Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Unexpected Meetings ( Chapter 1 )

The Earthchild

 

(An Iczer/Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover)

 

Written by

Jim Robert Bader

 

Proofread by

Shiva Barnwell

 

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi,

Naoko Takeuchi, Toshihiro Hirano, & Hitoshi Okuda,

with ideas and suggestions by TH Tiger and Johannes Huber)

 

 

 

 

 

Muku Dori Senzenen stared in horror at the apparition before her, the horror being born of a Venomoid face leering down at her with an air of absolute menace. There was ancient hatred in its alien eyes as the THING (for it could not truly be called a person) began to advance upon her, and with nothing between her and the hideous creature, and no avenue of escape open to her, there seemed nothing that Muku could do to avoid the fate that had befallen her friends before the rampages of the insidious creature.

 

“Stay back!” she raised her hands in a futile attempt at warding it off, “I'm warning you…go away!”

 

The response of the creature was simply to open its gaping maw and utter an unholy cry, then it was rushing upon her without warning or preamble. Panic filled Muku's entire being as she screamed in abject terror, feeling a strange warmth rising up from within as the creature sought to plunge its deadly talons into her flesh, even as her whole world went white and her mind filled with an inexplicable explosion of sound and color…

 

The next thing she knew, Muku was landing with a “thump” on the floor next to her bed, inexplicably caught off-guard as the hard wood surface made itself known to her, along with a pair of slippers that offered scant cushioning for her face. Her heart was still beating wildly in her chest as she opened her eyes and looked around, belatedly wondering where the monster had gotten off to, and only a few seconds later recognizing her own bedroom.

 

“Oh man…” she groaned as she pushed herself up to a semi-sitting posture, finding herself on a bright sunny school morning with no hint of alien monsters anywhere about to complicate her day. She pushed her dark-gray hair out of her eyes and muttered, “That's it…I'm cutting down on the munchies next time I do homework…”

 

“Hello!” a voice called up to her, “Are you awake yet, Sleepy Head? Time to rise and shine and have some wholesome breakfast!”

 

Muku gave a rueful look to the door of her room then said, “Okay, Mom…I'll be down in a few minutes…”

 

“Better hurry it up, young lady,” said the voice from the other side of the door, “You don't want to be late for school again and wind up staying so late that you'll miss practice.”

 

“Huh?” Muku turned to glance at the wall clock then all but jumped to her feet in a panic, “OH NO! Why didn't you tell me it was so late? I gotta hop in the shower and get ready!”

 

“Excuse me?” she heard her mother sarcastically reply, “I called you four times but you never answered even once. What time did you get to bed, young lady?”

 

“Um…never mind, right,” Muku started pulling off her pajamas and reaching for her bath-robe and freshly folded school uniform, passing her mother on the run out her door and into the hall shower.

 

Akane Senzenen just shook her head as the wind whipped her dark hair past her head. That young lady was starting to seriously remind her of someone else whom she knew from way back when…and NOT---in her opinion---the best possible association. She grumbled something under her breath about “bad influences” and started to turn away when she encountered her husband on the stairs, giving her one of his patented smiles, to which she responded, “What?”

 

“You have that look again,” Mikado Senzenen chided, “What's the matter, is our little Princess giving you her usual, `Sorry, Mom, I'm in a rush,' treatment again?”

 

“That young lady,” Akane huffed, “I swear to you, I was never that irresponsible when I was her age. In fact, I had an almost perfect attendance record…”

 

“Ignoring the fact that you often had to fight your way to class against an army of would-be suitors,” Mikado tactfully pointed out.

 

“Don't remind me,” Akane sniffed, “At least she isn't like me in that regard…”

 

“Probably because our little Princess so intimidates the boys of her school that they know better than to treat her as a mere object for contention,” Mikado pointed out, “After all, our Muku-chan is a perfect little lady who demands respect and a proper degree of distance to allow her to function like any other blessed maiden of her high school.”

 

“And if they don't give her room enough to breathe then she'll flatten them,” Akane noted somewhat smugly.

 

“Well, that goes without saying…”

 

“I don't know, Miki-chan,” Akane said as she continued down the stairs with her husband falling in step beside her, “Seems to me that I can remember a time when you would have been right up there with the rest of the wolves in your school trying to strong-arm a date with anything in a skirt…”

 

“Ah, you wound me, Dearest One,” Mikado made a mock-gesture of clutching an imaginary arrow from his chest, “Seriously, though, you know how much I've tried to live down my irresponsible youth. I hardly knew how to act around a woman when I met up with you, I just pretended that I knew my way and let nature's gift of my good looks do all the charming for my fan group. You were my thousandth girl, the one whose kiss mattered more than any others, and you awoke me to a finer understanding of myself than any degree of therapy could have offered…”

 

“You make it sound like it was easy,” Akane gave him a wry side-glance, “I seem to remember that there was an awful lot of hurdles in the way before I finally did let you kiss me. Good thing you were so hard headed and persistent, I thought you were just some stuck up snob back then who thought himself a gift to the ladies…”

 

“Unlike that charming fellow you were engaged to at the time?” Mikado remarked, snapping his fingers and pretending confusion, “What was his name again? Sour Tome? Sauerkraut? Or…”

 

“It was Saotome, remember?” Akane gave him an exasperated look, “And he's only been your friend for---what? Close to eighteen years now…”

 

“Oh yes, that fellow,” Mikado snapped his fingers as if just remembering, “Didn't he also marry that Chef…the one who looks more like a man than him? And then there was that Chinese bimbo…I seem to remember her name from somewhere…”

 

Akane gave a mildly exasperated sigh, but in spite of her husband's verbal games she could not keep from succumbing to his charming humor. A lot had happened since those early years when the two of them had started seeing one another (over the rather loud objections of her father), and the memories were tinged with a hint of nostalgia for the “Good Old Days” (Not that she would EVER dream of reliving them, of course). Since learning to see the real man beneath Mikado's image as a thoughtless playboy, she had gotten good at reading his moods and understood when he was sending her non-verbal signals as to the nature of his real intentions.

 

“Wait until after Muku is on her way to school,” she urged her man with a wry grin of anticipation, “I promise you a better time than when you kissed a certain redhead…”

 

She laughed as she saw him wince, pleased as always to see that the memory still irked Mikado of that particular occasion when he had overreached himself with his unsuspecting rival…

 

 

Muku---the “White Starling”---was aware of none of these things as she hastily scrubbed her body down with soap and lathered her long hair, almost setting a record for cleanliness that would have impressed an Amazon Mistress of the Xi Fang Gao, drying herself off and stepping back out of the shower so fast that she almost slipped on the floor in her haste to get dressed and ready for her classes.

 

A few minutes (and one hasty breakfast) later (and thankfully this time it was her FATHER who did the cooking), Muku was out the door and pulling on her inline skates, making haste to burn up the tracks as she raced down the sidewalk dodging both pedestrians and traffic while cutting across obstacles that would have given even her parents nightmares. After all, life was all about practice, and she had her martial arts to think of when she was scheduled to fight the team Captain of her Kempo club after school today. It was not easy being trained in three different forms of the Anything Goes system, but Muku did her best to excel in everything she put her mind to, and martial arts was an integral part of her very being.

 

But then again, when your mother was a master of Kempo and your father was an internationally recognized star of Ice Skating, you had some mighty big shoes to fill, and as their daughter and heir she was determined to maintain her traditions, even if it meant running her skates over surfaces that were (at least technically) never intended for the purposes of skating.

 

Of course as she got nearer to her goal she saw and passed by on the run some of her friends and fellow classmates, including her best friend, Sakura Saotome. They waved at each other as each one took a different route to the Furinkan area, Sakura taking the “high” road (Rooftops and railings) while Muku remained largely land-bound with her skates designed for racing, not heavy leaping. Muku smiled as she regarded her Team Captain, thinking of what an irony it was that they would be paired off today for some friendly “free-sparring” in front of their sensei, who just happened to be Sakura's own father. In spite of the two of them being nominal rivals, they were close and intimate friends who shared a lot of personal secrets together, though they never held anything back when it came to the name of some “friendly competition.”

 

At least Sakura would leave that mother-loving spatula of hers at home whenever they fought in class. Their sensei insisted on emphasizing bare-handed grappling over weapons training, which he taught in a separate class, not like that stuck-up snob from the Kendo Club, Godai Kuno…

 

All at once a strange feeling came over Muku as she began to cut across the open park, only two blocks from her high school. It was like a cool wind blowing down her spine, and it caused her to pull up short as some sense of the peculiar caused her to take notice. She stood still for several long seconds, hear heart beating hard as she took in deep breaths to calm herself and open up her senses…and then she turned to see a pair of eyes that were looking her way…a shadow from behind a tree, and a peculiar sense of vague recognition.

 

“Who's there?” Muku asked, reflexively falling into a combat stance with her feet braced wide and at an angle so that her skates would have additional traction. For a moment she wondered if it could be that annoying Gel, the girl from her school whom she regarded as the closest thing to an enemy in her life. Was that purple haired floozy about to launch another one of her sneak attacks from hiding?

 

But then the figure eased forward a bit and came more clearly into view, and Muku felt as though a prickling sensation were running all through her body, for the large eyes staring back from an elfin face belonged to a stranger…a girl whom Muku would have sworn she had never met before…a girl whose hair was strawberry blond, almost golden as a few rays of sunlight played across her mildly slanting features.

 

“Who…” Muku gasped, her surprise causing her to almost double take at the sight of such a preternatural beauty.

 

The girl…or was that the vision?---only smiled at her then eased away, and before Muku's very eyes appeared to utterly and completely vanish.

 

She stood there for several long moments before a voice chided her sharply, “What are you doing standing around like that for, Muku? You're going to be late for school!”

 

“Eh?” Muku turned around and saw Yumi Mizuno, another of her close friends, approaching at a normal walking pace. Her friend was eyeing her with a peculiar expression, as if seeing something in Muku that was causing her some confusion.

 

“Are you spacing out on me again?” Yumi gently teased, “Honestly, sometimes I think you've got your head in the clouds, girlfriend…”

 

“Ah…” Muku glanced back at the place where she had seen the blonde girl, then turned back to her friend and said, “Never mind. Guess we'd better get running, huh?”

 

“Unless you want to stand out in the hall holding buckets of water,” Yumi replied, “Care to walk with me, or are you planning on skating the way there.”

 

“Er…sure,” Muku replied, slowing per pace to keep even with Yumi, aware of how her skates made her seem even taller for her age than usual next to her more demure companion. She wasn't certain what had just happened, but there was something about the blonde that was disturbing her greatly, and since she did not feel like sharing word of the encounter, she just continued on her way, unable to help feeling as though someone were watching her from concealment, a fact that in no way eased her mind as she and her friend made their way towards classes.

 

High above in the trees a pair of large eyes was watching her, and a smile across a pair of lips seemed to hint of a playful nature. The elfin beauty nodded softly to herself in satisfaction, then vanished from the spot as though she were little more than a phantom…

 

 

 

 

“What happened to you?” Sakura asked as they sat down together at the beginning of classes, “I was waiting for you by the front gate, but you almost didn't make it.”

 

“I---ah---ran into somebody on the way here,” Muku said evasively, “No one you'd know, but I got a bit…distracted for a while there…”

 

“Nobody I know, huh?” Sakura replied with skepticism, “Well, if it's Gel or Brandon, then I ought to have a word with them again. Those two have become a real handful of late, and it won't do if they keep making you late for your classes, Sugar.”

 

“Oh, it's nothing like that,” Muku tried to reassure, “Not like with you and Ono Ken, eh?”

 

Muku smiled as she saw the sour look that crossed her friend's features at the mention of her unwanted fiancée. Ken was a nice boy, taking more after his father than his mother, and very popular in their school, but not so popular with the boy-hating Sakura, who professed a total indifference to his manly charms (even though she often displayed a violently jealous streak when Ken even talked to another woman). For all that Sakura dressed like a girl and liked “girlish” pursuits, there was something of the tomboy about her that put many people off, not least of which was her quite volatile temper, which she would happily display to anyone who even implied that she was less feminine than was proper.

 

Ironically enough, Ken never treated Sakura as anything but a lady, being one of the nicest boys in their high school with a great business sense and a willingness to help others with their financial and homework problems. Ken was something of a budding entrepreneur, much like his mother before him, but he preferred to deal fairly with those he named as his “clients” and was generous to such a fault that even his own mother often despaired at his altruism. Muku privately liked Ken but would never have dreamed of picking up on him, which would have alienated Sakura against her. The private family agreement that had made the two of them iinazuke since childhood was a source of both pride and exasperation for Sakura, who did not even claim that she wanted to get married until she had made her family fortune, rather like her business-savvy mother.

 

Class got underway as their Homeroom teacher got things started, calling in their homework assignments (which Muku was grateful to have done---the negative effects to her sleeping habits notwithstanding), then he asked for their verbal progress reports on their “Vocational” projects, which were due on this particular day of the week. At this Muku brightened up considerably as her own project was something for which she held a great deal of enthusiasm, having devoted a lot of personal time to researching her chosen field and all that went with it. She was eager to give her report as soon as her turn came up, even if it would raise a few eyebrows among those who---quite naturally---thought that she would prefer to follow in the footsteps of her parents.

 

In that regard she and Sakura had a lot in common, for though her best friend was as accomplished a chef as her mother, she was inclined towards other things than a career in food service, or even the martial arts teachings of her father. Sakura had artistic talents and liked to draw and paint in her spare time, and hoped to one day to earn a living doing this regardless of her other duties. Muku had even sat in for her friend as a model on a couple of occasions…nothing too fancy, just some random sketches, but she considered Sakura to be very talented and wished her well in her efforts. Now if only their parents could both be so understanding…

 

All at once she felt a prickling sensation once again, only this time it was no pleasant feeling of being watched by an unknown source. Her battle reflexes snapped to full alert as her head came around and she stared at a shadowy corner of the room…a shadow that moved and took the form of an apparition of absolute horror.

 

Muku was out of her chair and into a defensive stance even as her mind was reacting to the sight of a creature straight out of her most recent nightmares. Her conscious mind was saying, “IT CAN'T BE REAL! IT WAS JUST A DREAM!” but her body was preparing for battle as though this were just another typical challenge.

 

“What are you?” she cried, “What do you want???”

 

In response the creature gave a cry that was as hideous as its appearance was inhuman, and its overly large eye seemed to expand in size as its mouth gaped wide open, and then limbs that were impossibly long and as flexible as twin cables came snapping her way like a pair of twin lashes. She instinctively propelled herself backward and landed on a desk near the window, exactly as she would have responded had this been one of Gel's attacks, but then the desk beneath her feet began to melt, causing her to sink down to her thighs, thus immobilizing her as the creature prepared to launch its attack again. It was all that she could do to throw up her arms to brace herself against an attack, certain that it would hurt a lot more than being pummeled by Brandon's bokken.

 

But before those arms could reach her a searing red light flared up and sliced them like strands of limp ramen, causing the severed members to shrivel up and vanish, a fact that caused Muku to lower her arms and stare, catching sight of a vision that left her staggered and breathless.

 

Long blonde hair tinged with streaks of crimson, a flash of green and blue body-armor, and a flare of gold between two slender hands as a figure stood between her and the creature. The Venomoid---for that was the name that her mind suggested---looked at the figure standing in its path, then at Muku herself, and slowly stepped back into the shadows…and vanished.

 

The figure remained where she was for several long moments, then slowly turned around and glanced past her shoulder at Muku, and in a surprisingly light voice asked, “Are you all right…?”

 

“Are you all right, Muku-san?” someone asked, shaking her shoulder, causing Muku to gasp and look around, finding that every student in her homeroom was looking at her with perplexed and baffled expressions, with no sign at all of the blonde girl in blue and green armor. Muku glanced down to find herself standing on a student's desk and everything else the way it was with not a single indication to show that there had ever been any monster.

 

“Ah…what?” Muku asked, glancing down to see the concerned expressions of Sakura and Yumi.

 

“We asked if you were all right,” replied Sakura, “You just sort of got up out of your chair and started yelling, then you jumped onto that desk and acted like you were under attack or something.”

 

“I did?” Muku blinked, “I just sort of…reacted…it was instinct. I thought…I…never mind…”

 

“Miss Senzenen,” their teacher said sternly, “I trust that you have a good reason for disrupting our class like this?”

 

“I…sorry sir,” Muku hopped down onto the floor and turned to bow to her teacher, “I don't know what came over me…it won't happen again…”

 

(I hope), she thought, wondering why she was hearing an odd tittering laugh in her head, and why she had the peculiar sense that her troubles were only just beginning to manifest, like that blonde girl with the pointed ears who kept cropping up in her visions…

 

That brought another belated thought to mind as she replayed the sight of the strange girl in her mind…realizing that she did indeed possess large pointed ears that stood out from her hair at the sides of her head. As with those overly large eyes there was a sense of something…alien about her…and yet somehow familiar…as though they had met before in a dream. Whatever the truth of the matter, she knew instinctively that things were about to get even stranger in her life…even stranger than what passed for strange in the prefecture of Nerima, and without even a clue to go on she had to hope that she had the skills necessary to survive it, because if she did not, then her nerves and reputation would not be the only things that were likely to come under challenge…

 

 

 

 

 

“…I'm just saying that maybe you need to talk to my father, tell him what you saw and get his opinion,” Sakura said during lunch break, “I mean…strange girls popping up out of no where, mysterious monsters that nobody else but you can see…it sounds just like the sort of stuff that's normally up his alley.”

 

“Possibly,” Muku remarked as she listlessly picked at her bento with her chopsticks, “Or maybe he'll think I've gone nuts all of a sudden. I know you're thinking it right now, so don't bother trying to deny it.”

 

“It's not like that, Muku-chan,” Yumi said, holding up a piece of okonomiyaki that Sakura had whipped up on the spot from the ingredients that she seemed to nearly always carry, “It's just…well…you have been working out awfully hard, and with all the stress that we've been under doing homework…”

 

“You think I've lost it because I lost a little sleep last night,” Muku replied, “Come on guys, this is serious…it was as real to me as the both of you right now, and twice as scary as grandfather when he gets on a tear about who his children were supposed to marry.”

 

“That scary, huh?” Sakura said reluctantly, “Now you really have got me worried.”

 

Muku half-finished her lunch then set her bento aside, feeling a sharp loss of appetite as she considered the reality of the horror that had been spawned in her two visions. She leaned back and heaved a sigh, stretching out her legs and saying, “If only I knew what it all was supposed to mean. I could accept a little craziness in my life…heck, that sort of thing passes for normal around here. But…this wasn't just weird, it was freaky. That thing that attacked me…it made my skin crawl. It wasn't just that it looked so ugly and monstrous, it felt more like it wanted to…well…devour my soul, or something like that.”

 

“Devour your soul?” Yumi blanched.

 

“Huh, sounds more like a demon than just any old monster to me,” Sakura noted, “Maybe we should ask Hibiki if she wants to do a blessing on you, or something. Her mother knows all sorts of really useful wards and chants…”

 

“That's assuming we could find her,” Yumi sniffed, “You know that without those Ravens of hers she's as clueless and directionless as a bat with sunstroke.”

 

“Well, thanks guys,” Muku sighed, “It's nice to be able to tell somebody about stuff like this without them just automatically assuming that I'm crazy.”

 

“Define crazy,” Sakura replied as she used her “Big Ass Spatula” to lever herself up into a standing position, “You're not nuts, Muku-chan…you're about as stable as they come. Of course if you were crazy then that would leave no word in either Japanese or English that could describe me, so there you have it.”

 

“It might sound odd hearing a story like that from anyone else but you,” Yumi said as she, too, got to her feet, “I'm going to talk to Yui anyway…see if she can suggest something that could help you out, maybe a charm or a blessing or some stuff like that. Of course if you do keep seeing blonde haired elf-girls, you will remember to introduce us next time, right?”

 

“Sure thing,” Muku smiled as she also stood up, dusting off her school uniform as she picked up her bento for disposal, only to halt in her tracks and turn her head at a sudden distraction.

 

Both Sakura and Yumi turned their own heads to look, then both sighed in mild exasperation, seeing that it was only a mobile construction Labor that was crossing a construction yard just beyond the walls of their school grounds. The Labor was lifting heavy piping to place on the roof of a steel-framed building, and from the way Muku was staring at the twenty-five foot tall robotic Mecha was enough to make her two best friends shake their heads in exasperation, knowing what that look implied and each---for their own separate reasons---feeling a familiar sense of amusement and confusion.

 

“Daydreaming again,” Yumi remarked.

 

“Off in her own little world, as usual, Sugar,” Sakura sighed, “Such a waste, too…with your combination of brains and beauty you could be a champion skater, or an artist's model, but NOOO…you want to be a Labor pilot…”

 

“…And work in construction, building things from the ground floor up,” Yumi finished for her.

 

“Hey, so I like Labors,” Muku smiled without turning her eyes from the sight of the construction Mecha, eyeing the Pilot's cage, where a human operator was working the controls to set the load of pipes down as gently as a baby, “Don't tell me you guys aren't impressed with the new technology? I mean…wouldn't you just love to have something so big and powerful at your command?”

 

“No thanks,” Sakura replied as she turned away, “I side with my father on that…it's better to depend on your own personal power than let some tool or device do your work for you.”

 

“Like your father's ever worked an honest day in his life, outside of a dojo?” Muku teased, her expression remaining fixed on the Labor as though she were eyeing a sleek car or new Pop Idol album, “Besides, I'd rather work in a Labor than have to pull a normal job working alongside with a Boomer.”

 

“There is that,” Yumi conceded, shuddering slightly, “Call me old fashioned, but Boomers tend to make me itchy. Good thing there's not as many of them out here in the suburbs as there are in Tokyo proper.”

 

“That's why there's still job openings for humans here in Nerima,” Muku smiled, “And one of these days I'm going to sit in the control cabin of one of those Mecha and know what it feels like to have fifty thousand horsepower muscles at my disposal.”

 

“Sure thing, Space Case,” Sakura said as she headed off towards the main building, “Just be sure you don't lose it big time and arrive late from lunch break.”

 

“Class starts in another ten minutes, so we'd better hurry,” Yumi urged, “You coming?”

 

“In another minute,” Muku replied, watching as the Labor moved to an area where raw materials were accumulated and bent down to retrieve some steel panels, which same it handled as though it were moving twigs instead of girders.

 

“Suit yourself,” Sakura said as she and Yumi headed off, “But don't expect us to call out your name at roll call.”

 

“This is one time you're going to have to look after your attendance by yourself,” Yumi added with a hint of mock-sternness.

 

“Yeah, sure,” Muku murmured back, continuing to study the way the cabin controls were worked by the Labor pilot and unconsciously moving her hands as if she were in control of an actual labor.

 

“You like machines,” a voice said beside her, “I can feel in you many pleasant emotions tied in with the working operations of this primitive robot.”

 

“Yeah,” Muku replied, “I think they're terrific…” and then she slowly did a double-take and added, “Primitive?”

 

“Oh, I'm sorry,” said the strawberry blonde haired elf-girl at her side, “I didn't mean for that to sound insulting. I am certain that it is a very fascinating machine for one that uses only limited biotechnology…”

 

“Who are you?” Muku gasped as she stared wide-eyed at the phantom girl beside her.

 

“I'm sorry,” the girl suddenly seemed quite shy and looked down as her cheeks colored a little, “I didn't mean to intrude on you…I was only making an observation…”

 

“I mean…WHO are you?” Muku repeated, staring down at those impossibly large eyes that stared back at her with guileless innocence and an all-too-human expression.

 

“Don't you know already?” the girl asked without dissemble, “My name is Rhea…Kano Rhea…and you are Senzenen Muku Dori. I am very pleased to finally meet you.”

 

“To…meet me?” Muku blinked, “But…?”

 

“The Venomoid that attacked you may still be around, so I thought it was important that I approach you,” Rhea explained, “I…need your help…if I am not being too forward…”

 

“Too forward…my help?” Muku repeated, “What are you talking about? What's a Venomoid, and why did it attack me?”

 

The girl looked down at her own feet and seemed to fidget slightly before she answered, “It's because of me…I've chosen you to be my partner, and the enemy knows this, so they will be after you…I am sorry about this…”

 

Muku shook her head to clear it and said, “Wait…I don't get any of this? Your…partner? What are you talking about? And what enemy…?”

 

“Hold,” Rhea's tone shifted abruptly, gaining an authority that had not been there before as she stood more alert and battle-ready, “We are not alone.”

 

“What…?” Muku asked when she felt a curious sensation, like needles flowing over her skin, and looked up to notice that the sky and their surroundings were changing, becoming hideous and alien for all that the landscape only marginally altered.

 

“We have been drawn into subspace,” Rhea explained, “The enemy has us surrounded.”

 

“Surrounded?” Muku looked up and saw Venomoids approaching from all directions…six of them in all and each as ugly as the last one, only many times over. They flashed wicked teeth and sneers of disdain as their hideously large eyes roved over the pair, sizing Muku up as though she were a prime plate of teriyaki meat laid out across a table.

 

“Oboy,” she said as she sized up her position, feeling definitely that she had somehow gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that very morning…

 

 

 

Continued

 

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