Moon of Destiny

by Lord-Mandrake

Post Galaxia, The Senshi learn the history of the universe before the Moon Kingdom. Powerful enemies and Allies awaken, and destinies are fulfilled

1. The Awakening

The characters herein all belong to their respective creating authors, save for those original characters introduced by me. The situations and and story however are of my own design and are as such intellectual property of myself.

It wasn't possible, she kept telling herself that, but it didn't make the feeling go away. Not only was she one hundred percent sure that no one living really knew where she was, she was also quite certain that even should someone have learned where the Time Gates actually were, that their location would be unreachable without her knowing about it well in advance. Setsuna still felt like she was being watched, and she didn't like it one bit, no sir not at all.

"All right, I'm becoming paranoid" the teal haired woman spoke to herself. She had long ago given up feeling strange about her one sided conversations. After the first few centuries of guarding these accursed gates anyone would lose their mind without some sound, even that of their own voice.

"Let's assume for the moment that I'm not paranoid, though that little Galaxia incident last month was enough to make anyone a little nervous." Setsuna, arguably one of the most powerful individuals in the universe, paced back and forth in front of her lifelong charge in consternation. Determinedly Setsuna tapped her Garnet Rod against the Time Gates and commanded them to show her any disturbances in the time stream. What happened was not on her list of expected possibilities.

To understand what happened one must be familiar with the normal function of the Gates. The gates should have magnified the temporal energies contained within the Garnet Rod sending infinitesimal vibrations through space-time seeking any flaws in its structure. These flaws would then be displayed in a near holographic image within the gates. The Gates were not a television, their principals of operation were both magical and scientific, and nothing other than immense paradox could occlude the image in the gates. So it was a hysterical Setsuna that fled from the gates to report an imminent threat to the future of herself and her friends. Setsuna's flight left the Gates once again unattended, but that was the least of her fears as she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt she had already lost control of them. The mists surrounding the Gates glowed in their solitude the soft middle "C" and Chromatic test pattern displayed in the Gates a lending them their soft light.

Despite years of effort on the part of her friends, Usagi still had problems staying awake in class, and Ikeada-sensei's history class was the worst of all. "Who cares?" she mumbled to herself as she valiantly fought the fast becoming need to shut her eyes. From a few seats back a small well used eraser glanced off her head. Sleepily she turned to see Makoto glaring daggers at her. Makoto's expression told her firmly that if she had to stay awake in class, something that sitting next to the class hentai Hiroshi-kun made an absolute necessity, then she would make certain she didn't suffer alone. The Sensei's nasally monotone droning had once again begun to recede into the distance when the school intercom interrupted her.

"Ikeada-sensei, please send Tsukino-san and Kino-san to the office immediately" the voice carried a hint of irritation.

"Kino, Tsukino go" was all the Sensei said by way of granting them leave to see what the office wanted.

"Great, what did we do this time," Usagi wondered aloud as she and Makoto left the room.

"No Idea Usagi, but it sounded important" Makoto added.

"Nahh," Usagi commented as she unconsciously sped up, "Kobyashi-san was just mad about interrupting the class."

A few short minutes later the two girls arrived at the oft imposing door to the school office. Gathering their courage they opened it stepped in and assumed a waiting stance for the secretary, Kobyashi-san, to notice them, it wasn't long before she glanced up. Kobyashi-san's expression was harassed; a first that the girls could remember, and briefly a worried look crossed her face as she addressed them.

"Girls, Mieou-san has requested a conference with you" she said quickly as she directed them to the guidance office. Usagi and Makoto looked at each other anxiously as they made their way to Setsuna's office.

"Mako-chan," Usagi whispered quickly.

"I know Usagi, she never calls us out of class without a really big reason. I hope it's not a new enemy."

Before anything else could be said the girls were in the room. Usagi glanced around quickly noting that all the Senshi that attended Juuban Public High School were present. Obviously this meeting was not a social call. Michiru and Haruka were sharing a chair near that large window overlooking the four story drop to the athletics field. Minako sat in another alternating between looking worried and checking out the guys below in their P.E. uniforms. Ami seemed absorbed in a text book, to a class Usagi was sure the school system didn't offer until college, and finally little Hotaru, a new freshman and certainly the youngest member of the Senshi, stood silently against the wall. Most obviously missing were Rei and Setsuna herself. While it was understandable that Rei wouldn't be there as she attended a different, private, school, Setsuna's absence was curious. Setsuna had called them all here, so where was she? As if to answer the unspoken question Setsuna appeared in a flash of light accompanied by Rei. The simple fact that Setsuna had somehow gathered Rei for the meeting in the middle of school cast a dread pall of seriousness over the gathering.

Usagi was the first to speak up with "What's wrong Setsuna?"

"Were doomed," replied the Senshi of Time. Naturally the reaction to this simple two word declaration coming from normally unflappable Sailor Pluto was exciting to say the least.

"What?!" Minako, Rei and Usagi, nearly screamed in chorus.

At the same time Michiru and Haruka fell out of their chair in shock. Ami quietly began to scan Setsuna for anything wrong with her, say like a possession or this being an impostor, the Sailor Pluto she knew did not drop cute little verbal bombshells like that. Makoto in the intervening time had pulled her henshin stick from subspace and looked to be on the verge of transforming then and there, surprisingly only Hotaru seemed unfrightened by the eldest Senshi's announcement.

"What has happened," Hotaru asked quietly in a near monotone.

This served to further alarm the other Senshi, the last time Hotaru had reverted to that coldly formal method of speech she had been quite prepared to end the world to halt a threat to all humanity. Setsuna gave Hotaru a half hearted reassuring look as she composed herself to answer the rapidly approaching storm of questions.

"First," Setsuna said as her voice cut through the verbal din of the others overlapping questions, "I must warn you I do not have anywhere near as much information as I'd like to about what's going on."

"Okay," came the group consensus as Setsuna paused to gauge their readiness.

"Approximately twenty four hours ago I began to sense a presence, much like the feeling of being watched. I dismissed it initially as nerves from our most recent troubles." At that she gave everyone a wistful smile. "The feeling didn't recede however, and I began to worry. The Time Gates do not exist in this dimension really. They exist outside time in a pocket dimension really quite similar to the subspace pockets that we all keep our henshin wands in. There is no access to the pocket dimension without my staff or one of the keys." Again she paused to make sure she had everyone's undivided attention. She was quite relieved to note that this was the case. Haruka had settled into a serious expression that promised a swift death to any threats to her princess, Michiru much like Ami, seemed in deep concentration. Rei, Usagi, and Makoto watched her with equal expressions of dread. Minako simply studied her intently waiting for her to finish with her tactical analysis, it was times like these that brought out the true strength of the leader of the inner Senshi. Hotaru on the other hand simply waited, for what even Setsuna had no idea.

"It was clear to me that there was no one physically present at the Gates other than myself, it was equally obvious that something was terribly wrong. The Gates had not been opened or accessed as far as I had known, so I scanned time-space for any anomalies." Setsuna's voice took on an almost sick tone of fear at this point in her monologue drawing the other Senshi further into her story. "The Gates responded as always rapidly bypassing all the previously catalogued irregularities, just as I had almost given up and decided that I had simply been nervous, the Gates showed me a test pattern." The way Setsuna said it, it sounded like a bad thing, but for the life of them the other Senshi couldn't contemplate what about a test pattern could be that bad.

"So," began Usagi, "the Gates are broken then?" She finished in innocence.

"No Hime-chan, you do not understand. The gates are not a television, they do not get a signal and can not go 'off the air' something is blocking the Gates, and it has a sick enough sense of humour to use a 1960's American television practice to block them."

"Let me get this right," Haruka interrupted, "you're nervous because someone has blocked the Gates, right?"

"Yes, but I am more worried about their choice of blockage" she finished.

"Why?" Minako asked.

"Because it looks like our enemy is not taking me seriously, which would mean they are either insane, or very very confident. Given that they have the power to block the Gates. I will bet on confidence."

"What else do you know about our enemy," the cold nearly emotionless voice of Hotaru probed.

"Nothing," Setsuna replied.

"Nothing?," Usagi asked shocked, while the other Senshi looked to be swallowing their tongues.

"Nothing, so be on your guard at all times," with that Setsuna disappeared, leaving the rest of the Senshi to dwell on the repercussions of her briefing.

Hotaru was the first to comment after the departure of the Time Senshi. "Well, this could be problematic."

"Problematic?" Haruka added nastily. "Michiru I think Hotaru-chan has been spending too much time with Setsuna, she's starting to share her gift for understatement."

"Be nice Ruka-chan." Michiru chided sweetly.

The banter between the lovers broke the tension in the room allowing the rest of the girls to snap out of the shock that Setsuna's words had left them in. The looks passed between the Senshi easily communicated both their fear of this new threat and their mutual reassurance that they could together they could overcome it. Minako stood gathering the books she had put under her chair when she arrived, her sunny smile a testament to her ability to put bad things behind her.

"Well girls come on, back to class you know, its time to 'Put our noses to the sander' and all," her massacred idiom causing even Ami to wince. With that she left the room, the other girls quickly moving to follow.

"Hey wait, how am I going to get back to class," Rei wailed in dismay as she realized she was miles from her school, and currently officially truant. The departing Michiru gave her a sympathetic glance and nudged her partner. Haruka sighed as it once again fell to her to play taxi for one of the younger girls.

Several days passed in which nothing untoward had happened, though Usagi had the greatest day of her life. The other scouts learned that Setsuna had been so distraught by her information that she had been unable to secure an excuse to get Rei released from class. When Rei had returned to school almost an hour after leaving, with no valid reason for ever having been gone her Sensei had immediately given her a detention, causing her for the first time ever to be late for a Senshi meeting. Usagi had teased her mercilessly for both her detention and tardiness.

The Senshi meetings for the last month had degenerated to little more than formalized gossip sessions, with a small amount of reminiscing over pervious battles. Minako as usual was starry eyed over some boy, and Ami as usual had retreated from the excess emotionality behind her façade of studiousness. Luna and Artemis were both very interested in the non- information that Setsuna had given them and had spent the last four days going over every file that Central had on the Gates and what could be used to block them like that. Unfortunately their sojourn was in vain for Central was unusually vague about the Gates.

The meeting broke up early as there was little to hold them there. Haruka suggested to Michiru that their little family engage in a short shopping spree, much to their delight. Twenty short minutes later the trio had just parked the car when a brilliant golden flash drew the attention of all eyes nearby. There, floating three or four meters off the ground was a man, glowing brightly with a golden light, an inordinately attractive man even Haruka was forced to admit. His outfit was a strange silky shimmering cloth, a platinum undershirt was visible under a strange trailing cloak- vest combination. Its golden half sleeves were covered in some bizarre archaic looking symbols somehow appearing stable however the cloth bent with wind of movement. Loose silver drawstring style pants and calf high platinum boots completed his outfit. The Juuban ward of Tokyo was infamous for its odd happenings. Monsters and alien invasions had become all too common to the citizens of this oft harassed ward. The running and screaming began before the strange man so much as blinked.

"My, that's odd," he spoke to himself in a pleasant tone. "I've never quite had this effect on a crowd before." He called out to anyone able to hear him, "Is it something I'm wearing? Does my cologne stink or something?" Genuinely perplexed the man had no warning when the attack came.

"World Shaking!," The now transformed Sailor Uranus yelled as she sent a sphere of yellow energy burrowing through the ground only to burst up underneath her target bathing him in a combination of its explosive force and projectiles of dislodged concrete.

"Deep Submerging!," the voice of Michiru joined that of her lover as an Aquamarine ball of light joined the yellow on its target.

For an instant the enemy was obscured by the blasts. Long experience had taught the Senshi that remaining still and hoping their first attacks had destroyed their enemy was a futile and foolish this to do. As soon as they had released their attacks Sailors Uranus and Neptune had separated in a well and often practiced flanking manoeuvre, leaving Sailor Saturn to handle the central tine of the forking combat tactic. Sailor Saturn calmly grounded the haft of her enormous Glaive and prepared to set her defences.

"Silence Wall," Saturn spoke in a voice far more calm than her face. Nothing obvious occurred but the little Senshi breathed a small sigh of relief.

The two older girls continued their flanking manoeuvre in the half second that the visible energy pulse caused by their attacks required to fade. They were somewhat shocked to see that their target was completely unaffected by their combined attack, but as this was far from beyond the realm possibility, and had in fact happened before. They knew just what to do in a situation like this.

"World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerging!"

Again the attacks converged on the target. They slammed into him with the force of a freight train, the shockwave blew out every window in the front of the mall. The sound of the explosion was deafening, the wind rush almost instantly cleared the air of dust and debris. As the light faded again all could easily see that the man was still unhurt, and his clothing unsoiled by the powerful attacks. His expression had become somewhat less puzzled and moved more into the realm of offended.

"I say," He began as the echo from the blast receded enough for him to be heard over it

"World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerging!"

The blasts once again struck the man who had as of yet taken no obvious action to either return fire or defend himself from the prismatic energy attacks. As the lights faded from the third attempt the man softly descended the three and a half meters to the ground and casually approached the purple skirted little girl with the large bladed staff. As he neared Hotaru his features became more clear.

Silky looking chocolate brown hair reached the middle of his back despite being held in a pony tail with a silver ring at his shoulder blades. His eyes were an astonishingly piercing green. His face was classically handsome with high cheekbones and a small sharp nose. His complexion was pale, not at all like the pale of someone that worked indoors but more like someone of Celtic descent. He was neither thin nor heavily muscled, instead he was built more like a swimmer. His casual walk showed effortless predatory grace. Hotaru had the disturbing mental image of a cat stalking a mouse as he approached her.

He stopped not quite a meter in front of her grounded weapon, mere centimetres in front of the invisible yet highly tangible force field created by her earlier action. She looked up to meet his gaze and absently noted that though he was taller than her, Setsuna or Makoto probably overtopped him.

"Pardon me little one," he said to her with a strange accent, "but I can't help but notice that your friends are trying to kill me," he said as yet another pair of energy blasts struck him from behind. "You wouldn't happen to be able to tell me what I've done wrong would you?"

Hotaru felt like she was swallowing her tongue, her throat was thick and she was completely unable to form words. Not only was this strange man apparently unhurt by the older girls attacks, he was apparently not really even concerned with them, only noting them in passing as evidence that yes in fact someone was trying quite hard to kill him. Incoherent sounds came from her throat as she tried valiantly to form the words to make her fear understood. He nodded sagely at her as if he appreciated her plight.

"Don't bother trying to talk," he said gently, "just think loud and I'll hear you."

It was at that point that Haruka upped the ante in the one sided combat. Haruka withdrew the Space Sword from her subspace pocket and called out a new attack.

"Space Sword Blaster!," she screamed as a blade-like force of yellow energy left her weapon to strike the man in the back.

Hotaru had the best possible view of his face as the attack hit, he didn't flicker an eyelash, there was no response that he even acknowledged the fatally intended strike. Sputtering in abject terror as the literal impossible happened within a meter of her, Hotaru was torn between leaving her Silence Wall up and praying to all the Kami that it would withstand whatever attack he eventually threw at them, and striking him quickly with her Silence Glaive Surprise. The decision was taken from her as his eyes narrowed in terrible irritation.

"Even the child is thinking about killing me, Neko is gonna laugh his ass off at this one," he muttered bitterly. Turning quickly to face his two assailants he made an absent gesture with his hand and Sailor Uranus flew backwards with incredible speed as if struck hard by some unseen blow. She impacted the outer partition of the Juuban mall, its thick concrete wall hardly hindering her flight. The sound of explosively breaking bones echoed louder than the noise of shattering stone as she disappeared into the newly created hole.

A cry of despair tore itself from the throat of the aqua haired beauty in the like coloured skirt. A snarl contorted her beautiful face into a mask of rage as the man stalked toward her with a feline grace. With a tearing motion Michiru withdrew her Deep Aqua Mirror and readied herself to reflect the power of the bastard's attack back at him. When he simply continued forward and failed to attack in any way she grew desperate.

"Well, come on attack me, are you to cowardly to kill me like you did Sailor Uranus you bastard," she taunted trying frantically in her fury and anguish to incite him to attack her as well. He stopped within arms reach of her with a sad expression on his face.

"I'm truly sorry for your pain pretty one, but you're compatriot intended to kill me," his voice carried his sorrow at having hurt the brave one but her intent had grown too serious to ignore. "She still lives. If it is your intent to save her though you'll need to act quickly, her life fades as we speak." It was obvious that he had more to say, but Michiru could take no more.

Her lover was probably dead, despite the obvious lies the murderer tried to convince her of. Her magical attacks had been less than useless against this fiend, but he seemed to have taken offence at Haruka's Space Sword Blaster, maybe it had hurt him. Out of options and wanting to die with her lover Michiru leapt forward to attack him physically. Michiru had very little actual combat training in the first place, the majority of her martial skills were half remembered fragments of her apprenticeship as Sailor Neptune in the ancient Moon Kingdom. Her emotions were running too high however for her to fight him intelligently, her fingers curled into claws and she tore at him in mindless fury.

"Kalrah." He spoke just loud enough to be heard and she slumped to the ground blackness covering her vision.

Hotaru had long since hit the emergency call button on her communicator, the other girls would only be minutes away, but Haruka and Michiru were both dead. Haruka tossed through a meter thick concrete wall and Michiru somehow killed with a word. She doubted that when the other girls arrived that she would be alive either, but this man would not find her to be easy meat.

"Silence Glaive Surprise!," Hotaru called out as she made a slashing motion with her weapon. A wide angle cone of distorted air moved forward from the arcing path of the blade. Total silence fell over the battlefield as the vibrations tore cars, poles, walls, and even the parking lot itself from the ground. The devastating force cone disintegrated everything in its path. The enemy made a quick evasive manoeuvre as the cone struck, but was unable to get out of the way. The overwhelming silence of the attack lasted less than a second but when it was done a fine dust quickly settled to the ground, revealing an apparently uninjured man, standing upright holding Michiru's corpse in his arms looking very angry.

"You little fool," he shouted all pretence of politeness gone from his voice. "Your entropy wave nearly killed your fellow soldiers." he was saying as he was interrupted.

"They're already dead," Hotaru cried out tears rolling from her eyes in agony at her loss.

"No, they live, no thanks to your foolishness, here check for yourself, she breathes yet." He chided her once again in a soft voice. "The brave, tall one also lives, but not for much longer if you continue to dawdle." He knelt down carefully laying Michiru on the ground. Almost as an afterthought he withdrew a small vial of a pale blue liquid from his mantel and laid it gently on the sleeping young woman. "If you act quickly, this potion will heal the wounds of your friend that I struck," he added as he stepped away from Michiru. "We will meet again little one, Leisu," with that the man disappeared from sight in an eye wrenching twist of space.

Quickly, Hotaru ran to Michiru's downed form, just as the man had said she was breathing. She seemed asleep. Gathering the mysterious vial carefully she dashed into the now open wall from the mall. Haruka was easily located, lying curled in a broken heap on a shattered display case for music CD's. One look convinced Hotaru that bringing this mysterious potion was a good idea, Haruka's injuries were far far beyond even her Senshi form's ability to heal. With a quick prayer to the Kami for the risk she was about to take Hotaru poured the elixir into Haruka's open mouth.

Though it seemed that Haruka should have been far beyond consciousness her horrifying pain filled screams split the air the instant the potion touched her. Sickening grating sounds filled the spaces between screams as Haruka's broken bones moved back into place with agonizing slowness. Hotaru was noisily ill from the crackling and tearing sounds of her guardian's flesh and bones reforming. After several long seconds of silence descended on the deserted mall, Hotaru once again braved to glance at Haruka, her uniform was a total loss, she was covered in dried blood and bruises but she was alive and breathing strongly. Hotaru gathered her Haruka-otusan in her arms and cried in relief.

"Girls, there's Neptune, Mars." a voice called out from outside the shattered mall.

"I'm on it Venus, ok, She's alive it looks like something knocked her out," Mars returned.

"Where's Uranus and Saturn?," questioned the voice of Moon.

"I'm picking up Saturn's energy readings from just inside the mall, it looks like Uranus is in there as well, but her readings are very faint. I think she's hurt," the ever practical Mercury stated as she began picking her way over the piles of blasted wall.

Moon, Venus, and Mercury made their way into the building and located Saturn and Uranus. Saturn still held Uranus cradled in her lap crying softly, unable to even explain what happened. Mars and Jupiter came in, sharing the burden of the unconscious Neptune. With unspoken agreement the girls layed Neptune next to her fallen lover and gathered in a circle around them. Joining hands the Inner Senshi called out in one voice.

"Sailor Teleport!" The mall was once again quiet save for the distant sound of emergency vehicle sirens.

Eight girls, two cats and young man gathered in a large bedroom. Two of the girls, one with long aqua coloured hair, and one a short cropped blond, rested half reclined on the bed, the aqua haired girl cradling her blond companion protectively. The man held one of the other girls on his lap, this one a beautiful blond with a truly strange hairstyle. She wore an expression of worry and concern on her face, but still seemed to radiate an aura of contentment at where she was. A pair of dark young women sat near the door, the smaller of the two looked as if she had been crying recently, while the older one had a protective look about her. A tall statuesque brunette sat in an overstuffed chair in the far corner of the room, the black cat sat almost primly in her lap. Yet another blond, this one with her hair tied back by a red bow sat on the arm of the chair occupied by the brunette, a sleepy looking white cat curled in her lap, its tail hanging over and occasionally brushing the head of the black cat nearby. A slightly built blue haired girl sat in the last chair in the room, at a small writing desk. She chewed absently on her lip as she worked intently on a laptop style computer resting on the desk.

"Well," Ami started. "From the readings I took of the area when we arrived there's not a lot I can tell you. There were virtually no traces of any magical energy other than your own," she said looking between the three present outer Senshi. "From what little I did find I can tell you this much, his energy signature doesn't match any of our previous enemies. The traces he left behind were actually quite similar to Elios and Prince Endymion's."

"I don't remember anyone like this guy from Atlantis, Ami. Besides, with all due respect to the Outers, he just casually handed three of the most powerful Senshi their asses and we can't even verify that he got so much as scratched in the process." Mamoru Chiba, A.K.A. Tuxedo Mask, A.K.A. Prince Endymion of Atlantis commented in an irritated tone.

"While I understand your feelings Mamoru, this evidence points to." Ami continued until she was interrupted

"He was injured by my Silence Glaive," Hotaru stated firmly. "It was hard to see it, but he had a small scratch on his hand where he held Michiru during the attack." The rest of the girls looked shocked at Hotaru's casual admission of unleashing something with the destructive potential as the Silence Glaive with one of her friends in the path.

Ami moved quickly to Michiru's side and began to scan her for traces of the enemy's blood. It didn't take long for her efforts to be rewarded. On the side of her arm was an invisible to the naked eye trace of blood that her computer assured her did not belong to any of the scouts. As the computer continued to analyse the sample Ami's expression became more and more horrified. The others in the room stayed quiet, hardly daring to breathe during the computers long processing of information.

After nearly ten minutes a beep signified the program had run its course. Immediately the screen displayed several graphs and indicated it had dumped a more complete report of its findings in storage for her perusal. Ami flatly refused to believe the preposterous data her obviously demented computer presented.

"Um, Ami?," Minako asked slightly shaking her by the shoulder. "Are you ok?" Ami uttered an oath the others were quite surprised she knew the meaning of, let alone would use in mixed company. Luna took this opportunity to leap off Makoto's lap and approach the shaken girl.

"What is it Ami," the cat asked in a no nonsense voice.

"What is it?," Ami responded in a not entirely stable voice. "What is it? You want me to explain what this stupid computer is telling me? Fine, here goes. Everything on this planet, every alien and every monster we have ever encountered has had on thing in common. Our DNA is all composed of just four different components, four proteins that stack together in unimaginably long chains to form our chromosomes. Trees, us, Anne and Ali, Beryl, Galaixa, youma, even the Death Phantom. Sure different types of creatures have different numbers of chromosomes, but this guy has something like fifty different proteins making up his DNA, and more like two thousand chromosomal pairs rather than our twenty six. Along with that completely incomprehensible data was the fact that his DNA seems to be both material and energy state. Don't ask me how he can have energy based proteins in him, don't ask me why if he is so different from us that he looks human. All I can swear to is this, whoever he is, whatever he is, wherever he's from, if this tiny blood sample is any indication of his total body composition he's carrying way more energy inside him that the Silver Imperium Crystal."

Ami's statement proved to be a show stopper, no one felt like talking about scout business after hearing something like that. Privately Haruka wondered why she survived. She knew quite well that she stood no chance against someone wielding the Silver Imperium Crystal, and if this guy had that kind of power he should have swatted her like a fly. Ami had kept one observation to herself, one secret revealed by the computer in its analysis of the obviously alien blood. There were two other beings that had more than the four basic protein codes, Princess Serenity, not Usagi Tsukino, but the true form she assumed in times of great need, and her daughter Chibi-Usa both had ten.

It didn't take long for the Senshi to learn some of what their new enemy was up to. The next morning news broadcasts all over the world carried stories of mysterious acts eco-terrorism. Two million acres of rain forest in China and South America spontaneously regrew. The lumber teams clearing them were nowhere to be found. Over one hundred offshore oil rigs dropped from radio contact a few minutes after one in the morning. Most puzzling was the disappearance of every nuclear power station on the planet, half of Japan was in a blackout, and America was fairing no better. It seemed someone had taken exception to how the world was being run, and they were willing and able to take steps.

Juuban district luckily got its electricity from one of Japan's many geothermal power plants, there wasn't enough to go around, but all government buildings, schools and places where food was stored and prepared took precedence in the power rationing. In an effort to more easily meet the needs The Japanese government ordered half the schools in Japan closed during the crisis. The displaced students were then quickly reassigned to the nearest open school. The classes would be crowded but without power a modern education was deemed impossible. So it was a bemused Rei that made her was to her new school, its white fuku and its blue skirt and collar did little to aid her self esteem at being one of the many displaced students now attending Juuban.

On the positive side of this large mess was the fact that she had her classes with her fellow Senshi. On the negative side, the projections of the school board placed the class size at nearly sixty students, thankfully the displaced teachers were also going to be there to assist. Sixty students and half of them boys, for the first time in her life she had to attend classes with boys. With her luck all the boys in her class were perverts. With that dark thought in mind Rei squared her shoulders and prepared to become the most popular girl in her new class.

Usagi was running late, as usual. Even with Luna treating her as a scratching post to chase her out of bed, Usagi still managed to leave the house later than she could really afford to. Usagi really should have been on the track team. She was late often enough that the time after school would have made no difference in her life, she was there more often than not in detention anyway, and she was beyond the shadow of a doubt the fastest girl in her class, possibly the school. She got that much practice racing the clock.

Makoto walked through the gates to Juuban High School fifteen minutes before the bell and took note of the large crowd milling about the courtyard. In the week since the mysterious disappearance of the power plants the school board had moved with decisive quickness to meet the challenge of educating Tokyo's youth. As was her custom when she encountered crowds, she scanned the boys in the crowd for a hopeful glimpse of her old Sempai. It was less than useless in this crowd, as her Sempai would have long since graduated, he was Mamoru's age after all, but there was always the chance of seeing her next crush before Minako got a chance too.

Minako had woken up over an hour early, she took an extra twenty minutes on her appearance, and made sure her outfit was looking its absolute best. Her skirt had stealthily been altered to be a centimetre or two shorter than most, the waist if the shirt had been taken in just the slightest to accentuate her bust and slim waist. Her makeup was blended with the professional skill she had learned in her days modelling as Sailor V. Making one last check in the hallway mirror, Minako was convinced she looked the absolute best she could within the strict guidelines of the Juuban High School dress code. Five minutes later she seductively sauntered through the gates of the school, a full 10 minutes before the bell. Head held high and eyes already cataloguing and separating the new boys into their proper cuteness categories, Minako felt like she had died and gone to heaven, there were just so many new boys to choose from.

Ami had been in her classroom for the last half hour. She was privately glad that she had studied for those extra fifteen minutes last night. With as many students as there were going to be in this class now, the teachers would have little to no time for individual instruction. It was a pity, it had been conclusively proven that students learned better in smaller more individualized groups within their own learning speed. While Ami privately cheered the regrowth of the rain forests and the stopping of the pollution causing offshore oil derricks, the loss of power and the corresponding degradation of the Japanese education system was an offence she could not forgive. Yes she had plans, and once she got a hold of this new enemy he would pay dearly for disrupting her education.

Haruka pulled up in her parking spot, privately glad that her position as the head of the racing club assured that her parking pass was secure against the influx of more distantly located transfer students. Michiru and Hotaru climbed out of the car and gave the milling throng a look of pity. It had only been last year when Mugen Academy had been destroyed in the battle against Mistress Nine and her army of damien. Haruka led the way into the school, her gruff way of walking and reputation clearing a path to the front door for her smaller and less forceful roommates.

Hotaru followed her guardian through the crowd that obscured the front door. Her natural shyness and well founded fear of rejection causing her to shrink away from the large group of unknown people. Michiru's comforting hand on her shoulder made her feel better, but the way it looked to her was sixty students per class meant fifty nine people to ridicule and hate her.

Michiru sighed as she felt Hotaru flinch away from a student that the crowd had accidentally pushed into their path. He gave them a cute apologetic smile, but Hotaru was to nervous of people to see the comforting look for what it was. Michiru smiled back at him and privately began to worry about Haruka. Haruka was a very competitive person, this new influx of people would almost have to contain at least one person that would not take Haruka or Michiru's rejection of their advances well. She wondered privately how long it would be before Haruka got in a fight with someone over it. It was almost a good thing, Michiru thought privately, Haruka had been depressed and snarling since her defeat at the hands of the new enemy. Maybe beating up a boy or two that would not take no for an answer would help her with her self esteem problem that even Michiru's love had not solved.

Setsuna had her work cut out for her. It had taken days to get the school board to take Thomas Aquinas Academy students here at Juuban, but since there was only one of her, she could not be in two places at once, and this power shortage was just the thing any new enemy needed to send people into the schools where the Senshi attended. Getting Rei here may have had the side effect of putting all the Senshi in one target, but it also put them all behind the same shield. She had not lived for ten thousand years at the Gates of Time doing nothing. Though the Gates were useless at the present time, she still had her mind, and all she had to do was go through the transcripts of every new student in the school. Two thousand transcripts to go through to make sure her Princess and fellow Senshi were safe, she may have lost the Time Gates, but this war was far from over, and this enemy was not going to take her by surprise again.

Usagi could see the gates of the school ahead of her, and unless she was mistaken she still had five minutes before the bell. All the running she'd been doing as a late student and a Sailor Senshi was beginning to pay off. She had long ago lost the catastrophic klutziness that had marked her early teenage years, and the run to school now rarely included tripping over her own feet or running down wayward people and telephone poles. It was because of those thoughts that she was most shocked to find herself slamming headfirst into the back of someone as she crossed through the gates onto the school grounds.

Tenjin was confused, very very confused. His class schedule might as well have been written in Aramaic. His uniform was so new that it still caused him to itch, and he was sure that the boy running the school store had given him the wrong books, the classes here couldn't be that easy. He spared a glance over at his lifelong friend Konjou, and saw that as expected, Konjou was busy looking over the female population of their new environment. He had to privately admit that there were quite a few nice specimens here. Somewhat glad that the sheer number of people here made anyone getting too good a look at him just shy of impossible Tenjin set out to find someone, anyone that looked like they could help him with the gibberish that was his class schedule.

Konjou was in heaven, there were just so many girls here for him to look over. It was a sea of pretty girls and the Kami knew he craved some attention that only pretty girls could give. Tenjin seemed to know where he was going, which was a good thing because he couldn't understand a damn thing that piece of paper was supposed to be telling him about his classes. His books were in his bag, but he had yet to look at them. Not that he was stupid, he just didn't feel the need to worry about it, things had a way of taking care of themselves if you just gave them time. Tenjin turned and started heading toward the entry doors to the school, and Konjou moved to follow when one hundred and five pounds of pretty girl slammed into his back like a freight train.

"Ite!," Usagi wailed as she found herself on her butt, rubbing her head at the stinging impact with the stranger. "What is it with guys," she muttered, "what do they do wear armour under their uniforms or something." She stated, remembering the uncountable number of times she had found herself in just this position after running into Mamoru in her younger days.

"Are you ok miss?," A smoky passionate voice asked her from the general direction of the living brick wall she had just rebounded off of.

"Hai, hai I'm o." her voice left her as she lifted her eyes to meet that gaze of the boy currently offering her a hand up. He was beautiful, there was no other word for it. His piercing golden eyes nearly stopped her breath and made talking an impossibility. He was well built, like one would expect a long time martial arts student to be, and his regulation short cropped black hair was darker even than Rei's. "ok," she finally managed to force past her thickened tongue.

"Glad to hear it," he replied smoothly as he gently took her hand and helped her to her feet. He had yet to release her hand or her gaze, and her eyes were still locked on his, when a voice intruded.

"So Usagi, does this mean I can have Mamoru then?" Makoto teased from a few meters away.

Usagi's hand pulled free from Konjou's so fast it make a sound like snapping fingers. "No!, err no Makoto this nice person here..

"Nekojin Konjou, at your service ladies," the man smoothly answered.

"Right, Nekojin-san helped me up after I accidentally ran into him." Usagi finished a bit breathlessly.

"Please Usagi-san call me Konjou, all my friends do," he said shooting a glance at the man with his back still turned to them. "Hey Tenjin, introduce yourself, to the ladies here," he called out with a wink in the girls direction.

"No time Konjou, I still don't understand this stupid schedule," he muttered. Almost as soon as he finished though, the boy spun around and with a smile on his face spoke. "Forgive my rudeness ladies, I've been having a bad day already, and my class list makes no sense," he shook his head as he spoke. "You wouldn't be able to assist me would you? By the way, my name is Gogyou Tenjin, but like my not so subtle friend you may just call me Tenjin."

Makoto and Usagi's brains were in shutdown mode. While Usagi may have been very happily involved with Mamoru, she was still breathing. Konjou was handsome, her previous assessment of beautiful was wrong. Despite his perfect form he couldn't be beautiful, not as long as Toujin was alive anyway. Toujin was the archetype, the absolute pinnacle of bishonen. Like Konjou, his hair was black, but while Konjou's hair was nearly stygian, Toujin's was more like a raven feather. The two young men's appearance was close enough in some aspects to make the girls wonder absently if they were related.

Makoto desperately wracked her brain for whatever question the cute boys, boy, whatever had asked her, something about a date she was almost positive. "Sure I will," she answered already picturing the look on Minako's face when she saw Makoto's new boyfriend. Her expression became even more overjoyed when he gave her a piece a paper, obviously his number. She took it quickly prepared to memorize it and eat the evidence to keep Minako from ever learning it. Her surprise was total though when she realised it was his class schedule. "Anno?... why did you give me your schedule?"

A patient look marked his face as he looked her in the eyes. "You were going to tell me where my class is, remember?," he chided gently.

Makoto was mortified, now that she thought about it, that is what he had asked. Her little daydream just made her look like a total fool in front of the two most gorgeous guys in the school. She felt like crawling in a hole and dying to spare herself any further embarrassment. Makoto blushed all the way to her toes as she looked at the paper that was the cause of all her misery. She couldn't understand Toujin's difficulty, there at the top was his group number followed by the classes the group had. The setup was just like that of any class schedule in Japan. He had probably meant that he didn't know where his class was and needed directions. Luckily, for her continued chances at getting one of the boys to ask her out, they were in her class.

It was at that time that the two minute warning bell rang out telling the students that they should be headed into their classes. As Makoto began to speak up that they should follow her to their mutual classroom, a voice from her darkest nightmares of boy hunting sounded out from over her shoulder.

"Sugoi! You're in my class! Aino Minako at your service," the excitable blond nearly chirped as she moved forward to take Toujin's hand.

"Um, right thanks," Toujin said as he was swept up in the whirlwind that was Mina.

Mina made her way through the crowd like a smiling wrecking ball dragging an amazed Toujin in her wake. He didn't have a chance, Mina thought to herself. Besides there were two of them and Usagi already had Mamoru.

"Err, by the way Aino-san my name is Gogyou Toujin, but you can call me Touj."

"Toujin-chan," Mina said in a deceptively calm voice, "if you call me Aino-san again I'll cry. When you meet my mother you can call her Aino- san, but I'm much too young and pretty for you to be so formal." Mina finished with a beautiful smile on her face. "Just call me Mina, and I'll call you Toujin ok?"

"Er, right whatever you say Mina-chan" Toujin answered nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Yo Toujin," Konjou called from the hallway, "wait for us man."

Toujin looked back and shook his head ruefully. Not only was Konjou travelling with the two girls they had met outside but a few more had at some point in their trip indoors joined his entourage. As the girls met up and exchanged greetings Toujin pulled Konjou away from his fast forming harem for a few words. "Remember Konjou, low profile, no standing out in a crowd and for Kami sakes behave yourself, it hasn't been that long since you were with a girl."

Konjou's head snapped around so fast at the end of Toujin's speech that he nearly got whiplash. "Hasn't been that long, you have got to be shitting me its been over." he retorted acidly until a voice cut through his fast opening rant.

"Toujin, it seems that with all these new seats in the class the teachers want us to each sit with new students and help show them around. Do you want to sit with me," of course it was Mina asking the question that had interrupted Konjou, and the answer was known before the question had been asked. There was no male in the world stupid enough to answer that question incorrectly.

The school day was almost the worst case scenario for the two boys. Not only were the classes so easy that they had more trouble staying awake than answering the questions, but the attention that they got from admiring females, and jealous males made an already stressful day near to an exercise in mass homicide. The day was half over before anything good happened, lunch. The food they had brought was probably a bit excessive but it was better to over prepare than to go hungry later. Makoto had managed to capture Konjou as her seat partner, and Usagi had ended up with Rei. Ami ended up partnering up with a girl that had yet to open her eyes, she seemed to believe that school was a place to rest between parties. Toujin privately wondered what it would cost to rent her for the evening for Konjou.

Lunch went well despite the strange argument between Rei and Usagi the ended with the two of them sticking their tongues out at each other from a distance of millimetres. Toujin wrote it off as the two being most likely frustrated lovers. It was a bit of a pity though about Rei being of that persuasion, looking at her reminded him of just how long it really had been. Math class quickly followed lunch, then it was time for their P.E. course.

Toujin entered the locker room grumbling to himself about high school students doing something as easy as non-Euclidian spherical geometry, and how could the teacher not be aware of the special properties of circumscribed tetrahedral geometry. With a sigh at just how far behind they were Toujin changed into his gym outfit.

On his way out the door he spotted Konjou lingering near the fence that separated the boys and girls sides of the athletics area. As usual Konjou was deeply involved in a conversation with yet another unknown female. This girl was blushing so bad it was easy to see that it continued past her neck. With an promise of bloody painful vengeance against whatever higher powers were testing him so by having to deal with Konjou's one track mind, Toujin once again went to gather his wayward accomplice.

"Konjou, haven't we had this discussion already today," Toujin said with an air of exasperation.

"Ah Toujin, Hikari and I were just talking about you, weren't we my dear?," Konjou said to her in a conspiratal tone. Her blush grew deeper, though Toujin had trouble imagining that as possible. The girl, Hikari, looked ready to die of embarrassment. Toujin felt it was his duty to save her from Konjou's attention, and with no further comment he bowed to Hikari and pulled Konjou away from the fence.

"I swear Konjou, I can't take my eyes of you for five minutes without you doing your absolute best to draw attention to us," Toujin said not realizing that nearly every girl on the other side of the fence, and half the boys on this side were already staring at them for one reason or another. "We really need to tone down what we do in this class, it would be too easy to stand out if were not careful," Toujin said as he watched some of the other students beginning to stretch out waiting for their Sensei.

The Sensei arrived a few moments later with about a half dozen others. The Sensei had decided that as he only knew about half the class, that today would be a day for brutal callisthenics followed by a few laps on the track, just to see where everyone was in their physical condition. The Sensei was a slave driver, his callisthenic routines were something out of the nightmares of the soccer team. Toujin and Konjou had more trouble faking the tiny amount of exertion they believed the others needed to see than the workout itself caused. After a gruelling twenty minute workout, the Sensei told the boys to hit the track. His assignment was simple, twelve laps, or twenty minutes, whichever came first. The Sensei wasn't stupid, twelve laps amounted to six kilometres, and there were few high school students that could maintain the kind of lap time needed to complete the assignment before the time ran out.

The girls P.E. class was understandably similar to the boys today. The gathered Inner Senshi performed far better in the workout than many would have expected of them. Though everyone knew Minako and Makoto were quite athletic, even after all this time few people had expected Usagi, or even more shocking shy Mizuno Ami to be that well in shape. All throughout the heavy workout the girls continued to chatter with one another.

"That was low this morning Mina," Makoto complained in a half hearted tone. "You stole Toujin before I even got a chance to really talk to him."

"You would have done the same to me," Mina commented absently as her eyes raked the boys across the quad looking for her newest crush. "Besides you know what they say, 'The early bird gets the germ'."

Usagi and Rei burst out laughing, and Ami looked like she had bitten into something rotten after hearing that massacred idiom. The girls had finished their workout just in time to see the boys taking the track, with an evil glint in her eye the Sensei of the girls' class spoke up with their next assignment.

"Ok girls," She said with supreme satisfaction. "Let's give the boys something to run for, get on the track, and whatever you do don't let any boys outrun you." Satisfied that the boys need to show off for the girls and the girls sense of competitiveness would resolve itself nicely on the track, Nakoudo-san smiled at a job well done.

Usagi felt wonderful, she wasn't running all out, but she was moving quickly enough to take the lead in her little impromptu race with the rest of the Inners. Makoto was close enough to her to make the lead anything but comfortable, but that just proven how much she had improved since Luna first talked her into becoming Sailor Moon. Rei and Mina struggled desperately for third place, the fierce grins on their faces demonstrating their friendly rivalry. A half dozen meters back Ami ran with a measured tireless ground eating pace, that promised to overtake anyone that overtaxed themselves. As they crossed the marker for the first lap Ami began to hear someone behind her talking in a low voice.

"Toujin, do we absolutely have to pass them?," the voice of Konjou registered in her ears. "They look so good from this angle."

"The Sensei said twelve laps, and I want to finish this before class ends," Toujin replied.

With that Ami could feel someone moving up behind her, before she really had a chance to further consider their words, the two boys passed her like she was standing still. Ami tried to estimate how fast they were moving, and estimated by the one hundred meter marks that the boys were running close to thirty kilometres an hour. She smiled, at their best they could maintain that for no more than a lap or two, there was no need to try to keep up.

She was having one of the best days of her life. She had met the two cutest boys alive, had managed to gather the undivided attention of one of the aforementioned boys. Sure she was in school, which was generally considered to be a bad thing except for boy hunting, but she was still flying high from her success at getting the cuter of the pair of them out from under Makoto's nose, which is why she wasn't making any real effort to pass Makoto on the track. She was deep in her fantasies involving long romantic walks and stolen goodnight kisses when she felt a hand slide across her bottom. Minako yelped in surprise from the contact and nearly fell as she temporarily lost her footing. A hand steadied her and she looked gratefully at her saviour. Toujin smiled down at her as he increased pace to catch back up to her friend. She was a little upset that he would be so forward with her after only knowing her for a few hours, much less being that way in public. But if he wanted to up the ante to light petting like that, she would be more than happy to oblige. Mina ran faster in an attempt to catch up in this new game Toujin had decided to start.

Rei grinned as she put on a small burst of speed and once again passed Mina, she knew that Mina was the better runner but that didn't mean that she wouldn't give beating the blond her all. It was as she expected Mina to pass her on the inside of the track that it happened, two boys were passing her by very quickly and Mina gave a yelp. As she turned her head to check on Mina, someone pinched her butt. By the time she whipped her head around the two boys were too far away for her to really be sure which one did it, but she would get them for this. The boys were good friends, and as far as she was concerned, they were both responsible. Rei took off running as fast as she could, oh yes, those two would pay for that.

The run was exhilarating, it had become a rare then in that last few years for Makoto to truly let loose like this without it being a life or death matter. She was making excellent time, none of the boys stood a chance of catching her. Of course she was far behind Usagi, but there weren't many people alive that could keep up with Usagi in a footrace. As long as she stayed in front of the rest of the Inners she would feel just dandy. When the boys followed by and irate Rei and a grinning Minako passed her she knew it was time to give it her all.

I'm going to kill him, Toujin thought. I'm gonna kill him dead and stuff his bones in a black hole. Toujin had been lightly jogging behind Mina, he was moderately surprised that the girls weren't going any faster, but he guessed that they felt no rush to complete the assignment. As he had been busy envisioning what Minako looked like under the athletics uniform she wore, Konjou and reached out with one of his special tricks and made her feel like someone had felt her butt, just at the time that he would have been in position to accomplish the feat physically. This of course made Mina think he had done it. Not one to let something like that go unavenged, Toujin had returned the favour on Rei, if he was right about her sexual orientation, Rei would give Konjou a beating he would never forget. This of course did little to assuage his temper about Konjou starting the whole incident. The last thing he needed on his plate right now was the addition of the troubles a boy crazy sixteen year old with a body built for exploring would add to his life. Mina was already going to be trouble, and though he appreciated her looks, he didn't want to encourage her. Oh yes, he thought, Konjou is going to suffer for this.

Perfect, absolutely perfect, Konjou thought. Not only was Mina trying keep up, so was the little black haired one. What was her name again, he wondered, Mai. no, Yuka. no, Rei that was it. Of course Rei didn't seem to be chasing them for the reasons he'd like but having a pretty girl chasing you for any reason was a step in the right direction. There was only one person ahead of him on the track and they were quickly approaching the start of the third lap. The girl ahead of him was the truly beautiful Usagi, there was just something about that expressive face, and the long streamers of hair that made her look like her namesake, that made him wonder if she tasted like rabbit. Oh well, he thought, better move quicker, Toujin almost caught me.

Usagi wouldn't take being passed lightly. She was the fastest Senshi, the fastest girl in her school, and no matter how cute they were these boys simply were not allowed to outrun her. Usagi reached deep into herself to the part of her that was used to being fifteen minutes late out the door and started to truly run. Her hair flew behind her in the slipstream of her body like golden streamers on a jets wing.

The boys Sensei was astounded, those six kids were quite easily breaking school records for the two kilometre run. If they could even hold half that speed for the remaining eight laps they should all be on the track team. He looked over at the new girls Sensei Nakoudo-san and she gave him a grin that told her she had expected this. He shook his head and watched in amazement as the kids crossed the lap marker again. Watching a seventh student pick up the pace to match them he wondered if it was something in the water.

Not that it had been in question Konjou thought, but he and Toujin had finished the laps long before the rest of the boys, of course the fact that Usagi had crossed the finish line before they had made it to the bleachers was fairly startling, that her friends were within a lap of her was even more so. "So girls," he said as he approached where they were sitting. "What do you do to keep in that good of shape," he inquired with a not very innocent grin.

Rei looked at him from where she lay on the bleachers, an air of exhaustion infusing her. "If I weren't so tired I'd hurt you I swear it to the Kami. And don't think I have forgotten what you did to me hentai."

The school day quickly ended after that and the girls found themselves headed to the jinja. The Outers had promised to show up today and further discuss the new enemy. They needed every scrap of information they could gather if they were to stand a chance at defeating an enemy that could survive a Silence Glaive Surprise. As they passed through the Juuban open air market Makoto swore bitterly.

"Girls, I think we have a problem," she said as she pointed over at one of the fruit stalls. Standing there eyeing the fresh picked cherries like it was something normal for evil alien terrorists. Was the man the Outers had described, minus the flight and golden glow. "We need to change now before he has a chance to do anything to all these people," she said casting an eye at the several hundred innocent civilians in the path.

The girls quickly ducked into an alley. Ami hit the emergency button on her communicator and using the trick Hotaru had recently taught them, assumed their Senshi forms with a minimum of wasted time and fanfare. To get the attention of the evil alien, and give the civilians time to fell the combat zone, Sailor Moon leapt to the top of a light pole drew her spiral moon wand and yelled out a challenge.

"For your evil ways and the destruction of the way of life for millions of innocent Japanese and other people would wide, in the name of the moon, we will punish you." Usagi felt kind of odd saying that now that she was older. What had sounded so brave and inspiring when she was fourteen, sounded sort of eechi to her now.

Civilians seeing Sailor Moon give her speech, did what came natural to anyone living in Juuban for more than a few weeks, they ran as fast as the could from the market. The strange man looked at the precariously perched Sailor Moon and burst out laughing. Usagi flushed red with indignation and privately decided if this creep was going to laugh at her then she didn't have to be quite so nice when she dusted him. The rest of the Inner Senshi were torn with indecision, on one hand this guy was obviously the man that had so terribly wounded Haruka, but no one had ever seen him do anything bad until he was attacked. Ami on the other hand had done some research into the disappearance of the oil derricks and power plants. That act was most obviously don't using the kind of power this man wielded, and until she had evidence that he was not alone she would hold him solely responsible for the damage to her education caused by overcrowding.

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" Tendrils of blue energy streamed towards the laughing man who as of yet had shown no concern at being attacked.

The ice magic curled around him in an effort to freeze him solid. With a motion much like shrugging he strode forward from the attack and glared at the young girls. "I never got the chance to ask your little friends this," he said in a casual tone of voice, "but just what the hell is your problem?" He was obviously annoyed about something. That much the girls could easily tell. Unnoticed by the girls earlier a large black cat sat at the side of his feet, its head nearly came to his hip. The cat seemed annoyed by the cold magic his owner ignored. "I'm only going to ask you five one time, just once to leave me alone. I haven't tried to hurt you, In fact I don't even know who you are, but if you continue to provoke me the consequences will be dire." With the end of his statement he turned around and began to walk away.

A rose formed of the magic of prince Endymion rebounded off his shoulder as he took his first step, a small drop of blood welled from the point of impact. "How dare you threaten the defenders of love and justice," Endymion's voice called out from a nearby rooftop. "Your acts of worldwide terrorism and destruction are well known to us and it will not be forgiven!"

The cat sitting at the man's feet looked back and forth between the Tuxedo clad defender of Sailor Moon and the drop of blood on his master's shoulder. With a very humanlike gesture of shaking his head the cat layed down in the middle of the street and prepared to take a nap. His master on the other hand touched his finger to the droplet and glared dangerously at Endymion.

"Allow me to inform you of something you are obviously unaware of," he stated his voice colder than the depths of space. "You just accomplished something that hasn't been done in the time your specie has had knowledge of how to make fire, you just actually made me angry." In a blurring of motion that was hard to track he leapt to the rooftop where Endymion stood. The girls readied their attacks but few of them had anything they could use with their target so close to their prince. Before Endymion could react the stranger grabbed him by the lapel of his suit and lifted him one handed out to arm reach distance over the edge of the building. "I generally don't bother giving my name to dead men, but allow me to introduce myself to you and your friends before you depart. My name is Mordaki, Primarch of Form and Nature, Second born of the Ulterran. Cherish that knowledge in the hereafter." With that he simply backhanded Endymion hard enough to nearly snap his neck. With a casual toss Mordaki threw the Prince of Earth off the roof like a rag doll. Endymion unconsciously fell towards the ground only to be saved by Sailor Moon, her teary eyes blazing with anger at Mori for injuring her beloved.

Now that Endymion was no longer in the line of fire the Inners opened up on Mori with their own attacks.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"

Multi-coloured streamers of energy converged on Mori as the girls completed their attacks. Green leaflets and blue bands were shrugged off with seeming total indifference. A red arrow of fire failed to even draw a sarcastic smile, the ridiculous looking giant pink heart, and the swarm of smaller heart-shaped bolts of concussive force were another matter. The giant pink heart of Sailor Moon's attack struck Mori dead centre in the chest, almost knocking him off the far side of the building with its force of impact. The heart-shaped bolts of power Sailor Venus had fired finished the job of knocking him off the building as they caught the surprised Mori in the face.

As soon as he fell Sailor Moon returned her attention to Endymion, he was hurt badly. The side of his face where Mori had struck was crumpled, his cheek bone smashed and his jaw obviously fractured. Sailor Moon silently wept as she cradled his head in her arms. she was unsure if his neck had been broken when he was hit, but until Mercury had a chance to scan him she would not risk moving him. The other girls moved past her, their faces set in steely determination as the searched for the fallen enemy. There was little doubt that he was still alive, not even Usagi was foolish enough to believe they had destroyed someone that easily, that had survived a Silence Glaive Surprise virtually uninjured.

Rei was livid. This Mori had injured Mamoru, sure she had lost his love long ago, but she still cared more for him than she really should. Her princess was in emotional anguish right now, and in her opinion that was an even worse crime than hurting her prince. She could sense him around here somewhere, he hadn't teleported away, and he was most assuredly still alive. She didn't like the way her Flame Sniper had no effect, a ward clutched in her hand showed she wasn't out of options. She was betting this guy was some kind of demon or something, let's see him hurt her friends when she bound him with her spiritual powers, she thought.

Well, Mori thought, that was unexpected. Mori hadn't been prepared to encounter any Senshi on his shopping trip. Though it would have been child's play for him to grow or simply create his own food, he had considered it unnecessary in a society that made purchasing it as easy as Japan did. Besides, magic could be traced by anyone looking hard enough for it, and given the almost total lack of background magical activity, his power even for something as small as the creation of a bunch of cherries would announce his location like a signal flare. Most of the Senshi were completely incapable of hurting him, from what they had demonstrated anyway, but the little blondes packed a surprising punch. His head was still a bit fuzzy from impact of those little hearts, but he was fairly certain he could sense one of the little girls very close to him. It was time for a bit of payback.

Rei dashed around the corner prepared to activate and throw her ward in an instant, she was sure he was just up ahead. A golden glow blazed to life from a side alley directly adjacent to the building Mordaki had been knocked from. Sailor Mars took no chances with this demon. She quickly turned into the alley spotted her foe and began her chant. "Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!" The ward flew across the three meters to her target and magically adhered to his forehead.

Mori was perplexed. She didn't just do what I think she did, did she?, he wondered to himself. For the briefest of instants he had felt the spiritual power of the little fire sorceress's ward attempt to contain his powers, it was like trying to hold back the sun with a Kleenex. Less than a second after the ward struck him it burst into flame it's badly overtaxed binding spell not even having had the chance to slow his movement. With the first glimmerings of respect for the courage this little sorceress showed in trying to take him on one on one he quickly changed his mind about hurting her.

"Kalrah," he commanded quietly a small tendril of his power reaching out to put her into a peaceful sleep. Mori caught her as she slumped to the ground, another quick spell made certain that no one would disturb her for the half hour she would doze. Another of the little sorceresses had almost reached his position, with his head now clear he could tell by her aura that it was the nature sorceress, she was no threat at all.

Makoto had seen the lack of effect her magic had on this Mori guy. She was anything but stupid, and given that the Outers had really had no better effect magically she was ready to try something a little more hands on. Only Haruka was a better hand to hand fighter than she was, and from what she remembered Hotaru saying last week, nobody had ever gotten the chance to see if this guy had a glass jaw or not. It was time they found out. Makoto heard Rei's chant from up ahead. Nice of him to make his presence so obvious with the glow, she thought. She hurried toward the glowing alley intent on joining up with Rei and taking the guy down before he did any more damage to her friends or the world. When she turned the corner and saw him standing over a downed Rei she lost any half formed ideas about trying to take him alive.

Makoto moved in as fast as she could in her super powered Senshi form. She threw a kick at him that was nearly impossible to see it moved so quickly. The kick caught him in the chest and with a grunt of expelled air he flew back several metres from the force of impact. She moved forward to press the advantage she had, and struck out at him with an ultra fast strike directly aimed for his neck. Makoto was totally unprepared for the punch to be grabbed and use to throw her into the unyielding wall of the alley. As she rose to her hands and knees struggling to get to her feet before he enemy could attack her again, a kick to her ribs lifted her and slammed her once again into the wall. Makoto coughed and felt a wetness in her throat, more than likely the kick had broken several of her ribs. This guy was stronger than even her Senshi form, that was bad news. She rolled to her back, ignoring the pain in her chest and did a quick kipup rising to her feet just in time to avoid having her head smashed by her opponent's foot. This guy is playing for keeps, she thought. She sent a crescent kick at him, causing him to step back to avoid he attack, and desperately hoped Mercury or Venus would get there soon. She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt she couldn't take this guy alone.

Venus could hear the sounds of combat from just up ahead, she knew that if her friends were to survive she had to hurry. Venus leapt to the top of the building to gain a better vantage point for her magical attacks. Venus was the leader of the Inner Senshi, she had earned that distinction long ago, and her ability to understand the strengths of both her allies and her enemies made her an excellent tactician. Venus was no fool, she had seen the kind of damage this Mordaki guy had done to Endymion with one hit, she had no desire to get in closer with him than she had to. Two quick strides from where she landed and Venus was able to look down into the alley where Jupiter and their enemy fighting. Venus shook her head, Jupiter had always been hot headed but this was insane, she had to know this guy was toying with her. He was obviously more than strong enough to have snapped her back with that last kick, the fact that Jupiter was still able to stand meant that he was toying with them. Jupiter still needed her help though, even if he wasn't trying to kill her right now this man was still the enemy.

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!," she called out and once again the deadly rain of hearts struck her opponent, this time their force carried him face first into the alley wall.

Jupiter wasted no time, when Venus's attack struck her enemy she immediately struck out at his unprotected back, hoping to break something vital. Her fist landed hard on his backbone, with the intent to end the threat once and for all, his whole body seemed to shudder as the impact compressed him between her fantastically strong punch and the merciless unmoving wall. It was at that time when Sailor Mercury entered the alley. He visor quickly identified the position of all the combatants, and told her of their condition and current energy readings. She tried to call out in warning to Jupiter as she saw his energy level rise dramatically, but it was too late.

A staccato cracking sound echoed through the alley as the man spun away causing Sailor Jupiter's kick to strike the wall he had so recently been imbedded in. Faster than the eye could see his hand reached out and grabbed Jupiter by the throat. Anger burned in his eyes as he shook her. Mercury knew there was nothing she could do about Jupiter's current predicament, Their opponent was simply too strong, too fast and her magic was ineffective against him. Venus on the other had pinpoint accurate magic that seemed to hurt him.

"Venus, hit him before he kills her!," Mercury called out desperately as she scanned the man in front of her with everything she could. She knew that if her and her companions survived this confrontation they would need all the information they could get before they faced him again. Venus called out her attack and another series of hearts struck their opponent, this time in the arm. Amazingly enough he didn't drop Jupiter, whose thrashing and kicking seemed to be of no consequence to her captor. Jupiter has taken on a purple cast to her complexion and Mercury knew it wouldn't be long before she either passed out or died from asphyxiation. Hope came from an unexpected quarter.

"Dead Scream." A voice quietly intoned from directly behind Mercury.

The green ball of temporal energy knocked Mori from his feet and caused him to drop the unconscious Jupiter. Mori seemed taken aback by the appearance of the Time Senshi, his eyes widened considerably at the sight of her Garnet Rod. With a brief look of concentration he seemed to come to a decision.

"Maluu Dallek, Maluu Enkil, Maluu Dahak, Maluu Rhendar, Maluu Chuthulu, Sekar!" he chanted. Five Arcs of light appeared around him, one gold, one silver, one black, one red and one green. As he completed his invocation the arcs began to spin rapidly forming a sphere of multicoloured light that was impossible to see through. Again from within the sphere his voice could be heard, and air around the scene of battle began to hum in resonation of whatever magic he was using. "Si dinga Ana kanpa, Si dinga Kia kanpa, Si dinga Desu kanpa, Si dinga Mira kanpa. Itsau carasa mal!" Whatever language he spoke even Sailor Pluto had a bewildered expression on her face. The effects of his chant were obvious to see though. The ground immediately in front of the Sailor Senshi tore itself apart as a massive vaguely man shaped mass of earth and stone rose from it.

"Oh Kami-sama," Pluto swore softly. "He has summoned an elemental"

The Mercury computer was beeping like mad trying to bring Sailor Mercury's attention to all the relevant information it had about the nature of this latest threat, but it was in vain. She had seen monster plants, Ice Sorceresses out to freeze the world, youma, cardians, damien, droids, and evil entities of all shapes and sizes, but nothing she had ever seen had prepared her for the sheer horrifying presence of a ten metre tall mobile aggressive man shaped rock. Venus and Pluto immediately fired their attacks at it, the dust and chunks of stone torn from it a testament to their effectiveness, but it hardly seemed important, what could they really hope to accomplish by blowing fist sized chunks of stone off a monster like that. What they really needed were the rest of the outer Senshi, Uranus's world shaking attack seemed to her to be about their only hope against this thing.

Venus looked down at the monster, it was slow enough moving that Pluto had yet to be struck, but she didn't really want to imagine what would happen if she were. Venus was betting that should Pluto get hit by that monster, they would be having auditions for a new Sailor Pluto starting tomorrow. At least they seemed to have driven Mori to hide in the sphere he had created. She didn't know how bad he was hurt, but this was a definite improvement over how the Outers did. Now if his sphere was anything like the silence wall, they were safe, he couldn't do anything to them while trapped inside. When Venus suddenly found herself inside the sphere with him she was too surprised to react as he touched her forehead and spoke.

"You and your kind have attacked me without warning or provocation twice now," he spoke his touch and voice somehow paralyzing her. "You have dared to cause me harm, to threaten me and to hamper my quest for the reparation of this world, for that , how do you girls say that, oh yes, 'I will punish you.'" With that he began murmuring in a voice to low for her to hear the words, though the musical sound of the language flowed over her, making her feel lethargic. "Sailor Venus," he spoke "I bind you now against the thought of bringing me harm, your own body will betray you should you seek to test my restriction, be warned." With that Venus found herself again on the top of the building, as if she had never left.

Pluto was not doing well, her Dead Screams couldn't harm the creature enough to make any real impression, and though it was wounded by her attack, every now and again the creature would reabsorb some of the material that had been chipped away. Venus began her attack hoping to once again damage the creature enough for Pluto to move out its line of fire, when she heard Uranus call out her attack. The yellow ball of energy burrowed through the ground bursting up into the creature doing massive damage.

Pluto had never been happier to see Uranus in all her life. Without her earth based magic there was very little anyone other than Sailor Saturn could do against a monster like this. Elementals were nearly indestructible, they healed very fast, and the number of people that could survive even a single blow from their stone fists could be counted on one hand, and would probably have fingers left over. She still didn't know who this enemy was, but if he could summon and control one of these, he was even more of a threat than she had believed. Another World Shaking slammed into the creature, reducing its total body mass to less than half of what it had started with, her Dead Screams were barely making sure the damage Uranus did went completely unhealed. Mercury gave her a look of determination and quickly left the combat scene. Pluto hoped she was going to see what was keeping the Princess, her attack would be a nice addition to chipping this monster down to size. Pluto's moment of inattention as she dwelt on the reasoning behind her princess's tardiness cost her severely. Though the elemental was down to less than half size and strength, it was still more than strong enough to crush most of the bones in her body as it struck her full on.

Pluto was down, Jupiter and Mars were down, there was no one in the way finally. Hotaru stepped out from behind the corner of the building where she had been awaiting a clear shot on the monster that was assaulting her friends, once she was in position she drew her Glaive back and struck the monster with the only attack she possessed that wouldn't end all life on earth. As the wave of entropy struck the elemental it simply ceased to be. The attack continued on for forty or fifty more metres, doing massive collateral damage to the buildings in the path of the destruction.

In the distance the gathered Senshi could hear the voice of their princess call out her Moon Healing Activation, Endymion's voice joined hers and it became obvious to the Outers just who was in need of medical attention. Shortly thereafter Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury helped a disoriented Endymion to the rest of them. Sailor Moon cried out as she saw her wounded Senshi, Hotaru had already seen to the lightly injured Jupiter, who was already beginning to stir, but as of yet on one had been able to rouse Sailor Mars. Sailor Moon rushed over to the critically wounded Sailor Pluto, tears in her eyes as she examined the way Pluto's body seemed to sag as it lay there, the obviously broken bones a reminder of the power of their foe. Sailor Moon once again gathered the power of the Sliver Crystal and poured its healing energy into the dying Senshi. Pluto gasped weakly in pain, but it seemed that her body was simply too wounded for something as small as the Moon Healing Activation.

Usagi was in tears, she honestly didn't know how she brought people back to life with the crystal, and without that knowledge it seemed that Sailor Pluto would soon die from her wounds. She was sure that if she only had better control of the crystal she could heal her friend before it was too late. As she cradled her Oldest Senshi she didn't take notice of the cat that approached her. She had a black cat of her own and though this cat was considerably larger, in her teary eyed state she mistook it for Luna. The cat walked up and casually rubbed its tail across the fading Senshi. Pluto gasped as incomprehensible amounts of silver energy poured through her, restoring her body to full health and bringing her soul from the edge of death. She looked around expecting to see her Princess in her Princess form, holding the silver crystal, instead she saw Sailor Moon, and an enormous black cat, that winked at her and disappeared, all save its smile. A horrified expression overcame her as she realised what that meant, the smile faded from sight a second later.

The battle weary Senshi gathered around the multicoloured sphere wondering what they could possibly do to get at the enemy within. It had taken the full brunt of a silence Glaive Surprise and was still there, the restored Pluto fired a Dead Scream at it to no avail. It seemed that no power they had could crack the prismatic field still enclosing their enemy.

"Sailor Senshi," the voice of Mori called out from seemingly all around them. "Congratulations on your quick defeat of my little elemental, your abilities are surprisingly formidable, but it seems that you have learned little from the mercy I have so far shown you. I have arranged a bit of a demonstration for your benefit, it will grant you an inkling of the power that you pit yourselves against. Know this, I mean you no harm but if you continue to interfere with me I will stop holding back, this is your final warning. In eight minutes you will see my demonstration, and you will understand its timing. Until we meet again, Leisu."

Rei soon awoke to the relief of the other Senshi, they had yet to move further than the rooftop they had originally blasted Mori from, they wanted to be nearby in case his 'demonstration' was something they needed to be there for. As the time ticked down to thirty seconds the Mercury computer began to beep. Something was going on and its scanners begged its master for more information. Quickly putting on her visor Mercury was more stunned than anyone when the sun simply went out. There was no solar radiation, no solar wind, no light, nothing. According to her sensors, something had stopped the sun from its process of hydrogen fusion. For fifteen long seconds there was total darkness, then the light returned. The sun was back.

As the now detransformed scouts made their way silently to the Hikawa Jinja one question played on everyone's mind. What in the name of the moon has the power to turn off the sun, and how can you fight something like that?

End Chapter One