Credits: Ah! My Goddess! copyright 1988, 1998 by Kousuke Fujishima. This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction. As such, I'm getting no compensation for writing this fiction other than my own enjoyment, because the thought of getting sued is rather unpleasant. Disclaimer: All characters *I* have created are purely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is pure coincidence. Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably just itching for a fight. Also, please do not try and distribute this story in a lame attempt to make a buck; it would be bad karma to say the least. C&C appreciated! Send them to Michael McAvoy http://members.nbci.com/mmcavoy/ Ah, My Goddess! "In Search of a Wish" A Fan-fiction by Michael McAvoy "One of the more peculiar notions widespread amongst humans is their perception of the nature between Good and Evil. Mortals, quite unnaturally, have the curious view that a perfect world is one where only Good exists, wholly without Evil. Indeed, the mortals have historically ignored the fact that Good and Evil must coexist in equal amounts to achieve Balance. Hence, the goal of the various immortals is not to defeat their foes, but to thwart them, thus preserving the natural order of life. Realistically, immortals do defeat their foes, causing an imbalance in the world. Such an imbalance, be it Good or Evil, will ultimately result in an opposite effect on the mortal plane. For example, an excess of Good in society for a time brings prosperity, as seen in the great Roman empire, fourteenth century middle east, and most recently in the twentieth century western nations. With each of these unbalances in favor of Good, Evil naturally blossoms and grows, breaking down those societies in some drastic manner (for example, the Dark Ages where the Black Death reigned, the horrors of the Crusades, World Wars I & II, and most recently the invention of fast food). Ironically, these radical swings towards Evil eventually result in an imbalance as well. Where Evil dominates, Good then blossoms at some point (note the Renaissance growing out of the Dark Ages). Indeed, while Balance is the ultimate vision of the Almighty and the Dark Lord, it is achieved only in the rare moments when the Ultimate Force is in the process of swinging back and forth between Good and Evil. Sadly, those mortal societies that do comprehend the notion of balance between Good and Evil have been historically enslaved or eradicated by their fellow mortals in the name of the Good or Evil factions." -- excerpt from "Reflections on Thought and Other Mortal Curiosities" by Clio, Goddess of History. -* Chapter 4 *- A wide expanse laid out in a glittering line under the morning sun, Cocoa Beach for many decades had been the haunt of those seeking to soak up a little of the Atlantic Ocean. Situated only a quick stone's throw from Cape Canaveral, it had also become a favored place to run for many astronauts in the first days of the NASA space program. The first flash of a manned rocket engine, though, had forever turned Cocoa from a sleepy paradise into a bustling tourist center for people from all walks of life. Today, several decades since the first launches of the Mercury program, was certainly no different. The beach streamed with people, despite the sixty degree temperatures of winter in Florida, most eager to watch the liftoff of the first newtype space shuttle. Less expensive, more reliable, and having more lift capacity, the new shuttle bore a resemblance to its predecessors, but also incorporated smooth curves and graceful lines of vehicles seen only before in futurist movies. Perhaps that aspect was what had drawn so many people to see its first launch. The other shuttles, Columbia, Endeavor, Atlantis... they were still in service, but with the new design on the pad one could easily see the end was near for the gallant workhorses of NASA's past 25 years. Sitting atop the launching platform, the new shuttle, Diligence, with its crew of five waited patiently for the next thirty seconds to pass. In that small amount of time, her engines would ignite and Diligence would shoot into the heavens on a fiery tower of exploding gases. Thousands of cameras aimed at her fuselage, Diligence began to tremble as her engines roared to life. Shaking and sending concussion air waves in every direction, the massive shuttle lifted off her earthly confines. "Diligence, Canaveral! You have cleared the tower! Houston is in control!" came over the radio. "R-roger, Canaveral!" came a rattling voice back. "Houston, Diligence! P-prepared to initiate roll sequence!" "Uh, copy, Diligence," came a calm voice from Houston. "Initiate roll sequence." "Roger, r-roll, Houston!" Arcing delicately into the sky, Diligence began her roll and continued to gain altitude and speed. For the better part of a minute, the flight continued uneventfully. At the second minute, the shuttle jettisoned its boosters and roared onward using only its main engines. All seemed to be going well until... "What the h-hell was that?" a nervous exclamation came over the radio. "Uh, Diligence, Houston," answered the calm man's voice. "Could you repeat that?" "Houston," came the reply over the background noise of the engines. "There was a large v-vibration through the hull! It felt a- almost like we hit something!" "Copy, Diligence," said Houston after a few frantic moments. "Our boards are showing you in the green for leaving Earth's atmosphere. Can you confirm, Diligence?" "Uh, r-roger, Houston," replied Diligence. "We con-f-firm green across the b-board! E-everything appears to be normal! Whatever it was is gone!" "Roger, Diligence." Diligence completed her assent into space without further incident. Additionally, there no adverse affects from the mysterious impact over the ten day mission. The astronauts returned Diligence home without a hitch, and the entire mission was announced to the media and the world as a success. The bump Diligence encountered during liftoff was never explained and was never again experienced in future flights. NASA did leave out one tiny little detail in its report to the media, however. Just to the right of the shuttle's nose section was a small, almost delicate, dent. * * * There are a lot of misconceptions about angels, when you stop to take a look at it. First and foremost, a lot of angels are not terribly interested in what is happening in the mortal plane. They are much to busy running around doing the Almighty's bidding, which is to keep Ragnarok from starting. Actually, it's not as difficult a task as it sounds, for there are many angels, in addition to faerie, gods and goddesses, spirits, saints, etc, to help out in the job. So, as some mortals might find very distressing, angels really are not standing over people's shoulders answering prayers or providing miracles. Hardly is the case. As such, Heaven does not let it get out what the immortals are really up to, lest it devastate the mortals' fragile illusions. And besides, as far as most of the immortals were concerned, keeping Ragnarok at bay was miracle enough. Angels also do not run around with harps, playing rather dull, self-important sounding music you might be inclined to hear at a tacky church service in some Utah suburb. They do not generally wear white robes (except for some of the archangels who feel it is important to keep up appearances), because white clashes with their wings. Angels are not necessarily always chaste, sober, or particularly clever. In fact, in a lot of ways they are pretty much like mortals in mind, if not in spirit. They are prone to flights of fancy, whims, attitudes, and egos just like you average mortal, except with nifty special powers and a fashionable set of long wings. All that matters in the end is that they get the Almighty's job done. April was not particularly swift as angels went. April was also not particularly swift as mortals went, for that matter. A relatively new angel, April had only been around for about one hundred and fifty of the mortals' years. In fact, her genesis had been something of a surprise to the rest of the immortal realm. Generally, the birth of an immortal came about only after a fairly large group of mortals banded together and believed in an immortal's existence. Even then, it took many, many years of belief and devotion before the immortal in question would come to be in the immortal realm. Ninety-nine percent of all the immortals representing a host of religions in Heaven and Hell had come into being this way. What surprised many in the immortal plane was that April had just sort of plopped into being. One day, the archangel Michael, borne of mortal belief himself, was coming back home from a morning jog. Upon reaching his front doorstep, he noticed a rather plain looking wicker basket sitting there. Low and behold, inside the basket wrapped in fine linen was a tiny female infant immortal. Taking the infant inside, Michael quickly made inquires with the Goddess Relief Office as to what gathering of mortal belief had sprung the little immortal into existence. The Goddess Relief Office, totally caught by surprise, consulted with Yggdrasil and discovered that the infant had not been created by mortal belief at all. That meant only one thing... The Almighty had brought the infant into being. Well, this caused a mighty uproar in the gossip circles around Heaven, and even a few raised eyebrows in Hell. Only a few of the most ancient and mysterious of immortals had been created directly by the Almighty or the Dark Lord, and all before the dawn of mankind. In fact, almost all of those first immortals were no longer around, having willed themselves out of existence long ago. The few that remained were dark, mysterious, and never seen. This was fine as far as most immortals went, as they were more than a little afraid of the ancient ones. To get back to the story, though, a large number of immortals in Heaven were excited about this little girl. A smaller number were slightly disturbed by her. An even smaller number were rather ticked off with envy, wishing *they* could have been brought about directly by the Almighty. One thing everyone could agree on was their curiosity of the infant girl's purpose, for all immortals regardless of their genesis have a purpose. Anyone could find it out; all you had to do was send your query into Yggdrasil. So, the next day the archangel Michael took the infant to the Goddess Relief Office and made an official query about the baby girl's name and purpose. To everyone's continued amazement, the little infant's file was totally blank. The Almighty was suspiciously quiet about the whole affair as well. Most of the immortal realm shrugged its collective shoulders and got back to the task at hand, namely thwarting agents of Hell and keeping Ragnarok at bay. Since the infant had been left on his doorstep, Michael took the baby in. Having no file in Yggdrasil to give the name of the child, Michael called the little girl April, since it was that month on the mortal plane. All seemed well. However, he met with instant attack and resistance from his three brothers, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. The three other archangels were, not to put too fine a point on it, rather insufferable. They had adopted, since their genesis, a certain arrogance and holier-than-thou attitude that went along with their station in the Jewish/Christian religions. Despite the fact that their biblical descriptions did not include such principal characteristics, the self-importance of being archangels more or less had gone to their heads a couple thousand years ago. It was no surprise, then, that the three archangels also made up the majority of members of the small group who were envious of the infant, April. Together they cornered Michael and demanded he give April up for a formal inquiry. Michael, also the head archangel in case you did not know that fact, crossed his arms and wings in an annoyed fashion and told his brothers to battle off and do something useful for a change, like maybe pull their heads up out of their --- At that point the Almighty decided to direct a fairly good sized rumble of disapproval at Michael's three brothers, indicating He was more than interested in Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel leaving the angel April alone. The three brothers hastily departed Michael's residence and did not return for many decades. It was probably just as well, since Michael had a reputation for wielding a mighty dose of `holy whoop-ass' when angered. Under Michael's care, the angel April grew up normally, a exceedingly cute child with a mop of curly brown hair. Easily mesmerized by shiny objects and equally confounded by tasks other child immortals would have found simple, April proved early on that she was not exactly in line to perform rocket science. However, she was still young, and Michael, indeed all immortals who helped raise April, was too fond of the child with her never-ending well of cheeriness to be too critical of her. However, each year Michael did make a trip to the Goddess Relief Office to see if April's file was ever updated with more information about her existence and purpose. It never was. The years passed, and April developed into an attractive, bubbly young angel with a fine set of wings. At the age of sixteen, it was terribly obvious to everyone that April, while not exactly stupid by any means, was simply not inclined to any of the tasks other immortals were engaged in. There was the notorious failure of Michael's well- meaning attempt to get April a job at the Bhuddist Office of Nirvana (because who would have more patience than bhuddist deities?), but even that was well beyond April's grasp (and the deities' vast fortitude). In a last ditch effort, the archangel Michael went before the Almighty and entreated Him for whatever illumination He could offer as to April's role in the immortal realm. "Just let her be," came the Almighty's cryptic reply. An immortal without a purpose in Heaven? Scandalous! However, no one was going to argue the Almighty on this one. April was more than content to explore happily the many wondrous realms of Heaven as the years passed by. Quite simply, she was adorable, with her curly locks of brown hair tumbling over a pleasantly bemused face, dimples twinkling frequently at any of the countless items that caught her short attention span each day. Despite the fact she did not contribute to the effort for which the rest of the immortals were working so diligently, she was quite popular and well received due to her innocent and happy personality. However, the blank expression her eyes took on from time to time did frighten a number of the most unflappable of immortals. Surprisingly enough, in the one hundred and fifty-odd years of her existence, April had never once noticed Midgard, the mortal realm. Never once even realized mortals existed. She was, to use a phrase, totally clueless. However, that all changed one day not long after the turn of the second millennium. April was laying out on top of a tall cloud one afternoon, working on her sun tan. Though being as old as she was in mortal terms, April looked every bit the part of a normal twenty-five year old, immortal aging being what it was. Decked out in nothing but her skin (after all, who wanted to deal with unsightly tan lines), the angel rather enjoyed the way her golden skin looked against her snowy white wings and took time frequently to lay out under the sun. Minding her own business and not exactly paying attention to her surroundings, as usual, April failed to notice a distant roaring sound coming from somewhere far underneath her. Wrapped up in a pleasant daydream or some such, and warmed to complacency by the sun's rays, the angel paid no attention as the distant roaring grew ever closer. In fact, April only managed to open her eyes when the cloud she was on, not to mention herself, began to shake and tremble violently. With a sudden and rapid jolt, April was struck mightily on her perfect rear and thrown some distance as a thunderous white and black bolt of fire and noise shot past her, heading straight for space. Knocked out of her senses, April plummeted towards the surface of the Earth for several minutes. Finally, she struck Midgard with a mighty thunk, in the process smacking her rump again and breaking numerous feathers in her wings. Fortunately, her landing was made a little softer as she had plopped on an emptier section of Cocoa Beach. After a while, the angel lifted her face up out of the sand and looked around blearily. Not exactly in her right mind just yet, April winced in pain, putting a hand backwards on her bare rear, rubbing it tenderly. Pushing herself up on her hands and knees, April then rocked back with her legs underneath her, tears in her eyes, and tried in vain to straighten her broken feathers. Completely covered in sand, her ass aching, and totally miserable for the first time ever, April continued to cry and, also for the first time ever, began to swear. "Oh, damn!" she wailed loudly to the empty beach. "Oh, spite!" The crashing waves more or less ignored April's keening complaints. After a while, her fit had degenerated into a session of eye wiping and sniffling. Taking stock of her surrounds, the angel looked around bleary eyed, wings flexing gingerly in the ocean breeze. "Oh, hell," April sniffed one last time. * * * It was snowing a half a world away. In Tokyo, a week before Christmas, the snow fell on the mega-city, muffling the normally busy landscape. It was a smooth blanket, generally unmarred by the lack of traffic and pedestrians that were about so late in the evening. Perhaps it was the late hour that allowed the young woman to make it as far as she had. Clad without a protective jacket or even shoes, there was no one around to notice her or to ask whether or not she was in trouble. And if there had been people around, how many of them would have averted their gaze from the empty look in her drained eyes, pretending not to notice until they were well past? The young woman looked up through the wet and matted strands of long black hair that covered her face. She smiled thinly, having reached her destination. A subway station. Swaying slightly, she passed through the gates into the station, her feet mercifully out of the snow, but still exposed to the chill air. The trains were not running as frequently at this hour, but it did not matter. Nothing really did anymore. * * * Cocoa Beach, Florida. April was amazed by this `new' world she had found. The new world was amazed by her, too. Or at least the people she passed along the beach boardwalk were. Forget the fact that April was still lacking anything resembling apparel (for which a healthy number of men and a few women were very appreciative), because what simply stunned most folks were the pair of fifteen foot wings that outstretched seamlessly from her slender shoulders. Quite a few winced at the numerous broken feathers she had. It was all well and good to believe in a religion, or in the existence of heavenly beings. It was quite another thing to see a naked one walk right in front of you on a beach right after a shuttle launch. This was evident from a good number of people, most of them middle- aged to elderly women, who had passed out in April's wake. Most people who witnessed her passage, however, quickly recovered from their shock and began tagging along after her from a small distance. After all, having survived shock-jock radio and Monica Lewinsky, nothing really bothered most Americans anymore. April herself seemed quite unconcerned with the curious mortals following her; she was too bewildered by this strange new realm she had stumbled upon. Noises, shops, hordes of people walking past (all with wide eyes)... it was better distraction than she had found in all of Heaven, more or less. It was about that time that April's eyes went totally wide. Half running up to a store window (you can picture the scene of a nude angel running), April plastered her face and hands against the glass. On the other side was a mannequin wearing a surfer's wet suit that was awash in a dozen different darkly shaded colors, all sort of blended together. She had not really ever seen anything like it in Heaven on any angel (despite the fact the Goddess Relief Office sported rather nice shifting, multicolored garments, but that is neither here nor there). "Woooow!" she exclaimed. Searching for the entrance to the shop, April successfully navigated the front door, her wings magically avoiding getting caught as they closed. What you might consider a bull in a china shop with those wings being so long, nevertheless they managed to not disturb a single thing in the store. April marched right up to a rack of the suits and read the tags that identified them. "Neoprene Wet-suits," they read. "50% off Winter Sale!" April snagged one at random and began working her legs through the stretchy garment. A shocked gasp from behind her made the angel rotate around awkwardly, her head and arms sticking out at wild angles from the suit. The owner of the beach store, a woman of about forty-five with beads in her hair and looking decidedly `new age-ish', turned pale. Eyes rolling back in her head, the store owner fainted dead away, collapsing in a soft heap on the carpeted floor. April frowned in curiosity a moment before continuing to put on her new multicolored outfit. Wherever April was, she decided, a whole lot of these creatures sure seemed to fall on the floor for no apparent reason. The angel was distracted by a commotion outside of the store front. Finished with putting on the wet-suit, which was form-fitting and hugged in all the right places, April noted the large crowd of people trying to get a glimpse of her. Smiling broadly and waving, she went to meet the natives. It would be the first angel sighting ever that the supermarket rag-papers were *not* the first to lay coverage on. * * * Tokyo, Japan. On an ordinary day in an ordinary life, visiting a new city might have been rather interesting. Ordinary had pretty much been thrown out the window, however. "Crap," grumbled Bonnie MacMaster, trudging through the snow. Stalking through the darkness and chill beside the American brunette, a vividly lovely woman with platinum blond hair walked with an equally dark expression. Not getting a reaction from her companion, Bonnie hunkered down in her snow jacket and crossed her arms sullenly. She was confused, tired, and more than just a little bit put out by the whole ordeal. "I *said*, crap!" Bonnie swore directly at the goddess, Urd. Urd's head whipped around. "I heard you the *first* time!" she snipped back. "In fact, I've been hearing you for the past thirty minutes, and you're giving me a damn headache!" Bonnie skidded to a halt in the snow. "Me?" she demanded. "I haven't said anything since we left that temple!" "Not with your mouth, stupid," Urd scathed. "Thanks to the Almighty, blessed be His infinite power and wisdom and the *hole* from which It spouts, my new Goddess Rating allows me to hear just about every vapid thought ratting around in your head! And I don't know how to shut you off yet!" Bonnie's next insult more or less died in her mouth, as the implications of Urd's little revelation seeped into her mind. Analyzing the goddess's declaration and attitude, only one thing came to her mind. `Bitch,' she thought. "Imbecile," retorted Urd. Together, the two women moved on into the night. The cheery Christmas decorations and lovely snowfall were lost on them completely. * * * Hell, somewhere around the 5th circle, the Shopping District. Nagle might have once been a promising and bright daeva, but seven hundred-odd years as a receptionist had a way of dulling the mind quite effectively. It had been a few hours since Nagle had more or less gotten the not-so-subtle hint from Lucifer that demon first class Mara was more or less pain that ached the chief executive of Hell's ass most. And, it did not take a rocket scientist (fortunately for Nagle) to figure out that knocking off Mara was an sure-fire way to ascend the demonic ladder. Now, Nagle was wandering around the vast confines of Hell trying to figure out what to do about it. Sighing in frustration, the daeva shuffled into a Starbucks (demons required coffee, too) and ordered a cup of `lava'. Sitting at a pleasant table, adorned with little plastic daisies in a small vase, Nagle sipped his molten coffee and pondered his next move. Only, there was no next move. After all, how the Hell would he, a receptionist, track down a demon first class on vacation? He watched dully through the coffee shop window as an enthusiastic imp jogged by, energetically whipping a group of newly Damned political strategists. Nope, nothing was coming to mind. Looking past the imp and it's suffering mortals, Nagle's eyes focused on a billboard across the Hellish avenue. There was a book in flames with a pair of spindly fingers walking across it. "Can't find it?" asked the billboard. "Try the Infernal Pages! Brought to you by Hell's Bells Atlantic!" A small light began to gleam in the humanoid's eyes. Throwing back the rest of his drink, Nagle tore out of the coffee shop and raced for the nearest Underworld pay phone. * * * Sea of Japan, about ten thousand feet above mean sea level. Thundering across the heavy and snow laden cloud banks, a black horse galloped in the night. Ominous and foreboding, the preternatural equine bore a rider, garbed in ancient leathers and tattered robes. A pair of ghostly white and thin hands gripped the primitive reigns that ran down to the horse's halter. Every other part of the figure was obscured from view. Not that anyone in their right mind would want to get a close look at one of the incarnations of Death anyhow. * * * Oji, suburb of Tokyo. Despite her clothing, Bonnie was starting to get just a little bit cold. The snow spiraling out of the dark night was melting in her hair and slowly starting to soak her scalp. Plus her hiking boots were encrusted in snow, its chilling effects migrating through the various layers of the shoe. Bonnie shivered and wished she had something warm to drink, but at the late hour it was unlikely she would find coffee or tea. Bonnie's eyes blinked a little wide as she suddenly recalled what was buried in an inner pocket of her coat. Unzipping the snow jacket a little, she fished around with a cold hand, groping until her fingers found their prize. Removing her hand, Bonnie peered as she walked at a small pack of cigarettes. Actually, they were not exactly cigarettes, but `cloves'. Cloves were similar to cigarettes, except chock full of the spice, made in India, and tastier than the sweetest candy. And it was rumored they were about three times worse for your health than your standard nicotine stick. Pulling a pack of matches that were jammed in the pack of cloves, Bonnie lit one up and inhaled shallowly. She usually had about a pack of these a year and as such could not inhale very much. Despite the delicious taste of the cloves, Bonnie was keenly cautious of becoming addicted to them, and hence rarely smoked. Their aroma reminded her of college coffee houses where the art students used to congregate. The clove warmed her body as Bonnie sighed happily. "You smoke, huh?" a semi-rude Urd observed out of the blue. "And here I thought you were more uptight than that." Bonnie pulled the clove out of her mouth, exhaled and bristled. "I not smoker!" she denied adamantly. "I just have a clove every now and again!" Trudging along under the snowy lamplight, Urd frowned and looked highly doubtful. "I don't see the difference," she replied imperiously. "The cigarette, or whatever you're calling it, is in your mouth, therefore you *are* a smoker." Bonnie did not like to think of herself as resembling anything like a smoker. Smokers' clothes stank, their cars stank, and their homes simply reeked from their habit. Bonnie would never do anything that disgusting, she would always tell herself. "You like having a beer?" she demanded in reply. Urd blinked, not expecting such a question. "Well, yeah, I have a drink every now and- "Then are you an alcoholic?" "What? Why, of course not!" Urd answered a little panicky, backing up just a step. A little knot began to form in the pit of the goddess's stomach. Sure, Urd like to have a little drink *now* and again, but it was no big deal. Of course, some unsophisticated immortals in Paradise had accused her of uncontrollable excess, but that did not mean she was a lush... did it? "--H-hey, I can quit anytime I want!" Urd added with a defensiveness that bordered on the verge of being vehement. Bonnie blinked in surprise, not expecting anything resembling an outburst from the tawny blonde. The mortal's eyes narrowed in a sudden suspicion. "You sound very convincing," Bonnie drawled knowingly with a smirking smile on her face. Eyes flashing with anger, Urd raised up before Bonnie, her exposed skin beginning to crackle with energy. Suddenly realizing she was in really big danger, Bonnie took a half step back in the snow, an anxious look on her face. At that moment, there happened to be an unexpected and ominous rumble from the snowy heavens, almost as if someone or something was clearing its throat. Not heeding the loud noise from above, it took a second, more pronounced rumble before the wild look began to ebb from Urd's eyes. Her hackles settling down, Urd took a step back and turned around. "You're damn lucky He's on your side," was all the tanned goddess said before walking down the city street. Bonnie shook herself a little and slowly moved to catch up. Somehow, she had a good feeling that Urd was right. * * * Almost all the lights were off in the Morisato residence. Staring out a window, the goddess first class unlimited license, Belldandy could see across the dark expanse of snow that covered the temple grounds. Holding a hot cup of tea in her hands, the fair goddess sipped slowly. Belldandy's mind was on a half-a-dozen different things, from her sister Urd's assignment and promotion, to how she was going to spend the next day with her dear Keiichi. Certainly, Belldandy over the past several years since their inevitable (and memorable) wedding had more than enough spare time to spend with him. Their seemingly constant immortal problems were almost a thing of the past, and even Mara had suddenly disappeared for no reason. Maybe the Almighty was finally giving her household a break, she mused. And then the phone rang, almost causing the goddess to drop her cup. Stepping silently over the floor to the phone, Belldandy had an instant premonition that she was not going to be getting any sleep that night. Settling her tea on a table, she reached for the phone with one hand while pushing her long brown hair away from one of her ears with the other. Belldandy answered it. "Hello? Morisato residence." "It is *I*." So much for the bliss of home life. Belldandy listened wordlessly for several moments as her boss outlined the task at hand. At one point, the goddess's eyes went very large in shock, then softened in bemused resignation. At the end of the Almighty's instructions, Belldandy simply nodded and placed the receiver back down. Forgetting her tea entirely, she began to quietly move down the hallway. Opening a sliding door with a slight rasp, Belldandy looked down at her Keiichi, already fast asleep after a day at a professional motor race despite being sick from the flu. Bending down, she gently shook her husband awake. "Eeh?" Keiichi managed to mumble. "Keiichi-san," Belldandy. "I have to go away for just a little bit." "Oh..." her husband replied, blinking in mild confusion brought on by sleep. "... big man upstairs again?" "Yes, dearest," Belldandy. "I think I'll be back sometime tomorrow morning... it's nothing too serious. I just wanted you not to be looking for me." "Oh," replied Keiichi sleepily again. "Okay, then... I'll see you tomorrow, Bell." A loving kiss between them and Belldandy departed the room. As she walked towards the hallway mirror, there was a beautiful shimmer of light. When the glow was gone, Belldandy's more Earthly clothes had been replaced by her radiant Goddess Relief Office uniform. Placing her hand up and sinking it through the mirror, the goddess thought about her sudden assignment. `Poor goose,' she thought. `She probably has no idea what's going on. It makes sense the Almighty would call me, though. I'm already on the mortal plane... and Michael would just get too upset, being as protective as he is." The mirror rippled and swam in a rainbow of colors as Belldandy disappeared from sight into it. * * * Uchigaya Station, Chiyoda-Ku suburb of Tokyo. To say that Bonnie was glad to get out of the snow was a mild understatement. Having had a little forethought, she had put on warm clothing, a snow jacket, and hiking boots to prepare for the Washington, DC weather. True, the last thing Bonnie expected was to be dragged through her television straight into Japan, but at least she was still dressed for the climate. However, the little things sometimes got past Bonnie, and she had forgotten to put on thicker socks before leaving her home. Despite her hiking boots, her toes were getting quite cold. Bonnie squinted through her wet locks of hair as she made her way though a turnstile under the brightness of many lights. Just ahead of her, Urd was stalking up the stairway through the deserted train station. The stiffness of Urd's body more than indicated she was still bent with Bonnie, as did the fact she had not spoken a word in the past fifteen minutes. The engineer sucked in a breath of the cold air and let it out in a resigned sigh. She had no idea where the hell they were going, really. All Belldandy had told her evasively was that they were going to see an old friend of the lovely goddess. Tagging along to the top of the platform, Bonnie doubted she would get much more information from Urd, either. The platinum-haired goddess, at that moment, was peering intently at a map of the entire Tokyo city rail system. Her eyes scrunched in annoyance, Urd tapped the side of her chin with a finger irritably. Bonnie had no idea what exactly Urd was looking for, but easing up behind the goddess, the engineer saw that the map looked pretty much like the DC Metro station maps. Lots of tangled lines in different colors that would give you a headache if you stared too long. Bonnie decided to break the silence. "Uh," she began tentatively, "where are we going?" Urd stepped back and crossed her arms, deep in annoyed thought. "I have no idea," Urd answered curtly. "Oh," Bonnie replied. Another minute of silence passed as the pair stood on the totally deserted platform. Nature abhors a vacuum, and right then so did Bonnie. "Uh, where are we... anyway?" she asked again. "Tokyo," came the deadpan reply from Urd. "Look, hon, I'm a Nordic goddess, okay? This isn't my home turf, and I'm trying to locate a hidden mortal passageway into Asgard. And as *if* that wasn't hard enough back in my homeland, it's even moreso here, so I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave me alone till I figure out where it is on this map. Does that work for you?" Bonnie bit back any number of retorts, opting to instead grind her teeth and walk away. Leaving the goddess to her map, Bonnie moved out across the platform. There were no trains in the station at that late part of an evening, the frequency of arrivals made much slower after midnight. The engineer hunkered down into her black and gray snow jacket unhappily. So far, Bonnie had been more or less willing to follow along out of shear amazement. After all, the events of the past day certainly lent themselves to something quite out of the ordinary that was hard to turn away from. The novelty and wonder of her adventure so far was now starting to wear thin, and Bonnie was seriously starting to consider ways of getting back home. It was about this time that Bonnie really started to take stock of her surroundings. Everything about the rail station was quite familiar with what she was used to in an American rail station. Advertisements on the walls, tiled floors, and yellow striped lines leading in all directions. The absence of anything resembling her language, though, was enough to keep Bonnie from forgetting where she actually was. She kept staring blearily around at the deserted station, watching snow fall slowly beyond the protective covering over her head. It was very quiet out among the twinkling lights of city. Bonnie did not actually realize it, but she was looking out towards the Imperial Palace in the darkness. Was it a chill? No, not exactly, but it was a strange sensation that slowly pulled Bonnie's gaze away from the night skyline. Her head turning mechanically to the right, she found herself looking down most of the length of the edge of the platform where it dropped off down to the tracks. There in the distance, standing at the farthest end of the platform, was a woman. `Someone else out...' Bonnie's thoughts began to register, before dribbling off into silence. But there was something more. She could not figure out what it was that was suddenly nagging her so, but something was eating at Bonnie terribly from within. Deep within. The air was getting heavy as well. Turning halfway around, Bonnie looked back at Urd. The goddess was still staring intently at the map, and she was glowing slightly from what Bonnie's mind analyzed in a detached fashion must be magic. Bonnie turned away from Urd's direction and once again looked down the length of the station. Something was wrong. A foot lurched hesitantly, and then another. Moving stiffly at first, Bonnie found herself plodding slowly down the platform. A strange fog had layered over her mind... everything moved in slow motion, but details were also becoming crisp and clear, not unlike a sparkling and cloudless winter night. Details like the woman was standing on the very edge of the platform, looking away down the tracks into the darkness. Details like the woman was dressed in clothes of expensive finery. That her hair was wet and plastered against her head. That she was swaying ever so slightly, and... And her feet were covered only in torn stockings. Bonnie began to walk a little faster. Something was definitely pulling her along from inside, and Bonnie was slowly beginning to catch up to the worried feeling she could not place. There was also something in the distance. A spot of very bright light off in the snowy night. It seemed to be a long way away, but was it getting closer? Snapping her fingers with a flash of energy, Urd stepped back from the railway map. Grinning impishly, she winked at the diagram rubbed her hands together. "Not bad!" she beamed. "This goddess first class stuff is really a lot better than I thought it'd be! I divined the location of a mortal entrance to Asgard with ease. Whadya think about that, miss dull engineer?" As Urd turned around to shine in the glow of her new abilities, she found that she was suddenly quite alone on the platform. In fact, the only thing around her was wet and slushy snow on the floor tiles and the eerie glow of the station lights. Urd blinked several times, her face confused. "...Bonnie?" * * * Coastal highway A1A, somewhere between Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. Terry Adams was pissed. The realization that she had gone through six years of journalism school to be sent on crap assignments for a crappie local television station that any bum off the street could accomplish with flying colors was setting heavily on her mind. Staring grumpily out of the passenger side window of the her news van, Terry reflected on the sudden assignment that had just come from the station dispatch. Apparently, someone had phoned in a near riot on the Cocoa Beach strip. Police, emergency crews... the whole nine yards was on the scene, and the apparent cause was the appearance of an angel. A snort managed to escape Terry. It was bad enough to be sent to cover a shuttle launch, even if it was a new orbitor. After all, launches for the longest time had ceased to make the news except for a five second blurb that no one at home probably paid attention to anyway. The only reason camera crews even were sent to launches now was no news group wanted to miss out on full coverage on the off chance another shuttle blew itself to pieces. But shuttles were not blowing up, which meant no air time for Terry and those journalists who commiserated with her at the launch site. And no air time meant no advancement. In the meanwhile, she and her crew of two were being sent to cover some event best handled by the World Weekly Tabloid. Where was the justice in the world, Terry wondered. "God, this sucks," she complained. "Yeah," replied her camera man, Steve, who was driving the van. "I covered a religious nut-ball sighting once. Turned out to be mold on the side of a toilet." "Oh, that," answered Bob, the video technician riding in the back amongst the gear and editing equipment. "Say, didn't that drive what's-her-name to quit her job as the correspondent? Whatever happened to her?" "Lots of therapy last I head," said Steve. "Oh... was it helping?" "Not really." "I'm in Hell," whined Terry. "You get used to it," nodded Steve wisely. "Hey, we're here." Steve pulled the van onto the main drag of the Cocoa Beach strip. There was a fairly sizable crowd of people milling around, trying to move down the street where a larger commotion seemed in progress. Here and there on the fringes, paramedics and police were helping a number of folks who seemed to have fainted or something. Steve stopped the van, not able to drive any closer due to the crowds. "Whadya think?" he asked. Terry bit her lip and tried to look through the van window down the street, but there were too many people in the way. Opening up the door with a heave, bumping several people, Terry climbed up onto the van seat and more or less used the door to get a better vantage. Peering about down the tightly packed street for a few moments, she struggled to figure out what was going on. "What a mob," commented Bob. "Somebody musta spotted Elvis." Then Terry froze. "H-h-h-h-" she tried to stammer. "Come again?" asked Steve. "Holy Shit!" yelled Terry, climbing down. "Steve! Get your camera! Bob, call the station and get ready to transmit live!" "Are you nuts?" asked Bob. "What's going on?" "Just do it!" Terry screamed frantically. "We can't miss this!" Jumping out of the van, Terry all but dragged Steve along through the crowd, trying desperately to reach the center mass of people down the beach street. However, the crowds were too thick to make any real headway. Looking around in agitation, Terry saw others were having a similar problem as well. "Police! Make way!" yelled several cops at the crowd. No response. "Paramedics! We got injured people! Make way!" yelled the EMTs. No one moved. "MEDIA!" yelled Terry viscously. "NBZ-TV! GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY, WE GOT A CAMERA HERE!" Instantly, a sizable hole opened in the crowd, allowing Steve and Terry to pass quickly. Sure, police and paramedics were important in life, but who could pass up the opportunity to help out a camera crew? After all, thought the folks in the crowd who let the pair pass, maybe they would get to be on television. Pushing hard for several moments, Terry and Steve finally burst into the center of the commotion. Throwing her hair back out of her eyes, Terry grabbed Steve and forced him to point his camera at a terribly cute young woman. A young woman dressed in a wet-suit, who just happened to be an angel with a pair of beautiful wings stretching a good fifteen feet from her back. With a big smile on her face, the angel seemed to be having a fine time with all her admirers. Not wasting a moment, Terry called back to Bob in the van over her microphone. "Are you friggin getting this?" she demanded. "Holy crap!" came a crackling reply in her ear piece. "W- we're going live, Terry, in one minute!" Pushing past the last few people, Terry threw herself up beside the angel and shoved her microphone under the woman's nose, preparing for the interview that would rocket Terry into media stardom. The crowd respectfully gave her and Steve some extra working room as the interview began. By the end of the interview, Terry's career would be set. By the end of the day, any number of fundamentalists across the world would suffer aneurysms from shock. By the end of Terry's life, a nice spot would also be reserved for her in Hell, right along with all the rest of the television journalists. * * * Uchigaya Station, Chiyoda-Ku suburb of Tokyo. The fog that had partially clouded Bonnie's mind was no longer confined there. Only a few dozen feet from the mysterious Japanese woman with no shoes, time seemed to slow even more. Oozing like a sickly pea soup, the mist in the approaching engineer's head began to weep from the cracks in the station tiles, clinging low to the ice and slush covered ground. Going from unnatural brightness to a dense shade of black and purple, the halogen lights in the ceiling above also disappeared from sight. There was a rumble in the near distance, and it was growing louder, driven ahead of two dots of light that broke the black. But something else was coming, a speechless voice warned from somewhere deep in Bonnie. Something as terrible as it was old. A sense of forbodding, urgency, and dread threatened to overwhelm the American. A distorted siren, not so far away now, sounded, piercing the muffled world of mist and dark that had engulfed the station. Now, in an endless instant, Bonnie was only an arm's reach from the woman who stood at the station platform's edge. How could she still be standing so calm was a puzzle to Bonnie, as she stood facing the other's back. She was obviously soaked to the core, with no shoes to cover the shredded stockings on her feet. In that freezing weather, no sane person could have kept from trembling violently, right? Moving for the first time, the dark long hair of the unknown woman swung in time lapse towards Bonnie. The mangled and matted locks of beautiful hair parted as a pair of dark eyes looked dully across the misty black at Bonnie. Meeting that gaze, Bonnie was terrified to find an emptiness in those eyes. An emptiness that had almost caused a Bonnie in the past to end everything in the world she knew. A look of hopelessness, weariness, abuse... Longing... The horn blew again, what was clearly a commuter train approaching very rapidly now. Very close now. Bonnie put her hands to the sides of her head with agonizing slowness as her eyes narrowed in wordless pain. Those eyes the woman had... Bonnie knew what they desired, she knew what they were hungering for, because she had felt that hunger herself not so very long ago. A hungering for... And then the darkest black erupted just beyond the morbid looking Japanese woman. In a terrible fury of rippling horse flesh and tattered and rotting robes, Death was present. A spindly claw of a pale hand stretching out from the dark figure on the frothing black stallion, Bonnie watched in abject horror as Death beckoned. Turning her head slowly as she turned back to the edge of the platform, the woman gave Bonnie the tiniest of hapless smiles, a faint expression of anticipated relief forming on her face. Looking forward across the commuter train tracks several feet below, the battered woman began to tremble. The horn of the approaching train howled. It was so close, even Bonnie through her muted panic could feel and register it. A dragging, hesitant first step was taken by the woman towards the edge of the platform, half of her front bare foot now over the side. The phantom steed stamped the air with impatientence, it's breath frosty on the night air. From underneath the tattered hood, Death beckoned again with expectation. She shifted her weight forward as the train screamed, her body now trembling uncontrollably. A wordless cry of definance tried to leap from Bonnie's throat, but no sound could be made. Finding the power to fling herself forward, despite the haze that slowed her, Bonnie wrapped an arm around the beautifully dressed woman and pulled away from the edge of the platform. There was an infinite moment when the nameless woman's front foot dangled over empty space, while the entire station shook from the approaching train, now only a few yards away and barely slowing from its rapid speed. Death reached across the void and tried to snag the woman, its steed baring its teeth wickedly only scant feet from Bonnie's frozen face. Then balance shifted, and the Japanese woman began to fall backward away from the egde. With gleaming eyes of hatred, the midnight horse backstepped in the other direction with its rider as the late night commuter train hissed by with a rush of air. Now separated by the gleaming train from Death, Bonnie latched on tightly around the woman's waist, who had begun to faint. The train continued to hiss along, slowing rapidly. A few moments more, and there was a pleasant and artificial sounding bell. The train doors opened. Not thinking, Bonnie lurched forward towards the open door. She needed to get away from that thing that stared with hatred from across the opposite windows. Dragging the now unconscious woman along, the doors to the train whooshed shut quickly. Looking up, hair strewn across her drained face, Bonnie could see the steam from Death's horse as its breath fogged the outside of the train window. There was another piercing horn, and the train heaved with a sickening sensation. A second later, it began to move, pulling out of the station as an unnatural rate. Bonnie watched in wide eyed fear as the stallion and its rider began chase. Bonnie only began to breathe again when she saw the pair rapidly falling behind as the train sped up. Shivering uncontrollably, the engineer collapsed on the train floor, hyperventilating to the point of almost throwing up. The Japanese woman lay on the floor, unmoving but breathing. Bonnie never even noticed one of the overhead television monitors in the train as it began to glow brilliantly. A scarce moment later, and Urd was towering above her, the goddess's face a mix of anger and anxiety. "S-sayoko?! Bonnie, what have you done?!" the goddess demanded almost frightfully. Bonnie turned from Urd and slowly collapsed on top of the woman, named Sayoko, her eyes wide and her breathing still very rapid and shallow. She was not sure, herself, and she was not certain she ever wanted to know. * * * What Belldandy saw... A narrow and tall mirror began to shimmer and pulse like illuminated liquid, humming with energy. Easing her head out into the new environment, the Norse Goddess of the Present peeked around. The first thing Belldandy noticed was that she was in a surf shop. As a matter of fact, there were several swimsuits that caught her eye. The second thing she noticed was a woman lying on the floor passed out. Exiting the mirror, Belldandy wondered exactly what was going on. She had not really had the opportunity to ask details. Anyhow, when the Almighty said `go forth and do', even a goddess first class went and did without discussion. Maneuvering through the store, dressed in full official Goddess Relief apparel, Belldandy quickly noticed a very large mingling of mortals. They all seemed very excited and pointing their attention somewhere just out of the goddess's view. Belldandy pushed through the front door of the surf shop and tried to look around. Even dressed as colorfully as she was, Belldandy was more than surprised to see that the mortals were barely taking interest in her. That was an unusual sensation for the goddess. * * * What the rest of the world saw... It would be shown repeatedly over and over again for weeks to come, but for the moment it was a picture being broadcast live in Florida homes everywhere. In the center of several hundred thousand televisions, the face of a slightly frazzled and intense young reporter holding a microphone began the mayhem. Little did anyone realize at the time, such reports would become disturbingly frequent in the years to come. "Terry Adams, NBZ-TV!" the female reporter identified herself. "We are live on the Cocoa Beach strip where an event of Biblical proportions is unfolding!" "I wish my wings would unfold," came a worried feminine voice just off screen. "Look how many feathers are broken!" Terry ignored the voice with a fervor, staying focused on her camera man. "Here," she continued, "only moments after the launch of the shuttle Diligence in to the heavens, an *angel* has descended on us!" Panning away from the reporter smoothly, cameraman Steve swung curious viewers towards April. All around the woman in the background, large numbers of people could be seen crowding, but keeping a small, yet respectable, distance. "Since the angel's arrival," reported Terry from off screen, "items that can only be described as miraculous have been occurring! All manner of plants and flowers here dormant for winter have exploded into full bloom in a matter of minutes! Several people on the scene have reported injuries or ailments disappearing without explanation!" As Steve panned back to get a full view of the woman identified as `the angel'. She was very beautiful, with short, curly locks of soft brown hair, tumbling down in a fetching manner across her cheeks, while wearing a skin-tight surfers suit. Terry strode up to the woman and motioned to the viewers dramatically what was momentarily hidden from the view of the camera. "Perhaps most incredible," she said to the viewers intensely, "is what this reporter can only describe is a real and functional full set of wings!" Pushing the bemused angel by the shoulder to turn her around, suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a pair of near-fifteen foot wings leapt into existence. Viewers at home gaped. "Can you tell us," Terry asked in a dramatic voice, turning back towards the Angel, "who you are and why you are here?" "Oh! My name is April-" the angel began brightly. "An angel named April?" Terry asked demandingly. April paused. "Yeah... you got a problem with that?" she huffed a little suspiciously. "No, no!" Terry back peddled, suddenly very aware of the large wings that were moving with some attitude above her. "Uh, why are you here, Angel April?" "Oh..." the angel replied, putting a finger to one cheek thoughtfully. "Well there was this big rumble and shaking, and something struck me *hard* in the rear, and I fell-" "Were you sent here by God?" demanded Terry, interrupting April completely. "Huh? Sent by God?" "Yes, yes! Were you sent here in the name of Christianity?" "Umm... what's Christianity?" replied April, causing any number of evangelists watching the news to faint dead away. Terry looked puzzled for a minute. "You're not a Christian angel?" she finally asked, wracking her brain to recall other world faiths. "Then what religion are you here to represent? What is your purpose in being here? Does your presence signal the end of the world?!" The crowd reacted nervously to the reporter's questions. April pulled her head back with an expression not unlike one would have given to a dog that suddenly started barking for no reason. "Religion?" she echoed uncertainly. "I'm not sure what you mean... Um, where am I, exactly?" "You mean you don't know where you are?!" Terry asked with only semi-feigned incredulity for the camera. "Nope, not really... see, I was just sunning myself-" "Sunning?" interrupted Terry quickly. "There have been eye witness reports you were first seen with no clothes! Does this mean- ?" "Well, it'd be pretty silly to get tan lines, wouldn't it!" answered April, like Terry must not have a single clue about anything important at all. "But, really... where am I... you don't look like you're from Paradise." April eyed Terry and cameraman Steve suspiciously. "Are ya'll demons?" Several people in the crowd blinked hard in surprise. "N-no!" Terry replied quickly into her microphone. "This isn't Paradise, this is Earth!" "Earth?" "Yes, and we're people... you know, humans," added the reported a little more slowly. "Oh..." April dribbled off with a small frown, not understanding at all. Flexing her wings a little, she winced at the pain of the broken feathers absently. Terry felt she was starting to lose focus on the singular most important interview of her life. "So, why are you here? What is your purpose?" "Oh!" April brightened noticeably. "I don't have a purpose!" "Eh?" "Yup, but Michael tells me not to worry about it-" "Michael?" Terry asked loudly, shoving the microphone even closer to the April. "The Archangel Michael?!" The angel pouted. "You sure do interrupt me a lot." "Sorry..." apologized Terry almost sheepishly before catching herself. "As you were saying?" "Anyhow," continued April with a comically stern look at the reporter, "Michael says it's okay that I don't have a purpose yet, no matter what the other angel's say, but the Almighty-" "The Almighty! Do you mean God?!" April stared hard at the reporter. "Oh... sorry..." said Terry, actually looking embarrassed this time. "*Anyhow*," said April again, "the Almighty told everyone to just let me be, even those other mean archangels." "Mean archangels?" "Oh, sure!" nodded the angel seriously. "Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel... can be real jerks." April then bent over and whispered in a conspirator tone to Terry. "Michael says when Ragnarok comes, they'll be the first ones to get their heads lopped off by the minions of Hell!" Quite a number of people watching the television, already stunned by the angel, blanched at the mention of words like `head', `lopping', and `Hell' all together in one sentence. "T-there's a real Hell?" stammered Terry ever so slightly. "You didn't know?" asked an amazed April with wide brown eyes. "Gee, what a strange place this is. *Everybody* in Paradise knows about Hell." Terry shook herself, trying to get back on focus. She had the chance of a lifetime to ask the big questions, the hard questions. "April, you say you're not a Christian angel? Well then, are you part of the Jewish faith? Islam? Some other religion?!" April looked at the reporter in patient confusion. "I have no idea what you are talking about," answered April honestly. "Do you humans always as such strange questions? Are... are you sure you're not a demon?" "Strange questions?!" probed Terry, trying to spark the angel into more a deeper interview, but the angel was already starting to lose interest. April's eyes turned away from Terry and focused somewhere just off camera. Her face brightening incredibly, the angel began waving her arms wildly. "Hey! Hey! It's Belldandy! Hey, Belldandy!" The camera swung wildly where a brilliant figure was arcing above the huge crowds of milling people. A pair of brilliant white wings outstretched behind the approaching goddess, showering those below with a million magical feathers. "My God! Is that another angel?" gaped Terry. "No, silly, she's a Norn!" chided April. "You sure don't know much, do you? Hey, Belldandy!" "April!" called a frantic looking Belldandy. "Belldandy!" cried April happily, hugging the goddess unenthusiastically as she landed. "Look at this strange place I've found!" "April, we have to leave now! B-but, your wings!" "I know," she pouted. "It hurts to move them." Reaching her arms around April's delicate waist, Belldandy extended her own wings full and rose up into the sky. Cheering excitedly, April tried to wave at the crowds that were rapidly falling away below them. On the ground, the crowds gasped and waved back, shouting for the pair to return. Terry Adams stood with her mouth open for a few moments before realizing she was still broadcasting live. Hitting her camera man, Steve, she gathered herself and delivered the rest of her report. It would be the beginning of a lucrative and Damning career in broadcasting. April looked a little disappointed as she and Belldandy flew low through the air. Belldandy was concentrating on finding someplace quiet where she could get her beautiful hands on a good mirror. Wind whipping her hair, April looked up at Belldandy. "What a strange bunch those humans were! I never realized they existed!" Belldandy made no reply. As they began a descent towards a quiet Florida suburb, April began to look thoughtful. "I think that human I was talking to was definitely a demon," she said quite seriously. * * * Shinjuku Station, end of Toei Shinjuku Line. With a brushing softness, the commuter train eased to a stop beside the platform. In the emptiness of the station, a pleasant sounding automated voice of a Japanese woman announced the arrival of the final train of the night. Politely reminding the non-existent passengers on the platform to stay away from the train for a few moments longer, a series of small lights winked on simultaneously. A small but clear chime sounded, and the commuter train's doors all opened. Stepping off the train and into the frozen night air first was Urd. Her face crossed with annoyance, Urd's eyes flashed with contempt. "What are we going to do?" she asked back into the train. "I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to leave that viper right here, *that's* what we're going to do!" Struggling out of the train door next was Bonnie. Carrying a near limp Sayoko around the shoulders, the American moved slowly, dragging her charge along. Making it out onto the platform with difficulty, Bonnie grunted with effort. "We are *not* going to leave her out here!" Bonnie countered hotly. "She's completely blasted, or haven't you noticed?" Urd had turned her attention away from Bonnie and the near unconscious Sayoko. The goddess seemed to be peering intently all around the station. "So she's had too much to drink," Urd mumbled. "Just leave her on a bench. Someone will find her and take care of her. This isn't like America, you know." Bonnie almost stumbled, but managed to catch herself before Sayoko slid limply to the ground. "I don't care if this is NeverNeverLand," Bonnie almost spat in anger at the goddess. "We are not leaving her just sitting here! Didn't you see what she was trying to do back at the other station! She's not even wearing any shoes, dammit!" Eyes widening in satisfaction and ignoring Bonnie, Urd clapped her hands and rubbed them together happily. Moving briskly down the platform, she stopped over an innocent looking manhole. Nodding thoughtfully at the manhole, Urd peered at it and smiled. "This is it!" she grinned. With a little magic and a small heave, she lifted the cover aside with ease. Looking back over her shoulder, Urd sighed at the pair of humans. "So? It's not our problem the girl wants to off herself. Personally, I'd just as soon not get in Thanatos' way when he comes back looking for her." Bonnie found herself catching a sharp breath. "Just what the hell kinda goddess are you, anyway?" she demanded angrily. Urd stood up straight and put her fists on her hips threateningly. "One that's trying to fulfill your damn silly wish, that's who," she shot back. "You think I don't have better things to do than baby sit some dull *mortal*? You think I'm here just to please *you* and keep *her* from taking a dive in front of a train?" "Go to hell, Urd!" yelled Bonnie. "I've been there, and it's overrated," the goddess snarled back. "I am Urd, Goddess First Class, Norse Goddess of the Past, and I say drop the lush and get the hell in this hole before I stuff you down it!" Shifting her weight under Sayoko, Bonnie was taken aback quite suddenly. Sometime during the yelling match, Urd had begun to glow harshly in a color that was almost red. The long strands of her hair were standing out ever so slightly, pulsing with energy. All around the goddess, snow on the platform floor was melting rapidly as if from some great heat. "N-no," answered Bonnie with a gulp. The engineer had become wary of the goddess as would a deer be of a mountain lion. Bonnie was fully aware that despite her appearance, Urd was not of this world. Perhaps, she decided, Urd would not even really mind ramming Bonnie down that hole, regardless of the consequences. Resting her weight mostly on Bonnie, Sayoko took that moment to groan pitifully. At that moment, Bonnie began to recall the conversation she had with Belldandy before leaving the temple for the Uchigaya Station. What was it the beautiful goddess had said to her? Something about looking out for another companion. Bonnie's head snapped up at Urd with a new glare. "I say she's the one," Bonnie declared. "The one, *what*?" echoed Urd in an annoyed tone. "The one Belldandy told me He said we'd meet," answered the mortal woman. "You know, Him... That Almighty or whatever it is you call Him." Urd was brought up short just before she began a vehement denial. "I don't believe it," she finally replied. "Just because you stumbled upon a suicidal drunk doesn't mean she's the one supposed to go with us." A gleam entered Bonnie's eyes as she smiled thinly. "Oh yeah?" she challenged. "Then just what the hell is on the other side of that manhole?" Urd shrugged. "It's a mortal entrance to Asgard. Only an immortal can unveil it, though. What's your point?" Bonnie smirked and began moving forward, half dragging a droopy Sayoko with her. "Belldandy said we had to find a companion before we left," she said, brushing past an infuriated Urd and kneeling down with the Japanese woman beside the manhole. "So?" Urd asked irritably. "So help me get her down this ladder, Urd," Bonnie commanded coldly. "If we're really leaving this world right now, I sure as hell don't see any other humans waiting in line to be along for the ride." Urd's face went from annoyance to a confused attempt at rationalization to being royally pissed off. `Fuck,' she mouthed silently. Leaning over, she helped Bonnie get Sayoko down the dark and musty smelling manhole. Clambering down after them, Urd almost negligently used her goddess powers to seal the manhole behind them. And then, everything was very, very dark. * * * Coming up in Chapter 5: Belldandy has her hands full, Bonnie and Urd make their way to Paradise with their new companion, and an ancient trickster is awakened. Comments and Criticisms welcome. Mike McAvoy http://www.angelfire.com/va3/shenandoah/ Last updated October 15, 2001.