Elsewhere, a silver and blue Cobra was pulled over by the side of the road. Two of the occupants were blissfully napping, both possessing blond hair, one a mutant, the other an elf. The third occupant stared outside and yawned from the sheer level of boredom he was experiencing. He rubbed his tired eyes and concentrated the task at hand, which happened to be deciphering line after line of computer data.
     “I just wish that things could be easier,” he muttered as he read through everything for the tenth time. “We can’t pinpoint any single location for a phase in point. As near as I can tell there are multiple phase in spots that need to be sealed. The only problem will be actually sealing them, since I’m not sure how they opened in the first place.”
     “You’re reading too much into this hon.,” a female voice said as a digital line image of a beautiful woman blinked up on a nearby screen. The image smiled. “Hey handsome, need some help processing your data?”
     “Good morning gorgeous,” he said, smiling at the image. “What brings you to our little outpost here Selma? I thought you’d be off with Alex and those guys and I’d be stuck with Deka.”
     “Oh, trust me tall, dark, and handsome,” Selma purred, “I’d like to be there. Only problem is that they’re out of range. Plus Deka’s with them if they need any help what so ever.”
     “Can you tell me anything about these rifts?”
     Selma hummed a tune for a moment before replying, “Well, they’re not rifts so much as weaknesses, sort of like a loose board in a fence. These phantoms uses those weaknesses to come and go as they please, like a shortcut. The only problem is that their shortcut seals up behind him. Sometimes they can get back in, but ninety percent of the time they’re locked out and trapped here.”
     “And what can you give us for data on the phantoms?”
     Selma hummed for a few moments before saying, “According to all tactical data from our field ops, both in this dimension and on Terra, there are several types of phantoms. Some are humanoid. Others look like insects. Some know how to fly and others just crawl. Then you get into your GIGA class phantoms which could easily wipe out a city on their own. However, most of what you guys have fought are META class, which is lower than giga, but fairly dangerous in themselves.”
     “You’re a peach Selma. Anything else you can tell us.”
     “Yeah.... there are several phantoms outside of your vehicle right now. They’re circling, trying to find a way to break through your barrier and have a tasty midnight snack.”
     Nick slid his shades down and activated the VR imaging system that was installed in the lenses. Within seconds he was able to see the phantoms as they moved around. “Kenzie, Del, time to wake up,” he said, reaching over to smack his brother, then behind him to poke the elf that was stretched out in the back seat.
     “What the hell’s wrong now?” Mackenzie asked as he sat up and rubbed his head, “I was in the middle of a dream with some gorgeous girl.”
     “Well, save your dream for later,” Nick said, “we have phantoms around the car.”
     “Tell ‘em to go away,” Del mumbled as he sat up, using Nick’s headrest for support. “Say Nicky, what’s with the shades?”
     “At the moment they’re allowing me to see the phantoms. Can you direct a pulse through the vehicle to make them visible?”
     Del yawned and pointed out the window, a charge of electrical energy striking the glass and fizzling. The backlash and resulting charge woke him up a bit, and he rolled the window down before firing another pulse into the open air. Phantoms began to materialize around them, their shapes melting downward to the ground as the charge took effect. Any phantom walking through the charge zone immediately took on said charge and became visible to the naked eye.
     “Well, that makes our jobs somewhat easier,” Mackenzie said, scratching his head. “One question.”
     “What’s it now little brother?” Nick asked.
     “Just what are we supposed to do against them? We’d have to stick VERY close to the car and remember not to walk outside of the energy field lest we become dinner.”
     Nick pondered for a moment before shrugging. “My guess is we get out, stay close to the car, and pick ‘em off the best we can.”
     “So it’s party time,” Mackenzie said as he kicked his door open and stepped outside. He slipped his shades on and waited for the other two to get out.
     “It looks like it,” Nick said as he stepped out, followed by Delwynndwn. “Del, position yourself at the back of the car. Mack, you’re all right where you are.”
     “A delta formation,” Del said. Nick nodded. “Interesting.”
     The phantoms growled and moved closer to the vehicle. Del brought his palms together, a globe of electricity forming. He shouted, “Lightning Blast!” and threw his hands forward, the globe exploding into a fan shaped wave of lightning that struck any phantom in the path of the blast and weakened it.
     Nick, on the other hand, closed his eyes and took on a more relaxed stance. A glowing circle of blue formed around his feet as snowflakes began to fill the air around him. He held his hands above his head, a ring of ice chunks forming. He shouted, “Diamond Dust!” as a conic wave of snow, ice, and wind tore its way through the ranks of the phantoms.
     Mackenzie’s hands glowed, his hair blown by some unseen wind as a circle of flames formed around his feet.. An aura of fire red formed around his body, and he held his hands so that his palms were facing. A large ball of flames and electricity formed in his hands, and this he held above his head. He shouted, "Nova Pulse!" before the globe exploded into a shockwave of fire that decimated a large amount of the attacking force on his side.
     After several such techniques all three of them were feeling fairly exhausted, since it takes a lot of energy to use such powerful attacks, especially on a repeated basis. Del leaned against the trunk of the car for support, his head swimming from energy drain. Nick and Mack leaned against the sides of the car, both feeling equally burned out from the stresses of the battle.
     “Hey boys, I hate to ruin your moment,” Selma chimed in, “but according to my readings your barrier is about to go bust.”
     “And to think that it couldn’t get worse than this,” Nick sighed as he straightened up. “Oh well, time to go back to action.”
     “Gimme a minute to catch my breath,” Mackenzie panted, “I feel like I’m gonna collapse here and now.”
     There was a sputtering sound, and a moment later the shield generator whined and wheezed to a stop. The three looked at each other, then at the phantoms that wasted little time in getting closer to dinner. Delwynndwn climbed onto the hood of the car, then onto the roof. Nick and Mackenzie were quick to scramble up there as well, since one unified attack was better than three independent attacks.
     “Well, we’re officially up a creek without a paddle,” Mackenzie said as he tried to summon the energy for another Nova Pulse, or even an Arc Pulse. Yet he was barely able to summon the power for a simple light spell. “Heh... imagine that. I’m out of power.”
     “I think I’m wiped as well,” Nick sighed as he sat down on the roof, his back to Mackenzie’s. “I can’t even summon a Dust Chip. Heck, Freeze Arrow would be asking too much right now.”
     “I don’t even have much spark left in me, but I’m gonna make my stand,” Delwynndwn said. A band formed around his left wrist, and a green glow came from this. He held it to the sky and shouted, “Charging UP!” What happened next wasn’t something any of them were expecting.
<music: I will be an Unhappy Angel - Battle Skipper .>
     A column of green light engulfed him, his clothes melting away, the glow hiding everything from the waist down. He braced his left arm with his right hand and pointed his fist towards the sky. A ring of green light formed above his head and spanned his body downward, forming wooden bracers, white ninja clothes, large green shoulder guards that resembled leaves, and a pair of katanas on his back. As they spanned downward a green belt formed around his waist, with a shimmering leaf as the belt buckle. White pants and ninja shoes formed, and a long green and white headband formed around his head. As he finished his transformation he brought his arms down to shoulder width, his palms facing the sky.
     “What... what just happened?” Mackenzie and Nick asked in unison.
     “Given the powers of nature by a pure heart, a defender of peace,” Delwynndwn said, drawing his katanas as he spoke. He leapt skyward, spinning the swords around. A rose colored glow formed at the center of the spin, and he shouted, “Blossom Storm!” A moment later a hail of thorns and Sakura petals pelted the phantoms closest to the vehicle, the thorns draining their vital energies until they disintegrated.
     “I don’t believe this,” Mackenzie gasped as Del dove into the midst of the army of phantoms. “He’s either really brave or incredibly stupid.”
     From the center of the army came a cry of, “Rose Rebellion!” A green glow formed in the midst of the phantoms, and a split second later tendrils of thorns snaked out, wrapping around the phantoms like ropes. The vines constricted, the thorns digging into their captives and draining their life energy. To end the attack black roses blossomed on the vines and the phantoms disintegrated into dust.
     “I think the rest are on the run,” Nick said as Del stepped up to the car and sheathed his swords.
     “They should be,” the elf said, brushing his fingers through his hair. His new armor glowed for a moment before vanishing, leaving him in the karate gi he had been wearing since Nick and Mackenzie picked him up earlier. He sighed and sprawled against the side of the car for support. “Well, I’m wiped.”
     “And we have a pinpoint on one of their breach points,” Selma chimed, “I also took the liberty of recharging your battery so that you’ll have sufficient shield power to get you through the rest of the night.”
     “Thanks Selma,” Mackenzie said as he slid into his seat and reclined a bit. “Good night.”
     “Pleasant dreams y’all,” Selma purred, “I’ll keep an eye on things for you. See you in the morning.”
     Her last sentence was met by the snores of three very tired people.

     It was quite early in the morning when somebody unlocked the door to the room belonging to D. Fisher. The person tiptoed into the room, a second person waiting by the door. The first stepped up to the bed and poked the form sleeping therein.
     “Amaya, it’s time to get up,” the identifiably female voice said as she poked.
     “Go ‘way Val,” D mumbled as she rolled over.
     The prodding and poking continued. “Amaya, it’s important that you get up NOW.”
 D rolled back over, her eyebrow twitching, and mumbled, “Val, if you don’t go away I shall make you suffer!”
     “But Amaya,” the person whined, poking D a couple more times. That was the point where part of D’s transformation into Amaya was triggered. Her black hair changed to silver white, and a set of triangular tattoos appeared beneath her eyes.
     “Val, I’m gonna... Caisha?” Amaya said as she lunged out of bed. She stopped a couple inches short of the young woman who had been prodding her and landed face first on the floor, which was a good three feet down.
     “Geeze, it sure took you long enough to wake up,” Caisha Alorianna said, brushing some of her wavy blue hair from her face, “I mean, you sure are a sound sleeper Amaya.”
     “Isn’t she always?” the person by the door asked before snickering.
     Amaya looked up at Caisha and asked, “What’s Sarah doing here? She doesn’t know about our alter egos except for the RPG’s.”
     “Well, I thought you’d be pleased to know that fire mage Arianna would be joining us,” Caisha said as she helped Amaya to her feet.
     “You unlocked her memories?”
     “Yup.”
     “How?”
     “A little spell I picked up, along with the unlock spell I used on the door. Very simple when you think about it.”
     A sweat drop formed on Amaya’s head. This was quickly replaced by a couple of anger marks. She growled. “So why in the hell did you wake me at this hell forsaken hour?!”
     Caisha giggled nervously for a moment as she backed towards the door. “Well, umm, the spirits are restless and beginning to hurt people.”
     “It’s true,” Arianna said, “I watched as a large group of people fell to the ground, and I felt a charge of some sort in the air.”
     “Who else can we call in for this?” Amaya asked as she shook her head to clear some of the sleepiness from her mind. “Aside from Natasha and Andrew.”
     The second name caused all three to cringe, since none of them could stand him. “What about Cassi and Darren?” Caisha suggested, “They live in the area and could be very helpful.”
     “Good point,” Amaya said from inside her closet.
     “Who and who?” Arianna asked.
     “You would have had to have been there dude,” Caisha replied. “They’re both way nice and super powerful.”
     “Only we need to pray we didn’t get Cassi out of bed in the middle of a good dream again,” Amaya added as she stepped out of the closet wearing white pants, silver boots, a silver top with a silver shirt over it, and a white wind breaker. Clipped to her belt was a short sword and a pair of sais. “O.K., I’m ready to go.”
     “I’ll call Darren’s place,” Caisha said, snagging Amaya’s phone. She tapped her foot impatiently as the phone rang.

     In one of Sailor Pluto’s safe houses a phone rang. And rang. And rang. Finally, out of desperation for sanity, a young lady with fire engine red hair rolled out of bed and stumbled to the phone.
     “Hello, house of whips and chains,” she mumbled, “death’s queen speaking. Do you have any idea how I’m going to torture you?”
     “Cassi, it’s Alorianna,” came from the other end, “we need your help.”
     “Gimme five reasons why I shouldn’t vaporize you for getting me out of bed,” Cassi grumbled, “and all had better be VERY good or I shall make you suffer.”
     “Reason one is that we don’t want to call Andrew since we can’t stand him!”
     “That one’s pretty good,” Cassi sighed, “four left.”
     “Number two is that we can’t reach Alex. Number three is that you and Darren are way powerful. Number four is that you live in the area...”
     “True, true, and true. But that’s only four.”
     There was a long pause before Caisha said, “You really want to help us out because if you don’t then the world as we know it could cease to exist.”
     A sweat drop formed on Cassi’s head. She sighed before saying, “I’ll give you four out of five. We’ll be there shortly.”
     As soon as she hung up the phone she grumbled something under her breath. At the top of her lungs she bellowed, “Darren! Will! Heather! Dawn! Wake up time!!”
     “Why did you wake me?” Darren asked as he plodded into the room, wearing only a pair of black and orange checked pants.
     “Caisha called. They need our help.”
     “Who’s Caisha, and who needs our help?”
     Cassi’s eyebrow began to twitch. “Caisha Alorianna. You know, blue hair, blue cloak, we met her when we fought that spirit master guy. I’m guessing the others in the they would be Amaya and somebody else.”
     “You handled this fine last time,” Heather mumbled as she plunked into a chair and pulled her shocking orange robe tighter around her.
     “Last time we knew what we were up against. This time we don’t have a clue.”
     “Wonderful,” Dawn sighed as she brushed some of her green hair behind her ear. She looked like she hadn’t slept for a couple of days, which, for her, was like death warmed over. “Somebody get me a cola. I’m too tired to move.”
     “You’ll get a charge from your transformation,” Will said as he produced his transformation pen. He hoisted it aloft and shouted, “Centaur Star Power Transform!” as his transformation took effect.
     “Why wait any longer?” Dawn asked as she got to her feet and took her pen from her robe pocket. “Ursa Star Power Transform!”
     “I don’t wanna go, but I guess I have to,” Cassi sighed, raising her pen to the sky, “Cassiopia Star Power Transform.”
     “Night Aura Power Transform!”
     “Sxxxxzzz....” came from Heather, who had fallen asleep leaning against the arm of her chair.
     “Heather!” four voices shouted.
     “I’m awake!” Heather said, standing bolt upright and holding her pen aloft, “Nebula Star Power Transform!!”
     Once Heather completed her transformation into Warrior Nebula the five exited the safe house and set a course for Amaya’s dorm, where the other three members of their party would be waiting for them for some action.

     A short time later the three spell casters and five Constellation Senshi met up, all wondering why they got called out of bed at some ungodly hour to take care of heaven knows what. Ursa leaned against Centaur, her head on his shoulder, and took a quick nap. Cassiopia paced back and forth as Night downloaded relevant data from Selma and Deka. Caisha and Amaya maintained an energy barrier around them for the duration of Night’s data transfer. Nebula glanced about, her hand on her whip, in anticipation of some action.
     “What do we have to go on?” Arianna yawned as she fiddled with her crossbow.
     “All the data is downloaded and sent to our D3’s,” Night said, fishing a digital device of black and orange from his pocket. He pressed a button and a holographic map of the area appeared. Eight colored blips representing them sat in one part of the map. Moving around the initial eight blips were some twenty red blips, representing the phantoms that were still invisible. “There we go. All meta class or lower.”
     “Wonderful,” Cassiopia said, “so what do we do now? We can’t see them, and if they touch us we’re history.”
     “Lightning Barrage!” Amaya shouted, flinging her hands at the area around them, bolts of electricity flying from her hands and giving a heavy duty charge to the air. The appearance of the phantoms was almost like somebody splashed them with paint, since they seemed to melt out of the air.
     “A little warning next time, please,” Nebula said, her hair a mass of static electricity.
     “They’re visible and solid now,” Night said as some of the phantoms began to attack the barrier.
     “Bloody hell,” Caisha mumbled as she was knocked from her feet by the force of impact, “At this rate it’ll be like the ghost walk all over again.”
     “Light Shield!”
     Cassiopia’s hands glowed as she summoned her power, a globe of pale blue forming between her palms. She lobbed this into the air and a dome of energy formed around them, this one stronger than the combined shields of Amaya and Caisha. She nodded to the two mages. “You can put your magic to better use now, and this will remain in effect indefinitely.”
     “Thankies,” Caisha said, a globe of dark blue forming in her hand. She held this out to the phantoms before saying, “Heart’s Bane Rose.” A shower of blue roses fired from the globe, piercing several phantoms multiple times. The roses glowed as a separate drain spell took effect, sucking the energy out of them.
     “Fireball!” Arianna cried, lobbing her own spell into the fray. When it was in the center of a group of phantoms she cried, “Break!” The word triggered an additional part of the spell, causing the fireball to break into multiple fragments that struck the phantoms around it.
     “Glacial Freeze!” Amaya cried as she lobbed several glowing blue globes into the air. The wind began to blow in a circular motion as the globes exploded into spears of ice. Cassiopia winced as her shield was struck by several ice lances, but she remained strong as several more phantoms were frozen solid and shattered by the winds.
     “Anyone know any area affective spells?” Night asked. The others shrugged. “Bloody hell. Any attacks or spells that won’t nuke the heck out of the surrounding area when used?”
     “Umm, I might know one or two,” Arianna said timidly.
     “What can you cast that won’t frag everything and everything?” Cassiopia asked, her shield threatening to break at any moment.
     “Umm.... Vortex, Super Cyclone, Plasma Rain, the all mighty Catastrophe spell, Crematorium, Freeze Claw and Freeze Smash, Crack Point and Crack Zone, Thunder Blow, to name a few.”
     Cassi’s shoulder armor slid a bit when Arianna finished naming her spells. Night and the others looked a bit shocked as well. “You know any other spells?” Caisha asked, “aside from those and the shattering fireball.”
     “Well, there’s Nitro Dagger... but that one has risks.”
     “Shield strength at 18% and dropping,” Cassi stated, “when it goes, so do our souls.”
     Arianna looked at her friends and the warriors and nodded in determination. She waved her arms in arcane motions, a pentacle forming around her feet, wind blowing her red hair about in tangled webs.
     “Nitro Dagger!” she shouted, a wave of blue surrounding her. A globe of blue formed above her outside the bubble and pulsed, sending off a hail of ice shards that fired in all directions, striking any and all phantoms in their path. The attack opened up a wide swath around the dome, allowing Cassi a chance to take a breather.
     “We have a lock on the rift in your area,” Selma chirped cheerily in Night’s ear, “you’re quite close to it. In fact, you’re almost directly beneath it.”
     “What’s she saying?” Centaur asked, producing his bow and drawing the string back, a glowing silver arrow forming.
     “She says we’re almost directly beneath their warp in point,” Night explained, “Selma, can you be a little more specific?”
     “You want specific, how’s this? Point bearing N324, E136, grid 44, mark 11,” Selma replied, this time in Centaur’s ear as well.
     “Got it,” Centaur said, the arrow in his hand glowing brighter as he summoned warrior power. “Heavenly Crush!” he cried as he released the arrow, which was right on target. The missile entered the portal and detonated, collapsing the rift and sealing it. The phantoms in their area were now trapped without reinforcements.
     “It’s party time,” Nebula grinned, lashing her whip about, “Cosmic Fire Strike!”
     A circle of flames formed above her head, and she cracked her whip through the center of it, splitting it and sending two intertwining streams of fire drilling through a small cluster of phantoms.
     “Queen’s Savior!” Cassi cried as she leapt skyward, her spear glowing. She dove at a group of phantoms and slammed her spear into the ground, several ghostly guardsmen appearing and striking the phantoms with spirit swords. The phantoms disintegrated a moment later, and Cassi spun around in time to impale one that had decided to attack her. “Empress Special Strike!” she cried, her spearhead bursting into ethereal flame. The phantom burst into blue flame a moment later, and Cassi whipped out some marshmallows to roast for S’mores.
     “Ring their bells with prayers and spells,” Amaya sang as she hurled one of her sais at a phantom. “Spire!”
     A lightning bolt crackled through the sky and remained with the sai as it passed through four phantoms before lodging itself in a tree. Those phantoms it touched disintegrated to ash a moment later.
     “Galaxia Gun...” Night cried as he accumulated a massive amount of energy in his bracers. When the jewels glowed as purple as his hair she shouted, “Fire!”, hurling his arms forward to release a column of energy that ripped through a swarm of phantoms and decimated them.
     “How many does that leave?” Ursa asked as a couple of phantoms disintegrated following a Rising Nova attack.
     “Oh, that small group of four,” Caisha replied, pointing to four very confused phantoms. One was a meta class bug type, while the other three were human sized and humanoid shaped. All were looking about in hopes of reinforcements. When they saw the eight humans looking at them they winced a little, then assumed battle positions.
     “Looks like we do this the hard way,” Arianna smiled, beginning the motions for a spell. She waved her arms upward before plunging them down like Lina would for a Mega Brand. “Crack Zone!”
     Stone pillars erupted from the ground and exploded, laying waste to the three humanoids. the meta class took a little damage, but made a bee line for Arianna, who was recovering from casting the spell.
     “Look out!” Amaya shouted, running to get her friend out of danger.
     “Holy Light!”
     A glowing circle of runes, as well as glowing strands of intertwining runic symbols formed around the phantom, holding it in place while striking with awesome holy force. The phantom vanished with an audible POOF when the spell ended, and the two mages looked to see Centaur leaning on his bow to catch his breath.
     “Ultimate white magic damage,” he smiled, “well, a step down from Ultra Nova, but still strong.”
     “Thanks,” Arianna said as she walked up to him and kissed him on the forehead, “thank you very much.”
     Centaur blushed. “Well, it was nothing.”
     “I want to make it up to you. What would you like most?”
     Centaur blushed a little more. “Umm... can I learn some of your spells? I only know a couple, and they’re not much.”
     Arianna giggled. “Your ‘little’ spell saved my life. I’ll teach you some of my magic, but in return I would like to learn Holy Light and Ultra Nova.”
     Centaur nodded in agreement. “Done deal.”
     “Can we go back to bed yet?” Nebula asked through a yawn.
     “I suppose so,” Night said, scanning the area one more time. “No phantoms, and no sign of rifts. I’d say we’re safe.”
     “Well, good night,” Cassi said, linking arms with Night and waving to the three mages. “We must do lunch some time.”
     “Sure,” Amaya called back, “give us a call.”
     “Sure thing. G’night.”
     “Night.”
     Without further words the three mages and five warriors went their separate ways to return to their warm beds and catch up on their interrupted sleep.

go to next?
return to the insanity?