Mage Power
By Saliaven Chronotis
Part 2

Birthdays and Battles

 
       That date had come again, Misty’s birthday.  She knew that they were going to give her a party, and they knew she knew it, and she knew that they knew . . . well, you get the idea.  Nevertheless, when she walked into her house that night they insisted on yelling, “surprise” and making a big deal.  Never mind that she never seemed to age these days.  Some girls would kill for having everlasting youth, but it was disconcerting to still fit into clothes she wore six years ago.  She was eighteen now, she should be different.  At least they didn’t seem to notice, and instead of the old, hackneyed “Happy Birthday” song, they’d gotten a minstrel.  She didn’t catch most of what was being sung, but she did get the refrain, which only made her feel more nervous.
“She is handsome,
She is pretty,
She is the girl of Cerulean City,
She is a’courtin1-2-3,
now won’t you tell me, who is she?”
      That tore it; she was talking to Saliaven about this.  It seemed the kind of thing that interested him.  While Ash was attempting to eat one entire cake in two minutes, with most of the others watching, she sidled over to Saliaven and whispered “Can we talk about something alone?”
“Of course.”  They were instantly transported to the courtyard. “What is it?”
She had gotten used to the abruptness of magical transport and wasted no time telling him about her problem.  “So what do you think is happening?”  She asked.
Saliaven was silent a moment and said “Is this just you, or everyone?”
Misty was aghast “Come to think of it, Ash and Gary haven’t aged much either.”
“Mentally, you guys have, but you bring up an interesting point.”  He disappeared and then reappeared with Oak and a few other scientists.  He pulled out an electronic device of some sort and waved it around in front of all of them.  “Professor, why is it that the radiation of an evolution stone doesn’t hurt people?”
“Subatomic particles are blocked from our systems by a special membrane.”
“Does this also block nonspatial particles?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“For the last six years, it has been doing just that in all humans.  That includes chronotons.”
“So time has not been affecting us?”
“Precisely.”
“Sounds like a dream come true.”
“You think so?  Without chronotons, no new human can be born since all nutrients to make them are in the human mother.”
“But the membrane is not developed until age 10.”
“Even worse, that means worldwide overpopulation.  I can fix that much, at least until I understand the problem better, but not quite yet.”
Misty broke in “So I can’t be any older than twelve for all eternity?”
      Saliaven looked consolingly at her “Not eternity.  Just until we figure out how to fix this.”  He took a breath “All this is irrelevant right now.  On top of all that, my dear, I think we’d better be getting you back to the celebration.  It won’t do to have you miss your own birthday party.”  He winked and she was back at the party, minus Saliaven.   Ash had just finished the cake in under two minutes.  Gary was busy taking bets that he couldn’t do it again.  She decided that it wasn’t yet time to bring up the problems of their aging yet.  She plopped down on a sofa where Pikachu, in her human form had begun to liberally spread ketchup on her cake.  She looked over at Pikachu, with her slightly mismatched outfit and said “what would make me really happy right about now would be to help you with a wardrobe that actually works for you.”
“I’m open to help.”
       Misty grabbed Pikachu’s arm and took the pokemorph, still with her cake, into her bedroom.  She sat Pikachu on the end of her bed and, looking at her every so often, began to program an outfit into her matter synthesizer. Presently, a pile of cloth, yellow with a hint of brown, materialized, and shoving it into Pikachu’s arms, she ushered her subject into the bathroom to change.  When the knob turned and Pikachu, shyly, emerged, she was attired in a yellow and brown midriff, matching miniskirt with a thunderbolt tail, and black knee-high boots.  It all of course, matched her yellow with a streak of brown hair.  “It feels more natural, that’s for sure.”
Misty chuckled “Though it leaves little to the imagination.  You’d best be careful or my husband will really start to give you the eye.”
“I’ll change back–“
“No need, I’m the one with the mallet.”
      When they got back, Gary was in debt and Ash had not even begun to eat.  That is, until he got a good look at his pokemon.  The sight of the newly dressed Pikachu caused him to choke, and Gary to recoup his losses and even make a profit.  Pikachu had the good sense to look embarrassed and said “Sorry, Ash.”
Ash smiled “No, I’m sorry.  It’s just that I was surprised is all.  You look . . . amazing actually.”
The party went on most ways uneventfully and they settled down to sleep eventually.
      The next day, the gates of the city opened and once again, the source of evil, the master of malice, the shogun of sorrow stood.  There was quite a crowd and Saliaven was late to arrive.  “I hope you don’t want an all-out war again.  I’m not much in the mood.”
“Not this time.  I’ve come to make a wager.  I have two champions ready to play cards, and I will wager my agreeing not to destroy this place if you win.  If I win, I blow the planet sky-high.” (Before anyone asks, YES, I am making fun of Yu-Gi-Oh!)
“I have no choice?”
“None.”
“Then I will wager mutual alliances also.”
“So be it, we shall join either way.”
“Who and what have you chosen?”
“A two team, two person per team battle with my champions Urza for magic and Yami for Duel Monsters.”
“I choose myself and Ashnod, both magic.”
“We will have the representative monster system.”
“If you agree to multiplying all attack strength of magic cards by 1000, and the all matters of magic lifepoints by 100"
“Accepted.”
“Then I choose for my rep, Zur.”
At that, Urza shuddered.  “The man who invented the inverse magic attack.  I hope we won’t have to deal with THAT in this game.”
Ashnod looked around “I wonder whom I should pick.”  He snapped and said, “I know!  Chaos orb.”
“Good gods.”  Urza said “well, if we’re playing hardball, I choose the Dragons Portal.”
Yami then chose his, The Dark Magician, causing Saliaven to fall over laughing.
“You must excuse me” he said, wiping a tear from his eye “but that’s hilarious.  To think that we three magi chose such fearsome cards, and he picked the court magician.”
Yami was nonplused “You’ll see how strong the heart of the cards is.”
“You don’t know what the three we chose do?  Do you?  Allow me to elaborate, Zur’s inverse principle causes all players to play with their hands face up and in return for 200 LP, another may force the player who just drew to discard that which they drew, for a token 500 LP, Zur himself will guard the player who has him from both effects permanently, but the price to force discards for the guarded one goes up to 500LP.  The chaos orb flies into the air and whatever it lands on, be it the deck, field or a creature is destroyed, but can only be used once per game in this instance.  Dragon’s portal takes any monster out of the deck and immediately puts it on the field, for a price as well.  So, let’s begin already.”
      They all drew the amount of cards allowed for their game and after a coin toss, it was decided that Yami would go first.  I will now skip to the result, on the grounds that I really hate trying to write one entire frickin duel, besides which, most of it don’t matter no way nohow, but somewhere in the middle, Yami tries to use defusion to separate Saliaven and Saliaven uses a combo that puts himself back together.  There is also liberal use of Zur’s Wierding, Merike Ri Berit, Psychic battle and life flash.
Saliaven drew a card and smiled “You’re gonna to get it now, I’ve got my combo finally completed.”
Yami gave his trademark speech about the heart of the cards and Saliaven played a red and a black card.  “Jokulhaups and Doomsday, combined with psychic battle.  I change “all” to “target players” and “your” to “target players’”, wiping out all your cards on the field except for enchantments, halving your LP, and reducing your deck to five cards of your choosing.”
Yami merely smiled and picked five cards, Urza was slightly less calm.  Yami then played dark hole, which got rid of the monsters left.  Ashnod used his own Dragon’s portal to send Mortivore to the field.  This caused a stir, as Mortivore has the attack points equal to the number of monsters in all graveyards*1000.  He called the attack, countering Yami’s mirror wall with a rescue.  The duel was over and the three who had been plucked from their place in the multiverse were sent home.
“I’ve won, now you must join me on my side.”
“Yes, yes.  I recall the wager.”
“And take your proper form.”
“My form now is as proper as your own.”
“Don’t say as I say, do as I say.”
“I can’t, and you know it.”
This took Saliaven aback as he thought. “Yes, I guess it would cause an imbalance.  But it’s still confusing for us both to look like this.”
“Then you change instead.”
“I certainly shall not.”
Ash leaned over to whisper to Misty “Weren’t they trying to kill each other last week.”
Misty studied the scene “I have a feeling there’s something left out here.”
      Saliaven meanwhile had successfully won the debate, and his double began to shift.  When the transformation was over, a woman very much resembling Romana from Dr. Who (Tall, long blonde hair with blue eyes, a long pink trench coat, white scarf and black ankle boots) was standing there.  “That’s better.”  They said in unison.
      Saliaven looked up and said “Now, what to call you in this realm.  A toughie, you’re not really bent on destruction anymore, but I know I wouldn’t leave you here to guard the place by yourself.  She looked pensive, and large glasses appeared on her face, as her hair went up in a plait, and her skirt shortened and became pleated “Hmmm, how about Marlene (pronounced Mar-LAY-nah)?”
“Acceptable.  How about helping me with the cronoton problem around here?”
    She giggled and her hair went into long pigtails “Me?  I’m flattered that a great mind like yours would require my help.”  She said slyly.
“Stop playing like you’re an inferior.  We’re equal in power here, so let’s not get silly.”  He snapped his fingers, “and before I forget, here.  It won’t obey me, you might as well have use of it.”  He threw the rune pendant at Marlene.
She feigned sorrow “awwww, you never let me have any fun.”
“C’mon, with you on my side, I finally have enough power to get Luto powered up.”
Ash cut in “What’s Luto?”
“In due time.”