[SM/Xover][FanFic] A Soldier's Duty, chapter 8

[metro...@mindspring.com]

A Soldier's Duty

Chapter 8 (4th Labor)

"As you journey through life, take a minute every now and then to give a
thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something." - Hagar the
Horrible

--------

Grey, who was *not* the paragon of courage and self-confidence that others
might expect, wanted to turn around and walk the other way.

High School was, as far as he was concerned, one of those things that you
had to do, but that you couldn't actually enjoy. Root canals, knee
replacement surgery, jury duty, and other aspects of life that similarly
qualified as "unpleasant."

Grey walked up to the school alone, Ami going ahead to her classroom as if
she didn't know him at all.

Upon first entering the school, he could feel the cool stares. He'd be
shunned, that was certain.

"-Ah, you must be Shard-san!-"

Then again, maybe not.

"-Hi. I'm Misato Katsuragi, I'm a new teacher here. I hope you'll be
available to help my class with English Conversation.-"

Grey looked at the girl and wondered how young teachers were in Japan. "-i'm
not sure what my schedule will be like, Katsuragi-san. Otherwise i'd be
happy to help.-"

"Filthy gaijin!" Someone yelled from the back of a crowd.

"-I'm afraid there's going to be some degree of that,-" said Misato. "-Oh
well, see you later, probably.-"

Grey sighed, then went into the school, fully aware of the staring and
whispering. He just wished he had a way of translating, but if he relied on
the Chain and partial transformation to Knight then he'd never learn the
language.

More staring as he walked in, with conversations stopping as he went by.
Great. Putting a big spotlight on him would only be icing at this point.

~And what is with everyone having newspapers or articles they've clipped?
Class project or something?~

-----------

"Mizuno-kun!"

Ami glanced up from where she'd been reading, then stood to bow slightly.
"Vice Principal. Is something wrong?"

"I should say so, Mizuno-kun!" The heavyset authority looked distinctly
reddish and flustered. "This is completely unacceptable!"

Ami blinked. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what you're referring to."

"It's bad enough that you associate with some scum-head students, I'd meant
to talk to you regarding that as well. But this engagement goes beyond even
that."

Ami began to shrink in on herself, feeling the eyes of the class upon her.
"...but sir..."

"They will bother your studies. So will this engagement. I would advise you
to break both of them off." The Vice Principal nodded as if agreeing with
himself. "There are entry exams soon that should be your only concern. I'm
sure these are all burdens to you that will weigh you down."

"ukkk," said Usagi, falling from her desk. ~Burden?!~

"Please see me anytime," requested the Vice Principal.

"Even if you're vice-principal, 'burden' is not a proper word to use,"
protested Ami.

"Just a figure of speech," waved the authoritarian figure. "For now I advise
you to focus on studying. Exclusively if possible."

The teacher walked in as the Vice Principal walked out.

Ami reseated herself and tried to focus on the material, but she had to
admit she wasn't anywhere *close* to focussing on today's assignment.
~Studying? Is that all I am? Is that all I am allowed? If you took away
studying and exams, would there be anything left?~

Usagi sweated. ~Are we a burden to Ami-chan? She has to study so much more
than any of the rest of us. Oh dear.~

Minako and Makoto slumped at their desks, thinking things similar to Usagi.

----------

"So, how good *is* your Japanese, Shard-san?" The Principal raised an
eyebrow at the boy.

"i speak little Japanese," indicated Grey holding finger and thumb close
together. "They not teach in school home. Only here two days. No much time."

"-I can tell you've done pretty well nonetheless,-" the principal noted.
~Too well. He might actually succeed in stealing off our prize pupil. The
reputation of the school is at stake!~ "-One thing you're doing wrong,
however. Besides using the female forms in the language, you're much too
formal. Instead of using 'boku' or 'atashi' for yourself, use your name.
This lets people know that you're a student of the language.-"

"Oh. So Grey should talk this like?"

"-Yes, much better. Oh, I hear you're engaged to Mizuno-san. What do you
think of her?-" The Principal noted the faint blush, easily seen on the
boy's pale skin, and realized strict measures would be needed.

"-She's cute. Really cute. Intelligent. Nice. Doesn't seem to care for me
that much. Maybe after we get to know each other. We *are* kind of young for
all this.-"

"-Well, if Mizuno-san is happy, then that's what matters,-" lied the
Principal. "-You don't have a lot of experience with Japanese girls, so I'll
tell you right off that they like aggressiveness.-"

"-Aggressiveness?-"

"-Yes, be forceful. Japanese girls like a guy who won't take no for an
answer. Japanese girls like to play 'hard to get' towards guys they really
like.-"

Grey blinked. ~So if Ami acts distant towards me, she actually finds me
attractive? That's... actually no more bizarre than American girls.
Arrrghhh. Why do women have to play games like that?!~

Seeing his suggestions take hold, the Principal smiled. "-Now, Shard-san,
time for you to be introduced to your class.-" ~And by putting him in the
same class as Mizuno-san, she will see how unsuitable he is, and then shift
the engagement off to someone else. Our school's status will be assured.
Until Mizuno-san graduates, at least.~

----------

A city named Virginia Beach in a state called Virginia, in a place called
the United States. Largely housing tracts of nearly identical homes, a few
military bases of no particular significance, and a number of extensive
parks. A resort area, for the most part. Not exactly what you'd consider a
hub of any kind of interesting activity.

Within the sprawling city was an area of beach and homes on stilts known as
Sandbridge. Expensive homes for all that a grassy lawn wasn't even possible
and any stray breeze through a window meant sweeping sand off the floor.

Light gathering at a pinpoint in midair off the surf might have gathered
more interest if everyone wasn't busy elsewhere.

*WHAM!* The light stretched out into a line, then raced at 90 degree angles,
finally culminating in a square hundreds of feet high. It was an experiment
of sorts for the Wizard. To see what he could do if he tried making a few
changes here and there in a summoning spell. Besides, he was after spreading
chaos and uncertainty. A simple spell had him installed as the figure of
Emperor to these troops.

A few surfers were finally distracted from their sport by something emerging
from the square.

*THOOM!* *THOOM!*

The first Imperial AT-AT Walker shrugged through the square and used a quick
burst of laser fire to turn a few nearby homes to flaming shrapnel. Behind
it, white-clad Stormtroopers - their lasers leveled to punish any sign of
resistance.

Hovering behind them, not deigning to get his boots wet, a figure in black
armor waited, ready to draw lightsaber at the first sign of a Jedi, Senshi,
or anything even close.

--------

"This is unusual, but if you say so, Vice Principal." The teacher looked at
the exchange student then at the Vice Principal, then shrugged. He waited
for the Vice Principal to leave before continuing. "Okay, class, we have an
exchange student from America. Shardo Greyu... Shardo?"

"Hai, sensei. Sorry. Speak Japanese tiny amount." Grey wondered what the
heck he was supposed to do in this circumstance. There was probably a proper
ritual for *this* too. "Uhm, good morning."

"You are late for class, so bucket duty." The professor looked away briefly,
then realized the gaijin was looking puzzled and flipping through a
Japanese-English dictionary. "Would someone explain to this idiot what
bucket duty entails?"

"Yes sensei," answered one of the eager to send away a gaijin guy. How dare
some foreigner come poaching on Japanese girls! "-You screw up plenty bad.
You take buckets, fill up with water, stand outside door to classroom with
big sign let everyone know you stupid pig.-"

Grey blinked, looked at the professor, and came to the conclusion that this
was serious. "Very bad." ~Well, when in Rome.~ Limping over to the indicated
buckets, he got them, went out to find a bathroom and fill them, then
struggled to hold the two buckets.

"Now, if we can get back to the subject at hand," the teacher began. If he
noticed that several of his students looked decidedly ill (two looking
actually angry), that was not something he'd concern himself with.

--------

Misato Katsuragi, English teacher, listened briefly to the voice on the
phone. "Yeah, I'm here. Get real would you? They got more forms to fill out
than some government agencies."

"You want to trade?" Ritsuko asked from across the district in a hospital.
"I'm doing autopsies. Not exactly what I'd prefer."

"You'd rather hang around teenage boys?"

"Good point. At least these don't try to grope you regularly." Ritsuko
smirked a little. "How's the target?"

"Rough. Burns, cuts, bruises. Rings under the eyes. Looked like he had some
trouble adjusting to different levels of light." Misato let out a deep
breath. "You remember when Agent Fujishima came in after that mission last
month?"

Ritsuko winced. "That bad, huh?"

"Yup. That's how I knew how to check for signs of a concussion. The only
thing this guy's missing is the bullet hole."

"The report indicated some sort of healing technique had been used in the
hospital. Maybe something like Fujishima's healing trance."

"Chi healing?" Misato considered. "Didn't you say that a drawback of that
kind of 'mind over body' stuff was that it uses up the body's resources
faster than normal?"

"You think he's not replenished those resources, and is about to run out?
Don't go there, Misato. If he dies, our mission will have been a failure and
this would not look good on our records."

"Its a human life, Rits. He's one of the good guys. It should count for
something. Someone's coming. Misato out."

---------

"Uhm, teacher," the boy who'd delighted in translating for the gaijin felt
the need to point out that the student was slumped outside the door. "Looks
like the gaijin who dares to try to pollute the pure lines of Japan via his
engagement to one of your other students is slacking!"

"Huh?" The teacher responded wearily. "Who's Mister Tardy engaged to?"

Everyone in class looked at Ami. Who blushed and stammered. "N-no-no. It's
just an honor arrangement. There's nothing going on between us. He's
just..."

The teacher frowned as he opened the door to step out. "Now there's an odd
couple. Okay, Mister Tardy, it's time for you to..."

The teacher's arms windmilled briefly as he slid an inch. "What? Can't you
even... oh dear."

The rest of the class poured out of the other door to look. Several of the
girls screamed.

Though it wasn't remembered, or even an active part of the simulation, Grey
was primarily a dragon. When heavily wounded, dragons bled rather huge
amounts.

Ami threw her shyness off like an old coat. This was a medical problem, and
therefore the sort of thing she'd studied. Ignoring the stammering teacher,
Ami quickly checked the patient's condition.

Labored breathing, slumped against the wall, eyes rolled back in their
sockets, death grip on the handles of the buckets, which had cut into
abrasions which hadn't even had a chance to form scabs. Unhealthy shade of
pale, even under the bruises. Trembling, clothes damp with sweat. "He's in
shock. Someone get the nurse."

Minako began running, this was a crisis and needed attention quickly.
Unfortunately, Nurse Meiou was missing today.

Ami frowned on checking his pulse, then factored in the amount of blood
covering the floor.

"b-b-but..." Everyone ignored the teacher.

"We need to get medical help for him stat," said Ami, glancing to the side
at Sailor Moon.

Eyes briefly focussed on her face. "So cute..."

Ami startled. ~Cute? Nobody's ever called me cute before! Cute? But I need
to focus on studying, the Vice Principal even said... but if I'm... that
is...~ A detail began to get noticed. This was all clearly Shard-san's
blood. It was also approaching the total amount normally concealed in a body
of his mass.

The guy from earlier shrugged. "Well, it's only a gaiji-" *WHAM!*

Makoto apologized for unfortunately tripping and accidently hitting the poor
guy into a wall. Clearly this wasn't her fault however, the floor was slick.

---------

"He's about to eject," Celeste warned. "If he does, this whole simulation
falls apart."

"It seems unlikely that we can come up with a way to fix it, within the
structure of the simulation itself." Amaterasu agreed. "Is there a backup
plan?"

"Working on it," Celeste admitted. "It's part of the job description after
all. If the Nebula Aspect is killed, rotating in another Aspect would work.
Alternatively, we could let the scenario dissolve and I could re-initialize
one of the other scenarios we had going. Hopefully that will also eject the
intruder."

"But it isn't guaranteed," Amaterasu summed up. "And if he could get in
there once, he likely could again."

"Did you find what the Pheonix Mage altered?" Celeste asked, frustrated that
she still hadn't found how the intruder had gotten in.

"Just a common cheat code for RPGs. Haven't even bothered to remove it, as
the main group's decision won't be phased in the slightest by it." Amaterasu
had confidence in them. They were Japanese, after all.

"Hmmph, well, I have other duties. Hopefully the autosearch routine will
find the rabbit hole."

----------

Heartened by the success of the Star Wars villainry, the Wizard worked
again.

By using the fact that this *was* a VR simulation, and corruption of one of
the programs used to maintain it, the Wizard was able to do far more than
his usual Spells R Us bag of tricks. And if he succeeded in putting this
timeline into reality, his summonings and creations and alterations would
all be real.

And if he failed, then he'd have gotten enough experience that he could try
again later.

A portal seemed to open in Australia. As with the Star Wars group, it was
simple to make an alteration so that these minions regarded him as their
Emperor, or Regent as the case was.

The Invid began constructing their hive.

Then the Wizard grew alarmed at a ripple passing through all of his
creations. All this work, and now the simulation was coming undone?

A gesture freed Kaolinite and Mimette. A crook of a finger summoned the
other Witches.

Another ripple passed through. This was enough for the Witches to detect,
especially as several tables of instruments weren't there after the ripple
passed.

Mimette's hair was on end. "What the hell was that?!"

"The Chain Wielder's life is being threatened. Find him. Find whatever is
killing him. Stop it." The Wizard thought for a moment. "If he's this close
to death, there's a good chance you can capture him. If you can, do so,
bring him back here." Stored in crystal, the boy could be kept safe until he
wasn't needed.

Another ripple. More tables vanished. The Witches hurried.

--------

Makoto managed to unclench the boy's hands from the water buckets.
Unfortunately, one of his fingers was broken in the process. "He's really
not gonna be happy with this."

"You know, I don't think his impression of Japan or the Japanese will be
conducive to a long stay." Minako put in. "Where's that ambulance?"

Usagi had passed out from seeing all the blood and was unavailable for
comment.

Ami, calm, cool, collected cram school student, was handling this in a
completely professional manner for a doctor. She reached over, closed her
fiance's eyes, arranged his hands on top of his chest, then walked over to
her friend Makoto and started crying into her chest.

Naturally people started talking about that. Makoto's glare caused the
speculation to stop.

*Ripple.*

Honey Kisaragi had seen enough. "Everyone get clear. Nuku?"

Nuku nodded. "Right!" Then shouldered the boy easily and ran, ignoring the
questions and making a 30ft leap from the window to the street outside.
Angular momentum was used up in a further sprint, and Nuku Nuku took her
fiance to the hospital.

Almost everyone stared at the hole the pink haired girl had made in the
wall.

"Mako-chan, that girl's even stronger than you are," Minako said after a few
moments. "Well, isn't this a fine pot of porridge?"

"That's 'kettle of fish' Minako," Ami corrected automatically.

"Medusa!"

A youma attack? As far as several young girls were concerned, the
opportunity to work out some stress could not have come at a better time. A
quick duck to the sides, transformation, and rush forward.

Kaolinite let the daimon draw off attention while she searched the school.
She'd save the boy all right. But she'd also make him pay for cutting off
her hair!

---------

Doctor Kumori Mizuno had seen a lot of strange things in the past few years.
Working at Jikei University Medical Hospital one got to see such things as
vampire attack victims, kids thrown into a starving pit of cats (just that
once, but that once was enough - Kumori wondered if that father who'd
engaged his son to her daughter (it'd been her idea - a ploy to take the boy
out of what was clearly an abusive situation) remembered), and the more
recent yoma raids.

People recovered from the youma raids because Juuban had seen enough
weirdness over the past few decades that this sort of thing was almost
expected. Want magical beasties- visit scenic Azabu Juuban. Martial arts
weirdoes - Nerima. Demons? Shinjuku. Ridiculously silly ghosts? Toshima.

So things got busy periodically, and one coped as best one could. To endure
was a Japanese virtue, after all.

And the Mainichi Daily News had an article that she'd been forewarned to
expect from Mrs Shard's call last night. Part One of a two parter. Not a
headline, it was back in the Lifestyle section.

"TIES OF HONOR AND BLOOD: GENIUS FIANCEE" read the boldface. The article
went on briefly about Ami, how she was a genius cram school student, chess
ace, well liked. And engaged by a two generation old promise to an American.
An average American student named Grey Shard. The article promised more
surprising revelations in part two, but it clearly had some incorrect
information. It stated that Ami and Grey-san were not getting along, and
Kumori knew better than that.

"Doctor Mizuno!" A nurse stuck her head in the office. "It's your daughter's
fiance! It looks like her friends beat him up again!"

Mizuno-sensei hung her head briefly. Ancient kingdom or not, maybe Ami
needed a break from her friends. They might be a bad influence on her.

---------

Sailor Mercury was righteously ticked, though this was under several layers
of her usual kind and gentle nature. Her fiance had been singled out for
abuse. She was considered to be little more than a study-freak. And she'd
figured out the Vice Principal's motive fairly easily.

With many Japanese, the honor and prestige of the company they worked for
was the same as their own honor and prestige. School officials often felt
the same, the greater the reputation of their school - the greater they
themselves felt they were.

She was about to graduate anyway. She had confidence that she could ace
"exam hell" even if she didn't touch another book before the exams.

"MERCURY AQUA RHAPSODY!"

"Medusa!" The snake haired girl turned towards her, shattering the ice
without difficulty.

Sailor Mercury got out her Mercury computer and started typing. Medusa,
coupled with the Minotaura, meant that the new enemy had shifted tactics and
was using a mythological theme.

"VENUS LOVE ME CH..."

"SPARKLING WIDE PRE..."

Mercury blinked. Medusa? Wait one minute. That meant. A shadow loomed over
her. Mercury glanced up.

"Medusa," repeated Medusa, her eyes glowing red.

---------

She had ducked behind a corner, ready for either joining Nuku, or for
keeping an eye on Shard-san's friends. Then a monster attacked. Still
uncertain, she'd held back. Two of the Senshi were out of the battle, and a
third about to go down. Though the plan had been for them not to get
involved until later, there was an old saying in this line of work.

"The battle plans last just long enough for the kimchi to hit the fan."

That wasn't what she said, however. She said something more along the line
of: "Honey FLASH!"

Leaping down into the courtyard, she held her sword - the Silver Floret up
in a salute. Three statues of Senshi, a few other students likewise standing
about frozen, and one seriously frightened Sailor Moon in the background.

A rose struck the Medusa in the head.

The Silver Floret struck about a foot lower.

Neither had much effect.

"AKURYO TAISAN!"

The spirit ward landing between its eyes *did* serve to momentarily divert
its attention for a moment. Even though Sailor Mars came to the brief
realization that looking the yoma in the eye long enough to slap the ward in
place had *not* been a terribly bright tactical move.

The snake-haired girl started shaking it off while Sailor Moon twirled her
staff, preparing her new attack.

A fourteen year old girl, seeing her new friends getting turned into
statues, frustrated about not being able to do anything about her sempai,
and having way too high a stress level at the moment, opened violet colored
eyes beneath a forehead that had a glowing symbol that looked like the
romaji letter "h".

Purple light flared around Hotaru and a similar aura formed around Medusa.
Medusa groaned and tried to move, but was quite obviously paralyzed.

"Moon Spiral Heart... Attack!" Sailor Moon finally completed her attack.

"Baka na..." The Medusa said, finally disintegrating.

---------

Kumori was an attending physician. Her specialty was pediatrics.

Technically, because her daughter's fiance was the patient, she shouldn't
have been present at all.

There had been hustled in doctors from elsewhere, including a wizened old
man she knew spoken of respectfully by anyone who'd met him. Doctor Tezuka.
The physician/inventor who had built Mighty Tetsuwan back in the 1950s.

One of the other physicians had commented that there was enough brass
interested in the case to supply the entire island of Taiwan. Not being
militarily inclined, Mizuno-sensei assumed this was a high number.

All of which served to make Doctor Kumori Mizuno a bit self-conscious. While
confident in her own skills and field of endeavor, she was definitely a
small fish among the talents present. Not to mention she was a pediatrician,
whereas many of those present had impressive amounts of letters behind their
names.

That they seemed to be mainly interested in making as thorough an
examination as was possible, cataloging the injuries, puzzled her. Though
the length of the list was beginning to worry her. Especially as she'd
missed some of this.

And the little corner of her mind that looked at all this and worried about
her daughter being engaged to someone who had *this* level of interest in
him grew.

Doctor Tezuka's head came up at one point, and he stared momentarily at the
seifuku clad girl who had brought him in, and who was now wearing scrubs and
a mask and standing well away from the surgical table. "Robot?"

"Papa-san says Nuku is cyborg."

Doctor Tezuka nodded and returned to his work. "You see, Doctor Mizuno. Dis
patient, he is capable of healing himself using da chi trance, ya?"

"Yes, that's what he said," Mizuno agreed. "His wounds healed overnight as
if he'd spent three weeks recovering. This didn't happen yesterday
apparently."

"Problem with dis is it usually require peculiar united state of mind, body,
and spirit. Expert martial artist, ya? Young Shard-san here. He not that
good. Also, healing even in experienced martial artist - dey need to know
what injured to concentrate on healing dat. Head injuries very tricky,
especially to heal wit' da chi." Doctor Tezuka lectured the younger
physician, and not incidently a few of the others in the room. "Also, if dey
is really knocked out badly or is drugged, dey not able to use chi. So,
patient getting accumulated injuries. I hear your daughter not like
engagement very much."

Doctor Mizuno winced, both at the change of subject and at the implication
that the little injection she'd given the boy to help him sleep had
contributed to the current problem. "I've heard that rumor myself."

"Vell, don't worry about dis. Dese things, dey have da way of working out.
Or not." The Doctor stepped away from the patient, then pointed to one of a
series of xrays. "You see dis here. Respiratory problems. Cyst in this
bronchii here. Allergy or reaction cause constriction of bronchii, would be
moderately uncomfortable. Old thing. Not caused by you's daughter's friends.
This evidence also old injury, here in shoulder. Also not caused by you's
daughter's friends."

Kumori Mizuno thought (not for the first time today) about sending her
daughter and fiance off to live in Shard-san's home for awhile. It might cut
down on the violent influence of Ami's friends.

Dr. Tezuka considered the xrays again. "Vell, good enough. We set hims up
with room here, use IV - protein and mineral solution. That way his body has
de building blocks to repair properly, ya?"

Aware that as his nearest available responsible adult, she was being asked
for input, Dr Mizuno nodded. "Ya."

---------

The school had just quieted down. Imposing looking men in black suits had
driven up in unmarked moving vans and were moving around, taking statements,
and loading some statues.

"Wait!" A tearful Sailor Moon shouted at two men who were picking up a
stoned Sailor Mercury. "That's not really a statue! That's the beautiful
sailor suited warrior of exams and love, Sailor Mercury."

A supervisor, dressed identically to the others but distinguishable because
he had a clipboard, nodded at the two movers and then smoothly interposed
himself between Sailor Moon and the two. "Sailor Moon, right?"

"Uhm, yeah," the ponytailed princess agreed.

"Agent Shi, Dept Of Public Safety. Would you rather your friends stay here
in the courtyard of a high school where they can have graffiti painted on
them among other indignities? Or would you rather they be moved to a place
of safety?"

"Uhm," fidgeted Sailor Moon. "This isn't a test is it? I don't do well on
tests! Uhm, B?"

The Man in Black nodded. "It just so happens that a local shrine, the Hikawa
Shrine, has a number of statues arriving today as part of a Shinto
commemoration. Since they are already being set up with some security
measures, it's the nearest place where your comrades can be safely stored
until you figure out a way to turn them normal. Fair enough?"

"Uhm, errr, I..." Sailor Moon wasn't entirely sure she trusted them. After
all, they were wearing black! But then so did Mamo-chan when he was in his
Endymion armor. Then again, they were taking this all pretty calmly. Almost
like it was routine.

"Take the deal, Sailor Moon," advised Tuxedo Mask, who'd given up looking
for "Sailor Honey" at this point.

Shi nodded to the movers, who loaded Mercury into one of the vans with the
other three statues, covered her with a padded blanket, then strapped the
bundle to the sidewall. "Be gentle with her guys, she's a 'soldier of love'
after all."

Sailor Moon blinked, still thinking that this guy was treating the whole
thing like an everyday occurance.

"Now then, Sailor Moon," Agent Shi said while flipping through papers. "I
need a few questions answered. We can go over this on the way if you'd like
a ride to the shrine."

--------

Grey grumbled in his sleep as a pair of hands opened the window from the
outside and eased into the room.

She looked at the Nexus, and wondered about him, but there was much she
could do.

She gently bared his neck, and nipped once to draw the faintest trickle of
blood. Then tasted it, her tongue dabbing up the blood quickly. Then swirled
it around her mouth.

One of those gentle nurturing types, she decided on the taste. Interesting
that he had both the taste of a mature and somewhat bitter individual, as
well as a younger and much less confident boy. A good fellow,
underconfident, a bit shy, more comfortable backing someone else up than
being the lead himself. Rolling the remainder of the blood about in her
mouth, she considered the overall taste and decided that he would do.

She had been many things over many years. Frankly the wild party animal
thing was beginning to wear thin, as had the warrior-queen, the manipulative
mistress, and the various other roles she'd adopted over the centuries.

And her most recent fight, against the Vampire Lord, had been close. Too
close. If she lost...

The woman shuddered, and it had nothing to do with the thin bodystocking she
wore or the chill of the air conditioned room.

The boy's chi and mana were pathetically low. Low enough that she could pull
this off. After all, Dimitri could not force her to be his thrall if she
were already in thrall to another.

Morrigan used the last energies of the boy's blood, momentarily taking
control of his body. His mouth extended fangs as she puppetted him to bite
deeply into the juncture of her shoulder and neck.

She smiled, eyes closed, toes curling up involuntarily. "Ooooooh. It's been
entirely too long."

---------

A monitor image flicked from "Darth Vader" in Virginia, to the Tarrasque in
Iceland, to sahuagin now sneaking up on a set of houses in the Aleutian
Islands, to the Central Park wyverns, to "mole men" coming out of caverns in
Italy, to ettin in Malaysia, and finally a group of Invid in Australia. A
single reaction greeted each image in the parade.

Frothing.

"Targetstargetstargetstargets..."

Sailor Venus looked over at Edema and shook her head, tsking. "He hasn't
killed anything evil in DAYS. It was unwise to let him check out Grey's
simulation."

"Targetstargets..."

Celeste was blinking like mad. "But he just killed an evil goddess for
crying out loud! Is there no satisfying him?"

"I sure hope not." Makoto Jupiter acquired a sly smirk, letting the double
meaning show.

Several of the goddesses in the room shuffled to more comfortable sitting
positions.

Belldandy was shaking her head. "He is something of an addict."

Still thinking in terms of double meanings, Celeste adjusted the temperature
in the room down slightly.

Edema was considering thoughfully. "Well Sugah, iffn we all can come up with
some way ta keep the poor boy happy..."

Belldandy mopped Jared's feverish forhead. "It's Grey. He makes almost the
perfect monster bait, it seems everything about him screams an invitation to
evil villains to come hurt him. It's taxing Jay-chan's control not to go
attack the accumulated horde of evil and save his
friend."

"Targets!" He seemed to agree, eyes thrashing wildly. He was twitching
almost exactly in the manner that would be expected of Nabiki Tendo in
Scrooge McDuck's money vault.

Sakyo noticed something. "Say. Isn't that Chibi Jay-chan now?"

Several women looked at the childlike mage. "Yeah, so?" Nabiki the genie
asked.

"Hey, yeah! he was an adult a minute ago!" Ukyo added her two cents,
agreeing with her clone daughter.

Sakyo nodded. "So, what happened to his other two chibi selves?"

As one the audience swiveled over to look at a monitor featuring one Chibi
Jared lowering a simulator helmet onto the head of another. "I regret that
my target has but one life to give for its country!"

"NO!!" Celeste screamed, rising partway from her seat.

In a moment out of other's control, both remaining Chibi Mages leaped into
the appropriate seats.

"This is a day for death or glory!"

"Once more into the breach!" The last added, snooking it's helmet into
place.

Celeste had to act fast else she would have a mob on her hands of fiancees
attempting to join him, slamming down her hand on the "Deny Entry/Exit To
Simulation" button. "It'll take me a few minutes to extract him. Hold on!"

--------

NOTES:

Yes, there *is* a rather strong discrepency in the power levels of Grey vs
an SRU wizard.
Grey's power level: uhm, well, he's physically stronger than Chibimoon.
In Rifts Terms he'd be a minor psychic of Sensitive status, with the Chain
as a sort of minor rune weapon.
SRU Wizard's power level: pretty darn high. Greater than Beryl. Likely
stronger than Galaxia, in his own way.
This is rather like Bilbo taking on Sauron. If this was a frontal
assault, admittedly, there wouldn't be much left of a certain chain-wielder.
Ami, from what little i've seen (one season and bits of the rest), gets
flustered under personal attention - particularly romantic. (Ami Special,
various scenes in the 'S' series). i'm not bagging on her, but i don't think
she'd be comfortable with being forced into this situation - especially with
high school entry exams coming up.

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