Cyber Moon: Chronicles.
Act 1: Gathering.
Episode 3: General Mayhem.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 19, 2006
Neptune tried once again to free her neck from the monster's claws, but failed. It was simply impossible, the creature was stronger than she'd first thought, and she was running out of energy fast since she was unable to breath. She kicked the monster's side, trying to get him to let her go, but nothing happened. She blinked trying to focus her eyes, and saw a blur passing by, then she fell down.
When she recovered, she noticed the monster's hand was still around her neck, but it wasn't attached to him anymore. Looking to the side, she coud see the creature clutching it's handless arm, and a figure standing a few meters away from it, wielding a sword that was right now dripping bluish blood. "Kage?"
The figure smiled at her. "Dragon Sun, I guess. Thank me later, we have to defeat this thing. The monster growled then screamed, the soundwave generated by his scream knocked his foes to the ground. "Talk about loudmouth."
Uranus stood up first, and rushed at the youma, who dodged aside as she swung her fist at him, then elbowed her back, sending her crashing into a car.
Dragon Sun had already recovered, and saw an opening to attack. "Solar Bolt!" The youma howled in pain as a thin light beam punched through his shoulder, then kneeled on the ground. "Gotcha!"
"Gotta work on your aim," Neptune teased, then kicked the creature to the ground. She put a hand on his forehead and smiled. "This is for trying to choke me, ugly. Aqua Blast!"
Uranus stood up just in time to see the monster's head exploding thanks to the water jet. "That was disgusting."
"But effective," Pluto added coming out from around the truck as the youma vanished. "That was good enough for a first battle, team."
"Yeah, thanks for the help," Dragon Sun muttered.
"Believe me, if I wanted to, I could destroy a few hundred of those monsters in one blast."
"... If that's true, why didn't you help Neptune?"
"Because you were the one that had to help her," Pluto said. As the Dragon looked at her confused, she shrugged. "What Neptune said back home is true, I can see the future. Or at least, I see flashes and images of it, sometimes I can see several different choices and their consequences."
"Can you see the winning lottery ticket?" the Dragon joked.
"Senshi powers are not to be used for personal gain," Pluto lectured.
"Then how did you get all that money?"
"That's a secret," Pluto said with a wink.
Once again, Jadeite was giving his Queen a briefing of the latest scouting mission.
"While Sailor V didn't show up yesterday, we were able to identify three more Senshi in Tokyo," Jadeite said.
"Three more?" Beryl asked surprised.
"They go by the names of Neptune, Uranus and Dragon Sun."
Beryl frowned. She remembered the first two, but the third? There was no Sailor Sun in Serenity's court, let alone a Dragon. "How did the scout fare?"
"The Senshi are seemingly weak, but I fear our youma, without Metallia's power, are weaker than them."
"That's bad. We need to find the Ginzuishou or find a way to awaken Metallia."
Kunzite walked out of the shadows and bowed to the Queen. "We could use Tokyo to feed Metallia."
Beryl frowned "How?"
"Humans are good energy sources, and Tokyo is full of them. With so much energy available, we could speed up Metallia's healing in a way we could've never dreamt of when we had no way to reach the Earth. "
"How many of our soldiers can pass through the portal?" Beryl asked.
"Two at most, right now, and it needs a day or two to recharge. If we gather more energy, we could also upgrade the portals and send more soldiers through," Jadeite explained.
"I see... Dexite!"
The pale, corpse-like General walked out of the shadows and bowed to the Queen. "Yes, my Queen?"
"You will go along with Kunzite to the Earth, and try to gather as much energy as you can. If the Senshi show up, destroy them."
The two Generals bowed at her again then walked back into the shadows that surrounded the throne.
Minako had decided to go to the shopping mall near her house after school, as she'd thought it'd be fun. Just when she was heading for the entrance, she saw a strange man walking by her. He had white hair and black eyes, and his suit was like a formal army uniform, as white as his hair. "Weird..." Moments later, she saw the man rising his hands as he entered the building, and thin white energy beams shoot all around him. Every person being hit by those beams fell to the ground, unconscious.
The blonde dove into an antique shop and frowned as she hid behind the counter. 'Too bad Art is not around, I could use some help. ' Then again, Artemis had just bossed her around in her first battle, she had been the one dealing with the monster. Even though this guy didn't look like a youma, she guessed some of them could disguise themselves as humans. 'Time for the mighty Sailor V to show up and save the day!'
Kunzite produced a black crystal and smiled coldly as black energy tendrils shot from it, absorbing the life energy of all the humans around him. The energy was being sent straight to a massive crystal in Metallia's chamber, back in the Dark Kingdom. A few moments more, and he'd drained all the energy these pitiful humans...
"Crescent Beam!"
The General blinked as the crystal was knocked off his hand by a light beam. It crashed into the far wall and smashed into thousands of small crystal shards. "Damn it, who..." He turned to see a girl in a Sailor Senshi outfit glaring at him from behind her blue mask. "Sailor V, I suppose."
"You're right, youma. I'm the one and only Sailor V, and I'm here to stop you from hurting the innocent!" V said as she put her hands to the sides of her waist.
Kunzite laughed. "Fool. I'm Kunzite, the strongest man in Beryl's army, and no weak Senshi will stop me."
"Crescent Beam!" Sailor V used her attack once more, but this time it bounced off an invisible forcefield around Kunzite. "What the... "
"You call that an attack?" Kunzite gloated. Actually, the attack had been pretty close to hitting him, and it was lucky he'd been able to summon a shield spell so quickly. In any case, it was time to deal with this pest. "Here, let me show you!" He rose his hand, and a white energy blast shot from it, hitting V in her chest and sending her crashing through the wall and back into the antique shop.
V tried to stand up, but fell back to the ground, wincing in pain. The energy blast had hurt quite a bit, and she'd also hit her leg hard when she landed after her unscheduled flight. "Damn..." Kunzite walked over to her and grinned evily "Really, I can't believe Kron would lose to you."
V tried to figure a way out of her predicament, and as she looked up she saw a chandelier hanging on the roof, just over Kunzite's head. A mischievous smile formed in her face despite the pain she was feeling. "I'm not beaten yet. Crescent Beam!"
Kunzite gasped as the attack hissed by just missing his face, then chuckled. "Missed me."
"Not really." V said and backed away just as the chandelier came crashing down on Kunzite. Kunzite staggered up dizzily and tossed the chandelier aside, then saw Sailor V was right in front of him, aiming her finger at his chest. "I'll give you one last chance to leave before I shoot you," she warned.
Kunzite glared at her. "Sailor V, this is not over. I'll be back, and next time I'll defeat you for sure."
V sighed as Kunzite teleported out. That had been lucky, that Kunzite chickened out in the last second. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to defeat him next time. Her mind reminded her of the pain that was running up and down her leg, and she sat on the ground, panting.
Artemis walked in right then and looked around at the wreckage and humans lying on the ground all around the building. "What happened?" He asked.
"A guy named Kunzite knocked everyone in the mall out. I tried to fight him but I'm lucky to be alive." Minako said after transforming back to normal. It was then that she discovered her injuries didn't vanish when she turned normal, and they hurt a lot more, too. "I managed to scare him off but I don't know if I'll be able to do it next time."
Artemis sighed "That's not any guy... Kunzite was the strongest Dark Kingdom General. He's too dangerous for you to fight on your own."
"He said that when we were fighting, but I thought he was just bluffing." Minako noted.
"This could be bad for us... I just hope we find the other Senshi soon..." Artemis said. And they would also need the other Mooncats as well... If any of them was still alive.
Kage was walking home from school when he saw it: A man wearing a black military outfit, his skin a pale grey, and his hair dark grey and dirty-looking. It walked pass him without even noticing him, and for some reason, Kage felt he was dangerous.
And thus, he decided to follow the man, up to the office building a few blocks away from his house. The building had been bought by a foreign company weeks ago, from what Kage knew, so maybe this guy was a terrorist?
Then again, terrorists don't shoot energy tendrils that knock down everyone around them, the boy thought with a frown as he watched the man laugh evily amidst the dozens of bodies (corpses?) that laid all around the building.
Kage frowned. He had no time to go back home and warn the others about this. He had to face this guy alone. And untrained. And really, really hungry since he'd forgotten his lunchbox. Oh well, nobody said a hero's life was easy. Kage looked around to make sure there were no witnesses, then produced his sword from thin air.
That was one nice plus to being a Senshi, they all had what Setsuna called "pocket spaces" where they could keep their suits and weapons, and where they could, Kage had correctly guessed, keep other things they would find useful.
"Sun Dragon Power!"
Even though he'd transformed the day before, it was still amazing to see. Flames surrounded him, along with a bubble of something he could not identify, and they slowly closed in to him. However, he didn't feel any heat from the fire as the magic elements solidified, apparently forming his suit over his normal clothes.
Dragon Sun nodded to himself and run into the building, stepping behind a column. Fortunately, the corpse-like man hadn't noticed him, despite the fireworks. That gave him the element of surprise, or so he thought.
"Smells like Senshi," the man said. Dragon Sun stood behind the column, sword ready. He knew even though the man had somehow sensed him, he couldn't actually see him.
He produced a small, round stone, something he'd picked from the backyard back home and kept in his pocket space. Risking looking around the column, he saw the man was facing away from him, apparently trying to figure out where he was. Perfect.
The man turned to the sound of breaking glass, and walked away to investigate. Kage almost chuckled insanely at how easy the man had been to fool, but instead he charged out, ready to attack the man... And then he saw a fist-sized black crystal on the ground, something he hadn't noticed before. The crystal had black energy tendrils coming out of it, and they were seemingly absorbing the energy of everyone inside the building.
Whatever it was, it was bad. The Dragon swung his sword at the crystal, causing it to explode in a myriad of shards. That stopped the draining, but also gave out his exact location to the walking corpse.
"Well, well, young men these days have no respect for their elders. "
"I need not respect an evil lich like you," Dragon Sun snapped.
"Too bad, kid. You broke my crystal, now I'll break you."
"Stop using cliche lines or I'll have to really hurt you."
The man laughed. "Hurt me? Let's see you try."
Dragon Sun frowned and glared at his foe, then smirked. "You talk about respect, but you haven't introduced yourself yet."
"Why, silly me," the man said sarcastically. "My name's Dexite, one of Beryl's Generals."
A General? He remembered the Generals from his past life, yet he had never seen this one. Still, if he was one of Beryl's top minions, it could be a bit harder than he'd first thought to defeat him.
The worst was, he hadn't thought about actually defeating him at all.
A/N: Yep, I've said it before, and it's still true: I love cliffhangers.
Minor edit to the first two episodes, and you'll notice the change in this one: Added one more word to the transformation shout, so now everyone'll have "Planet Power" instead of just "Power." Well, except for Moon because, you know, she's supposed to be the main character and all. . .
And because the Moon isn't a proper planet, so it wouldn't make sense.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is a creation of Naoko Takeuchi, and I thank her for creating such wonderful universe.