Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ The Final Blow ( Chapter 42 )

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)

 

 

 

 

 

The enigmatic controller known simply as the Weatherman was monitoring the crisis points that had appeared upon the earth. His job was to play central coordinator in mobilizing defensive forces from one crisis-point to the other, and within the past hour or two there had been many hot-spots where the alien invaders known as Venomoids had been flooding out from numerous pinpoint gates to spread destruction and chaos, giving him quite a literal headache as he worked at keeping up with the strain of his workload.

 

Central Coordinator was a polite title for “Controlled Madness,” a task that normally the Weatherman was more than able to manage, but under current circumstances he was having to marshal resources and manpower to put out fires in a dozen different portions of the globe, and with a seemingly endless tide of enemy forces spilling out to further turn his day into a serious nightmare. It helped far less than usual that---being a cyborg with special neural-implants to improve his ability to monitor and respond to new data---he was directly wired in to the flood of reports from various field agents relating to him about how seriously awful their day was being faced with odds of a thousand-to-one-or-so, as if complaining into his ear would somehow make everything seem better. If he could have detached his implants right then and there he might gladly have done so, as it was just tuning them to a manageable hubbub was the best he could do to retain his sanity over the matter.

 

“Grid Fourteen, reporting heavy enemy activity, Sir, civilian casualties listed at over two hundred and climbing...”

 

“Team Seven is taking heavy hits in Sydney, enemy action contained...for the moment...”

 

“New York center is reporting mostly structural damage but only light casualties...no surprise there, they've had a lot of practice dealing with these types of emergency situations...”

 

“Metropolis is also contained, but some enemy activity still in the field, and Gotham is getting hit bad. Teams Five and Nine are doing their best, but they are being overwhelmed...”

 

“Same with Paris and London...and Moscow's about to crumble...Blizzard is calling for reinforcements but we've no units left in reserve...”

 

“Portions of Rio are on fire...if it wasn't for those X-guys showing up to save Team Six's bacon...”

 

“Hey, no praising the freelancers! You wanna get reported or something...?”

 

Weatherman tried to filter out the mindless chatter of the various Monitor Officers manning the complex array of equipment of the Stormwatch Satellite, in geo-synchronous orbit above the world that he and his people were sworn to protect, but it did little good as the net result of all these reports was to give him the definite impression of a complete cluster-fuck in the making. His people were getting chewed up down there, and by all indications there was worse to come, and with no further reserves to put into the field they were going to be losing agents left and right from simple exhaustion in the face of vastly superior numbers. SHIELD and SHADO were in no better shape, being stretched to the limits of their own resources. In fact, if things got any worse he was going to have to seriously consider calling in the heavy players from the MIB, who might be the only ones on the planet with the equipment needed to combat this sort of...

 

“SIR! ENERGY SURGE FROM THE SURFACE OF LUNA! BEARING ONE-ONE-SIX---IT'S HEADED STRAIGHT FOR EARTH!”

 

“What?” this time Weatherman visibly reacted, the unexpected nature of this report being far more alarming than any of the others.

 

“Confirm that, Sir! Energy pulse moving at great speed, about .09 of the velocity of light...it will reach the Earth in fifteen-point-two seconds!”

 

“Nature of the energy pulse?” Weatherman immediately snapped.

 

“Unknown type...a bio-energy pulse of unknown origin, level five intensity...”

 

“Level...FIVE?” Weatherman turned around and leveled both his good organic eye and his synthetic one in the direction of the monitoring station that was presently being employed to track the just-concluded battle between the C'thuwulf and the enemy activity in Sector Five-One-Eight near their Worldship, but the level of energy that even an Iczer could normally manifest never exceeded more than Level Four intensity, so what in the name of creation could be producing a surge like that?

 

“Energy surge making contact with the outer atmosphere---SIR!” Weatherman could hear the tremble in the voice of the Monitor rise up a note in wonder, “The unknown energy type...it's...merging with planet! It's spreading out over the atmosphere, it---it...!” there was a pause during which Weatherman was convinced his heart had stopped until the woman on duty finished her statement, “It's...purifying the surface of the planet!”

 

“What?” Weatherman asked for the second time in less than a minute.

 

“Confirmed, Sir,” another Monitor replied, “Units reporting in...enemy activity has completely halted...it's like they're being erased! Swept clean by the hand of a God or something...”

 

“A God?” Weatherman new several deities on a first-name basis, and not even Thor or Raiden could manifest something this powerful or thorough. The combined energies of the Eternals, maybe, but unless Odin, Zeus or Ra was taking a personal hand in the matter there was no way that any pantheon could be responsible for this sudden reversal of their fortunes!

 

“Energy pulse leveling off...no reports of enemy forces, no indication of further enemy encroachment...pinpoint barriers are closing, inter-dimensional incursion forces have been eliminated...”

 

Weatherman tuned out these various positive reports, concentrating his attention on the source of the emanations. A tactical display showed what area of the Moon had been the source for the energy pulse, but that only made him blanch with a greater sense of dread than any mere divine intervention might provide...considering that it was the so-called “Blue Area” that was the home to a certain alien intelligence that no sane being would disturb if they had any wits about them. The power-level of that individual was certainly well within the capability of performing such a feat...but...why? He NEVER interfered, never in any way this overt and direct, which...would imply that someone else had done this deed, most probably at his sufferance...but again the question arose...why? Or who?

 

And---more importantly---how? It was as if someone had used a magic wand to banish the Venomoid menace from the face of the planet...but who would have access to a power like that, and---even more to the point---were they even remotely within the realm of what laughingly passed for “humanity” these days...and did he even want to know the answer?

 

Ordinarily the Weatherman would have disliked leaving things at the level of a mystery, and his job required him to find out whatever he did not already know about the Meta-human presence upon the planet, but this was ominous even by his rather jaded standards, and the source of this seeming miraculous feat would likely tax even his resources should he one day have the dubious privilege of meeting whoever it was to whom they owed this favor...

 

 

 

 

Steve Rodgers had seen a great many things in his decades-spanning career, facing everything from Gods to Intergalactic menaces, and fighting against impossible odds was simply a part of his resume for all intents and purposes...but when his team had seemed on the edge of certain defeat, being miraculously saved by a silvery energy that washed over everything and only adversely affected the bad guys was something of a novelty in his experience. A religious man by nature (because of and in spite of his experiences) he was not accustomed to such a total reversal of fortune, and seeing the monsters who had been---mere moments ago---running rampant doing destruction among the civilian population suddenly and miraculously get blasted into atoms was enough to make him think that someone up above really was looking out for their bacon.

 

He turned to his teammates---those still conscious and able to exchange mutually astonished looks with one another---and said, “Okay...anybody here want to take a wild guess on what just happened?”

 

“Um...Hulk smash?” ventured Doctor Banner with a mildly facetious expression.

 

“Verily `tis must puzzling and distressing that we be rescued by yon bolt from above,” Thor ventured.

 

“I'm not making any trace of those alien spores, Steve,” said the red and gold hued Iron Man, “It's like whatever hit them wiped them out altogether right down to the molecular level.”

 

“Steve?” he heard a voice in his earpiece before any of his other colleagues could respond to that question, “Steve...are you all right?”

 

“We're okay, Sharon,” he replied, “How about you and the Helicarrier?”

 

“Well, it was pretty touch and go for a moment there,” his wife replied, “But when that white light occurred...”

 

“Right,” he said, “The monsters just up and vanished. Any ideas”

 

“Well,” Sharon ventured, “I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth right about now, but I have to admit that whoever did this may be more powerful than those Venomoids...and I don't know about you but I find that idea more than a little scary.”

 

“Right,” Steve somberly nodded, glancing at the rest of his reviving teammates before adding, “I wonder if Bruce Wayne ever has days like this. Well, whatever just happened...I hope whoever did this is on our side.”

 

“Yeah,” his wife agreed with a hint of nervousness in her soft chuckle, “No fooling...”

 

 

 

 

Neo-Queen Serenity sighed as she relaxed her posture and brought her Moon Scepter down to where its glow merely filled the light within the circle of her friends as they stood at the center of her Palace.

 

“It's done,” she said, “Those Venomoids were certainly foul creatures, as foul as the soldiers of the Dark Kingdom and their Youma servants. Dispelling them took considerable energy, but now they and their companions have been banished from the earth, thanks to our spell of Dissimulation.”

 

“Well, the important thing is that you have stopped the invasion that girl was speaking about,” said Luna, “There's no telling how many lives you girls have saved through your actions...”

 

“But we arrived late on the scene,” Lady Mars protested, “Too late to prevent some lives from being lost. How much of a success can you rate that as?”

 

“Better than the alternative,” Lady Jupiter replied, “Letting those creatures take over the whole planet.”

 

“Some lives lost may be a very steep price to pay for victory,” Lady Venus added, “But if we had acted any sooner than this we could not guarantee getting the entire invasion force in one effective burst of Planet Power.”

 

“You all are quite correct,” Lady Mercury affirmed, “The maximum dispersal of ambient Planetary energies channeled through the Moon Scepter set along the frequency and intensity of my calculations has proven most effective against the cellular structures of the creatures own bodies. In effect they were like an infection cleansed away by the combined energies of all our powers channeled through the Imperium Silver Crystal.”

 

“The fact that it worked proved your calculations were as sharp as ever, Mercury,” said Lady Uranus, “And now the earth has been saved...”

 

“Yes...from the current danger anyway,” Lady Neptune affirmed, “But what about the ones who sent those creatures to invade the earth? Won't they be coming back to cause more trouble?”

 

“Not necessarily,” Lady Pluto turned her gaze off into space as if seeing much farther than the others, “I sense that actions taken by others will play an important role in resolving things quite decisively...and that Sailors Deimos and Phobos have a part to play in the overall struggle.”

 

“Then shouldn't we be taking a hand in helping them out?” Lady Pluto wondered.

 

“But first we'd have to find out where that Nova character took them,” said Artemis the lunar cat, “And without a means of tracking, let alone following them...”

 

“You are wrong in one respect, Old Friend,” Queen Serenity turned to regard him, “We do have a means of contacting, tracing and following these C'thuwulf and their allies to wherever it is they have journeyed...the children,” and she turned a meaningful glance towards one in particular, her daughter, the Princess Rini.

 

“Of course,” Lady Mars turned to regard those junior Senshi standing along the outer ring of their assembly, “You guys ought to know where that cherry-headed elf went with my daughters...isn't that right, Rini-chan?”

 

“Ulp,” Princess Rini gulped, waving a disarming hand as she nervously responded, “Hey, we know where their main Earth base is, but that doesn't guarantee that Nova took her there! After all, she's sort of on the outs with her own people...”

 

“Their base will do for now,” Serenity replied, turning to Lady Mercury and saying, “Contact the Worldship for me, if you would please. I believe that it is time for another chat with that Sir Violet person. As their leader she ought to have a few answers for us, now that we've demonstrated our capabilities in terms that no one could ignore or dismiss.”

 

“Already as good as done, my Queen,” Mercury replied, touching her portable com-pad and calling up a new image in the air, which resolved once again into the form of Sir Violet.

 

“Greetings to you again,” Serenity smiled, “I trust you are now satisfied of my good intentions?”

 

The other woman was visibly shaken, “How did you do that? You wiped out the entire attack force...”

 

“Let's just say that I have my ways and leave it at that,” Serenity said in pleasant tones that left a lot unsaid, exactly as intended, “We need to have a personal meeting. Are you amenable to this?”

 

“I am,” Sir Violet nodded, “But I shall need to contact the Protector and seek her council in these matters.”

 

“Protector?” Serenity showed her surprise, “But I thought that you are the leader...”

 

“I am the Spiritual head of the C'thuwulf people,” the other woman replied, “But our Military governor is Iczer One, who is currently on Earth investigating other related matters. I can summon her back if you wish...”

 

“That...won't be necessary,” Serenity considered the point then said, “Would it be permissible for me to come aboard with my personal retainers? I find it much easier dealing with people in person.”

 

“By all means,” Sir Violet said, “I very much look forward to meeting you in person. Shall I arrange transport?”

 

“Thank you, but no, we have our own means,” Serenity nodded to her Senshi and they nodded back in affirmation, then to Mercury she added, “Select a good arrival point and prepare for Sailor Teleport.”

 

“Yes, your Majesty,” Mercury replied, already tapping in the instructions to her portable computer...

 

 

 

 

The explosion had swept through everything like a rolling sheet that had been given a good shake by an enormous giant, flattening whatever was in its wake and replacing the scarred battlefield of Subspace as cleanly wiped as the blank screen of a child's Etcha-sketch (TM).

 

Those not braced for this phenomenon had been knocked off their feet and were left hanging in the resultant void that had no up or down to it, the illusion of gravity having been canceled out with the rest of the landscape. Figures tumbled loosely in this void without clear orientation to give them reference points with which to find their way, and for many this was too bewildering a concept to make ready sense in their minds, being unaccustomed to the lack of clear markers to give the mind a proper grasp of time and distance.

 

Into this void the clan of Saotome had been swept up with the others, yet on the threshold of insanity one mind grasped the void's purpose and put it to good use in restoring a modicum of sense to his environment. Unconsciously, not truly aware of what he was doing, and feeling along the edges of his perceptions he reached out from some inner reserve of near-limitless potential and sought the other members of his immediate family, latching out to them and drawing them into the scope of his presence.

 

A very strange thing occurred to him as he did this...a strange electricity flowed over his body, transforming his outer garb and altering his appearance even as he ceased to tumble. A warmth radiating from his forehead caused a sphere of energy to form around his presence, and with this globe he willed his loved ones to hover nearer to him as he began to regain full mastery over his heightened perceptions.

 

Very slowly Ranma opened his eyes, feeling oddly changed as he glanced around to find Ukyo and Tenma within easy arms reach. Little Yuki was there as well, looking more than slightly bewildered at him as Ranma noticed something about him self that was very much out of the ordinary. Of course it was Tenma who put it into more concrete terms by saying, “Wow, Pop! What the heck is that you're wearing?”

 

“Huh?” glanced down at his changed wardrobe, which no longer resembled his usual Chinese-style red shirt and black trousers. Instead he found himself wearing a very different kind of ensemble, one that reminded him of nothing so much as the sort of thing that would have greatly appealed to Tatewaki Kuno, a stylish garb reminiscent of the pre-Meiji era.

 

“Sugar?” Ukyo asked as she looked him up and down, then focused on his face and said, “What's that on your forehead?”

 

“Hah?” Ranma resisted the impulse to put a hand to his head to check out if there were anything up there to warrant his wife's round-eyed attention. Instead he just swore, “Kuso...what the heck is this thing...?”

 

“I believe that I may answer that one, Ranma,” a surprisingly familiar voice said, one vibrant with life and health rather than dry and raspy as was her normal speech pattern, “You've undergone something that has brought your hidden legacy to the surface, just as it has done for me...”

 

“Huh?” Ranma was amazed to find himself looking at an indigo-haired woman wearing an outfit strangely similar to his own, smiling at him with luminous green eyes and also bearing distinctive tattoos on her face and forehead. She was also holding a disturbingly familiar staff while hovering over the unconscious forms of Gel and Godai Kuno.

 

“Surprised?” she asked with a sardonic smile, “I can't say I blame you.”

 

“Who are you?” he asked as he tried to place why she seemed so familiar, then he thought he knew the reason, “You look a little like...”

 

“My great-great granddaughter?” the mysterious beauty responded with a gentle smile, “Not too surprising...chalk it up to good genetics.”

 

“Genetics?” Ranma blinked then said, “Old Ghoul?”

 

“Old I may be,” she said with a cocked eyebrow, “But hardly a ghoul, as you surely must concede...”

 

“Whoah, Sugar,” Ukyo said, “What happened to you? You got...kind of young all of a sudden...”

 

“I prefer to think that we are as young as we feel, Saotome-san,” the beauty replied, “But you may both be assured that I am very much the Cologne whom you have known all of these years...or rather I look much as I did in the days of my lost youth. Yet another curious phenomenon of this realm, no doubt...”

 

“Great-Great-Grandmother?” Perm asked as she floated into the sphere surrounding her close kinsmembers.

 

“In the flesh, as it were,” Cologne turned to her remaining kinswoman, “Sorry if this concerns you, Child, but I believe that whatever just happened has activated the slumbering giant that exists in all of us, or rather...in those of us who share a common heritage together.”

 

“What the heck does all that mean?” Ranma asked as he stared down at his transformed wardrobe and said, “And what the heck is this thing...?”

 

“Never mind all that,” Ukyo suddenly spoke up, looking around with a frantic expression, “Where's Ten-chan?”

 

“Huh?” Tenma asked, “I'm over here, Mom...!”

 

“I don't quite think she means you, Son,” Ranma turned and looked around with a worried expression, “What happened to the kid? Did he get blown away or something...?”

 

“Not in the least,” another familiar voice replied, “In fact I have him right here.”

 

They turned to see the strange looking woman they had met before, the one who called herself Fiber yet who looked far less like a plastic doll than Tenma could remember. In fact, looking at her now he was struck by the startling changes that been rendered in her appearance, making her seem more human than before, far less mechanical and far more organic, almost like a real woman...and in her arms she held a cocoon of woven threads that was just large enough to contain a small boy of the age of eleven, a face Ukyo registered with a start, even as Tenma said, “Fiber-sensei?”

 

“Is he...?” Ukyo hesitated to ask, her eyes locked on the cocoon and what it portended.

 

“He yet lives,” Fiber revealed to her, “I am preserving his spark and nurturing it with my own. It was fortunate that my sisters and I arrived when we did or it would have been a tragedy. He is a very brave young boy, sacrificing himself for the sake of another.”

 

“Can you make him all right?” Yuki asked anxiously.

 

“Oh, I can make him better than all right, little one,” Fiber smiled, “In fact, I can reweave his internal make-up so that he will be far more human than you remember, almost like the real Tenma, minus the taint of Big Gold, which I have already inoculated him against.”

 

“You're the one who trained my boy, right?” Ranma asked.

 

“I am,” Fiber replied.

 

“Heh, good job,” Ranma ran his hand through his real son's hair and ruffled him a bit, “Kid packs quite a punch, almost as good as his old man.”

 

“Aw...Pop!” Tenma said in embarrassed affection.

 

“Better even than you know, Lord Saotome,” Fiber replied with a smirk, “But first, before I have fully healed this one, I wish to ask you and your lady wife an important question.”

 

“Which is, Sugar?” Ukyo asked, steadying herself with the realization that the other Tenma was no longer dying.

 

“Do you love this child?” Fiber asked, “Do you love him in spite of the fact that he was sent to copy and eliminate your real son?”

 

Ranma exchanged looks with Ukyo, who glanced down (well, metaphorically anyway) before looking up and saying, “I guess we do...dunno why, but...”

 

“But he's just like our son, the real Tenma,” Ranma said gruffly, his hand lightly squeezing on his son's shoulder.

 

“And what of you, Ten-chan?” Fiber smiled with even more affection than before, “Have you any objections to having a twin brother?”

 

“Huh?” Tenma blinked, “You mean like Gel and Perm?”

 

“Somewhat more stable and less antagonistic than those two,” Fiber amended.

 

“Kinda like Yui when she's twinned, huh?” Tenma considered the point then shrugged, “I dunno...it'd get pretty confusing having people try and tell us apart...”

 

“Not so much now as you might have imagined,” Fiber said as she caused the cocoon to open and floated the child into Ukyo's outstretched arms, revealing him to be very much alive, un-singed and with his hair a different shade than before, slightly more purple than the coal black of the regular Tenma.

 

“Whoah,” Ranma exclaimed as he took in this distinctive change in appearance, “Looks more now like one of the old ghoul's relatives...”

 

“Did I hear myself being mentioned?” the now young-seeming Cologne smiled sweetly.

 

“Baba?” Tenma asked with a wide-eyed expression that mirrored the look formally given by his father.

 

“Indeed,” Fiber mused, looking from the indigo-haired Cologne to the strangely majestic Ranma and nodding her head in confirmation, “Seeing you two now has proven that my instincts were correct in my earlier suspicions. There is a link between you two which is strong and very deep...”

 

“What?” Ranma blinked, “Me and the old...uh...I mean...”

 

“Now that you mention it,” Ukyo remarked as she looked at the boy in her arms, at Cologne and then at her husband, “There is kind of a resemblance here between you three...and Perm does kinda look a little like Sakura-chan with a different haircolor...”

 

“Indeed?” Perm asked herself, arching a lavender eyebrow at hearing this observation by the mother of one of her chief rivals.

 

“I sensed this spark much earlier when I was training with your son,” Fiber revealed, “Ten-chan had a strength not found in other humans of my acquaintance. At first I thought it just some unique character which gave him so strong an ability to manipulate the very fabric of Subspace, but now I see that there is a legacy within him, one you share with the Kuno clan. No doubt it has contributed to your becoming such a superlative fighter, though it is a power that has other uses besides combat.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Ranma asked before glancing at Cologne, “Old woman?”

 

“I never intended to reveal this to you before, Ranma,” Cologne said with some reluctance, “But what this lady says is true...there is a family connection between us.”

 

“Get outta here,” Ranma blinked, “Really?”

 

“Why do you think that I agreed to train you in many of our Amazon secrets?” Cologne wondered, “Why my own great-granddaughter turned her back on me to marry a man of whom I did not approve, I chose you to be my disciple, to teach you the arts that I wished to pass on to a successor. When your children were born I was delighted to play the role of their distinguished mentor. I have watched over them as if they were my own...because they are distantly related to me. You see...my father was not entirely human man of the earth...and I have come to believe that he is none other than you grandfather, which makes us kin, and therefore you are entitled to be Amazons by adoption.”

 

“Huh?” Ranma blinked, “My grandpa? But he must be, like...what...eighty years old by now...?”

 

“Try well over two thousand,” Cologne revealed, “And a Prince of a star-faring civilization known as the Jurai, who have a power within them that is far more vast, ancient and life-sustaining than you can imagine...”

 

“Is that a fact, Sugar?” Ukyo mused, holding the small boy in her arms with tenderness and affection, “So...what's the story with this guy? Was he really made to be an assassin?”

 

“And spy,” Fiber noted, “But something went awry when he attempted to copy and eliminate the real Tenma...that spark of the unusual within his makeup reacted to the alien presence and...well...I don't think it was an easy thing to attempt to copy it. In effect the power within Tenma reached out and did the reverse, transforming the doppelganger in its own likeness. That is why he was able to overthrow Gold's programming and loyalties...he began to think and act just like the original Tenma, who would never betray the trust of a loved one. He began to see you as his real family, and to react in ways far more human than were intended with his design...and also, the Venomoid infection in his makeup was totally eliminated. He is, in effect, a real boy right down to the cellular level...even given that he has certain...enhancements that suit his hybrid nature.”

 

“Cool,” Tenma smiled, “Then I guess he's safe now to be around, huh?”

 

“As safe as it is to be around you, my little Ten-chan,” Fiber smiled the more sweetly.

 

All at once they heard a massive cry out in the distance, prompting Ranma to react, “What the heck was that?”

 

“Neos,” Fiber growled the word as she glared off in the distance, “Some beings just don't know when to stop being a nuisance. My sisters are in the process of attempting to subdue her, but, as you may suspect, she is being a bit stubborn about giving up the fight now that Big Gold herself has been permanently eliminated.”

 

“The big bad guy?” Tenma blinked, “Somebody took her out?”

 

“Apparently,” Fiber replied, “I sensed when it happened...I can perceive patterns and changes in the weave of destiny, and when she died she sent a very large reverberation throughout her pocket realm, followed seconds later by an even larger explosion that seems to have disrupted her shadow-world all together.”

 

“Then this Neos is the last menace yet to be overcome?” Cologne reasoned.

 

“The last of Big Gold's creations, and by far the worst of her servants,” Fiber revealed, “Neos was created in the image of her mother and is far more terrible than any lesser Bioroid or servant.”

 

“Then what are we waiting around here for?” Ranma asked, “Let's go beat up on the baddie...”

 

 

 

 

“You fools! Do you think your paltry powers combined can equal my glory?” Neos roared as she found herself in a fierce no-holds-given battle with three of her former minions, to say nothing of having a pair of Iczers periodically joining in to give their own share of the mayhem.

 

“Maybe not, but we'll never know unless we try,” came the cheerful reply of the beast-woman formerly known as Bigro, who was hammering away at Neos with claws that could easily rip through bio-armor.

 

“We were your victims and servants until you discarded us without a second thought or single regret,” snarled the chitin-armored Insect as she lashed out with razor-sharp forearms that struck as hard and as fast as a pair of bladed weapons, “So how does it feel to be on the receiving end of your former creations?”

 

“We were your Masters of the Heavens once,” said the former cyborg known as Golem, “The Sisters of the Comet who mindlessly did your duty as your faithful generals and most trusted servants...but no more are we your slaves! Now we are free to give back for the humanity that you took away from us!”

 

As she declared this Insect and Bigro gave back as though on a pre-arranged signal, leaving the path clear for Golem to fire an array of powerful mini-rockets, which same buffeted at Neos Gold's armored hide from all directions. Finishing this off, Golem's hands formed into a pair of nasty looking ray cannons and unleashed a burst of sonic energy that shook Neos hard enough to rattle her teeth, then Bigro and Insect plunged in again to hammer away from both angles, further forcing the enemy Bioroid on the defensive.

 

But still Neos was defiant, “Your attacks are too weak and ineffectual to do me any real damage!”

 

“Maybe alone that would be the case,” Bigro grinned.

 

“But the more times we hit you the weaker you become,” Insect affirmed, “Like pebbles to a mountain, and no matter how well Big Gold remade you, your armor is still only so touch and penetration resistant!”

 

“Maybe that's her problem, Sisters,” Golem said cheerfully, “She's been so long without that she's hard up for some action. Think we should soften her up some more?”

 

“No thanks,” Bigro replied, “She's not my type, but I'll gladly see you get recycled to a proper burial, Neos-sama,” she added the latter part with a lilting hint to make the comment even more insulting.

 

“You---!!!” words proved inadequate to express the rage boiling up within her, but rather than continue to trade insults she moved with an unexpected burst of power, grabbed Bigro by her tail and swung her around so that she collided against Insect.

 

Thus freed from their distracting presence, she turned to Golem and unleashed a blast that turned the very air into cinders, but Golem reacted in time by erecting her shields, raising her arms to block the powerful burst so that she was only lightly singed around the edges.

 

“Whoah,” Nova commented from where she still sat in the chest cockpit of her Iczer Robo, “Those guys have been pounding her pretty good, but Neos wasn't kidding about how tough she is. It's gonna take a lot more than that to send her to the scrap heap.”

 

“Can't we do anything to help?” Yui asked.

 

“Help?” Nova chuckled, “Honey-bunch, you're in the control cabin of an Iczer-Robo, one of the most powerful engines of destruction ever invented. Up there your wishes can be converted into reality, so if you want to join in, just access my memories, link in with Delos Gamma and you can kick Neos from here to the Proxima system.”

 

“Oh,” Yui said, “Okay,” and she started to open her mind, only to clamp down again with an embarrassed gasp, “NOVA!”

 

“Huh, what's up?” Nova asked.

 

“Would you get your mind out of the gutter and stay focused?” Yui said frantically, “Those...things you're thinking about doing...with ME of all things...!”

 

“Hey, what's wrong with thinking about screwing you?” Nova asked, “I do it all the time now, you know...”

 

“Yeah, every six seconds!” Yui flushed crimson with the sense of animal lust being directed towards her, “But this is serious!”

 

“Hey, I'm serious about you, Yui-chan!” Nova insisted, then sighed, “Oh...I get it...it's a human thing, right? Your time of the month or something?”

 

“NO!” Yui said a bit more hastily than she had intended, her embarrassment making her feel as red as a beet, which was not helped by the fact that she was rather self-consciously naked, “It's nothing like that! It's just...this isn't the right time for it...”

 

“Okay, okay,” Nova sighed, “Fight first, sex later, huh? I think I can grok that...”

 

Yui had serious reservations on that point, but at the moment she was just grateful to not have to shut out the intensely erotic images that had been flowing through Yui's mind via her rapport with Nova. As pleasurable as those images might be, this was certainly NOT the time and place for such activities, nor did she want to imagine herself in some of those positions...at least not at the moment...

 

Atros threw herself back into the fray using her beam sabers to attack her creator, but Neos easily shrugged off her assault and dished out some punishment of her own with a straight shot to her face that sent the Bioroid tumbling backwards. Her triumph, however, proved short-lived as Ken took the opening to return the favor, channeling Bio-energy through his hands to partially stun the evil Neos. With her attention partially distracted he sought to take advantage by teleporting behind her and applying his own beam-saber to what he hoped would be an opening chink in her armor.

 

Neos surprised him, however, by reaching out with one hand and halting the saber between clawed fingers, demonstrating that---even half blind---she was still a formidable opponent.

 

“I grow tired of dealing with you insects!” Neos cried as she backhanded the Iczelion warrior, then snarled as she said, “You think by ganging up on me you will wear me down? Fools! I am far more powerful than you can even imagine, as I will now demonstrate in one---MMMPPPHHH!” she gasped as strands of cable wrapped around her face and body.

 

“Oh shut up already,” Fiber scorned, “If you haven't any fresh material to share with the rest of us, then don't say anything at all.”

 

Neos struggled against the cables binding her, even tried using them like a medium to sent a shocking pulse down to their wielder, but Fiber seemed immune to these efforts and instead used leverage to heave Neos and swung her around like a ball on a tether, whirling her hard to build up sufficient G-forces before slamming her against a solid object that sprang into existence from seeming no where, stunning Neos effectively as more cables wound up to bind up her Dragon-like body.

 

“Nice shot,” Golem commented.

 

“Bet her ears are going to be ringing like gongs over that,” Bigro seconded.

 

“Not to mention her tail,” Insect added rather sweetly.

 

All at once Neos roared and shattered the anvil-like surface that she had been pressed up against, shattering the cables binding her and looming large in her towering fury.

 

“YOU FOUR REJECTS HAVE JUST MADE A FATAL MISTAKE IN ANGERING ME!” she declared, “These puny charades of yours will not avert your inevitable demise...”

 

“We're getting tired of hearing you say the same threat over and over,” Golem scoffed.

 

“We've been dead before,” Insect remarked.

 

“You'll have to do better than that to impress us.” Bigro added with a confident smirk.

 

“You want to be impressed, do you?” Neos snarled, throwing back her arms and rearing to her full height, “THEN WITNESS MY POWER IN ITS FULL ASPECT!” and with that her body started to grow as an exo-skeletal frame took shape all around her.

 

“Uh oh...” Neos remarked, “Don't look now, guys, but I think we're gonna have trouble...”

 

“Evidently,” Atros noted, “Ken-san...are you well?”

 

“Fine...just fine, Cute-stuff,” Ken grunted, “But check out the competition...now that's huge!”

 

Indeed the giant Mecha that manifested around Neos Gold was indeed impressive, and almost twice as tall as an Iczer Robo. It bristled with arms like cross between a spider and a Hindu god, and in each of its six arms it held a globe of power that crackled with energy that filled the featureless void like a wrathful avenging demon, promising to trample all beneath its colossal armored feet.

 

“Now that's big,” mused Ranma, who hung off somewhat in the distance to take stock of the multi-level power duel being waged among the Iczers.

 

“Dunno about you, Sugar,” Ukyo drawled, “But I'm for sitting this one out until we see which way the chips fall.”

 

“Aw, big ain't that important, Mom,” Tenma insisted.

 

“Maybe not,” cautioned Yuki, “But it will do until something more impressive comes along, ne?”

 

“Okay,” Nova averred, “Now I'm seriously worried...energy levels off the scale, which means that this ain't no cake walk anymore...”

 

“No fooling,” Yui fervently agreed.

 

“Is this your idea of impressive?” Fiber asked as she raised her tone to be heard by all, surprisingly calm in the face of the looming terror, “Do you honestly think that will reverse the direction of your fortunes?”

 

Atros turned to look at the four members of the Sisterhood of the Comet even as Ken stood beside her looking no less confused at the calmness of their demeanor.

 

“Huh?” Nova blinked, “Has she gone crazy?”

 

“WHAT I AM CERTAIN OF IS THAT YOUR FATE HAS ALREADY BEEN SEALED!” Neos bellowed from the bullhorn pulpit of her enormous Mecha.

 

“You just don't get it, do you?” Golem scoffed.

 

“You've already lost,” Bigro informed their former employer, “You just don't know it yet.”

 

“Your cause is dead, you fight for nothing but your own aggrandizement,” Insect concluded.

 

“WHAT'S THAT?” Neos thundered, “WHAT ARE YOU...?”

 

“Your master is dead,” Fiber explained, “Your army has been annihilated, the shadow world that you called home until quite recently has been totally eliminated...you are alone, you have no one but yourself left to fight for.”

 

“WHAT?” Neos reacted, “YOU ARE LYING---!”

 

“To what end?” Fiber replied, “Use your own perceptions if you doubt our claims. Notice anything different about subspace? The access port to Big Gold's realm has been destroyed forever.”

 

“WHAT?” Neos said after a long pause, “NO---IT CAN'T BE! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! THERE IS NO WAY THAT MY MOTHER COULD BE DEFEATED---!”

 

“It is the truth,” declared a new arrival on the scene, Iczer Two, who appeared with the Iczer Robo known as Gamma-Theta looming at her backside, “She is dead at my hand, and her shadow world is gone with her, destroyed by her own evil.”

 

“ICZER-TWO???” Neos reacted, “YOU TRAITOR---!”

 

“I grow tired of hearing that accusation,” Iczer Two said with naked disdain in her voice, “I labored tirelessly in the service of Gold...once, and I paid the ultimate price for that folly. You brought me back from the dead to serve as your tool against my sister, but I rose above your petty evil to become my own Iczer. I do not consider myself a traitor for turning against those who saw me as nothing more than a mere weapon, and you do not impress me with your childish tantrums. The truth is plain, my sister...we are both orphans now, and my hands are stained with the blood of regicide, but I do not wash them of the deed. I was the tool for her undoing, but Big Gold was the one who brought about her own end by her treachery and self-delusion.”

 

“SISTER?” Neos scoffed, “YOU DARE CLAIM TO BE KIN OF MINE?”

 

“Not proudly, no,” Iczer Two replied, “But as you were born from the mold of Big Gold, so am I the product of her own twisted legacy. She was born of a virus implanted by a twisted race of hate-driven creatures, and she was their vengeance upon us for the crime of outliving their civilization and culture. Gold lived to twist and pervert everything she touched, and she built nothing but an empire of death and destruction upon the ashes of our adopted world. The supreme irony of it all is that the world she created was a literal house of glass that came crashing down when its author was no longer in existence. Do not be as foolish as she in pursuing this path to its inevitable conclusion.”

 

“You are alone now,” Fiber explained, “No other servant of your side remains at large or at liberty to come to your aid or serve in your cause. The Venomoids are dead, the Geos and Voids who served under you have been destroyed utterly, and the servants not eliminated have been neutralized and are now in our custody. You are without friends or ally to call upon, and you cannot escape from this realm so long as we are blocking your exit.”

 

“You are alone,” Golem stressed the word, “And you have no cause to fight. Your world is dead, your master reduced to nothing...”

 

“DEAD?” Neos seemed to be having difficulty comprehending the word, “ALONE? BUT...”

 

“Why the worry?” Bigro asked, “You were going to betray her eventually anyway, right?”

 

“No loyalty between servants,” Insect agreed, “As we were deemed expendable, you were just as expendable to her, even as you intended to take her place and be the master over everything...”

 

“But now there is nothing to be master of,” Iczer Two concluded, “The machinery you sought to use to invade the earth is gone, along with your slaves, servitors and victims. The devices used to breed your legions are no more...you have only yourself to rely upon, and there will be no reinforcements coming to your rescue.”

 

“So...why then should we be impressed by the mere size and strength of your combat Mecha?” Fiber asked, “If it is the only thing you have left to fall back upon, then it is a very weak substitute for what you lost with the destruction of your master.”

 

Neos seemed to recover from her shock as she sneered, “YOU FOOLS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU DESTROYED...?”

 

“Yes,” Fiber replied, “An abomination, one that should never have been created.”

 

“Gold's Empire of Evil is no more,” Golem duly noted.

 

“So what is your verdict?” Bigro asked.

 

“Will you join your master in oblivion, or prove yourself far wiser by surrendering to us now?” Insect concluded.

 

“NEVER!” Neos flared, her Mecha flashing fire as waves of destructive energy poured from the energy spheres in the hands of her creation, “DIE, ALL OF YOU---DIE!!!”

 

“Fool,” Iczer Two said contemptfully as she brushed aside the destructive energy ball that had been hurled against her.

 

“This is nuts!” Nova winced as more energy battered against the defensive shielding surrounding her own Mecha, “Doesn't she get it yet? There ain't no way she's gonna get past us!”

 

“Ken-san, with me!” Atros urged as they teleported back into their Iczer Robo Sigma to join the others in bringing her Mecha against her nominal creator.

 

“FOOLS---I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL---I WILL AVENGE MY MOTHER! NOT ONE OF YOU WILL ESCAPE MY WRATH!”

 

A stray energy bolt came hurtling towards Ranma and his family, but as he braced to protect them a very curious thing occurred...a field of energy flared up as the warmth on his forehead made its presence known again, and then the bolt hit and broke apart against his shield like a snowball hurled against a flame thrower. Almost it seemed to the eye as if three propeller-like blades appeared to shield both himself and his loved ones from harm, surprising Ranma no less than any other.

 

“The Wings of the Lighthawk!” Cologne exclaimed in surprise, “My father described them to me once...but I never dreamed to actually see them...”

 

“The what of what?” Ranma asked, only to hear what seemed like a voice in his mind telling him to stretch out with a hand and to grasp the light between his fingers. Not knowing what was the source of this curious inner message, he did as he was directed and found the light resolved itself into an object shaped like a sword yet glowing with an inner power...

 

“TRAITORS---FOOLS---YOU DISGUST ME, ALL OF YOU!” Neos wailed, “I WILL NEVER BOW MY HEAD IN SURRENDER TO THE LIKES OF YOU! I LIVE TO DESTROY YOU ALL, AND I WILL EMERGE TRIUMPHANT AND BECOME MY OWN MASTER!”

 

Inside the Iczer Robo known as Gamma-Theta, Muku and Rhea were maintaining their own shields against the forces battering against their armor, but Muku was the one who ventured to say, “Why is she doing this? She has to know that she can't win...”

 

“I know,” Rhea agreed, “And yet she sounds almost more sad than angry...”

 

“Sad?” Muku considered the point then said, “You're right...it's like she's more hurt than genuinely upset...she seems to be attacking blindly, not harnessing her energies to attack with any kind of coherent strategy."

 

“Perhaps she misses her mother far more than she ever knew,” Rhea nodded, “I know that I would miss mine terribly if anything like this wee to befall them.”

 

“Maybe so,” Muku reminded, “But you can't ignore the fact that she's still out to kill us...”

 

“HOW DARE YOU TAKE FROM ME MY DREAMS?” Neos wailed, “ALL MY LIFE I HAVE LIVED TO CONQUER IN MY MOTHER'S NAME! TO RULE IN HER PLACE AND TO CARRY ON HER LEGACY...AND YOU TOOK IT ALL AWAY FROM ME! HOW COULD YOU DESTROY HER? SHE WAS MY MOTHER!”

 

“Let go of it, Neos!” Fiber urged, “Do not dwell in the past! You don't have to go on as you are, you can change your fate if you will it!”

 

“CHANGE MY FATE?” Neos scoffed, “MY DESTINY IS TO RULE OVER ALL! YOU CANNOT IMAGINE THE DREAMS THAT I LIVE TO FULFILL, TO DO WHAT MOTHER CREATED ME TO DO, WHICH IS TO SLAY THE WEAK AND HARVEST THE STRONG TO OUR CAUSE..."

 

“Somehow I just knew she would say that,” Golem said as she shielded herself, Bigro and Insect.

 

“She does seem like a creature of her habits,” Bigro noted.

 

“Some constructs won't shed their skins to start a new life, not for anything,” Insect firmly concluded.

 

“Neos!” Iczer Two raised her voice, “This is your last chance! Surrender now and I will not be forced to destroy you!”

 

“GET STUFFED!” Neos Gold blasted a way of white-hot fury at the black-and-red armored Iczer, but once again her target brushed the attack aside as if it were nothing.

 

“I warned you!” Iczer Two averred, “Now prepare to face the consequences the consequences...!”

 

Before she could unleash a crippling blast of her own, however, Rhea urged her Mecha forward and pressed up against the defensive shielding of the larger and more powerful Neos Unit. The forces Neos marshaled to attempt to repel this bold attack washed against the armored surface of Gamma-Theta with crushing pressure that caused portions of its armor to begin to buckle, but still Rhea poured it on, trying to force her way through the barrier as if by her lone presence she could make Neos's field collapse.

 

“Sis, what are you doing?” Nova reacted.

 

“Sister...have you gone mad?” Atros added her own input.

 

“Muku!” both Yui and Ken cried together.

 

“Rhea-chan?” Muku asked with some alarm as she felt her partner press their unit hard against Neos.

 

“We can't let this go on!” Rhea declared, “This has to stop now! Neos! You are killing yourself! Don't do this! Big Gold wasn't worth it!”

 

“SHE WAS MY MOTHER!” Neos declared hotly, “IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT SHE NEVER TRULY LOVED ME---SHE WAS MY REASON FOR EXISTENCE---AND YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!”

 

“She's gone mad!” Bigro exclaimed.

 

“Who would have thought Neos even cared whether Big Gold lived or died?” Insect wondered.

 

“Mad or not, she'll destroy that one if we don't take steps to intervene,” Golem decided.

 

“Then let us join the fight again, Sisters,” Fiber mused, “And bring an end once and for all time to our betrayer.”

 

“We can't let this go on!” Ken declared, “Muku-chan will be killed!”

 

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Atros declared in grim resolution, urging Iczer Sigma forward.

 

“Yui-chan?” Nova asked.

 

“I follow you,” Yui replied, working the controls as best she was able to urge their Iczer Robo forward so that Delos Gamma could lend its support to the actions of Muku and Rhea.

 

Iczer Two looked on as Rhea continued to exert pressure against Neos, then she sighed and said, “Niece...you humble me. To have such courage and compassion, and at such an age...truly you are a credit to your mothers...”

 

Fiber coordinated with her sisters to create a Mecha of their own from the substance of Subspace, crafting it from the united efforts of their four distinctive powers as Golem summoned up devices while Insect united them together and Bigro charged the whole thing with a kind of life energy that would give it strength, integrity and motivation. Fiber used her threads to bind the thing and lock it into its current structure, and when it was finished it was a sight to behold, truly a labor of love for them all as they charged it up and readied it for battle.

 

Meanwhile Delos Gamma and Iczer Sigma joined Gamma-Theta as the three of them turned their focus upon Neos Gold's construct, the pressure from their combined Iczerio attacks being met and held in check by Neos's own powers greatly magnified through the focus of her vengeful wrath.

 

“Rhea-chan...she's not listening...” Muku warned, feeling the strain begin to take its toll on their Iczer Robo.

 

“Neos---give up now!” Rhea persisted, “We don't want to destroy you, but you'll destroy yourself if you keep this up...”

 

“IT IS YOU WHO WILL BE DESTROYED---YOU AND YOUR PATHETIC SIBLINGS, THEN YOUR MOTHERS!” Neos insisted, “I WILL BE THE DEATH OF YOU ALL, AND WHEN I GO I'M TAKING THE LOT OF YOU WITH ME!”

 

“No question about it, she's gone totally off the deep end, Sugar!” Ukyo said to her husband, having to raise her voice to be heard above the cacophony of dueling energy fields.

 

Ranma grit his teeth as the pressure being exerted against him was being met and held in check by his own energy fields, embodied within the sword he yet held, but he knew if he let down for even an instant the force resisting him would sweep them all away like cherry blossoms in the face of a raging typhoon. Still he managed to grate out, “Old woman---!”

 

“Just a little farther, Nephew,” Cologne replied, somehow also managing to remain standing in the teeth of the maelstrom, “Hold out until I say to release it...”

 

“Nephew?” Ranma repeated through clenched teeth then desisted in further talking, doing his level best to concentrate his energies in exactly the manner which he had been instructed...

 

“Neos---this isn't doing you any more good than it is to us!” Rhea pleaded, “What is the point of inflicting more suffering on others? Don't you have any other cause for which to live? Is pain and suffering all you know? Is there nothing else in your world but the loneliness that you're feeling now?”

 

“NO---THERE IS NOTHING ELSE!” Neos insisted, “THE UNIVERSE IS A TEST TO DETERMINE WHICH OF US IS THE STRONGER WILL, AND I WILL PROVE WHY I AM THE STRONGEST OF ALL INCARNATIONS---!”

 

“Geez, would you give it a rest already?” Nova flared back, “And they call me obsessive!”

 

“Neos...you are not making any sense!” Atros responded, “What purpose is there to be strong if we all perish? No one will know if you are the victor, for there will be nothing left to fight about! What good then is your strength if it avails you nothing?”

 

“I WILL AT LEAST BE AVENGED FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF MY MOTHER---“

 

All at once the construct assembled by Fiber and her sisters joined in the fray, a hastily formed yet oddly masterful creation that combined their four powers into a formidable weapon that plunged into the barrier and caused it to buckle somewhat as the Sisters of the Comet pitted their energies up against she who was their creator...after a fashion.

 

“Neos-Sama...you are not well,” Golem stated.

 

“You are a danger to yourself and to all who live,” Bigro agreed.

 

“And so---for the sake of humanity---we will take you down,” Insect related.

 

“It is as much for your own good that we do this,” Fiber concluded, “So taste now the unified force of the Sisters of the Comet!”

 

So saying Golem drove the giant's arms forward as Insect and Bigro charged their energies through those arms and Fiber cast her own weaving powers to send cables of organic matter stretching out to encircle Neos's own creation, then through the medium of their unified efforts they began to exert their energies into overmastering the weave laid upon Neos's creation.

 

“YOU FOOLS!” Neos cried, “EVEN COMBINED YOUR POWERS CANNOT DEFEAT ME!”

 

“It's not enough!” Nova cried, “She's too powerful...”

 

“Can't...break through...” Atros stammered.

 

“We must!” Rhea insisted, “If we don't, then this will never truly be over!”

 

“Rhea-honey...I'm with you all the way,” Muku allowed, feeling the determination of her partner and finding inspiration from Rhea's relentlessness, “Let's do it together, now! Let's take this lady down and put an end to this!”

 

Rhea felt her partner's emotions swell as her own power levels increased, and suddenly she began pushing in past the barrier, causing Neos to give way under the combined assault of their Iczerio power.

 

“IMPOSSIBLE!” Neos cried, “YOU CAN'T---YOU CAN'T BE WINNING---!”

 

“She is,” Iczer Two declared, gesturing with an arm as she added, “But she could stand a little help from her elders.”

 

The force of the bolt she released took Neos by surprise as she had not anticipated having to counteract a concentrated burst of Bio-energy as focused and intense as that hurled upon her. For a moment her concentration wavered, and in that moment Rhea pressed in, penetrating her fields all the way as she sought to close in upon the massive construct, which forced Neos to physically react by using her arms to batter away at the damaged hull of Gamma-Theta.

 

“GIVE UP, YOU LITTLE PEST!” Neos snarled.

 

“I won't give up!” Rhea retorted, “Not until you see reason!”

 

“THEN DIE!” Neos summoned up the rest of her energy and concentrated it into a blast that sent the Iczer Robo tumbling away from her, even as Iczer Sigma and Delos-Gamma collapsed from the exhaustion of their mutual pilots, and the construct controlled by the Sisters of the Comet staggered backward, the threads binding Neos's Mecha severing as the villainous Bioroid used what remained of her strength to burst free from their containment.

 

“Damn!” Golem exclaimed.

 

“She's too strong...but where is she getting her power?” Bigro wondered.

 

“Stay firm, Sisters,” Fiber urged, “That took a greater effort for her than you realize, and she has nothing left to fight with.”

 

“If you ignore the seriously pissed off attitude that's been fueling her all along,” Insect duly noted.

 

But as these exchanges were going on, another voice was raised in a show, “NOW, NEPHEW, NOW!”

 

Ranma did not need the urging, having sensed the shift of energies even as he brought his sword arm forward, feeling the heat Neos created with her outburst and the cold resolve in his own breast form the connection that he knew so well and could manipulate by instinct. The shifting of the swirling energies of heat and cold instantly linked the space between the both of them, and with a swirling of clockwise effort he sent a shockwave along the line as he cried out a fierce, “HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA!”

 

The blow---fueled as much by the strange energies that were gathered within him---shaped itself like a white-hot knife that lanced the air and struck true through all of Neos's defenses. Ranma could feel his enemy staggering backward from the mortal blow, felt its substance begin to collapse and teeter as it was sliced perfectly down the middle, its form degrading back into the subspace void from which it had been summoned, and then it exploded with a final discharge of pent-up energies, leaving only a crater in its wake in which a single figure remained standing, bent, broken and bowed but still managing to hold herself erect for all that one arm was limp at her side and her armored body was cracked and damaged all over.

 

“She took all that...and she still lives?” Bigro asked.

 

“What is she made of?” Insect wondered.

 

“The same material as you or I,” Fiber replied, “Held together by the force of her will and determination.”

 

“Whatever,” Golem sighed, “But I think this time she really is exhausted.”

 

A shimmering light heralded Rhea's appearance, alongside an Iczelion armored Muku, followed in close turn by Atros and Ken, with Nova and Yui being close to follow. All three Iczers assumed ready stances, though Rhea was less on the defensive than she was saddened by what she was seeing.

 

“It's over,” she said simply, “Surely even you must see that now, Neos-san.”

 

“You...you...” Neos staggered, took one step forward and started to collapse to one knee, her systems faltering badly, “...You...have won...”

 

“Oh great,” Nova said as she saw the enemy Bioroid fall face-first in the dirt, “Now she finally gets it?”

 

“How sad,” Muku said, “I almost feel sorry for her...”

 

“Your sympathy is wasted on this one,” Atros remarked, “For she neither feels pity nor is capable of remorse for her own actions.”

 

“But don't you see, Sisters?” Rhea said, “That is why she should be pitied. She has nothing else in her life but pain, hate and destruction. She could not even properly grieve for the death of her mother.”

 

“That is sad,” Ken agreed, “In the end all she was is just a mindless engine of carnage. She never had anything else to live for but her ambition.”

 

Yui raised her hands and clapped them together then began praying softly, which prompted Nova to say, “Whatcha doing, Yui-chan?”

 

“A prayer for the dead,” Yui replied, “Even someone as evil as her needs the comfort and solace of being eased into the next world.”

 

“Noble sentiments if she were in fact dead,” Iczer Two remarked as she appeared beside them, “But Neos is more tenacious than that, and though she is certainly defeated, so long as she retains her structural integrity she will live to fight another day...if we let her.”

 

“If we let her?” Muku asked of the intimidating Bioroid, “You mean...?”

 

“No,” Iczer Two replied, “We will not kill her...she can be...examined, just as three of you four were examined in our facilities, to rid her of the last traces of the Gold Virus. Then, perhaps, we can decide what is to be done with her...whether to put her on trial for her crimes or to seek another form of redress.”

 

“That is good, Auntie,” Rhea said, “There has been enough death, destruction and killing. It seems that she has no other purpose to her existence...perhaps she can find another way to live if someone were to give her that option.”

 

“Or she may just bide her time and work for the day when she will regain the upper hand, and then destroy us,” Atros said, “Dead is safer, and I fear that mercy could spell our undoing.”

 

“And I would agree under most conditions,” Iczer Two replied, “But my fight with Big Gold taught me something about the nature of her evil, and if simply by killing her we think to rid ourselves of what she represented then we would have demonstrated that we had learned nothing from our long nightmare. This ordeal began because our ancestors grew complacent, and when they uncovered an evil they had thought long destroyed they were unprepared to cope with the challenge. This time we will learn a better way to live...so we will never again live under the shadow of an ancient curse of vengeance.”

 

“Wow, Mom, that's deep,” Nova murmured.

 

Iczer Two only half regarded her child before saying, “You are soooo grounded.”

 

“Huh?” Nova reacted, “Me? But why?”

 

“Breaking quarantine wasn't enough?” Iczer Two turned to regard her genetic offspring, “Then how about kidnapping your partner and conscripting her to serve as a weapon? Endangering her so you could go gallivanting about playing at being a hero instead of a villain?”

 

“What?” Nova reacted, “But I never---!”

 

“Tell me something, Child,” Iczer Two persisted, “What would have happened to you if any harm came to Hibiki Yui as a consequence of bringing her into this action?”

 

“I...ah...um...well...” Nova hesitated, only to start when the older Iczer laid a hand to her shoulder, compelling her to meet her level gaze as the taller woman addressed her with surprising compassion.

 

“Think about that the next time, Daughter,” Iczer Two said somberly, “What would your life be like if you lost the one to whom you have synchronized? Would you be able to endure the loss, the pain it would cause, the emptiness that would haunt your every waking day, as it has my sister, Iczer One?”

 

“I...” Nova's voice dropped to the barely audible, “No...no...I...”

 

“Ah...” Yui spoke up, “Actually...Nova did try and keep me out of things, but I...sort of tried to follow her and...well...I'm kind of glad I did. I mean...she got really badly hurt because of me, and if I hadn't been there to...well...um...save her...”

 

Yui was suddenly transfixed by the crimson gaze of the senior Iczer, who seemed to be probing her intently before saying, “I...see...then this is not entirely a one-sided affair between you?”

 

“Ah...well...” Yui winced with a most uncertain expression, trying very hard not to glance from Nova to Muku.

 

“Then I thank you for sparing the life of my daughter,” Iczer Two turned to regard Nova sidelong, “You have done well in choosing her. Most surprisingly so. Therefore I trust that you will take better care of each other in the future?”

 

“Oh...sure, Mom,” Nova smiled nervously, then turned a fond look upon Yui, “I'll take really good care of my Yui...of both of her.”

 

“Both of her?” Atros arched an eyebrow, only to receive a mental clue from Ken, which prompted her to say, “Oh...”

 

“Very well then,” Iczer Two turned to regard the three junior Iczers, “Return to your Iczer Robos and let us retire back to New Gamora. Sensei...” she turned her glance to take in the Saotome clan, “Once again we are in your debt.”

 

“Hey,” Ranma replied as he and his family came up to join the others, “Way I see it we all helped out at the end there. You did good, Two, and you kids did real good.”

 

“Thank you, Uncle Ranma,” Muku replied, even as Ken and Yui said, “Sensei,” then she took Rhea by the hand and said, “Let's go back to your place.”

 

“I thought you'd never ask,” Rhea smiled, and at once they teleported back into their Iczer Robo, followed shortly thereafter by Ken, Atros, Nova and Yui.

 

“Sensei,” Iczer Two said again, “I would like to extend to you the opportunity to venture to my home in New Gamora. There are many questions yet to be solved, not least of which concerns the children named Gel and Godai...”

 

“Can you help my siblings?” Perm spoke up, having remained quietly in the background for the past few moments.

 

“We will do everything within our power to do that,” Iczer Two turned to regard the four others who had been approaching, “And as for you...eh?”

 

To her surprise Fiber and her sisters came to an abrupt halt together, then as one bowed down and fell to one knee, showing respect and deference.

 

“Iczer Two,” Fiber said, “Oh behalf of myself and my sisters, we wish to surrender ourselves to the custody of the C'thuwulf, to be judged according to both our crimes and our merits...”

 

“Hey!” Tenma protested, “Fiber-sama...!”

 

“I...see,” Iczer Two glanced at one of the pair of identical small boys, then at Fiber and her sisters and said, “You have changed from what I remember...perhaps there is much that we can do for each other, if this change I sense in you is for the better.”

 

“Be assured that it is,” Fiber replied, “And as a token of our good faith, we have the four imposters who called themselves the Masters of the Heavens in our custody...”

 

“Ah...” Perm spoke up again, “I meant to bring this up before...but I'm afraid your captives escaped during the last part of that battle. I saw they slip from those cocoon-things you put them in...”

 

There was mild cussing from Insect and Bigro at that, while Golem just growled, “I knew we should have secured them better than that...”

 

“We will sort it all out back at Gamora Command Central,” Iczer Two assured, “But for what it is worth...I am glad to have you on board. I have a feeling we can learn a great deal from you, and not as lab experiments either.”

 

“That's a relief,” Bigro averred.

 

“I'd hate to be someone else's experiment gone awry,” Insect agreed.

 

“We all have had enough of that to last several lifetimes,” Golem concluded.

 

“Swell,” Ranma said, turning to Ukyo and the others, “We'd like to get back home as soon as we can, but...well...”

 

“We have a few questions of our own that need answering, Sugar,” Ukyo said, “Like...what happened to Sakura?”

 

“Ah,” Iczer Two nodded sagely, “Indeed...that is a very...complicated question...but we will sort it out back home. Allow me to be your guide, Sensei...I think it fair to say that we are all in for quite a few surprises, not least of whom include my sisters...”

 

 

 

Continued

 

Comments/Criticisms/Loose Ties That Need Binding: shadowmane@msn.com