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Intro - Pre-thread tension?
ENOUGH!! Even I can only rant so much! Belldandy's appearance is very cute,
yes, but she is too flat of a character to go deeper than just her outer
skin, which is of course going to be perfect do to be 1st class goddesshood.
Say WHAT?! It's her "INNER SKIN " that got me attracted to her in
the first place! ^^ To be honest, it wasn't until AFTER I saw the OAV's
that I became a Belldandy supporter. Yeeea!! ^_^
"INNER SKIN " or "SKIN ON THE INSIDE " Emiko's Agent??!?!?
BWAHAHAHHAHAAA!!
"Grrrr.. " Emiko's Agent marches out the door and slams it with a satisfying
thud, leaving Susano alone in the dark. :P
Love is in the air... (?)
"Soooo... Susano, now that it's a li'l more quiet in here..." purred
Emiko...
"Miss Emiko... I- I..." tried Susano. It wasn't enough. Susano briskly
trods out the
"Dammit!" snapped Emiko within the darkness.
"Uhm, MAYBE the 'direct approach' doesn't work on him, Miss Emiko..."
chimed Mai...
"MAI?!" Emiko jumped as Mai's small figure sat beside her,
"What are YOU doing here?!" Mai twiddled her thumbs, looking sheepishly
at her sensei.
"Sidekicks must remain by their leader's side during a mission!" With
that, she beamed a wide smile. Groaning, Emiko stood up in the darkness,
gazing high at the one cast of light shining upon her from a high unknown
source.
"Where ARE we anyways? And where did Susano go?" His blushing face made
her chuckle.
"What a shy man. Almost as bad as Eric-san. Where did these sensitive
men come from?" Mai was taken by the light and kept looking up, while
Emiko wiped pink hair from the front of her face, looking at her clenching
her fist and nodding with stern determination.
"Hai, I will not rest until Susano can act coherently around me." Her
sidekick nodded happily in agreement.
"Now then," Emiko pointed to the horizon, "Let's find that door!"
"Hai, Emiko-sensei!!!"
--------
Susano padded quietly down the corridor of RAAM, away from the entrance
of the room.
"Oh, god...! Why didn't I say something..." he skulked,
"Aww... CRIPES! Get over it, dammit..." He stopped, his cloak settling
around him: "Besides... She's into that... REKISHI guy..." he clenched
both his hands into fists,
"and... and REMUS KAI, too..." he slammed his fist through the brick
wall beside him, revealing several panicked RAAMers who were rudely
interrupted in their discussions about DVD's. Susano snapped into a
stiffened attention:
"I-I'm sorry! I'll use the door next time! I promise! I, uh, gotta go
now..!" he blushed and turned away.
"OHMY_GAWD_, WHATTA HUNK!" was his greeting. Susano found himself
staring into the starry eyes of a pert little female wearing a tiny tank
top and a pair of shredded denim shorts.
"E-eh?! W-what the-?" he stammered. The girl hopped lightly forwards
and leaned forward towards Susano.
"Here's my number, pretty boy..." Susano was speechless; he couldn't
bring himself to look into her eyes, but his gaze kept wandering to her
loose tank top.
"Of COURSE," she purred, "if you aren't that busy NOW..." she stepped
uncomfortably close to Susano, he himself nearly bursting crimson. Slowly
she slid her fingers between the folds of Susano's cloak, running it across
the armor on his chest... That snapped it. Susano dashed down the hallway
at top speed, hiding his burning face from the various bystanders...
-----------------------
The RAAMer gawped at the stunning beauty through the hole in the wall,
briefly, before returning to their indepth DVD discussion. Some of the
member of the hardcore group somehow branched off to their own little corner
of the room and began discussing the engine differences of Valkeries and
Tiefighters. The sounds of chanting died as some disgruntled RAAMers threw
the last ones out the window. Peace seemed to dawn on the mass of people
for a moment.
"Volume Four STRIKE!!!!!!!"
"AIEEEE!!!" A blaze of light swept through the room, reeling half the
crowd through a stained wall, landing on pile of dazed Rei and Belldandy
fans in the hallway, resting from a recent brawl. When the light, fire, and
blazing energy died down, a few conscious RAAMer's looked at the giant hole
that had formed on the wall. Mai's head popped up from the gap.
"Gomenasai!" she beamed her best genuinely embarrassed grin.
"Yep," called another from behind Mai,
"sometimes, you gotta make the door your---yeee!!" Emiko was taken aback
by the pile of unconscious bodies lying in the distance. Embarrassed fully,
she laughed nervously. Some of the RAAMer's noses were now bleeding.
"What'ja thing you're doin'!?" Emiko and Mai looked at the female figure
before them, apparently unhurt by the blast. The energy around her hands
seemed to be dying down.
"Konnichi wa, Miss Denim person!" Mai was always the first to greet
someone.
"Hey," followed Emiko, "did you know these people?"
"God girl, you should watch where you point that thing." she lifted the
arm of one of the men lying on the floor, letting it drop limply to the
ground.
"One-two-three he's down for the count!!" All three of them laughed at
that, releasing some of the tension stirred by the silent room.
"What the...?" Susano apparently heard the loud noise and screams from
his position. A blazing sword stood in readiness in his hands. Eyes fixed
on the scene before him, he forgot about the two female figures standing
nearby.
"Well HELLO again, sweet thing!" she paused. "My, that's a nice erect
sword you got there!" Emiko watched as the other girl walked over to
Susano and fling her arms around his tense body. Susano and Emiko both
turned red for different reasons.
"Hey," began Emiko, "he's my ambit--" Mai interrupted.
"Sensei...maybe we'd better focus on the mission, ne?" Watching Susano
as he wrestled on what to say, Emiko sighed, putting her weapon away in a
pouch strapped to her leg.
"Ah well...Susano reminds me too much of Eric-san anyways. Geez, it'd be
like dating my brother. Still......." Emiko stared at Susano's chiselled
good looks in a trance, oblivious to all else before Mai splashed water on
her face from a Kerroppi bucket that appeared out of her pants. Emiko's
tight shirt and tan face became drenched in water, and her attention
returned.
"Ahem!" she snapped into focus, "Right! Let's go Mai...we have find that
Remus Kai individual, and see about his dimensional abilities. Hmmm.."
Emiko approached the two in the hallway. Susano seemed to be avoiding the
gaze of the female embarrassing him.
"Excuse me!" Emiko smashed her smiling face between the two. "Would
either of you know this Remus Kai individual?" Susano started to say
something, but he felt cold liquid staining his cloak. He looked downwards
to find Emiko's drenched chest cushioned against his right hand. Susano
suppressed and suppressed again the urge to scream...
"Oh, lord, PLEASE, get me out of here..!!" he beggingly prayed.
"Hmm? Never heard of him..." began the denim clad girl, "Then again..."
She wrapped her hands around Susano's arm beneath his long cloak, leaning
herself onto his side. Susano was red enough to start bleeding...
"I can't just stand there forever," he thought, "I gotta let Emiko
know..." He tore himself out of the arms of the two girls and took a deep
breath:
"E.. Em-E-Emiko...?" he whispered quietly. All three of the girls
stared directly at him. A quiet torrent of words escaped his mouth:
"I, uhm, I... T-this girl.. she, uhm, nonono! [Say it right, dammit!]
I mean she is, no! She's NOT my- You're my... Y-you understand that, right?
It's not as if you, or, uhm, she knows, right? I mean, it-it makes sense.
Right?" Blank faces met his eyes.
"Aw, LORD, I can't believe I just did that!" he thought despairingly,
tears forming in his eyes... And then, whistling his favorite tune, Remus
Kai turned the corner of the hallway, walking slowly, Gauntlet hanging from
his belt.
"Remu- uh, REM!" yelled Susano. He dashed past the three girls and
grabbed a hold of Remus' arm.
"Hey, Susano 'ole buddy, what's the big hurry-" Susano quickly cut him
off: "No time man, we gotta GO!!" and with that, he half-pulled half-dragged
Remus away from the girls...
"Bwa?" Remus replied, showing just how truly confused even a four-hundred
year old Detian can get.
"weneedtotalk.." the banished god muttered.
"Well then, if it's a private place to talk ye want..." Remus said with
a grin. He unhooked Gauntlet II from his belt and put it on. Reality
(no, not Vaughn) bent around them, pulling them somewhere else through a
field of what looked like television static.
Both girls stared in disbelief as Susano pushed Remus away from them, his
left eyebrow cocked in an inquisitive manner. As the two men rounded the
corner, Emiko looked and the denim girl looked at each other, shrugging.
"Oh well." Emiko outstretched her hand. "My name is Emiko Kawa--er...
just Emiko." she beamed brightly to try and cover up her mistake.
"Rachael, nice to meet 'ja!" Emiko touched her hand, withdrawing it with
a snap.
"Ouch!"
"Whoa, sorry 'bout that." Rachael withdrew the her hand and dissipated
the remaining energy that had formed there from moments earlier.
"I get a little excited sometimes." Mai shook Rachael's hand when it
was clean.
"Hi, I'm Mai! Emiko is my sensei!"
"Mai-chan, I wish you'd stop calling me that," Emiko said, hands on hips,
"it makes me sound old!"
"Wow, that man," Rachael cooed, "I don't know who he is, but he sure is a hunk!"
"Hey!" Emiko twisted her face into a mean look,
"I saw him first!"
"Oh really? Not from my point of view. It's all relative, y'know."
"Yeah?" the pink-haired girl retorted,
"well, I have a witness!" Mai nodded her head happily in agreement.
"Oh sure, get a friend to back you up. That's convincing."
"Now listen you....why don't you go after the other guy?"
"The one with the gauntlet? He's okay, but not the hunk the other is..
wow, he's sensitive too!"
Susano stood behind the wall, his thoughts up in the air, only part of him
noticing the arguing that has begun down the hall. Remus was shorter than
Susano, but his calm demeanour as opposed to Susano's current state made
him look tall as he watched his friend recover. As Susano did nothing,
Remus peered down the hallway.
"Hey, that pink-haired one looks rather pretty..I wonder what her name
is?" Susano scowled, yanking Remus away.
"Hey, don't even think about it!"
"Think about what?" his curiosity was getting to him and he made a
somewhat accurate assumption.
"I don't suppose you've actually TOLD her, have you?"
"I will.." Susano replied. Away from Emiko's presence, his confidence
returned, as he clenched his fist, regaining his 5' 11" height.
"I will tell her... soon!"
"Well until you do, I think she still available." Remus grinned,
rubbing his hands together. His companion merely laughed.
"Ha! You? You must have been gone too long Remus. Last I saw you in
'action' with a girl you fell apart once she displayed even a hint of
desire!" This made Remus grit his teeth, adjusting his baseball cap while
memories of previous female passes flooded his mind.
"Well...I've changed. Better than you, anyway---" Before the sentence
could be concluded a gigantic tremor rocked through the hallways of RAAM.
"Nani?!"
Emiko had her energy blade was drawn, while Rachael's hands were consumed
in flames. They seemed ready to kill each other, while Mai tried to
prevent the inevitable clash.
"Emiko-sensei! Rachael-san! A ha ha, maybe you two can talk this over?"
Suddenly the floor shook, as the boards holding the place together seem to
crack due to strain. Mai flopped onto the floor, partially relieved by
the sudden interruption, partially terrified by what was happening. Emiko
grabbed her by the back and leaped back to more stable ground. Rachael
spun the energy around her to form a shield barrier, drifting away to
where Emiko landed.
"Cool!" she commented. The floor boards cracked wide, and several of
the unconscious Rei-supporters fell into the chasm which grew.
"Mai," Emiko snapped, "get the RAAMers out of here!"
"Hai!" she nodded, rushing over to the room of RAAMers and dragging one
out by the hand. Her efforts were commendable, though ineffective.
"Oh boy," Emiko muttered, increasing the power level of her weapon, "I
just hope there's no---" Tentacles flew out of the holes in the ground,
wrapping themselves around motionless RAAMers. Their bodies convulsed
wildly, their screams turning into silent whirrs, mutating slowly into
strange creatures of mechanical and biological origin.
"T--t--tentacles..." Emiko's body seemed to go into shock, arms
motionless and unable to defend. Mai gasped and ran away. Rachael was
about to attack, when the tentacled beast spoke:
"We are TIRG...you will be assimilated to our methods and ways. Soon
no one will be able to avoid our grasp. All deviant discussion shall be
eliminated. Do not resist..it is futile."
"Come again?" Rachael smirked.
"Futile? Futile is messing with me!" An crackling beam of energy arced
towards some of the converted RAAMers, who exploded into tiny fragments.
The fragments tore at Rachael like shrapnel, ripping her jeans and causing
her to retreat to a safer distance. Emiko remained frozen.
"What's she doing?" Susano cried out in his mind. Emiko stood hapless
as he watched in disbelief.
"Susano-san!" cried Mai. She didn't run away but came to get him
instead.
"Emiko-sensei has a fear of tentacles! She freezes up and can't do
anything!" Remus donned his gauntlet and began his approach, only to
be stopped short by Susano's hand.
"NO!" he hammered.
"This is my opportunity! Now I will show Emiko-chan what I can do!"
With that, he ran with Mai to the battlefield, Remus standing behind,
wondering what to do.
Rekishi took a deep gulp from the coke he just bought (he loves coca cola,
you see..). It felt good to take a temporary break from the
"Even the Sun is Wrong" thread. He knew he would need all his energy
and resources for that one. His mind drifted back to the wonderfully cute
pink-haired girl that had momentarily bested him.
"Hmmm.. I should go back to it soon.." he said, smiling to himself. He
began to roam the halls of RAAM, just to check up on what he's missed.
"Hey mishta.. do ya got any more sake..BUUUUURRRRRP..heee heee."
Rekishi ignored the confused Anne Packrat as she found another "Test"
thread, and proceeded to up her stats even more. From the distance he
heard her mumbling,
"99 bottlezz.. JEEZ! First that weird looking girl Susano and now you.."
Rekishi no longer had the time to ponder Ms. Packrat, however, as he heard
the sound of an explosion resonate throughout the halls of RAAM.
"What! Here?" His first thought was that it was yet another cute war
starting, but he knew that such things are seasonal, and one had just
finished.. (with Bell-chan undefeated). He hastened to the scene of the
blast.
As Susano and Mai reached the battlefield, the former began to draw his
sword. He turned to make sure Emiko was watching, when suddenly, he felt
himself being knocked out the way.
"Damn! It's those disgusting tentacles!" Rekishi said as he raised his
staff, preparing to strike.
"HEY!" Susano tapped Rekishi on the shoulder.
"You again?? Listen buddy, I've had just about enough of you."
"NANI? What the heck are you talking about?"
"Those tentacles are my kill, you.. you.."
"You what? Come on, say it," Rekishi turned completely away from the
tentacles now, facing Susano. As the two bickered, the tentacles began to
shrivel, and died from the lack of attention.
"Um, guys." Remus stood in front of them, being completely ignored.
"Guys?" Susano turned to his friend,
"Yeah, what?" Remus pointed at down the hall where Emiko, Mai, and
Rachael had joined the "Cutest Guys in Anime Thread," and were now walking
away.
Remus winced suddenly.
"Imoto-chan..." he muttered. Susano arced an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Rachael was my old self's sister.. long before I was ever possessed by
Romulus... Back when I was named Isaac Bauer..."
"Wait, you said you became Detian later.. after you'd been around for a
while. Why's she younger?"
"Time is not constant across dimensional boundaries... I *must* help
her!" Gauntlet II howled to life as he blasted through a wall and towards
his sister's telepathic cry.
"LET'S GET ON WITH IT!" he howled in full fury.
Rachael created a massive sphere of kinetic potential and launched it at
TIRG, smashing several tenticles into kibble.
"EMIKO-SAMA, WAKE UP!" Mai bawled.
"t-t-t-tentacles..." Emiko muttered. Remus blasted his way through a
wall...
"Whoaboy.. this is gonna take severla thigns at once..." Gauntlet II's
whining reached an ear splitting tone. The same instant he unleashed his
most powerful shock blast from GAuntlet II he fired off a blast from his
other hand.
"FULL DRAGON SWEEP!" he howled. A pulse of Chi energy that would make a
Saiyan arch an eyebrow in grudging respect traveled along the floor beneath
the pulse from Gauntlet II. Both hit TIRG at the same time. A Saiyan
would've been lookking for a quick way out of the room right about then.
The roof blew off and went into orbit, clobbering the the last person to
glomp Racheal (that was a *while* ago too...) as he sailed overhead.
Rachael, Emiko and Mai stood at the door of the "Cutest Guys in Anime" room.
"Cutest guy? Wow, that's a toughy...there's Ryo Saeba, Ryouga...
" Emiko thoughtfully looked at the ceiling.
"Hey," Rachael pressed an ear to the door, "looks like a great party in
there".
"Ikuzo!!" chimed Mai. Grabbing the knob, with a twist, flew the door
open. All three reeled back in shock.
"N-n-no wayyy!!" Emiko fell on her butt, staring at the sight before
her. A giant sweat drop fell from Mai's forhead.
"Nani!?" Rachael cried,
"This room is full of mostly GUYS!!!"
"Soka.." Mai looked up at Rachael.
"Maybe it's _that_ kind of party.." All three of them backed away from
the door, and Emiko closed it. [note to RAAMers: You tell ME why more
guys responded! ^_^;;;]
In the halls of RAAM, Emiko glared at a trembling RAAMer in the corner...
trembling not by her contorted expression, but by the 1 ton mallet she held
at striking distance.
"BAD, BAD RAAMer!" the hammer bopped down on his head. "Trying to
change this into a GRIT thread, huh!?" The hammer fell on him several more
times. Despite the bruises, he was still conscious.
"Bad, BAD RAAMer!!" *wack wack wack*
Rekishi grabbed the mallet and returned it to subspace when Emiko was on
her final attack.
"Err...Emiko-chan, I think that's enough.."
Emiko took a few deep breaths before facing him.
"Okay, I've got it out of my system. After all, we can't have rival
assimilator marching in on unclaimed territory, ne?" She beamed her kawaii
smile.
"Well, I'll agree with you on that one." They walked out the door,
leaving the unconscious body behind them.
Ace Ban Dage stumbled out of the testing room with a headache that even
Excederin couldn't even solve. He bumped off the walls and wandering
RAAMers like he was stuck in a huge pinball machine.
"Geez," he thought to himself. "Why take it out on the messenger? It's
Commander's Thickett's idea to collect stray GRIT characters outside the
[GRIT] postings. It was even written in prose! If she has a problem with
it, find Thickett and bop him. He's the one trying to convert GRIT
characters into CAPOW employees he can use. If Thickett wants to expand
CAPOW, leave me out of it..."
Ace's rambling thoughts continue as he accidentally walked into the
room holding the "SDF vs. Death Star" debate. The shockwave coming from
thousands of missiles flung him far across RAAM into the one place he
thought he never enter, the room holding the "Cutest Guy in Anime Thread".
Surprisingly, Ace's landing was a soft one. "Maybe a little too soft,"
he thought to himself. Looking down, what he saw made his heart melt and
blood freeze. He landed on Mai. Somehow, he never noticed how she was
his vision of heaven. He would give all to protect her from whatever
would think to harm her. Emiko, however, was another story.
Glancing around, he saw Emiko standing there with hate burning in her
eyes. Not again was Ace's last conscious thought...
"Huh?" Emiko looked closely at the fallen individual. The bumps on his
seemed to have swollen to enormous proportions. Two crisscrossed bandages
made a bad attempt at concealing the wound. Mai struggled out from under
the short individual, her kawaii face looking concerned.
"Emiko-sensei, he looks bad!"
"Well it serves him right for messing around with GRITers! *sigh* but...
you'd better patch him up Mai. Honestly, men can't seem to remember that
women carry dimensional hammers!"
"Haiiii!" Ace opened his eyes, blurred vision greeting him. Blinking
several times, he found himself looking at a somewhat petite angel with a
pink headband strapped across her forehead.
"Ohayo gozimasu, Mr. Flying-from-explosion!" She seemed to be boasting,
but in a cute way.
"Don't worry, Nurse Mai has just patched you up, good as new!" Whispering
in his ear, she giggled, "Stay away from GRITers, and you won't get into so
much trouble, ne?"
"M-m-mai-c-chan.." Ace was still weak from the explosion and more
importantly from the bumps on the noggin'.
"I'll win a trophy for you...as thanks...."
"Okay!" Mai beamed. "But don't make any passes at me...I'm not old
enough to have a boyfriend just yet!"
"Ggk...." unconsciousness faded over him again.
Emiko looked away and sighed.
"Gee Mai, that was comforting."
Mai put her hands on her hips, and stuck her tongue out.
"It's true." Her mentor shrugged and found Rachael to have found her
way back into the "Cutest Male in Anime" room. One of the guys in the
room was in her grasp, as blazing energy formed in her right fist.
"You think HE'S CUTER?!" she yelled menacingly into his placid face.
Emiko gritted her teeth.
"Uh, Mai-chan, best you leave that guy where he is and get us going.
Rekishi said he'd meet us at the Acronyms 'R Us Cafe, where we can eat
before heading back to the "Even the Sun is Gone" chamber." Looking once
at the pilot on the floor, Mai nodded and went down with Emiko. Behind
them, the "Cutest Guys in Anime" room suddenly exploded with a wave of
kinetic power. Rachael stood in the middle of the room, her eyes dancing
around at the unconscious people on the floor.
"Oops." As the duo passes continued their way down a long passageway,
a man with the words Tsurugi written stylishly across his jacket whipped
by Emiko like the wind.
"What the--"
"Sorry!" he cried. He entered one door, and after a few seconds,
crashed out and headed for another.
"Baka! What do you think your doing!?" Her voice somehow found he ears.
"It's all about stats!" he cried, "gotta go!" He was soon joined by a
lost female GRITer. A bead of sweat ran down both the girls faces.
"*sigh* This place is getting weird. I think next during our next
break we should go to the halls of RAAMarketplace...I hear there a lot of
cool stuff for sale!" She seemed to be getting lost in her mind.
"Videos, LD's, keychains, stickers, CD's...and I'm soo close to
completing my collection!"
"Lots of San Rio stuff too?" Mai hoped.
"Ummm...well..." The sounds of another door slamming behind her
interupted her otaku brain. Turning, she saw the hansome face of Susano
looking at her.
"Susano!" she came up to him excited, although he seemed to want to go
away...another pass from her might kill him. Luckily, she composed herself.
"And just what did you think you were doing?"
"heh heh," he scratched the back of his head. "Well....I thought
raising my stats would--"
"You TOO!" she glared at him for a few moments, before her eyes turned
a little dreamy. "Well..." she paused, "I suppose hunks like you are
okay..." They stood staring at each other for a minute, a crimson line
spreading across Susano's face, before Emiko broke off and asked,
"Mai, what time is it?"
"1:23 pm, sensei!"
"Oh no, we're late! Let's go!" They dashed down the hall.
"I l-lo--lov-- *ahem* Emiko-chan, I looo--looovv....nuts." Susano
grimiced, watching the cute pink-head run down the hall. Someday, he
thought, someday he'll get it right!
Rekishi sat at the bar, watching the hour go by.
"I wonder what happened to Emiko?" he thought to himself. A red-head
in jeans and loose t-shirt approached him from behind the bar. A few late
nights had not been kind to her sleepy eyes.
"So, what'll it be, sir?" Rekishi raised an eyebrow. Where have I
seen this girl before? The sounds of RAAMer's discussing the Lum language
over a cold pizza began to drown out his thoughts.
"Same again," Rekishi drawled.
"Look, Rekishi, it's getting late!" said Madoka (for it was she,) "why
don't you think about going home?"
"NOOOO!"
"Hoo boy!" mumbled Madoka to herself. "Looks like it's going to be
another long night!"
[Credits: Weapon X, Susano Orbitas, Anne Packrat, Ace Ban Dage, Emiko's
Agent, with cameo by Madoka... was that everyone?]
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