Chapter 8 – Home Again

So I was on the last leg of my trip back home, on an airplane from Los Angeles to Detroit. On my way to meet my parents after a year of not seeing them. But of course that's not all that happened. Not long after I got back into Detroit, I was needed as a Senshi.

The trip back was almost done. I was riding along on the plane with zero issues to deal with, zero issues with the flight at least. My head was filled with ideas on how to introduce my parents to my recent changes. Of course this included my imagination running wild with how things could go wrong as well. But I tried to ignore said imagination as best I could during the flight, instead focusing on how great it would be to get back.

Eventually the plane landed and pulled up to the terminal. As in any normal plane ride everyone got up at once to pull their bags down and try to be the first ones out. Seeing this start to happen I just sat in my seat until my row was clear before pulling down my carry on and making my way off the plane. I went through the terminal the long way, ie walking instead of taking the tram, and made my way to the meet up point that my mom and I had decided on.

As I got closer I saw them standing near a column looking around for me. They actually passed me over a few times until I got close enough to see the recognition in their eyes as I waved. Now parents being parents who hadn't seen their presumably dead son in a year or so, they rushed towards me probably with the intent to hug the life out of me. I say probably because they stopped about arms length away and stared for a good half minute like I was cursed. Why you ask? Because I was. Also because some passing chick tripped on her shoe lace and drenched me with her cola. Yep, the curse got me with a full transformation the first time on American soil in the airport just before my parents reached me. Go ahead and laugh, I know I do whenever I look back on it.

So there I was, covered in cola, thankfully diet so not sticky, with my parents staring at me. They of course had seen it all. The lady that drenched me though? She said sorry, asked if I was OK, and upon hearing that I would be fine continued on her way. The rest of the airport also seemed to have missed the transformation. As for my parents after a few minutes I realized that little could be done so I walked up to them, gave 'em a hug, and walked them out of the terminal towards the parking garage which is where I was certain the car was parked.

As we moved towards the garage my parents started to come out of their walking comas and started asking questions. Being that they weren't stupid by any means, and believing their own eyes, they knew that I was their son. Just not how all this happened. I interrupted them twice to ask where the car was and when we got there hugged them both and said lets talk about it when we get home.

Luckily nothing else happened on the way home besides the usual Detroit traffic.

Home. They say it's where the heart is. In this case it was somewhere that I didn't realize I would miss till I was gone for so long. That and my parents of course.

After heading in we all did the group hug thing and than sat down so that I could explain what happened. For the most part I told the truth. About the expedition camp, the discovery of the springs, and being knocked into one. Lets just say they didn't quiet believe me until I showed it off a few times. I glossed over the happenings in the Nǚjié zú, which quickly became Amazon after the first use, village including the martial arts training and the getting used to my form.

They did ask why I stayed for a year and I knew I couldn't give a complete answer as I wanted to keep my status as a Senshi secret from them if possible. Now usually I would not keep a secret such as that from my parents but knowing of what the other Senshi had gone thru I didn't want to endanger them if at all possible. This of course became a moot point later on. As for their question I told my parents that I wanted to learn what I could as well as get accustomed to my new form. They took it fairly well and after some more talking some more about my future, including a return to school, my dad said he wanted to get up early and headed off to get ready for bed.

With it just being my mother and I in the room things got a bit weird as my mom started asking questions related to my female self. I won't repeat them here but will say that they ended with me blushing bright red and wanting to leave if I could have. Unfortunately once my mom got her claws into you asking questions you couldn't leave without issues in the future.

Luckily this final interrogation, and this part definitely was one, ended quickly and I was allowed to go to my room, unpack, and go to bed.

The next few months went by fairly normally. Every once in a while I would get splashed by either cold or hot water, usually to some apparent comedic affect such as getting hit with hot tea while working out in the back yard in a sports bra and yoga shorts, but for the most part this only happened in private. For the few public occurrences it was with almost no one around and I could dash away faster than anyone could see.

Of course I started preparing for a return to school as I still had the rest of my Junior year and all of my Senior year before graduation. This led to a bigger surprise than expected.

While I was gone I was listed as a missing person. According to the University I might have well been considered dead as my records had been closed and I was no longer listed as an active student. While I wasn't dropped from the system, which meant that I could start over faster than a freshman, I also wasn't able to start again till the New Year due to the class schedule. This left a lot of time with nothing to do for someone that had little money and no skills other than as an astronomers assistant or translator. And let me tell you that there are very few jobs for either of those in Michigan.

Even so I requested the necessary paperwork, filled it out, took it in and met with my adviser, and even got to meet with Dr. Wu who was taking the year off from his summer trips and staying to teach some summer classes. The meeting with my professor was interesting as he didn't seem to recall the springs or being attacked, just waking up outside the camp with me missing. I told him what I could, with even fewer details than I told my parents, and left after telling him that it was none of his fault.

So now I was ready for the last of my schooling, I had told most everyone of my return, and I was bored out of my mind. Now what to do till the New Year? Vacationing alone was out as my parents didn't want me to leave them for more than a few days, and at this point I agreed with them. So my parents and I made plans for some vacations together. A bit odd for an adult to do but we wanted to stay close for a while longer and an extra hotel room didn't cost that much. The rest of the time would be spent studying, training, and secretly meeting with Sol a few days of each month while sleeping.

Simple plans are nice of course but something happened that threw us all for a loop, and forced me to reveal my biggest secret.

We had made it through the summer and into fall when the big one went down. It all happened early in September.

It was an early Tuesday morning and my mom and I were watching some TV while it was raining outside. Unexpectedly the phone rang. I got up to get it, it was my dad who never called unless it was an emergency. He told us to turn on the news, any major channel, and wait for him to get home. I got back to the couch, told my mom what dad said, than did so. And was surprised as any one had ever been.

Apparently a jet airliner had crashed into one of the two twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The news man brought this to every-ones attention and recapped the events over and over as the world watched a column of smoke rise from one of the towers. But it soon got worse.

While we were all watching a second plane could be seen angling for the other tower, even lower than the first. It crashed nearly head on, exploded, and left a gaping hole. Now at this point most would be thinking of why, what could be gained from doing this, and what's going to happen next. Fortunately I had a little helper in Sol's voice tell me exactly what was going to happen. The towers were going to fall, potentially killing thousands. She also told me what I could do about it.

I got up from the couch and headed towards the back yard. My mother of course brought up the obvious. "Samson, where are you going at a time like this?"

"I'm going to help mom. Try to save some lives."

She looked at me and in a near fit of panic jumped up and hugged me saying, "How?! How can you do that? We're hundreds of miles away!"

I carefully shrugged her off and pulled out my power wand from my personal subspace. "This is how."

I walked outside into the rain, changing forms as I went, held the wand above my head and shouted into the rain, "SOL STAR POWER, MAKE UP!"

After I did so the usual light show started. I was surrounded by a halo of light and ribbons of fire. My clothes all disappeared and the fire gathered in the usual places forming a white body suit, bright orange sailor collar, a small dark blue ribbon on my chest, white opera-style gloves with an orange top border, golden gladiator style sandals with ribbons tied up my shins, a large orange ribbon in the small of my back, and a bright orange short skirt. As the halo started to disappear I gained a golden tiara with a yellow orange gem in the center, an orange choker with a golden star in the center, and red lipstick and nail polish.

After it all died down my mom looked up at me in astonishment, having fallen to the floor at some point. I walked up to her, got down to carefully pull her up, than gave her a small hug and quickly explained, "This is a secret mom. One I have had from birth but learned to use in China."

I held her out and continued. "It gives me great power, power that I am going to use to go and help as many as I can in those buildings."

My mom looked at me with slight confusion before a look of determination crossed her face. "Go and help them. But promise me that you will come back, I couldn't stand to lose you again."

"I promise mom. In this form I couldn't be seriously hurt even if one of those buildings collapsed on top of me. Let dad know that I will be back. I'll tell him about this afterwards."

She nodded and I stepped back into the yard. I then called upon my most useful power, placing my feet wide apart and my arms at my sides I lowered my head and closed my eyes. After a few seconds I said the words, "Light Speed Transport," and disappeared from my back yard.

After what seemed an instant I opened my eyes to an almost literal hell. Debris was everywhere, pieces of steel and glass mixed in with what looked like desks, cubical walls, and even the remains of an airliner seat. Almost everything was on fire and smoke filled the air but not enough to block my vision. Luckily I was immune to most fire and the smoke did nothing to my lungs. I looked around a bit closer to some of the debris and almost threw up. There were parts of bodies scattered among the debris. Most were smaller than a head and none of them were whole. I quickly turned away knowing nothing could have survived the crash in this area. Than I looked up as part of the ceiling was gone and saw the hole.

A giant hole the side of the building where nothing but smoke could be seen. I knew at this point that there wasn't much time so I headed for the concrete center, which was thankfully minimally damaged and wrenched open a door to the stairwell on the opposite side of the big hole. This was a mistake.

Immediately a wall of flame came out of the stairwell and pushed me back. It didn't hurt me but did cause the problem of removing the door from it's hinges. After I got up I looked in the door way and there was no flame, just a lot of smoke which seemed to come from below. I would later learn that this was called a back draft by firefighters.

I took the door and my self into the stairwell and started on the first part of my plan. I put the door in place, held my open hand with a straight arm behind me and said the magic words, "Flare Whip." Immediately a whip of fire about 6 feet in length formed behind me and as part of the summoning I used it as a whip on the joint of the door and it's metal frame near the hinges. As the tip of the whip passed by the joint the metal melted just enough to join the two in a very basic weld. I held the spell and repeated the whipping maneuver with the top and other side as well. I tried it on the bottom and got some success but not enough to stop some smoke from coming through.

Next I went down a floor and checked to see if anyone was alive. Not seeing or hearing any signs of life, and knowing time was working against me, I repeated my Flare Whip and welded this door shut as well. I did the same for 2 more floors with the 3rd having no smoke coming from the door. Than I went up, past the first door and welded the next 7 as well. These floors also had damage from the crash, with the 3rd one up being the worst, so I knew that the chances of survival were very slim.

Next I headed to the roof. Why the roof and not the floors between it? Mostly because those floors most likely exited up after coming against so much heat and smoke from the damaged sections and the majority of the survivors were probably there. Turned out I was at least partially right. There was a small group of people, far fewer than expected, huddling near the center of the helipad, far from the smoke roiling up from the edges. As I moved towards them many got up and edged away saying that some crazy had come to finish them off but two moved towards me instead, one bigger guy in what looked like a boxers stance and one lady in a martial arts stance.

As I got closer I put my hands up in the classic surrender pose and began speaking. "I mean you no harm. I am here to help."

The big guy answered first. "Help? How can you help? For that matter how did you even get up here?"

I than started pulling some movie like lines from my brain, hoping that they would believe me. "I'm part of a secret organization dedicated to helping those in need. Using my innate abilities I was able to get to you while sealing off the damaged floors in the stairwell. Although hot it should be enough for all of you to make it down past the worst parts and to the bottom."

"Oh yea?" the lady answered. "Then why do you look like a comic book hero from Japan?"

I didn't have a good answer to that so tried another quicky, "It's just the uniform. Don't ask why they designed it this way but as only women can participate some pervert probably had a hand in it." At this I heard a quiet snort from Sol and made a mental note to ask about it later. "It does what it's supposed to though, keeping my identity a secret and protecting me from harm. Don't ask how, I don't know."

After looking at each other they relaxed their stances before shrugging and turning back to me with the big guy saying, "So what should we do? Try the stairs again? They're full of smoke, we can't make it past that."

"I sealed off the worst parts so the smoke should be far less than before. You should be able to make it down but there are about 7 to 10 flights that are going to be on the hot side. Just don't touch anything metal and you should be OK."

Soon enough they got everybody up and moving down the stairwell. As the lady took up the rear and I joined up with her towards the stairwell she asked, "What about you? What are you going to do?"

I looked over at her and said quiet honestly, "I'm going to find other survivors on the top floors and get them down as quickly as possible."

She stopped and turned towards me saying, "Don't bother. We were the only office above the 95th floor that was open today. You found all of us."

I quickly put my arm behind her and started moving along again. "Than that is good. Perhaps there is time to get to the other tower to do the same than."

At that point we had made it to the open stairwell and heard a rumbling sound. We looked over and saw the worst thing imaginable, the other tower was collapsing on itself. I screamed down the stairwell for everyone to get down and did the same, holding on for dear life. Luckily the tower we were on remained untouched and still standing a few minutes after the noise had died down.

We got up and I yelled down the stairwell to hurry and followed them in. As we passed the floor with the worst of the damage I paused, knowing what I had to do. I followed the survivors past the worst parts than told them to keep moving as fast as possible and that I was going to try and buy some time. After waiting till I couldn't hear them anymore I went back up to the floor with the worst of the damage and tried to knock down the door. Unfortunately my welding job held up better than I thought and after a few hits I knew I wasn't getting in without damaging the wall, something I did not want to do.

So I stepped back, pointed my index finger outward while folding in the others with my thumb pointed up, pointing at the top of the door and used my most basic attack. "Plasma Laser." Controlling and sustaining the attack I held the laser on the door and cut myself a large square opening through the door just like with a plasma blade. Kicking in the cutout was easy and I stepped into a hellscape far worse than the floor I initially appeared on.

Here there were far more airplane parts including what looked like most of an engine. I also noticed something very dangerous, the outside beams were warping. Immediately I jumped into action. In this case quiet literally by jumping down into the hole a few floors down. I grabbed a steel I-beam and jumped back up. Using my Plasma Laser I cut it down to length to just fit between the floors and than used my Flare Whip to weld it to one of the beams inside the structure. I repeated this as many times as I could as symmetrically as I could until about 1/3 of the outer beams were reinforced and I ran out of I-beams.

I than ran for the stairs and made my way down. I stopped on every floor to check for survivors and found none. Everyone had apparently already started moving down. After about 60 floors I ran into the same group I found on the roof. They were moving along slower than expected but were still going. With about 30 more floors to go and still needing to run away from the building I didn't know if they were going to make it or not. After another 5 minutes, and 10 floors, I heard voices from the front of the group. Firefighters.

The lead of the group of survivors told the firefighters they met of the other towers collapse. This got the firefighters to move with them and gather those that were waiting on the lower floors as well. When the first floor of firefighters was found I held back, a few flights above them, not wanting to be seen. I then started heading back up to check the status and see if anything else could be done. Unfortunately I did not make it.

At about the 80th floor, a good 20 minutes after I started back up, I heard a rumble and knew what was going to happen. Knowing that I could be harmed by a building collapsing on top of me, my words to my mother notwithstanding, I took my stance, focused quickly on my back yard and yelled, "Light Speed Transport!"

I landed harshly in my backyard, bringing a small cloud of dust with me as I fell. It didn't last long as the rain quickly washed it down and started cleaning me off. The light of my transport must have been noticed by my parents as they rushed out the back door and gathered me up. As I was merely disorientated I moved to stand and headed back inside with my parents.

After I got in the living room with the TV and my parents separated from me I dropped my transformation and sat down, a little cold, dirty, and tired.

As my parents started a second interrogation, in which I explained about the meteor, to which my mothers eyes lit up in comprehension and explained it all to my dad, we watched the replay of the aircraft striking the two towers followed by first one than the other tower collapsing later on. I also learned of the attack on the Pentagon and the 4th plane that crashed in a field.

Although my involvement did not make the national news outlets one of the smaller ones reported the rescue of the roof survivors and how a "girl dressed like a Japanese schoolgirl in orange" had helped to save them. No more was heard of my involvement but that one report was enough to gain the attention of a very powerful person.

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Sailor Sol – Chapter 8
by: MonsterRideOp
January 23, 2018
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Authors Notes: Not to bad. Mostly filler while moving back towards school, with the exception of the 9/11 reprisal.
Hopefully my muse will keep me typing for a while longer, there is so much more planned for this story so I hope to reach the conclusion that I have laid out.