling sweetly at her daughter. "I'm sure he
did, dear."
"They better not have damaged my Charazard card," the little boy
complained.
-C- -M- -D-
At the television station, the station's general manager was
yelling at one of his directors. "What were you doing?!"
The young man cringed. "Sorry, sir. At first it sounded like a
special Santa broadcast the Air Force was sending out for the holidays."
"You're fired." He turned towards one of his interns. "Emmanuel!!"
A young intern rushed up. "Get Lilly and Steven ready to go live."
"Yes, sir!"
The manager watched the young man scurry away. <This has to be
connected with that monolith that the Herald reported on this morning.
Something big is going on. Time to step up our coverage of this
'monolith'.> He checked his watch. "And call my wife and tell her I
won't be home for Christmas!" he shouted at the retreating boy's back.
"Yes, sir!"
-C- -M- -D-
"Red one, have you made visual contact?"
The pilot scanned the blue sky in front of him. "Nega... wait,
target sighted. A portion of its left wing is missing, but it's still
headed on its original course."
"You are authorized to proceed as planned."
"Roger, stealth attack initiated."
All external transmissions ceased from the small, black, triangular
stealth fighter. The other five members of his squadron followed suit
and the sleek fighters slipped through the air, invisible to almost
everything.
But not to the Buyierfei. The large avian could sense the chi
energy, feeble though it was, from the pilots piloting the fighters. It
waited for them to get closer and then flipped a hundred and eighty
degrees in a maneuver that would have torn an airplane to pieces. It
shot six small black chi balls at its pursuers.
Seconds later, seven of the twelve missiles fired from the planes
impacted the avian's thick black skin.
One second after that, four of the black chi balls hit their
intended targets and four stealth fighters were engulfed in fireballs.
The debris floated downward in a slow graceful pyrotechnic display.
One second after that, the two remaining pilots pulled out of the
dives they had gone into to avoid the black chi balls and triggered
their missile's manual detonators.
Four missiles exploded. Two were nowhere near the avian, but the
others were just exiting the Buyierfei's soft body when they exploded.
"Got him!"
"Stay off the radio, five, and fire your next round. It still looks
alive to me."
"Sorry, sir."
The two stealth fighters swung around and each launched two more
missiles towards the badly wounded avian.
The avian swung its body around and avoided all but one of the
missiles. When the missile exploded, the avian lost a wing and went
spiraling down to the ground. When it struck the ground, a huge fireball
erupted and engulfed a large shopping mall. Fortunately, it had closed
already so the store employees could all get home to their families for
Christmas Eve.
"Shit... did it take one of our missiles with it?"
"Negative, I accounted for all of our transponders. That thing
packs some serious energy."
-C- -M- -D-
"Sir, you've got to leave now!!" The police officer pounded on the
door again.
A man's voice replied. "Forget it!! I've never let a hurricane
force me out of my house before and I'm not going to do it now!!"
"Sir, you should watch the news every now and then! The evacuation
isn't because of a hurricane!"
"Then what's it for?" came the confused reply.
"Well..." The police office paused, unsure how to say it. "There's
a big black monolith in the Everglades and... roots of some kind popping
up all over."
"You're shitting me?"
"No, sir, I'm not. Open the door and take a look!"
The door opened slowly and a large Hispanic man looked out. "This
some kind of millennium prank?"
"No, take a look." The police officer stood aside and gestured at a
large towering pillar in the distant Miami skyline. It was close to
fifty meters tall. Every few minutes, sparks of black energy would flow
up its sides. After enough energy had accumulated, a huge surge of
energy would flash out from it and head towards the monolith in the
Everglades.
"Oh... crap." The man turned around and ran back inside. "Honey,
our flamenco dancing movie marathon is cancelled!! We've got to get out
of here!!"
The police officer sighed and moved on, hoping to get to everyone
in the area before something happened.
-C- -M- -D-
"Stephanie Perez reporting from downtown Miami where the evacuation
is in full swing." The female reporter gestured behind her and her
cameraman panned over and got a shot of people running around a ten car
pile up. "As you can see, a car crash has shut down this major street.
Evacuees are urged to avoid this area and use an alternate route.
Remarkably, things were calm in Miami after the monolith first became
public knowledge. Only small numbers of people were worried enough to
start leaving the city, but that all changed two days ago on Christmas."
"When news reports from Japan revealed the existence of a second
monolith in Japan and the Air Force reported that the Orange Park Mall
explosion was caused when they shot down some sort of unidentified
flying creature over northern Florida, people started to panic and flee
from their homes."
"Yesterday there were reports that the unknown creatures were
attacking Tokyo and that another monolith has been sighted in the Middle
East, although that information is still unconfirmed as of this moment."
"After the roots-" The reporter gestured to the Miami root that
could be seen in the distance. "-started appearing in southern Florida,
the government finally issued the mandatory evacuation order late last
night after President Clinton declared a state of emergency for the
south-eastern United States. People are reminded to avoid panicking and
to evacuate in an orderly manner."
"Get out of my way, you whore!!" a large fat man shouted as he
pushed the reporter away and rushed by.
The reporter straightened her ruffled blouse and then calmly
continued. "The erratic energy discharges between the 'roots', as one
local official has called them, and the first monolith have continued
ever since the roots first began appearing in southern Florida
yesterday. So far, the Japan monolith has not produced any roots or
shown as much activity as the one here in Florida."
"Deedee!! Deedee, where are you?" a heavyset man called out as he
wandered down the street in a daze. "Deedee!!"
Smelling a human interest angle to her story, the reporter homed in
on the middle-aged man and shoved the microphone into his face.
"Stephanie Perez, Eye on Miami news. How are you handling the
evacuation, sir?"
The man looked confused. "Huh... um... I'm looking for my daughter,
Deedee. Deedee Ledesma, have you seen her?"
Stephanie shook her head. "Sorry, sir, I'm sure one of the
evacuation centers will have news of her whereabouts."
Mr. Ledesma stumbled away as he resumed his search for his only
daughter. "Deedee!!"
Stephanie turned back to the camera. "As you can see, people are
also looking for their loved ones. Authorities are imploring everyone to
evacuate as soon as possible. The evacuation centers in Georgia will
assist evacuees in locating missing friends and family."
The cameraman made a gesture.
"And now we go to Cory Stevenson at the Kennedy Space Center.
Cory?"
The camera light went off and the cameraman put down the camera.
"Now, can we get out of here?"
Stephanie relaxed and fell out of her serious demeanor. "Hell
yes... that's as far as my commitment to this damn job goes. We're out
of here!"
"You think anyone is watching?"
Stephanie looked around. "No one local. That was for the damn
network feeds."
-C- -M- -D-
A shapely blonde stood up straight and smiled at the camera. "Cory
Stevenson reporting from Cape Canaveral where the Space Shuttle was
supposed to land after a successful mission to repair the Hubbell Space
Telescope."
Even though there was nothing to show behind the reporter, the
cameraman zoomed out to show the woman's full figure.
"Unfortunately, the monolith in the Everglades has forced NASA to
divert the shuttle to land at the White Sands Air Force Base in Arizona
instead of here. NASA officials insist it's just a precautionary measure
and has no connection to the unconfirmed reports of missing military
aircraft in the area surrounding the Everglades."
She took that moment to flip back her hair and strike a pose. "And
now we go to Dirk Funkle at Disney World. Dirk?"
-C- -M- -D-
"Dirk Funkle reporting from Disney World where Disney executives
have declared that they will keep Disney World open into the New Year
despite the worsening situation south of here. I have a Ms. Karen Paris
here." The tall, well-manicured, and well-dressed young man looked at a
young woman in a business-like skirt and jacket. "Ms. Paris, why is
Disney ignoring the mandatory evacuation order?"
"We're not," the young woman began. "The mandatory evacuation order
only applies to southern Florida, so we decided to keep the resort open
for the upcoming holiday so that our customers who are not concerned
about the alarmist news reports of these so-called 'monoliths' can enjoy
themselves."
Dirk looked around the Fantasyland part of the Magic Kingdom. Only
a few people were wandering around, mostly teenagers and young adults.
"There are not many people in the park today."
"We expected light turnout in the days before the big party on the
thirty-first to kick off our year long millennium celebration."
"What about accusations by Sea World that you are endangering your
guests and employees just so you don't have to refund all the money you
collected for your millennium events." Dirk waved a few papers in front
of him. "According to the terms of the very expensive packages you sold,
you only have to provide refunds if for some reason the park is closed
on New Year's Eve."
"Nonsense, if we really thought there was a danger we would close
the resort. We are simply staying open for our loyal customers."
Just then, a group of teenagers ran by. They were dressed in
leather and had various spiked hairstyles and body piercings. "It's the
end of the world, man!! Let's party till we die!!"
"Yeah!! Can't evacuate anyplace safe if the whole world is going be
destroyed."
"Hey, Ox?"
"Yes, Daphne?"
"As long as we're going to die, let's go *beep* on the Snow White
ride."
Ox burst into tears. "At last... oh how have I waited for this
day!!"
The Disney World rep remained calm. "As I said, our customers are
looking forward to a happy New Year here at the happiest place on
earth." Her lip twitched as a tremor shook the ground.
"That's the story here at Disney World. We now go to the Everglades
and Jack Johnson."
-C- -M- -D-
"Jack Johnson reporting from the Army's mobile H.Q. in the
Everglades. We have just heard reports that a Marine detachment has come
under attack by the mysterious creatures, but the Army and Marines are
denying that report. Nevertheless, they are packing up and pulling back
the H.Q. to the twenty-eighth parallel."
Behind the reporter, Army troops could be seen running around and
packing up equipment. A sergeant barked an order. "Leave the tents and
just take the class C equipment!!"
"Sergeant!! We have unfriendlies at the edge of the compound!" a
soldier shouted as he ran away from the location he was indicating with
his arm.
"Damn, they got by the Marines! Defense positions!!"
His order had mixed results, for every soldier who ran into the
area and took up a defensive posture there was another soldier who ran
from the area in terror at the approaching Blackness.
The reporter and his cameraman took cover behind a Humvee. "Keep
shooting," Jack instructed, but when he looked at his cameraman he saw
only the camera. He followed the fleeing figure of his associate for a
few seconds before picking up the camera himself and pointing it towards
the action.
The soldiers that took up positions were all weighed down with
bandoleers that had grenades hanging off every available spot. They were
carrying handguns and M16s, but mostly out of habit and tradition. They
had already discovered they were only good to locate the enemy and not
kill them. The grenades had proven to be their only way of slowing down
the creatures. Unfortunately, slowing them down was not enough.
A warning cry rang out followed by a burst of gunfire from nervous
soldiers. Before the soldiers startled eyes, hundreds of black floating
wounds appeared. A few more soldiers turned and ran.
"Grenades!" the sergeant shouted as he pulled the pin on one of his
grenades.
The other soldiers did the same and lobbed them at the floating
wounds. And then the world got their first view of the Buyierfei through
the reporter's camera. Well, pieces of the Buyierfei at least.
"Again!" the sergeant shouted and another round of grenades and
explosions followed.
The reporter's hands shook as he saw the repeated blasts and
Buyierfei fragments. "Wow..."
A first glance, it would appear that the Army was winning the
battle. Unfortunately, those glances couldn't see the unwounded
Buyierfei as they slipped unnoticed into the Army compound.
They were finally noticed when the sergeant was lifted off the
ground by a group of long black tentacles that appeared out of nowhere.
The black central mass of the Buyierfei appeared as well.
"It's got the sergeant!"
Jack panned over to get the sergeant in the viewfinder. He almost
dropped the camera when he saw the Buyierfei. "Crap..." He
double-checked the indicators to make sure he was still transmitting
from the satellite truck. He was. And the world got its first full look
at the Buyierfei.
Then Jack lost his lunch when the sergeant was torn apart by the
strong tentacles. And the world saw just how powerful the Buyierfei
were.
The Buyierfei started to fade away after his task was accomplished,
only the sergeant's red blood betraying its location. One of the more
coherent soldiers threw a grenade at the red blood spots and ended that
Buyierfei's life. "Fall back!!" the corporal ordered his men.
The corporal's order was being carried out even before he shouted
it. Even though they knew it wouldn't kill the enemy, the soldiers
sprayed the area with bullets as they pulled back. They might have been
better off not knowing about the approximately two hundred Buyierfei
that were attacking the H.Q. at that moment.
The Buyierfei's tentacles snagged the legs of around a dozen
retreating soldiers. The Buyierfei became visible as they started to
drag the terrified soldiers towards their black bodies. One of the
soldiers managed to toss a grenade into the midst of the visible
attackers and killed two of them, but four more took their place in
ensnaring the momentarily free soldiers.
Jack gasped at the sight that he saw through his viewfinder. <This
will get me a network job for sure!!> His hopes for fame seemed to be
dashed when his viewfinder suddenly was obscured by a black form that
had appeared after wrapping its tentacles around his legs. "Ack!!"
Jack struggled to escape, but found himself pulled toward the
creature. He dropped the camera and grabbed a nearby tent post, trying
to avoid being dragged away by the Buyierfei. His fingers had just
slipped from the pole when he felt his legs released. He crashed to the
ground and looked up to see what happened. His jaw dropped when he saw a
tall, busty, blue-haired woman in armor slashing the creature in front
of him. "Who... who are you?"
The woman slashed the Buyierfei in half and then turned around. She
reeled off a long series of words in a language that Jack didn't
understand. She then jumped into the air and slashed another of the
creatures in half.
<Was that Chinese that she was speaking? I could have sworn I heard
her say 'powder' in there somewhere.> Jack looked down at the ground and
saw the pieces of the creature that had just attacked him. He was amazed
to see the pieces turn into a fine black dust. He looked up and gasped
when he saw that the woman was not alone.
It had happened so fast that Jack hadn't even noticed the other
fifty or so women who had descended on the battlefield. Like the
blue-haired woman who had rescued him, the other women were dressed in
skimpy armor that accentuated their ample breasts. <I feel like I just
dropped into an episode of Xena. Everyone of them--except for that one
with five o'clock shadow--has large breasts. I wish I had a camera to
take their picture.>
He was so stunned by the sight of the warrior women, that he forgot
all about the camera and the story he was supposed to be covering. It
wasn't until he backed away from the battle and tripped over the video
camera that he remembered it was there. He quickly picked the camera up
and aimed it at the battle. And the world got their first look at the
Chinese Amazons in battle. Ratings for the live news feed suddenly went
through the roof.
The soldiers found themselves released and just stared at the women
who had come out of nowhere to rescue them.
The blue-haired woman turned toward the soldiers after dissecting
two Buyierfei with a single swing of her long sword. "Get your swords
and aim for the central mass! They can't repair the damage if they lose
more than forty percent of their mass at once!" Powder commanded in
English.
One of the more coherent soldiers replied. "Um... who are you?"
Private Morse asked.
"We are Amazon warriors and have vowed to defeat the Buyierfei."
Powder kissed her fingers and touched her forehead before jumping at
another nearby Buyierfei.
"Buggyfay?"
"We also call them the Blackness. The Buyierfei are demons that
will engulf the world if left unchecked." Powder slashed a few tentacles
holding one of her warriors and then swung her sword to the side. "Now,
get your swords or pikes and help us!!"
"Huh? We only use swords for ceremonial occasions."
"Then you will die, since projectile weapons are not effective
against the Buyierfei without Heartspice."
Private Morse paled. "Um... I'll go find some swords then."
"You do that." Powder thrust her sword at seemingly empty air and
impaled an invisible Buyierfei. It hadn't even become fully visible by
the time she had used her sword to slice it into three neat pieces.
Before Private Morse scurried off, he paused after he got a good
look at the Amazon's figure. "My name's William, by the way. Maybe we
can go out after this is all done?"
"If we live."
Private Morse fought like a man possessed that day and died happily
dreaming of a date with the busty Amazon.
-C- -M- -D-
"And that was the scene earlier as this reporter risked his life to
bring you the dramatic events following the creature's attack on the
Army's mobile H.Q." Jack walked confidently across to stand about a
hundred feet in front of the Fort Myers' root. "The mysterious women who
appeared and so skillfully dissected the attacking creatures disappeared
as soon as the fight ended. They spoke Chinese and told one of the
soldiers they were Amazons. The Army had no comment on their saviors,
but during the past hour we have received reports that the women have
been seen battling the creatures all across southern Florida."
Jack paused as the television station showed clips of the
afternoon's battle. When he got his cue, he spoke again. "The women gave
the creatures a name." He paused for effect. "Buyierfei. It is a Chinese
term for 'disappear without a trace', but the Chinese government denies
any knowledge of the 'Chinese Amazons'."
"The Army hasn't commented on this afternoon's events, but we have
heard reports that a Marine detachment was seen entering the Everglades
armed with swords."
-C- -M- -D-
The Marine lieutenant slashed the black creature in half. "Ha!! The
Marines can handle any enemy," he gloated, ignoring the Marine platoon
that had been wiped out the day before. "Johnston, Holmberg; spray the
area. Kinnen, Lu, Chase, Ng; ready your swords and attack when you see
the wounds."
"Yes, sir!!" the soldiers barked.
As two of the Marines opened fire with their M16s, the others
readied their swords.
"Damn... this is just like that Marine recruitment commercial," one
of the Marines commented as he jumped into the fray, smiling broadly.
A younger Marine looked at the Marine to his left. "Do you remember
any of the sword training they gave us?"
The Marine to his left looked very pale. "I was sick that day."
"Damn, me too."
***********************************************************************
December 31, 1999 - Southern Florida, USA; Various locations
The streets of Miami were deserted and dark, the sun was low in the
western sky and cast long shadows over the debris-strewn area
surrounding the Miami root. The root had continued its energy surges
oblivious to the frenzied evacuation it had caused and just as oblivious
to the empty streets around it. It only sucked in the energy from the
life around it and transmitted it to the First Monolith. The occasional
bursts of black lightning were slowly increasing in frequency as it dug
deeper into the surrounding area for life to drain. Although the biggest
source of energy had fled, there was other energy present to drain. The
dead and decaying foliage in the area was proof of that.
Without warning, the black pillar went silent. The black energy
discharges stopped and the shaking ground that the trembling pillar had
caused stopped.
All around southern Florida, the other thirty-three roots followed
suit and became dormant after sending the last of their energy to the
monolith. From Fort Myers to Miami and northward to Tampa, the roots
darkened the already dark late afternoon sky with their last black
energy surges.
In the Everglades, the First Monolith surged with power. Gray and
black shadows shifted rapidly across its surface as if eager to get out.
The last of the energy from the roots shot into the top of the monolith
and then the monolith exploded with an eruption of blackness.
The black energy surged out from the location where the monolith
had stood for months, quietly soaking up energy. That energy now allowed
the Buyierfei to form a large and permanent bridge between their realm
and the Earth.
The explosion's heat wave rolled across the ground, incinerating
everything in its path: trees, bushes, animals, roads, buildings, and
those people who had ignored or never heard the evacuation order. The
ground boiled and folded as the intense heat of the shock wave converted
everything it touched into energy. Energy that flowed back to the
monolith, that no longer looked like a monolith. It was a large swirling
mass of black energy that pulled in the energy released in the blast's
wake.
When the blast front hit the Florida coast, it caused the sea water
to boil and churn. The shock wave generated a huge tidal wave that
crashed into the Cuban coast, devastating a large portion of that island
nation.
In addition to generating the huge shock wave, the exploding
monolith also disgorged tens, hundreds, and thousands of Buyierfei.
Flying, walking, or swimming; the black creatures made their way out of
the vortex and into the world. With all the energy flowing around, even
the normally invisible ground Buyierfei could be seen as the energy
washed across their bodies.
Of course, there was no one around to see them anyway. No one
living, that is.
-C- -M- -D-
Minutes after the First Monolith had exploded, a figure toiled over
a keyboard in a dark computer center in downtown Fort Myers. John
stretched his arms and then pressed the enter key on his keyboard. He
smiled as the computers all around him all accessed their hard drives
simultaneously, almost making a tune with their whirring and clicking
sounds.
John smiled. "Finished! They said it wasn't possible." He checked
his watch. "And with more than seven hours to spare!" He stood up and
patted the old mainframe computer behind him and then glanced at the cot
that he had been sleeping on for the past two weeks. "Nope, tonight I
can go home. It took me most of the last three years, but this baby is
finally Y-two-K compliant."
He had taken one step towards the exit when he was suddenly
vaporized along with the building and the newly Y-two-K compliant
mainframe as the shock wave engulfed Fort Myers.
-C- -M- -D-
At just about the same time, a squadron of F-16 fighters streaked
over the Florida skies.
"Holy crap!!" red five suddenly cried out.
"What's the prob..." The squadron leader went silent when he looked
over at red five's location. "Crap!! Red squadron come left to
zero-zero-zero and kick in your afterburners!"
As the squadron leader veered away from the onrushing Blackness,
the radios came alive with various shouts of terror and awe. The six
fighters veered away and up from the black shock wave that rolled across
the ground and billowed up into the sky. The Blackness was lapping at
their tail fins when they kicked in their afterburners. Red four hit his
switch just a second too late and his fighter was engulfed as the
Blackness overtook his speck of a fighter.
"Control, this is read leader, the monolith has exploded and... is
engulfing southern Florida in a huge black fireball."
"Roger, red leader, we saw it before our remote cameras went dead.
Stay ahead of the shock wave and report its progress."
"That's it? Just watch?" The squadron leader thought about his
family in Jacksonville and wondered if he should have told them to
evacuate after all.
"Unless you have something that could stop it, yes."
The squadron leader looked back at the spreading blackness and
swore to himself. He then checked is position. "It's still heading
north, fifty miles south of Orlando."
"Understood," was the pained response of someone faced with a
situation that was out of their control.
-C- -M- -D-
A group of spiky-haired teenagers walked out of the exit of the
Space Mountain ride and looked around at the near empty park.
"Lets do it again!"
"Alright. Hey, where are Ox and Daphne?"
"They're on the Snow White ride again."
The youngest member of their gang frowned. "What's so special about
that ride that they keep going to it?"
The others smirked at the young boy's naivete.
Then the ground started to shake.
"What the..."
"Look!" one of the boys shouted and pointed to the south.
The southern sky was dark and growing darker. Blackness rolled
towards them with black lightning flashing all around the approaching
shock wave.
"Alright!! This is it!!"
"The end of the world is nigh!!!"
"Huh?"
"Hey, Mark?"
"Yes, Chris?"
"I love you, man."
"You're not getting my last beer, Chris."
"No, I really love you." Chris leaned over and gave Mark a long
kiss.
Mark pushed the other boy away and spat repeatedly on the ground.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"Sorry, man, I had to tell you before we died." Chris looked back
at the southern sky and frowned when he saw the shock wave had stopped
and was slowly dispersing. A fine black dust caught by the winds started
to rain down on them.
"Hey, looks like we'll live after all!!" the youngest gang member
exclaimed.
Mark and Chris exchanged an awkward glance.
And then the darkening southern sky was illuminated by a brilliant
beam of golden energy that surged upwards into the sky.
"Oops, I guess I spoke too soon."
Meanwhile in the Snow White ride, Daphne looked down at Ox and
exclaimed breathlessly, "Like. Wow! Did the earth move for you too?"
"Oh.... yeah." Ox had a dazed vacant look on his face.
-C- -M- -D-
When the shock wave finally petered out, the entire southern half
of the Florida peninsula had been reduced to nothing more than blackened
mounds of upturned and sunken debris. Since Florida was not far above
sea level to begin with, the upheaval caused by the blast allowed
seawater to flood into the low-lying areas and form large bays and
islands out of the formerly solid peninsula.
The energy released by the explosion converted all the life energy
it found into the dark energy the Buyierfei thrived on. As designed,
that energy fed back into the vortex and caused the vortex to surge with
power.
As the energy returning to the vortex reached critical mass, the
Buyierfei stopped spilling out and the vortex folded in on itself. In a
heartbeat, the vortex started spinning in the opposite direction and
pointed itself skyward, emitting a bright, golden beam away from the
Earth. Moving at the speed of light, it soared up through the Earth's
atmosphere and beyond.
The beam stopped when it struck a tall black monolith on the Moon
with a precision that NASA wouldn't have been able to achieve in a
million years. The relay monolith pulsed with golden light as the energy
surged into it. After several minutes, the energy overflowed the now
golden monolith and quickly spread out. The energy flowed across the
Moon's surface, burning bright orange with red streams of energy pulsing
through it. Occasionally, one of the red pulses would impact a large
boulder or crater wall and explode, sending out bursts of dust and
debris from the lunar surface.
All around the side of the Earth facing the Moon, people were
treated to a spectacular sight that would come to be known as the
'Burning Moon'. Needless to say, the sight of the Moon turning into what
could only be described as a huge orange fireball caused people already
concerned about the monoliths and the strange creatures to panic and
assume the worse. Rioting and general insanity followed as people
assumed the world was coming to an end. Problem was, that wasn't exactly
an incorrect assessment at the time, given what was the beam was meant
to do.
After absorbing as much energy as it could hold, the relay
monolith--which was in the Moon's northern hemisphere--sent two large
beams of lightning arcing in opposite directions across the surface of
the Moon. One made contact with another relay monolith on the dark side
of the Moon, which wasn't at all dark at that moment due to all the
energy flowing across the surface which lit up the entire Moon.
The second relay monolith absorbed the energy and then shot out its
own beam of energy in the opposite direction as the incoming beam. That
beam joined the second beam from the first relay monolith in circling
the Moon, much like the lightning flashes from the Earth-bound monoliths
encircled the Earth. The two beams met where the third relay monolith
stood.
Or was supposed to stand.
Instead of a relay monolith, the beams met over the small crater
made by that monolith's destruction over a year previously by an errant
Shishi Houkou Dan blast generated by a certain depressed lost boy.
So instead of being amplified and converted back into the black
energy that the Buyierfei thrived on, the twin beams from the two
remaining relay monoliths struck the surface of the Moon and blasted a
new crater several kilometers wide. The blast sent huge plumes of rock
and debris into lunar orbit.
A shock wave rippled out from the epicenter of the blast, causing
more explosions as debris were flung around. The force of the wave
caused the energy flowing across the Moon's surface to feed back on
itself and flow back towards the original relay monolith.
The relay monoliths were only intended to absorb small amounts of
energy and then convert it into the black energy the Buyierfei fed on.
That energy would have been sent back towards Earth where dormant
monoliths and seeds waited to receive the black energy. With that
energy, they could open large portals to allow even more Buyierfei to
pass between their realm and the human world. In mere days the Buyierfei
could have outnumbered the almost six billion humans that called the
Earth home. Outnumber them tenfold, that is.
With energy still pouring in from the Earth and the energy that the
missing monolith was supposed to absorb and convert flowing back into
the first relay monolith, something had to give.
And give it did.
For all intents and purposes to those watching from Earth, the moon
exploded at that moment. And people were watching. 'Where were you when
the Moon exploded?' would be asked by the survivors for decades.
When the first relay monolith exploded it took a huge chunk of the
Moon's surface with it. The rock and debris joined the debris that
already shrouded the Moon in a hazy cloud of dust and debris. Residual
energy flashed between the orbiting rocks and produced a halo effect
around the Moon to those watching from the Earth.
The explosion caused the energy from the beam to feed back on
itself and return to the Earth, leaving the Moon a shambles. Small new
craters and fissures littered the landscape between the long fissures.
And of course, the huge new crater almost the size of Texas gave the Man
in the Moon a huge black eye.
-C- -M- -D-
"Where were you when the Moon exploded?"
-C- -M- -D-
As the Moon burned, the energy returned and impacted against the
ruins of southern Florida. The seas boiled, the ground churned, and
fires spread across the ground that was left. Again.
The Buyierfei portal sputtered and died as the energy it had so
carefully drained from southern Florida went for naught.
But the uncountable numbers of Buyierfei that had already emerged
were already far enough away from the portal to avoid being affected by
the backlash. They were slowly making their way across the Earth. By
sea, by air, and by land; they would not be impeded in their mission to
drain the energy from the cattle that called the blue-green world their
home.
The change in the Moon's mass and a slight shift in its orbit
caused more stress on the Earth's crust. The increased stress
strengthened and magnified the tremors and tidal waves that spread out
from where Florida used to be.
-C- -M- -D-
The castle in the middle of the Magic Kingdom swayed as the massive
tremor caused by the final destruction of southern Florida and the
burning Moon spread across the Earth.
The gang of punks grabbed onto anything that they could as the
towering turrets of the castle collapsed and sent debris flying across
the plaza.
All around the park, structures that were never meant to withstand
a large earthquake swayed and crumbled.
Splash Mountain caved in on itself and almost crushed a train of
visitors that had just chugged through the train tunnel in the mountain.
The track on Space Mountain broke and sent a car of visitors into
the side of the concrete mountain surrounding the ride.
The Happiest Place on Earth had become the graves for dozens of
people who were too stubborn or stupid too leave Florida.
-C- -M- -D-
In New York City, a father and son huddled together under a large
table as their house shook around them. "It'll be okay, Bobby."
"Mommy!!"
"Shhhh...it'll be okay."
"Mommy!!"
Mike Davidson looked at the mantle over the fireplace and saw a
picture of his ex-wife topple to the ground and shatter. "Angel..."
-C- -M- -D-
Dr. Tofu dug frantically through the rubble after the tremors
stopped. "Kasumi!" He was oblivious to the others searching the debris
for survivors. When the evacuation center's ceiling had collapsed, he
had been holding her hand. But despite his best efforts, he felt her
hand yanked away from his as they were buried under the collapsing roof.
He had been searching for what seemed like hours, but was in fact
just a few minutes. He shifted a piece of the steel roof and cried out
when he saw a smiling face. "Kasumi!!"
"Tofu!!" Kasumi gasped and then winced.
"What's wrong?" Dr. Tofu asked as he pulled the piece off his
bride. He saw the answer before she spoke.
"My hip." She looked down at the red blood spreading over her
wedding kimono. Despite the fact that the kimono was already red, the
blood stood out clearly on the worn fabric.
Dr. Tofu wasted no time in ripping her kimono open and getting to
the wound. He winced when he saw the jagged bone sticking out of the
flesh of her leg. "Oh no..." He looked around. "I need bandages and a
splint!!" He applied pressure to the wound and realized that there was
only one artery in the leg that could produce that much blood. "NOW!!"
-C- -M- -D-
Although southern Florida--which would come to be called the South
Florida Sea in the years that followed--took the most damage, the rest
of the world suffered as well. Northern Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and
the various Caribbean islands were devastated by strong earthquakes and
tidal waves. Most people who called Florida, Cuba, or the Bahamas 'home'
would never see that home again. At least not as they remembered it.
The tremors weren't as strong when they reached the west coast of
America or Europe, but they did cause damage to structures and roads,
especially in places not prepared for earthquakes.
Japan, the Middle East, and the southeastern United States received
the most damage. The strong tremor that radiated out from where southern
Florida used to be dealt the final blow to structures that had already
been weakened by the smaller tremors that had been shaking the ground
around the three monoliths for just over a week.
Ground shifted, pavement folded, and buildings shook. The strong
held and the weak fell on the day and night that would come to be known
as 'The Day the Blackness Engulfed the Earth'.
***********************************************************************
Inside the Buyierfei Monolith
"I want to go home!"
Ranma looked up from where he was huddled over Akane. "Deedee!
We're doing everything we can, just help Ranko with the baby."
Ranko looked up from between Akane's legs with a look that told
Ranma she didn't need, or more accurately, want Deedee's help.
"But... but..." Deedee sputtered.
"Dammit, Deedee!!" Ranma's shout caused Deedee to cringe backwards.
"Act your age! Everyone else is at the edge of the shrinking safe zone
to protect us..." He gestured around the area. The glowing ground was
still underfoot, but had started shrinking in diameter after the
brightest heart had exploded. There were also piles of the golden
strands lying around the group, helping form some protection from the
occasional black chi balls that seemed to come out of nowhere. "I need
you to help Ranko. Now!"
Deedee sniffled. "Okay..." She knelt down next to Ranko. "What can
I do?"
Ranko pulled her bloody hand out of Akane and sighed. "First, don't
freak out about all the blood. Second, put your hand there." Ranko made
a point to use her bloody hand to place Deedee's hand on Akane's naked
stomach.
"Ewwww...." Deedee grimaced, but didn't pull away.
"It'll get worse." Ranko had deliberately forced Deedee to get used
to the blood and was surprised the young girl didn't freak out. Again.
"Now feel for the baby. It's been kicking and shifting around after
almost every contraction. Do you feel it?"
"Yes..."
"I want you to tell me if he stops moving... especially after a
contraction, okay?"
"What would that mean?"
Ranko hesitated and looked at Akane before answering. "I just need
to know."
"Tell her the truth, Ranko... I was in those classes too," Akane
insisted through clenched teeth.
Ranko sighed. "It means that I need to know if the baby stops
moving suddenly."
"Why?"
"I need to know if its still alive."
Deedee paled and felt Akane with a renewed determination.
-C- -M- -D-
Later, Ranko swore loudly. "Damn, I still can't reach the baby."
"Its still moving!!" Deedee blurted.
Akane relaxed after her recent contraction and leaned back into
Ranma's arms. "I don't want to do this without being married to you..."
Ranma wiped Akane's face off. "I know... I know. As soon as we get
out..."
"No..." Akane clenched her teeth.
"Push... push... relax."
Akane breathed heavily and relaxed. "No... I have to marry you
now."
"But how ca..."
A weak, hoarse voice called out. "I'll marry you two."
Ranma and Akane looked over at Ukyo, who lay to the side of Akane.
"Huh?"
"I'll marry you two. Since everyone else is busy, I'll be the
minister. Consider it a way for this dying woman to make up for hurting
you."
Akane was lost for words and tears came to her eyes.
"Ukyo... you're not dying," Ranma said softly, with more hope than
certainty behind the words.
Ukyo coughed up some blood. "Do you want to or not?"
Ranma looked at Akane and nodded, but then looked back at Ukyo.
"But it wouldn't be legal."
Ukyo looked at Akane and then at Ranko. "That doesn't matter, does
it Akane?"
Akane couldn't meet Ukyo's gaze. "No..." She looked at Ranma.
Ranma clutched Akane's hand. "Are you sure you want to do this like
this?"
"No... but I don't have any choice. Please get Sanma over here."
Ranma frowned. "Okay, but..." He trailed off when he saw the
determined look on Akane's face. "Okay. Sanma!!" After several seconds
he repeated his call. "Sanma!!"
Sanma rushed into the center of the safe zone. "This had better be
good, the zone is shrinking faster every minute and the avian Buyierfei
are getting better at finding us. With Yukiko and Deeod trying to
destroy one of the hearts, we're pretty short handed right now." She
glanced at Ranma and Ranko with their immobilized arms. "Nothing
personal."
"Do you love Ukyo, Sanma?" Akane asked out of the blue.
Sanma flinched at the unexpected question. "Um... yes. I'm sorry to
have to hurt you like that, but I do."
"More than me?"
"Akane, this is not the..."
Akane grimaced and repeated the question. "More than me?"
Sanma looked between Ukyo and Akane. "Yes, I'm sorry. I still love
you, but I can't deny that I've fallen in love with Ukyo."
Akane went silent and studied Sanma's face for several heartbeats.
Then she made her decision. "Ranko... get your hand out of me and let
someone with two good arms do that."
Ranko looked up. "Huh"
"Let Deedee try to grab the baby's legs. I believe you've been
through enough weddings to know the words. Right?"
Ranko nodded, but was still confused.
"Good, then you can marry us."
Ukyo coughed and then spoke. "I said I..."
Akane interrupted. "No... you have your own man to marry." She
finally looked Ukyo in the eyes.
-C- -M- -D-
"Do you, Ranma Saotome, take my wife to be your lawfully wedded
wife?"
"I do."
"In good times and bad..."
There was a long pause where everyone looked around at the
situation they were in and then Ranko continued. "In sickness and in
health, for richer or poorer, till death do you part?"
"I do."
"Do you, Akane Tendo, take this man to be your second lawfully
wedded husband?"
"I do."
"In good times and bad-" They all avoided pausing this time. "-in
sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, till death do you part?"
Akane clenched and pushed hard. "Grrrrrr...."
"I got a leg... damn, it slipped out of my hand." Deedee grimaced.
"I don't know what I'm doing, you know!" Tears were streaming from her
eyes.
Akane breathed heavily. "You're doing great, Deedee. Thank you for
doing your best."
Deedee smiled and continued
Ranko looked at her wife. "Akane?"
"I do."
Ranko turned towards Sanma. "Do you, Sanma Saotome, take this woman
to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do."
"In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or
poorer, till..." Ranko couldn't finish the rest.
"I do... and I promise that we won't part soon." Sanma smiled at
his future bride and gripped her hand tighter.
"Do you..."
"I got a leg!!" Deedee suddenly shouted.
Ranko snapped her attention down to Akane's cervix. "Try to get the
other one and then pull!! Stop if you get a lot of resistance."
The heart the two Amazons were inside chose that moment to go dark.
A split second later a powerful blast assailed them as the heart
exploded into tiny fragments. Fortunately, they had an assortment of
objects driven into the ground around them to hang onto until the blast
subsided.
"They did it!!" Ranma shouted, a little amazed that the Amazons had
pulled it off. Ranma and Sanma had given Yukiko and Deeod a very quick
and dirty lesson in the Fire and Ice Dragon attacks that the three
Ranmas had developed from the Hiryu Shoten Ha. Since both Amazons knew
that ancient Amazon technique, training them to focus into hot and cold
pillars wasn't that far of a leap in training.
Or so they had thought. Both Amazons had managed the ice pillar
after only a couple tries, but altering the normally cool based Hiryu
Shoten Ha into the hot pillar had proven harder. If not for Yukiko's
insistence that Amazon pride dictated that the Amazons should destroy
the second heart, Sanma would have gone with them.
In the end, Yukiko and Deeod had still been practicing the fire
pillar as they set off towards the second heart.
Sanma looked around. "Yeah, but we're still here."
"Then it's up to us to destroy the last heart," Ranko commented,
stating the obvious.
Ranma sighed and glanced at his useless arm. "Just like I thought."
Deedee wiped her bloody hands off on her already blood stained
dress. "Sorry, My hands slipped out when the blast hit us."
Ranko patted Deedee's shoulder. "That's okay, you're doing great.
I'm proud of you."
Deedee beamed and then helped Ranma get Akane back into position
again.
Sanma straightened Ukyo up and then looked at Ranko.
Ranko nodded and continued. "Do you, Ukyo Kounji, take this
woman..."
"MAN!!"
"Man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
Ukyo coughed. "I do."
Sanma frowned at the weak voice.
"In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or
poorer, till death do you part?"
"We shall never part... I do."
"I got the legs!!'"
"Push, Akane!! Pull, Deedee!!" Ranko looked around, wondering what
to do. "Um... I now pronounce you all husbands and wives. You may all
kiss your respective partner. Push... push... pull... pull."
Sanma was first to kiss her new bride. The kiss was a long
passionate one, as if the participants were afraid it would be their
last. The kiss ended and Sanma ran his hand through Ukyo's hair. "Now...
no more talk of you dying on me."
Ukyo nodded weakly, but didn't speak.
Ranma leaned down to kiss Akane, but paused when she screamed.
Ranko swore. "Oh, shit... kiss her fast!" She reached out with her
good hand and helped Deedee pull the baby out of the birth canal.
Ranma placed his lips on Akane's and they exchanged a long overdue
kiss. That kiss ended when they heard Ranko swear again.
"Damn.... he's not breathing! Deedee, get the cord off his neck and
then cut it with the knife Mousse left."
Time stopped for everyone as unasked questions went unanswered.
Deedee pulled the umbilical cord from around the baby's neck and looked
on as Ranko bent down and cleaned out the baby's mouth with her fingers.
"Tie the cord off and cut it, dammit!!" Ranko snapped loudly.
Ranko's shout snapped Deedee out of her stupor. "Oh... sorry." She
hesitantly tied a string around the cord and then cut it with the knife.
Blood spurted out of the cut cord. "Ewwww..."
"Come on..." Ranko gently pushed the baby's chest up and down, but
the baby didn't stir. "No..."
"Mouth to mouth..."
Ranko looked up at Deedee, a little irritated at the interruption.
"Huh?"
Deedee didn't bother explaining, she just bent down and blew short
puffs of air into the baby's mouth. She repeated the procedure several
times. "Damn... it worked in all those stupid movies they showed in
health class." Using two fingers, she pressed up and down on the baby's
stomach a few times and then repeated the puffs of air into the babies
mouth.
"No... no..." Akane reached for her child, but Ranma held her
tightly with his good arm.
"It'll be alright..."
In a heartbeat they heard seven things.
A baby's cry. Akane's eyes brightened and tears streamed from her
eyes.
An okonomiyaki chef's last breath.
A lover's cry. "Breathe, dammit!!" Desperate, Sanma started pushing
up and down Ukyo's chest.
A warrior's warning in broken Japanese. "Look out!!"
A squeal of danger as Ryoga's black body jumped over Akane.
A rush of air. A large black mass knocked the pig out of the way
and wrapped its tentacles around its target.
A monster's gloat. "I don't know how you destroyed one of our
relays, but the infant will help us suck the energy out of your world."
They all looked up to see the crying baby being carried away in the
tentacles of the large avian that had swooped in and grabbed the baby
out of Ranko and Deedee's arms. They followed its path and saw Shuma
standing with new feet just outside the glowing safe zone, that had
shrunk to around twenty meters across.
"Give me back my child!!"
***********************************************************************
>From the personal journal of James Davidson:
November 2, 2057
I didn't know where to begin with my questions. I looked over at
Yohachi, who seemed as stunned as I was. "Mom... you delivered Yohachi?"
My mom nodded. "Yes, but I wasn't exactly good at it." She looked
at Yohachi. "I'm glad you grew up so well considering what happened
after you were born. You remind me so much of your father."
Yohachi looked between his mother and mine. "Mom, you told me I was
born in the Buyierfei realm, but you never told me this part."
Akane shrugged. "After we escaped, I tried many times to find
Deedee so that I could thank her and make sure she was okay. The records
for the months after the Three Harbingers blew were incomplete as it was
and without her full name, we just couldn't track her down. I didn't see
the need to go into details about a woman I never expected to be able to
introduce you to."
"You even keep parts of your stories from your own son, huh?" I
smirked.
Akane stuck her tongue out at me.
"I guess I never really asked who delivered me." Yohachi looked at
my mom. He paused then stood up and sat down on the couch next to her.
"Thank you." He wrapped his arms around her and they hugged for several
minutes.
Tears dripped from my mom's eyes. "I... I..."
"I wish you'd have given me an innie, though." Yohachi pulled up
his shirt to reveal his belly button, which stuck out in an impressive
looking outie.
My mom started to tremble and then burst out laughing. "Sorry, but
it was my first... and last time delivering a baby." She looked at me.
"At least on that end of things."
We all laughed as Yohachi and my mom shared another hug.
-C- -M- -D-
As we walked back to the hotel, I asked a question that had been
nagging at me for a little while. "Akane, you still haven't mentioned
why the Buyierfei returned so close to the turn of the millennium and
I'm sure people will want to know why the Buyierfei choose that moment.
Actually, so would I."
Akane stopped walking and looked at me. "We're not exactly sure,
but we don't think it was a conscious decision by the Buyierfei.
Something happened back in ninety-seven or eight to the master seal the
ancient Amazons used to banish the Buyierfei from our world. With the
master seal broken, we believe the Buyierfei could use one of their
relay monoliths on the Moon to channel enough power to create the
monolith in Australia. Or as the Buyierfei would put it, open a portal
in Australia."
"And then..."
Akane clutched her chest. "That's when they took Sanma's child. And
that's when we released the Buyierfei into the world."
I put my hand on Akane's shoulder. "You couldn't have known."
"No... but that doesn't make up for all the pain that followed. The
pain we caused. The pain..." A tear rolled down her cheek.
Yohachi hugged his mother tightly. "Mom, stop it. You've more than
made up for allowing the bridge to be formed. *Unknowingly* allowing it
to be formed. No one can be held responsible for what the Buyierfei did
to Sanma or his child. They would have found someone else eventually."
"Akane, I'm sorry if I brought up a bad subject."
Yohachi gripped his mother tighter. "You know it was all just a
series of coincidences that caused you to end up being the ones to
release the Buyierfei. The trip to find Cologne in Australia, the
monolith pulling you all in, Sanma being chosen before Ranko.... It was
all a coincidence and not your fault."
From the sound of their voices, I could tell that Yohachi had had
this argument with his mother many times before.
"I know... but that doesn't make the pain go away."
I looked at Yohachi. "Was the rest all a coincidence then? The
Buyierfei returning a couple years before the new millennium, Shuma
impersonating the Son of God, the relay on the Moon being missing when
the First reached critical mass, Florida being destroyed on New Year's
Eve... It was all a just coincidence?"
Yohachi nodded. "Yup, although Mom, Dad, and the others all helped
defeat the Buyierfei's plans at the time, the world dodged the big one
because of that missing relay."
"Finding that out is going to upset all the conspiracy theorists
who insist that the Buyierfei were prophesied in all sorts of ways. The
bible, the secret Dead Sea Scrolls, Nostradamus; according to the
theorists, they all apparently foretold the coming of the Buyierfei--not
by name of course--around the turn of the millennium."
Akane smirked. "Yes, it probably will upset them." I could tell
that Akane wasn't particularly worried about upsetting anyone.
Especially the conspiracy buffs who are some of her strongest critics.
"Not even the Amazons had any indication of when or even if the
Buyierfei would return and they use a different calendar anyway.
Ninety-nine was actually the Amazon year four thousand one hundred and
five, at least according to one of their calendars. They actually have
three other calendars that all start on different years and days for
some reason. Maybe that's why Cologne could never give a straight answer
about how far back Amazon history goes."
"Maybe the ancient Amazons couldn't figure out the calendars
either?"
Akane laughed at my joke. "The ancient Amazons just said to 'watch
for the signs and be prepared to fight the Blackness should it return'."
It was hard to believe there could be any preparation that would
have allowed anyone to deal with the power the Buyierfei were able to
unleash. I looked up at the sky and saw the full moon shining its light
over Central Park. Even with all the pictures I've seen of the old moon,
it was hard to imagine it without Florida Crater and the smaller Maigo
Crater, not to mention the rings. I can still remember the science
lessons from grade school that described how the Buyierfei beam caused
huge plumes of debris to be thrown into lunar orbit, which eventually
settled into the rings we know today. "The Moon is bright tonight."
Akane looked up and nodded. "Yes, it always is nowadays. Even when
the moon itself is dark, the rings still catch the sun's rays."
I nodded. "Ironic that the Blackness brought light where there was
none before."
Akane blinked a few times. "I never thought of it like that." She
and the others joined me at gazing at the lunar rings. "Light where
there was none before." Akane smiled.
[End - Chapter 30]
Coming soon: Chapter 31: The High Price of Victory
=======================================================================
The real author's (Jim Lazar) notes/ramblings:
For the record, the Lewinski joke was just the best modern day 'bad
situation to find yourself in' that made that joke work. It was not
meant as a slam at President Clinton. Although Clinton was wrong to have
the affair and lie about it, the Republicans were just as wrong to spend
all that time and money trying to impeach him. I promise to throw in
some Republican jokes wherever appropriate.
I wrote some of this during my Christmas vacation. That gave me the
inspiration for the Santa Claus sighting report after hearing a radio
show give Santa-sighting reports like the ones the family thought they
were listening to.
The Space Shuttle was also returning from the Hubbel Space Telescope
repair mission during that time and it seemed appropriate to divert it
to its Arizona landing site for CMD. Since Cape Kennedy is in Florida,
it helped provide some real life touches to the story detailing
Florida's destruction.
Talk about property damage.
I'd like to thank my pre-readers Michael A. Chase, David Johnston,
Thomas Kinnen, EBJ, and Jyh-I Lu for helping me find and fix problems
with this story. Thank you all. Of course in the end, any mistakes and
botched characters are my fault.
Revision 0.0 - Rough draft (December 17, 1999)
Revision 0.1 - Rough draft finished (December 26, 1999)
Revision 0.2 - 2057 events added (December 31, 1999)
Revision 0.3 - Pre-reader draft (February 16, 2000)
Revision 0.4 - FFML draft (February 27, 2000)
--
Jim Lazar
E-Mail - mailto:jimlazar@animeprime.com
FanFiction - http://www.animeprime.com/ff
Please sign the Uncut Kite Petition -
http://www.crosswinds.net/~jimlazar/kite.html
-=-
"Unit 01, Angel at eleven o'clock."
"But it's only seven o'clock," Shinji quipped.
The computer-controlled voice didn't find Shinji's joke funny, so the
AI program inserted ten Angels around Shinji's Unit 01. It didn't take
long for his Eva to be reduced to a pile of scrap metal and flesh.
-=-
Excerpt from Garden of EVA 0:3