Suggested changes: {before : after}
On Thu, 22 Aug 2002 05:24:33 EDT Kyhdin@aol.com wrote:
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi and all such rights
belong to her. No money is being made from this and no such intent should be
{infferred : inferred}.
"You're a {Pervert : pervert}!"
"Not the right to be part of her life! I didn't fight you on custody {: not} because
I didn't care, but because you're a hell of a lot better at being a parent
{then : than} I am. I don't know the first thing about raising kids! But I didn't give
up on the right to be a father! You sent back every{, :} letter, card, { Birthday : birthday,}
and Christmas gift I ever mailed to her. You shut me out of her life, Janice.
You!'
"Her {Father : father}?!!" Her mother's scream rose to a high pitch and with two
fingers, Amy Lynn shut her door, unable to listen anymore. Crawling over to
her bed, she climbed in, curled up in a ball and cried for quite some time,
before eventually falling into a dreamless sleep.
"Good, good," Zoicite said, leaning against him. "I'll talk to Jeddite and
the next {Youma : youma} will be sure to pay them a special visit. They'll be dead
in--URK!"
The next night, an hour or so after her mother had gone to bed, Amy Lynn sat
at her desk constructing a wireless modem out of a an old ham radio, some
short wave receivers, and a CB set she had found in the clinic's garage. It
was more in the nature of something to do then any desire for a faster
connection, but the idea had come to her while washing the dinner dishes. DSL
worked by sending a signal along fiber optics at a different frequency then
phone calls, so perhaps there was a way to do it with radio waves as well
since they moved at the speed of light. However, determining that frequency,
if it existed, would require lots of...experimenting...and probing....with
meters, and tools, and...a pleasant tingle ran through her.
She didn't wrap some wire around an old Twinkie for the antenna?
Standing on the ground was Bunny, Luna by her side. "I'm gonna go {Possum
Huntin : possum huntin}," the blonde called. "Wanna come? Molly said her mother needs her ta
unpack a delivery."
Stealthily, the two made their way to the road where Bunny's truck was parked
and climbed in. For once, Bunny did not drive in her usual fashion...{
:}
not until they had left town, anyway.
At least she turned on the headlights.
It might have been a mercy if she'd left the lights off.
Amy Lynn was no stranger to the wilderness. You couldn't grow up in Minnesota
and not be familiar with it, but {it : this} was different for some reason. Maybe it
was the lack of a campfire and conversation, or maybe it was the just she was
in a different place. She had heard stories on the net about strange things
you'd find if you went far enough into the American South. Old Native
American relics, cursed places, witches, and places where slaves had died in
the most brutal fashion possible and their ghosts still lurked, waiting for
anyone foolish enough to trespass into their grief.
Then of course, there were the modern bogeymen. Space {Aliens, Crazy : aliens, crazy} old men
and secret societies. Of them all, Amy Lynn was worried only about the
hermits who might be out in the woods and the pistol in her jeans lessened
that worry considerably.
Amy Lynn had once met an old woman who sold dream catchers up by Lake
Tskykeputchy in Minnesota. The woman had been normal in every respect except
that she was convinced that the rocks in a small pond several miles into the
woods had teeth and that their bite changed you into a half{- : }plant, half
animal creature not unlike a demented squirrel. She claimed when she was a
little {girls : girl}, she had watched her entire class change and then run off into
the woods. That encounter had sparked a brief interest in American {Myth : myths}. In
the space of a week, Amy Lynn devoured every book on it in both the Saint
Paul and Minneapolis public Library system.
"There's not much you c'n do wit {Possums : possums}, 'course," Bunny said, breaking into
Amy Lynn's thoughts. "Ma has a recipe for possum stew, but without a decent
tater ta toss in there, it don't taste vera good. Gotta admit though, {aint : ain't}
nuthin better then some warm possum gloves when it gets cold."
"It gets cold here?"
"Sure. Got down to almost 20 durn the blizzard o '98."
"..."
At that moment, Luna stiffened and then growled, staring off into the woods.
"A {possum : opposum}?" Amy Lynn said, reaching for her pistol.
She had only gone perhaps a few hundred feet when she came upon a clearing
which held a large pond at {it's : its} center. In it, a woman dressed in clothes
that seem to made from moonlight battled a monster out of nightmares. It was
at least eight feet tall, with a birdlike beak and three eyes in a triangle.
{It's : Its} skin was green and knobby, and claws sprouted from {it's : its} four-fingered
hands. It's hair was long and green and {rams : ram's} horns sprouted from the side of
{it's : its} head.
The woman was dressed in a one piece white gown that came to her knees with a
belt made out of silver mesh around her waist. A tiara encircled her forehead
and her hair came down past her shoulders, which were protected by golden
plates. Her calves were covered by golden yellow {shingaurds : shin guards} and she wore
heavy boots. Golden bands encircled her wrists and she carried a sword in
each hand, the one in her left longer and heavier then the one in her right.
Behind the monster, a great black wolf circled, lunging in to try and sink
{it's : its} teeth into {it's : the monster's} hamstring.
Unless the wolf is trying to bite itself.
"Amy Lynn!" An woman's voice said. Amy Lynn looked around. There was no one
around. "Amy Lynn!" came the woman's voice again. "Over here." Looking in the
direction of the voice, she found herself face to face with the great black
wolf she had seen moments earlier. A crescent moon flared brightly on {it's : its}
forehead and it was {: as} though a veil had been lifted from Amy Lynn's eyes. The
wolf became Luna and with a horrified start, she realized the woman in white
back in the clearing had been Bunny.
Raising her hand, Amy Lynn fired {forth :} four ice spikes, one from each
fingertip, which flew across the clearing and sank into the creature's hide.
Roaring, it tossed Bunny aside like a rag doll and lunged for her, only to
smash into a tree as {it's : its} target darted aside. Like a whip, her sword flicked
out, leaving a gouge as large as a man's arm in the beast's side. She raised
the sword high to bring it down on {it's : its} neck, when it's arm moved, striking
her hard and sending her to crash down next to Bunny.
They rolled in opposite directions, the monster landing where they had been,
dirt flying as its impact left behind a crater. Rising from {it's : its} crouch, it
began to move towards her slowly, it's breathing ragged.
Standing, she reached out to the cold of the pond and called it forth,
encasing the monster in a block of ice. Her hand tightened into a fist...{
:}
and everything went white as the loud roar of an explosion filled her ears.
Peering through the bushes, Amy Lynn saw that they overlooked a huge crater.
It was a good twenty or thirty feet deep and perhaps a quarter of a mile
wide. A group of trucks were nearby, some marked with the insignia of Black
Mountain Plantation. In the light of one set of headlights, she saw her
father and mother standing side by side talking with another man that she
vaguely recalled being pointed out as the county sheriff and the tall
black-haired young man she recalled Bunny arguing with during that first day.
Both men wore the uniforms of the county sheriff's department.
A quarter mile seems excessive. Maybe a hundred feet?
"No. But {mom : Mom} probably knows I'm not in bed by now, I'll get yelled at either
way. Here or at home. Here{: ,} she might be a little less loud about it." With
that, Amy Lynn stepped boldly through the bushes and crouched at the edge of
the crater. Here she could see the sides were smooth, like glass and cold to
the touch.
"Mah fault, Doc," Bunny said stepping up beside Amy Lynn. "Ah invited Amy
Lynn to go {Possum Huntin : possum huntin} wit me and we heard the explosion. Wut happened here
anyways?"
"Shut yor mouth, Shields, 'fore I shuts for {you : ya}!" Bunny snapped. "An don't
call me Buns!"
"Mom what did happen here?" Amy Lynn asked, hoping to divert her mother's {at
tension : attention} from the fact that she was out and about. "It looks like a meteorite
landing."
"Like what?" Doctor Anderson asked. "I've spent my entire adult life in this
nation's military and I've seen every kind of explosion there is. Nothing
exists that would make a crater this big and not leave some kind of
radiation." She picked a {Geiger Counter : geiger counter} off the hood of a nearby truck. "And
even if it was a meteor or something, it doesn't explain the glasslike
surface of the sides and presumably the bottom."
"Mebbe it was {Spacemen : spacemen}," ventured a man standing nearby. "Or demons or
somethin."
I'd consider the glassy sides odd enough whatever the size of the crater.
Mother and Father are speaking to each other...somewhat. It's a start, I
guess. Got caught being out when {mom : Mom} had already gone to bed. She took away
my laptop for a week. I can deal with it though.
I guess she's busy learning how to use her visor.