Cyber Moon: Chronicles.
Act 4: Dark Moon Rising.
Episode 35: Mantis Antics.
By Razor Knight
Last update: February 8, 2007
Three weeks passed without any signs of evil, and the Senshi enjoyed their break from fighting. The school had been repaired, however, and it was time for their lives to fully return to normal.
"I don't get it. We defeated that demoness, and still have to come to school?"
Terry smiled at Usagi. "Stop complaining, Rabbit, you were saying you missed school a few days ago."
"Hey guys!"
Terry grabbed Umino by the collar and put him in his seat. "There. Now be silent, mortal."
"That was uncalled for," Umino snapped.
"I stopped Usagi from hitting you in the head or shout in your ear. Remember what I said before, brain damage's critical in you."
The thick-glassed boy shrugged off the verbal jab. "Thanks, I guess. "
Naru walked in next, along with Mako. "Nothing new, I can see. But be careful, Terry, or Ami'll be jealous."
"And why would I be?" Ami asked popping right behind Naru.
"I see my ancient ninja secret tech's been copied," Umino mused.
"What are you doing here?" Naru asked.
"I was told this would be my group from now on," Ami explained. "Guess Terry's father has some influences."
"Nah, that was all me," Terry admitted. Just then, Minako walked in. "Yay, two airhead blondes for the price of one."
Minako glared at him for a second. "You're quite a jerk sometimes, you knew that?"
"I've been told so," Terry admitted.
Ami sat besides Terry and giggled. "Don't mind him. And it's good you're finally out of that scowly face, Terry."
Just then, another girl walked into the classroom. She was pale, with short purplish-black hair and matching eyes, and her face was neutral as she looked at the group. "Wonder who she is?" Naru pondered.
"Hotaru Tomoe, daughter of that mad scientist that works for the JDF. From what I heard, she's not too friendly."
"You got that right," Hotaru said from behind Umino.
"Aaah! What the heck?"
"How did you do that?" Terry asked.
"You were all distracted," Hotaru said in her usual monotone.
"I don't think so," Terry insisted.
"Well, if I told you how I did it, I'd have to kill you."
Terry smiled as Hotaru turned to return to her seat. "See, she's friendly. She's already joking with us."
"I never joke," Hotaru said. As she sat on her place, however, she frowned. That Zephyr guy wasn't as easy to fool as the others, so she had to be careful with him.
Later that day, the group was walking down a quite packed street. "So, million boy, what are we here for?"
"Patience, earthling," Terry said.
"Just asking," Brad muttered.
"Here we are," Terry announced as they stoped in front of a martial arts dojo.
"Here? This is just a dojo."
"Well, I asked Sam to find a place where we could gather and train. This dojo was going bankrupt so the owner was easy to convince."
As they entered the dojo, they saw it was nothing special. "So, this is it?"
Terry smiled at Mako. "Not at all. Follow me." The group did as prompted, and they ended up in a small room in the back of the building. Terry touched a wall and whispered something, and a section of the wall slid sideways, revealing a hidden corridor.
"Cool, we're in the Men In Black headquarters," Brad joked.
They stopped in front of an elevator door. "I thought this was a one-story building," Usagi noted.
Terry smirked as they walked in. The elevator was large enough to fit at least a dozen people. "Never said we were going up," he commented as they started descending.
After a minute or so, the trip ended, and the doors opened, revealing a very large room with several mats and benches. "What the hell is this?" Mako asked.
"This will be our meeting place, we can come here whenever we want to discuss Senshi matters, or train our powers and skills."
"But we already defeated the youma," Minako noted.
"True. But there has to be other evil beings out there," Terry said. "Never read any comics? It's rare that a group of heroes has only one nemesis."
"Well, we do have one," Rei said looking at Naru.
"Not what I meant," Terry muttered. "In any case... You're free to explore the room."
Mako went to one of the walls, several weights were perched in it. She grabbed one of the smaller, yet heavy-looking, ones and smiled. "Well, I think this place could be funnier than the gym I usually go to."
Brad walked to a weapon display in the far side of the room. He picked a wooden sword and smiled. "Seeing how some of the girls got swords now, I think they should train using them."
Terry nodded. "I agree. A weapon's only an advantage if you know how to use it. Otherwise, it hinders your movements, but don't worry, you'll have a real master here to teach you."
"Who?"
"Me."
"Hah!" Brad exclaimed. "I don't think you can teach them. I'm older than you, I bet I could beat you to a fight."
Terry grabbed one of the wooden swords. "Is that a challenge?"
"You bet."
The two walked to one of the mats. "Poor Terry, he's gonna get beaten," Minako said.
Ami smiled. "I think Terry'll be fine."
"Stop defending him, you sound like his girlfriend," Mako noted.
"Uhh... I don't..." Ami blushed and fell silent.
Brad charged first, swinging down at Terry, who met his blow and responded with a kick to the knee. Brad staggered back and Terry took the chance to leap back, then charged. He tried a sideways slash, but Brad blocked it.
"They're both good," Mamoru said.
"What about you?" Usagi asked.
"I had never used a sword before our trip to the youma world," Mamoru admitted.
Terry rolled aside as Brad tried another downwards slash, kicking out and knocking his opponent off-balance. Brad fell back, but stood up fast enough to parry Terry's next slash. The two went on for a while, neither getting any hits in.
"Bah. I still don't see why we should waste time training," Usagi said.
"We barely made it out of our last battle," Ami noted. "I'm not ashamed to admit I have no melee skills whatsoever, but they can be useful sometimes. Besides, if we train we'll be stronger, and I guess we could even learn to control our magic better."
Minako nodded then smiled as she saw both swordsmen were kneeling on the ground. "Guess that was a draw."
"You bet," Terry muttered gasping for air.
"Could anyone detect us down here if we use our power?" Minako asked.
"Usagi could go into her Princess mode and start shooting energy blasts, and people up there wouldn't notice. This base is completely shielded from the outside world."
"Must've costed a damn lot of money," Brad noted.
"You call it that, I call it candy money," Terry mused.
"Don't go snob on us," Rei groaned. "Hey Mina, what are you up to?"
Minako was looking around the room. "Just wanted to see one thing. Venus Twilight Power!" Nothing happened. "Huh?"
"Try transforming normally first," Brad suggested.
"Venus Planet Power! Venus Twilight Power!" This time, she turned into her Senshi form, then into her new form. "Cool. Good thing it wasn't a one-time power-up."
"But what's with the suit change and power difference?" Mako asked.
"When you girls used those swords, your power doubled. But Minako's power multiplied several times," Ami explained.
"Which means?"
"Don't you remember that last battle, first time we faced Beryl?" Ami asked.
Mako's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah... We were in a different 'level' back then. So that Twilight thing is a level up?"
Ami chuckled. "You could say that. From the transformation phrase, I guess we should call it the Twilight Senshi form."
"Twilight Venus..." Venus mused. "I like the name." Just then, her suit reverted to normal. "Darn..."
"Your body isn't adapted to that yet," Terry explained. "But I bet with time, you'll be able to hold it for as long as you need, or even transform directly. It's only a wild guess, though."
Suddenly, there was a beeping sound and Terry walked to one of the walls. "What's going on?" Usagi asked.
The wall opened as Terry walked to it, and a computer console appeared, complete with monitors. "I also installed a scanner."
Ami walked to the computer. "This computer looks amazing."
"Yes, but the AI is primitive right now."
"I could help with that."
"I wouldn't mind the help."
"Get a room," Rei muttered.
Terry turned to the others. "Well, there's an alien form attacking Crown right now."
"Everything happens in Juuban," Mako muttered.
"Not really, but most of it will," Terry admitted. "At least statistically, that's the case."
"Cut the chatter and let's blast whatever's out there to dust," Usagi muttered.
"She's acting like a leader, we're doomed," Rei joked.
"You said that before," Naru noted.
"And it's still true."
As the group reached their target, they could see the monster had made a nice work at wrecking the place. "Darn it, it's really going to suffer now," Moon said angrily.
Problem was what the creature attacking the place was. A grey-skinned mantis-like humanoid monster that had been relentlessly sending crescent-shaped energy blasts at the building until it saw the Senshi. "You'll be the ones suffering, Senshi. My name is Vigale and I'm going to avenge my kin."
"Just how many of these things are out there?" Mars asked.
"Must have escaped before we destroyed the portal," Mercury guessed.
"Hah! We're not youma, idiots. Let's see if you can make this battle fun."
"Can I?" Venus asked.
Mercury was scanning the monster, and nodded. "Believe it or not, that thing's just too strong for us. Only Venus or Moon could deal with it."
"Grim Edge!"
A dark energy blast came from behind the creature, knocking it to the ground. The Senshi saw a girl standing there, wearing a Twilight Senshi suit, only hers had dark purple where Venus' one had orange. She was holding a strange glaive, it's blade shape resembled a G.
The girl looked at the creature with a dismissive stare. "Creatures like you are hardly a challenge. Leave now before you regret it."
Vigale snorted. "Oh, I see... Sailor Saturn, I suppose?"
Saturn didn't look surprised at all. "That's me, yes. Ready to die?"
Vigale laughed as it shot a couple blasts at Saturn, but stopped as Saturn deflected them with her glaive. "Impressive."
"And that's not all. Challenging death itself wasn't wise, insect. Death Bolt!"
The second death energy blast was too fast for the mantis to dodge. It punched through its chest and Vigale looked down at the wound in shock before turning to dust.
"Wow, she's strong," Jupiter noted.
"She stole my kill," Venus complained.
"Who are you?" Moon asked.
"Sailor Saturn, that's my Senshi name, and that's all you need to know for now." After saying that, she vanished.
"What? She can teleport?" Nemesis asked.
Mercury nodded as she looked around. "She isn't anywhere near."
"So we have a new Senshi around, and she's already Twilight," Dragon Mercury commented. "Think the cats will know about her?"
"I'll ask Luna when I get home," Moon said.
"Saturn..." Nemesis said.
"The Senshi of Death, from what she said," Dragon Venus noted. "Scary."
"Oh well, the enemy's gone, let's go back to the base," Moon said.
"'Base'?" Mars muttered.
"It's what it is, technically," Dragon Mercury admitted. "Should we go there through the sewers, through the back of the grocery next to it or... From the alley behind Crown?"
Jupiter's eyes widened. "You even had secret entrances built into that thing?"
The Dragon shrugged. "Thought it'd make it easier to go in and out unnoticed."
"Everyone inside Crown's unconscious," Mercury noted.
"We'll take care of that."
The group turned to Seia who came walking from one of the surrounding buildings. "Hey there, army girl."
Seia glared at Dragon Venus but said nothing about the nickname. "My brother was in that building, and he called me when that thing started attacking. I have a group of ambulances coming to pick the crowd up."
"Good, now if you excuse us, this was a hard battle so..."
Seia chuckled. "I watched the battle. You didn't do a thing, that Saturn girl killed the monster."
"Yay, we have witnesses." Mars muttered.
"Should we brainwash her, or just kill her?" Dragon Mercury joked.
"Let's do both," Jupiter suggested.
Seia shook her head as she walked away. "Teenagers."
A/N: Why choose Saturn as the first 'Outer' to show up? Uranus and Nepture are out of question (as they will meet the other Senshi in the Death Busters arc of this fic,) and Dragon Sun has other things to worry about right now (which may be revealed later on.) Besides, it'll be fun to see how the grim Saturn will react when Moon tries to befriend her.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is a creation of Naoko Takeuchi, and I thank her for creating that universe for me to write about.