Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Hand Maid May Fan Fiction / Gatekeepers Fan Fiction ❯ Retake ❯ chapter 19 ( Chapter 19 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Retake chapter 19 "Bases Loaded"

DISCLAIMER: some char and places by other authors. Rest of this mess by Gregg Sharp.


At Furinkan Senior High School, at Juuban Middle School, at Mugen Gakuen, at a certain base under Furinkan - tension was rising.

That was because after the past few days, nothing strange had happened - which was itself strange.

So everyone was waiting for disaster to hit. Tatewaki Kuno hadn't been seen since getting a full power blast from the ginzuishou had caused him to fall over. The nice young men in the clean white coats had come to take him away. (Ha Ha.)

Oh, *some* things were different.

Ranma was sneezing a lot and mumbling about "damn uncute sorceresses" for some reason.

Yuka had parked her motoslave on the top of the clock tower and had had to be paged to move it.

Still, those were insufficient and nerves were fraying by the time school let out because they all had realized they'd been getting used to *something* happening daily.

"THERE'S A MONSTER IN JUUBAN!"

Which was why so many people greeted this news with relief.

--------

At least until the Senshi arrived on the scene.

This time they'd done things a bit differently. Instead of charging blindly in, they had chosen to approach slowly and gather information. (You can guess whose idea that was.)

Sailor Moon's reaction was perhaps typical of young magical girls confronted with this sort of thing. "No. Please... no."

"Big," said Sailor Jupiter.

Sailor Mercury clicked her visor on. "902 feet tall. Oh dear."

"KrrrrreeeeeeeeEEEEAGH"

Sailor Uranus looked appropriately disgusted. "Those aren't hairs are they? Those are tentacles."

Brief silence.

"We're Middle School Japanese girls. That's a tentacle monster. Ain't going near it," summed up Sailor Venus.

"C'mon, we can do it," said Uranus with uncertainty in her voice.

"Yeah," said Jupiter not sounding at all convinced herself.

"THAT big?!" Venus indicated. "My Crescent Beam isn't gonna bust a pimple on something that size!"

The Senshi looked over at that mound of writhing "hair" 902 feet tall.

"Maybe we can get that 'fire support' on this one?" Jupiter suggested.

---------

Nabiki gently glided to the roof of the building and dropped Akane before she turned to survey the monster. Conclusion: big sucker.

"Wind, crimson flame,
Grant the power of thunder to my hand!
DIGU VOLT!"

Lightning flared from Nabiki's outstretched palm to score the monster's hide. Not very effectively, but even Akane managed to look impressed.

"East winds that blow,
Have you as their source,
Into my hands,
Ignite all their force!
FLARE ARROW!"

"Maybe something with a bigger boom," suggested Akane as this spell also seemed too small to be effective.

"Lina didn't think I could do this in this world, so let me try-" Nabiki began making the movements.

"Darkness beyond twilight,
Crimson beyond blood that flows,
buried in the stream of time,
that's where your power grows!
DRAGON SLAVE!"

Nothing happened. Since Shabranigdo didn't exist in this world, neither would a spell invoking him, even if Nabiki had gotten it right.

"I don't think it worked," observed Akane.

"True," admitted Nabiki. "I don't think I've got a spell strong enough to hurt something that size."

"Oh well, maybe the Senshi will do better," said Akane, taking a seat to watch things develop.

"There are news crews out, they'd better," agreed Nabiki.

-------

"Well, there *is* a way we can fight that," pointed out Setsuna.

"How? And why haven't you transformed to Sailor Pluto or do you think you can fight that as a catgirl?!" Sailor Uranus didn't really like this. Getting close into a fight with *that* she liked even less though.

"Not quite. I think those Guardians Fess provided are what this situation requires. Ami, you joined us last night. Hotaru, are you ready?"

Sailor Mercury transformed back to Ami Mizuno. She tapped a bracelet thoughtfully and nodded. Not how she would have preferred breaking the news.

The other Senshi stared for a moment at the bracelet on Ami's wrist.

"They got Ami-chan too, it's like 'Invasion Of The Body Smackers'," said Venus. "Stripped and helpless as... actually you weren't exactly helpless when you belted me yesterday were you?"

Various winces as the memories of being under that kid's control versus the short precise violence of catgirls Saturn and Pluto the previous day.

Setsuna touched one of her ball-shaped earrings and the two pieces of jewelry blurred and seemed to pour like liquid to form a similar one on her own wrist just visible underneath the cuffs of her maid outfit. Hotaru looked pleased as could be as she revealed her own bracelet similar to the others.

"And *how*," demanded Rei with a gesture towards the size huge monster currently making its way through Tokyo, "exactly is some kind of transforming jewelry going to help us against *that*?!"

Hotaru held her bracelet up and it started glowing. Electric guitars began playing fast and furious with a driving beat behind them from absolutely no source that the Senshi could see. "Senshi Gear ON!" (Vrrrrrreeeeeeeeee!)

"Break through the mundane world,
Embrace love
and know the strength of heart!
Soldiers rise,
to fight again,
Now it's time to do our part!"

As the vocals started, Ami and Setsuna had raised their own bracelets and those had begun shining as well. "Senshi Gear ON!" (Vrrrrrreeeeeeeeee!)(Vrrrrrreeeeeeeeee!)

"We are the soldiers of love,
We strike for truth and happiness,
Those who fight for love,
Strike a blow against loneliness!"

Ami, Hotaru, and Setsuna vanished in columns of light. (Blue, violet, and dark emerald respectively.)

"Soldiers unite,
Fighting for truth,
Fighting for love,
Soldiers of light,
Beyond and above!"

The Sailor Senshi *gaped* at what appeared in the air above them as the music turned to near maniac guitar playing. As for the utter lameness of the lyrics, well, that was in genre too.

"Blue Dolphin, ONLINE!" Somehow giving the impression of crashing waves behind it, the dolphin shaped flying giant robot piroutted.

"Violet Dragonfly, READY!" The darting giant robot posed, giving the impression of a vast storm behind it.

"Jade Owl... standing by." The giant robotic owl posed with the impression of a misty woods behind it.

"..." Sailor Venus tried to get her mouth working again. "They have giant robots?! We stay the Sailor Senshi and we get tiara frisbee action, and *they* get giant robots?!"

"Well, technically, only Sailor Moon can perform a 'Moon Tiara Action', and..." Artemis trailed off as he considered a better way of putting this.

"They have sacrificed their freedom to become mindless sexslaves," insisted Luna. "We must break them free of this evil mind control!"

"They don't *act* mindless," grumbled Venus, "or like 'sexslaves.' This exhales."

"Rurrrraaghhhhhh," said the giant monster as it leapt into the air.

"That is, *after* they've defeated that giant youma," appended Luna, ignoring Venus.

-------

"Scanning," said Ami aboard Blue Dolphin, using the sensitive sonar and sensor systems aboard her ship to get a better picture of their opponent. "Relaying targetting data to your systems."

Aboard Violet Dragonfly, Hotaru nodded. Ami had the superior sensors. Jade Owl had that ability to open teleportative Gates. Her own ship was the nimble and speedy ship. Not much punch, but the most manueverable of the Guardian Robots. "Jade Owl, I'll distract. You and Dolphin attack."

Split screen to show all three. "Roger!"

-------

Watching the darting swift shape of Hotaru's ship dodge everything the giant monster could throw at it while the other two manuevered into position, Artemis could only wonder one thing aloud. "Do you suppose that their maid or bunnygirl costumes give them any special attacks they lack in their sailor costumes?" That he'd really like to see Hotaru in that bunny costume or Setsuna in that maid costume or Setsuna AND Hotaru as catgirls again was not even a consideration for Artemis. He was just professionally curious as an advisor to the Senshi. Really. Cross his heart.

Luna groaned and considered beating her head against a wall as it was obvious that Artemis' head was in the gutter again.

"'Sonic Cannon', huh?" Sailor Venus sat back and watched while munching on popcorn supplied by a Maid unit who had just arrived. "Ami's got a major attack there. Ooooh, *that* has to hurt. What do you suppose that's called?"

"Looks like the wing feathers can cut pretty well," admitted Sailor Jupiter. Not envious in the slightest. Nope. Not her.

Luna looked around. Sailor Moon was paying attention mainly to the bucket of popcorn that Sailor Venus was munching on. Sailor Venus looked tempted, so did Sailor Jupiter. Sailor Mars was glaring at Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Kamen looked disgusted at the battle being raged overhead. Clearly the evil dragon had to be stopped!

--------

"Dolphin! Full power to sonic cannon!" Ami locked her feed onto the magical locus. "Owl, use your feather missiles."

Glowing blue, the dolphin-mecha pointed its snout at the monster. The air shimmered as its sonic attack targetted weak spots.

"Jade Owl, using missiles," said Setsuna. Feathers slashed tentacles from the main mass.

Hotaru piloted the Violet Dragonfly in a darting and weaving aerial ballet. "Tail lasers. On."

-------

Lawn chairs had been provided. Some of the Senshi were taking advantage of these to watch the battle.

"Come on! Are we going to let these betrayers and some lookalikes fight our battles?" Sailor Uranus pointed to the tentacle monster.

"Uhm, Uranus-san?" Sailor Mars took a rice cracker from one of the marionettes and indicated the battle. "Venus has a point. We're young girls in short costumes. That's a tentacle monster. Do we *really* have to go there?"

"Not gunna do it," sang Sailor Venus. "Not stupid, not expendable, not going. This isn't the light of the charge brigade, you know."

Luna's back arched. "I used that hypnotic attack to wake you up from that illusion. You know the dragon can't be a *real* prince."

"That wasn't what you'd originally thought," pointed out Mamoru. "You thought he might have been from a bastard line."

"Forget what I said! That was then, this is now!" Luna glared at everyone, her yellow moon begin to shine. "There are enemies to the Moon Kingdom. Why are you consorting with them!"

---------

There was a cracking noise as the tentacle monster vanished.

"That was some kind of teleport effect," announced Ami. "It's still alive, just gone off to lick its wounds."

"Civilian casualties:0, Property damage after our arrival: minimal," announced Jade Owl's pilot. "Sending mecha back to storage."

Another swirl of lights and the three part-time Senshi materialized in front of the full-timers.

"Well, that was certainly-" began Ami, feeling really good about her performance. Maybe she could use Blue Dolphin in some noncombat role in the future since it was capable of acting as submarine or spaceship at need.

"World Shaking!" "Deep Submerge!"

Hotaru blinked a moment before the two attacks slammed into her.

"Fire Soul!" "Thunder Crash!"

Setsuna was just beginning to shift to catgirl when she was knocked sprawling.

"Sorry, Ami-chan. Moon Tiara Action!" "Crescent Beam!"

Ami shifted fully into catgirl and leapt above the tiara, then rolled below the Crescent Beam. "But why?!"

"World Shaking!" "Deep Submerge!" "Fire Soul!" "Thunder Crash!" "Moon Tiara Action!" "Crescent Beam!"

"This is for your own good," Luna said as Ami dodged almost all of the attacks. Almost not quite doing it in these circumstances. "Now we can-"

A number of Sailor Marionettes leapt down, having armored up in the meantime.

------

A display showed events going on elsewhere. Actually, a lot of displays since the newscameras had found the Senshi and had been waiting for another strip scene.

"Hotaru?" Greylle was quite alarmed to see the usual 'Uranus & Neptune shooting allies' scene followed by the rest of the Senshi.

"My goodness," said Cologne, "they appear to be tiring. What do you think-?" Cologne realized that the boy had just run off at full speed.

Greylle spoke into a handheld commlink, his voice going out over the intercom. "We have a Dark Taint advisory. It looks like the Senshi have been taken over by this new enemy and they're attacking allies. Authorizing a full scramble of all units and allied forces. Scramble now."

Sirens began blaring. Red lights began flashing. Silos and ramps opened up.

------

It was lovingly recorded by News-5 already on the scene. Action 9 News sent their helicopter to orbit the area. Supermodels (androids) worked crowd control. Nabiki used her magical skills and contacts to have T-shirts and Mugs hawked at "bargain prices" - because if she was going to go out of business she wanted it to be with a real bang.

Akane, being extraordinarily photogenic, was interviewed by four different (late to the field) news agencies. She went into a great deal of detail about this all being late effects of their magical enslavement, and that this was more proof that perverts needed to be pounded.

A little old man saw all the short skirts and tight outfits and was reduced to drooling in front of the Tendo television set.

The battle was not *quite* what anyone expected.

"WAAGGGHHHH!" Sailor Moon was wailing because she had been hogtied in her own pigtails.

Sailor Uranus had gone hand-to-hand with Sabre Jupiter. Sailor Uranus was currently taking a nap on the very rooftop the News-5 crew were on. Sailor Neptune had tried to surround Sabre Jupiter with water in the hopes of shorting her out. Sabre Jupiter had replied by hugging Sailor Neptune and sending 50,000 volts through the water surrounding them. Sabre Jupiter's armor needed all of its fuses replaced, and Sailor Neptune was being given life support by Sabre Mercury and some nurse-marionettes because that had turned out to be a bit too much.

Luna was dealing with something called a Goo Cannon. The device shot about a gallon of slimy goo that quickly hardened to something along the consistancy of bubble gum. Sailor Venus had ducked and, well, Luna was currently stuck to the side of a building.

Sailor Venus was holding her own so far, mainly by dodging everything sent her way and acting like she was in some blind panic.

A problem the marionettes were running into was that most of their attacks were too deadly to use here. They had disagreements with the Senshi, not a desire to kill/seriously wound.

Sailor Uranus woke up, leapt and climbed until she was at ground level, and slowly crossed the battlezone, transforming back to Haruka Ten'ou so that she'd look more "normal crowd." A large crowd seemed to be focussed on other things, so she felt she had a reasonable chance of pulling this off. Finally she found a large hunk of wood and crossed to the unconscious Hotaru. "I'm sorry about this. But the Sailor of Destruction being some boy's slave is entirely too dangerous."

The wood started down, point aiming for a vulnerable neck. A hand grabbed the spike and stopped it.

Greylle glared at Haruka Ten'ou. Haruka changed back to Sailor Uranus, figuring this was her chance to draw the Space Sword and end this evil at its source.

"For the past ten lifetimes or so, you've had this coming." *WHACK!*

The Space Sword landed on the pavement after Sailor Uranus was backhanded.

"I'll give you till tomorrow to heal and prepare yourself, Uranus. You. Me. Nabiki will give you directions to the campsite. We're going to have this out once and for all." Greylle gathered Hotaru's tiny form in his arms.

Sailor Uranus spat blood, aware that everyone was watching now. "Fine. When I win, you relinquish all hold you have over all Senshi and dismantle your operations."

"Okay," said Greylle, considering just throwing the fight briefly. "And what of *your* conditions should you lose?"

"I won't lose," began Uranus. A martial arts fight? Against her in Senshi mode? If he even survived it would be a miracle but his forces would be now bound by his word. "If you win *I'll* join your little harem."

Greylle winced. "Why would I want *that*?! Yeesh. Uncute tomboy who couldn't be feminine if the survival of Japan hinged on it. No thank you."

Sailor Uranus twitched. Not that she *tried* to be feminine, more mysteriously androgynous sort of bishonen.

Seeing that, Greylle turned away with his burden and decided just a little payback would be okay here. "Heck, even if she can't seem to stabilize her age for very long, Saturn's much cuter."

Twitch. Twitch. Pride and competitiveness were putting in their two cents worth.

"Smarter. Sexier when she's over sixteen. LOTS more feminine." He didn't really like insulting people, but this was sort of praising Hotaru - which he was a lot more comfortable doing as long as he didn't have to do it in front of her.

Twitch. Twitch.

A sixteen year old girl whose black hair had purple highlights and was not nearly as unconscious as she was acting turned pure red and was trying very hard to continue to play dead and not yell "sempai" while glomping onto her fiance.

"I'll settle for you getting some therapy, to get your head out of Uranus," said Greylle, walking away without apparent concern. "Or for that matter just your word of honor to never attack my forces again."

Sailor Uranus detransformed, hurting too much and being too tired to maintain it any longer. What *really* hurt though was that casual dismissal. And... what was that ambulance doing with Michiru?!

------

Hotaru cracked her eyes open slightly. If she turned cat now, she knew darn well that she'd be clinging on and would be just a furry little puddle of affection.

She'd never really had friends before this guy. Never really had anyone speak praise to her. Now she did and she felt just so very -

Hmmm. Who to invite to the wedding?

-----

A few hours later, Doctor Mizuno helpfully turned the TV on for the bandaged Michiru Kaioh - now her patient.

"Everyone's talking about the old Sailor Senshi. Are they morons? Incompetents? Just anal? Our poll line phone number is showing on the screen for you to call in your opinion. Sailor Senshi: Threat Or Menace? And should teenage magical girls with devastating attacks be allowed to run loose committing property damage? Your results later in the program." *click*

Doctor Mizuno tried another channel.

"...more footage of the latest debacle from these younger Sailor Senshi as they turn on their allies." *click*

"...which is more proof of why these so-called teenage sentai girls need to be regulated. In my day..." *click*

"Hi there! Boys and girls, do you know what time it is?!" "It's Happy Dino time!"

Doctor Mizuno nodded. Insipid perhaps. Juvenile certainly. At least it wouldn't be showing those scenes over and over again. "Oh by the way, Kaioh-san?"

"Mffff?" Michiru asked through several layers of burn wrap and assorted bandages. Electrical burns could be quite painful.

"I'm not going to take action against you for the attempt on my daughter's life. I *am* a doctor, after all."

"Mffff? Mffff!" Michiru tried to explain that they were just going to subdue the three so that Luna could break them of the mind control. Then she saw the size of the needle the doctor had. "MFFF!"

"Now, Kaioh-san, don't wiggle so much. If you expose any of your burns to air before they've had a chance to heal, the sedatives won't do much to help you," the doctor just squeezed a little dribble of juice from the needle. Though why Kaioh-san's eyes were crossing as she looked at the parts oiler was unclear. You leave things like this to maintenence and they'd never get to oiling that door.

Michiru's eyes crossed as she stared at the Needle From Hell. It looked like the needle was fit for a caulking gun, almost. To her eyes - this was size huge.

When the Doctor left, Michiru sighed in deep relief. Then the head nurse started talking about something called a Barium Enema. Well, that didn't sound so bad, did it?

-------

"The tentacle beast is off whimpering in a corner," said one of the hentai sorcerers. "We'll have to use another."

"They just don't make tentacle demons like they used to," complained another.

After some initial successes, they'd had a failure. Still, it was better than their track record had been prior to the use of hentai-daimons.

"How about this," suggested a third. "Each of us tries *one* servitor. The one with the best results becomes the leader of our coven."

"Hmmm. That'll work, there are six of us left, so six different fetishes empowered." Number Four grinned. "I know just the one and just the target."

"So do I!" Number Five insisted.

"I think this calls for a round of sinister laughter," suggested Six.

"Nah, let's not do that, it sounded pretty silly last time. Let's just do it," said the first one.

"Motion carried," agreed the second of the sorcerers.

---------

"What happened? Fess!" Greylle wasn't yelling, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of this newest development.

"She triggered the catgirl change in order to heal faster," said Fess as he analyzed. "The healing and recovery rate are highest in that form. When she did, the shock of the injuries pushed her into the equivelant of the Catfist."

Hotaru merely purred as she curled up in her fiance's lap. Feeling warm and soft and protected and very very content.

"Okay," said Greylle, absently stroking the girl's fur. If anything the purr increased in volume and Hotaru snuggled closer. "So why is she-?!"

Fess sounded slightly amused. "I think you'd have to ask her that question yourself."

Greylle looked down at the catgirl bonelessly slumped across his lap and wondered exactly why this was so calming. Fur therapy perhaps? Though when she recovered herself, would Hotaru pull an Akane and get angry about this?

Hotaru lazily opened an eye, wondering why her mate had gotten tense. She rubbed her head against a convenient chest and silently indicated that he should resume petting her. Ah! Right behind the ear there. Oh, yessssssss.

--------

Morgana sat down at her lab and fixed the mirror with a glower. "I want answers."

"Wouldn't we all?" The mirror replied, beginning to glow.

"This boy isn't a god. A white mage, a dragon, and a few other things, but his power level isn't nearly what it should be for someone using that crystal. Yet I just watched several videos dealing with 'previous lives' and his misadventures."

The mirror considered. "What do you know of Asgard?"

"Steel and chrome and perfection, it's better than Elysium if you want an afterlife where things aren't quite so communal." Morgana considered. "Though the old Vikings would hardly recognize it if it weren't for the rainbow bridge."

"You are familiar with the Goddess Relief Office?"

Morgana nodded. "Yes. Bunch of meddlers. They have one hundred filters to determine who's good enough to get a wish, and then they rarely consider the harm that could come from granting a 'pure heart' a wish."

"There's also an agency known as the Earth Assistance Hotline that operates similarly. Then there's the Rival Relief Office."

Morgana considered. "As in 'business rival' like an Infernal counterpart?"

"No. In 1937, a wish was granted to someone who wanted to do good deeds. This wish caused the agency to be set up." The mirror paused. "The Agency is a bit of a wildcard. Sometimes filling in for Divine Intervention, or Divine Justice, or even the Goddess Relief Office. The thing is that it is not officially part of Heaven, nor of Hell. The operatives have an extremely low power level compared to other celestial agencies. On the other hand they're not saddled with bureaucracies."

Morgana smiled. "Understood. Small, mainly independent, prone to flying 'by the seat of their pants' as it were?"

"Milady has it." The mirror shimmered agreeably. "For example, the one hundred checkmarks that go into place for a wish from the Goddess Relief Office. Whereas someone who is mainly good and reasonably trying and in distress can still qualify for the much less powerful assistance from a Rival Relief Office operative."

"Ah," said Morgana.

"They also serve as spear carriers and minor functionaries. Conveniently leaving a door unlocked or a horse's reins loose so that the hero can escape, or leaving a knife where the princess can find it and sever the ropes tieing her up before the Dark Lord arrives, or things of that nature." The mirror began flicking images in rapid succession. "It was a RRO operative who dropped a hint to Lancelot that England might have worthy warriors to challenge since France was getting boring. It was an RRO operative who first crafted me."

"Wait, if this group began in 1937..." Morgana waved it away. "Nonsequential timeframes?"

"Exactly. Time travel is also involved. Everything involved with the Rival Relief Office tends to get complicated. He spent quite some time in this agency until he was disbarred recently."

"I shall have to think about this," mused Morgana. "This may explain a lot."

---------

Nabiki happily sold maps and tickets. Newspeople were notified. She didn't make much profit, but what she did make was going into her college fund.

It would be a battle far beyond Ranma getting challenged again by Ryouga Hibiki. Beyond whether Akane would make it another week in her training.

It was more exciting and noteworthy than the tales of the sudden string of underwear thievery going on. It was more fun than listening to Akane grumble about not being a supercute superhuman tigergirl, followed by vehement denials that she'd said anything of the sort.

It was old guard versus new. It was alien prince versus local girl. It was the short haired blonde exhibitionist versus the new guy with the fancy mecha.

There were guys that wanted to see the girl win, preferably losing her seifuku in the process. There were girls who wanted to see the guy win, and if he lost his shirt - so much the better. There were girls who wanted the girl to win and prove that girls could kick butt too. There were guys who wanted the guy to win because they thought this particular girl needed her butt kicked.

The Sailor Uranus who insisted she was the real and original Sailor Uranus versus Greylle Shard.

Ranma won, by the way. Some nearly blind Chinese guy wrapped Ryouga in chains and seemed to confuse him with some sort of hair care product. Nobody was entirely sure where this plot complication had come from. Ranma was upset because he had been wiping the floor with Ryouga when someone hijacked the fight. He had really wanted to get even with Ryouga for leaving him holding the bag on certain people dying during their fights.

Michiru Kaioh heard some of the odds and statements being made and really wished that she could have a talk with Haruka.

------


Kasumi and Nabiki and Akane - the three daughters Tendo.

And actually anxious to get home. Akane was sore and weary from hours of trying to move around in high gravity. Nabiki was concerned with her lack of progress in the mystic arts. Kasumi just wanted to get back into familiar environs.

Each was quite preoccupied.

Akane with soreness and the feeling that every muscle and tendon and bone in her body had been stressed to near breaking. As promised, the martial arts training she was undergoing would make her far stronger. Also as promised, it hurt.

Nabiki was preoccupied with thoughts of the coming battle alternating with ideas on how to best stop the next menace if the Senshi couldn't or wouldn't handle it. She didn't want to alienate the Senshi nor the dragon and finding a way to remain in the good graces of both without allying with either was taking some effort.

Kasumi wondered what would be left of their home after several days of her father being the housekeeper. Entering the front gate seemed to indicate that it would be fairly messy just from the small stack of "Top Ramen" containers near the door.

"Sweeeet-oh!"

Akane realized there was something latched onto her front. "EEEEK! Letgo!" She also realized she was too dang tired to react as much as she might normally.

"Oh and even better! Hotcha!"

"Oh my!" Kasumi found that just because he was an older man didn't mean that he was more desirable. She really wished she'd been able to get a powerup. The elegant and powerful Kasumi of her imagination would never have someone attempting to burrow into her blouse.

"Is it a perverted gnome?" Nabiki asked just before the creature leapt from her elder sister to herself.

"Check out these babies!" The gnome was quite happy. "B" to "C" to "D" now. "Hotcha!"

Kasumi saw the first telltale crackle of energy and moved as quickly as possible for the door. Akane eeeped.

Happosai wondered why he felt as if there were a lightning storm nearby.

Nabiki took a deep breath, smiled slightly, and brought her hands to either side of the gnome's head. She had not enhanced her own breasts to give her a more mature look just so that someone could grapple them like he was playing a crane game. "EXPLOSION ARRAY!"

The front gate vanished. A large segment of ground vanished. Part of the Tendo residence - vanished. Not quietly though - spreading out from Nabiki in waves that carried the little gnome away from her though he seemed to recover and started speeding back towards her. "I don't think so."

"Darkness beyond twilight,
Crimson beyond blood that flows,
Buried in the stream of time,
That's where your power grows,
Those fools who before me stand,
Now punish with the forces we command."

Crimson light flowed all around Nabiki as mystical symbols and diagrams etched themselves in midair.

Happosai came to the sudden realization he was about to glomp on a girl who was in the process of releasing a tactical nuke. "Uh oh." Time for one of those midair screeching brakes manuevers.

Ryouga leapt over the wall, ready to have his revenge on... waitaminute there was something wrong here.

Nabiki felt the power build up, but there was no Shabranigdo to invoke so she just went with her first impulse. "GUNS N ROSES!"

------------

"This just in at the Channel 12 Newscenter. Four city blocks in Nerima are in ruins due to a gas main explosion at the-" the news commentator frowned. "Excuse me - 'gas main explosion' at the Tendo Dojo? Yeah right. In any case there are apparently no fatalities however the local hospital *is* at capacity and other patients are being moved to Juuban General, which has extra bedspace following the Senshi Striptease Debacle the other day."

"Well, that's one way to get patients," commented the female newsanchor. "How long before the area is suitable for habitation again?"

Gleaming his expensive teeth to the camera, the talking head nodded. "Well, Bufi, there's some good news there. Apparently Cyberdyne Corporation-"

"Excuse me Chetu, isn't that the top secret manufacturing installation whose head is an alien prince but has ties directly to our own Emperor?"

"Right you are, Bufi. Cyberdyne is once again proving their friendship with the Japanese people, and three of the Tendo daughters in particular, by rebuilding the entire area using their advanced technologies." Chetu turned his carefully rehearsed sincere smile to the camera again. "They're predicting a rebuilt area by midnight."

"That's great news, Chetu!" Bufi agreed with equally sincere acting. "Hopefully their efforts here won't cut into tomorrow's fight for control of the Sailor Senshi and Earth's defense forces."

"True, and in the lighter side of the news, there were some arrests at Kanagawa's hot spring girl's dorm, Hinata House when a young woman was arrested for throwing a young man in front of a train. The young woman, a university ronin named Naru Narugesawa, claimed it was an accident but residents report seeing repeated incidents like this."

"Seems to be happening a lot lately," agreed Bufi. "Next up: those darn ducks are back!"

=======

Doesn't Nabiki casting spell variants from "Bastard" seem oddly appropriate?