What has gone on before, for you newbies, or just to remind you. You can
read the synopses or skip right to the fic below. If you don't want to be
spoiled by the synopses, the rest of the tale is archived at
Http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/fountain/3203
Our story begins...
Dan was enjoying a night at home with his roommate Carrot late one
evening; due to a slight disagreement Carrot transported Dan into the
world of Magic Knight Rayearth, which he hates with a passion.
Dan has decided to solve his problem by ending the fic as soon as
possible. How you might ask? By ridding himself of his companions by any
means possible. After all, the story can't continue without the hero
right?
Unfortunately he realizes that he cannot confront them directly, that
would make him a villain and he would most certainly lose in the end. So
instead he tries every sneaky underhanded trick he can think of in his
search for the loophole that would end his little trip into fantasyland.
Of course he doesn't quite realize that this makes him a villain, but
that's where the fun is isn't it?
The girls themselves are oblivious to his intentions, Hikaru even has a
schoolgirl crush on him, and naturally he ignores this and doesn't seem
to notice.
Placed in the world to keep him from getting off to easily is Carrot's
counterpart; a mysterious figure calling himself Xellos, because of the
way he dresses and acts. It quickly becomes certain that Xellos has his
own agenda, but naturally what exactly his plan is "is a secret." He gave
Ferio the sword of light, and generally sticks around Zagato getting on
his nerves and beating up his minions for no apparent reason.
In earlier Chapters, Alcione the sorceress was killed by the group and
Adalante, Askot's pet monster was captured by Dan inside a Pokeball.
Preceia the master smith made the knights weapons and was unwittingly
saved by Dan. She also seems to be the only person he's met so far that
he actually liked, besides a small civil relationship with Ferio. Which
is for his own gain since the boy has the sword of light in his
possession.
Recently, after being led into the desert on a monster hunt by Ferio and
Xellos. Dan, Hikaru, and Xellos fell into a hole that formed in the
desert sands leaving the others topside. Inside he acquired the mystical
Mashin, or Rune God of Earth the mashin is a great tiger mecha that
coupled with the other three Mashin would easily destroy Zagato.
Unfortunately he lost his hand in a sword fight with Xellos inside the
cave. The limb is now replaced by his sword, it no longer retreats into
his glove when a battle is over. Our story now continues after a short
reunion with the rest of the group, and Xellos nowhere to be found...
The Three Magic Knights.
Part 9
Dan in desperation-a killing in the desert
Dan grumbled to himself as he walked across the burning sand and glared
at the backs of his companions. "Are we there yet?"
Umi spun around on her heals and snapped at him in frustration. "Will
you quit whining? None of us know! We don't even know where we're going
OK?"
"I'm whining? Who the hell are you to talk bitch? All you've done since
we came here is complain! Besides, I don't see any of you wandering
around with a giant solar panel strapped to what's left of your arm!" he
raised his blade threateningly and swung it down to make his point. The
much wider surface of the evolved blade was indeed gathering heat very
quickly.
Fuu and Umi jumped out of the way of the strike while the boy feigned
embarrassment. "Sorry still trying to get used to having this thing on
all the time. He lied. "Damn, I missed!" he thought to himself as he
sulked and continued to trudge onward.
"We should be running into him soon, we're about to run out of desert,"
commented Ferio as he pointed to the forest line in the distance opposite
them.
"He's right, I wonder why young Askot hasn't attacked yet?" said Fuu
with a thoughtful look.
"Don't strain your brain darlin, we've got a ways to go and I wouldn't
want you to overheat," commented Dan lazily as he pulled a canteen of
water off of his belt and took a quick gulp.
Umi raised her finger and Dan paused for a moment before he fell on his
back clutching his throat. The water seemed to solidify in his mouth into
a tough gel that was nearly impossible to swallow or spit out. "Muh
fuhr!" he growled and shook his fist at the water knight.
"Hey, that's a neat trick," said Fuu cheerfully.
"Yea, I just figured it out too," said the girl proudly as Dan tried his
best to chew on his mouthful of solid water as he glared daggers at her
back.
A short ways away behind a clearing of rocks Askot floated above a large
pit in the sand holding his hands over what appeared to be a crystal ball
with the magic knights' image inside of it. "Now be sure to memorize
their voices good Hojino."
A smooth, red, crystal like object poked out of the sand followed by a
roar.
"Good thing we left dirt rat behind at the edge of the desert, if he
fried on the sand out here I'd be out of smokes for sure," said Dan as he
lit himself a cigarette.
"What the heck are those things anyway?" asked Ferio as he leaned in for
a closer look.
"It's a plant, a mild narcotic. On my world they are fairly common,"
replied the boy with a shrug.
"You mean it's some sort of drug? Like medicine or something?"
Dan looked at him and blinked. "Well, no. It isn't medicine, it's just a
stimulant. It's also pretty addicting; but not too much. Basically if I
didn't have em I'd just be in a real bad mood for a very long time."
Ferio tensed up at this and moved back with the girls who were now
trailing slightly behind. "You mean he gets worse?!"
Fuu and Umi both nodded in unison with downcast looks on their faces.
None of them noticed Dan pause and turn slightly before jumping into the
air and land on some nearby rocks as a moving pit of sand slowly crept up
behind the group. "What the hell? He squat down and narrowed his eyes
waiting patiently for whatever it was to appear. He was not disappointed.
Hojino burst from under the ground blasting a wave of wind and sand at
Ferio and the female nights while Dan looked on with a small frown on his
face. "Well, it seems little Askot's made his move." He promptly sat down
on the rock comfortably and watched the fight passively.
Hikaru was the first to rise. "Where's Mr. Dan?"
"Worry about that later!" cried Ferio as he produced the empty hilt and
smiled as the light blade burst forth humming lightly.
"Fine! Flame..." her spell was cut short as the beast blasted them with
another wave of sand and wind scattering them all across the dunes.
Dan smirked as the girls were losing quite nicely, and Xellos didn't
appear to be around to save them this time either. "Well, it looks like I
might finally get my way." He paused as a small floating rock appeared
next to him with a small boy watching the fight intently with a scowl on
his face.
"Damn! Where is he?" snapped the boy angrily as he saw only Ferio and
the women fighting.
"Where is who?" asked a voice from beside him. Askot turned slowly and
looked the male magic knight dead in the face, mere inches away from his
own.
"You!" he cried in shock. "You killed Adalante!"
"Huh? Whozits?" replied Dan in confusion.
"Hojino! Over here!" cried the boy as he pointed at Dan feverently.
He was stopped as the boy punched him in the face sending him flying off
his floating rock. "Now, now, let him have his fun. You can't expect me
to do everything for those girls now do you?"
Askot staggered to his feet with a look of anger and pain on his face.
"No one has ever hit me before!"
"Well, its something every man should experience at least once in his
life," replied Dan with a casual shrug of his shoulders as he turned back
to watch the battle. The girls were finding out that their magic had no
effect on the creature. "Tell me something kid, how does this thing see
anyway. I'm assuming he's yours. It stays underground, but seems to know
exactly where the girls are all the time..."
Askot blinked and puffed his chest out proudly. "He uses the sounds you
make to track you down, he's invincible out here! You don't stand a
chance!"
"Like in that movie "Tremors", noted Dan calmly.
"What?" said the boy in confusion.1
Dan ignored the question and turned his head back towards the boy. "So,
you're some kind of summoner?"
The boy nodded and looked at him again, "No one can beat my beasts!
They're the strongest in all Cepheiro!"
He found himself smiling despite himself as he looked at the red jewel
inside the blade of his sword. "Really?"
"You're darn right! After Hojino kills those girls, we're gonna take
revenge on you for what you did to Adalante!" cried the boy as he balled
his fists up and stared the much larger boy down hard. He froze in place
as a blade was suddenly touching the base of his neck.
"Don't make promises you can't keep kid," replied Dan darkly. Askot
nodded slowly and backed away.
"Now, I think it's time you learned something about the world and the
universe as a whole. There is always someone better than you." Dan
grinned as he watched the carnage in front of him as the magic knights
where thrown mercilessly across the desert sands by each blast from the
beast.
Ferio landed next to Fuu and threw himself up in front of her as another
blast came, he somehow managed to barely escape falling on top of her.
All of them were covered in small cuts and bruises as the creature slowly
closed in on them. "Are you all right?" he asked her weakly as he fell to
his knees.
"Ferio!" cried the girl as she rushed forward almost collapsing herself
as she rushed to help him stay on his feet. She looked across her
shoulder and saw Hikaru and Fuu in the same situation nearby holding each
other close. With each sand blast the creature grew closer, they couldn't
get near it to use their weapons, and magic was absorbed by the sand
before it could harm the creature as it spent most of it's time
underground. The blasts that did get through didn't do much damage. A
steady cloud of dust had also formed leaving their visibility of the
ground almost nothing.
A sharp whistle pierced overhead and everything stopped for a moment
while Dan suddenly emerged from the dust with a strange smile on his
face.
"Mr. Dan! You've got to help us!" cried Fuu with hope in her eyes.
He merely glanced at her and sighed. "Kill it yourself, I'm not going to
save you." He snorted lazily. Fuu's jaw dropped like a rock. He smirked
and winked at her looking almost insanely cheerful. "You said yourself
that this is like a role playing game. So get some experience on your own
bitch." He turned and smiled at the boy who floated atop a rock and
appeared through the dust cloud next to him.
Ferio growled, "You incomparable bastard! How could you abandon these
girls that way?!"
Dan merely winked at him, and smiled. "It's a secret. You were willing
to betray them for the mere price of a sword, or did he give you money to
lead us out here before we discovered your little plot in the
restaurant?"
Fuu looked up and noticed the horrified shock on the boy's face. "Mr.
Ferio, is this true?"
Her answer was cut off by another sandblast by Hojino, Askot jerked away
and realized something. "What's he doing?" he looked at Dan and realized
exactly how close they were to the monster, and yet it wasn't even trying
to attack its primary target. He was thrown back by the force of another
blast and a horrified realization crossed his face. "He hasn't used any
attack but that one since the battle started...he's firing blind!" He
whirled around and growled at Dan. "What did you do to my friend?"
The boy smiled at him and winked. "You told me how to beat him you
little fool. I cast a silence spell on him. He can't hear anything. Still
he's putting up quite a fight even now, just as I'd hoped."
"What's wrong with you?" snapped the boy in horror. "You fix Hojino
right now!"
"All right, if that's the way you want it," replied Dan as he waved his
hand. Instantly the creature stopped moving and sat still in the sand for
a long moment. "Well?" said Dan questioningly as he looked at the
swirling vortex of sand.
Hojino gave a loud roar and rushed forward, right into the large rock
Dan was standing on. "Oh, I bet that hurt," commented the boy cheerfully
as the creature floated up to the surface for a moment with a large lump
on its head.
Askot fumed with anger. "Hojino, get up! You can take this guy, smash
the rock!"
Dan blinked and looked at the boy as he realized that coming this close
to the battle was probably a mistake. "Uh..." The creature let out a
deafening roar as it charged forward again shattering the boulder easily
and sending the boy flying into the air for a moment before he crashed
down on a nearby dune.
He stood and slowly turned around to see a massive form moving towards
him under the sand. Gritting his teeth he braced himself and crossed his
arms as the beast slammed into him sending him sprawling across the sand
again.
"Damn!" he muttered as he stood up again and saw several colored blurs
moving towards him. After a moment his eyes cleared slightly and he
noticed the girls and Ferio running towards him from a good distance away
waving frantically for him to move. He turned and saw a massive dune
rushing forward again. This time, he smiled.
Time seemed to stop as Dan held his blade forward and raised it into the
sky. The red stone on his sword blade glowed brightly for a moment as
Hojino rushed forward and attempted to ram him again. "Bahamut Zero!"
Umi, Hikaru, and Fuu all froze in shock as the sky blackened above their
heads. Ferio and Askot looked up in wonder as they saw dark clouds for
the first time in their lives. What happened next no one expected. The
sky parted as rays of light appeared as a creature so massive that it
took up almost the whole sky appeared above them, it was a great dragon
that glared at Hojino angrily as it came to its master's defense.
"N-no way!" cried Askot in shock as he floated back away from the scene
as the energy started to build up in the creature's mouth. Dan felt the
impact of Hojino throw him into the air and out of the path of the beam
that blasted into the creature from above, the resulting explosion sent
him even further away and he rolled across the sand for several more
yards before finally coming to a stop. He looked up and laughed as the
crater that remained smoked leaving no trace of Hojino behind.
He staggered to his feet and walked towards Askot lazily. With a flick
of his wrist he tossed a red and white ball to him. "Take your stupid bug
back with you, and remember this next time you think about attacking me."
Askot said nothing, he simply ran.
Xellos looked on over Zagato's shoulder quietly and giggled to himself.
"How many times do I have to tell you fools to leave him alone?"
The high priest merely looked at him and narrowed his eyes. "Yet, you
seem able to kill him?"
"Now, that... is a secret," said Xellos with a smirk.
"How dare you speak to lord Zagato tha-" Inova was promptly shocked by a
lightening bolt until he fell to his knees and collapsed to the ground.
"Honestly Inova-chan, I realize this is a running gag and all, but it is
getting tiresome," commented the mage cheerfully.
"I didn't expect him to use Bahamut Zero so soon, ah well," Xellos
shrugged his shoulders and twirled his staff in his hand. "I doubt he'll
use it again."
"Why is that?" said Zagato sounding amused.
"Because the Dragon Slave is more powerful and less over dramatic. He
was just showing up Askot, he never could resist a challenge like that."
Zagato didn't turn around and see Xellos's face though, the mage was
confused. "Why would Dan handicap Hojino in the first place?" The answer
came to him rather quickly. "To keep the monster from coming after its
real target. Him." That still didn't answer why he had saved the girls in
the end. It was very unlike him. He knew for a fact that the boy would
not give up a favorable and winning position in order to show up some
child. He also knew from a small telepathic link that Dan had not wavered
in his mission, he still had every intention of killing them off. "What
are you up to?"
Hikaru lay in her bed next to Fuu and Umi in the portable cabin Mokona
had provided for them after they had returned from the desert.
Fuu was the first to speak up. "I think we should leave Mr. Dan, he
can't be trusted anymore; not after what happened today."
Hikaru jumped up from her sheets and gasped. "No! We can't do that!"
Umi looked at her and turned her head away in shame.
Hikaru's face turned into one of sheer and absolute disbelief. "You too
Umi?"
"Hikaru, he didn't even try to help us when we almost died out there
today, I agree with her," said the girl with a heavy sigh.
"No! He saved us in the end didn't he!?" cried the girl in his defense.
"I can see now that he's right to do it too!"
"What do you mean Hikaru?" snapped Umi.
"He made us fight because we're becoming weak with him around! Don't you
see? Anytime we get in real trouble he's always been the one to save us,
we never beat any of those things on our own! He always saved us in the
end!" Hikaru was obviously closed to tears. "If you try to abandon him
now I won't forgive you!"
"Hikaru?" said Fuu with a shocked look on her face.
"You weren't down in that cave! You didn't see him fighting to protect
me down there!" replied the girl gently. She had a far off look in her
eyes and a wistful smile. "Besides, do you think the Rune God would have
chosen him if he wasn't worthy to become a magic knight? If he wasn't
willing to sacrifice himself to save us?"
Fuu found herself blushing. Hikaru had made some good points, despite
her obvious bias attitude. "Hikaru is right, if Mr. Dan is evil, then why
would the Rune God have chosen him?"
Umi nodded and rest her head on the pillow. "I guess you're right."
Outside Dan glared at the egg shaped structure and growled under his
breath. "Man what I wouldn't give for a little dynamite right now. Just
five or six sticks under that thing is all it would take..."
"Keep it down would ya?" cried Ferio as he tossed a rock that hit the
boy on the side of his head. Instinctively Dan reached up to cover the
spot.
Ferio blinked as he heard a strange clanging noise and looked over to
see that Dan had hit himself over the side of his head with his sword for
some strange reason. "Uh, are you all right?"
"I'm just fine," he answered. "What did I do to deserve this?" He paused
as his mind started to make a list. "Murderous intent, evil thoughts,
deception..."
He sat upright and shouted to the sky. "All right, all right! I get the
point!"
Ferio merely curled up in his blanket. "Weirdo. What the heck is
dynamite anyway?"
The next morning Ferio stood with Fuu alone on the edge of the desert.
"Are you sure you have to leave?" she asked.
Ferio nodded "I've got my own quest to complete. I'm sorry I can't be of
more help to you."
"Yes, well. I wish you were coming with us," she said with a large blush
forming on her cheeks.
Ferio didn't seem to notice and smiled back at her. "Your friend was
right, this is a transmitter. I'm sorry for lying to you, but I needed a
way to keep track of you in case you led me to Zagato. I hope you'll
forgive me."
Fuu nodded and smiled slightly. "I'd be lying if I said I trusted you
completely, but I think I understand. He's not my friend by the way."
"Whatever he is, I hope you're careful around him from now on. I'm more
afraid of leaving you with him than the monsters; even after what you
told me about yesterday," said Ferio with a scowl on his face.
"He seems gruff, but he's proven himself quite a few times Ferio. When
he does things like this to us it always works out to be in our best
interest in the end. We can't rely on him and he knows it, if something
happens to him we still have to be strong enough to face Zagato, with or
without him." Fuu smiled as she looked over at the still sleeping Dan
sprawled out messily across the ground.
"If you ever need help just give me a call with the transmitter and I'll
come running," said the boy gently.
"I'll think about it," answered Fuu.
"Ouch, that's cold," said Ferio in surprise just before he turned away
and started his own travels again.
Askot floated along a path alone with tears in his eyes. "Why? Hojino!
Why do you have to do such mean things to my friends?" he cried into the
sky. "Magic Knights!" He paused when he raised his fists and the red and
white ball fell from his shirt.
"What the heck is this thing anyway?" He flipped it over a few times in
his hands and placed it back inside his shirt. He could look into that
later, for the moment he had other things to attend to, like revenge.
TBC...
Finally found the time to write another chapter of this. Things are
starting to develop a bit more, and Dan's reasons for saving the girls
will be made clear soon. He isn't giving up on getting rid of them
though, just wait and you'll see.
Next time: The Horrible Dinner of Summoner Dan.
URL: Http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/fountain/3203
C&C to: Carrotglace@juno.com