'This was really not one of Sousuke's better ideas,' Ranma decided as he sat on the other side of a large oak desk, facing the Principal of the school. Every once in a while, the large, balding man would look up from the paperwork to stare intently at him, most likely hoping that the pigtailed teenager would suddenly be replaced by a well-groomed middle-aged man.
Every time he returned to the documents, he had a disappointed expression on his face. It was all Sousuke's fault, of course. The mercenary meant well, and he certainly had his priorities straight, but the guy simply had no clue how the world worked. And for Ranma, a martial artist who had grown up training in the wilderness, to realize this meant the shortcoming was glaring indeed.
Sousuke had found out from Orion who this Sailor Moon girl was in civilian identity, and had done some traces. As he knew Ranma intended to find a job, why not help get him one as a teacher at the school Sailor Moon attended? Not only would it help them work closer with the Senshi day to day, but it also restricted the time he was at work to the late morning and early afternoon, unlike his first choice of job, a bouncer at a night club. That way he would be free most of the time to fight if called upon, since it seemed most youma battles happened at night. If an attack happened while he was at work, being employed at the school might help him get the Senshi out of class to fight off the threat. And besides that, it was respectable work.
Which was all fine, but Ranma was sixteen years old. He was supposed to be in school as a STUDENT. Not to mention that he hardly felt he was qualified to be anybody's teacher, even if the subject was gym. Was he supposed to train the students how to fight? What kind of limits were there on public schools as far as esoteric training methods were concerned? Assuming he could FIND live crocodiles, was there a special form he was supposed to fill out before he could dump them in the pool? He just didn't know this stuff!
The principal looked up again. Ranma was still a teenage boy. Damn.
He sighed. "Are you really nineteen?"
Ranma blinked. "Is that what the papers say?" Sousuke apparently knew a guy with connections. Or several guys. He wouldn't say much about them. But he did say they were GOOD. Seeing the principal nod, Ranma shrugged. "Then sure. I'm nineteen. Whatever my totally real and not made-up resume says."
The principal groaned and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. It seemed on the surface that this whole thing was a scam, but he had done several computer checks and everything looked on the level. Not only was Ranma Saotome fit and educated to be a gym teacher, but he even had some experience teaching a year of high school gym and a year as a boot camp combat trainer. And the idea of teenage teachers wasn't COMPLETELY unheard of. His niece was attending Mahora Academy, where it seemed her new English teacher was some sort of teenage pervert, though he had met the man and at least he looked eighteen.
Also, he was in a serious bind ever since Juuban High had faced Furinkan in the baseball tournament. Apparently the Furinkan team thought the sport had something to do with martial arts. Most of Juuban's players had been brought home on stretchers, and Mr. Nomitoya, the previous gym teacher, hadn't been heard from since.
Nothing to do but push on through the interview process. "So, why do you want to teach here Mr. Saotome?"
"Because I enjoy eating, and don't really feel like going back to stealing things to keep from starving," Ranma said seriously.
The Principal's eyes narrowed. "And why should I hire you?"
"Well, you agreed to this interview, so either you already have a reason, or you just don't have anything better to do," Ranma allowed, leaning back in his chair as he rubbed his chin. "Either way, I don't really know." Honestly, he was expecting to have to flee the room to avoid being caught when somebody figured out his papers and I.D. were fake.
The Principal's eyes twitched. "What do you think you could add to the educational experience of the children who attend this school?"
Ranma scratched his head, frowning. That was a tough one. After a moment, he snapped his fingers. "I could teach them what to do if they're suddenly attacked by energy-draining monsters. I heard that happens a lot around here. And I'll bet they don't learn that in any of the other classes!"
The man on the other side of the desk blinked in surprise. That actually sounded... useful. Not very likely it would work, but it would help his standing substantially if he could honestly say that his school was teaching children to safely avoid youma.
Besides that... he didn't really have a lot of options. There was simply no-one else. The temp they had called in was leaving soon for another job, and none of the local agencies had any spare teachers that were willing to work more than a few days at a time. This new kid would have to take on triple-sized classes as it was.
"You're hired," the principal deadpanned, quite nonplussed at seeing Ranma completely stunned by the admission. "I'll have my secretary file your papers and give you the curriculum you'll eventually be teaching. You start Monday of next week. Get here at 7 AM sharp so we can have someone show you around. That is all."
Ranma rose from the chair almost drunkenly, unable to believe that Sousuke's efficient if idiotic idea had actually worked (he was starting to get the idea that most of the mercenary's plans were like that). "Er... okay. Thanks."
The principal grunted. "I have a feeling I'll regret this, but I don't have a lot of options. Just remember your place and your responsibilities, and everything will work out fine."
"Oh, sure. Totally," Ranma said, idly wondering what his "place" and "responsibilities" were.
Oh well, they probably weren't that important if he had already been hired without demonstrating them.
'When I get back home, I'm going to have to as Sousuke just what he put in those papers.'
Hematite had to keep from laughing with glee as she successfully snuck into her office through the window and scooped up the reams of signed contracts under her desk. Energy! Wonderful, tasty, healthy energy! It was a bit stale for being under her desk for so long, but she was a starving youma in a desert and greedily sucked up her personal oasis.
It took over an hour for her to completely regenerate her arm after that, but when she could finally move her right hand again, her smile nearly lit the darkened room. After absorbing the rest of the energy, since she would have no need to hand it over to anyone else now, she took on her human disguise, fixed the window, and then stepped outside to enjoy the cool, late evening air.
She was free.
To a point. She was actually paying a significant portion of her salary to a shadow group of warriors so that they wouldn't kill her, but as a youma who knew nothing of material luxury, financial bondage wasn't a meaningful form of oppression to her.
Oh, sure, she had tried to get the better of her captors when it came to negotiations, but she had quickly found out that they were much better at hurting people (and youma) than they were at business. And they tended to stick to what they knew.
So she was being screwed out of her monthly paycheck. But on the other hand, she no longer had to report back to another youma or any of the generals, or fear being annihilated by her boss. Hell, her "boss" was actually her thrall; she commanded him! All energy drained was hers! She no longer had reason to fear being vaporized by the Senshi (or so her captors said; she was reluctant to take their word on it)!
She was the first youma she'd ever heard of to phase out of the whole Negaverse invasion and take a neutral position, making her own life on her own terms (sort of). Feeling quite pleasant about her new, unexpected freedom, and laughing openly at the thought of never having to see another Dark General again, it's entirely understandable that she froze stiff and went pale white when a gigantic visage of Jaedite suddenly appeared over Tokyo and started talking in a loud, booming voice.
Hematite quickly figured out that the Dark General was simply using a vast illusion to challenge the Senshi to battle, and that he wasn't issuing any warnings to working youma or reprimands to possible traitor youma. It also helped that she realized he couldn't possibly see her, though that didn't draw her out of the bushes she had dived into as soon as she saw the face of her former master.
When the message ended and the illusion vanished, Hematite shuddered. Jaedite was going to fight the Senshi head-on? Wait a minute. Forget the Senshi. Jaedite had just announced his plans to the whole city. Meaning that the company that had assaulted her and killed several of her fellow youma had to know about this, as well as any teams like them, plus the Japanese government.
Hematite shuddered again, and decided to go inside where it was warm and safe, curl up into the fetal position, and then rock back and forth while whimpering to herself. Tomorrow was going to end very badly for somebody. Honestly though, she had no idea whom that would be.
By pure random chance Sousuke had already been on his way to the airport when Jaedite had made his general challenge to the Senshi. A matter of some simple smuggling in order to quickly acquire some hastily ordered equipment once the dimensions of his current assignment had started to become more clear.
That it was illegal as all hell, not to mention banned by several international treaties had not deterred the young mercenary in the slightest. In fact, one could say he even felt a strange sort of glee at being able to truly practice the craft he knew best without the normal restraints on his creativity.
It was simply to everyone else's grave misfortune that he was the first one to arrive.
Firearms? Check.
High Explosives? Check.
Working Planes? Check.
Thousands of Gallons of Highly Volatile Jet Fuel? Check.
No Civilians there to worry about? Check.
Ever so slowly, Sagara started to smile.
Sousuke gets to work preparing the battlefield. Will anyone else be able to survive it?
So things had not gone entirely... according to plan.
ANYBODY'S plan.
Although really, out of all the plans that were being put into motion, Sousuke's had been going the best. Having his explosives, traps, a menagerie of possible improvised explosive devices at his fingertips and the airport closed was Christmas for him. Specifically, he was Santa laying out presents of varying flammability waiting to be unwrapped.
Around noon the next day, the police came to guard the airport. Two dozen men. And not one of them armed with even a handgun. It's like the government was trained to send in just enough force to get in the way of vigilantes doing the real work, but not nearly enough to accomplish the job themselves. No WONDER they needed him to back up their superheroes and protect their schoolgirls from harm!
Within the first half-hour of the men scouring the base, he had been forced to knock three of them out quietly to prevent them from getting themselves killed; these men were clearly not trained to identify traps and bombs, and were stumbling blindly into the trigger areas.
It was only sheer luck that led to one particularly bored officer kicking a beer can into the detection range of a proximity mine before he had walked that path himself. Sousuke was not nearby and would have been unable to save him.
The resulting explosion knocked the man down, but didn't cause him much harm. The East terminal, however, was quickly rocked by secondary explosions and set ablaze. The police officers quickly abandoned the airport, moving twice as quickly once they found three missing members of their group lying outside, bound and unconscious.
Sousuke had just sighed as he looked at the building blaze that had engulfed half of the airport. What a waste of ordnance. Jaedite had checked out the airport from above first, and was surprised to find a part of it on fire. The Senshi were already here? Frowning, he decided that their apparent tactical foresight warranted calling in the reserves.
He teleported into the middle of the airport and immediately opened a youma portal, from which four of his best combat youma emerged, snarling and ready to tear into the enemy. He had originally figured that he could destroy the Senshi himself, without wasting the substantial amount of energy it took to summon the youma to help him, but honestly seeing the airport in flames before the battle even started, not to mention the recent destruction of a few of his minor draining operations, was making him nervous.
It wasn't long before Sousuke heard another proximity mine go off, followed by a yelping cry that had not come from a human throat. He quickly put his plan into action, running for the exits as he slipped the detonator out of his pocket.
Everything past the officers nearly getting killed had gone pretty well. The explosives he detonated precipitated the roof collapsing outward from the center of the airport, spreading the fire more quickly and setting off chains of secondary explosions from proximity mines and canisters of airplane fuel and even booze from the airport bar.
And thus it was the sight of a towering inferno where the airport used to be to which the Sailor Senshi and Orion's team arrived as dusk passed, albeit on opposite sides of said inferno.
Ranma groaned as he looked at the firestorm that used to be an airport and wondered how many millions of yen worth of explosives had just literally gone up in flames due to Sousuke's penchant for explosive overkill.
Orion shook his head, unable to believe that they had spent so long looking for the mercenary before Negi had checked the messages on their answering machine (pilfered from Gazite's house). Neither Orion nor Ranma was used to simple 20th century technology, and it showed.
After Orion had deciphered the message, as it had been given in code, they had rushed to the airport with all haste, which they would have done anyway considering how close it had been getting to the time of the appointed battle. Negi squinted his eyes as he held a hand against his forehead, peering into the flames.
"Hey... there's someone coming... with a youma!"
Indeed, there was a very angry-looking man in a charred, thoughly neatly pressed gray uniform stalking onto the tarmac from the flaming pile of debris, shouting incoherently. The flames and sparks, for the most part, seemed not to touch him, instead parting over some sort of barrier and bouncing off onto the ground.
The youma following him was a completely different story, as it had been severely burned, and was limping. It seemed that at one point the creature had possessed four spider-like legs, but one had been blown off and one was apparently crippled, forcing her to limp.
Orion nodded and backed off as Ranma took a fighting stance and Negi jumped on his staff.
"You guys know what to do. I'll find the Senshi and bring them here as soon as possible. Hold your ground!"
As Jaedite stalked up to the jumbo jets that were sitting far enough away from the airport to escape damage, he noticed that there were two youngsters waiting for him with confrontational expressions on their faces. He didn't notice the gray cat dashing away from the area.
He snorted, not in the least impressed that the child of the two was floating in the air on a stick. "So now you mere humans deign to oppose me as well? Your insolence disgusts me."
He held up a hand, letting a ball of black lightning coalesce into his palm. Next to him, the only surviving combat youma snarled, snapping its pincer-like hands threateningly.
"Bring it, pretty boy," Ranma mocked, using his best cocky grin as he beckoned the Negaverse soldiers forward with a finger.
Negi didn't waste his words, instead launching himself upward and beginning his incantation.
"Sagitta magica series fulguraris!"
From the bushes off the tarmac, Sousuke lowered his binoculars and readied the mortar.
The battle was joined.
Whack! "NO, I did NOT set the airport on fire so we wouldn't have to fight!" Sailor Mars yelled, smacking her leader straight on the head.
"Ow! Mars, you're so MEAN!" Sailor Moon said as she slumped to her knees and started to cry.
Luna's eye twitched at the sight. "Girls, can we get back to the issue at hand? Jaedite's waiting for us!"
Bakoom! A fairly distant explosion sounded, but the Senshi couldn't make out the flare of light from the mortar detonation behind the firestorm that was the airport.
"Something's wrong. It looks like someone's already fighting," Mercury said worriedly, scanning the area with her visor. A brief chain of smaller explosions seemed to reinforce her conclusion.
"Eh? Who could be in there fighting Jaedite?" Moon asked, coming out of her crying jag as quickly as she fell into it.
"I think I can answer that!"
The four females all jumped as a rough, male voice came from behind them, and they all whirled around. Sailor Moon, naturally, lost her balance upon attempting a 180 and stumbled to the side into Mars, knocking the both of them to the ground and precipitating another argument when they all really had better things to worry about.
"Orion? What're you doing here?" Luna asked uneasily, both irritated to see the military moon cat and a bit relieved that he might be able to help in the upcoming battle against a general.
"I'm here to help you, of course." He glanced over at where Sailors Moon and Mars were pinching and stretching out each other's cheeks as they continued fighting. "You really pulled out all the stops on this recruitment effort, haven't you? Where do you FIND these people?"
Mercury noted Luna bristling at the comment. "Luna, who is this?"
"This is Orion, a military advisor who was sent forward with me. Presumably to help all of you deal with the Negaverse threat better."
The blue-skirted Senshi immediately brightened. Intellectual help? Perfect! Maybe the others would stop expecting HER to pul brilliant strategies out of her ass with an actual military advisor on their side.
"Orion! You're back!" Sailor Moon said happily, disengaging herself from the Senshi of Mars.
"It was really scary fighting all those battles! I kept telling Luna that we should try to find you so you can help but she kept saying we didn't need you and Ami would do fine even though she isn't very good at fighting and-"
"That's nice," Orion said negligently, waving a paw at the blonde superheroine as he dismissed her babbling. "Look, you've gotta get to the battlefield. My boys're holding off Jaedite and his lackey as best they can. If you get there quick, you can hit them in the back and we can close this trap."
The Senshi all nodded, determination spreading onto their faces. In Luna's mind, one could imagine a record player playing a constant soothing hum of old opera music, as if her brain were constantly moving through the motions of some formal noble event like a ball or a play. At that moment, the arm of the player jerked off the record, creating the time of garbled, scratchy sound that had lead off into so many comedy routines.
"Wait a minute! Your 'boys'? What 'boys'?" Luna shouted, suddenly standing straight up on all fours.
Orion raised an eyebrow. "My men. You know, soldiers, warriors, magi... or in this case, one of each. What's that look for?"
Sailor Moon blinked. "Boys? You mean, like, 'boys' boys?" She was going to get to fight alongside guys? This was awesome! "Ooh! Is Tuxedo Kamen one of them?"
"Who?" Orion asked, blinking.
"Masked guy, shows up when we're in a bind, throws roses," Mars said, ticking off Kamen's distinguishing features.
"Oh, HIM. Nah. I found a better sniper." Orion turned around and started to run off, sensing that Luna was about to unload a lecture on him for some reason. "Come on! We don't have much time!"
"Hey! Wait a minute, you-" Luna was cut off as she was nearly trampled by the Senshi of Mars, Mercury and the Moon in their rush to get the battlefield. "Stop! We can't just... I mean... HEY! Don't leave me behind!"
"Deflexio!" Negi yelled as streams of black energy converged toward him through the air, homing in on the little boy.
Bwom! A cloud of shadow briefly obscured the child mage as the missiles pounded against his shield, shattering the kinetic barrier while splashing dark power over his anti-magic shell.
"Evocatio valcryarum!" Negi shouted in response, throwing a hand forward as his staff took off in Jaedite's direction. All around him, glowing images of Negi riding his staff burst into existence, each one wielding a weapon of some sort. Negi veered off the attack as Jaedite fired a dark bolt that nearly plowed into him, but the images converged on the Dark General instead, weapons slashing wildly.
Jaedite snarled and seemed to slide along the ground at super-high speed, leaving after-images in his wake as he zipped around the attack path of the copy-Negis. To Negi's surprise, the images didn't disappear, but instead each raised their arms to fire bolts of energy at his copies.
Jaedite grimaced as he felt his energy reserves began to sag. As much as he hated to admit it, this annoying little whelp was engaging him in a full-on sorcerer's duel for which Jaedite was ill prepared. Oh sure, he out powered the little boy by a considerable margin, but the little brat was proving extremely nimble, and kept trying to weave through his defenses instead of assaulting him head-on with his strongest spells.
Besides that, Jaedite had to admit that he was rather unused to this kind of battle, and certainly hadn't expected to fight one tonight. He had been planning to just run the Senshi over with a jumbo jet or something; they were hardly worth the vast energy expenditure that he had to deal with in order to fight the little wizard. He had already expended too much energy to make an instantaneous retreat if his battle went awry. And he had a strange, sinking feeling that this situation had gone to hell long ago.
Ranma ducked a swinging claw and then dashed toward the collection of semi-transparent Jaedites who were fighting several glowing images of Negi, forcing the large combat youma to struggle after him. As much as he hated to admit it, the blasted thing had him on the ropes. So far he had avoided taking anything more than a glancing cut, but the youma was much faster than the ones he fought before, meaning he was mostly on the defensive.
It also took hits much better than the others; landing a solid kick to its head merely prompted a snappy retaliation, rather than knocking it silly. If the situation remained that he couldn't hurt it because it was too tough and it couldn't hurt him because he was too fast, he had no illusions whose defenses would falter first as the fight dragged on.
But he had no plans to let that situation remain. Idly socking a Jaedite copy in the face as he passed by, causing it vanish, he jumped into the chaotic melee of mirror images, the youma hot on his heels. The youma's first clue that the situation had changed was when a glowing boy on a stick passed by at high speed, smacking her in the face with a warhammer.
As the attack was formed from magical energies, it hurt a bit more than one of Ranma's punches, and she staggered to the side, not noticing as she stomped over two of the copy Jaedites who were sniping copy Negis. Another glowing Negi passed by and missed with its short sword, but before the youma could slash at it, a copy Jaedite missed its shot at that same target, plowing a black bolt of lightning right in the youma's chest and sending it staggering backward.
BWAKOOM! The youma's arm vanished into chunks as a mortar shell landed on her shoulder, driving the creature to her knees (figuratively. Technically, as a quadruped, her knees just failed and let her body fall onto the ground).
Ranma had been fighting the slow-reacting mirror images of Jaedite while keeping an eye on his main foe, and grinned the moment he saw the thing stunned. Putting all his energy into a full-on sprint, he leapt into the air at high speed and aimed both feet toward the youma's disoriented head.
WHAM! The impact sent the battle youma's considerable bulk reeling, and Ranma drove its head over into the ground hard enough to plow through the asphalt of the tarmac and leave a narrow divot as the creature was dragged along from the impact.
When it stopped, Ranma hopped off the twitching youma's face, and then realized that he was standing in front of Orion and a trio of teenage girls, all of them staring wide-eyed at him and youma that had skidded to a stop in front of them.
"Hello," he said cordially. Then he pointed to the youma, assuming that these girls were the Sailor Senshi he had heard so much about. "Could ya take care of this thing? I gotta go help Negi. Thanks." Without waiting for an answer, he dashed off toward the fight at a speed that made him seem like a blur.
Mars blinked rapidly, believing that might somehow dispel the illusion that had suddenly crashed down in front of them. "What just happened?"
"You've been given a free shot at a weakened foe," Orion explained slowly, trying to mask his frustration. "Are you just going to stand there and wait for it to recover?"
Mars shook her head rapidly, though the others were still gaping. "Mars fire ignite!"
"GRAAAAUGH!" The struggling youma screamed in pain as its much-abused body was suddenly hit by a fireball, and shakily rose to its feet as its remaining arm snapped about wildly, searching for targets. It had been temporarily blinded by the strike to its head, and its regeneration was now overloaded trying to heal all the various magical damage.
"Meep!" Sailor Moon jumped back along with Mercury, and she quickly took off her tiara.
"Moon... Tiara... Action!"
The youma, already severely injured and in great pain, didn't even realize it was on the threshold of being destroyed until the tiara had already passed through it, the energies already spreading through its body and turning it to dust.
Jaedite was far too busy to bother noticing that one of his more capable pieces of cannon fodder had been dispatched. He had managed to destroy the annoying copy-wizards, but the annoying real-wizard had launched a number of light missiles that had annihilated his own copies and had given his shield quite a pounding.
Bwack! 'Speaking of 'a pounding,' Jaedite thought irritably as his barrier barely deflected another of the pigtailed boy's powerful kicks. Summoning a sword of black lightning into his hand, he cut low at the fighter, only for the boy to jump over the slash while twisting into a kick mid-dodge.
Ranma was fairly unbalanced as his blows kept striking something invisible between him and his opponent, but kept lashing out against the softening wall while weaving around the magic blade. Luckily, while Jaedite was very fast, he didn't seem especially skilled at swordfighting; his attacks were strong, but failed to lead up into another one, or cover openings in his defense. Ranma could tell that he was used to his enemies dying in a single stroke, and he had no plans to indulge him.
Both Ranma and Jaedite heard the incoming whistle, and they both leapt back before a mortar shell detonated in the spot they had been fighting.
"Sagitta magica series lucius!" Negi panted, releasing another barrage of magical arrows that streaked toward the besieged general.
Jaedite growled as he slid to the side at high speed, though this time his after-images faded away as one would expect. Moving under the arrows, the light missiles curved down sharply to try and follow, but failed to adjust completely, raining over the tarmac and leaving waves of small craters everywhere.
The Dark General was breathing heavily once he came to a stop, eyes searching frantically for a way out. He may have been arrogant, fanatical, and surprisingly unskilled in tactics for a general, but he knew without a doubt that he was now fighting for his life, not victory. And that was just against these human whelps; the Senshi hadn't even shown up!
"Stop right there!" Sailor Moon yelled, running up and pointing at the Dark General.
"Son of a bitch!" The Dark General yelled, surprising the Senshi. He didn't really know what the expression meant, but he somehow found it appropriate for his current situation.
Sailor Moon coughed into her fist, flushing slightly, then continued. "Airports are for travelers and businessmen to commute to their place of rest and work! These planes carry not just people, but hopes and opportunities! For destroying this place of transportation, you will not be forgiven! I am Sailor Moon, and-"
"I DIDN'T DESTROY THE AIRPORT!" Jaedite raged, interrupting Sailor Moon and startling her badly. "THEY DID!" He pointed a trembling finger at Ranma. Ranma, who had been wondering if they should hit Jaedite in the back while the Dark General was patiently listening to the Senshi lecture him, suddenly backpedalled.
"What? No! It's all Sousuke's fault!" Floating above him, Negi nodded his head rapidly. Still hidden amongst the bushes, Sousuke sweatdropped, wondering how the battle had suddenly turned into an argument, and if taking the opportunity to fire would violate some unspoken parley agreement. Wasn't the white flag universal? He'd have to ask Orion later.
Sailor Moon scratched her head, looking uncertain. "Oh, well..." she shrugged. "Well , you're a Dark General anyway, so I guess we don't really need another reason to fight you, huh?"
"Plus, he DID challenge us to a battle here," Sailor Mercury pointed out helpfully. Mars just cracked her knuckles, smiling at the sight of Jaedite furious and nearly exhausted.
"Enough of this!" The Negaverse General shouted angrily, suddenly floating backward a few inches off the ground at high speed. Slowing in front of a pair of cargo jets, he concentrated briefly, and then thrust one hand forward.
Very slowly, the jets started to crawl forward, seemingly of their own volition. Jaedite smirked. He had no illusions that he'd be able to destroy all his opponents with this trick, but he should at least be able to squash a Senshi or two, and it would allow him time to escape and effect a full retreat. Beryl would be furious, possibly to the point that she'd kill him for this newest failure, but after he explained the appearance of a new fighting force acting alongside the Senshi, he just might be granted forgiveness while relaying important intel to the Negaverse.
Orion winced as he saw the jumbo jets move up so that there was one on each side of Jaedite, and flattened himself against the ground with his paws covering his ears. Being a military man (er, cat that is), he had noticed the gray blocks attached to the fuselages of the jets, and identified the remote-trigger fuses that they were armed with when he had passed by the planes briefly.
Unfortunately for Luna, Orion was covering his ears, so he couldn't hear her when she asked why he was doing that.
Sousuke snorted when he saw the planes roll by on either side of the main target, and once again slipped the detonator out of his pocket before keying it to the right frequency. 'What kind of an attack is that? Amateur.'
He had to spend a moment to make sure that none of his allies were near the other planes around the airport; he had armed ALL of them, and decided to key them to the same frequency since he had expected the pace of combat to move much faster than it actually had.
Giving a salute to the enemy officer in an uncharacteristic display of humor, he pressed the button on the detonator.
KAAABOOOOOOOOM!
Luna and the Senshi were knocked right off their feet from the Earth-shaking explosion as every plane in the area suddenly vanished into a tremendous fireball. Ranma, being who he was and standing far enough away from the blast, managed to lean forward adequately to absorb the shock wave without falling down, though he slid backward a good half-meter.
Negi, having no physical purchase and not possessing Ranma's excellent balance, was blasted off his staff by the wave of force and was sent spiralling helplessly to the ground. Luckily, Ranma noticed and caught him in time, but it was a near thing.
Jaedite's barriers, already weakened from fighting off Negi's magic and Ranma's attacks, collapsed damn near instantly. Jaedite himself barely managed to register the sudden, ear-piercing roar before he was annihilated.
Sailor Moon scrambled to her feet, afraid that the sudden explosion may have been a deliberate act on Jaedite's part. Once she got up and stared at the huge, flaming crater filled with chunks of burning metal, she had to wonder why vaporizing himself would have been part of the Dark General's plan.
Maybe a suicide attack? If that was the case, it was very poorly done. A quick look around showed that she and her friends seemed to be suffering from nothing more than surprise and a slightly rough fall.
From behind the confused Senshi, Orion trotted out in front of them, followed by a dizzy-looking and extremely disturbed Luna. Then he sat on his haunches, facing away from the Senshi. "All right boys, good work! Now c'mere!"
Ranma nodded and put Negi down, who quickly thanked the pigtailed boy and darted off to collect his fallen staff. Some shaking in the bushes revealed Sousuke, who was dressed in full combat gear sans helmet, and was carrying a mortar setup over his shoulder. Within moments, they were standing in front of Orion facing the Senshi.
"Orion, what is the meaning of this?" Luna yowled in obvious distress. "Who ARE these people?"
Rolling his eyes, Orion faced the Senshi. "Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, my name is Orion Halinjor, your military advisor. May I present to you and introduce..." he paused for dramatic effect, "Orion's Knights!"
He jabbed a paw at the cute, muscular boy wearing Chinese clothes, and looking fairly dirty from the fight. He was also smiling pleasantly with his hands in his pockets, looking completely relaxed. "Ranma Saotome, close-combat specialist."
Next came the adorable little boy with tiny glasses who had spiky brown hair in a bushy little pigtail wearing some sort of formal suit and cape that was lightly scorched from the battle. "Negi Springfield, battle mage in training. Though I have to say, he did quite well, holding his own against a Dark General for so long." Negi blushed fiercely and looked down at his feet timidly, and even Luna had to fiercely resist the impulse to run up to the child and cuddle him.
Finally, Orion gestured to the final boy, a sharp-looking young man with spiky black hair, a scar on his cheek, and the most serious, severe expression on his face that any of the girls had ever seen on a live human being. In contrast to the others, he was wearing combat armor and forest camouflage fatigues, and he was standing straight and firm, as if being inspected (which he was, really). "And this is my commando and demolitions specialist, Sousuke Sagara," Orion said.
"IT WAS YOU!" Luna suddenly shouted, startling everybody BUT Sousuke, who didn't even flinch. "YOU'RE responsible for all this!" The black moon cat shoved a paw at the various flaming piles of debris that used to be an airport full of planes.
Sousuke blinked. "Incorrect, Ma'am!" He said firmly, long past the point of feeling ridiculous at addressing a cat as a superior. "To claim full responsibility for the destruction of the enemy would be to ignore Saotome and Springfield's considerable battlefield contributions, as well as the arrival of the Senshi, Ma'am!"
"I'm talking about the airport!" Luna snapped. "It's gone! Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost to rebuild all this?"
Sousuke frowned. He found it irritating how people kept asking him that, as if estimating construction costs were part of a commando's job, or even a remotely related field. "Off the top of my head, I imagine the costs to replace all the assets destroyed in combat except that of the explosives themselves would be somewhere in the realm of five billion."
Luna managed to pale, despite possessing black fur. "Five BILLION yen?!"
Sousuke blinked. "No. Five billion US dollars. It tends to be the most stable currency available, so I'm used to calculating transactions that way."
Sailor Mercury nodded, and her eyes stared upward as she did some calculations in her head. "Ah, that makes sense. That would equal... nearly five-hundred and ninety billion yen."
Luna wobbled and quickly laid down, feeling dizzy. Ranma noticed that the blue-skirted girl with the long ponytails also looked sort of queasy, so he waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. We don't hafta pay for it."
Luna felt not a little bit discouraged when Sailor Moon wiped some sweat off her forehead, clearly relieved by the admission. "What are these people doing here, Orion?"
"We're here to help you guys hunt monsters," Ranma said bluntly before the tomcat could answer.
"REALLY?" Moon squealed, running up and trapping the surprised martial artist in a gleeful hug. "That's so cool! And you're all so strong and cute!" She giggled as she pressed herself a little tighter against the pigtailed boy. 'Wow. He has some really hard muscles.' Blushing slightly, she moved on and scooped up Negi without warning, rubbing her cheek against the startled little boy's head.
"UNACCEPTABLE!" Luna bellowed, once again startling everyone but Sousuke. "These boys aren't Senshi! What were you thinking, telling them about us and bringing them into this?"
"I was thinking that they can keep any of your magical girls from getting killed by an enemy who knows what he's doing," Orion said, shrugging unapologetically. "The Senshi have power. They don't have experience, training, or ordnance. I've provided that."
"They don't need that!" Luna said, not noticing when the girls cast each other doubtful looks.
"They'll gain training and experience as they go! And as for your 'ordnance,' just look at what it's done!" She pointed again at the slowly guttering flames. Everyone else briefly spared a thought to wonder where the fire department was going to arrive, considering the airport had been on fire for a good two hours now.
"You mean besides killing most of the enemy troops?" The military cat deadpanned.
"That's beside the point, and you know it!" Luna shouted. "They're not Senshi, they're not descended from the Moon Kingdom, and they're not part of this conflict! They can't be trusted with our secrets, nor can we endanger them by putting them into the Senshi's battles!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Orion mumbled, having half-expected this reaction. He turned around toward the various humans. "Well ladies, since you're all technically the ones in charge of the Senshi's operations, as well as the ones with your lives on the line, the decision ultimately goes to you. Whaddya think? Can I run a support squad to back you up in battle, protect you outside of battle, and collect intel when you have lives to live."
Sailor Moon did not hesitate. "Yes!" She cheered, still hugging Negi against her chest like a stuffed animal, even while the little boy flailed helplessly in her grasp.
Mercury nodded, smiling. "It would seem a wise course of action. I don't think anyone can doubt their... efficiency in combat," she sweatdropped as she glanced at the huge columns of smoke wafting from piles of scorched rubble. "And we DO have tactical shortcomings. Orion's help and that of his Knights would be invaluable."
Sailor Mars frowned slightly, rubbing her chin. She was skeptical right away of this new team. For one thing, they were all men, and she had always had a bit of a feminist streak to her. Then again, they WERE all seriously cute, and it wasn't like she had romantic prospects lining up outside the shrine where she lived.
Nor was she particularly trusting of military influences, and both Orion and Sousuke were clearly of that bent. On the other hand, the Senshi WERE a fighting force, and these people were clearly good at combat, even if one of them was apparently a psycho pyromaniac.
"Then it's decided!" Sailor Moon cheered, pumping one fist into the air while hugging Negi to her with the other arm, "Orion's Knights are officially part of the Sailor Senshi!"
"Hey!" Mars said, whipping around, "I haven't given my vote yet!"
"So? Me and Mercury said yes, so even if you said no, it'd still be two-to-one," Moon reasoned.
Mars' eye twitched. "I didn't know you were that good at math."
Moon's eye twitched back, and she turned away, sniffing disdainfully.
"What about me?" Luna shouted, totally dismayed. "Don't I get a vote?"
In response, Orion slapped a bandage over the crescent moon on her forehead.
Luna blinked several times. "Mrow? Meow."
Sailor Moon blinked, distracted enough so that Negi finally squirmed out of her grasp. "Huh?
What'd you do?"
"I kept her from talking," Orion said simply, walking past everyone and heading for the trees next to the airport.
"YOU CAN DO THAT?!" The Senshi leader said, amazed and suddenly excited. It had never occurred to Usagi, ever since she had taken that bandage off Luna's head and allowing her to talk, that putting a bandage back on would keep her from talking.
Not that she would abuse that knowledge for her own convenience. Of course not. Not her.
Nope. Honest!
"Yes, I can. Now somebody pick up Luna and so we can get a move on. The emergency response teams won't hide forever. We can talk more once we get someplace safe."
Behind one of the empty hangars surrounding the tarmac the airport, Tuxedo Kamen sighed and leapt away unnoticed, disappointed that he had waited at the edge of the airport (and extremely glad that he hadn't waited in or on the airport) all this time and hadn't gotten a chance to make an appearance. His MO was to jump in and help the moment the Senshi got in a tight spot or were in dire need of rescue, but by the time they had taken any sort of hit at all - being knocked off their feet by the shock waves - all the enemies were dead.
There were other non-Senshi people around that he didn't recognize, but even though he couldn't overhear the conversation (other than the shouting from the little black cat), he could tell that the young men were the Senshi's allies to some degree. Oh well. There was always another fight.
Luna was not a happy camper. No sir. Well, most people would be upset if someone had slapped a gag over their mouths for no reason other than they found them annoying, but Luna was seriously on the edge, here. Thus, it came as no surprise when, after Ranma removed the bandage, she pounced on the gray moon cat and both advisors briefly vanished into a typical "cartoon violence" dust cloud in a flurry of angry yowling.
Sailor Moon didn't notice. She was currently standing in-between Ranma and Sousuke while hugging Negi to her chest again with a serene smile on her face and little hearts surrounding her. She was surrounded by cute, powerful boys! Now THIS is was her kind of superhero team!
Oh, sure, she loved Ami dearly, and Rei was... a big help, but Sailor Mercury was clearly new at committing acts of violence. Sailor Mars was not, but hardly seemed as ruthlessly efficient as Orion's new additions to the team.
That Luna seemed opposed to the whole idea only confused her. What was wrong with having more help? And what did it matter if they were men who weren't reincarnated royalty? Well, if Luna wanted to drive off the two new slices of beefcake she had been handed, or the ultra-adorable little British boy, she would have to get through Sailor Moon... who could throw a crying tantrum with the best of them! That'd show her!
Negi squirmed slightly in Usagi's relentless grip, his face flushed. As he had grown up without a mother or a wet nurse, he was fairly sure he had never had so much sustained contact with a woman's breasts in his life. "Don't you think we should stop those two?"
"I'M not getting anywhere near them," Sailor Mars said, shaking her head.
"Now that we've reached a more secure location, it would seem best that we exchange information while our... respective commanders are occupied," Sousuke said formally, hands clasped behind his back.
Sailor Mercury sweatdropped. "Uhm... Luna isn't actually our commander..." Though she had to admit the moon cat sure acted like it.
Sousuke blinked. "I see. Then who is your superior?"
"I'm the leader!" Sailor Moon cheered, waving one hand in the air as the other kept a death grip over Negi's chest (Ranma had been trying to figure out a way to get Negi free without physically manhandling Moon for quite some time. He had come up with nothing).
Sousuke wondered if it wouldn't be wiser to allow the cat to be in command, but didn't say it aloud. After all, if Sailor Moon was in charge, then she was of equal rank or higher rank than Orion, who was HIS commander. Superiors were to be obeyed at all times, and tended not to like having their competency questioned. "Understood. At this time we should transfer information so that each group is able to contact the other and find sanctuary if assaulted by the enemy. Here is our current address and a list of contact numbers, each one all but untraceable." He handed Sailor Moon a slip of paper. "I recommend you memorize the information and destroy that note to ensure the security of our operation."
The others sweatdropped, but Moon took the note. "Okay. So we should tell you about ourselves, right? My name is-"
"NO!" a panting Luna shouted, suddenly diving out of the dust cloud and landing flat on her belly. "You can't tell them your secret identities!"
Sailor Moon pouted. If she couldn't tell them who she was, how could she go out on dates with them? People would probably notice Sailor Moon being escorted into a movie theatre, and she was fairly certain the seifuku would get her kicked out of most of the better restaurants.
Orion landed on top of Luna, swatting her in the head with his paw. "Idiot. They already know who Sailor Moon is!"
"WHAT?! Orion, you moron!"
Sousuke nodded. "Indeed. We already have a respectable dossier on Sailor Moon, A.K.A. Usagi Tsukino. Daughter of Ikuko and Kenji Tsukino, whom you reside with, along with a younger brother by the name of Shingo. You also attend Juuban High." He stopped and glanced at the others. "However, I have not had time to procure information on your associates. While I understand the need for secrecy, this information is critical to our operations."
Sailor Mercury nodded. That made perfect sense to her. Of course, there was always the chance that one or more of these boys were agents sent to kill them, but Ami wasn't an inherently suspicious person. "My name is Ami Mizuno. I live with my mother - divorced - and go to Juuban High with Usagi-chan."
"No! Don't tell them that! They can't be trusted!" Luna shouted in dismay. Orion snorted and jumped off of her.
Sailor Mars sighed. Well, if the others were going to go blab, she might as well do the same. Besides, there was no way to hide her involvement once somebody knew about Usagi and Ami; HER house had always served as their meeting place. "I'm Rei Hino. I live at the Cherry Hill Temple with my Grandfather. I don't attend Juuban High; I go to T*A Private School for Girls."
Her eye twitched as she noticed Sousuke taking down notes. "Why do you need to know that, anyway? Can't you just zero in on the youma like we do when they're causing trouble?"
"Negative," Sousuke said, putting away the notebook. "It's more efficient if we coordinate our efforts rather than act as a purely reactionary force. In addition, part of our tasks involve protecting you outside of battle."
"What?" Mars said, suddenly alarmed. "Now wait a minute, I don't want some crazy military nut stalking me all day!"
Sailor Moon, for her part, couldn't imagine what Mars' problem was. To her, the idea of being constantly escorted by handsome young men was a Godsend.
"Not to worry," Sousuke said with a slight reassuring smile that nobody actually found reassuring. "My last assignment was of precisely the same nature, and I gained valuable insight and experience as to the procedures when functioning as a bodyguard. I will not fail."
"That's not the problem here!" Sailor Mars said.
"Indeed. You DO go to a different school. That will complicate matters," Sousuke mumbled, rubbing his chin. "I suppose we can get Saotome reassigned to your school to keep watch."
"It's an all-girls school!"
"The position is not as a student."
"What?!"
Ranma shifted uncomfortably. "I dunno... wouldn't it be easier to get Rei transferred to Juuban?" For some reason, the thought of being a gym teacher for large classes of boy-starved girls around his own age sent shivers down his spine.
"Now wait just a-"
"Hold it, hold it, hold it!" Luna said, interrupting Mars' retort. "Now look here! We can't go about like these boys can be simply dragged into Senshi business! They have their own lives!"
Ranma shrugged. "Not really. I don't have nothin' better to do."
Negi shook his head. "I have to complete this assignment, no matter what!" His determined expression made him look even cuter, and he squealed as Sailor Moon hugged him tighter.
Sousuke was unrelenting. "This is my job."
Luna sweatdropped while Orion smirked at her. "Well... uh... this simply isn't their fight!"
"Aren't these youma dorks tryin' to take over the world? I'm pretty sure that makes it everyone's fight." Ranma slapped a fist into his palm for emphasis.
"Erk! Well... uh..." Luna stammered. Then she brightened. "What if they're recognized! The Senshi have magical defenses to keep from being recognized when seen! If people figure out these boys are allies of the Senshi, they could track the Senshi through them!"
Orion blinked in surprise and the Senshi suddenly looked worried. That actually WAS a plausible concern.
Sousuke sniffed. "I am well-trained in camouflage and covert operations. I will not be traced."
Negi scratched his head. "Well, actually, I have magical defenses like you just mentioned. It's sort of a glamour field that keeps people from noticing me off-hand when I'm using magic, or recognizing me at a glance."
All eyes turned to Ranma, who sweatdropped under the scrutiny. "Uhm... well..."
Orion blinked, noticing the sweatdrop. Of course! "I've already taken care of Saotome," he said smugly. "He has a magical disguise to use in battle, though he's not using it now." He made a show of glaring at the pigtailed boy. "What have I told you of not using your battle disguise? What if the enemy had gotten away, or an emergency response team had actually - Serenity forbid - shown up to deal with the fire and explosions?"
Ranma stared down at the gray tomcat who was lecturing him. "Huh?"
"Sagara, you have your canteen on you?" Orion said. Sousuke nodded, immediately understanding. Ranma took a split-second longer, and winced.
Splash! The Senshi all gasped as the muscular raven-haired boy was now replaced by a bitter-looking redheaded girl. Luna quailed, unable to think of another good reason to reject the new help that the girls would give any credit to.
"Wow! You look so... REAL," Sailor Moon said in surprise.
"For all intents and purposes, the change is 'real'. This disguise is a bit more inconvenient than your Senshi forms, since it relies on water of either cold or hot temperature to activate and deactivate respectively, but the unlike your glamour fields the change is physical, which makes identification much harder." Orion looked immensely proud as Ranma glared at him.
Ranma had to admit that passing the curse off as a "disguise" was pretty clever, and might save him a lot of disgusted looks, but he could have thought of a better time to bring it up than in the middle of a darkened alley after they were all tired from a major battle.
"I can see why," Mercury mused, utterly fascinated. "It appears he's literally lost mass. Where does it all go?"
"I think I can take a guess," Sailor Mars mumbled, looking at the redhead's full, round breasts. Of course, by all accounts Ranma was a bit older than her, so it made sense that he... she would be more developed, but the fire Senshi found it irritating that a boy's magic disguise was so much better looking than her.
"If there are no further issues that need to be addressed, I recommend we return to our respective bases," Sousuke said, much to Ranma's relief (Moon's thoughtless prodding and touching was getting annoying, and Mercury was observing him far too closely and thoroughly for comfort).
"Oh, but can we meet again tomorrow?" Sailor Moon pleaded, her eyes wide and shining. "I wanna know all about you guys and how you beat up those youma and Jaedite! It was SOOOO cool!"
"Affirmative. I will soon be attending Juuban High, as will Saotome. We will have adequate time to share intel," Sousuke said, already making the appropriate plans in his head.
"Okay!" Moon said cheerfully, waving to the teenagers. "See you later!"
Neither Sousuke or Ranma moved. Finally, Ranma coughed into her fist. "Ah... Usagi?"
"Hm?"
"You can't take Negi home with you," Ranma said gently. The blonde superheroine blinked and then looked down. Negi was still gripped firmly under her arm, looking absolutely mortified. "Oops! Sorry. Heh heh..."