Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ The Price of Victory ( Chapter 23 )

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)

 

 

 

 

 

Fiber was coming to a disturbing realization…well, actually two of them, the first being the speed with which the boy named Tenma absorbed her lessons and took to Noh puppetry as though he had been born to this vocation. Oh, true, his handling was a bit clumsy in places, but given that he could create things with the power of his imagination, moving them in accordance to his will was---for lack of a better word---almost like child's play.

 

The actual disturbing part came when he put on a show for her to demonstrate his burgeoning talents. It was a simple enough melodrama, a story involving an epic struggle between good and evil with lots of symbolic clashes and simple characters who embodied the natural elements that would tend to populate such a story. That these pseudo-people in the story tended towards the overly simplistic with names like “Destructo” or “Chaosia” and personalities that were paper thin and more than slightly deranged was only to be expected in such a two-dimensional story, and dialogue so ridiculous that it strained credulity to believe that even halfway rational people would talk in such a manner…and then it hit her, the irony of that statement!

 

Her second disturbing realization was really that the boy's peculiar insight into the patterns of her life directly mirrored what he took to be popular fiction on his world. The appalling implications of this were much less than pleasant to contemplate, but it was unmistakable given the boy's convincing depiction of characters very reminiscent of both herself and her fellow Sisters of the Comet, to say nothing of Neos Gold and her other creations. The idea that her own life could be reduced to some child's tale of mischief was not exactly flattering to her already badly battered ego, but given all else that she had just discovered about herself of late it was about par for the course (an Earther term she still had yet to fully fathom).

 

That her previous life and self-identity had been reduced to such a shallow, two-dimensional rendition was indeed a matter for some serious consideration, but Fiber knew that there had been a lot more to her monstrous career as an interstellar Space Criminal (wanted in most parts of the known galaxy by the Galaxy Police, among other such powerful law-enforcement groups), and as for the lives she had helped ruin…there was no easy way of reducing the matter, but as Fiber she had been a truly awful person, delighting in making sport out of those who were powerless to fight back against her. Seen through a child's eyes she was truly a monster, and yet with this child she had discovered a different side to her nature, one that could be gentle and nurturing, like an older sister more than a surrogate mother.

 

So it was that she politely applauded the boy has he come to the conclusion of his story, where light and justice had prevailed and the evil-doers had slunk away to nurture their wounds, vowing bloody vengeance for another day and all of that (she was rather remarkably impressed that the youth had avoided actually killing anybody, even when the bad guy was at the mercy of the heroes, an act of mercy that---technically speaking---was rather irresponsible and could get one killed in some future encounter, but was nonetheless a good sign that the boy only meant to kill as the last possible extreme and not as an impulse towards destruction. It made him out to be a much better person than Fiber, who at the moment was not feeling too charitable towards herself and the perverted creature she had become on account of Neos.)

 

“Wonderfully done, Child,” Fiber said aloud as she clapped her hands together (which made a kind of wooden sound, but she ignored this rather painful reminder of her own inhuman status), “You've managed to exceed my expectations, as always…but still you do need to work a bit on the detail of your creations. Puppets should have that easily identifiable quality that helps the audience to suspend their disbelief and recognize something of themselves in the play and its principle performers.”

 

“Ah…yeah…I need to work on that a bit more,” he said with a lopsided smile, scratching behind one ear as he turned to regard his own creations, then concentrated a bit to make their faces have a more human appearance.

 

“You are quite the little story teller, did you know that?” Fiber mused, “Your grasp of the elements of plot and characterization are quite good…you do need to polish up a bit with individual character quirks so that they do not all come across as sounding like variables of the same person…”

 

“I'll remember that, Sensei,” Tenma replied, nodded, using the term for `teacher' out of habit, “But…well…there's something I'm kind of…well…it worries me, if you know what I mean…”

 

“Oh?” Fiber asked, “What troubles you so, Tenma-san?”

 

“Well….it's just…” he looked at her frankly and said, “How long have we been here in subspace anyway? It feels like days, maybe even a week, but why haven't my Mom and Pop come coming for me in all that time? Don't they miss me?”

 

“Oh,” Fiber understood the child's concerns at once and hastened to alleviate them, “No, your parents love you very much…no boy who could share his smile as openly as you do could ever come from a home that was without love and affection. It's is just that…well…time flows a bit differently here in subspace than it does in your own realm.”

 

“Really?” Tenma blinked, “Like…how do you mean?”

 

“Time here is not really very linear,” she explained, “It does not operate the same way that it does in a normal time-stream. A minute here could be a second or a year out there, and the only reason we even recognize the passage of time is because our minds are accustomed to thinking in the normal three dimensions of space and time. Here time is more like a function of the imagination than of physical or concrete nature…much like the permanence of the objects which you create here…the more you believe in it, the more real it becomes to our conventional way of thinking.”

 

Tenma blinked his eyes as he absorbed that, then in his usual incredulous tones he said, “Really?”

 

“Oh yes,” Fiber nodded, “The very nature of Subspace is why the Iczers and my sisters can spot-teleport over a finite time and distance. Thinking yourself to somewhere else requires that you understand how to will yourself through the Subspace portal and back again at whatever point you can literally imagine. It is the speed of thought itself that allows us to go from one place to another, and the only limit is the degree of our focus, our ability to project ourselves elsewhere. Time here could be almost instantaneous, or slowed down to a crawl…it's all a matter of your imagination.”

 

“Cool!” Tenma grinned, then his next question was quite predictable, “Can I learn to do it too?”

 

Fiber was about to say no when she paused to reflect on the question in more detail. This was not a normal Earth-child that she was dealing with here; already the boy had demonstrated skills and talents far beyond the cope of anything to which she might have imagined him capable only a short while ago. After a moment of hesitation she responded, “Possibly…I do not know if it is something you can learn. I have an in-built gland that allows me to merge with Subspace at will, but for you the process might be a little more complicated. Perhaps we will see…after we continue with the rest of your training.”

 

“I don't wanna seem like I don't appreciate what you're doing or nothing like that, Fiber-san,” Tenma replied, “And I really like learning about all this stuff that you've been teaching me, really…but…I'm starting to miss my parents. Heck, I'm even starting to miss my big sister! I want them to know that I'm all right so they don't have to worry about me and all that…but heck, I'm even starting to miss school! You think maybe I'm coming down with something?”

 

Fiber actually chuckled at the jest but sighed as she studied him in more frank detail, a wistful yearning reminding her of how much she missed her long-lost little brother, “I'm sorry, Tenma-san…I've been very selfish keeping you here with me. I should have thought to take you home as soon as I was fully recovered, but…well…it has been nice spending time with you, and Subspace can seem…very empty without someone here who knows about sadness and laughter…but with my need to stay in seclusion and all, away from the prying eyes of my…former employer…”

 

“Oh yeah,” Tenma nodded, “I totally forgot…you're boss is after you too, right? If he finds out you're still alive…”

 

“It would be…very unpleasant for me, yes,” Fiber nodded, “But since they think I'm dead it should be safe enough for me to bring you back to your home…at least for a visit.”

 

Tenma thought about it for a long moment then said, “But that's risky for you, huh? You may be back to your old self, but leaving you alone out here with nobody to protect you…that just ain't right either…”

 

Fiber felt a very odd sensation pass through her as she studied the youth, then in half-amused tones she said, “Do you imagine yourself as my fierce protector? I must say that I am…flattered.”

 

“Hey, we're friends,” Tenma replied, “Friends look out for each other, right? Besides, it's like Pop always says…a real man won't let anything bad happen to a woman he cares about, and if I'm worthy of being a Saotome, then I just can't desert you.”

 

“I…do not know how to put this, my noble Knight,” Fiber replied, “But I am much older than you, and I'm powerful enough to look after myself…'

 

“But not against your Boss, right?” Tenma nodded as if deciding something right there and then, “Tell you what…if time don't mean the same thing here, then it doesn't matter when I go back, right?”

 

“Well…possibly so…” Fiber said with some reluctance.

 

“Then why don't I stay here with you a while longer so you can teach me more about this Noh stuff,” Tenma replied, “Maybe even show me how to teleport, then---when I'm stronger---I can go home and tell me folks what a good friend you've been, so maybe people won't think bad things about you anymore. Does that sound about right?”

 

“I…” Fiber fought against an entirely selfish impulse, knowing that it was wrong to want the boy to stay, that if it were truly her little brother and he had people waiting for him on the other side, then her first duty would be to reunite him with his parents. It was what Weaver---the girl she had once been---would have done without hesitation…but…the logic the boy employed to argue his case was impeccable, and like with so much else she found herself reluctantly agreeing to his persuasion, even though her conscience demanded that she make at least one token stipulation.

 

“Very well,” she nodded slowly, “I'll continue to teach you about Noh puppetry, and then we will see if you can master the art of Subspace transference. If, however, you do not learn how to teleport, or if we determine that you lack the capability to do so on your own, then we will return you to your home with no arguments or hesitation, agreed?”

 

Tenma at once brightened, “Deal! I can't wait to learn how to go places just by thinking about it! That's something even Sakura doesn't know how to do…won't she be green with envy!”

 

Fiber smiled, but the one she envied now was this mysterious girl named Saotome Sakura, who had such a precocious little brother, just as she had once had her little Tetsuo. The memory of her much-beloved and missed younger sibling threatened to bring tears to her eyes once again, a fact that did not go unnoticed by her all-too-perceptive pupil.

 

“Fiber-san…what's making you feel sad now?” he asked with an entirely earnest expression.

 

“It's nothing,” she said dismissively, but then a thought occurred to her and she smiled again, “I was just remembering…a story I know…a sad one, but it seems to have a happy resolution. Would you like to hear it?”

 

“You bet!” Tenma grinned, a true connoisseur at the art of story telling, eager to hear a new story as well as to tell it in his own manner.

 

Fiber nodded then conjured up some wooden figurines and began to make the complex finger motions needed to make them dance, grateful that she had at least this much of her old life left to share with her eager apprentice as she began her story saying, “Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in a far-away kingdom, and she was very happy. Her father was a puppeteer and story teller, and his daughter worshipped him and sought to honor his memory…the memory of her father and her little brother, whose name was Tetsuo…”

 

 

 

 

“Life just isn't fair,” growled the doppelganger spy who bore the face and semblance of Saotome Tenma, trudging as he was between classes at his grade school, wondering why he had to keep up the pretense of being someone else to the extent that he even had to do the other boy's homework, “This assignment sucks,” he growled in faint resignation.

 

His assignment was to keep watch over the Saotome household, but curse the luck that the boy he had duplicated was an underage youth who could not stay around the restaurant all day without drawing the ire of his overly bossy mother. He might protest and pretend to play sick but she wasn't buying any excuses, and the more fuss he made the more stubborn she would become about him needing a good education.

 

Education! As if this human world would be around long enough for him to have to worry about graduating and going on to a higher institute of learning! What was the point having to memorize history and do social studies when his master intended to obliterate the very society of which he now was nominally a part? Like he needed to worry about some long-dead swordsman or what Lord did this to his vassals, as if any of it even mattered! And so many boring things that they expected him to memorize…what was the point? Human science was screechingly primitive while his math class was so backward that they actually thought integers and simple algebraic formulas were complicated!

 

And---worst of all by far, Tenma grumbled---there were his fellow classmates to consider, a point brought home as he inadvertently bumped into one while innocently passing through the main hallway. Normally he could have avoided running into the larger boy without effort, but Taro Honma was not exactly someone so easily avoided.

 

“Hey, watch it, Squirt!” the other boy belligerently taunted as Tenma bounced off his chest and had to back-pedal in order to recover.

 

“Watch out yourself,” Tenma immediately challenged, automatically rating the other boy to be five centimeters and at least twelve kilos more massive than himself, “I ain't got time to deal with you now, Taro.”

 

“Oh, listen to him,” the other boy taunted while turning to his friends, a group that Tenma reflexively identified under the heading of “losers,” “He thinks he's so tough just because his daddy runs a dojo out of a restaurant! Well, my Dad's twice as tough as your loser father, so what are you gonna do about it?”

 

“My Pop is not a loser!” Tenma automatically defended without even having to think about it.

 

“Yeah, right,” the larger boy began to pop his knuckles together, obviously spoiling for a fight, “Why don't you back that mouth up of yours for a change instead of running away, loser?”

 

“I ain't running from you,” Tenma curled a lip to head off a less prudent remark that sprang to mind, opting for the more diplomatic, “I just don't wanna get into any trouble.”

 

“Too late for that,” Honma nodded to his companions, “Get him!”

 

At any other time the doppelganger posing as Tenma would have cursed at the situation and how much it conflicted with his protocols of “keeping a low profile.” He naturally had far more power at his disposal than the other boys even suspected and could have taken them out without lifting a finger. That, however, was not the way that Tenma would deal with second-rate challenges like this, and as his body was a perfect mimic in every detail, so too naturally did his reflexes come to the fore as he sensed that one of the boys had snuck up behind him and was attempting to hunch down on all fours behind Tenma's legs so that another boy could push him over, thus putting him off balance so that the rest of the bullies could dog pile on top of him after he landed flat on his back.

 

Naturally enough, that was not the way it happened.

 

Tenma jumped up and came down with both feet planted on the shoulders of the boy who had been attempting to play the fulcrum, thus propelling said boy face-first into the floor while Tenma vaulted off his back and performed a perfect somersault, landing nimbly on his feet without even having to set down his book bag and box lunch.

 

That threw the other bullies off balance, not having expected him to work beyond their obstacle, but they were a little slow in changing tactics as Tenma went on the offensive, his hands lashing out with such speed that they were no more than a blur to the eye as he hit them in sensitive pressure-point areas then backed away again, leaving the six bullies standing around looking like petrified statues.

 

“What's the matter, Taro-san?” Tenma sneered to the astonished other boy, “Ain't you man enough to do your own fighting?”

 

The larger boy firmed his chin and came forward in a charge that might have impressed anyone else but a Saotome, but Tenma hardly worked up a sweat as he deflected the other boy's lunge then tripped him up and sent him charging head-first into some lockers. That was enough to momentarily take the fight out of his boyhood nemesis as Tenma retrieved his bag of books once again and cheerfully called out over his shoulder, “Now who's the loser?”

 

“Tenma-san,” a voice gently directed itself towards him, and for some strange reason Tenma found himself freezing in mid-step, “I…want to apologize…my brother's behavior is inexcusable, and I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive him.”

 

Tenma slowly turned his head and saw a pretty young girl (of about his height and age) whose pale gray hair was almost blue-tinted, and reflexively he called upon his borrowed memories to place her identity as one Taro Yuki, younger sister of the arrogant boy he had just defeated.

 

“Hah?” he said with a momentarily thunderstruck expression.

 

“I know he can be a problem sometimes,” Yuki continued, “But in his own misguided way I know my brother is looking out for what he thinks are my interests. I…should have said something about it before but…well…seeing you now going out of your way not to hurt him…I…that is…”

 

Tenma blinked as he saw the pale girl's face grow briefly warm, and then she impulsively moved forward and planted a kiss on the side of his face before stepping away and saying, “Thank you…for being understanding.”

 

And like that the girl turned around and hurried away, leaving Tenma standing where he was with a most peculiar expression. For some reason the doppelganger felt his face grow unusually warm, as though his facial capillaries were wide open, and then he cringed slightly, feeling a delayed shiver. The girl's lips had been as cold as ice, and yet the place where she had kissed him burned slightly, threatening to set the rest of him on fire.

 

(What…the heck had just happened?) he wondered numbly, right before a voice spoke in his head, (AGENT ULTRA---REPORT!)

 

Tenma shook off his momentary daze, recognizing the authority of Big Gold's tone of voice before responding, (I am here, my Lord!)

 

(RETURN TO ME AND REPORT ON ALL THAT YOU HAVE WITNESSED), Gold commanded in a mental tone that brooked no contradiction.

 

(Ah…right---I mean---at once, Master), Tenma glanced around and realized that it was too crowded in the hallway for him to teleport outright, but---as fortune would have it---the bathrooms were just a ways down the corridor and off to his right, and without bothering to miss a stroke he hurried forward, heedless of all the curious traffic that surrounded him as his fellow classmates made passing comment on his latest victory over the minor annoyance that was Taro Honma (and a few even made snide, sniggly remarks about the kiss he had received from the **other** Taro, to which Tenma felt a strong inclination to exact retribution, though just why he should feel that way he had no rational comprehension).

 

He wasted no time, once in a stall, to teleport through Subspace back to his own home dimension, whereupon he was admitted to “The Presence.” Gold sat upon her throne, as always, looking down upon Tenma, who bowed at the knee in respect and kept his head averted until permission was granted with a haughty, “Speak. What have you to report this time concerning the Saotomes?”

 

“Master,” Tenma agreed, “As you suspected, they are not a normal family of ordinary humans. I have witnessed Pop---the father of this one whose form I wear---execute what he calls a `Chi Summoning Maneuver' that was worthy of an Iczer. With his own hands he formed a ball of concentrated Iczerio-like energy and shaped it into a focused energy burst that I measured at seventeen million joules…”

 

“Impossible,” said the nearby presence of Neos Gold, “Ordinary Terrans are not capable of such a thing…”

 

“But this Saotome is not an ordinary human being, it would seem,” Big Gold said with a narrowing of eye-slits, “Curious…I had thought only Kano Nagisa to be capable of generating such vast amounts of Iczerio energy, but it appears that this world has many residents numbered among the human population whose ability to harness such forces has yet to be adequately measured. What more can you tell us about the Saotome family that may be of importance?”

 

“I do know that the male line of the family has its roots in a family who guards an ancient shrine located in some distant Japanese mountains…a great-great-grandfather who is said to be some manner of immortal,” Tenma replied, “There are also memories regarding a great-grand-aunt who sometimes spends her time teaching Pop---this one's father---the advanced secrets of her Amazon people…”

 

“Amazons you say?” Big Gold's eye-slits further narrowed, “Curious…there are many references to a race of supposedly all-female warriors whose roots go back into ancient Earth culture. I wonder…could there be a link between them and the C'thuwulf? It would certainly explain a great deal if the Saotome branch were descended from the mingled stock of Terran and C'thuwulf people…”

 

“You suspect that a colony could have made it out to this backwater corner of the galaxy, Mother?” Neos Gold asked.

 

“It certainly cannot be ruled out as yet,” Gold noted, “And, if so, then it could explain how it was that a human girl like this Saotome Sakura could form a bond with Iczer Three that enabled them to defeat Atros. Perhaps a similar such link might explain how the girl named Senzenen Muku Dori is also capable of granting Iczer Four such unlimited amounts of power that she could so easily defeat Cross and Chaos.”

 

“Those units were defective models anyway,” Neos sneered, “And, in any event, they served their purpose by allowing us to gauge the truth strength of our enemies, so their sacrifice was necessary.”

 

“True enough,” Big Gold acknowledged, “For cybernetic organisms, they were truly gifted in the arts of mayhem and destruction, but ultimately their power paled to insignificance next to a single Iczer. They served the cause as well as they were able, and even though the mission itself was a dismal failure, I have obtained valuable information regarding my enemies, information that will be put to good use in my next attack, one that is certain to bring about the death of the Iczers.”

 

“A pity that Holokhan proved such a disappointment,” Neos said off-handedly, “It would have been amusing if he had gone off and laid waste to the entire Tokyo region.”

 

“Patience, my minion,” Gold chided, “There will be time enough to wreck my vengeance on this pathetic mud ball and its human infestation.”

 

Tenma did not move from the spot where he was still kneeling, but a part of him felt a peculiar chill, as if the thought of what had just been casually discussed did not imply the thing that he now suspected.

 

“At any event,” Gold turned to regard a set of hibernation booths off to one side, “This proves the wisdom of my having kept our guests around for this long, rather than to be rid of them at once. Now that I have a better idea of what the nature of an Iczer is like, I can fashion them into more useful tools than Cross and Chaos could ever be, and then Iczer Four's days will be truly numbered.”

 

“Such an irony, having to use human filth like that to counteract the effect of other humans,” Neos sneered.

 

“Fortunately these humans have their own inner talents yet to be explored,” Gold mused in obvious relish, “It is simply a matter of learning how to unlock these talents in order to put them to a good use, and once that is managed…then they will be truly terrifying opponents worthy of facing the Iczers.”

 

“But what of this new element that has entered the field of play?” Neos asked, “This…Saotome Sakura?”

 

“Ah yes…a wild card, to be certain,” Gold frowned, “I so dislike random and unpredictable factors in my equations. Perhaps she can either be recruited or eliminated, either way we should be able to cripple the effectiveness of Iczer Three in the near future. Tell me, Minion, where is your dearly beloved sister?”

 

“We…don't know as yet, Master,” Tenma replied, “She vanished during the night and has not been seen since the recent battle…”

 

“No matter,” Gold said dismissively, “She is bound to turn up again, and now that the C'thuwulf have some idea of her worth they will probably take what steps as they know how to use in order to protect her from my reach…well…little do they suspect that my reach is already quite long. I trust you will know what to do when the time is right, my minion.”

 

“I…understand, Master,” pseudo-Tenma replied, feeling a genuine reluctance coming over him as he tried not to think of his new target as his “older sister,” with all the attendant joys and hardships that came from being around his “oneechan,” the sometime bane of Saotome Tenma's all-too-brief existence…

 

 

 

 

Sakura had been in VR games before that had convincing computerized representations of supposedly realistic terrain and game settings, but the vividness of this mental recreation had a lifelike quality all its own, making it hard to disassociate from an actual battle zone. The setting was depressing enough, being the ruins of a major metropolitan city, which one could not immediately be discerned, but it did not look like any part of Tokyo and had more of the quality that she tended to associate with a Western city. The buildings were spaced further apart and there were fewer signs and much less neon than one might expect in a Tokyo district.

 

Wherever it was, the place was decidedly cheerless and was lacking in social amenities, being clearly the aftermath of a major combat zone, either that or like one of those post-apocalyptic settings that often appeared in Western sci-fi movies. Either way she knew that trouble had to be lurking around nearly every bend, and given that this was the mental landscape of a deeply disturbed mind under serious occupation, the odds were good that her first confrontation would not be a peaceful one, though it was likely to come disguised in a seemingly harmless package. That was always the way in cheaply made thrillers, something innocent looking would turn out to be something eminently deadly.

 

As if on cue to her thoughts (which was possible, given the nature of this particular landscape), Sakura heard something that set her battle reflexes on immediate edge, her impulse barely checked to reach for her primary battle weapon as she fell into a ready crouch, wanting to take time to determine the nature of the menace. It was going off half-cocked that often got a fighter into trouble, while relying on ones instincts never let you down in a pinch, or so she had learned at the knee of her father.

 

She approached cautiously using a ninja-style sliding foot motion, the kind that gave speed and stealth to her movements, only belatedly realizing that the illusion of sound was just an effect of the mind here. She rounded the corner and came upon the source of the bouncing noises…

 

And saw a little girl playing with a ball…a dirty urchin child with long black hair styled up in a curiously wavy pattern. It took no great leap of insight to place this as a child version of the woman named Atros, making this a mental conception of her youth, a fact Sakura recognized in the flash of one second.

 

Obviously the appearance of fragile innocence was meant to lure her into lowering her guard, but Sakura decided to play along, pretending to relax as she approached the child, then softly spoke the words, “Hey, are you all right?” to which the child abruptly looked up at her and stopped playing.

 

For a moment longer neither one of them spoke, but then Sakura decided to test her theory further by saying, “Your name is Atros, right? How do you do? My name is Sakura…”

 

“What are you doing here, pretty lady?” little Atros asked in a childish voice.

 

“I'm…looking for a friend,” Sakura replied, “You wouldn't have seen her around, would you? Kind of tall with silver hair that's styled a little like yours…even looks a little bit like you, did you know that?”

 

“Why?” little Atros asked her.

 

“Eh?” Sakura asked, “Why what?”

 

“Why do you want to find her?” little Atros clarified, her expression remaining neutral.

 

Sakura had to concede that this was a very good question. Why was she doing this? It wasn't as if she owed Troi anything, and they had only just met the previous day. Sure Troi had surprised her in the showers and took away her virginity in one swoop, but that should have produced the opposite effect other than the concern that she was feeling. Sakura was used to helping those who were in need of her services, usually those weaker and less able than herself, but that description hardly fit Troi, who acted like some kind of a super-woman, even taking in stride that she was some kind of Biochemical android.

 

In the end she was left to answer the only way she knew how, “She's a friend…she needs my help. Friends help each other, don't you think so?”

 

“I don't know,” Atros replied, “I never had any friends before…before I met Troi. I thought she was my enemy, and then I thought she was my sister…”

 

“And now you find out she's something else, right?” Sakura mused, wondering if the child were truly the danger or just the lure to distract her from the real danger, either way she was finding this little-girl version of the deranged android that she and Sakura had fought to be something of an enigma. On the one hand she spoke in terms of a child probing an adult, on the other hand there was a more sophisticated poignancy to the questions she was asking, a hint more in the tone that suggested a sharper mind was leading the questions. Either way it would not pay off for her to lower her guard or be taken in by mere appearances, so she waited to see what next would happen.

 

“I don't really know,” Atros replied, “Big Gold says I should hate her, but if she's really my friend, then why would I do that?”

 

“Because she is your friend, Atros-san,” Sakura replied, “But Big Gold is your enemy. Don't you know she wants you to hurt people because she's a really bad person?”

 

“Is she now?” the child's tone sharpened abruptly, “Or is it you who are my enemy? Have you come here to destroy me?”

 

All at once the child's outward appearance began to alter, and she threw the ball in her hands at the ground, causing it to bounce once before flying at Sakura at great speed, splitting open down the center to form a wicket mouth with needle-sharp teeth that tried to bite her face off, or would have if Sakura had not avoided it at the last instant.

 

Then something else came rocketing her way and Sakura turned in time to dodge an attack that came on at her with the speed of a whirling dervish. The child had metamorphosed into a form closer to Sakura's own age in less than a second and lashed out with literal fists of fury that whizzed by her head with such speed that the wind they kicked up alone could have knocked her silly. Somehow Sakura managed to dodge all of these blows, even when one went wild and pulverized the entire side of a building that had been positioned behind her.

 

“Big Gold, I presume?” Sakura remarked as she unslung her baker's peel, stepping past and around Atros before assuming a fighting crouch, “Or are you still Atros?”

 

“Who wants to know?” Atros asked as she turned about, ignoring the collapsing structure behind her.

 

“Saotome Sakura,” she replied, flashing her bakers peel at the ready, “Heir to the Saotome Ryuu of Anything Goes Martial Arts.”

 

This time she did not see Atros's fist move until it slammed into her bakers peel and snapped the blade section off at the base of the handle. The black haired Bioroid just smiled and said, “Was I supposed to be impressed? That tinfoil creation of yours isn't much of a weapon.”

 

“Oh no,” Sakura shook her head slowly as she tossed aside her broken peel handle, “Now you've gone and done it, insulting my school and my spatula like that. Now I won't take it so easy with you.”

 

“Yeah? So what?” Atros sneered, her hand in motion again, though this time aimed at the ground as she created a shock wave that kicked up the ground like a major-league earthquake. Clearly this maneuver was intended to shake things up and topple Sakura off balance, and it might have worked if she had never seen such a maneuver before…unfortunately for Atros she had…or rather, unfortunate for the program that was controlling her as the dark haired Bioroid seemed unprepared to receive a pair of feet rapping off the top of her head the very next second.

 

Sakura flawlessly executed a tumble back to her feet then said, “Not too bad, you and a guy I know named Taro ought to get together and compare earth-rattling techniques like that.”

 

“Why you…Human!” Atros spat as she whirled around, now as mad as the proverbial wet hen.

 

“You say that like it's a bad thing,” Sakura replied, then held out her hands and concentrated, calling another baker's peel into existence, “Didn't like the first one, huh? Maybe this one with make a better impression.”

 

Atros moved like a blur and aimed her fist at Sakura's head, only to have the flat of the newly formed peel intercept that fist, which caused it to indent sharply with a fist-like impression forming mere centimeters from her face, which surprised Sakura to no little effect, though she managed to absorb the brunt of the powerful blow without being injured.

 

“I doubt it!” Atros sneered as Sakura reluctantly cast aside her second baker's peel, calling a third one into existence with a little more personal concentration.

 

“Nice right you've got there,” Sakura said as she stood at the ready, “Want to make another go of it…Sugar?”

 

Atros came on like a raging tsunami this time, but now Sakura had some idea of what she was up against, having gauged her opponent's speed and strength from these initial attacks, and factoring in the obvious point that her foe had---as yet---only been using a fraction of her real power. It was like fighting a souped-up Hibiki with a raging mad-on, and when Yui got into moods like this she could be like an unstoppable force of nature.

 

Of course Sakura had been fighting Yui nearly all of her life and was prepared to meet the challenge of a warrior whose speed and strength ranged to beyond the “merely human.” This Atros had a lot of raw power at her command but her combat style was basic, lacking the subtle moves and complex maneuvers to which Yui often aspired due to her own intensive training. It took no great insight to calculate the probable movements and strategies being employed by this Titan of Terror, and as such she had but to wait for the right moment to go on the counter-offensive, staying one step out of reach of Atros's every thrust, jab and kick as though she had seen it coming from twenty kilometers away, and only when she sensed that an opening was about to develop did she reverse-pivot around one thrust and bring the flat of her spatula up to the side of Atros's face, swatting her like the proverbial fly, which was not quite an apt analogy since this “fly” almost dented her baker's peel, though the momentum behind it threw her off and caused her to go crashing face-first into the side of another building.

 

Sakura fell into a defensive crouch as she watched the building collapse on top of Atros, wincing slightly at the tons of asphalt, steel and gravel pressing down on her foe, to which Sakura could not resist quipping the line, “Now that has got to hurt.”

 

One minute later she was seriously regretting her words, for the pile of rubble exploded upward with a massive roar of searing white flames, and up from the ashes rose a none-too-happy Atros, who was all but seething with the intensity of her fury. Sakura read her intent in the Bioroid's blazing eyes and wasted no time getting the hell out of the way, right before the black haired girl gestured with both hands and blew apart the area where Sakura had been standing.

 

Said blast kicked Sakura up and tossed her like a rag doll, but with the experience of long training she went limp and absorbed the brunt of the shock wave, then straightened out and somersaulted to a nimble one-point landing. She automatically spun about and gaped at the area Atros had blasted, seeing a virtual canyon had opened up where the earth had been gouged out to form a thirty-meter wide trough that stretched on for about a kilometer from the point of impact.

 

“Oboy,” Sakura winced, having a better idea now of just what type of foe she was playing with here. Beyond question she was seriously out of her league if she meant to trade straight blows against her, but this being the arena of a troubled mind, she knew that she still had a chance, provided she continued to use her opponent's inexperience against her.

 

“You dare insult me, you pathetic monkey?” a voice that did not quite sound like Atros came out from her lips, showing that the true puppet master was at last taking an interest, “DIE!”

 

Sakura sensed something was wrong just before the ground beneath her started to grow soft and to undulate, with was rather like one of her training sessions in which she had been tested to mark the skills of her Ninja forebears. Quicksand traps were a standard stock and trade of the profession, and rather easy to anticipate, though avoiding them meant having to either find another perch to leap upon or else master the very difficult technique of walking on water.

 

Further complicating this she sensed more movement in the shadows and at once twirled her peel as though it were a cheerleader's baton, slicing through tendrils that had sought to ensnare her, already vaulting into the air before the ground went totally soft underfoot, though that left her in the awkward state of hanging in mid-air with gravity sure to assert its hold at any moment.

 

But of course the Saotome Ryuu was primarily an aerial combat system, and Sakura knew a few choice ways in which a body could prolong the act of falling, even counteract gravity for a few crucial instants. As such she began to whirl her peel over her head like a helicopter, kicking up a breeze as she used Amaguriken speeds to fan enough air to hold her suspended above the ground while she drifted to relative safety. She landed on a spot of ground that “felt” safe to her ninja-honed senses and was gratified to find it solid under her feet. She started to straighten up again when she “felt” another onrush of air aimed towards her back and lashed out with a back-hand thrust that was both timed and aimed by instinct, feeling the “crunch” of Atros's face once more impacting with her spatula, which stunned the Bioroid for several more critical instants.

 

“Lights out, Sleeping Beauty!” Sakura cried as she reversed her swing and brought her peel around again, this time to lay the blade-edge at the back of the dark haired girl's skull, timing it on the duller side-edge rather than the sharpened front so that the force of her blow was concentrated on one area that would equate to the Hypothalamus of a normal human.

 

The effect was as desired…Atros dropped like a stone as though someone had just pressed the off-switch, thus proving again another one of her father's favorite dictums: “No matter how tough they are, if they have a nervous system, they can be kayoed.” Sakura smiled in satisfaction, kneeling to check her fallen foe to insure that she was merely out of it and not more severely injured. Already a lump was forming in the space where she had been “spatulaed,' and Sakura would not envy her the headache that Atros would experience upon reviving, but at least it took the fight out of the dark haired warrior…at least for the moment.

 

Of course this being a realm where thought and belief held more sway than matter, there was no telling how soon the Bioroid might recover her wits, so Sakura picked her up and slung the girl over her shoulder in a “fireman” carry, reasoning that if she found a spot to lay her down she might be able to do more help for Atros who---after all---was not to blame for anything that had so far happened. The girl weighed a bloody ton (or rather a lot more than Sakura had calculated), but the young Saotome was a very strong and healthy girl who could easily manage her own weight and then some, so she turned about and surveyed the combat zone, looking for a likely place to take her charge for a “therapy session.”

 

That was when she sensed and heard the faint rumbling of distant explosions, turning to face in the direction in which they seemed to originate and wondering if they might portend something significant and worthy of closer attention. It occurred to Sakura that Troi was the likeliest cause of such massive discharges, so---without further hesitation, with spatula in hand---she headed off that way, hoping that she might be in time to assist her silver-haired seductress before the Gold Virus could wreck any further mischief…

 

 

 

 

“How are they doing, Sister Grey?” Iczer One asked with a very sobering expression.

 

“So far so good…at least where Sakura is concerned,” Grey replied, “This girl is quite remarkable…I am monitoring high stress levels similar to what she might experience in combat, yet she remains as cool and as calm as the proverbial rutabaga…”

 

“Cucumber,” Nagisa automatically corrected, “Looks like Troi really hit pay dirt with this one…she's amazingly resilient, and to hold out this long against the Gold Virus…”

 

“She is a Saotome,” Iczer Two nodded with just a hint of pride in the school to which she was also an adherent, “They don't know the meaning of defeat or terror…unless, of course, it has something to do with cats…”

 

“Cats?” Sayoko blinked her eyes, “Oh yeah…didn't her father have that phobia about cats, which made him go Neko anytime he got cornered by some cute little kitty?”

 

Iczer Two nodded in affirmation, “Every great warrior is entitled to a few weaknesses…except for myself, of course.”

 

“Of course,” Iczer One smiled affectionately, knowing full well that she and her sister shared the singular weakness of total obedience to their respective partners, “How then is Troi faring?”

 

“Not so good,” Grey said with obvious concern, “Her power levels are dropping dramatically and I believe she is exhausting her seratonin levels drastically. At this rate she might burn herself out long before she can overcome the Gold Virus…at which point…”

 

“At which point Gold will attempt to overwhelm her and insert her evil presence,” Iczer Two said grimly, “Can you sever the link before that can happen, Doctor?”

 

“Not while Troi's mind is deeply submerged into the mind of Atros…who is registering some unusual flux levels, by the way,” Grey noted, “I believe Sakura is making some definite progress…”

 

“That is good to hear,” a new voice said, one very much like Iczer Two, yet belonging to the silver haired Cobalt, “We may yet have some hope on our side, which is good since Gold has just raised the stakes to a whole new level.”

 

“What do you mean, Force Leader?” Iczer One immediately sharpened her focus.

 

“I mean that we had another incident on the surface,” Cobalt replied, “Only this time there was some property damage and a few casualties…mostly cuts, bruises, a few broken limbs and other forms of trauma that one might associate with the partial collapse of a school building.”

 

“What?” Nagisa blinked, “Somebody attacked a school…you mean…?”

 

“Rhea was involved,” Cobalt nodded, “She was delivering her partner to her school, as promised, only Gold had other ideas and launched a two-pronged assault making use of the Grey twins…”

 

“I do wish people would stop calling them that,” Grey winced slightly, “Cross and Chaos were faulty attempts at grafting Bioroid technology directly into a human metabolism…I deeply regret the mistake that I made, which allowed Gold to corrupt them into her minions…”

 

“Sorry about that, Doctor,” Cobalt nodded, then went on, “The larger threat was a Bioroid Gaea that had been metamorphed into a colossal Iczer Robo, one programmed to explode with the intent of taking out half of the main Island of Honshu. The Iczelion corps was able to contain it long enough for Rhea to transport it into Null Space with her Iczer Robo…however…”

 

“However?” Iczer Two frowned, “What are you avoiding here, Mother? Come right out and tell us…is Rhea-chan…well?”

 

“She lives,” Cobalt nodded grimly, “But she took injury…seventeen percent damage to the lateral left side of her body…you've often warned her that she tends to drop her guard a bit there during combat.”

 

“Is she all right?” Nagisa at once became distraught and angry, “Who dared to hurt my baby? I'll kill them!”

 

“Too late for that,” Cobalt assured them, “Rhea did the job herself, thanks in no small measure to her partner. I believe the Earth-term for this is, `You should see the other guy…'”

 

“It is not that I do not appreciate you wanting to lessen the impact of your news, Force Leader,” Iczer One replied, “But do not make light of our daughter's injuries. The very fact that she was injured means that it could have been much worse…perhaps even…fatal.”

 

“I will not deny this, Protector,” Cobalt replied, “But you should be proud of your daughter's performance. I know that I am…she was magnificent out there, an unstoppable engine of justice and retribution. She struck swift, accurately and her blows were fatal. I could ask no more of any warrior in my service the way she selflessly risked her own life in order to save millions…”

 

“But still, in the end, she was injured,” Iczer Two noted grimly, “I can see that I will have to work some more on her training. I've allowed her to grow too soft while she has been in the process of courting her new partner.”

 

“We must go to her at once,” Iczer One turned to Nagisa, “I do not wish to leave Troi's side when she is in need of our prayers, but…”

 

“Rhea's our only daughter,” Nagisa replied, “Even if Troi is your sister, you can't balance one against the other.”

 

“Hold on,” Grey said, staring at her console as she added, “Something is happening in there…I'm detecting a flux level rise…the Synchronization levels of Sakura and Troi…they're…”

 

“They're what?” Sayoko asked.

 

Grey's face became one of wonder and amazement, “They're…rising! Ninety-nine-point-seven percent harmony…and increasing…”

 

 

 

 

Troi was actually panting from the force of her most recent exertions, not too much from a need for air as to fan her internal fires as the force of all her labors was causing her system to overheat internally, greatly diminishing her efficiency in battle.

 

“WHAT IS THE MATTER, ICZER THREE?” Big Gold taunted, “TIRING OUT ALREADY? AND THE FUN HERE HAS ONLY JUST GOTTEN STARTED…”

 

“I'm not licked yet, you cyber-trashed psycho!” Troi cried out in defiance, “If you think I've giving up now when I'm close to freeing my daughter of you…”

 

Sinister laughter echoed throughout the mental firmament as Gold reared back and sneered, “YOU PATHETIC PRETENDER TO A HUMANITY YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CLAIM, YOU WASTE YOUR TIME AND YOUR ENERGIES TRYING TO ELIMINATE ME! I AM MUCH TOO DEEPLY INVETED IN THIS FRAMEWORK TO BE DISLODGED BY THE LIKES OF YOU, AND ANYWAY, YOU ARE GROWING WEAKER WITH EACH NEW ATTACK. SOON I WILL CLAIM YOU AS MY PRIZE AND THEN YOU CAN WATCH AS I TURN YOU AGAINST THOSE YOU REPUTEDLY LOVE, YOU DISGUSTING ANACHRONISM!”

 

“Ain't gonna happen,” Troi said, “And watch that “anachronism” stuff…you're the one who's outlived her warranty, you trash-talking slut!”

 

“DEFIANT TO THE END, ARE WE, ICZER THREE…?”

 

“I told you before, that ain't my name!” Troi reared back and formed a ball of concentrated Iczerio energy between her hands, “I'M NOT A NUMBER, I'M A FREE ICZER! SO EAT THIS!”

 

The ball left her hands and struck the form of Big Gold, who remained unwavering as the coruscating energy broke and dissipated all around her.

 

“WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR PATHETIC BEST SHOT?” Big Gold sneered, “I AM SINGULARLY UNIMPRESSED WITH YOUR WEAKNESS! YOU DISGUST ME BEYOND WORDS WITH YOUR RIDICULOUS ATTEMPTS. PERHAPS YOU ARE NOT EVEN WORTHY OF INVESTING MY ESSENSE WITHIN YOU…PERHAPS I WILL JUST KILL YOU NOW AND BE DONE WITH YOU, A SECOND-RATE ICZER!”

 

Troi winced as she saw the energy form between the hands of her towering enemy, lacking the strength to take any evasive action. It was going to hurt when she got hit this time and she knew it, so she braced herself as best she was able and tried to summon up enough integrity to hold her self-image together…

 

But then something flashed out of the corner of her eye…several somethings, all moving very quickly. Big Gold did not even see the mini-spatulas until they started glancing off her armored hide, causing her to turn just in time to see one heading straight for her faceplate, and before she could even blink one eye a spatula found it and penetrated into her iris.

 

“AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!” Big Gold cried as she lost her focus and caused her energy ball to harmlessly dissipate, rearing back in dismay while clutching at her wounded member, `WHAT---WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME…???”

 

“Most probably improved your looks, Bitch,” an all-too-familiar voice said from quite nearby, causing Troi to turn her head in time to see Sakura standing there, Atros slung across one shoulder, baker's peel in hand, the other hand bearing another fist full of the deadly throwing spatulas.

 

“S-Sakura?” Troi gasped, “What are you doing here…?”

 

“Other than saving your butt?” Sakura sniffed as she set Atros down on the ground and straightened up again, “What does it look like?”

 

“You can't stay here, it's too dangerous!” Troi protested.

 

“No duh,” Sakura replied, turning to survey the towering giant, “I take it this is the big-mean virus that we're supposed to fight?”

 

“Look, I'm serious,” Troi insisted, “You've got no idea what you're up against here, and you've no training for this kind of a battle…”

 

“I've managed pretty well so far,” Sakura replied, falling into an easy stance, spatula at the ready, “Heads up…big Nasty is about to make another speech, so cover your ears.”

 

“YOU---INSECT!” Big Gold raged, hands still covered over her mask-like visage, “YOU DARE TO MAR MY FACE WITH YOUR PATHETIC TOYS, YOU INSIGNIFICANT SPECK!”

 

“Yeah, well, it's like they always say,” Sakura sniffed, “It's only fun until someone loses an eye.”

 

“FOR THAT INSULT I SHALL FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR HIDE!” Gold cried, uncovering her masked face, one eye glowing hotly with outrage, “YOUR WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD WILL SUFFER THE THROES OF THE DAMNED…I WILL EXTERMINATE YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES…”

 

“Uh oh,” Sakura murmured softly to herself, “No mouth…that's going to be a problem…”

 

“Huh?” Troi blinked, “What are you talking about?”

 

“Never mind,” Sakura replied, thinking of the “Anti-Virus” she carried disguised as an okonomiyaki, “We've gotta act quickly to get that mask off her face. She does have a mouth underneath that, right?”

 

“Ah…yeah, I think so,” Troi blinked, “Hey, wait a minute! Just what the heck are you planning?”

 

“Something that should prove a lot more effective than pounding her senseless must have been for you so far,” Sakura responded.

 

“Oh yeah?” Troi bristled, “For your information I was doing just fine until right now…”

 

“When you were about to be deep fried?” Sakura sniffed, “Yeah, right…pull the other one.”

 

“Look, it's too dangerous for a normal human to be in this place,” Troi replied, “You have no idea what kind of a backlash this Virus could cook up for you…it could fry your synapses in a second!”

 

“That's only if she nails me,” Sakura replied, “And it's not gonna happen.”

 

“What?” Troi snapped, “Are you already damaged upstairs? That thing is the virus that destroyed my homeworld, what are you gonna do with it? Bake it up an okonomiyaki?”

 

“What if I am?” Sakura replied, “You got a better idea, hotshot?”

 

“EXCUSE ME,” the Gold Virus thundered, “IS THIS WHAT HUMANS CALL A LOVER'S QUARREL?”

 

“YOU SHUT UP AND KEEP OUT OF IT!” both Sakura and Troi snapped together.

 

Gold was sufficiently nonplussed by that statement that for several lingering seconds the gigantic form just loomed there looking confused and only slightly wrathful.

 

“Look,” Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself down, “It's obvious to me that you're strung out and at the end of your rope here, Troi, so why don't you let me take over for a spell while you recover your wind?”

 

“I've been doing this for almost as long as you've been alive, kid,” Troi responded before holding one arm in her hand and wincing, “Of course…I could take a minute or two to regenerate here…but there's nothing you can do against Gold, believe me! You're way out of your class, and if you get fried because of me…”

 

“Yes?” Sakura asked, moving closer to the side of the nearly exhausted Iczer.

 

“I…let's just say I wouldn't like myself very much, okay?” Troi asked, “Please, just do as I say and go back to the lab where it's safe?”

 

Sakura reached out a hand impulsively to touch Troi's arm, saying, “There's no where safe on the planet as long as monsters like this are on a rampage…please, let me help you, I can---whoah!”

 

The moment her hand made contact with Troi's arm something passed like a spark between them, and all at once Troi's breastplates began to glow and her body regained its vital integrity, causing her to straighten up with a most astonished expression. Sakura was no less surprised by the sudden transference of energy that passed between them, but rather than be exhausted in the exchange she felt renewed, alive and revitalized, as if the two of them had completed an arc that allowed them both to grow that much closer together.

 

“WHAT IS THIS?” Gold recovered her bearings, “THIS ENERGY…WHAT IS IT…WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING AT ALL! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE???”

 

Sakura threw her head back and felt something flow through her body that had an electric quality and yet caused a series of pleasurable sensations to flow from within her. It was as if a dormant part of herself had suddenly come to life, awakening within her all sorts of curious thoughts and memories, much too fleeting and brief to possess and yet as real to her touch as the Iczer beside her.

 

Troi felt a similar rush as her body enlivened with near-limitless power. Her nervous system sang with the joy and delight of an orgasm as she gasped aloud, feeling a part of Sakura flowing into her and out again, making the both of them that much stronger for the completion of a circuit. Troi almost could not believe her eyes as she stared in wonder at Sakura, seeing the forehead of the other girl begin to glow softly, as though pulsing jewels had appeared briefly upon her brow, only to vanish again as mysteriously as they had appeared.

 

Gold decided at that moment that she had had quite enough of playing the disinterested observer. She drew back a massive hand and focused her energies once more into a globe of force sufficiently powerful to obliterate an entire planet (had this been a real plane of existence, and she the real Gold instead of a copy). But when she brought her energy to bear in a searing blast that should have incinerated the pair before her into crisp-fried cinders, it instead met and was deflected by a globe of energy that sprung up to surround them both, forming into three wing-like arms that dispelled the opposing energies as though they had never been gathered.

 

“WHAT???” Gold recoiled, “HOW CAN THIS BE???”

 

The strange energy transference broke off that next second, leaving both Sakura and Troi to stagger at its sudden submergence, leaving them both to exchange puzzled looks of mutual wonder as if to ask with one thought, (WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?).

 

But them the looming menace of Gold drew their attention once again, and Sakura saw the monstrous form of the enemy Bioroid begin to expand until it was the size of an Iczer Robo, and she murmured to Troi, “Um…you think this might be a good time to get that robot thingie of yours in here?”

 

“Are you sure?” Troi asked, “It's kind of small in here…after all, this is Atros's head…”

 

“It's only as big as you make it out to be,” Sakura replied, and the two of them exchanged smirks as sudden meaning became plain to the both of them.

 

“Why the hell not?” Troi grinned and called out, “ICZER ROBO!”

 

All at once the manifested image of the enormous Delta unit materialized in the space behind them, and with the speed of thought the both of them were drawn into its form, Troi once again assuming the command seat behind the faceplate, Sakura finding herself submerged in the aqueous capsule of the chest cavity, the both of them at once becoming linked through the medium of their joint mental creation.

 

“DO YOU THINK THAT IS GOING TO STOP ME?” Big Gold roared, rearing back and unleashing a wave of force with one hand that caused the air to shimmer and vibrate all around them.

 

Troi was a little slow in avoiding the brunt of this shock-wave blast, and the wave of searing force caused both women to grit their teeth and bear with the stinging sensation that was absorbed against their armored plating. Then Gold unleashed a more physical attack, rocketing forward with a fist the size of a house, almost scoring a blow before Troi managed to block it, stepping away to gain room for a kick that put some further distance between them and their assailant.

 

“Ow!” Sakura winced as Gold launched another blow that glanced off one armored shoulder and caused Troi to give further ground, “Watch it! You need to work on your defenses!”

 

“You want to come up here and drive?” Troi queried.

 

“I might!” Sakura snapped back, only to experience another electrical shock, and all at once she found herself sitting in a different compartment, her hands gripping controls the likes of which she barely even comprehended.

 

“Hey, what the frel?” she heard Troi speak into her mind, “What am I doing in the chest plate?”

 

“I don't know!” Sakura cried as she felt a fist strike hard against robot armor, “How do you work these things anyway?”

 

“Just call on your reflexes!” Troi called back, “I'll supply you with the data…” and all at once Sakura felt Troi's warm presence fill her mind once again, and instantly she knew what the controls were for and how to work them, and without pausing to wonder why she instantly got control over their side of the battle.

 

Big Gold was surprised when her fist was suddenly caught within the grip of Iczer Delta, who twisted to the side and locked that arm so that Gold's massive form was forced to double over. All at once a foot came rocketing up to strike Gold across the armored mid-section, picking her up and knocking her sprawling a half-kilometer's distance, the heavy form crashing down on pseudo-earth with the resounding trembling force of an earthquake.

 

“Hey, you are pretty good at this stuff!” Troi remarked, suitably impressed.

 

“I didn't play against Muku in the arcade all those games of Robot Jox for nothing!” Sakura smirked, “The principle is the same, regardless of the type of Mecha.”

 

“So, maybe you're not such a greenhorn after all,” Troi conceded, “I take it back what I said before…it's good to have you aboard…partner.”

 

For some reason Sakura felt enormously gratified by that statement, but Big Gold was hardly out of commission and rose back to her feet, literally seething with a towering mad-on.

 

“YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF BEING MY ENEMIES!” she roared, “BUT I WILL GIVE YOU A QUICK DEATH FOR ALL THE TROUBLE YOU HAVE CAUSED ME…”

 

“Geez, doesn't she ever take a hint?” Sakura asked.

 

“I've been wondering the same thing myself,” Troi replied, “No matter how many times I knock her down she just keeps coming back, madder and badder than ever.”

 

“Then…the only way to stop her is to get her to eat the anti-virus,” Sakura murmured thoughtfully, “But how do we do that? That hockey mask of hers is a real problem…”

 

“Huh?” Troi blinked, “What are you talking about?”

 

“Never mind…uh oh,” Sakura gasped, seeing Gold's outline once more redouble in size, this time taking on the form of a colossal dragon that roared its hate in their direction.

 

“Holy Mother of Gojira,” Troi once again seemed to uncannily echo Sakura's thoughts, “Look at the size of those teeth, grandma…”

 

Sakura would not have admitted to being afraid at that point, but seeing a monster such as this brought back some uncomfortable memories of one of her training trips through China…of a brief stay with the Musk dynasty, and of a Prince who would not take no for an answer…

 

“Uh…Troi?” she gulped softly, “If you'd like to take over the cockpit again…”

 

“You doing just fine, Honey,” Troi replied, “And please don't call it a cock-pit, okay?”

 

“Ah…yeah…whatever…”

 

 

 

 

“It's happening!” Grey said in astonishment, “Their lines are merging!”

 

“Synchronization,” Iczer One murmured in mutual disbelief.

 

“Their lives will never be the same after this,” Iczer Two agreed soberly.

 

“Big Gold is toast,” Sayoko remarked with absolute confidence in her own statement…

 

“I just hope they're both ready for it,” Nagisa agreed, fervently praying for a speedy and safe resolution.

 

“Only time will tell,” Cobalt softly noted as all eyes turned to the matching cubicles that contained the now-glowing forms of Troi and Sakura…

 

 

 

 

The Gold Dragon reared up and launched a fiery breath on the motionless Iczer Delta, and out of reflex Sakura raised her arms and summoned her chi to erect a force barrier that caught and deflected the brunt of the attack, though it strained her resources to maintain her mental shielding. Gold poured out all her vile hatred of life and humanity in her deadly breath weapon, and the sense of cloying toxic fumes which were kicked up by the blast caused Sakura to gag out of reflex, reeling out of loathing for the thing Gold represented.

 

“DIE, DAMN YOU, DIE!!!” Big Gold thundered.

 

“You first!” Sakura snapped back, only to choke on imaginary fumes, sensing the toxins seeping into the pores of her skin and numbing her body with paralysis as her Iczer Delta became totally immobile.

 

“Dammit…” Troi groaned, “Some kind of anti-Biotic weaponry…it's disrupting the chemistry of my Iczer Robo…”

 

“NOW YOU DIE!” Gold crowed as she brought the jaws of her draconic mouth crushing down on the helpless Iczer Robo, her poison-tipped fangs sinking into armored flesh and further injecting her lethal essence into the already helpless Iczer.

 

“No,” Sakura gasped, “It's just an illusion, a stupid dream…”

 

“TELL YOURSELF THAT AS I CRUSH THE LIFE OUT OF YOU!” Gold cried, “THIS IS THE END OF THE ROAD FOR BOTH HUMANITY AND BIOROID AND THE BEGINNING OF THE GLORIOUS ERA OF VENOMOID GLORY!”

 

“No way!” Troi coughed, “You're not winning…this time…not like…Atros…”

 

Atros…the name suddenly filled Sakura's mind with an image of another who had once sat inside the Iczer Delta chest capsule and had witnesses a similar attack from without being launched against the Iczer. A thunderous voice above proclaiming itself as Neos Gold was heralded by a brilliant light that bathed the giant robot in its grip, and then came the searing sensation of having the literal heart ripped out of her breast as the Iczerio energies that powered the Delta Unit were stolen away, to be used later on in the creation of Atros…

 

The Iczerio energies…the mysterious force that gave an Iczer both her life and her power…that allowed her to convert emotion and will into a vast energy source that could be tapped into to create victory…they needed such a power right now in order to repel the perfidious poisons infecting their system…power enough to smash even the Gods…a power she drew deep within herself and brought out once more to the surface.

 

Unseen by anyone this time, her forebrow began to glow beneath her forelocks, a curious set of three circles in a triangular pattern taking shape as the energy within her flowed through her body, rejecting the poisons and neutralizing them as new life began to fill her entire body.

 

Troi felt the wave of healing radiance flood through her system and drew a deep breath within her aqueous environment, feeling the poisons be absorbed and rejected out of her Iczer Robo's body, leaving new life and vitality in its place as the shape of the Iczer began to alter itself, both internally and externally, as a new pattern emerged, one infinitely more organic.

 

“NOOO!!!” Gold cried as her draconic form was driven back by the radiance that sprang up around the Iczer Robo, “THIS CANNOT BE! YOU SHOULD BE EITHER DEAD OR DYING! HOW CAN YOU STILL LIVE??? THIS MAKES NO SENSE, THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!”

 

“Deal with it,” Sakura replied, feeling the changes coming over her as her appearance was altered, her outer clothing taking on a new aspect that felt both strangely alien and yet somehow quite fitting, “You're not winning this fight and you're not keeping Atros! She doesn't belong to you, and we're taking her back!”

 

“Heh,” Troi smiled, “What a girl…Is it any wonder I love humanity?”

 

“WHAT?” Gold reacted, and then a sudden realization caused her to declare, “IT'S YOU! YOU'RE BEHIND THIS…SOMEHOW YOU ARE DOING THIS ALL BY YOURSELF…BUT HOW? WHAT ARE YOU???”

 

“More than you ever possibly understand, Bastard,” Sakura replied as she willed her armored counterpart to form a solid spatula-like object and with that power that now filled her she charged it to the consistency of diamond, then charged her thrusters forward to the attack, lashing out with her massive ax-like peel to strike the Gold Monster down the middle, slicing straight through its colossal body and all the way through it.

 

As their transformed Mecha came to a pause the ruptured dragon body exploded as the two sections experienced massive catastrophic power failure. Sakura allowed herself to relax a little and the armored body dissolved back into nothing. Both Sakura and Troi drifted to the ground in a leisurely manner, then the two of them turned to face one another as Troi got a good look at her companions curious change in costume.

 

“Nice,” Troi said as she looked Sakura up and down, “You made that for yourself?”

 

“I guess,” Sakura replied, studying her own apparel now that the crisis appeared to be over, “I'm not too sure about the wardrobe, but I can't knock the tailoring, it just sort of appeared on me and felt right.”

 

Troi nodded towards Sakura's face and asked, “What's the deal with the dots, and why are they in a triangle?”

 

“Huh?” Sakura reflexively reached up a hand and felt her brow, which was still covered by the curious marked tattoos, “I…don't really know…it's as if a part of me just woke up all of a sudden…URK!”

 

All at once Sakura's body shook with the unexpected trauma of several sharp hook-like projections penetrating her body. The massive claws of a colossal hand lifted her up as Gold reared up from seeming no where, not as large as before but still menacing and deadly.

 

“I'VE CHANGED MY MIND,” Gold growled in seeming triumph, “I WON'T KILL YOU QUICKLY AFTER ALL…SLOWLY AND BY STAGES WILL BE MORE FITTING.”

 

“SAKURA!” Troi cried in dismay, forming energy lances with her next thought, “Let her go, you monster!”

 

“I THINK NOT,” Gold replied as she held the wounded Sakura aloft, “YOU MAY HAVE THOUGHT YOU RID YOURSELF OF ME WITH THAT LAST ATTACK, BUT I AM IMMORTAL, I CAN NEVER BE DESTROYED! ALL YOUR PATHETIC STRUGGLING IS FOR NOTHING, FOR I CAN REMAKE MYSELF AS MANY TIMES AS YOU ATTEMPT TO DESTROY ME…EH???”

 

“It's just an illusion,” Sakura grunted as she struggled against her hooks, “It isn't real…they don't exist, and neither do you, lady…!”

 

“YOU CAN STILL MOVE?” Gold was---if anything---more dismayed than ever, “IMPOSSIBLE! WHAT ARE YOU???”

 

Sakura gave off trying to free herself from the hooks, instead formed another energy spatula and hardened it, then with all her remaining strength gave it a hard toss that sent it soaring outward at an angle.

 

“WHAT ARE YOU…?” Gold started to cry when the spatula reversed itself and came boomeranging back at the top of its arc…heading straight for Sakura herself, much to Big Gold's confusion.

 

Troi reacted without thinking, her energy lances slashing out as she attacked the distracted Big Gold with one blade aimed at severing the monster's wrist. Gold cried out in pain and dismay but was unable to react in time as Troi caught Sakura up in her arms and carried her to safety…right before the peel came slicing back to imbed itself in the exposed chest of Big Gold, who howled in pain and dismay and the unexpected penetration.

 

Troi set Sakura down, watching as the hooks dissolved and the wound miraculously closed on Sakura's body. A moment later her friend gave a sharp gasp and came back to life in Troi's arms, further confusing the Bioroid, though Troi was hardly one to question results at this point.

 

“You okay?” she asked in obvious anxiety, “That was a hell of a risk you took…”

 

“Gah,” Sakura coughed, “Tell me about it! I feel like I just got kicked in the ribs by a sledgehammer…”

 

“More like stabbed in the back by a big rat,” Troi replied, “Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but how did you do it? Most people would have folded if they were in that much pain…”

 

“Give me some credit,” Sakura coughed again to clear her throat, “I knew it wasn't real, even if it was bloody painful.”

 

“You must have had some bloody good training in the mind arts,” Troi mused, “Your dad teach you how to do that?”

 

“No, more like my great aunt,” Sakura resisted Troi's efforts to have her lie down and instead stood up on her own power, albeit Troi gave her a strong shoulder to lean upon, “Only…now that I think about it, I should have asked her a lot more questions about our ancestry when I was little…”

 

The sound of Gold grunting as she finally managed to dislodge the baker's peel from her chest brought both girls around with similarly dismayed reactions.

 

“You've got to be kidding me!” Troi winced, “What's it gonna take to totally off this sucker?”

 

“It's a virus, right?” Sakura asked, “It must be maintained by a central program that's lodged in the core processor of your daughter's imagination. So long as it's deeply imbedded there she's going to keep on reconstituting herself from the ashes as many times as we can kill her.”

 

“Swell,” Troi winced, “So, all we gotta do is find the program and punch its light out…”

 

“M-M-Mom…Momma?” another voice brought them both around, this time to see a diminutive Atros rubbing her eyes with tiny fists and looking at the both of them with puzzled expressions.

 

“Atros-chan?” Troi said in a small, plaintive tone of voice, “I-Is that really you…?”

 

“More like a representation of her subconscious,” Sakura replied, “In another moment she'll wake up and once again be Gold's pawn, ready to help her destroy us.”

 

“How do you know all this stuff?” Troi asked as she turned a puzzled look towards the transformed human girl, whose hair now gleamed of silver.

 

“I…don't really know…or maybe I just don't know how to explain it,” Sakura replied, “But I know that I'm right. We have to act now to save your daughter and totally expunge the Gold virus.”

 

“I'm game if you've got a plan, Kid,” Troi said, then winced as Gold completed repairs to her ruptured body.

 

“THERE, NOW THIS TIME I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR CERTAIN!” the masked Virus affirmed.

 

“Gimme a break,” Troi winced, “Who does she think she is, Jason?”

 

Sakura blinked her eyes and said, “That's it! I know how to beat her!”

 

“How?” Troi asked.

 

“No time for the details,” Sakura assured her, “Can you distract Gold for a few seconds?”

 

“I should be good for that,” Troi nodded, then turned and shouted out, “HEY, STINKY-FACE! DO YOU WEAR THAT MASK ALL THE TIME TO HIDE YOUR ZITS?”

 

Sakura could not help smiling as she heard the raging bellow of the beast as Troi took to the air and started to draw Big Gold's attention away from her position, even as Sakura reached into her vest and pulled out the “special” okonomiyaki. She knelt down in front of the little girl and handed it out, saying, “Are you hungry, Atros-chan? This is very good for you…it's full of vitamins and it's tasty, just like my mom always makes it.”

 

“What is it?” Atros asked with childish curiosity.

 

“God ahead and have a bite,” Sakura offered, willing her proffered disk to be as tasty and as wholesome as any growing child might find delicious.

 

“Okay,” Atros said as she stretched out her hands to take the okonomiyaki, but in that moment Gold chanced to glance in their direction and saw the proffered disk for what it was and reacted in accordance with her nature.

 

“GET THAT AWAY FROM HER, YOU INFERNAL INTERLOPER!” Gold cried, stretching out a hand that formed into tentacles while her other arm fended off an attack by Troi's energy lances.

 

Sakura wasted no time vaulting backwards, creating yet another baker's peel out of mid-air before her feet touched ground again. She easily avoided the tentacles sent to ensnare her and took the opening between her and her target, tossed the okonomiyaki into the air and swatted it with her peel, sending it hurtling like a speeding hockey-puck for the unprotected mouth of the child, Atros.

 

The disk no sooner touched the lips of the child then it dissolved into coherent energy equations and was absorbed into Atros's body. The child shook once with the stunned reaction of a jolt of electricity coursing through her body, and then all at once a wave of new energy exploded out from her tiny form, engulfing the entire mindscape in the pulsating waves of binomial equations that swept through everything and found every trace of Big Gold's evil virus.

 

The next instant reality seemed to invert itself as the ruinous landscape was blown away into fragments of nothingness, while Troi and Sakura experienced a vortex that sucked them down a very long passage, to reawaken moments later in their respective cubicles, floating once more in a sense of partial sensory deprivation.

 

“Wh-What…happened?” Troi asked.

 

“Biometric readings stabilizing,” said Sister Grey from outside her capsule, “Both subjects are fully separated from Atros with no trace of the Gold Virus in their respective systems. Their life signs are returning to normal, energy harmonics also stable and holding in a mutually coherent pattern.”

 

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Iczer Two said as she knelt down before the capsule, “The both of you gave us quite a fright there.”

 

“You, Two?” Troi replied, “I didn't think you were scared of anything. Don't tell me you were actually worried about me for once?”

 

“I've always been deeply worried about you, little sister,” Two quipped back, “But I try to adjust for all your apparent shortcomings. So…I guess congratulations are in order…you've finally found yourself a partner.”

 

“Huh?” Troi blinked her eyes, but then slowly smiled and said, “Guess maybe I have…who would have thunk it?”

 

“Indeed,” Two nodded, turning to the other capsule, “And that means that I must offer my condolences towards you for having to bind yourself to this unscrupulous Lothario. May the Goddess take pity on your soul.”

 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Sakura asked, right before the bio-fluid was ejected from her capsule, and then her lungs in that order. She coughed a moment as normal breathing resumed, then stepped out from the opened hatch and said, “Did something happen that I'm not aware about?”

 

“Only that you and Troi here nearly took five years off my own life,” Sayoko answered for her, “One minute it looked like something had pierced you right through the stomach…the next minute you're as healthy and intact as ever…weird.”

 

Troi stepped out of her cubicle and glanced around, looking faintly disappointed, “Where's Oneechan? I thought she'd be here for sure…”

 

“She wanted to be here for you, truly,” Two replied, “The Goddess alone knows why. But unfortunately she was called away to attend to someone who truly deserves her good will and affection. Rhea was injured in combat while you were busy gallivanting about in the mind of your possessed daughter.”

 

“Rhea got banged up again?” Troi asked, only to blink and refocus her attention, “Atros…how is…?”

 

“Stable…and completely clean of the virus,” Grey sighed with relief, “The anti-virus equation worked perfectly…Gold never even knew what had hit her. Congratulations, my child…you've just made me a happy grandmother.”

 

Troi, though still as naked as a jaybird, staggered over to the isolation booth and pressed her face up against the translucent partition, staring at the figure floating in the other regeneration booth, the dark hair curling like a mane about the face of seeming innocence that was now lacking sinister connotations.

 

“My…daughter,” Troi murmured in disbelief, “I can't get over it…I never thought I'd wind up as somebody's mother…”

 

“Indeed,” Iczer Two mused, “And if anything could earn her my pity, that would be it in the proverbial Earth nutshell.”

 

“Hey, cheer up,” Sayoko said as she slipped an arm around her partner's waist, “Motherhood can be great…in fact, Duella and I are thinking about joining you in the club…isn't that right, Darling?”

 

“Urk,” Iczer Two said with a disquieted expression.

 

Troi felt another presence moving up beside her, and without turning her head she knew it was Sakura, who spoke a moment later and said, “You gonna be all right?”

 

“Yeah…I think so,” Troi replied, “Thanks for everything…you really saved my bacon in there, not to mention what you just did for Atros.”

 

“Hey, what are partners for, right?” Sakura asked, then paused, “What's a partner mean to you…exactly?”

 

Troi winced slightly and said, “That's…gonna take a while for me to explain…but I guess the simple way of putting it is…you're kind of stuck with me…at least for the present.”

 

“For the present?” Sakura asked, “You mean I can count on you sucking me into your fights and joining you in that robot on future occasions?”

 

“Ah…yeah…that's part of it, sure,” Troi sighed again and turned away from the isolation booth to stare at the other girl, “But…well…the other way of putting it is…we just…kind of got married.”

 

There was a brief pause at that comment, followed a few seconds later by Sakura's astonished cry of, “WHAAAAAAATTT…???”

 

 

 

Continued

 

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