Downtown, Tokyo.
Tokyo, Japan.
"What did you find about the girls?" Harry asked Xander, while Helen quizzed Joyce.
"They've been active less than six month. There are five of them, so far. They're named after planets. The five inner planets so far. what do you bet there are at least four more named after the four outer planets?"
"I don't do sucker bets." Harry smiled.
Xander smiled right back. The smiles matched, "Smart man. I've also noticed that there's a shadow of a small animal around, a cat or a spider monkey, or maybe even a raccoon. Are there even raccoons in Japan? Anyway I can't be too sure..."
"Ya sure, someone must have a raccoon as an exotic pet. Why is all this in anyway significant?"
"C'mon Harry, work with me here. We're in Japan, You've got Magical Girls in short skirts, a cute magical animal of some kind is a must." Xander explained.
"You're crazy. This is real life. Not some animated cartoon show..."
"Harry, Harry, Harry. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"It's been locked up in the maximum security wing, by my common sense and sense of realism, as seen by most of the sane population."
"That's so overrated. Reality I mean, common sense...okay I'll grant you that one."
"How gracious of you?"
"Sarcasm ill suits you Harry, now me on the other hand. I can so pull sarcasm. Even Helen's better than you are..."
" But Xander, I learned from you..."
"Don't give me that malarkey Harry. Even with my master level of sarcasm in your soul, you still come off too heavy handed. Hell I'll even bet you ten bucks that says Gibs just spilled his coffee on Faisal, agreeing with me." Xander reached across and removed the wire and ear peace. "Hey Gibs. You there?"
All he got in return was silence. Xander looked at Harry. That's not like him to be this silent. Gibs, Hundred bucks if you say something."
"Something." Gibs voice said over the ear bud.
"Cheap. Cheap I say. I'm not giving you the hundred bucks until you come and get it yourself."
Tokyo, Japan. Parked Black Van
Faisal was busy cleaning up the surveillance equipment while Gibs changed his shirt. "I can't believe you get a hundred bucks and I get stuck cleaning up your mess."
"Just lucky I guess. Mind the place while I go collect. I want to meet this guy. He played me better than Harry. At least with Harry I usually see it coming...this guy was straight out of left field." Gibs closed the side panel as he left the Van.
Faisal grumbled for about a minute and then stopped. 'What's the use? No one is here to see it, or even care.'
Gibs made his way across the street and walked straight to the elevator. No stairs for him. The elevator stopped at the third floor and the door dinged open. He took out his automatic and put it in his pocket. He kept his hand inside his pocket and walked into the club.
First person he recognized after the hostess let him in was Helen talking to this major league, hot blonde babe. He continued scanning the rest of the room after shaking his head in an effort to take eyes of Joyce. While he was doing that he saw that Harry and the guy Xander; were looking straight at him. They both had the same smirk on their faces. 'So that's where Harry got it from.' He thought about walking over to the blonde and introducing himself, but a hundred bucks was a hundred bucks, and the blonde with Helen wasn't going anywhere.
He used the 'I'm just a goof smile' he made sure it was on his face properly as he walked up to the men. 'Hi guys. What's up?" he held his hand out.
"Here…" Xander took out a stack of folded one hundred dollar bills and gave him the top one, "…fair's fair. How come you got smile number two on?" Xander asked.
"Harry. You told him about the smile list…"
"I didn't have to tell him anything. He was me, just as I was him." He turned to Xander and said, "I still think you came out ahead."
"So don't think so. You got the strength, stamina, speed, senses and regeneration. All I got was this major attitude and some skills. Gramps had a lot of those skills too…"
"Hey don't sell the 'Tude' short. It's got us out of a lot of tough spots." Gibs defended Harry against the kid.
"True, but it was also responsible for putting you through a lot of those tough spots to begin with."
"Yeah that's true. He's got you there Harry. Not for nothing but you are a lousy partner…" Gibs saw the look on Harry's face, "…and I'm going to stop talking now."
"Knock it off Dutch. You know he'll put his life on the line for you, stop scarring him. You so know he's family. Let the poor sap know that's he's family already. He's not gonna stab you, or your family in the back." Xander chided Harry. Harry knew it deep down, but he never let his guard down, not even with Helen, until now.
"You're right. Gibs I'm sorry. You free for this Christmas. Helen and Dana would love to have you over…" Xander nudged him with his elbow. It wasn't gentle. Harry didn't do gentle. You had to hit him over the head with a nuke to get the point across, "…and I would love to have your over too."
"Stop it Harry. All this emotion is gonna make me cry." he then brightened up quickly, "Of course I'm coming buddy. 'Sides Helen already invited me and I said 'Yes.' it was nice of you to ask though." Gibs gave Harry a one armed hug.
Harry looked at the arm, and then at Gibs. "What?" Gibs looked at his arm around Harry's shoulder, "You're right, too much, too soon." he slowly withdrew the arm, while it was still attached. This was still Harry after all.
Harry nodded his head in agreement, but he gave Gibs a smile instead of a scowl.
"Yes." Gibs gave Xander two thumbs up. Xander laughed at the pretend goof. You didn't live as long as Gibs had, as Harry's partner and be as big of a fool as Gibs wanted people to think. It was a lot like Xander's I'm just a luck go luck goof mask.
"Where were we?" Xander asked Harry.
"The girls." Harry prompted.
"The girls." Xander agreed, "The powers that were displayed in the papers and from what I saw so far are based off the elements. Except for Sailor Moon, who's the leader? Maybe. It's all too confusing to tell. The other girls argued with her and she wasn't an authority figure to them. Her attacks are the boomerang tiara for normal stuff, and she has the equivalent of a tac-nuke in her staff. A Holy tac-nuke. You wouldn't believe the shit she did when we got in the way of the blast."
"Like what?"
"For starters Harry, she cleaned all traces of the Hellmouth out of my system. I've never been this clean in my life. I'm also betting she cleaned up a lot of the genetic damage the super soldier mist I was dosed with left behind. For a while there I thought I would turn into the monster from the black lagoon every night for a month. I didn't get a power boost, I got something much better. I got a health boost."
"What about the rest?"
"Faith that's our Slayer got the slayer scarred off of her. Which worries me a bit? If the Slayer is the PTB's big champion of light she should have gotten a boost, and she did, but only at the end of the blast. The holy energy replaced whatever's the power behind the slayer. Now you tell me Dana's the slayer. Makes sense, it went to the safest choice. Like I said before I think it may have gone into Dawn and Joyce, but they were in the blast radius, so it couldn't stay, so…"
"…so Dana."
"Yeppers."
"You think your girl can help?"
"At first yeah, but we need to make the introductions carefully. 'Cause the Slayers will probably fight to see who's the alpha bitch, and no matter how tough our Dana might be, Faith is a whole lot tougher. Trust me."
Harry did. Xander's ability to accurately see to the heart of any situation would be invaluable in this line of work, too bad it wasn't one of the skills that stuck. He nodded his head in acknowledgment, and Xander continued.
"It goes without saying that both Joyce and Dawn are jumping off the walls with all the extra light energy and power. The Slayer must have activated the Potential Gene, and the Holy light energized them. That's us in a nutshell. So you can see when I say that, she's their walking tac-nuke in a girly girl pocket. No one would have a clue until she zapped them. What a first strike that girl is."
"I believe you."
"You do?" Gibs asked Harry, "Because that's the second craziest thing I've ever heard."
"What's the first asked Xander, "Oh. Wait you told him about the thing in the jungle?"
"You know about the thing too?"
"What about the 'we were the same person' you don't understand Gibs?" Xander asked back.
"Oops I keep forgetting that little detail. Hey Maybe the girls are like that thing…you know, like not from around here."
"I thought about that, but too much us in their make-up, unless they're pulling a Clark Kent."
"Raised among us, but not of us?" Harry guessed. He did have the same access to the walking encyclopedia knowledge that was Xander Harris.
"Yeah that. I'd agree, except for the fact that my gut tells me they're some kind of human. Enhanced maybe, but still essentially human. I saw how fast and strong they have to be to jump from street level to the rooftops. All of them."
"Alright, that was one of our concerns. I'll let Spenser know he shouldn't worry about a space invasion just yet."
"Don't rule it out Harry. Just because they're human, it don't mean they don't have access to things from out there. Just sayin' is all."
"Alright. I'll word it carefully."
"And as for the rest of the girls. Mars is elemental fire. As basic as that gets. Plasma shooting bow. Probably something else. Red's her color, for fire I'm guessing."
"That makes sense. Color coded powers. Neat. Makes it easier to identify who's who." Gibs commented.
"If they have an army and they need to be symbols of hope, yes; then I would agree, but if they're on their own as it has been documented so far, not so much. They give away too much information to the enemy. Take Mercury for example Color's blue. That girl is one walking contradiction. Maybe she needs to be, I don't know yet. Mercury's the closest and hottest planet, yet she's using water and ice, a water elemental. If we were to colonize Mercury in some way I'd want her along. Create ice, cool down the heat, and provide water. Physically weakest, but still far above the human norm. She's the one with the highest tech, the laptop's hers. I'd say she's their Intel girl. Like Willow."
Harry got the reference. It was their Willow after all.
"Then there's Sailor Venus, color orange. She controls the light elements. Right there that tells me just how highly advanced their tech and understanding of the mystical and scientific universe.
Harry got the reference and he had to agree. "They're not restricted to one or the other. They use both magic and science."
"Haven't you heard Harry? If the science is advanced enough, it may as well be magic. I think that's what we're probably dealing with here."
"I hope not. We're nowhere near anything that even comes close to understanding yet alone copying what they have and can do.
"Last but not least we have Sailor Jupiter. Why the color green? She uses lightning. We're missing something. Lightning should be connected to air, but the color's throwing me off. We may not have all the information about the girl. She's also the strongest and most physical combatant they have. Sailor Mars has some martial arts training, but Sailor Jupiter is much better. Venus' no slouch as well. Mercury avoids physical confrontations. She hides in fog and uses long distance attacks only. Sailor Moon…Why Moon? The others are representing planets. She's not Earth, and there's no Sailor Earth. Again with the contradictions. She also has the luck of the gods. No one that clumsy can survive without it. It's like she's the main character and the writer wants to keep her around until the end, where she either wins, or dies, maybe even both."
"Anything else?"
"Lots Harry, but I'll wait until I know more. I'm not worried about the girls nor am I hunting the girls."
"What are you after then?" asked Gibs.
"Their enemies."
"Why?" Harry asked confused.
"That's easy Harry. At least four documented big bads, with a leader in the background, an even bigger bad. They never stick around when their schemes fail and they openly use a teleportation method very similar to a private portal. I want their transportation method. The ability to rip holes in space/time, can be adapted to rip holes to get back home, or to send messages back. Cordelia saw what happened and Otto brought down the other helicopter that attacked us. She's tell Giles and when they can they'll look for us."
"Or at least Willow will." Harry guessed.
"Or at least Willow will." Xander agreed.
Tokyo, Hilton
Swimming Pool
A few minutes ago Faith had woken up. Refreshed, looking like crap, but refreshed. She then spent a few minutes trying to kill Dawn after one look in the mirror. Surprisingly that didn't go so well. Lil' D was a lot faster than she used to be. Much like a squirrel jacked up on an energy drink twice its size. When it became obvious that she wasn't going to catch the little speed fiend, she called a truce. She'll get her when her guard was down. Dawn agreed and as a peace offering promised to give her a back rub.
Faith liked that idea. Back rub now, revenge later. Together the girls went to the pool to enjoy a swim after the rubdown. Faith needed to spend some of that slayer energy, and a swim was as nice a way as any to use it on. Dawn was still hopped up on whatever she was on, and a swim should help slow the girl down.
"They were swimming for about ten minutes when another girl walked in. Neither Dawn or Faith looked at her. Faith swam across the length of the pool and jumped out. Right in front of the girl that came in. A lot of water came out of the pool with Faith when she jumped up, and a lot of it landed on the girl.
Dana sputtered as she cleaned the water out of her eyes, "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM BITCH?"
Dawn froze. She was seeing and hearing double. She ran and jumped between the two girls before Faith killed the new girl. "Time out!" She held the two girls apart. It wasn't easy since both girls were using slayer level strength. "It was an accident. We're so sorry."
Dana still wasn't happy and something deep down wanted to smack the other girl.
"I was until she called me a... bitch. I guess if she wants to see the bitch side of me. I'm more than happy to show her."
Dawn looked from one girl to the other, then back again. "Faith do you have a younger sister you didn't tell us about?"
"What the heck are you talking about...?" Faith looked at the other girl and saw a younger reflection starring back, "Huh..."
Dana on the other hand wasn't looking. She was too angry with the other bitch-y girl. She swung a fist past Dawn and connected with Faith. It launched Faith a few feet over, and into the heated pool.
"Uh-oh." Dawn zipped out of the way. "I tried." She shrugged her shoulders, "What kind of flowers do you want for your funeral?"
"What? You want a piece of me too?" Dana was still feeling a tad irritable.
"You're not very bright are you?" Dawn asked sadly shaking her head.