Disclaimer: All characters of the series "Sailor Moon", except for Sailor Storm, Thunderstorm, the Sailor Elements, the Five Storms, and all other Original Characters, are under copyright protection of Naoko Takeuchi.

Sailor Storm: The Lost Element

Ch. 12: Blind as a Bat

Sailor Galaxia was busy playing back the battle between her Phage and Sailor Storm that took place in Tokyo no more than five hours ago when Sailor Iron Mouse arrived as she was summoned.

"I have arrived at your request, Mistress Galaxia," Iron Mouse said kneeling.

"Good. It's time we discuss about our new adversary," Galaxia said.

"I assure you, Galaxia. I have never even heard of this Sailor Senshi before."

"That's because she is not a Sailor Senshi, and neither is she a girl in the first place. This 'girl' happens to be a young boy who transforms into one of the long forgotten Sailor Elements."

"Elements?"

"Yes. Just before I was created, the Universe was at war with the Negaverse. It was the first attempt of Chaos to take over the Universe. A permanent portal between the two dimensions was established on a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. Five girls, who were each the daughter of an Elemental Sorcerer, used their magic to make themselves the Sailor Elements. They were honoring the society's fallen naval ships and sailors who lost their lives in the first attack. Their main adversaries were a group of five men known as the Five Storms, created for the sole purpose of eliminating the Sailor Elements. At the end of the war, one Element and one Storm fell in love with each other, which caused the final battle between the Elements and the Storms. One Element, Sailor Fire, was captured and turned to kill her comrades in a special way, that they could have absolutely no chance of getting resurrected. After battling her and the rest of the Storms together, Sailor Lightning and Thunderstorm were the only ones left. Before the war was over, they were declared as traitors by both sides. They had no choice, but to kill each other. Sailor Lightning remained the only Sailor Element capable of being resurrected or reincarnated, even if it was only a slight chance."

"So this boy is the last Sailor Element?"

"Yes, but he is more than just that. I was ready to send you to the plane he was on hours ago if it wasn't for this one problem I have noticed. His star seed is one of the most strongest ones I have ever seen, but it seems to be protected by an extremely powerful shadow power. It was created to prevent the star seed from being forcibly removed. Judging by the amount of power put into it, I would say that this boy is possibly Thunderstorm as well. I would have to use almost all of my power just to break the barrier. Nevertheless, this boy may be an undefeatable obstacle, but he is currently no longer in the picture. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Mistress Galaxia."

"Good. Now I believe it's time I punished you for not following orders like you were supposed to."

Sailor Iron Mouse started to voice her protests and excuses, but they all fell on deaf ears as Sailor Galaxia followed through with the punishment. It was one thing that made Galaxia feel so much in power and dominance. In the midst of Iron Mouse's anguish cries, Galaxia started formulating a plan to find the one person she was looking for.

Queen Beryl didn't have to wait long for Neflyte's appearance before her. She already knew what he was going to say as she had seen the entire battle, but she wanted Neflyte to announce his report to her anyway.

"The mission was almost a complete success, my Queen. However, my success was cut short with the sudden arrival of a certain Sailor Senshi," Neflyte said while kneeling down.

"Yes. This Sailor Storm has come home. Our plans are proceeding smoothly. Rise, Neflyte. Come with me," Beryl said as she rose from her throne.

Neflyte rose from his kneeling position and followed Queen Beryl into a long dark hallway. Not only was the silence between the two making Neflyte nervous, but it was also the evil smirk on his Queen's face that made him feel queasy. At the end of the hallway, they both entered a chamber with four transparent pods floating vertically in the middle of the room. Neflyte was studying them, wondering what they would be used for when Beryl broke the silence.

"You have done a glorious job for the Negaverse with all of the human energy you have acquired from these pathetic humans. Now, we can begin the creation of our newest recruits, or should I say... recreation. However, we need suitable bodies for this to work. And they need to be all males. I want you to scout around the current human city we are attacking, while I have Zoicite and Malachite check in other certain areas for suitable candidates. Do not let anyone stop you, or you will find the consequences to be severe."

"Yes, my Queen."

"And Neflyte, I want them to be... mostly unharmed."

"Yes, my Queen," Neflyte said before bowing and briskly leaving the chamber.

Queen Beryl looked at the pod she was standing closest to and started rubbing the glass-like material. She was thinking about the strategy Queen Metallia had laid out for her. If she played her cards right, she would end up in a situation where either Sailor Storm will be dead, or will be turned to their side. She contemplated the possibilities that situation would bring as she inspected the fire symbol on the pod.

"What a day. Two battles against dark forces, and an almost never-ending explanation to those stupid cops. I swear, if I have to tell another cop that my slate's been wiped clean and they don't believe me, I'm gonna just snap," Kyle ranted as he and Zeus were riding in the back of a limo to the Rayden estate.

"At least they never made an actual attempt to arrest you, sir. That is considering both your 'illegal' landing as well as your activities before you moved to Japan," the family's butler said.

"That's true. Maybe they'll finally let me do my job and stop getting in my way."

"That is what they are ordered to do, sir. But I think it would be best id you didn't worry about that for now."

Kyle said nothing, but nodded his head in agreement. He said nothing else for the rest of the trip, which he noticed was not the same way home as before. He was about to ask his butler about it, but the limo entering a property gate prevented him from doing that. Kyle then realized that his parents must have moved sometime after he left, and now they were living in this very spacious 2 story house. The house was a mansion in every right while not being too big for the Raydens. Just as Kyle opened his door, Sharon Rayden stepped out of the front door to greet her son. With a look of relief and happiness, she grabbed her son into a fierce hug. She started asking questions about his health, what all he had experienced in Japan, and other things until Kyle said that he just wanted to get some sleep. After he was excused, Kyle went upstairs to his new room with Zeus following close behind. After only taking his shoes off, he climbed onto his blue and navy blue bed and fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Zeus curled up on the pillow next to him to sleep as well.

Neflyte was using his restored Dark Crystal to search the stars inside the cathedral wing of his hidden dark mansion situated between Jacksonville's northern city limits and Callahan. He went through every precaution to prevent Zoicite from interfering with him again like before. Unlike last time however, he was concentrating on the stars to search for humans who met Beryl's quota. One thing kept bugging him though, and that was how he had to deal with Sailor Storm since he had shown up earlier in the night. It was virtually impossible to kill him. Queen Beryl wanted to have him by her side, but she was working on that plan personally, so that plan was shot down. The only thing left was to slow him down somehow. That was when an idea had popped into his head. It might have been a long shot and probably wouldn't make a difference, but it was definitely worth taking a shot at. Without further delay and with an evil chuckle, Neflyte began working on a plan to handicap Sailor Storm.

Morning came to Jacksonville, a city filled with turmoil and destruction. The Negaverse's attacks have taken their toll on the civilians and the military, but they have still proven resilient. However, the arrival of Sailor Storm finally managed to give an edge to the residents of the almost lost city. All of this was being shown on the news as Kyle walked into the kitchen. He saw his mother in kitchen as expected, but he didn't expect to see his father watching the news at the bar.

"Hi, Dad," Kyle said a little surprised.

"Hello, son. I see your trip was safe," Bill said without taking his eyes off of the small TV.

"Yes, it was. I like to thank you for sending that plane for me."

Sharon turned to look at them sensing the growing tension between the two males.

"Well, we wouldn't have to worry about it if you never left, Kyle," Bill said before turning around to look at him. "If you haven't left, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation right now."

"I'm sorry, but I had to leave. The police would have tracked me down eventually, and we would probably be worst off than we are now."

"Very well. Then answer me this, son. Please tell me why you have to turn into a girl to fight off these monsters."

"We all make sacrifices to hopefully make things better for all of us. I made this sacrifice. I'm now cursed to turn into a girl for the rest of my life, but the ability to defend my home and this world from evil is more than enough to reimburse that sacrifice. I may have even sacrificed my entire life to devote it to hunting and defeating evil, but that does not make me regret this decision one bit."

Bill then stood up, looked straight at his half son half daughter, and smiled.

"Then I am very proud to call you my son, Kyle."

"Thanks, Dad," Kyle said trying not to tear up.

Zeus chose this time to interrupt.

"As much as I hate to interrupt this, Kyle, it seems that you're back on the clock already," Zeus said.

Both parents looked at moon cat with incredulous looks on their faces.

"I'll explain later. I gotta go," Kyle exclaimed as he rushed out of the kitchen and out of the house after Zeus told him where the attack was commencing.

Kyle transformed into Neo Sailor Storm while he was running before he left the property. When he jumped the gates, he set off towards the city at full speed. The attack was coming from the city's Riverview Plaza, and police were already in the process of evacuating the civilians. Unfortunately, there were only four of them, and the place was a panicking madhouse. Storm arrived just under a minute after the attack had started, given his still-strong knowledge of the city's layout. With all of the people panicking and running in every direction at once, it was hard for him to pretty much see anything. However, it was only about 25 seconds after he had shown up when he saw the youma. This youma was about 6 feet high, grey wrinkled skin, and looked a bit on the lean side, but it appeared that it did not move very fast. At least, it didn't move very fast yet. It was a scout youma. Storm had fought and easily defeated two of these things. He saw the youma starting to drain an innocent bystander when he decided to step into this situation. His first action was to knock the youma off balance and force it to release the girl it was holding. The girl did fall to the floor a bit groggily, but she managed to get up and run off before the youma could make another grab for her. That was when Sailor Storm stepped in between them, and was facing off the youma.

Meanwhile...

"I think I should explain things now even though Kyle said he would," Zeus said to Bill and Sharon after Kyle just left.

"Well, could you please explain how you are able to talk," Sharon asked.

"Yes, but first let me tell you about myself. My name is Zeus as you should already know that. I am the guardian and advisor to Sailor Storm. I first met your son when he was in a fight with a small gang at school."

"What was the fight about," Bill asked.

"There was no reason for it. Your son is academically gifted as long as he puts his mind to it. That and the fact that they just don't like anyone who isn't 'cool' with them are the reasons why they attacked Kyle that day. Now I didn't intervene because I couldn't do anything, but police did show up just after I did and broke up the fight. However, I did notice the sign that I was searching for ever since I 'awoke' to my true purpose. The sign was coming from your son, and I knew, then and there, that Kyle was the person I was looking for."

"I remember when Kyle told me that he had found a clean, but stray cat a day after that fight and decided to take care of him. You had no collar or identification of any kind and you were very friendly so I never saw any harm in it," Sharon said.

"I, on the other hand, wasn't too sure about it. We noticed that you had taken a real shine to Kyle and it would probably break his heart if you had died from a disease because you were never taken to the vet," Bill said.

"Well, there is no threat about that. Due to the crescent moon on my head, I'm known as a Mooncat. Like your son now, I have magic coursing through my body at all times, and I mean real magic. I can sense different kinds of entities from my moon spot, I can never become ill at any time, unless it's bad food, and I can talk in all human languages with ease. That is pretty much my explanation about me and how I can talk."

"What can you tell us about Sailor Storm," Bill asked.

"Not much more than what you already know, except that Kyle now has two different forms of Sailor Storm. Kyle as the female Storm is the original form, while Kyle as the male Storm is his new and preferred form. The female Storm is the form that I had managed to free from its dormancy inside his body. You see, he was born as Sailor Storm. Normally, the Sailor Senshi are born as girls for obvious reasons, but Kyle is much more complicated. Technically, he's supposed to be a girl, but the magic in his body is in very high amounts and is highly stronger than mine. Your son is very unique, and he is very blessed. With his role, he will be part of the cause to finally bring the world together in peace."

"I feel so proud of him now that I don't deserve to be his father."

"That's not true. Even though you two were pretty much at odds in some shape or form especially lately, he still cares for you. You are the only father he has, and I don't think he would want that to change. Anyway, there is one more thing I must tell you, even though Kyle wouldn't allow me to. The magic inside Kyle's body somewhat works like a scale between his two forms. His male form is stronger while his female form is faster, yet a little weaker. Still, both forms are fast beyond human expectations. However, when Kyle gained his new male form, it set the scale off balance. In order to compensate, the magic of his female form made one more change to Kyle in its favor. From now on, Kyle is able to transform from a guy to a girl and back again whenever he wants to, or feels the need for it. He would do without it, but he is now stuck with it for the rest of his life."

"I can see why he wouldn't want to tell us. That would just seem too much," Sharon said.

"Yes, well luckily I'm helping him through it, and for him to get used to it. Although, I could use some help in this matter," Zeus said.

"I would be happy to help him through this. I am his mother, after all."

"Thank you."

"I happened to notice that you happened to say that Sailor Senshi are born as girls. You mean to tell us that there are more than one," Bill asked.

"Yes, there are several of them in fact. They are all living in Tokyo, Japan which is probably the reason why Kyle decided for us to go there. I think he felt drawn to it. Anyway, I'm afraid that's all I can say. There is more behind the part where Kyle gained his new male form, but I think it's best for him to talk about it. Then again, he might not want to ever discuss it, so please don't pressure him. It's something I'm afraid that he might not have control of," Zeus said with a concerned look on his face.

"We understand. We won't pressure him at all," Bill said.

Zeus, nodding his head in acceptance, jumped off the counter and headed towards Kyle's room. He had to know that Kyle wasn't in serious danger, even though he probably couldn't do anything about it.

At the Riverview Plaza, Sailor Storm was easily overpowering the youma. The battle has only lasted for two minutes up to now. It would have been over already had Storm decided to not care about property damage, although the youma was doing a decent job of that. Thirty seconds later, Storm saw the opening he was looking for and rushed into personal combat range. The youma tried being defensive, but Storm's array of well-disciplined martial arts attacks easily broke through. The youma was now on its last legs when Storm jumped back five feet, and immediately fired a full-force Lightning Storm into it (full-force just means that he's focusing on the attack like the Sailor Senshi usually do). The youma was thrown back hard like a wrecking ball had just hit it and crashed through the window closest to the St. John's River. It exploded in light just as it hit the water.

"Takes care of that," Storm said while dusting off his hands.

Cheering had started to erupt from the crowd of people who were pushed back to a safe distance in the mall. Storm turned around and just looked at them as they cheered for him. Some of them even started chanting his name. Storm felt a heavy weight lift off of his heart as he smiled. That was when he felt a dark presence close by and it was tingling his spine. He turned around and started looking around, but he saw no signs of anyone. So Storm tried an approach.

"Okay, you bastard. I know you're around here. COME ON OUT," Storm yelled in Japanese.

A black portal opened up directly in front of Storm, causing the crowd to back up and the police to finally usher the crowd outside the building. When the portal started closing, Neflyte stepped out of it and stood in front of Storm. He had his usual evil smirk on his face.

"Really, Sailor Storm. Don't you think it's rude for you to speak Japanese in an English-speaking country," Neflyte asked in English.

"Just who the hell are you? Jedite's replacement," Storm asked after reverting back to his first language.

"Precisely. I am Neflyte, the dark general of Queen Beryl. I have been expecting you to show."

"What does that supposed to mean?"

"That I have deducted you as being too strong for us, and it's time to even the odds."

Neflyte immediately attacked Storm with a dark blast from his hand. Storm managed to dodge out of the way, only to have another blast thrown at him. Neflyte was throwing these dark bolts of his at a rate fast enough to keep Storm from ever getting the chance to do anything. To make matters worse, the bolts were creating plumes of shadow that disappeared after a few seconds while making Storm virtually unable to make a clean shot at Neflyte. No matter how hard he tried, Storm just could not attack Neflyte like this. He started to think about luring him outside when a sharp metal object was racing towards him. Storm jumped up into the air to avoid it, only to find out that Neflyte was right behind him.

"CURSED LIGHT," Neflyte chanted his attack.

Storm could only quickly turn his head around in time to see Neflyte behind him. By the time Storm was looking at him, Neflyte had already finished his chant for his attack. He had his right hand aimed for Storm's face and released his attack at point-blank range. Sailor Storm was thrown out of mid-air and had drove through a store with his body. Neflyte had started to laugh heartedly. With his eyes closed, Storm quickly deducted that his entire body was still intact because it hurt all over. However, he knew that his body was starting to heal up when he managed to move his body in a sitting position. He was wondering what the hell Neflyte was laughing about when he opened his eyes. It took less than a second for his eyes to adjust, but they immediately dilated to maximum size just after that. To Storm, he saw that things were a little bright with the morning sun shining in front of him as he looked up at Neflyte. Suddenly, he saw nothing but bright white light. He let out a scream of agony as his eyes felt like there was a white hot needle being shoved into each of them. He covered his eyes the best he could and tried opening them while looking away from the sun. Unfortunately, there was no change in effect. Neflyte's laughter became louder as he watched Storm scramble away from the dining lobby they were fighting in. Neflyte then decided to add one last injury to Sailor Storm, or actually several as he wanted to unleash a series of attacks at close range to Storm's body. It wouldn't be enough to kill him, but it would make Storm wish that the attacks would. Storm kept trying to crawl away in whatever direction he could go as he was now blind. All of his efforts were rewarded with Neflyte slamming a foot down in the middle of his back, making Storm scream in pain.

"My parting gift to you, Sailor Storm," Neflyte said as he raised his hand to attack.

At that point, Storm could care less about property damage. He was not about to let this Negaverse general literally kick him while he was down. Storm may have been down, but he was far from out. He felt Neflyte's foot lift off his back, and assumed that he was about to slam it back down. Fortunately, he assumed correctly while he quickly rolled over onto his back. Neflyte's foot hit the ground instead of Storm's back, causing him to stumble off balance.

"I don't need it," Storm yelled.

With that, Storm let out a fully charged, yet unfocused, Lightning Storm from both of his outstretched arms. Almost all of the attack managed to connect with Neflyte, and it caused him to fly through the roof from the force. Neflyte landed on the roof and slowly got to his feet. The pain he felt from the attack was even worse than when Zoicite had that youma mortally wound him. He was thinking about a counterattack, but decided that this part of his job was done, and he needed to heal. Without sparing a look through the hole where he flew out of that was 30 feet away, Neflyte disappeared through a portal.

Storm just dropped his hands down and started to figure out how to fix this new problem. He didn't get very far as someone came out of nowhere and helped to hoist him up to his feet.

"Hey, man. Are you okay," the obviously male voice asked.

"No, I'm not. I can't see. All I do see is blinding white light, even with my eyes closed," Storm said while trying cover his eyes with his hand.

"Okay then. Well, let me help you out," the voice said.

The guy had started to lead Storm by the shoulder out of the ruined store he was in. Then the guy had stopped suddenly and let go of Storm's shoulder.

"Hey. Where'd you go," Storm asked.

"Here. Try these. They're not much, but they might help," the guy said.

The guy was offering Storm a pair of sunglasses and put them in Storm's hand. Storm immediately opened them and put them over his eyes. He noticed that he felt a small shock travel through the sunglasses, but it was nothing compared to when he noticed that the blinding light subsided. He took a chance in opening his eyes after he hopefully turned away from the river window, and was rewarded with the fact that he could actually see again. He happened to notice a mirror facing him and saw that he was now wearing a set of black ice colored Unknown-frame Oakley sunglasses with black lenses. After checking to see if there were no complications, he decided to face and thank his helper.

"Thanks, man. Thanks a.. lot," Storm said as he turned around.

When he saw his helper, it caused him to slow his speech. His helper was his nearly-identical cousin, Travis Rayden. Travis was from Kyle's father's side of the family. Besides the fact that Travis has black hair and brown, nearly red, eyes while Kyle has dark brown hair and royal blue eyes, these two were perfectly identical to each other.

"What is he doing here," Storm thought.

A/N: I know. I know. I took far too long to write this chapter. Right now, I'm just hoping that I'm not forcing myself to give up writing altogether. I can't because I'm nowhere being done yet. I will try my hardest this time to get the next chapter out faster. Nevertheless, college is really starting to kill me. Let's hope; oh God, let's hope that I don't give this up. Anyway, that's all for now. It's very late, and I need sleep. Later.