The Emperor and the Shrine Maiden almost bump heads...

A million questions are running around in the Emperor’s head right now, though a lot of questions had been answered in that unexpected broadcast. The idea that Rei and her friends (who looked more like “mere mortals” than anything else, besides the odd appearance and such) had every intention on defending a Primarch from harm and not the other way around (like it was usually done in this reality) was amusing . . .up until the Emperor realized just how bloody effective they’d be at it.

Those “toys” the group had surrendered to the guards were NOT toys, even though they looked too small (and toy like in their garish colorations) to be anything lethal. Anything nowadays in this reality was by some . . .unstated law overly large and bulky. Had to be to be able to be effective.

Phasors magically colored bright orange, green and other festive colors (to give the illusion of harmlessness) were hardly that.

Hell, those things might have been able to even discorporate his fantastic armor, and THAT stuff was as tough as all the sciences available to the Imperium could make it!! Yes, the Emperor remembered (vaguely) that some materials in Star Trek--a show that up to a moment ago) he’d sneered at --had a small listing of materials that was phasor resistant or phasor proof. He wasn’t sure if his power armor would qualify....

Sure wouldn’t have done a thing for his “New Man” (i.e. Grecian godlike, BIG body). That form (which he’d grown used to and comfortable with so had slipped back into it), wouldn’t have done a blessed thing. Against ordinary knifes and bullets, yep. Not Star Trek weaponry!

Wouldn’t want to place money on how effective the power armor of his Palace Guards would have been....

No, these “fools” weren’t foolish at all. Nor were they assassins, else why turn over their weapons?

If anything, they were full of questions as well, despite having now a rather . . .tarnished opinion of him and his Imperium for . . .mistakes made. They’d come for help for a wounded Horus and found instead almost an execution for the Primarch!

I almost killed my son again . . .and this time by a heavy handed mistake! he thought to himself, feeling sick to his stomach. Oh god, I’ve grown . . .brutal even by THIS time’s standards.

THAT had been one thing he’d hope to have changed, stop the brutaliy of the Imperium and set things to right but HEY, hardly off to a good start here eh?

Yes, no wonder they’d thought him a barbarian... Why couldn’t he have tried to at least asked questions before ripping into...

Getting a rein on his emotions, the Master of Mankind turned back to the task at hand.

A million questions could have been asked but he finds himself asking this particular one: “You came to the 40th millenium . . .Here? To me after I had to kill him . . .uh . . .his version from here? After the Horus Heresy branded him the largest traitor of the Imperium?!

“Are you mad?” he asks, shaking his head in wonderment. “If the wrong set of my worshipers get a hold of him before I‘d learned to truth. . .they’d tear him apart. Hells, I‘D almost tore his mind apart and . . .”

“No Emperor, we are. . .we’re VERY confused,” Rei says, after blinking at this latest snafu. “And besides he had been injured due to in large part by me and we found he was too . . .far above and removed from what we were used to as human to be able to heal him effectively . . “

Rei sighs and hangs her head a little, not liking this at all.

Oh bollox, she says to herself in exasperation. We chose the bloody WRONG path of the three. Show up in the 40th Milenium, a PLAC we didn’t want to go at ALL and to win a Darwin Award I went and got PISSY with the #@$%#@$ God Emperor himself!! How to top THAT one, Rei? Go and strip naked with Chaos Symbols--their version of of the marks of Satan or whatnot-- all over my body and singing insulting and lewd lyrics about this guy in front of one of his chainsaw toting clerics?!

Yeah . . .and they tried to call me a "Mary Sue" back at Hogwarts, Rei finally sighed after pinching her nose as a headache came on. Bet I and my sisters sure showed them!! More like "Bloody" Mary than a Mary Sue. . . .F*ck!

“Setsuna! I thought that the augury spell you cast stated that this path had been the best for him and his Imperium. He’s healed now but we nearly kind of bloody got his brain fried here!”

“Sounds like you got a wrong connection,” the Emperor mugged, showing again that for whatever reason it appears that for Champions fictional games and stories seem to be a GOOD way to get a bead on “real life” counterparts of their fictional doppelgangers.

In other words, the Emperor is showing a bit of his disdain for organized religion. He did kind of blamed that for a lot of the pain and suffering that had happened throughout human history.

Right or wrong, it also kind of got the attention of Setsuna, who HAPPENED to GET religion (Shinto religion to be exact) back as Sailor Mars. And being what she’s been through (i.e. Past lives/senshi) still being somewhat in the mix . . .her Sailor Mars was showing. Kinda pissed.

“Listen you big lummox I’ll have YOU know that . . .,” she grinds out, only to be interrupted by her love and soul mat by him stepping between the titanic man and her. Before it could get ugly...

“Uh love. . . Don’t!” her husband begged, seeing the fire in Sailor Moons eyes. “With the planetary bonding of magic of Luna in you I’d . . .rather not see the messy explosions that could happen. Would only serve the Chaos gods, I shall wager! And that isn’t any thing we NEED.”

Yeah, go figure. The most powerful Psyker in the Imperium (who could tear up a planet with his mind alone if he had the inclination . . .and was nuts enough to do it) going against a girl who could call up with magic to top a "Deathstar in a miniskirt" in magical might. Being that magic and Psyker powers don't mix too well?

. . .

"Mind if we get to run to the next planet before that happens?" Rei mutters to herself.

“James . . .if I may be so informal with the Emperor . . .he’s right,” Reika adds, when it looked like the Emperor was going to say something further cutting. “We know already that magery and Pysker powers don’t mix to nicely and to give you an idea at how BAD the results could be here if you and she did start . . .the second most powerful Senshi, Sailor Uranus, had the ability with her most powerful attack by HERSELF to wipe clean a planet of all life.”

“And Sailor Moon . . .Sentsua here . . .is the MOST powerful Senshi of them all of all the lot,” Lilith added. “If you want to . . .buy your plot could we at least move the fight off planet and not toast Holy Terra as well here, please? Huh?”

The Emperor and Setsuna stop glaring at each other and look at Lilith . . .and suddenly find themselves trying NOT to laugh at the puppy dog eyes she was giving them.

Hey, it worked. Something in her voice spoke of utter sincerity and the Emperor remembered hearing something about this Sailor Moon stuff from one of Q’s helpers . . .a long time ago.

And being that his life appeared to have been laid bare to thse Champions in a game (and those Bond movies) . . .Well, why not be big about things and not push the matter.

Wasn’t like he’d been in the right to push that button anyway....

That and the winged girl had looked so . . . Would have broken the heart to crush her with an outbreak of needless violence, he felt. What had he been thinking.

Stress. Had to be it. Hells, he’d been on that Throne battling evil Chaos Gods, and in extreme agony throughout it all...

“It was a mistake . . .fine,” the Emperor allows, finally. Appologizing without really saying it. “And we’ll leave the issue about religion . . .tabled for a later date, if at that. However, I might add that for whatever other reason you came here . . .”

Mention of closing off the magical/mystical portal that had been created from the Hellmouth to here had been part of Rei’s thought cast/telegram.

“It MAY be a bloody good idea to do it and be on your way, ladies and lords? I mean soon enough I DO rather plan on teaching certain enemies of humanity a most . . .final lesson.”

In other words, this war without end may . . .actually now end with them VERY dead by his hands.

And God help anyone (even the Champions) who got between the Emperor and his Enemies, even by mistake. It was going to get REALLY ugly here soon...

“Well . . .maybe there was some kind of knowledge or data that may be of use in HIS Imperium that he could use or get to that you know of now?” Setsuna ventured, not exactly wanting to put to paid any idea the augury had been so bad. “And maybe in the end IF paths should be crossed again HIS Imperium and yours could help each other in the future?”

Could happen. Lots of stranger things happened in Warhammer 40K....and leave at that.

“Well . . .that actually . . .might work,” the Emperor says, suddenly remembering a lot of lost opportunities over the centuries. “Hm.”

With that turn of events (much welcomed), questions were finally asked that had been bothering the Champions about the Emperor’s presence: WHY he was here!

Eh, and then they'll ask about what he exactly meant about Horus resisting the Chaos Gods. That's important, yes. And that had been a mystery of sorts, what had happened from the last memories the Primarch had told them of and his arrival in Sunnyvale, but the fact the Emperor was up and about!! THAT Trumpted Horus's mystery for the moment.

“Uh . . .Your Imperial majesty, pardon me if I must say that you look rather spy for a shattered corpse,” Setsuna said from the side. “Did Leeman Russ get that Fruit Loops of Life earlier than what the handbooks called for?”

Uh, in case you wanted to know Leeman Rus (one of the Primarchs who'd remained loyal to the Emperor AND had lived through the final battle during the Horus Heresy) went on a quest somewhere in the galaxy to retrieve some kind of plant or some such that could have revived the Emperor and hadn't been heard from since. Such had been mentioned in the 40K literature and it . . .kind of fit the situation as presented to the Champions.

. . .

Even IF Setsuna just had a "Sailor Venus" moment there (i.e. the senshi of love in the manga and anime had this horrible tendency to mangle phrases in humorous ways). It carried over into this new life she now lived . . .

Made more than a few people stare at her when she did stuff like that, anyway.

1. “Fruit Loops?” Horus asks, suddenly waking up after being brought out of his sleep by that mangling of a phrase. “Oh Hells! What a strange . . .dream?”

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