############################################################### SENSHI MUYOU! Episode 12 - Who ya gonna call? By J.M. Steadman Original concept by Mervyn the Wonder Slug (c) 1999, 2000 Hosted by Indie Madnesse (http://www.students.rhodes.edu/~knoke/indie/indie.html) This part brought to you by the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse. I hope you gave them a nice tip. ############################################################### Deep within the heart of... someplace warm and not well lit, there was a spherical room -- a room where a dull, red ambience seemed to flow out from the walls. At the back of this room there was a fair-sized throne, upon which was seated a woman. The woman's features were not apparently visible, as she was wrapped from head to toe in a gauzy, hooded cloak. From beneath the hood of this robe she stared at a a glassy, multilayered chessboard which floated before her. Upon the board many pieces of varying coloration were placed. Rei's lips pursed, and a soft, impartial voice seemed to reverberate from the walls, though her face did not change move further. =| A move has been made. |= Said the voice from the forward part of the room. =| The cat has placed its Pawn among the Ivory pieces. |= Continued the same voice, but from farther back, to the left of Rei's throne. =| Macavity being Macavity, the Pawn will probably not |= =| respond to the Ivory leaders. |= The ceiling intoned impassively. =| Nevertheless, my strategies have been compromised. |= =| The prominent Ebony side is imbalanced, though it |= =| is hard to say how things will progress. |= Commented the center part of the floor. With the same voice as that which had echoed from various parts of the room, Rei spoke from her throne. "I must have a Pawn of my own." The voice departed from Rei and resumed bouncing around the room. =| Difficult. |= =| I have always preferred subtle manipulation to |= =| direct action. This will be a new experience. |= =| I cannot leave my chamber. I cannot recruit as the |= =| the cat did. |= =| And as a result, control would be fleeting. Yet if |= =| I can add as randomly as the cat seemed to, perhaps |= =| the moves will cancel. |= "Where shall I obtain my Pawn?" Rei held out her hand and a chesspiece and a marble appeared in her palm. =| Here. |= =| These Pieces attempted to enter from another Board. |= =| I caught them. |= =| The Pawn is innocent, the Marble is dangerous. |= =| The Pawn may be useful if I choose, but the Marble |= =| must be dealt with. |= "Then I shall separate them and use the Pawn as my representative." Rei placed the new piece in the center of the middle board, and the marble in a corner of the lowest one. There was a pause, and then she slowly grinned. =" Macavity is going to get his. "= Chorused the voice five times in sync from both the throne and walls. *********** "What do you mean I have to stay put?!" HELLO, are you listening? My cover's been blown!" Bozo yelled into the false heel of his shoe, disturbing the other passengers on the small, commuter bus. "Look, all they know is that you're looking for the Agent, right? And all you told that person about was the Agent, right?" replied a low voice from the receiver. "Then while the situation is a little uneven you and your family would not seem to be in any particular danger. It might even improve your standing in Uzume's organization with her knowing that you've got your eyes peeled for something that might try to get her. All I'm saying is that you stick around. If the situation degenerates, we'll pull you out." Bozo sighed. "Fine. But I want increased hazard pay. Agent Double O Honk, over and ouCH!" Bozo was thrown to the ground as the bus ground to a halt. Pausing only to return his shoe to his foot, Bozo got up, paid the driver and began the short walk to his home. It had, by all accounts, been a miserable day. He'd had a close encounter with the new youma secretary, had narrowly avoided being eaten, had been exposed with that guy with a gun, and now the sun was making him sweat under his makeup. "Well, at least I know that things can't get much worse," Bozo muttered to himself as he fumbled for his keys. This, of course, was just begging for trouble. The sky suddenly rumbled as clouds materialized from nowhere in particular, swirling to form a strange form of inverted tornado from which rain, lightning, gumdrops and a small, shouting girl were thrown. Bozo could only watch, transfixed, as the girl plunged towards his location and flattened him. Shortly thereafter, a long, gilded wand plummeted to the asphalt beside them, shattering the heart-shaped ruby that had topped it. As this is hardly a situation one typically plans for, Bozo was not entirely sure what to do next. After laying in a heap for several seconds, he decided to groan. "Ugh," said the girl on his back as she pulled herself to her feet. "I guess I'm here. Now I, Magical Princess Moonshine, will make this world a happy place and in so doing save the Magical Kingdom of Happiness from the external gloom that threatens it! Right, Tewwance?" The girl looked towards the bag slung over her shoulder, then blinked. "Tewwance? Where are you?" "Um, excuse me." The princess, still standing on Bozo's back, finally looked down. "Oops! I'm very sorry, mister, I didn't see you there. Let me help you up." Moonshine stepped aside and offered Bozo her hand. "It's all right, I guess," moaned Bozo as he accepted the hand and pulled himself to his feet. He looked into Moonshine's face and blinked. "I'm sorry, is something the matter?" Princess Moonshine stared at him in a mixture of awe and shock. "DADDY?!" *********** It was a happy, speedo-clad group that made its way down the city walk. Odd, childish music played in the background, and the people could not help but bounce in time with it. Tallis grinned widely and looked at Varese. "It's such a happy happy day, wouldn't you say?" He singsang. "Yes indeed, I wonder what we'll do to-day," Varese replied. Schein popped up shouted, "I know! Let's ask Queen Uzume!" Schein pointed upwards and the camera swerved to include a giant, building-mounted television screen, upon which the bouncy, bikini-clad Queen proclaimed, "To the sea! The sea I say!" "Hooray, we'll obey!" shouted the generals. Abruptly, the music changed to a rapid, heavy metal beat as three fuku-wearing girls leapt into being before the beach-bound generals. Loud and horribly off-key Nana shrieked into the camera, "NO WAY! That's not how *I* want to play! Sailor Dischord shall win the day!" Nina grabbed a nearby trashcan and hurled it in Schein, Tallis, and Varese's general direction, but missed by a wide margin. "Your obedience is far too fun, and that I shall slay!" Sailor Strife rambled, losing her beat. Nona powerposed. "Check it out! We're sailor scouts of disobedience!" yelled Sailor Social Ostracization, not bothering to sing, rhyme, or maintain the beat of the music. The generals looked at one another. "Oh, foo! Whatever shall we do?" sang Tallis in a sad tone of voice. Schein pulled a yellow-pink ball from nowhere and tossed it at the loudmouthed intruders. "Send in the Youmabibble crew!" "Hah! Your silly tennis balls don't scaWHATTHEHELLIS*THAT*?!" cried Sailor Strife as the ewokish Youmabibbles emerged and began to slash at the three of them. Offstage, Pookie looked up from her clipboard at Uzume. "Do you think we should have told them that their magical girl equipment is composed entirely of fakes?" he asked. "Nah! It's more fun this way. Wai wai! Such realistic performances!" the Queen bounced as the Youmabibbles did righteously pound the villains. "We've got a script! Bring on that publicity concert!" yelled Marais gleefully as he made sure to get every detail of the battle on camera. *********** Battle-worn and weary of preadolescents wielding happy rays of doom, Sachiko dragged herself home. "Perhaps the circus wouldn't be so bad after all," she thought to herself in a sarcastic tone. "Even though my family is thoroughly weird, at least it's a weirdness I'm used to. No rabid marshmallow freaks running around here." She stepped through the front door, sat down, and removed her shoes. "Ka-san, tadaima!" "Okaeri, Sachiko-chan. We have a... guest." There was a pause. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" *********** The weather was fine in the underground tunnel, though that's probably not saying much. This state of fine weather had lasted for a long time and did not seem to be in any particular danger of ending soon. So had there been anyone standing in the tunnel at moment they would have been caught quite off-guard when what for all the world appeared to be an intense, miniaturized indoor hurricane suddenly exploded into being, spat out a fat brown rabbit, then collapsed on itself as quickly as it had appeared. The rabbit teetered around dizzily, then held its swollen stomach. "Ooh, that form of twavel makes my bewwy hurt. Are you okay, Pwince..." the bunny trailed off as it took in its surroundings. "Pwincess? Whewe awe you?" There was no response. "Weww, cwap. Shouwd I twy to find hew or wowk on my own?" it muttered to itself. Suddenly, the rabbit saw a light at the end of the tunnel and hopped towards it. "Aha! Maybe that's the way owt," it exclaimed. The light responded by tackling him. The last thing Tewwance thought before being reduced to jelly was, "Oh, it's a twain." *********** And lo, in the dungeons of Dark Queen Yasha's castle, the Vorpal Void Bunnies did rejoice. -=-=-=-=-=- AUTHOR'S EXCUSES: Okay, it's Done. I haven't slept since yesterday afternoon, but it's Done. No more procrastinating. The next time I sign up, I start work on day 2. That way, if I have a problem saving my chapter and have to rebuild it from scratch again, I will have time in which to do it. Princess Moonshine is drawn from Chapter 12 of H! Classic, which was also written by me. (Coincidence?) It would probably help to review it. Normally I would refrain from such a thing, but given the similarities between her backdrop (her father is a Clown King trying to conquer the universe by spreading Happy Daisies) and that of Senshi Muyo, the connection seemed obvious. Besides which, seeing as her counterpart in H! never did much and it's been almost four months waiting for the finale, I felt that she deserved another chance. It should be noted, however, that with both Tewwance and her teleport wand destroyed and Rei holding the keys to the different worlds, SM! is presumably safe from any further invasion from outside the universe. I hope. Nana, Nina and Nona are not magical girls, but they play some on TV. What's the deal with Rei's voice? Heck if I know, but it sounded like a cool idea at the time. 8-) Now get out there and SIGN UP! ********************************************************************* "Normal's what everyone else is that you're not." -- Soran, Star Trek Generations J.M. Steadman (Teyunde Sakurambo) jsteadma@gac.edu *********************************************************************