Day Of The Jellax

Neither Hanako nor Yumi had severe emotional problems, or suffered meaningful disabilities, nor were either cursed with a family who didn't love them. They weren't sisters or childhood friends, but they were still very good friends having met in collage. Their fashion designs had always clicked from the start and had spent a good deal of time bouncing ideas off of each other.

Realizing they made a perfect team, the two had sought jobs at the same business presenting their creative works under a singular submission. Ten years later, and they were getting custom orders from people of refinement and taste.

Hanako had been trapped inside the store when the snowstorm of the century hit, Yumi had been trapped at her home as the alien ice queen had descended upon their city. Naturally the super hero Sailor Moon had saved them all.  Hanako thought the Sailor Scouts outfits were adorable, Yumi felt they were a little tacky, the two soon agreed to disagree on the subject rather than mindless debate about it.

Neither gave much thought about the vanishing of random people. Kidnappers, suicides, runaways, these things happened, it was just a sign of police being overworked in Yumi's opinion. Hanako of course said a prayer for those who had vanished. Yumi felt that was nice of Hanako to do, though Yumi realistically felt there was no connection except those the tabloid invented.

There was no random one on one meeting with one of Them, no easy conversation promising never to be alone. No attempt to run away and end up critical wounded and being saved by being absorbed into Them.  No heroic last stand.

Hanako and Yumi had simply been in the skyscraper that their business called home when it happened. Their business wasn't on the top floor, let alone the ground floor. It gave them a nice view of all the building all the same.

It was just another day, no promotion, no giant orders to fill, a simple, sane, quiet late morning with the two business partners talking about where to go for lunch.  

Yumi was engrossed in a light mystery novel on her break, so Hanako hear it first; there was a rumbling form upstairs. Neither of them had a clue what it was, and Yumi passed it off as some heavy equipment being moved, but the rumbling only got louder, and most intense and what sounded like a million faint giggles.  Yumi stood up when she realized the rumbling was coming down the floors to them.

She opened her mouth to speak to Hanako when They forced their way through the doors leading to the stairwell and elevator shaft. Yumi would learn They had come through the pipes and had started with the top floor and were working their way down. Yumi and Hanako ran backwards almost tripping over mannequins and forms as the red flood of slime forced it way foreword staining everything red in it's path.  

The two were caught up in the swell as it raced along the floor and part of it seemed to take a conscience decision to go straight for the window! Hanako and Yumi both gasped out as they were swallowed whole and pulled under, feeling the red slime with intent and purpose force its way through every opening. Hanako heard them first, the warm pleasant voices, promising to never be alone, the caressing of the slime across their bodies under their clothes, the taste of cherry.  They had no idea when the flood smashed it's way through the window, and instead of falling straight down it took a twisting turn in the way like a giant snake aiming for the giant crossway in front of the building.

The shouts of surprise and alarm of the people outside were muffled within the slime tendril, the two friends felt their bodies become weightless, they felt their sense of touch spreading out from where it should have, being able to sense the feeling of each other, and the tendril, and at the same time . . . they heard each other's thoughts, and more than that, they heard others thoughts too.  

'What's going on?!' 'We're going to die.'  'Welcome to our family.' 'Welcome to our kingdom.' 'Welcome to the Jellax.' 'Don't be scared.' 'Don't be afraid.'  'Just let it happen.'  'It's not bad really.'  'There's nothing to fear, simply let yourself go.'


Hanako was sure she recognized some of the voices she heard, coworkers from upstairs and friends who had been visiting. It was more than that, she actually feel -emotions- from them.  As she listened to them, she felt those feelings them become muddled, indistinct, tone and mannerism bleeding into each other. And she felt her own feelings bleeding into those of her best friend, and that of everyone around her. She felt her bones dissolves as her body turn to liquid and mix with countless others like from the final scene of Evangelion. Yumi found herself appreciating the guy Hanako had dated for six months once, and she felt Hanako now appreciating Yumi's imported Mystery collection. And with it came the -pleasure-, the -peace-, the pure sense of belonging!

Their voices became harmonious and her awareness and consciousness bleeding into the others, that though there was still a sense of where each individual mind began and ended, it was virtually inconsequential compared to the feelings of togetherness and oneness and unconditional love.

'Welcome to the Jellax.' 'We are welcomed to the Jellax.' 'We are the Jellax.' The feeling of consumption was totally without equal. They were absorbed into each other!

They purposely hit the ground and splattered in every direction.  Hanako and Yumi felt their bodies and those of several others spread in one giant wave when they hit the pavement and covered everyone in the giant crossing. Yumi and Hanako embraced them too. The feeling of total consummation was overwhelming, everyone they touched, they entombed and pierced letting themselves in spreading through out their bodies, adding them to the consummation hearing their confused and scared voices join the song of warmth and acceptance.

Eventually the screams running and yelling and crying all stopped, instead there was golden silence among the crashed cars and broken windows and store fronts, instead there was the warm sea of red slime at street level composed of a million bodies and a million minds. As things settled, some shapes rose up form the center of the large lake, the edge now too far away to hear as the Jellax did their work of bringing the gift to all.

Yumi and Hanako rose up. Yumi looked around in amazement of the living sea of red. Hanako looked at herself, seeing herself rising up from the living red sea and the other living minds within, only to fully realize that 'her' body was exactly the same as the stuff she stood in, the surface tension flowing naturally into it with her lower legs with little to no resemblance of anything human. Hanako felt her body, no nipples, and no body hair, almost like she was a Jell-O sculpture; strangely she still had a belly button.  It was like she one big red doll with none of the finer details of a human shape.

Hanako looked in a non-broken storefront window and saw her reflection, her dark eyes were gone, instead a pair of solid green eyes looked back at her. She turned to look at Yumi and saw instead of brown eyes there were only the same solid green almost-glowing eyes. Hanako felt her long hair, and was stunned to realize she could feel her hands touch it, her hair was alive and a part of her, she made it twitch experimentally.  

She saw Yumi still looking at the sights and tentatively touched her, and before she knew what she was doing she put her HAND through her. Yumi gasped feeling her friend inside her and go out the other side. Hanako realized what she was doing and pulled back, neither of them seemed worse for wear Yumi's body instantly reshaping.

"Incredible." Yumi whispered, seeing the scores of solid red naked people: men, women, children, the infantile and the elderly, rising from the muck smiling and hugging each other their bodies often mingling with each other like clay.

The wind blew, and Hanako's eyes widened as she -just now- realized she was naked! She covered herself with a small yelp actually going waist deep into the slime though it wasn't half deep enough for her to do so logically.

Yumi smiled and pulled her up, "It's okay, everyone else is naked, and I don't think we're actually showing anything anymore anyway." Hanako's body reformed as she came out of the shallow lake of their fellow Jellax.  

"Thanks Yumi."

"Any time." And the two hugged.

One by one the districts of Tokyo were embraced into the consummation, then each county of Japan, then they brought their gift to China, the United Statues, and of course North and South Korea, the entire world would turn bright cherry with their love.

Time passed.

Yumi and Hanako along with countless others brought into the Jellax met their Matriarch for the first time in what had been the walls of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. She had apparently been transporting those she embraced into the consummation back to the tenth planet she had come from to fully indoctrinate them into the family and to prepare their numbers to where Yumi and Hanako had beheld them make their grand public entrance.

As each Jellax had entered, they had been given a bow tie of a color of their choice; with a emblem at the center of a black upside down moon they were told was the crest of the Nega Moon Family who had prevented the Jellax from suffering final extinction. Yumi chose a black one, Hanako a pink one.  The Jellax they were told would now take this symbol as their own as a sign of gratitude.

All of them felt a small 'jolt' putting them on. Hanako asked about that.  Apparently the stone at the center of each bow was a stone directly from Nemesis, the Jellax home world.  Every last one of them felt it, for some it was just a tingle not worth even noticing, for others it was a like a ripple had gone through them. Each felt even MORE sure of their identity than before, if that was even possible! Each of them was a Jellax, each of them were a child of Nemesis, none of them were human, it was like the bow tie was now a part of them.   

All now bore the branding of The Nega-Moon Family's Droid Army created by Prince Saphir for the rest of his family's use. Jamanen remembered when Saphir had given the stone in the form of a bow tie to her so she could function as part of their army. She remembered when Prince Saphir had said he had made it in particular for her and had wished her luck before being taken with the Four Sisters into the past along with the droids he had created for them. Now thanks to her Guardians, she didn't have to take hours to crudely make a similar bow tie one at a time, but could produce them in VAST numbers with their combined magics.

Jamanen didn't want to admit at the time, but she had felt a sense of unity and fellowship from wearing that bow tie Saphir gave her. She didn't think she'd feel bad over the destruction of a DROID, but Atsugessho, Nipasu, Dumble, and Furaiki's destructions had gotten to her all the same.  Saphir's gift was now multiplied onto every Jellax that came into her growing family, a living memorial to Saphir and his creations. A tiny voice echoed the word 'Droid' once at the back of each of their minds.

Jamanen rightly assumed Saphir was dead, but didn't know any of the details, since she had erased the memories and identities of the Senshi before thinking to ask such questions of what had happened since her 'death' at the hands of Sailor Moon. She had no clue what the Doom Phantom aka Wiseman had almost done to the world she was now using as a staging ground for her people's resurrection.

Now millions upon millions of Jellax stood, lay, or sat waiting for her to come forth, the one who had given them this wonderful gift of Jellax-hood.

A twisting opening in reality like a black whirlpool opened up on its side in the center of the palace. The Descendant of the Sun himself had been spirited away by some loyal retainers before he could be given the gift along with his wife and family.

Twelve female shaped Jellax emerged. Five of them were clearly in their teens and were grouped together. At least two of them were in their twenties. One was in her thirties or late twenties. And one looked to be a child.  

The teen with the white bow tie with meatballs 'hair' spoke in a loud voice. "Welcome Consummation of the Jellax, we are your Guardians. I am Guardian Gooey."

Red Bow Tie said, "Guardian Slimey."

Green bow tie spoke, "Drippy."

"Jelly." She wore a blue bow tie.

"Muk." And a yellow bow tie. Said all of the teen appearing Jellax.


The child with the dark purple bow tie said, "Splataru. Personal Guardian to Chibi-Jamanen, daughter to our Matriarch."

The adult one with a dark green one said,  "Glop."

Next one wore a dirty yellow or orange bow tie with a tomboy haircut,  "Squishy."

And a turquoise one, "Squidgey."

And the final three spoke together all with navy blue bow ties,  "We are Guardians Star Slime!"

Hanako couldn't help but notice how similar the tone of voice for all of them, their body language, their expressions, their mannerisms, like they had all been cut from the same cloth. But there more important things to think about.


Gooey spoke again, "Like our Master we are born from Nemesis herself, but were also liberated from false human memories and identities by our Master. We shall protect Love and the Jellax Way just as we shall protect Her and You." Gooey struck a pose that was strangely familiar to her but couldn't remember where she had learned it.

"Now welcome our Matriarch." Gooey said and out came a Jellax two long tendril hair.  "And her Consort Mamomnom, and her Daughter and Apprentice Lady Chibijam!"

A mute, stead fast, almost stone faced male Jellax followed by an obedient shadow, while a child Jellax with large pig tails like her mother skipped along beside her. Before the Jellax's eyes, her form shrank to that of a three year old and the toddler was picked up into her mother's arms as she waved at the cheering and swooning Jellax welcoming their Matriarch to Earth. "All of you welcome to my family, OUR family, to our consummation! It is my personal honor to each and every one of you to have you as part of my family, my pool, and my sea. Together we are a whole! You have been gifted to be part of a bold new way of thinking and way of life from how humans are, and we shall liberate the rest of humanity from their loneliness and isolation and show them our love! It is my honor to have you ALL with me."

Many soon quickly and happily got to work refitting the Imperial Palace to how they asked their Matriarch on how it should be.

More time past, Japan herself was practically Jamanen's fortress and home and place of residence. No one questioned, no one hesitated, and this was for their Matriarch, the one who had given them everything.

During the world Yumi and Hanako joined repeatedly with two male Jellax Kado and Maro. Both pairs recognized each other at once as having worked in different parts in the same building. Kado and Maro had been chef and sous-chef respectively of a restaurant on the floor above their fashion store, and both had been regular customers.

While replacing pictures of the emperor with renditions of their Matriarch, the four merged repeatedly with two other Jellax named Ryoji and Mayumi 'Baker' Osaka. Apparently they had been dating and had been among those missed on the first sweep through Tokyo. Yumi and Hanako felt sympatric when they learned Mayumi's daughter had escaped being made part of the family and offered their condolences.

When the Jellax of Tokyo began to form into various pools, the six of them had made a point to remain within the same one. And with the threat of human danger reduced to a few troublemakers, the Jellax were free to live their lives safely in the heart of the consummation.

Many Jellax who had been pregnant when they were converted actually insisted in staying halfway in their pools when they learned their unborn child separated from them in the pool to remain until they matured to where they could leave the pool on their own.

Queen Jamanen had insistently declared all new born Jellax were the children of the pool they were in and not selfishly belonging to one or two Jellax: and the formerly pregnant Jellax should feel no obligation to remain in their pools during the development phase.

This wasn't an issue for the six 'pool mates.' There was quite a bit of surprise and joy when they sensed a new spirit within the pool. The Queen herself had explained that Jellax didn't reproduce like the humans they had once been, a great enough Jellax came together with enough power and will, a new life was spawned from the Jellax Pool that they were all composed of and came from.  They were ALL the parents of this new life.

Hanako didn't know what to say suddenly being a mother. Yumi had even less clue. Kado was amazed. Maro actually felt kind of happy. Mayumi felt nostalgic she said. Ryoji was happy that Mayumi was happy.

Months passed, and Yumi, Hanako, Kado, Maro, Ryoji, and Mayumi 'Baker' Osaka's child had crawled out of the pool taking it's own shape for the first time.

Many Jellax noticed that the first children born from the pools nine months after the first conception were effectively genderless, even for a normal baby. Of course, none of the Jellax had nipples, digestive tracks, or the parts a male or female human would be expected to have below the waist, not even an opening. Apart from their eyes, their entire bodies were one malleable mass. This included their hair that was no longer just dead cells but a living controllable part of them. None of them had belly buttons.

Though many Jellax found changing their hair or tendril style from something other than what they were converted as had proven time consuming and difficult to say the least.  This proved to be troublesome for children who apparently didn't have as set in stone mental image of themselves.

The new born Jellax as they emerged were initially only vaguely humanoid, but after observing adults and children, began to take on much more defined shape, though weather their shape was male or female seemed to be based purely on how many more of each they saw at the beginning of their lives. The ones who somehow interacted with an even number, like Yumi, Hanako, Kado, Maro, Ryoji, and Mayumi 'Baker' Osaka's child was incredibly androgynous.  After a long debate it was decided to give him/her the name Michi Azabu. Michi being a unisex name, and Azabu being the neighborhood of the Minato District his birth pool was.

Mayumi and Ryoji had taken up much of the burden to look after the newborn, Mayumi apparently looking foreword to introduce her daughter to her new little sibling once she had been assimilated. Of course Michi didn't nurse, he simply absorbed radiation like the rest of them.

While Michi was a newborn and thus wasn't expected any of him, Hanako was the first to notice that children and early teens weren't being taught even the most basic parts of Japan's long living and proud Shinto religion now, and Yumi noticed had schools on all grade levels had shut themselves down.

Queen Jamanen herself was completely confounded and confused not only by the human theologies, but by the sheer NUMBER of them. While she herself had become a Messiah like figure to many of her loyal fellow Jellax, others were eager to explain the finer details of their beliefs to their queen, which often left her only more confused.

Jamanen herself had not been a Keeper of the Faith of her own species' religion, and had planned to indoctrinate her resurrected species to it only after the world was completely liberated from the unfair curse of being humans. It took her off guard that the humans themselves would not only have a religion of their own, but would in fact have -several-!  It made Jamanen's head spin. 'How could one species have so many different views on truth?'  The Jellax had only had ever one faith, and Jamanen finding out humans had gone to war over their different theologies left her shocked. She had never before heard of a 'holy war.'

The closest thing she had ever heard of was the civil war that split humans in the distant future between the Nemesians and the Crystalians. Jamanen had been particularly careful not to accidentally disturb herself and had taken the senshi after she had transformed them to a spot reserved for the Voice of the Jellax pools on the opposite side of the Nemesis from where she had laid and unconsciously from where the Nemesians would eventually colonize.

The fact Jamanen herself was from the future, and thus was creating a PARADOX by infecting humanity and thus the ancestors of both races of man was nothing something she really thought about. Time travel, paradoxes, cause and effect, and timey-whimey balls were not something she had ever been educated on or had sought information on.  

She knew that Gooey and Jamanen's pet Mamomnom had been Chibi-Jamanen's (or just Jam) parents before, but didn't know that Rini had yet to be born. And thus, if Rini's parents had been turned into Jellax, they couldn't give birth to her to send into the past to be converted into a Jellax in the first place. Let alone that if she converted all of humanity, there would be no Nemesisians to colonize Nemesis, to discover her, to recruit her, and send her as one of the Nega-Moon droids into the past and be nearly destroyed by Sailor Moon in the first place.

No, she didn't think about it in the least. If Glop had still been herself, and still been Sailor Pluto, she would have been horrified by the sheer DAMAGE Jamanen was doing to the timeline. And this wouldn't be some paranoid fantasy about the future not going in the 'right' direction. This would be about the basic law of time travel being violated, 'cause and effect must form a stable loop.' This was one of the reason Pluto herself was hesitant to use the Gate of Time.  This was only one reason among many that the Nega Moon's victory in the past would have been a disaster, if they had crushed Earth in the past, they themselves would have had no reason to go back in time to harm it in the first place . . .

Wiseman, The Doom Phantom's avatar, very likely knew this, and was likely why he had suggested and encouraged this plan to Prince Diamond.  If Earth had been blown up in the past due to actions in the future, it could have ERASED Earth from the timeline due to reality and time under no circumstance allowing for contradictions.

And Jamanen, idly forgetting that she herself was from the future, just continued with her sacred mission of resurrecting her species from the brink of oblivion. Indeed, if Glop still had her knowledge as Sailor Pluto, she'd have been more horrified at the thought that their species could in fact be even MORE endangered due to paradox.

Jamanen herself never questions where her newfound power to save her species came from; she never really questioned how it as remotely possible how with her main body that had housed her soul and consciousness had possible survived Sailor Moon's attack. She didn't bother to think about who could profit, or be even able to profit, from her receiving such a gift and from such a surprising resurrection.

Queen Jamanen was very surprised and somewhat confused when some of the scientists who had been brought into the great pool actually began experimenting on themselves and testing their limits and samples from their bodies to fully understand how their bodies worked. This was a new concept for Queen Jamanen, her species before had always simply been, they knew HOW to do what they could, but had never really dived into the 'Why.'  They, the former heads of several universities even asked their queen if the rest of their kind before her had been able to convert humans like she and they could. Queen Jamanen confessed that no, they had not, and she herself had not been able to before being destroyed and regenerating almost from nothing and discovering her new talent mostly by accident.

The eggheads theorized it was possible that Queen Jamanen was a mutant, or had been mutated due to her long exposure from a much larger dose of the sun's radiation than from the strange extra dimensional radiation of Nemesis.

It never really felt -right- going about during the day, they could if they wished of course, they weren't vampires, but it felt so much more right to simply lay in the pools during that time soaking up the sunlight and going about whatever task they might feel like doing during the night regardless of the phases of the moon.  The conversion of the people of Japan followed by China and the rest of the world into their family had of course put such cycles mostly on hold, but now that all that remained in Japan were some cells of troublesome humans, they let their natural instincts tell them when they should rest.


Once Japan's nuclear power plants had provided electricity to the people of Japan, now they provided nourishment. They gorged themselves.  It was a feeding frenzy almost; Earth of course was closer to the sun to provide yellow sunlight, a form of radiation, but at the same time the annoying atmospheric layer except in places like the South Pole keeping out all the juicy radiation unlike Nemesis.

Never mind that radiation that had made it a perfect habitat for the Jellax had also made it struggle for plant life to etch out a feeble existence so far from the sun.  Even the plants brought by Nemesis' colonists and occasional artificial sunlight provided them were a poor match. Not that a single of the new Jellax knew this.

Queen Jamanen had been hesitant in telling her reborn species of the finer details of their species' origins. While solar radiation this close to the sun DID provide minimums for survival and health without the dark energies from Nemesis, many Jellax were debating on breaking the plants wide open to provide massive amounts of nourishment for all.   

Thankfully the majority of Jellax still remembered their human lives and education, and pleaded this could kill every plant and animal in Japan.

All attempts to Jellaxfy plants and other animals besides humans had resulted in lifeless piles of dead red slime and bleached skeletons. A small child Jellax was the first to find this out when she had tried to Jellaxfy her dog and it had instead died in her arms. The little girl was even MORE confused and upset when she realized she couldn't cry.

Guardian Splataru eventually had to come personally to explain to her that creatures of flesh and bone all had to die sometimes.

That wasn't the only thing that was dying. Potted plants were forgotten about and died of thirsty, fish drowned in water no one had bothered to change.  Other pet animals through sheer persistence eventually got their owner's attention out of their rapture long enough for them to be fed.  Of course, feed what? The workers at the pet food factory had abandoned their jobs to either lay in pool in bliss or seek out remaining humans to assimilate. The farmers had likewise all but abandoned their fields as solar radiation provided what they needed. And the crops went to the vermin and things related to humanity all took back seats.  Not that anyone had anything to buy any pet food with anyway.

And with no electricity, food rotted that was no longer even edible to the Jellax anyway. And beds were left to the moths and the termites that now had a much better use for them anyway. Shampoo and hair conditioners were now just wastes of space.

Wallets, credit cards, checks, were all left where they lay to rot and be torn apart by the weather. And workers at the power plants had all but abandoned their posts for the crusade or the never-ending cycle of bliss. So there was no electricity to run the registers anyway. Not that anyone was even signing paychecks anymore for yen that now seemed completely meaningless anyway.

Yumi found herself thinking of an American Documentary series, 'After People' on what would happen to man's accomplishments after humanity was no more.  

Production on the newest movies and anime ceased, as did the latest video games, not that the electronics factories were running either.

Vocal singers on the other hand were becoming very popular having lost any sense of shame or modesty from their transformation and were able to perform with reckless abandon for the thrill of their fans being able to do what they loved.

No one tried to enforce the will of record companies, of course no one was copying music anymore so it was a dead issue anyway. THIS DID however, result in the full and complete resurrection of musicians and bands being much more in demand and on call though some wind instruments were proving vary hard to work with for the slime based life forms.

Some Jellax began carving messages into stone again as had their distant human ancestors, seeing as pen and paper were now incompatible with their slimly touch. It was a painfully slow process and stone was hard to transport, but at least they had plenty of time to do it.

The children didn't exactly go to school anymore, or collage, and nobody was signing paychecks, everyone pretty much just gave or took what they wanted. And Queen Jamanen, with no education in economics or cultivation just left things as they were. The Jellax on Nemesis had not needed these things, why should they be needed now?  Pools provided all the knowledge new Jellax needed as the knowledge of their spawners were past on as their knowledge was shared. And the link through the pools had been the only form of communication her people had ever needed.

Jamanen didn't bother to think how her species had never numbered in the billions, how could it have? On a world as small as Nemesis. But she assumed, like most people, that the system that worked on the small scale could just as easily work on the large scale.  And the bliss of the union kept everyone happy anyway.

Manga artists continued their work for the passion of it, for as long as their supplies of paper and ink lasted and printing presses could be continued to work with the majority of people whose jobs had been cogs in the giant machine civilization had abandoned them for the ultimate fantasy of remaining in simple ecstasy with no duty save protecting their fellow Jellax and spreading the gift to others.

And then there were the comics and book, hands made of slime and paper did not mix. Again, Jamanen didn't see any real problem since no knowledge any Jellax shared with another could really be lost or forgotten.

Children strangely didn't complain all that much about video games, TV shows, DVD radios, and their CD players' batteries dying out for the final time. They had developed their own reverence for Chibijam as the adults had for Jamanen, and she always had games she wanted them to play.

Eventually Jamanen DID learn about the humanity's ability to spread their voices without direct contact and revamped one of Tokyo's most powerful transmitters and had Drippy at least once a day use her electricity to power it up and Jamanen or one of her Guardian broadcast to the humans the bliss of joining the Jellax and how wrong they were for fighting against love.

Mayumi -gave away- her jewelry to any Jellax that wanted it, after capturing, er liberating Africa there were a lot more diamonds suddenly to go around.

Hanako had an idea, and suggest that the lot of them go to where they were first brought into the family to celebrate their new free cache of jewels and reminisce.

They left Michi Azabu with a neighboring pool promising to be back before sun up.

What Yumi saw, made her feel a strange emotion.  Dresses she had worked so hard on stained cherry that no amount of washing would safely get out. Cloth and rolls left to be devoured by moths. Countless half completed dresses that Yumi hadn't given one THOUGHT to after she had been brought into the bliss that was the Jellax. Yumi didn't know why, but she had this nagging feeling of having abandoned her children.

Kado and Maro meanwhile had split up and gone upstairs to their restaurant, and had come back down with an odd look on their faces, Yumi had the odd feeling it was the same one she was making. Hanako saw the looks on all her pool mates faces and had a strange feeling of wrongness.

Dresses, shoes, blouses, skirts, all meaningless, all empty, all without anyone to enjoy them. Bow ties and "hair" trinkets are the only thing anyone wears.

Before Hanako's eyes Yumi tried on one of her own dresses, it was a mess on the floor less than a minute later as Yumi had tried to move. And Yumi also found out that she couldn't cry, she had not been fully -sad- before now, how could she had figured it out before now?

"What kind of artist am I now?" Yumi asked to no one, "What fashion designs can I give now?"

Mayumi who had been quiet until now said, "That's easy, just emulate clothes with your epidermal slime."


Yumi tried to cry again and failed, "It's not the same! A dress needs different colors and fabrics. Different textures and different ways for the light to reflect off it! It can't be a single monotone color and texture."

Mayumi took a step back, as did Ryoji, never having SEEN a fellow Jellax sad like this before.

That was when Kado shouted at the top of his lungs shaking a fist, "If Queen Jamanen turns all the humans on Earth into our kind, our art will die!"

Everyone stared at him like he had flipped his lid.

"What good is a chef, when no one eats?" Kado said a lot calmer and a lot more rational sounding.  

It took less than a minute for everyone to know what he meant. Jellax simply didn't absorb nourishment like humans did. Their mouths weren't for taking in food. The Jellax fed on radiation, simply that had been in great supply on Nemesis.

Their vague emulation of human form itself was just a habit Jamanen had formed during her time as a loyal servant of the Nega Moon royal court (who she had now utterly and completely betrayed). And Jamanen had passed that habit onto her spawn combined with their own residue self-image.

As such they had no sense of taste, and their sense of smell was rudimentary. Of course, how many cared about such a minor detail about never being able to enjoy the rich flavors and textures of a birthday cake when the Jellax's swimming sea of bliss was there to wade in?

"And what exactly do you suggest?" Ryoji asked tilting his head.

Kado began to rant, "We, we, we can't let humans go extinct like our kind almost went extinct! We have to see if any of them are willing to carry the burden of remaining human for the trade of still being able to taste and try on clothes! We could provide them with everything! It's not like we need it!"

Kado's logic made something click in Hanako, "  . . . if the humans go extinct like we went extinct, isn't that a bad thing?"

Mayumi said, "But . . . they aren't going extinct, they're just evolving, transforming, becoming something better. Us."

Yumi 'breathed' out. "Technically speaking, evolution isn't about what's superior or inferior, it's about what's best adapted to where what's alive lives . . .. " Yumi was hit by a hard revelation. "Earth isn't our home anyway. We aren't children of Earth anymore. Nemesis is our home but so few of us have actually seen it. That's where WE belong."

"That's stupid." Maro said, "We were reborn here. Home is where you live. Not where people before you lived."

"All the same," Yumi said, "Humans pushed a lot of other living things out of their way, but isn't that what we're doing too? And there were other creatures that had a symbiotic RELATIONSHIP with humans that we just don't have . . .. I think you're Kado . . . I love being what I am. I love being a part of all of you. I wouldn't trade Michi for the world like I KNOW the rest of you wouldn't either. But . . . " Yumi knelt down, "But, this isn't right. We forced this change so hard and so fast that we smashed everything along the way rather than taking the GOOD PARTS that came with being human along for the ride . . . We have to inform the Queen that she has to call off the war."

Ryoji said, "The humans will never accept that."

"We have to try."

"BUT WE HAVE TO grant our gift to all of the humans!" Mayumi protested. "It's for the greater good! Aren't all those things WORTH IT if we're finally living in paradise."

Kado struck a pose again, "It is not paradise we are living in! If an artist cannot express in their medium! That is the very depths of Hell itself!"

Everyone stared at him again.

Maro asked tentatively, "You really miss those High School Tough Guy animes don't you?"

"Y-y-y-yes!" Kado tried to weep.

Yumi stood up and look at Hanako, "Hanako, I need to know, you'll be with me when we ask Matriarch Jamanen to stop all this right?"

Hanako nodded.

"Count us in too." Kado said, then looked at Maro who looked scared and unsure, "Right? Right?"

Maro after a few more moments of hesitation found himself and said standing tall, "Yes! We'll save our art and yours!"

Now the four looked at Mayumi and Ryoji.

"What?" Mayumi asked first.

"Can we count on you?" Yumi asked.

Mayumi looked scared, Ryoji held her close.

"My daughter has to join me. I'm sorry, if we stop now, she'll never join me in paradise. She thinks we're all monsters. Unless I MAKE HER see we're not, we'll never be together again, I'm sorry. I just can't."

Ryoji just said, "Where she goes, I go."

Hanako said remembering basic psychology, "If people have ANYTHING forced on them, ANYTHING, they will always reject it regardless of factors. If we stop trying to force it, people may actually see our world for the good parts."

"I can't take that gamble." Mayumi said simply.

"What if Queen Jamanen doesn't listen to us?" Maro asked worried.

"She has to." Hanako said.

"But what if she DOESN'T!" Maro implied.

"I just hope it doesn't come to that." Yumi said, "I don't want to have to make that choice that'll make someone whose made all of us so happy so sad."

"What are you saying?" Hanako asked.

"If it comes down to it. We'll have to SHOW Her that she's in error." The mere idea that Jamanen could BE in error made them all dizzy, but they endured.

Hanako replied, "We won't just be saving humans, we'll be saving Jellax too!"

"Right." Maro and Kado said together.

Kado declared proudly, "Let's go save our Queen, Matriarch, and Savior from Herself!!!"

"I. Think not."  Suddenly Kado was frozen solid from blow the neck.

From four separate directions they came.  

Guardian Slimey whose palms were on fire, Guardian Drippy lightning crackled from between her hands, and of course Guardian Jelly who just frozen Kado. And . . .Sweet And Loving Amaterasu! Queen Jamanen Herself!!

The voice that had spoken before had been calm and analytical voice that at the same time said girlie girl, tomboy, ditz, and mystic like some weird echo. Kado's state made it clear who had spoken.

Queen Jamanen touched the stone at the center of her bow tie, and sighed. "I'm sorry. I really am. But I must ask you here and now to give up on this nonsense."

"It's not non-sense!" Hanako protested.

Mayumi and Ryoji simply stood back.

Yumi however declared, "What are you doing here?"

Jamanen was taken off kilter slightly at one of her loving and loyal Jellax addressing her in such a manner. "That is none of your concern. I felt a need to be here. This place, this night.  I failed to be here personally like I said have been before. It seems Nemesis smiles upon me. That I've been brought here to save you from yourselves."

Maro cowardly hugged Kado from sheer fearful reaction ala Scooby-Doo.

Hanako took a step foreword for Yumi, "Matriarch. We understand now what's been going wrong this whole time! We moved too fast! Moved too hard! We didn't give ourselves time to adjust to this new existence that we forgot things that were good about the old one and forgot to take them with us."

"Humans have done nothing but suffer their whole existences, I'm going to save them all," The queen said touching her bow tie again, "No matter the cost, I'll save this world."

"We need to assimilate PEACEFUL into our place on Earth! Being here opened up my eyes!" Hanako declared with more courage than she knew she had.

A moment later she was frozen.

"I heard your discussion." Jamanen said apologetically, "I know your reasons and arguments. And I am sad to do this. But I can see you're all sick and need to be healed. Please forgive me. For failing you."

Jamanen's arm turned into a blade, and impaled the frozen Hanako. "Hear my voice. You will not recall it. But what I said is what is. And what I do not say is what is not. My voice is your thoughts. You don't question your own thoughts. This is reality, this is truth. You are not human, and thus you were never human, you were not born on Earth, you were born on Nemesis, you spawned from a pool, not, whatever it is that humans reproduce. From a pool you came, to one you will ultimately one day return. You do not have a human name, have never had a human name. All that you remember about being a human is a lie, forget, now forget forgetting, and now forget the forgetting of the forgetting. Those were meaningless. Your name is Blobby, has always been Blobby, will always be Blobby, it is the only name you know."

Paralyzed with fear or frozen, Jamanen repeated the procedure with Maro and Kado.

Before working on the forth one, Jamanen needed to stop for a moment. It had absolutely nothing to do with strength or endurance. The self-proclaimed queen thought to herself like a mantra, trying to calm herself 'It is for the good of the Jellax. It is for the good of the Jellax. It is for the good of the Jellax.'

Two things were learned in the next five seconds.

First, Yumi found out she was a selfish coward.

Second, Jamanen realized she should have -really- had Jelly freeze the other one too.

Yumi move like lightning across the floor to where the smashed window, stained red from Jellax, still remained wide open never having been repaired. Drippy and Slimey shot at her, and if the window had been repaired, Yumi wouldn't have made it, but with nothing to give her a one second delay, she leapt out the window down below to the street below and splattered into the Jellax below, mixing with them and her consciousness swimming along.


Of course, with Kado, Maro, and Hanako's memories of their human selves gone, this resulted in them losing their memories of Yumi and this had no idea who the forth dissenter was.

And as for Mayumi, "I-I, I'm sorry! I-I, I DIDN'T really know her, or her friend! We all worked in this business! I never even really knew her name! It was just bad luck we all happened to come here at the same time! This is the anniversary of the beginning of the great consummation after all."

Jamanen asked, "Is she telling the truth?"

"Yes." Ryoji said simply keeping a perfectly straight face. "Besides, you know we're all Jellax here, we don't lie to ourselves or each other."

The four guardians all turned their heads together and nodded like mirror images of each other.

Yumi didn't go back to her child. There was still Mayumi and Ryoji at least to teach her/him the finer points of his ancestors. And she couldn't risk him/her for her own selfish choices.

Yumi thought back to that fateful day when her human life had ended and her new life had begun, in the giant cross walk as she and Yumi with the rest of the officer workers had invaded the bodies and minds of those they had caught by surprise.

Instead of simply feeling as was the Jellax way, Yumi thought about it.  'Catching someone off guard, restraining them, entering their body without permission . . . there's a word for that.' Yumi felt sick.

Yumi wandered through the night, staying hidden, and then slipped about during the lazy sleepy day. And she found it.

A hardware store abandoned.

A portable radio, and a small bicycle generator.

There was absolutely no information security among the Jellax pools. Anyone could find out anything and no one would feel suspicious about questions asked.

Naru "Molly" Osaka didn't know at first if she could trust their mystery informant or not. She still didn't. For all she knew they were feeding Molly and her cell genuine information so they'd be ready to accept that one lie that would get them all assimilated.  However, thanks to their unknown informant, Molly's rebels had managed to wreak more havoc on Queen Jamanen's empire in two weeks than they had been able to in two months! So much so that the center of all their problems had to call back the edge of her slaves from the northern and southern edges of her kingdom and give the humanity on the outer edge of the cold weather caps some breathing room.  It even inspired the Emperor and Japan's surviving Government in Exile to broadcast a message to the rebel cells NOT to give up.

Among these secrets that Molly learned was that Jellax's eyes when visible weren't invulnerable to physical violence like the rest of their bodies. Molly knew she shouldn't feel proud, those deep pink slime zombies were all just victims, but she couldn't deny she emotionally felt a sense of balance restored when her snipers had shot and blinded a short snarky female Jellax with a spherical hairdo. She had looked so pathetic trying to feel her way around.  'This is war.' Molly found herself reminding herself, and war turned hideous regardless of which side you were on.

And the combat stress was getting to her and her fellow rebels. Some swore the Jellax's invasion had started less than a year ago, OTHERS swore upon their ancestor's spirits that the Jellax had first appeared first in Tokyo than spread to the rest of the world over a decade ago! There were times even Molly found herself confused on weather the person looking back at her in the mirror was a teenage girl had been forced to grow up in the face of Armageddon, or a fully adult woman who had been fighting a war for years. The more Molly tried to think about it, the worse a headache she got, and just got more confused.

She tried to think of when she had last seen her best friend, Usagi, and she was flashed by two conflicting images of being there for her last birthday after having to carrying Usagi after she ate too much of her own birthday cake, and looking at the picture of herself and her friend every day on Usagi's birthday for years. But Molly could do nothing about it, and could only press on.

Deep down, Molly dared to hope that the person feeding them so much information about the Jellax was her mother that maybe her mother's humanity had broken through after their fateful meeting like in the manga. Her mother had bought and sold such beautiful jewelry. Molly had always been so proud of her. She knew it was just poison, but she let herself enjoy the fantasy that some shred of humanity was left inside that mass of red slime that had once been her parent.