This, gentle reader, is Luchs. A dead world, on which man has come and gone; the ruins of a once-magnificent civilization dot its continents. While it lived, countries rose and fell; wars were won and lost; love was sought, in vain and in success. In its decline, as their world died around them, many of its people made attempts to preserve something of their culture, their history, even themselves. Their story concerns us not. This, gentle reader, was Luchs. A thriving world, on which people were born and died; the beginnings of what would one day be a magnificent civilization was spreading across two of its continents. The southern continent was home to the kingdom of Coneria; the northern, that known as Lefein. Between them, a great war was waged; for a century, the tides of battle turned with Fortune's wheel, favoring first one, now the other, in an epic saga of justice and iniquity, sacrifice and greed, honor and shame, of betrayals for love and love itself betrayed. That story concerns us not. This, gentle reader, is Lefein. A nonexistent land, its people have dwelt many thousands of years in the darkness between the worlds since their disappearance from Luchs; though the Mage-King Lukahn presumed his spell to have destroyed them, still they live, and still they are ruled by she who ruled then: Queen Garland. She doesn't really have much of a story, but she's got a few lines in this one. *** *** *** West Eastwood High Part 8 "It's like Do-Gooders without the apocalypses" by Aponar Kestrel original concept by Eslington *** *** *** Somewhere in western Eastwood is the Kisaru residence. There, in Hagira's basement laboratory (as opposed to his attic laboratory, his subspace laboratory, and a couple of others he occasionally forgot he had), just under one week ago, something exploded. Now those even remotely familiar with Eastwood should probably be able to deduce that, in and of itself, this was no major occurrence; after all, one might wonder rhetorically, when was the last time Kisaru Hagira built something that *didn't* explode? And, indeed, no one paid it any mind. --- Elsewhere, at the same time, something exploded in Kraken's laboratory. Where Kisaru Hagira might merely have shrugged off such an explosion as an unremarkable occurrence, Lady Kraken tended to take it as a personal affront that one of her devices would dare explode when she didn't want it to -- an unusual mindset for a scientist, but perfectly understandable considering that she'd been a relatively tyrannous aristocrat for the past twenty-one millennia, and a scientist for only the past six and a half. `Not that she shows it any other way,' Kary thought, chuckling to himself briefly as he flew down familiar non-Euclidean corridors lined with the equally familiar dizzying collection of virtually unidentifiable miscellany that Kraken had constructed over the past sixty-odd centuries. `She's changed in the last few millennia. Then again, so have the rest of us.' He grinned mentally. `Especially me.' Without warning, the corridor (and gravity) twisted back onto itself, opening onto a large spherical `crater', heavy with the smell of the explosion that had apparently just created it. Kary stopped at its edge. "Is anybody here?" "Come to have a laugh at my expense, Kary?" Kraken's voice called out from somewhere in the mass of twisted, molten junk that had presumably once been beeping, functional junk. A piece of paneling flew out from the side of the wreck, and a blue-haired head emerged. "Or are you just desperate for company?" Kary grinned as Kraken pulled herself out of the whatever-it-had-been. "Just to laugh." Kraken snorted disdainfully as she extracted herself and a particular piece of relatively undamaged machinery from the pile. "Of course. What else do you do nowadays?" She pulled from a nearby bag some sort of scanner and began running it along the length of the object she held. "You could at least make yourself useful. Wait, I know!" she exclaimed with false exuberance. "You could become a *farmer* and --" Whatever scathing insult she might have finished with died on her lips as a look of puzzlement overtook her features. Kary blinked, surprised. "And...?" Ignoring Kary for the moment, Kraken snapped her fingers twice. A pair of robots zoomed out of the surrounding hodge-podge of devices and hovered there before her, speaking in an odd, hollow voice. "Yes, Lady Kraken?" "Take this --" she gestured at the wreckage " -- to room L3. Prepare it for full analysis." As the robots began to haul the remains away, she turned to Kary. "*That* was one of the devices I had set up a long time ago to try to pierce the Barrier. It didn't work -- obviously -- but there was no reason it ought to have exploded, active or not." Kary shrugged. "So the Barrier tried to defend itself again. What of it?" Kraken shook her head, pulling something else out of her toolbag. "Not like that. That was *not* a reaction of the Barrier..." Kraken drifted off both figuratively and literally, presumably heading for room L3. Kary followed. "So what was it, then? One of your robots have a bad day that suddenly got worse?" Kraken did not deign to reply. *** *** *** "...hole in the continuum barrier, your Majesty." The Queen looked up at him sharply. Kary barely kept his shock and surprise from showing in his expression. "A `hole', Kary? The Barrier has been invulnerable to our greatest minds and most powerful mages for millennia! How could this hole have been created?" "We don't know, your Majesty," he replied, still not quite believing that the Queen was actually responding; he hadn't quite expected this report to be anything but a formality. "It just appeared with no warning; we didn't even realize what it was at first. It's too small to permit large-scale transit; two people at most, if they're slight of build." "I see. Have Tiamat select someone to be sent through. Perhaps we can find out how the hole was made, and reproduce it." She stopped before the door to her chambers, opening it. "In the meantime, see if the hole can be widened." "I shall do what I can," Kary replied, still dazed. She closed the door as Kary walked off, leaving him alone with his thoughts. `I shouldn't be this surprised. After all, if the Barrier's finally been pierced, anything can happen.' There was no way he could have known just how right he was. *** *** *** Kary flopped down on a cushion-chair in Kraken's laboratory near the half-constructed portal. "I wish the Queen would go back to the way she was." Kraken didn't even spare a glance in his direction. "That's odd. I could have sworn you were the one who said `If I ever see another fancy dress ball again, I shall kill all the attendees.'" Kary shot her an annoyed look. "Not *that* far back. I meant as she was last week. Although even a ball would be preferable to these damned daily status reports. As though there were anything to report." Kraken looked up from her work and shrugged. "I still think it's better than having her mope about depressed and indifferent. Not that you're one to talk about personality degradation." She gave something a vicious twist. "By the way, has Tiamat come up with any scouts who aren't morons?" "Yes, actually." He reached into the flap of his outfit and pulled out a piece of paper, which he glanced at before returning it to his pocket. "Sephirus and Nicolitus." "Ah. I trained them; they can't be that stupid." She paused for a moment, no doubt thinking over some tricky seventeen-dimensional topology problem, or perhaps wondering where she'd misplaced the miniwelder. "Although I can't imagine why they chose to work for her." Kary shrugged, sinking farther into the chair. "Better pay?" Kraken absently threw a wrench at his head; Kary absently dodged. *** *** *** Nicolitus took a deep breath to calm himself. "We are p-prepared, Lady Kraken," he said nervously. Kraken's deep blue eyes regarded him closely. "Remember. No more than a minute. We don't know what's on the other side; just go, look around, and come back." "Understood, Lady Kraken." Sephirus, on the other hand, was as giddy as a schoolboy, and it showed in his voice. He probably had a right to be, thought Kary: after all, he and Nicolitus would be the first Lefeinish in over twenty thousand years to leave Lefein. "Step up to the portal." As the two scouts readied themselves to take the final step into the gateway, Kraken pushed a button. A dazzling cascade of green lightning arced in strange pattens around and within the archway, stabilizing as a shimmering tracery along the arch itself. Sephirus and Nicolitus stepped through and vanished. Kraken continued to study the panel. "That's odd..." she muttered to herself. "Is something wrong with your device?" Tiamat asked disinterestedly. Kraken tapped a display with one finger. "No, I don't think so. I'm just getting some very strange readings here. I haven't a clue -- WHAT IN BLAZES?!" A strong wind began to blow from the portal as Kraken jumped away from the control panel just in time for Sipherus and Nicolitus to fly into it from out of the archway, taking it with them several meters until they smashed into the far wall. The portal then proceeded to belch forth a hideous maelstrom of something that was not quite light, crackled once more, and was still. The assembled Fiends stood mute for a full minute. It was Kary who finally broke the silence. "What happened?" Kraken was still in shock as she answered, "Someone sealed the pathway while the two were coming back. It ... it must have snapped, and what we saw -- what killed them -- was the recoil." Tiamat burst into a rage. "Are you saying you've just killed two of my best men *and* destroyed our only chance of ever getting back?!" "No!" Kraken shouted, and paused to calm herself. "No. The hole in the Barrier is as it was; it's the hole in space, which went through the hole in the Barrier, that was sealed. I can make another pathway." Lich spoke up for the first time. "I believe I should question Sephirus and Nicolitus. They may have learned something." Kary glared at him. "Let them stay dead, Lich." Tiamat intervened. "While I would normally concur with you, Kary, it is vital that we learn everything we can about our enemies." Clearly reluctant to concede the point, he grimaced, but acceded. Lich proceeded to gather up the former mages as Kary turned to Kraken. "Will we need to build another portal?" Kraken walked over to it, and after a few minutes' careful examination, pronounced the damage to the portal itself to be negligible. "The control panel, though --" she gestured to the bloody wreck, from which Lich had long since removed the corpse pieces and left "-- will need to be replaced completely. All in all, it should only take an hour or so to repair." "I am not looking forward to telling the Queen about this," Kary muttered. "Not at all." *** *** *** In a hole in the ground there lived a Fiend. It _was_ a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell: the latter no doubt came from the corpses which the former was wont to feast upon. Lich called it home. Having exchanged his usual brown robe for a black one with silver runes, he stood before a pentacle, within which were the remains of Sipherus and Nicolitus. He raised his hands, closed his eyes, and began to chant in a stentorian yet sing-song voice. "Bibit hera, bibit herus, bibit miles, bibit clerus, bibit ille, bibit illa, bibit servis cum ancilla..." Slowly, as the chant went on, Lich became aware of ... feelings. Emotions and simple concepts. [confusion recognition surprise rage despair]: the usual feelings on realizing one was dead. They were familiar enough. Then [shame irony amusement *memory]... `[irony]?' Lich wondered -- not in words, of course, merely the same simple feelings. He probed deeper. {Memory?} "[trepidation elation bravery-in-fear *sense-memory] {Sense-memory?} Lich's mind was suddenly flooded. [ -A naked, showering, nubile young girl about the age of 16. -"Kyaa!! Hentai!!" -"Ah, er, sorry, we didn't mean to..." -She raised her hand sharply and turned off the hot water valve: immediately, a man 7 feet in height and several hundred pounds in weight, all muscle. -Two giant fists sent at their heads. -Speeding through the void. -Unlight. ] Lich let the trance and chant fade as he pondered what he had just witnessed. While this could easily have been mere poor luck, somehow he thought not. The world beyond the hole could easily be full of people of such power... --- Tiamat paused before the recently-repaired gate, shining once again with green lightning. The world beyond was too dangerous to chance sending anyone less powerful through; she herself would have to scout it. She stepped through. The building under her feet was easily twice the height of the Palace; others, similar in nature, surrounded it. The sky was unfamiliar, though indeed, she thought ruefully, it had been so long since she had seen the stars in the night sky of Lefein that she could no longer recall any of its constellations, and the lights from the city below also overwhelmed many of the stars above. There was no time for stargazing, though. Slipping into a trance, she began to form an illusory demon, then another, then another, until a small army of mismatched demons stood on the rooftop before her. Suddenly, though of her will, one of the demons slammed its fist into the roof... ... which gave way, pieces of reinforced concrete rather violently turning what had been beneath it -- machinery, from the sound -- into junk. The `demons' went forth. --- Ichiiro ran out the door, yelling, "I'll be back, Mom!" --- Kraken walked into the control room and blanched. She walked over to the control panel -- off to the side, this time -- checked the logs, and began, slowly and deliberately, to curse Tiamat in every language she knew. --- Tiamat surveyed the destruction. The demons were concentrated in a small area about a kilometer in front of her; she saw no reason to give herself away by positioning them around her. The hideous menagerie of illusory forms she'd conjured were busy terrifying the populace and -- thanks to her telekinetic powers -- smashing holes in various structures. She frowned. It seemed the city was very well constructed to repel an attack; although the demons appeared to be doing a great deal of damage, from her viewpoint it was easy enough to tell that it was almost all minor or cosmetic. Suddenly, from a small building to the side, a number of figures emerged and began to do battle with her demons. Smirking, she decided to make it realistic, and began to remove demons which had seemed to receive a great deal of damage the two sides fought; the point was to see how strong they were, after all, although the answer in many cases appeared to be "very strong indeed". She heard a shout from above and behind her, breaking her concentration and destroying the mostly-illusory demons. She whirled about to see a small but powerful-looking mecha and a young girl on a broomstick come down from the sky. How had they found her so quickly?! The girl pointed at Tiamat accusingly and began to make a speech in her own language. Tiamat wasted no time listening and dove into the portal just as the mecha moved in an apparent belated attempt to intercept. There was a sudden rush of wind, and blackness. *** *** *** Tiamat awoke to the face of Death. "She's not dead, Lich," Kary called over to him from the patch of floor where he'd been pacing for the past hour, "inasmuch as I might wish she were. Leave her be." Lich, who had been standing over Tiamat when she opened her eyes, stood up. "I have no intention of practicing my art on Lady Tiamat at the moment," he replied matter-of-factly. "I am here in response to Lady Kraken's message." He gestured toward Tiamat, still in the process of awakening. "What happened?" "Oh, nothing much," Kary replied sarcastically, "just that this... *idiot* blew up the archway -- totally this time. She's lucky to be alive." "It gets better," Kraken called from the next room in much the same tone of voice. "Apparently," she continued, entering, "they detected _both_ holes this time. Congratulations, Tiamat; it'll take me years to punch through the seal -- assuming I can at all! What did you *do* during those two hours?" "I...," Tiamat started, unsteadily. "I was not... gone for two hours. Less... less than half an hour." "Don't try to confuse matters, Tiamat!" Kary snapped. "The logs show when you left and when you returned!" "It was no more than half an hour," she said firmly, and gave a quick description of what had occurred. "You WHAT?! You... you... Lich, please tell me you learned something heartening?" "They appeared in front of a naked young girl in a shower, who then became a very large man and punched them back through the portal," Lich said simply. "It took less than five seconds, which at least corroborates her time loss." "That... would explain a lot," Kraken said thoughtfully. She sat down, pulled out a small sheaf of paper, and began to write. "I don't believe this!" Kary screamed. "You -- *you*, of all people, Tiamat! -- start a *war* with another world, and destroy our only means of leaving this hellhole in the process!" Tiamat flinched. "Then we find out that a *single* *panicking* *shapeshifter* from this world defeated two of our strongest mages in less than five seconds -- so even if we *could* still travel, we'd be massacred! How do I explain *this* to the Queen?!" Kary slammed his fist into the wall and slumped to the floor in despair. "Why would Queen Garland begin to care about anything now?" asked Lich. Kary snorted halfheartedly. "Have you been living in a hole in the ground for the past week?" "Yes," Lich replied simply. "For the past two millennia, actually." Before Kary could find some other way to insult his habitual favorite target, Kraken interrupted. "I can make another hole." Kary whirled. "Explain." Kraken took a deep breath. "I could never figure out why the Barrier reflected --" Kary, sensing an imminent flow of technobabble, interrupted. "The short version, please." She glared, but continued. "Now that I know about the time dilation -- it's about five seconds here for one there, by the way -- a lot of questions I had no way of answering have been. I should be able to make a new one within a few weeks." Kary was silent for a moment. "I think I can save all our hides -- including yours, Tiamat. Excuse me while I go talk our way out of this. Kraken, start on it now." *** *** *** "Kary, report!" "My Queen... the two scouts I have sent have met resistance from the other side. It's as if the inhabitants expected them to appear there, and set up an ambush to deal with them immediately." `There. We can claim that they attacked first.' "Are there any information that the scouts have gathered during their short stay?" "Unfortunately none, Your Majesty... the two agents perished minutes after they returned." `Please don't ask about Lich, please don't ask about Lich...' "And what of the tear in the continuum?" Kary heaved a mental sigh of relief. "The hole has disappeared. Or rather, was closed from the other side." `No need to go into the details of why and when.' "Hmm... this is not good indeed." "I do have some good news, Your Highness. Through the combined efforts of Kraken and Tiamat," -- best not to mention Lich, he thought; the less said about the two agents, the better -- "they have managed to deduce the principle between the dimensional hole that appeared. We will be able to recreate the tear within the next few weeks at most." "That is good news. Have the other Fiends work on accelerating the process. There is no time to waste." "At once, Your Majesty." *** *** *** The Fiends sat in a makeshift conference room adjoining what had come to be called the Gate Room. Kary sat at the head of the table, with his own in his hands; the others waited patiently -- in Kraken's case, impatiently -- for Kary to continue. Finally, he looked up and stared at Tiamat. "Well, since this *was* technically your fault, do you have any other brilliant ideas?" Tiamat -- perhaps oblivious to the sarcasm, perhaps ignoring it -- nodded. "Since direct force has failed, we should try subterfuge. Send in a spy to gather information and pinpoint their weaknesses." Kary sighed in exasperation. "That would probably be another suicide mission for anyone less powerful than one of us." "Then one of us it should be," Lich interjected. "Tiamat or yourself, perhaps?" He shook his head. "Tiamat's been seen, and any illusion would eventually be revealed. I appear older than most of these people; no spy can be that noticeable and succeed. You yourself are even less believable, and *Kraken* --" here he paused, considering, for quite some time "-- Kraken's got the job. Congratulations." After a few minutes of moving her mouth, Kraken finally managed to speak. "You're doing this because I dumped you last millennium, aren't you?" "No, I'm doing it because I feel it to be necessary." He gave her one of his less pleasant grins. "That *is*, however, why I'm *enjoying* it." *** *** *** Author's One-liners They both said "Lady Kraken"... Is this the dub? "That's Little Kraken!" Author's Notes Well. This wasn't quite what I'd expected to write. Despite the title -- and yes, this would officially make me the idiot who put it in Do-Gooders mode -- it reads more like a serious fic with occasional comedy that a comic one with occasional seriousness. Heck, this has so little Eastwood-specific material I could probably have entered this as a starter in the next contest just by changing a few names and two or three minor events. Not good at all. ^^; Worse yet, in retrospect I seem to have modeled Lefein almost after Shaizaar. ^^;; It was completely unintentional, of course, but still... On the other hand, it does strike me as almost the complete inverse of my previous chapter, which I find highly amusing. It will also make sure *something* is done with these people, instead of turning them into a pathetic running gag that pops up every few episodes to be laughed at which now that I think of it wouldn't have been that bad an idea, would it? Oh well. I originally had a very detailed schedule noting precisely when everything happened, both in Lefein and in Eastwood, but I noticed part of the way through that both Parts 5 and 6 were set all day Thursday, thus rendering it pointless. Oh well. Most of you should probably have already realized that pieces of this were taken from previous parts, but credit where credit is due: The conversations between Kary and Queen Garland were taken -- with modifications external to the words spoken -- from Signus Megido's part (#6) and my own earlier one (#2). The "sense-memory" in Lich's scene was also heavily based on Ranma X's own description of events in his first part (#3); also, its last line of dialogue was used, slightly modified, in the "demonic invasion" scene. Apologies for the shortness of the chapter, especially with regards to several scenes which, due to time limitations, I had to imply rather than write. Then again, I'd say that if it were an order of magnitude larger; there would *always* be half a dozen things I'd have thought of that I wouldn't have had time to put in. Oh well. Comments of all sorts to aponar@orbitworld.net. Please. -- Aponar Kestrel "I made a complete hash of the only impro I wrote for and all I got was this lousy tagline." Bibliography: - http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff1/text/info/script.txt ... from which I confirmed that, yes, Lefeinish is both the word for the language and the people. (Not that I paid any attention to anything else therein....) - http://www.iit.edu/~nvchorus/carmina_lyrics.html This chapter mostly written while listening to "O Fortuna", which explains a few things, ne?