Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Stuck in the Middle With You ( Chapter 17 )

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)

 

 

 

 

 

“It's no use,” said Deimos, “She's too alien to heal, and I don't think our planetary magic can help her.”

 

“What?” Muku reacted, “But…you have to help her…she may die without it…”

 

“She could die even with our help,” replied Phobos, “And in any rate, our healing power was meant for humans, not women with constitutions this alien…she may seem human both inside and out, but we can tell just by sensing it that she is composed of entirely different matter.”

 

“Dammit, Yui!” Yumi suddenly snapped, surprising everyone as her normally cheerful demeanor hardly seemed temperamentally suited to such hotheaded outbursts, “You're not even half trying! Don't tell me you're giving up this early, we've handled much worse cases than this, and you can't lie to Sailor Hermes and you know it!”

 

“We're not lying!” Deimos insisted.

 

“We really don't know how to help this Rhea,” Phobos assured them.

 

“Oh, and is she all that much more alien than a Dark Kingdom general?” Yumi retorted, “Stop lying to yourself! You know full well that the reason you're holding back is because you're jealous!”

 

“Jealous?” Deimos reacted as if slapped.

 

“Of her?” Phobos scoffed.

 

“Of her and Muku!” Yumi countered, “You think I don't know that you've been hiding this all along, and that the real reason you and Sakura always fight is because you're both after the same piece of tail? Get real!”

 

“What?” Muku blinked her eyes, “W-W-What are you…?”

 

“You know,” Yumi turned to her, “It's really cute when you get all clueless about the way people come on to you, and most of it goes right over your head without you even noticing when a guy or girl gets the hots for your body, but this time it's just plain lame. Of course Yui thinks you're a hot number…we all do! Most guys and girls in our school want to screw you, even those who won't or can't admit it, like umbrella breath over here…or are you going to pretend that I'm just imagining things, Yui?”

 

“We don't know what you're talking about,” Deimos said indifferently.

 

“We're not a hentai like Sakura,” Phobos affirmed, though neither version of Yui's transformed Senshi self would meet Yumi's level gaze, and both seemed unusually evasive about something.

 

“Do you really want her blood on your hands because you're too stubborn to admit that you're only human?” Yumi persisted, “You have to use your powers now…pool them with me or it won't make any more difference in a few more minutes.”

 

“I…” Deimos hesitated.

 

“We…” Phobos paused as if searching for the words she needed to refute the charges against both halves of her dual nature.

 

“Are those two being difficult again?” a new voice asked, turning the focus of attention away from Yui's external struggles of conscience.

 

“What…?” Muku turned then sighed, “Oh…it's you, Rini-chan…thank the Kami…”

 

“How the heck do you do that?” asked a pink haired girl of about their age group, “I'm in my Senshi form and still you know it's me in spite of my glamour.”

 

“I don't really know,” Muku replied, “I've just always known it was you, Rini---ah---I mean…Princess Moon.”

 

“Right,” said the Princess Serenity Chibi, AKA Usagi II, known as Rini to her friends as it was a nickname acquired to distinguish her from her mother, who turned to Yumi and nodded to the still form of Rhea before saying, “I got a flash that you might need my help, so I winged it over here as fast as I was able. I take it you guys have been having a busy day and that this girl's in need of some serious healing?”

 

“Right on all three counts, Cousin,” Yumi replied, “She's a friend of Muku's who we've only just met the other day, only she's got homicidal enemies who keep showing up, and one of them stabbed her in the back when she was trying to spirit Muku-chan and me to safety.”

 

“Well, if she's one of the good guys, then of course we have to heal her,” Rini turned to the two halves of Yui and said, “Right?”

 

“Of course…Cousin,” Deimos reluctantly responded.

 

“We will…do our part to attempt to heal her…if you command it,” Phobos just as reluctantly conceded.

 

“Then let's get to work, shall we?” the Princess of the Moon held up an ivory handled mirror and said, “Anything I should know about her before I do a Healing Escalation?”

 

“Just that she's part alien and has a lot of neat abilities, like flying and teleporting and stuff like that,” Yumi shrugged, “Other than that she could practically be another relative.”

 

“As if we don't have enough relatives as it is,” Deimos grumbled.

 

“What was that again?” Muku asked.

 

“Ah…nothing,” Phobos answered.

 

“An alien, eh?” Rini knelt down and placed her hand on Rhea's chest, just above where the wound still shone in all its ugly detail, illuminated by the moon, which was now high overhead for some curious reason, “Yes…I can feel that part of her is not of this world…but there a lot more to her that is human…and I feel a human heart beating in her chest…not as regularly as it should, though…we can't waste any more time talking about this. Muku-chan, stay back and let us do our job.”

 

“Right,” Muku said nervously, anxiously wringing her hands as she wished that there was something more helpful and practical that she could be doing while the odd quartet of colorfully dressed women linked hands once again, this time Deimos and Phobos have a more resolute look about them, as if shamed into doing better before the eyes of their Princess.

 

Rini closed her eyes and changed softly, “Moon Healing Escalation…”

 

“Mercury Shine Aqua Healing,” Yumi intoned reverently.

 

“Let the Power of Mars shine through us…Deimos…” one twin of Yui intoned.

 

“And Phobos stand ready…Power of Life Affirmation!” the other twin concluded with a formal invocation.

 

At once the tiaras on four foreheads began to glow as the gems that each bore there began glowing with the internal light of their Senshi powers. Rini raised her mirror and held it up to the light as the moon reflected off its gleaming surface and bathed Rhea's form in the light of its radiance…a radiance that began to surround her and caused her body to glow as if momentarily becoming phosphorescent.

 

Muku held her breath as she watched the healing process begin to take shape, and slowly the wound in Rhea's chest began to close as the space within the hole began to fill with replicating cellular matter taking the place of ruined or damaged cells. Within a minute the wound was gone altogether, and seconds after this the pinking area itself returned to a normal coloration, leaving no trace of the wound save for the bloodstains and rupture incurred by Rhea's borrowed tank top.

 

Rini lowered her mirror and sealed off her power again, then aid, “She's recovering now…we won't be losing this particular patient…”

 

Muku let out a breath that she had not remembered holding and cried in delight, “Oh, thank you! You have no idea…she'll be all right? Really?”

 

“As much as I'd like to take the credit for this,” Rini smiled, “The truth is that we only just speeded up the process. She started healing on her own somehow almost before my mirror's light began to do its work…she seems to be drawing strength in from somewhere external to her own body, and with any luck her strength should return shortly, though I'd recommend a good rest before attempting any strenuous labor.”

 

“You don't say,” yet another new voice asked, “Aren't you a little young to be qualified as a doctor?”

 

“Eh?” both Deimos and Phobos raised identical umbrellas and stared in dismay at three armored forms who seemed to magically appear around them from out of seeming no where.

 

“Who are these guys?” Yumi asked.

 

“We should be the ones asking you this question,” said another of the armored forms.

 

“What did you do to our friend, and who are you?” said a tall blonde in black high-tech armor.

 

“We asked you first,” Rini replied, “And you happen to be referring to our patient.”

 

“We are the Iczelion Corps,” said the woman in silver armor, “And Rhea-chan is a very good friend of ours…the daughter of other friends who are as close to us as sisters.”

 

“Hey, wait a minute!” the warrior in gold armor stepped forward, “Aren't you guys the Sailor Senshi?”

 

“Well…close enough,” Yumi mused, “More like their next generation.”

 

“Senshi,” the blonde remarked, “We've heard of you, of course…you are supposed to be heroes, while you…” she turned to Muku and said, “Are Rhea-chan's partner.”

 

“Iczelions?” Muku broke her own daze to ask, “Are you also here to help Rhea?”

 

“We were going to fetch her back home where she could receive medical attention more suited to her constitution than regular medicine,” the silver warrior answered, “But…it seems as if someone has done the deed for us.”

 

“Senshi, Oh wow!” the gold warrior enthusiastically clapped her hands, “You guys are way cool! You're awesome!”

 

These words of praise did a lot of diffuse the tension in the air, though Rini still felt compelled to ask, “You wouldn't happen to know who did this to this girl…Rhea was it?”

 

“Kano Rhea,” Muku automatically corrected, “Are you people from Gamora City?”

 

“No, we're from Earth,” the black armored blonde replied.

 

“But we work in New Gamora,” the silver warrior noted, “And we've had extensive C'thuwulf training.”

 

“C'thuwulf?” Deimos replied.

 

“There's that name again,” Phobos ruefully pointed out.

 

“Oh, so you've heard about New Gamora?” the golden armored warrior asked, “Nami-chan…they're all right, I can vouch for them, they fight scum like Venomoids for a living.”

 

“Fighting Venomoids is a way of life,” the blonde haired Black Iczelion duly noted, “But if you already know of us, then there is no reason not to include you in our retrieval process.”

 

“Retrieval process?” Rini asked.

 

In response to this question, Nami raised one ebony gauntlet to her face and said, “Base, this is Black speaking…we need an area retrieval within five meters radius of where I'm standing.”

 

“What?” Deimos asked.

 

“What do you mean five meters…?” Phobos began to say when the entire space surrounding them began to glow with a very different radius of before. Muku barely had time to gasp before the light came and went, leaving her and the rest of their party feeling slightly disoriented, though answers were be forthcoming when they got to the point of their eminent arrival, Iczelion warriors and Senshi, plus one very confused Earth girl who fretted a bit more over the condition of her soon-to-recover partner…

 

 

 

 

Sakura heard Troi gasp aloud, “W-What? No way!”

 

“I'm afraid the scans are very conclusive on this, my child,” Sister Grey responded, “For better or worse, Atros is your daughter, and my granddaughter by implication.”

 

“But I wasn't even six Earth years old when she was created!” Troi persisted, “There's no way that she can be my daughter!'

 

“Eh?” a different voice responded, one that sounded rather much like Troi, only with a distinctly different speech pattern, “What are you talking about, and who are you talking to? Are you here to answer my challenge, or do you plan on standing around talking to yourself, Sister?”

 

“Hello?” the one identified as Grey replied, “Is this Atros that I am speaking to?”

 

“It is,” the harsher sounded Troi-like voice replied, “And who is this?”

 

“I am Sister Grey, Chief Scientist of the C'thuwulf,” the matronly voice replied, “And Troi's creator.”

 

“Should I call you mother then?” the one identified as Atros said sarcastically, “Not! I already have a mother…”

 

“I know,” Grey affirmed, “And she is standing right before you waiting to do battle.”

 

“What?” Atros sounded more reserved in her skepticism than Troi, but no less surprised by this announcement, “What are you talking about? I…”

 

“You were created with the power of the Iczerio, correct?”

 

“I was created by Neos with the Iczerio energy that she acquired from Iczer Three…”

 

“Energy that was stolen from her Iczer Robo, Unit Delta,” Grey insisted, “And at the time it was being piloted by both Troi and Kano Nagisa, who was in the chest capsule when the Iczerio was torn from its body. Neos unwittingly drew some of the essence of Troi as filtered through Nagisa's biomatrix, the result being you, a child who combines the resulting overlap of their common genetic factors, which makes you Troi's daughter, not her clone, and the child of Nagisa!”

 

“Me and Nagisa…? No way!” Troi stammered, “It's impossible…”

 

“It is ridiculous!” Atros dismissed, “I don't know who you really are, but if you think you can distract me with this cheap, pathetic lie, then you are mistaken!”

 

Sakura saw the other giant robot rear back and form a fist, which same it aimed at the robot they were in, but Troi was too stunned to react in time and received a solid blow to her faceplate that drove their Iczer Robo back a hundred meters distance…at the same time that Sakura felt that blow as though it had been her own face which had been pounded.

 

“GAAAH!” she cried, amazed to hear sounds other than bubbles in her presently liquid environment, to which she snarled out, “Where did you learn how to fight???”

 

“S-Sorry about that…” Troi gasped, “I'll try to do better next time…”

 

“Who is that with you?” a new voice broke into the conversation, “Troi…did you bring a civilian into your Iczer Robo?”

 

“Yeah, I had to, Cobalt,” Troi replied as she recovered, “She's okay…she's a…friend I ran into…”

 

“You chose a temporary partner to bolster your unit's power levels?” Grey sounded faintly appalled at the concept.

 

“It's okay, I tell you,” Troi insisted, “Our synch levels are close enough that she can manage the strain…I hope.”

 

“You hope?” Sakura reacted.

 

“Synchronization levels at ninety-four percent?” the one identified as Cobalt replied, “So high? Where did you meet his human?”

 

“That's kind of unimportant at the moment,” Troi replied, “The point is…she's the closest match I've had in quite a while now, and since Nagisa's otherwise occupied at the moment…”

 

“But a six percent dissonance level is still unacceptable high!” Grey insisted, “If your resonance does not match her biorhythmic overlay just right then there could be a catastrophic feedback that could destroy both her and you!”

 

“I'll try and take it easy on her,” Troi replied, “And I'm filtering out most of the bio-relays so she doesn't get fried by the loop…of course it could kind of smart for me if I got above the red zone in my power levels…”

 

“Do you intend to insult me by carrying on a conversation as if I wasn't here at all?” Atros broke in with clear disdain, even as her Iczer Robo started lumbering forward, “I won't hold back on you if you take my threat for granted!”

 

“Withdraw!” Cobalt ordered, “Get out of there while you can! We'll find some way to cover for you…”

 

“No can do, Force Leader,” Troi replied, moving her unit into a defensive position, “I run with my tail between my legs and Junior here is going to come pounding on our defenses…and her unit's powerful enough that she might prove a threat to Gamora.”

 

“A threat you will find all too credible!” Atros snarled as her robot started glowing, and then before Sakura's amazed senses she saw an energy bolt lancing towards them, even as Troi brought her unit's arms up to block the blow, causing it to disperse harmlessly against some sort of invisible shield that she erected about their unit.

 

“I can't believe this…” Troi said, staring at Atros's unit, “She really did it? You created you from a part of me and Nagisa?”

 

“Are you still going on about that?” Atros snarled, and suddenly her unit came rushing forward, fist moving like a shot towards their Iczer, causing Sakura to react instinctively as her thought impulses went down tot he legs of their giant robot and suddenly they were leaping back out of the way of the huge, lumbering form, even as Sakura willed her fists to move forward, delivering a smashing blow to the back of the other robot's helmet.

 

Their giant robot completed a tumble and landed back on its legs with such force that the ground itself shook as though from a minor earthquake, and then they whirled about to confront their enemy, who had kept right on going forward to crash faceplate-first into a nearby rock formation.

 

“Holy Mother of Manga!” Troi exclaimed in surprise, “Did you do that, Sakura-chan?”

 

Sakura blinked her eyes and then glanced around at herself, finding her arms and legs were still held immobile by the restraining harness inside her capsule, “I think I did…it just felt instinctive…”

 

“She overrode the commands of your controlling station?” Cobalt's voice asked in amazement.

 

“Obviously Troi has chosen a partner who has a remarkable level of mind and body interface,” Grey duly noted, “Her reactions are so fluid and instinctive that they even exceed Troi's own battle hardened reflexes…who is this girl?”

 

“Ah…” Sakura started to say when Troi broke in, “Not on an open channel. Besides, Junior there looks like she still wants to party.”

 

“HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME?” the voice of Atros rang out at a volume that caused Sakura to flinch in dismay, “FOR THAT I'LL RIP OUT YOUR HEART AND EAT IT BEFORE YOUR EYES…”

 

“Go stuff yourself!” Troi shot back, “That's some way to talk back to your mother!”

 

“YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER!” Atros cried, raising her unit's arms over its head and beginning to glow again as the energy levels increased all around her, and suddenly a crashing wave of energy poured down, bombarding their Iczer Robo in the light of what felt like a meteor shower.

 

Troi did what she could to block out the attack by intensifying her shields, but the effort left her taxed even as Sakura felt the stinging sensation all along her arms and legs as though what happened to the robot was happening to her own body. She saw the other unit come rocketing towards them with a fist now sporting a wicked blade, and without even having to think about it she responded, moving her unit to the side with one arm raised to intercept and deflect this new attack, stumbling the enemy robot forward as she spun her unit around and lashed out with an elbow that caught it in the back of its heavily armored neck area.

 

Troi felt more than a bit shaken up, having absorbed the worst of that attack on her own person, but not to badly distracted that she failed to note what Sakura was doing and responded with a, “WHOAH! Not too shabby! Maybe you should be the one doing the driving!”

 

“I don't even know what I'm doing here!” Sakura reacted, “Are these robots or Sumo wrestlers?”

 

“At this size do you really think it makes a difference?” Troi replied, “I'm just glad you are here…not that I wanted to get you this involved in my problems.”

 

“You needed me for something,” Sakura said, “What was it for, to play co-pilot to a robot war?”

 

“No, you're part's a lot more important than that,” Troi said, “You're also buying time so that my niece can recover…see?”

 

Sakura blinked as an image appeared to one side of her cockpit, hovering like a square of light that formed inside her liquid environment, revealing an image of some armored women and four familiar fuku-dressed forms hovering around a stricken Rhea…and there kneeling down to cradle the pointy-eared elf girl in her arms was Muku. Rhea herself seemed motionless and still, but Muku was holding her tightly and seemed relieved about something.

 

Of course Sakura only absorbed all that in a passing reflection, the main bulk of her attention was drawn to the way Muku was holding the other girl, and there was a trace of moisture on her face that suggested tears were being shed…tears of relief…tears for Rhea, who had quite obviously suffered an injury, most probably in battle. Seeing this affected her in ways that Sakura would not have ordinarily believed, but under the circumstances she felt a surge of overwhelming emotion, emotions that drove way all other reason.

 

Atros recovered her bearings once again and was preparing another offensive, snarling over their intercom relays, “NOW YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THAT INDIGNITY! MY UNIT WILL CRUSH YOU LIKE A GRAPE!”

 

This time the energy did not strike them directly but rather came pouring down on them in the form of an energy sphere, a sphere that immediately began to contract around unit Iczer Delta with incredible pressure being exerted, pinning the robot's arms to its sides even as Troi found her own arms being pressed against her sides with rib-cracking pressure. Try as she might Troi could not work free nor find any kind of leverage that she could use to her advantage.

 

“NOW YOU DIE!” Atros cried, “I AM YOUR DOOM, SISTER, YOUR DEATH-WISH, YOUR OMEGA…”

 

“Give…me a break!” Troi grunted as she fought to resist the pressure, “You're not the Atros I knew, she was never this brutal or obnoxious! You're just a stupid program override created by a Virus! Gold's the one pulling your strings, not you!”

 

“Do you honestly think any of that matters?” Atros crowed in a more level tone of voice, “Face it, old timer, you're history and you know it!”

 

“Old timer?” Troi grunted, “You're calling me an old timer???”

 

“I'm calling you an obsolete model who needs recycling,” Atros snarled, “NOW DIE!”

 

“That's it!” Troi groaned as she strained against the crushing pressure that was causing some systems to approach the critical zone, “I'm never having any other kids! What the…?”

 

All at once the pressure began to ease up as systems returned to normal levels and energy output began to pique like crazy, feeding her Iczer Robo with intense waves of emotional power that were unlike anything Troi had ever before measured.

 

Atros felt unit Delta's resistance level increase as she strained to bring yet more crushing G-force pressure to bear against the enemy unit, only to see Iczer Delta shrug it off like water off a heavy-duty umbrella as power levels went beyond maximum output and reversed the flow of the energy fields all around them.

 

“HOW---HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?” Atros stammered in disbelief.

 

“You got me,” Troi glanced reflexively down and said, “Sakura-chan?”

 

There was no response to her inquiry, for Sakura had zoned out on everything else but the sight of Muku embracing Rhea Kano. Emotions long buried and held dormant through the discipline of a lifetime came crashing to the fore as a rage and longing rose up in her like the mother of all Shishi Houkoudans. A black wellspring of grief, longing and hate flowed through her being, magnified many times over by the natural transducer ability of the Iczer Robo, turning what would have been a devastating weapon of negative chi into something much blacker and more innately destructive, shaped like a charged field that surrounded the Delta unit and effortlessly repelled Atros's graviton field as though it had been created by a common household bar magnet.

 

“Hooboy,” Troi said as she felt her own resonance field intensify by the second as Sakura poured out waves of pure emotion the likes of which even she had never previously experienced, feeding her the result of Sakura's mingled jealousy and longing like a raging fire that could not be tamed by anything on the earth or under heaven.

 

“Sir,” a Monitor called out back at Gamora base, “Unit Delta is at level Thirteen!”

 

“Impossible!” Cobalt replied, “An ordinary human is doing this? How much power can this girl generate?”

 

“Synchronization levels increasing!” Grey was astounded, “Something is causing them to move closer together…but so much energy…can her unit contain it?”

 

“We may find out in another minute,” Sepia gripped the arms of her chair even though she knew that there was no immediate danger to their own position.

 

The realization struck Troi that the energy building up around her needed to be released or it would cause a catastrophic overload of her unit, and with only one target to aim that energy in the immediate environment she impulsively cried out, “ATROS! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! YOU'RE RIGHT IN THE LINE OF FIRE!”

 

“NO!” Atros snarled defiantly, “THERE IS ONLY DEATH OR GLORY IN THE SERVICE OF BIG GOLD…I WILL NOT BACK DOWN, NOR WILL YOU DEFEAT ME!”

 

“YOU IDIOT!” Troi cried in frustration, “YOU'LL BE KILLED IF YOU REMAIN HERE!”

 

“I DO NOT FEAR DEATH!” Atros declared, “I WAS BROUGHT BACK FROM DEATH BY MY GRANDMOTHER FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF INSURING YOUR DESTRUCTION!”

 

“SHE DIDN'T MAKE YOU!” Troi countered, “YOU DON'T OWE HER ANYTHING, AND SHE'S NOT YOUR GRANDMOTHER!”

 

“She is the one who gave me renewed life and a purpose to kill,” Atros replied more calmly, “I was made from your essence, it is fitting that we both should die together.”

 

“YOU IDIOT!!!” Troi snarled once again, “THERE'S NO HONOR IN DEATH, AND YOU DON'T OWE HER A THING! NEOS ISN'T YOUR MOTHER, REMEMBER? SHE'S A THIEF WHO STOLE FROM YOU THE LIFE YOU COULD HAVE HAD! YOU SAID IT YOURSELF BEFORE YOU DIED THE LAST TIME…NAGISA IS YOUR MOTHER!”

 

“W-What?” Atros reacted, those words cutting through the static of her mental conditioning and awakening dormant memories deeply buried beneath the layers of counter-programming.

 

Sakura was not waiting around to unleash the force of her pent-up fury. Here before her was an enemy who had been threatening to kill them, and without even consciously knowing what she was doing she let her power flow through the arms of the giant Iczer Delta, forming a ball of energy that she released in a blast that was aimed point-blank at the astonished Atros, who tried her best to erect a shield using all of the reserve energy within her Void-model Iczer.

 

The blast was unimaginable, detonating on impact with the force shields surrounding Atros's unit, and like the nuclear core of an exploding anti-matter bomb, the positive and negatively charged particles in the two opposing energy streams met and collided, canceling each other out with the resultant energy wave being great enough to go off with the force of a thousand thermonuclear explosions.

 

For a full three minutes utter holocaust reigned in that portion of Subspace as a field of utter devastation caused the very ground itself to roil and become molten, evaporating to form a crater around the place where the two combatants had been standing, but at length the rising plasma fields began to clear, leaving Iczer Delta standing completely unscathed near the center of ground zero.

 

As for the enemy Void---amazingly enough---a charred lump of towering armor remained crumpled in the place where it had been standing. The field surrounding Atros had held to the point where Troi could still detect a life sign reading, at which point she sighed and said, “Well…that was sure something…”

 

“Troi,” Cobalt demanded, “What's happening out there? You Unit is functioning, but what of the enemy?”

 

“Not to worry on that score, Chief,” Troi assured, “The Void got toasted, but Atros still seems to be functioning…barely…what?”

 

Even as she spoke those words the Void began to stir, and then it started to rise up again, its charred exterior falling away like a snake sloughing off its skin to reveal a new gleaming interior mode, which rose up once more like a phoenix from the ashes.

 

“No way!” Troi cried as she saw the giant Void looming before her.

 

Sakura did not share Troi's dismay upon seeing her enemy coming back for more punishment…she was too far gone into her battle rage to feel completely satisfied with one single attack. She caused Iczer Delta to raise its hands in a reflexive manner, and suddenly those hands were filled by the shimmering outline of something solid and metallic, then all at once she was holding a baker's peel the size of a small battle cruiser, as long as the Iczer Robo was tall and having a solidity equivalent to the hardest of all known metals.

 

The enemy Void attempted to mount a new offensive, but Iczer Delta surged forward with an attack as the “Mother of All Spatulas” struck with a horizontal slicing motion that kicked up a sonic boom and whipped up a hurricane in passing. It sliced right through the mid-section waist of the Void, bisecting it cleanly through the middle. As the lower half reacted with an explosion that blew the thing to pieces the upper torso landed heavily on the ground and remained still, this time going completely inactive, though Troi sill detected a life reading coming from the chest.

 

Without hesitation she teleported from her command cockpit as her Iczer Robo reflexively went dormant, then Troi punched hard at the ruptured plating of the Void and tore it away, heedless of the organic bits that went flying in all directions. She reached down and hauled a figure from the armored interior then held her aloft with both fists, shaking her to be certain the fight really had been driven out of Atros before snarling in her face, “ENOUGH OF THIS!!! You've had it, young lady, and as of this moment YOU ARE GROUNDED!”

 

“I…I…” Atros stared wide-eyed and bewildered as if unable to comprehend her own defeat, or her own badly damaged condition.

 

“Not another word!” Troi glared at her levelly, “I'm taking you home for the Docs to fix up, and then we're going to purge the last traces of the Virus out of you, you hear me? You're NOT going back to her, EVER! Don't even think about giving me any lip…oh hell…” she said as Atros stopped struggling and passed out, becoming a limp doll in all but name function.

 

“Troi…what's going on?” Grey asked.

 

“Nothing, Mom,” Troi replied, “Ready decontamination protocols, I'm bringing you another one to fix up, and…she's kind of out of it. Gold really did a number on her but…then again…so did I…” she turned and glanced back at the Iczer, “You okay up there, Sakura?”

 

“I…” Sakura found rationality had returned to her, having expended the last of her battle rage with the defeat of the enemy Void, “I…think so…I'm sorry…I guess…I sort of lost it for a minute there…”

 

“No fooling,” Troi replied, “Only next time do it in your own Iczer Robo. You got one hell of a mean streak there, lady. Remind me never to really get you pissed off.”

 

“Ah…I guess,” Sakura said reluctantly, then said, “Will…she be all right?”

 

“Time will tell,” Troi replied, staring at the unconscious Atros with an unreadable expression, “Base, I need a retrieval. Take my unit back to the hangar, we're coming in for a landing.”

 

“Understood,” Sepia replied, moments before Iczer Delta---with Sakura in tow---phased out of Subspace and returned to Gamora, Troi and Atros just a few microseconds behind them…

 

 

 

 

“WHOAH!” Tenma called out, seeing what looked like a mushroom cloud rise up over the mountains on their horizon, “Check it out…that's something else!”

 

Fiber awoke from her healing stasis upon measuring the force of the blast and turned a far less sanguine glance towards the explosion, and then she moved like an uncoiling serpent and snatched Tenma to the ground as she cried out, “GET DOWN!” and reflexively covered the child with her body.

 

A moment later winds of hurricane force or greater came whipping past their encampment, scouring the landscape with hot plasma that seared the ground for several long seconds, only to fade away as the energy pulse moved on beyond them, leaving Tenma shaken but unhurt while Fiber's own energy shields took the worst of the blast and protected them both from serious harm.

 

A moment later they both looked up to find a landscape that had been scoured clean in all directions. The illusion of a landscape persisted, but now it was devoid of vegetation and most landmarks that stood higher than a man's head. Gone was any trace of their camp itself, though nothing in said camp was beyond replacement, life being the only thing that truly had any value in Subspace.

 

“Whoah…” Tenma said again, “What the heck was that?”

 

“I don't know,” Fiber replied, “It had an energy reading unlike anything I've ever recorded in all of my travels…it only lasted a few seconds, but in that time it contained the power to destroy a small planet.”

 

“Guess somebody let loose with a really big ki burst,” Tenma mused, “I haven't seen an explosion like that since my sister caught me sneaking a look at her diary…”

 

“You…read your sister's personal journal?” Fiber wondered why the sound of that made her feel so…peculiar.

 

“Yeah, but it was just full of mushy stuff,” Tenma shrugged, “Girls can really get weird over stuff, like those pictures she's always drawing about her friend, Muku…”

 

“Women…do not like young boys invading their privacy,” Fiber replied, wondering from where that thought could have originated.

 

“Oh yeah?” Tenma said, “By the way…thanks for the save. Didn't know that was gonna happen…”

 

“An explosion of that magnitude always creates a shockwave that spreads far from its place of origin,” Fiber noted, “Were this not Subspace but real space the results would have been infinitely more catastrophic…”

 

“What is this…Subspace you keep talking about?” Tenma asked, “And how exactly does it work?”

 

“Subspace is a realm that exists outside the bounds of your world, Boy,” Fiber answered, “It is a between-realm of virtual existence…composed of elements not manifest in any realm of fixed time and space…it has its own rules, its own limitations, and the imagination is the key to its control. We use it as a means of traveling between our realm and your own, and it also serves as a means for travel between one point and another…almost instantaneously to travel great distances with but a thought. Here the mind is the most potent of all weapons, and the substance around us is malleable…controlled only by the will…”

 

“You mean like my ability to create stuff just by thinking real hard about it?” Tenma asked.

 

“Yes,” Fiber replied, “But your control of the virtual realm is…most usual. I have never known a life form before who could interact with the field to the extent that you can.”

 

“Maybe I just have a lot of imagination,” Tenma smiled, “And a martial artist needs lots of concentration, and learning to do a new technique comes second nature to us Saotomes.”

 

“Somehow…I think that there is more to it than just that,” Fiber frowned, “You have a most unusual sensitivity, like it was a part of your genetic nature. I believe that you can interface with this field on a level that most humans would find difficult to manage.”

 

“Well, the thing is that I can do it, right?” Tenma pointed out, “Bet you can do a lot neat stuff here if you set your mind to it, huh?”

 

“I…can do some things here that are impossible in my own realm,” Fiber noted, “As I have said…the only limit is the reach of your imagination.”

 

“Don't you got a good imagination?” Tenma asked, “Bet when you were my age you could do all kinds of neat stuff.”

 

“I…was never your age,” Fiber replied, “I was created as I am…I know no other way to live…”

 

“Well, now's a good time to start learning,” Tenma replied, “Pop always says a new day's a new chance to learn a new technique. No sense worrying about stuff that's in the past when you can make a new life for yourself for tomorrow.”

 

“Your father says a lot of things, I've noticed,” Fiber observed, “But I can't say if all of them make sense or not from a human perspective.”

 

“Because you're not human?” Tenma asked, “Well, there's nothing wrong with that, is there? You look human enough to me…maybe a little mechanical, and those claws of yours look a little like artificial hands without plastic skin…I think they call them prosthetics…or something like that…”

 

“Prosthetics?” Fiber stared at her hands, for some reason drawn to them with a strange fascination. She could almost see them change before her eyes, and then real hands appeared in her mind, flesh and bone hands with great sensitivity and feeling…and with that came a sense of something treasured yet lost so long ago…

 

…Loss overwhelming, a grief that threatened to drown out the stars, unshed tears of remorse as pain became the whole of her universe and her empty being cried out with a need for vengeance…

 

Fiber broke off that line of thought, momentarily overwhelmed by the vividness of those sensations, of emotions she had never felt before…or things she could not quite remember…

 

“Are you all right?”

 

Fiber blinked her eyes, then turned to regard the boy, who was looking at her strangely, as though genuinely concerned about her state of being.

 

“Yes,” Fiber replied, “I am…functioning.”

 

“Good,” Tenma smiled in relief, “I thought you might still be needing repairs, but if you're not suffering a relapse…”

 

“Hmph,” Fiber frowned, “And what would you know about my needs? I am…self sufficient in all regards…I need for nothing…”

 

“Yeah?” Tenma asked, “Like food and water and air and stuff?”

 

“Yes,” Fiber replied, “I can exist without air, and I can go without physical nutrients for a prolonged period of time. At full power I can transverse the stars on my own natural ability…”

 

“Really?” Tenma inclined his head, “That sounds pretty neat, only…I don't think I'd enjoy going that long without the taste of one of Mom's okonomiyaki.”

 

The boy held up a hand and upon it lay one of those curious wafer-like disks that he liked to consume with a regularity that Fiber had found vaguely amusing.

 

“You eat too many of those things,” Fiber reflexively said, “You'll accumulate an excess of calories, and that could be converted to unnecessary fat accumulations throughout your body.”

 

“You sound like my sister,” Tenma sniffed, offering the disk to her, “Here, you wanna try it? It's good and it can make you strong and healthy.”

 

“No food can do that,” Fiber replied, eyeing the disk with suspicion, “You must regulate your own caloric intake and burn off the excess with physical exertions…”

 

“Go ahead and try it anyway,” Tenma replied, “You never know…you might like it.”

 

Fiber continued to study the object in the boy's hand as though suspecting it to be loaded with foreign chemical agents, but her nose wrinkled slightly as her olfactory sensors confirmed that it was well within the tolerance level of a human metabolism…or even her own fuel intake system. Without a word she accepted it in her hand, but instead of eating it she studied it as though admiring a fine sculptor.

 

“Interesting detail,” she said, “You make the ingredients so realistic that I can almost make out their chemical composition.”

 

“Uh…yeah,” Tenma thought a moment, “But it ain't real, is it? It's only real because I make it seem that way, huh?”

 

“It is as real as you make it out to be,” Fiber replied, “With enough concentration it can be very real…and objects in which you invest enough energy will have a lasting power all their own. Virtual matter can become real matter if you convince the object that you create that it exists without your personal maintenance.”

 

“Ah,” Tenma scratched the back of his head and said, “Does…that mean what I think it does? Because…I was wondering…if the stuff I create here isn't real, then if I leave this place all the okonomiyaki I ate won't just…y'know…vanish on me…will it?”

 

“You don't even need to eat while you're here in Subspace,” Fiber revealed.

 

“Huh?” Tenma blinked, “I don't?”

 

“Matter, energy, time and even space itself are but products of the mind and how you perceive the reality that surrounds you,” Fiber explained, “Objects can be made so real that they will endure long after you create them, and once they become a part of your body they are maintained by your belief in their substance.”

 

“Oh,” Tenma thought about it a moment then smiled, “Neeeat!”

 

“Useful,” Fiber replied, “Especially if you are in need of self-repair, as I am.”

 

“Not up yet to one hundred percent, huh?” Tenma mused.

 

“More like…sixty-eight-point-two percent, and rising,” Fiber noted with the last bit as an afterthought.

 

“Well,” Tenma glanced around, “Guess that means we'd better do something about our camp, it looks like a real mess after that blast blew through here.”

 

“Mere objects can be replaced and repaired,” Fiber replied, “But if you experience death on this plane it can be as real as anywhere else…and all the belief you have will not save you from the reality of termination.”

 

“Guess it's kind of like your belief runs smack against the other guy, huh?” Tenma mused, “Like my karma gets run over by your dogma…or something like that.”

 

“What?” Fiber blinked.

 

“Something I heard my Mom say once,” Tenma shrugged, “I didn't understand it either.”

 

“Oh,” Fiber replied, staring at the boy as a strange sensation came over her, and for a moment it was as if she saw another child from some other time and place smiling back at her. The sensation left as quickly as it came, so ephemeral that she was left to wonder if it has been real at all, and why such thoughts filled her again with a strange, inexplicable sadness.

 

“Well,” Tenma yawned, “Once we get this place back to normal, I think I'll turn in and get some rest…I feel exhausted.”

 

“Your body is not really tired,” Fiber replied, “But the use of your concentration to create matter is giving you the sensation of exhaustion. You are human…and you do have some limits. If you wished, you could stay awake indefinitely…but there might be adverse physical consequences, such as the exhaustion of vital neural chemicals in their proper balance…”

 

“Yeah, whatever,” Tenma shrugged, “I just know that sleeping always helps me to think better in the morning. You've given me a lot to think about, lady, and I'd like to rest on it a bit, then we can see about getting you better in the morning."”

 

“Morning?” Fiber replied, “Haven't you understood a word I have said? There is no morning or evening in Subspace…or time itself, other than what our minds create for us in sequential, causal existence.”

 

“In other words Time's as real as you think it is, huh?” Tenma glanced over his shoulder with a boyish grin, “Well, to me twenty-four hours makes a day, and a day's got a night to balance it out, and I like to sleep at night and rise fresh and early in the morning, so…if I think it's real, what difference does it make?”

 

Fiber sat there stunned, amazed at hearing her own logic turned around to such an effective manner. This boy was incredibly quick witted and adaptable for an example of the human species, and yet for all that he kept getting the better of their…conversations…she found it increasingly hard to resent him for this.

 

“Indeed,” she said at last, “Then…if thinking that way gives you comfort, you should comply with your instincts.”

 

“That always works for the best,” Tenma replied, “Something else Pop taught me.”

 

Fiber nodded slowly, “A very wise man, this father of yours…”

 

“Wouldn't know that to talk to Mom,” the boy chuckled, “Why don't you get some more sleep, lady? It seems to be helping you out.”

 

“I…do not feel tired,” Fiber said, “And I have…much thinking to do. You have given me cause to reflect on some of my baseline assumptions.”

 

“Guess that means you can learn new stuff, huh?” he smiled, and to that Fiber could only stare, wondering why she did not gut the boy for his flippancy, and why looking on him made her feel…something strange…almost familiar…

 

She wondered if she were malfunctioning on a level that had nothing to do with her physical state of being, or if these strange emotions that were starting to make themselves known might be an effect of a prolonged stay in Subspace. After all, things here were only as real as you imagined them to be, but there were a lot of things that one could conjure up from their imagination…and who knew what a malfunctioning Bioroid on the run from her own people might conjure up in the night…some personal demon far worse than any Venomoid? She had to wonder, and in reflecting on that thought she became like a statue, or like a Marionette left to sit on a shelf, like a doll made for the amusement of children…a doll whose strings had been cut…who would never rise again to amuse anyone…to never again hear the laughter and receive the awe of children…

 

…Pain so vast it could eclipse the stars…loss so overwhelming that her tears would drown a planet…

 

Again she forced her mind away from the abyss that threatened to engulf her, shaken and confused at feeling such things, such strange emotions…sensations…memories that could not have been, of a time before Neos had shaped her into what she was…but…how could such a thing be? Was she actually something more than just Neos Gold's creation? Was there more to her than she had ever previously imagined…?

 

She did not know…nor did she want to know, but as she put a hand to her face to steady herself she once again saw her hand transform into something flesh and blood…and the warmth of blood in her fingers made her pause to reflect on the reality of what could be nothing more than an illusion. Was this phantom the reality, and why was she remembering this now? This could not be real, it had to be a trick, some product of the boy's meddlesome prattle about his father and mother…about the things they had taught him, about the fantasy shows that he confused with reality…and…and something more to which she could not even put a name.

 

It frightened her…and the mere thought that she could be frightened by anything chilled her synthetic frame like the cold of space never could. The boy was responsible for this, he had to be doing something to her mind that was causing her to experience things that could not be real. She glanced over to see the boy laying down to rest, having expended the last of his energy in fixing up their camp to what it had been before the explosion. Soon after he lay down she saw his breathing grow steady as he drifted off to a restful state, in which condition he would be helpless and at her mercy, utterly unable to focus or draw on his strange powers to protect himself.

 

Easy prey to one such as herself…all she had to do was wait…and then she could be rid of the annoying brat and his endless stream of foolish questions.

 

Again she stared at her hand, seeing the clawed prosthetics that once more had replaced slender fingers of ordinary flesh. It had to have been an illusion…it could not have been real, she had to be imagining things, or suffering a residual effect caused by the extensive damages that had been rendered to her body. This hand was meant as nothing more than a weapon…it could not caress, it could never create…

 

And yet she let it fall to her side uselessly…aware that there was something happening to her for which she had no explanation. The boy was the key to a mystery that she knew needed solving…she could not do away with him so long as she was in doubt about her own origins.

 

(“Pop always says not to worry about stuff you can't do anything about…worry about the stuff you can change…like making a new tomorrow…”)

 

Ridiculous! The rantings of a mere child, nothing more…and his father…what a font of wisdom to live in a restaurant doing nothing but teach fighting to mere humans…when a warrior of his stature could be a king in his own right…

 

And yet…those words…some part of her responded to them as though they corresponded to a dream…she who had never dreamed before, to whom dreams could have no meaning save for the plunder and glory of Neos…

 

And Neos had betrayed her, abandoned her, cast her off as worthless, as much as said that she was never more important than a mere tool…and in this realization Fiber felt a slight shudder that had nothing to do with physical temperature…and had everything to do with her thoughts about the future…

 

 

 

Continued

 

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