[Ranma][Fanfic] Adulthood of a Modern Dynasty - Chapter 11 - The Black
Wars "A Child's Pain, A Mother's Pain, A Wife's Pain"
=======================================================================
Adulthood of a Modern Dynasty
Chapter 11 - The Black Wars "A Child's Pain, A Mother's Pain, A Wife's
Pain"

Ranma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by Rumiko
Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permission

Adulthood of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, and
copyright 2000-2001 by Jim Lazar

An ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime.
For maximum enjoyment of this fanfic series, please read my Childhood of
Modern Dynasty series before reading Adulthood.

E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: jim [at] animeprime.com

Make sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website for
all released AMD stories, graphics files, and other information:
http://www.animeprime.com/ff/md
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Yet more violent and bloody events unfold in this chapter. And a few
choice curse words uttered in the heat of the moment.
=======================================================================
June 2, 2009 - Nerima, Japan
(Black Wars Day 34)


     A child's pain...

     "The Mexico monolith just exploded!" Ukyo exclaimed as she rushed
into Daiji's room.

     Akane sat on the bed cradling her trembling daughter in her arms.
"I know... Daiji just felt it."

     Ukyo frowned. "Oh... well, at least we know Ranma and Ranko are
still fighting inside."

     Akane nodded. "I know, but I wish they had more Amazons with them.
I don't know if they can blow three hearts by themselves."

     Ukyo sat down next to Akane and wrapped her arms around her friend,
and in turn around Daiji. "They've done two already, as long as they can
get out of the hearts before they blow..."

     "I know all that!!" Akane snapped, then flinched at hearing her own
voice. "I'm sorry." She stroked Daiji's hair.

     "No, I know the feeling. " Ukyo looked away towards the west.
Towards Africa. "The only thing that keeps me going is the reports that
the front line in Africa keeps shrinking back to where the Fourth
Monolith must have been." She clutched her chest. "I can imagine Sanma
valiantly going into battle, his head held high..." She paused when she
thought she heard a cat.

     "I shouldn't have held Ranma and Ranko back." Akane looked out the
nearby window. "Almost a month since they entered the Moscow monolith
and we still..."

     The repeated sounding of a gong, which was quickly followed by her
cell phone ringing, interrupted Akane.

     "Yes?" Akane said as she answered the call. A second later, her
worst fears were confirmed and her face grew pale. "How many?" This time
her jaw dropped out of surprise at the response she received. "Just
one?" After hearing of the thousands--and most likely millions--of
Buyierfei elsewhere in the world, she had expected a slightly higher
number when the long overdue attack on the Compound occurred. Certainly
more than one.

     But all Buyierfei are not born equal. In fact, few Buyierfei are
'born' in the human sense of the word.

     A flash of light caught Akane's eye and she looked out the window
again. "Shit..."

     Ukyo followed her gaze and saw the single glowing Buyierfei that
was approaching the front gate. In the late afternoon dusk, it was
impossible to miss. "I'll get the kids..."

     Akane nodded, then issued instructions into her phone. "Hold it off
as long as possible, Nipplering. We'll get the kids out." She listened
to the phone and then said one more thing before hanging up. "And don't
let it touch anyone!!"

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Easier said than done.

     The Amazon shuddered as the glowing tentacle sliced through her
neck. Gasping for breath in vain, she clutched her neck and dropped to
the ground. Even as she tried to staunch the flow of blood, she felt her
body begin to dissolve from the inside out while the Buyierfei slid over
her. She screamed, but only for the split second her lungs and vocal
cords remained solid.

     The glowing Buyierfei shuffled forwards, not even pausing at the
pile of black dust that was its most recent victim. Its targets were in
the traditional Japanese house located in the center of the Compound,
anything that got in its way was incidental.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Deeod thrust her long pike forward, trying to hit the glowing skin
of the Buyierfei without being touched by one of the flailing tentacles.
Although 'flailing' wasn't exactly the right word, since it made it seem
like the tentacles were waving around randomly, when they were in fact
moving in precise patterns--even more accurately than normal
Buyierfei--that were meant to make contact with its attackers. Only the
skillful movements of the Amazons allowed them to avoid the golden touch
of the Buyierfei. The touch of death.

     About a dozen Amazons--including Deeod--hopped and danced around
the maximum range of the Buyierfei's tentacles, each brandishing a long
pike in an effort to kill the enemy without getting close enough to be
touched by the deadly glowing tentacles. They had all seen enough
footage from Moscow to know that close combat sword fighting wasn't
going to work with this particular Buyierfei.

     An Amazon does not see a fellow Amazon die without learning to
avoid the same fate. To do so would be to dishonor the fallen warrior's
sacrifice for the tribe.

     Other Amazons fired arrow after arrow, dagger after dagger, and
spear after spear into the Buyierfei, but while the projectiles did
pierce the creature's glowing skin, they soon disintegrated and the
wounds they had caused quickly healed.

     Deeod smiled as her pike sliced about a meter off one of the
Buyierfei's tentacles. Hopping out of the range of the other tentacles,
she saw the severed tentacle start to burn through the pavement in front
of the Compound. "Ha!!" Emboldened by her successful attack, she jumped
in closer to the glowing creature and slashed down and to the side like
her mother had always taught her would gut a person the best. Amazon
bedtime tales tended to be more practical than most bedtime stories.

     Unfortunately, what works to gut a human, doesn't always work to
gut a Buyierfei, whose insides are arranged quite differently than a
human's.

     Deeod's pike swung wide and she rolled to the side to avoid a
tentacle. Unfortunately, she was just a bit too close and the glowing
tentacle scrapped across her breastplate. She gasped and stumbled as her
armor started to burn. Trying to get out of range of the Buyierfei, she
looked up and saw it bearing down on her, sensing she was to be its next
kill of the day.

     Two tentacles thrust down and impaled the ground where Deeod had
just been. Momentarily distracted by the absence of its intended victim,
the creature screeched when another Amazon behind it landed a blow with
a multi-bladed pike. The blades cut deep into its central mass and then
upwards, slicing an entire tentacle off in the process. The Buyierfei
twirled around and waved its tentacles all around and forced all of the
Amazons attacking it to back off slightly. Seemingly forgetting about
its immediate attackers, it continued towards its primary target. That
being the small house that sat in the middle of the Compound.

     Meanwhile, Deeod tumbled across the ground after she was violently
pushed out of the tentacle's way. Before she could even figure out what
happened, she felt her armor ripped from her body, revealing her combat
bra under her torn chain mail undershirt. She opened her eyes and saw
her rescuer. A smile crossed her face. "It's not the time for this,
Honey."

     Rant smiled back at her wife. "Glad I made it back here in time,"
she said as she helped Deeod up.

     Deeod glanced at the Buyierfei, who had moved away from the two of
them "Give me your armor, then go get our babies out of here with the
others."

     "We should keep our family together."

     Deeod looked torn between the love she had for her family and her
duties as an Amazon warrior. "I want to, but I have to fight the
Blackness."

     Rant fingered the armor she wore and came to a decision. "No,
that'll take too long. You go get our babies out. I'll fight here."

     Deeod opened her mouth to argue, but then saw the determined look
on her wife's face. They'd had this fight many times before, Deeod being
the better fighter was a thorn in their otherwise happy marriage. "If
you think that's best..."

     Rant smiled, as if buoyed by her wife's trust in her. "Thank you.
Take good care of Salt and Pepper."

     "You be careful against that thing, it's not a normal Buyierfei."

     Both women kissed their fingers and pressed them to their
foreheads. "I will fight honorably."

     Deeod turned to slip past the slow moving battle and into the
Compound to evacuate their kids, but paused. "Rant..."

     Rant hefted her pike in her hands and looked back at Deeod. "Yes?"

     Deeod flung herself into her wife's arms and gave her a long kiss,
just barely avoiding the blade of the pike. The kiss ended without a
word; Deeod heading towards the house they lived in to collect their two
babies, Rant joining the battle against the golden Buyierfei. Each
hoping they'd see the other again.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     As the battle raged outside, Akane hurried down the stairs carrying
Daiji tightly in her arms. Rushing into the family room, she saw that
the rest of her kids were there. They all looked a little confused, not
to mention scared. Yohachi held Rar protectively in his short arms,
trying to keep a hold of the squirming youngster. Yohachi looked a bit
confused and anxious, but visibly relaxed when he saw Daiji in his
mother's arms. Ayami had her arms wrapped tightly around Moyashi's
chest, almost keeping him from breathing.

     Dr. Tofu stood nearby holding his four-year-old girls' hands
tightly. Ukyo and a squad of Amazons where herding the Six-pack from the
direction of Soun and Hinako's room. Hinako, her young son, and
Crybaby--the family dog--were in the corner next to Soun, who was
lifting one of the floor mats up.

     "Where's Kasumi and the Amazon kids?" Akane asked, looking around
and counting her loved ones.

     Dr. Tofu looked at Akane. "Kasumi's still at the hospital and Deeod
is on her way with her kids along with..."

     Dr. Tofu was interrupted by a loud curse from Soun. "Dammit... the
tunnel's sealed!!"

     Akane's eyes went wide. "What?!" she shouted back in disbelief.

     One of the Amazons swore. "Lewinski." She looked at Akane. "Leader,
Nipplering had that sealed on the Matriarch's orders after the kids used
it to escape."

     Akane swore worse than Ranma ever had and looked at the pile of
concrete blocks that had been dumped into the escape tunnel to prevent
the kids from using it.

     Unfortunately, it also kept them from using it now to escape the
Buyierfei.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     The Amazons flung themselves away as a large black chi ball emerged
from the glowing Buyierfei's central mass and vaporized a large portion
of the main gates.

     Nipplering screamed into her two-way radio. "The front gate is
breached!! Prepare the internal defense line and barricade!"

     As the swarm of Amazons surrounding the glowing Buyierfei entered
through the hole where the main gate used to be, the Amazons in the
inner attack zone jumped away from the Buyierfei.  The glowing creature
flinched at the sudden disappearance of half of its attackers and spun
around, flailing its tentacles around in anticipation of an attack.

     It should have looked up, instead of around. Hundreds of concrete
blocks--which were left over rubble from the frequent repairs to the
dojo--rained down from above it, thrown by Amazons lining the upper
walkway that ran along the top of the fence.

     As the Buyierfei was buried, Nipplering barked out an order. "That
won't last long, light it up!!"

     At her shouted order, Amazons rushed into the area and piled wood
onto the concrete rubble. Some of the Amazons poured gasoline around the
edges, while others threw balloons filled with gasoline into the middle.
The balloons all bore the Japanese characters for 'happy birthday'
across their surface, having been intended for the fourth birthday party
of Ukyo's six kids. That party had taken place, but under less than
joyous circumstances and without their father. It was just one attempt
to keep the kids occupied and entertained while the world burned around
them.

     That fire was now at their front door.

     When the woodpile was completed, it formed a ring around the buried
Buyierfei more than ten-meters wide and several meters tall.

     The Amazons all backed off when black fire appeared between the
cracks of the concrete pile. Suddenly, the concrete blocks were blown
apart and showered the area with small bits of concrete.

     "Moko Takabisha!!" Nipplering called out and sent a chi ball flying
from her hands and into the pile of wood. Several other Amazons around
the circle of wood did likewise, igniting the bonfire. Or
Buyierfei-fire, if you wish.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Near the Compound's northwest corner, Akane jumped to the catwalk
running along the back fence with Daiji held tightly in her motherly
embrace. She looked down at the rest of her friends and family. "Okay.
Let's get the kids up and out of here fast." A huge fireball suddenly
ballooned into the air from the direction of the main gate. "Real
fast..."

     The small group started to leap onto the steel catwalk or climb the
ladders that ran up to it. Akane scanned the eight-meter high fence
below her, which had only been about three meters tall before the
Buyierfei returned. Needless to say, the Amazons had been very busy for
the last month. She gulped as she saw the long spikes protruding at
every conceivable angle from the other side of the fence. Real busy.
"We're going to have to jump away from the fence and brace ourselves for
the long drop," she yelled out so everyone could hear her. She knew she
could handle it, but wasn't sure about some of the others.

     "We'll be okay," Soun said softly, as if he knew what Akane was
thinking. He tightened his grip on Crybaby's leash and glanced at Hinako
and their son.

     "We should..." Akane started to say, but trailed off when something
caught her eye. It wasn't anything in particular she saw, but a familiar
sight nonetheless. "Oh.... no..." Keeping her tight hold on Daiji with
her left arm, she reached out with her right, pointing it at the ground
below. "Moko Takabisha-Rapid Fire!!" A couple dozen small chi balls
flashed from her cupped hand and washed across the pavement below. In
addition to blasting several small craters in the roadway, at least two
familiar black forms appeared as they were blown apart. "Buyierfei
below!!" she yelled and sent another stream of chi balls into the
darkening streets below.

     Ukyo jumped up onto the catwalk by Akane's side, tightly clutching
her twin girls in her arms. "They were waiting for us to make a break
for it," she commented softly.

     Akane nodded and looked at the Amazons lining the top of the fence.
"If they attack, hold the fence as long as possible!" She jumped down to
the inner yard, closely followed by Ukyo and the other people who had
already made it up onto the fence. She turned towards Deeod. "We'll
barricade ourselves in one of the Amazons' houses. Concrete walls in all
of them, right?"

     Deeod looked to the east. "Yes, we built them very strong in order
to stand up against Kenage. I suggest we split the children up into two
groups and use two houses. It will be easier to defend smaller groups in
the confines of a house."

     Akane took a deep breath. "Lets go."

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Earlier, the glowing Buyierfei moved through the flames radiating
from the burning wood. The flames flickered across its skin, but did not
burn the glowing flesh.

     "Lewinsky!!" Nipplering spat as their opponent appeared from the
flames. She glanced to her side. "The flames aren't stopping it! Keep up
the hit and run and the long range attacks!"

     Rant, Nipplering, and a half dozen other Amazons started to swarm
around the glowing creature just out the reach of its tentacles.
Poleaxes, pikes, and other weapons on long poles were used to strike at
the creature from afar. Again, other Amazons shot arrows and spears at
the creature as it moved off towards the northwest.

     After about fifteen minutes of the slow moving combat, the
Buyierfei was showing signs of the battle, but not of slowing down from
its slow but steady pace. Slashes in its hide healed quickly and several
of its tentacles were missing their ends due to the Amazons' attacks,
but even the two completely missing tentacles had small buds starting to
grow back. It was becoming obvious to the Amazons that they had a
problem. How could they kill something they had trouble even getting
close enough to attack when it could heal what wounds they did manage to
inflict?

     A green haired Amazon dove in with her pike outstretched, lopping
off another tentacle. Unexpectedly, the Buyierfei shifted and moved off
in her direction. Doing a back flip, she spun out of the way, but missed
seeing the tree she crashed into. Dazed, she crumpled to the ground and
screamed as the Buyierfei casually shuffled over her, its golden touch
of death quickly ending the honorable warrior's screams.

     Nipplering adjusted her latest run and scored a deep hit through
the glowing skin of her opponent, only having time to grimace as one of
her proud warriors dissolved. The time for honoring the dead was after
the battle was won, not during.

     Rant followed Nipplering's attack with a wide sweep of her
double-sided poleaxe, which had replaced her original pike that had
melted after she had managed to lodge it in the creature's glowing hide.
Unfortunately, much like the former owner of the double-sided poleaxe,
that pike had seen its last battle.

     After getting out of range of the tentacles after her latest
attack, Nipplering looked around the battlefield, which used to be a
pleasant lawn. Now it was a mass of upturned dirt and rubble.  She
frowned and reached for her digital two-way radio. "Leader?"

     "Yes, Nipplering?" Akane's voice answered back.

     "Where are you and the kids?"

     "We're barricading ourselves in Rant's house, there are Buyierfei
all around the fence waiting for us to try and escape."

     Nipplering frowned. "Were you just in the northwest corner of the
Compound?"

     "Yes, why?"

     Nipplering took a deep breath as he suspicions were confirmed.
"This glowing Buyierfei can sense where your group is. It started on a
beeline for your house, then started moving towards the northwest and
now it's headed towards the northeast."

     "Shit.... um... hold on... I'm going to try something and see if
the Buyierfei changes direction again."

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     With Daiji in her arms, Akane ran towards the western wall of the
compound leaving the rest of her group in the house except for Deeod,
who stuck close to her. "Nipplering, did anything happen?"

     "Yes, it's headed west again," was Nipplering's response via the
radio.

     "I thought so..." Akane exchanged a glance with Deeod and then
spoke into the radio. "It's after me or Daiji." She paused and then
amended her comment. "Probably both." She looked around and then
directly at Deeod. "Go back and protect my family... and yours."

     Deeod nodded, but hesitated. "What are you going to do?"

     Akane scanned the deceptively peaceful area behind the dojo. "I'm
going to keep one step ahead of that thing."

     Deeod frowned. "Akane... you should keep your family together," she
said, being unusually personal in the heat of battle.

     "No..." Akane shook her head and looked towards the glow of the
fire that burned near the main gate. "Alone, I can keep it away from you
all and I can move faster than it." She looked down at the sleeping
child in her arms. "I can't protect Daiji if I'm worried about all of
you being in the line of fire and I can't protect everyone myself," she
insisted, ignoring the fact that she was trying to protect everyone by
keeping the glowing Buyierfei away from them.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Akane leapt over the top of the glowing Buyierfei, twisting in mid
air to avoid the tentacles of the creature. "Nipplering!" she shouted as
she landed and took off running. "Protect the Compound and my family,
I'll keep this thing occupied!" Still holding Daiji in her arms, she
raced through the hole where the main gate used to be.

     "Leader?" Nipplering gasped and jumped out of the way of the
spinning tentacles of the Buyierfei, which had turned suddenly.

     "I'm going to lead it away from the Compound, don't try to follow
me! " Akane shouted as she disappeared to the south, closely followed by
the glowing son of Shuma.

     Nipplering made to follow, but stopped since she was never one to
disobey orders. She looked at her other warriors. "Let's get started on
barricading the broken gate before the other Buyierfei decide to
attack!" Before joining her warriors in restoring the front gate's
defenses, she looked at Rant and exchanged an uneasy glance with the
other warrior.

     Both warriors' faces betrayed the concern they felt inside for
Akane and Daiji.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

Inside the heart of the Buyierfei monolith


     Blood poured out of Ranma's scalp where Shuma had just backhanded
him with a savage blow. "Bastard," he spat, lashing out with a kick and
jab to Shuma's back.

     Shuma grunted from the force of Ranma's blows, but still held his
foot over Ranko's throat.

     Ranko could only gasp for the occasional breath as she grabbed
desperately at the leg that threatened to end her life.

     Elsewhere, Hairwax jumped away from the glowing Buyierfei while
holding an unconscious Russian in her arms. She'd complain about him not
helping her in his current condition, except that she was the one who
had rendered him unconscious with the hilt of her sword in a mistimed
attack on the Buyierfei. Since Amazons were not the kind to leave
innocent males in the line of fire, she had quickly strapped him to her
chest and continued the fight against her glowing opponent.
Unfortunately, the only thing she'd been able to do so far is keep it
occupied, slash the occasional tentacles aimed at them, and keep one
tentacle-length in front of it while Ranma and Ranko tried to defeat
Shuma.

     The fact that the four of them were still alive showed that they
hadn't lost the battle yet.

     They hadn't won it either, of course.

     Ranma finally managed to dislodge Shuma's foot from it position
over Ranko's throat by shoving a large chi ball into the small of
Shuma's back, but he paid for his victory by being knocked savagely
across the floor by a wave of energy projected by Shuma. "Gaaaaaaaaa..."
Ranma gasped. He'd been hit with that attack in ninety-nine and had
never wanted to feel the sensation again. It was like a million tiny
needles poking each and every nerve in his body at exactly the same
moment.

     It hurt like hell, in other words.

     Ranko wasn't in the position to feel sorry for Ranma's pain, she
was too busy throwing up blood from her crouched position and enjoying
the sensation of breathing once again. She raised her head slowly and
saw Shuma tossing black chi balls at Ranma, who was keeping one jump
ahead of them. Wiping the blood off her face, she jumped at Shuma.
Springing off her hands, she landed both feet in the center of Shuma's
back.

     Caught with his back toward Ranko, Shuma grunted and crashed to the
ground. He tried to rise, but Ranko and Ranma quickly took advantage of
his prone position and kept him from getting up with a series of punches
and kicks. Not to mention the occasional chi blast.

     After almost a minute of this savage beating, black blood emerged
from Shuma's mouth. Almost immediately, a loud screech was heard.

     The creature that had just emitted that screech stopped its
attempts to spear Earwax and Leonid with its very deadly tentacles and
spun towards its father on the other side of the pulsating crystal
heart.

     Leonid chose that moment to awaken in the middle of Hairwax's
bosom. "Huh?"

     "Awake, male?" Hairwax said, not that Leonid could understand her.
She started to unstrap him even as she shouted to Ranma and Ranko. "Look
out!!"

     "Thank..." was all Leonid was able say before Hairwax took off
towards the fleeing Buyierfei. He looked around and wondered what he
should do to help. No, what he COULD do to help. The throbbing of his
bloody stump reminded him he was useless.

     Ranma and Ranko had heard Hairwax's shout just in time and
backflipped out of the way of the rampaging son of Shuma, which quickly
surrounded its father with its body and tentacles.

     "Blow the heart!!" Hairwax shouted even as Ranma and Ranko started
to pelt Shuma and his glowing son with chi blasts.

     "But..." Ranma started to protest, but he saw what Hairwax was
planning. He didn't like it, but he knew they couldn't keep up their
current fight for much longer. He started to back away, but kept his
blasts going. "I'm fire."

     Ranko reluctantly followed suit and headed toward the other side of
the heart, keeping the glowing Buyierfei at bay by firing the occasional
blasts at it.

     Hairwax started to run towards the father and son, but fell flat on
her face when Leonid tripped her. She looked up at the Russian with a
look that told him that she was sorry she saved him earlier.

     Leonid gulped and waved his hand in front of him. Wishing he could
explain himself first, he started to undo her armor.

     "It's not the time for that, male!" Hairwax shouted and twisted
away from him. Unfortunately, his hand slid under her breastplate and
landed on what the breastplate protected. She swore and hit him away
from her breasts. But the damage had been done and when the large Amazon
stood up, her breastplate fell off. She snarled when her ample bosoms
were revealed through her torn chain-mail shirt.

     Not wanting to be near the angry Amazon, Leonid grabbed the
breastplate and held it in front of him and faced the glowing Buyierfei.

     Recognition dawned on Hairwax's face. "Not bad for a male." She
rushed forward and grabbed Leonid's arm before he started to run toward
his target. "But this is a job for a warrior." She grabbed the
breastplate from the Russian and the pushed him behind her.

     Leonid protested and gestured at his stump.

     Hairwax grinned. "Even a male has his worth, my husband," she said,
then leaned down and kissed the much smaller man. "You will live to tell
this story." With that, she tossed the Russian away from her. "But I
will not."

     Without delay, Hairwax ran at the golden Buyierfei with her
breastplate thrust out in front of her as a battering ram. She didn't
know if it would save her from the deadly touch of Shuma's son, but knew
it might give her a chance to keep the father and son from interrupting
Ranma and Ranko's very important work.

     In fact, Shuma had just managed to get to his feet and was forming
a black chi ball between his hands. "I won't let you blow this portal's
heart, you interfering fools!"

     Ranma and Ranko were both in the process of channeling pillars of
hot and cold chi respectively into the crystal center when Hairwax hit
the glowing skin of Shuma's son with her breastplate. The force of her
blow sent the glowing Buyierfei crashing against Shuma. The black chi
ball flew from his hands and missed hitting Ranma by a hair.

     Several hairs, actually. Ranma could only hope that it was just a
few strands of hair that he smelt burning, since he couldn't divert his
attention from the vortex he was forming.

     Hairwax thrust out with her breastplate again, trying to ignore the
melting edges. Pushing with all her might she knew she had to keep the
Buyierfei occupied, lest Ranma and Ranko be prevented from blowing the
heart.

     She closed her eyes when the glow reached her hand, hoping she had
given the others enough time to blow the heart.

     Instead of the death she expected to quickly follow, she found the
remains of her breastplate kicked out of her hand. Her eyes shot open in
time to see Leonid's kick to the center of the breastplate send the
glowing Buyierfei and Shuma tumbling toward the crystal center, where
they ended up being caught in the powerful vortexes Ranma and Ranko were
generating.

     Leonid started to hop around, waving his glowing boot in the air.

     Hairwax rolled to the side and lashed out with her sword.

     Leonid's boot fell to the ground in the two pieces Hairwax's swing
had cut it into. "Thank you," he said, smiling.

     Even without understanding the Russian's words, Hairwax smiled.
That smile vanished when she noticed a black chi ball racing towards
Leonid's back from where Shuma and his son were caught up within Ranma
and Ranko's twin vortexes. "Look out, Husband!" she yelled shoving him
out of the way of the blast. Crashing to the ground, she was grateful to
see him tumble safely out of the path of the chi ball.

     Leonid didn't know what the Amazon had said as he left the heart as
he was sent spinning out of the aura surrounding the heart, but he saw a
calm and serene look cross her face as the heart exploded behind her.
"Hairwax!!" he screamed as the nightmare world exploded into blackness
around him.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

June 3, 2009 - Nerima, Japan
(Black Wars Day 35)


     Akane went spinning across the dark roadway, almost losing hold of
Daiji as she dodged the precisely aimed tentacles of the glowing
Buyierfei. "Crap..." she spat as she crashed into a pole supporting one
of those flickering streetlights that always drove her crazy whenever
she took a stroll at night. She wished that was all she was doing this
particular night, but instead she was fighting for her life and the
lives of her oldest and youngest children. She ducked and narrowly
avoided being beheaded by the glowing tentacle as it sliced through the
pole.

     She rolled to the side and then swore when she saw the pole falling
towards a little old lady who chose the wrong time to run out of milk.
"Move!!" she shouted, even as she knew the old woman couldn't get out of
the way in time. Even as she dodged the glowing tentacles, she shot a
chi ball at the end of the light pole, knocking it away far enough so it
just crushed the old woman's legs. Akane winced at hearing the cracking
of the woman's old bones, but didn't hesitate in leaping over a nearby
fence. <That's the best I could do... I'm sorry.>

     The old woman screamed in pain and fainted. Her last memory was of
the glowing Buyierfei blowing through the fence as it followed its
quarry.

     As she ran and jumped through the Nerima streets, Akane quickly
found that the creature moved much faster than the other Buyierfei she
had fought in the past. <Maybe this plan wasn't such a good idea after
all.>

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Akane's doubts about her plan didn't change for the better during
the next hour as she alternately jumped, rolled, leapt, and otherwise
kept the creature away from herself, Daiji, and innocent bystanders.
Fortunately it was late and the streets weren't crowded or the trail of
destruction she had left behind her would have been littered with the
remains of various Nerima residents. 

     She turned a corner and spotted a familiar sight. Well, it was
mostly the location and fond--and some not so fond--memories that were
familiar. The four-story building that stood before her bore some
resemblance to the old Furinkan High School building, but it wasn't the
school she had gone to with the father--and mother--of her children.
Nevertheless, it was someplace she knew was deserted and free of
innocent people. <No one else dies tonight...> she thought as she leapt
through the glass of the front door.

     Suddenly, she found herself yanked backwards and slammed onto the
floor, back first. "Damn..." Glancing back, she expected to see the
Buyierfei had caught her. Instead, she saw her long hair snagged on the
doorframe.

     "Damn, I'm getting as clumsy as I was back in high school," she
commented as she freed her hair from where it had snagged and stood up.

     That was when the front doors exploded inward, sending Daiji and
her tumbling across the floor. Rolling to the side to avoid the glowing
tentacles that lit up the dark corridor, Akane got to her feet and ran
for her life. And--more importantly--for Daiji's.

     "They never were very subtle..." Akane commented as she disappeared
around the corner and made a beeline for the stairs in an effort to lose
her pursuer in the maze of Furinkan High. The layout was similar enough
to the old school--Japanese schools being made from fairly standardized
floor plans--that she had no problems finding her way around and keeping
ahead of her pursuer.

     Fifteen minutes later, she made a turn that should have led her
into the back recreation field.

     Instead, she found herself in a small storage room in the basement
with only the single door that she had entered through. She spun around
to make her escape the way she had entered, but saw a familiar golden
glow around the edges of the closed door. "Crap... I should have known
my luck would run out. Of all the places they had to change, it had to
be this one."

     Even as she was scolding herself, she was searching the small room
for any way to escape. All she saw was three walls made out of concrete
blocks and the fourth wooden wall containing the closed door, which
might have well been concrete with the glowing Buyierfei behind it.

     She swore as the door exploded behind her, sending her and Daiji
crashing into the corner. Akane pushed Daiji behind her instinctively
and faced her attacker. "Leave us alone, you monster!" she spat, sending
a red chi ball into the glowing creature's body. Like all her other chi
blasts, it did little more than cause the creature to jerk slightly as
it shuffled toward its targets.

     Akane looked around for something--anything--that she could use to
save her and her children, both the one she carried in her arms and the
one she carried in her uterus. What she saw was not encouraging. "Well,
anything can be a weapon," she commented to herself as she grabbed one
of the stale cutlet sandwiches that looked like they might have been
there since the new Furinkan High School was built, or the old one for
that matter.

     Tossing the sandwich at her attacker, it bounced off the glowing
skin and burst into flames. "Crap..." As she watched her last hope burn,
an idea struck her. Grabbing another stale sandwich, she concentrated.
<How did Ukyo say she did this?> Nothing happened. <Come on, you were
there when she showed Ranma and Ranko the technique.> Still nothing
happened. <Dammit, Akane! You've let yourself go soft! Are you a
housewife or a martial artist?!> With still no reaction from the cutlet
sandwich, Akane looked down at her daughter. That was when she knew the
answer. <Both!!> The Buyierfei was almost on top of her when the cutlet
sandwich started to glow with green energy. Akane smirked slightly and
hurled the glowing meat at the creature that towered over her.

     Much to her surprise and relief, the sandwich burned into the
creature's skin and caused it to fall back slightly. She glanced at the
moldy pile of cutlet sandwiches and smiled. "And to think I always hated
these things," she remarked as she grabbed another sandwich and charged
it up.

     The Buyierfei thrashed about as sandwich after sandwich burned it
and forced it backwards in a deadly food barrage worse than Akane's
cooking during her high school days. When the Buyierfei crashed against
one of the concrete walls on the side of the room, Akane jumped forward
with Daiji in her arms. As a glowing tentacle flashed between her and
the door, she jammed her feet into the floor and did a back flip.
"No..." she muttered seeing her escape route once again filled with the
flailing tentacles. A quick glance to the side showed she only had two
cutlet sandwiches left.

     They didn't last long or give Akane enough leverage to get the
Buyierfei out of her way long enough to make a break for it. As she
pushed herself and Daiji into the corner she tried to generate chi balls
using the green energy, but found that it didn't maintain it's shape
without a material object to form its base. <Why... why does that energy
hurt it and not the Moko Takabisha based energy?> She looked around
frantically for anything else to use, but the storeroom was now empty
except for Daiji and her. Akane's eyes went wide as a thought occurred
to her. <It didn't seem to burn the sandwich itself, so....> She shut
her eyes and concentrated.

     As the Buyierfei's tentacles reached Akane's position, a faint
green glow appeared around Akane's body. She opened her eyes and smiled
at the green haze that hovered against her skin. The smile vanished when
she noticed that Daiji wasn't covered by the green haze except where her
arms were wrapped around her daughter. As the Buyierfei tentacle
cautiously tested its chances against the green haze, Akane tried to
focus more energy into Daiji's body, only to feel the energy fading from
around her own body without building around Daiji at all.

     The Buyierfei noticed the change in the green energy and aimed its
tentacles at the helpless Daiji.

     "No!!" Akane cried out and tried to put her glowing body between
the Buyierfei and her daughter. The tentacle scrapped across her back,
ripping through her blouse as her concentration faltered briefly. "No...
no... no..." she muttered repeatedly as she tried to focus the energy
around both of them. In her attempt, she noticed the green haze lifted
about two-centimeter's off her skin. "Huh?" she gasped as the tip of the
nearest tentacle burst into flames and the Buyierfei screeched and
stumbled back without the end of one of its tentacles.

     Concentrating on charging her own body again, she focused outward
at the same time. <It's... a cross between Ukyo's spatula charging
technique and focusing chi beyond your body like the Moko Takabisha,>
she thought as the shield of green energy grew away from her body,
forming a protective barrier around her and--most importantly--Daiji.

     The Buyierfei tested the spherical shield with its tentacles for
several minutes, but each time its flesh hit the shield, the green
energy flickered and surged as it burned a portion of the Buyierfei's
flesh. The growing bits of smoking flesh on the floor showed that it was
very determined to get at those protected within the shield.

     Akane smiled and took a step forward, her shield bouncing forward
with her. When the glowing Buyierfei slid back, she jumped to the side.
Protected from its deadly touch by her shield, she attempted to slip by
the creature.

     Sensing what Akane was trying to do, the Buyierfei jumped to the
side and slammed against the concrete wall. The concrete exploded,
showering the small room with debris.

     Akane stumbled back as the debris battered the shield. As each
piece hit, the shield fluctuated slightly. <Got to concentrate...> She
redoubled her efforts to keep the shield up as she looked for a way
around the Buyierfei. Unfortunately, the explosion of the wall had
caused the soil behind the concrete wall to flow in and narrowed her
escape route. With the way the shield fluctuated whenever it came in
contact with anything, she wasn't sure she could survive going directly
through the Buyierfei that waited in the narrow passage between the
collapsed wall and the undamaged wall. "Damn..." She looked up, only to
see some sort of steel sheeting on the ceiling above her. If she was
free to blast away with chi blasts, she might have been able to burn
through the ceiling eventually, but she didn't think the Buyierfei would
let her drop the shield long enough to do that.

     "Stalemate..." Akane muttered as sweat appeared on her dirty
forehead. "Dammit... I have really let myself get out of shape."

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     While Akane found herself cornered, another group faced a similar
situation in one of the Amazons' houses. Ukyo and Akane's children, plus
Soun and Hinako's son huddled together in the center of the living room
as the sounds of a battle raged outside. A dozen Amazon warriors
encircled them and scanned the sealed windows and doors for any sign of
attack. Soun, Hinako, and Ukyo were doing their best to keep the kids
calm and in one place, while also scanning the room for signs of
trouble. Kasumi's kids and the Amazon kids were in another house under
the watchful eyes of more Amazons and some of their parents.

     Crybaby was curled up in front of little Biri. Suddenly, his head
shot up and he barked loudly.

     "Shush, Crybaby," Hinako scolded the dog, patting his head to calm
him down.

     Crybaby whimpered a bit and then lowered his head. An explosion
outside shook the house, but the dog didn't react to that at all.

     Several minutes later, one of the concrete walls of the house
suddenly caved in and covered the occupants of the room with dust. The
Amazons lashed out with weapons even before they could see anything,
making contact with at least two invisible attackers.

     One of the Amazon's took a step back. "Protect the children at all
costs!!"

     Darts and swords flashed through the confined space as the Amazons
tried to locate their invisible enemy. They spread out in front of the
hole in the wall in a tight pattern to avoid missing any of their enemy.

     They missed at least one as they moved towards the hole in the
wall.

     Biri cried out as he was lifted into the air by a tentacle.

     "Biri!!" a terrified mother called out.

     A father turned to look from the other side of the room.

     A okonomiyaki chef's eyes widened and instinctively tossed a
handful of throwing spatulas into the child's attacker, not even taking
time to charge the blades up.

     The impacts of the spatulas caused the Buyierfei to hesitate for a
second, before pulling the young child closer to its central mass.

     That second gave Crybaby time to leap onto the black creature and
tear into the tentacle holding Biri with his strong jaws.
 
     Dropping Biri as it's tentacle went limp, the Buyierfei lashed out
at its immediate attacker with another tentacle and speared the old
dog's shoulder, spraying the nearby kids with the dog's blood.

     As the kids started to cry and cling closer to each other in
terror, Ukyo leapt forward and grabbed the young boy before he hit the
floor. 

     As Ukyo rolled clear, Soun reached the battle and finished
Crybaby's work by cleaving the Buyierfei in half with his naginata and
looked for his son.

     "Crybaby!" Hinako cried out and knelt down next to her first baby
and started to tie a scarf around his wounds while the Amazons advanced
through the hole to deal with the invading Buyierfei. "Hang in there..."
She looked up at Soun with tear filled eyes.

     "He'll be okay," Soun said to his wife, taking his son from Ukyo
and wrapping his long arms protectively around him.

     "I..." Hinako started to say, but Crybaby interrupted her. The
dog's head rose and he growled. "Crybaby?" The dog continued to bark,
his eyes staring intently at the rubble to the left of the hole where
the Amazons could be seen fighting Buyierfei. "Oh no..." Hinako looked
at Soun. "Sorry, honey," she said as she slipped her wedding ring off.

     "Huh?" Soun said just before he felt the familiar sensation of
energy being sucked out of his body. He slid to the floor, Biri giggling
as he bounced on Soun's suddenly rubber-like body.

     Glowing with the energy flowing through her wedding ring, Hinako
rose to her feet as her body expanded in all directions; more so in
three particular directions, one straight up and two straight forward.
Swinging around, the adult Hinako formed a triangle with her fingers and
pointed her arms at the rubble. "Happou Tsurisen Gaeshi" she cried as a
beam of pure energy flashed from her fingers.

     Behind the pile of rubble, four tentacled figures appeared out of
nowhere and thrashed about in the energy storm Hinako had unleashed. Two
of the Buyierfei were blasted apart almost immediately. The flesh of the
other two was burning and falling off as they advanced on the group of
children.

     The now child Hinako collapsed into Soun's frail arms, her borrowed
energy spent.

     "Meowing Kitty Blast!" Yohachi called out and blew a small hole in
one of the Buyierfei. Too small. He pushed Ayami and Rar behind him and
fired off another small chi ball at the nearest Buyierfei.

     The creature didn't even flinch this time when another chunk of its
flesh was blown off. One of its tentacles flashed towards Yohachi.

     One of the Amazons jumped back into the room and sliced through the
tentacle just before it could impale the young boy. A follow up swing
with her sword sliced the Buyierfei in half as her foot lashed out and
kicked the other burning Buyierfei away from the children. She tossed
her sword in the direction that her kick had sent the Buyierfei and then
covered Yohachi, Ayami, and Rar with her body.

     The Buyierfei found itself pinned to the wall by the sword. Lashing
about with its tentacles, it sliced through parts of the Amazon's armor
and left several long welts on the warrior's strong arms and back as she
tried to protect the children.

     The Buyierfei's struggles ended when Ukyo's giant spatula dissected
it. She sighed heavily and looked at her six kids.

     "Way to go, Mommy!!" Ukyo's twin girls chorused.

     Ukyo smiled weakly as she collected her giant spatula from the
Buyierfei remains, all the while scanning the room for fear of more
attacks. Even as she worried about the immediate battle, her thoughts
drifted to wondering how her best friend was doing against the golden
Buyierfei.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     In the corner that she found herself trapped in, Akane's dirt
covered face dipped down and the green haze surrounding her fluctuated.
Exhausted from generating the shield off and on for over an hour, she
tightened her grip on Daiji and spoke softly. "I'm sorry, baby." She put
one hand over Daiji's dirt-smeared face and the other over her unborn
child. "I've failed you both."

     A golden tentacle pierced the diminishing green haze, flashing past
Akane's head so close that the terrified mother could feel the heat curl
her eyebrows. A horrifying sensation washed over her as energy from the
glowing tentacle washed over the mother and child. Akane cringed
backwards when she felt the warm tentacle pass by her face and knew her
end was near.

     Suddenly, a familiar scream rang out.

     An inhuman scream.

     Akane had fought enough Buyierfei to recognize the sound they made
when wounded. Her eyes shot open in time to see a glowing spatula
explode as it embedded itself in the Buyierfei that hovered over her.
"Ukyo!!"

     "This was a stupid plan, Akane!" Ukyo shouted as the green glowing
blade of her giant spatula impacted the central mass of the glowing
Buyierfei, knocking it against the side wall.

     Akane smirked and jumped through the opening made by Ukyo's blow,
just barely avoiding the deadly tentacles of the creature. "Yeah, I
realize that now."

     "Duck!!"

     At Ukyo's shout, Akane ducked and rolled forward, avoiding the
lashing tentacles of the Buyierfei. Drawing on the last of her energy,
she projected a wall of green energy behind her.

     Ukyo's eyes went wide as the flesh of the Buyierfei bubbled and
hissed as the green energy intensified. "Wha..."

     Akane smiled at her friend's amazement. "Let's go... I'm spent and
can't keep it back any longer with the..." she searched for a term for
the field of energy. "Shield." She reached a shaky hand out.

     Ukyo took the hand and pulled Akane and Daiji out of the storage
room. "Let's get outside fast."

     "We have to stay away from the Compound..." Akane said wearily.

     As they emerged from the ruined front doors of the new Furinkan
High School, Ukyo smiled. "The Compound is safe."

     Akane gasped when she saw over a hundred Amazons spread out in
front of them, armed to the teeth. "But..."

     "Your distraction gave the Amazons time to defeat the other
Buyierfei. There weren't that many, just enough to keep us pinned down
while that glowing one did its work." As she crossed the line of Amazons
with Akane and Daiji in tow, Ukyo looked back and saw the side wall of
the school explode outward. <It's really angry and not wasting time with
doors and hallways anymore.>

     The dust hadn't even settled when dozens of spears flew toward the
glowing figure. A few hit and tore into the glowing flesh, but the
Buyierfei sprang into the air using its powerful tentacles before the
bulk of the weapons could hit it. At the peak of its leap it sent a
black chi ball flying at Akane and Ukyo.

     Seeing the chi ball making a beeline for her, Ukyo pushed Akane out
of the way of the black chi ball with the hilt of her spatula and then
hit the chi ball with the blade that glowed with green chi energy. "No
thanks, I don't need another one of those bastards hitting me!!" she
snarled as she sent the black chi ball back towards its source.

     An inhuman screech emerged from the glowing creature as the black
chi ball burned a hole in its central mass. It jumped to the top of the
Furinkan High clock tower and scanned the people below. After hesitating
on Akane and Daiji it disappeared behind the school building.

     Nipplering turned towards her warriors. "Rant, Fragrance: take your
teams and follow it, but don't engage it unless someone is in danger."
She turned toward Akane. "Leader, I think we should return to the
Compound."

     Akane was asleep on the ground with Daiji clutched protectively in
her arms.

     Ukyo looked down at her friend. "Even asleep, she does what she can
to protect her child." She looked up at Nipplering and smiled wearily.
"I think that's a good idea."

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

June 4, 2009 - Moscow, Russia
(Black Wars Day 36)


     Moscow was silent. Even the birds seemed to have had flown away
from the monolith that towered over the ruins of Red Square. The mixed
Amazon/Russian force had dispatched the couple hundred Buyierfei that
had escaped from the monolith before Ranma and Ranko disappeared inside.

     After the battle in the streets of Moscow had been won, the Amazons
tried to enter the monolith, but only succeeded in causing more
Buyierfei to come out and attack them and the soldiers defending Moscow.
Over the following week, they helped the Russians defend against
occasional small groups of Buyierfei that would appear from the
monolith.

     When the Iranian monolith had exploded, the Amazons decided their
services were needed there to fight the Buyierfei that had spilled out
during the destruction of northern Iran. On arrival, they were surprised
that there were nowhere near the number of Buyierfei as had emerged from
the African monolith.

     Ryoga went with them and was amazed when he found that Iran looked
a lot like Spain.

     While the Russians gave the Amazons transport and sent some men to
help in Iran, most of the Russian soldiers stayed behind to guard their
country as best they could. They had pulled back to observe the monolith
from afar and wait for another attack or any signs of activity from the
monolith. There wasn't much else for them do under the circumstances.
Over the span of almost three weeks, the monolith disgorged several
groups of Buyierfei that kept the Russian soldiers busy. The barricade
that encircled the monolith at Moscow's Garden Circle was seldom quiet
for long. Be it from new troops arriving, the brass inspecting the
troops, or a sudden Buyierfei attack; there was always something
happening.

     The same was not true of Red Square. Not a soul had set foot there
for over two weeks. Deeming it too dangerous to approach the monolith
under the circumstances, the new Marshal in command of defending Moscow
had declared it off limits. Considering what had happened to the first
Marshal when he had approached the monolith, it's easy to understand the
reluctance of anyone to approach the monolith again.

     So for weeks the monolith sat silently and was only observed from
afar as it soaked in what energy it could from the deserted city around
it.

It was midday on June fourth when the monolith suddenly exploded and
sent a small shock wave racing across Red Square and the surrounding
streets. Small in comparison to the Iranian and African blasts, of
course.

     Once the black dust from the explosion settled, a large crater
about two kilometers in diameter could be seen where Red Square, the
Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, the famous Gem department store, and a
good portion of central Moscow used to be. All the Rubles in Russia
wouldn't be able to rebuild the historic buildings that had been reduced
to unrecognizable dust and rubble.

     In the middle of the blast zone, a lone figure stood clutching the
stump where his right hand used to be. He looked around wearily, not
wanting to believe this was his home. But he didn't need his two good
eyes to recognize the buildings beyond the blackened rubble and piles of
golden strands. "Moscow..." he muttered.

     When the search team found him, he was wandering aimlessly through
the ruins.

     In the days that followed, he would be put on a pedestal and
trumpeted as a true Russian hero for his part in destroying the
monoliths.

     He didn't feel like a hero, especially after he found out what
happened in Iran.

     The blood on his hands would drive him to fight on in place of
those who died at his hands, despite only having one hand left to fight
with. Or to have blood on, for that matter.


***********************************************************************
>From the personal journal of James Davidson
July 9, 2058


     "So am I a hero or not?"

     I paused before answering Leonid's question, uncertain of how to
respond. "What's a hero?"

     A slight grin appeared on Leonid's age worn face.

     "Some people call other people heros when they do something they
couldn't do themselves."

     "Or wouldn't do themselves."

     I nodded. "But in the end it's how we feel about ourselves that
matters."

     "Very well put."

     "Thank my grandmother. It was something she wrote about in her
journals a lot." There was a moment of uneasy silence as neither of us
said anything. "So how do you feel?"

     Leonid smiled. "My internal demons are well under control, thank
you."

     "So after..." my next question was interrupted by my urgent audible
alarm from my wristpad.

     Leonid frowned. "I asked you not to have any contact with the
outside world while you were here." He glanced at Jaki, who quickly held
up her wrist to indicate she didn't even have her wristpad on.

     "I turned the communications services off, really." I glanced at my
wristpad as it warbled again.

     "You might as well answer it."

     I smiled nervously and nodded. "Call connect."

     In front of us, the two Reis appeared. Well, that explains how
their call got through. I doubt even turning the unit completely off and
removing the gelbatt could keep those two out of any system. "What's up,
Rei?" using the singular form of address for the hacker twins from hell.

     "How fast can you get back to the Compound?" Reiko asked, smiling
broadly.

     "Um... I had planned to stay overnight and get some of Mr.
Preskin's experiences after..."

     "You might want to change your plans," Reiji said, interrupting.

     "Why?" Visions of all kinds of disasters flashed through my head.

     "Hanaki's gone into labor."

     I fell out of the chair I was in. "Hanaki..." It wasn't exactly a
disaster, but it was something I was loathe to miss. She had been the
one who finally insisted I take this overnight trip to Siberia to get
Leonid's side of the story when the opportunity arose, but that didn't
mean squat now.

     Leonid smiled. "I think the rest of this interview can wait."

     I nodded silently and then looked at Jaki. "How fast..."

     Jaki was already on her feet. "I'll get you to the Compound so fast
you won't miss one blood curdling scream or cussing out."

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     "Come on... come on..." I muttered under my breath from my seat
next to Jaki.

     "If you don't stop muttering like that, I'll turn this hoverjet
around," Jaki said, glaring at me from the pilot's seat.

     I may have to work on my silent muttering some more. "Sorry..."

     Jaki smiled and nodded to show me she wasn't really mad. The
cockpit of the hoverjets were not that different from Tendo One, just
more cramped and only four positions behind the two flight seats for the
tactical crew.

     Like Tendo One, the flight seats were suspended over a vast
circular array of windows, which formed a wide field of view for the
pilots while still being very thick and durable to protect them. They
were even thicker than the one's in Tendo One. Since the hoverjets were
the Task Force's primary aircraft for battle, everything about them was
built to take a pounding.

     And they were pounded on quite often.

     The back hatch of the cockpit opened to a large bay that could
accommodate members of the Task Force or equipment as a particular
mission required. On this particular 'mission' we were all alone. I
wanted to take a spacejet, which was smaller and more luxurious, but
Leonid lived a good distance from an airport that could handle a
spacejet, so the hoverjet's ability to land almost anywhere was called
for on this trip. He wasn't too happy when Jaki landed on his rose
bushes, though.

     "It's just too bad we used this old crate instead of one of the new
hoverjets. Those things are the fastest things out there."

     I nodded. "Well, Hanaki wasn't convinced they worked out all the
bugs yet."

     Jaki chuckled. "Your wife has gotten a lot more cautious since she
became pregnant."

     I smiled. "It goes with the territory. She has the baby and me to
think of now."

     "Yeah, having two babies to take care of does tend to make people
more serious." She ignored my scowl at her calling me a baby--or
relished it--and continued. "Anyway, I've flight tested the latest
revision of the THJ-3999 and it hasn't exhibited any of the problems
Hanaki discovered during the tests of the prototypes. When Hanaki gets
back in the pilot's seat, she'll see."

     "I hope so," I said, glancing at the flight time remaining
holo-indicator Jaki had set up after the first dozen times I'd asked
about it. One hour, twenty minutes.

     Not that long in the great scheme of things, but an eternity for an
expectant father like me.

     I spent the time fidgeting, looking at the holo-indicators, and
wondering about the future with my wife and son. Jaki tried to distract
me with what she knew of the early days of the Black Wars. All second
and third hand knowledge of course, since her mother was barely out of
diapers when the Black Wars began.

     It didn't matter much, I found myself unable to pay much attention
and just let my wristtop transcribe it.

     My mind was in Nerima with my wife and the impending arrival of our
son. The two of us were about to become a family. I gulped and started
to undo my seat belt.

     "What's wrong?" Jaki asked.

     I slipped out of the seat and headed for the lavatory in the rear
of the hoverjet. "I... I don't feel so good."

     Jaki smirked and looked like she was resisting the urge to do a
barrel roll.


***********************************************************************
June 4, 2009 - Shinjuku, Japan; Nerima, Japan
(Black Wars Day 36)


     "I have a tentacle puncture wound here."

     Kasumi finished checking her current patient that had been flown in
from the front lines in Africa. "Tentacle laceration here. Clean out the
wound, pack it, and give him fluids, he can wait." She exchanged
positions with a nurse. Pulling back a bloody field bandage, she
examined the puncture wound in the soldier's chest. She frowned as she
put her fingers into the hole and felt around. "Make him comfortable,"
she said to another nurse as she replaced the bandage. A pained look
appeared on her face as she hurried to the next patient.

     "Should I see if one of the operating rooms are available?"

     "No need, just make him comfortable," Kasumi said as she pulled the
bandages off the stump of what had once been a leg.

     The nurse started to tremble and looked at the man in front of her.
The man coughed and more red blood started to seep out of the large hole
in his chest. "Oh my..." She started to back away.

     Kasumi's head snapped up. "Make him comfortable. Sometimes that's
all you can do." She resumed attending to her current patient, a single
tear dripping down her cheek.

     "Another helicopter just landed, we're getting nine more wounded
from the medical evacuation teams!!" a nurse yelled as she put down the
phone.

     Kasumi heard the cry and wondered how many of those nine she would
only be able to make comfortable. <And how soon until someone I know
ends up on an operating table?> she thought as she looked in the
direction of Nerima, uneasy for some reason.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     In the back hallway of the Tendo house, a mother was tending to her
baby with the help of Dr. Tofu. "Crybaby..." little Hinako said as she
watched the labored breathing of the dog.

     Dr. Tofu finished tying a clean bandage over the dog's wounded
shoulder. "That's all I can do for now. I'll see if I can find a vet to
come over and take a look, but..." He paused, uncertain how to say it.

     "But?" Hinako asked, looking up at Dr. Tofu with her innocent, tear
filled, eyes.

     "He's a old dog and I don't know if he can recover from such a
serious wound."

     Hinako cringed and put her hand to the dog's chest, as if it she
could will him to keep breathing. "I... I understand. I'll stay here
with him... so he can be comfortable."

     Dr. Tofu nodded. "I'll go tell the others." He turned and walked
towards the family room.

     Little Hinako sat down next to the dog, leaning against the wall.
She stroked the dog's matted fur several times.

     The dog whined softly with each breath he took, and after several
minutes he lifted his head onto Hinako's lap.

     "Goodnight, Crybaby..." Hinako said, a tear flowing down her cheek
and splashing across the dog's face.

     A mother's pain...

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     In Soun and Hinako's room, Akane slept peacefully with her oldest
daughter-and-sometimes-son wrapped protectively in her arms. Daiji was
currently a boy due to a hasty attempt by Ukyo to clean Daiji's dirty
face up with cold water before Akane fell asleep again. That much needed
sleep was interrupted by a child's cry. 

     "Mommy!!"

     Akane's eyes popped open and she looked around. Not seeing any of
her other kids in the dark room, she looked down. "Daiji!!"

     The little boy rubbed his eyes and smiled. "Mommy!!" he cried,
reaching out towards Akane.

     Akane wasted no time in pulling her son into a tighter embrace.
"Oh, my baby."

     The door to the family room was slid open with a bang, revealing
Ukyo, Nipplering, and several other residents of the Tendo house.

     "Mommy..." Daiji purred and snuggled into Akane's chest.

     Akane's eyes went wide. "Daiji, are you alright?"

     "Yes, Mommy," was Daiji's innocent little reply.

     Akane pulled back from her son and looked into the little boy's
eyes. "Oh no..." she gasped as her worst fears were realized.

     "What's wrong, Mommy?" Daiji's solid black eyes blinked.

     "I'm sorry, baby..." Akane muttered as she charged up a chi ball
behind Daiji's back. A single tear dripped down her cheek as she shoved
the pulsating mass of energy into her son's back.

     Daiji screamed.

     Akane shuddered and tried to block out the sound of her oldest's
pain as she focused more energy into her son's back. "I'm sorry..."

     "Akane, what are you doing?!" Ukyo screamed, pulling on Akane's
shoulder.

     Akane shook Ukyo's hand off. "I'm... I'm trying to save my
daughter."

     Daiji's wailing intensified.

     Ukyo made to interrupt again, but Nipplering held her back. "Don't
interrupt. The leader knows what she's doing." Despite her words,
Nipplering cringed when Daiji's screams intensified.

     "But..."

     Tears were streaming out of Akane's eyes. "I'm sorry, baby..."

     "It hurts... Daddy..."

     Akane gasped and pulled her hand away from Daiji's burned back, the
red chi energy dissipating from her fingers. "Baby..." She leaned back
and looked into her son's eyes. She had never been happier to see those
beautiful blue eyes. "My baby..." She pulled Daiji into a tight hug.

     Dr. Tofu rushed into the room. "What's going on? I heard
screaming..."

     Akane wiped her eyes and looked back at her friends and family.
"Daiji's back with us."

     Dr. Tofu wasted no time in rushing to their side and examining
Daiji's burned back. "How did it happen?" he asked, fingering the
charred remains of Daiji's nightshirt and frowning.

     Akane looked at Nipplering. "I had to do what I had to do."

     Nipplering nodded.

     A mother's pain...

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

June 5, 2009 - Mexico City, Mexico
(Black Wars Day 37)


     It was dark.

     But the darkness was very welcome to the three figures that awoke
and found themselves covered in black dust. The ruined landscape they
found themselves in was a welcome change from the nightmare world of the
Buyierfei where they had been fighting for their lives. And the lives of
everyone in the world, for that matter.

     Ranma brushed the dust off his face and looked around at the dark
city around him. The moonless night sky shed no light on them, only the
faint flickering of distant lights showed any signs of nearby life.
"It's not Moscow, that's for sure," he commented as he stood up and
surveyed the rectangular silhouettes that made up the city around him.
"Hey, Ranko?"

     Ranko spat out a black wad of something. "Yeah, I'm fine." She
looked around. "Hairwax?"

     "I will be sore for days, but an Amazon is not dead until her heart
stops beating," Hairwax said, scanning the area in vain for her sword.

     Ranma rolled his eyes. <A simple 'I'm fine' would have been
sufficient.> He looked around again. "We might as well start walking and
find out where we are."

     Ranko nodded and they started walking towards where some lights
could be seen in the distance. After walking silently for a while, they
reached some ruined buildings at the edge of the blast zone. "Looks like
it's a smaller blast area, like Nerima and the one in the desert."

     "Yup, probably the first heart we blew. I wonder where the heart
the Russians blew was?"

     Ranko shrugged. "Beats me, let's just try to get some news of
what's going on around the world and then find some way to get back to
Nerima."

     Hairwax walked silently behind them, uneasy and glancing around as
if there was something watching them.

     When they turned the corner and disappeared, three men dressed in
black suits stepped out of a crumbling doorway. The man in the middle
was a good two heads shorter than his companions. Silently, they looked
in the direction Ranma and the others had disappeared and started
walking in that direction.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     After a long walk where they got some odd looks from the locals
when they tried to ask where the Japanese consulate was, Ranma and Ranko
found it after being pointed in the right direction by a short man in a
dark suit.

     "What do you mean, we can't get a flight back to Japan?!" Ranma
bellowed.

     The small Japanese diplomat cowered back. "Most of the world's
commercial airplanes have been flown to Africa to assist in the
evacuation efforts, so only emergency flights are being flown at the
moment."

     Ranma pounded the diplomat's desk. "We've got to get back to our
family!"

     Ranko put a hand on Ranma's shoulder and tried a different tactic.
"Please, Mister?" She winked and leaned forward, revealing some
cleavage.

     The diplomat gulped. "Um... I'd really like to help but... I
can't."

     Ranko grabbed the man's collar. "Look, buddy, we've just been
through hell and have to make sure our families are safe!!"

     So much for a different tactic.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

     Needless to say, they didn't get a flight back to Japan. "Stupid
jerk," Ranko muttered, laying on an old mattress in a rundown hotel.

     Ranma sighed from the bed next to her. "Well, at least they gave us
some money to get a hotel room." He glanced at the few Mexican pesos
they had left. "Next time we go into a monolith, remind me to bring a
credit card with us."

     "And our passports," Ranko added. Like she had done many times
since they arrived in Mexico City, she picked up the phone and dialed
the Tendo house.  As always, she got a 'all circuits are busy' message.
"Damn... still can't get through. We've got to get word to Akane."

     Ranma nodded and turned his head to look at Hairwax, who was
clicking through television channels. "I hope everyone's okay."

     "The guy at the embassy said there were no police reports of
problems in Nerima outside of some vandalism at Furinkan High," Ranko
reminded Ranma.

     Ranma nodded. "Yeah, but the police never took any notice when the
Buyierfei attacked us in mid-ninety-nine either." 

     "Well... yeah, but..." Ranma trailed off when Hairwax found a CNN
broadcast on the television. What he saw on the television did not make
him very happy.

                    -A-           -M-           -D-

June 7, 2009 - Nerima, Japan
(Black Wars Day 39)


     "And then Yohachi blasted that thing!" Ayami said cheerfully as she
chased Moyashi around the yard.

     "Cool," Moyashi replied, somersaulting to the side to avoid Ayami's
grasp. "I still haven't been able to form them."

     "You've got to practice more!" Ayami reached for Moyashi, but
missed.

     "We haven't trained at all lately."

     Ayami frowned. "My mommy said that Daddy and Papa-chan were busy
teaching somewhere else, but that they'd be back soon."

     "Cool."

     Ayami finally tackled Moyashi and the two young kids tumbled across
the yard and into the sandbox where Yohachi and Daiji were playing.
Staring at the sand, actually.

     "Look where you're tackling!" Yohachi scolded, brushing the sand
off his clothes.

     "Sorry," Moyashi and Ayami chorused.

     "That's okay." Yohachi smiled and ruffled his little sister's hair.

     "Whatcha doing?" Ayami asked, looking between 

     "Grownup talk," Yohachi said, looking nervously at Daiji.

     Daiji just smiled weakly at Ayami and Moyashi, straightening her
simple dress.

     "Like what Mommy and Daddy and Papa-chan do at night?" Ayami asked.

     Yohachi shook his head.

     Silence dominated the sandbox for several moments before Moyashi
and Ayami got bored and resumed their chase through the yard.

     Nearby, Akane and Kasumi watched the two older kids sit and talk
quietly in the sandbox. "She doesn't remember anything..." Akane
remarked, her concern for her oldest child evident on her face. "...but
she seems troubled."

     "She's healthy and the burns are healing fast," Kasumi said,
softly.

     "But how did she get possessed? It takes something like five
hundred Buyierfei to possess someone."

     Kasumi shook her head. "It's impossible to tell. She obviously has
some sensitivity to Buyierfei energy and you said that you felt a lot of
energy washing over you during your fight with that glowing Buyierfei."

     Akane nodded. "But is she okay now?'

     "She seems fine. If she doesn't have any more of her headaches, she
should be okay from now on. The headaches were likely..."

     Akane interrupted and finished the statement, having already come
to the same conclusion. "Due to something that happened when Ranko was
in the Australian monolith in ninety-nine."

     Kasumi nodded. 

     Akane sighed. "Which means the Buyierfei have been back for quite
some time since the headaches..."

     Kasumi interrupted. "Yes."

     "And I missed all the signs."

     "No one could have known."

     "I wasn't even looking for them." Akane clenched her fists. "I put
my family in danger because I thought we had defeated them for good."

     Kasumi put a hand on Akane's shoulder, but before she could say
anything Ukyo appeared around the corner of a nearby house and walked
towards them. Soun and Hinako could be seen in the distance walking
toward the Tendo house with Biri in his mother's arms.

     "How'd it go?" Akane asked Ukyo.

     "Okay," Ukyo said somberly.

     "That was nice of you to offer a spot next to the shrine for
Crybaby," Kasumi said softly.

     Ukyo smiled weakly "He deserved it. He saved Biri and maybe the
rest of our kids too."

     Akane nodded and looked towards the newly rebuilt main gate and
fortified outer wall. "The Amazons lost four and I never even knew their
names."

     "We'll get through this together, Akane," Ukyo said, giving her
best friend a hug.

     Akane smiled and wiped a tear out of her eye. "Yes, we'll get
through this as a family."

     Ukyo smiled.

     "Leader!!"

     The three women turned their heads at the shout and saw Deeod and
Rant running toward them, each carrying one of their babies. Like all of
the mothers in the Compound, the Amazon couple hadn't been far from
their children since the attack on the Compound.

     "What's up?" Akane asked.

     "A telegram just arrived from your husbands, Leader," Rant said,
holding out an envelope.

     Akane gasped the loudest of the three women and held out her hand
towards Rant. The unopened envelope was placed in her hand and her
trembling fingers opened it, tearing the corner of the telegram inside
in the process. She took several deep breaths and then unfolded the
telegram.

     She scanned the first paragraph. "They're okay." She visibly
relaxed. "They appeared in Mexico City after blowing the third heart."

     Kasumi and Ukyo smiled and hugged Akane and each other.

     Akane read further. "Hairwax is with them. They are..." her eyes
widened. "Those... those... idiots!!" she yelled and dropped to her
knees, the telegram slipping out of her fingers.

     "What is it?" Ukyo asked, kneeling down next to her friend.

     "They... they... went to Africa."

     Ukyo gasped and wrapped her arms around Akane. "Oh..." She knew all
too well how it felt to have a husband in Africa at that particular
moment in history. She'd only gotten one brief message from Sanma since
she had arrived in Africa. Her husband had tried to be encouraging, but
Ukyo could read between the lines. Sanma was tired and in pain. The
occasional glimpse of her redheaded husband on news reports confirmed
this. Unfortunately, those news reports from the front line were
becoming rarer and rarer.

     Kasumi picked up the dropped telegram. Quickly confirming what
Akane had just read, she scanned the rest of the telegram. Ranma and
Ranko had seen the worsening situation in eastern Africa and knew they
couldn't sit back and do nothing. "Well, they say they hope to get out
of Africa soon and then they'll come right back," she said, trying to
put a hopeful spin on the telegram. Then her eyes focused on the second
to last paragraph. "Oh my."

     "What?" Akane asked.

     "It can wait."

     "Tell us."

     "They say that they couldn't finish off Shuma and his glowing son
inside the monolith." Kasumi tried to put a good spin on it. "But it
doesn't sound like Shuma or his son returned to Earth with them."

     Akane frowned. "Then..."

     Ukyo nodded. "There must be at least two of those glowing monsters
out there."

     Akane suddenly started to worry again about where the one she had
fought disappeared. The Amazons had lost sight of it after a long chase
towards the west.

     Ukyo and Akane looked toward the west.

     Toward Africa.

     Toward their husbands.

     "Those idiots," Akane whispered, wiping a tear out of her eye.

     A wife's pain...


[End - Chapter 11]

Coming soon: Chapter 12 - The Black Wars "Out of Africa; Tearful
Homecomings"
======================================================================= 
The real author's (Jim Lazar) notes/ramblings:


I'd like to thank my pre-readers David Johnston, Michael A. Chase,
Thomas C. Kinnen, Aaron E. Nowack, and Micki Hibiki for helping me find
and fix problems with this story. Thank you all. Of course in the end,
any mistakes and botched characters are my fault.


Revision 0.0 - Rough draft began (December 22, 2000)
Revision 0.1 - Rough draft finished (February 8, 2001)
Revision 0.3 - Pre-reader draft (June 2, 2001)
Revision 1.0 - Final version (August 4, 2001)
Revision 1.1 - First RAAC posting (August 22, 2001)