A Chorus of Fools

[Ran]

Jewi and Ran were just lifting up the boulder when Eslington approached them. "Hello! I brought food!"

At the mention of food, Jewi and Ran dropped the boulder back on Jove.

"Whoo-hoo! Food!"

"Yay! I’m starved!" The two girls scampered over to Eslington and they set out a nice picnic. At first, they didn't talk much. Jewi and Ran were too busy eating as if they had been without food for months. But after awhile, Jove's screams became too loud to ignore.

"Fine, I guess we'd better take the boulder off of him.."

Ran wiped her face off on a napkin. "Kay." So they got up and finally freed Jove from under the boulder.

[Clefo]

Meanwhile, Clefo had just pushed cow bits off of him and onto the now Italian speaking Grover...

"If I ever get my hands on the bastard who threw that cow on me..." His muttering was inturrupted by an alert system in his brain...

"Ooh! Food!" Clefo then saw the target in sight, it was a picnic-esque gathering..

"Looks like that bunny-lady, 2 people I don't recognize, and looks like Jove is lying in pain." Clefo cracked a smile "Serves him right."

Clefo went over to the eating site, and using official UN hand gestrues for "Can I eat too?", he was able to sit down and enjoy some food. What kind of food? I don't really know.

After a few long pauses, Clefo decided to break some ice.

"So.. Why are you all up here?" He said while munching on a sandwhich.

Jewi and Ran looked at each other, then Ran said, darkly "We could tell you that, but then we'd have to kill you."

Clefo raised an eyebrow, "What about you?" He said motioning to Eslington.

"Oh you know, I'm trying to find a Fortress of Doom I can live in during the summer." He said kind of hastily.

Clefo nodded then he looked up in the sky..

"Oh my god? What the hell is that?" He pointed at the sky towards....

(To be Continued)

[Jove]

A Chorus of Fools
Chapter 18

"Oh my god? What the hell is that?"

  Clefo pointed at the sky towards a huge metallic object. It was slowly descending to the ground using several retro-rockets on either side of it. When it finally landed and the smoke cleared, a rather evil looking armored robot stood before the group.

*UNIT #6849587 HAS REACHED PROPER DESTINATION COORDINATES....VERIFY.*

“Verified,” Jove muttered painfully, his finger still pressed to a remote unit.

  Dragging himself up to a standing position, Jove walked to his newly arrived piece of hardware, leaning against it.

“I don’t have time for all this,” he said, letting out a tired sigh. “Robot...scan area for programmed target.”

  A small radar dish rose from out of the robot’s head, rotating several times before returning back inside.

“TWO OBJECTS CONFORMING TO SEARCH VERIFICATIONS LABELED: ‘SEXY NUBILE YOUNG GIRLS’ FOUND. BOTH TARGETS LOCATED 8 METERS FROM THIS UNIT’S POSITION.”

  Turning beet red, Jove fumbled for his remote, quickly pressing several buttons.

“Sorry! Wrong search! Heh...heh...I don’t know why it would....ever....heh...”

  Shyly looking at the targets in question, Jove was able to get a good look at his ‘rescuers’ for the first time. (blink, blink) His jaw dropping, he quickly ran behind his robot’s legs, still mashing random buttons on his remote.

“Oh my god! It’s you two! What the hell are you doing here!?”

  So distracted by the often violent sisters McCloud, Jove didn’t pay attention to which buttons he was hitting.

*NEW INSTRUCTIONS CONFIRMED....UNIT #6849587 WILL NOW PROCEED TO ‘GET FUNKY‘*

  Starting to dance, speakers and strobe lights began to pop out of the robot’s head and limbs, pouring out techno remixes of famous hits of the 60’s and 70’s.

“Strange”, Jove said while jumping out of the way, “I don’t remember programming him to do that.”

  After several straight minutes of this, they all watched as the robot....well....did the robot.....straight off the edge of the mountain, falling to a loud, fiery explosion as it hit the unforgiving ground. Running to the cliff's edge, Jove looked down on the flaming wreakage.

“Now how am I supposed to find the ultimate power?!”, he screamed just a little too loudly.

  Slapping his hands over his mouth, he slowly turned to the rest of the group, fear in his eyes.

[Ran]

Ran's eyes widened, hearing Jove's exclamation. "Uh-oh." She glanced over at Jewi. "So THIS'S why they needed experienced fighters.." she mumbled under breath.

Jewi tilted her head to the side, seemingly in thought. <Well, they had to have all that security inclusing us for a reason..> she replied to her sister, mentally.

{Good point.} Ran said back. {I think we'd better amscray.}

<Ah, don't think the Kuno approach would work in this case?> Jewi pouted.

{Attacking blindly? No, they might drop robots or more cows on us.} Ran replied, slowly inching away from the scene.

<Yes, these enemies have.. interesting weapons..> The blonde followed her sister's lead.

Ran nodded. {No kidding, I've been on the lookout for falling Buicks since we got out here.}

Jewi nodded, looking a bit nervous. "Well, heh, Ran and I are ..just up here skiing! Speaking of which we'd better go now, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, Ran grabbed Jewi's arm and dashed off out of sight.

They hoped they were inconspicuous. ^_^

But didn't care if they weren't. >G<

[Eslington]

Chapter 20 - Eslington has a plan which involves pointy ears, unsurprisingly enough.

"You're looking for the ultimate power?" asked Eslington. "So am I!"

Jove turned to Eslington, pointing a single defiant finger directly at him. "But *I* will be the one who finds it first!"

"Can I borrow it once you're done with it?"

Jove blinked, staring blankly at the other man. Could it be possible that Eslington was oblivious to his plan to exact a terrible and horrible and terrible revenge on him with the greatest power in the universe?

Eslington walked over to the cliff edge, looking down at the world below him.

"Humanity bores me," began Eslington, his tone indicating the start of a long and dramatic speech. "Whoever created us had no sense of originality. We are all, generally, quite alike in appearance. Two eyes, two rounded ears, two legs and arms... I've always wondered why there were never any people in this world with pointy ears... No elves, no catguys, no foxgirls... All of them came from alternative worlds, where the creator evidently had a different vision of what sentient life should be like."

Eslington walked over to a convenient outcrop nearby, staring into the distance.

"I want to find the ultimate power and remake the world. A world where we are not all of us are only human. A world where elves live amoungst the trees, where foxpeople live amoungst humans, where angels fly in the skies and of course... Where there are catgirls!"

The wind blew through his hair dramaticaly to punctuate this statement. He turned and walked back along the cliff edge to Jove.

"This is why I want to find the ultimate power... To make this world a world of beauty, wonder and... Pointy ears."

"..." said Jove in a most articulate manner. "So basically, you like pointy ears, and want to make it easier to find people with them?"

"Basically, yes," answered Eslington with a nod. "Oh, and I want to solve world hunger, injustice and a bunch of other stuff like that, but the ear thing is definitely top priority."

"Oh-kaaaaay..." said Jove.

"So will you join me in my quest for a world of beauty?" asked Eslington, smiling warmly.

[Clefo]

Jewi and Ran's retreat did not go unnoticed to the extremely perceptive Clefo. He began following the duo to Babe Ruth knows where. They stoped at a clearing, except for this convinetly placed glacier to hide behind.. He overheard the 2 voices, they were discussing things like, "Where to hide the package." and then complaining about the revelness of Jewi's outfit, etc.

Clefo decided to confront the issue now, with his trusty fireplace poker in hand he lept up from behind the glacier...

"Stop!" He yelled. The 2 sisters turned around quizicly and stared at the poker weilding boy.

"You have the power, I must stop you!" He said in the most dramatic voice he could muster. The McCloud sisters stared at each other and shrugged, then Clefo decided to charge

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The fight was fierce, outrageous, and over in 15.3 seconds with the McCloud sisters laying a huge pummeling on Clefo.

"I only LET you win." muttered Clefo through the snow.. He then heard a different voice, one that was unmistakibly evil and corrupt...

"Dude!"

To be Continued!

[Jove]

Chorus of Fools - Chapter 22

  A silent shudder raced through Jove at the very thought of teaming with his long time rival. For all he knew this was yet another one of Eslington’s elaborate schemes to somehow thwart his own.

(“Yes, that must be it!,” he realized with a start. “But what could it be? What horrible fate does this cursed man have in store for me? Look at him....Such innocence in his eyes. He plays his part so very well. However, the fool does not play it well enough. I can easily see through his mask. My experience of being surrounded by his tricks and lies over the years has made me sharp to his ways. Nothing from his twisted mind could surprise me any longer. Does he actually believe me that dumb? Better to play along for now. If he thinks he has me...if he believes himself having the upper hand, he’ll drop his guard. Then I’ll turn his own evil plan against him! A perfect revenge before finishing him off with the ultimate power! Mwa, ha, ha, ha, ha! Heh....er....Uh oh. This inner monologue's been going on for like 5 minutes. He’s starting to look at me funny. No! He must not suspect I’m onto him! I must say something, and quickly!”)

“Very well then,” Jove smiled, his teeth tightly clenched. “You may...(*sigh*) borrow it after I’m finished.”

  Looking over Eslington’s shoulder, he wanted to address the sisters McCloud as well, only to find that they had disappeared.

“The girls!,” he shouted in panic, “They’re gone!”

  Grabbing the front of Eslington’s shirt, Jove shook his new partner with each word.

“They must have overheard me as well! Now THEY’RE after the ultimate power, too! Quick you fool! We must find it first! Do something!!!”

[Eslington]

The twenty-third chapter of Chorus of fools.
---

"Stop shaking me first," said Eslington politely. Jove calmed down a little, and complied.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" he asked.

"This," responded Eslington, taking his walking staff in hand, he turned to face the horizon. He raised his hands up to the sky, eyes turned heavenward.

"Mighty airship Elvis... COME FORTH!" Eslington punctuated his shout by driving his staff into the snow underfoot.

Instantly, the Elvis rose into the sky, accompanied by a flare of trumpets playing unison, a song of bravery, passion, adventure and-

*FZZT*

Eslington blinked, looking down at his CD player.

"Hmm... Batteries are dead," he shrugged and went back to watching the airship fly towards him, once again turning the mountaintop dark as it eclipsed the sun.

"It'll be easier to find those girls from the air," explained Eslington. "And we won't have to walk in this weather either."

"Good," commented Jove as a rope ladder was lowered towards the two men. "And I'll- Uh, we'll be able to look for the ultimate power from the air too."

Eslington and Jove ascended the ladder to the deck of the airship, where crewmen J and N were awaiting them.

"J, N," said Eslington, "this is Jove, an old friend of mine. He's going to help us find the ultimate power. I want you to show him as much respect as you do me."

"Shouldn't be too hard," whispered J to N.

"I have new orders for the crew," stated Eslington. "We are looking for a girl with Bunny ears."

"Again?" asked N. "We were doing that last week."

"And last month," noted J. "In between looking for catpeople."

"And elves."

"And fox-"

"Yes, yes," said Eslington with a dismissive wave. "But now I know there's a bunnygirl on this very mountain!"

N and J looked skepticlally at one another.

"She was wearing a trenchcoat!" insisted Eslington. "And a bikini."

"Riiiiight," said J.

"Go to inform the crew," said Eslington. "Me and Mr Jove must discuss our plans..."

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

[Ran]

A Chorus of Fools
Chapter 24

Jewi felt ten times better after beating up poor Clefo and Grover. She had a lot of stress to get out.  

"C'mon, let's hurry and back into the cave before anyone ELSE sees us." Ran said, and disappeared into the crevices between the rocks.

"Alright" But before Jewi entered, she ripped off her dumb rabbit ears and dumped them into the snow. "Good riddance, hmmph.."

Ran lead the way, through the MANY confusing twists and turns that lead to the secret cave, deep in the mountain. If she hadn't memorized the map already, she'd easily have gotten quite lost. Probably for days.

Jewi knew she would. But at the moment her mind was on other things. "Do you think it was a good idea to leave those two guys out there? They know too much..."

"Ah they'll be ok." Ran called back. She had her flashlight out and was using that to see by. "And besides, s'not like they can follow us, they were unconscious when we went into the caves so they have no idea where it is."

"That's good" Jewi looked apprehensive. "But it IS time to prepare for an attack. I'm pretty sure Jove and Eslington will find their way down here.."

Ran sighed, turning a corner and following the slope downward. "And probably with a hoard of minions.."

"Probably"

"We're gunna have to find a better place to hide the package in."

Jewi nodded. "Okay, but the first thing I'm gonna do is get out of this bunny get up."

Ran laughed. "You're the one who wanted to follow protocol." She grinned.

"Well, I'd be a better fighter without high heels." Jewi grinned.

"Ya think?" Ran grinned again.

"Well... high heels are nice and pointy, but I'm still worried I'd fall over and break my ankle before I could shove the point up someone's butt.."

"Ouch!" Ran winced at the thought.

Jewi wondered which part Ran was wincing at. Her ankle breaking or a black pump up somebody's butt. *G*

"The pump in someone's butt." Ran clarified. >G<

"Ah." ^_^

"You'll get over breaking your leg." she grinned.

"Bleh." Jewi stuck her tongue at her sister, as they entered the temple (finally). "Gee, you're so caring." *G*

“Aren’t I though?" Ran grinned, deactivating the alarms and traps and things before the cave door opened.

“Riiiight.” Jewi agreed sarcastically as she entered and started stripping off her clothes, starting with her trenchcoat.

As Jewi changed, Ran reactivated all the security, then tried to think up a good place to the hide the package in. "Hmm.. maybe in the bathtub... or the tank of the toilet...."

A few minutes later, Jewi emerged wearing a long sleeved, black t-shirt, tight jeans, her boots, a jean vest, and her gold medallion.  "There much better."

Ran was still talking to herself. "Maybe we could dig a really big hole..."

"I would feel better if it was in a well guarded hiding place.."

A thoughtful look passed over Ran's face. "Hmmm.. the best guarded place I can think of.. would be on you."

Jewi blinked. "On me?"

"Well yeah, after all, where else could we put it, where we'd always know that it was safe?" Ran asked, turning to look at her sister.

"True.. but we could just as easily put it on you."

Ran shrugged and nodded. "Or me." she agreed.

The two looked at each other.


~To Be Continued~

[Jove]

A Chorus of Fools - Chapter 25

(Wow, sorry there was such a gap in the postings, people. Now that finals are over though, that shouldn't happen again.  ;D)

---------------------------

  Having stationed themselves in the Elvis’ central control room, Eslington and Jove sat down to assess their situation.

“Alright, let’s assess the situation,” Jove sighed, tapping on the metal console beside him. “The legends speak of an ultimate power at the peak of Mt. Fuji. Which we’ve reached.”

“Correct,” Eslington stated.

“However, we must now find the sacred cave it is hidden in.”

“Basically.”

“Unfortunately, we might have several rivals to contend with,” Jove growled, balling his fist. “The sisters McCloud and possibly Clefo and his stoner friend.”

“That was your fault.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“You’re saying it wasn’t?”

“I admit it was, but you didn‘t have to rub it in.”

“Oh, loosen up. You need to relax.”

  With that, Jove’s left eye began to twitch. How could Eslington be so casual about all this?

(“Mwa, ha, ha! See how casual he is when I send him to his doomed fate!”)

“I’ll relax when I have the ultimate power in my grasp!,” Jove shouted, pointing his finger into Eslington‘s chest.

  Letting out a long sigh, Eslington turned to the ship‘s main control panel. Hitting a few key buttons, the room started to hum with power.

“Here,” he smiled, hitting one more button. “This might help you unwind a bit.”

  Suddenly, what appeared to be a small security camera lowered out of the center of the ceiling. After powering up a moment, it quickly swiveled toward Jove, pointing straight at him. Throwing his hands in front of him, Jove wheeled his chair to the back of the room until his back hit the wall.

“You traitor!” Jove gasped, “ I knew this was a double cross! You just wanted to lure me inside so you could blast me with your laser cannon thingy!”

  Blinking in confusion, Eslington stared at him a moment before realization dawned on his face.

“What? Nooooo. That isn’t a laser. It’s a holographic image projector! It can create an image of anything we can imagine!”

  Taking in this new information, Jove lowered his hands, slowly recovering from the scare. After a moment’s thought, a smile slowly crept across his face.

“Anything?” he quietly asked, as a small trickle of blood leaked from his nose.

  Eslington answered him by hitting a few more buttons, initializing the machine’s start up procedure. Within seconds, the projector began to emit several beams of light, directed onto Jove.

“Actually, I might have exaggerated about that,” Eslington said apologetically, rubbing the back of his head. “So far it’s only programmed to create the illusion of animal ears on people. Those are cute fox ears by the way.”

“I’ll kill you,” a suddenly kitsune Jove muttered darkly.

  However, before Jove could carry out his promise of violence, N and J stepped through the room’s entranceway. Clearing his throat, N strode forward to speak.

“Sir, we’ve picked up an unusual....Oh god, he’s using it again!”

“Whee! Now I have a fox person and two elves!,” Eslington said, spinning in his chair.

“Sir, please stop. I refuse to give a report with long, pointy ears.”

  Giving no indication that he was even listening to his crew’s complaints, Eslington abruptly halted his show of joy, sadness taking over his mood.

“But they’re false!” he lamented. “They’re all false! Which is why this mission is so important!”

  Turning to N and J, Eslington posed dramatically, adding a low pitch to his voice.

“Tell me! What is our current status?”

  N and J looked at each other tiredly before N spoke again.

“Like I was trying to say before, we’ve picked up an unusual signal below the ship, sir. It’s hard to say, but it appears to be coming from within the mountain itself. Please report to the bridge and take a look at it.”

[Eslington]

Eslington and Jove were lead to the bridge by Minion J at a quick pace, eagerness apparent on both Eslington and Jove's faces.

Megalomanical thoughts ran through the minds of both men as the bridge door loomed ever closer.

[The ultimate power will soon be mine... Eslington shall soon be destroyed... And I can finally fulfil my dreams... WAHAHAHAHA!] Thought Jove.

thought Eslington. [I'd better ask him later.]

In front of them stood a pair of metal-reinforced wooden doors, which J pushed open to reveal the bridge of the Elvis, a large room buzzing with activity, with several minions standing at their posts, ready for any command.

J walked up to a large monitor set in the wall, with a map of Mt. Fuji displayed on it.

"Now as you can see here, this flashing symbol indicated the prescence of the ultimate power."

"Excellent," said Jove. "How long until we can get to it?"

"Well that's the problem," said J. "We don't know because it's inside the mountain. So we'll have to circle the peak and run a visual search for any caves and myst-"

"Oh. My. Goddess..." said Eslington, his mouth gaping. "THE EAR DETECTOR!"

Eslington rushed over to a unmanned console, upon which was a map of the area, with a small icon flashing on it.

Jove walked over to look at the console, noting with little surprise that the icon was a set of bunny ears.

"We've found the bunnygirl! Prepare to land!"

"What about the ultimate-" Jove was cut off as Eslington dashed over the the helm, and began entering instructions for the ship to land.

"But-" Jove felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and turned to look at minion J.

"Sometimes, there's really no point trying to talk him out of it."

With a resigned sigh, Jove waited for the ship to land, cursing his descion to team up with his arch-nemesis.

***

A few minutes later, on Mt Fuji...

"Can we go back to looking for the ultimate power now?"

"No!" declared Eslington. "Not until we find the bunnygirl!"

Jove grit his teeth, and then tried a different approach. "When I let you use the ultimate power, you can have all the bunnygirls you want."

Eslington paused, considering this. "I suppose you're right, but-" He stopped, staring at something.

"But what?"

"Over there! Next to that cave with the sacred symbol!"

Jove looked over and saw, almost concealed in the snow, a cave with a sacred symbol marked on the wall next to it. He pulled out his map, an excited expression on his face.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked. "It's the sacred-"

"Bunny ears!" Eslington was kneeling on the ground, hugging the set of bunny ears to his chest. "No bunny girl, but at least I've got the ears!"

"...Right," said Jove.

Eslington slipped the ears onto his head, a gleeful smile on his face. Then he looked over at the cave.

"Oh. It's the sacred symbol of ultimate power! I bet this is the cave where the ultimate power is hidden."

"Yes..." said Jove, relieved the strange ear-fixated man had realised this. "And this map shows how we can get through the caves."

"Great!" Eslington nodded, his ears bobbing about. "The ultimate power is as good as ours."

"Ah, yeah," said Jove, nodding. [As good as mine you mean. Hehehehe...]

TO BE CONTINUED!

[Clefo]

Meanwhile, maybe 10-50 feet away from the Elvis...

Clefo was burying his head in the snow, cursing his luck (or lack thereof). Asking himself the same question over and over again.

"What would Buffy St. Marie do? What would Buffy St. Marie do? What would Buffy St. Marie do?" He kept repeating.

Grover, however, had one of the possible 4 things that can be on his pot induced mind. Those 4 things are:

1. I have the munchies
2. Where's my car dude?
3. Something over there, might hook me up
4. I am so freaking stoned man!

If you guessed that he was thinking though number 3, congratulations! He was thinking that, noticing something on the horizon in the blizzard. Grover ambled towards it, and noticed that it was an airship of some sort, of course THAT wasn't going through his mind

I have the munchies was what he was thinking at the moment, He boarded the ship, through the clearly marked exit hatch marked "EXIT HATCH" Grover boarded it, hoping that food, or hemp, would be found on this vessel.

The part of the vessel he was on happened to be a storage area of some sort, there was no one there except a minion (Who happened to be Minion "R"). Minion R spotted Grover, sniffing at the spare frozen cows.

"Ah! Intruder!" He yelled to no one. "I must contact Lord Es!" He said running off..

Grover noticed a button labled "Convieniently Place Emergency Liftoff Button." and of course his mind came up with the following

Where's my car dude?

So he pushed the button, and the Elvis' prupolsion started to lift off in the way that they do

"Dude" said Grover

Meanwhile...

Clefo kept repeating:

"What would Buffy St. Marie do? What would Buffy St. Marie do? What would Buffy St.. *Clang* uhh..." He had been whacked in the head with a lead pipe and was being dragged off by a known figure, would he survive?

Tobe continued!