An Unwelcome Parting of the Ways (part 3)
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 89680
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"So . . .if you don’t mind opening the TARDIS up so we can do a ‘hot
drop’ back down to the VLA. . .please? " the blue haired woman asks
the still somewhat shaken Doctor.
"Pardon?" the Master blinks, finally snapping out of whatever had
caused his semi-stupor a moment earlier to focus on what Rei was
saying. "I do hope you’re not planning on trying to do some kind of ill
advised paratrooper drop into that insanity zone around the VLA. Or at
least you’ll have the good taste at not including me in such
insanity, thank you!
"I mean this was a MOST unexpected but welcome surprise
mind you," the Master qualifies, holding up the item that had been given
him just moments earlier within the TARDIS. "But jumping into what
amounts to what could be called a potential combat zone by parachute
is . . . what?"
Thwick-ZLURP!!
Like everyone else, the Master is looking at a strange vehicle
that is something similar in style to a large motorcycle (with a
sidecar), albeit somewhat larger (and missing odd things
like . . .wheels).
"This is a combat sled that I . . . acquired from somewhere
earlier," Fred explains, waving proudly at his toy. "Couple IT with the
magic carpet ride Setsuna and her husband will be riding by tractor beam,
it shall do the job MUCH better than almost any parachute I’d
care to name."
"We’re going in fast and hard, landing as quickly and close to
where you said you’d left your TARDIS parked," Fred explained while he
put away a clunky looking piece of equipment that only had a slight
resemblance to a certain weapon made . . .infamous by the Master . "I
agree totally with you about trying to parachute in being an
idiotic idea so . . ."
"What in the flamin’ hell are you doing with a Tissue Compression
Eliminator,?" Betty sputters, jumping out of her chair she’d been using
while watching. "With a reverse function on it?! WHERE the HELL
did you get one and . . .?!"
"I got it on Galifrey legal and clear!" Fred protested, holding up
his hands in a placating gesture. "Even have the proper license for it
with me if you want and need to see it. Besides, it’s not really
a TLC weapon like what the Master here carries about. The
Master’s TCL is the weaponized version of my device and my I
add I would have to be VERY desperate to try to utilize it as a weapon in
combat."
Not to say it couldn’t be done Fred would concede later to the
others. It was just that the device was designed for a decidedly NON-
combat utility, being too short ranged (and cumbersome). The
Master’s signature weapon was MUCH more suited for such a thing.
Not that Fred really wanted to use such a fell weapon, all in
all. If death should be given out by him by his own hands then let it be
done quickly; something that the TLC . . .wasn’t exactly known for being.
Besides, the hoops he’d have to jump through in order to get a
license for THAT weaponry would not be worth the headache. Much less the
suspicion that would befall him IF he should be so foolish as to pursue
such a dark device….
"That coupled with a few shield devices we’re going to be handing
out here in a moment to those who’ve opted not to stay behind and
instead . . . of following us into a live fire zone," Fred continues,
pulling out yet another device (this one magic based) to show his
rather . . .befuddled audience.
Oh please! Like you think that everyone here from the Doctor’s
old group was going to go into what amounted to a war zone? Not saying
that those who are staying behind--who have the option of doing it, the
Master was rather obligated to come along considering it was his life if
he didn’t come—are cowards. It is just that . . .this is a bit MUCH to
ask a person.
Kind of outside their purview, shall we say, for some of them.
Not like they took any night annex courses in being some kind of
superhero. Or even a soldier, really, what with this warzone thing and
all that. Especially the KIND of warzone that . . .
No, that would be telling too much too soon!
The selling point for why some don’t volunteer eventually was that
the chances of success for this upcoming task might be much BETTER if
some of them stayed behind! The more untrained people following Rei’s
group around meant the more Rei and her friends would feel obligated at
keeping an eye out for said untrained helpers (and less on keeping an eye
on the Master . . .to keep him safe . . .and from doing something ELSE
rash that would/could screw everyone else over).
The Doctor? A no go no matter what he’d like it to be otherwise.
He’s going to be returning to his natural state, him and his TARDIS soon
upon returning to Betty’s reality. Oh, he might be able to use the
TARDIS’ communication network to contact Rei and the gang overhead whilst
he was dematerialized (and not risking interacting with his antimatter to
the rest of the matter of Betty’s Earth). He could give technical advice
and such, but not much more.
The Master? We already covered why he was coming along…
Betty? D*mnit, this was her world in danger here. Her family and
friends (and her Blake’s 7 videos) were on the line here. Of course she
was going, with or without the Doctor!
Melissa? Not only is she no longer human (and rather happy about
having gotten back her "rightful form"), but she was needed to act as a
counterpoint over on THIS side of the Hellmouth to help make thing easier
for the ceremony Rei was planning. She’s not going, period.
Besides, even IF Betty’s world was in danger having HER along
besides the Master for any length of time was a VERY bad idea. She
really is still a bit . . .sore from having been held at gunpoint earlier
their and her life threatened and all that nonsense. Her newly restored
griffin heart . . . just won’t stand for it and as such expect the Master
to be put into a bad way if left alone too long (and the Master isn’t
watching his back). Just a needless headache for Rei so the two stay
separated.
Hm, with that in mind maybe getting the heck out of here asap
would be a good idea for Xander’s continued good health as well? The
Master and Xander . . .rub each other the wrong way and . . .
Ah, but back to the task at hand, eh?
Stacy? Well, the fact of the matter is that IF Stacy is really a
transformed Rommana (and she IS from all evidence), she’d going to be out
of it for the foreseeable future so it going to be left back HERE in the
Library and that’s that. She’s still out cold and maybe after this Quest
business is done (or at a convenient lull) will Rei and the gang see
about Stacy’s problems. Bigger fish to fry and too much on their plate as
it stands right now, thanks.
They’re kind of behind the eight ball as it stands with
certain . . .delays in their Quest with that long layover in Warhammer
40K, thanks! Or at least they’re still somewhat jangled nerves tell them
this, anyway.
Damn lucky to have managed to come out on top in that fiasco…
The Scoobies? Any of them? Well, them coming along wasn’t in the
cards anyway. More like they’d been staying behind because . . .somebody
needed to guard the Hellmouth from any Big Bads in Sunnyvale, right?
Well, that’s what they tell themselves anyway. More like Buffy
(who is a rather POWERFUL entity who calls herself and sure SEEMS like
some kind of warrior Angel) won’t LET them…
This is the Champion’s dance so . . .no Scoobies. Quest demands
only so much else things are going to get . . .more needlessly
complicated so Buffy said. So Rei and her group says! And unless
they want to FORCE their help upon Rei’s group . . .
Still, it rankles some of the Scoobies right now. Not exactly
does it with Xander, however. He’s still kind of reeling from suddenly
finding himself having been . . .well . . .almost conned or forced into a
pending date with the Rei sister named Lilith. Something to do with that
one gag product he bought for a song on Ebay . . .only those "memory
tapes" from Neon Genesis Evangelion (a prop) weren’t such a gag after
all. Lilith had been out maneuvered by him and she said that . . .she
was owed a date for him having done that to her.
THOSE were her memory tapes from her downloads and she wasn’t
going to just let Xander go and have them for NOTHING.
Besides, she’d said he was . . .cute.
Frankly, Xander wasn’t sure HOW this date was going to work out
and had . . .real questions about the wisdom of it all.
Then again, how often does one get a chance to date a hot anime
babe, eh?!
His head leading him one way and his heart (and hormones) leading
him another: poor Xander!
…
Snerk!
Sighing, Reika nods and sees how it’s going to go. Good enough.
Now, she and her sisters were going to use the remainder of their time to
deal with here. Some of it stems from "nobless obliges": there was no
way that she and her sisters weren’t going to at least try to do
something the Master’s original target. And them there was the newest
sibling: Yukiko. Her school uniform wasn’t suited for continued use if
she was going to be "adventuring", especially IF she was going to be
going flying at a VERY high speed.
The transformation spell would permanently turn her outfit into
the "base model" for your basic "adventuring magic user" female type
found on Terra Prime. Which mean that not only did it breath easily (but
accepted magical endowments easily), but it was incredibly tough. Tough
enough that high speed winds wouldn’t tear it to pieces, when
reconfigured to "flight mode" (her sisters had already switched THEIR
dresses to that mode already).
That done, she turned to something that had been bothering her
about her sibling for a bit now: her hair.
See, Reika’s locks were something of a pride for her. Part of her
awakened pride in her self and her appearance that her family had awoken
in her soon upon taking her into the fold, you must understand. She
invested a lot of effort and a bit of time to make her hairdo
look . . .marvelous. A bit more than her other sisters, true (not that
they were lazy with their appearance but not quite as bad as she was),
but still it brought compliments from a lot of her admirers and
she . . .found she liked that a LOT.
She wanted the same for her newest sister so . . .her newest
sibling had found herself suddenly dressed in a outfit more suited for
something found in fantasy tales, she would wager. Found her short,
pageboy cut hairdo being lengthened by magic into something that now
reached down to a bit below her shoulder blades by the magical combs that
Reika utilized to a fast, almost frenzied zeal.
It wasn’t painful, the stroking of her hair by that comb . . .just
odd. And oddly . . .pleasurable. A feeling of warmth was felt in Yukiko
as she knew that . . .this was something of a labor of love for Reika. A
gift.
The painful part soon came as she was sitting still on one of the
library chairs as Reika was finishing her art. No, it wasn’t that she
had hurt herself when leaning back in her chair. Her wings were
incredibly flexible. Heck, her sisters slept regularly on their back and
never hurt their wings so leaning back in a chair wasn’t a danger at all.
No, the wincing she was doing was because she feels the hands
that had been halfway done with weaving her hair into the braids of a
hair style that her sister here had suggested (mentally) and she’d found
rather . . . intriguing: the Mid-Braid.
"Ouch," she said softly as she winced. Sensing a feeling
of . . .satisfaction coming from her elder sister, she then smiled
somewhat in bemusement. "What?"
Is our "Master" finally getting off the dime and going to
ask us some questions about our gift we’d given, she thought
to herself, sensing the beginning of the end of an ongoing (albeit
subtle) series of efforts to coax the Master into approaching THEM than
the other way around.
It . . .provided a bit more in the way of advantage in
negotiations, it was thought in some circles, to have it that way. And
given the caliber of menace and intelligence the Master had, every bit
helped!
That is what her sisters and friends told her and right now Yukiko
took that as Gospel truth! The bearded Timelord here gave her . . ."the
creeps" she believed the term was used to describe what she felt about
the man.
"At least with her having stopped wearing those blasted A-10 clips
her taste in hairstyles improved dramatically," Lilith chuckled after
glancing and admiring Reika’s work thus far. "I admit that while she had
a hairstyle similar to the Second Child and it did somewhat suit
the Second Child, it did not quiet work for her!"
"Oh, I don’t know . . .it did have a certain charm but still I do
admit she looks better just without it," Rei disagreed. "Frankly,
somehow it gave people the stupid idea that she was trying to copy
the Second instead of just taking a page from her in the realm of
fashion."
Fred, meanwhile, is leaning back against a bookcase and shaking
his head slightly, smiling. This is an old argument that has yet
to be totally settled and BOY did he miss it for so long, with Rei and
her sisters locked away in Cold Sleep in a tin can of a spaceship barely
worthy of the name!
"If you are almost finished with styling your sister’s hair there . . . I
believe we have business to discuss," the Master said in a serious voice,
holding up the talisman that Rei had gifted him with only moments
ago. "I . . .believe that I got the message you sent with your gift you
gave me inside the Doctor’s TARDIS."
He had, after being shocked when he actually recognized the
talisman as looking . . .disturbingly familiar to the very THING (or at
least half of it) that had finally freed him from those bloody bedamned
war-drums. He had sputtered (actually sputtered) that the
device actually WAS working (it had a similar psionic "taste" as that
relic he had stolen back on Galifrey) and the young mage had
been . . .most pleased.
But apparently had been waiting for him to make the first move.
Something he found rather annoyed him because it meant that HE was
dancing to her tune and not the other way around.
BUT then again he’d be damned if he would let foolish pride lead
to complete and utter reversal of fortune due to bruised ego. Perhaps
later he would redress the insult latter, Or perhaps NOT.
After that little display about that "pepper spray" earlier (which
was sufficient by her words to be able to stop a charging elephant), one
might want to be careful with this young woman; else one might be finding
themselves screaming in agony as they clawed their own eyes out in pain
from something VERY painful that got sprayed in their face, eh?
"Now, while I still am having . . .trouble with the idea of there
being no strings attached to me having it. No contracts signed in my
blood or my firstborn child and . . ."
"That is only something a witch ala Terra Prime
would do," Lilith said in a cold, hard tone. "And while legend has
me eventually siding with the Devil himself and becoming a witch
as something from fairy tale, evil magic and all, I and my sisters are
NOT witches. We said as much and asked as much right off the bat over
pizza a bit earlier, right?"
It was something of a . . .pet peeve of Lilith and her sisters.
While being at least the source for the legend from Jewish
mythology for the first man’s first wife (the one who legend stated
failed to show proper subservience almost at the start, being too willful
and independent) had some perks, that little "misunderstanding" wasn’t
one of ‘em. Oh, it was somewhat pleasing that a Woman’s Liberation group
in Israel on a few timelines took her name as their group’s own was
edifying in a way.
. . .
No, she wasn’t wed to the Devil to gain her magic powers and
neither were her sisters, thank YOU. Heck, even the (former) witch named
Willow was actually bristling some from that gaff the Master just made.
Wica was NOT Devil Worship and all that rot, thank you. That is what
Willow would say if asked. Rather heatedly, may I add she would say
it.
"Pardon, I mispoke," the Master said, holding up a placating hand and at
least had the deceny to look contrite (though everyone knew it was an
act). "What I am trying to say is . . .what is your price for the
second half of this device? I find I’ve grown rather fond
of not hearing those bloody drums that the Other inflicted upon me back
so long ago, thank you very much.
"Honestly, I’d like to keep it that way without losing it all to a
time/space paradox."
Meanwhile, a nihilist "Bridge Bunny" blinks in confusion as he suddenly looks around the room as a battle rages onscreen, an EVA against an Angel.
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