BLACK CONQUEST

Sailor Moon © Naoko Takeuchi

Chapter 29: This Fire Burns

- Red Canyon -

Sonic's route leads east, taking a different route towards the tower, where it currently resides at the Dusty Desert. He is accompanied by his best friends, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose. The Sailor Scouts also join him, along with the mysterious Tuxedo Mask, and the two cats, Luna and Artemis.

As they travel east, they decided to stop for the evening and take a rest at the Red Canyon. It wasn't the most comfortable place to rest, but it was the only place to rest at for the time being.

As we zoom in closer, we see most of our heroes sitting around a fire, trying to get themselves warm.

"I can't believe something like this has happened." Ami said sadly.

"I know." Raye looked up at the dark hazy sky. "And it was because of that light that caused this."

"Yeah." Tails sighed. "And everyone's been turned to stone."

Sonic looked at the group with their sad and depressing faces. "Come on, guys. Cheer up." He said with a friendly tone.

"How?" Knuckles glared at him. "Don't you get that the world is like this thanks to Black Doom and Mephiles?!"

"I know that." Sonic retorted. "But we can't be depressed all the time, right?"

Serena nodded with a smile. "Right."

"All right, then what do you suggest we do?" Knuckles asked.

"Well..." Sonic pondered it for a moment before turning to Michelle and Amara. "Hey, girls?"

"What is it?" Michelle asked.

"We haven't heard from you in a while." Sonic replied. "Why don't you tell us a little about yourselves?"

Amara wasn't really thrilled with this idea, but she decided to go along with it, anyways. "Me and Michelle are cousins."

"Really?" Tails asked.

"Mm-hm." Michelle nodded.

"I'm guessing that's the reason why you two hang out with each other so much?" Knuckles questioned.

"Yeah." Michelle nodded.

"How come you don't hang out with the other Sailor Scouts?" Tails asked.

"We usually work alone." Amara answered. "Unless if it's some sort of big mission, that is."

"Much like the one we're in now." Knuckles added.

As everyone was enjoying the conversation, Serena turned over at a corner to see Tuxedo Mask looking up at the dark sky with his arms crossed. She had a curious look on her face as to why Tuxedo Mask was not with them, joining in on the conversation. She got up from her seat and headed towards him.

"Tuxedo Mask?"

Tuxedo Mask looked down at her. "What is it?"

"Um, I was just wondering if you could join us?" Serena wondered. "You know, just in case your interested."

"I'm sorry. But I'll just keep to myself." He answered.

"But why?" Serena protested.

He didn't answer. He just continued to stare up at the sky with his arms crossed.

Serena sighed and decided to give up by walking back towards her friends. She looked back again, though. Sometimes, she would think of what he was thinking. Was it something like a big secret? Or does it mean that he secretly likes her?

Back with the group, Sonic looked over to see Serena looking at Tuxedo Mask.

"What is it, Sonic?" Lita asked.

"Does that guy even like her?" Sonic asked.

"You mean Tuxedo Mask?" Raye asked.

"Yeah."

"I don't know." Mina scratched her head as she looked at the two. "I never seemed to figure that out myself."

"Hmm..." Sonic rubbed his chin.

"It's strange, I must admit." Luna said.

"But whatever it is between them, I know that it has to be true love!" Amy said with a smile.

As this was going on, Artemis looked up at the sky and screeched at what he saw.

"What is it, Artemis?" Mina asked.

"Up there!"

Everyone looked up to see the dark-red clouds floating over our heroes. As it opened up, black aliens started to fall down on the ground one by one. But there was something different about them this time. Each of them were wearing silver armor on their bodies and it had the symbol of the black arms at the center.

"It's the Black Arms!" Ami exclaimed.

"It looks like they plan to try and stop us before we even reach the temple." Knuckles gritted his teeth.

"Well, if they want a challenge, they got it." Sonic smirked. "Are you guys ready?"

Everyone nodded their heads. Tails spinned his two-tails together, Knuckles bashed his fists, and the Sailor Scouts pulled out their golden pens.

"Moon Crystal Power!"

"Mercury Power!"

"Mars Power!"

"Jupiter Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Neptune Power!"

"Uranus Power!"

The seven girls glowed brightly as they began to transform. After fifteen seconds of transforming, they were fully transformed into the Sailor Scouts.

"All right, then! Let's go this!" Sonic exclaimed.

Everyone split up into different directions. The only ones who couldn't fight were Luna and Artemis, so they decided to hide somewhere safely.

We stick with Sonic as we see him about to collide with three of the black aliens. Sonic spin-dashed at each of the three aliens. But to his surprise, none of them managed to really feel the attack.

"What the?" Sonic was puzzled. "Why didn't they go down?"

The three aliens fired their guns at him, but Sonic managed to avoid the shots and did another homing attack at the aliens. But like before, it did no real damage.

"This isn't right." Sonic said to himself. "These things are usually easy to take down."

As he was searching for a weak-spot, he noticed the armor that the black aliens were wearing. Maybe this was the reason why his homing attacks were doing no damage. But as he was busy staring at their, the aliens took fire at him again. Sonic's eyes widened as he barely dodged the shots that were aimed towards him.

"I'm guessing their armor is in-penetrable to damage." Sonic thought. "If that's true, then maybe..."

That's when it hit Sonic. As the aliens were about to fire at him again, Sonic dashed behind them and did a homing attack to the back of the first alien. Then he did the same thing by jumping off the first alien and attacked the second aliens' back. Both of them fell down on the ground, motionless.

"Sweet." Sonic smiled. "Now, about that last one."

The alien fired it's gun at the blue hedgehog, but like before, Sonic dashed behind him and did a homing attack to it's back with full force, sending the black alien down flat on it's back, dead.

"That takes care of that!" Sonic smirked. "Now, let's see if my friends need any help." He dashed off towards the others.

Over at another location, we see Knuckles and Sailor Jupiter fighting off another group of black aliens. Knuckles used his fists while Jupiter used her lightning attacks to fight off the aliens.

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!"

Creating electricity from her tiara, Sailor Jupiter fired it at the black aliens that were in front of her. But once it made contact with them, nothing happened. They didn't flinch, nor did they go down.

"What the?!" Sailor Jupiter was taken back by this.

Knuckles used his right fist and smashed it at the alien's armoured chest, but it did not really faze the alien. It grabbed Knuckles' arm and threw him across the area a few feet before crashing down to the ground.

"Knuckles!" Sailor Jupiter cried.

The other alien went to swing it's fist at her. But just before it could, Jupiter retorted it by locking herself in a grapple with the black alien. The two clashed into a test of strength before pushing each other back.

"Man, these things are tougher than I thought." Sailor Jupiter said to herself. "But how are they not taking any damage?"

"You got to attack their backs!" A voice shouted.

Sailor Jupiter turned around to see Sonic standing there helping Knuckles up to his feet.

"Are you all right, Knuckles?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"Don't worry about it." Knuckles replied with a smirk. "Now that we know what we must do, let's take these things down!"

"Right." Sailor Jupiter nodded with a smile.

Knuckles and Sailor Jupiter charged after the black aliens again. This time, they knew what they would have to do.

As Sonic watched on with a smirk, he turned around to see Tails and Sailor Mercury trying to fight off the aliens on their own. He was about go over and help them, but it looked like they knew what they were doing.

"Tails! Aim for their backs!" Sailor Mercury shouted. "That's their weak points!"

"Okay." Tails nodded.

"Let me help you." Sailor Mercury offered.

"Mercury Bubbles Blast!"

Sailor Mercury fired a mist of bubbles at the black aliens, blinding them. As they were trying to see through the mist, Tails took one of their guns and fired at their backs. Soon after that, each one of them fell to the ground, dead.

"Good job, Tails!" Sailor Mercury exclaimed happily.

"Yeah." Tails smiled back at her. "Thanks for the help."

Sonic smiled at the two friends from a distance. He then looked in another direction to see Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus fighting off another horde of black aliens by themselves. Just in case, he decided to dash over there to see if they needed any help.

"Neptune Deep Submerge!"

"Uranus World Shaking!"

The two Sailor Scouts each fired two glowing orbs at the group of black aliens. The orbs made contact, resulting in a slightly large explosion. The two waited for the smoke to die down and see if they had survived.

But like with the other aliens, they survived the blast, which left Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus in shock.

"What happened?!" Sailor Neptune exclaimed.

"They must have survived the attack." Sailor Uranus thought. "But that's impossible."

"Attack their backs!" Sonic shouted at a distance.

Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune heard this coming from the blue hedgehog and followed his advice. The aliens fired their guns at the two Sailor Scouts, but they dodged it by jumping to the side and running towards the black aliens.

As this happened, Sonic looked around, trying to find someone that he could help.

"AHHH!" A voice screamed.

Sonic turned in the direction on where the voice came from. His eyes widened as he saw Amy Rose surrounded by a group of black aliens that circled her and cancelled out her escape. She tried fighting them off with her Piko Piko Hammer, but the armor on their bodies proved to have no damage on it.

"Sonic, help me!" Amy cried out as the black aliens prepared to open fire.

Hearing her call, Sonic dashed towards the black aliens and did a homing attack at each of their backs, taking them out one by one until they were all dead. Once they were gone, Sonic went to check on the scared Amy.

"Are you all right, Amy?" Sonic asked with a smile.

Amy grew teary eyed. "Oh, Sonic!" She then hugged him tightly while Sonic was slightly choking at this.

"A-Amy, this isn't the time for that!" Sonic told her between breaths. "L-Let me go."

Amy finally let go so that Sonic could catch his breath. "I-I'm sorry, Sonic. It's just..."

"Yeah, I know." Sonic smiled. "You were only happy that I came along and helped you, right?"

Amy slowly smiled at him. "Yeah."

Sonic looked around to see Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, and Tuxedo Mask fighting off another horde of black aliens. "Let's say you and I help them out. What do you say, Amy?"

"I'm with you all the way." Amy nodded as she and Sonic went over to help them.

As they were doing that, we look over to see Sailor Mercury, Tails, Knuckles, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Uranus joining together.

"Are any of you injured?" Sailor Mercury asked.

"No. We're fine." Sailor Neptune answered.

"So are we." Knuckles added.

"All right, then. That means once the others finish off the other black aliens, we'll be okay for now." Tails replied.

"Yeah. And we can continue on towards the tower." Sailor Mercury said with a smile.

Soon, Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Tuxedo Mask, Sonic, and Amy joined them. Luna and Artemis joined them as well, just when they had desrtroyed the last of the black aliens.

"Are you guys okay?" Sailor Uranus asked.

"Uh-huh." Sailor Moon replied.

"Thanks to Sonic, we managed to take down those black aliens." Sailor Mars said with a smirk.

"Come on..." Sonic scratched his head nervously. "Your making me blush."

Luna looked around. "It looks like we're okay for now."

"Yep." Artemis nodded. "Now that the black aliens are out of the way we can focus our attention towards the Dusty Desert.

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard. Everyone's eyes widened at this.

"W-what was that?" Sailor Moon asked nervously.

"I don't know." Knuckles replied seriously. "But something tells me it's very bad."

Tuxedo Mask looked up at the dark sky. "Up there!"

Everyone turned at his direction to see what he was looking at. Their eyes widened in shock.

"What the heck is that thing!?" Sailor Moon asked with a scared voice.

"It's looks dangerous!" Amy shouted with a scared voice.

Knuckles narrowed his eyes at the mysterious flying object. "It's a dragon."

Knuckles was right. It was a scarlet red dragon with glowing orange scales that were very hot. It's tail had no spikes but its sharp anyways, his wings were glowing red. His claws are the shortest along with his teeth. His eye were a burning green glow. It's belly was peach coloured with glowing red markings on it. It's arms also had fire markings on it.

"That thing is huge!" Tails exclaimed.

Sailor Mercury got a closer look at the dragon's head. She noticed that someone was riding on it's head. "It's Mephiles!"

"What?!" The group exclaimed.

Indeed it was true. Mephiles stood there on the dragon's head as it landed on the ground in front of our heroes.

"Mephiles!" Sonic growled in anger.

"It is a delight to see all of you again." Mephiles laughed. "By the way, how do you enjoy the dark sky?"

"Mephiles! We won't let you get away with this!" Sailor Moon's eyes narrowed at him.

Mephiles only replied with amusement. "Then why don't you tell that to this dragon here?" The red dragon let out a let a steam of smoke from it's mouth. "This is Nova. A dragon filled with hot breathing-fire that is ready to burn you heroes into a crisp."

Sonic only chuckled. "That thing doesn't look so tough. We can take this thing out in no time."

"Really?" Mephiles said, pretending to be surprised. "Then perhaps I should leave you to have fun with your new friend." The crystallized hedgehog created a dark purple orb in his hands as it engulfed him into the the darkness. After the orb died down, he was gone.

Now, our heroes were left to deal with Nova. The scarlet colored dragon glared at them as it began to take flight in the air.

"Look out, everyone! Nova's going to attack!" Tails exclaimed.

The dragon opened it's mouth and blew a fire bomb at our heroes. Before it could burn our heroes, they were lucky enough to dodge the attack. The impact the fire created left a large crate-sized hole in the middle.

"Whoa..." Mina said in surprise. "That dragon is amazingly powerful!"

"Yeah, well let's see how powerful this thing is when it stand up to my fists!" Knuckles cracked his knuckles. "Sailor Jupiter, give me a boost!"

Sailor Jupiter complied as she lifted Knuckles into the air as high as she could. Sonic was kinda worried about this.

"Uh, Knuckles? Are you sure this plan of your is a good idea?" Sonic asked.

"Don't worry. I got this all figured out." Knuckles smirked at him.

"What is he going to do?" Sailor Moon wondered.

"Probably something that's going to cost him." Sonic sighed in hopelessness.

Knuckles positioned himself as Lita kept her position still.

"Ready, Knuckles?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"Go for it." Knuckles replied.

The Sailor Scout used her arms and catapulted Knuckles into the air with full force. Knuckles, then, glided in the air towards Nova. Once he was close enough, Knuckles unleashed his fury by pounding his fists against the dragon's head. Nova just stood there as Knuckles continued to pound away at his head. Knuckles soon ran out of breath and glared at the dragon's eyes.

"That didn't work, eh?" Knuckles said with a few breaths. "Then let's see how you like this?!"

Knuckles dashed towards it's stomach and pounded away as fast as he could. The dragon didn't even flinch or get fazed by this. Knuckles grew tired again and stopped to get a breather.

"Man, this thing isn't even hurting." Knuckles gritted his teeth.

Nova retaliated by using it's tail to wrap itself around Knuckles' body and brought it close to him. Nova and Knuckles glared at each other in hatred.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?! Take your best shot!" Knuckles shouted at the dragon.

Nova brought up it's short claws and simply flicked Knuckles away. The result ended with Knuckles flying backwards very fast until he crashed his back into a ground wall that stopped him.

"Knuckles!" Sailor Jupiter cried as she ran over to him to see if he was all right.

Knuckles slowly got back up to his feet as Sailor Jupiter helped him up. Sonic and the others soon joined him.

"Well, that worked pretty well, didn't it?" Sonic said with a cheeky grin on his face.

Knuckles growled in anger. "Well, I suppose you have a better idea, wise-guy!?

"Sure. We attack this thing together." Sonic replied with a smirk.

"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!"

Sailor Venus fired a beam of light at Nova's stomach. Nova flinched for a moment before shaking it off. The dragon retaliated by swinging it's tail at Sailor Venus. The blond-haired Sailor Scout's eyes widened as she took the attack to the side of the stomach, sending her skidding across the ground in pain.

"Sailor Venus!" Sailor Moon cried.

"Mars Fire Ignite!"

Sailor Mars fired a ray of fire at Nova, but the attack didn't even faze Nova one bit. Sailor Mars, then, realized why the attack didn't do much damage.

"Shoot!" Sailor Mars shouted. "I forgot that this thing IS made of fire!"

Nova countered by blowing out fire from his mouth and aimed it at Sailor Mars. The Sailor Scout jumped backwards to avoid the attack, but the blast's impact still caused her to go flying backwards as she landed on the ground, hard.

Sonic and Tuxedo Mask joined in on the fight. Nova fired another blast of fire at them, but the two heroes quickly dodged the attack as Sonic did a homing attack while Tuxedo Mask used his black cane to attack it's head. The attacks so far weren't working. The only thing that they were successful doing was trying to tick off Nova. The scarlet dragon shook it's head, trying to make Sonic and Tuxedo Mask lose their balance.

"This thing is pretty mad!" Sonic noted, trying to hang on to it's head.

Tuxedo Mask nodded in agreement. "How are we suppose to weaken this thing?"

"How am I suppose to know that?!" Sonic shouted.

Back with our other heroes, they were helping Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus up their feet after being attacked by Nova.

"Are you girls all right?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah. We're okay." Sailor Mars nodded.

"Me too. But for some reason, my body feels much warmer after being hit by it's tail." Sailor Venus said with confusion.

"In any case..." Sailor Neptune turned her attention towards Nova, whom was trying to shake off Sonic and Tuxedo Mask. "We need to figure out a way to weaken this dragon."

"Yeah. But how?" Tails wondered.

"Let me check my Mercury communicator. I think we'll find it's weak point with this." Sailor Mercury pulled out her communicator before pressing a few buttons on it as the visor appeared over her eye. The visor scanned the dragon, searching for any signs of weakness. Suddenly, the communicator found it's target.

"I got it!" Sailor Mercury exclaimed. "It's weak against electricity!"

"Electricity?" Amy raised an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh." Sailor Mercury nodded. "Lita, I think your the one who can stop that thing!"

Sailor Jupiter smirked before cracking her knuckles. "Leave it to me."

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!"

Creating electricity from her tiara, the large portion of electricity fired at the scarlet dragon.

As Nova was still trying shake off Sonic and Tuxedo Mask, the two heroes saw the electric attack heading towards them.

"Now's the time to get off!" Sonic told him.

"Right." Tuxedo Mask nodded as he and Sonic jumped off of Nova.

Nova stopped shaking it's head, but didn't realize that the electricity had connected to it's head. The dragon cried out in pain as the electricity weakened it severely.

Our heroes looked on to see Nova weakened from the attack, but still wasn't fully down.

"Damn! That thing is still alive." Knuckles gritted his teeth.

"Not for long, it won't be." Sailor Jupiter readied herself again.

"Wait a minute! It's attacking again!" Amy shouted.

Nova opened it's mouth as it prepared to open fire at our heroes again.

"We're about to be burned to a crisp!" Tails exclaimed.

"Mercury Bubbles Blast!"

"Neptune Deep Submerge!"

"Uranus World Shaking!"

"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!"

Four of the Sailor Scouts used their powers and attacked Nova before it could finish what it was about to start. The attacks caused an explosion, causing our heroes to cover their eyes from the smoke that came towards them.

Once the smoke had died down, Nova was already down, but not out. The red dragon let out small smoke from it's mouth.

"Now Sailor Jupiter!" Sailor Mercury shouted. "Finish it off!"

"Right." Sailor Jupiter nodded. "Are you ready, Sailor Moon?"

"Yeah." Sailor Moon nodded. "What about you, Sonic?"

Sonic winked at her. "Ready and waiting."

Sailor Moon removed her tiara from her head as it began to glow.

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!"

"Moon Tiara Magic!"

The tiara and the thunder magic was combined together, creating an electrical glowing tiara. Sonic soon joined in as he curled himself into a ball and spin-dashed along with the electrical flying tiara. The two attacks slammed at Nova's head, as the dragon let out one more cry before slowly turning into dust.

Everyone watched as the dust of Nova blew away, thanks to the wind that came in.

Sonic whistled. "That was tight!"

"You did it!" Tails said happily.

"Good job, you guys!" Sailor Venus smiled.

"You kicked that dragon's butt!" Sailor Mars exclaimed.

"It was nothing." Sonic rubbed his head.

Sailor Moon turned her attention towards Tuxedo Mask. "Are you okay, Tuxedo Mask?"

"I'm fine." He replied. "I just need some rest, is all."

"It looks like we all need some rest. We still have a long road ahead of us." Luna replied.

"Agreed." Artemis nodded.

Everyone seemed to agree, as well. After about fifteen minutes later, our heroes got down on comfortable ground and laid on their backs. Tails laid his head on Mina's stomach, trying to get comfortable, while everyone as else laid down in a different spot. Soon after that, they fell asleep.

Except for Sonic, that is. His eyes looked up at the dark sky as he could only hope but wonder if everyone else will be all right. They still had a ways to go before heading towards the tower in the Dusty Desert. But he knew that it was going to be more dangerous as they got closer to the tower. But whatever the danger that lies ahead, Sonic and the others would be ready for anything.


Sonic's group managed to defeat a fiery dragon and save themselves from being destroyed. But this is only the beginning of what is to come. How will our other heroes manage by themselves? Will they be able to sway off these dragons? Or will this be the downfall of our heroes? Find out on the next Black Conquest!

Please, read and review.