To Give Warning Chapter 4 Beam Me Up, Pluto!, a sailor moon fanfic

To Give Warning
By Douglas Helm and "Tuxedo" Will Wolfshohl

This story and our other Sailor Moon stories reside at our Shoujo Fiction dot com website.

The Old Story Revamp Project on ShoujoFiction(dot)com is complete. Over 60 of our stories! It was a great opportunity to reread our stories during this months-long effort to fix spelling/grammar errors that we missed the first time around as well as update the HTML formatting to improve readability including the addition of chapter anchors and hyperlinks for some less obvious references. Some stories I barely remembered their plots. :) Tales of Younger Senshi Series and World of Velaria resources and their supporting pages were also updated.

And now on with Chapter 4...

Chapter 4 "Beam Me Up, Pluto!"

Saturday, May 9, 1942
Azuba-ku, Tokyo, Empire of Japan

For one wild moment, Makoto thought that her friend Usagi had somehow followed her into the past. The statuesque teen couldn't think of anyone else who routinely ran into her. Instinctively, she reached out and caught "Usagi's" wrist to steady her as she stumbled backwards.

'Not Usagi... He's just a kid,' Makoto quickly noted. The other person's reaction was definitely not Usagi-like. In fact, judging by the style of clothing her assailant was wearing and his size, it was some beggared boy who'd ran into her. His grubby coveralls hung loosely on his petite frame and he stood at least six inches shorter than she did. This "boy" who she guessed he was maybe twelve years old had similar build and stature to her pigtailed friend. His grime-smudged face, kerchief tied about the head, and lack of facial hair supported her conclusion.

In the meantime, Itsuki Natsumi was aware that she was staring but she couldn't help it. 'She has to be a woman...' Natsumi kept repeating to herself even as her eyes told her no woman be would be so tall. At least, very few women she'd ever seen were. The fact that the twentyish looking brown-haired figure that she'd collided into was wearing boy's clothing did nothing to assuage her confusion. On the other hand, there were obvious womanly traits that pretty much quashed any chance that her unintended victim was remotely male, e.g. the taller girl wore her hair (the same color as her own) in a feminine style and had a quite enviable bustline. She blushed. "Gomen nasai, onee-san," the boyish looking teenager finally spoke up while bowing, "I wasn't looking where I was going."

The busty brunette's eyes widened at the voice. It wasn't a boy's, not even a prepubescent one; it was a girl's! As that thought trickled into her brain, Makoto started to notice other features. The face was soft, feminine and the hit of a bustline. "You're a girl?" The question blurted out of her before she could censor it.

"Hai." Natsumi looked down and giggled. "'Though I certainly don't look like one wearing this, ne onee-san? I'm Itsuki Natsumi."

'That's a coincidence... Obaa-chan was named Natsumi too...' she mused. Then Makoto felt a jolt go through her. 'Kami-sama, it can't be...' She peered at the smaller girl before her. Inviting green eyes like hers - softer and less wrinkled facial features tugged at her memory. Brown hair (something she and her mother obvious inherited from her) stuck out of the kerchief. It too seemed to match the color photographs that Makoto had seen of her grandmother before she turned gray. 'And wasn't Obaa-chan's maiden name Itsuki?' She hated herself for not remembering.

"Are you all right?" Natsumi asked in a definite girlish voice breaking the awkward silence to the taller girl in front of her. Said girl continued staring at her in disbelief. "I'm terribly sorry, onee-san!" she jabbered then bowed for a second time. Seeing the confused look.

"Ob..." the visitor from the future swallowed, "Itsuki-san, is it?"

"Hai! I'm Itsuki Natsumi, age seventeen."

The time traveler felt her world slide sideways. 'My... grandmother?' Makoto shook herself like a dog and then bowed in return. "Gomen nasai, ob-onee-san." It was strange to call her own grandmother "onee" but it was definitely appropriate given their current ages. Its use seemed to confuse her grandmother though. She continued, "I wasn't watching where I was going." She straightened and smiled. "I'm Ki..." she started before thinking better of it, "I'm Tsukino Usagi, age fifteen!"

"Nani? Fifteen! You can't be!" the smaller teen protested. 'She must mean nineteen.' There was no way that this tall, well-endowed "girl" was even younger than she was! Makoto though was shaking her head slowly in denial, which only served to puzzle her. 'Why is she denying it? Did I hit her head?' There was something though. 'She seems so vulnerable.' "It was my fault, onee-sa..." 'Better humor her.' "I mean Tsukino-san..."

'Obaa-chan doesn't believe I'm younger than her.' The brunette mentally grimaced. 'And it's not like I can whip out my birth certificate or anything!'

"I was letting my mind wander and..." She stopped talking as Makoto's stomach growled.

'Oh man... my stomach sounds like Usagi's at lunchtime,' she worried embarrassingly.

"Gomen. I bet you were heading to lunch. Why don't I buy you some tea? I've got nearly an hour before I have to get back to the plant for the rest of my shift."

Both were startled when someone called out, "Bring her back with you, Natsumi-chan!" The duo turned to find a similarly dressed young woman in the middle of the street. "She's big enough the five of us could go on break every hour!" Natsumi blushed.

"Mai-chan!" the smaller teen protested, "Don't be rude!" She turned to her future granddaughter and explained, "Mai always wants to get out of working." 'Though maybe this girl is looking for a job.' Then wanting to change the subject, she added, "Please, Onee... Tsukino-san, I know a spot close by where we can buy some tea."

"Oh I couldn't..." the ponytailed brunette began to protest before her stomach growled again.

The future grandmother snorted and commented, "Your stomach has sense if you don't. Come and let me make it up to you, Tsukino-san?" She gave Makoto a pleading look.

The pleading look changed to a smile when the tall brunette accepted. "Hai, you talked me into it. Please call me Usagi." Saying it again made her wish that her grandmother could have known the real Usagi. "And I really AM fifteen and in my third year of junior high..." Makoto had to resist the urge to hug the smaller girl. Instead, she held out her hand. "I'm very happy to meet you, Itsuki-san."

# # # # #

Ten minutes later, the two teens found themselves seated on a wooden bench outside a small teashop eating mitarashi dangos (Japanese dumplings) and sipping tea.

Makoto was trying hard not to breathe through her nose. Natsumi's selected teashop was downwind from what smelled akin to a manure pile although the other inhabitants of the shop didn't seem to notice the foul odor. Obviously environmental rules were different in the past. She watched Natsumi eat from her bento box using her chopsticks in a dainty lady-like fashion.

"I still can't believe you're younger than me," Natsumi remarked after swallowing a mouthful of her lunch. "I thought for sure you... I mean I thought you were playing a trick on me!" Makoto only shook her head to indicate she was sincere. "So where do you come from, Tsukino-san?"

"Please call me Usagi, onee-san." Makoto paused in her chewing and then took a long sip of tea to buy herself some time. "I'm from Tomoeda..." she answered.

"Tomoeda...?" Natsumi remarked while tapping her lower lip with her dangos. "I'm sorry to say that I've never heard of that place, Usagi...chan." She looked for approval. "Natsumi." She normally wouldn't get familiar so quickly with a stranger. There was something about this girl though that she couldn't place her finger on. More than just her odd dress and behavior.

'Of course not, Obaa-chan. It's a fictional place out of an anime series!' the teen from the future thought. "It's a small town, Natsumi-san," she explained with a grin. "I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it." She took another sip of tea and then asked, "You seemed to be lost in thought when we met... Wanna share?"

The smaller teen frowned. "Wanna?"

"Er... Gomen... Want," the fifteen year old corrected, her ears turning slightly pink. "I mean... were you thinking about a boy?"

Natsumi blushed prettily and her granddaughter couldn't help but admire how despite the boyish clothing and the tired expression on her face, all her worries seemed to melt away when she smiled. "Oh that... I was thinking of my Hiroke. He's my fiancé," the smitten seventeen year old explained proudly. She blushed a little at her brashness and looked away. "I got a letter from him yesterday. I was so surprised! The mail is very fast. It only took five weeks!" That had to bode well for the Empire.

"That must have been nice."

"Oh yes, Usagi-chan. He said he hopes the War to be over soon so that he can marry me. He proposed to me just before he left," Makoto's future grandmother gushed. "I do wish the War was over... I know we are having great victories but I still worry about him." She regarded the tall teen beside her. "Do you have someone you care about?"

"I did..." Makoto admitted. "He... Well... Things happened and it didn't work out."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," the young woman remarked but assumed, 'Aha! So she was married and her husband died in the War. That's why she's pretending to be younger - to find a new husband! I won't spoil it for her, poor girl.' "You'll find someone special again."

Makoto carefully wiped her fingers and then asked, "So... Ob..." She coughed and felt her cheeks turning slightly pink. 'Now I know how Chibi-Usa feels about this future relative stuff.'

"Are you all right, Usagi?" Then she mused sadly, 'I hope the War will be over soon so we don't have to worry about losing husbands... or husbands-to-be.'

The busty teen nodded and thumped her chest a couple of times before saying, "Um... I mean so where is Hiroke?"

"Oh!" Natsumi said her face lighting up. She reminded Makoto of her friend Usagi in that respect when she talked about Mamoru. "Hiro-chan is bravely serving the Emperor aboard ship! This is Hiroke." She smiled and pulled out a black-and-white photograph of a young man wearing the dress uniform of a Sailor Third Class. "That's why I was so surprised about the letter's quick arrival." She smiled. "He wanted to join the Army but his father convinced him to join the Navy instead." She let out a sigh. "I'm so proud of him... I do wish... I know it's wrong of me but..."

"But?" Makoto prompted as her future grandmother hesitated. Her head turned, as did many of the other street's occupants, at the sound of an engine. She suspected a military truck but turned out to be a car that turned onto the street.

"Well, Usagi-chan, I do wish that Hiroke had been in the Army. I mean we might have been able to get married when he was home on leave. But since he's at sea... He didn't want to marry me and then risk leaving me a widow, even if it's only a slight chance." She regarded the teen from the future. "But he promised we'll marry once the War is over."

"I'm sure he will, Natsumi-chan," the younger teen assured her while patting the elder teen's hand. "I bet he'll come home and hug and kiss you." That thought seemed to both scandalize and please the petite seventeen year old.

"I shouldn't keep worrying like this but I do! So many others have far more to bear." 'Like you, Usagi.'

"I can understand that." The fifteen year old chuckled as the local pack of street urchins came over to investigate the car. "I bet you and Hiroke will have children."

"That would be nice..." was the wistful remark before it was spoiled by Natsumi saying, "But it's not if he just dies, Usagi-chan. It's... It's... What if he's horribly injured, like burned?" The elder brunette shuddered. "It's such a terrible thought. What if the enemy finds him by accident?"

"Don't worry, Natsumi-chan, he won't be burned," Makoto stated with absolute certainty. "He's gonna live. He'll have a limp after he's rescued off the Akagi but I doubt he'll have worse than that." She was thinking about what her grandmother had told her about her grandfather's war service. How after the War, he had a limp and it would bother him, especially in damp or cold weather. She still had some of his memorabilia from his service on the Akagi. "He would've been okay if the Americans hadn't broken our code. It let them find his ship and..."

"Nani?" Natsumi voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"Pardon?" the tall teen asked, turning to her future grandmother.

"What do you mean about the Americans breaking... What do you mean by code?" The older teen was looking worried now. "What do you know?"

Kino Makoto replayed the conversation over in her mind and winced. 'Damn it!' "N-Nothing, Ob-N-Natsumi, I'm just saying..."

"You must know something, Usagi!" Natsumi's voice was growing shrill, "You said that Hiroke was likely going to wind up with only a limp and it was because the enemy finds his ship after they break the code! How could you know that?"

The ponytailed teen glanced around and noticed that they were attracting undue attention. "Natsumi, I'm just trying to say that I don't think Hiroke would be burned given where he works on the ship."

"I never told you where he works or what ship he's on! I don't even know where he works!" Natsumi pointed out her suspicion and fear growing exponentially. "Who are you?" She stood up and started backing off. "Do you work for the Americans?"

'Oh bloody hell!' Makoto thought nervously and rose herself. She opened her mouth to try and calm the frightened young woman down but noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she spotted two men coming towards her. While they were dressed plainly enough, their posture and bearing screamed something completely different. It was their eyes that got the tall brunette running; they were cold and dangerous.

'Kempeitai (secret police),' Makoto guessed as she sprinted down the road. She could hear Natsumi shouting something and other bystanders raising the alarm as she hurtled past them. She could hear feet pounding behind her but she didn't look back. 'Damn! Damn! Damn! Way to cock this up!' Makoto worried and went around a corner vaulting over a fruit cart as if it was a hurdle. She risked a glance back and saw that the two men she'd spotted were chasing after her, though the fruit cart had slowed them some. 'Time to kick it in high gear!'

Ducking into an alleyway, she shouted, "JUPITER PLANET POWER... MAKE-UP!" And in a magical flash of light, Kino Makoto was no more. In her place, Sailor Jupiter ran down the alleyway at breakneck speed. She didn't break stride as she gathered herself for a leap. In a moment, she was atop the roof of the two-story building.

A solid minute of hurried roof-hopping had the Sailor Senshi easily outdistancing any pursuit. Nevertheless, she kept to the roofs out of sight as she considered her options. 'Okay, Makoto, you put your foot in it. You need to get out of here NOW!'

She paused, her mind whirling as she looked around. 'Okay think hard... Why did the Chibi-Usa's Key work in the future and not in the past?' She wasn't a brain like her friend Ami but a little serious consideration gave her an inspirational thought. 'I have to recreate my departure as closely as possible!'

# # # # #

Despite moving via the rooftops, Sailor Jupiter took half an hour in an evasive route to get back to the house where she had arrived. After carefully checking the street, she jumped from the roof of the house she was on down into the familiar backyard.

Hana-Ichi, who had been sniffing around the edge of the back wall, lifted its head, started to growl but then gave out a happy bark upon seeing the green-clad Sailor Senshi.

"Hey girl," Jupiter said to the dog, "I see you're still around." She patted the small dog for a moment and then carefully stepped into the koi pond. Hana-Ichi watched the silly human with interest, its tail wagging as it did so.

"I hope this works," she told her canine observer and taking out the Time Key lifted it into the air. Taking a deep breath, she spoke the activation phrase clearly and distinctly.

At first, nothing happened and then a pink cloud formed. And a beam of pink light shot from the heavens and enveloped Sailor Jupiter who was holding her breath. 'Please let this work!' she prayed, 'Please let this work!' As she began rising into the sky, Hana-Ichi began to bark.

"Sorry, girl, this isn't Peter Pan or I'd take you with me!" the Jovian Senshi called down to the dog as she rose into the air and then in between one heartbeat and the next, she vanished from 1942 Japan.

# # # # #

Monday, May 9, 1994
Azuba-Juuban District, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Federal Republic of Japan

A black cat with a golden crescent moon sigil sat patiently at the end of the dock by the lake in the middle of the park and looked towards the Moon. 'Where is she?' Luna wondered, her tail swishing back and forth, 'Why did Pluto tell me to come out here in the middle of the night to meet Sailor Jupiter? Shouldn't she be in bed?' She sighed, lowered her gaze to the water, and then shifting began a long stretch. 'I don't know why the Guardian of Time can't be a little more specific, at least with...' She froze in mid-stretch as waves of strong magic crashed over her senses. She looked upwards and saw a pink cloud forming. 'What...' But the thought broke off as a figure fell from the sky and impacted the lake's tranquil surface with enough force to cause a momentary waterspout.

Moments later, a very wet, very agitated Sailor Jupiter surfaced and after looking around to get her bearings, she started swimming for the dock. "What on earth have you been up to?" the feline demanded as a soaked Sailor Jupiter heaved herself up onto the dock. The black lunar cat backed up to avoid getting splashed. There was little worse in her view than wet fur.

"Nice to see you too, Luna," the ponytailed Sailor Senshi replied sarcastically as she reversed her transformation and reverted to dry (civilian) clothing again. "Gah! Why is it always water you land in when you use one of these things?" She looked down at the Time Key in her hand. 'I suppose it's better than landing on poor Mamoru.'

"What..." Luna began but stopped, "Are you all right, Makoto?"

"What? Oh yes," the fifteen year old answered and tucked the magical key into her jacket pocket before standing, "I'm fine, Luna... Were the Sailor Senshi out looking for me?" She hadn't considered how her disappearance in the middle of the night would worry her friends.

Luna's tail swished in agitation. "No. Usagi sent me over here to get Chibi-Usa's Time Key back."

"She couldn't wait until morning, ne?"

The black cat shrugged. "She got orders from Sailor Pluto." The teen grimaced but after a moment, retrieved the Time Key. She handed it to the lunar cat who tucked it away in a subspace pocket. "You know it's late, Makoto, and you have school tomorrow. We'll discuss your um... nocturnal adventure at the Shrine tomorrow."

"Gomen. What time is it anyway, Luna?"

"Nearly 1:30." Makoto let out a grown but nodded. "You ARE going home, ne?"

"Yes, I am," she indicated and set off through the park. As she did so, she drank in the sounds and sights of modern day Tokyo life. 'Looks like I didn't cause any problems!' she thought with relief. 'I'll never try that again.' She knew that Setsuna would make sure of that.

"Well, I'll just tag along to make sure!" the black lunar cat remarked. She started walking along the dock and paused. "Coming, Kino-san? Or are you going to take star readings until the sun comes up?"

"Hai..." Makoto said and turning walked along the dock and when she reached the lunar cat, she lifted Luna gently up to her arms. "Sorry, Luna... I'm just glad to be back. To my Tokyo."

# # # # #

"What is wrong with you?" the black feline demanded about five minutes later as Makoto stood and watched a fire truck go whizzing by, its lights flashing and its sirens wailing. "You'd think you never saw a fire truck before."

The ponytailed teen chuckled and continued walking. "It's not that, Luna," she began. "It's just... it confirms I'm in the right time." 'Thank Kami-sama.' She shrugged the shoulder that wasn't holding Luna. "And I'm tired and I just had a wild adventure."

"Yes, well if you hurry up and get home, you can go to bed. But if you're this tired, you're likely going to be exhausted and cranky come tomorrow," the cat lectured.

The teen picked up her pace and continued down the sidewalk. Luna was quiet for two more blocks but spoke up again when Makoto turned right. "Wait, Mako-chan! Where are you going?"

"Home," she replied. The teen stopped and gave her companion a confused look. "I live down this way."

"Go back and cross the street."

"But..."

"Please Makoto?" the black cat implored, "Maybe you're not as okay as you were claiming when we left the park." 'Maybe she hit her head on the bottom.' She'd ask Ami check Makoto out with her VR visor tomorrow just in case.

Confused but not willing to argue the point at this time of night, the brown-haired teen backtracked and then walked across the street when the light turned green. "I don't think this is the right way..." she muttered more to herself than Luna as she entered a district with single family dwellings. "Luna, my place isn't anywhere near here."

"We're almost home," Luna assured her friend.

'Home... She's taking me to Usagi's?' Makoto guessed. Nonetheless, even that didn't sound right because this certainly didn't look like Usagi's neighborhood. 'Did they move while I was gone?' She had to snort at that thought. 'Minako lives around here but it's not that either... Kami-sama, I'm just tired if I'm starting to think these crazy things.'

Still, the young woman couldn't shake the idea that her feline friend was leading her astray. 'Maybe this is where Setsuna is.' Well that would explain some things. 'I wonder...'

"Here we are!" Luna declared and hopped from the teen's shoulder.

"Where?" Makoto asked while regarding the closed front gate, "Here?"

The black cat nodded. "Go on, Mako-chan, I'll see you tomorrow."

More than a little dubious, the ponytailed girl pushed the gate quietly open, stepped into the front yard, and then closed the gate behind her. The house looked similar to Usagi's though its front yard had flowerbeds running along its walls. She was approaching the front door when it was flung open and a woman stood in the doorway, her features shadowed by the entryway light behind her.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, YOUNG LADY?" a familiar voice hissed. Makoto stopped dead in her tracks and stared. She rubbed her eyes and then stared some more at the woman before her. "WELL?"

'It can't be...' Makoto thought as her brain tried to grapple with the fact that her mother, her long dead mother, was standing before her looking more than a little irate. "Mom..."

"ANSWER ME, KINO MAKOTO!" was the sharp and loud command, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

A high-pitched voice sang out from somewhere inside the house, "I bet it was Toya-chan!"

The woman who was a dead-ringer for her mother whipped around. "Go back to bed." The tall teen heard giggling and what sounded like the soft thudding of feet on stairs. Slowly, ever so slowly, the woman turned and somehow Makoto knew that this was indeed her mother. "Have you been with Taguchi Toya?"

"NO!" Makoto assured her. She didn't know anyone by that name. Still, she decided she had better offer something up. "M-Mom, I was at the park."

That got a derisive snort. "Inside!" was the command. "We'll discuss this in the morning!"

# # # # #

Five minutes later, Makoto was up in her bedroom. She sat on her bed and looked about the room. It was about the same size as Usagi's. It felt like her bedroom and in some respects even looked eerily like her bedroom she had in her apartment; in other respects, it didn't. And it was the things that were out of place that were making her brain spin. Not that seeing her long dead parents suddenly alive and angry after three years wasn't making her brain spin. Nonetheless, thinking about furnishings was easier than thinking about the people just down the hall from her.

'This is all a dream!' she told herself, 'That's it. I'll go to bed and wake up in the morning and be in my apartment.' She sighed and changed out of her clothes and into her pajamas. They too seemed familiar and were comfortable. She'd just slid her legs under the covers and was ready to turn off the lamp on her nightstand when she noticed her bedroom door open slightly.

The tall brunette frowned. She was wondering if it was her mother checking on her but a moment later, a small figure - small by Makoto's standards that is - entered the room.

It was a tween girl. She had long chestnut-colored hair that hung in ringlets down her back. As the heart-shaped face with obvious resemblance to the Kino clan turned towards Makoto, her gray eyes regarded its older occupant with amusement. She was dressed in a frilly pink nightgown with white lace around the collar and cuffs.

'Kawaii... She looks ten or eleven tops,' the Sailor Senshi of Jupiter mused as the girl came over and quietly sat down on the bed next to her. 'I wonder who...'

"I don't know who's more ticked off, Onee-chan, Mama or Daddy!" she declared with a giggle. And then in a lower tone of voice, she asked, "So... did you like get into a fight?"

"What? No!"

"So it WAS Toya!" The younger girl's tone was a mixture of longing and disgust.

"No, of course not. I wasn't out with a boy."

Realization seem to strike her. In almost a whisper, "Then it had to be Sailor Senshi business, ne Onee-chan?"

Makoto stared at the girl, then feigned, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on, Mako-chan, give. This is me... Me, you're bestest imouto, not some silly kid! You can tell me."

"Go to bed," Makoto told her. "It's late, I'm tired, and I don't want any more trouble." She wasn't sure if this would work or not but the preteen made a pouty face, hugged her, and then left the room quietly. "Yes, definitely a dream, a really weird realistic dream." She turned off the lamp and fell asleep.

End of Chapter 4

Coming next in Chapter 5 "In My Dreams"