It was late in the evening.
Inside his new laboratory at university, Professor Tomoe was going through his research results. All of a sudden, he yawned... he had to continue his work tomorrow. He really was tired.
He was very grateful that the Outer Senshi (he was one of the very few people of Tokyo who knew the identities of the Senshi) let his daughter stay with them... With his work, he had barely the time to look after her. After feeling guilty for a moment, he swore to himself to spend this weekend with his daughter.
After the Professor had packed his stuff and switched the lights off, he got ready to leave... but before he left the dark room, something bothered him.
He couldn't quite place it... but he had the feeling that he had forgotten something, something very important... Something he wanted to tell Hotaru and her friends...
Oh well! Perhaps he would remember tomorrow. He closed the door and left.
----
Meanwhile, in a chamber deep under the destroyed walls of the Mugen academy, something was stirring...
If the poor doctor would remember everything that he had done under the control of the death-buster Germatoid, he would have thought much earlier about that what was still encased underground...
A special batch of old daimon eggs, ready for the hatching! Daimon eggs that did not affect inanimate objects, but living creatures.
Fortunately, with the destruction of Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90, the evil influence on the daimons was mediocre at best... So they wouldn't really be able to act like mindless monsters, once activated.
Nevertheless, Germatoid had taken some measures in case he or his subordinates would ever be defeated... A special device, attached to those eggs, would activate them after a certain time span, to terrorize the humans in the name of Pharaoh 90... Although, the evil being never reckoned that his master and mistress would ever be defeated.
A faint glow filled the hidden chamber, and then the nine daimon eggs began to stir. Acting like they were on some kind of autopilot, they started floating through the room, and then, through the old pipe shaft every daimon egg had taken in the past.
Automatically searching for the nearest place with many different life forms, the nine eggs approached Tokyo Zoo.
Each daimon egg found a suitable target, latched onto the creature's backside and merged with the life form to create something new...
Opening its eyes, one of the new creatures rose from its slumber and turned to the iron bars of its cage...
About 15 minutes later, a zoo keeper on duty came across the tiger cage... and found two of its bars bent, as if someone or something had pulled them apart by force.
"Oh my..." the man murmured and searched with his flashlight. But the tiger was gone. "Now where did it go..?"
----
Meanwhile, in the dark office of the zoo director...
A faint clicking sound came from the office's door, then it opened, and a young, unshaven man entered the room. With a grin, he pocketed the lock pick he had used to break into the room.
"Now," he chuckled. "Let's see where the good ol' director has all of this day's income..."
His own flashlight wandered across the room, until he found what he was looking for: The safe!
The thief chuckled again. "Bingo..."
He tiptoed over to the massive safe and put his ear on its surface.
"Let's see..." he murmured. "That shouldn't take too much time..."
A finger tipped on his shoulder. He just waved his hands and continued his work. Again, someone tipped his shoulder.
The thief frowned. "What the...? Who's there?"
He turned around... and froze!
Standing in front of him, looking like something out of a horror movie, was a humanoid figure, female in appearance (and with a nice bust, if he could say so in his state of panic), covered in dark fur, with a pair of big ears and two horrifying, leathery wings that made the creature look like a devil from hell.
"Sooo thirsty..." the creature grumbled.
The thief thought his heart would stop.
"YAAAAAAAAH! STAY AWAY FROM ME, BLOODSUCKER!" And flailing with his arms, he ran out of the office, all the time screaming something about 'Dracula's bride'.
The antropomorphic bat Nabiki shrugged and looked through the room. "Where's the booze...?" she grumbled.
----
The thief continued to run through the dark building, reached the stairs and was just going to run down, when suddenly, something smacked right into his face.
"OWCH!" he shouted and held his hurt nose. "Who...?"
A sleek shape was crouching in front of him. The feline ears twitched, while the striped tail was whooshing through the air.
"C'mon," the pig-tailed tiger-girl giggled. "Let's spar!"
"Wh-what is this?" the thief muttered. "A test subject?"
He decided to take a shortcut... and jumped out of the window. Luckily, this was only the first floor.
Ranma looked out of the window. "Aawww, he didn't feel like it? What a bummer..."
Cursing, the thief stumbled out of the bushes in front of the Zoo's office building.
"I have to... get out of here..." he mumbled. He looked upwards... and nearly fell over in shock.
"Oh moo..." the floating girl with the black spots and tiny horns said. "You don't look so well... Maybe you should lie down for a moment?"
And suddenly, the cow-girl fell down from the sky... and right on top of the poor man.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Kasumi apologized. "I still don't get the hang of this..." She stood up. "Are you all right?"
"G-g-get away from meee!" the thief yelled and ran away.
"Where did those monsters come from?" he wondered. "This is no zoo... this is a freak show! And why do they let such monsters run loose like that?"
Then he stopped. Somehow, it felt very drafty... down there...
He looked down... and yelped as he only saw his underwear. "M-my pants! Where are..."
He heard silly giggling from his right and looked up in time to see something looking like a dog-girl that disappeared behind a building, clutching his pants while chanting: "Michelle! Michelle!"
"Where did she go?" a new voice asked.
"Whaaah!" The thief turned around. "Oh boy, what now?"
The girl standing in front of him had a yellow, furry ponytail and leonine ears. "Hey, you human peasant... get out of the way when the queen of the zoo approaches!"
He shivered when he realized that this was a lion girl. "She's going to eat me, she's going to eat me..."
"What are you babbling about?" the creature asked in confusion. "Um, excuse me..." She raised a finger to her nose. "A... aaaaa... AAAAAAA..."
The thief blinked. "Huh?"
"AH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
The massive force of the blast of sound and air that came forth from the lioness' muzzle threw him backwards, and made him fly through half of the zoo.
Kodachi sniffed. "S'cuse me..."
----
With a massive headache, the thief stumbled to his feet.
"Hey, sugar... are you hurt?"
"He looks like it... maybe he needs some help..."
"Ah, just leave him alone... He's a man, and they're only trouble..."
The man's eyes darted left and right as his mind tried to cope with the situation he was in.
"No more... no more animal experiments... I'm all for it..." he babbled, got up from the ground, and stumbled away with a confused expression.
The monkey, camel and pig-girl looked after him.
"I think we should call for help," the pig-girl then said.
"Let him go, Akari..." the monkey-girl huffed. "He'll be fine..."
"I dunno, Akane..." the camel-girl said. "He really looks like something hit his head... very hard!"
"We have bigger problems now," Akane grumbled and scratched some fleas out of her fur. "Like, why can we suddenly speak like this?"
----
"Finally," the thief gasped as he reached the gates of the zoo. "Finally... I'm saved..."
He bolted out of the main entrance, turned around and pressed his body against the outer wall of the zoo. He panted hardly.
"I'll never... visit... any zoo again... in my entire life..." he groaned.
"Nihao!" a voice exclaimed.
The thief looked up. "Huh?"
A girl with many feathers looked down at him. "Who you? Shampoo know you?"
The man opened his mouth and screamed: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
"Whaaaah!" the duck-girl yelled. "Don't startle Shampoo like this, or else... uh-oh, here it comes again... quack... quack... QUAAACK!"
And while the man was still screaming, a big, freshly laid egg dropped into his open mouth.
GULP...
----
"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle aaallll the waaayyyy..."
"Usagi, shut up already! The people are staring!"
The meatball-headed blonde, Usagi Tsukino, grinned sheepishly at her friend, Rei Hino. "Sorry, Rei-chan... it's just that I'm looking forward to Christmas." Her eyes sparkled in excitement. "I can't wait to see if Mom and Dad will buy me the newest Sailor V game."
"I'm surprised that you don't believe in Santa Claus anymore..." Chibiusa said with a frown.
"Of course I do, spore," Usagi grumbled. "But Santa Claus is sooo busy every Christmas season, I doubt he can visit every single person in Japan... That's why I asked Mom to buy me the game."
Luna was walking next to the three girls, her paws sinking into the soft snow. She sweat-dropped. "You never change, do you, Usagi?"
Suddenly, both Rei's and Usagi's Sailor communicators started beeping.
They looked at each other, then Usagi pulled out hers and answered. "Yes?"
It was Hotaru Tomoe, youngest member of the Sailor Senshi. "Usagi-chan... could you please come to my father's house? Something awful happened."
Rei leaned in next to her blonde friend. "Is it Senshi business?" she whispered, so no one would be able to hear her.
The small Senshi of destruction nodded. "I already called Minako, Ami and Makoto... could you please come as quick as possible? I'll tell you everything once you get there."
----
In the nice house of Professor Tomoe, all the other Senshi had already gathered when Usagi and Rei arrived.
The Professor smiled at them. "Good to see you again. I'm sorry to bother you at this time, but this morning, I had a flash of memory from the being that had possessed me, Germatoid."
"It must be something really important if you're calling us all because of that memory," Makoto pondered.
Tomoe nodded. "Yes... I'm afraid that while you managed to defeat all of the death-busters, there still have been some daimon eggs left, hidden underneath Mugen Academy."
"I already figured something like this..." Haruka groaned. "So, we have to go there and smash them up, right?"
"But wait a minute," Ami said. "I doubt that you would've gathered us all if it would be that simple, correct? I mean, those daimon eggs usually need someone to give them some kind of 'instructions', do they?"
Tomoe looked uncomfortable. "I'm afraid Germatoid installed some sort of automatic activation device that made the eggs merge with several living beings once activated... He made it in case he would be defeated some day."
"Did you say 'living beings?" Minako asked. "I thought those guys only possess lifeless things..."
"Well, those daimons seem to be different from the ones we usually fought," Setsuna explained. "They managed to merge with several animals in the Tokyo zoo tonight." She held up a newspaper. "It's all in the news: A thief who was going to rob the zoo director's office has been caught, and he ran into several of those animal-daimons."
Tomoe scratched his head. "Well, actually... he surrendered himself to the police... and the strange thing was, he somehow acted like a duck. He could still think like a normal human being and was able to head to the nearest police station, but all the time, he was quacking and flapping his arms like wings."
"Those transformed animals have some strange new powers from the daimon eggs," Setsuna said. "But as Pharaoh 90 is destroyed, they are not evil. So please, attack them if you must, but do not destroy them. We'll try to catch them all and bring them here, to find a way to turn them back."
"Sounds almost like a Pokémon game," Minako grinned. "Gotta snatch'em all!"
Artemis sweat-dropped. "That's: Gotta CATCH'em all, Minako..."
"Those poor animals..." Chibiusa said. "They must be really confused..."
"Well, whatever they might think of their new situation, with their new abilities, they're definitely a threat to the city," Rei said. "They probably won't like it, but we have to get them."
"It's probably the best if we split up in several groups to search for them," Setsuna said. She handed everyone a sheet of paper. "The Professor and I have prepared a list with all of the daimons and their powers... also which animals from the zoo escaped. We don't know which one of them has been possessed by which daimon, but we should be able to find them pretty easily."
Michiru smiled and grabbed Haruka's arm. "I'll go with Haruka!"
Makoto grinned. "Why am I not surprised?"
"I know!" Usagi grinned. "I'll ask Mamoru if he wants to help as well."
"I-I'm coming, too!" Chibiusa quickly said.