Mysterious Barrier

Angel the sow is standing outside the humble palace looking up at Cleo's bedroom window. She has little insight as to what's going on, and she hasn't been allowed to see her best friend since yesterday afternoon. She knows that Cleo's very, very sick, and that the palace has been turned into a hospital for around 100 people from Luxor. Margaret, Jericho, and Guila are among the sick, but they are slowly yet surely going to recover. Angel has overheard that Azarath hasn't left his granddaughter's side and that the doctors have 'slowed' the virus, but can't cure it without the proper ingredients, and those ingredients have yet to be attained. Azarath has been sending messages to Artemis's fortress and has sent a small band of people to go there by air travel. His own powers haven't been able to open up a direct link there, which has never happened before. He senses and fears that Caelestis is behind all this, but he also feels there's more to this then just her. 

"(In Arabic) Angel;" calls out the very deep, gruff voice of Big Guy. "Angel, come get something to eat."

"(In Arabic) I'm not hungry Big Brother;" Angel replies not taking her eyes off the windows.

"Hey, I know you're worried about Cleo and probably don't have an appetite right now, but you can't keep skipping meals and forcing yourself to stay awake. Cleo would want you to eat and get some rest, even play. Ok."

"Ok." Angel sadly turns around and follows her brother. "Iris will bring back the medicine and make Cleo all better, right brother?"

"Yes sister, your right;" Big Guy assures her.

Angel suddenly stops and twitches her face, then blinks her right rapidly and closes it.

"What's wrong?" asks Big Guy.

"My eye feels, funny. It's tinkling. Actually, it's itching a bit."

Big Guy looks at her eye, it seems fine. Just they hear hiccupping. Ramesses is dressed as a hideous hyena clown and involuntary bouncing up and down, with a ball stuck in his mouth. A trio of hyenas are nearby laughing at him.

"Big Brother, hasn't he suffered enough?" asks Angel.

"Probably not, but I'll give him a break."

Big Guy holds Ramesses down not so gently and hits him on the back, forcing the ball out of mouth. "Hic-up (bounce). Big Guy please...hic-up (bounce)....call them off...hic-up (bounce)."

Big Guy's tells the hyenas no more torture for the time being. The hyenas walk away clearly dismayed.

"Hey Ramesses, you want something to eat?" says Big Guy sarcastically.

"Hic-up (bounce). Heck no...hic-up (bounce). I've been stuffed with hic-up (bounce)...jumping beans."

"BIG BROTHER!"

A black arm comes through Angel's eye and starts to suck her in. Big Guy runs for her but gets forced back by a series of black arms. Unable to control his involuntary jumping, Ramesses unintendedly bounces over towards Angel. She grabs him in a desperate attempt, and he too get sucked into the portal. Big Guy tries to force his way through the portal, but it actually forces him out, then disappears along with his sister and the cat.

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Inside the Fortress spa, Iris somehow realizes that she's asleep and jerks herself awake. She's still on the couch, covered with a blanket. Her brother's head, which had been leaning on her arm, is now on her lap. Meliodas had fallen asleep a while ago. She herself had put on the blanket covering him. His face is still covered in syrup and chocolate stains, which makes her laugh. She remembers her and Nuri taking a few minutes to pray together and do a devotional. Her open Bible and pocket devotional book are still in her lap, underneath her brother's head. She must have fallen asleep while praying, and somebody else must have put a blanket on her.

It's now early afternoon, and Iris has been asleep for between 4 to 5 hours. She gently moves her brother's head, stands up, yawns, and stretches. Nuri's actually asleep on the floor at her feet. She puts the blanket on the vulacish and gently places a pillow from the couch underneath her head. Hawk and Melidy are sleeping on a bed of blankets and towels next to the couch. Cringer and Karoo are asleep on the other side of the room, but Eyelash is nowhere in sight. The place is a mess, and she decides to clean up. She picks up all the scattered trash into trash bags and checks on the other guys in the massage room. Willie's still there sleeping, but Inuyasha, who'd been sleeping on the other massage table, is nowhere to be found, although his clothes are still there. Maybe he's just in the restroom, she hopes. She hasn't felt the presence of Artemis, and this deeply concerns her, and wants to find out what Caelestis is up too, as well as check on Bluey and the cure, but Gowther's probably with her as he said he'd be.

She can hear a repeat tapping sound on some glass. Myoga is inside a jar with air holes calling out to her. She and Nuri had placed the perverted flea demon in there after he tried to slip underneath their clothes to check them out.

"Let me out of here! I thought you were the nice one."

Iris relents and opens the jar. However, she gives Myoga a very threatening look. Freighted, Myoga promises not to bother her again and runs to one of the back rooms.

Iris is longing to take a hot bath, especially the hot tube (alone with privately curtain or tight seal) when she hears Melidy cry. The infant piglet is wide awake and ready for her next bottle. Hawk begins to wake up, but Iris strokes him, and he returns to sleep. She changes the piglet's diaper and warms up a bottle made earlier. She then lovingly feeds the baby and hums to her but doesn't attempt to sing as of yet. Few people know that the half-human has a very beautiful singing voice, but she hasn't used her vocal cords scarcely at all in 20 months (except to hum), much less sing.

She's playing with Melidy when Myoga returns, asking her if she's seen Inuyasha. She checks again, and he's still nowhere to be found except his clothes. Myoga thinks he knows where the half-demon has gone, and Iris realizes it. She's wondering if she should go after him when she realizes that Nuri's now gone too. The pink robe and slippers she had been wearing are on the floor and her clothes are gone. The half-human blames herself for letting her guard down. She suddenly has a sixth sense that she should her pack, which she's kept strapped around her waist. The Stone of Destiney is glowing. It's supposed to do that when another piece of the seal is nearby.

"Lady Iris, you're awake;" Gowther walks into the room carrying an unconscious Bluey. He explains that he found her like this and shows the half-human the dart still attached to her. It's obvious she's been tranquilized, magically drugged tranquilized. So strongly, in fact, that Gowther can't read her mind. The goat sin also explains that the station and components Bluey was working on were destroyed, and some things seem to be missing from the shelves that Gowther is sure weren't missing before. Fortunately, Bluey was making some notes that she hid in her fur before she passed out, although Gowther can't read them are they are in a mixed Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Persian medical code. Iris can read some of this medical code, but Nuri would know a lot more than her. She recognizes one word, however, which is a rare plant found only on, Krakatoa.

Although she's reluctant to leave and break the group up even further, they must reverse the tranquilizer on Bluey and get this other piece while they have the opportunity. She quickly leaves two notes right next to Meliodas and Willie, straps a wide awake Melidy to her, and goes with Gowther.

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Hawk thinks he's dreaming about the most awful smell ever. It literally smells like, SKUNK! He wakes up to find a pair of skunks walking past him.

"WHAT THE..."

He hears upset rambling nearby. Cringer and Karoo have been sprayed by the skunks. They're also chained together with prison shackles and iron balls and are dressed in black and white striped shirts that tie in front, and parts of their fur and feathers have been spray dyed pink and purple. Hawk moves, and he, too, is shackled to an iron ball. The pig's also got on a black and white striped shirt on him. Hawk wonders where his sister is when he realizes that he's chained to Meliodas. Hawk tries to wake him when the dragon sin grabs him to snuggle, calling for Elizabeth.

"Meliodas! Knock it off. I'm not Elizabeth!"

Hawk then he notices his friend's face and screams. Meliodas's face has been painted on. He looks like a deranged, sick clown! The high pitched squill scream is enough to wake the dragon sin, who also screams when he opens his eyes and sees Hawk's face, which looks like a cross between a witch doctor and a totem pole mask.

"Hawk? What happened to your face?"

"My face? What happened to yours? And your hair?"

"My hair?"

Meliodas runs to one of the mirrors, completely unaware of the ball and shackles, accidentally dragging Hawk along. Both guys are freaked out by their reflections, but Meliodas is even more freaked out by his hair! His hair is completely slicked back neatly, as if it's been moussed! Even his two hair pieces that always stick up are completely moussed, hair sprayed and gelled down. His hair feels as stiff as a board. He doesn't find this funny at all. His shirt and vest are also mostly unbuttoned, and his tie is undone, as if somebody started to undress him, then quit.

"Who'd do such a thing? And what the hell are these looks supposed to be? Hawk, what are you wearing?"

"Meliodas, please break off these balls and chains!"

"Huh?" Meliodas finally realizes he and Hawk are chained together. He easily breaks the chains. Karoo and Cringer call out to him, pointing to their ball and shackles. Unfortunately, Meliodas nor Hawk can no longer understand them. "What's going on? I understand that tiger earlier."

"Meliodas, I'm sure they're trying to ask you to remove the shackles."

The dragon sin laughs. "Why? They look so funny struggling with each other like that. Besides, they reek of skunk."

"Meliodas, please!"

The dragon sin huffs and breaks the chains. The tiger and duck rush off to find baking soda and tomato juice to remove the skunk smell.

"Where's everybody else?" Meliodas asks. Hawk shows him the note from Iris. She and Gowther have Melidy with them and are helping Bluey in the lab. It also says Inuyasha and Nuri have gone off on their own. "Why is everybody leaving?" wonders Meliodas; "We all should be staying together."

"Says they'll be back soon;" says Hawk. "Let's clean this stuff off. I don't want anybody to see like this, especially Melidy."

"No kidding," agrees Meliodas. (They are completely unaware that Eyelash took pictures of them.) "That hot tub with soap bubbles sure sounds good right about now. Hawk, will you join me?" Hawk's already been taken two baths today, but it's been ages since he and Meliodas enjoyed a hot spring together. Hawk removes the ridicules shirt and Meliodas notices that Hawk a little slimmer than he used to be, if still very plump.

"Hey Hawk, have you lost weight?"

"Oh yea;" answers Hawk. "30 lbs. that I'm aware of. Haunting in purgatory and giving those girls lots of piggyback rides, and I am better at not overeating or stuffing myself so much. Don't want to lose too much more weight, but I don't want to gain it back neither. I've got more energy and stamina than ever, not that I've ever been out of shape or anything."

That's true. Hawk's actually always been in pretty decent shape and had good stamina despite how much he'd eat as the Boar Hat's scraps disposal (although he did ALOT more for the tavern then just eating up leftovers, especially whenever the boss wanted to slack off, which was often).

Meliodas snickers. "Well, considering that a year-and-a-half ago you instantly lost 328 lbs. then gained it all right back in 6 weeks says anything!"

Meliodas is referring to when Hawk nearly died saving him and Elizabeth from a possess Henderson and came back to life as a shrunken, two-pound size that fit into the palm of your hand.

"It was two months! And that was a fluke."

As Meliodas removes his shirt, it's obvious that he, too, has lost weight, which surprises Hawk, who mentions it. Meliodas gasps, hoping that it's not true. Elizabeth especially has been concerned that he hasn't been eating enough to maintain his usual weight of 110 lbs, although he hasn't weighed himself in a while.

They then hear muffed hollering. They find Willie rolled up in heavy carpet, with tape on his mouth. He freaks out at their faces before realizing its them. Despite trying to be gentle, Meliodas still unintently hurts Willie by removing the tape and apologizes. As they role the monk out of the carpet, Willie realizes that he can't understand Meliodas, or Hawk. The dragon sin doesn't catch on and keeps talking to the monk as he normal. Willie checks his clothes, and the language amulet is no longer there. Somebody must have taken it, and Willie believes he knows who. He was the only one who woke up and saw Eyelash in action, so the llama did something different to him instead of painting his face, before injecting a temporary tranquilizer into him. These powerful but short-lasting tranquilizers are the reason that nobody woke up while Eyelash worked on them.

Willie notices that Meliodas has indeed lost weight since just a couple days ago. This really concerns him, especially since the dragon sin's stomach is growling again after a night's worth of sleep. Unfortunately, there's no more food around except milk and coffee, plus sugar and some mints that the spa has. Meliodas isn't too happy about this, but it's better than nothing.

Hawk and Meliodas wash off their faces before entering the hot tube. Willie gets dressed to go search for the amulet.

After Meliodas washes all that stuff out of his hair, the two old friends sit in the tube while the dragon sin drinks several cups of coffee with way too much milk and sugar.

"Hey Meliodas;" asks Hawk; "are you and Elizabeth planning to have children?"

Meliodas nearly chocks on the mints he's sucking on. "Yea, eventually. Why?"

Hawk tries not to smirk. "Oh, Elizabeth's been talking about kids. You excited?"

Meliodas just sits there twitching his thumbs, not even trying to hide the fact he's nervous.

"You can be honest with me buddy."

"Yea I know;" Meliodas exhales. "Just strange that you brought that up right out of the blue."

"Are you apprehensive? You can tell me."

"Well;" Meliodas really wishes he had a drink and some real food to munch on, or better yet, Elizabeth to lean on. "I do want kids, of course. Guess...I'm nervous...well...I didn't exactly have a good father as you know. I'm afraid I won't be a good one, either."

"Meliodas, you'll be a great father. A goofy one maybe, but you're SO much better than Barbatos. Besides, you'll have the best babysitters around. Believe me, we've been practicing."

Meliodas smiles, feeling better. "Thanks, buddy, but no need to rush things. Not like it's happening anytime soon."

Hawk barely manages to hold back a giggle.

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As Caelestis makes another stop in the Hungarian mountains (still in her smaller form) in the pouring rain, another female goddess nearly collides with her. "You're Highness, you almost made me lose my fight."

Caelestis is unsympathetic; "Watch where you're going you imbecile. Why are you here?"

"Ma'am, we couldn't reach you. I thought it was important to inform you that your nieces have been spotted near the Germanic border, battling Nico Reiko. They weren't alone either. They've got like a small army with them. One is believed to be your daughter Lady Elizabeth, along with some the Seven Deadly Sins, demon king Zeldris, Gelda, a giant pig, and an unidentified vulacish, along with a couple others."

Caelestis is annoyed to hear this. How did Elizabeth manage to learn of and find her cousins. Then again, Meliodas has also learned of his long-lost relatives as well. She's really surprised that the daughters of Artimes weren't affected by the curse she thought she put on them. She was warned about Apolline's power, but she thought that she had acted quickly enough before her blood niece could override the curse. She had been extremely furious when she learned that her blood sister had not only fallen in love with a demon just as Elizabeth had but also MARRIED him and had a child with him. She wonders why she hadn't killed those girls when she had the chance, instead of using them and toying with them. Then again, that's what she usually does.

"Me and Lucy will take care of them personally. They're no match for me alone, especially now that I'm at full power and they're without Meliodas. Having a vulacish on their side is a concern, but I'm sure we can deal with her."

"Lucy's disappeared ma'am. And actually, we've got even bigger problems than them. Much bigger."

"What do you mean much bigger?"

"Well;" the goddess twitches her fingers; "The goddess and demon clans of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire have joined forces and are getting ready to attack us right now."

"WHAT!?" Caelestis is very angry; "What about those wars I started between them? That was supposed to keep them busy."

"No war ever started, your Highness;" explains the goddess; "According to our informants, the leaders met before any attacks were made, and they must have figured it out. Guess they're a lot smarter than we thought they were."

Caelestis hates hearing that and attacks her subordinate, killing her on the spot. The Supreme Deity had actually believed it wouldn't be difficult to start wars between these clans even though they've always been neutral allies. She especially wanted to punish and start wars between Britannia's cousin clans sense their ancestors broke away from the original western European clans because they didn't want to be enemies and wanted no part in the Holy War hostilities. Caelestis goes to the secret base where most of her loyal goddesses (and some people of other races from around Europe) are located. She orders them to prepare for defense. She also orders a certain barrier to be activated around the fortress and all the surrounding areas.

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Elizabeth's group is flying over the Transylvanian Mountains. Nearly everybody got their fill of Stormy's magnificent cooking, but it did more than just fill their bellies. Stormy's power adds special elements to the food she prepares, which allows people to almost instantly regain energy, power, and stamina, especially energy burned in battle or any excessive activity. They've also discovered that Stormy has a magic storage pocket dimension (like Merlin) in which she stores food and ingredients for up to five hundred meals, which she's completely restocked. Apolline, however, didn't eat a single crumb of food, except for a cup of herbal tea and one small self-injection shot of very little nutrients. Apolline is meditating again and has almost completely zoned out everybody else. Elizabeth looks at her cousin and is sincerely worried. She's never seen anybody this emancipated. It's a wonder that Apolline's still able to even stand and move about looking the way she does.

The group is divided in two separate perfect cubs. Ban, Diane, King, Jasmine, Arwin, and Hana are traveling with Merlin. Elizabeth, Zeldris, Gelda, Kagome, Apolline, and Wild are with Stormy. After going through a brief dry area, the rain starts pouring down again, making vision difficult for the most part. While it's not lighting or thundering, the rains very heavy.

"I'm not sure I've ever seen this much rain in my life;" says King.

"Not unusual for this time of year?" replies Arwin. "We really need this rain. We've hardly got any precipitation during the fall and winter, so this rain is overdue."

"How much longer until we reach this fortress of yours?" asks Ban.

"Really close;" answers Arwin. "In fact, there's Alba lulia and the river Mures straight ahead."

Merlin and Stormy have been a having a somewhat of a fun race with the perfect cubs. However, Elizabeth gets a very uneasy feeling and asks Stormy to slow down. Zeldris and Apolline also feel an unusual magic presence. Stormy puts on the breaks, but the perfect cube makes contact with something invisible, and it, along with everyone inside, disappear into thin air.

Everyone on Merlin's cube gasps as Merlin stops it just in the nick of time.

"What happened?!" shouts Ban.

"What?" says King in shock; "Where are they?"

"They didn't just...disappear!?" adds Diane.

"Arwin," says Merlin; "Is there supposed to be a barrier up around the town?"

Arwin's in shock as well. "No. Not since Mama put one up against that freakish monster tornado that come through last year."

Merlin tries to get a read on the invisible barrier. "I've heard of something like this. A shield that if you touch it, it transports you to another location. This barrier is humongous too, much larger than the one I made to over Camelot."

Jasmine twitches her nose in thought. "I've seen this once on a much smaller scale. A person once used a shield that transported whatever touched it to another location. He even had a spell that would follow a target and make contact with them, and they'd disappear. It was like a 50-mile radius."

"If that's true, where did it teleport them too?" ask King. Ban is especially impatient for an answer.

Merlin sends a spell of elements towards the barrier. Sure enough, they disappear on contact. Jasmine too sends an attack, and her lava also disappears. If this barrier is covering a 50–100-mile radius area, that's a tall order even for her.

Everybody looks at Arwin, who freaks out by all the staring. "Why are you all looking at me for? I'm no leader or strategist, that's Stormy."

"We're not asking you to lead us;" says Merlin; "This your territory. What do you know about this barrier?"

Arwin puts her face in her hands. "Stop looking at me. I don't know. I'm a botanist and herbalist, I don't know anything about barriers."

"You just said your mother used a barrier against a tornado last year;" reminds Merlin; "You should know something about your mother's abilities."

"But I don't! I know she uses the goddess shield and can cover 500 miles with it, but this isn't that. And it feels so, unnatural."

Feeling her uneasiness, Diane and King get between Arwin and the others to get them from staring at her. Jasmine was thinking the same thing but just turns her eyes. Hana moves along with Diane, wanting to stay next to her.

"Are they alright?" asks an impatient Ban; "Tell me that barrier or whatever happened didn't harm them?"

"No...;" Arwin's not so sure; "I don't think so."

"If it transported them to another location;" answers Merlin; "The contact alone wouldn't have hurt them. It'll depend on where they've been transported too. If they're only a few hundred miles, Stormy and Apolline should get them back here. Am I right?"

"Yes;" replies Arwin, who looks like she's about to throw up; "Stopping looking at me like that."

"Ban, Merlin, please stop looking at her;" says King trying to block her view; "You're freaking her out."

Diane give Arwin some water. She takes a few minutes to gather herself and then ask the fairy and giant to scoot over so she can see everybody again.

"Sorry about that. I don't take being on the spot too well. Now that I think about it, there should be a way in, that is if the barrier doesn't reach underground. And I think I do recall Dr. Pendergrass showing Mama some sort of barrier device he had gotten from Hephaestus. Mama wasn't interested in using it. I don't remember anything else. "

Jasmine and Merlin both gasp hearing that name. If anything came from Hephaestus, it's probably disastrous. Merlin and Jasmine then realize that the barrier seems unstable, but they don't have time to waste looking for a weak spot if Arwin knows a way in. Arwin points to a stream several miles outside of town that follows from the Mures River. It is covered by tall and dense grass. Unfortunately, it's inside the barrier, which extends underwater. Everybody looks for weak spots when they suddenly feel a massive amount of magic and powers coming their way. It feels as if it's an army. Merlin confirms that it's a massive amount of both demon and goddess energies headed their way.

Jasmine then realizes that everybody is looking to her to make a decision. Everybody else agrees that Jasmine is their current leader, especially given how she executed her leadership abilities before and during the rescue. She worries that something major is going on here but decides to focus on their mission. She realizes that the barrier can't possibly extend to too far below ground. While she herself could easily dig a tunnel underneath it, it's to risking and her using her power could give them away. She tells Diane and King to use their powers on a low scale level, which should be more than enough to dig a tunnel and hopefully not give their presence away with all the massive energies currently surrounding them. With that, the giant and fairy get to work.