TALES OF THE LEGION OF NET.HEROES
reprinted from rec.arts.comics.creative

#369: Shocked! Panta's Showdown!

[ In LNH 361 - LNH 368, Panta is attacked by cyborgs and clones from 'The Collector', a master of the retconn because he has collected a powerful magical artifact. Caught up with her is SnowBuni, a rabbit girl from a technologically advanced race called the Sylvalagi. Flying toward The Collector's base in a retconned history, Panta and SnowBuni are pursued by the evil Ultimate Ninja Panta once killed. Now their plane is down and Panta is facing the wrath of the evil Ultimate Ninja.

Author's note: SnowBuni and the Sylvalagi appear in this story through the kind permission of Jeff Wood, who has been writing and drawing SnowBuni since 1984. SnowBuni is copyrighted to Jeff Wood and may not be used in other stories without permission from Jeff Wood. ]

The wreckage of the LNH flight thingee burned brightly, sending a column of oily black smoke into the Arctic air. Nearby lay the remains of the Shinden-Kai, the replica of the jet fighter that the Japanese Imperial Navy never built.

The little plane had crashed after a near-collision with the LNH flight thingee at near Mach-1. Now it rested on its canopy and back, trapping SnowBuni inside. Panta had freed herself by exiting through the gap left when the front landing gear had been torn away.

A single figure bearing a sword walked out of the flight thingee's smoke and flames. Its costume smoldered, its legging and mask were burnt rags, and its sword was blackened with heat. Step by step, it moved towards them.

"Impossible!" Panta gasped.

"It's the Ultimate Ninja. But how?" SnowBuni wondered. "No one could have survived that landing," the rabbit girl added.

Panta looked at her friend. "Don't they say that any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing?"

"But it wasn't a landing, was it? More like flying into the ground, wouldn't you say? Still, I kinda wonder what made it do that..." SnowBuni mused.

"If it's on the ground, it's landed," Panta insisted.

"OK, but on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd have to give that one a 0.4 rating." SnowBuni reached up to the control stick and began trying to work it free.

Panta looked back at the approaching figure. "Um, SnowBuni... The last time I beat this guy, I had all sorts of friends. The last time I fought this guy, you saved me with your anti-Ninja gun. Err.. do you have anything else?"

SnowBuni stopped hammering on a stuck bolt. "Panta. If it comes down to it, run. Don't wait. If I can get out of here, fine, I'll run with you. We don't have anything here to beat him with. Get me to a phone, let me make some calls and we can drop an orbital laser platform on him. Terminator or not, he's not going to survive that. But if I don't get myself popped out of this cage, don't let yourself get killed!"

"Whatya saying?!" Panta shouted. "We've come this far together, I couldn't just leave you... stuck like a rabbit in a trap!" She paused and looked at the oncoming dark shape. "There's one thing I haven't used before."

SnowBuni's ears rose sharply, then dropped. "No! Panta, the stranger said we should NOT use it!"

But Panta had already raised her cat bell and shouted, "NEKO PRISM POWER, MAKEUP!"

A light flashed out from the OverCute Gem inside, and Panta's tattered costume disappeared. The light spun blue and white cloth, wrapping Panta in a white, form fitting blouse and a tiny gold skirt. Her arms were bathed in light that faded into elbow length black gloves; a gold cat earring appeared on each ear. And on her feet, she had knee-length black boots.

As the light from the cat bell faded, a tiara appeared on Panta's head. She posed in a dramatic anime-style pose, pointing a gloved finger at the evil Ultimate Ninja.

"AI TO SEIGI NO SENSHI, SAILOR PANTA SANJOU! NEKO NI KAWATTE... OSHOKYO!"

[The Warrior for Love and Justice, Sailor Panta has arrived! By the power of the Cat, I'm going to kick your ass. -japanese translation by HGB]

The Beautiful Sailor Senshi Panta reached into the air. A long rod suddenly materialized in her upraised palm. The Neko Power Stick glowed as Panta held it up.

SnowBuni frantically pounded her hands against the glass of the canopy. "Panta, don't! Remember that the Dvandom Stranger said that using the gem makes you vulnerable to the powers of the Collector!" SnowBuni shouted. "It'll kill you!"

The evil Ultimate Ninja hefted his heavy blade, causing small bits of carbonized cloth to fall from the scorched sleeves of his gi. "Heh! So a little girl in a sailor suit thinks that a toy she pulled out of the air can defeat the powers of one trained in the arts of the Evil Ninja.

"Boy, you're really gonna get a surprise!" Ultimate Ninja grunted. He raised his black katana over his head and charged. "You're sooooo deaaaadddd!"

Panta concentrated, closing her eyes and pulling power from her tail tip to her ear tips and feeding it to the Neko Power Stick.

The evil ninja kept coming. "Arrrgggg..."

The tip of the Neko Power Stick glowed incandescent white.

"...rrrraaagggggh!"

She swung the Neko Power Stick in a vast circle, starting high over her head, arcing down towards her feet and finishing over her head again. Then she pointed the white-hot end at the Ultimate Ninja.

"NEKO STICK PURIFY!"

White light exploded from the end of the stick. The evil Ultimate Ninja began screaming as the light bathed him in the concentrated flow of goodness, kindness and cuteness, cutting away everything evil and dark. His body shredded under the force of the light, whirling away in tiny bits of darkness, leaving only the good and kind parts of the ninja. The ninja's screaming faded away.

The light blinked out. Panta blinked and collapsed to her knees, breathing hard.

"Wow!" SnowBuni said. "I didn't know you could 'purify' like that – turning him into puree; there's nothing of him left."

Panta looked across the snow. A few black tatters remained of the evil Ultimate Ninja. "That's supposed to be 'purify' like in making pure. I guess after you cut away all the evil, there was nothing left..." She took another deep breath.

The snow beneath Panta rose slightly.

"Look out!" SnowBuni shouted.

The snow exploded. Incandescent red tendrils of magic flew together, instantly forming a transparent globe around Panta, sealing her inside. Before the rabbit girl could say anything, the red globe of magic rose and floated away, taking the leopard girl toward the clear glass dome over the Collector's secret base.

"SnowBuni!" Panta shouted once before disappearing.

"Chatz!" SnowBuni muttered to herself. She looked around the ruined cockpit. "It looks like the 'Collector' is more than a match for Panta. I've got to get out of here!"

She began digging at the control arms on the broken seat back. "Knowing that the 'Collector' plans to rule the world, Panta will probably be taken to some kind of throne room... huh!"

SnowBuni's ears snapped up straight, then swiveled back to lay flat against the back of her head as her eyes narrowed. "I'd better mention to him what happens when you stow thrones in glass domes..."

* * *

"WELCOME," a voice boomed across the immense glass floor. "Or, in keeping with your motif, IRRASHIMASE."

Panta looked down at her hands. She was still wearing her Sailor Panta costume. "Why," she began, "did you bring me here?" She got to her feet.

"YOU WILL GIVE ME THE OVERCUTE GEM. I WILL FULFILL MY TRUE DESTINY WITH THE GEM. I WILL BECOME A GOD. A R.A.C.C.ELESTIAL!"

Now that Panta had stood up, she could see that she was in a great hall of stone and ice. Dim light from above barely illuminated the clear, shiny floor. At the end, a figure sprawled across a throne set on a dais. Panta began striding towards the throne. "And why do you need the Overcute Gem? And can you do something about the volume? Your 'voice of god' is giving me a headache."

A spotlight sprung up in front of the throne. When Panta reached the light, the figure rose from the throne and stepped toward her. "It is my destiny. I will explain it all and then you will see that you must give me the Overcute Gem. It is my TRUE DESTINY! You cannot stand in the way of TRUE DESTINY."

The figure standing on the dais in front of Panta was not much taller than her, a pudgy boy of twenty, wearing khaki jeans and a Spiderman T-shirt. "My name is Lector, Calvin Lector," he started. "When I was ten, I bought a cheap ring at a comic store. When I put it on, I learned - by accident - that I could CHANGE things!

"Small things at first. Backgrounds in comics, the color of a car, the time something happened. The more I used the ring, the more powerful it became. I used it every day, strengthening its powers."

Panta held up a hand to ask a question but Calvin Lector continued, "I MADE Marvel do this stupid distributing system! I closed up Capital and the other comics distributors! I INFLUENCED the young kids to get excited about Spawn and the Image comics to drive up sales. I USED the ring to create an interest in speculation and the multi-cover, prism-covered, limited edition comics that fueled the speculation. I MADE Mike Powers editor-in-chief of the X line of comics!"

Panta waved her hand. Calvin ignored her, striding back and forth on the dais and throwing his hands around in sweeping circles. "With the power of the Retconn Ring, I can do ANYTHING! I put a WATERFALL on the Lower Mississippi! I dropped MOUNTAINS in the Netherlands along the Tjonger Canal!" [All recently appearing in Marvel. Really - HGB].

He stopped and turned to Panta. "But the ring has one short-coming; I cannot make changes to myself. The ring's power protects the bearer from the effects of the changes. I'm still short, little and overweight. I cannot change myself with the Ring of Retconn."

"So why the Overcute Gem?" Panta finally asked. "And the other magical artifacts."

The 'Collector' sighed. "Through my agents, I learned of the existence of R.A.C.C.ELESTIAL. Those beings of immense power who rule over all of our existence. If I could become one of them...."

"...you'd be a god," Panta finished. "But why the Overcute Gem?"

"I'm getting to that," Calvin snarled. "Do you know why they are like gods? It's because everyone believes they are gods. Belief is a very powerful thing. If everyone believes that I am like a god, then I will be one. But..."

"But?" Panta asked.

"With the power of the Ring of Retconn, I can return to the time of the founding of the universe. I can make all believe I am a R.A.C.C.elestial. All but two people. Myself, because I carry the Ring of Retconn - and I already believe myself to be a god. AND YOU!"

"Me?" Panta pointed to herself. Her tail lashed back and forth in astonishment.

"YOU," Calvin repeated. He turned on the dais towards her. His rings and artifacts began to glow red with power.

"YOU, YOU LITTLE BIT OF SPOTTED FUR! All that stands between me and my final ASCENSION is YOU! The Overcute Gem protects you from my powers, my retconning of your own history. IT IS MY TRUE DESTINY! SURRENDER, PANTA!" His artifacts brightened, outlining him in a dark red glow. "GIMME THE GEM!"

"No!" Panta replied. Her ears flattened, her tail waved furiously. "Your plans, your scheming, your retconning have made a complete disaster of the history and geography of the world! You would make yourself into a god after screwing up our world so much? This, I, Sailor Panta, won't forgive!"

Panta swung her Neko Power Stick in a circle, starting over her head and ending with the end pointing at the Collector. "NEKO POWER ESCALATION!" she shouted. A bluish-white light sprung from her catbell, enclosing her in a sphere of magical power.

"THEN BE RETCONNED," the Collector said. He pointed a finger at the leopard girl, sending a wave of retconning energy at her.

Panta felt her protection flicker. She put both hands on her Neko Power Stick and concentrated, drawing more power from the Overcute Gem to push back the pulsing red flow of the Collector's retconning. Her bright blue-white sphere strengthened and grew. White flames sprung from the sphere's surface.

Calvin swore under his breath. This little leopard girl in the short skirt was resisting his will! He opened his hand and brought up his other hand to give the little fluff the full effect of all the power he'd collected or stolen over the years. A dark red sphere formed around him, growing in size, crackling with black lightning.

The Collector's sphere of Retconn energy grew until touched Panta's magical sphere. Briefly, black lightning flashed and white fires flared.

Then, silently, everything disappeared in a single white explosion.

[To be Continued in LNH 370?]

Hubert Bartels