##########################################################
 SENSHI MUYO

 Episode 2 - Call Us Castle Conqistadores
 by Steven Scougall

 Original concept by Mervyn the Wonder Slug, (c) 1999

 Hosted by Indie Madnesse
 (http://www.students.rhodes.edu/~knoke/indie/indie.html)
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The four generals eyed each other warily, wondering who would crack first.

There was a reason for this.  Schein, Tallis, Varese, and Marais were 
supposed to take some youma, head over to the remains of Dark Queen 
Prudence's Castle, and secure the area.  Despite their dislike for each 
other, the order had come from their new Queen and they weren't about to 
disobey her.  So first thing in the morning, they had dropped by the pocket 
dimension Queen Uzume's youma were being held in.

The snag had been that these youma were not what they had been expecting.

They gazed over the youma again, taking in the pink and purple and light 
green costumes which didn't quite hide the youmas' not quite human forms.  
They looked at the crude masks, which somehow didn't really hide the 
disturbing faces underneath them.  They looked in particular at the 
brightly coloured bows around the youmas' necks.

The silence dragged on.

Marais cracked first.  "How are supposed to do anything with *these?*" he 
asked.  "The enemy will take one look and die laughing!  And I don't see a 
single claw anywhere!"

"Fourth row, ten to your right," said Tallis, almost automatically.

Marais singled out the youma indicated.  "Oh.  Right.  There are clawed 
ones.  That's a relief, at least."

"This is ridiculous," sniffed Varese.  "If you think I'm going to work with 
such fashion disaster youma, you can think again."

Schein tuned out the other generals.  Morons, the lot of them.  Alright, so 
these youma weren't quite what they were used to.  But to someone who had 
Schein's impeccable sense of strategy and tactics (or so he liked to 
believe), it was easy to come up with ten uses for them in under ten 
seconds, none of which involved tossing them out with the trash.  Except 
for one scenario where the enemy was known to be going through the garbage 
for Clues.

And besides, getting more youma would take time and more importantly money.  
Between them, the generals had about enough money to buy a McDonalds Happy 
Meal.  A legion of more monstrous youma was definitely out of the question.

"Enough, Varese," he said.  "They have interesting possiblities."

"You think so?" asked Tallis.

"Yes, Tallis.  First we'll need some cloaks for them.  Then..."

   # # # # #

A man and a cat walked through the streets of Tokyo.  This was not a 
particularly impressive sight on the face of it.  There are many cats and 
many many men in the aforementioned city.  Admittedly, not as many go for 
walks together, but with so many of each there must be some who do, and so 
the sight was dismissed as a mere curiosity.

Upon further investigation, however, one would realise that the man 
appeared to be following the cat, instead of the other way around.  Upon 
even closer investigation, involving electronic listening devices and 
binoculars, one would realise that the cat was talking to the man and was 
leading him somewhere.

At this point the hypothetical investigator would go off for a stiff drink 
and a lie down, and think it was all a sleep deprived hallucination in the 
morning.  Which was just the way the cat wanted it.  He wanted as few 
people knowing he was a talking cat as possible.  Excepting people he felt 
like freaking out.

Currently, the cat was leading the man to its base of operations to meet 
its fellow operative.

The base of operations turned out to be a nice looking house in a nice 
suburb.  Such things do, amazingly, exist in Tokyo, though they are 
typically ridiculously expensive.  In addition, there was also a garden and 
a fence.  In the grand traditions of gardens in Tokyo, it measured about 
two square metres in total, but it was a garden nonetheless.

"Yo, Carlisle," said Whittington as he walked in the door.  "What's up?"

The sleek black cat was slumped on the floor, her whiskers and tail limp.  
At the sound of her colleague's voice, one ear twitched and an eye opened 
fractionally to focus on him.

"Go ahead, guess," she said.

"Oh gosh, I wonder.  Could it perhaps be Myra Lou calling in to see how 
things are going, finding out you flushed the pens down the toilet, and 
bitching about it for half an hour?"

Carlisle's tail started waving irritably.  "Very clever, Mr. Smarty Pants."

"Flushing pens down the toilet is a waste of good stationery," said the man 
solemnly.  "I don't see why it would earn such a severe berating, though."

Carlisle looked at the man a moment, her mystic advisor senses screaming at 
her, her tail twitching in irritated surprise.  "Whittington, who is THIS?"

"Carlise, meet Takusan Fushin.  Fushin, meet Carlisle.  She's... uh..."  
Whittington desperately tried to remember the cover he'd come up with 
before.  "Uh... the reincarnated Queen of the Kingdom of Job Satisfaction."

"Oh really," said the man with a clearly disbelieving tone.

"Whittington," said Carlisle with a clearly confused tone, "what the hell 
are you babbling about?"

"Fushin, excuse us a minute," said Whittington, with a clearly worried 
tone.  "Private meeting, kinda thing."

"To make sure your stories coincide, I guess," said Fushin.

Whittington grumbled to himself for a while in naughty words made up of 
ASCII symbols, such as "#&!!" and "$#!+".

"Alright, alright," he finally conceded, "there is no Kingdom of Job 
Satisfaction, and I'm not a reincarnated Minister, and this isn't the 
reincarnated Queen.  But I had to get your attention somehow."

"Whittington, you... What have you done THIS time?"

"Just LOOK at the guy's mystic destiny, Carlisle.  Don't tell me you can't 
sense one a mile long."

"Mystic Destiny?" asked Fushin.

"Yes, Mystic Destiny.  You're just the guy we need."

"For what?"

"Whittington, haven't you told him ANYTHING?"

   # # # # #

The four generals and their legion of cloaked youma approached the castle, 
feeling nervous.

The castle was tall and imposing and boded of many bad things.  It being 
Dark Queen Prudence's Dark Castle of Darkness, this was expected.  
Considering that Dark Queen Prudence had just recently been defeated, the 
devastation was also expected.

It was just... well.. there should have been more destruction.  Save for 
pockmarked walls, tattered banners, and a peeling paint job, the castle was 
in very good shape.

"Prudence must have spent a LOT on post demise structural integrity," 
murmured Schein.

"That just makes it easier for us," said Marais.

"Not necessarily," said Schein.

"I think I get it," said Tallis.  "Schein's wondering why Prudence spent so 
much on it."

"Exactly," said Schein.

"I don't get it," said Varese.

Schein rolled his eyes.  The man was supposedly strategically competent 
enough to pass Queen Uzume's test, but he still significantly lacked in the 
smarts department.  "Look, you hair-care product abusing moron," he said, 
"there's no reason to make sure the place will stay in such good shape 
after you die unless you plan to be coming back."

"Oh, of course.  You think Prudence will be coming back, then?"

"That or she had plans for a successor or something.  It's practically a 
certainty.  We'll just have to be extra careful when securing the place, 
alright?"

As might have been guessed already, the four generals weren't on the best 
of terms.  So when they entered through the front gate, it was perfectly 
understandable that Tallis suggested that the four split up, to speed up 
the operation.

But Schein was worried.  Something didn't quite feel right about the 
situation, and as much as he disliked the other three, he disliked the idea 
of being all alone in a potentially dangerous situation even more.

"We shall stay together," he said.

The other three groaned.

"At least at first.  Once we're sure things are alright we can split up."

Grumbling, the four started exploring the castle.

   # # # # #

Uzume already had most of her legions of youma, but there had been a snag.  
They were supposed to be a Legion of Happiness and Terror.  While the youma 
were fine on the Terror front, they didn't seem particularly good for 
Happiness.

Uzume, however, wasn't quite sure.  She'd built a Dark Kingdom four times 
before and thus was an expert authority on what made youma Terrible.  But 
she'd never been a Dark Queen of Happiness and felt that perhaps she wasn't 
the best to judge if a youma would make people happy.  To address this, she 
had hired a Tester of Youma Suitability.  When he'd rejected all the youma, 
Uzume had gone out and hired another, just to make sure.  And then another.  
And so on.

She'd just hired yet the sixth Tester.  The two were currently in the 
pocket-dimension that housed her legions of youma, walking through the 
amassed ranks.  As they came to each one Uzume would turn to talk to the 
Tester, who would always, without fail, reject the youma's suitability as a 
harbinger of Happiness.

They came to the end of the fourth file.

"Now," said Uzume to the Tester of Youma Suitability, "are you absolutely 
sure?  None of them make you feel happy at all?"

"I want my mummy," cried the little girl, and clutched her teddy-bear 
closer to her.

Apparently not.  Uzume sighed and turned back to look at the youma.  It was 
the Undercover special, meaning that it looked vaguely human.  But only 
vaguely - it did after all have five inch long talons instead of 
fingernails, a spiked tail, shoulder muscles bigger than its head, and a 
mask that didn't quite hide the disturbing face beneath it.

Uzume had to admit, it didn't look all that happiness inducing.  Even with 
the brightly coloured clothes and the pink bow tied around its neck.  There 
was just something about it that the clothes couldn't hide.

"Rargh?" asked the youma.

"No, that will be fine, Gurgh," said Uzume, waving a hand dismissively.

"Hraagh," Gurgh assented, and stepped back into the line of Undercover 
youma.

"I ask you," Uzume complained, bouncing in exasperation.  "I specifically 
asked for a legion of Happiness and Terror, and I get this.  All my Testers 
agree that they're just Terrifying."

"I'm scared," cried the girl.

   # # # # #

They were walking through a dimly lit hallway when Schein heard something.

The other three generals were constantly complaining, and the youma's feet 
made loud clicking noises with every footstep.  With at least a hundred 
youma, that was a hell of a lot of loud clicking footsteps.  But somehow, 
through all the din, Schein had heard something.

It sounded for all the world like someone singing "What... shall we do... 
*hic* wi' a drunken Dark Gen'ral."  All the other three generals were 
talking at the time and the youma weren't capable of either drinking or 
complex speech, which ruled out everybody in their group.

That meant there was somebody else in the castle with them.  Admittedly, 
that somebody else sounded very drunk, but still, there was somebody else 
in the castle with them.

"QUIET!" Schein hissed at the top of his voice.

By degrees their group slowed down, stopped complaining, and became silent.

"What's up, Schein?" asked Tallis.

"I heard somebody else in the castle.  Singing.  Listen hard."

But, even though they stood there in silence for five minutes, nobody could 
hear anything.

"Look, there's nothing, alright?  Now let's get back on our way, alright?" 
said Marais.

"There was definitely *someone*," Schein insisted.  "Be extra careful and 
keep your eyes peeled."

They continued on their way.  Behind them, a crack in the wall that led all 
the way to the wine cellar remained unnoticed.

   # # # # #

So.  After taking the latest Tester back to the beach to rejoin her for-
some-weird-reason-completely-infuriated mother, Uzume found herself back at 
the We-B-Youma employment agency.  Shiryo was with her, to provide his 
guidance and expert Dark Litigation skills if they hit a snag.  But he was 
mainly there because he was the one with the money.

"Yyes?" nasalised the recptionist.  "Hyow myay I hyelp you?"

"It's about these youma I bought," said Uzume.  "The Undercover Set."

"Whyat about thyem?"

"They're not Happy enough."

A pause.

"...what?" the receptionist finally asked, stunned into nasally normal 
speech.

"Just what I said.  They're Terrifying, yes, but just not Happy enough."

"Excuse me, I'll just... just... get the manager," said the receptionist, 
and picked up the phone.  She had a hurried whispered conversation, then 
placed the receiver down.  "He will be with you shortly," she said.

They didn't have to wait long.  In just a couple of minutes, the door 
opened and the manager of the youma employment agency entered the room.  
Dressed immaculately in his usual business suit / armour combination piece, 
he was striding up to the two in his usual assured and confident way.

"Ah, Uzume-san.  So good to see you again.  The receptionist has just told 
me that you have a problem with the youma you most recently acquired from 
us.  Would you care to elaborate?"

"They're just not Happy enough!" cried Uzume indignantly.

The manager blinked, his mouth opening into an O of surprise and confusion, 
but otherwise made no other reaction.  This was a first, thought Uzume.  
Normally he always had a snappy reply for any of her questions or 
complaints.

"What my sister means to say," Shiryo said in his best Dark Litigator 
voice, "is that she requires a Legion of Youma of Happiness and Terror, 
instead of the Legion of Fear and Terror that she has previously acquired 
through the services of your agency."

"'Happiness and Terror'?"

"Yes!" said Uzume excitedly.  "So I can build a Dark Kingdom of Happiness 
and Terror and make everybody happy and not have annoying junior high brats 
try to stop me!"

"...right," said the manager, and turned to look at Shiryo.

Shiryo just shrugged helplessly.

"O-kay," said the manager, slowly.  "One Legion of Youma of Happiness and 
Terror.  We'll see what we can do, but it will be expensive."

It was Shiryo's turn to look nervous.  He was the one paying, after all.  
"How expensive?" he asked.

The manager named a sum of money and Shiryo made a strangled noise in the 
back of his throat.  Uzume thought about it for all of five seconds before 
saying "Sure!"

Shiryo made another choked noise.

"Oh, everything will be alright, Shiryo!" said Uzume with Happy Bounce #15.  
"Don't worry!"

   # # # # #

Everything seemed alright.  The generals had gone through almost all of the 
castle, leaving some youma as guards in key positions.  If anybody came 
along to nab the castle for themselves, they'd get a nasty shock.

They hadn't entered the inner courtyard yet.  It being the largest feature 
of the castle, the generals had decided to leave it for last.

Then Schein noticed a reddish glint from the floor.

"Wait," he said.  He crouched down to take a closer look.

It turned out to be a talon.  Seven inches long and blood red.  None of 
their youma had talons like that.  The generals clustered around, looking 
at it.

"None of our youma have talons like that," said Marais nervously.

"And it wasn't there when we were in this part of the castle before," said 
Varese.

"Yes," said Schein.  "Something's been through here after we went through.  
And talons like this don't just fall off."

"Grah, Aragh, Harrh and McUgh, report!" ordered Tallis.

The four youma that had been left to guard this area completely failed to 
appear from their hiding spots and report in.

"If we searched this room right now we would probably find the remains of 
several youma," said Schein, waving the blood red talon as if for emphasis.  
"Including the remains of Grah, Aragh, Harrh and McUgh."

Their remaining youma huddled together.

"The conclusion is obvious," said Schein in a low whisper.  "Obviously, 
there are others who seek to secure this castle for their own purposes, and 
they are sneaking around behind our backs and quietly undoing everything 
we've already done.  No doubt they are sniggering to themselves at this 
very moment as they think of the way they shall ambush us in the Inner 
Courtyard."

"Ambush us!?  Schein, what are we gonna DO!" wailed Tallis.

The other two didn't speak, they just looked at him with questioning looks 
on their faces.

Schein grinned to himself.  They recognised his strategic and tactical 
genius at last...

He looked over at the group of youma they still had with them, a plan 
forming in his mind.

   # # # # #

And in another part of the deceased Dark Queen Prudence's Dark Castle, Dark 
Queen Yasha's group of four generals noticed the glint of a talon.  A talon 
that belonged to a youma that wasn't one of theirs.  They formed much the 
same conclusion, through much the same reasoning process.

The only difference was that they were never quite sure what their names 
were, as they were changed every two weeks on Queen Yasha's whim.  So 
instead of calling each other by name, they resorted to numbers.

   # # # # #

The cats had tried everything.  They'd tried persuasion.  They'd tried 
pleading.  They'd tried barefaced honesty.  They'd even tried threatening 
to wreck his life, but then realised that Fushin was doing a perfectly good 
job of making his own life as boring as possible and they couldn't really 
wreck it, as such.

In desperation, they activated the communications console and called Myra 
Lou Poonster, their boss.

"Carlise, Whittington, I was about to go out and play bridge with Myrtle.  
This had better be important."

"It's this guy.  He's just the guy we need, but he thinks this is all just 
a joke."

"Hello, ma'am," said Fushin politely.  "I am Takusan Fushin."

"Hi Fushin-kun.  The name's Myra Lou Poonster.  What have Carlisle and 
Whittington been tellin' you?"

"They claim that I am destined to fight a Dark Queen Uzume and save the 
world.  I think that this claim lacks a certain something."

"They're good at sensing that sort of thing, you can trust them."

"Really.  Can I trust you?  Who are you, really?  If you know talking cats 
then you must not be entirely normal yourself."

The old lady on the screen seemed to preen, for just a moment.  "World's 
oldest magical girl.  Woman.  Old lady.  Whatever."

"Really.  Do you have any proof?"

"Sugar, I'm 89 years old.  You don't want to see me in a fuku.  Nor do you 
want to see my transformation sequence."

Fushin got a certain mental image, dating back to when he was young and 
visiting his grandmother's house, and shuddered.  "No, I suppose not."

   # # # # #

Uzume's generals and youma entered the courtyard about one second after 
Yasha's entered from the other side.  The two groups froze.

After an uneasy silence, one of Yasha's Generals stepped forwards and 
strode to the fountain at the center of the courtyard.  In response, 
Tallis, Varese, and Marais shoved Schein forwards, volunteering him for 
liaison duty.

"Well, Schein, it appears we meet again.  On opposing sides, 
unfortunately."

"Too true, Fred."

"It's Pierre now.  At least, I think it's Pierre.  It could be Antoine."

This was enough for Schein to say "...what?"

"Queen Yasha keeps changing our names.  Two weeks ago I was Franz and a 
month ago I was Ictheous.  For a couple of days I was even called Wonko The 
Terrible.  I've had more name changes than I can keep track of."

"I can see how that would be difficult."

"It is, rather.  To the other guys, I just go by Number Three."   Pierre, 
or possibly Antoine, sat down on the edge of the fountain.  "Look, Schein, 
I really don't want to fight you.  Can't we just sort this out peacefully?"

"Unfortunately, probably not.  My queen sent me to secure this castle for 
her use.  I suspect Queen Yasha sent you for the same reason."

The General Formerly Known As Fred looked thoughtful.  "Well, what she 
really wanted us to do was loot the place and concentrate on Prudence's 
wine cellar.  Maybe we could work out some deal where we own the cellar and 
you guys own the rest."

Schein thought back to the drunken singing he'd heard.  "Ah, that explains 
the drunken singing I heard before."

Pierre/Antoine nee Franz nee Ictheous nee many-other-names-one-of-which-is-
"Wonko The Terrible" nee Fred looked confused.  "We haven't hit the cellar 
yet.  You mean that singing wasn't you?"

Schein got a VERY bad feeling.  "There's somebody else again here with us."

In the traditions of comic timing, Dark Queen Nyx's four Dark Generals 
chose this moment to stagger drunkenly through another of the entrances to 
the inner courtyard.  They looked confused for a moment, and then ordered 
their youma to attack.

Schein started cursing.  His plan required perfect timing, and he was the 
only one who could pull it off correctly.  The other three would just screw 
it up.

"Look, Fred, Number Three, or whatever, it's been great seeing you again 
but I have to get back and oversee my team's part in this battle.  I like 
the sound of the split ownership idea but I don't think my queen would go 
for it."

"Yasha probably won't go for it either," said the other general.  "I'd say 
good luck and all, but seeing as you're on the other side..."

"Yeah."

The two generals hurried back to their own forces, and sent them forwards 
to the attack.  The three legions of youma met in a typical berserkerish 
every-youma-for-itself battle.  The sort of battle where the winning side 
can be counted on the fingers of one foot.

Schein, however, had other ideas.  He let his youma fight the others for a 
little while, waiting for them to herd the others into the center of the 
courtyard...

Almost there...

The last of the youma straggled into the huge pulsating crowd of confused 
fighting in the center of the courtyard.

"ONE!" he shouted.  At exactly the same time Ex-Fred shouted "GO!"

A horde of Yasha's youma jumped from their third-storey window hiding spots 
to join in the melee.  Simultaenously, every single one of Uzume's youma 
took their cloaks off and posed.

The fighting ground to a confused halt as all the other youma, including 
the newly arrived ones, just *stared* at the pink, purple, and lime green 
clothed youma with pink bows around their necks.  Then they started 
laughing.

"TWO!" shouted Schein.

The remainder of Uzume's youma, watching from the second story windows, 
stepped into view and started raining fiery death down upon the suddenly 
still forms of their enemies.  After only a moment, the opposing forces 
started firing back, but were significantly reduced.

"THREE!"

The youma at the windows withdrew at the same time the posing contingent 
attacked the enemies whose attention was now distracted upwards.  After a 
few moments, it was all over and the youma forces of both Nyx and Yasha 
were completely wiped out, and only several of Uzume's had been lost.

The General who might have been Pierre or Antoine but who Schein thought of 
as Fred spoke up.  "Impressive ploy, Schein.  What's going to stop us from 
leaving to get more youma?"

"FOUR!"

The youma at the windows dropped down and blocked all four exits, and were 
joined a moment later by the posing regiment.  At the same time, Marais 
cast spells that blocked all magical transportation within a one mile 
radius, and Tallis threw up magical shields over himself, his three fellow 
Generals, and in front of the youma guarding the exits.  On his part, 
Schein threw up a shielding spell around the suddenly confused generals, to 
stop them wandering around.

"I think you'll find that that suitably answers your question, Fred.  
Varese, go get our backup youma and start placing them in key defensive 
positions around the castle, please.  They should have arrived at the 
drawbridge by now."

"Right away, Schein."

Ten minutes later Varese came in to the courtyard to report that all other 
youma in the castle had been wiped out, and that Uzume's youma forces were 
all over the castle and ready to defend it from anything.  And not a moment 
too soon, for under the onslaught of the captive generals' magic the 
various shields were starting to wear very thin.

"Very good, Varese."  Schein turned back to the eight captive Dark 
Generals.  "Well, it appears that we no longer need to keep you here under 
our watchful eye, so goodbye."  He waved a hand and the remains of the 
shielding spell became a teleportation spell that dumped the lot of them in 
the middle of the Pacific Ocean back on Earth.  It wouldn't hold them for 
long, but it would occupy their attention for a few mintues.  Besides, 
Schein was feeling vaguely playful.

Uzume's four generals exchanged high fives and congratulations for a battle 
won and a job well done.  And then Varese stepped on Schein's foot by 
accident, and their congratulations turned into the usual heated insults, 
which was much more normal for them.

   # # # # #

There were two cats lazing on the fence of a nice house in a nice suburb of 
Tokyo.  One was a sleek black female, and the other was a male that 
resembled a lethargic ball of grey fluff most of the time.  They were 
talking, but considering that they were obviously Carlisle and Whittington, 
this was only to be expected.

They were talking in low voices.  Normally, this would be by choice, as it 
just wouldn't do if they were discovered to be talking cats.  This time, 
however, they were talking in low voices because it had been a long day and 
they really didn't have the energy to talk in anything above a whisper.

It had taken the two cats most of the day to convince Fushin that there was 
a possibility his destiny might just, at an outside chance, involve 
defending the world from a crazy Dark Queen who wanted to turn the world 
into an Orwellian land of strictly enforced contentment.  They might have 
gotten a bit further, but it was starting to get late and Fushin had to 
leave to get ready for the next day's hard work of paperclip quality 
assurance.

"And it's only a possibility of an outside chance maybe being 
considered..." moaned Carlisle.

"Still, it's a start," said Whittington.  "He'll see sense."

"In maybe twenty years," riposted Carlisle.

"I hope not," said Whittington.  "Twenty more years of what happened today 
does not sound fun."

"Are you sure about him?"

"Hey, you sensed his mystical destiny.  The man is clearly important.  
Somehow."

"I just hope we aren't messing with his actual mystic destiny by trying to 
get him working for us."

"These things are slippery, kitty.  I'm sure it doesn't matter."

The two cats sighed.  It had truly been a long day.

Up ahead, someone walked around the corner into the street.  With feline 
curiosity the two cats turned to look at the new arrival.  At this 
distance, the two cats couldn't make out any details apart from the fact 
that it was a woman.  And that at the sight of her, their mystic senses 
started jangling urgently.

"This one's yours," said Whittington.

"After the difficulty with Fushin, I wouldn't let you handle this one 
anyway," sniffed Carlisle.  She dropped from the fence to the ground and 
padded after the figure.

   # # # # #

Uzume reclined back on the large throne and sighed in contentment.  She now 
had an actual honest to goodness Dark Castle, and she hadn't had to pay a 
huge amount of money to have it built.  So all she needed to do was pay a 
large amount of money to have it refurbished and made into a Dark Castle of 
Happiness and Terror.

She reclined further and banged her head against the back of the throne.

"Owie!"

She was either going to have to watch the reclining or get a new throne.  
Dark Queen Prudence had been smaller than Uzume, thus this throne was 
smaller than Uzume was used to.  She mulled the choice over, before 
deciding to go for a new one.  Thrones were made for reclining in, after 
all.

"My Queen!"

Uzume held her nose.  The smell could mean only one thing - the approaching 
general was none other than General Marais.  The man had the annoying habit 
of eating at the Burrito Barn every few days, and more if he could possibly 
manage it.  It gave him quite a distinctive smell.  "Yes, Marais?"

"We have a call from the agency.  They say that they have found a possible 
solution to the problem of your legions not being happy enough."

"Yay!" she cheered, hands clasped together and bouncing enthusiastically.  
"Right, get the other generals, you should all come too.  These are the 
legions you'll be commanding, after all."

Marais looked nervous.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!"

Marais looked veeeery nervous indeed.


(TO BE CONTINUED!)


Tune in next time, and hear the generals singing a variant of the 
lumberjack song!

Then again, perhaps not.


 Author's Ramblings
--------------------
When I voted for Inverse back in the Sweepstakes, I never thought I'd end 
up writing chapter 2 for it in its new guise as Senshi Muyo.  Fate's just 
funny that way, I guess.  I feel all privileged and honoured, now.  ^_^  

Oh yes, and before I forget - Wai!  Another Indie Impro gets to chapter 2!  
We WILL be a force to be reckoned with!  Oh yes, we definitely will!  AHA!  
AHAHAHA!!  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... er... ahem.  Excuse me.

Writing that chapter was fun.  It certainly wasn't the longest impro 
chapter ever, but I had fun coming up with it.  I just hope you had as much 
fun reading it.

Thanks go to Mervyn the Wonder Slug, for both deciding to turn this into an 
Indie Impro, for prereading, and for pointing out that Uzume was bouncing 
just a little too much in an earlier draft, if you can believe that.

Steven Scougall
23 Nov 1999
http://www.crosswinds.net/~sscougall/