"Fools, idiots, utter morons, lend me your ears!" Eugene 
proclaimed melodramatically.  "You have doubted my abilities, 
you have laughed at me, you have tried (and I do stress the 
word 'tried') to bring me down, but your efforts have been 
worthless!  I AM Eugene, the SUPERYOUMAGENERAL [cue the 
special effects we all know and some of us love - yeah, 
you there, don't deny it], and I WILL SU-"

"Eugene!  What in the world do you think you're doing?!"

=====
Project Chibification
A creation of Lady Brick

Chapter 13: Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here
by Sharyna Tran
=====

Eugene blinked and looked down.  "Mom?! Dad?!  What are 
you doing here?  Where have you been?"

"What do you mean, where have we been?"  Eugene's father 
asked.  "You're the one that bought us tickets to Tahiti - by 
the way, thanks son - but don't you think that means that we're 
going to let you off the hook for this, young man!"

"That's right!" his mother chimed in.  "Your father and I raised 
you to be a decent young man, not to parade down the middle 
of the street with a horde of furniture when you have homework 
to be doing! And IS THAT THE VICTORIAN LAMP YOUR 
GRANDMOTHER GAVE ME?!"

"But Mom!" Eugene whined.  "I'm a SUPERYOUMAGENERAL! [and 
the lamps did flash]  I'm a genius!  I don't NEED to go to school 
or do homework!"

"Don't talk back to me, young man!"

Eugene took a deep breath and pulled himself up to his full green 
scaly height.  "I don't think you understand, Mom.  I'm a 
SUPERYOUMAGENERAL [cue the effect] now.  I have incredible 
psychic powers the likes of which you have never seen before.  
You can't make me do anything I don't want to, and I DON'T WANT 
TO DO MY HOMEWORK!"

Eugene's mother's eyes flashed.  "What...did...you...say?"

"I said, I don't want to do my homework!" Eugene proclaimed, a 
bit less sure of himself.  

"That's IT, young man!" his mother screamed.  "You're 
GROUNDED!  Go to your room!"

"You can't DO that!" Eugene protested.

"Oh, yes she can," his father chimed in.  "Now, do as your 
mother says and go to your room, before I have to take off my 
belt!"

Eugene's eyes widened.  "But Dad-"

"No buts!  To your room!"

"But-"

"Did you hear me?"

"B-"

"I'm counting to three!"

"ButDadIcan'tgotomyroomthehouseisfallingdown!" Eugene 
explained calmly.

"One..." his father began, then stopped as Eugene's words sank 
in.  "Oh.  I suppose you're right."

***

Brett frowned and looked around him.  He was fairly sure that the 
castle had not been collapsing when they had entered.  Utilizing his 
prioritization skills, well-honed from years of deciding when to 
order which hentai anime, he changed his first priority from 
"Find Others" to "Get Out of Castle ASAP."  Anna could take care 
of herself, Cecil, contrary to appearances, was fairly good in a fight, 
and if the abilities Deedee had exhibited were as powerful as his 
hazy memory made them out to be, she would have no trouble 
surviving.

So thinking, he set on his way, and was promptly pounced upon by 
a frantic cat.

"I say, what the devil is going on here?" Commander Fuzz demanded, 
clinging for dear life to Brett's uninjured shoulder.

"I'd say that the castle is falling apart," Brett told him, not in the 
least perturbed by the talking feline.  After all, he had an Aura of 
Bishounenly Calm to project, neveryoumind the sick implications 
his mind automatically conjured up from having a cat pounce on him.  
"If you ask me, I think it's a good time to clear out."

"Jolly good idea, old chap," Commander Fuzz agreed, not releasing his 
death grip on Brett.

Brett blinked a bit, shrugged as best he could, and continued trying to 
find a way out.

***

Carrying a squirming, wiggling chibi under one arm while 
running through a crumbling castle and dodging huge slabs of 
rock was not fun, Anna decided.  Especially when said chibi was 
squalling up a storm.  She started looking for a semi-stable 
place to put Katie down; the chibified girl needed some 
explanations.

"Anna!  Let me go!  I thought you were going to be nice and not 
take me back to the AEIOU so they could do those horrible 
horrible tests on me but now I guess you're doing it anyway 
and I guess I was wrong and you really are a cruel cruel 
person and not very nice at ALL and I'm going to hate hate 
hate you for the rest of-"

Anna set Katie down on a nearby slab of rock and covered her 
mouth, while the castle continued falling around them.  Cecil, 
who was trying to control the struggling SD Kamen, stopped 
beside her, wondering what was causing the delay.
"Now listen, Katie, hear me out." Anna began.  "I'll admit that 
we made some mistakes near the end of your stay; we may have 
gone overboard on some of the experiments.  But we've 
realized what we did wrong, and we're sorry.  Katie, we 
truly just want to help you.  I know you probably won't 
believe me, after all the experiments we put you through, 
but I promise you we won't do that again.  All right?"  She took 
her hand off of Katie's mouth and awaited the chibi's response.

Katie looked wide-eyed at her for a moment, then turned 
to SD Kamen, who stopped struggling for a moment to nod 
slightly at her.  She looked back at Anna, then at SD Kamen 
again, then shrugged.  "OK, I guess...but if you start bringing out 
any of the paperclips or grape jelly or hard-boiled eggs or 
staples, I'll run away again!  Or I'll get Frank to beat you up!"

Anna raised an eyebrow at SD Kamen, who blushed slightly.
"Ah yes, Frank.  I'm not entirely sure how you got to be chibified 
again, but if you come with us quietly, I promise we'll help you 
the same way we'll help Katie."  She gestured to Cecil, who took 
his hands off of SD Kamen's mouth. 

"I don't need your help!" SD Kamen told them.  "I can take care of 
myself!  The only reason I'll go along with you is to make sure 
that you don't hurt Katie, or put her through any of those stupid 
experiments again."

Anna shrugged.  "All I need to know is whether or not you'll let 
us get Katie some help."

"All I want is for her to get better," SD Kamen said dramatically, 
his mini-cape flowing out behind him.  

Cecil and Anna exchanged glances, then shrugged.  "If I put you down,"
Cecil suggested to SD Kamen, "Will you follow us out to the van 
instead of running away?"

SD Kamen paused for effect, then nodded.  Cecil set him down, and 
all four resumed running towards the exit...if they could find it.

***

Deedee watched as Eugene had some sort of an argument with a 
middle-aged couple dressed in strange clothing.  Relatives, 
perhaps.  At any rate, the chaos had been momentarily delayed, 
which was always good.  Movement from the decaying castle 
caught her eye, and she turned to see two groups heading out 
from it.  

As Eugene's ex-house/fortress slowly sank into the ground, 
Deedee was able to identify the two groups as Brett and a small 
cat, and Anna, Cecil, Katie, and another chibi.

Brett and the cat reached her first.  He looked at her suspiciously 
and drew back.  "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he 
asked her.

Deedee blinked at Brett's apparent case of amnesia, then remembered 
the wig that was currently covering up her hair.  "Brett, it's me, 
Deedee.  I've got a wig on so Rosa doesn't transform and go psycho on us."

Brett looked at her closely for a few moments.  "Huh.  I guess it 
is you," he shrugged.  "So, Anna...Should we get going, or should 
we do something about..." He gestured to the scene unfolding below.

Anna looked down at Eugene and his parents.  "It doesn't look like 
he's going to be trying anything just now," she said.  "I think 
we'd better get back and at least get reinforcements before 
we do anything else."

"What about Josh?" Cecil asked, looking around.  "I don't see him 
anywhere, and with his powers, who knows what he could be 
up to?"

Anna sighed and seem to shrink into herself.  "I don't 
know...I suppose we'll just leave him for now.  Look, I need 
some sleep before we do anything else, all right?  It's been 
a rough few days for all of us."  

"But, Anna...what about the van?" Katie asked.  The van's roof 
was dented inwards, giving the whole thing the appearance of 
a half-squished Twinkie.

The group blinked at it.  Anna shrugged.  "It'll work well enough 
to get us back.  Come on, the sooner we get going, the sooner 
we can get there, and get some sleep."

There was a chorus of assent, and everyone piled into the van.

=====
Author's Notes: 

Bleh.  I blame the computer/email problems all on the fact that 
this is Chapter 13.  :p

The thanks: Thanks to Illyria for giving me an extension, to 
Lurker for helping me with the title (I swear, I could not for 
the life of me remember what the quote started with...), and 
some extra-special thanks to Bard and Yonjuuni for pre-reading.  
*huggles*  ^-^

=====
Live well, eat chicken, and bye!

Sharyna

sharyna_t@seventh-moon.net