[FFML] [Fanfic][X-COM][Teen Titans][Ranma 1/2] Reflections Lost on a Dark Road

[Justin Wagner]

Author Notes

Author notes? Eh. Pretty sure the "don't sue us" disclaimers aren't
legally binding anyway. So let's just get to the ol' meat and potatoes,
shall we? The ol' brass tacks!

Pre-crossover Chapters: Pre-crossover chapters of Lathis' "Teen Titans
and the Lost Boy" and the sequel "Dark Titans" can be found on his FFN
author site. Cap'n Chryssalid's "The Road to Cydonia" can be found,
likewise, on his FFN site or his TRTC Ufopedia archive.

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/992366/Lathis
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/235984/Capn_Chryssalid

Crossover Chapters: Chapters of this specific fanfic are to be hosted on
Cap'n Chryssalid's archive and on FFN

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2754251/

(the FFML gets a quick first look, though, before we upload chap 1)

- - -

- - -

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone
prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last.  The
reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster
tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together.  With
Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding',
it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from
unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of
Atlantis.  Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well
deserved breather from their adventures.  But as unseen forces
manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and
within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered... and sooner than
they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into
UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its
seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and
the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization
has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by
increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial
artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for
the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications
continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

- - -


Reflections Lost on a Dark Road

First Contact

Chapter I


- - -

Cap'n Chryssalid
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

- - -


With an irritated tap of his finger, the police report minimized to the
corner of the screen, revealing another similar report beneath it.  It
only took Robin a second's glance to agree with its conclusion:  Someone
other than the Titans was playing vigilante in Jump City, and they
weren't pulling their punches.

Unfortunately, Robin had a pretty good idea just who was responsible,
but wasn't certain how to deal with the matter.  Pinching the bridge of
his nose, the masked teen leaned back in his chair and spun around.  As
he rotated, the main room of the tower came into sight, and the
comforting sight of his friends at rest eased his mind a bit.

It was a pleasantly cool night outside and Cyborg had opened one of the
large windows to let the refreshing breeze blow in.  The metallic Titan
himself was leaning against the frame, gazing appreciatively at the view
of the bay as it glittered in the moonlight.  It was an
uncharacteristically serene moment for the usually hyper active
mechanical genius, and it was good to see him taking a moment to slow
down.

Around the rest of the room, the other Titans were scattered about.  On
the far end of the couch, Beast Boy and Terra were fighting over the
remote control.  Despite his ability produce as many limbs as needed to
keep said remote out of her hands, the green teen was losing the battle
for dominance quite badly, not seeming to mind the headlock that the
slim blonde girl had him trapped in.

Behind the couch, Raven and Kasumi had set up a small card table and
were actually playing a game of chess.  It hadn't been too long since
they had returned from their... trip... that the Tendo woman had shown
an interest in learning chess, and Raven had been strangely eager to
school her in the game.  Currently, Raven had the tip of her finger
resting on the tip of a bishop, absently tipping the dark piece back and
forth as she debated whether to complete her move or not.

Robin was no expert, but it looked like Raven would have Kasumi mated in
seven moves.

And, finally, perched contentedly at the center of the long, semi
circular couch, Starfire and Ryouga were conspiring to read a rather
thick comic book.  The black and white publication hung between the pair
of foreign teens and Ryouga seemed to be eagerly pointing things out and
explaining something to the Tamaranian.

"-There - there - did you see that?  Even with every bone in his body
broken, Guts takes on a Dragon, one on one!"

Starfire rolled her eyes, "Only due to the assistance of the mystical
armor which he wears.  This feat is no more impressive than Claire's
defeat of the Silver King."

"Are you joking?  Claire has a demon thing stuck in her, so it isn't
even like it's her own power she's using to fight.  Face it, Claymore is
like Berserk-lite, and 'Awakened Beings' are just watered down versions
of 'Acolytes'," Ryouga countered smugly.

"At least Claire's transformation provides a believable reason for her
ability to battle supernatural beings on an even basis.  Guts is
illogically powerful for a baseline human, given genetic statistics from
that time period.  And further, I do not understand the concept as to
how his weapon can even harm these Acolytes, when it is stated,
repeatedly, that non magical weapons have no effect."

Ryouga glared and pulled the comic towards himself.  "It's because he
killed so many demons with it that it became magical!"

The Tamaranian pinned him with a dead-pan stare.  "And you do not see
the paradox in your logic?  Besides, I find the entire Berserk world to
be horrendously misogynistic.  Women are treated so terribly by the
author that I can barely stand to look at it."

"Misogynistic?" Ryouga fired back, "Misogynistic?  Yeah, well . . . well
Claymore is anti-misogynistic!  I mean, come on, Men are genetically
predisposed to becoming evil in that world.  Every guy in that book is
either an evil monster, or part of an evil organization that uses women
as tools.  You couldn't make a more 'Girl Power' comic if you tried."

Robin could only stare at the duo blankly for a long moment, having
absolutely no idea what they were talking about.  They were both
staunchly entrenched in their opinion, though, and it seemed that combat
was more likely than compromise at this point.  Shaking his sadly at
just how much like siblings Ryouga and Starfire had become, Robin loudly
cleared his throat.  "Ryouga!"

Instantly, the Martial Artist and the Tamaranian ceased their argument
to turn their attention his way.

"Um... Do you need something, Robin?  I'm sort of in the middle of
explaining to Star that she's way off on this stuff."

The alien in question crossed her arms over her chest and gave a loud
'humph'.  "If you did not wish to have me point out the fallibility off
your opinion, then you should not have introduced me to these 'manga',
as you call them."

Ryouga looked about ready to dive right back into the argument, so Robin
barked his name again quickly to retain his attention.

"Ryouga!  I need to talk to you about Jinx..."

All around the room, the mention of the ex H.I.V.E. sorceress brought
things to a grinding halt.  Raven immediately lost focus on her game and
looked up, a tight frown creasing her lips.  Ryouga, on the other hand,
looked up with a 'deer in the headlights' look before quickly quashing
it.

"I... I - um, I mean, uh.... What do you need to talk about Jinx...
about?"

The masked Titan stared at Ryouga strangely for a moment before
shrugging.  "Look, I know I shouldn't complain, considering she appears
to be going straight -"

He bravely ignored the amused chortle from Beast Boy and continued.

"- But isn't there any way for you to get Jinx to, I don't know, ease up
a bit when she's dealing with the common criminals?"

"Oh, is that all?"  The martial artist let out a strangely relieved
breath, only to throw his hands up helplessly a second later.  "Well, I
hate to say it, but you're the guys that said there was absolutely no
way that she would be allowed to live here with the rest of us, so I
really don't think any of us have any right to tell Jinx how to behave."

Terra nodded indignantly.  "Yeah, I still can't believe you gave her the
boot!  I mean, Jinx might be a pain, but at least she's trying to do the
right thing here."

A rather unlady-like snort emanated from the cloaked Titan behind the
couch.  Raven offered a withering stare as she replied, "How could you
possibly expect us to trust her so easily?  Perhaps if she didn't send
half of her victims to the hospital, it would be easier to overlook her
past indiscretions, but as is, someone needs to inform her that her
current behavior is unacceptable, and soon."

Ryouga snorted loudly.  "Don't look at me.  There's no way I'm going to
order that girl to 'behave herself' - Not after the last time I brought
it up, anyway.  Besides, it isn't like I see her any more often than
anyone else here, anyway."

Kasumi nodded quite helpfully at that.  "Oh my, yes.  It certainly isn't
like Ryouga would sneak out at night just to meet Jinx. ...Oh, by the
way, rook to queen six."

Everyone present stared at the serene Tendo, but the woman's perfectly
straight face and her obvious intent on her game of chess made it
impossible to take her word at anything besides face value.

A few seconds later, Cyborg shook his head a few times before cutting
in.  "Man, cut the girl some slack, Rae.  Jinx totally helped us out
when Dr. Light popped up a few nights ago."

Robin frowned at that thought.  It hadn't been the first time that Jinx
had shown up to intervene in one of their battles lately; she seemed to
have an uncanny knack for locating them, really.  Still, if Ryouga
wasn't willing to talk to her on their behalf, then there wasn't anyone
else the ex villainess would likely listen to.  And frankly having her
as a tenuous ally was still preferable to having her as a vindictive
enemy.

"Fine, fine, we'll leave it alone for now and see if things improve on
their own."  With a sigh, the caped hero spun back to face the computer.
"It isn't like her help is a complete hindrance, anyway.  Our pleasant
lull from Ryouga, Ranma and Starfire destroying Brother Blood's
headquarters seems to be over."

He gestured to the numerous police reports littering the small screen.
"Control Freak, Adonis, and Dr. Light all coming out to wreak havoc
within weeks of each other is bad enough.  But it looks like this influx
of costumed villains is emboldening the regular criminals, too.  More
small timers think they can slip under our radar with all of these big
bads on the scene."

Terra let out a long sigh at that.  "Well at least people aren't
confusing you guys as still being one of the big bads.  For every person
that says 'Hey, thanks for stopping that building for falling on me.',
there are two more that throw their wallets at me and run away
screaming."

The emerald changeling at her side dropped a companionable hand on her
shoulder.  "Well, on the bright side . . . at least we got free ice
cream out of the deal that time."

Beast Boy quickly shifted into a mouse and dove behind Terra's back to
hide from the heated glares fired his way.

Robin gave a frustrated growl as he stared at the monitor again,
randomly clicking on a few more of the police and news reports.  "Havoc
in Metropolis, the Hive Five plaguing Steel City, attacks on Atlantis,
and look at this-" he pointed fiercely to one of the news heading in
particular. "-just look at this.  Johnny Rancid - Johnny Rancid was let
out of prison early for good behavior . . . Honestly, what is this world
coming to?"

At his intense question, the Starfire suddenly began to tap her chin,
giving a pointed look to the manga in her hand, then to the bandanna
clad boy beside her before she responded.

"Obviously, there are too many men -"

Ryouga glared back, indignant expression on his face.  "Too many people.
Thank you very much."

Behind them, Raven nodded in a sagely manner, casually adding, "Making
too many problems."

"And there's not much love to go around," Cyborg lamented in a
melancholy tone, shaking his head.

Ever so slowly, Robin turned to stare at his friends.  As he did that,
Beast Boy shrugged in helpless amusement.

"Dude, can't you see this is a land of confusion?"

It took the masked Titan several long seconds to process things,
painfully flat expression on his face, and he lifted a finger
menacingly.  "You guys did not just-"

Only to be cut off when the tower alarm suddenly blared to life.  Robin
held his glare on his innocently whistling companions for another
second, then spun around and brought up the emergency channel on the
computer.  Immediately, the small monitor went black and the large view
screen hanging behind it flared to life, a large map of the city
depicted clearly.

At the center of the map, a single building was blinking a bright red,
standing out keenly from the dull green which represented the rest of
the city.  Robin let out a pained sigh as the building was easily
recognizable.

"...S.T.A.R. labs is having an emergency..." he muttered quietly.

Raven rolled her eyes.  "Oh my, it must be Tuesday."

Kasumi took a moment to stare at the hooded Titan, only to burst into a
fit of giggles.

Reading the rest of the information provided by the alert, Robin nodded
to himself.  "It appears to be some form of breach in the High Energy-
Physics Annex . . ."

Pausing for a moment, Robin turned to glance at Terra out of the corner
of his eye.  The concepts of 'underground laboratory', 'high energy
physics' and 'incredibly powerful geokinetic' did not mesh well in his
mind, not at all.  He couldn't be certain what the emergency was at this
time, but, if any digging was involved, he was sure that Raven could
handle it with less risk involved.

It wasn't like they didn't have an abundance of Titans, anyway.

"Beast Boy, Terra, I want you two to stay here-"

"What?"

"What?"

Robin gave them a serious look.  "We don't have any information on the
nature of the emergency.  It could be something as simple as someone
dropping the wrong beaker when it comes to the high-security labs in
there; so I want the two of you to hang back as back up, in case any
other problems pop up around the city.  Do you two think you're up to
watching the entire city while we're out?"

Terra and Beast Boy seemed to waver back and forth for a moment, not
appearing to be able to tell if he was tricking them or not.  Finally,
though, the duo let out an amusingly coordinated set of annoyed grunts
and plopped back down on the couch.

"Fine," muttered the emerald shape shifter.

"But you better call us in right away if it's something big, alright?"
Terra added vehemently.

The masked Titan gave a firm nod, and then gestured to everyone else.
"Alright, everyone else, move out."

In a flurry of motion, the remaining Titans floated, leapt, levitated,
or ran for the nearest exits.  A moment later, Robin joined them, making
his way down to the garage at top speed . . .

...Which, when all was said and done, left the lone trio of Beast Boy,
Terra and Kasumi all staring at each other expectantly in the eerie
silence hanging over the room.  The moment was quickly broken, when
Terra pounded a tiny fist to the couch in frustration.

"They totally ditched me because me because they're going to fight in an
underground lab, didn't they?"

Kasumi and Beast Boy shared a quick look . . . then nodded in unison.

"It certainly seems that way."

"Oh, yeah, they totally did."

With that double confirmation, Terra pouted with all her might.

"Oh, just gimme the remote already."

- - -

Ryouga gave a low whistle at the sight before them.

Even by his standards, the massive cerulean force dome which currently
sequestered the entirety of the S.T.A.R. labs facility was pretty
impressive.  The building itself was clearly visible behind the
translucent shield, and looked just as he remembered it... good memories
and all that.  Even the large ring of police cars surrounding the
building at a safe distance was familiar, but thankfully Robin had
already spoken with the officer in charge and she'd agreed to leave them
to their own devices for now.

Absently, the martial artist gave the force field a rap with his
knuckle.  The dull, reverberating sound it made was quite unusual, but
it felt as solid as any steel.

"Wow, they didn't have this here when Billy Numerous and I broke in
here."

Behind him, Robin grimaced.  "Yeah, thank you kindly for that memory.
Still, this does present a problem.  Cyborg?"

The bulky teen in question looked up from the scanner on his forearm and
offered him a clueless look.  "I haven't even seen anything like this
before.  This shield makes Gizmo's force fields look like tissue paper.
Some kind of highly charged plasma field shaped into a static matrix...
possibly using a magnetic bottle? ...Electromagnetic field? ...It's hard
to say, really, it's putting out a lot of interference, possibly
intentionally."

To the side, Starfire ran her hand over the force field as well,
giggling lightly.  "The charged particles tickle!"

Dark tendrils of dark energy rose up around Raven as the cloaked Titan
studied the dome.  With a roll of her wrist, the constructs began to
flow over the wall of force.  It only lasted for a moment, though,
before the black streams of telekinesis evaporated and a frown creased
the girl's face.  "It does seem ... comprehensive in its protection.  I
don't think I'll be able to teleport us through."

Though it probably wasn't appropriate, Ryouga found himself chuckling.
"Well, looks like that's the end of this mission.  Too bad Beast Boy
isn't here, I'm sure he'd do something wacky like suggest I try to
Bakusai Tenketsu the thing."

"..."

The fanged fighter found himself shrinking under the scrutinizing looks
of his companions.

"...Well, can you?"  Cyborg finally asked.

"What are you, kidding?  I'm still fine tuning it to work on metal.  I
think using it on exotic energy constructs is a little down the road,"
Ryouga replied, a little put out.

"Well, have you numbskulls even considered contacting the people inside,
yet?"

"Hey, that's not bad ide-" Ryouga stopped mid-response.  That hadn't
been any of the Titan's voices. The martial artist spun around, broad
smile growing on his face as he did, though he did his best to try to
hide it.

The sight of Jinx walking up to join them, swagger in her hips and smirk
on her lips, sent a whole host of conflicting emotions running through
him - in no small part because Raven was standing only a few yards to
his side.  The sorceress looked just as she had the last time he'd seen
her; her hair turned upwards in her usual, exotic style, and her new
uniform - a near copy of her old outfit, though now the hemline ran
straight across her chest, leaving her shoulders bare.  The Lost Boy
shuffled nervously as her eyes settled on him for a rather long moment
before she turned her attention back to the rest of the Titans.

Unlike Ryouga, though, no one else seemed to be at all conflicted in
their feelings for the pink haired ex villainess.

"What are you doing here, Jinx?" Raven asked sharply.

Jinx rolled her eyes, subtly adjusting her path to take her closer to
Ryouga.  "Well, I might not have a fancy Bat Computer to tell me what to
do, but even I can see a giant four story force field in the middle of
the night, Rae."

Everyone took a step out from between the two girls as Raven began to
glower darkly at the impudent witch.

Just before the sparks could literally begin to fly, Robin bravely took
a step forward and held up his hands in a meager warding gesture.
"Alright, that's enough of that."  The masked hero turned to Jinx.  "If
you're here to assist us, Jinx, that's fine, but I'd appreciate it if
you could be civil, understand?"

Jinx tilted her head to the side, making a show out of considering his
request, before shrugging.  The sorceress then took a few more steps
until she was standing less than an arm's length from Ryouga.

"Fine.  Whatever, Bird-boy.  Just remember that it isn't you that I'm
here to help."  She made sure to send a telling look in the Lost Boy's
direction with her last statement.

Robin glared at her for a moment, before nodding.  "As long as we
understand each other.  Just don't get in our way."  With that, he
turned to Cyborg.  "Cyborg, can you-"

"Ah, yeah, I already started trying to make contact as soon as Jinx
mentioned it," replied the Titanium Titan a bit sheepishly.  "If they
have any internet access in there at all, that means they likely have a
landline going in there underground.  As long as the shield hasn't
severed all connections to the outside world, I might be able to route
to a nearby server, get a message in there . . . aaannnddd-"

A crackle of static sounded from the cyborg's arm and the tiny screen
flashed to life.  For a moment, the screen was empty, simply showing the
interior of a lab of some type.  A few moments later, though, an
unfamiliar face filled the tiny picture.  It was an older man, with wild
grey hair, though at this point, there was far more sticking out from
the sides of his scalp than covering the top of it.  Most of the
scientist's face was covered by an overly large pair of square framed
glasses, perched precariously on a hooked nose.

"H-hello?  Who is this?  How are you contacting us?" the small man asked
nervously.

Robin quickly moved forward and took a hold of Cyborg's arm.  "I'm
Robin, of the Teen Titans.  We're here responding to the emergency.  Can
you drop the force field so we can enter?"

The mousy scientist quickly shook his head.  "Oh my, no.  The entire
facility is on lock-down, you see?  We've had a... containment breach,
and there's no way to lower the defense screen until it's been dealt
with."

Peering over the shorter teen's shoulder, Starfire glanced inquisitively
at the small screen.  "If you are unable to lower your defensive field,
then I am not certain how we can gain entry to render our assistance."

The spectacle wearing researcher seemed to consider that quandary for a
moment.  "Hmm... I may not be able to lower the screen, but perhaps
there is something else I can do.  Wait where you are, I will come up to
meet you."

And with that, Cyborg's small arm computer went black.

"Huh.  That was weird," commented the cybernetic teen, "Now I'm really
confused about what's going on in there.  This is one serious lock down,
but buddy there wasn't exactly freakin' out on us."

Ryouga found himself nodding in agreement, but didn't have any theories,
so he kept quiet.  No one else seemed to have any ideas, either, which
unfortunately left them all to stand around in uncomfortable silence.

The Lost Boy alternated glancing between the violet haired Titan to his
one side and the pink haired vigilante to his other.  He really felt he
should be saying something to someone, but at the same time, he didn't
want to cause any problems.  He'd seen Ranma screw up in this exact kind
of situation way too often.

What was a Hibiki to do?

The time seemed to crawl by like a wounded animal as everyone shifted
about impatiently, but finally the distant front door of the building
slid open and the small scientist, complete with white lab coat, came
scurrying out to meet them.  The small man, barely even breaking five
foot five, was carrying a small box under one arm and - and what looked
to be a sizeable energy cannon strapped to his back.  Within a minute,
he was standing on the opposite side of the force field and waved at
them politely.

"Hello there, Titans!  Can you hear me?!" he shouted at the top of a
surprisingly large set of lungs.

Ryouga winced before calling back.  "We can hear you fine, um... mister.
There's no need to yell."

"Oh - ahem.  Yes, so I see.  Well then, let us get to work," replied the
scientist brusquely. He then pulled the metallic box from beneath his
arm and gently placed it on the ground before the force field.

The Titans looked at each other blankly for a moment, before Robin took
a step forward.  "What exactly is it you're doing, Dr... ahh, Dr.?"

The researcher looked up, startled for a moment.  "Ah, yes, sorry about
that.  I'm Dr. Xenophon Quincy.  I'm the Assistant Director of this
facility.  As to what I'm doing, this is a specialized frequency
scanner.  It's designed to bypass the scattering field this force screen
emits so that I can determine its specific frequency at the moment.  It
randomly alters its frequency ever thirty seconds, you see, in an
attempt to avoid just such breaching attempts."

Cyborg slapped a fist into his palm with an excited clank.  "Alright!
If we can't shut down the whole thing, then this is the next best thing.
With the frequency I should be able to tune my sonic cannon so I can
punch a small hole through the shield."

Dr. Quincy's eyes widened in surprise.  "You have access to sonic based
weaponry?  Quite fascinating, I was just going to use my Naser-" He
gestured to the massive cannon on his back. "- But it would likely be
easier for you to do so, as this is a prototype and it's really not
designed with such alterations in mind."

Something about that statement brought Ryouga up short.  "Umm, Naser?
Don't you mean 'laser'?"

He quickly received a swift jab to the side and turned to see Jinx wink
at him before whispering.  "Heh, the geek probably has a speech
impediment."

The small Doctor shook his head, "Oh, no.  You see, a Naser is-"

"It is an acronym for the earth terms 'Neutrino Amplification by
Simulated Emission of Radiation'"

Silence hung in the air for a moment, before everyone present turned to
stare at Starfire.  Even Doctor Quincy gazed at her with slack jaw.  "B-
b-but I just invented it.  How could you possibly know that?"

The Tamaranian shrugged her shoulders.  "I had a similar device when I
was a child, though, of course, we used a different term for it.  ...It
was one of my fondest toys."

The crestfallen expression on the scientist's face was priceless, and
the Tamaranian's expression fell to match in an instant.  "I - I am
sorry.  I did not mean to bring attention to the fact that Earthly
sciences are archaic by galactic standards."

"Star!" Cyborg barked incredulously, "Seriously.  Archaic?  That - that
just hurts!"

"Oh no, my friend, I did not-"

"Enough."  Raven's command was given with a tone of finality that was
impossible to ignore.  "Dr. Quincy, please do what it is that needs to
be done to allow us entry so that we can assist you with . . . whatever
your emergency is."

"Y-yes, quite right, young lady."  Immediately, the bespectacled
researcher leaned forward and began to type away at the small interface
on the box's surface.  A small red light blinked on the side of the box
for several seconds before suddenly flicking over to a green light.
"Ah, there we go."

Cyborg listened intently as Dr. Quincy read off the frequency and
quickly entered it into his arm.  "Alright, everyone get ready.  We're
going to have less than ten seconds to get through before the shield
cycles.  It's gonna take me a few seconds to change the frequency on my
cannon."

Ryouga nodded and moved to stand before the shield, Jinx hanging close
to his side, and making certain to leave a big enough gap for Cyborg's
imminent blast between himself and Robin, Raven and Starfire.

As promised, within a matter of seconds, the large Titan was ready, his
cybernetic hand shifted noisily into its Sonic Cannon configuration with
a series of whirrs and clicks.  He then held his arm out, aiming the
ominously glowing weapon at the shield between them.

"Everyone ready?"

Robin nodded quickly.  "Do it."

A blast of concentrated sound in the form of a tremendous beam of bluish
energy crashed into the force field with battering ram force.  The force
field seemed to shift beneath the barrage of sonic waves, its color
growing lighter and less cohesive.  Cyborg circled the sonic assault
around for a second, spreading out the area affected for a few long
seconds, then cut off his attack abruptly.  Without even waiting a
second, the cybernetic teen then charged forward into the wavering,
almost ghostly section of the wall he'd just blasted.

Ryouga winced at the thought of Cyborg slamming face first into an
invincible barrier . . . but let out a sigh of relief when his friend
passed through the wall without even slowing.  An instant later, Ryouga
grabbed Jinx's hand and pulled her through as well, even as Robin, Star
and Raven dove through the aperture themselves.

Not a moment too soon, either, as a few seconds after they passed
through, the compromised section of the wall shimmered and returned to
its former state.

Once he was certain that everyone was through, Robin nodded and turned
to the Doctor.  "Okay, Dr. Quincy, now that we're in, can you inform us
exactly what the emergency is?"

The Doctor nodded agreeably, quickly picking up the box on the ground.
He then began to walk back towards the facility, gesturing for them to
follow.  "Yes, yes, of course.  I'll explain on the way."

As the group followed him, Dr. Quincy un-holstered his naser cannon.
"The problem is still contained in the lower reaches of the facility,
but I'm not sure how long that will last.  It's good that you arrived
when you did."

Swiping his security card through a scanner by the door, he then led
them into the building.  "You'll have to excuse all of the security.  We
had a serious break in not too long ago.  Some sensitive psionics
research was stolen and there was massive damage to the main entrance,
so we were forced to institute more serious security measures."

Ryouga shuffled anxiously even as Jinx beamed a shameless smile.  Cyborg
and Starfire had the good graces to look a abashed as well, which
explained a few things, since Ryouga was pretty sure that he hadn't been
involved in any destruction on the entrance level.

"Ah, yes.  We... heard about that situation," Robin replied quietly.

"Regardless, that has nothing to do with the current situation.  You
see, we've had a, well, something of a break out in the High Energy-
Physics Annex, if you will."

That brought everyone up short.  Ryouga stared at the doctor
uncertainly.  "Um, what do you mean by 'break out'?  I wasn't aware that
you had, what - prisoners -  here?"

Looking suspicious Raven leaned in as well.  "That is a good question.
Who, or what do you have down there that would warrant such a lock
down?"

A look of excitement bloomed on the researcher's face and he quickly led
them to the security desk which sat several yards away from the main
entrance.  As soon as he reached the station, he began to flip through
the various security channels.

"It will be easier to just show you, rather than try to explain.  Just
let me see if I can locate it, and-"

"SKREE-REEE-REEEE-REEE!"

The unearthly, oscillating, reverberating screech pierced Ryouga to the
very soul and he slapped his hands to cover his ears.  At the same
instant, the monitor flashed to life, showing the picture of a - just a
bizarre creature.

"What the heck is that thing!?"  Cyborg cried in shock, echoing all of
their sentiments exactly.

"We call it a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin."

...And ...and the name actually seemed to fit, in the loosest manner
possible.  Ryouga vaguely remembered seeing a picture of the fanciful
creature in question amongst the rather extensive collection of Jinx's
unicorn sketches.  Except this creature was nightmarish even by Ryouga's
very experienced definition.  While the leonine body was present, he
counted no less than nine eagle heads, though that number was by no
means a constant, the numerous phantasmal heads seeming to meld
together, divide apart, or just outright phase through each other as it
flew around the lab in which it was contained.

Though, Ryouga had no idea how the thing was actually flying,
considering it had twice as many wings as it had heads, and each set of
wings were flapping independently of one another.

"A... a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin?"  Robin asked with
understandable disbelief.

Dr. Quincy nodded understandably.  "Indeed.  You see, we were doing
research into the concept of meta-reality-shifting through under-space
using implicate field inversions-"

Starfire nodded knowingly.  "Ah, yes, I learned of that theory from
my..."  Twin glares from the doctor and Cyborg all but impaled the young
Tamaranian.  "'ahem' I mean, please continue, Dr. Quincy."

The doctor continued to stare at her for a moment longer, before
clearing his throat and nodding.  "Anyway, this jaunty critter hitched a
ride on one of our experimental probes, which had the unfortunate side
effect of trapping it in three dimensional space with us.  As you can
imagine it is less than pleased with the situation, and quite deadly as
well."

Jinx, who had been staring at the Hypergriffin intently for some time,
finally looked up.  "Well, what's the big deal, Doc?  You got your super
naser, or whatever it is.  Why not just blast it to bits on your own?
What do you need us for?"

Quincy turned to look at the sorceress, adjusting his glasses a bit.
"Oh my, no, I'm afraid that wouldn't work.  A simple naser couldn't kill
something as powerful as a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin.  You
see, the beam only fires in Threespace."

The researcher ignored the look of incomprehension that bloomed on,
well, pretty much everyone present, and continued on.  "What I need help
with, is getting the Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin back into
containment.  It is only a matter of time before it breaches the lower
levels entirely, and I can't be certain how our defensive screen would
interact with a twenty-six dimensional entity, even as limited as it
is."

The Titans shared an uncertain look for a moment, before Robin finally
took charge, rallying everyone by force of will alone.  "Alright Titans.
You heard the Doctor, let's move out."

As one, the team hurried to the main elevator which led to the depths of
the facility.  Soon enough, the doors opened and everyone began to
shuffle into the car.  Waiting patiently for everyone else to get in
first, Ryouga was about to step in - when he suddenly felt an arm pull
him back.

Without him in the way to trip the sensors, the doors began to slide
closed and Jinx, still holding Ryouga's arm, smiled and waved to
everyone else.  "Dear, dear, it looks packed in there.  We'll take the
next car."

"Jinx, what are you d-"

Raven's inquiry was cut off by the shutting of the doors and, in a
second, the floor number above the elevator began to shoot down at a
surprising rate.  Ryouga didn't even have a chance to comment, though,
as he was immediately spun around and pushed against the cool metal of
the doors.

A moment later, Jinx was less than an inch away from him, staring up at
him expectantly.

"So what's with you?  Not even so much as a 'hey, how's it going you
sexy-sexy sorceress?'  You aren't mad about that numbskull crack, are
you?  Cuz you know I hardly consider you one of those at all."

Taking a brief glance around, Ryouga let out a small sigh and dropped
his hands on the girl's shoulders.

"What are you doing, Jinx?  We're on a mission here; you're going to get
us in trouble."

"Feh!" Jinx replied indignantly.  "What are they gonna do?  Kick me out
of their stupid tower?  Arrest me for wanting to take the stairs in case
of an emergency?  It's a giant bird, Hibiki, I'm sure your buddies down
there can survive for, like, five minutes without us."

"...Yeah, I suppose you're right about that," Ryouga conceded amiably,
"And, no, I'm not mad at you.  It's just that you're on thin ice with
everyone else as it is, I didn't want to start a needless fight."

The ex villain scoffed loudly at that.  "On thin ice with Raven, you
mean.  And, you know, none of this would be an issue if you'd just grow
a set and form your own team away from the Titans."

Ryouga let out a weary groan.  "Not this again, Jinx.  I'm as fit to be
a leader as you are to be a fully contributing member of society."

She replied with a wide, slightly unhinged Cheshire grin that spoke
volumes.  "Oh, come on, Hibiki.  You're the only one that people
actually trust enough to follow - as horrendously ironic as that sounds-
"

"Oh, har dee har har."

"I know that Kasumi is on board, for obvious reasons.  And I'm pretty
sure that Terra would jump at the chance, too.  After all we went
through, it just makes sense!"

The fanged fighter locked stares with the sultry sorceress for a long
moment before finally breaking down and looking away.  "Look, I'll think
about it, alright?  I'm not making any guarantees, though.  Now, is that
all you wanted to talk about?"

He immediately regretted his words, as a familiar glimpse of longing
flashed through her pink, cat-like eyes.  A moment later, she spun
around and pressed her back up against his chest and reached up to wrap
an arm around his neck.

"Not all.  I mean, I haven't seen you in three nights.  Haven't you...
missed me at all?"

Heat began to rise in Ryouga's face dangerously fast as a whole array of
pleasant sensations assaulted him.  Immediately, his hand shot up to
pinch his nose and he began to desperately attempt to control his
breathing.  Jinx wasn't making it easier, either, running her fingers
through his hair.

"Y-y-you know I have.  I just - it's been hard to 'get lost' on
patrols."

"I find that hard to believe," Jinx interrupted with a smirk.

Ryouga's glare was lost on the back of the girl's head.  "You do recall
that I can crush you like an empty soda can, right?  And I've been
patrolling with Beast Boy the past few nights; he's super paranoid when
it comes to keeping me in sight."

Tilting her head back, Jinx graced him with an adorable pout.  "Can't
you just, I dunno, give the green brat a friendly maiming, or
something?"  She quickly followed it up by mumbling something that
sounded a bit like "Still haven't forgiven that punk for the 'monkey on
your back' schtick."

He couldn't help but chuckle at the idea.  "I doubt Terra would ever
forgive me for that one."  Finally loosening up a bit, Ryouga began to
slip his arms around the girl's slim waist-

Which was pretty much the exact moment that he noticed the pool of
darkness form on the floor before them.  In a flash, the pair leapt
apart and Jinx spun on him, eyes flashing dangerously.

"Who do you think you're talking to, Lost Boy?  I do things my way, so
like it, or lump it!"

A droll expression rested on Raven's face as she rose up from the dark
portal.  "I see trying to talk sense to her is working as well as
expected."

Ryouga stared at Jinx uncertainly for a moment, before nodding.  "About
as well as the first time I brought it up."

Jinx just stuck out her tongue.

The violet haired Titan rolled her eyes.  "Well, if you two think you
can get along long enough to help us, there is a Twenty-Six Dimensional
Hypergriffin in the basement that we could use your help dealing with."
She then held out her hands.  "Come closer, I'll teleport us down."

The pink haired 'hero' stared at the offered hand for a moment, before
snorting loudly.  Jinx then spun and waved her hand at the elevator.  A
flash of pink energy arced from her fingers and an instant later, the
doors slid open of their own volition, revealing the empty shaft.

"Um, yeah, thanks, but no thanks.  I'll just take the elevator."

And with a little hop, the young woman vanished down the hole without a
second's hesitation.

For a moment, Ryouga and Raven just stared at the empty shaft before the
latter shook her head sadly.  "I want to thank you for trying, at least.
I imagine it can't be easy for you to confront her like that."

Doing his best to quash his guilt as his stare lingered on the elevator
shaft, he nodded slowly.  "You don't know the half of it.  It's hard to
hear some of the things she has to say, sometimes."

Raven nodded sympathetically as she rested a hand on his shoulder.
"It's alright; that you try is all we can ask."

Ryouga considered her words for a moment, before offering her a weak
smile.  "...Yeah, all I can do is try."

'To avoid hurting any of my friends.  Damnit, this has to be Ranma's
fault somehow.'

"Alright then, let's go.  Robin is already planning on how to attack the
- the hypergriffin." The distaste in her voice at the last word was
obvious, and it brought a smirk to Ryouga's lips.

A moment later, they were sinking into the ground, and everything
dissolved into a black, blacker than any pitch, as they traversed
through... whatever dimension it was that she traversed through for her
teleportation.  Though the actual time of the travel was near
instantaneous, the eerie darkness seemed to cling to him, trying to
latch onto him and trap him in the void-

And then they were back in the material world.  There was a moment of
chilling disorientation, which the martial artist shook off quickly
before he took in his surroundings.  They were in an unfamiliar room; a
small room filled with computers banks.  A large window took up one of
the walls, revealing what looked to be a much larger chamber beyond it.
All in all, it looked to be a fairly mundane lab -

"SKREEEEE!"

A massive blur slammed into the window, slashing claws and tearing beaks
smashing away at the casement with wild abandon.  Deep cracks spread
across the entire surface and several flecks of the ridiculously thick,
translucent material peppered everyone present, prompting them to cover
their faces.  A second later, the hyper griffin vanished from sight as
quickly as it appeared.

"Holy crap, dawg!  Did you see that?" barked Cyborg.

Robin nodded cautiously.  "Yes.  The lab isn't going to hold that thing
for long, it's definitely more powerful than it looks."

"And the creature does not exactly look like . . . What is the term?  A
'push over'?" Starfire added, sounding slightly worried.

Raven nodded in agreement.  "I'm somewhat worried about whether or not
we'll be able to harm it or not.  What Dr. Quincy said about only being
able to affect it in Threespace left me . . . dubious about this
venture."

"Well, we'll never know until we try.  Not that it matters; we're here
to capture it, not destroy it.  As long as we can at least corral it
where we need it to go, then we're in business."  The masked Titan took
a moment to look around.  "Speaking of getting things where we need them
to go, where on earth is Jinx?"

"She'll be along anytime now," Ryouga supplied quickly.  "She, um, she
decided to take the elevator."

Robin looked at him oddly for a moment, then to the elevator behind him,
which clearly showed the car resting on the same floor they were on,
then shrugged.  "Whatever.  We'll begin without her.  We can't afford to
wait for her, not with that thing tearing up the building."

Their small leader then took a moment to study everyone present.
"Alright, Starfire, Ryouga, you go in first and try to knock it out of
the air.  Cyborg, you'll need to repair and set up the Dimensional
Quarantine, just like Dr. Quincy explained."

"Remember," supplied the Doctor in question, "You'll need to get it
within three meters of the Projector to be effective when you activate
it."

Cyborg nodded confidently.  "You know it, Dr. Q.  Your schematics are
just what the doctor ordered; I got it under control."

"Raven, you and I will cover Cyborg and the projector while Starfire and
Ryouga try to corner the . . . Entity."

The dark Titan nodded smartly.  "I understand."

"What, no role for me, oh illustrious leader?"

Again, everyone looked over to see Jinx approaching them.  The elevator
doors stood open behind her and the young woman ran a hand through her
stylized hair absently as she regarded them.

Robin shook his head in annoyance before muttering.  "Jinx . . . You
help Ryouga and Star deal with bringing it down."

"Yeah, fine, I can do that," replied the sorceress in a catty tone.

"Alright then," Robin stated confidently.

"Let's go in!"

- - -

"Fall back!  Starfire, fall back!"

Robin's frantic cry came too late as a wicked set of claws slammed into
the Tamaranian's back, knocking her bodily out of the air.  Only a black
tendril of telekinesis, shooting up from the floor to catch the flame
haired girl, saved her from slamming into the floor with bone crushing
force.

A second later, flashes of pink energy peppered the side of the
Hypergriffen, sending it careening off to the side before it could
regain its balance and swoop back up towards the ceiling.  Trailing only
a few yards behind the great beast, bouncing madly off the walls in an
attempt to catch up, Ryouga zipped though the air, pale blue umbrella
trailing in his wake.

Pulling an electric disc from his utility belt, Robin hurled the
projectile into the monster's path, hoping to let the fanged martial
artist catch up.  The small disc whizzed through the air, detonating
right in front of the griffin's, well, one of the griffin's many beaks,
but the creature didn't even flinch at the burst of electrical energy,
soaring right through the explosion without effect.

"Cyborg, are you ready yet?"

The cybernetic teen looked up from the device he was working on, sparks
flying every which way from the arc torch popping out of his finger.
"I'm gonna need another minute.  I'm almost done repairing the casing,
then I can start it up."

Letting out a minor curse, Robin nodded and reached back into his belt,
looking for something else to use.  To his side, Raven continued stand
guard before Cyborg, a low wall of black power surrounding the entire
quarantine platform, shooting upwards at any given moment to knock away
any stray pieces of shrapnel that came their way.

In the air above them, Starfire was already back up, hurling a flurry of
star bolts at the swooping griffin.  The beast wasn't even paying any
attention to the flying girl, having zeroed in on the ground borne Jinx.
Even as green bursts of plasma slammed into its side to no visible
effect, the griffin tucked its countless wings to its sides and dropped
into a dive, snapping beaks and razor claws leading the way.

Instantly, Jinx gave a small shriek and turned tail before sprinting
full speed in the other direction.  As fast as she was, the young
detective could already see she wouldn't be fast enough to escape.
Urgently, Robin prepared an entire fan of explosive birdarangs to throw
-

He needn't have bothered, though, as a familiar green and yellow blur
cut through the air, slamming into the griffin's side with a thunderous
crunch.  A second later, Ryouga followed up his shoulder tackle with a
swing of his transuranic umbrella, slamming the beast out of the air
completely.

Seven distinct screeches of pain pierced the air as the griffin bounced
off the floor, but less than a handful of seconds later, the monster was
already back on its feet.  Ryouga, Starfire and Jinx all rushed in
simultaneously, but none were fast enough as a flurry of flapping wings
launched the multi-dimensional raptor back into the air again.

"Cyborg!"  Robin cried out.

"Just another second!"

Abruptly, the masked Titan was forced to leap to the side, Ryouga's body
rag-dolling through the space he'd occupied a second earlier.  The
martial artist bounced a few times before slamming bodily into the onyx
wall of energy surrounding the projector.

In a moment, Robin was by his team mate's side, helping him to his feet.

"I hope you guys are almost done over here," Ryouga barked hoarsely,
"This thing is more frustrating to put down than Kunou.  It's starting
to get embarrassing!"

Robin nodded, smirking.  "Cyborg should be done soon.  We're going to
need you guys to get it to the platform, though."  Quickly reaching
behind his back, Robin pulled out one of his grapnel launchers and
handed it to the bandanna clad warrior.  "Use this to tie it up if you
can."

Ryouga took the item and nodded fiercely, tucking it in his belt.  A
moment later, Robin was alone as his companion sped back out into the
fight.

"Okay, Robin, I got it ready to go.  I just need to set the remote and
clear the area.  Gimme another minute!" Cyborg yelled out from his
position.

"Alright!"  Robin immediately rushed forward to stand in front of Raven.
A quick scan above them showed, the Hypergriffin hovering near the
ceiling.  Starfire floated to the right of it, trying to corral it with
her eye lasers.  Ryouga hovered behind it, umbrella-copter in his right
hand and a spinning bandanna in his left.  On the ground directly
beneath it, Jinx stared up impotently as her hands burned with pink
flame.

Hoping to distract it long enough to let the trio drop the beast, Robin
whipped off a handful of birdarangs.  The spinning blades cut through
the air with uncanny accuracy, and each one slamming into a separate
beak.

To his mild surprise, the griffin actually noticed this attack...
Unfortunately, to his great surprise, the attack seemed to infuriate the
monster no end.  Overlapping, oscillating screeches filled the air as
the griffin suddenly dropped into another dive, straight toward the bird
themed hero.

"That's not good.  Star, Ryouga, stop that thing!"

In a valiant effort, the Tamaranian and the martial artist surged
forward, both actually managing to clamp a hand down on a wing and the
tail respectively.  Even with both Starfire pulling back and Ryouga's
umbrella-copter running at full throttle in the opposite direction, the
griffin barely slowed in its dive.  On the ground, Jinx sprinted forward
before ducking down into a crouch and launching herself up at the diving
creature.

She didn't even make it halfway before she was sent flying wildly
through the air by a buffet of its wings.  Robin's eyes widened as he
watched her body rag doll through the air; there was no way the girl
would regain her balance before she crashed to the ground.  Moving as
fast as he ever had, he dove right beneath the swiping claws of the
griffin and charged forward, managing to slide across the ground just in
time to break her fall before she broke her neck.  Panting at the
sudden, exertion, Robin took a second to make sure that Jinx wasn't
hurt-

The Hypergriffin slammed into the ebony wall of Raven's power at full
speed; the sudden whiplash was enough to send Starfire, still clamped to
one of its wings, slamming face first into the wall as well.  Rather
than bounce off the black construct of energy as the Tamaranian did,
though, the wall directly beneath the griffin began to warp and buckle
in a disturbing manner.

Abruptly, Raven collapsed to her knees and clutched her temples, a
pained scream tearing itself from her throat.  All around her, her power
began to fluctuate wildly; black tendrils of the stuff writhing and
flailing as if alive.  The griffin howled in pain as it clawed wildly at
the dark energy which began to constrict it.  A random thrashing of its
tail sent Ryouga flying forward over the vanishing wall of black
telekinesis . . .

"Nonononono-"  Cyborg's panicked shout was cut off abruptly by the sound
of Hibiki slamming into titanium.  A grim feeling rose up in Robin's
chest at the familiar sound.  It was quickly justified when an unearthly
whine began to emanate from the center of the room.  It was quickly
followed by a coruscating sphere of rainbow lights flaring to life less
than a yard away from Raven's collapsed form.

"Ryouga!"  Jinx struggled out of Robin's grasp.  Reaching forward, Robin
quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"Wait, we don't know what's going to happen!"

"I don't care!"

Both of them stopped dead, though, as both Raven's and the
Hypergriffin's screams rose exponentially in unison.  Raven's power was
now wrapped around both in a nightmarish Gordian knot; however a long
chord was now collapsing into the rainbow sphere, being drawn into the
orb as if it were a iridescent black hole.  Even as Cyborg frantically
scanned the anomaly, Ryouga struggled past the uncontrolled energy,
savagely slashing at the black constructs with his umbrella in a
desperate bit to reach Raven's side.

Barely visible on the far side of the chaos, Robin could just see
Starfire pushing herself up to her feet, one hand clutched to her skull
and an obvious grimace on her face.  The grimace disappeared in an
instant, though, all concern for herself evaporating when the Tamaranian
saw what was transpiring about her friends.

"Raven!"

Amazingly, Ryouga managed to make it to dark Titan's side, tearing away
at the cocoon of power and clutching Raven to his chest. Rather than
make things better, the howls of Raven, the griffin and the swelling
sphere of chaotic energy all reached a horrific, soul piercing
crescendo.  In that very instant, Robin's entire perception of reality
seemed to invert on itself.  Up became down, black became white and it
felt agonizingly like he was a second away from inside being out.

A crack of thunder blasted the Titan straight off his feet a second
later.  By the time he regained enough of his senses to sit up, the
griffin, the sphere, and half of his friends were gone...

In their place, a massive swirling vortex of abyssal energy rotated
ominously in the air.  The black void seemed content to merely exist for
a fraction of a second.  Then an ominous howl filled the room as it
began to suck in everything around it, like the very maw of hell itself.
Cyborg and Starfire were the only ones remaining near the epicenter, and
both were sprawled across the floor, utterly unconscious.

"Star!  Starfire, wake up!" Robin cried out.

The draw of the vortex doubled within a second, then doubled again.
Within a matter of moments, even Cyborg's bulky frame began to skid
noisily across the floor.  Robin took a hasty step forward, preparing to
charge in and grab the Tamaranian, but as soon as he did, his feet
nearly left the floor all together.  Even with both feet firmly planted
on the ground, his steel capped boots began to squeal in protest as he
began to slide inexorably towards the hellish maw.

Thinking quickly, he aimed a grapnel launcher at the wall behind him and
fired.  The small titanium projectile dug into the wall not an instant
too late as the tether snapped tight a second later.  The masked hero
then noticed a blur of motion to his side and reacted without even
thinking.  He managed to grasp Jinx's sleeve just before she flew past
him.

In a matter of moments, the pair of them were floating parallel to the
floor, the only thing saving them from the impossible pull of the
spinning portal - a narrow chord of spider silk.  With one hand
clutching onto his grapnel launcher for dear life, and the other holding
the ex villainess' sleeve, Robin could do nothing but watch as Cyborg
and Starfire continued to slide away from him.

"Starfire!!"

Miraculously, the Tamaranian's jade green eyes fluttered open just as
her body began to lift from the ground.

"R-Robin?" the girl asked uncertainly.  It didn't take her long to
realize something was wrong, as she began to fly backwards against her
own volition.  Instantly, her backwards momentum stopped, and Starfire
began to move forward incrementally.  The strain from fighting the pull
of the portal was obvious within seconds, though.

"Starfire!  Grab Jinx's hand!"  Robin shouted, his voice cracking.

"What!?"

Slowly, Starfire reached out her hand. "I - I -"

And then the familiar sound of scraping metal made itself known in the
cacophony of the black hole.  Instantly, Starfire turned to see Cyborg
sliding past her, completely helpless.  Even with his massive weight,
his limbs were already beginning to lift into the air.

Robin's eyes widened to saucers as he watched the Tamaranian.  Starfire
stared back at him longingly, then looked to their unconscious companion
quickly sliding beyond her reach.

It was all too obvious what would happen next, and even as Robin wanted
to cry out, he felt his heart swell with pride.  Starfire graced him
with one last gaze, filled with more emotions than he even knew
existed... Then she spun away from him and flew directly into the heart
of the maelstrom without even a second's hesitation.  Just as she had
been reaching out to him a second earlier, she reached out again,
stretching out her arm to catch the now flying Cyborg.

"Starfire!"

A second later, they were both gone.

The masked hero didn't have time to register the moisture building in
the corners of his eyes, though, as the sound of tearing cloth reached
his ears over the deafening howl of the portal.  He quickly looked down
at Jinx, noting the panicked look in her eyes as she stared back at him
helplessly.

An odd moment passed between the young detective and the sorceress as
they matched gazes in that one, impossibly long instant.  In that
moment, he could have sworn he saw a tiny glimpse at the true Jinx, the
look of raw terror as she watched his grip slipping, the expression of
indignant fury as she stared at the cloth of her dress tear away, thread
by thread.

And, most notably, in what she yelled out when his tenuous grasp
eventually failed and she went soaring backwards into the black vortex
before vanishing from sight-

"You suuuuuuck-"

Robin stared in anguish as he gazed into the abyss which had just taken
his friends.  For a moment, just a moment, the thought of simply letting
go flitted across his mind.  The lapse in judgment passed an instant
later, though, and he quickly latched onto the grapnel launcher with
both hands.  No matter what may come, he had been trained to never give
up, no matter what, and his stubborn determination wouldn't let him fail
now.

As such, all that he could do was watch powerlessly as the vortex began
to slowly collapse in on itself.  Within a matter of minutes, it was
gone and Robin was left kneeling in center of an empty room, shrouded in
a deafening silence.

In that moment, only one thought filled the Titan's mind.

"STARFIIIIRE!"

- - -

Operation: Silver Ice

Tokyo, Japan Higurashi Shrine: (date) 14:00 hours

- - -

Commander Yasuda had called it "growing field experience."

For Nabiki Tendo, it was just the sort of chaos she had hoped to avoid
after finally coming back to the city of her birth. For months now, she
had been cooped up in an underground base, deep in the mountains; a
chance for some field work, back in Tokyo, had seemed like a great deal.
She'd spend a few days snooping around, maybe supervise one or two semi-
serious ops, capture whatever rogue psionic or martial artist was
running amuck, and then grab a couple precious hours of leisure time.

It was the next best thing to an unsupervised leave.

Naturally, things didn't turn out that way at all.

The Higurashi Shrine was the sort of archetypical shinto establishment
her father had always told her to take a historic and cultural interest
in, and which she had quickly grown bored with. She had seen her share
of spirits and demons and other really, really odd things - doubly so
over the last half year since joining UNETCO - but none of that had made
her feel particularly religious. Seeing this particular shrine for the
first time, her initial impression was that the land it was on had to be
worth a small fortune.

Then she saw the first of the twisting serpentine monsters rise up from
beyond cusp of the hill the shrine stood upon. Twisted maws snapped and
hissed, and inhuman eyes dilated as the mass of... things... churned
like an insane ocean. Nabiki sighed.

This was why exactly why property values in Tokyo were so damn erratic.

- - -

Twenty One hours earlier

Tokyo, Japan Higurashi Shrine: February, 17th; 17:00 hours

- - -

The sun shone down on a beautiful and cloudless Tokyo afternoon.

Nabiki sucked in a deep breath, enjoying the air. Yes, that was car
exhaust she was forcing into her lungs - and it was a welcome relief. It
was the smell and taste of the big city! Across the street, a dango cart
was selling its wares, a pair of tourists were inexplicably lost trying
to find the subway, and all was right with the world. This was her city;
oh how she had missed it!

True, Nerima Ward was some distance from here, but she loved Tokyo all
the same. It was vibrant and exciting and full of opportunity! A stark
environmental contrast to where she had been spending her days and
nights for the last half dozen months. Seiran Mountain was an enclosed
facility, with recycled air, recycled waste, recycled everything.
Contact outside was limited. The only fresh air to be had was outside,
and even for those given special dispensation to leave the mountain
daily, it was more a tease than anything. The secret base was, to be
frank, stifling.

It was just too bad she was technically here on business.

"Target is heading north with companions. ETA fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen Minutes," Mousse repeated, pushing his glasses up the bridge of
his nose. "We're in position."

"We've been in position for an hour," Nabiki felt the need to add, but
didn't bother to activate her hidden microphone. There was no need for
the complaint to reach more ears than were already present. In the back
of the black unmarked van, Ryouga huffed in agreement.

So far, the mission had been rather dull.

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Nabiki stretched her arms with a
sigh before straightening out her black jacket and fixing her shirt
collar. The three of them were stuck in civilian guises as agents of the
Public Security Intelligence Agency, "Special Internal Affairs
Department." It meant the usual Men in Black look, as everyone called it
(or Woman in Black in her case). Even as popularized as it had become in
the public perception and media, the look continued to be ubiquitous and
intimidating enough that UNETCO didn't bother trying to be original.

At the moment, she was "Makino Katsumi."

The nearly blind hidden weapons master sitting next to her (and
currently cleaning his nails with a very sharp looking throwing knife)
was one "Jason Chen" - Chinese-Japanese-American or something like that.
Mousse always did get stuck with the stupider background stories.

The doofus in the back of the van enjoying a little power nap was "Amano
Seiji."

It was their second stake out in the last half week.

Seiran had shipped them out to check up on some unusual activity around
the country. Juliet was also on assignment, having just shipped out to
run some Ops in Korea and the greater Pacific. UNETCO was still intent
on keeping other "special" martial artist types out of alien hands, and
when something odd cropped up that local intermediaries couldn't handle,
Commander Yasuda didn't hesitate to use either of the two martial arts
squads based at Seiran Mountain. Since they could operate effectively
without extensive alien-derived hardware, skirting the UNETCO charter's
Section Seven restrictions, it was considered an ideal assignment for
them.

It was fairly light work compared to what India and Juliet Squads has
been involved in lately. The terror sites from a while back were still
fresh on everyone's mind, as was the fighting before that around the
world. The aliens had hit suddenly and hit hard, and now they were in a
small lull between storms. Under normal conditions, with no missions to
undertake, the squads would be training like the lunatics they all were,
but on light mission duty like this, they had to be content with trying
to relax a bit.

But not too much.

No one expected they'd have to bring in another Hibiki Tatsuya or
Happosai or other powerhouse, but there was always the possibility, and
even a class A psychic could be a real handful, much less a double-A.
For herself, Nabiki wasn't terribly worried. Their earlier stake out had
been just another "Dojo Destroyer" with a few minor tricks. They'd
tailed the guy for a while, confirming that he didn't have any really
outstanding abilities (by Nerimite standards), and then Mousse had
jumped in and made short work of him to be sure. After the so called
"martial arts duel" - if you could even call it that - they'd decided to
just let the guy go.

He didn't have a trace of alien influence on him, and the threat of his
abduction was minimal. Basically it was just a false alarm. The second
incident hadn't panned out either, after just a little investigation.
The source of the problem was ultimately Nerima itself. With most of the
martial artists there either working for UNETCO, or shipped off to a
Sanctuary Community, there was some spill over from aspiring martial
artists and the like who wanted to challenge one of the former Nerima
Crew.

So basically one martial artist strays into Juuban, kicks down a tree or
something, and everyone panics. It was kind of sad, actually. In Nerima,
it was unusual when a martial artist didn't go around kicking over trees
or knocking down concrete telephone poles. Everyone there had kind of
gotten used to it. It had gotten to the point where people would put up
signs like "please to not hug" on a pillar or "please do not punch" on a
concrete wall, all in a desperate attempt to keep martial artists from
causing property destruction. In fact, two of the worst offenders were
sitting within arm's reach of her, no doubt waiting for an opportunity
to rearrange the landscape.

She remembered feeling particularly bad for the giant Buddha statue
someone had put a "please do not destroy" note on... which Ryu had
promptly destroyed twice in his duel with Ranma. If anything, the signs
and notes just made things into better targets for the universe's cruel
sense of irony. Regardless, here they were, investigating a handful of
haunts that were probably nothing serious at all.

Next to her, Mousse sucked on his lip as he cleaned out his thumbnail
with the knife. In the back, Ryouga yawned contentedly. He had a half
finished book in his right hand, his middle finger taking the place of a
proper bookmark or dog-ear.

"Hey," she called over her shoulder. "I want some of that dango across
the street."

The lost boy blinked and glanced in her direction. The back of the van
was roomy enough for several men, and Ryouga had it all to himself.
Well, aside from certain tools and tricks of the trade they hadn't yet
needed to use.  He looked at her with an expression that seemed to ask,
without asking, 'Now? Really?'

"We'll hop over, get some, and come back. It'll be a quick snack before
we head into the scary haunted shrine, oooo," she said, wiggling her
fingers. 	Ryouga leisurely scratched behind his ear, thinking it over.

"Mousse, you want anything?" he asked, finally deciding to just do what
she wanted. Nabiki smiled at that; he'd probably guessed that she also
wanted to talk to him about something.

The Chinese martial artist shrugged.

"If they have it, one of those little green tea cans," he replied, and
then added, "Or a Red Bull. I'm not a big dango fan."

Ryouga nodded, and opened the doors to the back of the van. Nabiki
quickly opened her side door and met him outside. He waited for her and
followed in step as they crossed the street. Shirokuro (the uncanny
Hibiki family guide dog) wasn't here, so the threat of him getting lost
was always on everyone's mind.

Nabiki knew it was one of the reasons she was here; hell, it was one of
the reasons why she had been assigned to work with India Squad in the
first place. At the time, she had been the only one to figure out a way
to get the then-special-lieutenant back on track in the face of a
disorienting enemy attack. Ryouga had gone on to salvage the mission
from the jaws of disaster, though just barely, and the event had
spearheaded Nabiki's own promotion as well.

As they crossed the street, Ryouga slipped his hands comfortably into
his pants pockets. He kept his eyes on her - to make sure he didn't get
lost, of course - but also seemed to take a little time and attention to
enjoy the weather. It was still a bit chilly, but not nearly so cold as
it was outside Seiran, up in the mountains. The two of them had enjoyed
a few quiet times out there, since Ryouga took Shirokuro out for a brief
walk every day. She hadn't said as much yet, but she hoped they'd have
some time either between missions or after then but before heading back
to base to spend some time in the city.

It wasn't a vacation, of course, but they had some free time and some
leeway...

Not that she had expected, months ago, that she would ever be thinking
as much about the directionally damaged idiot. He hadn't even dropped by
the Dojo that often, not since before the whole Saffron thing, so he was
less a fixture in Nerima and more a casual visitor. Nabiki knew that was
Akari's doing. Ryouga had all but moved in with her by the time... by
the time 'incidents' occurred that brought UNETCO and XCOM into their
lives.

She could still remember, in terrible detail, that night when the family
had been abducted. Ranma and Ryouga had ended up saving the day, killing
the aliens but leaving them stranded in a UFO in orbit around the
planet. At the time, she'd been thankful to him for coming to save them.
She'd seen enough TV to guess at what the aliens would do to her, to
them, if not for the rescue. The things she had seen on the ship later
only reinforced that those nightmare scenarios were just the tip of the
iceberg.

Then he'd almost died correcting the course of the ship, so it wouldn't
hit the Ocean. In retrospect, it was possible he was just doing it as
one last act of suicidal self-sacrifice, but he did survive, and at the
time she had been impressed by the fool's determination and drive. It
was really only when they joined with UNETCO, and she realized he could
also be a means to her own advancement in the organization, that their
alliance-of-convenience became friendship. It helped that he'd managed
to mellow out a bit over the months... and that he had as many skeletons
in his closet as she did.

At this point, either of them had to have enough blackmail material on
the other to ruin them three or four times over. It actually felt sort
of good, in a weird way, because Nabiki also knew he'd never actually
use what he knew and what she'd confided in him against her. And because
Ryouga had that, she didn't have any temptation to use what she'd
learned either. Well... there was always a little bit of temptation, but
it could be satisfied easily enough.

"Two goma style, please!" Nabiki happily picked out a few skewers of the
tasty treat from the cart's menu. "And two bocchan!"

They all looked so good!

The cook was a friendly looking middle aged man with an over-large
apron, and he smiled at the pair in a knowing way. Already, the smell of
red bean paste and soy was starting to make her hungry. Seiran had its
own cooking staff, of course, but they didn't make Japanese food very
often, despite the base being in Japan. It was usually American style,
or European dishes.

"I guess I'll be paying," Ryouga grumbled. The cook didn't look
surprised by the statement, either.

"Of course you will, Seiji-chan," Nabiki cooed, purposefully using his
cover name. As expected, he blushed a near beet red in embarrassment and
confusion before crossing his arms with a huff. The chef chuckled at the
young man's discomfort.

"Will that be all?" he asked, already getting a wax paper wrap and
syrofoam platter ready for the food while it finished heating up.

"I guess I'll have... three of the kinako style," the lost one relented.
"And three cans of green tea."

"You got it!" the chef happily complied, adding more to the grill.

"Hey, Seiji-chan," Nabiki said, smiling at how the endearment attached
to the fake name annoyed the lost boy. "Do you remember the name of that
guy who fought Ukyou before? The guy who had some takoyaki themed
martial art?"

"I'd heard about that, but a name...?" Ryouga cupped his chin as he
thought. "Nah, I can't remember. There was that Crepe Guy Ukyou fought
before, but Takoyaki...?"

"That was Crepe Joe, I think? He was good!" Nabiki shook her head. "Too
bad he left town after that duel. Between Ukyou and Shampoo, I swear
they've scared off most of the good cooks in the area."

"The good cooks who also happen to be martial artists anyway."

"Which is almost all of them, back home."

"There aren't any good restaurants left?" Ryouga asked, surprised. "They
were all martial artists?"

"Maybe half of them. The best were still the wandering chefs, and none
of them lasted more than a week and a half."

"You know," Ryouga replied, reminiscing a bit. "I ran into a guy about a
year ago who could kill a man with a piece of shrimp."

"A tasty piece of shrimp, I assume?"

"It was incredibly delicious, yes. But also deadly." He smiled a bit, an
often rare thing, always the most comfortable when it came to martial
arts related topics. "I guess it was... dangerously delicious."

It had taken a long time before the two of them could converse so
easily, Nabiki remembered. From little more than talk about revenge,
about fighting the enemy, about what had to be done... gradually to what
the day was like, to what they wanted to accomplish and how... and now,
to a sort of casual comfort she knew he didn't have with anyone else.
Even his teammates, who he had grown to be thick as thieves with. It was
sort of amazing to think about how he had come out of his self imposed
shell after her death.

"There you go, enjoy!" The vendor handed the two their platters and
wrapped dango. Ryouga, rather less unhappy than before about having to
pay for food and drinks, tucked his wallet back into his back pants
pocket and accepted one of the Styrofoam trays with his free hand.
Nabiki took hers and two of the drinks, letting Ryouga eventually
retrieve his own.

They were about to walk off, when the street vendor coughed and spoke
up.

"That man you mentioned," he said, a hint of admiration in his voice. "I
believe it was Myojin Hayato you were referring to. Both he and the
heiress to the Kuonji style are quite well known."

Nabiki and Ryouga exchanged surprised looks.

"If you two know Kuonji-san," he elaborated. "Please extend the
community's best wishes for the revival of her restaurant."

"I do believe we know a celebrity," Nabiki half-joked, but answered the
man seriously. "If we see her again, we'll pass that on."

He nodded once, and the two supposedly undercover agents headed back to
the van. Nabiki immediately set into her first skewer of dango,
cheerfully munching away. The food tasted doubly good to her since - as
usual - she hadn't paid for it. For one Tendo sister at least, free food
had a special spice all its own!

"So what did you want to talk about?" Ryouga asked as they waited to
cross the street. "I'm guessing it isn't just martial arts and food?"

"The world is ending," Nabiki stated, seriously. "You're getting
perceptive."

"Ha ha."

She grinned at his attempt at being deadpan; Mousse pulled it off
better. "You want to do something after we check out this oh-so-haunted
demon shrine and find some kid with a blanket over his head?"

He shrugged, genuinely relaxed at the suggestion.

"You have somewhere in mind?" he asked, and held out one hand to relieve
her of Mousse's drink so it would be easier to hold her plate.

"Well, first we could go eat somewhere without a certain four-eyed third
wheel."

"What?" he asked, thrown a bit by the vernacular. "You mean M..." he
leaned in a bit closer to whisper. "You mean Mousse? What's wrong with
Mousse?"

Nabiki had to resist the urge to hang her head.

"Ryo-baby, we've been off base for nearly a business week now, and
haven't done anything without him being nearby. Don't you want to spend
some time with just me?" She narrowed his eyes at him. "And before you
answer that, the correct response is: yes. Yes you do."

Ryouga leaned back a bit, and the two realized they'd missed the walk-
signal to cross the street. It was red again.

"I, uh...well..." he started struggling with words. He almost always did
when this sort of thing came up. It wasn't so much that he had no
experience with girls; it was mostly that he didn't really have the kind
of mentality or upbringing that gave him an idea of what to do under
certain situations. He didn't know what to say or do, and so he waffled.
"How about we, ah, just walk around a bit? I'm sure there's something to
do nearby?"

But he tried, at least.

"Oh, I'm sure I can find something for you - or your wallet - to do,"
she replied with a wink.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Soon enough, the green-walk light turned, and they made their way back
to Mousse and the van. They had the members of the shrine under
observation by UNETCO proxies and actual members of the PSIA. Ryouga and
Mousse were here for emergency muscle in case worst came to worst.
Chances were they wouldn't even have to leave the van except to give the
shrine a once-or-twice-over.

Regardless, they were set to move in once this Kagome girl got back from
school.

She was a notorious truant, who apparently kept missing entire school
days due to strange diseases that didn't exist. It wasn't just like
Ranma claiming he had to sleep in on Monday due to "foot in mouth
disease." This otherwise apparently normal girl's family went through
the trouble of stating that she suffered from enough illnesses to
cripple a small village. Smallpox? A 'disturbance in the humors?' The
bite of the tsetse fly?

It read like a bad joke.

So she was a truant and a delinquent. Nabiki wasn't really one to judge;
not by a long shot. It would have been unremarkable aside from the
creativity of the excuses if not for the odd property destruction caused
here and there. Some of the things reported were suspicious, and some of
the pictures taken of property damage done weren't forgeries or
photoshops.

The mostly likely explanation, at least her opinion, was that the girl
was running around with some similarly delinquent martial artist
boyfriend. If that was the case, they'd just have to use her to ID the
guy. Ryouga and Mousse would then be able to check it out first hand.
That was, if it was even something worth looking into, which Nabiki
rather doubted. Yes, Tokyo did tend to attract the nut jobs (it was part
of the city's charm) but most of the time they were still generally
harmless.

Not everyone was a Pantyhose Taro or Herb level threat.

"Hey," Mousse greeted the returning pair. Ryouga tossed the other
martial artist his drink. "You two took your time."

"We're good," the lost one replied. "We'll go in, have tea, talk a bit,
make a few quick scans, and take a look around. One hour tops."

"Maybe," the near sighted fighter speculated. "Maybe not. We'll see."

A few minutes later, across the street, Kagome Higurashi waved goodbye
to a small group of other girls from her school and returned home with a
spring in her step. For once, she'd managed to have a productive day at
school and catch up with her friends to boot! For her, this bright Tokyo
day had been a good one.

She didn't even notice the black van parked near the entrance of the
family shrine.

- - -

There was something... off about the place.

Ryouga could feel it, like a tingle that rose the faint hairs on the
back of his neck. Over his roughly nineteen short years on Earth, he had
had the fortune to visit a great many shrines and temples across the
length of Japan, from popular ones in cities to isolated ones in the
mountains to forgotten and abandoned husks slowly being reclaimed by
nature.  The Higurashi shrine looked like the former - like one of those
lovely big city shrines that the tourists loved to visit and photograph
- but in his gut, it felt like one of the old relics, burned down more
than a hundred years ago and forgotten.

He felt it the moment he passed through the front gate and down the
sando.

Next to him, Nabiki seemed outwardly oblivious as she meticulously took
notes. The black pen held alternatingly between her fingers or between
her teeth did more than record on paper, it was also a hidden camera,
and one of several surveillance devices they had on their person. Most
were also designed to be "carelessly" left behind for later clandestine
information gathering.

It wasn't usually that necessary; MiBs and actual agents were always
first on the scene in these sorts of situations, and the Higurashi
family had been under scrutiny for a while. Their phones had been
tapped, their mail read via some sort of electronic remote-reader
technology, and several recording devices were already in position. So
far, they hadn't turned up anything too concrete.

What they knew for sure was this:

The family consisted of an elderly grandfather, who actually tended the
shrine, a single mother - a homemaker - who never seemed to leave, and a
pair of siblings. One was a boy named Sota, the younger of the two, and
the other was the recently arrived Kagome. Both seemed normal enough.
There were some black marks on Kagome's recent academic record, but it
wasn't anything significant in and of itself.

Not like Ryouga himself hadn't missed school more than he attended it.

However, the spate of unusual activity in the area was definitely
centered around either this shrine or, very likely, this family. Records
indicated inexplicable fires, strange sightings, damage to property, and
even a few fatalities. All these were centered around the area of the
shrine, and more than a few witnesses had identified Kagome and a
mysterious man (or boy) as being involved. Thus far, there was no solid
footage of this second individual.

They hadn't called ahead; the grandfather was the first to greet them,
initially taking them for visitors. It took a moment for the clothes,
the bearing, and the look to correct his initial conclusion. The old
man's eyes widened briefly in surprise, followed by a brief slash of
confusion, and then they narrowed as something important crossed his
mind. Ryouga didn't miss it.

'He thinks he knows why we're here,' he guessed, and glanced at Nabiki
for confirmation. She nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Higurashi Masaharo?" he asked, quickly displaying his badge. The man
seemed to stiffen on the spot.

"Y-yes?" the elderly man cupped his hands together as he spoke - a
nervous placating gesture. "How may I help you?"

"My name is Amano Seiji," Ryouga introduced himself, and inclined his
head to his partner in the illusion. "This is Makino Katsumi. We're here
to investigate some unusual activity in the area. May we come in? We
have some questions for you and your family."

"Unusual activity?" the Higurashi grandfather stammered. "I-I can't
imagine what that could be, but of course we'd be happy to cooperate...
please, come in, come in!"

Higurashi Masaharo.

Age: 68.

Shinto Priest. No living brothers or sisters. Wife deceased. Son-in-law,
deceased. Daughter, granddaughter, grandson, still living. Second
cousins living in Kimitsu and Koga. Little contact between branches of
the family.

Nabiki aligned the computer case that hung by her side and tagged the
man as they walked. Neither of them had proper Mind Probes on their
person - they had not yet been miniaturized enough to be concealed as
anything - but XCOM had managed to create a low grade version that could
be used under Section Seven (which nominally prohibited the use of alien
tech against terrestrial targets). It was sufficient to obtain minimal
information, and it tagged a target for later long range scans by larger
Probes as necessary.

It was one of the reasons why Mousse was back in the van with the bigger
toys.

She tapped her earpiece and held up two fingers, her middle and index
fingers pushed together. Ryouga sighed. That meant that the target
wasn't psionically "clean." The probe had detected some sort of
tampering, though it couldn't pick up details. It was a red light,
though.

He noticed, for the first time up close, the large tree that was part of
the shrine. It was near the kagura-den, in a place of importance and
prominence. According to records, the tree was supposed to contain the
spirit of a demon. Ryouga was a man who had seen supernatural entities
come out of boxes and mirrors and -  though he had thankfully only heard
this one - a woman's undergarments. He wouldn't have been too surprised
to find something funky floating around or within that old tree.

But...

The old man glanced back, seemingly taking note of the PSIA agent's
curiosity.

"Our sacred tree," he explained with a chuckle. "You know of it?"

"I've read a report," Ryouga answered.

"And do you believe the stories about it? And about the shikon no tama?"

"I believe what I can see and touch and fight," the lost one replied. He
didn't elaborate on all that that list included.

"Mmm," the old shrine keeper mused. "And you, Makino-san? What do you
think?"

Nabiki shrugged. "I've seen some strange things, but that doesn't mean I
always believe what I hear."

The Higurashi grandfather nodded to himself as they headed for the
family's home at the rear of the shrine complex. Some of the tension
eased out of him, no doubt as he assumed the two agents would give up
once they found nothing terribly unusual. Instead, his polite inquiry
and posture had the opposite effect. Ryouga and Nabiki had come looking
for the unusual, and the old man had all but confirmed that they could
find it if they looked.

"May I ask what concerns, exactly, were brought to your attention?" he
asked after a moment.

"I'd rather ask once we're indoors," Nabiki explained, and her tone
turned disarming. "This is all pretty routine, and we'd like to talk to
everyone both together and individually."

"I see," the old man replied, once again with a bit of worry.

Heading inside, Ryouga took note of the shed in the back. Intel had
identified it as a storage shed with an old dried up well inside. It
would have been noteworthy save for the unusual amount of traffic it
saw. Kagome had been recorded to go in there for very long lengths of
time. What would a young girl be doing in there?

The lost boy rolled his eyes.

Besides the obvious, that was.

It was time to dig a little deeper.

- - -

Kagome was nervous, that much was obvious from the moment Nabiki met
her.

It made things both easier and harder. A nervous mark was much more
likely to slip up, but conversely, she was also more likely to shut up
once she realized how in-deep she was. Nabiki knew from experience that
verbal manipulation was a fine line of carrot and stick. From the get
go, she would need to put forward three simple impressions: that "Makino
Katsumi" knew more than she was letting on, that she was looking out for
her mark, and that she was in charge of what was going to happen after
the facts came to light.

It helped that Kagome was, basically, a very nice young girl. In looks,
she reminded the Tendo sister of Akari (a fact Ryouga had said nothing
about, but which she knew he had to have noticed himself), and her
temperament was similarly mild. Not quite the inhuman Kasumi level of
mildness, but she was clearly the sort it took some effort to rile up.
Nabiki knew the type, and that she was the kind of proper Japanese girl
who bent to authority much more easily than certain nameless tsundere
peers. Dealing with her wouldn't be too hard.

"Just relax, Miss Higurashi. I'm not here to get you in trouble," she
began, after the two girls took the conversation to Kagome's room.
Nabiki took a discrete few seconds to look around before taking a chair
and getting down to brass tacks.

"I just want to ask you some questions," Nabiki assured the younger
girl.

Kagome sat shyly on the edge of her bed, protectively holding her book
bag between them.

"Um, I'll - I'll be happy to help any way I can..."

"I know. Kagome - can I call you Kagome?"

"Yes, that's fine."

"Let's start at five months ago," Nabiki said, propping up her clipboard
to start jotting down notes. "Prior to this time, you had a perfect
attendance record. Since then, you've contracted a number of conditions,
missing a total of two and a half months of school, typically in one or
two week increments. I'd like to review what I have here just to make
sure it's all accurate..."

In fact, these notes were only on the margins of the paper, the rest
having been committed to memory. Every missed day of class, naturally,
was recorded by the school, as were copies of the excuses used to
explain them. Nabiki began there.

It was pretty obvious Kagome didn't have "Reye's syndrome" or "chronic
arthritis" or half of the other nonsensical (in some cases made-up)
diseases she'd been excused for. Nabiki made sure Kagome knew that she
knew this, making the younger girl go over what she'd had, and when, and
what treatments she had received if any. Doctor referrals came next,
written up by a "family doctor" who wasn't actually medically licensed.
She finished by outlining that there were no records of supposed trips
to the Netherlands or Taiwan or Okinawa for one or two week furloughs
with "specialists."

As the junior high student reached the point of realization regarding
self-incrimination, Nabiki saw a few obvious tells. They were usual ones
in girls her age: fidgeting, biting the lower lip, refusing to make even
fleeting eye contact. Taking a few more notes, Nabiki steered the
conversation - or allowed the conversation to veer - off to less
stressful topics. Once the mark relaxed a bit, she'd go back in and use
the established trust as leverage.

"You know, I used to sneak out of class too, when I was your age. Which
wasn't that long ago, actually," Nabiki quickly added. She had maybe
half a decade on the younger girl; not that much in the long run. "Daddy
never came up with written excuses for me, though. Most of these are old
folks diseases and stuff off the internet. You know that, right?"

"Yeah. Grandpa... he..." Kagome seemed to struggle to find how to
continue that line of thought. "He and Sota write most of them."

Nabiki nodded, understanding Kagome's mixture of appreciation and
apprehension: she didn't want to drag them into the trouble she felt she
was in.

"You're still doing alright in school, though. I know if I missed a
month of school, I'd have to work my butt off to keep up!"

"I keep my books with me when..." Kagome caught herself, and shuffled
her feet. "I try to keep up while I'm in bed. Or away."

"That's a good fall back option. I'd say you're a very bright girl...
but how much better would you be doing if you didn't have to cram every
week or two?" Nabiki asked, trying to amp up the 'older sister' vibe.
"Let me guess what's at the root of this. A boyfriend? Someone who lives
far away?"

"N-No!" Kagome blurted, cheeks burning at the accusation. "He's not...!
I mean. He. Um. There isn't..."

"So, a 'he' ... what else isn't 'he'?"

"He isn't the reason," the younger girl insisted. Her eyes darted over
to the dresser, and Nabiki pretended not to notice. Instead, she made a
mental note to check there a little later. "Besides," Kagome continued.
"I don't see what any of this has to do with, um... the property damage
Amano-san mentioned."

"I'd simply like to ascertain whether your trips, coming or going,
coincide with the appearance of a certain man who we've identified."

This was a mixture of truth and lies. There was a young man involved in
Kagome's strange disappearances, and another loosely implicated in the
events in question. There was only circumstance to imply both men were
the same, but Nabiki didn't mention that.

"You... you've identified...?"

"Oh yes," Nabiki cut her off. "You'd be surprised what we know." She
smiled inwardly as Kagome's long silence following that. "Now, let's
start with the incident last October..."

- - -

There was definitely something strange going on at the Higurashi Shrine.
Ryouga wasn't really the best judge of character when it came to people,
and he didn't have a gift for talking or tricking people, like his
current partner. What he had instead were senses honed by years of
martial arts, and expanded by extensive training at Seiran Mountain.

He was sure old man Higurashi was hiding stuff, but couldn't quite guess
what, and the mother of the house was as unreadable as Kasumi. All 'oh
dears' and 'oh mys' and honest platitudes about hoping no one was hurt,
combined with shock that anyone she knew could in any way be involved.
Kasumi pulled the same routine, even when she knew damn well who had
destroyed all the giant bells at a nearby shrine or who had torn up that
parking lot or knocked down the telephone poles down the street. It was
suspicious, and not something he was willing to overlook or excuse as
simple politeness.

On the other hand, she made a mean cup of tea.

Unfortunately, Ryouga Hibiki wouldn't be getting anything concrete out
of the older man and woman, not with words. Luckily, charm and chatting
wasn't what he was relying on; that was where a certain Tendo sister
came in. No. His half of the team covered other, more esoteric, bases.

After dropping clandestine bugs on a few locations around the shrine, he
took a guided tour with Masaharo and Souta. The latter in particular
seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on the shrine's government sponsored
guest. One ear open to the old man's lectures, Ryouga expanded his
senses to search for psionic anomalies.

Finding a telekinetic trace was within his training, though he hadn't
gotten to the point where he could track it to source. Trained psimaths
and psychometrics were few and far between, and none among the two
squads could operate on that level. Instead, they had to feel for
disturbances and make educated guesses as to the cause. It sounded
complicated, but in practice, it was as raw as sakkijutsu - putting
faith in intuition and subconscious experience with the unusual and
unexpected.

The more he focused on it, the more he got the sense that something was
odd.

None of that sensation came from the usual suspects: the shrines
themselves, the tree, the house, they were all pretty clean. Yet, the
nagging sense remained close by and indistinct. Like footsteps in the
snow, the impression was there, but muted. The place was definitely...
holding secrets. There was something here that his mind, on an animal
level, knew to either avoid or confront.

Good.

"What about that building over there?" He pointed at the storage shed
out back.

"Oh, that old thing? There's nothing in there," Masaharo immediately
dismissed the very notion. "Just some old trinkets and maintenance
equipment."

"Is that so?" Ryouga asked, and nodded. "I guess that's everything
then."

"Feel free to look around for yourself," the old shrine keeper added,
with enough treble that even Ryouga could guess the man hoped his
family's unwanted guests would up and leave. "The Higurashi Shrine
doesn't have anything to hide. We're a pillar of this community."

"I never meant to imply otherwise," the lost one replied, nonchalant.
Not like he'd go wandering around by himself, what with his...
condition. "I'll contact my superiors with what I've seen. Now, why
don't we head back?"

"Of course. This way."

As the two men headed back to the main building, Ryouga again noticed
the boy, Souta, watching him closely. It was a shame he didn't have a
psi-amp for this operation or it'd just be a matter of conducting a read
on everyone involved. As it was, they'd have to apply for warrants to
use remote mind probes on the household later. Someone around here
wasn't just psychic, they were an 'actively manifesting' psionic. That
would be all he needed to report to get the ball rolling. Ideally, the
results would come back as a class-B or less, and all they'd have to do
is drop a scanner to watch out for alien abduction attempts.

"Souta, right?" Ryouga asked, still walking and keeping pace with the
grandfather.

It took a second for the kid to realize he was being addressed.

"Sir?" he asked. Polite. Seemed like a good kid. Just... overly
interested at the moment.

"I haven't heard much from you yet," Ryouga said, inclining his head to
the boy. "You see anything unusual over the last few months?"

The answer was immediate. Practiced. "No sir. Nothing."

"You sure about that? Think hard. Nothing at all?"

"No sir. I haven't seen anything unusual."

"You haven't seen your sister coming and going anywhere, with anyone?"

Souta fell back a step, but shook his head. "No, sir. Kagome-neechan's
been sick a lot, but no one comes to see her except her friends."

"Really?" Ryouga shrugged, and kept his eyes on the boy's grandfather.

By now, he knew Nabiki would have talked Kagome into admitting the
'bedridden' excuse was just that: a thinly veiled attempt to explain the
days she literally disappeared off the face of the Earth. He also knew,
from pre-existing reports that Kagome's friends had no idea where she
went or that they visited anymore when she was gone. Souta was parroting
a line that lead to a dead end. His thoughts were also surprisingly well
guarded. It was that way for the entire family.

"What was Kagome's boyfriend's name again?" he asked, knowing the
question should have immediately brought up a name on the surface
thoughts of both Higurashi males. He had been fishing for information
like this since he got here.

"Kagome doesn't have a boyfriend as far as we know," Masaharo said over
his shoulder. "Certainly not the delinquent you're looking for."

"That's right!" Souta chimed in.

Nothing. No names. Not even an attempt at trying not to think of a name.
It was just... nothing. Silence. It was almost as if he was being
blocked out.

'Maybe I should try something else. Something non-standard.' Ryouga
thought, deciding to wing it a bit.

"Hold up a second," he said, stopping. The grandfather and grandson also
paused, watching him warily. There was an aspect of this that he hadn't
considered.

"I'm not saying whoever did these things is a delinquent. Or that
they're in trouble. We're here to help, not to assign blame or punish
people," Ryouga explained, and turned first to Souta. "I know you've
probably seen some unusual things. Maybe you're scared to admit it.
Maybe you don't want to admit it. Believe me, I can understand. There
are strange things in the world, and they're why I'm here."

The Higurashis exchanged a look, both curious and wary.

"What do you mean?" Masaharo asked first.

"Let me show you a trick." Ryouga bent over and picked up a small good
sized rock. Not bothering to cover it with his other hand or his fingers
or conceal it in any way, he instead searched out for breaking points,
created ones where need be, and then activated them. The rock turned
instantly to dust.

"I can do Street Fighter like stuff, too, but you get the idea. Now," he
pressed, hopeful that he got through at least to the impressionable
young boy of the pair. "Have either of you seen anything unusual that I
should know about? As I said, my partner and I don't want to punish
anyone. We just want to talk."

Notably, Souta seemed to be thinking about it.

The grandfather just shook his head.

Ryouga sighed.

- - -

As he and Nabiki left, the lost one tucked his hands into his pockets.
It looked like his partner had managed to get some interesting
information. She'd also finished bugging the relevant spots upstairs.
Mousse was already recording the Higurashi's conversation in the living
room. Merely coming and going had unlocked some interesting talk in the
family. By the time they reached the van, Nabiki already had a plan.

- - -

"Would you hurry up already, bitch?"

"And I told you I can't go back right now!" Kagome peeked through the
slits of her window blinds. "Look!" she pointed at a car as it drove
down the road. "That's the third time I've seen that car! They're
watching the house!"

"Who cares that they do, whoever they are?" Inuyasha didn't even bother
to look; his nose twitched as he smelt the woman Kagome had mentioned.
"Unless you've forgotten, we have about a hundred more jewel shards to
hunt down. So pack up whatever you need and let's get going already!"

"You're not listening!" Kagome glared at the half demon. "If I leave
tonight and those guys show up, how will my family explain it? Souta and
Grandpa both saw one of them use some kind of magic. I'm pretty sure
sneaking out is the last thing I should be doing!"

"Five days." Inuyasha said, crossing his arms in clear vexation. "Five
days you've been here. You were going to leave today."

"I couldn't exactly manage that with PSIA..." Kagome bit back the first
impolite word that came to mind, that being 'goons.' "People...
everywhere!" She fell back onto her bed with a groan. "I can just tell
I'm going to get a big, red 'subversive' put on my permanent record."

Inuyasha gave an 'eeeh' sound that demonstrated his lack of concern or
interest.

"Are you coming back or not?" he finally asked; not that he had any idea
what to say about Kagome's ridiculous present-world problems. He hadn't
understood them before and these newest ones were even more confusing.

"I... I don't know," Kagome admitted, and seeing he was about to groan,
added. "Let me think about it. Just let me think about it."

"Think quickly."

- - -

"What car  do you think she's talking about?" Mousse asked, lazily
chewing a French fry.

Ryouga was in the passenger side at the front, eyes closed. "It isn't
one of ours."

"She's just imagining things," Nabiki replied, sitting back to back with
the Chinese martial artist. She had a pair of headphones half on,
allowing her to listen in with one ear. "Look at the thermals. I told
you. Just like 24-EE-616."

"I still don't believe you memorized case files like that," Mousse
grumbled.

"Its easy, Mister Criticism. Just turn it into a little melody. Two Four
E, E-six-one-six," Nabiki sing-songed. "So we've got another 'phantom
boyfriend.' Looks like these two won't be getting caught at the altar
like the last pair."

The hidden weapons master scoffed. "That must've been one surprised
priest."

"In her defense, 24EE616 created a very convincing mass hallucination."

'Very convincing' was an understatement. That particular case involved a
young woman creating a second, male, personality and projecting it as a
solid psionic-telekinetic illusion. Supposedly the woman's friends met
the man and even had double dates with the couple. Cracks in the
illusion only started to manifest when the couple tried to get married.
The man didn't exist in anything other than her mind and the minds she
projected him into.

Amazingly, paperwork and bureaucracy had prevailed where human intuition
failed.

"At least it isn't another magic mirror, or compact, or whatever it was
that gave us Real Girl Ranma."

"She didn't try to make out with you, Mousse," Ryouga grumbled. "You
don't get to complain. Nabiki? Confirmation on the rest of the
household?"

"Work, work, work," she grumbled, but quickly cycled through the bugs in
the house with one free hand. "We've got positive responses from
everyone in the household. Even the cat."

"Hmm."

"So what now, Hibiki?" she asked, leaning back in her chair. "Go in guns
and hands blazing?"

Ryouga leaned forward a bit, tapping his thumbnail to his chin.

"No. I'm sure it'll go wrong somehow, but let's try and do this
quietly."

- - -

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Quit griping and go already," Inuyasha huffed, holding back a grin.

Descending into the Bone Eater's Well, Kagome silently hoped her
family's new excuse held water if the PSIA came snooping around again.
They could have it appear as if she was running off, but if they found
out the truth - or confirmed it, since that female agent had managed to
get her hands on a lot of information - then Kagome was sure they'd
block up the well with concrete or something.

She was no fool. No government would want people messing around in the
past, even if it was a strange fantasy version of the past that didn't
really fit with what she had been taught in school. The undeniable fact
was that she had a responsibility here, to her friends, and to clean up
the mess she had caused by breaking the shikon jewel. She couldn't let
it all just... get taken out of her hands. It was fleetingly tempting to
try and pass the whole thing on to someone else, but Kagome knew it
wasn't what she wanted. She had to see things here through to the end.
It was the right thing to do.

There had to be a way to keep going back but not get in trouble.

An idea had started to form in her mind of how: if she was supposed to
be here, in the past, and if she was doing what had to be done... and if
it was a job no one else could do...! Well, then, she couldn't be
faulted for doing it, could she? That vein of thought had literally
opened up possibilities as well.

If she found a way to present a good argument on her behalf, then she
could get special dispensation to miss school as necessary or take tests
at a pace that fit her medieval excursions. She could even possibly get
help in what she brought back. A new bike would be a nice start. She'd
already been careful about bringing back things like plastic and
Styrofoam, and always cleaned up after herself. But what if she brought
back some modern influenza or something? There were a lot of variables
she had no control over, and 'don't mess around in the past' was
something even a nine year old understood. What did they call it? The
'butterfly effect'?

She knew she also couldn't just keep ducking out all the time anymore.
Either she came to some kind of arrangement or she completely threw the
authorities off her trail, and that latter option seemed increasingly
unlikely. That was why she was really going back now. To help clear her
mind and think.

"Kagome!" Shippo was, as always, the first to greet her after the climb
out of the well. His excited exclamation could probably have been heard
halfway to the village. Catching the little fox demon in her hands, he
immediately noticed that she was here without her bag.

"You didn't bring anything from the future?" he asked, dejected. There
had been promises of pocky, after all.

"Next time, I was in a bit of a last minute hurry thanks to someone."

"Hmf," Inuyasha snorted dismissively. He was already headed back to the
village.

"Ne, Shippo, are Miroku and Sango close by?"

"I was just about to tell you!" Shippo declared, and jumped back down to
the grassy field near her parked bike. "Kirara left to go get them, so
we can head out right away."

"Good," Inuyasha remarked. "We've wasted enough time already."

"Wait, I was hoping we'd have some time to talk things through. I may
have to go back..."

"Kagome, really?" the half-demon growled. "We didn't come here just to
go back again. I can practically smell Naraku's stink out there. We're
getting closer."

"But..." bit by bit, she relented. Taking her bike by the handlebars,
she got ready to hop on. "Fine, we..."

"Hey. Wait a second."

The three spun around at that. Kagome's breath sucked in as she
recognized the voice: it was that PSIA agent Souta and Grandpa had
warned her about! A second later, the man jumped up out of the well,
just like Inuyasha himself often did. Black shoes alighted on the lip of
the well as the man adjusted his tie, loosening it while looking around.

He whistled appreciatively.

"Wow. Look at this place. Reminds me of less creepy Aokigahara..." He
scratched his head, momentarily lost. "Or was that Hakusan? No, pretty
sure it was Aokigahara. Anyway." He hopped down from the well, eyes
moving from Kagome to the young demon to the halfbreed. "So this is
where you go, Miss Higurashi?"

"Amano-san. What - what are you...?" Kagome shook her head in open
disbelief. "How did you come here?"

"I followed you," he explained as he walked towards the girl. "We were
watching and listening, just like you thought. I wanted to see where you
went, so I had my team wait until after you jumped down the well. The
rest of them are back there." He pointed over his shoulder at the well.
"I came in to bring you back."

"But... no one else?" Kagome shook her head again, this time to clear
the confusion. "How did you come through the well? Only Inuyasha or
myself can... it just doesn't make sense!"

"Yeah. I can sympathize. These things are usually pretty confusing." He
glanced up at the flaming demon cat and its two passengers without
apparent surprise. He held out his hand. "Why don't you come back, and
we'll talk all this through?"

She hesitated, looking to Shippo, who was in turn staring up at her, and
then to Inuyasha and her approaching friends. Kneading the hem of her
skirt, she dithered, trying to buy time. This was all too soon. She'd
hoped to have more time to think about how to deal with this!

"Kagome," he said her name this time. "Come on. Let's go back home. You
aren't in trouble. I promise."

Ryouga smiled, and saw again the effect the uniform had on the girl. He
didn't personally enjoy playing the authority card, but it was a fact of
life that Japan was a rather conformist society. Confidence and a
uniform made it much easier to get what you wanted than foreign or
unprofessional attire. It was why he put up with wearing the suit and
shoes on these Ops. Kagome silently acceded, nodding her head and
starting back towards him.

Everything was working out nicely and quietly.

Or, it was, except for the five feet of quasi-steel that interposed
itself between them.

"Kagome isn't going anywhere," Inuyasha snarled, and used the flat of
the blade to nudge Ryouga back and away. "I don't care who you are, but
she's got jewel shards to find. She'll go home when she wants to."

"Well... I guess that second statement is true." Ryouga took a step back
and sighed. He looked over at the girl who ultimately decided which way
this would go. "Miss Higurashi, this probably isn't what you want to
hear, but none of this is what you think it is."

At this, Inuyasha's lips curled into another snarl. "Watch it...!" he
warned.

"What are you saying?" Kagome demanded, already seeing where this was
potentially leading.

She was a smart girl, despite what some of her recent test scores
indicated. She'd thought it herself before, but... but time and
experience had...

"Don't tell me: 'Kagome, this isn't real.' Because it is!" She insisted,
and motioned towards where Sango and Miroku were dismounting from Kirara
and walking over, concern written on their faces. "The things I've seen,
they're... they're too much to not be real!"

"I shouldn't say 'they aren't real.'" Ryouga tried to be diplomatic. He
was trained for this. He didn't enjoy it. It wasn't his preference, but
he had the training and the job. "They're very real to you. Very
important to you. But you can't shut yourself away in your world at the
expense of the one your family and friends live in. So: why don't you
come back with me? We'll talk this over like --"

He jumped back, neatly avoiding the sword swing.

"Not like that," he added, avoiding another slash. "I was going to say:
'like adults.' Could you stop him, please?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome snapped out of her daze. "SIT!"

"But--!" Dutifully, the seal kicked in, and the hanyou slammed to the
ground.

Ryouga nodded, glad she had re-asserted control over her demesne. Things
would start going rapidly downhill if she proved to have less influence
over it than the initial profiling had indicated. He also, as a rule,
didn't enjoy having oversized weapons flying around in his face, be they
swords or spatulas.

"What did you mean?" Kagome asked, taking clear comfort from having her
newly arrived companions close by. "What you said before: what did you
mean?"

"This place," Ryouga began, and took a quick look at the faceplanted
Inuyasha - why did that suddenly look like such a familiar sight? - then
back to Kagome. "And these people are creations. Your creations. What
happens to you when you come here, to what we call a 'psionic demesne,'
is for all intents and purposes real to you. But it has no effect on
anyone else. I see you brought a bike. What do you think would happen if
you left it here for someone to find?"

"It... it would interfere with the timeline?"

"No," he shook his head sympathetically. "Because it isn't here. Right
now, your body, that bike, and who knows how much spoiled food, is at
the bottom of the well."

She smiled at that, an incredulous, skittish smile.

"No. That... that can't be." She paused, and shook her head fiercely.
"No, no. That isn't right. I'd know if... I'd notice something like
that!"

"Kagome-chan," Sango said, comforting her friend and supporting her
shoulders as she shook.

"What you're suggesting isn't possible," Miroku spoke up, planting his
Shakujou staff in the soft ground. "You expect us to believe this world
isn't real? That our lives aren't real?"

"The only one I technically need to convince is her," Ryouga said, and
inclined his head to Kagome and Sango, obviously referring to the
former.

"How can you argue I don't exist?" Miroku asked. "By that logic, what
proof do you have that you exist?"

"Oh, great. Solipsism." Ryouga sighed again; he only knew that word
because this kind of argument was inevitable when it came to this kind
of work. Psionics were a pain sometimes. "My partner could ramble on for
hours, but I'm not really big on subtitles or debate. Kagome, deep down,
you know there's something wrong with this place. You know it isn't
real. Can we stop beating around the bush?"

"That's just avoiding the question!" the monk insisted, and pointing
accusingly at the stranger. "Why don't you show us some proof of what
you claim?"

"You want proof?" Ryouga asked. "Go through the well without Kagome
being on the other side."

Miroku tried to argue that, too, but paused, considering it.

"That..." He held his hand, wrapped in prayer beads. Finally he looked
back up, his mind made. "That doesn't prove anything... there could be
any number of reasons why..."

"Why no one can go to the other side without her?" Ryouga shrugged. He
was running low in prepared material, and making stuff up on the fly was
more Ranma's thing than his. "Look, if you don't need Kagome to exist,
then you won't mind if I take her back home for a couple hours?"

"Even if... even if some of what you say is true," Kagome sounded so
close to being convinced, he wished she would just take that last step.
Things were a hairsbreadth from working themselves out peacefully.

"Even if," Kagome repeated. "Why is it anyone's business but my own what
I do?" She nodded, convincing herself by giving voice to her impromptu
arguments. "Just... just go back home by yourself! I'll go home when I
want to! It's my life and my decision!"

"Now, let's not -- and here comes the giant sword again." Ryouga groaned
and pivoted out of the way of Inuyasha's renewed assault. If only he'd
been able to bring Nabiki here. She was always good at talking and
convincing people. Especially girls.

He was terrible with girls.

"If you won't go back, I'll send you back!" the hanyou roared, carving
another impressive cleft in the ground.

"Funny. I was kind of thinking the same." Ryouga stepped in while
dodging the next strike. As if he'd let a giant meat cleaver like this
thing waved around connect with him on any plane of existence. Hands
finding the base of the sword, he used one hand to grab the blunt curve
and the other to crush the knuckles against the hilt. Giant weapons were
always trouble in these sorts of situations. It was really best to
separate it from its user and keep it that way.

Inuyasha snarled, but reflexively lost his grip. He should have lost his
fingers, but with Mint-like Musk ears like he had, there was obviously
something unusual about the psionic figment. Flipping the giant blade
around - it was still lighter than his old training umbrella had been -
the uniformed Hibiki blocked a flurry of red crescents.

Great. Magic claws, too.

"No mere human can use Tetsaiga!" The dog-boy roared, slashing with
uncomfortably long nails, hands flashing in indistinct arcs as he edged
closer to a berserker fury. "I knew I smelled something wrong with him!"

"You know, you're only smelling what..."

"Shut up and fight!"

"I am fighting." Ryouga snapped back, growing a bit angry. He hadn't
come here looking for a fight. "Why's this sword so big, anyway?"

"Kagome," Sango whispered, as Miroku weighed whether to step in or not.
The most cerebral of the group, he was carefully considering everything
he'd heard. Inuyasha and Ryouga continued back and forth until the
latter whipped the Tetsaiga around, and clearly not knowing the power of
the fang turned sword, jammed it into the ground and out of the way.
Hands free, he opened Inuyasha's guard and slammed a fist into the
vulnerable bottom of the ribcage. Ducking under the hanyou's right arm,
he brought up and around the heel of his shoe in an arcing axe kick,
hitting his opponent precisely on the medulla.

Inuyasha was halfway to the ground when the same foot hit the ground
with an explosion, came back up, and intercepted him, finding his
throat. The vicious blow whipped half the hanyou's body back around,
twisting at the back before hitting the ground, mercifully, voice unable
to get from lungs to lips.

In retrospect, it was probably the least diplomatic approach Ryouga
could have taken.

Sensing their comrade wasn't just in a fight, but in actual danger, one
of the two newcomers broke out of their stupor and acted like he should
have guessed they would. It was the girl, the one who reminded him of
Ukyou, and not simply because of the oversized weapon. It came in,
spinning like a man sized boomerang, which was fine. A large weapon was
easier to read and avoid than a small one. Sidestepping and striking
with a rapid backhand, he avoided the giant weapon and knocked it off
course, preventing it from coming back around to its owner.

Its wielder didn't hesitate to move in, even without her weapon.
Blocking a kick and stepping back, he pivoted to intercept a rising knee
and an elbow. Pushing it back, Ryouga cocked his head as a blade snapped
out of a hidden sheath.

'Maybe make that more Konatsu than Ukyou...' he revised.

Stomping down on her foot, just hard enough to do the job, he used their
contact to put pressure on her joints, spinning her around so her back
was to his front and lowering one arm to lock her right arm behind her
back. She gave a soft grunt of pain and surprise before his knee found
her hamstring, and her shoulder slammed into the ground. He was aware
the pressure being put on her elbow and knee had to hurt, and let go a
second later.

"Now, look -" he began, only to get cut off by the white haired boy
again. Who should've been convulsing on the ground, unable to breathe.

Blocking another claw swipe, the lost one slammed his elbow into the
hanyou's face, crushing his nose at the bridge. As Inuyasha staggered
back, a roundhouse hit the same spot, spinning him around. Rather than
fall, however, the tenacious figment stayed on his feet, and staggered
over to his planted sword. This was going to get potentially rather
messy if it dragged on.

Looking upwards, Ryouga also noticed the sky darkening.

'Great.'

"Miss Higurashi. Kagome," he said, keeping his eyes on Inuyasha. "Isn't
it about time you put a stop to this?"

"Why?" she asked, sounding a bit vindictive.

'Great,' he realized. 'A part of her wanted this. Of course, it would
have, since this entire place is a reflection of part of her
subconscious... ugh'

"Because as amusing as it may be, and I can't believe I'm the one saying
this, but fighting won't solve anything." He kept his eyes on the
hanyou, and on the rising Ukyou-like girl, but lowered his hands to
appear less threatening. "If you don't willingly come with me... I'll
physically remove you from the well. You don't want me to do that."

"Kagome!" Inuyasha managed to say, throat still partly compacted.

"You don't have to...." Sango also started to argue.

The schoolgirl crushed her eyes shut, trying to avoid the inevitable;
weighing the man's bluff. If it was a bluff. What Souta and her
grandfather had said before, what the PSIA people had said before, it
all warred with her desire to be here. To be where she was needed. To be
where she secretly looked forward to being, even with the heartaches and
the danger. It was all... it was all...

It was all what she wanted.

"I have to go back," she said, barely a whisper. Louder, she repeated
it, "I have to go back. I know."

"Kagome!" Shippo cried, finally interposing himself by running in front
of her. "Don't go! Please don't! What if you never come back?"

"I will come back. I swear I will." she kneeled and quickly hugged the
kitsune. "And I'll bring back candy next time, too."

He looked up at her, afraid to let go. "You promise?"

"Cross my heart." She put him back down, and instead faced a growling
Inuyasha.

"I can't believe you're giving up," he said, still clutching his throat.

"I'm not giving up," Kagome argued, walking over to where Ryouga was
standing. She briefly looked the hanyou in the eyes, and then focused on
the PSIA agent.

Inuyasha's grip tightened on the Tetsaiga.

"Inuyasha," she admonished, sensing his tension. "I'll be right back.
But I belong on the other side of the well, too. I can't just ignore
what's going on there."

"But....!"

"I agree," Miroku said, cutting Inuyasha off. The half demon glared at
the monk, and at the blunt end of the Shakujou that was currently
covering his hand and warding the Tetsaiga down. "Let Kagome-sama deal
with this."

It seemed to take a serious force of will, but Inuyasha snarled and
sheathed the sword, turning his back on the spectacle. Shoulders
shaking, he craned his neck with an audible pop.

"Don't keep us waiting, bitch."

'Classy guy,' Ryouga thought to himself, but shrugged internally. Not
that it mattered how this girl's ideal boyfriend talked to her. Even
Akari would've given him the taste of her hand if he said something like
that, and she was the most gentle girl he knew.

Well, tied with Kasumi.

"Let's go," he said, holding out his hand to Kagome. "I'm getting tired
of this pose."

"What pose?" she asked, taking his hand, expecting they'd be heading
back to the well.

A second later, she gasped as her face breached a liquid-like barrier. A
strange smell, a stink really, assailed her nostrils almost to the point
of gagging. Eyes blinked, trying to adjust to a bright white light, but
a vice-like grip on her hand pulled her ever upward. She saw a face, a
tunnel, and looking down at her feet, she saw a strange... aperture... a
ragged, warped surface, and hazy shapes beyond.

"Up and at 'em, Miss Higurashi," the voice of Agent Amano - she sort of
doubted that was his real name, after having seen all he'd done - came
in clearly, and she fell forward against what she assumed to be his
body. Her feet splashed for a moment against the aperture and the... the
thing below... and then it was solid again. The grip on her hand
released.

"What's - what's going on?" She saw the young government agent, and
eeped as he suddenly jumped them both clear out of the well. Her view
became a rush, but then she was on the ground again, and the next thing
she knew her mother had her in her arms.

"Oh, Kagome... don't worry! We'll get you a good lawyer!"

"Mama?"

"Great, lawyers. I prefer the crazy demon boy," Ryouga groaned. He
tapped a microphone in his ear to make sure it was firmly in place after
all that. "Amano here. Silver Ice, repeat, Silver Ice. I've got it
contained..."

"That was easy." A taller man in another black suit and tie remarked,
leaning in the doorway.

"Easy for you, maybe," the lost one replied, and rolled the sleeve of
his right arm up briefly to check the status of his psi-amp. Green. All
good. No boundary contamination.

"What now?" Kagome asked, together with the rest of her family. Her
mother was still hugging her protectively, but Souta and the old man
looked threatened and worried, respectively. They probably assumed the
government would be breaking them up or sending Kagome to a mental
institution.

The sad truth was that, really, they were kind of right to think that.
XCOM - and the organizations funding nations - didn't like to let rogue
psychics run free.

"Now, we're done here..." Ryouga began to say, but scratched the back of
his neck under the collar of his shirt. "Well, I'd like to say that. But
we're not so lucky. I noticed something while I was in Kagome's world."

The agent's eyes fell on one of the Higurashi family in particular.

"That fighting intent. It wasn't all hers. Kagome isn't the one
manifesting her illusions in the real world. Isn't that right?" He
asked. "Mrs. Higurashi?"

"What?" Masaharo was the first to respond. "You can't be...?"

Souta just shook his head and turned to his sister and mother.

"At first, I wasn't sure why this Inuyasha character was the only one
who could come through the well. We had recordings of every single one
of you interacting with him. At first I thought that maybe Kagome didn't
want anyone else from 'her world' to come into this one...? I had to go
there myself to be sure that wasn't it."

"Then I thought: maybe this Inuyasha guy can manifest himself here
because there's another psychic, a stronger psychic, in the house who
wants him to. Someone who had probably been either tapping into... or
helping to create... the fantasy from the very beginning. During the
fight in Kagome's shadow world, I confirmed it. The intent mixed in with
Kagome's wasn't Souta's, or Masaharo's, both of which I had experienced
before. Since it had to be someone in the household, that leaves you."

"Higurashi Nodoka..." Ryouga continued. "Even in this room full of
tension, I still can't read you at all. Could you please explain why?"

"Mama, what is he...?" Kagome began to ask, but her mother's arms
tightened around her daughter. The girl stiffened and then went lax.

"I suppose blocking you outright was a novice mistake," Nodoka said,
voice full of motherly calm.

"Well, it was obvious, so..." Ryouga replied, leaving the point hanging.
"I know someone just like you. She puts on the same act. But even if you
conceal your emotions, you still have them. It's just human nature."

"I don't understand," Souta spoke up, edging towards panicked. "What's
going on? What's he talking about?"

"Nothing dear. Why don't you and your grandfather go to sleep?" She
asked with a serene smile. Both males seemed about to object before
their eyes closed and they slowly fell to the floor, like puppets whose
strings have been cut. Kagome's eyes widened, and she tensed to rush
over, but her mother held her firm and she went limp again.

"They're fine, dear. Don't worry," Mrs Higurashi said, partly to her
daughter, partly to the two still-conscious federal agents. "You two
should just leave. We're a peaceful family. We've never hurt anyone."

"That's true," Mousse said, still leaning against the door.

"It is," Ryouga also admitted. "As far as renegade psionics go, you've
been very careful. You only let your powers, and your imaginations, run
wild in that other world. On this side, you've kept pretty much under
the radar. I can't just walk away from this, though."

"And why not?" Nodoka asked, her tone growing a bit more sharp. "We were
perfectly fine-"

"You weren't 'perfectly fine.'" He cut her off, brows falling into a
frown. "The moment you started warping the world we live in, you crossed
the line. And look at your daughter. Do you think her spending half her
life in a coma is a healthy way of dealing with things?"

"You probably came here to help deal with your abilities," Mousse
guessed, adjusting his glasses with a middle finger. "If strange things
happened, then it was just spirits, or something like that, and no one
would bat an eye. But things got worse as Kagome there got older, and
you realized she was the same as you."

"It isn't like I planned this. It just... happened." Nodoka shook her
head, refusing to give up. "I know what you two want to do with us.
You'll lock us both up. We're no threat to you, but you don't care, do
you? Well."

Her serene expression never changed, but suddenly the room became
blanketed in psionic power.

"I won't let that happen."

Mousse pushed off the wall, a glowing light pulsing through the sleeve
of his suit.

"And so things turn messy." Ryouga took a step forward. "As usual."

- - -

Operation: Silver Ice

Tokyo, Japan Higurashi Shrine: February, 17th; 14:00 hours

- - -

Commander Yasuda had called it "growing field experience."

For Nabiki Tendo, it was just the sort of chaos she had hoped to avoid
after finally coming back to the city of her birth. For months now, she
had been cooped up in an underground base, deep in the mountains; a
chance for some field work, back in Tokyo, had seemed like a great deal.
She'd spend a few days snooping around, maybe supervise one or two semi-
serious ops, capture whatever rogue psionic or martial artist was
running amuck, and then grab a couple precious hours of leisure time.

It was the next best thing to an unsupervised leave.

Naturally, things didn't turn out that way at all.

The Higurashi Shrine was the sort of archetypical shinto establishment
her father had always told her to take a historic and cultural interest
in, and which she had quickly grown bored with. She had seen her share
of spirits and demons and other really, really odd things - doubly so
over the last half year since joining UNETCO - but none of that had made
her feel particularly religious. Seeing this particular shrine for the
first time, her initial impression was that the land it was on had to be
worth a small fortune.

Then she saw the first of the twisting serpentine monsters rise up from
beyond cusp of the hill the shrine stood upon. Twisted maws snapped and
hissed, and inhuman eyes dilated as the mass of... things... churned
like an insane ocean. Nabiki sighed.

This was why exactly why property values in Tokyo were so damn erratic.

Among the ten police they'd brought as back up, an almost visible wave
of trepidation rippled among the men and women. One of the men inched
closer to the black suited woman, torn between the urge to run in and
save the neighborhood and the urge to get back in the car and pretend
the last few minutes were the result of some really bad cream in the
coffee.

"Um, ma'am, should we... do anything?"

"Nah. Don't worry about it." The surprisingly young agent just smirked,
the green light engulfing the top of the shrine shining in her polarized
glasses. Nabiki shook her head in the negative. "We've got this."

- - -

The giant eye splattered, along with the rest of the creature's face,
thick meat slurry exploding from the former cranium. Fists found limbs
and gaping toothy maws, leaving broken and misshapen masses of flesh
behind. High speed steel shredded without mercy or warning, darkening
the sky with a rain of red and black blood.

It was a nice workout.

Mousse ran one of the dozen blades hidden on his person across the
length of the creature's body. There were no clean cuts, despite the
skill of the combatant. Flesh peeled away as the pressure inside found a
release, venting the inside of the demon simulacrum with a blast of gas
and blood. A flick of the wrist bright the edge back around, opening up
the neck just enough to make the cut quick and efficient, minimizing the
risk of metal getting stuck in bone.

Another step forward, another corpse fell to the wayside.

"Alive, Mister 'Chen'. I want them alive. Don't forget that."

"I know," The Amazon's arm blurred, and a hissing serpentine creature
lost the top half of its head. "I'm nearsighted, not an idiot."

Fingers plunged into snapping faces, breaking teeth and gouging eyes.
Turning to fists, they crushed the offensive mockeries, leaving broken
remains and twitching tongues to wag on the floor. Elbows and fingers
were hammers and blades in all but name, crushing and destroying as fast
as targets presented themselves. Black dress shoes advanced over
twisted, screaming remains, crushing them underfoot.

"You know, this would be easier if you'd let me use some high
explosives."

"No need." Ryouga slammed the face of a giant ogre like creature into
his knee, crushing its skull like a melon. "We're getting a reputation
for property destruction."

"Really?" Mousse removed a spiked mace from the crotch of one creature,
whipping it around to behead another charging would-be demon. "I wonder
why?"

"You laugh, but I'm the one the Commander yells at."

"She yells at you?"

"Not yells, so much. But she uses that voice. The scary one."

"Don't act like I know what you mean. She's never been mad at me."
Mousse jumped over the legless demon, already carving into the one
behind it. "I'm a good boy."

"That's because you suck up to women." Ryouga's foot, blazing green,
nearly punched a hole in another creature, the force of the blow forcing
its body to crunch up like a dead spider.

"I do not!"

"You so do. You're even nice to Khu Lon these days."

"I've always been nice to the old monkey mummy."

As the duo approached their targets, the swarm of psionic constructs
began to mass together by simple press of bodies. They were swirling up
and away from the pair and the well off to the right, having destroyed
the shack and everything nearby. Many had little time to even form
together before running into the backs of their predecessors. A few were
crushed outright or trampled underfoot.

"They're getting marginally tougher," Mousse noted, leaving a sickle-
like blade buried in the wrecked remains of one of the creatures.
"Remind me again why we're playing around?"

"This isn't just our fight," Ryouga replied, providing little to nothing
in the way of explanation.

"You're getting soft lately, you know."

"No! You're getting soft."

"That's a shitty comeback!"

"Hey. No it isn't."

"Actually it is. Oh ho, I see we're getting human-ish ones now." Mousse
buried two long knives into the juncture of shoulder and neck of an half
formed creature with an annoyingly Ranma-like pigtail. It seemed on the
verge of doing or saying something when its lungs and internals became a
kabob. It was quite a bit harder to kill, too, thrashing and reaching
for a staff it had lost. Mousse wondered briefly what it did.

Stamping down the creature's calves and sending it to its knees, Mousse
scissored the two blades free with predictably nasty results. Unlike
before, these was little or no spray of blood, despite the
dismemberment. Instead, the body discorporated into a sort of ethereal
ash.

"She's losing control," Mousse guessed, casually imbedding three knives
into the throat and eyes of a surprised humanoid demon. "We should use
our amps again."

"Wait for it," Ryouga ordered, dislocating the arm of another humanoid
with sickle claws. He jammed those same blades into the creature's lower
back, severing the spinal cord. For good measure, he also used his free
hand to grab it by the hair and twist, snapping the neck hard enough for
bone to tear out from under skin and muscle.

It too, turned to ash.

"It isn't that she's losing control." The lost one speculated, as the
two martial artists maintained a constant distance from the mother and
daughter psionics. Nodoka was shaking, not with fury, but concentration,
her arms still wrapped protectively around her daughter. Kagome, up
until that moment, had been still in her mother's arms.

Now, she was starting to stir.

"Then we should definitely use our amps again," the male Amazon argued.
"Unless you want to get overwhelmed by demons and miss your date."

"This is neither the time nor the place, Mo- Mister Chen. Just wait.
Hold up." Ryouga held out his hand, bloody as it was, and even took a
step back. "I think this is it."

"And if it isn't?" Mousse asked, but did as asked, pausing in his
whirling dervish of carnage. "I don't want to get killed so you can
indulge another hardcase psychic."

As the tide of fodder ebbed, Nodoka clearly spent time trying to draw
out something big. A pair of forms started to coagulate, but with
obvious difficulty. One, tall and stately, with more long while hair -
Ryouga have that a half lidded look; what was this? An Amazon thing? -
turned back to look at its creators. The other did likewise, though it
had dark hair and a strange animal coat thing going on. Both took in the
sight of the two women, wavered, and broke into ash.

"I can't... why won't...?" Nodoka asked, exhausted. "Why won't they do
what I say?"

"Mama," Kagome finally spoke up, looking over her shoulder at her
mother. "You have to stop."

"No," she insisted, looking down at her, and then back at the two
federal agents. "I'll... I can... bring Kouga and... Kikyo, or... your
friends, and..."

"They won't," Kagome said, simply. "Because they don't want to."

"They'll do what we want them to do."

"They won't," the younger woman sounded completely sure of the fact.
"Because to me, they're real people, with free will. It won't work."

"More miasma then! If I can just..."

Kagome just shook her head. "Mama. No. Enough."

Four more shapes began to form: ones familiar to Ryouga. They were hazy,
incomplete constructions, like the two before. He recognized the staff,
the boomerang, and the giant curved sword. At that, he allowed himself a
weary smile. Mousse tensed to intervene with his psi-amp, disrupting the
constructs directly at the potential risk of harming the psionic
creating them. Again , Ryouga held up his hand and motioned to let
things play out.

"But - but they'll take you away." Nodoka protested, looking down at her
daughter with tears in her eyes. "I - I promised your father they
wouldn't break up our family. He was... he was... like us..."

The three shapes turned to follow Kagome, as she turned and hugged her
mother back.

"Huh." Mousse huffed, still ready to use his amp. "I told you you're
getting soft."

Ryouga spared his comrade a knowing look. "If you don't like how I do
things you could ask to transfer to Juliet squad."

The hidden weapons master's glasses glinted, not dignifying such an
absolutely insane suggestion with an answer. Ranma's squad? Honestly? As
if that was even an option.

The three forms seemed to give passing looks to the two bloody martial
artists as they walked by. Only as they retreated did a fourth form
become clear, one no taller than either man's knees.

It lingered longer, afraid to go.

"Katsumi. Call it in and get some shadows up here. Chen. Suppressors on
both of them," Ryouga ordered, tossing Mousse one of the metal strips.
"I'll clean up this mess."

Turning around, the lost one's psi-amp flared, burning away the piles of
twitching psychic remains with a purifying psionic inferno. Within
minutes, black helicopters descended and yellow police tape enveloped
the city shrine. Biohazard stickers and armed police warded off the
curious as a column of psychic ash rose above the summit, smearing and
staining the midday sky.

- - -

The only good thing, Nabiki assumed, about dealing with pure psionic
constructs was that it was a lot easier to clean up after. Blood, guts
and flesh, transformed and disguised matter, all quickly reverted back
to baseline with or without the right psionic prodding. This was a
routine they had some experience with.

Tossing India Squad's officer a towel, Nabiki took off her mirrored
sunglasses and tucked them into the collar of her shirt. Cleanup crews
had already disembarked and were quickly moving to secure the Higurashi
Shrine. Men and women in white hazmat suits hosed down the site, both to
contain any contaminants and to further obscure what had actually
occurred minutes before.

"You look like a wet rat," Nabiki observed, walking past the lost
lieutenant. "And you smell like one, too."

"Like you'd know what a wet rat smells like. ...Are we on schedule?" he
asked, wrapping the towel around his right hand. Together with his psi-
amp, he started to wipe off the simulcra. The latter reverted deep
crimson blood to a colorless amorphous psychic slime, ninety five
percent pure water, while the former soaked it up. With his arms cleaned
first, he took off his black suit jacket and tossed it away to land on a
nearby fence post.

"We're good," she replied, stepping mindfully around the mess he and
Mousse had left in their wake. "I'll take care of things from here."

He nodded, letting her have her way now that the fighting was over with.

Draping the towel over one shoulder, he instead wandered over to where
Mousse was watchfully minding the two captives. These were India's first
Class-A captures in months. The mother in particular was either the more
powerful of the two or the more experienced. Ryouga wouldn't be
surprised if they managed to track her own experiences down to an
abduction event a couple decades ago. The sheer mass of constructs she
had manifested and their interactivity were rather impressive.

Tapping into her daughter like that must've boosted the output, too. If
they were like that pair of twins in US containment then they'd be
classified both separately, as A, and together as rare double-A. The
eggheads working on gestalt psionics would probably want to get their
hands on them, too, despite that near-disaster at Luna. Not that a lowly
Lieutenant should be criticizing the research priorities of high
command, but being called in to clean up after things went wrong was...
de-motivating.

Speaking of de-motivating -

"Agent 'Chen'?" Ryouga asked, approaching the hidden weapons master. "Is
that really necessary?"

"She was getting all weepy," the Chinese fighter explained, referring to
the elder Higurashi female, currently fast asleep on a blue tarp thanks
to a contact sedative. "Plus, she did try to drown us in eldrich
horrors. I'd say she got off easy."

Kagome, still awake, sat with her legs tucked under her, restraints on
her wrists. She was quiet and still, but Ryouga could see the suppressor
band firmly in place across her forehead and only partly concealed by
her long, dark hair. A single green strip on the alien alloy indicated
it was functional and inhibiting non-essential mental pathways. Unlike
the ubiquitous alien 'examination table' it didn't actively paralyze the
victim; she should still be able to physically move and act.

Precautions.

Nodding, he was about to turn elsewhere to help oversee clean up, when a
voice spoke.

"You lied."

Facing Kagome, he sighed. It was true. He had lied. He had said what was
needed to try and resolve the situation without people getting hurt. He
couldn't, wouldn't, blame her for the anger she had to feel towards him.

"You lied to me," Kagome repeated, accusing, hurt, and angry. "You said
we wouldn't be punished. You said you only wanted to talk. Are you going
to tear apart our family now? Or experiment on us?"

The sound of a can opening came from the nonchalant Mousse, who had
pulled out a small mocha-coffee can from somewhere on his person. He
proceeded to drink down the caffeine without an apparent care in the
world. The captive young woman took a moment to glare at the Chinese
martial artist's callousness.

Resting on one knee, Ryouga waited for her to turn her anger back at him
where it belonged. He was in command. He made the calls. The ugly side
of authority was responsibility. When things went right or wrong, it
ultimately fell on his shoulders, and his alone.

"I did lie," he admitted, looking down briefly, but then back up to
accept her gaze. "And... it may be some time before your family is whole
again. Both you and your mother need to be taught to deal with what you
can do. That's where they'll take you. I'm not trained for that. The
only thing I can do is fight."

"What are they going to do to us?" she asked again, straining a bit
against the bands on her wrists. "I still don't know why we're being
treated like this... why us?"

"It isn't your fault," he tried to explain. "The ones who did this to
your mother, to you through her... they're our enemies. People like you
are caught between us and them. I can promise you that you won't be
hurt. Or experimented on. Things like this..." he gestured to the now
foam-smothered chaos Mrs Higurashi had summoned up. "It... scares
people."

Kagome blinked, and a bit of her anger faded, replaced by resignation.
In truth, she understood all too well. It scared her, too. Though recent
revelations had put things in a strange new context, she understood the
fear people watching this sort of thing would have. She had felt the
same, known the same, back in the feudal era of her other world, teeming
as it was with demons and otherworldly dangers. Even if it wasn't "real"
no one wanted people projecting those kinds of things into other
people's minds... or into other people's lives.

"I see," she said.

"You aren't the only one," Ryouga said then, and she looked back up at
him. "Agent Chen and I are like you...just weaker. And there are lots of
others, too. We aren't locking you up. We're just making a world where,
one day, people like your mother don't have to try and hide what they
can do and where they don't have to worry about losing control."

It was a few pregnant seconds before Kagome spoke again.

"And Grandpa? And Souta? What about them?"

Ryouga let out a deep breath and stood back up.

"Altered memories," he said. "Probably, we'll make it so they think
you're at prep school. And that your mother has an overseas job. We've
become rather adept at making people disappear."

"That's... not really the most encouraging thing to say to someone in my
position," Kagome remarked, holding up her cuffed hands. "But I believe
you."

He offered her a small, weak smile, but a genuinely sympathetic one.

It wasn't a sympathy extended to the source of humanity's psionic
troubles. To those beings, his smile, and his hands, presaged only death
or capture. No alien asked for mercy or compassion, nor would any
receive it. That category included those who willingly aided and abetted
the enemy. All those would be hunted, from the surface of the Earth to
depths of Mars, and exterminated.

Kagome slowly stood up, turning to face one of the landed black
helicopters and a group of approaching HAZMAT suited men and women. The
resignation she had felt before was now replaced by a small, wary,
cautious optimism. The leader of the group saluted, and presented a
clipboard for the jacket-less government agent to sign.

"Ne, what was your real name?" Kagome asked, realizing she was being
handed over. "Amano Seiji-san?"

Ryouga signed his name to the transfer form and sealed it with the date
and time.

"Hibiki," he replied. "Ryouga."

Kagome managed a smile at that as the men took her away.

"We'll hold you to your word," she said as she walked away. "Hibiki-
san."

As the group left, and the second one came for the still sleeping Nodoka
Higurashi, Mousse strolled over, his chilled coffee can empty. Balancing
it between his fingers, the Chinese weapons master chuckled.

"That sounded almost like a threat, lieutenant," he remarked, grinning.
"Think you've just made a new friend or a new enemy?"

Ryouga just shrugged, staring silently up at the ash tainted sky. As a
Hibiki, born, bred, and lost, he understood all too well that literally
anything could wait right around the next corner. The one and only
constant was that there would be an enemy to fight and obstacles to
overcome. As for tomorrow... there was nothing to do but wait and see
what reared its head.

And then crush it.

- - -

Screaming winds pummeled the Tamaranian as she soared through the
primordial darkness.  Tears stung her eyes, threatening to blur her
vision, and that she could not afford.  The unconscious form of her
cybernetic friend, the only thing she could see in the violently chaotic
nothing, remained just out of her reach.  But no matter how fast she
pushed herself, how she reached out, Cyborg's metallic skin hung
tantalizingly beyond her curling fingertips ...

And then he was gone - there was no flash of light, no spectral effect,
simply there one second, and then gone the next.

Starfire did not have a chance to contemplate this dark turn, as a
fraction of a second later, blinding light stabbed into her eyes.  The
Tamaranian cried out in shock at the sudden and abject shift from pitch
darkness to noonday sun, her flight instantly dissolving into a wild
tailspin.

Several precious seconds passed, the girl blinking her eyes furiously,
before her sight began to return to her.  Bright blue sky alternated
with indistinct land in a kaleidoscope of color as she spun madly
through the air. Gone was the aching chill of the void, replaced with a
warm gust which washed over her skin.  It would have been almost
pleasant -

Another pained blink brought the world back into sharp focus ...
revealing the fact that she was arrowing sharply down over a human city.
Buildings zipped below her in a blur; the alien girl tried vainly to
regain control, but she had been fired out of the portal far more
energetically than could be expected -

The tall clock tower sprang up before her like an earthly weed.
Starfire could do nothing but raise her hands in front of her face, jade
energy flaring to life around them, before she collided, head first with
the structure.  Brick and mortar was pulverized to dust by the intense
plasma sheath which surrounded her, and she exploded through the other
side of the tower a second later in a shower of debris.

Slowed somewhat by her impact, the Tamaranian was finally able to regain
enough control of her flight so that, rather than drill straight into
the ground at ridiculous speeds, she only crashed into the pavement with
enough force to tear up a furrow of demolished infrastructure roughly
ten meters long ...

Several long moments passed before Starfire could finally sit up, her
body protesting violently at every small movement she forced it to make.
It was times like this that she was especially grateful for her inherent
durability.  Though she was wracked with pain, she could tell most of
her injuries were of the superficial variety, and expected her natural
solar regeneration would heal them in short order.

It was about that point, that Starfire heard the first scream of terror.
Immediately, she prepared to assuage the fears of whoever she had
frightened with her unruly entry - Only to realize quite quickly that it
was not her that was causing the screaming.

An ominous groan of failing structural integrity filled the air as the
top half of the clock tower, now sporting a massive hole through its
heart, began to list inexorably to the side.  The red bricks and heavy
granite slabs in the side of the tower began to shatter messily as the
unbalanced structure appeared to be attempting to take a bow. The
numerous people on the street began to run in a blind panic, but the
equally numerous vehicles, now trapped in a traffic jam by her very own
destruction of the street, had nowhere to go as the large tower
continued to topple over.

All of the pain in her body seemed to vanish in a blink as a look of
grim determination set itself firmly on her features.  Not even
bothering to stand, Starfire simply rolled forward and pushed off with
all of the strength in her alien legs, launching herself through the air
at ballistic speeds.

Streamers of green light trailing her in her rushed flight, the flame
haired alien flew directly beneath the severed section of the tower,
over fifteen meters long and nearly half that wide, not counting the
lengthy lightning rod which topped the leaning tower. Several well
placed optical plasma blasts scattered large pieces of stone that broke
away from the base of the tower and had been hurtling towards the people
on the street below...

Then the shadow of the tower encompassed her and the Tamaranian raised
her arms quickly and pressed her palms to the now horizontal wall just
below the large clock face.  Instantly, she began to drop through the
air, the momentum of the monumental time piece and the sheer mass
involved improbable to resist.

Improbable was not the same as impossible, though.  Gritting her teeth,
Starfire pushed back with everything she had, and after a quick glance
down at the people below, she then doubled her efforts.  Sweat drencher
her brow and veins began to bulge worrying along the tightly corded
muscles of her arms as she battle gravity by virtue of pure, boundless
confidence. More troublingly, the wall and supports she was pushing into
threatened to break. It wouldn't be long before she just blasted through
the structure, the rest continuing its fall.

Against all logic of those watching, the descent of the sheared off
tower began to slow and tilt to the side. People actually began to slow
in their panicked runs and stare up in awe at the display -
unfortunately, many of those people would still be in range if the tower
were to crash to the street.

"Please do not cease your evacuation!"

Oddly, not a single person heeded her advice.  Starfire prepared to yell
her command again ... when she noticed the strangely high concentration
of Asian people on the streets below and the near complete presence of
Chinese writing on all of the signage and advertisements which lined the
street as far as the eye could see.

Had she been transported to the alleged 'Chinatown' subsection of the
city?

Her distraction cost her, as the weight of the falling tower began to
push her down again, Starfire gave a very unladylike grunt as she
renewed her struggle to slow the collapse.  All around her hands, and
throughout the entire building section, cracks began to form as the
numerous strains on the tower began to eat away at its structural
integrity.  All too soon, the task of deflecting the falling tower would
be the least of her worries is shearing forces turned one falling body
into a half dozen.

"Escape to a safe distance!" This time she shouted her warning in the
dialect of Chinese which matched the written language present, and
though when people actually listened this time, she suspected it had
nothing to do with her words, and everything to do with the various
bricks and jagged metal fragments which began to break away from the
structure and drop to the ground in a destructive rain.

With one last surge of strength, torrents of righteous fury
supplementing her flagging confidence, the Tamaranian hero briefly
managed to stop the massive structure's fall completely. The strain was
unbelievable, impossible for her to even describe, but she forced
herself to maintain until the very last of the human's had escaped their
vehicles and fled to safety... Viridian eyes searched frantically for an
open area to let the structure collapse onto.

And then, just as the tower above her, her resolve disintegrated into a
heap of rubble.  Starfire crashed to the ground mere fractions of a
second before being buried under the tons of stone and mortar that had
once been a majestic clock tower. The scene surrounding the sprawling
mountain of debris grew oddly still in the moments that followed.
Nothing moved aside from settling of the massive cloud of dust kicked up
from the impact. Tentatively at first, spectators of the near disaster
began to move in closer to the disaster site, curiosity over the bizarre
happenstance overcoming their fear.

Only to run screaming again seconds later as twin pillars of jade energy
tore up through the pile of bricks and steel, blasting the rubble aside
in a second.  Moments later, the strange, orange skinned girl floated up
from the wreckage.  Starfire groaned weakly in pain, noting the quantity
of bruises and scratches that were already making themselves known to
her.  The physical pain was less hurtful than the what she felt when she
saw the people on the street fleeing in fear from the very sight of her.

It had been some time since she had been subjected to the fear of those
she attempted to save, and now she realized it had not been nearly long
enough between occurrences.  She had thought that the citizens of her
city had long become accustomed to her unusual nature?  Letting out a
forlorn sigh, the alien girl began to float away from the site of her...
admittedly rough entrance.

Perhaps, once she had some time to clear her head, she could sort out
exactly what had happened to her.

- - -

The first pictures were on the internet within four minutes of the
incident.

Accompanying them were copious streams of dialogue, both spoken and
written, regarding the incident. These passed from phone to phone, phone
to website, website to website, website to email. The flow of electronic
traffic increased very nearly exponentially. Or it would have.

Two minutes and twenty four seconds after Information Exposure, the
UNETCO Echelon system flagged multiple corroborating accounts of unusual
activity originating from a region in southern China. The PRC was a
staunch supporter of the UNETCO accords and fully compliant with the
sections relating to "information management." Whether this was out of
practicality or an ongoing national priority regarding control over the
internet and other information outlets within the borders of the one-
party state was debatable.

Echelon's automated monitoring systems quickly identified the
disturbance, and within thirty four seconds, upgraded their status from
orange to red. Notification was forwarded to Chinese authorities about
the upcoming Information Whiteout. Data analysts at the UNETCO "Ocean
City" Facility approved the measure, and choreographed counter-
information attacks were waged to control the flow of data. Photographs
were automatically doctored and edited, and then redistributed in place
of the originals. Sophisticated programs provided corrupted text
messages and altered first hand accounts. InfWar Bots automatically
searched for and intervened in relevant threads across social networks.

The truth was quickly lost amid the static and white noise.

UNETCO had, over the years, become quite adept as countering and
controlling the flow of rumor and heresay. The Chinese government acted
in a more typical fashion to contain the disruption, which only
furthered the cover-up by adding credibility to the fact that it was a
viral hoax. It would never be possible to completely cover up the
incident, but it would be easy to discredit it and contain it. Ten
minutes after the incident was first flagged, it was given a official
name for record keeping.

China-56-890

Despite the quick response, most of it automated, other problems
remained. These would have to be handled by UNETCO Echelon's human
resources and intelligence personnel. The first matter was to
investigate the incident itself "on the ground." First responders, local
police and firefighters were already heading towards the scene - they
would be contacted and used to gather on the spot intelligence. They
would also help in containing the spread of potentially troublesome
information regarding China-56-890.

The second matter was an ongoing concern.

China-56-890 was moving. Echelon detected, less than a minute after
containing the first phase of the incident, corroborating cell phone
recordings of an unidentified object flying over a populated area. Image
recognition and enhancement confirmed that the object was, in fact,
humanoid. Colors were low quality, but definitely identified as a shade
of orange. It was also flying unassisted through the air. More red flags
accentuated the case file, bumping it up to Alpha level priority. A
satellite was quickly pinged for reorientation and acquisition of the
incidental area.

HumInt added only this to the heading:

Case: China-56-890

Possible Ethereal Sighting Downtown Area

Immediate Response Recommended



- - -













Abstract -- Ryouga Hibiki Rank: Lieutenant

Tokyo native, only child of Tetsuya and Mitsuko Hibiki. Practices the
Informal 'Hibiki Family Survivalist Style' of martial arts. Psionic
Class-B. Former wandering martial artist and member of the 'Nerima
Wrecking Crew' Lieutenant Hibiki was involved in the two year spree of
incidents (see: Nerima Records) much of which involved his rivalry with
Lieutenant Saotome. Records sealed and reports classified per standard.

Several months after the First Incident at Jusendo (see R. Saotome),
Hibiki was involved in at least two Abduction Events (L-B45-671),
(second event unrecorded). L-B45-671 resulted in two confirmed civilian
fatalities: A. Unryu (Japanese, female, age 17 - assumed harvested); S.
Unryu (not abducted; died: heart attack). Hibiki tracked to Nerima ward
and additional abduction events recorded (see: Nerima Abduction Event).
Saotome and Hibiki able to assault Abduction craft before escaping
orbit, killing aliens onboard. Civilian casualties estimated to be
twelve (12), eight (8) on craft and four (4) on ground. Khu Lon and O.
Tofu captured via separate vessel.

After reorienting the captured UFO to crash in South America, vessel and
survivors were recovered by UNETCO operatives. Decision made to create
experimental field operations teams ('martial arts squads') to
circumvent Section Seven restrictions in charter and combat Sirius
Group. Program accepted under the direction of N. Yasuda Cmndr, Far East
Branch. Due to deaths of A. Unryu, Hibiki demonstrated significant
commitment. Psionic imprinting undertaken (see: psi-gym usage) to
expected effect.

Hibiki was picked to organize and lead Squad: India (Hibiki, Kumon, Tzu,
Kuno) out of Seiran, under supervision of Cptn Ben-Solomon. Assigned
rank Special Lieutenant. Demonstrated acceptable to excellent
performance in last two months of 2006. Promotion to Lieutenant.
Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill
recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007). (see: Service
Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). N. Tendo added as
replacement Operator (2006).

PsyOps has observed a decrease in aggression over the last three month
period, possibly related to relationship with Operator Tendo, however
the lieutenant continues to have an excellent engagement ratio. India is
a solid light assault team. S7 Ops against conspirator cells, rogue
psychics, and Trenchards have proven to be another specialty. Hibiki is
driven, determined, and due to his background, he can be counted on to
show initiative within the confines of his orders. Given that we can
expect Trenchards to be present on Mars, India squad is a logical
candidate for inclusion in CLEANSLATE.

[signature redacted]







##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 5231 CODENAME: Starfire REAL NAME: Koriand'r

SPECIES: Tamaranian HEIGHT: 5'11" WEIGHT: 120lbs HAIR COLOR: Red EYE
COLOR: Green

KNOWN ABILITIES: Shares physiological traits in common with rest of her
species.  Superhuman strength, durability, endurance, flight.  High
resistance to most forms of harmful radiation. Ability to survive
prolonged exposure to extra-atmospheric conditions.  Subject 5231 also
possess abilities unique to herself, and to Subject 7245: Codename:
Blackfire.  Ability to generate energy of varying intensity, commonly
referred to as 'Starbolts'.  Has demonstrated the ability to direct
energy blasts from both hands and eyes.  Resistance to energy is also
far above other members of species - likely in correlation to former
ability.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Physical Weaknesses: Research still in progress.
Psychological Weaknesses: Subject has demonstrated intense connections
with current team mates, notably Subject 203: Codename: Robin.  Highest
probability of incapacitating subject is a psychological attack
capitalizing on this bond.

KNOWN HISTORY: Very little is known of the Subject before her arrival on
Earth.  Arrival occurred in Jump City and was closely followed by a
small scale invasion by a Gordanian Battlecruiser.  Citywide destruction
was narrowly averted when the Subject was found by Subject: 203:
Codename: Robin, Subject: 790: Codename: BeastBoy, Subject: 3845:
Codename: Cyborg and Subject: 6138: Codename: Raven. Shortly afterwards,
aforementioned Subjects formed the team designated: Teen Titans.

As part of the Teen Titans, Subject has demonstrated above average
combat abilities, both in close quarters and at range.  Notable
incidents include encounters with villains: Subject 2101: Codename:
Deathstroke The Terminator, Subject: 8839: Codename: Terra, and Subject:
1978: Codename: Brother Blood.  Subject has yet to show any signs of
instability, or lapses in morality.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: E

PERSONAL NOTE: The girl has grown close to Dick over the years. Perhaps
too close? I fear that she might make it difficult for him to keep his
head in battle.  Men like us aren't meant get entangled in that way.  I
had hoped that the rumors of her impending marriage on the planet
Tamaran had been true... but according to Dick, it had simply been a
ruse by her sister.  Perhaps the addition of their newest team member
will divert her attention?  Dick has been expressing some small
frustration over the past several weeks - perhaps it's related?  Will
continue to observe situation.

##