doyouloveanime

Monthly Anime on TV Viewing Guide for Anime Programming on ComcastOnDemand Channels:

DECEMBER 2009- Updated 15 Dec 09

COD/CE/AdultSwim/Action

Big O (Ep 19)
Code Geass (Ep 23)
Death Note (Ep 6)
Ghost in the Shell/SAC (Eps 18 to 20)
InuYasha (Eps 149 to 152)

COD/CE/AnimeSelects is back. CE/FunimationAnime/AnSel now has Eps 19 to 22 of GundamSeedDestiny and Eps 11-12 of Vampire Princess Miyu. Sadly Anime Network is no longer available OnDemand. Sorry.

Regrettably I will no longer be listing anything anime nor cartoon from COD/Kids except for movies. There are just too many to keep following them. Again sorry for the inconvenience. Be warned, however, that many anime/cartoons/movies/series here can be pay per view especially the stuff under COD/Kids/All Movies.

COD/CE/IFC/Anime

IFC Alert: This just in folks- IFC has added Basilisk a Hieian Era Samurai/Ninja anime series to its lineup. For us it’s Tuesdays at 11:30 PM ET. Check your TV schedules in your area.

COD/CuttingEdge/FunimationAnime ( FA is no longer listed under Movies or Top Picks):

These titles are first episode free and 99 cents per each successive episode:

D. Gray-Man (Eppys 40 to 42)
Spice & Wolf (Eps 6 to 8)(NEW)(Allegorical yarns)
Nabarino No Ou (Eppys 19 to 21)
Blassreiter (Eppys 16 to 18)
Nana (Eppys 21 to 23 & 21.5)
Dragonaught (Eppys 13 to 15)
Hunter X Hunter (Eppys 11 to 13)(NEW)
El Cazador (Eps 7 to 12)(NEW)(Bounty hunter finds amnesiac girl who is wanted Dead or Alive)

Specials: $2.99 each

Linebarrels of Iron (Eps 1 to 3) (Naked babe drops in warrior’s arms!)
Rin Mnemosyne (Eps 1-2) (Immortal PI who loves booze!)

(image)

Soul Eater (Eps 1 to 3)(’Soul’ is a scythe weapon wielded by a babe from Hell!)
My Santa OVA (Newly born Santa meets Mai a Santa in training and–)($2.99)(I just got this DVD)
(This one is a classic like Shonen Santa ni Daiboke(u)n or Little Santa’s Adventures)(Try & find it though! Never made it to DVD and the VHSs are hard to find and pricey when you do!)

(image)

These Funimation Anime titles are free:

Ah My Goddess! (Eps 21 to 24) (A goddess enrolls in school!)
Glass Fleet (Eps 9 to 12)(Imperial Space fleet vs Glass Fleet who are pirates?)

Drama-Comedy:

Air Gear (Eps 13-14)(NEW)(Young folks training to be pilots)
Case Closed (Eps 46 to 48)
Fruits Basket (Eps 17-18)
Negima! (Eps 12-13)
Shuffle! (Ep 12-13)

Action-Fantasy:

Black Cat (Eps 3-4)(NEW)(Assassin known as the Black Cat)
xxxHolic (Eps 17-18)(Addicted to Sorcery & Witchcraft? This your mug of java)(New)
Solti Rei (Eps 1-12)(NEW)(Not sure what this one is yet)
Tsubasa Chronicles (Eps 13-14)(Tsubasa is a submarine I think)
Gunslinger Girl Teano II (Eps 1 to 4)(Gals from 4 to teens in Italy are really cyborgs trained to kill. This is the second series and promises more action than the first! A must see folks!)

(image)

All pay per view anime available under Movies & Events/ Funimation Anime(includes above ppv titles)

Anime Select:

Gundam Seed Destiny (Eps 19 to 22)
Vampire Princess Miyu (Eps 11-12)

This next section of COD/Kids may have changed. Remember onegai that I only keep the Kids/Movies and Kids/Free Movies updated now. As far as I know all the kiddie stuff and teen stuff under Kids is still there albeit later eppys than I have here. Ditto for the Free Movis and Premium Channels sections for kid stuff. Check it out if you’re interested at COD:

OK here are the Kurisumasu holiday films for the kiddies. Most are under Kids/Free Movies but some are also under Premium Channels or Free Movies:-

Angel of Penna Avenue (Kid asks Prez Hoover to bring Dad home)(COD/FREE MOVIES too)
The Elf Who Didn’t Believe (So he swipes the sleight, the magic dust and vamooses)(COD/FREE MOVIES too)
Little Angels:Brightest Xmas (Lil Angels (real ones not like mine!) help out a family at Xmastime)(COD/FREE MOVIES too)
Miracle in Toyland (GI Joe vs Barnaby in Toyland)(COD?FREE MOVIES too)
Santa w/ Muscles (Hulk Hogan as St Nick? Who’s next? Arnie Guvanator?)(COD/FREE MOVIES too)
The Night They Saved Xmas (Who is trying to detonate SC and his NP City?)(COD/FREE MOVIES too)
X-Men:Wolverine (Another cool tale of superheroes)(COD/FREE MOVIES too)
Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie (Not Christmas but a classic treat for all ages (COD/FREE MOVIES too)
1941 (The Japs attack Disneyland in 1941! Chris Lee as an SS Standartenfeuhrer? How about John Belushi as a fighter pilot? Eliot Ness as a Dumbo loving General? Hilarious and it’s Christmastime!)(COD/PremiumChannels/HBO too)
Fred Claus (SC’s ne’er do well brother wants a handout)(COD/PremiumChannels/MAX too)
Thunderbirds (Rescue ops in space)(COD/PremiumChannels/Encore too)

These are all simulcast on COD/PremiumChannels/Movieplex:

Babes in Toyland (1997) (Animated musical with Chas Nelson Reilly as Humpty Dumpty, Lacey (Eliza Thornberry) Chabert as Jill and the dastardly Barnaby is Chris Plummer).
Xmas Dinosaur (You are on your own. I haven’t got a clue folks!)
The True Gift (Princess sets out to help others find Xmas true meaning).
Tadpole/Xmas Cheer (Frog at Christmastime animation).
North Station (Mailman at NP gets lost, becomes Santa’s head of mail servicing).

These are all simulcast on COD/PremiumChannels/Starz:

Twelve Dogs of Xmas (Doggies help save the holidays).
Booky/Secret Santa (Kid has nothing for Xmas. She finds a ‘Secret Santa’ to help others).
The Grinch is Jim Carrey- can you say idiotic?
The Boy Who Saved Xmas (Atnas is Santa’s evil brother who takes over the NP. Only a boy who is an FOS can save the day and rescue poor old St Nick).
Holidaze (Rusty the Reindeer feels unwanted so he runs off to find Xmas meaning).
Nightmare Before Xmas (Hall-o-we’en meets Xmas a la Tim Burton. A nice animated musical but a little scary for the younger kiddies).

Now some freebies for us oldster folks:

These are all under COD/FREE MOVIES”

Twelve Men of Xmas (Gal looking for Mr Right at Christmastime).
Xmas Evil (Kid grows up and thinks he’s Santa. So he decides to reward the nice and punish the naughty kids- even after they’ve grown up!)
Xmas in Connecticut (Remake of the oldie re lonely folks during the holidays. The Guvanator directs).
Xmas Tale (What if you find a hurt Santa in a hole- and he’s a she? If you’re a kid you run away!)
Xmas on Chestnut St (How to sell Xmas lights when you order too many- stage a contest for the
best decked house in the neighbourhood!)
Santa’s Slay (Lucifer’s kid’s been a bad boy so Luce makes him be goody goody Santa Claus for a millenium and now the thousand years is up!)
Loew’s Xmas Greeting (An old B&W Xmas greeting from Hollywood).
New Year’s Evil (A DJ gets a series of phone calls on NY Eve promising a killing frome each time zone of the USA to celebrate the new year!)

COD/PremiumChannels/Starz:

Serendipity (Xmas Eve romance).

COD/PremiumChannels/Movieplex:

White Nights (Mikhail Baryshnikov the ballet dude is a defector to the West in this old chestnut!)

COD/PremiumChannels/Encore:

P2 (Never work late in a NY high rise of Xmas Eve and don’t get stuck in the parking garages either!)

Back to the kids. These are all PayPerView from COD/KIDS/MOVIES. Most are $2.99 but a couple are $4.99. Unmarked are $2.99- OK?

Twelve Dogs of Xmas
Babes in Toyland (1961 original w/ Annette; 1986 Drew Barrymore version and 1997 animated musical version).
Bah Humduck (Daffy Duck is Scrooge, Bugs Bunny’s nephew Fred and Porky Pig is Cratchit!)
Barney’s Night Before Xmas
Barney’s Xmas Star (The big purple dinosaur not Fred’s pal).
The Bear Who Slept Through Xmas (Tommy Smothers is a bear who wants to stay awake for Xmas).
Bob the Builder’s Xmas (Bob in Wales during the holiday).
Charlie Brown’s Xmas Special (Rats! Snoopy won the deck yer house prize!)
Xmas Carol (1938 version w/ Reggie Owen as Scrooge).
Xmas Story (’You’ll shoot yer eye out, kid!’- Ralphie wants a BB gun).
Xmas in Wonderland ($4.99)(Finding moolah while Xmas shopping!)
Dennis the Menace Xmas (Bob Wagner is Mr Wilson? Puh-leeze!)
The Grinch is Jim Carrey- funny but adulty too).
Ernest Saves Xmas (This nitwit would fit right in aboard the ‘Angel 2′- Anyway Santa has to hand over the reins so he uses Ernest for awhile!)
The Nutcracker (Geo Balanchine’s version w/ McCauley Culkin and the Vanessa Johnson 1986 version of the classic tale of Clara and the Mouse King vs Nutcracker and friends).
Home Alone (ALL 4 movies are available).
The Invincible Ironman (animated he-man Tony Steele. Bob Downey Jr did him in the film and now he’s Sherlock Holmes BION!).
Mickey’s Twice Upon A Xmas
Miracle on 34th St (1947 and 1994 versions of Santa goes to court).
Pinocchio’s Xmas (Paul Winchell is Gepetto and Alan King’s a con artist showman!)
Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (Red Skelton needs Neon Nose’s help!)
Rudolph & Frosty’s Xmas in July (Ethel Merman’s a cowgirl in this farfetched piece of fun!)
The Santa Clause (If Santa falls off your roof, you’re gonna take his place pal!)
The Wiggles Xmas Show
The Wiggles Yule Show (The quartet from Downunder celebrates the holidays w/ tomos).
Monsters vs Aliens ($4.99)(Terra is invaded and who will save the day- monsters and freaks?)
UP ($4.99)(Everyone likes this thing with Ed Asner. Will it take the Oscar away from Tim Burton’s 9? Hope not!)

COD/Premium Channels/Too Much For TV:

Step Up Love (Ep 4)($14.99 monthly fee)

No change from November guide for any kids’ shows except as noted below.

COD/Kids/CartoonNetwork
COD/Kids/DisneyXD
COD/Kids/KidsWB
COD/Kids/Bomerang
COD/Kids/4KidsTV
COD/Kids/Kabillion

COD/Kids/Free Movies:
See Free Movies above.

COD/Kids/Kids Movies(Pay Per View films)(See above list):

COD/Top Picks/TV and Movie Trivia (FREE):

80s Trivia 1
Animated Phrases 7
Britney Spears Trivia
Friends 2
Guess the Phrase 8
Harry Potter 8
Movie Trivia 7
One Tree Hill Trivia
Picture Puzzles 6
Seinfeld 2
Simpsons Trivia
Star Trek 2
The Office Trivia
Twilight Trivia
Word Puzzles 7
Word Scrambles 4 and 8

COD/Kids/ActivityTV

Origami (Japanese art of paper folding)
Hometown Recipes (Like Chicago style pizza)
Cartooning Lessons

Don’t miss AMC’s The Prisoner 2009 6 parter on COD/TV Entertainment/AMC- with Jim Calveziel as #6 and Ian McKellen as #2- in the Sahara Desert near Namibia. Still being run as of 1 Dec 09.

That’s all the FREE anime/cartoons on demand but there quite a few Pay Per View Ones here:

COD/PremiumChannels/DisneyFamilyMovies:

These run a basic subscription of $5.99 a month and only two really touch on anime this time around.

Phoenix & Carpet (A firebird and a flying carpet a la Boronov’s symphonies)

G Force Sizzle (sneak preview of new animated film which is like GI Joe)

COD/PremiumChannels/TooMuchForTV/Imports:

(Most of these PPV animes are definitely not for the kids!)(Fireman Sam is OK for them)

I promised to add this one under KIDS.

COD/KIDS/PBS Sprout/Fireman Sam-
These are from Season 2 and feature a revamped format, better characters and new voices.
Jupiter and Venus have blue lights and the firehouse has been repainted. Norman’s mom
Dillys and Bella are better looking and Sam’s brother puts in some appearances too.

Dinosaur Hunt
No Nurse Like You
One That Got Away
The Wrong Smell
When Fools Rush In

TMFT has other non-anime fare too and it’s pretty raunchy so be warned gang!

COD/Movies/X-Men & Wolverine:

X-Men, X-Men 2 and X-Men 3 are $3.99 each
X-Men:Origins;Wolverine is $5.99
(Also available under Top Picks)

Screensavers w/ and w/o music:

COD/Top Picks/Holiday Films & More/Yule Log & More (also HD)(FREE):

2009 Yule Log SS with Xmas music
Christmas SS w/o music
Fireplace SS w/o music
Glacial Lake SS w/o music
Snowman SS w/ Xmas music
Winter 1 SS w/o music
Winter 2 w/o music
Winter Green w/ Xmas music

COD/Music/Holiday Music:
COD/Music/Music Choice/Holiday Hits:

Various Xmas themed music which can also be found on Comcast’s onscreen menu under
Songs of the Season which can be found under Channel 433.

From now on I’ll post this list twice monthly and I’ll keep it under ‘Files’ rather than ‘Messages’ or ‘Blogs’ (at www.Eons.com/groups/group/anime-a-holics/Files)

The ‘teaser’ beginning of the chapter on blog’s first page and the balance in the comment/reply is how I’ll post my fanfiction chappies from now on unless it’s a short chapter that is.

SYFY’s AniMonday (11 PM to 1 AM ET) is a double eppy of Monster (Doctor running from the law for a crime he did not do- sound familiar?) followed by a duble eppy of Now&Then, Here&There(Kid kendo trainee tries to rescue cute gal but ends up in Terran future fighting for an insane King Hamdo. Army led by dedicated female Abelia. Relax, it’s only 13 eppys long and it’s half over!)

Good news from SYFY folks! AniMonday has been expanded from 9 PM ET to 1 AM ET with the first two hours called Chiller. Chiller will feature unusual and scary anime film masterpieces beginning with Blood:The Last Vampire which spawned the Blood+ saga and a brand new live action film now running in theatres. Looks like 24 August will be Chiller’s debut. If you get SYFY in the SE PA-USA area you are still getting Star Trek-TNG reruns from 9 to 11 ET on Mondays dammit!

Hey WitchBlade the film (with Sarah Pezzini not Masane Amaha- yech!) will hit theatres in a year or so while DragonBall and Death Note are already out there showing. Many more anime based flicks are coming soon and they are filming Bebop with Keanu Reeves in Dave’s role as Spike Steigel. For Jett I’d pick LF- Larry Fishburne or even MF- Morgan Freeman. Denzel Washington or Samuel L Jackson don’t fit the mold. How about Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana as ‘Ed’ and Lindsay Lohan as Faye Valentine? (Rafe) Donnelly could be Tommie Lee Jones. Hey I oughta be a Hollywood cast finder eh? Gad, I wonder how much of a muckup they’ll make of the ‘Bebop’, ‘Swordfish II’, ‘Redtail’ and ‘Hammerhead’? I don’t think Ed’s power scooter had a name although we all know the computer she wore on her head with ‘goggle monitors’ was named ‘Tomato’!

Here’s the new Saturday night CN/AS lineup which begins earlier now for us at 12:00 AM ET following Star Wars the animated series at midnight. All times Eastern of course:

12:30 AM to 1:30 AM Bleach (two eppys)
1:30 AM to 2:30 AM Fullmetal Alchemist (Just restarted)
2:30 AM to 3:00 AM Morabito (Balsa protects Chagum from Mikado)
3:00 AM to 3:30 AM Death Note
3:30 AM to 4:00 AM Ghost in the Shell/Stand Alone Complex
4:00 AM to 4:30 AM Blood+
4:30 AM to 5:00 AM Big 0 (Big Giant Robot fare)
5:00 AM to 6:00 AM InuYasha (2 eppys once more- yay!)

In both Code Geas and in FMA some of the characters have a special logo in their eye a la Code Lyoko’s XANA logo in the evil characters’ eyes.

In both Death Note and Bleach there are specific hints as to character origins. In DN Ryuuk tells Light Yagami that any user of the DN book can neither go to Heaven nor Hell after death. So what’s left? Shinigami World meaning that DN book users after death become Shinigami death gods- right? Guess what live TV series is a DN parallel series? Hint- it’s on Showtime.

In Bleach Rukia’s Squad 13 captain (the one that is always sick as a rule) tells a subordinate that Ichigo’s friends are special with unusually high spiritual pressures. He goes on to say that he would not be at all surprised if after death they became soul reapers themselves after they had passed on to the Soul Society. Renji Abari committed a minor faux pas in this week’s eppy. While fighting one of the Arrancar Hollows he told him that by the time Kiske arrived the Arrancar himself would be dead. He apparently forgot that all Hollows are already dead to begin with. For that matter are soul reapers really alive or dead?

Ichigo, Urryuu and Chad have just met three Arrancars and their pet in the Wako Mundo desert on their way to Las Noches (The Nights) which is Aizen’s HQ fortress. Seems not all Arrancars and Hollows are bad because these guys gave ‘em a lift and are guiding them to LN. Live and learn guys. Why are they in WM? Aizen has Orihime of course! (see new post for more)

Bleach pulled a bummer on us and has dropped back 30 eppys to the first time the Vizoreds came to Kara Kura Town so no new stuff for awhile I’m afraid. Try bleachanime.org which has every single eppy on DL. New club Bleach4Ever just started up on FaceBook too.

Discovered why Moribito theme music is so familiar. Group is Arc ‘n ciel who did the GTO theme Driver’s Edge. Early OT and ET for Death Note are done by Nightmare group which is what the Black Knights and Brittanians’ Gundamlike fighting suits are called. Is this the end of Morabito? Sure seemed like it after Saturday’s eppy!

In FMA Ed has learned truth behind the Ishbaal massacre of fifteen years ago while brother Al has just discovered the identity of the Homunculi leader from the snake chimera Marta seconds before she was murdered by the #7 Homunculus- the Fuehrer King Bradley himself. He is Pride- the seventh deadly sin! But- who is his boss? Rose of Lior has become pals with Lira the girl alchemist who used to be with Yochi the state alchemist army lieutenant and she’s now called the Holy Mother but she has gone mute and who’s her baby’s father? The climax seems to be fast approaching and it promises to be exciting so don’t miss it gang! Hohenheim the Elrics dad is back and going after Dante. Al has become a deadly time bomb courtesy of an unknowing Scar and an evil Kimlee the Crimson Alchemist who used the red stones in Ed’s SAA watch to transmute the souls in Scar’s arm into a philosopher’s stone!

Another Bleach note- why did Aizen want Orihime kidnapped? What or who is the sojioque he has stolen which will awaken in the winter? Who is the lad newly born from its power? What does Kiske know which he ain’t telling? Can Ichigo defeat his Espada nemesis? Don’t ya just love that jutsu used by Captain Toshiro Hitagawa- reign over the frosted heavens! then the name of his zambatou? A version of it is used by the evil Dragon Emporer in Mummy 3 when Jet Li turns a field of snow into jagged ice stalagmites. Of course he has mastery over the five Chinese elements- fire, water, earth, wood and metal! If there are only five elements in Chinese philosophy then how can there be an avatar or guardian of the air- Avatar the Last Airbender? Air is not one of those elements! And who’s the looney tunes Espada poor Rangiku is stuck with? Avatar in theatres is NOT Avatar the Last Airbender. Instead Avatar is like a BGR or a Gundam!

Getting into DLs and ULs and burning CDs again. Finally got myself into attaching videos to messages like I do pix now and thanks to Blaine it’s so easy! Check out the fave anime moments/eppys message log here. Several Angelic contributions are there courtesy of yours truly.

Mama’s new read is Helma from the Tros of Samothrace series. Ho hum so far. Tros is getting interesting now- very interesting with refs to English countryside landmarks.

Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol was just excellent! I loved it. A lot of Freemason stuff in it I didn’t know. If any of you are Literary Guild members by all means check out the secret societies books they have at reasonable prices.

I have just added three plums to my anime vids collection: Complete DVD sets of Noir, Gasaraki and Tactics. I already have the complete set of Black Lagoon on DVD and partials on Blood+, Cyborg 009, FMA, Bleach and a few others. I have the first 7 eppys of Morabito and am on the lookout for the set. Bobby has the complete set of Trigun and Mama has the complete set of Gunslinger Girl and Witchblade. Anyone else have any new acquisitions to talk about? If so blog it here or post some messages folks. Bobby has Monster and I have My Santa and I just got Santa Claus Conquers the Martians on DVD.

Now have Bebop movie on DVD and VHS. Just got GS Innocence 2 and Haunting in Connecticutt. Thundercats came at last for Mama. Still have yet to watch DB Evolution film.

SYFY is airing Destination Truth which is like JBs old Digging for the Truth on HC. DT is hosted by Josh Bates or Gates and looks pretty good. Anyone know why SYFY considers wrestling science fiction stuff?

This just in folks! Josh Bernstein has revamped his website and is now using Twitter too. He has a fab group called JBs Group at YG. Dan Brown is on both Twitter and FaceBook now. What do you guys think about my starting an anime recipes file and a golf tips corner either here or at AH1 or somewhere else? Animeinfor.org is the only place I have ever seen an anime recipes section. As for golf tips- what can I say? I love golf- passionately even if I don’t play as much as I used to. Gomen but I just remem,bered this. Kudos to Robert the artist for hire for finding Dan Doh- probably the only anime series about golf itself! Sadly there are no dubs of it just subs. It can be found at VEOH and hulu quite easily. I’ll post a pix or two soon.

Another great show was In Search Of narrated by Leonard ‘Mr Spock’ Nimoy and I recall an eppy of theirs re the Knights Templar and Foucault’s Pendulum. If anyone knows where I can find a copy of those gems on VHS or DVD onegai let me know. A big domo arigatou in advance for your assistance. Gotta really go now and get some blogging done and maybe post Chapter 63 at last.

Just began reposting Xmas w/ the DP at www.gaia.com/forums/chatterbox/christmaswiththedirtypairChapter2 and just posted Chapter 1 (after Ch 50- sorry long story gang) and have now posted Ch 52 as well. Great pix too as I am now illustrating my posts of Xmas over there. Wings will follow as soon as I finish posting it here and at ff.net. ANOL is giving me fits too. Just found out I may get an HP Windows 7 for Kurisumasu. Actually it’s coming ashita and I just emailed Justin for some help in transitioning from Vista to W7.

Has anyone seen G Force yet? How about Haunting in Connecticut? Someone has suggested at FaceBook that our anime is dead. Boy did that ever open a potboiler of contention! If anime is dead well nobody told Hollywood! DragonBall, Watchmen, GI Joe, Blood:TLV, Transformers2, the list seems endless eh?

How about Tim Burton’s 9 and Pandorum eh?

I have now posted up to and including Ch 62 of Wings. I am trying to get Xmas and Wings rewritten and published. Think they will sell? A note to budding authors- Avoid ‘author mills’ like AuthorAmerica and AuthorHouse. All they want is for you to pay them to publish YOUR works! They guarantee nothing! Likewise avoid AbsoluteWriters Water Cooler for info and inspiration. They are quite negative and attempt to discourage a struggling author!

Don’t miss Showtime’s Inside the NFL tonight at 9, 10 or 11 PM ET. Play Beat the Insiders at beattheinsiders.com and join my group there- Saint K’s Anime Friends. I’m on FaceBook now you know. This is getting to be more like a newsletter than a guide. Any suggestions? I am considering a monthly golf tips column and a recipe file a la animeinfo.org. I just posted (Files) two Thanksgiving dinner menus. Comments?

Sports fans! I just started a group at Showtime’s Beat the Insiders and it’s called Saint K’s Anime Friends. Come & join me there and at FanIQ.com if you like. By the way my Saints are the highest scoring team in the league with 120 points in just 3 games. They are at 3-0 and lead their division. Our offense is #3 and our defense is #10. Quite a rise from #19 and #30 last season eh? Drew ‘Divine Wind’ Brees and his ‘4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ have outscored Detroit 45-27, Eagles 48-22 and Bills 27-7. In that last game TO never got close to a ball! The ‘Saintly Terrors’ are stepping up at last to complement our offense. Enough re that. Oro do ya think of a recipe file here and/or a golf tips column maybe once a month? Don’t worry because I have tons of recipes and loads of advice for duffers. Sorry there’s been no Ch 63 of Wings yet but I’ve been really busy with blogs, surveys, polls, reviews, guides, posts and now sports NFL groups. Soon I promise you will see Ch 61 and maybe even the end of Wings before Xmas.

A pet peeve here folks. Why is it that in most anime the characters either walk (InuYasha) or run (Bleach) everywhere they go? Didn’t the Japanese ever hear of transports? I’d love to see how Kagome could get an SUV through the well! Cars in the Soul Society’s Seretai? They’ve got wide enough roads there surely? And Ninjas and Samurai never seem to have carts, chariots or wagons although Samurai rode horses which was why they made the Zanzabatous like the one used by Zanza on Kenshin. Balsa did ride a stallion for awhile on Morabito and on Code Geas Lelouch’s ‘brother’ Rollo does have a motorbike w/ sidecar. Trains are the transport on FMA although Mustang and Hawkeye did have a car in last week’s eppy. DN and Blood+ have cars, boats, trains, planes and the like. So does GS and Bebop. Naruto has modern stuff but no transports. Guess it’s to each his own meaning whatever the creators decide.

Latest read was Danny Brown’s excellent fifth work The Lost Symbol (soon to be a flick?) which was quite good if a bit wordy. Damned thing took me 3 days to read! With 2012 in the theatres it was quite apropos. Hints: A famous statue stands in front of the CIA HQ building in Langley and is a pivotal part of the storyline. There are a lot of hidden details in Washington DC and Dan Brown’s a history buff as well as a secret society expert. He more than proved that in Angels & Demons and then again in the DaVinci Code. By the way he’s got a very entertaining website at www.danbrown.com so if you like tricky logic puzzles and codes by all means visit him there.

Oro else have I read recently? Sax Rohmer’s Shadow of FuManchu. He is the old-fashioned Darth Vader and the leader of a group out to save the Earth from its inhabitants. They are called The Seven. His nemesis is a Scotland Yarder named Sir Denis Nayland-Smith who with his trusty sidekick Dr Petrie pursues Dr FuManchu the same way Holmes and Watson pursued Prof Moriarty all those years. His latest escapade involves collecting scientists and killing anyone in his way. Looks like the Brits, Yanks, Russians and Aussies will have to band together to defeat Fu and Huan Tsung his sidekick. Some pair- Fu was at least 90 when Smith met him 60 years ago (Fu has the secret of eternal life. Has he discovered the FMA Stone?) and his pal’s in his 80’s! Geriatric? Far from it! Smith’s on his own this time unless you count his scientific buddy Carter who is about as useful as Zorro against Darth Vader! What a wimp!

I just began reading Ellery Queen’s ‘The Finishing Stroke’ mystery classic. A bit like Lost Symbol- it has a cypher EQ must solve to find the killer and it takes him over 20 years to bring the miscreant to justice! A must read for EQ fans like me!

Here’s oro the Keiman wants for Kurisumasu (Christmas) and I doubt if such a thing even exists. A wall clock (battery powered) that plays anime themes every hour on the hour. Now oro themes would it have? Nonstop Angel (DP Flash); Billy in Despair (Death Note); Life is a Boat (Bleach); Real Folk Blues (Bebop); Freckles (Rurouni Kenshin); Guardian of the Spirit (Morabito). That’s half and for the rest how about Sailor Moon, InuYasha, RaveMaster, Gurren Lagann, NOIR’s haunting watch melody and another Angels theme? Comments?

Oro anime music would you suggest for an anime wall clock? I’m interested to see if they are in my music collections.

Wanna know what my third ff will be re? Sorry re is Latin for about and is used as an abbreviation for about by many publishing houses and whatnot. Think this is something? You oughta try and read my class notes from school & college? One guy thought I was using Nostradamus’s codes! I use a little bit of everything when I write as you well know. Anyway my new and as yet untitled ff will concern the search for the lost Templar treasures- on Neptune or Pluto! Why? Zoe’s from Pluto and I have the Big O contingent under Alan Gabriel’s command working with Neptune Command. The Angels will be back with Angel 1 under Yuri’s command, 2 under Kei’s and 3 under Flight Kommandant Marlene Angel’s control. Her exec- Suba(ltern) FC/Acting Commodore Kome Sawaguchi- who else! Kei’s exec? Probably Han Solo nai I’ll make him Yuri’s #1 and Kei will use Mr (Joey) Bishop who will transfer from ‘Starfleet’ to the 3WA when Ellen Rodgers (remember her from John Berringer’s ‘Starcrusher’ crew?) joins ‘Starfleet’ and is promoted to Lt Commander status by Admiral Janeway herself! Reg Barclay is still Kiva Nerese’s exec of course. How does the 3WA and the UG get roped into a treasure hunt and can I keep the Rune Soldier treasure hunters out of this one? These require more thinking on my part but I believe descendants of both Lord Caervarvon and Howard Carter stumble onto a starmap in a hidden Templar temple- in Iceland! Could the Templars have created star craft that exceed our own devices today? Hell yeah- why not? Banking, credit, cheques, letters of credit, credit cards, computers- they invented all that stuff, didn’t they? Oh yeah a new pilot has joined the force- 2nd Lt Legato Bluesummers has been assigned as shuttle pilot for the Michaelangelo on the Angel 2. Will they find the treasure trove? Will Dexter Morgan ever get caught? Will Dr Tenma be vindicated? Will he kill Johann Liebert? These are questions you don’t ask writers and authors my tomodachis! Time will tell eh? Time to go. Sayonara all- K&K

OK here’s a treat- a pix of both Chief Poporo and Chief Garner of the 3WA. They live in dread of the Angels!

Garner (image)

Poporo (image)

AW Ch 62

Wow!Mar’s been injured and now that worst of all combat weapons is almost in Zorin’s cronies’ hands- Gundams! Almost as terrifying as the ‘God Guns’ or the Angels’ new toy- the r– whoops! I almost let the neko outta the sack folks! This chapter will put two close tomos at loggerheads with each other and nai it ain’t Vacuumhead and Firebrand either! Some old tomos returned and the Boss decides to head for Onsokamaru! Who’s in sick bay and how did she end up there? Why is Yuri Donovan furious? Who are the newbies? Did the truckers succeed?

ANGEL WINGS

DISCLAIMER: OK Saiya darlin’, it’s all yours. First I wanna thank Mr T for the use of his Angels and stuff. Then I wanna thank everyone else who has been allowing us to use their creations here like Thom Beers for the use of his ice road truckers Hugh, Drew, Rick, Eric, Alex and Bear. I took the liberty of naming the 3WA academy in Furool City on Shimougou after Mr Haruka Takachiho in honour of his creations- the Angels. How was that, Yuri? Great, kiddo. Oh hai it sure was, Kei! Now since we left ya up in the air last time let’s get to Ch 62 without any further meandering, shall we? Why is Zack Zero back and oro does he want with Suba Marina Oki? Can Mandy keep her big mouth shut? A hint re the titles- Aw do ya expect me to spoil it for ya? Oro does this all mean? We’ll find out momentarily gang. The Boss Red Marshall’s on the warpath again! Here ’tis:-

CHAPTER 62

‘Dead Air Time’ or ‘Mountain Mayhem’

“Oh hullo there, Ryuuk. Thought it was you, pal. Oro (What) are you doing up here?” asked Gene, tossing Ryuuk an apple which he crunched greedily.

“Light’s asleep and I’m bored. Wanna play some vid games or watch a Terran holovid with me, Captain?” asked the nightmare Shinigami hopefully.

“Might as well seeing as we’re on ‘George’ anyway.” replied Gene.

“Yeah, sounds good to me. Let’s watch ‘Dark Star’ this time. I love watching Tom (Skerritt) talking to those bombs.” drawled Han Solo whom Gene had thought asleep in his co-pilot’s chair.

Before long the trio was ensconced in watching that ancient Terran holovid from the late 20th Century.

Meanwhile Ichigo and Fullmetal had drawn a double shift night patrol detail. Ed’s younger brother Alphonse Elric had opted to tag along to keep his older brother out of mischief. After all Al felt responsible for his brother’s punishment. ‘Cowgirl’ Ed, Moonie and her four scouts had been using Al’s armoured ‘body’ for a drum. Fullmetal had smacked one of the scouts and when Moonie retaliated Ichigo had floored her. All of this had taken place in the rec room in full view of Wing Commander Yuri Donovan. Although a double guard shift was a severe punishment both of them were lucky that the Boss had been on the bridge during that little fiasco or it would have meant the brig for sure for the pair of ‘em.

“It was your own fault, brother. You and Icchi didn’t have to hit anybody. Reisie and her friends weren’t hurting me at all. They were just playing me like a drum. What do you think Granny would say if she knew you were going around hitting little kids?” admonished Al.

“Little? That ‘cowgirl’ and Moonie are both a lot bigger than your brother, Alphonse! Come to think of it so are Rei and Mina. Mako and Ami aren’t far behind them either. Dont forget, Al. We were protecting you!” yelled the soul reaper guy. Ed bristled and punched Ichigo’s shoulder.

“Who the Hell are you calling a tiny little shrimp, Kurosaki!” he yelled. Al grabbed his brother.

“Brother! Stop that right now. Nobody called you anything. Leave Icchi alone!” scolded the suit of empty armour.

“OK! OK! You’re always forgetting, Al that you’re the ‘Stone’ dammit! What happens if one of those kids accidentally activates you? Have you thought of that, brother? We’d all end up in Never never Land. Aw I’m hungry. Let’s eat, reaper boy.” said Fullmetal.

“Let’s wait until we finish our rounds on this level (4). There’s a rep unit at the stern end of the last hallway.” replied Ichigo. Ed nodded and they both double timed to catch up with Al.

Back in the suite that she shared with ‘Stun Gun’ Millie Thompson, ‘Derringer’ Merrill Stryfe and the quad of ‘WOOHP’ girls Neko Olson was trying (unsuccessfully) to place a relay call to a tomo (friend) of hers aboard the ‘Shalimar’ which was supposedly docked near ‘Remus’. Since the ‘Angel’ was well within ‘Daedalus’s vapor cloud the nekomata trill got no reply. Neko frowned and tried on her vidcell unit. Nothing. She tried again. No such luck.

“Crap! I wonder who the Hell Dorothy’s yakking with at three in the bloody morning! I’ll try Roger instead.” she said, however, after five more attempts she threw the vidcell at the bunk. Luckily it missed the wall and dropped on the mattress. Disgusted, Neko tossed off her kimono and crashed onto her bunk.

“Hey! ‘Pinky’ (Kome Sawaguchi the strawberry blonde teen was the ship’s comm officer) said if we broke another vidcell she wasn’t giving us any more! Be careful, ‘Kitty Kat’!” yelled Merrill from her own bunk.

“Shoot! I can’t even reach Tony Rome on ‘Kagura’ and he promised me a date after we get back to the Academy!” sulked Mandy. She wasn’t really a ‘WOOHP’ spygirl although she did hail from the LA Valley area on Terran California. When the spies had been recalled to duty both Mandy and their boss Jerry Lewis had tagged along. Even ‘Gloria’ their personal ‘CC’ program had come aboard with them.

“Maybe you texted in the wrong code?” suggested Clover sweetly.

“I texted the right code, Blondie.” snapped Mandy.

“Funny. I can’t raise anyone on ‘Dantoonine’ and that’s only a day from here.” said Alex.

“Do you realize that a ‘day’ here means about 200 lightyears, Al?” giggled Sammy. She was the only one of them still wearing her flight suit. At midnight she had to spell the scanning officer upstairs. Besides Sammy wasn’t the least bit sleepy. Being the electronics whiz of the team Sammy knew it could be the relay lines so she took Alex’s vidcell apart and tweaked it a bit. She tossed it back to the brunette.

“Try it now, Al. See if you can raise ‘Minerva’. Text Lalaru Davies. Remember we met her on ‘Gallifrey’ that time. Her code’s ‘LDD1′ I think.” said the redheaded spygirl.

Alex texted but got no reply. She tried seven more times then gave up.

“Maybe the main wireboxy thingamajig’s screwed up. Go fix it, Sammy.” ordered Mandy.

“Maybe you used up all your minutes, dumbbell.” giggled the blonde spy.

“What minutes?” asked Millie.

“Clover’s just being an asshole, Fatass.” explained Mandy.

“Don’t call Millie that, Mandy! Unless you want a belt in the chops!” said Merrill. Sammy pulled a flight jacket on over her jumpsuit.

“C’mon Alex. Throw something on over your jammies and we’ll check the main relay controls on the first level. I won’t get any peace until these vidcells are working again.” said Sammy.

“OK. Just a sec.” replied Alex who was yanking on jeans and a sweatshirt over her pajamas. She slipped on boots and grabbed her flight jacket and sonic screwdriver which Doctor 2 had given to her for Kurisumasu (Christmas) last year. Sammy hefted a tool box and tossed two pair of gloves to Alex.

“You carry those, Al. Ready?” asked Sammy and Alex zipped up her jacket and nodded. Both girls headed for the lift banks.

Dorothy Wainwright was a pert and cute android robot and she had appointed herself Roger Smith’s maid whether he liked it or not. When Roger and his megadeuce giant robot ‘Big O’ were ordered into battle (’Paradigm City’ fell under both ‘UG’, ‘GC’ and 3WA jurisdiction) Dorothy naturally tagged along with them. Roger’s butler Norman had opted to stay behind and take care of the Smith mansion. Roger’s old buddy Dan Dastun who had once been a chief on the ‘PC Military Police Force’ was now a high ranking officer, a commodore, of ‘KASP’ and he resided on ‘Kagura’. Dan’s military unit was under ‘ISSP’ command and was already headed for ‘Romulus’ at full speed.

Back aboard the ‘Angel’ Merrill glanced over at her roommie Neko and grimaced. “So you still can’t raise anybody huh?” she said and Neko nodded. The trill was just about to throw her vidcell and then thought better of it and shoved it under her pillow instead.

Millie sat up from the holomag she’s been reading on her PDO and popped half a dozen chocolate truffles into her mouth.

“Mr Gene said we wouldn’t be able to use our vidcells until tomorrow night. Something about a ‘Dead Loss Niblick’ he said.” explained Millie, cramming even more candy into her mouth.

“Millie! How many times have I told you not to talk with your mouth full? That stuff’s gonna make you fat, girl!” replied Merrill. Neko had a strange look on her kitten-like face.

“Dead Loss Niblick? Oh Christ no! Not ‘Daedalus Nebulae’! Is that oro (what) Captain Star said, Millie?” asked a stunned nekomata catgirl. Millie nodded while Merrill frowned and lit a cigarillo.

“Why? What in the Hell’s so damned special about that place?” demanded the pert Insurance girl from Gunsmoke. Neko stared at her.

“For starters it explains why the Hell our vidcells are all dead. It’s a gas cloud between ‘Minerva’ and ‘Stegeros’, one of ‘Remus’s moons. If we’re real lucky we’ll come out of it somewhere near ‘Stegeros’ and be about two hours away from ‘Remus’ by this time tomorrow night or we could be on the other side of the bloody galaxy. It all depends on which way the solar winds are blowing. It all means–” explained Neko.

“That the Boss is taking another damned shortcut.” finished Merrill. The small brunette stuck her hand in the chocolates’ box and pulled it out again- empty. “Dammit Millie! That’s the third damned box tonight! Lay off the sweets for awhile!” stormed Merrill.

“It’s the fourth box but who’s counting?” giggled Neko. Merrill threw the empty box down the recycle chute.

“Truffles. Chocolate. Assorted. Box. Large.” said Merrill and the replicator spewed out more candy.

“Take it easy or you’ll lose your trim girlish figure, Merrill.” warned Clover who was sipping a strawberry milkshake.

All over the mammoth starship vidcells were misbehaving. Finally Solo announced the reason why over the PA system. Soon thereafter ‘CC’ reported an overload of his memory banks in trying to keep up with the unusually heavy demand for holovids- mostly ancient Terran films and TV shows. Meanwhile Alex and Sammy had arrived at the main surface level and found the main grid relay control systems boxes. After perusing the conglomeration of relays and wiring for ten minutes Sammy pronounced them fine and dandy and admitted she had no idea why their comm equipment wasn’t working. Without warning a heavy hand fell on each girl’s shoulder and they were unceremoniously yanked to their feet.

“Ach Tung! Vatt are you zwei maedchen (two girls) doing down here? Vhy don’t you go back upstairs und play mitt your toys? Gott im Himmel! (God in Heaven!) Haf you two nitvits taken anything apart? (The ‘Green Baron’ Fritz von Dekker shook them harshly and they shook their heads) You are lucky I found you und not der gross (big) doggie demon! Now get back to your rooms und play paper dolls or something safe!” yelled the Baron.

“We were just trying to fix the phones, Herr Fritz, sir!” snapped Alex whose pajamas were showing over her hiphugger jeans. He grinned and tapped a few keys on his PDO and held it out for them to see.

“See that planet there? That is ‘Kagura’ and that one is ‘Remus’ where ve are going. Der big cloud in between them is vhere ve are now and das ist vhy der communicators don’t vork. It blocks der signals. Herr Solo just told us over those. (He pointed at where a PA squawkbox should have been and realized there were none on this main level because as a rule it was never used for anything. Then he smiled.) OK. Now I get it. No squawkboxes down here so you didn’t hear the announcement. Can I trust you to go back to your quarters, liebchen (children)?” said the Baron and he released them. They nodded, saluted and dashed for the lift banks.

“Ach! To be a young vhippersnapper again. If only–” mused Fritz and he continued his rounds.

“Did you hear the news, guys? We got no vidcells until tomorrow night darn it!” sulked Mandy.

“Yeah. We heard. We ran into the old ‘Iron Pilot’ himself. I thought he was gonna turn us over to InuYasha but he let us go finally. I’m going to bed.” replied Alex and she threw off jackets, boots, jeans and sweatshirt. Then she crashed onto her bunk. Sammy explained things to them and then she too sought the Land of Nod. Eventually all of the rest drifted off to sleep and peace claimed part of the ‘Angel’.

Thrice Gene was tempted to forego ‘George’ and change course but each time Han’s advice was the same. “Leave well enough alone, old buddy.”

The next day seemed endless. Mealtimes were still as noisy as ever and the dining hall was packed for the dinner hour at 1700 (5 PM).

The evening bridge crew had the bridge under vampire control with Seras Victoria piloting the ship, Walter at the helm as navvie, Sir Integra Winifred van Helsing as comm officer and Alucard co-piloting for Vicky.

Integra lit a cigar and frowned at Walter. “What good’s a comm officer if there’s no communications?” she complained.

“About as much good as a pilot who cannot steer the damned ship. We’re stuck on autopilot dammit!” fumed ‘Police Girl’ Vicky who was chain-smoking cigarettes like crazy.

“Those things will kill you one day, ‘Police Girl’.” joked Alucard.

“Ha ha. Very funny.” replied Vicky who, like her master Alucard, was already dead, well, undead anyway.

Several levels below them on Sublevel 2 the ‘Ice Road Brigade’ had asked Nyssa and Kouga to teach them how to operate skysleds and skycycles. Kouga had agreed immediately but it had taken several blueberry milkshakes (liberally laced with Romulan Ale) before Nyssa had consented.

“Who’s gonna go first?” asked the wolf.

“Me!” chorused Drew and Rick.

“OK. I’ll take Rick. Nyssa, you can have Drew.” he replied, shoving Rick inside ‘Everest’ while Drew helped a slightly tipsy Trakken girl into ‘Matterhorn’ and took his seat at the controls.

“Everybody buckle up and strap in.” ordered Kouga.

“Wave your hand across the console.” he instructed and a dubious Rick and Drew complied. The roar of the sleds’ mighty engines was deafening in the confined space.

“Pull back on the throttle, that thing in front of you, Mr Drew.” slurred Nyssa. The sled rose several feet above the deck.

Rick followed suit and Kouga pointed to the speed bar which was part of the steering arm.

Nyssa placed Drew’s right hand over the ‘Matterhorn’s speed bar.

“Press down on the bar but not too–” said the youkai as the ‘Everest’ shot forward at almost 200 kph or 175 miles per hour!

“Lean your steering arm hard left– now!” yelped Kouga as Rick barely managed to avoid crashing headfirst into the airlock portals.

Drew’s sled was spinning wildly out of control after Nyssa had passed out and fell into his arms. Drew was panic stricken so he simply let go of the arm and the throttle causing the ‘Matterhorn’ to drop to the ground like a pole-axed steer.

Miraculously Rick suddenly got the hang of steering arm, throttle and speed bar. He was zipping around the walls and caterwauling at the top of his lungs when–

“Vatt der Sam Hell ist going on down here!” howled Fritz von Dekker who had only just finished dealing with two miscreant kids two flights up. The ‘Green Baron’ had been dispatched to check out the flashing amber lights from Sublevel 2.

“See oro (what) the Hell’s going on down in the bays, Fritz!” were the orders trilled to him from InuYasha a few moments ago. The big hanyou was the new security chief.

“Ja sure, Herr Doggie Boy. Probably just a glitch in der systems of Mr ‘CC’ ist all it vill turn out to be.” had been von Dekker’s retort.

“Where’s that mangy wolf, Kikyo?” and ‘How the Hell should I know? He’s your tomo (friend), not mine!” had filtered through Fritz’s comlink before it had gone dead. Security HQ was Level 7 near Yuri’s office.

Fritz reholstered his blaster and yanked Eric and Bear from beneath a shuttlecraft where they had both dove for cover from the runaway skysleds.

“Joyriding vere ve, yentlemen?” roared the ‘Green Baron’ in a voice of thunder.

END of Ch 62. Ch 63 ‘The Ice Minister Tells the Truth’ or ‘Zach Confides In Saiya’ soon. Getting interesting eh? Wonder how our heroine’s gonna get outta this one? Read on and r/r/s away as always. Have a wunnerful day and sfn/sys/jm/Kami bless you all for your interest and assistance. Hooble-toodle-doo! Toodles tomos watashi-K&K

I dickered over this chapter’s titles. Let me know if I got ‘em right eh? Don’t our gus and gals play some cool practical jokes on each other? All in good natured fun of course!

Hope ya had a happy and safe Guy Fawkes’ Day! Happy Thanksgiving. Dunno if the Japanese even celebrate it but Naruto does.

A belated happy birthday to our fearless leader- Classic Kei who will be born 27 Nov AD 2121.

PS- I really do appreciate all your loyalty and support over the years my tomos watashi all! And you can take that to the bank folks!-K&K

See ya next blog post. Toodles-K&K

This chapter brings me up to date. Then I have to wind up this one and think about my next one folks- K&K

Gundams are coming aboard the ‘Angel’ and guess who’s back with his old ship? Sorry but it’s been awhile since my last post here at today but (to paraphrase Kei) it wasn’t my fault! I couldn’t log in so I could not post here, however, all that’s water under the bridge now and we are back to normal and hope to maintain the status quo from now on. Here’s a pix of a Gundam and the ‘Liberator’:

And a pix of the ‘Liberator’ which you may remember from ‘Blake’s 7′:

Anime/Manga » Dirty Pair » Angel Wings
keiman and kei
Author of 2 Stories
Rated: K+ - English - Sci-Fi/Adventure - Updated: 11-27-09 - Published: 05-08-08 - id:4243950

AW Ch 58 ‘The Trouble with Gundams’ or ‘The Return of the Liberator’

Wow!Mar’s been injured and now that worst of all combat weapons is almost in Zorin’s cronies’ hands- Gundams! Almost as terrifying as the ‘God Guns’ or the Angels’ new toy- the r– whoops! I almost let the neko outta the sack folks! This chapter will put two close tomos at loggerheads with each other and nai it ain’t Vacuumhead and Firebrand either! Some old tomos returned and the Boss decides to head for Onsokamaru! Who’s in sick bay and how did she end up there? Why is Yuri Donovan furious?

ANGEL WINGS

DISCLAIMER: OK InuYasha darlin’, it’s all yours. First I wanna thank Mr T for the use of his Angels and stuff. Then I wanna thank everyone else who has been allowing us to use their creations here like Thom Beers for the use of his ice road truckers Hugh, Drew, Rick, Eric, Alex and Bear. I took the liberty of naming the 3WA academy in Furool City on Shimougou after Mr Haruka Takachiho in honour of his creations- the Angels. How was that, Yuri? Great, kiddo. Oh hai it sure was, Kei! Now since we left ya up in the air last time let’s get to Ch 58 without any further meandering, shall we? Why is Zack Zero back and oro does he want with Suba Marina Oki? Can Mandy keep her big mouth shut? A hint re the titles- Aw do ya expect me to spoil it for ya? Oro does this all mean? We’ll find out momentarily gang. The Boss Red Marshall’s on the warpath again! Here ’tis:-

CHAPTER 58

‘The Trouble with Gundams’ or ‘The Return of the Liberator’

Yuri’s entire party rqced onto the lift and rode down to sick bay on Level Three.

“Rally! ‘Extrapoleen 80′- 190 mg’s- stat! Kei! Lots of blankets! Mae! Tricorder readout! Nami! Change her bandages!” yelled the violet maned vixen while she worked furiously on the young blonde.

“There! I think that that almost 600 mg’s of ‘Extra 80′ may just have done the business for sure. She’s breathing on her own and sleeping peacefully. (Yuri whirled like a Dervish to face the Boss) You dimwitted dodobrain! If you ‘ever’ pull a dumbass trick like that again, I swear I’ll flatten your ass! All you had to do was turn on the taps at the kitchen sink for Kami’s sake! You used dishwater! And- and- and- y- y- you almost damned near killed her, Deirdre!!” sobbed Yuri.

“I saw the dishwater there so I stuck her hand into it figuring it’d like clean out the wound, that’s all! ‘Kolacydyl’s water soluble anyway, ain’t it?” replied the redhead with an oath.

“Yeah sure! ‘Kolacydyl’ is but Marley had used ‘Synthenol Koron’ thinking it was ‘Kol’ and the lanolin/sodium combo from the dishsoap speeded up the reaction time. Mar’s allergic to ‘Syn K’ you big dummy!” wailed a distraught Yuri Maureen Bridget Donovan her body shaking with uncontrolled emotion. Kei was belligerent.

“Well she was the one that used that crap on herself! I didn’t so it ain’t my fault!” retorted the Boss angrily.

“Besides you said she was gonna be OK, didn’t you? (Yuri’s purple head nodded) Then shut the Fxxx up about it already!” howled the redjeaded Amazon wildcat.

“Don’t tell ‘me’ to shut up! You shut up, dipstick!” shouted Yuri and suddenly Kei grinned like a Cheshire neko (cat).

“See? Every now and then ya just gotta let off some of that steam, kiddo. Look. I am really really sorry for oro (what) happened to Marlene but it really was just an accident. She gonna be OK now so let’s just forget about it eh?” suggested the Boss. Yuri finally nodded and dried her aizu (eyes). Then the redhead got deadly serious.

“We have ‘got’ to get to ‘Onsokamaru’ and fast. Gene seems to think he can get us there in two days. We’ll make our pickup there, turn and burn back to ‘Rom’ and ‘Rem’ (’Romulus’ and ‘Remus’) and hopefully get there in time.” she explained.

“Oro are we picking up Boss? More damned ‘railguns’?” demanded a sarcastic wing commander vixen. Kei shook her head slowly and her expression was grim.

“Nai (No). Two more ‘Gundams’ are there. It seems that old Zorin (Oakenshield) had this pair stockpiled at ‘Onsokamaru’ just in case the others on ‘XANA’ were discovered by the authorities. Charlie Garner says we owe a really big favour to Johnny Raven. His ‘Ganymede’ contingent found ‘em for us. One of John’s ‘X-Wing’ pilots had engine trouble so the squadron put down at ‘Onsokamaru’ for repairs. Another of his guys went exploring and stumbled into a cavern like that one on ‘XANA’ only this one had two bigger ‘Gundams’ than ours in it. Charlie said that if Zorin was going to use four of them against ‘Rom’ then by Kami and all that’s holy we are going to use four of ‘em against Lord Dooku and Admiral Thrawn. (Kei mused and pursed her lips in thought) Maybe, just maybe we won’t be needing to use those damned ‘railguns’ after all, Vac– er I mean Yuri.” replied Kei. Yuri was speedily calculating on her PDO unit. Then she frowned and tapped her foot.

“OK listen up. Our beam transporters work from a hundred thousand kilos (kilometres) out so we can beam those monstrosities directly aboard the ‘Angel’ without having to touch down at all if we have John set up ‘pattern enhancers’ around them for us. I will not risk beaming anyone down there from that far out no matter how damned much of a hurry Uncle Chuckie’s in. We will be within beaming range in another six solar hours. Let’s say it’ll take fifteen minutes to beam and then we turn and burn back to ‘Adonis’ (Arch) and use it to get to ‘Remus’ and from there we go to ‘Romulus’ which by my calculations we should reach by dinnertime (1700 hours aka 5 PM) ashita no yobi (the day after tomorrow). That will be well within our window so how’s that suit you, Boss?” asked a now composed and recovered Yuri Donovan.

“Sounds like a plan to me, kid. Let Gene know will ya? (Yuri smiled and nodded) Arigatou (Thanks). On your way back down to your star room duties of course. I just love it when a plan comes together! (Kei thought for a moment or so) Is there someone with Mar? Just in case?” asked the redhead.

“Of course there is. I’m not that stupid ya know! Either Zoe, Winry, Flaysie, Cagalli or Maesie. They’re taking turns in hourly shifts.” explained Yuri who was again as per usual- mad as Hell at the Boss. She touched a fingertip to her comlink earring.

“Ari? Yuri. Listen up. We are picking up two more of those ‘Gundam’ toys. John Raven’s going to ‘pattern enhance’ the area they’re in for us. I want you to beam them along with our first two directly to Armoury Room 3 on the Fourth level. Got that? Good. Oro? Not for another six solar hours. Huh? Nai (No) we ain’t touching down there. Why? Well for one thing it’s hostile territory and for another we’re in a damned hurry. Be ready when I give you the go ahead. OK? Fine. Arigatou (Thanks) Ari. Yuri out.” she trilled on her way to the bridge to acquaint Gene and Han with Territorial Sector Chief Charles Augustus Garner’s latest orders. They took this grim news like the true troopers they were.

“Two more of those Kami forsaken pieces of crap? Oro the jigoku (Hell) does Charlie Boy think we’re runnin’ here, Duchess? A damned galactic delivery service?” drawled an irked Han Solo.

“All the way to ‘Onsokamaru’ and back in less than two solar days? I sure hope our warp core can handle the added strain.” worried Gene Starwind.

“Orders is orders, old buddy. Guess we’re like the Terrans’ ancient Marines corps- ‘the tough stuff we do right away; the impossible takes a little longer.’ Hey Zoe! Plot us a quickie course to ‘Onsokamaru’ and back will ya?” yelled Han to the nav room next door. Zoe silently gave him a two thumbs up sign.

It took the combined efforts of both Gene and Han on the throttle to turn the almost mile long starcraft around after the ship had dropped out of hyperspace mode. Had they attempted this foolhardy maneuvre while in hyperthrust they could have quite easily placed the ‘Lovely Angel 2′ in more than just one dimension!

Meanwhile downstairs in Engineering Cyborg and Donnatella were having a minor disagreement regarding the ship’s speed.

“If we go back into hyperthrust we cannot exceed thirty Warp, Cy.” explained Don reasonably.

“Bull! Blondie said we can go all the way up to forty-five, Don!” countered the angry Teen Titan.

“Yes but she did not mean while we were still in hyperspace mode! If we do we’ll reduce this vessel to nano-atoms!” argued the Ninja.

“Not if we stabilize that danged core field beforehand we won’t!” yelled Cyborg.

“Forget that, stupid! That core’s as unstable as the nine gates of Hell and we really shouldn’t be putting more strain on it! However, if we’re really careful maybe we can hyper her up to twenty-five guys but that is it! Any more and we risk creating a new moon above ‘Sontarra’!” cried Blackfire of Tamaran who was checking gauges with Faye Valentine.

“I have already witnessed the birth of a new moon thank you very much and I do not want to see another one guys so stick to 25 Warp dammit!” snarled the ‘cowgirl’ with finality.

Cyborg made a wry face to Donnatella. “You always win darn it!” he sulked.

“Stabilize the core field, Black and fire her up again. Take us to twelve then gradually increase to twenty-five, Cy. Who’s got night watch folks?” said the Ninja turtle. Faye raised her hand.

“I got it tonight, Commander.” she replied.

“Better go get some chow and some rest now. You’ll take over at 2100 (9 PM) tonight, Suba.” said Don. Blackfire was frowning at her station.

“You and Cy go on ahead to the chuck wagon, sir. I’ll rep up something here. I don’t trust this core even with a stabilized magnetic field. See ya later.” said the Tamaranian girl. Cy shrugged then left with Faye and Don. The Tam’s caution proved unnecessary so when Faye returned at nine an exhausted and grateful Blackfire went to her bunk. Meanwhile Rin, Ed (the Bebop tomboy not the blonde alchemist) and Mooney were bored to tears. None of them wanted to play vid games or horse around on the holodecks. The rec room was too noisy and most of the ‘cool’ places aboard were ‘off limits’ to them for obvious reasons. Then Rinny remembered the dumb waiter she and Conan had used to get to the Auntie Kei’s ‘office’ behind the bridge.

“Mako (one of Mooney’s scouts) told me that Auntie Kome’s got a cool new vid game up in the office and I know how we can get in there without anybody seeing us.” she announced proudly. Ed and Mooney wanted to hear more details and pumped Rin for more and more information.

The chromos read 1900 (7 PM) and since they were travelling ‘hyper’ nobody was manning any weapons. Instead the rec room was full of merriment, laughter and noise. After all besides the bridge’s skeleton crew, a ‘Mar watcher’ in sick bay and a few guards nobody else was on duty tonight. Even the Duchess and the Hyuga siblings (Neji and Hinata) got a break since ‘you cannot watch space for stuff when you’re zippin’ past it at almost thirty times the speed of light!’ as Yuri had pointed out to the Ninjas who were not slow in agreeing with her. Nat’s ‘railgun’ crew was offduty except for Flaysie who had drawn this shift’s ‘Mar watch’ detail. Flaysie could have cared less. She got to watch ancient Terran movie vids called DVDs while her blonde charge slumbered on. If she knew oro was going on just one level above her on Four she wouldn’t have been so contented.

Beside the laudry room Rinny proudly pointed out the dumb waiter’s concealed hatch.

“Conan said that supply room across from us used to be a kitchen where special dinners were cooked for meetings in the office upstairs. They sent the food up this little elevator thingy. Then Mr Popo (Donald Poporo was the 3WA Section 237 Chief) said they needed more room for his medicine (booze of course but Rinny didn’t know that) so the kitchen became a supply room. Everybody must have forgotten about the little elevator thingy but it’s still here.” explained the inu youkai’s (dog demon’s) ward. Ed and Mooney smiled while Rinny grinned back at them.

It was a tight fit for them but only a short ride up to the ready room on Nine. They all piled out and Rinny sat on the big conference table. Ed folded her arms and looked the kid squarely in the face.

“I don’t see no damned vid games, Rinny.” she said suspiciously.

“Me neither.” agreed Mooney but Rin clapped her hands and laughed.

“Watch this guys!” she giggled and hit the control bar for the ‘out of order’ vidscreen number 18. The star map rose from the console’s rear.

“See? Auntie Kome and Auntie Nat just punch the little letters and stuff here and lights do a dance on the big TV set. Watch.” she instructed and pressed ‘Enter’ and ‘Start’ together.

“Weapons are now fully armed and functional. Please select target coordinates.” intoned the ‘railguns’ program.

“Cool! Let’s pick that place that Uncle Anton doesn’t like too much- ‘Minerva’.” suggested Mooney with an impish grin. Rin squinted at the star chart.

“Which one is ‘Minnie Nerve’, Ed?” she asked.

“That one. The one that looks like little Ein (Ed’s data doggie). How do we play?” replied the tow-headed tomboy.

“Turn the wheels until the lines cross at that square doohickey (Canadian bull target sight).” explained Rinny.

The trio took turns (very unusual for them) using the windage targeting controls until-

“Target selected and locked. Are we go for launch?” requested the program.

“Hell yeah! Blow the damned thing up already!” yelled Ed excitedly while Mooney and Rin cheered her on.

“Affirmative. We are go for launch. Please select salvo number.” instructed the computer. Rin was counting on her fingers and Ed was musing while Mooney looked confused. Finally-

“Shit on it! Let’s start with one.” said Sailor Moon and she pressed the ‘1′ key.

“Salvo One will launch in T minus five minutes. We are go for launch. Gun ports are clear. Back blast ports are opened. Correcting firing elevation to 800.14621. Mark. Alert! Alert! Clear all sublevels immediately! Firing will commence in three solar minutes! All hands stand clear! Stand clear!” intoned the launch program and at the same time klaxons strted to bray everywhere! Then the huge ship lurched heavily downwards throwing the kids to the deck. Next door on the bridge the peaceful tranquility had just been shattered.

“What the Hell? Gene! Did you do that?” shouted Han Solo. Gene Starwind was just as confused as his compadre in arms.

“Me? You’re the damned pilot, Han!” yelled Starwind.

“Yo! You two birdbrains just took us off course dammit! Oro the Hell do you think this is- a frigging joyride?” shouted Nami from her nav room.

“Hey guys! Why the oni (devil) are we targeting ‘Minerva’?” demanded Rally Vincent from her scanning station. Then the terrifying truth sunk in.

“Those bloody ‘railguns’!” howled pilot and co-pilot together.

“Han old buddy! Do you know oro happens if a ‘railgun’ is fired while a ship’s in ‘hyperspace’ mode?” yelped a panicky Gene.

“Nope but I’m guessin’ it ain’t a very perty sight!” drawled Solo.

“It’ll blast a hole through all the continuums in all the Universes! It would unmake creation itself!” shouted Gene who was double timing it for the ready room.

“When does it go boom, Ed?” complained a pouting Rin.

“If we’re lucky- Never! Oro the Hell are you hooligan brats doing up here? Han! Oro’s the override for this damned thing?” yelled Gene.

“How the Hell should I know dammit?” howled Solo.

“Abort! Abort mission at once! Abort! Hellfire and eternal damnation! Abort I say!” cried Villa who had just rushed in.

“Go for launch has been cancelled. All stations standing down.” intoned the program.

By now most of the flag officers were crowding the little room. The three little miscreants decided now was a good time to take off.

“Freeze! Get your asses out of that dumb waiter right now! You three ladies have got some explaining to do!” roared Naturle Edwards from the doorway. The kids froze in terror.

“We didn’t do nothing, Auntie Nat!” wailed a sobbing Rinny.

“We were just playing with the new vid game up here.” said Mooney.

“It’s just Auntie Kome’s dumb old vid game. We didn’t hurt nothing.” sulked Ed.

“You kiddies are danged lucky that the Red Hellfire didn’t catch you!” warned Villa.

“Catch oro? Oro the Hell’s going on up here?” asked a suspicious Keirran O’Halloran. She’d come up here to chat with Nami and had walked over to the ready room to see oro all the excitement was about. The Boss’s suite you will no doubt recall is soundproof.

“We were running a little fire drill, weren’t we Captain Gene?” suggested Cagalli Yula Athna digging her elbow into his ribs.

“Huh? Oh yeah that’s right, ma’am. Very good folks. Now you can all go back to whatever you were doing.” agreed Starwind.

Kei shrugged and went into the nav room.

“We sure lucked outta that one, that we did.” said Mooney heaving a sigh of relief.

“Not quite. You three have pots and pans detail for a month.” ordered Nat.

“Huh? We rep up everything so there’s nothing to wash up, Auntie Nat.” said Mooney.

“That may be true but Uncle Tracey cooks so he’ll need clean pots and pans. You’ll be washing and drying them for the next month. Ed? Mooney? A one thousand word essay regarding artillery safety. Single spaced. Rin? You will write ‘I will never play in the ready room again’ one thousand times. Auntie Mae will see you get to your bunks. Get plenty of sleep kids because you’ll be up at dawn. Dismissed.” commanded a seething Nat Edwards. Mae wasted no time in hustling them off to bed and then went to her own bunk. It had been a long damned day.

“OK folks. We got lucky tonight. Kei didn’t hear anything and Donovan took three ‘Xenokot’ sleeping capsules. Needless to say neither they nor the Brigadier must ever find out anything about this little incident. Is that quite clear? Kome, send out that message to everyone’s PDO unit on this ship except theirs and add a two minute ‘delete’ instruction. This minor ‘wargame’ never happened. I need a drink so let’s go back to the bar.” said the ex-Archangelite (Nat, Caggie and Flay’s former ship had been the ‘Archangel’ in Cosmic Year 30) and they all left.

Over in the nav room Nami and the Boss were chatting about old times while they ostensibly searched for the best approach to ‘Onsokamaru’ space and those two ‘Double 0 Riser’ Gundams.

“Yuri won’t let us get any closer than a hundred K kilos (100,000 kilometres) and neither one of us is gonna risk beaming anyone down there. Those ‘pattern enhancers’ should let us pick ‘em up with no prolems.” said the redhead.

“Blackfire’s worried about our damned warp core holding up long enough to get us there and back again, Boss. By the way who’s gonna pilot these two new Gundams for us?” asked Nami Richards.

“Annie (Anne Hathaway was Ella’s daughter and a time ship pilot with the 3WA albeit in AD 2268) and KR (Keitarou Reef was the Angels’ godson, Annie’s partner and a time ship pilot as well). They’re both time ship pilots so Gundams should be a cinch for them.” replied Kei who had never really known too much about these ancient ‘Celestial Being’ beasties. Nyssa arrived to spell Nami who headed for bed. Nyssa was the quiet type, answered in monosyllables so the Boss left with Han and Gene who had just been relieved by Rukia and Ichigo. Rally’s replacement was ‘Derringer’ Merrill Stryfe. InuYasha was night security chief. The big hanyou was both upset and amused by his niece’s (Rin) stunt with the ‘long pipes’ next door while everyone else was having a grand old time in the rec room and the bar.

“Rinny gets it from her dad. That’s my brother Sesshomaru ya know. Oro I mean is she gets it from him, not me!” said the big inu hanyou or half human and half dog demon.

“Oh no! You never did anything reckless, did you? No! Not you!” commented Kagome Higurashi sarcastically.

“Aw you just think Sess is a saint on account of he adopted Rinny.” grumbled InuYasha.

“I most certainly do not! I was referring to the time you and Ichigo were sparring on Deck Six (Deck Six ‘is’ the ‘God Gun’) and your ‘Tetsusaiga’ (IY’s sword) cut into the ‘God Gun’s coolant lines.” she replied.

Ichigo guffawed. “She’s got ya dead to rights there, Dog Breath! I remember that mess!” chuckled the soul reaper from Kara Kura Town. Rukia turned towards him and smiled.

“Then you must recall that ‘Zangetsu’ (Ichigo’s zanzapatou sword) almost split the gun’s ion generator in half that day, Lt Kurosaki.” reminded Ms Kutschski.

It really irked Rukia Kutschski that Ichigo Kurosaki had been promoted to lieutenant and assigned to Gin Ichimaru’s old squad while she was snubbed. In Squad 13 Rukia was still a lowly nobody warrior. That was back in the Seretai in the Soul Society and that was bad enough but now that they were here as temporary 3WA officers Ichigo’s promotions had continued. That blonde hussy brigadier had just made him a Captain while passing over Rukia leaving her still a lowly Ensign! Even Kagome, a fifteen year old schoolkid, was a Suba (Subaltern) and her pet pooch (”Sit Boy!!”) was a Lieutenant. Life was like a boat dammit! It was just not fair at all!

“Hey Kagome! Take Rukie and rep us up some snacks and java will ya?” called the petite brunette from the nav room.

“You got it, Merrill. Let’s go, Ensign Kutschski.” replied Kagome.

“Dammit all! Merrill’s not only a First Lieutenant, she’s a frigging Acting Captain to boot!” sulked Rukia to herself.

“Bridge duty tonight and babysitting tomorrow. I just can’t seem to catch a break, Suba.” she complained to the schoolgirl. Kagome shook her head sadly.

“It’s your own damned fault, Reaper Girl. You should not have decked Light Yagami yesterday. And you did it in front of Donovan too. Blondie was all set to hand you your bars at tonight’s party. Now with you on report she can’t do it.” explained Kagome while punching in the snack orders on her PDO unit. Involuntarily Rukia shivered.

“Dammit! It’s bloody cold in here, Kaggie. Can the 3WA possibly make these damned miniskirts any shorter? I hate these things! That’s why I was hoping to make Lieutenant, Kaggie.” said Rukia.

“Here’s the list. Get repping. Oro does not being promoted to Lieutenant have to do with miniskirts, Rukie?” asked a confused Kagome.

“Lieutenants and the higher up ranks get to wear pants, Suba Higurashi. Reds I mean the Marshall put the kibosh on my ‘gi’ (soul reapers wear a black overshirt and oversized black pants called a ‘gi’. The same outfit is used by Ninjas or Karate fighters) outfit while on duty so I gotta wear this damned getup. Excuse me while I rep, ma’am.” said the angry soul reaper.

“I think Andy Gooley picked ‘em out and Kome said he’s a dirty old man. Suba Oki took hers off and threw it in his face. Chief Gustav told me that after Marina Oki had stormed out the entire steno pool bombarded him with theirs too.” giggled Kagome.

“And I thought the Seretai’s ‘Inner Sanctum’ was full of nutcases!” chuckled Rukia. She began placing cakes and pies, buns and rolls, doughnuts and Danishes on an antigrav trolley while Kagome carried the two immense java (coffee) urns over. Then they stacked the dishes and cutlery. Rukia was carefully filling the last cream pitcher when–

“Yo! Hurry up with the food, Shortie! I’m hungry!” bellowed Dog Boy.

“Shit! Look at this blasted mess!” yelped the angry soul reaper who had just dumped the contents of the cream canister all over herself.

“Aren’t you a cutie! Better get outta that uniform so we can sponge it off before the stains set.” said Kagome while Rukia stared at her open-mouthed then relaxed when Kagome slipped off her own flightsuit and tossed it to her. Kagome had had on a tee shirt and jeans underneath it.

“Looks like you’ll be going against regulations until tomorrow, Rukie. Hurry up and change. Gimme your cruddy stuff so I can toss it down the laundry chute. No way! Teddy bear undies? (Rukia made a wry face and nodded) Sango give ‘em to you? (Again Rukia nodded) Thought so. I was the one that gave ‘em to her.” chuckled Kagome while relacing her deck boots.

“Ha ha. Very funny. Thanks for the jumper though.” replied the reaper girl. They refilled the creamers and the sugar bowls before trundling the trolley back to the bridge.

“Slumming, Kaggie?” chortled Ichigo.

“A little spilt cream, Reaper Boy. Luckily I had my ’slumming’ outfit on underneath my flightsuit so I gave it to Rukie. This is just between us, guys. OK? Rukie’s in enough trouble already what with the Light thing yesterday and all.” said Kagome and Rukia got very red in the face.

“Darn it all! I wasn’t even trying to hit Light. I was going after that Shinigami of his!” yelled Rukia.

“You cannot harm a death god, kid. As a rule you cannot even see or hear them.” explained Light who was making his rounds trailed by a grinning Ryuuk.

“Sorry if I got you into trouble, fellow Shinigami.” apologized Ryuuk.

“Thanks Ry. I forgot that us soul reapers are Shinigami too.” replied Rukie.

“Only they aren’t as ugly.” added Ichigo.

“You haven’t seen the Squad 12 Captain yet, have you?” giggled Rukia. This dude rivalled both the Joker and Ryuuk in ugliness.

“Enough chatter in there, guys. I got something onscreen. Kagome, get in here.” called ‘Cat’ from the nav room.

“Oro does Nami say about it, ‘Cat’?” asked Rukia.

“I got no idea, Reaper Gal so get Kaggie’s ass in here dammit!” snarled the Terran navigator.

“Is it one of ours, Kaggie?” asked ‘Cat’ but the schoolgirl slowly shook her head.

“Nope. I’m sure the Boss said we’re the only law enforcement ship in these parts. It’s way out of ‘ISSP’ jurisdiction and no other 3WA vessels have been assigned out this far. Whoever it is it’s definitely not one of our vessels.” said Kagome. Rukia was leaning over Nami and squinting into the scanner.

“Who’s ‘GC’?” she asked innocently.

“Huh?” replied Nami.

“That’s oro it says on the side of that ship out there.” explained Rukia.

“It means ‘Galactic Command’, darlin’. They’re sort of like one of us so get your itchy fingers off those triggers out there, Reaper Boy.” drawled Han Solo.

“Where the Hell’d you come from, Pirate?” grumbled Nami.

“I trilled Commander Solo and asked him to come up, Ensign Richards. When I saw Kurosaki charging up the plasma cannons I wanted to make damned sure who we were firing on first.” explained Light Yagami.

“The Boss called in a favour and asked John Raven (’ISSP’ commander at ‘Ganymede’) to get us some kind of an escort. ‘Galactic Command’ was the only one that would send a ship out this far. That ship can only assume we’re here since we’re still ‘cloaked’ and they can’t see us or detect us. Put down that mike, Ensign Kutschski. We are maintaining relay silence until we reach ‘Onsokamaru’ space. I’ll sack out up here across from the ready room. Don’t be afraid to sing out if you kids spot anything else. And stay off the comm relays, Rukie love. G’Night.” drawled Solo and he left them.

“Oro do we do now?” asked the reaper girl.

“I’m starving to death so let’s eat!” yelled InuYasha and he grabbed four ham and Swiss on ryes and popped off the top of a java urn.

“You’re a pig!” yelled Rukia.

“Ain’t he though.” agreed Vincent.

“Sit boy!” ordered Kagome and the big hanyou pitched forward and crashed to the deck floor.

“OW! Damn you wench! That hurt!” howled InuYasha.

“Next time watch your manners, InuYasha.” advised Kagome.

Ichigo pulled him up and Nami handed him a cup and a sandwich. Still sulking he wolfed it down and allowed Rukia to fill his mug all the while complaining because they had forgotten his ramen.

Meanwhile the ‘GC’ ship kept a silent vigil while both vessels sped on towards the most lawless sector of the ‘Epsilon Quadrant’- the ‘Elysian Fields’ and their rendezvous on the tiny asteroid known as ‘Onsokamaru’.

Seated in his pilot’s chair the ‘GC’ Captain was brooding. He wasn’t a bit worried about the dangerous regions they were soon to encounter. He was way too angry with the ‘Galactic Command’ and their shyster tactics which was how he and his starcruiser became enmeshed in this mess in the first place. Finding himself in need of a few million credits in a hurry he had foolishly floated a loan from an Antillian moneylender. This guy could have given Shylock lessons! The 150% interest loan was signed in ‘Dariabar’ but oro the Captain did not know was that the moneylender was only a frontman for the real creditor- Goren LaGann, Supreme Commodore and Commander of the ‘Galactic Command’ headquartered just beyond Alderaan.

When he discovered that his new creditor was LaGann he still wasn’t too concerned. He had patrolled for the law before and anyway until that note was settled he and his fine vessel belonged to the ‘GC’ so he decided to just make the best of it. None of this upset him until LaGann dropped his bombshells. Then the Captain became as mad as a Zygorvian Sabre Cat and began spitting fire! A “GC’ ship or one that was temporarily on loan to them had to fly their ensign- a grey ‘GC’ on a dark field. In addition LaGann had placed an observer from his own staff aboard the Captain’s craft ostensibly as an advisour but to the Captain he was a little fat pain-in-the-ass. The final thing that rankled his ire was that the ‘GC’ had the unmitigated gall to repaint his beloved starship!

After all the ‘Liberator’ had just been repainted a cheery red, white and aoishi (blue) to match his fave redhead’s ‘Lovely Angel 2′ starship. Before that it been green and gold- the clours of Marina’s fave Terran NFL football team- the Green Bay Packers. He had begged and pleaded to no avail. Supreme Commodore LaGann had been gracious and sympathetic but firm. In the end Captain Zacharias Zero was sitting here just beyond no-man’s land in his drab grey ‘Liberator’ while Warrant Officer Second Class Jomdath Jegga slept in his room downstairs.

Jegga was ostensibly the ‘GC’ observer but to Zach he was a royal apin-in-the-ass. Zach fumed inwardly at his blasted orders from the High Command. The ‘Liberator’ was to maintain comm relay silence and Zach was to assume that the 3WA ‘LA2′ was out there somewhere nearby. Therefore he was to continue his voyage to the ‘Elysian Fields’ as if the ‘Liberator’ was on a scenic pleasure tour of the galaxy. Shit! That meant that he couldn’t even hail the ‘Angel’ despite the fact that he and his ship were well known to most of the 3WA and their crews. Well they knew his ‘Lib’ as a speedy green and yellow starcruiser not as this drab grey ‘GC’ patrol ship. They had to have seen him here but merely logged him as a ‘GC’ escort vessel. Wait a minute. Maybe he could send them a message like they had both done in the ‘Gyrol Mountains’ that time back on ‘Shimougou’ using ancient Terran Morse Code.

“No Captain. No Morse Code either. No comm relays at all. Your orders are to remain silent. Good night.” Damn that Jegga! He had anticipated Zach’s thoughts and warned him telepathically. Why not? Like all ‘Zargons’ Jegga could read minds- even from a distance while Jegga himself was sleeping soundly with a deck between them! If Zach thought that the ‘ISSP’ had been stern taskmasters they were kindergartners compared to these ‘Galactic Command’ clowns. At midnight Zach Zero called it a night and went to his cabin.

At that exact same time aboard the other vessel the party broke up and Villa headed for his bunk. Halfway there he recalled that Mae Hopkins had asked that he check in on Nyssa who was navigating the huge ship solo tonight for the very first time. Wearily Villa rode the lift up to the bridge. Nyssa was carefully following the course Nami had laid in earlier and then relaying the course corrections to Ichigo next door who was simply sending them on to the autopilot system. Villa strolled onto the bridge and greeted the two soul reapers. Rukia saluted while Ichigo waved and yawned. To reach the nav room Villa had to step over InuYasha who was asleep on the floor across the doorway. Kagome was dozing in one of the gunner’s chairs. Kikyo was on the scanners and politely waved to him. So intense was the Trakken girl on her task that Villa had to practically shout to get her attention. The nav comp readouts were satisfactory and so after assuring Nyssa that she was doing a superb job Villa tried chatting with her. He soon discovered oro most of the bridge teams already knew- Nyssa is no talker. As he rose to leave he remembered the earlier excitement up here.

“One more thing kiddo. Oro was all the hoo hah up here earlier when Yagi Boy (Light Yagami) sent for Solo? A sighting of some kind?” asked Villa and Nyssa shrugged her shoulders.

“Miss Rukia (As an acting Lieutenant technically she outranked Rukia who was only an Ensign but Nyssa had been brought up on courtesy. Since Rukia was older than she Nyssa treated her with the same respect she would give a superior officer or a fine titled lady.) saw a ship out there. Mr Solo told Mr Kurosaki he couldn’t shoot at it because it was a ‘Galactic Command’ vessel and probably our escort to ‘Onsokamaru’, sir. The good guys was how he phrased it for us, sir.” replied Nyssa quietly.

“They still out there?” he asked.

“I guess so, sir.” mumbled Nyssa. Villa sighed and peered over Kikyo’s slim shoulders at the scanner’s vidscreens.

“That it Honey? The big grey one?” he asked and the miko (Shinto preistess) from Terra’s ancient past nodded.

“Han said no comm relay transmissions and no hails either. I do not believe the commander trusts the ‘GC’, sir.” she replied.

“Probably not love only he can trust that vessel, that he can. I served aboard her before Gene Starwind found me. That ship is Zach Zero’s ‘Liberator’ my dear child. I will have no trouble sleeping tonight knowing Zach’s on watch out there. Good night to you, Warrant Officer Kikyo. See you ashita I mean tomorrow.” yawned Villa and he ambled off to find his bunk. Villa’s mind mused over how to let Zach Zero know that he was here aboard the ‘Lovely Angel 2′ (or indeed even that this ‘cloaked’ ship was the ‘LA2′) without violating a direct order from a superior officer. Then it hit him. He speedily uploaded a vidphoto of that famed ancient Terran Italian estate ‘Villa d’Este’ and added the caption ‘Zero humidity today. Glad you could make it. How do you like this house?’ to it. Then using an old coded pre-war channel Villa sent the image and its cryptic message to his old chieftain.

As soon as ‘You have a signal’ popped up on Zach’s vidscreen he automatically opened it. Then he puzzled over it for a few minutes.

The Italian Tewrran house was called a ‘villa’ so Zero guessed that his old pal Villa must be aboard that mysterious ‘cloaked’ ship out there. They were probably under the ‘No relays’ orders the same as he was. The last Zach had heard of Villa he was serving as a gunner aboard the ‘Outlaw Star’ and the Star was more than likely docked aboard the ‘fire maiden’s Angel. After all ever since Gene Starwind and his crew had attempted to rescue ‘Black Ghost’ from the 3WA Gene had been travelling with that crazy mixed-up firebrand Hellcat, hadn’t he? At least that was the scuttlebut from ‘Rygiel 9′ where he’d delivered some spare parts for ‘Voltrons’ last year. Did that mean that Villa was here? Apparently so if this cryptic message was any indication.

Zach racked his brain for a way to respond without giving ‘GC’ an excuse to discipline him- again! Finally he hit ‘reply’ and circled a ‘ray’ of sunlight on the photo.

‘Me too. The house is simply Angelic’.’ was how he captioned the ancient photo. Then he hit ’send’ and relaxed a bit. Villa would easily understand the ‘ray’ message he hoped. ‘Rei’ was ‘zero’ in Japanese and the ‘Angelic’ house was the ‘Lovely Angel 2′ starship. Zach hoped that Villa wouldn’t risk sending another signal tonight. After all the ‘Galactic Command’ weren’t totally idiotic!

Villa chuckled while reading Zach’s signal. Now he was quite certain that they had themselves a really good escort out there. He had served Zach Zero as a weaponry expert ever since Zach had ‘acquired’ the ‘Liberator’ from her previous skipper- Alonzo Blake. He grinned at that recollection from long ago. Once upon a time Villa had been a member of that infamous renegade pack known as ‘Blake’s 7′ but that was another story entirely. Jonny Harlock hadn’t yet left the rec room when Villa had retired so Villa decided a night cap was in order and returned to the bar. He confided his suspected identity of their “GC’ escort spacecraft to the grizzled old pirate captain. Jon had known Zach Zero long before Villa had crossed paths with him all those years ago. He agreed with Villa that they were indeed in ‘good hands’ but like Villa he also wondered why in the wide cosmos Zero had decided to join the ‘GC’ forces.

“We’ll be in position by noon tomorrow, laddie.” observed Harlock while he sloshed another three fingers of rum and rye for them.

“The sooner we finish our job and get the Hell outta here the better, Cap.” replied Villa. He drained his glass and turned it upside down before wishing Jon good night and going back to his bunk. A few drinks later Jon followed suit and peace claimed the ‘Angel’ at long last. Meanwhile abovestairs Villa was troubled.

Why hadn’t he told the Brigadier (Marlene Angel) about the ‘Liberator’ and Zach? Villa mused over that problem and finally decided he’d damned well better tell Blondie all about it in the morning. He soon fell into a fitful sleep. And aboard the ‘Liberator’ Zach Zero was having second thoughts as well.

Zach had decided against telling anyone except his exec about Villa’s messages and he’d do that in the morning. And? Well he’d better just sleep on it.

True to Jon’s word by noon the Angel was in position and ready to ‘beam’ the two Leviathan ‘Gundams’ aboard. That is until Bear and Eric of the Ice Road Brigade got a good close look at them through the long range vidcams!

“Wow! Those things are monsters, Reds!” exclaimed Eric while Bear merely nodded in awe. The other four Terran truckers agreed they’d have one Helluva time moving those two behemoths. Alex whispered something into Neko’s ear and she nodded. The nekomata girl trilled John Raven who was waiting below on ‘Onsokamaru’ and he answered immediately. Her face clouded over at his reply. She turned to the others.

“Bad news, kids. John says the two ‘Gundams’ weigh a good 75 or 80 apiece. Therein lies our problem.” she said grimly. Hugh the ‘Polar Bear’ blanched white.

“Tons? Metric tons? What’s the gravity like down there, ‘Kittykat’?” he asked worriedly.

“Seventy-five or eighty thousand kilograms, Mr Hugh. Like I said therein lies our problem. John thinks so too.” replied Neko.

“Oro (What) problem?” demanded the Boss. Rally had pulled John Raven’s rugged image up on the vidscreens and patched in a relay so everyone could see and hear him.

“Hiya Reds. Well you’re a hundred kilos out and that is well within range of ‘em if they were up here on the surface. However, those things are another two or three kilos below us and too damned heavy to move on our own. None of our shuttles will fit down in those tunnels and–” he began.

“Sorry to bust in on ya there, Mr Raven but how wide are these tunnels of yours?” cried Hugh suddenly.

“That you Polar Bear? Well I er–” he dithered until-

“For Kami’s sake John! Just tell him dammit!” growled Kei.

“OK. They’re pretty darned narrow for us, Hugh. Only a kilo and a half in width.” replied Raven.

“Only? Hell! That’s almost a whole damned mile!” yelled Drew. Slowly Jon Harlock shook his bearded head.

“I know oro ye be thinkin’ laddie and it willnae (will not) work. Each one of those tin suits weighs over 75,000 tons! Your lorries will hold only a fraction of that weight. Sorry to burst your bubble, Hugh.” apologized Jonathan Harlock sadly. Hugh smiled and Alex frowned at first and then he too finally got Hugh’s drift.

“Ever heard of ‘tandem trucking’, Mr Raven?” chuckled the burly minister of the ice roads.

“I never even heard of ‘trucking’ until you guys showed up on ‘Gysymeo’, Reverend but I’m willing to learn. Oro’s the deal, guys?” asked John Raven. Being the oldest trucker Bear explained.

“Back home on our ice roads sometimes we just have to deliver loads too heavy for one rig to haul. Like say an oil derrick tower. What we do is this. Put two rigs against each other back to back. Then we load the thing so half of it’s in the bed of one rig and the other half’s in the bed of the other rig. See? (John nodded) Then while one rig drives forwards the other driver is going in reverse. (John’s aizu (eyes) popped) Of course both trucks have got to maintain the same speed and keep their load as steady as possible but we do it quite a bit, sir with very few problems.” explained the greybeard. Solo was amused.

“Ever try that trick through a twisting pitch black tunnel deep beneath the surface for 5 or 6 kilometres (3 or 4 miles)?” drawled Han.

“Nope. But we never had onboard navigation systems like these before either.” said Rick. The Boss was gnawing her knuckles. Finally she glanced over at Ari the Elf Huntress.

“Can you beam 4 trucks, 2 skysleds, drivers, handlers and provisions for each onto that asteroid’s surface? I won’t ask you to beam ‘em all underground kid. They can drive down there by themselves. (Ari nodded) Right. 4 rigs and 2 sleds. Hugh and Alex will drive 2 of the trucks while Bear and Eric will drive the other 2. Rick and Drew will each be aboard a skysled with a driver. Rally’s gonna scan the tunnels and relay information to the sleds who will in turn pass the word along to the rig. Once they get those ‘Double O Riser’ units topside Ari will beam ‘em aboard one at a time. Then she” beam the rest of the teams and their equipment back here. Any questions? Good. You guys go and get your gear together awhile. You’ll be trilled when we’re ready to go. I want a guard on each rig and a security team with each sled. Rick? Drew? I take it you guys dunno how to operate a skysled?” said the redhead.

“What the Hell’s a skysled?” asked Drew and Rick merely stared into his java.

“OK. Then Ichigo and Naraku will be your drivers. Jon? (The big guy nodded) You’ll pick the security teams. As for the rig guards- InuYasha will go with Bear. Kouga will go with Eric. Lord Ivy (Ivanhoe) will be with the Reverend (Alex) and Rebecca goes with Hugh. Ichigo will drive Rick and Naraku will drive Drew.” commanded the Red Marshall. The Ice Road Six had left some time before this and so were not privy to these orders nor would they have approved of them!

A little while later Nyssa tapped on the door of the truckers’ quarters and Eric opened it.

“Hello there, Love. Come by to wish us luck eh?” he asked with a devilish grin.

“Yeah but the Boss told me to deliver this stuff to you guys.” she said and dumped what appeared to be a huge armload of shimmering tissue-thin plastic sheeting on a table.

“What the Hell are we supposed to do with this shiny plastic wrap? Gift wrap those metal beasts?” joked Rick. She grinned.

“Hardly. These are Elfin suits of mail for your protection, gentlemen. They are composed of ‘Mithril’ which makes them very light but amazingly strong. Elfin armour to be precise. It’ll stop a disruptor bolt or a bullet.” explained the Trakken girl.

“This crap wouldn’t even stop a pebble from a slingshot, kid!” Hugh guffawed loudly. The rest snickered their agreement. Nyssa sighed and spread one of the ‘Mithril’ suits on the floor. Next she drew her Mark XII disruptor pistol and motioned them all to step back.

“Stand well back, Terrans. Watch and learn.” she ordered before calmy firing six bolts of pure plasma energy into the garment from two metres away. Mouths gaped open in shock! The ‘Mithril’ mail was completely undamaged. “And they’re even warmer than your long johns, me boyos.” she added while reholstering her pistol. “Reds said to be on your rigs and ready to split by 1500 hours- three o’clock this afternoon. We’re serving luch now so I guess I’ll see you guys later. Good luck, gents.” said Nyssa and she departed. Bear grinned.

“Like I keep on telling ya- this is Wonderland or Oz- one or the other! It has just got to be!” he said and picked up a ‘Mithril’ suit of mail.

“Truly the good Lord doth work in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.” agreed Alex who was already pulling on one of the strange Elfish armours. Drew and Rick were still looking for blaster holes (unsuccessfully) in the one Nyssa had shot. Eric was admiring himself in the mirror.

“Look at me! I am Super Eric!” he chortled. Hugh grouched at bit but did get into one of the ‘Mithril’ Hall-o-we’enie costumes as he called them.

“Well, one o’ these thingies did save Reds’ life in that shoot ‘em up, didn’t it?” growled the Polar Bear.

Finding no holes in the test garment Rick handed it to Drew while he donned the remaining one himself.

“Hey! They ain’t scratchy like wool or flannel!” said an approving Drew.

“Warm as toast to boot.” agreed Rick.

As it turned out all of the drivers and their passengers wound up at the same lunch table. The ones that knew Kei’s orders and the ones that didn’t were sitting side by side and across from each other. As usual the big hanyou was the first to put his foot in his mouth.

“I’ve got the job of protecting you, Mr Bear.” said InuYasha in between bowls of ramen. InuYasha’s usual meal contained at least sixty bowls of the noodles staple.

“Eric? The big mangy wolf’s (Kouga the wolf youkai demon) with you. Lord Ivy’s watching your back, Mr Alex. Rick’s got soul reaper boy (Ichigo Kurosaki) and Naraku’s with Drew.” explained InuYasha who almost always ate as though someone was trying to take his food away from him.

“Who am I stuck with? Your brother?” demanded Hugh grumpily.

“Nope. You have got me, Lord Hugh.” said Rebecca. Then she reached across the table to slap Rin’s fingers.

“Do not take things without asking, young lady.” she admonished after Sesshomaru’s ward had tried to grab a bowl of InuYasha’s prized ramen. Kagome pretended not to notice since IY apparently hadn’t and bit into her cheesesteak and munched away heartily.

“Bring Rin some ramen please and better bring another fifty for Dog Boy. I’ll have some more onion rings please.” said Kikyo to Mina who nodded and jetted off to the galley.

Ami, Serena, Zoe and Leila trundled eight heavily overloaded antigrav trolleys past the truckers’ table.

“Who’s all that for?” asked Nami Richards.

“Guess.” replied Faye Valentine.

“The Saiyaans are over there so it must be for them.” said Light Yagami. Ryuuk pointed confusedly at InuYasha.

“Ain’t he a Saiyaan?” asked the Shinigami death god.

“I’m a demon, Ugly!” snorted InuYasha angrily.

“Half demon.” intoned Kikyo, Naraku, Sess and Kagome.

“Stupid mutt!” said Kouga.

“Mangy wolf!” replied the hanyou.

“Please don’t start that all over again!” pleaded Rukia Kutschski.

“Yeah. I’ve got a headache.” agreed Ichigo Kurosaki.

“How come I get stuck with Becky for a passenger?” sulked Hugh.

“Would ye rather after havin’ Revy Roberts, Mr Hugh? (Hugh emphatically shook his head) Then pipe doon already, sir.” said Jon Harlock.

“Cheer up, Hugh. You coulda gotten saddled with that pirate gal Emma.” chuckled Rick. Jon rounded on him savagely.

“And just what be wrong with that, laddie?” demanded Harlock.

“Nothing. Sorry, sir.” apologized Rick who still had a blank look on his face until Drew whispered to him.

“Cool it, you dolt! Emma’s Jon’s niece.” seethed Drew. Jon drew out a huge old-fashioned Turnip watch.

“It be half past two. I’ll see ye all doon in the bays at three sharp and ye dinna better be late!” he said and left the table.

By 1500 (3 PM) six of Kiva’s ‘Coriander’ crew had been drafted by Jon to be his two security teams- three for each sled.

“Can you guys hear me OK? Rick? Drew? This is ‘Cat’ here. Over.” trilled Rally Vincent.

“Yup. We sure can.” trilled Rick.

“Loud and clear, ma’am.” trilled Drew.

“That’s great. OK. Just read out whatever messages I send to your vidscreens. Rick will be advising Hugh and Alex. Drew will be relaying to Bear and Eric. Good luck, boys. ‘Cat’ out.” trilled Vincent.

Suddenly Rick thought of something really important!

“Yo Reds! We are getting paid for this job, ain’t we?” he blurted out anxiously. This seemed to be a cue for the others to chime in and they did- loudly.

“Of course we’re paying you guys. Galadriel has given all six of you oro you guys call ‘blank cheques’ for the duration of your stay with us. By the way you are all warrant officers and acting Subalterns you know. Rebecca’s already a Suba so for this mission she’s in charge. One more thing, gang. You’ll be pleased to know that our old tomo (friend) Zach Zero is commanding our ‘Galactic Command’ escort vessel. Yup that’s the old ‘Liberator’ out there although Kami knows why he decided to aint her battleship grey. OK. All team members will carry sidearms and plasma rifles, got it? Ari will beam you down in five seconds. Good luck, me boyos and lassies.” said the Boss and she pointed to Ari who nodded.

“All systems go. Energize.” ordered the redhead and the small convoy vanished.

A tall lanky official-looking guy in black flight togs was standing in front of oro resembled the entrance to the New Holland Tunnel in ancient Terran New York City if that tunnel had been ten times wider than it really was.

“Jesus H Christ! What the Hell’s that thing, Alex?” trilled Hugh.

“Abandon hope all ye who enter here. May the good Lord protect us, Hugh.” replied Alex.

“Amen to that, brother.” agreed Eric.

“Who wants to go down the dark creepy tunnel first?” trilled Bear.

“Lead the way, Rick!” trilled Drew.

“I just remembered that I got claustrophobia, guys!” trilled Rick.

“Pretend you’re Robert Langdon on a dangerous mission, Rick.” suggested Eric.

“Greetings gentlemen and welcome to ‘Onsokamaru’.” said John Raven. “You needn’t worry, lads. I’ll be leading this sortie. This place is honeycombed like a rabbits’ warren. We don’t want you guys getting lost now, do we?” chuckled the ‘ISSP’ chief.

“After my sled the order will be Drew, the Polar Bear, the Reverend, Rick, Eric and Bear. Lt Moran will be bringing up the rear so we don’t lose any stragglers. It’s as icy as the devil down there so be careful. The temperature is minus 650 degrees Kelvin which is well over 800 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That means that you stay inside your rigs at all times. My men will load your carriages. There will be ample space to reverse your trucks once you reach bottom. Any questions?” asked Raven.

“How much does each one of those statue things weight, Mr Raven?” asked Eric.

“Almost 400 tons which means that each rig must bear a 200 tons load. Which two of you drew the short straw and get to back out of the tunnel?” asked John. Alex and Bear’s hands went up.

“Fine. Just keep your speeds even and constant. Even your excessive weight will not break the ice but a 400 ton Gundam might so onegai (please) do not drop one on the way out. Anyone else? No? Then queue up behind me and keep together. Good luck.” said Raven.

“All set, Morey?” trilled John and Lt Mortimer Moran replied in the affirmative.

“Only three and a half Terran miles but to these Earthers it’ll feel more like a thousand, eh Starbuck?” he chuckled to his driver Sapper Dave Starbuck who grinned.

“Damned straight, sir. Three and a half miles down but that’s as the crow flies and not as the tunnel twists, Lt.” he agreed.

Except for Drew’s constant wailings of impending doom and Rick’s constant cursing, Alex’s praying, Hugh’s yelling, Eric’s laughing and Bear’s continual exclamations of wonderment the trip down was uneventful and took less than four solar hours.

“We’re all gonna die!” bemoaned Drew for the umpteenth time.

“If you say that one more time, drw, you really ARE going to die!” yelled an exasperated Naraku.

“I’m getting airsick again!” announced Rick.

“Dammit! Use those barf bags, Mr Rick!” howled Ichigo.

“Our children are acting up again, Bear.” chortled Eric.

“Yeah, seems we can’t take ‘em anywhere without their getting into trouble, Eric.” agreed the greybeard trucker.

“Do not worry for the good Lord will protect us from evil.” intoned a solemn Alex.

“I sure as Hell hope so!” cried Hugh who was not used to driving in utter pitch black darkness. On Terra there was always moonlight.

“Are not you men supposed to be the stronger sex? Time to start acting like it, Lord Hugh.” said a disgusted Rebecca.

“Hooray! I can see light up ahead!” rejoiced Drew.

“Thanks be to Christ! I like this evil darkness not!” replied Ivanhoe the Dark Knight.

“Stand by with those monstrosities, lads! Get these old antique jalopies loaded up quick so these boyos can get on their way, Mr Moriarty.” trilled John Raven.

“Standing by, sir.” trilled his ‘truck push’ who had been borrowed from the Kaguran Air and Space Patrol (KASP) for this mission.

“Thanks. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you and Mr Moran the next time I’m with Dan Dastun, Lt.” trilled Raven.

Dan Dastun was the chief commanding officer of KASP and both Moran and Moriarty’s boss. After the first two rigs had been loaded and placed back to back with Hugh in front and Alex in reverse the big Polar Bear asked jokingly:

“What happens if one of us drops his half of one of these iron giants?” Raven answered in a deadpan voice:

“After losing so much weight so quickly your outmoded conveyance will be catapulted upwards into and partway through the roof of the tunnel where you will be wedged for all eternity. The sudden shift of excess weight to the remaining contraption will of course crush both driver and passenger into a compact box instantly. I am not sure whether the Gundam’s excessive weight will break through the tunnel’s floor or not. However, if it does, this tunnel sits above a virtually bottomless crevasse or chasm large enough to engulf your Terran moon with room to spare, Polar Bear.”

Hugh paled as did Becky!

END of Ch 58. Ch 59 ‘Monsters On the Angel?’ or ‘RAVEing Lunatics? ‘ soon. Getting interesting eh? Wonder how our heroine’s gonna get outta this one? Read on and r/r/s away as always. Have a wunnerful day and sfn/sys/jm/Kami bless you all for your interest and assistance. Hooble-toodle-doo! Toodles tomos watashi-K&K

I dickered over this chapter’s titles. Let me know if I got ‘em right eh?

Hope ya had a happy and safe Guy Fawkes’ Day!

PS- I really do appreciate all your loyalty and support over the years my tomos watashi all! And you can take that to the bank folks!-K&K

See ya next blog post. Toodles-K&K

This chapter brings me up to date. Then I have to wind up this one and think about my next one folks- K&K

Before I begin here’s the adorable Zuna the LandMate operator/cop from Appleseed Ex Machina. She’s been in all the Appleseed anime movies. Her boyfriend’s a cyborg thing robotoid like Robocop only he ain’t roshii (dead).

Hey hazu (gang)- Last night Sci Fi Channel didn’t show Earthshock. Instead they showed the pilot film for Serenity. It’s about a devil may care adventurer/merc/bounty hunter and his spaceship crew of misfits. They battle the Allince and then try to rescue a ‘Super Soldier’ type of neogene test tube warrior lass named River Tam.

Malcolm or Mal is the ex-soldier turned arms dealer/smuggler/merc/bounty hunter/gun for hire captain of the ‘Firefly’ and when he finally wrecks that ship he steals one, paints it red and re-christens it ‘Serenity’. Rive is his first new crewmate most of the rest of his crew dead or captured by the Alliance.

Seems the Alliance was trying to prevent war by conditioning people to be at peace. It worked so well that the experimentees stopped fighting, killing, quarrelling and finally- existing and breathing! Of course the ’supersoldiers’ wiped them out. The Alliance tried to cover it up and Mal and tomos (friends) made certain the universe found out about it.

Then it was off to new fun ad adventures for Mal and River. Sound familiar? It should since they ‘borrowed’ liberally from at least half a dozen animes!

First the ‘red ship’ is a dead giveaway for the crew heded up by Gene Starwind and Jim Hawking- the ‘Outlaw Star’.

Next the perfect Utopian world is like the perfect city in the ‘Appleseed’ movie trilogy.

The ’super soldier warriors’ are reminiscent of several animes like Bison’s ‘perfect warriors’ in ‘Street Fighter’ and Hallelujah Kurio and his female nemesis the kawaii (lovely) lieutenant pilot in ‘Gundam 00′ aka ‘Mobile Suit Gundam 000′ and don’t forget the ‘neogenes’ bred to wield the ‘Witchblade’ like Maria.

Space going bounty hunters? How about Spike Steigel (To be portrayed by Keanu Reeves in the upcoming film), Jett Black, Faye Valentine, ‘Ed’ the towheaded redhead tomboy computer hacker whiz kid and Ein the data dog on ‘Cowboy Bebop’?

A ship full of ex-patriates and malcontents? Can anyone remember ‘Blake’s 7′ the old chestnut from the BBC which ran for 52 episodes on PBS many many years ago?

‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’ are subtle hints at how the Japanese view the after life. In the ‘CB’ anime film the villain as he lies dying sees fireflies which are usually sent to convey the ‘tama’ or soul to ‘Otherworld’ or the ‘Netherworld’. On ‘Bleach’ soul reapers receive messages from black ‘Hell butterflies’ and a reaper is sent to bring a tortured soul ’serenit and peace’ before it becomes a ‘hollow’ or evil soul. In ‘InuYasha’ the evil villainous hanyou (half demon/half human) mastermind Naraku (Naraku means place of evil or Hell) protects himself from IY’s and Miroku’s ‘air void’ or ‘wind tunnel’ attacks with poisonous wasps known as ‘Saimyosho’ and have strayed a bit eh?

Funny how different governmental groups mean different things in different series, is it not? In ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’ the ‘Alliance’ are the baddies while in ‘Star Wars’ the ‘Rebel Alliance’ are the heroes who defeat the evil ‘Empire’ and re-establish the ‘New Republic’ at ‘Coruscant’.

In ‘Star Trek’ the ‘Federation’ are the heroes so I made the 3WA (Kei and Yuri’s galactic police organization) part of the ‘United Galactica Federation of Galaxies’ or ‘UG’ for short. Yet in ‘Blake’s 7′ the ‘Federation’ is more akin to George Lucas’s ‘Empire’ in ‘SW’. Wonder if GL named his boy hero Luke Skywalker after himself? The ‘Earth Alliance’ in ‘Gundam Seed’ are the good guys too but the ‘Earth Federation’, the ‘Union’ and the ‘Human Defense League’ of ‘Gundam’ fme are questionable. After all Vega’s ‘Celestial Beings’ pilots or ‘Gundam meisters’ (Masters of Gundams) are trying to end war, aren’t they?

A question I will now pose to you to ponder if you will as Rod Serling used to say on both ‘Night Gallery’ and ‘Twilight Zone’ series.

What exactly does ‘Gundam’ mean? Gun for weapon is OK but what is dam (dom)? In anime as we all pretty much know almost everything has meaning or meanings. Names, places, weapons, things, terms, you name it and chances are it means something.

For instance Inu Yasha means literally dog (inu is dog while neko is cat) ghost or demon (a yasha is a spirit, a ghost, a demonic being or presence. IY is a ‘hanyou’ or half dog demon/half human boy as opposed to a ‘youkai’ like the young kitsune Shippou who is a full fledged fox (kitsune means small fox) demon (youkai means full or whole demon) even if his skills are limited to magical illusions)

His female schoolgirl companion from our era is Kagome. She travels back and forth through the well in her family’s shrine in Tokyo. From her own time in modern day Japan to the 16th Century Warring States Era in ancient Japan. Her name is from anancient Japanse children’s game called ‘Kagome, Kagome’ which is sort of like a circular form of Tag you’re it over here. This game is even featured in both Demon Eyed Kou and Hell Girl.

Sango means ‘coral’ and ‘Kouga’ means ‘wolf’ just to name a few. I have found several websites which research name meanings and if you like I’ll be happy to PM them to you. Just drop me a line at keiman0@yahoo.com because being previously published material I cannot repost it here. Gomen er sorry about that folks.

Oh yeah just remembered that there was a climactic scene toward the end of the ‘Appleseed’ film that aired Monday on AniMonday on Sci Fi Channel. There are 3 or 4 ‘Appleseed’ films and the first three are all called ‘Appleseed’ while the last is called ‘Appleseed Ex Machina’ and they all feature Zuna and her cyborg thing boyfriend.

Anyway if you saw it you’ll recall that in order to shut down ‘Gaia’s control over the villain’s cannons Athena and Zuna had to knock out the control box at ‘Gaia’s apex. ‘Gaia’ (Old Latin for Earth from the Earth goddess Galatea aka Terra) was a supercomputer like the ‘Magi’ of ‘Neon Genesis Evangelian’ and ran the city. That meant one of them had to shoot the damned thing. Zuna’s right arm was injured and Athena couldn’t hit the broad ass side of a barn. Athena insists that Zuna use her left hand and do it while she guided her and lined up the target. Zuna got it with her last round.

This was quite similar to an earlier ‘Original Dirty Pair’ adventure (Episod 7 ‘Revenge of the Muscle Lady’) where Sandra Guts (Goots) was trying to make her getaway aboard her drugstore space ship and the only way to stop her was as usual blow up the ship. Yuri had planted a bomb but forgot to set the timer on it before she came don from the craft. Kei was the better shot but her right arm had been broken by ‘Scary Sandra’ in a fight and Kei is not ambidextrous like Zuna. To make matters worse Yuri had been temporarily blinded by a flash of light when another bomb had gone off prematurely. So Kei became Yuri’s eyes like Athena did for Zuna and guided Yuri’s arm. Yuri hit the bomb with her second plasmatic ion energy bolt from Kei’s Mark XIII ion cannon and the blast knocked them both unconscious while Sandra’s ship and drugs went up like napalm! Later Yuri discovered the concussion had broke her arm as well as Kei’s leg but it brought back Yuri’s sight! By the way Yuri means ‘lily’ and Kei means ‘leader’ or ‘level’ as in staircase levels.

Fitting since Kei is clearly the team’s leader and Yuri is the more demure and cultured of the ‘Deadly Dynamic Duo’! However, they both send their chiefs making a beeline for the ‘Galusol’, ‘Hydroxylein’, booze and tobacco! Lest I forget later let us wish an early happy birthday to both Yuris- the Classic and the Flash (March 3 and 18). Classic Kei’s is 27 November and her Flash counterpart’s is 1 January.

The Classic duo are 19, the Flash duo are 17, the Original original’s from the subbed never dubbed first tv series of 26 episodes are 21 or 23 and their ages vary between 22 and 30-somethingish in the three films ‘Affair at Nolandia’, ‘Conspiracy on Flight 009′ and ‘Project EDEN’. In their 15 second debut in ‘Crusher Joe the Movie’ their ages are unclear but they look to be more mature than in any of their other appearances. Mid thirties maybe? Wonder if Haruka knows? Haruka Takachiho created the Angels. His inspiration was the ‘Beauty Pair’- a female tag team wrestling duo! Kei and Yuri may have been taken from his two kawaii (lovely) co-worker companions at the matches that day. One was a blonde and the other a brunette while Classic Kei’s a stunning redhead and Classic Yuri has ankle length bluish black tresses. Flash Kei’s a tomboy with a punk rocker hairdo. It’s multi-coloured in yellow, orange, black, red and white! Flash Yuri’s mane is still super long but now it’s colour ranges from light lilac to deep violet with the darker shade being more prevalent.

The debut dueo and the movies’ Angels’ hair directly mimics the Classic pair. Redheaded Amazon firebrand Hellcat and bluish black elfin vixen. Is it any wonder I nicknamed them the ‘Demon of Dublin’ and the ‘Rose of Tralee’ in my fanfictions where Kei is O’Halloran and Yuri is Donovan.

Now for the pix:

Here are the Flash Angels with a co-worker tomo (friend).

This is Rankuku Matsumoto the kawaii (lovely) babe lieutenant soul reaper of Squad 10 in Bleach. I used her as my avatar on adultswim.com because she reminded me of the very first Lovely Angel- Iris. Later she became an assassin but redeemed herself before dying in Chief Garner’s arms after successfully defeating Waldess and Project SIREN. She saved Garner, Kei, Yuri and the known Universe in DP Flash/Act 1/Episode 6.

Two from ‘Serenity’. First the cast photo of Cptain Mlcolm, Rive Tam and the crew.

Next River Tam the ’super soldier neogene warrior’ herself.

This is Gene Starwind’s ‘Outlaw Star’. Note its similarity to ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’.

OK here’s a pix of that trio of poilice officers from New Tokyo Polic Force called the Burn Up Warriors. They are the Terran version of the Lovely Angels ‘Dirty Pair’- the Angels blow things up and the Warriors burn ‘em up! It’s here because I used the dipstick blond warrior in my fanfictions. There she is Subby or Sub-Ensign (like a junior warrant officer) Rio Delcroix. Her uncle is head of something or other in the 3WA or the ‘UG’. She’s a trouble consultant or tro-con in training. She’s definitely still a trainee and a first year cadet at Takachiho Academy where Kei and Yuri are running the place.

This is InuYasha and fair Kagome who has Kikyo’s soul which makes her a miko or preistess (Shintoism) in her own right. She was chosen as a vessel to carry the ’shikon no tama’ (the jewel of the four souls) within her body. Shortly after arriving in ancient Japan she allowed a death crow demon to steal it and then fire an arrow at it. Bad move because it shattered the jewel and now just like the elf hunters Ari, Junpei and Ryosko (’Those Who Hunt Elves’) who must hunt for spell fragments (on the bodies of female elves in Elfland) throughout the land InuYasha, Kaggie and tomos (friends) must search the lnd for the shikon fragments. Each shard of the sacred jewel is powerful and the more it is tainted by evil the more horribly powerful it becomes. The plan was to have Kikyo the miko purify the whole thing when it is whole once more but Naraku killed her. Don’t despair because the ‘bruja’ (brew-ha) or witch Urasue raised her from the dead only now she has to live on souls of the newly dead. A bit vampirish to say the least. And worse yet she thinks IY killed her and now has a new GF- Kagome! The one thing they must not do ever is allow Naraku to possess the entire jewel because he’ll well we dunno what the Hell he wants it for do we? Something naughty of course! This is hard to accomplish what with Naraku on the go, in cahoots with everyone who has a dark shard and with Kaggie coming and going to and from Feudal Japan and school in the modern day! If I could reach Feudal Japan I’d stay there! It’d be an o’oni’ (devil) of a lot safer than here! OK the pix:

Finally the Mystery Pix of the Post. It’s from Fuilmetal Alchemist but oro (what) is it? Good luck!

SFN/SYS/JM/KBYA/KYSOTI/Toodles-K&K

A cordial welcome to the Keiman of Anime from  Today.com. 

Well a big domo arigatou (thank you very much indeed) to the kind folks at Today.com for that ringing endorsement. Not very many blogsites want or even like true aoishi er blue ‘anime’ so I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that Today welcomed it. I seem to be in the minority of blogs here in that anime is not really a big deal here- yet!

Now that the Keiman is here that should change. Oro er What? You don’t know who I am? Every hard core anime-a-holic knows who I am especially the Angel-a-holics crowd.

If you are into real anime (not cartoons onegai er please!) you have probably met me or my works online somewhere. You just didn’t know it was me or should that be I? I post under various monikers: The Keiman, Keiman of Anime, keimanzero, keiman0, keimanandkei (my nom de plume or pen name for my fanfiction writings) and of course plain old K&K.

Here’s a list of my websites. Some I own/moderate/administrate and some I like you folks am just a lowly member there:

www.eons.com/groups/group/anime-a-holics (Think this site is unusual. At eons I am the one and only genuine article so far.)

www.msn.com/yahoogroups/Animeaholics1 (My own site but one of many here. Not too many around about my Lovely Angels though.)

www.msn.com/yahoogroups/animeontv (A great information site I belong to and it’s the best place to find the TV anime viewing list which is published monthly here. Kudos to Kamausaugi for this boon to anime tv viewers.)

www.wikipedia.org (The ‘Bible’ for all information. If it ain’t in wiki folks it just plain don’t exist!)

www.voicechasers.com (Ever wonder who voices what character in animes? Wonder no more. Most of the answers are here.)

www.crystalacids.com (Another voice actors’ and episodes’ source.)

www.imdb.com (Internet Movie Data Base. Another very good anime source.)

www.tv.com (A source of a lot of old anime and new as well. www.animeontv.com has a very comprehensive old and new anime list too.)

http://animeforfanatics.blogspot.com (Unlike may blogs this site allows pre-published material as long as it is your own work or from your own sites.)

I also use MySpace (Careful. There was a virus infection here last week.)

www.TRIOND.com (I tried and tried here but they loathe aime here folks!)

For a more extensive listing of anime sources go to my  websites at Animeaholics1, anime-a-holics and of course my posts at animeontv.

Here is where I publish my fanfictions. I have done two so far. One  is called ‘Christmas with the Dirty Pair’ and is complete. I have posted all 184 chapters at two different places. The second and currently ongoing one is called ‘Angel Wings’ and  have posted the first 30 chapters at those same two locations:

www.fanfiction.net/anime/dirtypair/cristmaswiththedirtypair

www.fanfiction.net/anime/dirtypair/angelwings

www.fanfiction.net/anime/dirtypair/keimanandkei/Profile/Bio (Read all about me and of course Haruka Takachiho’s Lovely Angels whom some folks continue to call the Dirty Pair usually with dire consequences.

www.animeonline.net/forums/fanfics/dirtypairfanfiction (Same as above but a bit easie to navigate here. Profile here is quite extensive and loaded with pix. Site has ‘misplaced’ all of our Profiles but they hope to ‘find’ them all again real soon. We can only hope eh?

Oro is Anime? First off anime is/are (word is singlar and plural) not cartoons! To be called true anime somewhere in the writing and/or production the Far East notably Japan must be involved. Anime is usually quite complex since most of it is geared towards adults and older children. Beware of oro you allow the kiddies to view though and do not be fooled. For example the heroic protagonist of Crayon Shin Chan (Shin Chan is our title over here) is Shin Chan Nohara, a precocious five year old boy who is a mixture of Dennis the Menace, Caillou and Henry! He has the foulest mouth in anime some say. He uses the Ralphie Parker (A Christmas Story kid) F-dash dash dash word a lot!

Cartoons on the other hand are usually mindless and senseless drivel having little if any plot to them. Their themes are usually good triumphs over evil and that’s it. Don’t get us wrong here. Some cartoons are pretty good. Take Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat for instance. Set in the China of of the Boxer Rebellion era it’s about several kitty nekos er cats. They live with the local magistrate and his family. Adventures abound and sometimes they even meet historical characters like Sir Richard Burton (Nai, not Liz Taylor’s double ex. This one was knighted by Victoria for finding the source of the Nile River.) whom they aid in finding buried tombs and stuff. As a matter of fact many of us feel Sagwa qualifies for anime. Why? Because the ‘Foolish Magistrate’ is voiced by a Japanese seiyuu or voice actor. He also voiced Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic) in the Fantastic 4 series.

After all cartoons are for the most part geared towards the small fry kiddies and as anyone who has seen Sprout shows will tell you the little ones love cartoons. Enough on that for now eh?

Me? I am a very young at heart 59 year old retired (not by choice my tomos all) male who has been into anime and fanfictions for at least the last decade and a half. Besides anime, I am into all things Japanese including its kawaii (lovely) language. I have been teaching myself Japanese for years. Romaji or English letters only so far. Alas, I fear that Kanji script (pix writing like hyroglyphics) is a bit beyond me for now. I love Japanese history, culture, customs, origins, mythology, religions like Shintoism and Buddhism, jutsus and ryuus (fighting techniques and styles) and the geography of the entire country.

Other intersts? NFL Football (even though my late Papa played for the 1946-1948 Philadelphia Eagles I am a diehard New Orleans Saints fanatic and have been since their inception in 1966 when Al Hirt owned them, Bum Phillips was coach, Archie Manning was QB and Tom Dempsey was kicker. Tom was the very first guy in the NFL to boot a 63 yard field goal and that record has never been broken. Three times it’s been equalled- Jason Ely  of the Denver Broncos, John Carney of the Saints (He was a Saint then and he was still a Saint when he hit seven field goals perfectly in the same game for another record!) and Neil Rackers of the Arizona Cardinals! Yup the same NR who is playing in the big dance ashita er tomorrow).

I’m an avid golfer being entirely self taught. I carry a 5 handicap and after 35+ years I have had 13 aces or holes-in-one. I am an Internet nut and of course I have also taught myself pc computing, downloading, uploading, etc. I enjoy fencing from time to time and I love kenjutsu fighting especially with the wataschi, katana and tante. I like the ‘kanai’ or stone dagger and ’shurikins’ or throwing stars used by the Ninjas like the ones in Naruto.

My fave (favorite) things to do on my sites are blogging, reviewing, making up quizzes, posting ‘faux’ or made up interviews with anime characters, writing and sometimes reading fanfictions, collecting anime videos and music, making up polls and Top 5 or Top 10 fave anime stuff lists, etc.

A little about my fave anime the Lovely Angels aka the DP and DP Flash. Nai I will not call them by ‘that name’ and like I said before if you do usually you regret it! “That’s Lovely Angels dammit!” and a stiff right uppercut to the chin are their customary responses.

Why are they called the DP? Stop salivating, gents! That ain’t the reason. It’s mostly Kei’s fault and even she will admit to that. Her motto is

‘Never blow up tomorrow what you can blow up today!’ and they oth carry this to the extreme! They wreck everythin and anything in site including starships, space stations, buildings, railways, airports, moons, planets, asteroids, cars, ships, planes- you name it, they’ll wreck it!

Here’s a better pix of the ‘Deadly Dynamic Duo’ atop a jacaronda. It’s from their film ‘Affair at Nolandia’:

Whoa! Oro’s that tomos watashi (my very good friends)? Who are they exactly?

Kei and Yuri are oro we call trouble consultants or tro cons for short. They work for the ‘Worlds Welfare Works Association’ which is the peacekeeping arm of the ‘United Galactica Federation of Galaxies’ group. They are affectionately known as the 3WA and the UG respectively. Tro cons are space going intergalactic cops much like their Terran (Earth) counterpart ‘agents’ in the police organization ‘Interpol’.

However, unlike ‘Interpol’ agents tro cons have carte blanch authority throughout the known cosmos to take whatever action is deemed necessary which means they possess double 0 status like James Bond 007 of MI5 on Terra. Hai e yeah, they can even kill when deemed necessary. You see in their bailiwicks they are considered the ‘Law’ and the two best tro cons on the 3WA force are Kei (O’Halloran) and Yuri (Donovan). I gave them the Gaelic family names for my fanfictions. I have also used poetic license to promote and repromote practically every crew member but like Conan’s wizard says ‘that is yet another tale’.

The girls graduated from ‘Takachiho’ Academy (I named the Academy on Shimougou in Furool (Foo-Lon) City in honour of the Angels’ creator.) at the age of 14. They were junior TCs at the age of 17 and seniors tro cons when they turned 19. The child labor laws on Shimougou are very different from those of Terra. Ever since the girls were 16 they have been the best damned tro cons on the force- bar none!

Weapons? Kei’s the gun nut so her weapons of choice are big while Yuri’s are much smaller. Kei sports twin Mark XIII ion cannons which fire ionic energy blasts as fast as she can pull the firing stud. Each magazine holds over 4,000 energy discharges and that goes for Yuri’s small but deadly Mark III minilaser blaster as well. Each of them also carries a laser sword hilt powered by an energy power pack actually the same ones that are used in the cannons. Sometimes Yuri uses ‘bloody cards’ or lethal blade edged vidcards for weapons. In addition Kei sometimes uses a long barrelled ion cannon which resembles a Terran 90 mm recoillesss rifle or a 3.5 rocket launcher bazooka. However, the Mark XX, XXI or the newest and deadliest of the lot- the Mark XXX fires a single projectile powered by a phalanx of power packs. Its range is a few hundred kilometers and has a backblast of at least half a kilometer!

I was just reminded of the ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan flick ‘The Enforcer’ when writing about the Mark XXX. Remember the LAW (Light Antitank Weapon) demo scene when Tyne Daly was standing behind the LAW and Harry had to yank her outta the way of the backblast?

Why mention that? Because it reminded me of a similar funny incident the Angels were involved in during their second Original DP episode. The girls’ mission was to infiltrate a penal colony and quell a riot. Afterwards they were to rescue the warden and deliver him to a trial where he was a key witness and was to testify against a crime czar. Pretty simple eh?

Wrong! These are he Lovely Angels- remember? The two tro cons decided to sneak in riding gravity well ‘waves’ on surfboards much like the Trappar wind ‘waves’ on that old anime series ‘Eureka 7′ if anyone remembers that old anime. Anyway their conversations on the way down went like this:

Yuri: “How’s it going there, partner? You OK?”

Kei: “Cowabonga, dude! This is really fun, man!”

Yuri: “Oh shut up!”

Kei: “Don’t tell me to shut up! You shut up! Look down there, vacuumhead! (Kei pointed out an open sewer outlet two meters across.) Let’s go.”

Yuri: “Yuck! That looks totally disgusting, you dipstick!”

Kei: “We’ll go in that way, airhead.”

Once inside the prison unit the girls quickly either subdued or dispatched the prisoners and soon quelled the riot. However, the warden was another matter. He was quite upset that on the brink of his retirement his record was no tarnished! T that end he’d locked himself in the control room above the spaceport where several prisoners had barricaded themselves while trying to steal a getaway rocket for their escape. The warden was amusing himself by screaming at them and firing automatic machine guns at them.

Kei and Yuri arrived and discovered a sealed vaultlike portal leading to the control room. Accordingly Kei unlimbered her Mark XXI and commenced firing projectiles at the door in a futile attempt to breach it.

Kei: “Sh–! Outta ammo! You got any?”

Yuri: “Hell no! You brought the big cannon not me, dingbat! It’s your own fault, stupid!”

Kei: “It ain’t my fault dammit!”

Yuri: “Well it certainly isn’t my fault!”

Kei: “Nai, it’s this damned door! It’s too F—ing thick! (She aimed a boot and kicked it. Whomp!) Feels like about two meters!”

Yuri: “Two meters? Stand aside, dummy. I’ve got an idea.”

So saying Yuri yanked off her glove (The Angels wear only one glove as a rule- a fashion statement I suppose.) and began tapping her ring.

Kei: “Did you get that damned thing from the screwball? (She meant the head of research and development back at 3WA HQ- Doctor Cueball whose inventions left much to be desired. Yuri nodded.) Then mke damned bloody sure that when it backfires it hits you and not me dammit!”

Yuri: “Point taken. Here goes nothing. (She pointed her ring, tapped it again and again. Finally she shook her hand and- BOOM! The blast knocked her on her kawaii (lovely) little ass!) Holy sh–! Son of a b–! That didn’t suck, did it?”

Needless to say half the wall was gone along with the door!

Why did I choose these particular family names for the Angels?

First Kei O’Halloran is not named after the fire chief ably portrayed by Steve McQueen in that fine film ‘The Towering Inferno’ nor is Yuri Donovan named after John Wayne’s island bar owner character in ‘Donovan’s Reef’ that great old film from the 40s or the 50s.

Nai (No) way although both would have been great guesses hazu (gang).

Kei O’Halloran is named after the O’Halloran clan who claim the distinct honor of being the world’s very first ‘toll road’ owners. Brigands, thieves, killers, robbers and murdering cutthroats were the characteristics of their clan! You see travellers through old Erin had to use highways or roads and there were very few of them at that time. What the O’Hallorans would do was to fell a giant tree and then drag it across the road to block the way to passersby. However, for the payment of a ‘toll’ they’d move it for you and most of the time allow the traveller to pass unharmed. However, the toll usually was everything the poor soul possessed. Depending on their moods the clan would sometimes take everything and then kill the poor bast-d anyway! Brash, heartless, uncaring, hard, unfeeling, merciless and cruel were the O’Halloran bunch. Most but not all of these attributes define Kei O’Halloran as we shall see.

The Donovans were an old and proud clan with claims to kingship and royalty. Indeed the Donovans were once the high kings of old Ireland. Walt Disney’s ‘The Fighting Prince of Donegal’ was a Donovan and rumors abound that the Fitzgerald and Kennedy clans are distant cousins to the mighty Donovans. Loyal, honest, truthful, noble, honorable, kind and cultured described this clan perfectly and it comes pretty darn close to depicting Yuri Donovan.

Raised separately on far distant worlds the girls’ upbringing could not have been more different. Yuri was raised to be mannered, cultured, honest, truthful, honorable and just. To these ends she usually does not smoke, drink to excess, curse or even use any form of profanity. She is naive at times, quiet, demure, loving and polite. However, this violet-maned vixen can also be quite deadly at times, smoke, drink, curse like a trooper and insult with the best of them. In certain circles she is known as the ‘Rose of Tralee’  while her partner’s nickname is the dreaded ‘Demon of Dublin’!

Kei like Revy Roberts the ‘Creature From the Black Lagoon’ tends to be moody, angry, cantankerous, loud, brash, boorish and sometimes just plain old mean as Hell! A  guttersnipe tomboy Kei is unmannered, discourteous, hates titles but uses her own whenever it suits her needs, prone to hit, kick and punch with impunity and when necessary will destroy, wreck, maim and even kill with abandonment showing no signs of sorrow or regret. This firebrand Amazon Hellcat is where the ‘Deadly Dynamic Duo’ draw their dreaded and feared nickname of the ‘Dirty Pair’! Nothing illustrates this point better than the following pix which shows Kei menacing the world at large with a giant Mark XIII ion cannon, her red mop in perfect contrast to her emerald green aizu (eyes). In the background and wrapped in furs Yuri grips a small but deadly Mark III minilaser blaster in her hot little fist. 

Enough about the girls for now eh? There are other anime, right? How right you are and to prove it here’s a pix of a hot little transport used by the lead character in one of those anime. Which one and who is the character? Nai, that would be telling. You see oro I like to do with my readers is to leave them with a little mystery photo pix for them to mull over and perhaps even hazard a guess or two about. Then in my next post I give them the answers and the explanation. This blog spot will be no exception so here’s the challenge. Name the type of car, make and model. Kudos if you figure out oro the hood’s doohickey is called. Name the character who owns it and the anime series. Double kudos if you can name the co-character from the show. A hint? Surely. Look closely at the pix and think ‘cowboys and cowgirls’ and unlike most anime this one’s not set in Japan at all. A dead giveaway to true aoishi (blue) anime freaks like me is that the gunshots and engine sounds you hear in the series are real- not special effects noises. 

OK so now it’s gotta be Sayonara for now/see ya soon/ja mata/Kami bless you all/keep your stick on the ice/toodles-K&K

Until next time- same anime time and same anime channel. Triple kudos if you recall oro old tv series that line’s from folks! One more pix? OK here is one of my fave characters in my fanfictions and without the kind assistance of highteckdudu who allowed me to use her creation in my fanfictions and even permitted me to give her a last name and change her into a nekomata trill a shape shifting demonic cat who is a trill  (Remember Jadzia Dax on Star Trek’s ‘Deep Space Nine’?) and a pirate to boot! Meet Neko, Neko Olson like Clark Kent’s cub reporter and photographer Jimmy Olson.

Ain’t she a real cute pirate catgirl? Would you believe she’s Jonathan Harlock’s navvie on the ‘Botany Bay II’ and she’s gonna pilot a gundam real soon too? Read/review/suggest and let me know how you like my works.