Ah, gotta love that inpiration.
For those that ask, no, this isn't set during the Pharaoh 90 arc, it's set after, which I think was the Galaxia arc...I'm not a longtime fan of Sailor moon so I wouldn't know off the top of my head. The reason Hotaru had an attack was simply a fluke, a bit of Deus Ex the universe threw in to ensure that she met our two Street Fighters turned Neko.
And yes, as you might have guessed, Dan and Gouki retain most of their strength in Neko form, but because of the unusal bodies, they're most lilkely at less than 1/4 strength. But even at that much it's not that hard for Gouki, or even Dan, to smash the bejeebus out of a car.
And yes, that was a tribute to the 'pummel the car' mini-game...god I loved that game.
Halibel: Vagrant.
Kyugan: Hey, it was cathartic!
Round 4.
Meiou Setsuna sighed in relief as she left the Tomoe home behind, the revived, invalid Dr. Tomoe having released all rights to his daughter to her care, thanks to some subtle manipulation and a little hypnotic suggestion. Most people, upon learning of this, would raise a stink and condemn her without thought, but Setsuna, or Sailor Pluto as she was known, had been doing this for quite some time and knew how to avoid paper trails.
Oh it hadn't always been like this, in the Silver millennium she'd been as straight as an arrow and, truth be told, a little bit of a wallflower, in that she preferred the company of the time gates to her fellow senshi, though they were all as close as could be without sharing blood. Then Mettalia and Beryl had swooped in and blown everything to pieces. The moon palace was sacked, the other royal planets had their biosphere's removed, leaving all but earth for dead.
Hell, there'd been ELEVEN planets in the solar system before then, Juno and Nemesis, but the battle with Mettalia's forces had reduced the former to little more than a scattering of meteors between Mars and Jupiter, and the latter had been knocked so far out of orbit it had only been discovered in the future, thanks in part to her attempts to hush things up, when the Dark Moon Clan came back for revenge.
As the sole survivor of the Silver Millennium, having been sealed in with the time gates when the invasion began, Pluto had been left virtually alone throughout countless millennia, watching as the utopian society they'd lived in degraded to cosmic dust, waiting for her fellow senshi and princess to be reborn so that they might rebuild. Imagine her horror, watching for them in the time gates, too desperate after being alone for so long to fear the consequences, at finding the senshi had been reduced in reincarnation from highly trained warriors to giggling schoolgirls.
Oh they retained traits of their former selves; Mercury still had her ingenious mind, Mars was as hot-tempered as ever, Jupiter still possessed an interest in martial arts and Venus was still a shameless flirt…but they were shades of their former selves, tempered by the times they lived in and their occupations. She didn't even want to THINK about what had become of the regal, composed, genteel princess Serenity, one of the few people that had been able to convince her to leave the Time Gates with but a smile and kind words. The Senshi had loved her dearly, as their mothers had hers, and would have willingly given their lives to protect her.
There was literally NOTHING of her memory in her current incarnation: a bumbling, scatterbrained ditz that was more interested in stuffing her face and fantasizing about boys when she wasn't sleeping through class, the archetypal, though Setsuna wasn't one to resort to stereotypes, dumb blonde. Oh she could be sweet and considerate, when she wasn't stuffing her face or gushing over some boy, but it was, again, shades beneath what the princess had been capable of.
Princess Serenity had once calmed a rearing stallion by smiling at it, Setsuna would bet any money that Usagi, if faced by a similar situation, would run screaming in the opposite direction, probably getting lost on the way. That or eat the blasted thing.
But none of that mattered to one with the patience, time, and the means to ensure things were set right. So while she was still entrapped in the gates, Pluto used them restlessly to determine a course of events that would bring back everything she, THEY had lost; A new Silver Millennium: Crystal Tokyo.
Of course this meant wiping the minds of Luna and Artemis, the only two Maou that had survived the great fall. Not that she erased EVERYTHING mind you, they were no good to her as brainless beasts, and she wasn't so far gone as to do such a thing to old friends, but enough to ensure they didn't give out any undue information to their charges, like the fact there was a fully trained, virtually immortal Senshi with a veritable 'Time Machine' watching over them.
Artemis was sent to Europe to watch over Aino Minako, or Sailor Venus, frankly because Setsuna doubted his ability to divide his attention between more than one charge at a time. Luna was sent to Earth several months later, a little careful manipulation ensuring that the former royal advisor didn't realize Usagi was the reincarnated Princess, instead conscripting her to become the first ever Sailor Moon.
After that it was a simple matter of ensuring that things progressed according to HER script. This meant wiping out any threats to the senshi before they occurred, such as the near rape of Mizuno Ami, Mercury, and inspiring Kino Makoto, Jupiter, to take up martial arts when her parents died. Hino Rei's position as priestess was actually a blessing, as the firetrap had developed abilities even OUTSIDE her senshi form, though she'd yet to actually conjure flame.
And as for Venus…well, multi-tasking might not have been his strength, but Setsuna had to admit Artemis had done a bang-up job in motivating the girl. She'd even allowed him to retain his memory of the princess, to an extent, at least enough to instill the importance of finding and protecting her in his charge.
All that left was for Setsuna to seek out Uranus and Neptune and…convince them to her way of thinking. Now if only she could stop Haruka's incessant attempts to convince her into a three-way, she wasn't THAT desperate after all.
In any case, with the threat of Pharoh-90 out of the way, things were, in her opinion, looking up for Crystal Tokyo. All she had to do was sit back, occasionally launching a Dead Scream to wipe out immediate threats to the senshi, and wait for the ice-age to hit. That is, after she dropped Hotaru, or rather Sailor Saturn, off at Haruka and Michiru's place. Those two would be more than happy to watch after the girl, and would probably be able to look her in the eye without recalling how, at one point, they'd been trying to kill her.
'Stop that.' She ordered, a frown marring her features as she reigned in her emotions with the experience of ages 'You can't lose control now, not with everything falling into place at last.' Taking a breath to steady herself, the oldest living Senshi in the solar system set off towards Hotaru's school, ready to take the girl off to her new home.
The fact the girl was in HOSPITAL threw her for a loop however.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well you're perfectly fine Hotaru-chan!" Doctor Mizuno assured the girl sitting before her "I'm guessing it was simply a little exhaustion that brought the spell on, get some rest and you'll be right as rain."
Hotaru smiled at the blue haired woman, for some reason she felt like she'd met her, or someone like her, some time ago, but the image swam away before she could put a name or date to it. "I'll just let your father know where you are shall I?" doctor Mizuno assured her genially, patting her on the head "He'll be round to pick you up soon."
"That will not be necessary, Doctor Mizuno." A voice called out, the blue haired woman turning to blink at a tall, regal looking woman in a well-cut business suit. Her long green hair aside, she looked like a professional lawyer. "I'm with child services, I'm afraid that Doctor Tomoe's condition has made it hard for him to provide adequate parenting time, so he has arranged for Hotaru to stay with some friends."
"Condition?" Ami's mother repeated, blinking as a medical file, an original, as there honestly no need for a forgery, was placed in her hand, eyes widening as she flipped through it "Oh my god…the poor man…"
"Yes," Setsuna agreed, looking over at the confused Hotaru with an impassive stare. Not out of spite, but to prevent her emotions leaking out. She hadn't forgotten the look in the girls eyes as she'd stared down a Dead Scream. Or the face that had looked down at Pluto when she'd 'Died' either.
"Well…the paperwork looks to be in order." Dr. Mizuno admitted, a little uncertainly but she'd recognize the good Doctor's signature anywhere, only to sigh, turning to Hotaru with a apologetic smile "Hotaru-chan, you have to go with this lady…"
"Is papa sick?" Hotaru asked, looking between the strangely familiar woman in the suit and the one with blue hair. For some reason the former gave he as great a feeling of unease as the latter gave of calm.
"I'm afraid so." Dr. Mizuno stated, wincing at having to say it outright "But he'll get better, and then you can go home."
Hotaru regarded the doctor with solemn eyes, her purple gaze unsettling the older woman for some reason, before nodding and hopping to the floor, walking over to the green haired woman and out of the office without a fuss.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Have I told you this is a bad idea?" Gouki muttered, glaring at Dan as the pink feline tried to scramble through a vent into the Hospital, his hind legs kicking hilariously as fought to gain entry into the narrow opening "The brat wasn't hurt, most likely they took her in for fainting."
"But she fainted because of US!" Dan insisted, his voice oddly muffled by the vent, his hind-legs still kicking at the air as he fought to stuff more of himself down the tube "We probably scared the life out of her, talking like that right in front of her!"
"Bah, a little childhood trauma never hurt anyone." Gouki muttered derisively, his tail wrapped around his feet as he looked aside, the tip twitching "Quite the opposite actually, it builds character."
"Maybe for psychopaths like you." Dan muttered, shivering as he felt the other feline's gaze lock onto his rear like a homing beacon "But some kids take shock like that really hard…I gotta make sure she's-!"
Whatever Dan was trying to determine about the girl was cut off as he began to cough and sneeze, his legs kicking wildly, this time in a an attempt to extract himself from the pipe, Gouki watching in dark amusement as the buffoon finally managed to do so, popping out of the pipe with a plume of smoke, before crashing to the ground, half choked and covered with soot.
"Yo…yoyusuuuuu…" the swirly eyed neko stammered, coughing up soot as he lay there, looking dazed and. Gouki wasn't too concerned about him though, he'd landed on his head after all, so there was little chance of anything being damaged.
The dark furred neko froze as he sensed…something, coming from the front of the hospital, his hackles rising and his tail sticking up straight as he turned crimson eyes towards the doors, narrowing the sight of the girl from before and a woman with green hair as the latter waved down a taxi. There was something about the woman that the Master of Fists couldn't place. She didn't look particularly strong, but then looks could be deceiving, especially in strong fighters. Instead, it was like something about her was…off, she felt older than a woman in her later twenties should…and it was setting off warning bells to his highly trained fighter's instincts.
She didn't smell natural either he noted, whiskers twitching as he noted his sense of smell, as a cat, was almost as sharp as his ability to sense ki.
"What's up?" Dan asked, staggering out from around the corner, still coughing up soot clods, half his body scuffed with soot and dirt "You see some-hey there she is!" he blinked "Hey…who's that with her?"
"Why don't you go ask?" Gouki shot back coldly, irritated at the interruption, as it had caused him to lose the scent, and the wind had changed "There," he muttered, nodding as the brat climbed into the taxi "she's fine, we can go-!"
The feline master of Ansatsuken trailed off as, after seeing the child off in the taxi, the green haired woman pulled, of all things, some sort of garnet rod out of thin air and TELEPORTED away, leaving the street deserted.
"Did…did you see that too?" Dan asked, blinking his eyes and shaking his head in confusion "Or did I inhale to much smoke back there?"
Gouki said nothing; he merely padded over to the spot the woman had, until recently, occupied, before turning his gaze down the street after the departing taxi.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Haruka…" Kaioh Michiru whispered, leaning over and shaking her lover's arm gently to rouse the blonde from slumber, her own aquamarine hair tousled from their...playtime, the night before "Come on…time to get up."
"Mrrgh…ten more minutes …" Tenoh Haruka muttered, the short-haired blonde burying her head under the pillows stubbornly as her lover caressed her cheek. The professional racer had come in late last night, having just put some would be street racers in their place, followed by outgunning the Juuban police to avoid getting her license pulled.
"But Setsuna-san said that Hotaru-chan would be here before noon." Michiru pointed out, leaning in to speak in the stubborn blonde's ear, despite her groans of protest "And it's already eleven."
"Alright...fine!" Haruka groaned, pulling her tousled head from beneath the covers, scowling tom-boyishly at her smiling lover, looking absolutely adorable to the other senshi "How'd we get conned into taking her in anyways?"
"You're the one who agreed to it dear," Michiru pointed out, a hint of disapproval at just how easy her lover could be manipulated by Pluto. Not that she didn't find Setsuna attractive herself, but Haruka's libido and wandering eyes had always been a sore point in their relationship. The woman had even suggested including Usagi and her friends in their little 'get togethers', until Michiru put her foot down.
"I did…?" Haruka muttered, her eyes half shut with sleep, only to groan and nod "Oh yeah…Plu's plan…"
Michiru sighed and got off the bed, dressing in a nightgown as she made her way to the kitchen, knowing Haruka's brain would need a dose of caffeine to give it a kick start. As she watched the kettle boil, she let her mind wander back to the little girl she and her fellow outers were taking in, the same girl they had, not too long ago, fought desperately to kill.
'It's not like it was her fault Mistress 9 was lurking inside her.' The aquamarine haired woman sighed, shaking her head ruefully 'But still…Setsuna-san seemed so…determined to see things through…'
Brushing such thoughts aside, the Senshi of Neptune prepared herself to welcome in their new family member, making sure to leave Haruka's coffee where the blonde would find it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"S-slow down would ya?!" Dan yelped, panting for breath as he fought to match Gouki's pace. The fiery maned tomcat had suddenly taken off in the direction of the taxi they'd seen the kid disappear into, actually managing to keep up with it despite it going close to 30 miles an hour.
Gouki didn't respond to the buffoon's pleas, he merely kept his eyes locked on the taxi ahead, his mind racing with the possibilities. Clearly there was something unusual about the woman that had escorted the sickly looking girl out of the hospital, there weren't many people that could teleport at will after all. His Ashura Senkuu was a prime example of a warping technique, utilizing Ki and high speed movement to either cross great distances, or disorient a worthy opponent as he took the rear.
The woman had used neither Ki nor Chi, of that Gouki would stake his reputation, which meant that she was one of the few practitioners of magic left in this world.
Now while many people would scoff at the mere mention of magic, the word being synonymous with children's fairytales and people that said 'Abracadabra' while wearing silk hats and capes, Gouki had faced off against a fair few opponents that used it to some extent. A good example had been a cocky redhead he'd bumped into in Whales a few years ago, at one of the entrances to the so-called 'Magical world'. The smart-mouthed brat had kept trying to read a cheat-sheet in the middle of the fight, until Gouki had rammed the little book so far down the fool's throat he'd nearly choked to death before his friends came to the rescue.
'What was his name again…' the master of fists muttered, scowling in thought, he didn't tend to remember the names of fools after all, foreigners especially 'Spring-something or other…'
Shaking his head to clear it, he noticed the cab had pulled up at a red light, the engine running idly as the driver waited for it to change. Taking a running leap, the red-maned feline latched onto the bumper of the car, claws digging into the hardened plastic as he clambered up to the boot.
"Wait for me!" Dan yelped, leaping up off the curb himself, only to fall just short of the bumber as the lights chose that moment to change, the taxi taking off, causing the pink neko to latch onto the edge of the bumper for dear life "YAAAAAH!!!!"
"Orokana…" Gouki muttered, sweatdropping as the pink feline dangled there like a puppet, terrified tears streaming down his face as he screamed for his father to save him. Knowing he would likely regret it, and not wanting to let the buffoon out of his sight, he leaned out, his claws securing him to the bumper, and grabbed the scruff of the wailing feline's neck between his teeth, dragging him onto the bumper with some difficulty, before depositing him next to him.
"Th-thanks…" Dan gasped, panting like mad as he got over his scare, his heart beating a mile a minute "Thought I was street pizza there."
Gouki said nothing, looking up as the Taxi pulled to a halt outside a rather nice looking house, leaping off the bumper, dragging Dan with him, his tail wrapped around the idiot's neck, as the driver's door opened. The two felines watched from under the cab as the driver helped the girl out of the vehicle, carrying her bags up the steps, where he was greeted by what appeared to be a blonde man in a casual suit and a woman with aquamarine hair.
"Wow…" Dan whistled, looking up at the place from the curb, his eyes running over the decent sized garden and elaborate western décor "Some spread huh?" he waggled his eyebrows, so much as a cat could, at Gouki "And dig that guy's wife! Lucky stiff!"
"That's a woman." Gouki grunted, nodding towards the blonde for emphasis at Dan's confused stare "She pulls it off well, but there's no Adam's apple," he nodded towards the blonde's pants "Also, the hips, the way she moves her legs…"
"No package huh?" Dan reasoned, earning a look from the red-eyed feline that caused him to flinch "What?!"
Gouki shook his head and slinked out from under the car, Dan following after him as they slipped past the conversing humans and into the garden.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hotaru sat on her bed, having convinced Michiru-mama, the woman seemed to like being called that, that she could put her own things away. The former vessel for Mistress-9, looked around her room, her eyes seeing far but not focusing on anything, before leaning back until her head rested on the pillows.
She didn't know why, but for some reason the two women seemed a little uneasy around her, they had greeted her warmly enough, and Haruka-papa, despite frowning a bit at the moniker, had ruffled her hair and offered to teach her to drive when she grew up. But through it all there seemed to be a haunted look in their eyes, as if they were seeing someone else whenever she caught them looking at her when they thought she wasn't looking, looks of sadness and…regret, that confused her all the more.
'Perhaps they were friends of mama?' she reasoned, having never met any of her mother's friends, or her father's for that matter. Professor Tomoe had been a private sort even before he'd married, and after his wife's death he'd virtually buried himself in looking after his sickly daughter and his work.
A tap at the window caused her to sit up, eyes blinking in confusion as she looked at the glass, the last rays of the setting sun casting shadows in the garden below. Again the tapping came, and this time she saw the cause, a little pebble that bounced off the glass from the garden below. Getting off the bed, her curiosity piqued, the ten year old made her way over to the window, undoing the latch and opening it to a gentle evening breeze.
"Pssst!" a voice whispered, causing her to look down, hand flying to her mouth at the sight of a familiar pink shape waving down at her from the garden, "Mind if we come up?"
Hotaru blinked at the cat's words, looking around in confusion, finally spotting the other cat, hidden in the shadow of a tree next to the pink one, his red eyes and mane the only reason she spotted him at all. Looking back to ensure the door to her room was closed, she nodded at the duo, before stepping back into her room to lock the door, just in case her guardians came in. She turned round just as the pink one clambered over the window-sill, panting from his exertion, only to collapse face first into her empty waste-paper bin with a yowl.
"Orokana-me…" the dark one grumbled, clambering over the sill with decidedly more grace than his counterpart, dropping down to the floor with a grace that was almost silk-like in it's smoothness "You give cats a bad name."
"Hey! Not all of us are quick to adapt to the whole four legs thing!" the pink one countered, knocking the bin on it's side and clambering out with a frown and a shudder "And how come YOU'RE so light on your feet?"
"A true warrior should always be capable of adapting to any situation." The dark one intoned, his tone filled with experience and reasoning, earning a grumble from the pink one, who muttered to himself.
"A-ano…" Hotaru stammered, looking between the two felines in confusion, drawing their attention to her again. Unused to such attention, especially the intensity of the larger one's red eyes, she swallowed, before pressing on "A-are you two…real?"
"My BRUISES feel real enough…" the pink one muttered, rubbing his snout tenderly, having stubbed it on the way down "And that climb damn hear killed me, so yeah, I'd say we're real."
Hotaru nodded, sitting down on the bed, her legs weak from shock as she watched the felines in a daze. She'd always liked the stories her father told her about magical animals and the like, but never before had she thought they were real. "Yo, you okay there kid?" the pink one asked, looking up at the girl in concern, snapping her out of her daze "You're not about to pass out are you?"
"We have some questions to ask you." The dark one stated flatly, landing on the bed beside her, cutting her off before she could ask him what he meant "Concerning that woman who was with you at the hospital."
"Oi!" the pink one hissed, clambering his way onto the sheets with his claws, "That ain't how you talk to kids!" he rebuked shooting the grumpy looking tom a glare that was apparently ignored, before beaming at Hotaru "Sorry little missy, he's just a little grouchy."
Hotaru nodded, watching the pink one clamber onto her bed, brushing himself down with a sigh before clearing her throat "Ano…neko-san…"
"Call me Dan." The pink one insisted, smiling up at her, somehow pulling off a thumbs-up as he did so "Hibiki Dan, at your service!" he titled his head towards the larger cat "The ray of sunshine over there is Gouki."
Gouki, as it seemed the larger cat was called, growled deep in his throat and glared at his pink counterpart, Dan shivering and inching away from the larger feline with his ears flattened against his skull. "Erm…Anyway!" the pink neko stammered, pointedly not looking at his fellow Neko, who had turned his gaze towards her again "We were wondering if you could help us out with a little problem…"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And that's as good a place as any to sign off methinks.
Hotaru's memories of Sailor Saturn are buried, just how Pluto hopes they remain. They will, however, be returning a lot sooner thanks to the influence of Dan 'The Man', and The Master of Fists.
Will Hotaru-chan be able to help our heroes regain their true forms? Or are Dan and Gouki going to have to learn how to summon things with a back-flip?
Halibel: Where do they hide those pens?
Kyugan: You don't wanna know...
Neko-Dan: ._0 Buh...pokey things in my butt...Bwee...
Neko-Gouki: {....vengeance!
Read & Review! Omakes welcome!
