Adventures In Parodyverse: Complex Chaos Part 3 (DTS Widescreen Edition)

Links:
Complex Chaos Part 1
Complex Chaos Part 2

Adventures In Parodyverse - Complex Chaos, Part 3

    "I have to ask a favor," Yuki Shiro asked, as she stood in an empty room of the Lair Mansion with Liu Xi Xian, Ebony, and a very quiet Manga Shoggoth. "I need Liu Xi to help me get to the Hooded Hood."

    'That does not seem to be a wise course of action,' Manga Shoggoth bubbled, 'Even for a semi-mortal such as yourself.'

    "He's up to something, and it involves me," Yuki told him. "I want to ask him what he's up to." She turned to Liu Xi. "Back me up on this, would you?"

    "I have to agree with Shoggoth," Liu Xi told her softly. "Visiting Hooded Hood will not change his plan. It will serve only to amuse him. You lack the power to present a threat to him."

    "But you do," Yuki told her.

    Liu Xi shook her head. "I have too many possible histories for him to change. That makes me vulnerable."

    "He won't do that if he thinks an angry Shoggoth might appear and devour him," Yuki pointed out.

    Liu Xi shook her head slowly. "Hooded Hood holds too much of the universe in balance. Shoggoth risks destroying all if he devours Hooded Hood."

    "So we...just sit and wait to see what he's up to?" Yuki asked.

    "It is wisest," Liu Xi told her.

    Yuki took a deep breath to calm herself as her mind began to form the same conclusion as the Chinese teen. She was absolutely right, it was too dangerous to go charging in. "You're pretty smart," Yuki told her.

---

    "It was rude," a calm blonde scolded the Hooded Hood in his Herringcarp Asylum sanctuary. "I know you're fond of teasing, but now you've just made her upset for no reason whatsoever."

    "Indeed," he replied as he leaned back gently in his throne.

    The blonde rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Do you know that you're impossible to work with sometimes?"

    "That is a matter of opinion," the Hooded Hood replied.

    "Opinion?" she laughed. "Maybe one day you should ask yourself why you live in a wing of an insane asylum all by yourself." She sighed and turned to leave the room when there was no reaction. "Why do I bother..." she whispered as she vanished into the darkness.

    The Hooded Hood turned and glanced at the Portal of Pretentiousness. The young woman's part of the plan was working perfectly.

---

    "How may I assist you, Jay?" Chiaki Bushido asked as Hatman appeared on the doorstep of her modest yet decorative home in the suburbs of Gothametropolis. He found it interesting that her home was surrounded by a virtual jungle of plants and a small artificial waterway.

    "Did you build all of this?" he asked. "It's nice."

    "Thank you." She nodded. "I suppose that's not why you're here, however."

    "The reason I'm here...is Marvellous Marv," he told her.

    "The television psychic?" Chiaki asked. "Isn't he dead?"

    Hatman looked behind him. Standing a few feet behind was CrazySugarFreakBoy!.

    "I told you so," CSFB! said. He then explained, "I guessed that if something was f-ed up about reality you might pick it up. Y'know, since you are called the Psychic Samurai."

    "What he said," Hatman acknowledged.

    Chiaki nodded. She reached inside to pick up her shoes and a sword. "We have work to do," she said.

    "Whoa, whoa," CSFB! interrupted. "Who is this 'we'? Last I checked you weren't even on the Lair Legion roster."

    "You're welcome to stay behind if you wish," Chiaki scolded him. "I don't wish to take authority from your group." She looked at Hatman. "He is welcome to stay with you. But I must go."

    Hatman looked at CSFB!, and sighed. He then turned to Chiaki and asked, "Where to?"

    A short cab ride later, and the trio landed outside of a small, unassuming office building in Mangatown. Chiaki exited the cab and strode into the lobby of the building with perfect confidence, and headed for an elevator at the rear guarded by two large Japanese men wearing sunglasses and machine guns.

    "Chiaki, wait," Hatman urged her.

    She paused and turned around. "Pay the guards no mind. They will allow us to pass." Then she continued on her way. Chiaki bowed ever so slightly as she passed the two men, and they nodded in return. As simple as promised, the three were inside the elevator unscathed.

    Hatman and CSFB! looked at each other, but neither said a word...at first. CSFB! piped up eventually with, "So...what kind of other heavily guarded buildings can you get us into?"

    Chiaki glanced at CSFB! momentarily but didn't reply.

    When the elevator doors opened they were inside a well decorated private office with a preference for the color pink. Flowers were everywhere, and a small fountain cascaded water into a miniature pool. Four men stood around idly, not seeming to pay them any mind.

    "Does this seem familiar to you?" CSFB! asked Hatman, referring to the the strong bias toward pink.

    After leaving the elevator, Chaiki turned to face Hatman and CSFB!, and she looked serious. "When we meet Akiko you must give her a slight bow," she instructed. Without being asked, she explained, "It is polite."

    "We're not in Japan, you know," CSFB! pointed out. "In good ol' America we don't bow, we shake hands."

    "Which would always be unwise in your case," Chiaki retorted, "As no one can guess where your hands have been." She gave Hatman a pleading look.

    "Let's just do things the way we're supposed to," Hatman suggested. "We're not here to make trouble."

    "Fine." CSFB! made his protest known by sighing loudly as they entered the office of Akiko Masamune.

    Hatman looked around the room, noting that there were two more guards, and that they too didn't bother to stop Chiaki even though she most likely didn't have an appointment.

    "I heard about the Zoot Suit gang," Akiko opened with as Chiaki gave the opening bow. "It's fortunate the club's owner was willing to sell."

    Hatman nearly shuddered when he realized what the conversation was about, but kept silent. Akiko and Chiaki conspired to drive the Zoot Suit gang out of their hideout by buying and closing it.

    "Marvellous Marv," Chiaki began. "Do you know anything about his supposed return?"

    Akiko sat in her office chair and leaned back. "It is strange. Every record indicates that he retired from television. I remember his last broadcast. But many have told me he should be dead."

    "That's the same information I have," Chiaki confirmed. She looked behind her at the two Lair Legion members. "It appears that whatever has changed Marvellous Marv's fate has done so imperfectly."

    "Sounds to me," Hatman said, risking speaking up on Akiko's presence, "Like the Hooded Hood."

    "Quite possible," Akiko responded, as she folded her arms. "I suppose that's something for the Lair Legion to deal with."

    "She is correct," Chiaki told Hatman. "While I am eager to help you, to repay my debt, I'm afraid confronting the Hooded Hood is beyond my abilities."

    "I'm up for it," CSFB! said. "Hey, someone has to."

    "No," a young blonde woman who suddenly appeared in the room ordered. "You can't disturb the Hooded Hood. He's doing something very important."

    "Who are you?" CSFB! asked. "And if you're just a hallucination, why are you dressed?"

    "I can see her too," Hatman said. "She's no hallucination."

    "Trust me," the woman said. "It's very important that he not be disturbed."

    After that, she disappeared as quickly as she appeared.

---

    "Have any disturbances been picked up?" Hatman asked Al B Harper after arriving at his cabin an hour later. "Not that I even know how this thing works."

    "It's based on what I learned from this little treasure." Al B looked over at Liu Xi, who seemed proud of herself for finally contributing something. "When the Hooded Hood changes something, the colored lights on this device change. I can download the coordinate data into my handheld and cross-reference them with GPS maps--"

    "In English, please," Hatman interrupted. "Plain English, for those of us who don't have a PHD in Physics."

    Yuki snickered, in spite of her best efforts to try and hide it.

    "The point is, the Hooded Hood has changed something. But I've also detected another presence...something that hasn't made any changes, but whose very presence...how do I say this?" Al B thought for a moment. "...displaces the universe just slightly."

    Hatman looked at CSFB!, who gave him a 'don't ask me' shrug. But then a thought occurred to him. "Maybe it's that blonde woman we saw."

    "Blonde woman?" Liu Xi suddenly piped up.

    That got the attention of everyone in the room. Hatman asked her, "Someone familiar to you?"

    "I have never known her," Liu Xi whispered, "but I have felt her. She has crossed through the in-between."

    "Then how do you know she's blonde?" CSFB! asked.

    "The in-between is a place of energy and thought," Liu Xi explained. Where body and mind are one."

    "So if this blonde knows what she herself looks like, Liu Xi would know just by coming in contact with her thoughts," Yuki speculated.

    "No," Liu Xi shook her head. "She...she was curious. She met me and showed me what she looked like to teach me how. Then I did the same."

    "Do you think this is all connected?" Al B asked, "The woman, the Hooded Hood, and Marvellous Marv?"

    "It is very likely," Liu Xi said. "But I feel the woman is a benevolent presence. I doubt she means any harm."

    "It's possible she's being manipulated by the Hooded Hood," Hatman pointed out.

    "How does this all relate to Marvellous Marv?" Yuki asked, "And more important, me?"

    "The answer to that is simple," a new voice announced in the room. It was the blonde woman in question.

---

    "...ladies and gentlemen, please welcome...Marvellous Marv!"

    The audience of his new late night television show applauded loudly as Marvellous Marv himself left the backstage area and headed into the spotlight, wearing a designer suit and smiling brightly. He fiddled with the button on the front of his jacket as he waited for the noise to die down.

    "Thank you," he told his audience, "Thank you very much. I know a lot of you have been looking forward to my return, since the day I retired from television. To tell you the truth, the only reason I came back was because...well, because the syndication network made me an offer I can't refuse. Yes, the reason I returned was money."

    As laughter erupted from the audience on television, Yuki frowned and looked behind her at her current companions. CSFB! was the one who turned on the television just in time to see the program begin. Hatman stood between him and a mysterious blonde woman who identified herself only as Lara Night.

    "See, the Hooded Hood didn't intend to bring Marvellous Marv back," Lara explained, "it was an unfortunate side effect of the project he's working on."

    "Which is?" Hatman asked.

    "I'm sorry...I can't tell you that yet," Lara apologized. "But when the time comes you'll know."

    "Pardon me if I don't find that reassuring," Hatman grumbled.

    "Look," Lara told him, "I know what's in his heart, and I don't like having to trust him either. But there are other forces trying to make subtle yet drastic changes to your universe, and the Hooded Hood is the only balancing factor. I can't tell you guys because...if you know what's happening, you might do something and the balance would be thrown off again."

    "It makes sense to me," Liu Xi added.

    "What do you know? You're just a kid!" CSFB! looked away from Liu Xi and at the blonde. "And you don't seem particularly powerful to me. What if the Hooded Hood is manipulating you both...or all of us?"

    "I'm sure he is," Lara conceded. "But as long as he meets his primary objective--" she shrugged. "--a lot is on the line."

    "And why do I seem to be in the middle of all of this?" Yuki asked.

    "I'm not sure." Lara shrugged again. "I guess the Hooded Hood finds you interesting for some reason, and chose to give you some clues. He's a weird guy sometimes."

    "Clues?" Yuki looked at Hatman, and the silent Chiaki, staring out a window. "But the only thing he hinted at was--" Yuki stopped herself when Chiaki turned around abruptly to look at her. And then Hatman did as well...and somehow, the two then looked at each other.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2005 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
-- Liu Xi Xian is an original design by Jason Froikin

Post By Anime Jason Sat Mar 19, 2005 at 04:42:06 pm EST	Subject Adventures In Parodyverse: Complex Chaos Part 3 (DTS Widescreen Edition)

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