Seventy-Five Percent

A Sailor Moon spamfic by Galadan

Sailor Mercury brought herself to a sudden stop on a rooftop about a block from her intended goal, as her sense of battle tactics finally overcame the panic that had brought her here in a full-out rush across the Azabu-Juuban skyline. She didn't know the situation; rushing in blindly might make matters worse. The fact that no sounds of battle could be heard might be a good thing – or a bad thing. A flick of the wrist brought the Mercury computer to her hand, the slight blue tinge of its visor to her sight and the subtle muting of its ear buds to her hearing. The standard scan showed no trace of any of their previously encountered enemies – no Dark Kingdom youma, no Deathbusters, no Dark Moon family, no Death Moon circus. On the other hand, there were no active senshi either. If there had been a battle, it had already been won – or, she feared, lost – but if that were the case, where were the victors now? Far more likely that there hadn't been any battle... But the call for help! Was it a trap? Her sub-vocalized commands were heard by none but the highly advanced technological items she directed them at.

"Communicator, replay last conversation; feed output to Mercury Computer. Computer, compare sound bite with stored voice samples; identify speakers and search for signs of possession and/or mental tampering."

At once, data sprang to life on her visor:

#Main participants

#Mizuno Ami, no signs of tampering

#Chibi-Usa, no signs of tampering

#Background

#1 young female sobbing, tentatively identified as Tsukino Usagi (82.36 %), no tampering detected

#1 female, tentatively identified as Luna (73.82 %), no tampering detected

#3 unidentified male voices, possibly recorded

#Sounds of a motorized vehicle, possibly recorded

#Crosscheck last two entries against concurrent television schedule, radio programs, movie database, other sources?

No signs of tampering, eh? Let's see... "Computer, analyze voice samples of Chibi-Usa with respect to mood- Wait." The Mercury Computer could – and did – distinguish their transformed and untransformed forms by voice, and it had said Chibi-Usa, not Sailor Chibi-Moon. And Tsukino Usagi as well, not Sailor Moon... Also, it had picked up the voices from her television, but nothing from the other side, so there probably wasn't anybody else there – especially since Luna was apparently talking... Maybe this wasn't as bad as she had originally thought. Well, mostly it had been the dread spreading through her stomach when she had realized that she had actually slept through a communicator alert. "Computer, cancel that. Replay sound bite in ear plugs."

#"Ami, finally! Can you get here? Usagi's in pretty bad shape, and we need you."

#"Where are you?"

#"At home!"

#"Five minutes, I'm on my way! Mercury planet power, make up!"

#"... 's home-"

#*click*

"Computer, replay last comment by Chibi-Usa and filter out Mizuno Ami."

"We're in her room, just let yourself in and go up. Nobody else is home-"

Okay, had she actually heard that instead of trying to achieve supersonic speeds on two legs, she would have taken things a lot calmer. Well, somewhat calmer. Usagi was still in "pretty bad shape" and they needed her to fix it. Odd that, wouldn't Hotaru be a better choice? Maybe they needed Ami to scan her first? Well, no time to find out like the present. Still, she had better get there as Ami, not as Sailor Mercury... After a quick detransformation in an out-of-the-way nook of a back alley, Mizuno Ami set off for the house of her friend.

The door had been unlocked, just as Chibi-Usa had said, and the wailing of her odangoed leader could be heard almost immediately as it opened. Hastily closing it behind herself, Ami rushed to succor her friend in need. The scene as she opened the door to Usagi's room, however, did not match any of her speculations: Usagi sat crouched into a corner, bawling her eyes out and half crushing a tear-drenched Luna in her arms. The cat in turn tried to wriggle loose while alternating between soothing and trying to talk some sense into her protege. Chibi-Usa, meanwhile, sat at the desk with fingers in her ears, apparently trying to read something. She must somehow have noticed Ami's entrance through the din, though, for she immediately turned her head and smiled in relief when she saw who had come.

"Ami, great! Maybe you can explain it to her – I know that if there is anyone who can do it, it will be you!"

"What? What's happened?"

"Wouldn't you believe it – the one time she tries to read the science page, it's this article," she pointed at the paper still on the desk, "and she's been crying about the return of Metalia ever since. Please tell her, that isn't what it's all about!"

Ami took a look at the paper. Splashed across two pages was the headline, "Astronomers say: 75 % of the universe is dark energy."

"I mean, it isn't, right? ...Right?" Chibi-Usa had started out jokingly, but when Ami didn't answer, the tone of the last word changed into one of concern.

"Well, I guess it would explain their ability to levitate..." Ami mused aloud, no longer really aware of her surrounding as her formidable intellect began to consider data from a new perspective.