El Hazard is owned by AIC and Pioneer LDC.  The author owns only the writing and any 
characters he himself creates.

El Hazard: The Magnificent Sequel
Chapter 10

*What could he do? What must he do? WHAT SHOULD HE
DO?*
Palnus looked uncertain in the confusion. This wasn't
the time to be a hero but he needed to do something.
He decided to rush up the Tower, confident that his
recently-acquired super-strength would be enough for
him. He heard Alielle call out to him from behind but
he ignored her.

**********************
"This isn't the time to be a hero!" Afura called after
Palnus as he ran into the tower. He probably hadn't
heard her.
*It figures.* Even if he had, he would have run up
there anyway.
"Oi Afura, what's going on?"
"Oh! Fujisawa, I'm not actually sure. I'm
very...confused."
Fujisawa stared for a moment and then said, "Isn't
that Palnus over there? Where does he think he is
going?"
"Probably to save Makoto and Ifurita..."
"Then what are we waiting around for?"
Fujisawa ran towards the tower.
*Yes Afura. Why are we just standing there?*
With that Afura ran into the tower as well and
followed him.

************************
Afura caught up with Fujisawa.
"Do you have any idea where they would be?"
"Probably some place where they could look out onto
the city, the higher the better...."
"Why do you think that?" Afura asked puzzled.
"Because they're villains. Villains like to be overly
dramatic and annoying!" Fujisawa replied triumphantly.
"Oh...that sounds reasonable." Afura mumbled.
Suddenly some men ran by, and then from the distance
she saw Palnus. "Hey, it's Palnus..." Afura began, but
Fujisawa was gone.
"Gee..." *..guess I'm on my own now...* Afura turned
and continued walking, hoping to catch up with
Fujisawa.

*************************

After going on the elevator, it wasn't long before
Palnus had reached his destination up on the tower.
*Makoto and the rest must be in another section.*
He pondered for a while before he noticed several of
Lagus' henchmen.
It wasn't long before Palnus caught up with the four
thugs. They were standing in front of a bunch of fish
tanks, near a sign that said aquarium. Palnus didn't
know what an aquarium was, but he didn't care at the
moment.
One of the thugs spotted Palnus coming and pointed it
out to one of his companions. "Hey, Tanaka, look at
this! It's that little girl who threw me into that
dumpster back at that old lady's restaurant." The thug
pointed to a bruise on his forehead to emphasize his
point.
Tanaka turned around, and Palnus was surprised to see
the man the old woman had been talking to the day
before the restaurant was burned down.
"You..." Palnus began.
Tanaka just grinned and adjusted his sunglasses (why
he was wearing sunglasses Palnus would never know, it
was past midnight anyway). "Well, well, what do we
have here? You must be that squirt Lagus described to
me when I attacked the restaurant! The girl, Alielle,
is it? No, you don't have the figure for a girl....You
must be Palnus, the boy!"
Palnus felt the anger well up in his body. YOU were
the one who burned down the restaurant?!"
Tanaka smirked. "Well, I can't take all the credit. I
had some help from these fellas here." As if summoned
by his words, a dozen of Tanaka's henchman appeared
seemingly out of nowhere. "I can't have you
interfering with my master's plan, brat. GET HIM!" he
cried.
Several of the thugs charged at Palnus.
*Oh, no, there's too many of them for me to fight,
even with my super-strength! I had better
retreat...NOW!* Palnus sprinted in the other
direction. He frantically raced past row after row of
fish tanks, trying escape his pursuers. He had almost
given them the slip when another of Tanaka's men
jumped out from behind one of the fish tanks, ready to
grab Palnus.
"AHA! Gotcha-OOF!" Reacting only on instinct now,
Palnus slugged the man square on the chin. The man
grunted and fell on one of the fish tanks, making the
glass crack in the process. The man collapsed under
the tank, while a trickle of water from the cracked
glass sprinkled on his head.
Palnus watched this excitedly while he fled. "Yes!
Score one for Palnus-uh oh." In his haste, Palnus had
managed to run straight into a dead-end. It wasn't
long before the thugs had caught up to him and
cornered him. They advanced on Palnus menacingly.
*Oh, great! Now I'm dead. The perfect end to the
perfect day. Oh well, at least I'll go down fighting.*
Palnus crouched down into a fighting positon, waiting
for the thugs to make their first move...
"HYPER-FUJISAWA KICK!!" Palnus watched as a figure
leaped into the air and jump-kicked several of the
henchman, knocking them over.
"What the hell??" one of the thugs standing near
Palnus cried. The henchman turned their heads to see
what was going on. Palnus used this distraction to his
advantage, and charged at the remaining henchman with
all his might, knocking them all over.
The mysterious figure continued to attack the the men
while yelling ridiculous phrases like
"FUJISAWA-PUNCH!"and "FUJISAWA HEADBUTT!" The figure
suddenly landed by Palnus' side, and it took a moment
for Palnus to realize who it was.
"Mr. Fujisawa?!" Palnus cried.
Mr. Fujisawa grinned. "Yep, that's me. Alielle told me
you ran up here, so I decided to check up on you. I
guess it didn't take long for you to cause trouble,
did it?"
Mr. Fujisawa took care of another thug with a neat
right hook. "Say, I don't normally ask kids your age
this, but while I'm taking care of these guys, do you
suppose you could take care of that fella over there?"
Mr. Fujisawa pointed to Tanaka who was trying to sneak
away.
Palnus agreed. He ran over to Tanaka quickly and
managed to pin his arms behind his back before he
could escape.
"Not so fast, buddy," Palnus growled. "I'm not about
to let you go for what you did to the restaurant. You
and I are going to have a little chat with some of
those policemen down there. I'm sure they'll be very
interested to meet you." Palnus tightened his grip on
the man's arms.
"Brat! You have no idea who I am, do you? I'll show
you what you're really up against!" Tanaka's human
disguise disappeared, and he showed Palnus that he was
in fact, a member of the Phantom Tribe.
"I don't believe it..." Palnus muttered, blinking in
surprise.Using this distraction to his advantage,
Tanaka managed to break on of his arms free from
Palnus' grip, and whirled around to give Palnus a
right hook to the cheek. Surprised by this sudden
attack, Palnus flinched and released his grip on
Tanaka's other arm.
Tanaka smirked and pulled out a large knife out from
under his shirt. "End of the line, kiddo."
Tanaka lunged forward to stab Palnus with his right
hand. Palnus quickly jumped back to dodge the blow,
and luckily the knife only nicked his left side.
Tanaka cursed and lashed out at the boy again. This
time, though, Palnus managed to grab Tanaka by the arm
and threw him across the room. Tanaka landed on the
ground with a loud 'THUMP.' Tanaka picked himself off
the ground wearily; his nose and mouth were bleeding.
Tanaka charged at him again, but this time Palnus was
ready for him. Palnus jumped up and used his left knee
to hit Tanaka right on the chin.
Tanaka recoiled from the blow, and collapsed on the
floor.
Palnus walked over to Tanaka to make sure he was still
alive. Sure enough, Tanaka was unconscious but still
breathing.
"You miserable idiot," Palnus muttered to the
unconscious man on the floor. Palnus sat down on the
floor and examined his side, which was now starting to
bleed.
*I think I've had enough action for a lifetime....* he
thought wearily to himself.

*******************

Standing at the bottom of Tokyo Tower, Groucho noticed
a small glow down in the bowels of his coat.
"My Queen, there is some kind of device up on the
Tower. I believe that Lagus has put it up. It wasn't
on before."
"How would you know that, Groucho?", Dall inquired.
"These tell the whole story."
Groucho pulled out a couple of rainbow-hued gems that
glowed even more intensely when brought closer to the
tower. Some of the metal clips on Groucho's trenchcoat
were suddenly ripped off and hovered around him.
"As you can see," Groucho explained, "these stones
have immense magnetic properties. They may be able to
bring us back home. When I was a hatchling I wandered
into the ancient ruins of El Hazard. I found several
of these stones inside a lead pouch lying on the
ground near one of the devastated structures. I kept
them because they were pretty and thought they would
make a good gift for my Queen. I have been collecting
them for several months after that. I forgot all about
them when I was enlisted into the bugrom campaign
against Roshtaria, ...until the Eye of God was
activated."

All of a sudden, several henchmen with tommy guns were
approaching. Groucho quickly handed out several of the
stones to the others.

"If you wear these, you should'nt be able to worry
about them firing those things. I'll tell you my
theories about them later."

-----------------------------------

Earlier that night...


He walked inside the love hotel and saw several men on
the floor. He didn't heed notice to the trio which had
passed Him before.

*From what I got from several of Lagus's henchmen he
should have last been here. I'll ask one of the
gentlemen happily sleeping on the floor.*
He rose one of the yakuza devotees by the hair and
said, "Tell me now where is Lagus."
The man half-conscious blurted out, "...I...don't
know."
"Wrong answer."
He pressed his hand against the muscle-for-hire's
forehead and let a burst of energy through the man's
mind. Instantly, His "victim's" brain started to
process information in the other direction at an
unimaginable speed. In a matter of minutes, the
devotee's mind was sucked completely leaving him
braindead on the floor, his face twisted with pain and
his eyes rolled up showing nothing but white.
"Thanks for gladly volunteering all you know. Let me
know when I can return the favor. *Sighs* I shouldn't
even bother interrogating them the 'conventional' way.
What's the extinction of a soul or two to get what I
want?"

************************
(On the special observation deck at Tokyo Tower)

Kotomi wished that she hadn't left the group. They had
left many hours before and now nobody could go in or
out of the Tower. She was getting extremely tired, but
she didn't want to fall asleep in case something
happened. Looking through the caution ramp bars, she
could see 2 figures jousting in the air. She
desperately wanted to go home. She started crying and
suddenly thought about Groucho, what he had said
during their first encounter. She wiped her tears and
wished that he was here. She would at least have
someone to talk to. Many of the other people on the
deck were tired and starting to get desperate so she
wanted to avoid them as much as possible. She could
only hope that this was a nightmare...

**************************

Sakura Hino was in her niece's car about two miles
away from Tokyo Tower. She had earlier called her
niece over an hour ago in the middle of the night to
drive her over to Tokyo Tower. Her usually
hot-tempered niece had surprisingly complied agreeably
and was driving her to ther destination. Ms. Hino sat
in the passenger's seat thinking about the vision she
had earlier seen in the flames: one of Makoto Mizuhara
being fatally wounded and a weeping Ifurita craddling
his dead body. Her memories swept back to her youth; a
memory of someone she used to love, someone who was
longer there for her....

*********************
Everything was chaotic up here in the Tower.

However, it was worse in the streets below. There were
dead cockroaches in the drains, the ditches, the
sidewalks, the pavements; literally everywhere.
After defeating some of Lagus' human lackeys,
Katsuhiko Jinnai was apparently trying to send his
Bugrom up here to rescue his daughter. However in his
confidence, he had foolishly underestimated his
opponent. A small unit of seven Bugrom had sneaked up
here and had foolishly tried to attack Lagus. None of
them could penetrate his force field and he had merely
fired a chi blast, with the force of the blast sending
them plummeting down to their deaths.
Kalia was still lying on the floor. Makoto had no idea
what she was planning to do next but he was at least
glad that she was no longer our opponent.
Ifurita suddenly decided to attack Lagus by herself.
She fired a sonic blast at him but he easily deflected
the blast back at her. Unable to react in time, the
force had thrown her against the wall and she fell
down, hitting herself.
*Hurt? Is she hurt?*
Makoto rushed over to Ifurita's side.
His back was turned to Lagus and he was oblivious to
what Lagus was planning to do next. He grinned as he
prepared to fire the fatal blow at me.
Someone pushed Makoto. The force pushed him hard
against the floor. "Huh?"
Makoto turned to look. He was okay but somebody
obviously was not.
Sakura Hino was lying on the ground; her face covered
with blood and dirt. Makoto looked down and saw that
there was a hole in her fragile torso and blood was
streaming out.
"But how...but why..." Makoto felt a tear roll down
his cheek.
"Listen Makoto, you are still young and one day you
will do great things. You have a lot to give to the
world. I am old now and I have already given all that
I can. More importantly, you have someone to cherish,
someone to love." (A memory of a loved one from her
youth flickered briefly across her mind as she
struggled to speak.)
She took Ifurita's and Makoto's hands and joined them
together. "Love her, care for her always. This kind of
love is very difficult to find in this world
nowadays."

She closed her eyes as she died with a smile on her
lips.

Alielle had somehow arrived on the scene. Makoto put
his arms on her shoulders and shook her like a madman.
"Alielle, please do something. You can heal her, can't
you?"
Alielle was crying. "I'm sorry...I'm really sorry,
Makoto. I can't bring the dead back to life but I can
at least heal the wound so that she can look beautiful
once again." Alielle walked over and healed the wound
of the peaceful-looking body.
Makoto turned over to Lagus and cried, "I WON'T
FORGIVE YOU!"

*************************
Lagus turned his back contemptuously on Makoto and
Ifurita. His triumph was nearly complete, but there
was one more flood of anguish he could relish.
"Jinnai! Behold!" Jinnai, Diva and the Bugrom looked
up to see Lagus on the platform, swinging their crying
daughter aloft. "Here is the spawn of you and your
whore! Watch, and see how I deal with all vermin in El
Hazard!"
Diva clutched at Jinnai. "My lord, do something!" she
sobbed. But there was nothing anyone could do.
Atop the platform, Lagus strode to his device and
turned the gun turret towards Inari, huddled miserably
by a corner girder. "Goodbye, little roach," he
whispered, and pulled the lever.
The device pulsed and glowed, and suddenly a
blue-white beam shot forth, coalescing the air
molecules about it and plunging towards the helpless
child. As Makoto and Ifurita watched in horror, Inari
screamed as the beam caught her square in the chest,
and the blue-white light enveloped her.
Lagus laughed. He lifted the turret so that Inari was
suspended by the beam in mid-air. She twisted wildly
as the energy filled every cell in her small body.
"Roaches are not so hard to kill, no matter what their
size! She will burst, like a pest squashed underfoot!"
And indeed Inari's body was growing and contorting in
the beam of light, until her baby clothes ripped
apart. The molecules of the air, dust and organic
material floating near the beam drew together like a
magnet, growing steadily denser and merging with the
molecules of Inari's own body. And the energy itself,
striking the nucleii in her cells, was galvanizing the
mitochondria into reproducing at a fantastic rate. She
was growing before Lagus' very eyes.

And suddenly his laughter died.

She was not ballooning - she was elongating. The
shrieking child's arms and legs were lengthening, and
her body too, 'till her chubby form had become slender
and nubile. Then, as Lagus watched in disbelief, her
breasts and curves began to swell, and her hair
streamed out beneath her like a black cloak. Her round
face became sculpted by planes, and her voice deepened
to a low moan. Lagus turned and wrestled with the
lever, horrified by his own miscalculation.
He thrust the lever down at last, and the beam slowly
died away. He stood panting, until a feral snarl
behind made him turn to face the creature that was
slowly rising to its feet.
He was speechless. She stood before him like a dark
angel, tall, white-limbed, black-maned, her great
wings quivering and eyes flaming. And Lagus realized
he was standing alone before a furious, full-grown
Bugrom Queen.

With a shriek of rage, Inari sprang...

Lagus was stunned by the sudden transformation in
Inari. She had suddenly become a full-grown adult. She
was naked but her body was modestly covered by her
long hair. She charged at Lagus.
Makoto and Ifurita did not know it at that time but
Lagus' shock at seeing Inari had disrupted his
life-force and had caused his force-field to weaken.
She lunged forward with her fangs biting at him. He
roughly pushed her away but it was obvious that he was
visibly affected by the sudden disturbance to his
life-force.
"I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!" Makoto was still grieving over
Sakura Hino's death, a death he considered absolutely
unnecessary. Without thinking, he grabbed Ifurita's
staff away from her and charged blindly at Lagus.
He plunged the staff at Lagus and the staff impaled
him and came out through the other end of his body.
Lagus had been too stunned to avoid my blind rage and
he stared blankly in surprise at me.

Shock. Surprise.

Makoto felt Lagus' memories suddenly seep into my
consciousness. He saw a young boy full of innocence
and happiness. He then saw a very young man full of
idealism; one who always stood up for his people. He
saw a man who always would never hesitate to help
anyone in need. He saw a man who idolized his elder
half-brother, Galus who fought for his people whom he
claimed had been oppressed by both the Roshtarians and
the Bugrom. He saw a man in love; a man playing in the
flower fields with Kiriya, his fiancee.
Then he saw his impending breakdown. He had been
disillusioned with how the Roshtarians treated the
Phantom Tribe as outcasts. He had also lost close
friends in skirmishes with the Bugrom. He saw the
tears in his eyes as he was brought news of Kiriya's
death by the Three Priestesses of Mount. Muldoon. He
reacted with dismay when Galus told him how Nanami had
seen through his illusion. Lagus was looking up from
the ground when he saw Katsuhiko Jinnai land on the
Eye of God and foil Galus' plans. He saw Nanami help
Makoto defeat Galus and he watched in horror when
Ifurita fired the lethal blow at Galus. He had broken
down completely at the loss of loved ones and swore
one day to take revenge on all of those responsible...

Lagus turned to look at Inari who was now throwing her
head backwards and making the same kind of maniacal
laugh her father usually made. He turned back to look
at Makoto and he said,"You shouldn't look at other
people's memories."

(Lagus saw a bright light at the end of a tunnel. He
saw people who cared and loved him. A very
familiar-looking woman ran towards him with her arms
outstretched. He was pleased to see Kiriya who had
said that "she had been waiting for him and at last
they can be together forever".....)

With the death of Lagus, his body had just melted into
the air and he was no longer there. Makoto dropped
Ifurita's staff on the ground and started sobbing.
Ifurita walked over to comfort me.

"It's okay, Makoto. It's okay. It's all over."

*************************
Palnus and Alielle sat on the benches just outside of
Tokyo Tower. Alielle was using her special power to
heal the wound Palnus received from Tanaka.
"You're too reckless, you know that?" Alielle
muttered. She was still annoyed at her brother for
leaving her behind in order to challenge the Phantom
Tribe. "What did you think you could accomplish by
running headfirst into a trap?!"
"Aw, I was just trying to help! Can't you give me a
break, Alielle?"
Alielle gave him a good whack upside the head. "No, I
can't give you a break, because as your only sister I
am responsible for your well-being, no matter how
stupid or repulsive you may act at times."
Palnus winced and rubbed the newly formed bump on the
back of his head. "If you'e responsible for my
well-being, then why are you so hazardous to my
health?"he muttered.
Alielle glared at him menacingly. "What was that,
Palnus?"
"Uh..nothing! Nothing at all!"
Just then, Palnus spotted several young women his age
who had come out to observe the damage at Tokyo Tower.
"Ewwwww! Have you ever seen so many dead cockroaches
in your life? What happened here" one of them cried.
Palnus grinned and rubbed his hands together greedily.
*Hehe, here's the chance I've been waiting for all
day!*

Palnus got up and walked over to the women. "I'll tell
you what happened here, ladies. The tower was attacked
by a vicious criminal organization!"
"Wow, are you serious?"
"Sure I am! I should know, I was there, after all! In
fact, I got jumped by like twenty, no, no, THIRTY of
their meanest henchman!"
"Really? Wow! What did you do? Were you scared?"
"Who, me? Nahhh, I eat guys like those for breakfast!
All it took was a couple of well placed kicks and
punches and..."
"Really? You beat all of them?!"
"Sure, it was easy! Here, I'll show you?"
Palnus walked up to a nearby tree. "I'm going to punch
a hole in this tree. Now, watch carefully or you'll
miss it." Palnus drew back his fist and punched the
tree with all his might. Unfortunately, the tree
didn't even shudder, and all Palnus got were a few
large splinters stuck in his fist.

Palnus howled in agony as he plucked out each of the
splinters, one by one. During this time, all the girls
were shrieking with laughter.

"Hey, can't you be a little more sensitive? I'm
bleeding pretty badly here, I may need a doctor..."
Palnus whimpered.

The girls only laughed harder, and began to walk away.


Palnus began to run after the girls. "Hey, don't go
yet! I really do have super-strength! Here, look!
HI-YA!.....OW! Dammit.."

Alielle sighed; she had been watching her brother make
a fool of himself the whole time. *It's so
embarrassing being related to him.*

Alielle decided to follow him, just to make sure he
didn't get into any more trouble. However, what she
didn't realize was that the other travelers from El
Hazard were preparing to leave...

************************
Makoto and Ifurita looked up as the dark shapes of
Bugrom came clambering over the parapets. Diva and
Jinnai leapt onto the platform and looked around
frantically, but the with the cessation of Lagus'
device, all artificial light had faded from the tower.
At last the moon slid out from behind a cloud, and the
platform was bathed in soft, blue light and shadow.
Inari started, antennae twitching. She knew her mother
instinctively, and with a small cry, she stumbled
towards Diva.
Diva stared at the young woman for a troubled fraction
of a second, then caught her and clung to her. "He
didn't hurt you!" she sobbed. "I thought we had lost
you..." Her hands clutched at Inari's long, black
hair.
Inari murmured softly, then her eyes fixed on Jinnai,
standing transfixed a few feet away. She pushed back a
little, and Diva, seeing where she was looking,
released her hold. "You only saw him once, my darling.
This is your father. This is the man we left our home
to find."
Inari stood looking at him for a moment, head tilted
slightly. She began to walk forward, helped by her
mother. As for Jinnai, he stood frozen, shocked by the
sight of his daughter - a daughter who was the same
age as himself.
She had almost reached him now. The wind blew black
strands of hair over her high cheekbones and dark,
narrow eyes. It was as though he were looking at his
female twin. Except that she was beautiful...
"Come on, Jinnai," Makoto called. "Don't be afraid of
her. She's your daughter and she wants to meet you."
It was a welcome distraction. Jinnai retreated into
the safety of his enmity. "You stay out of this,
Mizuhara! Who asked you?"
"Well, you'd better hurry before she freezes," Makoto
commented simply.
Jinnai bristled. "Before she--" he stared at Inari,
suddenly realizing she was naked. "Mizuhara, you
pervert! How dare you stand there oogling my daughter!
Take your eyes off her, you degenerate!"
"But I wasn't--"
"Groucho!" Jinnai swung on the big bugrom. "What's the
matter with you? Don't you have any manners! Give me
that trenchcoat; you look ridiculous in it anyway."
When Groucho bundled it off, Jinnai handed it to Diva.
"Here. Cover her up, Diva. Mizuhara's the last man I
want looking at her!"
The coat was huge on Inari, and Diva had to belt it
twice around her. Nanami, who had ridden up to the
platform with the Bugrom, shook her head in wonder.
"This is too weird! I've got a niece who's half Bugrom
and older than I am! Hope we never have to explain
this to Mom and Dad! But...I've got to say, big
brother...for a guy who's always doing rotten things,
when you do something good...it's beautiful."
Jinnai hardly noticed her. He was still staring at
Inari, who now extended her arms towards him. She
smiled for a moment, then swayed dizzily, and
collapsed.
"It must have been the battle and the rapid metabolic
change," said Ifurita. "She's exhausted."
Groucho lifted her in his arms like a doll. But
suddenly Jinnai caught his arm. His voice was quiet
now, without anger. "No, Groucho. Give her to me. I
want to carry her." Groucho obeyed, and Jinnai stood
cradling her, looking down at her sleeping face. "Dear
Lord," he whispered, so softly that no one could hear.