Shimei Crossover2 12\98 Pt.7 *1* Imagine and Faune set up breakfast before anyone woke up. They were tired and she didn't want them awake yet. She'd sat watching the Wirren sunrise and then set to work. Silas had woken up next and she quickly put him to work. A few minutes later she caught his eye. He smiled from his place at the fire where he was making coffee. She smiled back. He turned away after a moment, but still wore a faint smile. She liked the man. Eventually she would show him his place in the Nyhalon and then the Fahnico. People wondered out until only one person was left sleeping. Mamoru grabbed a handful of water and snuck into Usagi's tent mischeviously. A moment later they heard her scream. He jumped out grinning and she followed a few moments later. * * Imagine briefed them after breakfast. "We are headed to a world somewhat like yours. However, a virus has killed off 99% of the population. A demon who calls himself Randall Flag was instrumental in the spreading of this plague." "99%?" Giles asked in horror. Imagine nodded. "Those who survived have either been called to this demon or the Lord of Light. Flag is in Las Vegas and the others gather in Colorado. We will start in New York and drive to Colorado and Las Vegas cleansing the world as we go." Bast looked queasy. "Cleansing?" *2* They started on Long Island. Imagine supplied them with trailors, cars, gas, and supplies. But nothing could have prepared them for their first sight. Dead bodies lay scattered. No one alive besides them was present. Rei looked sick and Imagine laid a hand on her arm. "Mars Holy Flame," Mars nodded and held up her hand. Fire appeared around it. She swung it in a circle around her. She yelled out, "Mars Holy Fire!" Fire sprung up in a circle around them and spread away from them. In a matter of moments, every body was vaporized. She swayed, but Xander caught her. Storm and Rogue returned. "The Island is clear." Imagine nodded. "Then we had better go." * * In New York City it was Serenity's turn. Holding up the Silver Crystal she yelled, "Moon Purity Elimination!" The affect spread similarly to Mars's. Endymion was quick to catch her. "I never knew New York city was so big." she muttered. * * That night, when they stopped, Imagine drew Xander aside. He looked nervous, but followed her. She took him into a wooded area. "To fight a war you need a weapon and training." "Buffy let me tag along with her." he said. Imagine smiled. "I know, but I have something better." She held out her hand to him. "Zepher to you." He felt a new power taking hold of him. He could feel it molding to fit him. He looked to see himself in a uniform similar to Imagine's, but in red and gold. A sword hung at his waist. He pulled it out. On the hilt was inscribed, TRUTH. She smiled. "You transform much like the senshi do, but you are a Salidor. Now, you need training." A large being with pointy ears stepped out of the shadows. "You asked for me?" Imagine nodded. "Brandark, please teach Salidor Zepher how to fight." "Yes, my Lady Imagine." he said. Then she walked back to the group. * * The next night she took Shepsu aside while Xander spent another night training with Brandark. Shepsu was the only one in the group with any idea of how powerful Imagine really was. They respected each other. Shepsu sat on the park bench. "You wish to talk of the crystal." Imagine nodded. "You need to know of what it can do for you. It gives you precognizant powers as well as telekinesis. You have limited teleportation. You have several senshi style attacks. In fact, you are one of them." Shepsu nodded. "I doubt my brother remembers I existed. Yes, I have retrieved memories using the Golden Crystal." "You also have a transformation. You become the Golden Knight. You can will yourself to become it." Imagine told her. Shepsu did so and found herself in a suit of golden armor. A golden crystal rose was on her forehead. "I have missed this, but I fear this like any new thing." "Even the best of us become confused." Imagine said. Shepsu nodded. Then she said, quite insightfully, "And those who seem the strongest are sometimes the weakest." * * The night before they arrived in California, Imagine drew the Senshi aside. "You all can transform into the Queen or KIng warriors of your planets. In that form, you have knew trabsformations and attacks. To do so, you say, Mars Queen Power, or Neptune, Moon, or Earth King Power." Imagine told them concisely. They nodded and transformed. Each wore a suit ofarmor. Edymions was dar blue, Neptune's was aqua, Mar's was red, and Moon's was white. They had respectively colore crystals on their foreheads. Endymion had a red rose in his hand and forehead. Mars tried her new attack. "Lava Shower!" The ground erupted in a geyser of molten rock. Neptune countered it with, "White Water Tsunami!" The Tsunami of freezing water hardened the lava. *3* They arrived in boulder, Colorado the next day. Imagine prceded them. She was introduced to their leader Mother Abigail Freemantle. "Hello, Mother Abigail. I see the Lord of Light guides your path." "Yes, my dear. What is your name?" Mother Abigail was an old woman. What a strange child, she thought. "I am Faharain. But you can call me Faith." Imagine said. "We wish to stay here and rest for a few days." "Where are you going?" she asked. "We go where the lord leads." Faith answered. "Of course, you can stay with me. There are still empty houses and you can find someone to board with if you don't to be alone." Imagine turned to Silas. "Make sure everyone is settled." He nodded and she followed the old woman into the house. * * "You are the warrior HE spoke about. The one who would take down Flag." M.Abigail said. Faith nodded and sat in a chair. "I don't know how much longer I can do this." Abigail sat across from her. "They are your people. You won't fail them. The Lord will take care of you." "They have grown since I started training them. But I know of such terrible thingsto come. I don't know how Shepsu stands it." Faith said. "I feel like a coward, i was so happy to hear we had to leave before the battle." "Child," the woman said. "No, not a child despite your looks. You are a woman stronger than I. You will succeed." *4* After a few days of relaxing Imagine brought them towards Las Vegas. "We have jumped ahead in time now. Two men from Boulder are being tried by Flag and we are going to intervene. When the fighting starts your first responsibility is to remove the people. Have the teleporters do it. You will know when to fight. When in doubt, follow Silas." Silas looked uncomfortable, but didn't contradict her. * * The mob spat at the armored car passing through their midst. Imagine shook her head in disgust and made her way up to the stage. Flag was reading the list of "crimes" and his lackey's shackled two men to crosses with the intention of dismembering them. Imagine jumped onto the stage and faced him. "No interferenve will be tolerated." he told her. She transformed. "I the soul Warrior of Imagine and Warrior of DEOS challenge you to a duel to the death to acted upon now." His eyes narrowed in fury. To refuse would mean ridicule. To accept would be siucide. He called on an army of demons as he said. "I accept your challenge." She smiled and then cut him off by any support by raising walls of Holy Fire around the stage. * * Silas signaled for them to teleport the mob away as the demons attacked. As people vanished a young man appeared in Salidihm garb. At the same time the demons took on corporeal forms (bodily). "Pleae tell my Lady Imagine that I have brought them all into phaze for you to despell." Thn he vanished. When the mob had been ported away, the fighting began. Those who had come with Imagine were at first shaken, but they shook it off and went into a complex battle formation. Silas gave orders, taking charge. He organized them into groups based on their fighting style. He quickly chose Ra, Bast, and Giles as the subleaders over the three groups. Yohko, Endymion, Salidor Xander, and he formed a spinning diamond of flashing swords, moving quickly and leaving desolation among the demon ranks. Tobias morphed an Hork-Bajir. Khons shapeshifted into a grizzly bear. The Thing and Rogue stood at their backs. Together they used their super strength to literally tear and hack apart the demons in their path. In between them, a diminutive Planeteer Heart was putting the demons before them to sleep, speeding them up considerably. A large group of long range fighters gathered between the twin groups of mobile circles. They faced outward and wreaked havoc in the demon ranks. "Purity Elimination!" Serenity's white light blast destroyed dozens of demons. Serenity was pleased to go first for once. "White Water Tsunami!" A wave of breaking speed water hit the demons. Neptune seemed smug. "Lava Shower!" The ground shook as a geyser of molten rock shot out of the ground, raining fire upon the enemy. Mars smiled wickedly. "Golden Rose Storm!" A hundred gold roses flew at terminal speed at the enemy. Shepsu smiled and exchanged winks with an amused Endymion. She was surprised to see an ichor dripping sword approaching her heart. Then, suddenly, a blur materialized in front of her. The sword was ripped from the demon's hand, and the demons neck broken. Robin appeared, in uniform and smiled at her. She smiled back. On the other side of the circle, Napoleon, sitting on Serenity's shoulder, cried, "Moon Blast!" His blast of white energy illuminated the front rank of advancing demons, vaporizing them. Lightning streamed from Storm's hands, electrifying the demons closing in on her, then blowing at the ones behind them with a terrible wind. Gambit was using up decks of cards, making them explosive and tossing them. Unfortunately, several were closing in on him. He redoubled his efforts, but two were approaching him with swords drawn. He ducked down, pulled out his boot knife and stabbed at one, knowing the other would kill him. Then four small flying knives crossed his vision, tearing into the one about to kill him. He completed his stroke, killing his target, as Ukyo's battle spatula beheaded the other. They nodded and began to fight again. In the middle of the circle, Sonar stood dazed. She was witnessing large scale killing. Never before had she seen such wholesale destruction. Rogue alighted next to her. "What's wrong, sugar?" Sonar just stared at her mutely. Rogue knew she had to get out of her funk. So she shook her head sadly. "At this rate, you'll nevah beat Banshee in a whistling contest. And ah had such high hopes." The taunt brought Sonar out of her stricken state. She glared. "Will so!" She looked at the demons and opened her mouth. Then she emitted a low pitch sound, a sonic boom. The surprised demons were bowled over and she looked over to Rogue to tell her off. To her surprise, Rogue was not beside her but in the sky, dropping large buildings on the enemy. She shrugged and went back to work, with vigor. The spinning diamond of sword bearers were holding their own, and decimating the enemy ranks. Xander, newly made a Salidor, was surprised how much skill had had gained with his samarui sword. As he blocked a blow at Silas' head, the older man grinned lopsidedly. "Nice shot." Xander was in turn protected from several lethal blows by Yohko, who whirled her two handed sword around with ease, without even her uniform tearing. Endymion's eyes often strayed to the group of long range fighters, checking on his love. Silas noticed and looked at him suggestively. Endymion rolled his eyes while dearming (literally) the nearest enemy. On the other side of the long range fighters, the four continued. Heart would put the enemy to sleep, giving the Thing a chance to break their necks. At their backs, Tobias was still in the form of an alien with blades covering his body, with which he was slashing the oncoming demons to pieces. Khons, as a grizzly bear was doing much the same thing. While at first the demons had seemed to outnumber greatly the fighters, now it was obvious that the training group would win soon. True to form, the cowardly demons fled when the odds turned. The victors cheered, slapping high fives and exchanging hugs. *1* Then the wall of fire around the stage dropped, revealing the two challengers. Jaws dropped. Serenity, Rei, Yohko, Michiru, Endymion, and Shepsu facefaulted. Napolean, in his smug manner, seemed unsurprised. Imagine, Flag, and the prisonors (Larry and Ralph) were seated on large chairs facing them. Another girl, wearing leather native american garb, was grinning. She stuck her hand in Flag's face. "See, I told you they would win. Pay up." He hesistated, but gave her a necklace that no one could get a good look at because she put it away so fast. "Now go away." he said. She vanished. Imagine decided not to try to explain the Salidihm of Betting, I, uh, mean probability, of course. She stood and the chairs vanished. Larry and Ralph appeared among the fighters. She drew her sword and said, "Now we fight." He grinned. "You have no hope." She shrugged. She looked over at the fighters. "This is MY fight, don't interfere." ^Well, are we going to get on with it?^ the sword asked. She smiled. ^Hush, you. Yes, we will begin.^ The curved sword made a slash at him. He blocked. He then attacked her, but she blocked it. This continued for a few moments. Then, she attacked with unerring, inhuman speed. After a second, she ceased the attack. She seemed to be waiting for something. The observers saw that she had written a name with the tip of her sword on his chest. Baal. He screamed in fury and his features twisted. He now looked more like a demon. She gazed on him sadly and as he leapt at her ducked and slashed his chest where she'd named him. He fell to the ground, thoroughly weakened and then with his power diminished, and vanished. * * Imagine fell to her knees and a bright light shown in the dark sky. A voice boomed out, "Well done my child. Now, lead my people home." The light faded and she stood and faced the awed observers. Her voice was raw. Her power was mainly used up and she was exhausted. "Larry, Ralph go home and tell what has happened. We are leaving." Storm flew over to her. "What will happen to the people?" "My friend directed the teleport to a new home for them. Don't worry, they live." Imagine said. Faune and another girl appeared. "It is time to go." The heads of the Kerradan Academy teleported them to Betwixt to rest. *******