[GRIT] The Hairclipper Thread Synopsis! (Part 1) Author: Jason Heavensrun Date: 2000/06/24 Forum: rec.arts.anime.misc GRIT: The Holy Hairclipper thread SYNOPSIS! Well, as several of you know, the Holy Hairclipper thread is moving into it's twelfth year of existence, and with no end in sight, I thought I might synopsize what has gone before, so you all know how to react to the next seventeen thr-OW! Hey, stop with the throwing already, I get the point!!! Now that the Hairclipper thread is moving into it's FINAL CONCLUSION, (really, I swear!) I thought this might be a good time to write up a summary of everything that has happened, to sort of tie together all the seemingly random events so that everyone will remember what's happened and will be able to participate in the conclusion more easily. Note: Even though I'm writing this synopsis, and I of all people have a better understanding of the thread as a whole, I still am just one man, with a flawed memory. If I forget anything, don't hesitate to interject. In fact, INTERJECT! Please, let an old GRITter know he's not alone in the thread...;_; This should also give those of you who came in on the middle of it, (and boy, does that cover most of you, or what?) some sense of perspective, and maybe give you a better understanding of what's going on. So, without further adieu, on to the synopsisizing! ... Searching... ... Searching... ... ----------------------------- Important Relationships ----------------------------- This section is for those of you who don't know what the status of the major relationships in GRIT were -prior- to the hairclipper thread. An "R" in parentheses () indicates an original Ranma cast member. Jo: In love with Amy and Ukkyo, unable to choose between them for fear of hurting one or the other. Friends with Akane(R) and more or less friendly acquaintances with most of GRIT. Slight rivalry with Tom Tarou(R). Amy: Sister of Vince(mind linked). In love with Jo, rivals with Ukkyo, friends with Scott. P-word: Enemy of Jo, friends with nobody. Ukkyo: Clone/sister of Ukyou(R), In love with Jo, rivals with Amy, dubious friendship with Scott. U-chan(Ueki): Clone/sister of Ukyou(R), fiancee of Al-X, friends with Scott. Steve: In love with Amy, friends with Wing and Jei. Jei: Brother of Jo, Friends with Steve, engaged to Mariko. Jacen: Brother of Jo, Envies Jo, romantically involved with Nabiki(R). Al-X: In love with U-chan, friends with Jacen and Nabiki(R). Konatsu: Friends with Tarou(R), Ukyou(R), U-chan, and Ukkyo. Epsilon: (deceased) A vempyre. Enemy of Blade, Jo, and pretty much everybody. Mistophopheles: Clone of Epsilon with human emotions. Friend of Jo, J2. In love with Ueki. ----------------------------- Preface ----------------------------- Long, long ago, in a thread far, far away, Jo, then going by Jason, because these were the self insert days of GRIT, Did something to earn the ire of Kun-chan, the then-resident-female member of GRIT. She inflicted on him two punishments. One was shaving his head, and the other involving a garlic crusher and a very cruel spirit. For reasons of maintaining my sanity, I ignored the garlic crusher. However, since Jason was kind of sensitive about his hair back then, I decided it'd be funny to run with that bit and made a big deal of it. As a sort of cruel joke, P-word, who was then under the control of Martin Bennett, decided to "help" by giving Jo back his hair. In spades. The enchantment, similar to the dragon's hair affliction from the Ranma 1/2 manga, caused Jo's hair to grow uncontrollably while in male form. However, when Jo transforms to his akane-lookalike cursed form, his spiritual nature changes, thus the enchantment looses it's effect. The result, in male form Jo's hair grows uncontrollably. In female form it does not. The quick fix was to stay in girl form all the time. This didn't bother Jo that much at first, until it started to -seriously- muck with his romantic life. Several fixes were tried, but none worked. The dragon's whisker was useless, and every manner of counterspell and enchanted item Jo and his friends had at their fingertips proved similarly helpless. Jo continued to research the problem as her romantic issues got more complex, and ultimately discovered a possible solution when Mist came to him with an ancient legend that he remembered from his days as Epsilon. Seven artifacts, called the Keys of Heaven's Gate (no relation to the comet cult) which could be used to summon Cephaeus, an ancient Greek deity that I made up. These seven keys, each of which symbolic of a holy virtue: hope, love, compassion, humility, intelligence, and some others that I'm too lazy to look up right now. However, in the creation of these keys, the cephaeites had to purge them of all evil. This lead to the creation of seven -demons- each representing a sin. These demons would be the inspiration for the list of Seven deadly sins that have appeared so often in so many different literature, particularly in Christian literature. Sloth, Envy, Greed, Pride, Lust, Gluttony, and Wrath. The legend goes further to say that the cephaeites, who were a monotheistic people, were wiped out by the ancient Greeks of the time, and the keys were scattered. The demons scattered too, and stole the keys back from humanity, attempting to destroy them. However they were unable to, so the split apart, each demon taking one of the keys. But more then that, each demon split themselves into two beings, a male, and a female aspect. The demons, now numbered fourteen, took the keys and split up, going into hiding in secluded spots all over the world... Cut to centuries later: Epsilon, who was an energy vampire who was on a quest to gain human emotions, (for those of you who weren't around) was trying to find ways to gain emotions, and he toyed with the concept of using the heaven's gate. He sought out one of the keys, killed the demon guarding it, and took the key. After discovering that it would be of no use to him, he sold it off to a shopkeeper in the area. ----------------------------- Prologue - Envy (Korea) ----------------------------- Eager to regain the ability to shift to male form, Jo gathered several of "her" friends and set off on their lead. The group of them went to Korea, which was where Epsilon had fought the demon Sloth and also where he had sold off the key he had once had. Jo went to investigate the battleground, while Mist went to research where the key Epsilon sold had gone. Jo's group went to the cave, but on the way encountered a mysterious wandering swordsman named Gilgamesh, who had spiky black hair, a full-body tattoo that makes his skin appear red, and who usually walks around wearing heavy looking armor and wielding a giant sword like it were made of balsa wood. Not that that's all that unusual in GRIT, but... Anyway, Jo's group ended up getting separated, with J2, Kappa, Scott, and some others going in via an underground spring, hot, while Jo, Gilgamesh and U-chan went in the main way. Jo and the others found the place where Epsilon had fought Sloth, and also found a way to proceed deeper into the cave. Along the way, Jo discovered a deceased explorer who's remains held a golden object that almost seemed to radiate a life of it's own. Jo picked it up and took it along, sensing something important in it. Meanwhile, Kappa's group encountered, well, of all things, a Kappah. A japanese water spirit. It was irritated at being awakened, and a big fight took place. It ended with J2 blowing up the Kappah and much messiness ensuing. Jo's group managed to find it's way to the main room of the dungeon, and they were attacked by Envy, who evidently was really annoyed that Gilgamesh got more of a description in this synopsis then I'm going to bother giving Envy. A big battle ensued, somebody killed Envy, but Envy remanifested in an energy form and possessed Gil. Jo fought him off and managed to free him from possession. The fight carried on further, and U-chan got possessed. Gil took Jo's soulsword and punched a hole in it, then stuck the golden object from before in the sword. This fused with aforementioned sword, which then evolved, and Jo transformed into a new, more powerful stage 2 demon hunter costume. U-chan reached magic knight stage 2 and with all the powerups Scott felt left out. They all teamed up on the demon at the end and beat it. Yay. After everything settled, Gil noticed that the entire floor was a giant map showing the locations of -all- the keys. Unfortunately, the GRITter's battle had wiped out most of it, so only a couple of the locations were visible anymore. Chalk up one victory to property damage. While all this was going on, Mist was tracking down the key Epsilon had sold off. They went to the store Epsilon had sold it to, which now instead of a humble curio shop had turned into a massive chain of mystical item stores. Mist went to the corporate headquarters, and managed to get a lead on the key that indicated it was in northern china. Amazing that I can remember all this. Mist and the others (including Al-X, Jay, I think Steve, and some others) left the place, and got ambushed by Caine and his mercenaries. This was Caine's first appearance, incidentally. They fought, and Mist explained that Caine was Epsilon's "son", adopted and raised by the ancient psycho himself. Caine is kind of evil and manipulative, and he hates Epsilon and thinks Mist is actually Epsilon duping everyone. A fight ensued, and Caine and the others were driven off, but not until after catching wind of what Mist and the others are after. Figuring it's dangerous for someone like Epsilon to get a hold of something like that, he decides he'll keep an eye on the quest. Jo and the others come back, keyless, but with a few leads. Mist comes back with a lead. The groups reunite, and after a parting cameo by Kim Kap Hwan of Fatal Fury fame (hey, I'm a KKH fanboy and it was -Korea-) They all headed back to Nerima to figure out where to go from there. After this, there was an intermission where a helmeted guy who seemed rather egotistical talked to a shadowy female character. ----------------------------- Interlude (Nerima) ----------------------------- At this point, everybody tooled around in Nerima for awhile. Jo and Amy had their first official date, Kunou wrecked it, (though not too badly) and Jo collected some new allies for the quest, including Chyron, an atlantean princess who had been to one of the locations Jo needed to investigate. Jo stalled leaving Nerima for awhile, so that he could be present when the Saotome-Tendou twins were born. They were, and it was a very sweet and happy sort of thread, and Jo snuck into the room by pretending to be Akane's twin sister, and got a first look at the twins. Various other things happened, Jo declared her love for Amy, essentially -chose- her, and Ukkyo had a minor psychotic episode as a result. Scott tried to council Ukkyo, but it blew up in his face and he got spatula'd over the head a few times. Elsewhere, Al-x and U-chan had a fight, he walked out angry, bumped into Ukkyo, and the two of them got drunk, he carried her up to bed after she passed out, and fell unconscious himself. This lead to a very awkward morning, as neither of them had much in the way of a clear memory of events prior. Other then that not much of note relative to this thread happened from what I remember, up until the appearance of Sheila, GRIT's second most infamous Vempyre. I personally didn't follow the Sheila thread that well, so anyone who has info on this, feel free to interject, but basically what happened is Sheila killed some mercenaries, this pissed off the mercenaries friends, who accidentally involved Blade, who is scary when it comes to vempyres. Blade started a witch hunt after Sheila, chased her all the way to China. Meanwhile, the hairclipper crew set up to split up and search different leads. One group, consisting of Jacen, Al-X, and Nabiki, took a train northward towards Hokkaido, where the stone map indicated a key may be located. The other group left by shuttle towards China. Jusenkyo, to be particular. This group split up along the way, because of space problems. Tarou, Lo-shin, and Chyron split off from the others and went to Tarou's home, while the others stopped over in Jusenkyo for other business. Blade and the others bumped into Jo's party at Jusenkyo, and after some doing, managed to defeat the Vempyre, though a certain RL refused to just let her go, no matter how cornered she got. -_- After the Vempyre's defeat, the groups went back to Tarou's home, and all split up and more or less relaxed as they prepared to take off. Jei challenged Tarou to a practice match, and the two used Jusenkyo as their battle ground. It was a close and difficult match, but ultimately Jei was defeated. Mariko: It was pure luck! At any rate, meanwhile, Jo and Amy shared an intimate moment on the roof of Tarou's house, which resulted in their first real kiss/make-out session/embarrassing situation. Some other miscellaneous things happened, ultimately leading to Lo-shin drugging everyone in an attempt to set her brother up with a romantic relationship with someone. Lots of people caroused mightily, Avatar modified Jo's shuttle, Amy and Ukkyo very nearly had accidental sex, Jo and Scott had an angstful battle sequence, Jei accidentally tried to seduce the wrong redhead (Su Yee), and Steve embarrassed himself repeatedly. The next morning everyone tried to kill Lo shin but Jo and Tarou stopped them. The group at Tarou's home split up into two groups. One, consisting of Jo, Chyron, Tarou, Scott, Ueki, J2, and several others, headed for Death Mountain, in Europe. The other, consisting of Jei, Mist, Kappa, Steve, Wing, Mariko, and Su Yee all headed for a mountain monastery in Northern China, following up on the lead Mist gathered in Korea. Here the true quest began. ----------------------------- Wrath (China) ----------------------------- Jei and Mist's group proceeded first to a small martial arts school at the base of the aforementioned mountain, which, as it happened, was the school of Lao Wu, Jei's former Kung-fu teacher and old friend. There was a great deal of character interaction, and Lao agreed to help Jei and his group. The climbed the mountain the next morning, and through the aid of a friend of Lao's, Kung, they were able to gain entry to the monastery, which had a strict rule of no aggression while within it's walls. The GRITters found a long staircase leading to deep underground the temple, and began their way down. As they went further down, they began to discover a tale of an ancient battle, between the people who lived in this underground fortress, and an ancient creature of terrible ferocity. Along the way, they were tested by the key itself, which sought to determine the virtue of the people who sought it. Everyone passed the tests and gained entry to the central area of the fortress, an ancient vault, in which rested the demon of Wrath, and huge and monstrous beast who was partly inspired by me playing -way- too much Resident Evil. An Epic Battle (TM) ensued, and the heroes fought the demon with all they had, but ultimately one of them paid the ultimate price, when Steve was killed by the massive creature! Not that it lasted. Steve resurrected, after everyone got terrified for a moment, and A tremendous dragon, the original Dragon of the Fire, was reborn with him. This new ally fought with the GRITters, until ultimately they used an ancient enchanted spear to destroy it's physical body. Jei retrieved the key, and the spear revealed to him that it was once the weapon of the ancient magic knight of fire, who had fought the demon centuries prior, after Epsilon's key had gravitated to this temple. He had chained it there so it could not leave, thanks to the layout of the temple above, which acted as a positive energy generator, counteracting wraths evil aggressive nature. The GRITters left with the spear and the key, but were attacked at the surface by Wrath's non-corporeal form. They fought it as best they could, but ultimately it was defeated when Mist collaborated with the monks from the temple, causing them to channel their meditations into the beast, destroying it's non corporeal form and banishing it forever. ----------------------------- Pride (Europe) ----------------------------- Part of Lo shin's punishment for causing the chaos at Tarou's home was to -run- from China to Europe. Tarou followed her at a discrete distance, but eventually was forced to carry her the rest of the way, because fatigue set in on her. Along the way, Tarou ran into Fafa, an obscure manga character that Chris decided to introduce because he's evil. Fafa is a young, pretty chinese girl who just happens to be a member of the Chinese special forces and wears Princess Asrial-like power armor around. Anyway, she happens to be in love with Tarou, and follows him to Death Mountain, where she mistakenly accuses Jo of trying to steal Tarou. (evil chuckle) The others all find the mountain and climb it, and at the top, Spectacle rock, they meet yet another demon, the demon of Pride, who is basically a Sentai ranger. He fights them (with a Giant mecha, even) and it is a difficult battle, but is defeated when the swordsman Gilgamesh reappears on the scene. U-chan gains her true name of Ueki and comes another step closer to becoming a magic knight. Everyone's happy for a moment, until Gil announces that he's taking the key. Jo seems to snap for a moment, attacking Gil with uncharacteristic ferocity. She defeats him, and he declares that his loss will be avenged before he falls off the mountain. The group gains one of the keys, but Jo begins to question her sanity and motives. ----------------------------- IMPACT (Europe Pt II) ----------------------------- On their way back from the mountain, the GRITters fell under attack by a group of normal level human beings using advanced technology to hold them down. The GRITters managed to escape the trap with no real casualties, and it was revealed that Jo was responsible for the destruction of half of an island and the deaths by ki irradiation of countless innocent people. Behind the scenes, however, another story was being told, as the masterminds of the organization were revealed to be using special toxins to -simulate- radiation poisoning, in an elaborate ruse to turn public opinion against the GRITters, who certain factions have decided are too powerful to continue unchecked. ----------------------------- The Kamahara Twins (Hokkaido) ----------------------------- Jacen's group arrives in Hokkaido, and checks into a hotel in Bibai before researching their lead, a small vase that Jo found in the ruins of Korea. The vase, fairly inconspicuous, contained a quote from Jo and Jacen's firewater style of martial arts. A style theoretically extinct in all areas of the world except between the two of them. Thus Jacen and the others begin their search not for a key, or a demon, but for a martial artist with similar techniques and philosophies to their own. Following the trail of the vase, Jacen and the others begin a trek northward along a nearby river, which they eventually find leads to a villiage hidden by an elaborate enchantment. Upon opening up the path to the villiage, they are attacked by a pair of siblings, Sukeko and Usaburo Kamahara. A battle ensues, which Jacen and Al ultimately win at some expense. Jacen questions the twins and it is made clear that they are direct descendents of the son of Usaburo Kumazawa, who was an ancient samurai and the creator of Ka-ekitai (flaming liquid) martial arts. Kumazawa's son was thought dead centuries ago, but evidently he survived and moved to live in a small villiage in the island of Hokkaido. The rest of the villagers, however, were the descendents of the Ainu, the native people of Japan, who were overrun almost to the point of extinction by the Feudal Japanese lords. The villiage itself is relatively happy, some infighting amongst the elders, but overall very peaceful. Jacen and the others settle in with the Kamaharas for a time, as Jacen attempts to learn what they know about the original burning liquid style. That evening, however, a bizarre event occurs. A strange flash of light brightens up the night sky, and a female figure drops into the pond in the center of the villiage. Nabiki, being the only one present, walks up to investigate, and comes face to face with...herself. Thus we are introduced to Ikiban, the Nabiki Tendou of an alternate dimension, who is both a martial artist and something of a pervert. Just on her heels was a special battle droid, which draws energy from the surrounding area, starting with plants, then lower animal life, and ultimately human beings. The surrounding plant life was depleted, and shortly thereafter the villagers began feeling ill effects. The drone was destroyed, but most of the villiage was rendered ill or dead. Jacen and Al acted fast, using Ikiban's abilities, Al's mind linking comm-sci techniques, and Jacen's near limitless ki potential to restore the entire villiage to full health. This cemented the newcomer's popularity with the villagers, granting them a almost reverent, godlike status among most of the villagers. The Elders, knowing a bit more about the outside world, however, were unshaken for the most part, and worried about the GRITters presence. Some time passed as Jacen and Al interacted with the twins, learning more about emotion ki and firewater martial arts. ----------------------------- Caine's Mercenaries (Ireland) ----------------------------- After the impact attack, U-chan left to meet Arashi, Magic Priestess of Water, and Terra, Magic priestess of earth, in a forest in Ireland. Scott, Konatsu and a couple of others accompanied her, and it was revealed that there are to be Five magic Knights and Five magic priestesses, and that Gaia intends to awaken them all to counter some future cataclysm and save the very spirit of the planet itself. Scott discovered that he was chosen for Magic Knight of the element of Void. The Forest came under attack suddenly by Caine and his team of mercenaries. U-chan got separated from the others, and ended up facing off against "Kuutarou", who weilded a magic sword and claimed to be the magic knight of wind, sworn to the service of Caine and his companions. The two Magic knights fought, and ultimately U-chan was able to summon her nature god, called a "Mashin" to defeat Kuutarou and restore his true self, Zing Mihoshin. Zing joined her group as Magic knight of wind. Meanwhile, the others were getting torn apart by Caine's people's superior teamwork. Konatsu was attacked and run through by Midgar, who held "Murasame", the sword belonging to the Magic Knight of Water. Konatsu manifested his true powers and was revealed as the Magic Knight of Water, and the tide of battle turned, driving Caine and the others off and allowing the GRITters to escape, now three Magic Knights stronger then before. Arashi returned to Japan, while Terra joined the others on Jo's quest. ----------------------------- Reunion (Hokkaido pt II) ----------------------------- The first wave of demons dealt with, Jo and the others gathered again and flew to Hokkaido to rendezvous with Jacen and learn what he had learned during his stay there. Along the way, A freak accident caused Jo's shuttlecraft to attain sentience, and it adopted Jo as "Mommy". Jacen left the villiage with Al to meet Jo and the others in Bibai. Everyone checked into a nearby hotel, except for a select few, including Jo and Amy, who checked into a hot springs resort nearby because of limited hotel space. Evidently shortly thereafter a large contingent of people conglomerated in the area, and it was revealed that the powerful and high profile fighters of the Tokyo Nerima district have...wait for it...-fans-. A sort of psuedo-convention sprung up as the nerimite fanboys set up camp to try and catch a glimpse of their favorite characters. Jo and Amy had sex. Everybody chatted a bit and decided the best thing to do at that point would be to go to a secluded Island owned by Mist where they could train and improve their abilities and teamwork. Jei's spear reacted in Jacen's presence and it was revealed that Jacen has been chosen to perform the duty of Magic Knight of the Element of Fire, rounding off the group of five. Another new character, a young female martial artist named Zoe, arrived wishing to train under Jo, along with a young Nerimite fanboy named "Sue". Everyone with the exception of Jacen, Nabiki, Ikiban, Al-X, and Ueki headed to said island. Those five returned to the villiage in Hokkaido and agreed to meet up with the others after Jacen had worked out everything with the village elders and gotten all his information from the Kamahara twins. ----------------------------- Gluttony (Hokkaido pt III) ----------------------------- Shortly after returning to the villiage, some measure of dispute rose between the elders as to whether the outsiders should be allowed to remain. Foul play began to become apparent among some factions, and some mysterious deaths occurred. Jacen and the others began to investigate, and the Demon of gluttony was revealed to be responsible for it, having manipulated the head of the elder council into sheltering her. She fought Jacen and Al and the others, and through an impressive display of teamwork, they were able to defeat her. They returned to the villiage, key in hand, and began work to restore the magic barrier hiding the town. However, their troubles were not completely over, as Rarion, a psychic warrior and old rival of Blade's, arrived under his master's guidance, deciding that it is his duty to help these weak fools on their quest. Jacen didn't like him very much. ----------------------------- Bridge (Antarctica) ----------------------------- Jo's group traveled due south from Hokkaido following a mysterious dream of Jo's, which, in association with a news broadcast and Chyron's intuition, lead them to believe that there may be a key in a recent archeological dig in Antarctica where an ancient city was found. Jo and the others traveled there on board shuttle, and went to investigate, but found the researchers almost all slaughtered, with only a pair of survivors. Dr. Von Kelgar, and his research assistant, Xong Rose. (pronounced "Song Rose") They told the GRITters about a mysterious beast that attacked them, but that what they're looking for may be at an alternate site. Jei and Mist took a team to investigate the alternate site in India, under the Guidance of Xong, who looks like a dark haired Lina Inverse, and has a tendency to swear like a sailor. Jo and the others remaining followed Kelgar to continue investigating the Antarctica site. ----------------------------- the BRA (Skyhook) ----------------------------- Jo followed Kelgar to some sort of transport platform, whereupon the party was transported to some sort of orbital skyhook, cloaked in space directly above the south pole. The group then came under direct attack from a new threat, an organization calling itself the Black Reactor Army, lead by a man calling himself Apollo, who had already killed the demon there. The BRA and the GRITters fought, with the GRITters gaining a quick advantage by virtue of numbers, but Apollo used superior planning and strategy to catch the GRITters in his trap, teleporting himself and the other BRAers off the station, the Gate Key in hand, while the Skyhook began to self destruct. Things looked bleak for our heroes... ----------------------------- Wrath 2 (India) ----------------------------- Meanwhile, Jei's group reached India with due haste, Xong leading them unknowingly into a trap, planning to use them to weaken and defeat one of the most powerful of the demons, while taking care of all of them in the process. Xong lead the GRITters in, where they were attacked by the demon Wrath, thus proving for certain that there are two demons of each sin. Xong took control of J2 with her Vampyric powers, using him to hold the GRITters in her snare. The demon wrath, being a female version of the ancient monkey king Son Goku, fought the GRITters viciously, but ultimately was defeated by superior tactics and teamwork, and J2 freed from Xong's control. Xong was taken captive, and the shrine was destroyed when Jei used a Hiryu Shoten Ha to destroy Wrath's energy form. No key was found at the site, so the group took their captive and headed back towards Antarctica. ----------------------------- Greed (Skyhook II) ----------------------------- Back on the skyhook, the group tried to manage every conceivable method to escape the station before it exploded with everyone on board, effectively ending GRIT in a very messy and depressing way. Unfortunately, nothing worked, and they all died. Oh, cut me some slack! I've been doing relatively serious synopsizing for hours now! I deserve a little break now and then... Anyway, nothing was working, until Jei and Shuttle arrived to the rescue. Chyron cast a portal spell, and everyone went through, except for Jo, who was overtaken by a mysterious whim. Floating across the room in the Zero-G environment, Jo paused to access a computer terminal. Explosions filled the chamber, making the situation more and more perilous, until a disk popped out of the terminal. Jo's eyes returned from their trance-like haze and Jo regained her senses. However before she could float back across and through the portal, the demon's of Greed's energy form began to manifest, and attacked Chyron, knocking her through the portal causing it to close. Chyron appeared on Shuttle with the others, but there was no time to re-open another portal as the station began to break apart. Jo grabbed the disk on impulse and attacked the demon, bisecting it with her soulsword. The station however exploded around her. Jo screamed in desperation as the explosion rang out, knocking Shuttle away and leaving little hope for Jo's survival. ----------------------------- Timeslip (Antarctica II) ----------------------------- Below, on the ground, Mist was surprised to find Jo dropping, bare nude, through the air. Mist leapt upward to catch her and covered her in his coat, setting her down. The shuttle landed, and the rest of the GRITters piled out and ran to Jo's side. Everyone began to regroup in the city under the ice, taking in the new turn of events and going through various character interaction. The introduction of the BRA added a new level of danger to their quest, but Jo was steadfast in pursuing their goal, believing with almost religious fervor that nothing but evil will come if they are allowed to retrieve the Keys. A pause with character interaction took place, while in the shadows of the city, other forces were plotting. Caine teamed with Shiroma, a villainous mage who looks extremely similar to Scott, to prepare to sabotage the GRITter's chances of success by locking the group of them in a time bubble. Jacen and the Hokkaido group left the village there and met the others in Antarctica. Xong escaped the GRITters by taking control of J2 again, using him as a distraction. She escaped, and Caine and Shiroma activated the time bubble, sealing all the GRITters in a state of slowed down time, except for Stackpole, who was mysteriously immune to the effects. In the rest of the world, time passed normally, and two weeks went by. During this time, both Caine and the BRA were at large, searching out keys and killing off demons. After the two weeks passed, the time bubble was undone and the GRITters escaped Antarctica, but now severely behind in the race for the keys. Corrina, a Time Lord (Dr. Who) from the planet Gallifrey arrived to investigate the time bubble, and was quickly drawn into events. Tarou learned of the advancement of Jo and Amy's relationship (see Hokkaido (II)) and confronted Jo angrily, saying that now that Jo is sleeping with Amy, Jo owes it to Ukkyo to tell her the truth. Jo and Ukkyo spoke, and Jo apologized to Ukkyo and told her the truth about herself and Amy, but before their differences could be resolved, Ikiban appeared, attacking Jo, thinking Jo to be Akane under an alias. Ikiban was subdued and explained that Akane on her world was a dangerous and manipulative woman. The GRITters split up again, with Jo, Amy, Rarion, Corrina, Sue, Terra, and Zoe going to Antakya, Turkey, where one of they keys was being held in a museum, and Jei, Mist, Chyron, and several others headed to Paris, to try and track down one of the demons based on the data that Jo had gotten on the disk from the space station. Also, Jacen, Ikiban, Nabiki, and Ukkyo left for Mexico, to scout out a future site on their list of leads. ----------------------------- Greed and Gilgamesh (Turkey) ----------------------------- Jo and the others arrived in Turkey late in the evening, and went to investigate the museum early in the evening. With the assistance of Amy's feminine wiles, the group was able to gain entry into the building, and began to try to sneak their way into the exhibit with the Heaven's Key. Along the way, however, they bumped into Gilgamesh. Jo faced off against Gil while the others made their way inside. The two had a fierce sword fighting duel, while Gil made prophetic comments and spoke of serving his god. Meanwhile, the others got to the Key, but found their way barred by Greed, one of the final demons, Who was essentially Uncle Moneybags from the game Monopoly. I never said -everything- in this thread was going to make sense, just that it'd be fun. ;p Anyway, Greed fought the GRITters using Board game attacks, for some time. Jo continued to duel with Gil, and ultimately drove the Crimson swordsman off, and ran in to try her best to help the others fight Greed. Ultimately, the demon was defeated, Corrina was turned into a giant pink hippopotamus (but got better) and the Key was secured, bringing the GRITter's total to somewhere around three, IIRC. In the aftermath, Corrina wandered around the museum, which was a sentimental location from her past, and stumbled across an ancient helmet, which transformed before her eyes into a sort of visor. She took it, and had a vision of Gaia, revealing to her that she was chosen to become priestess of void. ----------------------------- Apollo (Paris) ----------------------------- Meanwhile, Jei and Mist's group headed to Paris to track down the next of the demons. Following certain leads, they ended up attending a party at the top of the famous Eiffel tower. The mingled with the crowd a bit, then after a short while, were ambushed by... The BRA! However, the Black Reactor Army and their leader, Apollo, were not so easily beaten this time, as they attacked the GRITters and a young girl who had gotten caught in the middle. The BRA seemed to be trying to kill the girl, and the GRITters leapt to her defense. A battle broke out, and in addition to the others, a young girl named Ryouko, (who was an agent of a corporation called Stahlfaust who were associated for the moment with Caine) became involved in the battle by attacking both sides. Chaos ensued, and the BRA seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but there was a sudden manifestation of power from the waif caught in the battle, and ultimately the GRITters were able to turn the tide and drive off the BRA. The Eiffel tower received damage in the process comparable to that which it's look-alike in Tokyo usually sustains, but overall things worked out for the best. The young girl identified herself as "Leah", and explained that she is an amnesiac, remembering her name, and very little else. The GRITters took Leah along with them, reunited there in Paris, and planned the next leg of their quest. As the characters re-converged in Paris, their resources were re-divided, with Jo, Corrina, Terra, Zoe, Rarion, and some others going by Shuttle to reunite and support Jacen in Mexico, while Jei, Steve, Wing, Stark, and several others prepared to go to New York, to find Caine, who had presumably acquired one of the seven keys during the GRITter's imprisonment in the time bubble. Mist decided to return to Nerima with Kei and Lo shin to investigate a new threat emerging there, However he also stated that he had stops to make along the way. Meanwhile, Tarou received a mysterious letter and asked Jo to spare a few people to go with him on a new lead, and took Amy, Chyron, J2, Kaasha, Tsurugi, and Jay on a side trip. ----------------------------- Kiwi (New York) ----------------------------- Prior to the Hairclipper groups' arrival in New York, Back in Nerima, Kiwi had been kidnapped by Stahlfaust as part of an exchange for Caine supporting the company. Caine and his mercenaries, with help from members of Stahlfaust, used mind control to take control of Kiwi and turn her into a powerful killing machine. A number of people back in Nerima, including but not limited to Shelly, Ro, Yuri, Yohann, Penny, Sumire, Arashi, Natsume and Kurumi, all gathered to attempt a rescue. Penny flew the group to NY, where they quickly found the hairclipper crew already involved in battle with Caine and Kiwi. They leapt into the fray, but Caine and the others escaped. The two groups had a brief time to mingle and interact, but were constantly prodded at by various forces, including Shi, a clone of Steve who had long since gone insane with anger and traveled between numerous dimensions. He was responsible for countless crimes across the multiverse, but the only one really plot relevant is the butchery of Hitomi's villiage. He fought the GRITters and tried to frame Steve for crimes, but ultimately was kept at bay. He joined forces with Caine, as well, behind the scenes. The GRITters enjoyed a brief respite while they tried to discern where Caine was holding Kiwi, but before long found themselves under attack by two groups of parody superheroes, the Q-men, and the Justice League of West Manhattan. The superheroes, having been misled into thinking the GRITters are villains, attacked the GRITters en masse, and the two incredibly large groups fought each other. Meanwhile, Ryouko, under orders from Nanami and Stahlfaust, (but really more for personal reasons) tried to kidnap Yuri, who had been rendered unconscious in the earlier battle. There was a battle royale, but ultimately the GRITters and the heroes managed to team up before any serious damage was done to either side, thanks to Al-X's comm-sci techniques. The groups captured Ryouko, and she lead them to Caine's hideout, but along the way, it was revealed that the leader of the Q-men had escaped Al's control. The Q-men and the JLWM re-started the battle on board the Staten Island ferry, and the "Ryouko" there was revealed to be an imposter. The real Ryouko managed to ambush Penny and some others, who were at the time trying to get Yuri back to Penny's ship for medical assistance. Penny did her best to distract Ryouko, and though Ryouko tried to slip in, Penny kept a stiff upper lip. The confrontation was close and heated, but Penny held Ryouko at bay and managed quite a tongue lashing. Ryouko was forced to kiss off, and Yuri was saved from abduction. Back at the larger battle, there were lots of explosions and stuff. But the Penny/Ryouko scene was more interesting, so I'll just quote it: OW! Geez, okay, I'll move on. The battle was showing damage on both sides with the more powerful heroes on both sides becoming fatigued, and many of the others just plain unconscious. The battle raged on, and one of the Q-men, Futile, (coughcoughjubileecoughcough) began to rethink which side she was on when Yohann risked his life (and crippled himself) saving her life. In addition to Yohann's crippling, Arashi was injured and very nearly killed by one of the Q-men. After this, they reached the Statue of Liberty, where Caine's current hideout was, however, instead of meeting him, both the superheroes and the GRITters came under attack by the Brotherhood of Rude and Insensitive mutants, a collection of really stupid and pathetic supervillians. A three-way free-for all set in, with the GRITters, the BRIM, the JLWM, and the Q-men, with Shi thrown into the mix for good measure. Steve, Ryuu-oh, and the Dragon Ganryu all fought with Shi, and while he was finally cornered and Stark finished him off with a diver punch, a great cost was paid by Ryuu-oh and Ganryu, who both gave their lives to stop him. The GRITters managed to get past the super-loonies, and started to make a run up the stairs of the statue, but were stopped by Nanami and a large collection of faceless minions, who were there as another part of Caine's tactics to wear the GRITters down by attrition. She succeeded in stalling them briefly, but not long. The GRITters managed to reach the top of the statue, but Caine retreated. However, Shiroma, seeking to discourage further pursuit, slipped the Key to one of the GRITters. Kiwi was rescued and restored to normal, and the key was retrieved, but at what cost? Arashi and Yohann, both crippled. Ganryu and Ryuu-oh dead, and poor, poor Censorman. The dangers and consequences of the quest obviously were becoming more serious. ----------------------------- Sloth (Mexico) ----------------------------- Elsewhere, Jo's reinforcements arrived in Mexico on Shuttle, and after a few Jo vs. the Volcano references, the group began a trek up a mountain to investigate an Aztec temple which seemed to be the center of concern regarding vanishing livestock around the area.. Along the way they bumped into a small boy, calling himself Michael, who claimed to be looking for his father, a researcher who was investigating the temple. Jo decided to take the boy along, and the group entered the pyramid and began to have a look around. They rather abruptly stumbled across a few old traps, and Jacen, Sue, Nabiki, Ikiban, and Rarion all went one way while Jo, Corrina, and several others went a different path. Jo, Michael, and the others followed several mysterious sounds down to the bowels of the temple, and discovered a hidden opening, which lead to a large hollow under the upper temple, which held within it a -massive- Egyptian-style pyramid, -very- ancient, hidden under the ground and the temple above it. Jo and the others made their way to the base of the pyramid and began to investigate. Jacen, meanwhile, and his group had stumbled across an entirely different find, the professor from the boy's story. He was still alive, though poisoned and caught in one of the temple's traps. Jacen healed him as best as he could, and they took the unconscious professor with them. Back with Jo's team, the group had circled around the larger pyramid and found the main entrance. They decided to enter the pyramid, and doing so, rather then finding the tombs that such pyramids usually contained, the discovered inside, a small villiage, cloaked in darkness, protected by the twin shell armors of two massive pyramids above. Wandering into the center of the villiage, the group found themselves suddenly surrounded by massive feline man-beasts, and was taken prisoner. Jo explained their reason for being there, and the leader of the guards, a tremendous black werejaguar named Kaishi, took Jo to see the elder council of the villiage, while the others were ferreted away. The head of the elder council was smaller and more manlike then the guards, and during Jo's request for the key, it became apparent that the werejags like Kaishi were half-cat people, half were-jaguar, while the elders and upper class of the villiage were of full cat-person blood. The leader of the elder council reacted to Jo's mention of the key with rage and anger and ordered Jo's execution. Kaishi refused to execute Jo in cold blood, so another guard was given the duty, but failed. Kaishi was ordered by the elders to stop Jo before Jo could prevent the execution of her friends, so the two fought, with Jo trying to push her way back into the villiage proper. Jacen's group ran across another surprise discovery, a priestess of Bastet, one of the cat-people's gods. The priestess, Ankhora, had been out of the villiage trying to convince a runaway cat-girl to return to the villiage, but the elder's prejudice against the half-breeds had driven her away. Ankhora spoke to the outsiders and helped heal the professor. Meanwhile, the others found their hands full as the guards and warriors of the villiage tried to carry out the elder's sentence...There was a difficult battle, but ultimately the GRITters escaped and sought refuge in one of the larger buildings in the villiage, which turned out to be a museum. They spoke to the blind keeper of the museum and learned that the villiage was created when centuries ago a group of cat people from china risked their lives to escape their enemies by traveling through "cat-space", which was then extremely unstable. Their leader, whom Kaishi is descended from, was trying to escape religious persecution. The cat people caught up with the GRITters quickly, however, and the battle resumed. Jo caught up with the group, and the resumed their escape, but Michael was caught in the path of some of the cat people. Zoe suffered from a flashback attack and used a special attack to toast several of the warriors who were closing in on Michael, and she went berserk. The GRITters subdued her, and took her along with Michael and their other wounded and managed to escape. Elsewhere, Jacen sensed Zoe's attack, which was flame based, and began to dig straight towards the battle site, -through- the tunnel walls. The professor came to, and the others explained that his son was in the temple. The battle back in the villiage caught a brief respite, but it was short lived, as the werejags under Kaishi's leadership caught up with them quickly. The GRITters made another run for it, but the Elder of the villiage used gunpowder to collapse the cave they were under, crushing the werejags in the process. Jo helped to shield Kaishi from the blast, and the GRITters and Werejags grouped together to help the wounded. Back in the villiage, the elder ordered the survivors of the blast found and killed, including the werejags. He manifested a green aura, which frightened most of the villagers into staying back. However word carried to the female Werejags that their males had been ordered killed, and one of them, a young girl named Mian. Mian hurried through the catacombs and managed to track down the GRITters, warning Kaishi of the elder's treachery. Kaishi and Jo spoke, and Kaishi agreed that he and his men would help Jo to escape. They gathered their wounded together, and started to make their way out of the temple. Jacen finally caught up with the others, Leah manifested her mysterious powers again, and the groups remerged. The wounded and weak were left behind, while Jo and Kaishi lead the others back to stop the insane elder. However, along the way, Jo had a epiphany about the demon of the temple, and rushed back to where they'd left the wounded. Back with the injured, the professor regained consciousness and noticed Michael, saying that the boy wasn't his son. Michael suddenly manifested a green aura and attacked everyone there, knocking most everyone into unconsciousness. Leah became angry and confronted him, and her mysterious power (TM all rights reserved) Manifested again. However evidently it wasn't enough and she was defeated. Jo and the others got back just in time to stop the demon, which was Sloth (and in fact the -same- sloth who had fought Epsilon all those centuries ago), from possessing Terra, however the demon instead possessed Nabiki and attacked the GRITters. Jacen was torn with indecision between the two sides until Nabiki used her powers to charge him with kinetic ki, stopping him from participating in the battle, lest the slightest movement from him cause him to explode into a really messy scene. Ikiban and Rarion both stayed behind to attempt to save him, while the others pursued Nabiki/Sloth through the caverns. The battle raged on and Terra used her abilities to attack Nabiki, nearly killing both of them, and expelling sloth from Nabiki's body, however Sloth, undaunted, possessed Zoe, unlocking her true potential for martial arts. The others fought their best, but defeating Zoe proved near impossible until the arrival of Al and Ueki, who joined in the battle. After some time Ukkyo managed to use shadow wind techniques, which she had learned from Scott, to draw Sloth out of Zoe, and Jacen, who had been saved by Ikiban and Rarion, destroyed him before he could possess another person. The GRITters and the werejags resumed their flight, but Kaishi refused to leave, instead going back to confront the elder. The two confronted each other, and Kaishi was about to attack the elder when the ceiling collapsed on the old psycho, revealing...Shuttle-chan! There have been more humiliating ways of dying, but not by far. In the aftermath, Ankhora gave Jo and the others permission to search the temples in the village for the artifact they were looking for. Jo followed her intuition into the chamber of the elder council and slipped into yet another trancelike state, stepping -through- one of the walls, into a hidden chamber, down a long staircase, where it opened up into a massive chamber, with the key held therein. Jo had a vision, and a conversation with a mysterious voice, which was interrupted by another mysterious voice. At this point I'm too tired of synopsizing to detail the conversation, and the post is recent enough you can find it for yourselves. ----------------------------- BRA and . . . Tarou?? (Atlantean shrine) ----------------------------- Back to Tarou's group, the Martial artist formerly known as Pantyhose lead his team to a large volcanic island. They climbed to the precipice and Tarou separated from the rest of the group. They found in the crater of the volcano, amidst the boiling lava, an ancient shrine from the Atlantean civilization. Chyron, being the crown princess of the surviving atlanteans, managed to raise the shrine from it's volcanic tomb into the sky, but shortly thereafter they came under attack. Chyron was turned to stone, and Amy was kidnapped. The culprit...Apollo, and his new ally, Tarou. Tsu was kicked off of the floating island into the ocean far below, and Fafa was knocked unconcious. J2 managed to use his new weaponry, gleaned from the group's encounter with "IMPACT" to hold Tarou at bay, but Jay and Kaasha were busily trying to hold off the BRA's attack on their own. Back in Nerima, Vince, through the mindlink he shares with his sister, learned of Tarou's treachery and tried frantically to gather emergency support to go help. He managed to get a hold of Tegan and Ann, and they used a transponder from J2 to lock in on the location of the ambush. Back at the island, J2 finally was cornered by Tarou's impressive speed and agility. Jay and Kaasha were holding their own, until Kaasha, out of a student's loyalty to Tarou, turned on Jay and knocked him off the island. Tarou and Apollo stood victorious for the moment, and Tarou stopped the BRA from killing any of the defeated, stating that he did not bear a grudge against anyone but Jo. Apollo agreed and made...er...well...a pass, at Tarou. Tarou reacted violently and Apollo became angry at being spurned. The two fought, with Apollo demonstrating a far higher level of power then he had been thought capable of. Von Kelgar the werewolf got caught in the excess of Apollo's attack and was killed. Ann and the others searched for the proper coordinates to come to the rescue, but ultimately arrived to late as Tarou was defeated, his blackened corpse falling into the ocean below. Ann caught a brief glimpse of Apollo before he left, and was astonished to see the spitting image of her lover, Shiro. Apollo took Amy and Chyron as captives and left a message that Jo was to come to the bridge of Atlantis, or Amy and Chyron would be killed. The BRA retreated, and the shrine collapsed, falling into the ocean below. Ann and the others picked up the dead and wounded, and retreated back to Nerima, reeling from the course of events. ----------------------------- Epilogue-Preface ----------------------------- Thus events gathered to where they are now. After all this time, now we prepare to move into the final conclusion. The keys now all rest in the hands of Jo and the GRITters, and Apollo and the BRA. Who will be the final victor? What is Leah's mysterious power? What's with Jo and those weird trances? Will Jo be able to rescue Amy and Chyron? Will THIS THREAD -EVER- END???? Who can say? Well, okay, I can -say-, but where's the fun in that? ;p TO BE CONTINUED... Remove the "missary" from "commisary" to e-mail Jason Heavensrun, CEO Checkmate Studios, Inc. AKA the Intermittent Admin... Founder and current Nantan of the Global Ranma Insanity Thread... "Verfluchen Sie jene schlechten Kraken..."