Chapter 25: Scattered
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
I might tweak this later, but for now it seems to be good enough to go with...
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Detective Roy Coleman was getting severely annoyed. The Feds could do that to people. Here he was, ready to stage a raid on a warehouse, a known perp was inside, as well as a certain bounty hunter - and they said wait for their people.
"$So when can we expect this team? ... MAYBE an hour? They're handling one on the South Side? AND the North Shore? We got a situation here! There's people inside already, people I don't want hurt... Terrorists? Looks like a bunch of clowns to me. You're sure these people on the South Side and the North Shore are with them...? Alright, I'll wait, but I wanna know the details afterward. And if any shots are fired I'm gonna have to go in anyway... hello? Hello? Dammit!$"
Coleman slammed the radio down on the hood of his police cruiser and fumed. It was bad enough when people all over the city had started coming down with some bug that flattened them, sapping peoples' energy to an extent no flu ever had before. Then there were indications that it was no mere flu, it was associated with certain kinds of merchandise, which meant drug contamination. Nothing had shown up in lab testing, but Coleman had dutifully traced the merchandise to this warehouse and raided it. Again, everything came up clean.
Then the feds had nosed in, claiming the loss of energy was due to terrorist action and ordering him to keep an eye on the warehouse and whoever came and went from it. Apparently they were staging people and equipment there. In fact he had noticed people leaving who couldn't possibly have entered normally - but the feds had told him to keep away and just watch for now; they would bring in a special team to handle it.
When the clowns had shown up half an hour ago, he had been told the team was on its way, and that he should stake out the warehouse, but not enter. He would have to wait for the federal team, which had special personnel and equipment for the job. Or so he was told. When they got here, Coleman would see for himself. And ask why terrorists would dress as clowns, painting their skin green or purple or whatever.
A block away he had recognized a Cobra parked on the street. It seemed a certain bounty hunter had tracked a target into the warehouse. From the shots earlier, he could guess what had gone down. He would love to see the looks on the feds if a normal - well, exceptional - bounty hunter managed to bag their terrorist/clowns without special equipment.
TV reporters were nearby, keeping the city abreast of the situation. Youths, some in gang colors, were loitering at a discreet distance. One in particular, an Asian kid, wore a martial arts robe and carried a samurai sword, unsheathed. Coleman could not ignore that. He walked up to the kid and pointed to the blade. "$And just who do you think you are, carrying that thing around?$"
"$Kuno Tatewaki. Blue Thunder. Age seventeen,$" the boy said slowly in heavily accented English.
"$Blue Thunder? You think you're some kinda superhero? Beat it, kid, and keep that thing out of sight. This city don't have laws to carry those. If I see you try to use it, I'll have to confiscate it.$"
The boy pointed at the warehouse. "$You have monster there. This can kill it.$"
Coleman rolled his eyes. "$Monsters? What are you on, kid? Look, this here's a police operation. Get lost or you'll get hurt.$"
The boy looked ready to retort when a girl came by and grabbed his arm. "$Excuse my brother,$" she said in a British accent. "$He just got off the plane and doesn't know his way around here. I'll explain polite behavior to him. Sorry for any trouble, officer.$" She dragged the boy away, giving him some kind of lecture in Japanese.
Coleman sighed. He hoped the kid didn't have any delusions of being able to handle terrorists. Even ones dressed like clowns. Right now, he had more immediate concerns. Like when the feds would get here. And whether his girlfriend and her employer could avoid shooting up the place before then.
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"You are most definitely not my sister," Kuno said to the girl dragging him away from the police siege. "Though you are yet a vision of loveliness. If only I could stay with you in this strange city, but alas, I have enemies to pursue. But if ever you are in Tokyo..."
"I'm Sailor Venus," Minako said simply. "I'm in disguise. Not trying to draw attention. Which looks like something you could use lessons in."
"Sailor Venus? Ah. Tatewaki Kuno does not hide from his enemies -"
"But he could stand to hide from the cops from time to time. You may have noticed they don't take it so well when people swing swords in public. This isn't Nerima." For that matter, Minako wondered how Kuno managed to get away with it in Tokyo.
She looked at the warehouse, gauging the police siege. Well, stakeout, right now; they didn't have enough officers on site for a proper siege. The rear of the warehouse seemed uncovered. "Let me change and we'll check out the back. I'm sure their portal is in there. With that, we can get back in the fight. Okay?"
"Fortune smiles upon us," Kuno said. "Let these vile creatures know the wrath of the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
Minako sweatdropped. "Sounds like you've got a few marbles loose..." she murmured. She left him heading around the back of the warehouse while she ducked into an alley to transform. Whatever romantic notions this Kuno might have, he had survived the Tokyo tunnel, so she figured he could at least make a good distraction without getting killed.
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Inside the warehouse, Rally Vincent was hiding in a stack of boxes and trying to play dead. She hoped her target, a mafia-connected driver by the name of Ray Letizia, and his contact didn't make her dead for real.
Somewhere on the other side of the warehouse, May was also hiding among the stacked crates. In the center was Letizia and his contact, presumably a representative of the warehouse manager, dressed as a Christmas elf complete with pointed ears. For some reason, she had caked on enough makeup to make her skin snow-white.
The two were on guard against the bounty hunters, but at the moment were arguing over payment. Letizia's voice came from behind the boxes. "$Look, just give me the payment and you can do what you want with these two.$"
"$I told you, it's late,$" the girl said. "$Something has happened to our connection. You'll have to wait.$"
"$You got ten minutes,$" Letizia said. "$One hundred grand in uncut diamonds, just like we agreed. If you can't get them by then, this could get ugly.$"
The girl walked closer to him; Rally heard her grab him by the coat. "$Perhaps you'd like to see for yourself!$" Rally risked darting her head out to see what the girl was doing to Letizia; she might have a chance to stop them both and bag her bounty.
To her horror, the girl THREW Letizia with inhuman strength at the shadows at the far corner of the warehouse, shadows that had seemed to absorb the light. Whatever was in them spat Letizia out in a spray of blood and gore. It was as if his body had simply exploded in there.
Rally turned back and choked down her urge to vomit. Whatever was going on here, she wanted no part of it, and she had no reason to be here if Letizia was dead. She began making her way toward the front exit.
"$Still unstable... I hope they fix that soon,$" the girl murmured. She turned toward Rally's direction. "$Now for you!$"
Rally barely had time to jump back as a bunch of Christmas ornaments sailed over the boxes shielding her from the girl. They were bombs, small but effective. Well, Rally could fight fire with fire here. "$May! Smoke!$"
"$Coming right up!$" May called. There were several pops as May's smoke grenades went off. The elf-girl threw her own bombs in response at both of them, flushing them out.
Rally took a bead on the elf-girl, hoping to shoot a bomb out of her hand as she threw it, but the girl's hands were empty. Then there was an ornament-bomb sailing her way, appearing out of nowhere as if summoned. Rally dodged and fired unthinkingly, putting a round right between the girl's eyes.
The girl blinked. The hole closed up. She shook her head as if to clear her senses. "$That HURT! You'll pay!$" This time when she extended her arms candy canes came at her, flying at almost bullet speeds. Their ends were sharpened, perforating Rally's jacket and pinning her to the wall.
Drugs, Rally realized. The girl must have released a hallucinogenic gas at some point. Rally had too much bad experience with that sort of thing. In all likelihood she hadn't actually hit the girl. A tug on her gun arm told that the candy canes pinning it were more like steel spikes. She would have to rely on her partner. "$MAY! Give her everything you got!$"
"$Oh no you won't!$" The girl leapt straight to the top of the crates on May's side and fired a series of bombs. A bomb duel started, obscured by the drifting clouds of smoke. At least this was taking some time. Rally hoped the cops outside would take their cue and charge in.
The first person through the side door wasn't dressed as a cop. He wore a martial arts training robe and brandished a sword. Rally couldn't understand what he said, but it sounded Japanese. The elf-girl cried out in surprise. "$More of your friends? They can't help you!$" She began throwing bombs and candy canes at the newcomer.
The smoke was settling into a haze. Rally worked at the canes pinning her clothes until she could get free. There was a sound of breaking glass - one of the high windows near the roof had been shattered. Yet another new voice rang out. "$Never fear! Sailor Venus is here!$" Sudden coughing. "$Ack. Just great...$"
"$Sailor Senshi! Here! Impossible!$" The elf-girl now sounded alarmed. Rally was getting frustrated at the smoke, though she had ordered it. If only Roy would take his cue...
He did, but was less than helpful. His voice came over a loudspeaker from outside. "$This is the police! Everybody come out with your hands where we can see them!$"
Rally cursed. Roy wasn't going to risk going inside just yet. The female newcomer shouted "Crescent Beam SHOWER!" followed by more windows breaking. Rally finished working herself free of the "candy canes" and kept low along the wall, trying to make it to the button that would open the main door. She needed to air this place out.
The elf-girl suddenly appeared before her out of the smoke. "$Gotcha!$" She thrust her arms forward, ready to launch more canes or bombs. Rally reacted instantly, emptying her clip into the girl's head and body. She did stagger, but the wounds began closing up immediately.
While she was stunned, Rally ran past her, trying to find the door button. She ran into a tall male figure - the boy with the sword, in hot pursuit of the elf-girl. They went down in a heap.
"$Dammit!$" Rally got herself up, gun at the ready, loading in a new clip. She aimed back at the elf-girl - she had disappeared. *Already able to move,* Rally lamented. *After what I did to her, she should't be breathing ever again.* She continued over toward the main door, hoping to get herself out and invite the cops in.
The boy had now gotten up and dusted himself off. "$Are you okay?$" he said unsteadily. He didn't sound like he knew English too well.
"$Get DOWN!$" Rally pushed the boy's head down just in time to avoid it getting holed by more canes. The girl was leaping about the tops of the crates with great agility, moving faster than Rally could track, throwing canes and bombs at random. A girl in a garish, and unseasonable, costume dodged the projectiles and aimed a pointed finger.
"Crescent Beam!" A ray of light came from the finger, held for several seconds, swinging in an arc across the middle of the warehouse, but the madly bouncing elf-girl managed to avoid it.
"$Blast!$" the girl said. Rally guessed she must have been the one who came in through the windows. "$If only I could pin her down...$" She squinted as if in concentration, becoming vulnerable to attack.
Rally noticed a length of chain nearby and grabbed one end. She whipped the other to this Sailor Venus, pulling her in. "$Who do you think you are? This isn't some comic book! You could get killed here! We've got to make it to the door!$"
Venus wasn't listening. There was a look of inspiration on her face. "$That's it!$" She pointed her finger again, straight out along the wall this time, and began concentrating. "Venus... Love... Me.. Chain!"
Another ray of light formed, then holes appeared along its length. The ribbon of light became a chain of glowing links, snaking along the open-air path. Venus whipped it up over the crates and made a few motions with her hands as if adjusting it.
The elf-girl cried out, apparently caught. Venus pulled the chain back hard. The boy with her brought up his samurai sword just above the incoming chain. The elf-girl sailed over the crates, her neck right at the level of the blade.
As with the bullet holes, there was no blood. The elf-girl simply turned to dust. Venus breathed a loud sigh of relief. "$Glad that's over...$"
Rally was willing to take all this in stride, hoping to get a real explanation when whatever drugs she had inhaled had cleared her system. She made her way along the wall to the main door and opened it, waving the cops in. "$Roy! All clear! They're dead!$"
"$But who were they, anyway?$" May asked as she ran out from behind her boxes.
"$Demons," Venus said. "$Actual magical monsters. You guys should leave this to us. We're professionals.$" She adopted a self-satisfied smirk.
All of the adults groaned at this. "$And just who the heck is this?$" Roy asked.
"$Sailor Venus, at your service. You may have heard of me...$"
Roy shook his head. "$Nope. Should I have?$"
Venus was crestfallen. "$I know there's been articles about me in the papers...$"
"$Not the ones I read. Where's your family, kid? They're gonna be worried about you.$"
"$Well, I'm living in Tokyo these days, but I didn't exactly come over on a plane.$" She gestured to the dark space in the far corner of the warehouse. "$That over there is a portal to the Dark Kingdom. I came here through that...$"
"You did?" Rally said incredulously. "$Look at those blood spatters, girl. That's all that's left of the last guy to go in there. The elf-girl said it was... unstable.$"
Venus went white, looking at what remained of the hapless Letizia. "$Unstable? Ahhhyaaaa...$" She turned to Kuno. "$We may be stuck here a while...$"
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Sailor Mars sipped her tea, savoring the taste. "This is very good," she said to her host.
Thank you," Anthy said. "I've had... some time to practice."
"So... you say the Dark Kingdom has been trying to recruit you? You feel like you have some power."
"Well, actually, I WAS with them at first," Anthy admitted. "Beryl and her henchmen came to our kingdom, as they did to many other lands, recruiting for their army. They favored an infiltration strategy in those days, going first for the women of the kingdom, and hoping to use them to get to the men. I was a princess, and my brother was very much the protecting prince. He was able to fight the youma and save the women of the land. But I... I was the only one he couldn't save... because I was his sister..."
"And so you fell under their sway." It was clear this Anthy was ashamed of herself. Mars began to feel some sympathy.
"I studied under Beryl for a while. My powers were only minor, I never went into the field with the main armies. They had to... deal with my brother, and I didn't want to lose him. So I volunteered to... contain him. And then, when that light shone from the moon, I knew the invasion had been defeated, and I was free of them. I didn't find out until much later all that had really happened..."
She trailed off, seeming to be hurt by the memories. Mars tried to soothe her. "You're proving your strength now, though. You resist their call. You don't have to be a slave to your past life. We were all born anew in this time, and we have new choices to make. I think you're making the right one."
Anthy now blinked in confusion. "Reborn...? That's how it is for you? I'm... I'm sorry, somehow I thought you were like me, or something..."
"Like you?" Mars' eyes went wide at the implication. "You mean you actually LIVED this whole time? Immortal?"
"My immortality is not like yours was. Yours was a blessing from Serenity, and the guinzuishou. Mine is a curse." She swept her arm, indicating the room, and the campus beyond. "I'm trapped here, you see. This school... it's a gilded cage for me. I've been in one cage after another since that time, only able to see the world when I move to a new cage. The youma... they came and told me I could have my freedom, if I would return to them. But the price... it's something I can't do."
"Still... to be so old... to have lived so long... all that you've seen... that you remember..." Memories drifted up, memories recovered by Shampoo's therapy, of life in the Moon Kingdom. They had all been immortal, ageless, the full citizens of the Kingdom. But though their predecessors had lasted millennia, the Senshi and their Princess had only been a few decades old when their lives were cut short by the Dark Kingdom. More the tragedy.
Here was someone who knew what it was like to live thousands of years. The oldest person in the world, easily. A treasure trove of history. Mars had to ask about it. "It must have been hard, hasn't it? Living so long, seeing so much. Seeing people live and die..."
"It is, at times," Anthy conceded, "and I don't think I could go on if I remembered everything. But that's impossible, of course. The brain is only so large. You can only remember so much. Sooner or later, everything that isn't part of your present life is forgotten, even the most cherished memories. In a way, to be always living is, also, to be always dying. Always leaving pieces of yourself behind. All I really have now is myself and my brother."
Mars was a bit disappointed, but she was familiar with this view of immortality, from some stories she had read, ideas of immortality being unbearable if one had to always be alone. But Anthy had at least one other person with her. "Your brother? He's here?"
"He isn't what he once was. Only a shell of his former self, these days. But I still love him dearly. The Dark Kingdom has offered me freedom from my imprisonment, but it would mean leaving him behind. I couldn't do that."
"Well, I can help get them off your back, at least. The other Senshi and I were taking the fight to them when I got thrown here. Do you know how they're getting youma here? Is there a portal in this town?"
Anthy nodded. "I can't leave the campus, but I am aware of what goes on around town. I'll have to get a map to show you where it is. But the magical effect that threw you here also disrupted the portal badly. You wouldn't survive trying to go through it right now."
"Hmmm. That might be trouble. We were in a pitched battle. If we have to wait to use the portal, they'll be waiting for us on the other side when we can use it."
"Beryl won't wait," Anthy said. "She would send someone through to check. I'll have to prepare to deal with it."
"How do you deal with them, exactly?" Mars asked. "I have wards that can paralyze and disenchant. Is it something like that?"
"I've been relying on a few spells, and setting up magic circle traps. And I have a few offensive spells. I can show you them before they arrive, if you like."
"I'd like that. You must know a lot more about Silver Millennium magic than me. The other Senshi and I have been trying to get stronger, practicing our attacks all the time. And remember our past lives in more detail. We wanted to know what powers we had before..."
"Well, I wouldn't know the details," Anthy said. "The Generals might have known what you could do, but I wasn't in on the briefings. But I do know Silver Millenium magic is very freeform, it depends a lot on emotional power to shape it. In the hands of the Queen, she could change people's ages or appearances, create bodies for disembodied spirits, or banish them." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "What about your powers? What have you been able to do so far?"
"Well, I have a straight blast of flame, the Fire Soul..."
Their discussion of magical matter became ever more technical, as they prepared for the arrival of unwelcome guests.
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"This is the place?" Ukyo asked. "A taxi garage?"
"We've had it under surveillance for a few weeks," Katrina said. "We didn't want to move until we could find the Senshi. Now that you're here, we can cut them off at the source."
A policeman who had been talking on a radio took Katrina aside and reported something to her. When he was done, she turned back to Ukyo and Neptune. "There's been youma appearances in the city. Three so far. Bold attacks, lots of damage, whole streets knocked unconscious. Local police are trying to contain them."
Ukyo had her spatula at the ready. "All right. Let's take care of them. Where's the nearest one?"
"You're not going," Katrina said. "We need you here. We just have to keep the others busy - this garage is their source. We have to cut off further reinforcements and keep them from getting away. Once we do that, we can deal with any on this side."
Neptune nodded approvingly. "I guess you have experience with dealing with these eruptions?"
"Actually, this is troubling - three at once is unheard of. Usually there's only one operating at a time, if that. And they don't show themselves openly unless their cover is compromised."
Ukyo snapped her fingers. "They came with us! They got caught in the banishing effect like we did! They aren't prepared for operations here. They're just acting on instinct or something."
"They may not even know what city they are in," Neptune said. "Or where the portal is. So they don't know where they can flee to. All they will know is they can get stronger and deal with enemies by absorbing energy."
"Which they can't do if no one is near them," Katrina said. "So we can keep them isolated and clean them up after we've taken this place. So. Are you guys ready?"
"One minute." Ukyo dug through the glove compartment of a police car and came out with pad and paper. She began writing a list of things for her tricks. "It would help if you could get me this stuff. I ran out in our battles earlier."
"Katrina looked over the list. "What's all this stuff for? We're supposed to be fighting them, not cooking for them."
"It's my family's martial art. Okonomiyaki style martial arts. Tempura flakes mixed with gunpowder to stun. Rubberized yakisoba noodles to tie them up. Flour bombs to cloud their vision. We use throwing spatulas as weapons - regular spatulas will do if you can get a sharpening stone."
"We have plenty of gunpowder with us, and stun grenades," Katrina pointed out. "Smoke grenades for clouds, tear gas if that works on them, ropes and chains to tie the things up, and regular throwing knives. All courtesy of SAS. The government here is taking these monsters very seriously."
Ukyo twirled a throwing knife, feeling the balance. "Different from what I'm used to, but I guess I can work with it. All right, let's go."
They attempted to send two plainclothes officers in through the front door, both wearing wires. There were sounds of a scuffle, then the officers reported they were down. "Looks like we've lost surprise. We're going in full strength! Come on!"
Katrina let a pair of men with clear plastic shields lead the way in through a side door. They quickly slipped - the floor was covered in what smelled like motor oil. Katrina levelled her gun at the youma. She didn't bother to yell "Freeze!"; she merely fired.
It did no good. The youma looked like it was wearing car body panels; the bullets bounced off. It pointed its arms at her. With a shout of "Taxi!" it summoned tires that pinned Katrina's arms to her sides.
Ukyo and Neptune were coming in behind her, able to dodge. They threw smoke grenades and dodged behind taxi cabs. The youma dodged to keep clear of the smoke, heading first for Neptune, correctly guessing her the more dangerous opponent. Ukyo threw several knives at the youma.
The body plates were not all-covering; Ukyo's aim was good enough to get her knives between the joints and into the neck. The youma, of course, barely noticed, forcing the knives out. It noticed the concussion grenade a bit more: the blast threw it against another parked taxi.
"DEEP SUBMERGE!" Neptune's blast came through the smoke, hitting the youma in the side. It was still powerful enough for a kill. The youma screamed and fell to dust, leaving body plates and a few tires lying in a heap on the concrete floor like a pile of spare parts.
Ukyo helped Katrina get free of the tires binding her. "Looks like it's just the one, right now," she said. "We're clear."
Neptune moved toward the dark circle on the back wall. "It's their portal. We can get back to the fight."
"Wait!" Katrina said. "Don't go through yet. It might be booby trapped."
"Good thinking," Ukyo said. "We were just in a battle with them when we got sent here. They've had at least twenty minutes to prepare now." She grabbed one of the tires she had pried off of Katrina and threw it at the dark patch. It blew up into shards of rubber.
"Nasty. I guess this means we're stuck a while. Unless there's another portal somewhere in the city...?"
"This is the only one," Katrina said. "But we might as well call in the other teams and have them lure their youma here so we can finish them off."
"Reduce our problem here," Neptune said. "And after that?"
"After that," Ukyo sighed, "we have to hope Ranma or one of the others can fix this..."
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Ami Mizuno was, by wide agreement, an excellent student. Bright, serious, hard-working, committed, top grades, acing every test. Normally she was months ahead in her schoolwork, keeping a sizable buffer in case she got sick or had some sort of emergency.
That buffer had gotten shorter since she became Sailor Mercury. Moreso when Ranma and Cologne had given her some books to study: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, and several other titles on military strategies, tactics, principles, history. Not her usual fare, to be sure. She had naturally asked: "Will I be tested on this?"
"Oh, you'll be tested, all right," Cologne had said. "You'll be tested by the youma. You can imagine the price for failure."
She could indeed. She had taken to it with the same all-out effort of her other studies. And it had proven useful immediately, in helping her understand what was happening and how to set up fights against youma. The practice sessions had helped as well. She was now becoming a competent all-around warrior.
Now she would have to apply what she had learned, alone, to survive and reunite with her comerades, and continue a battle for the fate of the world. Starting with first principles: "Know your enemy and yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in danger."
This was her specialty: knowing things. Alone of all Senshi she had specific tools for gathering information. She had put them to work in the battle, and they were instrumental in their success so far. Now her visor and computer were needed more than ever to scope out her current situation.
She hadn't gotten an exact count of either youma or portals when she was mapping the battlefield at the North Pole, but she remembered there seemed to be at least a dozen portals in the area, and enough youma still moving late in the battle to allow the Dark Kingdom to have a full dozen cover each one. She did not know, however, how many youma would have been thrown through the portals, as she had. She didn't know exactly where her teammates were, but it seemed a safe bet they had landed safely, if randomly, in distant parts of the world, as she had. She knew there were no active youma gathering energy in Sao Paulo at the moment, and their portal was in a burned-out, abandoned house in a run-down neighborhood.
She was now hiding in a tree overlooking that house. No youma were in the immediate area. The magical interference indicated the portal would be fatal to anyone, human or youma, trying to go through it. At the rate it was subsiding, the portal would be stable enough to use within an hour. After that, she could guess Beryl would send what youma were available to search for the Senshi and try to draw them out. She tried to guess what orders Beryl would give.
This was, as Cologne had warned, perhaps the trickiest part of the warrior's art: knowing an enemy well enough to guess how he would react in a situation neither of you controlled. She wasn't sure she had enough data to guess accurately, so she assumed Beryl would have lots of youma available, and be pretty smart. She would send a team of at least a dozen to secure each portal. It would be further split to cover both sides of the portal, with a roaming team to search in case the Senshi were not in the immediate area. This team would include whatever aerial members they had, while the ones guarding the portal would be spread out within sight of each other with orders that one should try to get through the portal to report to Beryl if the other should come under attack.
So much for an ideal case. She waited patiently as the minutes ticked away until the time she would know for sure what she would have to deal with.
After a while a woman came running up the street, going right into the burned-out house. Mercury tuned her equipment to hear what was going on inside the house. The woman stood before the portal for some minutes, saying something in Portugese, then seemed to pace.
Possibly a youma. The incoming team would use her, with her knowledge of the area, on the recon team. It was in Mercury's interest to defeat her. Which was something of a problem: she had no offensive powers, at least not yet.
She had been working on that, at least. Ranma had Cologne had felt she should be capable of a direct-damage ranged attack like the other Senshi, something probably cold-based. She had gotten her Shabon Spray colder and heavier, to the point where she could freeze things in place. It would have to do. With the youma frozen, she destroy it by pushing it into the portal.
No time to waste. She jumped down from the tree and crept up to the house, trying to navigate a path that would allow her to fire at the youma as it stood in front of the portal. The portal faced a wall with no door, so she couldn't get enough momentum for a flying kick to knock it through.
There were times when stealth was necessary in battle, and this was one. Of course, Cologne had anticipated this, and had the Senshi practice moving over a floor spread with corn flakes. It paid off now, as Mercury reached the door to the portal room undetected. She ducked her head around the door frame, checking the room. There was a window opposite the door, the portal against the left wall, and a humanoid figure, with orange and red skin and clothes. The youma had dropped its disguise, probably expecting whatever had affected the portal would know about its true nature.
It was right. It was also unaware of Mercury's position. She made the most of the advantage, jumping out to fire. "Shabon Spray... FREEZE!"
The youma barely began to yelp when it was encased in a block of ice. Mercury rushed in and began to push the block toward the portal. She had only budged it by a few inches when the youma within began to glow. The ice suddenly grew warm, then began to melt. The surface became too slippery to push.
Mercury jumped back out of the room just before the block exploded, sending ice shards everywhere. The youma shouted something in Portugese as Mercury fired a normal Shabon Spray to fog the area and made her escape.
She wound her way through the house as the youma began firing blasts of flame, very similar to Mars' Fire Soul. Outside, a breeze had arisen, blowing the fog away; the heat of the day didn't help, and the youma's blasts were making it worse. She was fully exposed before reaching the tree, which the youma set alight.
Mercury turned and dodged as the youma fired another blast directly at her. So it was to be a pursuit battle, then. Perhaps she could wear down the youma's energy. "How about this? Shabon Spray! Shabon Spray FREEZE!"
The combination was effective. The youma was busy burning off the fog when the second blast had hit, freezing it in place. It bought her enough time to open some distance, making her way to the nearest crossroads. People were now coming out of nearby houses to see what the commotion was.
More than ever she wished she had a damaging attack. She was spending power at a heavy pace; if only she could spend it in the right way... she turned and faced the youma as it charged. It stopped short and fired a blast of fire, just within effective range. She had to meet it with her own attack. "Shabon Spray!" This time she kept up a sustained stream, pushing herself to the limit. Heavier, denser, colder, blocking the blasts of flame from the youma. Steam sprayed wide, creating rainbows. Water began to puddle on the pavement. Beyond the battle, behind the youma, she could see mirages on the road.
Mirages... something clicked in Sailor Mercury. She charged up with more power than ever before, summoning a blast of water, twirling in a dance to shape her power. "SHINING AQUA ILLUSION!"
The resulting blast of water did more than just douse the youma's flames; it washed over the youma itself, which screamed in pain and fell to dust in its wake. Mercury collaped to the road, exhausted, but relieved.
She walked as fast as she dared out of the neighborhood and detransformed when she could get out of sight. She sat down heavily, just glad to be alive. The battle would resume as soon as Beryl sent her youma through to check on things here.
Ami Mizuno was not in the habit of missing questions on her tests. If she could keep up her usual high standard of performance here, she would earn the only grade that mattered: survival.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
The tears had dried, leaving Sailor Moon to look blankly out over the rooftops, completely at a loss. This was interrupted by the sight of a white figure leaping up to the rooftops several blocks away.
No - not leaping, judging by the way he landed in a heap; he had been thrown or launched. The sight looked puzzling at first. Then a second figure joined it. Then a third.
Sailor Moon's mind started to work again, recognizing the signs. "A fight? Is there a youma there?" Her spirits were strangely lifted by the prospect. Here, at least, was something she could do. She leapt off across the city, bouncing along rooftops and occasionally down to street level, hoping to catch the monster unawares.
She arrived at the rooftop with that the first figure in white had landed on: a man in the same Arabic dress as the ones who had unrolled her from her rug. He looked to be in pain, but was recovering mobility. Looking around the nearby roofs, she saw the others in much the same condition.
She assumed a stance on the edge of the roof. Below her was a bazaar, with a light green figure fighting someone in the middle of it. She couldn't resist making a speech. "Stop right there! You shouldn't bother people who are just buying their daily bread! In the name of the moon - "
She stopped short as she recognized the light green dress: a Furinkan uniform. It was - "Akane...?"
"Maybe THIS will teach you to be polite to a lady! Try touching me with THAT hand again, why don't you?" Akane gave the hapless man at her feet a few more kicks, then looked up, noticing Sailor Moon. "Oh! Finally! A familiar face! I was just teaching these perverts a lesson. They can't seem to keep their hands to themselves." She climbed up a stack of merchandise against the wall and leaped up to join Sailor Moon on the roof.
Sailor Moon gaped at the carnage. Several men, some of them not young, were in obvious pain, holding hands or knees or writhing on the ground in pain. There was no blood that she would see, but several limbs were bent out of shape, possibly dislocated. "Don't you think you were a bit... harsh on them?"
"Pfft. They're men. They don't learn unless there's a lot of pain involved. Come on! Let's get away from these creeps."
She took off along the street. Sailor Moon followed after her, quickly catching up. "So did you see anyone - " they both startd at the same time, then stopped and giggled.
"Nothing but perverts so far," Akane said.
"Same here," Moon said. "I'm worried about Tuxedo Mask. And the others. How are we going to find them in a big place like this? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack!"
"Nobody answered on your watch?"
"My what?"
"That," Akane said, pointing to Moon's communicator watch. "Did anyone answer?"
Moon turned beet red. "Oops. Forgot about this thing..."
Akane sweatdropped. She is such a ditz...
Moon flipped open her watch. "Hey! Guys! Yoo-hoo! Is anyone out there? Mercury? Venus? Jupiter? ... Mars? Anyone?"
This continued for a minute, in which Moon grew increasingly agitated. "COME ON GUYS! WAKE UP! THIS IS SAILOR MOON, I'M WITH AKANE, WE'RE STUCK IN SOME DUSTY CITY WITH CREEPY MEN AND I'M GETTING NERVOUS!"
"Don't bust a vein," Akane said. "We don't know they're even here."
"But they have to be! Or how are we going to find them if they're in Tokyo or somewhere else?"
"There has to be a portal here, doesn't there? We look for that."
Moon wasn't too sure, but it was better than nothing. "So how do we find it?"
"Well, how did you find the one in Tokyo?"
"Ranma found it."
Akane was crestfallen. "It figures. That power of his can see anything..."
"Well, I think Mercury said she could have found it, but she needed a lot of data..."
"I don't see Mercury around here, either. I guess if nothing else, we can run around town. Any youma that sees you is bound to recognize you. They can't catch us if we move fast."
"Oh, some of them can move pretty fast..." But Akane started moving again. "Hey - wait for me!"
They jumped across a narrow alley to the next rooftop, then up to a slightly higher one, then down to a low one - which broke under Akane's landing. Sailor Moon was helpless to stop herself falling in the hole.
"HUUAGHGH!" The two landed in a heap in the dim interior, both winded. They struggled to separate themselves and get up, recovering their breath. It seemed to be filled with wicker baskets.
"Are you all right?" Moon asked.
"I'm fine," Akane said. She looked up at the hole she had unwittingly made. "Shoddy buildings here..." She noticed the deep circular shadow covering one wall. "What do you know. That looks like the portal."
"Heh heh heh..." An inhumanly deep laugh came from the shadows at the other end of the room.
"Who's there!" Moon peered into the darkness, making out a hulking shape crouched under the low ceiling. She didn't like the sound of that laugh. "Show yourself!"
The owner of the voice moved forward until the light from the hole showed it to be a mobile stone statue in the form of a pharaoh. A very muscular one. "Heh heh heh... Sailor Moon. I've heard about you. You Senshi are the ones making Tokyo a battleground for us. Well, welcome to Cairo. Now DIE!"
The living statue charged. Sailor Moon reacted as she often did, dodging out of the way. Akane feared no stone, living or otherwise: she was used to pulverizing them in training. She dodged and aimed a strike at one outstretched arm, breaking it off.
"Argh! You're too strong for a human. But you're no Senshi I've heard of." The youma picked up its severed arm and casually reattached it. "I should tell Queen Beryl about you... or better yet, bring her your CORPSE!" The youma charged again, this time aiming at Akane.
The Tendo girl planted her feet for a throw. The statue was too heavy to lift from its feet, but she was able to grab the arm and get just enough leverage to redirect its charge toward the portal. "You'll have to see her without me!" she grunted as she threw.
"What-? NOOO!" the youma screamed as it entered the portal. Strangely, dust came back out, as if it had been killed.
"Woah! Did you just-?" Sailor Moon carefully approached the portal. She grabbed a wicker basket from one of the nearby stacks, finding it empty, and threw it at the portal. Pieces of it came back as if it had been thrown into a whirling fan.
"Eewwwww. That doesn't look good," Moon grimaced. "How are we going to get out of here now?"
"Beats me..." Akane shrugged. "But I'd rather stay here and watch it in case Beryl or Kunzite manages to fix it."
"You're right," Moon said. "And it beats freezing at the North Pole..."
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Ranma awoke suddenly to feelings of small feet on his head and shoulders.
"YAAHH! Shoo! Shoo! Go away!" He exploded into motion, waving the birds away with his arms. They fled in a flurry of feathers, heading across the rooftops. Ranma checked his hair and clothing - good, they hadn't left any droppings yet. Thank Kami for small favors.
Now that he was fully alert, he felt at least a little refreshed. A short nap was just what he had needed. His head felt clearer than before, which might mean he could get a better view of the near-term future. He headed down to the street and toward the waterfront a few blocks away.
Once changed to female form, Ranma-chan immediately found the future to be clear enough to navigate again. Whatever interference the jumbled teleport effect had caused was now cleared up. She withdrew to another rooftop where she could expect to be undisturbed for a while and adopted a lotus position, focusing her attention inward and toward the future.
The immediate situation looked stable. The first possibility to consider was just to feel things out: laying low all night, avoiding contact - it was against her instincts and training, she could hardly flee a battle like this, but experience with casting visions had shown the value of considering actions she would never really take. Sure enough, eventually youma would appear, causing property damage and making scenes, trying to smoke her out. They would cause a fair amount of damage by dawn. But nothing irrecoverable. This would be a large scale assault; some losses had to be sustained.
She then turned to the far side of the portal. It led to the tunnel network, of which Ranma and each Senshi had a partial map, drawn up weeks earlier. It only covered the tunnels that led to the areas they were interested in, some entrances from the crater, the energy reservoirs, the throne room, some hasty notations of where the prisoners would be kept. Now Ranma needed to expand the map, getting a larger picture of the network, finding portals, their destinations, who was where, and when they would come through on their own.
Precious seconds ticked away as she sorted through the information, plans firming up. If she took too long running through tunnels or fighting youma, things fuzzed out, indicating she would be spotted. Happosai would be summoned.
Best to deal with him on the other side of the portal. There would be many youma guarding the portal - hm, not as many as would be expected. If she moved quickly, trying to avoid extended battles... ah, their forces were spread thin guarding several portals. She could just make it through one. Look at each one by one - damn, she needed pen and paper to write all this stuff down.
Well, she had a few minutes. Petty theft was nothing new to the Anything Goes school. It cost her a few minutes to fetch some; there were high rise hotels with open balcony doors. Again, Ranma got an eyeful of an amorous couple as he borrowed pad and pen from the desk. He was fairly stealthy, and they didn't seem to notice him.
More minutes spent looking at who was where, and Ranma-chan had her itinerary. She headed down to the streets again, first to hit a brothel with an ornamental front with a useful feature: metal bars. She had to transform for the extra strength to chop them away efficiently; he took five - a bit thicker than he was used to, but made of bronze, good for four shots each.
A hardware store provided a few flashlights and batteries; many parts of the tunnels were lit by some sort of magical or phosphorescent globes, but there were some pitch black areas, prime spots for ambush. Ranma would be in no danger, knowing where the patrols and ambushes would be, but the other Senshi had no lights, not expecting to need them, and might be held up for extended periods near their portals.
Last but not least, he snagged a few bites to eat from some vending machines. He retransformed to Sailor Pluto and headed to the rooftop just above the alley where the portal was at. She dragged a shipping crate up to hide in and settled in to wait.
A police siren went off nearby, receding into the distance. A youma attack, she knew. This city and a dozen others around the world were now under siege by displaced monsters who didn't know where they were or how to get back to the Dark Kingdom. Pluto grit her teeth and stayed put. It was against her instincts and training to let this one go when only she could deal with it decisively, but the greater war would not be won here.
It could, however, be won - or lost - in the next few hours. She just hoped she could contain her excitement and use her energy properly.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Next: Gathering