*DISCLAIMER*
None of these characters, situations, places, names, letters or
silicon pathways belong to me. In fact, I'm not even writing
this fanfic.
Tail Kinker Presents
F L U X
Part One Of Four
"Usagi! You have company!"
Tsukino Usagi, Japanese school girl and part-time saviour of all
humanity, dragged herself away from the TV. "Always, they wait
until I'm watching something really good...Oh, hi, Ami!" Usagi
paused; Ami looked rather...serious...at the moment. A sure sign
that this was Senshi business.
"Usagi...I've got something rather disturbing to show you." She
glanced pointedly towards the kitchen.
For once, Usagi caught the clue. "Right. Let's just step on up
to my room..."
* * * * *
Ami pulled out her palmtop computer - not the Mercury Computer,
but a more conventional machine - and handed it to Usagi. "Check
out the news files."
Usagi paged through the news articles. "What am I looking for?"
"Article #2238."
"...Got it." She read the report, then looked up in surprise.
"That's one of Jadite's youma. I thought they were all destroyed
when the Dark Kingdom was defeated."
"Apparently not."
Usagi looked back to the report. "The Honolulu police managed to
kill the sucker, so I guess we don't need to go to
Hawai'i...pity..."
"That's not all." Ami wrapped her arms around herself. "Check
out Article #2247."
"Another youma popped up in Okinawa." Usagi frowned. "The JSDF
hit it with a missile. We should have tried that."
"There's more."
"Another one?" Usagi flipped through the news articles. "This
one in Kyoto. Why didn't we hear of this one earlier?"
"Apparently after these things attacked Kadena Air Force Base,
the JSDF put the whole thing under wraps. That article leaked
out through a tabloid."
"...Ah."
Ami pulled out a map. "I've plotted the path of the attacks.
They don't form a straight line, but I tried some curves based on
these points. This one--" She indicated a red line drawn on the
map. "--goes nowhere and does nothing. It hits little villages
at best, where these three attacks were on major population
centers. This one, though..." She tapped it, then touched a pen
to her lips. "The next attack, if you follow this curve, would
be on Seoul. And this one...Hanoi."
"Both of those are rather distant."
Ami nodded. "But we have to cover them. Perhaps the Outer
Senshi will help us."
"Not likely."
"No. But we have to ask."
Usagi sighed. "I'll call Haruka and Michiru, have them meet us
at the shrine. You call the other three."
"What about Chibi-Usa?"
"Forget it." Usagi shook her head. "At best, she'd be a
liability. Her training is nowhere near complete enough to deal
with a Dark Kingdom monster."
"More likely, you just don't want to put up with her."
* * * * *
"All right, girls. The plan is really simple."
"So are you, Usagi."
"You shut up, spore. Now then." Usagi tapped the map. "I can
take us to both cities without too much trouble, though I'll be
weakened after making both jumps. I might not be able to fight
effectively. Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru; I'll take you three to
Seoul. The five of us will go to Hanoi."
"Wait a minute." Haruka leaned back and crossed her arms. "Why
are five going to Hanoi, and only three to Seoul?"
Ami piped up. "The probability of an attack on Hanoi is forty-
three percent higher. Plus, you and Michiru are stronger than,
quite possibly, the five of us put together. On top of that,
with Usagi being weakened after the teleport..."
"Fair enough. What about the spore?"
"Hey!" Chibi-Usa shook a tiny fist under Haruka's nose. "I'll
put up with that from Meatball Head, but not from you."
Haruka snorted.
"Chibi-Usa is staying here with Usagi's mother."
"I am NOT!"
"And how are you gonna follow us, spore?" Usagi leaned forward.
"If I just don't take you, you're gonna be stuck."
"Wrong. I'll just stow away on a ship."
The room was stunned to silence.
"You wouldn't dare."
Chibi-Usa stalked up to Usagi. "I swear to you, if you don't
take me with you, I'll jump the next ship out of here. I'll get
to Hanoi somehow, no matter how long it takes, whether or not
you're there when I get there..."
Rei stood. "Usagi, she's coming with us."
"Rei! This is blackmail! She won't--"
"You're right. Because we're gonna take her with us."
Ami nodded. "It would be the best choice."
"Besides," added Minako, "it'll be fun for her."
"Not to mention educational."
"FINE!" She sighed in defeat. "But you listen to me, spore: You
get yourself in trouble, it's all your own fault. Don't be
looking to me for sympathy."
"Don't worry, Meatball Head. When do I ever look to you for
sympathy?"
* * * * *
"It's too hot here."
"Shut up, spore. You wanted to come. You can suffer."
"But you didn't tell me it would be so HOT!" Chibi-Usa fanned
herself with a magazine. "I'm gonna dehydrate at this rate!"
Usagi sighed, and slid a glass of water over to Chibi-Usa.
"Better get some more water into you."
The Tsukinos were not the only misery in Hanoi. The weather also
qualified. The table that Usagi and Chibi-Usa were sitting at
was in the shade, just outside a small tea house, but the
temperature was still horrid. Add to that the humidity, the
language barrier, and the general dislike that the average
Vietnamese had for the average Japanese...
Ami and Rei walked up to the table. Ami set two bottles of
orange juice in front of Chibi-Usa. "Here. Each of you drink
one of these. Orange juice is better for fighting dehydration
than water."
Usagi grabbed a bottle, popped the top and chugged the whole
thing in one breath. She dropped the bottle and gasped.
"Thanks, Ami."
"No problem." Ami sat down and pulled out her palmtop. "I was
unable to find any more news about marauding monsters."
"Joy."
"We'll just have to wait for one to make a move, then pulverize
it." Rei smacked her fist into her open palm. "After that, we
can extrapolate their next target."
"Wouldn't it be better to--" Ami was interrupted by a beep from
her communicator. She pulled it out and flipped it open.
"Haruka! What news?"
"It came here." Sailor Uranus looked rather battered and singed.
"Whatever the hell it was, it was powerful. It managed to get a
good hit on Hotaru--"
"Oh, no!" Usagi leaned towards the communicator. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah. She got a couple of cracked ribs and a broken collarbone,
but she'll live." She snorted. "Can't say the same for the
beast, though. Michiru freaked. She just about went berserk,
tore the thing apart with her bare hands." Haruka managed to look
impressed. "I've never seen her do anything like this before.
She's no pacifist, but she's always been rather less...aggressive
than me. But when that...thing...hit Hotaru..." Haruka
shuddered.
Usagi had been on the recieving end of more than a few attacks
launched by Michiru and Haruka; she almost felt sorry for the
monster. Then she pictured Hotaru, the delicate Senshi knocked
flying by the monster, lying in a crumpled heap...
*That critter got off lucky.*
Ami finished plotting her curve. "That means that its next
attack point is almost certainly Beijing."
"Not this one. This one's next stop is Tarterus."
"I mean the next monster. Whoever's controlling these things has
led a fairly consistent curve. Haruka, is it possible for you
three to reach Beijing?"
"No." Haruka managed to look apologetic. "Setsuna contacted us,
and told us that under no circumstances were we to get involved
in this. Said it was dangerous to the time stream for some
reason." She scowled. "I thought it was really none of our
business, at first...just the remnants of an old fight...but now
I want to hurt them!"
Usagi shook her head. "No, Haruka. You've gotta listen to
Setsuna; she knows what she's doing. I'll come to Seoul, take
you three back to Tokyo."
"Don't worry about it. We've already got plane tickets." Haruka
looked at Usagi intensely. "Go to Beijing. Stop the attack
there. And if you can, learn who's controlling them." She looked
bitter. "And punish them."
"You have my word."
Ami closed the communicator, then looked up at Usagi. The
sometime Princess' face was set in a mask.
"Hotaru got hurt because she listened to me. These monsters are
left over from our fight. Hotaru got hurt because I didn't do a
good enough job on the mop-up."
"You--"
She whirled on Rei. "Don't say anything, Rei! It's my fault
she's hurt. And someone's gonna pay." She turned to Ami.
"Contact Makoto and Minako. Tell them we're leaving for Beijing,
first thing in the morning."
Ami nodded, and reopened the communicator.
* * * * *
The bus bounced along the narrow country road, slowing
occasionally to allow children to cross in front of it. Though
the weather was just as stifling hot, it was much less humid, and
the six Senshi were enjoying themselves more than they had in
Hanoi. Makoto, in particular, was quite taken with the scenery,
and spent an awful lot of time staring at the hills and forests.
Ami was pecking at her palmtop. Without proper telephone lines,
she had been cut off from accessing Internet news, but her
palmtop was capable of recieving FM radio. The problem lay in
getting a channel that would report the news in some language she
spoke. Her Cantonese was pretty good, but mostly she was getting
Vietnamese stations.
Rei had spent most of the trip dozing, but snapped awake when the
van lurched to a stop. She blinked, and looked out the window.
"Oh, hell. Usagi!"
"What?" Usagi stopped tormenting her 'daughter', and turned to
Rei. "Problem?"
"Yeah. A really, really big problem." She jerked a thumb
towards the window. "See those four trigger-happy goons
approaching the van? The ones who look like they're about to ask
for our non-existent entry visas? They are the problem."
"Oh, is that all?"
Rei blinked.
"Don't worry. They won't be a problem."
"How can you say that, Usagi?"
Usagi glanced at the piece of paper in her hand. "Ami's gonna
get us past them. Right, Ami?"
Ami was sweating. "Um...I kinda wish you'd mentioned that
earlier, Usagi."
"Don't worry, Ami. You'll do fine."
"Usagi, I really have no idea--" Ami shut up just as the first
goon stepped into the van. She watched as the goon went from
person to person, checking papers and identification. Finally,
the goon came to her.
"Identification and entry visa, please."
Ami silently handed the goon her identification. The goon looked
it over, then looked back at her. "These five are with you?"
"Y-yes."
"Carry on." The goon turned around and marched off the bus.
Ami let her breath out, then turned and glared at Usagi. "What
happened?"
"Simple." Usagi handed Ami a poster. Ami took it and looked
down at it--and gasped.
The poster, written in Chinese, stated that the girl in the
picture was a common visitor to China, usually through unusual
means. It also stated that she was a deadly threat in hand-to-
hand combat, but known not to be a threat to the state. It
advised all government officials simply to let her--and anyone
with her--pass.
The shocking part was the picture. It looked almost identical to
Ami.
"Usagi..." She let the paper fall from her fingers. "Where did
you get this?"
"Off of the post office wall in the last town we stopped in."
Ami shook her head in disbelief. "You might have tried warning
me..."
* * * * *
The youma lifted the limo over its head and threw it into a
nearby bus. Several police officers milled around it, firing
their handguns into it, but having no effect.
Six Senshi knelt on a nearby rooftop, watching the battle.
Sailor Mars glared at Sailor Moon. "We've gotta get in there
soon!"
"Wait for it. I want the police to back off first." Sailor Moon
turned to glare at Chibi-Moon. "And you had better stay well out
of the action."
"Hey, this thing looks nice and worthless. What can happen?"
A motorcycle landed on the roof, only a few inches away from
Chibi-Moon.
"On second thought..."
Usagi stood up. "That's it. All police officers are in retreat.
One down in the region, but still alive. Be careful that you
don't hit him.
"Let's get in there."
The six Senshi landed in the middle of the street, twenty meters
from the monster. Sailor Moon immediately struck a silly pose.
"The time for your kind is over; your leaders were vanquished
years ago, and your entire Dark Kingdom vaporized. But still you
are here, terrorizing helpless innocents. In the name of the
Moon, I shall punish you."
Sailor Mars winced. "I wish she wouldn't do that."
The youma appeared totally unconcerned by Sailor Moon's speech.
Like most of the Dark Kingdom's abominations, it appeared female,
and had probably masqueraded as such before metamorphosing into
its current form. Its skin was grey and scaly, and long red hair
billowed outward from its head. It had four arms and four legs,
and each finger and toe was tipped with a massive claw. It
turned to face the Senshi, and launched a fireball towards them.
"Scatter!" The Senshi leapt in all directions, and the fireball
impacted the street where they'd been standing.
"Flame Sniper!" Sailor Mars readied a flaming arrow, and shot
the creature through the chest. The creature bellowed in rage,
and hurled another fireball at Mars. She jumped out of the way,
then stared in shock as the cauterized hole in the creature's
chest...closed.
"It can heal itself. Even fire damage it can heal!"
"Not good." Sailor Moon frowned. "That means most of my attacks
will be worthless - they're mostly based on healing."
Sailor Mercury landed next to her. "We've got another problem.
Most of our attacks were developed after the battle with the Dark
Kingdom. Our newer attacks won't affect this thing. We've got
to rely on our older attacks."
"Right. Venus--"
"Way ahead of you." Sailor Venus leapt to a small ledge on a
nearby building. "Crescent Beam!" The Beam impaled the creature,
but the hole it caused rapidly closed.
"Thunder Smash!" Jupiter's attack was simple enough; just call
down a bolt of lightning. But though the youma staggered, it
righted itself quickly and resumed its assault.
Sailor Mercury had no damaging attacks available. She monitored
the battle with the Mercury Computer. "None of us have an attack
that causes enough widespread damage to it. Small wounds heal in
seconds; even Jupiter's lightning attacks aren't enough."
Sailor Moon smacked her forehead. "I should have thought of this
before. It's still just a Dark Kingdom construct, right?"
"Yes, but--"
Sailor Moon jumped down onto the street. She removed her tiara,
which promptly started to glow.
Sailor Venus gaped. "What is she doing? That attack hasn't
worked in--"
"Moon Tiara Action!" Sailor Moon threw the glowing tiara. It
smacked into the monster and immolated it almost instantly.
"--years. Right. It's an old monster." Ami snapped her
computer shut. "For once, she figured it out before me."
* * * * *
"I've plotted this attack, and also two other attacks that
occured, one in Saigon and one in Hong Kong." Ami frowned. "This
alters all three curves radically. And all three curves
intersect...here." She circled a small area on the map. "I can't
be certain of the exact location, but I am certain that the next
attack should occur somewhere in Qinghai Province."
"Umm...Ami, Qinghai is rather large. Are you certain you can't
narrow it down?"
"Well, somewhere in this area of Qinghai, in the mountains." Ami
shook her head in frustration. "There's something inherently
wrong with the pattern, but I'm not sure what. But if we go to
Qinghai, I can track the negative energy patterns better."
"All right." Usagi pulled out her own map. "We can catch a bus
to here, then walk the rest of the way. It should only be about
twenty kilometers from the last stop."
Groans all around.
"Oh, come on! We can do twenty kay in a day if we need to! Even
if we take it slow, we can do five kay per day, and spend some
time camping." Usagi smiled. "I love camping!"
* * * * *
Author's Notes:
I can blame this one on Kitsy. It was all her idea. Of course,
it was me that decided that it really needed writing...
I'm just gonna defuse some of the flames before they even reach
me. Yes, I do realize that the Japanese version of Sailor Moon
does not use the term 'Meatball Head'. But I don't really care.
It's three in the morning, and I don't have the means to get the
correct term. Second, I'm not entirely certain what happened to
Jadite, but I do believe that he could have survived. If you
disagree, well...I'll just fudge continuity (like I never have
before :) so that he could. If you disagree with that...cope.
Comments and Criticism can be sent to [email protected].
Flames can be sent to [email protected].
A Further Author's Notes:
Okay, I found out what happened to Jadeite, but it has ceased to
be important. All references to the poor goon are being removed.
Ja Ne!
None of these characters, situations, places, names, letters or
silicon pathways belong to me. In fact, I'm not even writing
this fanfic.
Tail Kinker Presents
F L U X
Part One Of Four
"Usagi! You have company!"
Tsukino Usagi, Japanese school girl and part-time saviour of all
humanity, dragged herself away from the TV. "Always, they wait
until I'm watching something really good...Oh, hi, Ami!" Usagi
paused; Ami looked rather...serious...at the moment. A sure sign
that this was Senshi business.
"Usagi...I've got something rather disturbing to show you." She
glanced pointedly towards the kitchen.
For once, Usagi caught the clue. "Right. Let's just step on up
to my room..."
* * * * *
Ami pulled out her palmtop computer - not the Mercury Computer,
but a more conventional machine - and handed it to Usagi. "Check
out the news files."
Usagi paged through the news articles. "What am I looking for?"
"Article #2238."
"...Got it." She read the report, then looked up in surprise.
"That's one of Jadite's youma. I thought they were all destroyed
when the Dark Kingdom was defeated."
"Apparently not."
Usagi looked back to the report. "The Honolulu police managed to
kill the sucker, so I guess we don't need to go to
Hawai'i...pity..."
"That's not all." Ami wrapped her arms around herself. "Check
out Article #2247."
"Another youma popped up in Okinawa." Usagi frowned. "The JSDF
hit it with a missile. We should have tried that."
"There's more."
"Another one?" Usagi flipped through the news articles. "This
one in Kyoto. Why didn't we hear of this one earlier?"
"Apparently after these things attacked Kadena Air Force Base,
the JSDF put the whole thing under wraps. That article leaked
out through a tabloid."
"...Ah."
Ami pulled out a map. "I've plotted the path of the attacks.
They don't form a straight line, but I tried some curves based on
these points. This one--" She indicated a red line drawn on the
map. "--goes nowhere and does nothing. It hits little villages
at best, where these three attacks were on major population
centers. This one, though..." She tapped it, then touched a pen
to her lips. "The next attack, if you follow this curve, would
be on Seoul. And this one...Hanoi."
"Both of those are rather distant."
Ami nodded. "But we have to cover them. Perhaps the Outer
Senshi will help us."
"Not likely."
"No. But we have to ask."
Usagi sighed. "I'll call Haruka and Michiru, have them meet us
at the shrine. You call the other three."
"What about Chibi-Usa?"
"Forget it." Usagi shook her head. "At best, she'd be a
liability. Her training is nowhere near complete enough to deal
with a Dark Kingdom monster."
"More likely, you just don't want to put up with her."
* * * * *
"All right, girls. The plan is really simple."
"So are you, Usagi."
"You shut up, spore. Now then." Usagi tapped the map. "I can
take us to both cities without too much trouble, though I'll be
weakened after making both jumps. I might not be able to fight
effectively. Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru; I'll take you three to
Seoul. The five of us will go to Hanoi."
"Wait a minute." Haruka leaned back and crossed her arms. "Why
are five going to Hanoi, and only three to Seoul?"
Ami piped up. "The probability of an attack on Hanoi is forty-
three percent higher. Plus, you and Michiru are stronger than,
quite possibly, the five of us put together. On top of that,
with Usagi being weakened after the teleport..."
"Fair enough. What about the spore?"
"Hey!" Chibi-Usa shook a tiny fist under Haruka's nose. "I'll
put up with that from Meatball Head, but not from you."
Haruka snorted.
"Chibi-Usa is staying here with Usagi's mother."
"I am NOT!"
"And how are you gonna follow us, spore?" Usagi leaned forward.
"If I just don't take you, you're gonna be stuck."
"Wrong. I'll just stow away on a ship."
The room was stunned to silence.
"You wouldn't dare."
Chibi-Usa stalked up to Usagi. "I swear to you, if you don't
take me with you, I'll jump the next ship out of here. I'll get
to Hanoi somehow, no matter how long it takes, whether or not
you're there when I get there..."
Rei stood. "Usagi, she's coming with us."
"Rei! This is blackmail! She won't--"
"You're right. Because we're gonna take her with us."
Ami nodded. "It would be the best choice."
"Besides," added Minako, "it'll be fun for her."
"Not to mention educational."
"FINE!" She sighed in defeat. "But you listen to me, spore: You
get yourself in trouble, it's all your own fault. Don't be
looking to me for sympathy."
"Don't worry, Meatball Head. When do I ever look to you for
sympathy?"
* * * * *
"It's too hot here."
"Shut up, spore. You wanted to come. You can suffer."
"But you didn't tell me it would be so HOT!" Chibi-Usa fanned
herself with a magazine. "I'm gonna dehydrate at this rate!"
Usagi sighed, and slid a glass of water over to Chibi-Usa.
"Better get some more water into you."
The Tsukinos were not the only misery in Hanoi. The weather also
qualified. The table that Usagi and Chibi-Usa were sitting at
was in the shade, just outside a small tea house, but the
temperature was still horrid. Add to that the humidity, the
language barrier, and the general dislike that the average
Vietnamese had for the average Japanese...
Ami and Rei walked up to the table. Ami set two bottles of
orange juice in front of Chibi-Usa. "Here. Each of you drink
one of these. Orange juice is better for fighting dehydration
than water."
Usagi grabbed a bottle, popped the top and chugged the whole
thing in one breath. She dropped the bottle and gasped.
"Thanks, Ami."
"No problem." Ami sat down and pulled out her palmtop. "I was
unable to find any more news about marauding monsters."
"Joy."
"We'll just have to wait for one to make a move, then pulverize
it." Rei smacked her fist into her open palm. "After that, we
can extrapolate their next target."
"Wouldn't it be better to--" Ami was interrupted by a beep from
her communicator. She pulled it out and flipped it open.
"Haruka! What news?"
"It came here." Sailor Uranus looked rather battered and singed.
"Whatever the hell it was, it was powerful. It managed to get a
good hit on Hotaru--"
"Oh, no!" Usagi leaned towards the communicator. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah. She got a couple of cracked ribs and a broken collarbone,
but she'll live." She snorted. "Can't say the same for the
beast, though. Michiru freaked. She just about went berserk,
tore the thing apart with her bare hands." Haruka managed to look
impressed. "I've never seen her do anything like this before.
She's no pacifist, but she's always been rather less...aggressive
than me. But when that...thing...hit Hotaru..." Haruka
shuddered.
Usagi had been on the recieving end of more than a few attacks
launched by Michiru and Haruka; she almost felt sorry for the
monster. Then she pictured Hotaru, the delicate Senshi knocked
flying by the monster, lying in a crumpled heap...
*That critter got off lucky.*
Ami finished plotting her curve. "That means that its next
attack point is almost certainly Beijing."
"Not this one. This one's next stop is Tarterus."
"I mean the next monster. Whoever's controlling these things has
led a fairly consistent curve. Haruka, is it possible for you
three to reach Beijing?"
"No." Haruka managed to look apologetic. "Setsuna contacted us,
and told us that under no circumstances were we to get involved
in this. Said it was dangerous to the time stream for some
reason." She scowled. "I thought it was really none of our
business, at first...just the remnants of an old fight...but now
I want to hurt them!"
Usagi shook her head. "No, Haruka. You've gotta listen to
Setsuna; she knows what she's doing. I'll come to Seoul, take
you three back to Tokyo."
"Don't worry about it. We've already got plane tickets." Haruka
looked at Usagi intensely. "Go to Beijing. Stop the attack
there. And if you can, learn who's controlling them." She looked
bitter. "And punish them."
"You have my word."
Ami closed the communicator, then looked up at Usagi. The
sometime Princess' face was set in a mask.
"Hotaru got hurt because she listened to me. These monsters are
left over from our fight. Hotaru got hurt because I didn't do a
good enough job on the mop-up."
"You--"
She whirled on Rei. "Don't say anything, Rei! It's my fault
she's hurt. And someone's gonna pay." She turned to Ami.
"Contact Makoto and Minako. Tell them we're leaving for Beijing,
first thing in the morning."
Ami nodded, and reopened the communicator.
* * * * *
The bus bounced along the narrow country road, slowing
occasionally to allow children to cross in front of it. Though
the weather was just as stifling hot, it was much less humid, and
the six Senshi were enjoying themselves more than they had in
Hanoi. Makoto, in particular, was quite taken with the scenery,
and spent an awful lot of time staring at the hills and forests.
Ami was pecking at her palmtop. Without proper telephone lines,
she had been cut off from accessing Internet news, but her
palmtop was capable of recieving FM radio. The problem lay in
getting a channel that would report the news in some language she
spoke. Her Cantonese was pretty good, but mostly she was getting
Vietnamese stations.
Rei had spent most of the trip dozing, but snapped awake when the
van lurched to a stop. She blinked, and looked out the window.
"Oh, hell. Usagi!"
"What?" Usagi stopped tormenting her 'daughter', and turned to
Rei. "Problem?"
"Yeah. A really, really big problem." She jerked a thumb
towards the window. "See those four trigger-happy goons
approaching the van? The ones who look like they're about to ask
for our non-existent entry visas? They are the problem."
"Oh, is that all?"
Rei blinked.
"Don't worry. They won't be a problem."
"How can you say that, Usagi?"
Usagi glanced at the piece of paper in her hand. "Ami's gonna
get us past them. Right, Ami?"
Ami was sweating. "Um...I kinda wish you'd mentioned that
earlier, Usagi."
"Don't worry, Ami. You'll do fine."
"Usagi, I really have no idea--" Ami shut up just as the first
goon stepped into the van. She watched as the goon went from
person to person, checking papers and identification. Finally,
the goon came to her.
"Identification and entry visa, please."
Ami silently handed the goon her identification. The goon looked
it over, then looked back at her. "These five are with you?"
"Y-yes."
"Carry on." The goon turned around and marched off the bus.
Ami let her breath out, then turned and glared at Usagi. "What
happened?"
"Simple." Usagi handed Ami a poster. Ami took it and looked
down at it--and gasped.
The poster, written in Chinese, stated that the girl in the
picture was a common visitor to China, usually through unusual
means. It also stated that she was a deadly threat in hand-to-
hand combat, but known not to be a threat to the state. It
advised all government officials simply to let her--and anyone
with her--pass.
The shocking part was the picture. It looked almost identical to
Ami.
"Usagi..." She let the paper fall from her fingers. "Where did
you get this?"
"Off of the post office wall in the last town we stopped in."
Ami shook her head in disbelief. "You might have tried warning
me..."
* * * * *
The youma lifted the limo over its head and threw it into a
nearby bus. Several police officers milled around it, firing
their handguns into it, but having no effect.
Six Senshi knelt on a nearby rooftop, watching the battle.
Sailor Mars glared at Sailor Moon. "We've gotta get in there
soon!"
"Wait for it. I want the police to back off first." Sailor Moon
turned to glare at Chibi-Moon. "And you had better stay well out
of the action."
"Hey, this thing looks nice and worthless. What can happen?"
A motorcycle landed on the roof, only a few inches away from
Chibi-Moon.
"On second thought..."
Usagi stood up. "That's it. All police officers are in retreat.
One down in the region, but still alive. Be careful that you
don't hit him.
"Let's get in there."
The six Senshi landed in the middle of the street, twenty meters
from the monster. Sailor Moon immediately struck a silly pose.
"The time for your kind is over; your leaders were vanquished
years ago, and your entire Dark Kingdom vaporized. But still you
are here, terrorizing helpless innocents. In the name of the
Moon, I shall punish you."
Sailor Mars winced. "I wish she wouldn't do that."
The youma appeared totally unconcerned by Sailor Moon's speech.
Like most of the Dark Kingdom's abominations, it appeared female,
and had probably masqueraded as such before metamorphosing into
its current form. Its skin was grey and scaly, and long red hair
billowed outward from its head. It had four arms and four legs,
and each finger and toe was tipped with a massive claw. It
turned to face the Senshi, and launched a fireball towards them.
"Scatter!" The Senshi leapt in all directions, and the fireball
impacted the street where they'd been standing.
"Flame Sniper!" Sailor Mars readied a flaming arrow, and shot
the creature through the chest. The creature bellowed in rage,
and hurled another fireball at Mars. She jumped out of the way,
then stared in shock as the cauterized hole in the creature's
chest...closed.
"It can heal itself. Even fire damage it can heal!"
"Not good." Sailor Moon frowned. "That means most of my attacks
will be worthless - they're mostly based on healing."
Sailor Mercury landed next to her. "We've got another problem.
Most of our attacks were developed after the battle with the Dark
Kingdom. Our newer attacks won't affect this thing. We've got
to rely on our older attacks."
"Right. Venus--"
"Way ahead of you." Sailor Venus leapt to a small ledge on a
nearby building. "Crescent Beam!" The Beam impaled the creature,
but the hole it caused rapidly closed.
"Thunder Smash!" Jupiter's attack was simple enough; just call
down a bolt of lightning. But though the youma staggered, it
righted itself quickly and resumed its assault.
Sailor Mercury had no damaging attacks available. She monitored
the battle with the Mercury Computer. "None of us have an attack
that causes enough widespread damage to it. Small wounds heal in
seconds; even Jupiter's lightning attacks aren't enough."
Sailor Moon smacked her forehead. "I should have thought of this
before. It's still just a Dark Kingdom construct, right?"
"Yes, but--"
Sailor Moon jumped down onto the street. She removed her tiara,
which promptly started to glow.
Sailor Venus gaped. "What is she doing? That attack hasn't
worked in--"
"Moon Tiara Action!" Sailor Moon threw the glowing tiara. It
smacked into the monster and immolated it almost instantly.
"--years. Right. It's an old monster." Ami snapped her
computer shut. "For once, she figured it out before me."
* * * * *
"I've plotted this attack, and also two other attacks that
occured, one in Saigon and one in Hong Kong." Ami frowned. "This
alters all three curves radically. And all three curves
intersect...here." She circled a small area on the map. "I can't
be certain of the exact location, but I am certain that the next
attack should occur somewhere in Qinghai Province."
"Umm...Ami, Qinghai is rather large. Are you certain you can't
narrow it down?"
"Well, somewhere in this area of Qinghai, in the mountains." Ami
shook her head in frustration. "There's something inherently
wrong with the pattern, but I'm not sure what. But if we go to
Qinghai, I can track the negative energy patterns better."
"All right." Usagi pulled out her own map. "We can catch a bus
to here, then walk the rest of the way. It should only be about
twenty kilometers from the last stop."
Groans all around.
"Oh, come on! We can do twenty kay in a day if we need to! Even
if we take it slow, we can do five kay per day, and spend some
time camping." Usagi smiled. "I love camping!"
* * * * *
Author's Notes:
I can blame this one on Kitsy. It was all her idea. Of course,
it was me that decided that it really needed writing...
I'm just gonna defuse some of the flames before they even reach
me. Yes, I do realize that the Japanese version of Sailor Moon
does not use the term 'Meatball Head'. But I don't really care.
It's three in the morning, and I don't have the means to get the
correct term. Second, I'm not entirely certain what happened to
Jadite, but I do believe that he could have survived. If you
disagree, well...I'll just fudge continuity (like I never have
before :) so that he could. If you disagree with that...cope.
Comments and Criticism can be sent to [email protected].
Flames can be sent to [email protected].
A Further Author's Notes:
Okay, I found out what happened to Jadeite, but it has ceased to
be important. All references to the poor goon are being removed.
Ja Ne!