Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Betrayal ( Chapter 38 )

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)

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh, there you are,” Sayoko said without turning around, “I was wondering when you'd show up, Darling. It's been a couple of days, I'd think you'd at least be eager to see our daughter.”

 

“Of course I'm eager to see our child,” Iczer Two assured her partner, approaching the generation tube in which a tiny embryo had been grown to the size of a small fetus, roughly equivalent to four months of the human pregnancy cycle, “She's growing up nicely, a beautiful child, just like her mother.”

 

“Of course she'll take after you in the looks department,” Sayoko mused, “But if I have anything to say about it she'll have a good chunk of my personality in her matrix.”

 

“Then she will be both stunningly beautiful and wild as a newly grown flower,” Iczer Two said as she put an arm around her partner's shoulder and stared in wonder at the new life that had a part of her DNA in its tiny matrix, “Hard to believe that we have taken this long to have a child together. I admit that the fault is mine for not proposing it sooner…”

 

“Are you sure that's it?” Sayoko turned to her, “You know, I can't help thinking that it's just as much my fault because I turned you down all those years ago…”

 

“Turned me down?” Iczer Two was briefly confused by that statement.

 

“You know,” Sayoko replied, “Back when Iczer One and Nagisa decided to marry. You didn't want to be left behind by her, especially since you already shared so much else with your sister, so you proposed to me and asked me to marry you…and you remember what my response was?”

 

“Ah…” Iczer Two did indeed remember, “You said you were happy with the way things were, that it was too soon to try any major changes in our lifestyle. You said you wanted more time…”

 

“I said a lot of stuff I've since lived to regret,” Sayoko replied, “Not the first time in my case, but I'm glad you stuck with me even when I was being such a bitch and you were trying to be so sweet and romantic.”

 

“I'd hardly say that you were behaving like a bitch,” Iczer Two said with slightly ruffled dignity, “But I took your refusal as an acknowledgement that we were perhaps proceeding a little too fast in our relationship…”

 

“Too fast?” Sayoko arched an eyebrow, “We'd been together for nearly two years when you popped the question on me, and I reacted like you'd just asked me to perform Shakespeare in the nude before my parents. In the eight years since that time I've been kicking myself on a regular basis, and if you asked the question now…well…let's just say you'd get a very different answer.”

 

Iczer Two took a moment to react to this, so many conflicting emotions showing on her normally stoical features that she could have modeled for a Kabuki dancer. At last she said, “I…I wanted to ask you again…and now that we're having a baby…”

 

“The answer is yes,” Sayoko smiled up at her, “If you still want to marry me, then I'll be your wife and wear one of those cute little tattoos around my eye, just like Nagisa.”

 

Iczer Two held Sayoko closer to her body as the emotions welled up within her, and she closed her eyes as the years that she had held this woman in her arms flowed through her memories like a flood of images, tastes, sensations and sounds, all replayed with crystal clarity as a lifetime of sharing and warmth, a lifetime that began from the moment of their meeting and brought them to this moment when a child of their love had been conceived through C'thuwulf methods.

 

“You make me happy,” Iczer Two said softly, “I never knew what happiness was before we met. I can never think of what life would be like without you, which is why the future is so precious to me now, and I cannot conceive of a future without you in it.”

 

“Huh?” Sayoko puzzled, “Are you going melodramatic on me again, Duella?”

 

Another time that affectionate nickname might have caused a momentary pang as she would much rather be called “Ni-chan,” but if it made Sayoko happy she would (as the humans say) grin and bear it.

 

“We have a major crisis on our hands,” she started to explain, “Our people are in danger…Gold is mobilizing for a major offensive, and that means we must resort to extreme measures to insure that our people…and our daughter…have a future together.”

 

“Sounds serious enough,” Sayoko remarked, “So, when do we go into battle?”

 

“Immediately,” Iczer Two turned to look fully at her human partner, “I've already made all of the arrangements, but before we do this…I have to warn you…what I am proposing to do is very dangerous, and there is a good chance that neither one of us will be walking away from this one. There is an equal chance that our daughter will grow up only knowing us in historical archives.”

 

“Oh,” Sayoko said as she studied the Bioroid's expression, “It's that kind of mission, huh? Well…I can't say I like the idea of our daughter only knowing about us because of some virtual recreation based on our recorded engrams, but if we have to go out against impossible odds and give it our all…there's nobody I'd want to spend all eternity with more than you, Ni-chan. I'd also hate the idea of you going on alone and leaving me behind, so…if we gotta do our part for queen and country…”

 

“We C'thuwulf have not had a queen since countless centuries, back during our early days of empire,” Iczer Two remarked, “But I agree wholeheartedly…there is no one I would rather face the final night with beyond you, my love. The thought of going on without you…is not to be contemplated. Even so, the danger is far greater than you know, and that is why I want you to understand that I am doing this for love…for love of you, our people, and most of all, for our as-yet unborn daughter. By the way…have you chosen a name yet?”

 

“Not yet,” Sayoko replied, “Just so long as it's not Iczer Seven.”

 

“That will be her unit designation,” Iczer Two replied, “Her name…that is something special given by her parents.”

 

“I think maybe…Scarlet, like your eyes,” Sayoko smiled winsomely, “I got the idea after hearing about Rhea's girlfriend's mother…”

 

“Akane?” Iczer Two replied with lifted eyebrows, “Oddly appropriate. Yes…Scarlet she will be, the color of life, the color of passion, the color of blood. A fitting name for our daughter.”

 

“Just remember,” Sayoko warned, “I get as much of a say in how she's raised as you do, so I won't have you indoctrinating her to be a soldier, like you were. She can defend herself just like anyone else, but she'll be a child of life, just like Rhea, not a troublemaker like your Nova.”

 

“Ah,” Iczer Two rolled her eyes, “You are never going to let me live that one down, are you?”

 

“Damned straight,” Sayoko got an arched expression, “By the way, you don't have any others like her hidden around somewhere that I don't know about, do you?”

 

“I assure you, Darling,” Iczer Two replied, “One like Nova is more than enough.”

 

“Good,” Sayoko nodded, “Because I wouldn't put it entirely past you to have a kid with your sister. Incest doesn't really bother you C'thuwulf as much as it does most Terrans…”

 

“My sister?” Iczer Two blinked, “With One?”

 

“Hey, it's not so far-fetched when you think about it,” Sayoko noted, “You two get along fantastically these days, and I'll bet you could have a beautiful baby of your own sometime…or doesn't that trick work when you mix two C'thuwulf together.”

 

“I confess that the idea has never even crossed my mind until now,” Iczer Two assured her partner, looking fondly into her eyes as she said, “That is the thing I would most miss about you, Sayoko…you never fail to surprise me, and life is always more interesting with you around…but as I said, our need is great and the risk…the risk is preferable to having Gold triumph over all. I would make any sacrifice to spare our daughter such a future, and I know you would as well, which almost makes this part a little easier…almost.”

 

“Huh?” Sayoko asked, “What are you…?”

 

Iczer Two's eyes never left her partner as she pressed her palm up against her heart and briefly willed the energy pulse to flow from her hand into Sayoko's body. Her partner jolted in shock as the pulse stopped her heart and froze her body in a state of instant termination. Without a sound Sayoko sagged into her lover's arms and Iczer Two caught her up in her embrace, holding her tightly as she felt the human girl go limp as death replaced the vibrancy that had flowed within her mere instants beforehand.

 

“Forgive me, my love,” Iczer Two murmured, “I wish this was not necessary…”

 

And then the most amazing thing…she felt Sayoko's soul flow from her body into the Bioroid's own physical matrix, and Iczer Two absorbed the life-giving Iczerio of the woman she loved, her armor glowing briefly as the surge of vitality flowed all throughout her system. She opened her eyes and felt the change within her, no longer just Iczer Two but something different, a mingling of two halves that now perfectly fit together.

 

Without a word she rose to her feet and lifted Sayoko's body in her arms, then turned as she mentally opened the catch of a pre-prepared regenerator cylinder, placing Sayoko's body inside of this and activating the mechanism along its pre-programmed channels. The cylinder filled with bio-amniotic fluid and began to hum as Iczer Two rested a hand against the outer casing, looking in at the now-preserved Sayoko and feeling the remorse of having taken such a drastic course of action. Hopefully, by the time anyone found out about what she had done and was planning to do, it would be too late for either of her sisters to prevent or countermand her chosen course of actions.

 

“Forgive me,” she murmured, “But what I do I do for the both of us.”

 

With that declaration given she teleported from the birthing cubicles and manifested inside the control cabin of her Iczer Robo, starting up all systems as she spoke gruffly into the com-system, “This is Defender One, Unit Beta is ready for launch. Clearance Channel Omega-Alpha-Delta-Two.”

 

“Acknowledged, Commander,” came the immediate reply, “They can sure use you out there…our people are getting slaughtered.”

 

“Tell them hope is on the way,” Iczer Two declared, “I am going to finish this war once and forever. Launching now!”

 

And with that she teleported her Iczer Beta and appeared again at the pre-programmed coordinates of Subspace, to be greeted by the trio who were waiting to meet her.

 

“About time you showed up,” Nami in her black Iczelion armor said, “We've been keeping tabs on the access gate and it hasn't shifted since the point of insertion.”

 

“Big Gold must be incredibly confident or just plain sloppy to leave the access port unshielded,” Kiiro in her Gold Iczelion armor noted, “Not that I expect this mission to be a cakewalk.”

 

“Are we going in to pay the enemy a much-needed visit, Commander?” Kawai in her Silver Iczelion armor wondered, “If so, then we all stand united and ready.”

 

“Then form on me and stay close,” Iczer Two directed, “I'm expecting you to run interference while I concentrate my firepower against the big guns, understood?”

 

“You got it,” Nami replied, “You and Sayoko just try and keep up with us…we've been waiting to do this since the last war was finished.”

 

“Yes…Sayoko and I will be right behind you,” Iczer Two replied, not bothering to add how literally true this statement was, or what it portended when the final battle with Big Gold was at last undertaken…

 

 

 

“Oh yeah,” Nova grimly smiled, “Just like I expected from you, Grandma. Bring it on and let's see just how tough you make `em…”

 

The portal gate roiled open and all at once nightmarish things began to pour out as Nova balled her fists and called upon her internal power, ready to unleash her fury on the Venomoids and Bioroids who had come to attack her mother's adopted planet.

 

“This is for Yui-chan, you slime-sucking bastards!” Nova cried as she brought both hands forward and let loose with a fury that fried the very air and reduced the first wave of enemy forces into ashes and cinders…

 

Meanwhile, high in the air far above the battling Iczer, two sets of near-identically-armored Yuis appeared, flying somewhat unsteadily as the sight of the distant ground disoriented both versions of the Iczelion-conscripted Senshi. Both twins fought to remain airborne, saying in stereophonic panic, “WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE? HOW DID I/WE GET THIS HIGH…?”

 

“Our apologies, Companion Yui,” said a voice into the minds of both women, “There was no time to prepare you, but if you will relax and trust yourselves to us we will make everything apparent.”

 

“Oh yeah?” said both Yuis in chorus, “Well…how are we supposed to relax when we're ten frigging kilometers above Tokyo?”

 

“But you are not falling,” the companion voices replied, “This Unit has the power to cancel out the pull of gravity, so you have little to fear so long as you open your minds to us and allow us to inform you on how to interface with your Iczelion armors.”

 

“Oh?” one Yui turned to the other, “Think we should trust this guy?”

 

“You think we have any choice?” her twin asked.

 

“Hmm…good point,” Yui agreed, then the two of them chorused together, “All right, you've made your point…now…how do we control you?”

 

“As this Unit says, open your minds and allow the interface to happen,” the Iczelion replied, and then Yui closed both of her twin sets of eyes and relaxed both minds and bodies…and seconds later a flood of images began to flow, along with mental instructions that included neural connections and interface points.

 

“Oh!” Both Yuis declared as the process was concluded, “So that's the way it's done?”

 

“This Unit is going to have to accustom itself to bifocal interface,” the Iczelion each chorused, giving Yui the faint suspicion that its tone had a note of faint exasperation, “You now command your armor…this Unit is at your disposal.”

 

“Cool!” both Yuis declared before exchanging looks and smiling at one another, then one asked of her twin, “What should we do now?”

 

“Good question,” her counterpart said, “We could really kick some major butt with this stuff on…”

 

“Ladies,” the Iczelion remarked in what sounded like barely restrained patience, “Might this Unit suggest that you direct your attention at ground level?”

 

“HUH?” both Yuis asked together, then as one they blanched as they saw energy flashes signifying a major battle was underway.

 

“What the heck is that?” one Yui asked of the other.

 

“Somebody's down there trying to take on a whole army by the look of things,” the other Yui replied, “Looks like they're fighting against a whole bunch of scary looking monsters.”

 

“Now who would be crazy enough to do that on their lonesome?” the first Yui wondered, then exchanged startled looks with her companion as the two of them chorused, “NOVA!”

 

“Ladies,” the Iczelion spoke again, “This Unit has the ability to magnify sensory abilities…if you wish to focus, then concentrate on magnifying the image and this one will accommodate.”

 

Both Yuis did as instructed, and were surprised to find that the mere act of looking brought everything into sharper focus so that they could see Nova fighting valiantly against a seemingly endless tide of monsters, her hands flashing fire while her beam swords sliced through many an armored form and reduced some attackers into mere fractions of their former substance.

 

Nova was tiring fast and knew it, having cut loose without restraint in the mistaken belief that her reserves would be more than adequate to the challenge. For the first thousand or so of her enemies she cut down she had a sense of exhilaration, an overwhelmingly high confidence level that as much as boasted that she was more terrible than anything the legions of Gold had to offer.

 

Such bravado was starting to give way, however, as she learned very quickly that even her formidable powers did have some limits.

 

“This is nuts!” she murmured to herself as she shattered the hide of a Void with a punch, then finished it off with a sweep of her beam sword, “I knew Gold was growing herself an army of you parasites but I never thought she'd throw them all away. She must really be pulling out all the stops, but no matter what you guys do I won't let you have my Yui!”

 

“Is she doing all that for us?” one Yui asked.

 

“Hard to believe,” the other remarked, “But it looks more like she's about to get her butt kicked.”

 

“Yeah, the odds are pretty bad, even for her,” the first Yui frowned a bit, “And if those guys coming out of that portal are as bad as they're ugly, then it doesn't look too good for the planet.”

 

“Yeah, I hate bullies,” the second Yui agreed, “Even she doesn't deserve to get troused like that.”

 

“So…we gonna do anything about it?” the first Yui asked.

 

“Hey, you know we never could stay away from a fight,” the second one agreed, and then together they smiled and prepared to make use of their armored enhancements.

 

Nova was struggling to keep both of her beam sabers lit as she slashed and hacked her way through the ranks of her attackers, dispatching Voids and Venomoids alike while slicing Geos into their constituent gene strands. Her strength was just beginning to flag and she felt a brief flash of desperation as the tide surged anew, threatening to overwhelm her defenses in mere seconds but then a curious thing happened…her armor started to glow and her power reserves began swelling to full maximum. It felt to her as though her energy levels had just doubled, and more, she felt the presence of the one with whom she was soul-bonded grow near her, and in surprise she gasped, “Yui-chan?” more as a statement than a question.

 

And then fire began to rain down on her enemies from the heavens, flashes of bright energy that struck enemy troops and burst them into flame like roman candles. So devastating was the rain of fire that even the horde had to break off and give wide berth to the free-fire zone all around the astonished Nova, and when the aerial bombardment gave sway Nova found herself standing untouched at the center of a crater formed around her in which only smoldering and charred bodies could be seen in a fifty yard radius.

 

“Darn, we missed,” a familiar voice mused from directly overhead, causing Nova to look up as she saw the second Yui remark, “Best two out of three then?”

 

“Yui-chan?” Nova gasped, then in delight she cried, “You saved me! I knew you cared!”

 

“Don't jump to any conclusions just yet,” Yui one cautioned the Bioroid.

 

“There's still a lot of your playmates around, so don't get any ideas,” the other Yui cautioned.

 

“Hey, I'm just glad to see you guys!” Nova gushed, only to pause and say, “No…wait a minute…no I'm not! You gotta get out of here! These guys may be pushovers, but I know for a fact that Big Gold's got lot more in reserve than just these clowns to throw at us, and some of them are downright nasty.”

 

“A opposed to?” the first Yui asked when out of nowhere vines appeared to snag her out of the air, wrapping around her armored form and threatening to choke her.

 

“HEY!” the other Yui cried, creating a beam saber in her own hand without half-thinking, but before she could apply it to liberating her twin a cloud of black mist formed up and surrounded her, closing in like a fist and totally engulfing her in coal blackness.

 

“HEY!” Nova cried in outrage, “You leave her alone!” she snarled as she formed two beam-sabers, one in either hand, and prepared to lash out at the vines on the one hand and the black powder on the other.

 

Before she even got the chance a wave of water crashed in on her and swept the Bioroid off of her feet, causing her to sputter and fight against the surging tide as it swirled her up into a vortex. Nova summoned her energies and immediately expanded a force bubble in all directions, exploding it outward and creating a vacuum of space in the area surrounding her body, then allowed her field to collapse and glared angrily at where she sensed was the source of her current problems, a trio of levitating humans in fancy bio-armor whose design and manufacture was unmistakably of Gold's origin.

 

“You guys have just bought it for real!” Nova swore, “Nobody messes with my Yui and gets away with it!”

 

“But we are not nobodies anymore,” declared a woman whose body was green-tinged and whose hair was verdant hued and whose armor seemed to be comprised entirely of plant-like material.

 

“We are the new and improved Lords of the Heavens,” declared a second womanly figure in jet-stream sleek material that accented her windblown hair of frosty hue that offset her dusky skin coloration.

 

“The Masters of Disaster and the Bringers of Chaos,” the third figure revealed, a Japanese-looking woman whose long dark hair was rivaled for ebony by the coal-black armor that covered substantial (yet revealing) portions of her body, “The servants of Big Gold, who has made us powerful and deadly.”

 

“Vine!”

 

“Jetstream!”

 

“Carbon!” they all three declared, the third adding almost as an afterthought, “And one other who completes our set, who very much would like to greet you in person.”

 

“Huh?” Nova said when she sensed an attack descending upon her from her right flank and immediately moved to attempt to counter when a stream of cold washed over her body, causing her to feel a chill unlike the cold of space, which slowed her down considerably as frozen moisture condensed all around her body, and in seconds she was in a block of ice and totally immobile.

 

“Ice!” declared the fourth of these bizarre attackers, “Why don't you chill out, hot stuff? I'm sure Big Gold would like to welcome you back to her fold, and your little partners with you…albeit not necessarily in one whole piece, eh?”

 

The Yui struggling against the vines that were wrapped around her and the Yui being choked by smothering charcoal both heard the laughter of the enemy elite soldiers and bridled with pent-up fury that ignited into a blazing inferno…

 

 

 

 

Iczelion armor is unique and unlike any other kind of exo-skeletal frame ever designed or in current existence. It is a living machine whose sole purpose is to bond with a human partner with whom it then forms a spiritual and physical attachment, creating a hybrid warrior mode in which the natural abilities of the human are greatly augmented to a level nearly equivalent to the power levels of an Iczer. Powered by the Iczerio force, the living energy matrix that gives all Iczers their phenomenal powers, the armor converts the life energy and emotional/spiritual power of the wearer into useable energy that can perform a number of functions from mere teleportation to the destructive energy blasts that could lay waste to a good sized human city.

 

And yet each armor is individually tailored to suit the needs of each wearer, and no two human hosts are entirely alike, so the levels of power tended to range from the formidable to the truly awesome. Only special individuals were selected to be a part of the elite Iczelion corps, and only those individuals who could manifest sufficiently high levels of Iczerio power could bond with this living armor. Because of the dual nature of the C'thuwulf/Earth alliance, members of the corps were drawn from the ranks of both the Terran and C'thuwulf populations, and all of them were regarded as sisters who shared a special bond and were entrusted with the defense of the planet.

 

Given all that, a force comprising over ninety-eight Iczelions was certainly formidable in any conventional sense, and any one of them was worth the might of an entire legion of a more conventional army, but given that the odds arrayed against them was something more like five-thousand to one, and given that the Voids and Geos alone could give even an Iczelion trouble, and the odds looked very grim indeed as the Iczelion force was met head-on by half a million strong of Big Gold's evil armada.

 

“This is nuts!” Troi declared as she unleashed the fury of her Iczer-Robo on the first wave of attackers who descended upon their position, “They're coming at us from everywhere at once!”

 

“All units form up in ranks and guard your flanks!” Iczer One commanded from Iczer Robo-Alpha, “Don't let them overwhelm you and keep an eye out for your nearest partners!”

 

“Ichan, watch out!” Nagisa cried as her eye motions were mentally transmitted to her partner, giving Iczer One time enough to see the wave of attackers bearing down on them from above in a sweeping attack at their undefended high ground.

 

Iczer One responded by erecting a field with both arms raised to empower it, and the descending wave crashed hard against the field of containment, nearly buckling the field until Nagisa rallied her spirits to reinforce it, at which point the entire wave was swept by a blast of energy that detonated many of the Geos and caused their neighboring Voids to flash-fry, incinerating the Venomoids who bolstered their ranks.

 

“Second wave down below!” Troi called out, moving in time to hurl a wide-range destructive beam that caught the lead wave and reduced it into cinders. More Venomoids and enemy Bioroids plunged through, however, and those got up under the ranks of the Iczelions and began to wreck havoc among the valiant defenders.

 

Sakura stared in her canopy-like protective cabin, the bio-amniotic fluid that filled her lungs and sustained her life serving also as a shock protector as waves of force battered their Iczer-Robo from all sides. She saw Iczelions struggling mightily to battle the hosts that sought to overwhelm them, and a few of these brave women fell prey to the force of enemy numbers, one of them expiring right outside of her cabin, affording Sakura a front-row seat to a sight that attested to the true horrors of such warfare. She saw the fear in the woman's eyes as Venomoids swarmed in and overwhelmed the defenses of her armor, saw the horrible creatures infesting the woman's body and transforming it into a nightmarish horror even as her Iczelion armor reacted by defensively self-destructing, immolating the woman into a flash-fried corpse within seconds, at which point Sakura simply lost it, her horror becoming outrages and her rage transforming into an imperious reaction.

 

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” she cried as the image of the woman dying burned its way into her mind, her battle instincts crying out for the need to avenge such a hideous death, and where another girl might have quailed into a timid ball from fear that such a fate might befall her, Sakura reacted like a true Saotome by getting very, very angry, at which point Troi felt the surge and knew at once that her partner was going ballistic.

 

“Oh frel!” Troi exclaimed with rounded eyes as she sensed all systems within her control cabin were being countermanded, “It's happening again…!”

 

“MONSTERS!” Sakura cried, her rage literally boiling over as Iczer Robo Theta started glowing with a repulsive force that swept over the ranks of the Iczelions like a rash of heat, leaving the Iczelions untouched but causing the Venomoids to catch fire while the Voids and Geos began to short-circuit. “MONSTERS!” she cried again, this time reaching up instinctively as Iczer Theta copied the gesture and gripped hold of the protruding handle of the giant spatula presently strapped across its massive backside.

 

“Here we go again!” Troi noted with grim fatalism as she watched helplessly as her own Iczer Robo was taken over by her partner, but rather than fight the transition she decided to bolster it by merging her power with Sakura's as the latter launched their thruster jets and hurled their giant mecha forward, spatula already in motion as she swept the sky like a giant flyswatter.

 

“What is she doing?” Nagisa asked in amazement.

 

“I don't know,” Iczer One remarked, “But I think she's got their attention. Enemy forces are converging on Iczer Theta, and since she's broken formation there's not a whole lot we can do to back her up.”

 

“But they'll be killed!” Nagisa cried out in horror, seeing the lone Iczer Robo moving to take on the bulk of the enemy forces.

 

“One, Nagisa-chan,” Troi called out, “It's all right…I think I know what she's doing. You go get `em, Girlfriend! I'll back you all the way!”

 

One of the Iczelion unit leaders reported in by saying, “Protector…will she be all right? Is it wise to let your sister go off half-cocked on her own?”

 

“I don't think we have a lot of choice on the matter, Lieutenant,” Iczer One replied, “But just in case, have your forces remain on standby mode. She bought us a few moments of relief, let's take advantage of that to reinforce our position…”

 

One of the enemy units that had remained apart from the others, watching and coordinating the attack from a distance, frowned in dismay at the sight of the lone-Iczer charging her ranks with nothing but a hundred-and-fifty foot long cooking implement in both armored hands, a bewildering sight given the nature of this all-or-nothing battle.

 

“What in hell's name is she doing?” asked Fire, yet another servant of Gold and member of the reconstituted “Lords of the Heavens.” The former human turned Bioroid Hybrid frowned and said, “Master Neos…we have a situation…”

 

 

 

 

And at that moment---separated only by the barrier of space and time, to say nothing of a Subspace Shield generator system presently containing the Iczelions within its finite borders---Neos Gold intercepted the transmissions of her lieutenant and said, “Deal with it…we have a matter of our own to contend with. I expect you to crush the Iczelions and bring glory to the name of our Master, or else we both will suffer the consequences.”

 

Neos frowned in irritation as she surveyed her own field of battle, having been confident of an easy victory only to find her elegant attack plan had run aground of some unexpectedly firm resistance.

 

It had begun simple enough with her forces applying pressure against the weakening shields surrounding the C'thuwulf Worldship, and she could taste the victory at hand as she anticipated crushing the life out of Sir Violet herself, when---out of no where---energy bombardments had begun lancing out at her forces from the surface of the moon, and without warning her troops came under attack from some rather unexpected quarters.

 

There had been reports that the humans had a military base upon the moon that was a part of their terrestrial defense system, a hidden base called Alpha that was part of a shadowy network of such ultra-tech defenses under the command of an organization that (appropriately enough) called itself by the acronym S.H.A.D.O. Neos had dismissed this concern as of little relevant interest, remembering the ease with which her forces had breached a similar lunar defense complex during her original attack some fifteen years back, but now it seemed that the humans had greatly augmented their defenses as the energy bombarding her units contained enough raw firepower to fry even a Void if it struck true upon their armor.

 

Neos cursed how this artillery fire had proven effective in disrupting the cohesive ranks of her attacking armada, but this was not the only unpleasant surprise in store for her as she soon discovered that the C'thuwulf had been secretly arming their allies with more than just a few new tricks to fortify their forces…

 

 

 

 

“I think we got their attention, Commander,” said Lieutenant Price as she surveyed the tactical displays of their long-range cannon-fire upon the enemy units.

 

Commander John Koenig acknowledged this report with grim-faced determination (actually there were many who said that the man lacked any other expression but to be “grim-faced” in everything he did, though his wife would probably have given them an argument on that last point). He turned to Lieutenant Commander Maya and said, “Tell Foster to launch all Hawks. I want to clear the skies of all enemies, and let's show the C'thuwulf that we're more than equal to the task of being their allies.”

 

“As you command, Sir,” the alien science officer smiled as she turned her exotic looks to the com-board and said, “On your mark, Colonel Foster…launch all Hawks.”

 

“Roger that, Alpha Control,” a full bird colonel acknowledged as he prepped his engines for immediate launch, “Let's heat them up, Ladies and Gentlemen, we've got some friends to rescue, and it would be rude of us to keep them waiting.”

 

The camouflaged entrances that littered the lunar landscape with secret exit points began disgorging Hawk Interceptors, catapulting the lethal hybrid space-fighters on rail-gun carriages to assist in launch before each ship individually ignited its engines. Wave after wave of Hawks were catapulted out into the void, and with the moon's light gravity they soon achieved escape velocities, forming up by wing as they took off at tremendous velocities, moving hard about on an interception course with Neos Gold's unsuspecting forces.

 

Koenig nodded in tacit acceptance as Commander Maya reported the successfully deployment of all available combat-ready fighters, then he directed his attention to the communications officer and informed his purple-haired lieutenant, “Lieutenant Grape, order the deployment of Fuji One. They are to assist with fire support with their long-range cannons, but tell Captain Candy that she is to avoid direct engagement with the enemy until it becomes absolutely necessary.”

 

“As you command, Sir,” the C'thuwulf officer replied, relaying her instructions by relay net to the other side of the moon, whereupon a base located on the dark side replied with an acknowledgement and Omega Base went into full Red Alert mode with people scrambling to prepare for the immediate launch of their ultimate defense weapon.

 

The Fuji One lifted off from her secret hanger, rising majestically like her namesake into the inky cold night-side of the lunar body, a sleek porpoise-like space-worthy vessel that was the earth's most powerful warship, gliding around into orbit-vector as the ship oriented towards its goal, the C'thuwulf Worldship, ready to lend assistance to its gallant defenders.

 

Captain Candice O'Rorke sat in her command chair watching the helm as the view of the sun rising over the lunar horizon automatically triggered their screen filters. She could see the tactical display showing the Eagle fighters converging on the enemy horde while continuous fire from the light side of the moon prevented the enemy from rallying and regrouping their scattered forces. She allowed herself the faintest of grim smiles before relaying to her First Officer, “Hold her steady as she goes, Rob, and take us into position for long range cannon fire. Let's see how Neos Gold likes being greeted by old friends come calling.”

 

“With pleasure, Captain,” Commander Robert Taggert acknowledged, also smiling in grim humor, “It's been quite a while…I'm sure she'll be surprised to see the Queen Fuji One recommissioned and back in full operation.”

 

“At present speed we'll be in position in fifteen-point-two minutes, Captain,” Lieutenant Avocado smiled as she reported, “Won't my people be thrilled to see the heroes of the last Gold War sailing to our rescue.”

 

“Yes indeed, Lieutenant,” Candy smiled as she leaned forward in her command chair, “They say revenge is a dish served cold…well, the Queen Fuji is about to heat things up considerably, people…and---for the record, in case anyone cares to hear this…the C'thuwulf are our people too. We won't allow anyone to spill a drop of innocent blood while there breathes a single Earth defender to raise a fist in challenge…”

 

 

 

 

The first coherent thing that Ken heard himself remarking was something to the effect that dying did not quite hurt as much as he would have imagined. In fact, despite the fact that he had a hole in his shoulder and another in his stomach, he felt pretty good overall…in fact, better than good…almost like he was floating…

 

And then it occurred to him that he was indeed floating in something…something that felt thick and viscous and tasted a little too much of saltwater taffy. He opened his eyes and found himself in strange, unfamiliar surroundings, and there were tubes attached to his body…and he was naked. That alone by itself was not the most disturbing aspect of it all, however, as he discovered---to his dismay---that he was breathing in a liquid and yet most affirmatively NOT drowning!

 

“What in the…?” he asked aloud, only to make his next discovery that he could talk normally for all that his lungs were full of liquid. Staring out ahead he saw a transparent bubble opening out on a lofty view of the city of Nerima, and at an appropriate estimate he placed himself somewhere around the tenth floor of an unusually shaped office building…

 

Or---at least---that was what he took it to be until he found that it was starting to move…

 

Atros was herself just then recovering from a massive shock that had nearly caused her to shut down, and in amazement she found herself sitting in the command module of an Iczer Robo. She looked around in dismay, wondering how such a thing might be, when a voice in her head answered, and with a start she cried, “Iczer Sigma…?”

 

“Eh?” another---very different---voice responded to her outburst, “What was that you say?”

 

Her heart literally lurched in her chest as she reacted to that voice and cried, “Ken-san…you are alive?”

 

“Apparently,” he said, “But there's…something in my head…it's talking to me…telling me not to panic. Do you think I should listen?”

 

“You hear it too?” Atros gripped her controls out of a need to find some stability as she said, “Ken-san…I thought you were dead…”

 

“Yeah, I'm kind of wondering about that too,” Ken replied, “Only that voice is telling me that I'm being supported by this goop that I'm somehow breathing, and that it'll heal me up as good as new in next to no time…”

 

“You are in regeneration mode,” Atros replied, “The Iczer Robo is your life support and it will automatically repair the damage you sustained in combat.”

 

“That's great,” he said, “Glad to hear that…only…what happened to Gel and Godai?”

 

“Ah…” Atros had to think a moment before she had an answer to that question, “Right outside…oh dear…I think they're preparing to attack us…”

 

 

 

“What do you think of this development, Brother?” Gel asked of Godai as the two of them surveyed the sight of the massive Iczer Robo unit.

 

“Offhand I'd say someone has been cheating,” Godai replied, “Someone other than us, that is. I thought Atros's Iczer Robo had been destroyed in her last battle.”

 

“Hai,” Gel acknowledged, “Rather unsporting of them to give that failure another one to play with. Ah well…what say we raise the stakes a bit?”

 

“Just what I was thinking, Sister,” Godai agreed, and together the both of them lifted their arms and cried together, “UNIT APOCULON---ACTIVATE!”

 

All at once the air was split with renewed thunder and through a void in space a new armored figure appeared, slightly larger than an Iczer Robo and far more menacing looking as Gel and Godai disappeared and re-emerged inside the units control cabins.

 

Atros stared in dismay at the new and improved Void-like giant mecha, and then she murmured to her partner, “Ken-san…are you ready to renew battle?”

 

“Just tell me what to do, Beautiful, and I'll give it my best shot,” he replied.

 

For some strange reason she found herself smiling, “Ready on my mark…let us see what my new other self can do. I just wonder if their unit is as good as my old Iczer Omega…I guess we will find out in another moment or two…”

 

“Right, just do me a favor,” Ken requested.

 

“And what would that be?” Atros replied, still smiling.

 

“If you intend to blow yourself up this time, give me a warning so I can get out,” he replied, “Better yet, give me enough time to take you with me…”

 

For the most incomprehensible reason imaginable Atros found herself laughing, feeling a lightness in her artificial soul that she had never known before while staring once again at death and knowing that she could face it with this human as her partner…

 

 

 

 

“Pinpoint gates still appearing all over the planet, Sir,” a technician reported to a nervous Sepia, “We have reports of enemy activity in the suburbs of Tokyo, and energy signatures confirm that Iczers Five and Six are currently engaged in major battles.”

 

“Dammit,” Sepia swore, “And we're stuck here having to play defense to their offense. Tell Cobalt to be ready…there's no way that Gold is passing up on taking us out while our forces are stretched this thin, and with only passive systems and the remaining Third of our Iczelions at our disposal…”

 

“You worry too much, Darling,” the voice of Force Leader Cobalt responded over the com-net, “If Gold's forces come they'll find us more than ready to greet them.”

 

“And you don't worry enough about times like this,” Sepia shot back to her wife and partner, “Stay alert and don't get cocky! We're depending on you to hold them off if they get through our peripheral defenses, and besides…it's your turn to make dinner.”

 

“Well, I wouldn't want to miss my chance to make a good soufflé for you, Darling,” Cobalt smirked slyly, “I'll be sure to tell them nicely that they had better turn around and not mess with us or else they'll have to deal with you, a fate that I am sure would cow even a Venomoid, my Love.”

 

“As Troi might say, damned straight,” Sepia quirked a faint smile on her tightly held lips, “Just don't die out there this time or I'm going to the afterlife to drag you back.”

 

“With such an ominous threat hanging over my head I am likely to live to be a thousand,” Cobalt jested, “By the way…what is the status of all our other earthbound forces?”

 

“Well,” Sepia frowned, “Iczers Atros and Nova are reportedly engaged in major battles…”

 

“But what of Muku and Rhea?” Cobalt asked.

 

“Ah…the Protector gave specific instructions that they were not to be disturbed unless absolutely necessary,” Sepia replied somewhat lamely.

 

“I'd say the present crisis counts comes pretty close to meeting that description, don't you think?” her wife pointed out.

 

“Good point,” Sepia said with a slight wince, “I just hate interrupting a pair of young lovers when they're…”

 

“Yes, I know,” Cobalt replied, “I hate that as much as you do, but if we don't marshal all of our defenses then we're not likely to have a future.”

 

Sepia nodded her head with a sigh and said, “Contact Rhea-chan through the privacy field currently on her quarters…and contact Unit Sixty-Nine just in case that doesn't work. No sense repeating past mistakes by forgetting to go through other channels…what?” she blinked, “What's that noise?”

 

“Sir!” one of the technicians in the command center reported, “Pinpoint gate opening up directly above our position, three kilometers above ground level! Something big is coming through!”

 

“Eh?” Sepia turned to a new tactical display showing a large spherical object appearing in the air above Tokyo city, and even as she started to ask the question, “What in the name of the Mother is…” something very significant happened…

 

 

 

 

“So, let me see if I got this straight,” Ranma said to the two Tenmas sitting across from him in the restaurant, “There's an army of creeps coming here, and they're being sent by the same mega-creep whose behind the Old Ghoul's great-great grandkids getting kidnapped?”

 

“That's the size of it, Pop,” one of the two Tenmas replied, “Gold's plan is to send a huge force to Earth to take everything over while she neutralizes the Iczers, who are the earth's major defenders. I was just gathering intelligence for her when I…decided to switch sides…so I know that whatever she's gonna do here, it's gonna be big, so big that even you couldn't stop these guys if they came here to cause us trouble.”

 

“Well, we'll just see about that,” Ranma frowned, turning to the other Tenma and saying, “Sounds to me like you've been doing your own intelligence gathering, Son. That trick you're doing now…what did you call it?”

 

“Noh Puppetry, Pop,” the other Tenma explained as he continued to juggle a number of his mother's throwing spatulas in the air while his mother looked on with a much-impressed expression, “It's kinda like telekinesis, but it involves moving matter with your imagination. In fact in Subspace I can do stuff lots more impressive than this…”

 

“You don't say, Sugar?” Ukyo turned a look towards her husband, “It's a new one on me. Nobody in my family ever boasted about being able to move stuff like this…though I have heard about Noh Puppetry before. Some folks up in the country are supposed to know something about this…runs in the female half of a certain family, and they're alleged to be able to move dolls with their minds and make them perform without strings, just like this.”

 

“Really?” Yuki asked as she turned to the Tenma whose arm she seemed to have become attached to of late, “Can you do this also, Ten-chan?”

 

“Huh?” her companion said, “Uh…yeah…I guess I could. I mean…it ain't that hard for Bioroids, y'know…we're designed for it…just never thought about using it like that before…kinda weird thinking about doing stuff like that for entertainment…”

 

“Then perhaps we should test your abilities to see if they match up with the formidable prowess that your original half has already mastered…” Cologne began to say when her tone fell off a note and she turned towards the door of the restaurant, “Someone is approaching…my great-great granddaughter, Perm.”

 

Sure enough, seconds later a slightly out-of-breath Perm lurched in through the door with a frantic, “Great-Great Grandmother! We have trouble!”

 

“Mercy Child,” Cologne turned to regard the purple haired heir to her family's art, “What has you looking this spooked? Did you run all this way from the mansion?”

 

“Great-Great Grandmother,” Perm paused to bow to Ranma and Ukyo before stepping all the way past the threshold, “I felt Gel and Godai! My siblings have returned, but they are no longer the siblings I knew! They have been changed and are now more vicious, and I saw them attack poor Ken-san…I think they may have killed him!”

 

“WHAT?” everyone said at once in a rush, Cologne alone managing to maintain a level composure as she said, “You are certain of this, Child? They struck to kill young Tofu-san?”

 

“I could feel their intent to do him great harm, Elder,” Perm assured her, “And they were shooting strange energy from their hands…it was not chi, it was something else…something almost electric…”

 

“Then it's started,” the doppelganger Tenma said grimly, “Big Gold took your brother and sister and she's warped `em into monsters…she's altered their biochemistry and other junk like that. They'll be tough to deal with, and they ain't even all that human…”

 

“You're a fine one to talk about that,” his counterpart glared at him, then said, “We gotta find Fiber…this is the kinda stuff she can fix. Where'd you see `em fighting anyhow?”

 

“In a park not too far from here,” Perm replied as she took notice that the room had one Tenma more than to what she was accustomed, “Ah…excuse me for asking this, but…?”

 

“No time for that now, Child,” Cologne said briskly, “We must go to the park at once and…”

 

“Oh no!” the doppelganger Tenma reacted, eyes going wide as he turned and looked at the ceiling, “She wouldn't…we gotta get out of here, fast!”

 

“What's wrong, Ten-chan?” Ukyo asked, reflexively treating the boy as if she were his actual mother.

 

“No time to explain!” the doppelganger cried, concentrating his power as he immediately reached out and took Yuki by one hand then gripped his father's arm with the other, “Everybody get ready! We're going into Subspace, NOW!”

 

“What?” the other Tenma asked as the entire restaurant shifted to an oddly yellowish tinting, “Have you gone mental or something? What the hell are you…?”

 

“Listen,” his counterpart said sharply, “You may have spent a month training with Fiber on how to manipulate Subspace, but I still know way lots more about Big Gold than you do, and right now I was feeling a major-league Pinpoint Warp Field directly over our heads. My best guess is that Big Gold's just dropped the big one on Nerima to try and get at the Iczers, and if I hadn't just done what I did we'd all be caught near to ground zero!”

 

“How's that again?” Ranma blinked.

 

“Are you saying she just tried to nuke us, Sugar?” Ukyo was appalled.

 

“I dunno what she just dropped, but it's gotta be bad!” the doppelganger replied, “And the only way to avoid being a casualty was to get the heck outta there. I just hope there's still a Nerima to come back to when this is all over.”

 

“You saved us, Ten-chan,” Yuki said, “But…what about my parents?”

 

“I dunno,” the doppelganger turned to her, “I hope they're all right…maybe I'm just scared over nothing…like maybe she wants to take everybody alive and just wants to neutralize the barrier around the C'thuwulf city. All I know is it's better to be here than be there right now.”

 

Perm was looking around at the restaurant, then turned and looked out the door before saying, “This is that other universe where we were before…when Muku-chan fought against that robot…”

 

“Evidently, Child,” Cologne replied, “It would seem that we narrowly avoided a major crisis thanks to you, young man. You are to be commended for your quick thinking.”

 

“Hey, there ain't nothing to be proud of,” the doppelganger drooped his shoulders, “Just `cause I used to work with the other side, and I sorta know how Big Gold thinks about stuff like this…”

 

“Nonetheless we owe you our hides, Son,” Ranma clapped the boy on the shoulder, then looked at the original copy of his son and said, “You know this place better than the rest of us combined, Son…think you can negotiate a way out of here?”

 

“Hey, does a Hibiki need a seeing eye dog?” Tenma quipped as he flashed his `father' a confident smirk, “Leave it up to me, I know just where to go, and if you wanna get to that park and see if anybody's still alive or stuff, then I'm your guy.”

 

“Then lead the way, Sugar,” Ukyo urged, slinging her spatula over her shoulder, “Let's go and see if somebody hurt Sakura's iinazuke, and if that Gel really is to blame…apologies to you, Perm-chan, but it sounds like she deserves a major spanking.”

 

“No apologies necessary, Auntie,” Perm assured her, “I only hope it is not too late for us to make a difference…”

 

 

 

 

“Whoooooah!” Muku heaved a massive sigh as she lay back on the bed panting hard from her latest exertions, “Didn't know you could do that when you came, Rhea-chan…I'd swear the earth moved, and you were the one that came that time…”

 

“Oh…yes indeed,” Rhea purred, feeling as happy and contented as a cat who had just had her belly rubbed by an expert. She linked fingers with her lover and smiled at her with a contented feeling that they were now of one mind and resonance, “You were wonderful, Muku-chan…that was very…satisfying…”

 

“Heh, I had a good teacher,” Muku chuckled softly, then turned her head and glanced around, “Sorry to say…I think we made a mess of your room…”

 

“No doubt I'm going to have to clean it up,” Rhea agreed as she took notice of the way the furniture had been moved along with smaller, easier to move objects, “But I think that my mothers will understand…it was all in a good cause…”

 

“So…what do we do next?” Muku asked as she turned a smile upon the beautiful naked girl lying beside her.

 

“We take a short breather,” Rhea said with a completely candid expression, “And then we go at it again, and I'll show you some new techniques that you will find most…stimulating.”

 

“What, again?” Muku blinked, “Are you kidding?”

 

“Not in the least,” Rhea sighed, “Now that I finally have you with me, I find myself reluctant to see this lesson prematurely ended.”

 

“Hey, I'm not complaining or anything,” Muku replied, “But what do you call what we've been doing for the past hour and a half?”

 

“Foreplay,” Rhea smiled, “What is the matter, Muku-chan, are you growing tired of me already?”

 

“You know better than that,” Muku said with total seriousness in her expression, “You're the most incredible person I've ever met, and I'm so glad we finally got to do this without being interrupted. It's just that I thought maybe we could go out somewhere and grab a burger or something…I'd be happy to treat.”

 

“You mean like a date?” Rhea asked.

 

“Uh…yeah…I guess you could call it that,” Muku replied.

 

“I thought the normal course of things was that the date was supposed to precede the lovemaking,” Rhea quipped with a slightly facetious tone in her expression, “But I am…pleased with matters so far, and I find that I could stand to refuel myself before we renew our pleasures. Perhaps you might care for some okonomiyaki if I am the one to treat you for a change?”

 

“What…you mean…go by Sakura's place?” Muku blinked.

 

Rhea nodded, “I find that I am…curiously…in her debt for the wise counsel that she gave you. I have seen in your memories that she cares for you almost as much as I do…and…I cannot help but feel that I came between the both of you…that I owe her some form of compensation…and perhaps…I should not be so jealous of the bonds that exist between you…”

 

“Jealous?” Muku repeated, “You?”

 

“I am far from a saint when it comes to you, Muku-chan,” Rhea replied, “My desires in regards to you would be…selfish and possessive. I was aware that you had a history with your friends to which I was not previously a part, and…and now I want to share your life entirely. I want to be a part of the close circle of life that revolves around you…and besides…Sakura is partnered with my aunt, and Yui is partnered with one of my sisters…and…Ken-san…”

 

“Still nervous around him?” Muku smiled, “You shouldn't be…he doesn't bite…at least I think he doesn't.”

 

“I am sorry,” Rhea replied, “It is still…awkward for me to think about …men the same as I do about women…but I am trying…”

 

All at once the room shook violently, as if something had just struck the whole building, and for a moment the two young girls lay where they were staring in dismay at the ceiling. Then at last Muku asked, “Ah…honey…that wasn't you this time, was it?”

 

“No,” Rhea sat upright, “That was the privacy barrier this time…something was affecting the isolation field, but…”

 

All at once Iczel Unit 69 phased into the room and cried out, “Mistress! You must come at once! New Gamora is under attack and we need both you and your Iczer-Robo!”

 

There was a momentary silence before both girls sat up on the bed and chorused together, “NANI---???”

 

 

 

Continued

 

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