############################################################
 SENSHI MUYOU!
 (Hey, look, the U's back in the title again!)

 Episode 10 - Call on Me!
 by Kate Malloy

 Original concept by Mervyn the Wonder Slug, (c) 1999, 2000

 Hosted by Indie Madnesse
 (http://www.students.rhodes.edu/~knoke/indie/indie.html)
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As the chaos, panic, etc. ensued, Sachiko grabbed Fushin by the arm and dragged 
him out to one of the nearby prop storage rooms.  Checking to make sure no one 
had followed them, she pulled out her henshin briefcase and looked at Fushin.

"Come on, let's transform!" Sachiko urged him.

"I thought you hated this," Fushin stated evenly.

"Yeah, well, it's pretty obvious that I'm not going to be getting out of this 
any time soon," Sachiko admitted.  "So if we have to be the Magical Office 
Warriors, we might as well do the best job we can, right?"

Fushin nodded and took out his paperclip.  Instantly he transformed into his 
Samurai Salaryman outfit.

Sachiko stared at him for a few seconds, two thoughts running through her head.

(Why can't I have a nice, short, easy transformation sequence like that?)

(You know, he looks really good in that outfit...)

Shaking her head, she raised the briefcase and shouted, "High Power Hyper OL 
Henshin!"

*****

Meanwhile, back in the auditorium, Acheron and General #3 were trying to drain 
the energy of the confused, panicking masses.

"Look!" General #3 yelled, trying to make his voice heard over the crowd, "it 
would be a lot easier if you would just all remain seated and try to stay calm!  
This will be over a lot faster if you..." He was nearly run over by a group of 
fleeing school girls.  "All right, that's it!  I'm releasing the Vorpal Bunny 
Rabbit now!"

Acheron gasped.  "You can't be serious!"

"I mean it!" General #3 fished around in the pockets of his Official Youma 
General uniform for a few minutes.  "Okay, I lost it."

(The Vorpal Bunny Rabbit in question was happily munching on the grass outside 
the auditorium.  At least, we *hope* it's grass.)

"You bring any youma?" Acheron asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure, I got one of those."  General #3 made a flashy gesture with his 
hands, and a giant, hairy, slobbering creature (who bore an odd resemblance to 
Richard Simmons of all things) appeared in the auditorium and let out a loud 
roar.

"That's better," Acheron stated as he released his own youma, a large reptilian 
creature.  "Get to work!  Drain their energy!"  Then he and General #3 sat back 
and relaxed as the Official Youma General Codes of Combat specifically stated
was the proper thing to do in these situations.

Dark Queen Uzume was not happy at all.

"They're ruining it!" she wailed.  "They've scared my stars away..."

"Actually, I have their names and addresses right here, so I shall have no 
problem contacting them," Nyuro interrupted.

"Oh." Uzume paused in mid-rant.  "Thank you."

"Not a problem, my Queen.  Now, if you'll excuse me..." Nyuro teleported out.

Shiryo looked suspicious.  "Could he do that before?" he asked Uzume.

She wasn't listening.  This had turned out to be a lousy day to let the generals 
go off on their own.  "Well, since they've brought out their youma, I need to 
send out one of mine to fight them, right?"

Shiryo looked at the fangs and the claws and the scales and the slobber the 
other youma possessed, then mentally compared them to Uzume's Legion of Terror 
and Happiness, aka the Youmabibbles.  "Um...Uzume, perhaps that's not the best 
idea.  Maybe we should just leave."

"No!" Uzume exclaimed.  "I'll teach them not to ruin my auditions!  Youmabibble, 
go!"  She flung out a pink and yellow ball which opened up to reveal one of the 
furry blue youma.

Uzume pointed at the two generals and their youma.  "Attack them!  Attack!  
Don't hold back!" she sang.

The youmabibble nodded and leapt into the fray.

Suddenly, the doors of the auditorium flew open in a suitably dramatic manner, 
and Sachiko and Fushin (or Magical Girl Burst Angel Sailor OL Lime and, um, 
Fushin) rushed in.

Sachiko raised one arm to the sky and yelled, "Evildoers, prepare to be 
horribly mutilated!"

"Mutilated?" Fushin asked her quietly.

She glared at him.  "It was the first thing I could think of, okay?  I feel 
stupid enough already."

Carlisle and Whittington gave sighs of relief.

"Oh good, they're here," Carlisle said.  "Now Meryl..."  She turned to see the 
girl trying to sneak away.  "Honestly, it'll go better if you just accept it."

Meryl groaned.  "All right.  If this is what it takes to make you leave me alone, 
what do I have to do?"

Carlisle jumped into the air, did a fancy twirl, and a small teal laptop 
appeared in Meryl's hands.

"Raise the laptop in the air and shout, 'Mystical Secretarial Soldier Sepia, 
Make Up!'" Carlisle informed her.

Meryl stared incredulously at the cat.  "'Mystical Secretarial Soldier Sepia?'  
What, are you kidding me?"

"It's no joke!" Whittington yelled.  "Hurry up and get out there so you can help 
your teammates!"

Meryl exhaled angrily but held the laptop over her head.  "Mystical Secretarial 
Soldier Sepia, Make Up," she said in a dull tone of voice.  Instantly, she was 
surrounded by a sparkly light.

One standard magical girl transformation sequence later, she was dressed in an 
outfit identical to Sachiko's, only in sepia.  She looked down at herself. 

"Kami-sama preserve me," she muttered.  "I'm going to kill those cats when this 
is over."

She jumped out of the bleachers and joined Fushin and Magical Burst - oh forget 
it - Sachiko, who were trying to fend off the reptilian youma.  Fushin had his 
paperclip cum sword cum lightsaber out and was making motions at the youma 
which would have been threatening had Fushin any idea what he was doing.

"I think you need to grip the sword a little differently," Meryl suggested to 
him, running up to the others.  "Like this."  She adjusted Fushin's grip, then 
turned to look at Sachiko.

"Who are you?" Sachiko asked, dodging a strike from the youma and walking over 
to Meryl.

"I'm 'Mystical Secretarial Soldier Sepia,'" Meryl answered with a grimace.  "I'm 
your third team member."

"Well, you've got a better name than I do," Sachiko replied.

Fushin, meanwhile, had taken Meryl's advice and was now doing a bit better job 
at attacking the youma.

"How do you know about swords?" he called back to Meryl.

"I took kendo lessons for a while," she answered.  

For a second, Fushin was mildly disturbed that both of his teammates were better 
with a weapon than he was.

"Now, what am I supposed to do here?" Meryl asked Sachiko.

"We have to destroy this thing, presumably with our special attacks," Sachiko 
informed her.

"What special attacks?" Meryl said.

"They're supposedly instinctual," Sachiko stated.  "Wave around that laptop of 
yours and you'll probably get something.  I *had* a good attack, but *somebody* 
took it away from me!" She glared in Whittington's general direction.

Whittington decided that now would be a good time to visit the litterbox.  He 
was stopped by a paw swipe from Carlisle.

"Advisors absolutely do *not* leave in the midst of one of their charges' 
battles.  Honestly, Whittington, didn't you pay any attention at *all* in 
Mystical Advisor Training?" Carlisle gave him a hopeless look.

Both cats had to suddenly duck as a furry blue creature flew over their heads 
and slammed into the wall behind them.

"That was Uzume's..." Whittington began before noticing that the other youma 
was coming towards them.  "Carlisle, are you *sure* about advisors not being 
able to leave?"

"Well, there *are* exceptions to every rule..." Carlisle began before taking off 
at full speed.  "We'll double around the outside and come in through the back 
entrance!"

Queen Uzume watched the two advisors run away.  "See!  They're fleeing in terror 
from my youma!"

"I don't think it's *your* youma they're running away from," Shiryo pointed out.  
"By the way, have you noticed that the rest of your adversaries are here, and 
there appears to be one more of them?"

Uzume glanced at the other battle.  "Oh, yes, I noticed that mean girl in the 
lime green outfit and her handsome friend were here."

Shiryo blinked at the mention of Fushin being handsome.  "Don't you think you 
should do something about them?"

"Why?" Uzume shrugged.  "Right now, they're helping us out.  We can take care of 
them later."

Shiryo noticed the giant hairy youma repeatedly pounding the youmabibble's head 
into the wall.  "Don't you think your minion could use a little help?"

Uzume looked shocked.  "Oh dear..."

In the meantime, Sachiko and Meryl were deep in conversation.

Fushin tapped Sachiko on the shoulder.  "Umm...excuse me, but..."

"Yeah?" Sachiko looked up, mildly annoyed, then saw the reptilian youma looming 
over them.  "Oh..."  She turned to Meryl.  "Now would be a good time to try and 
figure out those attacks of ours."

Meryl nodded, and all of a sudden, an idea came to her.  Something that felt 
almost familiar in a way, and she briefly wondered why she hadn't remembered it 
earlier.

She opened up the laptop, pointed the screen at the youma, and yelled, "One 
Hundred Words-Per-Minute Strike!"  A hundred tiny points of blue light flew from 
the screen and struck the youma, causing it to stumble backwards.

Meryl blinked.  "That's *it?!*" she cried angrily.  "A stupid little distraction 
attack?"

Sachiko raised her right hand and made a cutting motion.  "Lovely OL Paper Cut 
Slash!"  A small green streak of power shot from her hand and hit the youma 
under its left index claw.

"Ouch!" The youma held up the claw, which now had a small paper cut on it which 
was bleeding profusely.  "Do you have any idea how much that stings?"

Sachiko just shook her head.  "Wonderful.  So that's a Level 1 attack.  I will 
hurt Whittington when I see him again."  Glancing towards the seating area, she 
realized that the advisors were no longer there.  "What the..."

Fushin let out a startled exclamation as the severely-annoyed youma knocked his 
sword out of his hands.

The three exchanged glances as the youma looked to be powering up for a 
particularly nasty attack.

"So, what do we do now?" Meryl asked quietly.

*****

The four generals stood outside the door of Marais' room, wearing the heaviest 
armor they could find (though it severely limited their ability to walk 
properly) and carrying various and sundry implements of destruction - swords, 
axes, rocket launchers, pointy sticks, etc.

"So what's the plan?" Varese whispered.

"I say we open up the door and charge right in there!" Marais suggested.

Tallis whimpered in fear.  "Are you sure?"

Schein shrugged.  "Well, we aren't going to get anything done just by sitting 
out here all day, and since I can't think of a better plan at the moment, 
although if you'd give me a few more minutes I'd probably be able to come up 
with something absolutely brilliant..."

Varese shook his head.  "Direct approach.  Now."

The four generals lined up, Schein in the lead.  "Okay," he said, "on my mark, 
we charge.  Ready?  One, two, three, go!"

The generals rushed up to the doorway the best they could.  Schein flung open 
the door and charged in.  The other three generals slammed it behind him and 
began constructing a barricade.

Schein immediately noticed that he was suddenly going solo.  "Hey!" he yelled, 
banging on the door.  "Get in here!"

A growling gurgle sounded from behind him.  He turned to face the tentacled 
vision of horror.

"Hoo boy..."

The youma continued to make noises at him.  Then Schein realized something.

"Hey!" he exclaimed.  "I studied this dialect at the Youma Generals' Academy!"

He snarled a sentence back to the youma.  It looked startled for a second.

(From now on, everything will be translated to English.)

"Oh, finally, somebody who can understand me!" the youma cried happily.  "You 
had no idea how frustrating that was."

"So, what exactly are you doing here?" Schein asked.

The youma raised a few tentacles in a shrugging gesture.  "Well, Dark Queen 
Prudence just kind of left me here to surprise intruders to the castle.  When I 
got released, I started to do my job but..." He looked around the room for a 
second.  "To be honest with you, I'd really like a change of employment."

"Oh?" Schein inquired.

"Yeah.  I mean, being the security enforcer was nice and all, but I don't think 
Prudence is coming back any time soon.  And you guys are all settled in here, 
making great evil plans...do you think your Dark Queen would take me on?"

"I don't know," Schein said.  "We're going for the Happiness and Terror thing 
here, and while you've got Terror down pat..."

"But this would make me happy!" the youma insisted.  "And it would make you 
happy too!"

"Why would it make us happy?" Schein wondered.

"If you talk to your Dark Queen for me, I don't eat you.  How's that?" the youma 
stated in a reasonable tone of voice.

Schein swallowed nervously.  "Ah, heh heh, I don't see a problem with that, 
Mister..."

"Pookie," the youma finished.

Schein blinked.  "Pookie?"

Pookie idly waved a tentacle.  "It was Mom's idea.  So, you going to introduce 
me to the rest of your group?"

"I'd like to, but I think they locked us in here."  Schein glanced at the door.

"Oh, no problem."  Pookie smashed through the door and the barricade in a matter 
of seconds.

Varese screamed, Tallis fainted, and Marais...well, um, let's not go there.

Schein followed the youma out.  "Don't shoot!" he exclaimed.  "I can explain!"  
He told the story to the other generals (including the now-conscious Tallis, who 
had revived when Pookie had kindly waved a bottle of smelling salts under his 
nose, then fainted again when he saw what was holding them, then revived again).

Varese shook his head slightly, making sure not to disturb a single one of his 
hairs.  "All right, but *you're* explaining this to Queen Uzume when she gets 
back."

*****

Sachiko looked at Meryl, then at Fushin, then at the youma.

"I don't know what we do now," she said, completely at a loss, and starting to 
feel just a bit frightened.

"It's simple," called a male voice.  "You wait for the member of your team who 
has the youma finishing item."

Everyone turned to face where the voice was coming from.  Nothing was there, 
although Meryl swore she saw a cat's tail disappear behind a row of seats.  And 
then...

"You try to steal the hopes and dreams of young girls!  This I cannot forgive 
you!" A young girl dressed in an impossibly frilly pink, purple, and white 
outfit, with the requisite short skirt, stepped out in a dramatic pose.  She 
raised a nauseatingly cute matching magic wand over her head.

Meryl gritted her teeth while Sachiko swore under her breath.

The magical girl continued her speech.  "I, Happy Shiny Beautiful Princess 
Cheer, shall end your evil ways!  Prepare to be defeated by the powers of truth 
and love!"

"I think I'm going to be ill," Meryl groaned.

"A junior high girl," Sachiko said in the tone that a person usually speaks in 
before their mind is about to completely snap.  "They *promised* there wouldn't 
be any junior high girls..."

"Special Joy Joy Escalation Activation!" Princess Cheer waved her magic wand, 
and a beam of rainbow sparklies came from the end of it.  The youma, instead of 
dodging it, could only watch, mesmerized, as the beam came closer and closer...

...and finally vaporized it.

Princess Cheer jumped up and down.  "Wai!  Wai!  I did it!"  She bounced down to 
join the others.  "So, you must be my team, right?"

"'Your' team?" Sachiko yelled.  "What do you mean 'your' team?"

"But...but..." Princess Cheer stammered.  "I'm supposed to be the leader and 
all, right?"  Her lower lip trembled, and she appeared to be on the verge of 
tears.

Meryl rolled her eyes.  "Listen, we need to have a talk..."

Wordlessly, Fushin pointed at the other two youma who were still going at it.

Princess Cheer successfully completed one of the world's fastest mood swings.  
"Oh boy!  More evildoers for me to destroy!"  Two "Special Joy Joy Escalation 
Activation" beams later, both the Simmons-youma and the youmabibble were piles 
of dust.

Queen Uzume was not happy.  "How dare you destroy my poor youma!"

Princess Cheer looked at Uzume.  "Ooh, you must be my evil nemesis!  Well, I 
won't stand for your attacking innocent people.  I shall protect the world from 
devastation!  I shall..."

Sachiko tapped her on the shoulder.  "Actually, kid, only one of those youma was 
hers, and it was trying to help defeat the others.  But, yes, she is our 
regularly scheduled evil nemesis."

Uzume gave an unhappy bounce.  "Well, I'll show you next time!  Just you wait!  
You won't be able to stand up to the power of my new and improved youmabibbles!  
I'll get you yet!  Nyah nyah!" She and Shiryo teleported out.

The people who had had their energy drained began to recover.

"I think we should get out of here," Meryl said.

*****

"Carlisle," Whittington asked, "bunny rabbits don't usually have glowing purple 
eyes and speak about the [VOID], do they?"

Carlisle looked at the approaching rabbit.  "I don't think so..."

*****

Rei looked into the flames.

"Well, well, Macavity, quite clever," she murmured.  "A point to you.  But the 
next round will be mine."

*****

Tune in next time, when Meryl discovers that Sachiko is her long-lost...

...third cousin!

*****

Author's Notes:

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I'm actually going to get an impro in on time without
asking for an extension.  Armageddon will occur any moment now. ^_^

I think I shall be ill now after writing all that stuff with Nadako. :/

Thanks to Mervyn, W4, and Philip Barkow for prereading.

I was hoping to get this done Saturday night, but I'd forgotten something very 
important - that was the night of the NHL All Stars Skills Competition.  And the 
Skills Competition can mean only one thing: lots and lots of shots of Paul 
Kariya with his helmet off.  Wai. ^_^  And all the rest of the guys too.  One of 
the side benefits of being a female hockey fan.

Anyway.  I'm not so good at writing action scenes, honestly and truly.  I do a 
lot better if I'm implying that things are going on rather than directly 
describing them.  I hope my approach worked out okay here.

I'd assume that Sachiko would get Level 2 and 3 attacks before regaining the 
Lovely OL Sparkle Wave [THRUST], but I'll leave it up to other authors as to 
when and what they should be. ^_^

Oh, and one idea I wanted to fit in but didn't find a way to was an implication 
that Fushin's *other* destiny has to do with Yuriko and the vase.  And I almost 
typed in Matsuro instead of Fushin up there. ^_^

I think this was a lot better than my previous chapter, honestly, and it was a 
lot better-planned out and easier to write.  Or something.  I'll shut up now. 
^_^

Kate