Written by BHart
September 21, 2007

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Act LXXII
Nested Labium

The five of them were trudging through the Pashhow marshlands. "This place is so gross. How much longer until we meet up with Ashlynn and Potter?" asked Kousagi.

"We're almost through these marshlands, and then it won't be much further," answered Lantard.

"Hold on a minute, there's an outpost coming up," warned Artemis Evans. They were south of the outpost by Aughtmarsh.

"There's more orcs and quadavs up ahead," informed Fatty.

"We could probably take them," said Mia.

"Maybe so, but then there would be reinforcements," said Lantard.

"So what's the plan?" asked Mia.

"I have an idea that might work," said Fatty.

Ashlynn and Potter were walking around Dietmund's field, eating berries off the bushes. "The berries here are the perfect ripeness this time of year," commented Ashlynn.

"The others still haven't come yet. Should we see if they're okay?" asked Potter.

"We'll go looking for them if they don't show up in a couple of hours."

All of the orcs and quadavs at the outpost were leaving and heading west. "Where are they going?" asked Kousagi.

"I tapped into their link shell and pretended to be one of their superiors. I told them to go look for crystals at Hoaxmarsh," replied Fatty.

"Great work," congratulated Artemis Evans.

They entered Rolanberry Fields. They soon caught up to Ashlynn and Potter.

"There you are. We were getting worried," said Potter.

"Just a couple of delays, that's all," replied Lantard.

Ashlynn led the way to the crawler's nest.

Upon walking into the deeper parts of the nest, they stopped at a dead end. "Did you get lost?" asked Mia.

"No, we're at the right place. Potter, turn on your flashlight."

The light shined on the pale green wall. "There it is," said Ashlynn, pushing a hidden button on the wall, covered by moss.

The wall began to take the shape of female genitalia. "That looks like.."

"A vagina," said Mia, finishing Kousagi's sentence.

Everyone looked at Ashlynn strangely. "Hey, don't look at me. It wasn't my idea."

The lips opened up to the yonic cave. They walked down a narrow, ribbed hallway, about 7 feet long, leading to a fork in the road.

There were two pathways; one leading left and the other right. "I always forget which way to go. I think ovary room #2 is left," said Ashlynn.

It led to an ovary shaped room with many nude female statues in it, facing each other. "This must be where Nami is; looks like her type of decorating," said Mia.

"Is someone out there?" said a voice from another room.

"Potter and I have brought others here to see you," replied Ashlynn.

"I'll be out soon; just drying up," replied Nami.

"She's really done a lot with this place considering its part of the crawler's nest," said Mia.

"This place is so gross. I forgot how much I hated it," said Kousagi.

A beautiful, blond haired blue-eyed girl walked in the room wearing a bathrobe. "Mia! Kousagi? Is that you? Oh my God! I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"

"You can catch up with each other on the way to Jeuno. The sooner we leave, the better," said Ashlynn.

"Okay, let me get a few things ready," replied Nami.

"I don't know if going to Jeuno is a good idea. That place is infested with people working for the council," said Fatty.

"We can at least try. There is someone there who can show us where another sailor senshi is," replied Ashlynn.

Nami entered the room, ready.

They exited the hidden room, and found their way at the entrance to the crawler's nest. They saw many dead bodies of humes, elves, galkas, taru tarus and mithras lying around.

"What happened? These bodies weren't here before," said Kousagi.

"Probably some high level character brought a train of crawlers through here while running away from them. It happens a lot," replied Potter.

"Keep your eye out for any high level crawlers. Don't want to end up like them," said Artemis Evans.

They exited, finding themselves in Rolanberry fields again. "I'm glad we didn't run into any rumble crawlers on the way out. Those are always getting dragged to the entrance of the nest and killing adventurers," said Ashlynn.

They arrived at the market bridge, but entrance into Jeuno was being blocked by many quadavs, orcs and yagudos.

"It doesn't look like we'll be making it into Jeuno," said Potter.

"We could always enter the city from another place," mentioned Lantard.

"Those entrances are probably being blocked, too. The council always has its dirty hands in Jeuno. We should come back later," said Ashlynn.

"What now? Head back to Basdor?" asked Fatty.

"No. There is another place we can go," replied Ashlynn. Ashlynn teleported everyone back to the crag of dem, where they walked to the valkurm dunes.

There were two, fat young women at the outpost in the dunes, talking amongst themselves. "I heard that Sailor Juliet was killed," said one of the women.

"Really? Who would be strong enough to do that?"

"I don't know, but she made the mistake of going solo. She may have been outnumbered."

"She always was a strange, reclusive blood sucker."

Some goblins walked up to them saying, "We found these near the gustav tunnel." He opened up his hands, showing them some small crystal shards.

"These won't do; we need a whole crystal," said one of the fat women.

"These could be part of a larger crystal," suggested a goblin.

"Even if it is, there is no way to glue a crystal's pieces back together. Continue searching," ordered the other fat woman.

A few minutes later, another goblin approached them. "Unless you have a crystal in your hands, get back to work."

"I just recognized some people walking through here who gave us trouble earlier. We think they were looking for crystals here."

"Where are they?"

The goblin pointed them out.

"Should we go and kill them?" asked the goblin.

"No, we'll handle it," answered one of the women.

They zoomed in on Ashlynn and the others with binoculars. "Oh my God! It couldn't be!"

"What? What is it?" asked the other woman.

"This is our lucky day. Sailor Marina, Parallel Moon and Magellan are with some other people, headed towards the docks."

"Really? Let me see," said the other woman, grabbing the binoculars.

"Should we kill them now?"

"No, there's too many of them. We'll find a way to get the upper hand," replied the other.

"How long until the next boat gets here?" asked Kousagi.

"Another four minutes," replied Lantard.

"I knew I should've brought my fishing pole," said Artemis Evans, seeing other people fishing on the docks.

"All aboard for Mhaura." The boat arrived.

They went below the deck. "It's been a long time since I've taken a boat ride. I kind of miss it," mentioned Potter.

"Yeah, I thought it would be a nice change of pace," replied Ashlynn.

A tentacle reached through the bottom of the deck, striking someone standing next to them and killing them.

"Oh God, I hate it when that happens," said Fatty. They ran up to the main deck to fight the sea horror. There were already some people fighting it, but they were quickly losing ground.

"We'll go help them. You guys go below the deck," ordered Artemis Evans.

Ashlynn, Potter, Mia, Kousagi and Nami went down stairs, below the deck. They were stopped by two overweight women.

"I'm afraid we can't let you go below deck," said one of the women.

"Why not? Is something wrong?" asked Kousagi.

The two overweight women transformed into sailor senshi. They looked grotesque in their short skirt uniforms.

"I am Sailor Bianca."

"And I am Sailor Belinda." Sailor Belinda had scaly skin, like that of a snake.

They looked at them in disgust. "What's the matter? Did you actually think sailor senshi couldn't be fat?" asked Sailor Bianca.

"No, and not like an ugly reptile either," replied Mia.

"I am beautiful as far as serpents go."

"You realize that there are only two of you. You will get your asses kicked," threatened Ashlynn.

A ghost ship pulled up next to the ship they were on. A large group of ship wights jumped on the deck, attacking people. "The odds are tipped on our side now," said Sailor Bianca.

"Are you sure you three can handle these two?" asked Ashlynn.

"We'll be fine," replied Nami.

Ashlynn and Potter left to go fight the ship wights.

Sailors Bianca and Belinda grabbed Kousagi, looking for the barazuishou. "Where have you hidden it?" asked Sailor Belinda.

"It was destroyed," replied Kousagi.

"You're lying! You must be," insisted Sailor Bianca.

"She may be telling the truth. She's not carrying it," said Sailor Belinda.

"It could be hidden elsewhere."

"I don't sense its power. If she did have it, we would've felt its presence by now," reasoned Sailor Belinda.

"You're right, but how did she get here without its power?"

"Its power helped send me back here, but it was destroyed in the process," replied Kousagi.

They let Kousagi go.

"If that's true, then you're useless. We'll just destroy you here," threatened Sailor Bianca.

Ashlynn and Potter ran down the stairs to them. "We have to retreat. There are too many undead up there," said Ashlynn, panting.

They ran up to the deck, knocking over the obese senshi. "Where will we run to?" asked Nami.

"There's only one option," said Mia, grabbing Kousagi's arm and jumping off the ship.

"What about the others?" asked Nami.

"We'll meet up with them later. Let's follow Mia's lead; she's an excellent swimmer and will help us," replied Ashlynn. They jumped off the ship.

"Damn, they got away," said Sailor Bianca, arriving on the deck.

"We'll find them again."

Artemis Evans, Fatty and Lantard remained on the ship, fighting the sea horror.

Sailors Belinda and Bianca got back on the ghost ship and left.

The rest of the ship wights and sea horror were killed, but not without having many casualties lying on deck. "I hope they'll be okay," said Fatty.

"With Sailor Marina with them in the water, they'll be ok," replied Artemis Evans.

"Where do you think they'll end up?" asked Lantard.

"Hard to say; I just hope they get to land before nightfall. The waters get very cold at night, giving people hypothermia," answered Artemis Evans.

..to be continued..