Moving right along.  Still
http://www.bloodgod.com/smgray/index.html for all your SM fan-fiction
needs.  (Or, not.)

	As we've come pretty far, a brief restatement:
	Content: Dark, violence, language, sexual content
	Length: Now looking like ~100k words, probably 30-32 chapters
	Copyright: I do not own any of the characters from the TV show,
nor 
			do I intend to infringe on any copyright.
	Me: khaine@mindless.com, AIM: khaine1310, ICQ: 53426521

	On with the show!	

Django Wexler (khaine)
khaine@mindless.com

"Real men don't run away. Real men advance backwards."

Chapter Nine
    Ami


    "I take it," said Zel, "that this isn't what you were expecting."
In deference to my feelings, there was only the slightest hint of
sarcasm.

    "No."  The vista we looked out across was a nightmare vision of the
city.  By day it wasn't quite as horrible, but the twisted, devastated
buildings were still obvious, along with the deserted streets.

    And, of course, the starship hanging over Tokyo Tower like a second
moon.  The design was familiar, and I shook my head, suspicions
confirmed.

    "Sa'an."

    "Who?"  Kyn looked up from her precarious position, balanced on the
edge of the building we were using as a lookout and staring down the
three-story drop.

    "Yes, O Keeper of the hidden secrets.  Enlighten us."

    I ignored Zel's voice in my ear and walked over to the edge myself.
"I don't know very much about them.  Just what Eridu...left me, and some
rumors since then.  The Sa'an maintain a cross-dimensional Empire that's
constantly adding new worlds, and they're comfortable with magic, at
least some kinds, as well as technology.  They use ships like that"--I
pointed--"an unconventional design.  That purple ring contains the CG
core, which is in the shape of a rotating ring rather than a cylinder
like everyone else uses."

    "Why?"  This was Zel; Kyn usually dozed off when I started talking
tech.

    "Who knows?  Other people have tried different arrangements for a
core.  Spheres work, but they're unstable -- the slightest tap and the
spin axis drifts.  You can't use a non-smooth shape.  In theory a ring
could produce a very large field, but the technical problems--"

    "Nya....aaaaaa!"

    This rather strange sound was produced by Kyn putting her head on
one side in perplexity, leading to a loss of balance, leading to her
falling off the wall of the building.  A second later I heard a
'crunch', three stories down.  I sighed.

    "We'd better follow.  Now that the sun's up, hiding us with mist or
darkness would be too obvious.  Best to travel under cover."

    "Travel where?"

    "Over there."  I pointed, out beyond the tower.  "The whole city
hasn't been affected.  Look towards the water -- those buildings are
still intact.  If I had to guess, I'd say this is where the Sa'an landed
and had a battle, since that would explain the destruction.  Whatever
people are left are going to be over that way."

    "That's a long way to walk."

    "Tell me about it."  My legs were already protesting in
anticipation.  I had been trying to keep in shape, but zipping around in
a spaceship small enough to spit across doesn't lend itself to
cross-country training.  I stepped off the wall and closed my eyes for a
second, descending gently on a cushion of air.  Kyn lay spread-eagled on
a slab on concrete; she'd hit hard enough to leave cracks.  I grabbed
her by the scruff of her neck and peeled her off, gently.

    "Feet, Kyn.  You're supposed to always land on your feet, not your
face."

    "Nyaaaa..."  She looked a bit dazed and wobbly, but managed to
stagger after me as I started down the street.  "That was fun!
Wheeeeeee-boom!  Can I do it again, Oneesama?"

    "Later."  I was distracted, trying to figure out the best route.
Satisfied with my admitted guesswork, I led the way, with the catgirl
scampering around me.

    "Okay!  We need to find something higher to jump off of, though.
The higher it is, the more fun it would be, right?  Of course!
Oneesama, can I jump off of that?"

    *That* was Tokyo Tower, poking up into the dawn like a black metal
finger clawing at the sky.  

    "If you jumped off that, even you might break your head open."

    "Oh."  That quieted her for a moment.  "Wouldn't be funny if I broke
my head open, and all the mice that I've eaten came out and ran around
squeaking in circles, and I chased them and ate them but they kept
getting away because there was a big hole in my head?"

    "Every other sentient species is intelligent enough to exterminate
catgirls on sight."  Zel was muttering to himself.  "It's one of the
basic traits of intelligence!  So why did I have to be bought by you, of
all people, who wants to keep one as a pet.  It's against all reason."

    "Because without her it would just be me and you, and I'd get all
grim and angsty like Haruka."

    "Of course.  I'd forgotten how the constant chatter helps you
maintain your sunny disposition."

    "You're all heart, Zel."

 

    We'd traveled about half the day before we were attacked.

    The suddenness of it took me by surprise.  One second we were alone
on the street, picking our way past a couple of derelict cars; the next
women with snake-heads were jumping from the second story of the
surrounding buildings.

    I shouted a warning as soon as I saw them and heard a 'Nya!' from
across the road, but I was quickly too busy to look after Kyn.  I'd
heard three of them land, one in front of me and two behind, so I ducked
to the side and scrambled to put my back against something.  The first
monster lunged far too slowly, jaw full of needle teeth snapping past my
shoulder, but the other two circled around more warily.  That gave me
the second of observation time I needed.

    The women were a good seven feet tall, naked but covered in a thick
layer of green-gray scales.  They had the heads of some kind of cobra,
complete with hoods and teeth to match, and big glassy red eyes.  I
backed away, slowly, and the three kept pace.  Flipping my vision to the
magical plane for a moment revealed what I'd expected -- instead of the
complex rhythms of a living creature, these things had the simpler
construction of monsters born of dark energy.  Youma.

    And that meant I didn't have to hold back.  Ridding the world of
youma was the duty of a Senshi, after all, and I still considered myself
a Senshi despite my prolonged absence.  Magic swirled out, gathering the
water I need from the air, and I permitted myself a smile.

    The monsters were not perceptive enough to see their doom or not
smart enough to understand.  Almost as one, they leapt.  I raised an
eyebrow, and a thousand tiny shards of ice, built molecule-sharp and
constantly in motion, coalesced in their path.  I stepped back to avoid
the splatter.

    "Impressive."

    "Do you like it?  I learned that trick from the Ice Priestesses of
Skoria.  Of course, they just used it on any males that came into their
temple."

    "You frighten me, sometimes."

    "Anyo..."  Kyn's voice came from down the street, behind me.  I
didn't turn, and kept my voice low.

    "Zel, is that last one still there?"

    "Yes."  The AI's little carrier had limited sensors, but enough for
something like this.

    "Is it holding Kyn?"

    "Yes."

    "Okay."  I edged my hand down towards the pistol at my belt.

    "Anyo...Oneesama...she's going to eat me..."  The catgirl sounded
more annoyed than frightened.  I was busy, tracing threads through the
world of magic and waiting for my cue.  When it flashed, I was ready.

    The creature roared as I spun around, pulling the weapon out and
firing in the same movement.  No time to aim, but I didn't need to --
the thread I'd attached to the thing before turning drew the barrel of
my gun like a magnet, and the laser pulse drilled it right through the
forehead.  Since my earlier encounter with the Sa'an's armored soldiers,
I'd turned the power up; the youma's head came apart like wet sand.
After a moment, the tall body toppled to the ground, dropping Kyn neatly
on her head.

    "Ow!"  The catgirl scrambled to her feet and looked at me, all
smiles.  "Oneesama, sugoi!"

    "Thanks."  I looked down at the remains.  Like all youma, the
snake-women lacked internal structure -- the ones I'd cut to bits were
just unidentifiable brown mush, slowy turning into smoke.  Kyn wandered
over at poked at them while I checked the energy in my pistol and
returned it to its hidden holster.

    "They got all squishy and icky."

    Zel cut in.  "Ami?"

    "Hmm?"

    "Are things like that native to your planet?"

    "Sort of.  I think these are youma, creatures of dark energy."

    "You know them?"

    "We used to fight these things all the time.  But I thought we had
them pretty well mopped up before I left."

    "It's been a long time."

    "Apparently."  The youma had finished their decomposition, and I
shook my head.  "This just gets worse and worse.  We've got to find the
others.  Zel, I want you to monitor everything that goes over the radio,
coded or not.  See if you can find the Sa'an channels."

    "Already done, but there's been barely a peep since we got here.  A
couple of commercial stations, by the sound of it, but nothing
military."

    "That's odd."  Another mystery to add to the stack.  I wasn't
getting any happier.  When I'd left the Earth, I'd worried for a while
about the friends I'd left behind.  I didn't intend to leave for so
*long*, though, but even still I'd always assumed they'd be all right.
I'd wondered how they'd fared, but something like this had never even
crossed my mind.  Now certainty was draining away, and I felt the first
sick rumblings of fear.

    I blew out a deep breath.  Now, I thought, was not the time to start
worrying needlessly.

    "Are we still headed for the intact section of the city?"

    I shook my head.  "Change of plans.  We need to find the other
Senshi first."

    "You mean other guardians?"

    "Yeah."

    "Assuming there still are any left."

    I ignored the sudden chill that brought on.  "There will be."

    "How do we find them?"

    "Find somewhere safe to sit, and then I'll have a look around."

 

    I opened my eyes.  They felt like they should have creaked.

    "That," I said, half to myself, "was interesting."

    Kyn came bounding over.  Four hours cooped up in a windowless
basement had been hard on her, I suspected, and she was starved for
something to do.  I'd taken off the circlet in which Zel was residing to
aid my concentration, so she didn't even have that distraction.

    "What, Oneesama?  What did you see?"

    Kyn had always been fascinated by magic.  I forced a cheerful smile
and rubbed her hair; the catgirl's tail whipped back and forth in
pleasure.

    "I saw..."  I hesitated.  "Some strange things."

    "Like what?  Did you find your friends?"

    I shifted my scratching to behind her ears, which twitched
violently.  Kyn writhed until her head was in my lap, and after a moment
I heard her purr.

    "I did.  Or one of them, at least."  That, in itself, was an
accomplishment.  The metaphysical landscape of the city was like nothing
I'd ever seen -- it was in chaos.  Something had been severed, some
deeply woven thread, and the backlash had disturbed everything around
it.  And to make matters worse, the cruiser sat like a great black blob,
surrounded by a shield so tight I couldn't even see how it was
constructed.  Finding another Senshi in the midst of this madness had
been something less than a cakewalk.  I'd latched onto the nearest
familiar aura long enough to get a general location, then fled back to
my body.

    "So are we going to meet them soon?"

    "I hope so."  I scratched Kyn under her chin, and she wriggled.
"Assuming nothing else goes wrong."

    "Do you think they'll like me?"

    I thought of my friends, for a moment.  Usagi and Minako would be
entranced, Makoto would be amused.  I wasn't sure about Rei -- she could
be so serious sometimes.  Rei and Zel would get along just fine.
Neither appreciated the need for comic relief from time to time.

    "Of course they will."

    "Wai!"  The catgirl rolled over and sat up.  "I like them too!"

    "You haven't even met them yet."

    "But I will like them, won't I?"

    "Probably.  You like everyone."

    "I didn't like the snake woman!  I was happy when you made her all
gooey."

    I shook my head and tried to get up; I made it on the second try.
My legs, crossed for far too long, were an agony of pins and needles,
and they cracked disturbingly as I stretched.  Kyn scampered around me
in circles to pass the time.

    I clicked Zel's circlet back into place to find him waiting for me.

    "That took long enough."

    "Lay off, Zel.  I'm not having a good day."

    "Sorry."  He paused.  "Did you find anything?"

    "Yup.  Close, too.  We're headed out."

    "Great.  I finally get to meet these friends of yours you tell so
many stories about."

    "Indeed."  I reached out a hand to stop the whirling Kyn, who'd
added spinning like a top to running around me.  She wobbled for a bit
before steadying, and I pointed her at the doorway.  "Come on, chibi.
We're out of here."  


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