Author's notes: This fic is rather dark for a while, and has a
few gory details and descriptions. No lemon content, though, and
nothing gratuitous.  I just thought I'd warn anyone who prefers
the wacky side of the AAA over the pathos part. And now, on
with...

--------------------------------------------------------------
The Battle For The Triple-A
        by NotReallyHere

        King of the Net had been over for several weeks now, and
Interslam was still being arranged. New Avatars were coming in
daily to train at the Arena, housing was being constructed,
contracts were being reviewed; life in general was hectic. More
than for anyone else, that was true for the Powers That Be.
        Shinji and Lynxara, the PTBs, were absolutely swamped.
Despite their godlike powers, they couldn't seem to clear the
problems up before even more poured in. Oscar had been arrested
on an alternate Thundera for making an illegal proposition to an
undercover police officer, and someone had to bail him out or get
him a plea bargain. Nav was off somewhere doing what he did best-
slaughtering Senshi. Jim Ross had apparently gotten ahold of
Nash's recipe for his blue booze, and he had to be tossed in an
isolation chamber for a few weeks, until he dried out. Mills Lane
announced that he was retiring from refereeing to focus on other
pursuits, so more Robo-Refs had to be produced to take care of
the gimmick matches Lane was going to handle. On top of it all,
Shinji and Lynxara were still feeling awkward about how to deal
with Lynxara's death and subsequent return.
        In short, they were getting stressed out. The AAA's
weather had been gloomy for days on end now, reflecting their
moods. On one particularly dark day, the looming storm finally
broke. The actual words used by Shinji and Lynxara weren't heard
by anyone, but the tone of their argument could be deduced from
the ground, as massive flashes of lightning were seen blasting
back and forth. This continued for hours on end, and some of the
more timid denizens of the AAA (along with most of the civilian
population) went home, certain that the end was at hand.
        Fortunately, the two Thinkers were able to mediate a
temporary solution with the aid of a half-dozen prominent Authors
and the largest megaphone in the multiverse. Lynxara and Shinji
would take on their Avatar forms tomorrow and fight it out in the
Arena, without use of their main abilities. They would have set
it later, to give the publicity machine time to operate, but
god-level disputes have a way of pushing to the forefront.
Nonetheless, for something this major, the entire remaining
population of the AAA was on-hand the next day.
        The Arena was stark and bare, with several sections of
seats still missing. The cameras had been hastily reinstalled
overnight, and the lighting had to be manually controlled, much
to the consternation of the support staff. The sound system just
plain could not be brought up to snuff in time and portable
speakers had to be brought in. The bathrooms were closed, save
only a few portables, and there were only three popcorn vendors
in the whole place. Nonetheless, no one was complaining. It was
time for the Battle For The Triple-A to begin... 
     The lights dimmed. Simultaneously, from opposite corners of
the Arena, the two Powers That Be stalked towards the ring.
Uncharacteristically, a scowl was on Shinji's face, while
Lynxara, wearing her felinoid form, was all but hissing.
Wordlessly, they stepped into the ring.
        Jim Ross looked down in amazement. "Mah God... this is
downright scary. I always thought those two could get on no
matter what happened."
     Mike Tenay nodded in agreement. "I suppose we should be glad
they're duking it out here, instead of fighting over the AAA with
their full powers." Even Steve Austin, rarely a fan of
moderation, did not debate Tenay's words.
        Down in the ring, NotReallyHere, wearing his AWF referee
uniform (despite the recent demise of that fed, he kept the
shirt), was bringing both fighters to the center of the ring. For
this match, he would be officiating because of the general
consensus that, Powered-down though they were, the PTB's would
certainly destroy the regular robo-refs with an errant attack.
Only NRH's automatic evasion could protect against that.
        Goku stood outside the ring, poker-faced. He was dead-set
against this match, but his employers were insistent. If there
were some occasion calling for his involvement, he would probably
ruin his relations with one Power or the other. By his side was
ArsenalXIII, who was in charge of crowd control for the night.
AXIII's grenades had been replaced by tear gas, but he was still
a lethally imposing sight. Everyone was confident of his
effectiveness in the role.
        In the ring, NRH stepped back, and the uber-warriors
stepped forward. Disdaining the common grapple, Lynxara started
out with a slash from her claws at Shinji, who blocked with the
shaft of his double-bladed spear. He followed through with a jab,
but Lynxara spun and slapped the spear away with a kick. The two
separated to their corners and began warily circling. Suddenly,
Lynxara growled and sprang at Shinji, trusting in her feline
reflexes. Shinji was knocked backwards into the ropes... and over
them. Lynxara leapt out of the ring to follow him and just barely
was able to twist away from her opponent's wildly swinging spear.
        Shinji held his weapon in a guard position, trying to
take advantage of the extended reach it gave him. Lynxara moved
sideways along the steel rails. NotReallyHere began the
count-out, but both fighters ignored him. Lynxara reached the
corner and rolled away, so that she was still facing Shinji. They
continued slowly moving, Shinji constantly advancing on Lynxara,
Lynxara constantly backing away. Without warning, Lynxara reached
over the rail and grabbed a power saw that some worker had
left in the ringside section of the broken seats. Shinji stabbed
while her attention was off him for a moment, but she was
slightly too far away. She started up the saw, then charged.
Shinji tried to take a swing, but Lynxara slammed the blade of
the saw against the shaft of the spear. Shinji's weapon was too
powerful to actually be harmed by the mundane power saw, but
the saw jammed itself on the spear and threw off the center of
gravity. It flew from Shinji's hands into the seats.
        At this point, NRH had finished the count-out and
signaled for the bell to be rung, but Lynxara kicked at Shinji,
missed, and hit the bell herself. Since her foot (naturally)
wasn't metal, it didn't ring on the bell, but it did have the
effect of knocking it from the baseplate. It wasn't likely that
either would have obeyed the bell, anyhow, but everyone
else was playing this by the book.
        After trading inconclusive blows for several minutes, the
Powers separated and climbed into the ring from opposite sides.
Shinji seemed to be in first, and ran to attack Lynxara while she
was still apparently hung up on the ropes... except that she was
actually trying to keep him from seeing the Folding Chair of Doom
she'd stashed under the ring. When Shinji closed in, she spun
around and slammed him over the head with the chair.
        Like anyone in a wrestling ring who gets hit by a chair,
Shinji went down. Lynxara kicked him viciously, but he grabbed
her foot and hauled her down, too. He stood up and took a try at
a figure-four leglock, but Lynxara broke free. Again, Lynxara
sprang at him. This time, Shinji was prepared for the move and
answered with a high kick. It caught Lynxara under the chin and
stunned her, momentarily; long enough for Shinji to trap her with
the ropes.
        NotReallyHere moved in, trying to keep at least a little
order in the ring. He was caught entirely unprepared when Shinji
materialized a crowbar out of nowhere and slammed him across the
head with the hooked end. NRH felt a trifle aggravated at seeing
this, since spontaneous materialization was one of the things
these two weren't supposed to be doing for this fight, but he
stopped feeling that way immediately. In fact, he stopped feeling
anything except a crowbar smashing through his left eyesocket.
        The crowd screamed as NRH's body fell to the ground, the
left side of his face torn away by Shinji's swing. A large pool
of blood formed under his head, and small flecks of a certain
vital gray substance in the human head floated in it. The red
stain on the mat didn't seem to accumulate after the first few
awful seconds; the mat, apparently, was slightly porous.
        In the ring, Lynxara and Shinji had stopped fighting,
too. Shinji was staring at the crowbar in his hands, looking at
the chunk of cranium stuck on it. Lynxara was staring at the dead
referee. For a moment, there was absolute silence and
motionlessness in the Arena. Then all Hell broke loose.
        Goku vaulted into the ring and tried to tackle Shinji,
but both Powers simultaneously vanished. The crowd was panicking
and running for the exits. Only the announcers' booth remained
stable. Jim Ross had his hand to his mouth and was wide-eyed.
Steve Austin slammed his almost-full beer down on the table and
slowly crushed it. Mike Tenay was trying to figure out how
such a thing was even possible. It came to him in a flash of
insight. He said, "I think... I think I know what happened there.
NotReallyHere has that phasing ability, yeah, but it must not
work against beings above a certain level of power. The PTBs were
just too much for him." Tenay was cut off when one of
ArsenalXIII's tear-gas grenades came down on the table. The
transmission ended.
        Back in their semi-mythical abode, the Powers had
forgotten all about fighting and were sitting on a sofa (or doing
the paradivine equivalent) and hugging each other tightly. Shinji
was rocking slightly, moaning "What did I do? What did I do?"
Lynxara was too wrought up to respond, but held on in hopes of
calming him. It was hours before she succeeded.
        The next day, representatives of the Interdimensional
Assassins's Guild arrived, removed the body, and collected his
belongings. Lynxara sent out a call for a replacement. There was
little of the mourning that had accompanied the death of Lynxara:
she had been killed by a recognized villain bent on conquering
the AAA, whereas NRH had simply been caught off-guard by an
unthinking gesture. His passing was not unnoticed, but
recognition of it was muted.
        Quite a few people decided to try out for the AAA
position. After she weeded out the twenty or so so-called
criminal masterminds trying to infiltrate the triple-A, Lynxara
was still faced with forty-two legitimate applicants. With the
collapse of the AWF, X came job-hunting, hoping, perhaps, to find
a way in early. He was firmly set back on the Waiting List. A
person identifying himself only as "Bob G." received a severe
pummeling within moments of entering the Arena.
        The failures went on for hours. It seemed that everyone
applying for the job had some distinct failing preventing them
from fulfilling the job requirements. It looked for a while like
a certain " Mr. J" might fit the bill, until his test run ended
with him booting the entire audience from the Arena. Eventually,
the entire pool of applicants emptied, with not a single
acceptable candidate. Lynxara went home to get some sleep and,
hopefully, come up with a new strategy.
        Her dreams that night were decidedly odd. A strangely
familiar figure was sitting in front of a computer monitor,
saying "Say... this is GOOD!" Taruchi kept running up to that
figure and accosting it, but she never acknowledged his presence.
Standing to the side of Malahelicon (you had it figured out,
didn't you?) was a young-looking man whose features seemed to
keep shifting and running. It was somehow not unpleasant to look
at, but very unnerving. One moment, he seemed perfectly normal;
the next, he had the most implausible-looking visage Lynxara had
ever seen. Lightning bolts were playing around him, and
everywhere they touched, something strange happened. Whoever he
was, he was talking to Mally. It sounded like they were arguing.
He seemed to be in favor of something involving "chronal
differentiation" while Mally was insisting that "somnal retcon"
was the only way. Their argument went on for most of her dream,
until the odd young man turned to Lynxara and said, "What do you
think, mom?" 
     She thought she responded, "I don't like those," but wasn't
sure. Mally turned and said, "I got it!"
        That was when Lynxara awoke. She was shivering, inasmuch
as a local god can be said to shiver. The dream hadn't really
been frightening, just strange, until that last word. She knew
she'd never had a child, had no plans to have any in the
immediate future, but she still could see something of herself in
that young man. She closed her eyes and slowed her breath (which,
for a full-fledged Power, was something of an affectation
anyhow) and reached out with her power. Shinji was in his room,
probably sleeping. The Arena was still bustling with activity, as
workers rushed in and out, repairing and replacing. Everything
seemed normal.
        Everything, that is, until she actually went into the
Arena. It no longer remotely resembled a wrestling ring, and the
audience certainly wasn't made up of the normal accumulation of
hollering fans. Instead, gloomy mists crossed a plain with no
visible boundaries, and no one was in sight. Lynxara shivered,
struck with a palpable feeling of deja vu, and then went on. Her
death had been understandably traumatic, and she didn't really
remember much about it, but she had the strange certainty that
she had been to this place before.
        Lynxara's reflections on her previous experience with her
own mortality were cut short when objects began to take shape
around her. She had a dim recollection that something similar had
happened before, but the details were missing. The landscape
started becoming surreal, shifting without notice...
        A small room, with a glowing shape in front of her,
somehow before she herself existed...
        The early moments of her life, helping bring the AAA into
existence despite achieving that state herself only minutes
before...
        The dark, horrible moment, seeing the Eternal Night
streaking towards Wolf, and the terrible instant of pain before
blessed relief...
        How long these images lasted, Lynxara had no idea. They
were there, replaying as though they were just happening, but
they seemed to stretch and shrink at random. Then things became
incomprehensible. Unfamiliar surroundings filled the images, most
dark and foreboding, but somehow, not dangerous.
        Another small room, before a different glowing shape...
        A harsh, chaotic blare of impressions, as though the
details of them had yet to be drawn in...
        A single, sharp strike to her head, making Lynxara
wince...
        And then the images were gone and a solitary figure was
standing in front of the Power. The still person was covered in a
shroud which concealed his or her face. Lynxara stood, looking at
this grim image for several minutes. Slowly, not quite timidly,
she reached out to lift the heavy cloth.
        A hand shot out and grabbed her arm. A mocking voice rang
out, "So, you think it's that easy do you?" Lynxara did not
struggle for a moment, as she realized that, somewhere along the
way, she had shifted back into her felinoid form. Then she said,
"Kintobor... you're dead."
        Without raising his morbid covering, the dead egomaniac
laughed. "Glad to know I haven't been forgotten. You somehow
don't seem pleased to meet me. What happened, death get you a
little down?"
        Stunned, Lynxara yanked free. "What do you mean, death?
I'm not dead... I'm just trying to find..."
        "Trying to find what?"
        "To find...."
        Kintobor laughed again, a low and unwelcome sound. "You
don't even remember now, do you? You're dead... and in my power.
Come here and kneel before your new lord!"
        Lynxara snarled and lashed out with her claws. Kintobor's
arm shot up, and in it... the Dark Emerald. Lynxara shrieked as
evil power lashed through her again and again, only stopping when
she laid crumpled on the floor. She panted heavily, trying to
regain enough strength to get up, get away, get back to safety.
She could not. Kintobor did not laugh, but merely smiled. "You'll
remember this... last time, you got to escape after just one
spell. But now... you can suffer from them again and again. And
I'll be loving every minute of it..."
        There might have been a tremble in Lynxara's arms as she
strove to move out of the way, but she was unable to make any
move to defend herself. The black ring formed beneath Kintobor as
the horrendously powerful Black Ultima built in power. An
attempted scream of defiance emerged as only a soft moan from the
wounded Power. The Black Ultima crescendoed over her, and she
felt the last tatters of herself ripped away...
        Alicia stood up, glaring. "What do you think you're
doing?" she asked of the startled self-proclaimed lord of this
underworld. Before he could gather himself to respond, Alicia let
loose with a powerful blast, which washed over Kintobor and his
Emerald. The strength of a living Power was sufficient to
entirely destroy both, leaving no trace anywhere in the
cosmos that either had ever existed. On a far distant world,
where hideous songs bellowed forth eternally, a small green shard
twitched and writhed within its fabric housing, but its host had
grown beyond the need for it. The last shard dissipated,
unnoticed.
        Where Kintobor had stood, the funeral shroud remained
floating in the air. A whispery voice came from somewhere within
it. "So... you yield your mask. Was it worth the existence of
that being, to rescue this one?" 
        Alicia frowned. "I don't need to use a go-between
anymore. Lynxara wasn't so much an independent being as she was a
sort of a proxy, my way of being there without getting too
personally involved. I'm ready now. Lynxara can be my Avatar- not
my persona."
        The shroud bobbed up and down, slowly, as though there
were still someone wearing it. "So be it. Do you know the tale of
Orpheus?"
        Alicia thought back on her mythology, but she couldn't
remember whether Orpheus was the guy who put people to sleep, a
nickname for someone or.... of course! "He's the one who tried to
get his wife back after she died, but messed up at the end,
right?"
        The quiet voice confirmed this. "Yes. If you want this
one back, you must succeed where he failed. Be warned: look back
even once, and he is gone forever. Now go!"
        Alicia turned to head back the way she came, but the
mists made it hard to tell. She almost spun to ask which way she
was supposed to go, but caught herself quickly. "You're not
getting me that easily," she muttered.
        After only a few confident strides, the mists began
forming into more recognizable surroundings. A forest of pine
needles, which made Alicia almost itch with the silence. How
could she be sure NRH was behind her? The urge to check was
powerful, but not overwhelming. A tunnel without gravity,
making it difficult not to spin around purely by accident. A
turning cylinder, which Alicia threaded carefully. Finally, she
came to a dark room. Unsure of where she was, she kept moving
forward. She felt something beneath her feet, and someone yelled.
The lights came on, and a rather familiar man was standing in
front of her, holding his foot. Alicia said, "Sorry, Mike, just
passing through," and did so.
        Crow turned to look at Mike and Tom. "Was it just me, or
did two people just walk through a few of our walls?" 
     Mike shook his head. "No." 
     Tom piped up, "Yes we did! Mike, are you okay?" 
     Mike turned to face them both and said, "Guys, if we tell
Dr. Forrester what we just saw, he'll be sure we're starting to
crack. If he thinks we're starting to crack, he send us more fics
like this one. Do you want that?" 
     The terrified robots chorused, "NO!" Then they all sat back
down to finish riffing. 
     Dr. Forrester's voice filtered through the vent. "You
forget, boobies, that I monitor you. Don't you worry, PJ has lots
more where this came from..."
        At long last, the door of the Arena came into view.
Alicia almost turned around to urge NRH on, but checked her
movement in time. Just as she was stepping out the door, a
gunshot and a male scream came from behind her. Reflexively, she
turned... just in time to watch the last glimmers of NRH, phasing
out. She gasped, then turned around again, hoping desperately
that NRH's phasing had saved him. She walked out the door, into
the dim light of the AAA's night. Once outside the door, she
swiftly turned again.  Inside, she could see NRH lying on the
ground. He looked up, pain in his eyes, and began struggling to
crawl to the door. Alicia tried to run back to help him, but
something barred her way back through the door. She could only
watch helplessly as NRH gritted his teeth and pulled himself over
the threshold. He collapsed there, and Alicia grabbed his hand
and warped both of them to the celestial residence of the Powers
That Be.
        Shinji blipped into the room where Alicia appeared
immediately, sensitive to sudden exercises of Power. He looked
down at NRH and softly said, "Well I'll be..." Then he looked up
at Alicia and a stunned look came on his face. Slowly, almost
undetectably, Shinji faded away, replaced by Tim himself. Tim
said, "What happened?"
        Alicia gave Tim a short synopsis of the events of the
night, and Tim nodded. "What's wrong with NRH, then? If he
phased, he should be fine, right?" 
     Alicia shook her head. "But he's not. Look, with your
Powers. Do you see all that damage to his nervous system?"
        Tim, after a quick glance, confirmed her diagnosis.
"That's far beyond what the medical staff can fix. Do you
think..."
        Alicia shrugged. "I don't see any other possibilities. On
three.  Ready?"
        Tim nodded again.
        "One."
        "Two."
        "THREE!" Alicia said, as both Powers thrust healing
magics into NRH's crumpled form. He yelled and his eyes came
open.
        "Good lord! What the... " His shout was cut off as he
realized where he was. "I'm... I'm..." Alicia quickly teleported
both herself and NRH to the first place she thought of: the
Arena.
        Once there, NRH turned to face his employer. "What
happened back..." He was cut off as he bumped into a chair's arm.
He fell backward and landed heavily on the other chairs. "Yow!"
he yelled, caught entirely by surprise. His eyes went very wide,
and then he faded from view. He faded back immediately with a
slightly less panicky expression on. "What happened back there?
The last thing I remember was Shinji about to hit Lynxara with
a crowbar."
        Alicia, for the second time in ten minutes, summarized
her evening. NRH looked pensive for a moment. "So there never
really was a Lynxara. It was just you using an alias."
        After swiftly considering, Alicia confirmed this
interpretation.
        NRH continued. "From what you said... it sounds like
Lynxara lost her power as you came closer to showing yourself. Is
that what's happening to me?"
        Alicia was taken slightly aback. "What do you mean?"
        "Aren't you even watching? I just tripped over that chair
right there and could've broken my neck! I didn't phase out like
I'm supposed to!  Is *my* Author getting rid of me? I don't want
to die..."
        Thwarting this attempt to dive into depression, Alicia
hastened to provide an alternate explanation. "No, no, nothing
like that. You were hurt when I looked back, and Tim and I only
just barely saved you. There was brain damage. The part of your
mind that makes you automatically phase must have been damaged.
Is that possible?"
        NRH thought about it. "Phasing is one of my Avatar
powers... I'm not sure about anything. Maybe..." He suddenly
shouted out, "Hey, Author!  You want to maybe give me some
details, here?"
        For the first time in his life, there was no answer. He
was chilled. "Author?" Still nothing. He turned back to Alicia.
"I think... I think my Author isn't responding anymore... maybe
he was the only one protecting me. If he doesn't want me
anymore... the same thing that happened to what's-his-face will
happen to me. I'll just fade away, and this time I won't come
back."
        Alicia grabbed his arms. "NO! Get a grip on yourself! If
your Author didn't want you anymore, you'd have just stayed dead!
Look, tell you what... I'll talk to some of the other Avatars. If
Tim and I hook you up with one of the AAA's groups, you exist as
long as the Triple-A itself does. And the AAA is going to be
around for a good long time. Okay?"
        NRH looked in awe at her. "You mean... I'd be one of the
mainstream Avatars? Like Wolf, or Samantha?"
        Alicia fought back a grin. "Not quite *that* far...
probably more like Coyote, or Brisby. A manager, a hanger-on,
maybe a bodyguard. You'd have to work it out with someone. Tell
you what: I'll send out a few inquiries for you. You can take it
from there."
        "What do I do in the meantime?"
        "You can keep working as Security chief, of course. I'll
even give you time off if you need to do some meetings to arrange
details. Sound good to you?"
        "It sounds wonderful! One last question. Are you and Tim
going to... finish that match?"
        "I hadn't really thought about it... maybe after
InterSlam. It would disrupt everything if we tried to do it
before InterSlam was over, and I don't know if we would have
enough motivation afterwards... why do you ask?"
        "Tell Tim to leave the crowbar home for the rematch."
        Alicia almost scoffed at that, but decided to just warp
out with dignity.