Last time, on Senshi Muyou: "Oh all right," grumped Whittington. "If you're so concerned about Uzume, then you stay here and on her case. I, on the other hand, am going to go find out if something's happening with Yuriko." He stood up and swished his tail. "She seems to like me, anyway. Some pathetic meowing and she should be taking me into her apartment in no time flat." "What have you two decided?" asked Kagi. "I'm staying here," said Carlisle. "Someone needs to keep an eye on Uzume. Whittington is going to go investigate Yuriko." At the window, Macavity grinned. And faded away. ###################################################### SENSHI MUYOU! Episode 24 - Why Don't You Call Me? This part by black dub Original concept by Mervyn the Wonder Slug, (c) 1999 Hosted by Indie Madnesse (http://indiemadnesse.sandwich.net) ###################################################### Fushin was worried. Now, if Fushin were a normal human being, he would not have seemed so. He just would have seemed unbearably dull. However, Fushin was no ordinary person. He wielded a magical paperclip that transformed him into an urban samurai. Not to mention his magical destiny. Fushin was still his dull self, and still worried about the fact that he had yet to fully quality check the latest batch of 9XR7 paperclips. Never mind the fact that he was on vacation. No, what was truly troubling him was much more important. After all, what was the use of worrying about an unfinished job if your place of employment no longer existed? After the rather *impressive* display that Yuriko had put on at the mall, Fushin had no doubt that she could negatively affect Amalgamated Amalgamation, Inc. Of course, the only outward sign of this worry was in the slight clenching of his eyebrows, which was imperceptible to the naked eye. If Yuriko were to go berserk at work, the entire company could be destroyed. Both literally, by way of her destructive sword skills, and economically, through the costs of repairing the inevitable damage that would result from a rampage. *Perhaps I should give some thought to returning to work,* Fushin thought. It *had* been a while since he had checked in, and Yamada-san might be worried. If Yamada-san had returned from *his* vacation, as well. *But first,* he thought. *I shall go home, and get a good night's rest.* ---+**+--- Carlisle walked into the bedroom of the cat's house and flopped down on the floor. "Whittington," she said. "Are you sure about this? If, and that's a very big 'if,' there is someone or something controlling Yuriko's thoughts, what happens if you get captured?" "Don't worry about it," said the grey ball of fluff known as Whittington. "I'll be in and out in a flash. At most, I'll just spend the night, and be out before sunrise. No danger at all." "Then why are you sharpening your claws?" Whittington paused. "Just in case. Anyways, I'm going for her on Monday. I'll be back in by Tuesday morning." ---+**+--- Rei sat in thought as she looked at her chessboard. The tiles spoke. =| How to properly play this piece? |= The far left-hand corner took its turn. =| Should I do it fast and loose, and possibly tip my hand? |= "Or should I remain subtle?" asked Rei herself. The ceiling spoke. =| There is only so much that subtlety can accomplish. |= "Indeed," spoke a cat. "Macavity," Rei said. "In the flesh! I was just thinking about you," said Macavity. "I said to myself, 'What would Rei do? Would she remain behind the scenes? Or would she go all out?'" The cat made a large show of grooming his paws before continuing. "You surprise me, Rei, if you are in fact thinking what I believe you are. I'm just here to warn you. I don't think it would be wise for you to interfere directly. I don't like when people disrupt my fun. The game is growing more and more sensitive." "I care not for your fun." "That doesn't matter. Something of a friend of mine will be stopping by sometime soon. Let him be. Allow him to sniff around, and then he will leave. You do not have to be discovered if you do not wish to be. In fact, it will be better if you are not discovered." "I will do as I please." "What's wrong? Usually you are in *so* much more of a gaming mood," jibed Macavity. "Worried? I sure hope you are." Rei would have responded, but Macavity had already disappeared. ---+**+--- Yuriko contemplated calling the agent Yamashita. A TV career would be *much* better than her current job. She could meet new people, make lots of money, conquer Russia... wait. Where had that thought come from? Yuriko looked around her room guiltily. She'd had thoughts like those increasingly often. It was vaguely troubling. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep at her desk. She dreamed of rebuilding the defunct British Empire, and uniting the world under one banner. The vase beside her chuckled quietly. If she had been awake, she would have heard the vase say "Macavity will get his." ---+**+--- "Wha-?" asked a newly awakened Yuriko. She looked around in shock. What had happened to her room? What had happened to her desk? The room she was in was perfectly *black*. No trace of light whatsoever. No depth perception, no *nothing*. It was mind-bending, to say the least. "Who are you?" she asked as she spun around searching for the source of the voice. "Wh-where are you? Answer me! Where am I?!" "What do you want?" "What?" Yuriko realized that she didn't have much of a choice. She mutely nodded her head. Yuriko smiled. ---+**+--- Macavity did not like this. The cat sat in his little pocket dimension, brooding. Plans were plans, and interference was not good. The game was slowly turning out of his immediate control, which was not A Good Thing. Then again, the incipient chaos was amusing. Things could be much more fun if he didn't know every move before it was made. It would turn the game into a much larger gamble, which might prove to be even more fun. But, the stakes... was it worth it? Of course. ---+**+--- Uzume was in heaven. Her plan to conquer the world through Happiness and Terror was progressing nicely, and the *profits* were progressing even better. At the moment, Uzume was calling her father to tell him about her accomplishments. Shiryo sat in the room watching his soap operas, and keeping an ear on Uzume's conversation. "Daddy?" asked Uzume. "Are you there?" Shiryo realized that he should have hooked up his new eavesdropping equipment. He could only hear half the conversation from here. "Oh." Uzume waited, apparently on hold. After about a minute of tapping her foot and idly playing with her hair, she straightened up. "Daddy!" she said. "How are you doing?" Pause. "Uh huh. Okay. Pretty well, Daddy. At first, there were these magical girls, and one magical *hunk* and they kept on interfering but I finally got them to stop and then someone tried to kill me I think but he just groped me so I smacked him and then Schein, my head general, took him and interrogated him but nothing happened then when I was at the mall all these kids showed up to see my show but then some weird lady with armor came and ruined it and then her and the hunk from before, the magical one? he came and fought with her for a long time and then I had another mall show and nothing went wrong and I made so much money and I'm *this* close to conquering the world and I'm so *happy*!" said Uzume as she did a series of Cheerful Bounces. Shiryo took a moment to parse this. Yeah, it sounded about right. "Yes, Daddy," said Uzume. "Yes, Daddy, I will. I'll talk to you later. Bye, Daddy!" After Uzume hung up the phone, she turned to Shiryo. "How did it go? What'd he say?" asked Shiryo. "Pretty good. He says that I should maybe speed up the whole world- conquering part, but I don't know if I have the money for it. Can I borrow an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bit?" Shiryo began sweating. ---+**+--- "Last chance to change your mind, Whittington," said Carlisle. It was pushing six a.m., and Whittington was planning to be at Amalgamated Amalgamation, Inc. by eight. "Not on your life, Carly-girl. I'm going to that office now, get picked up by Yuriko, check her house, and be out before she can say 'Meow.'" "Don't call me that. And it's not my life I'm worried about." "It'll be fine, trust me," said Whittington. "Thanks for the thought, though." "What have I told you about saying 'trust me'?" "Sorry," said a not very sorry Whittington. "What if Macavity or someone shows up? What will you do then?" Whittington had no smart comeback to that question. ---+**+--- Speak of the devil, and you shall hear the beat of his wings. Of course, for those devils without wings, you are out of luck. "Nadako-chan," said Macavity. "Wake up. We've got a job to do." "Hunh?" Nadako blearily wiped the sleep out of her eyes. "Whuzzat?" As he vision slowly cleared, she thought she saw Macavity appear out of thin air. "Oh! Mr. Kitty! What's going on? Do you know that it's almost... uh... that it's really late?" "Yes, of course, Nadako-chan," said the scheming cat. "But we have something very important to do. Your team needs you. They need their leader, just in case something bad happens. We wouldn't want them to be without a leader, right?" "Yeah, I guess you're right, Mr. Kitty." "Okay, let's get dressed and go on. You need to be at the team house before noon, okay?" "Okay, Mr. Kitty." ---+**+--- The next day, all seemed to be well. Carlisle escorted Whittington part of the way to Amalgamated Amalgamation, Inc., and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As she left, she urged him again to change his mind. "No," Whittington said. "I'm not changing my mind. Why do you keep on asking me this?" "I've," began Carlisle. "I've just got a bad feeling. That's all." "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine." With that, Whittington took his leave of his fellow mystical advisor. The rest of the trip was quiet, if a bit lonely. Finally, he reached Amalgamated Amalgamation Inc., just in time to see his target pull into the parking lot. Congratulating himself on his impeccable timing, he began doing the things that would most likely get him taken home by Yuriko. Grooming, stretching, and generally just being a cute cat. He kept an eye on Yuriko as she got closer, and began chasing a speck of dust, and waited to be picked up. The last thing he expected was for Yuriko to stride smoothly past him and into the building. "Damn," said Whittington. "What's going on? Usually she'd be all over me." "Whittington?" The cat jumped, had he blown his cover? Who knew his name? Whittington slowly turned around, and saw Fushin. Whittington let out a relieved sigh. "What are you doing here, Fushin?" "Working. I'm afraid that Yuriko might have a relapse, so I thought that I should come to safeguard against that." Fushin was nothing if not honest. "Oh. Well, you know what I am planning, right?" "Infiltrate her house, and find the source of her delusions?" "Er, yes. Technically. But, she didn't pick me up here like she was supposed to, so I may need your help in getting her." "Oh," said Fushin. "Shall we enter?" "Yes." Whittington crawled up Fushin's body and perched on top of his head. "Let's go." The first thing Fushin did was to go and see if Yamada-san, his immediate supervisor, was in today. Yamada-san's secretary said that he had not been in town for nearly two weeks. Fushin shrugged, and walked to his desk. Apparently, no one thought that it was weird that he was walking around with a cat on his head. However, Fushin was not going to complain. He went to his desk, sat down, and began working. Nearly ten boxes had come in during his absence, and all of them must be checked. Fushin got to work, as Whittington excused himself. Whittington immediately strolled to Yuriko's cubicle, and was unsurprised to see her working hard. He quickly searched for any trace of magic. There were still the very faint traces that he had detected on the sword, but nothing more. Now, he knew for sure that someone had possessed Yuriko. Now, he just needed to get inside her house and investigate. He walked up to her desk, jumped up, and began stretching and calling attention to himself. Yuriko didn't even notice. While she was sorting out some papers, Whittington walked directly into her field of vision. He looked directly into her eyes, and meowed. Her eyes seemed to unfocus for a moment, and then snapped back into place. "Hello, kitty-kitty!" she exclaimed. "How are you? I haven't seen you in ages!" Yuriko petted Whittington softly. "I thought you were living with Fushin?" Whittington just meowed again and moved to sit on her lap. "Okay, Kitty," she said. "That's fine. But, you have to be quiet. We don't want the boss finding you, do we? Maybe you can go home with me tonight, hmmm?" *Bingo,* thought Whittington. Whittington left Yuriko's desk to inform Fushin that the plan was on track. Fushin, on the other hand, had been walking by Yuriko's office every fifteen minutes to be sure that Yuriko had not gone into a murderous berserker rage. Whittington and Fushin missed each other by a matter of minutes. Fushin finally entered her cubicle. "Hi," he said. "Hi, Fushin! How are you?" she responded. "Oh, I'm fine. And you?" "Good, very good," she said. "I've got an idea." "What might that be?" asked Fushin, a trifle uncertainly. The thought that she might transform and attempt to skewer him like so much meat (again) briefly crossed his mind. "Why don't you come to dinner at my house? We can make it a date!" Fushin was speechless. A date? Fushin had never noticed that Yuriko had any interest in him beyond that of co-worker and possible victim. It was a shock, to say the least. "Er," he managed. "I... that sounds good. What, er..." "What time should you arrive?" finished Yuriko. "How about at eight?" "Uh, Okay." "Thanks, Fushin! I'll talk to you later, okay?" "Okay. Bye, Yuriko." As Fushin took his leave of Yuriko, he narrowly avoided stepping on Whittington, who had finally returned to Yuriko's office. *Fushin looks confused,* thought Whittington. *But, I don't sense any magic on him... well. He's not possessed, so it shouldn't matter. Maybe." Whittington returned to his position on Yuriko's lap and began to rest. "I'll just tell him that I'm in later. It'll be okay." Yuriko finished work at four, and quickly packed up her things and left the office. On the way out, she reminded Fushin of their date, reminding him not to be late. Yuriko and Whittington walked out to her car, and went directly to her apartment. Once inside, Yuriko dropped her stuff off in the bedroom as Whittington stretched near the door. The cat waited until she was gone before he dashed into her living room. "Now, I only have a little bit of time," he said. "Gotta move fast." Whittington extended his magic-sensing abilities as far as he could, and found only faint traces of magic. He walked around the room, searching for the strongest concentration of the magic. He found it, in the form of a vase sitting on Yuriko's desk. "That's different," he said. "Could it be a Jinn? Nah, they aren't alive... but they *can* do magic..." Whittington jumped onto the desk to get a closer look at his target. He sniffed the air, and scanned it more closely. "What is this?" He had just reached out a paw to touch the vase, when there was a horribly loud shriek in his ears, a flash of light, and then everything went black. ---+**+--- Whittington awoke to the sound of Carlisle crying. "Whittington?" she said between her sobs. "Whittington, wake up! Please!" Whittington shook his head and said, "I'm awake. What happened?" He had a horrible headache, and his entire left side hurt. "There was an explosion at Yuriko's apartment," said the female cat. "Yuriko and Fushin... they died. We weren't sure that you were going to make it." "They *died*?!" "Yes. It seems like a gas pipe blew up right inside her bedroom, and you were blown out of her apartment from the blast." Whittington wracked his brain trying to remember exactly what happened. Was Fushin at the house? He couldn't remember. Why couldn't he remember? What had happened? "I can't believe it," he said. "It's true, Fushin," said Carlisle. "I have some more bad news, also." "What?" "I've decided to stop being a mystical advisor." "What?!" "Macavity made me an offer I couldn't refuse," said Carlisle. Macavity phased into reality beside her. "I think life would be better for me with him, instead of trying to save the world." Carlisle looked down at the ground. "So, I guess this is goodbye." Carlisle and Macavity both faded from sight, with the only remains being the hollow echo of Macavity's laugh. Whittington was crushed. He sunk down onto the checkerboard floor... wait. Checkerboard floor? *Where am I?* he thought as he pushed his despair to the side. He looked around the room. The entire floor was designed in the checkerboard pattern, and there were quite a few vaguely familiar pieces arranged on the floor. Whittington himself was seated next to a tall knight. The most amazing feature of the room, however, was the monstrous throne directly across from him. The throne was empty, and that bothered Whittington for some reason. He opened his senses to magic, and was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer *amount* of magic surrounding him. He'd never felt this much before. He quickly closed himself off from it, and began using his natural senses. "Who said that?" he asked. He spun around looking for the voice. "Where are you?" "What? What are you talking about?" "Who are you?!" "No!" screamed Whittington as he felt a tremendous force pulling at him. It seemed to pull him every direction and no direction, all at the same time. He felt the same force lessen as something probed into his mind. Whittington guessed what was happening immediately. Mind control. The most sinister form. Forced mind control, which almost always involved a lot of pain, and total deprivation of self. As the power kicked up a notch, Whittington screamed. ---+**+--- Whittington awoke. He vaguely remembered having a highly traumatic dream, but the details escaped him. He shrugged it off and looked around him. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Fushin sitting beside Yuriko at the dinner table. When had Fushin arrived? Whittington ambled over, sat on Fushin's shoulder, and began whispering quietly enough that only Fushin could hear. "I couldn't find anything," said the cat. Fushin nodded once and continued eating. "I think I will leave with you tonight. This place creeps me out, and I need to leave." Whittington left his shoulder, and left Fushin alone with Yuriko. Whittington curled up beside the front door and slept. He only awoke when Fushin was headed out of the door, and Whittington left before Yuriko could say a word. Inside Fushin's car, Whittington told him to go to their headquarters, and then slept. Back at Yuriko's house, Rei smiled. ---+**+--- Tune in next time to see Macavity profess his undying love for Carlisle! Or not. ===Author's Notes=== Difficult as fox. My Muse deserted me, and I had to beg for her to return to me on Saturday night. She almost didn't, she said she had a 'hot date.' Feh. My apologies for the sheer *seriousness* of this chapter. Also, the next to last portion was a dream. Fushin and Yuriko are not dead. It was simply a way for Yuriko to break Whittington down. Muchas gracias a Reader in I. F. F. for the offer to preread. Of course, since I'm a complete dunce, I sent it to him about 10 hours before my deadline, but he still got read done in time. YOU DA MAN! peace, black.dub//david.brothers