Previous Post Adventures in Parodyverse: Adventure in Babysitting Part 2     Visionary arrived at the Z’Sox palace via Shen Rae’s shuttle.  The Heart of Light, her ship, was in orbit and cloaked where the untrustworthy Z’Sox couldn’t find it.     As soon as the shuttle touched down, Shen Rae opened the door and watched Visionary and Anna exit.  She was to stay with the shuttle so all three of them wouldn’t be in the same place; that way there would always be an escape strategy.     Still, Visionary wished she would come along.  He trusted Anna to defend him, but truthfully, Shen Rae had a lot more experience with intergalactic diplomacy.  Or maybe her experience with it was the reason she wasn’t coming along.  That thought worried him even more.     Two guards surrounded him, each seven foot tall spider-like creatures.  He swallowed and tried to be polite, and pretend he wasn’t afraid, even though he was.  Anna didn’t seem too concerned, though, and perhaps that gave him a little strength, enough to continue on into the palace.     Those guards led him down a very long hallway, with very high ceilings, made out of some kind of metal so the guards’ feet clacked along, making it seem even more creepy.     Finally, at the end of the hall, they entered a giant room that looked like it was covered in CrazySugarFreakBoy’s silly string.  It wasn’t just a palace, or a throne room - it was a nest.  Not just a nest either, but the nest.  Visionary felt even more uneasy now.  That meant there was a worse fate than them killing him - he could be eaten alive instead.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I thought I told you I would kill you if you came here?”  a voice boomed.  It was the Z’Sox ambassador.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Actually you said you would eat me and kill my children,”  Visionary corrected.  He swallowed hard and added, “But that’s what I’m here to talk to you about.  I thought we could settle this like men.  I mean, like people.  I mean, like creatures.  Animate creatures.”     The giant spider-creature moved very close, so now there were three around him including the guards.  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You need me,”  Visionary said.  “Someday, someone like the Parody Master or the Moderator will come here and try to wipe you out, and I’ll be the only one who speaks up for you at the Lair Legion meeting.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Not Good Enough,”  the giant spider growled.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I have kids?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They will die too.”  the spider warned.  “Try again.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Anna here won’t let you?”  he tried.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That little thing?”  The arachnoid laughed so his booming voice echoed.  “I’ll dismantle her with one stomp of my foot!  One more chance.”     Anna stood perfectly still, trying not to react to the threat.     Visionary reached behind him and pulled out his last chance from behind the collar of his yellow coat.  He raised the giant fly swatter that Yuki gave him, and he whacked the Z’Sox ambassador as hard as he could.  With his eyes closed, of course.     When Visionary opened his eyes, the Z’Sox ambassador and both of his guards were burned piles of ash about four feet tall.  “Wow, this is one heck of a fly swatter.”     Then he turned around and saw Shen Rae holding a pistol that she repurposed from her bracelet.  “It was an ambush,”  the red-haired Captain clued him in.  “Let’s get out of here.”     Just as she said that, the way out was blocked by a dozen or so more giant spiders.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Umm...”  Visionary started to say.     He heard a high-pitched whine next to him, and then there was a burst of fiery hot red-orange light from Anna’s eyes.  It melted a large hole in the palace wall.     Just as the trio took advantage of the new exit, Shen Rae fired a pulse of bright blue plasma at the spiders, and they were thrown and scattered by the impact.     The silver shuttle was waiting outside.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’re going to have to fight our way off this planet,”  Shen Rae warned Visionary and Anna as they entered the shuttle.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What makes you say that?”  Visionary asked, almost sarcastically.     The shuttle shuddered slightly as its high-tech energy shield absorbed a severe impact.  “Lucky guess,”  the Captain joked. ---     The Z’Sox assassins were planners.  They were not particularly smart, or able to think of their feet.  That served Faite well watching Visionary’s children, as they wandered the maze-like basement of the Lair Mansion.     As she followed the flashlight-wielding children, a part of her mind observed the flow of the Threads of Plot.  Because the Z’Sox relied on such extensive strategic planning, she relied on altering assumptions they made.  That caused the two assassins assigned to track and kill Visionary’s children to always end up in the wrong place.       Though now there was only one - the other managed to run into Gamona while she was in a foul mood.  Now she was in an even more foul mood, since she had to clean giant spider blood out of her new clothes.     Faite couldn’t help but laugh when the second one met his end by sheer coincidence.  The wrong place he happened to end up in intersected with the path of two detonator hippos.  In the basement there was a distant sound of an explosion somewhere on the grounds of the Lair Mansion.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What was that?”  Griffin asked.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nothing.”  Faite replied.  “Don’t worry about it.”     It was more than coincidence that she agreed to explore the basement with the kids.  There were so many dangers facing them above ground, underneath it seemed much more tame and easy to handle.  The only danger down there meant she had to wear a light jacket, jeans, and laced suede boots to keep from feeling chilled.     Or at least she thought so, until a column of flame appeared in front of the kids.  Faite quickly pushed them both behind her, and stood firm in their way.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re that demon the De Soth family released,”  Faite recognized.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I have my blood sacrifice of Greed,”  the Demon said.  “I must now possess an avatar of Hubris.  Fortunately, in this place there are many!”     Faite frowned.  She had made a grave mistake, being concerned only with assassins and not considering what would happen if she took the kids beyond the limits of the magical wards within the Lair Mansion.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Kids, stand very still,”  she ordered them.  “He’s going to try to take me...and I don’t want you harmed.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Shouldn’t we run?”  Magweed asked.  Then she noticed what Faite was doing, and relented.  “Never mind.”     Faite crossed one arm over the other, holding her first two fingers skyward, and then spread them out, and crossed them again.  Then she had to move quickly, because the Demon realized what she was doing, and approached.  She raised her arms, then kneeled and touched her hands to the ground.     The concrete around her and the children lit up in a flash of green, and then golden yellow, with white and red sparkles traveling around in a circular pattern around the shape of an oval.  It ballooned into the air, and as high as the ceiling.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You have a pretty protection ward.”  Magweed observed as she admired the sparkles swimming around her.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You know protection wards?”  Faite asked.  Then she remembered how - Magweed probably saw a lot of them in Fae.  “Oh, right.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Shouldn’t we--”  Griffin started to say.  His eyes widened as the demon enveloped the oval shaped ward with flame, spiraling around quickly and violently, looking for a weakness.     Magweed asked more questions, seeming fearless and confident in Faite’s ward.  “Why don’t you do more magic?”     Faite chuckled a little.  “You know, I’ve only been able to do this since I made myself a human teenager.  I guess magic is tied to having an Earthly form.  Anyway, I don’t know much yet, this is the first thing I learned.  Do you know any?”  She looked at Magweed almost accusingly.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Maybe.”  Magweed looked away from Faite.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s okay,”  the teen reassured her.  “When you’re ready.  I’d like to learn from you...or anyone for that matter.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know how to become invisible.  And vanish.”  Griffin pointed out.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Cool.  I’d like you to teach me that, too.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“How did you learn this so fast?”  Magweed asked, referring to the protection spell.     Faite shrugged.  “I dunno.  I guess because I’m used to changing reality.”     The Demon was persistent, and continued to surround and squeeze the protection oval.     At that point, Faite begun to understand that the Demon was tireless, and would continue attacking the ward until Faite began to wear down - her biggest weakness, now that she was human, is that she tired eventually, and needed rest.     She could relocate herself and the kids upstairs, but the Demon would probably follow.  It was not tangible, so even luring it into a trap of the Lair Legion would not stop it from taking her.  She needed some time to plan.       Then she remembered what Lara Night and Liu Xi Xian said at the Lair Legion meeting about the Demon.  It was magic, and was probably affected by it.  Since she knew only the one spell, she had to make better use of it.     Faite tapped the protective shell, and then closed her eyes, and pushed her palms out at her sides.  The sparkling dome moved outward at high speed, and the Demon with it.  It was launched through walls and ceilings, and then was violently launched far from Lair Island.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Did you do that?”  Magweed asked.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”  Faite replied, sounding out of breath and tired.  “I just wanted to push it above ground.  I think the Mansion’s own wards took over after that.  I really need to learn more about them.”     Then she noticed that Marie Murcheson, the Lair Legion’s resident ghostly banshee, floating in front of her, lighting the tunnel.  “You’ve awakened something you should not have,”  she said. TO BE CONTINUED... Story written and copyrighted (C) 2011 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 and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin.  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be a lot less war and bloodshed, and a lot more boring state dinners and photo ops. Not that burning deathships aren't a great opportunity for making the cover of Time magazine.

Evil is breaking out all over the place. I suppose I can add another $1.50 an hour for Faite's troubles...