Pairing: Eventual Shin/Makoto
Type: X-over; action/adventure
Begun: 6/20/02
Ended: who knows?

Note: This takes place somewhere between the end of Sailor Stars, so it's sort of a TWT for the Senshi, and the middle of the Yoroiden Samurai Troopers series (between the first and second invasion - which is supposed to have happened in 1988, anyway), so it's a total TWT for the Troopers. Also, the people in Shinjuku came back from wherever they disappeared to between the two invasions.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Yoroiden Samurai Troopers. I never will own them, and I'm sure you're all thankful for that. However, I do own this plot and any and all clothing designs.
Warnings: The only senshi found here are Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. All others appear in mention alone. There will be violence in later chapters, and blood. That's about it, though.

Makoto got back home still feeling as if she were in shock. After a full day of being rejected, not only did she get a job, but her employers had asked her to take it. That was not how she'd expected things to go at all. Vaguely she wondered what sort of person Nasutei was that her word was good enough for a complete stranger to be accepted without a formal interview. She walked down the street to her apartment building slowly, not really paying attention to anything but the ground in front of her. That was why she almost missed her name being called.

" ... koto-san! Makoto-san!"

With a start Makoto looked up. Across the street Nasutei was sitting on Byakuuen's back, waving at her and smiling. The senshi of Jupiter couldn't help herself – she smiled and waved back, jogging over to meet up with them.

"Good afternoon, Nasutei-san. Byakuuen-san. Working late?"

Nasutei laughed while the white tiger preened, "Yes, actually. I'm on my way to the school again. Just finished my self-imposed lunch break. But I saw you and thought I should ask how it went. Shuyu-san did call, didn't he?"

"Yes, I just got back from the restaurant. I didn't know they were making a move. But I'm glad – it lessens my worry of a day-long commute. Shuyu-san seems like a very kind person."

Nasutei smiled softly and nodded, "I'm glad it went well. The whole family is very nice; though Shuu can be a handful if you get him angry. He's got something of a short temper."

"No way!"

"It's true!" the older woman giggled, "You've only met him once and for a relatively short time. If you meet him outside of the restaurant and hang out with him for a day, you'll see what I mean."

"Well, I don't know if that would ever happen," Makoto said, looking down modestly.

"You never know," Nasutei chided, shaking her finger jokingly. Then she caught sight of her watch, "Ara! Look at the time! I really should go if I ever want to finish clearing out grandfather's office."

"Well, see you soon, okay?"

"Of course. See you tomorrow!"

Makoto watched Byakuuen bound off, Nasutei riding on his back as though he were a horse. "Tomorrow, eh? I like that." She smiled and headed inside her apartment building, intent on getting a lot of unpacking done. The sooner she did, the sooner she could say she was home.

"Aaaah," she sighed, four hours later, "That feels so good."

She looked around her fully unpacked living room. It had taken an hour to unpack the boxes and sort everything, and the next three to arrange everything to her liking. More pictures would grace the walls once she bought more nails, but that would be the finishing detail. For now, her bedroom and living room were fully unpacked and set up, and that was good enough for her. Tomorrow was Saturday anyway. She'd have the whole weekend to set up her kitchen and bathroom. Her stomach growled softly, alerting Makoto to the fact that she hadn't eaten all day. She looked at the clock, her eyes widening in surprise.

"It's really 19:00? Damn," she muttered, "And I haven't gone food shopping yet, either. Well then, back to ramen."(1)

She washed her face and hands quickly and grabbed her wallet and keys. Might as well go to the same place she had the night before, she figured – at least she knew it was cheap and could be easily spiced. And that was what she did, contemplating what had happened during the day while waiting for her order to come and playing absent-mindedly with her wooden chopsticks.

I still can't believe it. Imagine. Just like that – I get a job. I mean, I knew they were friends of Nasutei-san's, but who's to say that they'd take me on just because of her word. And why would she put in a word for me, anyway? We just met! I shouldn't be counting my blessings, I guess, but even so ...

Her train of thought was interrupted very rudely by the sounds of hysterical screaming as explosions ripped through the ground, shaking everything. Reacting quickly, Makoto held fast to the table as the after shock of the explosion rocked the ground under her feet.

"Oh shit," she swore, "Here we go again."

There was no talk of people collapsing in the streets, which meant no energy draining was being done, which meant that it was probably not the work of any of the youma she'd faced. It was for this that Makoto was infinitely thankful. The last thing she needed were youma attacks by some run-of-the-mill bad guy while she was on her own. But she could not easily ignore the fact that people were being hurt – probably by terrorists. Sighing heavily and ignoring the odd looks she was receiving from the otherwise hysterical people because she chose not to run around like a chicken with her head cut off, Makoto stood.

"Lesson one in an emergency: Don't. Panic. Doesn't anyone pay attention?" she mumbled, "Ch'. And why does this always happen at dinner!"

The Senshi of Balance calmly walked into the street, surveying the damage and quickly assessing the situation, mentally hoping that Haruka and Michiru would sense something and join her in the fight if there was one. The first thing that came to mind was, This is not terrorist work. And it wasn't. As far as she knew, a terrorist would have much more sense than to blow up a portable ice cream stand in the middle of the road. They'd be aiming for a shopping center, at least, with more crowds that would cause much more damage. She noted that the ice cream stand owner was safely away from the scene of the explosion and began casting glances around quickly, trying to locate the guilty party.

"This is strange. I can't feel the presence of any youma ... the energy levels are completely off. This isn't something from the Dark Kingdom. So what did this?" Makoto wondered aloud, looking for the closest alley. She could do more damage transformed than not. Finding an alleyway suitable for her needs, the tall girl quickly ducked into it and pulled out her henshin wand. "Jupiter Eternal ... MAKE UP!" she cried, throwing her hand into the air.

One short transformation sequence later she jumped up onto a tall building, tucking her newly acquired wings behind her to keep them out of the way.(2) From her perch she could see everything perfectly, including the attackers. What she saw was certainly not what she'd expected.

"We're being attacked by mobile tin cans? What is this, Gundam Wing?" she muttered, narrowing her eyes until they gleamed with mischievous evil. "I don't appreciate people ripping off a damn good show to kill people. Well then, I'll just have to take care of that myself." And any rate, it'll be good practice for me.

Preferring a good fight to 'blast-and-run' as she had come to call it, Makoto leapt off the building and straight into the group of what appeared to be robotic samurai. At first it seemed that they didn't notice her so she took a second to wonder what their weak spot was. In the following second, one of the robots behind her realized that her presence was a threat, and swung out with his chain-scimitar. Makoto was able to just barely dodge it. She growled lowly and jumped into the air, flipping and landing behind the group.

"If that's how we're going to play ... Supreme THUNDER!" she yelled, calling upon her power like an old friend.

The massive bolts of lightning-like energy came crashing down around her and she relished in the feeling of the raw power caressing her. Holding onto the sensation of for just a moment as she gathered it and concentrated it, Makoto threw herself into her role as protector, balancer, and fighter with abandon. Three seconds later she released the energy and watched it obliterate a straight line of the robotic things.

"How's that for competition?" Makoto smirked.

Unfortunately for her, the samurai seemed to take her challenge seriously and brandished their weapons, circling closer and pressing in on her. The line of empty space that she had created was filled in as they moved closer.

"Sparkling ... wide ... PRESSURE!" she shouted, creating the discus of energy and releasing it into the crowd and creating more empty space, which she promptly ran through.

Not taking another chance at being closed in, Makoto sprang into the air back flipping, and unleashing a "flower hurricane" and a "coconut cyclone" in succession, trying to wipe out as many as possible before she came down again. Though she did get many of them, there were many others coming at her, swinging scythes and scimitars and various other weapons at her.

"All right. Fine. In that case ... " Makoto growled, and charged back at them.

She slid back into her memories as a martial artist and street child, lashing out with every kick and punch that she could think of, while concentrating her power to her hands and feet – something she'd never used before but had always wanted to try. She felt an oddly satisfying feeling as she watched them crumble to ashes under her attacks, but brushed the feeling aside. There would be time for that later, now she had to be on her guard. Not only was she using more energy than normal due to the new situation, but this use of her powers was new to her – her energy was draining from her quickly and she knew it. None of the senshi had ever fought this many things before. All their enemies had come in ones or twos. She cast a calculating gaze around – there weren't so many samurai robots that she couldn't take them all down before she was totally drained, she figured. And she was right. By the time she really started feeling the strain of using so much energy there were only five of the robots left.

"I can do this ... Four ... " she said as one went down with a roundhouse kick. "Three," went down with a chop to the neck area. "Two ... " she paused, swaying slightly on her feet. "Where the hell are 'two' and 'one'?"

The last two were gone. Makoto turned a full circle, listening intently for any sign of the escaped samurai things, but saw and heard nothing. Not relaxing her guard at all she moved on down the street looking left and right.

"Come out! I know you haven't left, I can still feel your presence! Hiding won't do you any good, especially not when you've put me in a bad mood!" she called out in challenge.

The streets remained eerily silent except for a faint sound of chains clinking softly against each other. Makoto mentally zeroed in on the noise and smirked. "Ah-hah. Got you," she whispered, and ran silently in the direction of it. Walking dumbly into the alleyway that she had transformed in was one of the two escapees. She smirked and readied her hands for the attack.

"Sparkling ... wide ... PRESSU-AAAAH!"

Looking down at her left side with something akin to shock or disbelief, Makoto saw the long gash that all but gushed out blood. A large red spot was developing on her side, and growing steadily larger. There really was no pain, and she supposed it had to do with her being used to it. The two animated armor suits brandished their weapons.

The only thing keeping it off the street, Makoto mused idly, is my fuku. Well fuck. "I'm afraid I can't let you off easily for that, asshole. This is my best outfit, after all. Supreme thunder ... DRAGON!"

The dragon-shaped lightning curled around her body, making her look to the passer-by something like an evil angel. She threw her hands out at the two robots and cried, "SIC 'EM!" Two seconds later there were no more robots in the streets, and Makoto felt very dizzy. Belatedly she heard the sound of running feet near her, but she just didn't have the energy to face her attacker. Everything was black around the edges, she was so tired, and her feet didn't seem quite able to support her weight any more. Then she was falling, and the last thing she felt was being caught.

It had started out a peaceful, calm, relaxing day by the water. It usually did when something was going to go wrong – he'd thought he'd learned that lesson. But no ... he'd gotten his hopes up all the same. The day was brightly lit with the sun and warm, but not so much that he would be sweating horribly. All in all, it was a perfect day for a long swim. Until his good friend Hashiba Touma came into the picture. Sometimes he really wanted to hit the genius boy.

Touma had called him out earlier than he would have liked because he wanted someone to spar with. Seiji was at his family's dojo at the time, Shuu was visiting Yokohama to see his family, Ryo was off in the wild, and he was really bored so would Shin please, please, please, pleaaaaaaase spar with him? He was really bored and considering using Nasutei's furniture for target practice.

Though he would have preferred to stay in the water and play with his aquatic friends, Shin knew that there was no denying Touma in begging mode. He also really didn't want to have to explain to Nasutei why her couch was full of holes. Against his better judgement, Shin agreed to spar with Touma. They'd finished earlier than either expected (sparring sessions had a way of going on for hours once you got into the swing of things), and so he decided to go to the library for a couple hours of peaceful reading.

This was before the explosions ripped through the streets sending the common people into mass hysteria. Shin sighed in annoyance and snapped his book closed angrily. The feel of youja soldiers was everywhere, and there was a sharp spike in a form of energy that he couldn't classify.

Dammit, didn't we just finish defeating Arago? Shin thought, annoyed.

Well, either Arago was back or there was someone new in command of his soldiers – perhaps that was the new energy he'd felt. He truly hoped that the latter of his guesses was the correct one: dealing with Arago more than once in a lifetime was not on his list of things to do.

"Can't we have peace for even a year? Really, this is getting old." Suiko no Shin grumbled loudly. "And where's Seiji when you need him? Why does the fighting always start when I'm the only one around, anyway?"

It didn't matter that he was talking to himself; the library was so full of yelling and screaming people that he doubted people knew what they were screaming about, much less were paying attention to him. Shin pulled out his cell phone to call the other Troopers and felt like screaming himself when he realized that his batteries had run out.

"Daaaa!" he cried in frustration, debating whether or not to crush the thing. Instead he slammed it on the table next to his book. Then he huffed out another annoyed sigh and moved to an open window, which he proceeded to jump out of. "So I'll go myself and take all the credit later."

He ran in the direction of the youja that he knew where terrorizing the citizens, powering into his under-armor while he was at it. He just hoped that he wasn't too late to salvage the situation. People ran by him, screaming and ducking behind cars. Deciding that it would take too long to run through them all, Shin hopped up onto a car's roof and leapt into the air, landing on a roof.

"Ninja time," Shin grinned to himself as he began roof-hopping.

He made it to the battle ground in time to see a flash of green run into an alleyway. Making a soft noise of confusion, Suiko no Shin jumped down to the street, landing silently, and positioned himself behind a car. Something that sounded like "Supreme thunder" came echoing out of the alley shortly after, followed by a flash of lightning. Shin waited until the light had died down before he jumped over the car and leapt silently to the entry of the alley. There, with her back turned towards him, was none other than one of the Sailor Senshi that had been in the news reports so often before Arago's first attack.

"Holy ... They are real! Hah! Take that, Touma! You and Seiji owe me and Nasutei money!" Shin muttered, grinning like a mad man. The Trooper took a few steps towards her to attempt conversation with her, when he realized that she was swaying dangerously on her feet. A confused look came over his face. "What's wrong with her ... " then he noticed the blood. "Shit. She's gonna fall."

Without another thought about what he was doing, Suiko no Shin found himself running full speed in Sailor Jupiter's direction, some internal instinct demanding that he catch her and protect her before she was hurt further. He caught her by throwing himself to the ground just below her, seconds before she hit the ground, and wrapped protective arms around her waist. All it took was one look at her face and Shin knew instantly that she was unconscious and needed medical attention. He was amazed at how light she was when he picked her up and more so when he saw her fuku become street clothes. Before his eyes she transformed from a pretty super heroine to an equally pretty young woman.

"Well," he said jokingly, trying not to acknowledge the blush that he could feel staining his cheeks, "normally I'd try to get at least a name before carrying you off, but I think we can make an exception for today. Come on, I'll take you to the hospital."

NOTES

(1) As far as I know, Japan runs on military time like the rest of the sane world.

(2) You'll need to have read the manga for this one. The final transformation sequence of the Senshi outfits included wings; whether or not they work is debatable.