SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 36 out, this is Chapter 37 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?
Disclaimers: I own not Sailor Moon or Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. The only thing I own is the plot bunny which, unfortunately, is still alive.
Chapter 37: Hexuba's Graveyard
Leo was jogging when he barely dodged the stream of light that shot past him.
"Hello, Red Ranger." Freaky Tiki manifested.
"You." Leo frowned. "Haven't I seen you before?"
"You've destroyed me once, but never again!" Freaky Tiki snapped. "It took all five of you to destroy me last time, but it'll be no problem…"
"Stop right there!" Kai barked, the other Rangers running towards the fight.
"It's not fair!" Freaky Tiki whined.
"Freaky Tiki?" Kai recognized the reborn monster.
"I thought we destroyed him." Maya was surprised.
"We did." Leo confirmed.
"I don't want to borrow Haruka's line, but we really need to make sure our enemies stay dead." Tethys Mercury shook her head.
"But he's back for his last appearance." Leo assured.
"Ice Pillar!" Tethys Mercury froze Freaky Tiki within a pillar of ice.
"Quasar Saber, Full Power!" Leo took out the immobilized monster.
"Where did he come from?" Kai wondered. "And what do you think he wanted?"
"I don't know." Leo admitted. "He just appeared out of nowhere, right after a streak of light moved by."
"Did it look anything like that one?" Karone pointed to the light orb that shot across the sky.
"Exactly like that one." Leo gaped. "Let's get over there."
"Teksa?" Leo echoed, recognizing the monster. After making quick work of Leo, Teksa then trapped the Rangers in an illusionary space with his smoke and took them down.
"Guys, something strange is going towards the Main City Dome." Mike informed.
"Not another one." Karone sighed.
"This is getting ridiculous." Maya complained.
"We've got to finish up Teksa first." Leo reminded. "Quasar Launcher!" he had the team summon the bazookas. "This time, it's goodbye for good." He powered up his cannon and rammed it into Teksa, taking the monster out.
"Stop right there!" Leo took on Horn, the third revived monster.
"Blizzard Storm!" Tethys Mercury turned Horn into an ice sculpture.
"Transdagger: Star Formation!" Leo instructed, the Rangers taking out Horn with the combined attack.
"Guys," Mike caught up. "Alpha says that two more monsters have arrived and we've destroyed them before."
"Let's get them." Leo declared.
"Wait," Kai protested. "We can't keep fighting these old monsters forever. Eventually, they'll wear us down."
"He's right." Maya agreed. "We've got to stop them at the source."
"But where is it?" Damon wondered.
"I have an idea." Kai voiced. "You guys protect the Colony. I'll take my Jammer and find their trail backwards."
"That seems pretty dangerous." Leo remarked.
"We certainly don't have much choice." Tethys Mercury looked up at the two streaks flying across the sky. "We definitely won't last long in a battle of attrition."
"Right." Leo nodded. "Go find them, you two."
"Now, all I have to do is lock on the energy signature and it'll lead us there." Tethys Mercury's compact computer was already out, the ice Senshi was hovering beside Kai's Jet Jammer using her winged boots.
"Do I even want to know how you could breathe in outer space?" Kai wondered.
"Magic." Tethys Mercury grinned.
"Hello, Rangers." Destruxo manifested from the light ball. "Did you miss me? You don't stand a chance against all your foes." He taunted, having beaten Damon, Maya and Karone down.
The Rangers regrouped, with Damon stalemating Destruxo, Karone forcing him back with a slash and Leo ending the battle with a single blow.
Mike faced off against the revived Fishface, the armoured hero then taking the monster out with a single slash to the stomach. "Treacheron!" he turned to see the reborn former general.
"Magna Defender, you'll pay for what you did to me." Treacheron swore.
"And that makes monster number seven." Tethys Mercury remarked, the two heroes in blue seeing another light streak fly past.
"The signal's getting stronger." Kai added. "We must be getting close."
"A floating castle in the sky." Tethys Mercury stated. "Now, where have I seen this before?
"Laser Fire!" Leo took out Gasser with his fire blast.
"Leo, there goes another one." Karone pointed.
"Man." Damon cursed.
"And another is going towards the Industrial Dome." Maya added.
"We'll have to spilt up." Leo remarked. "You two follow that one." He told Damon and Karone.
"And we'll take the other." Maya nodded.
"My spell is working exactly as I planned." Hexuba mused. "Rise, mighty creatures from your demise. For Hexuba to give the Ranger a big surprise!"
"That's enough, Hexuba." Kai snapped, blasting the cauldron with his Cosma Claw.
"Your chants need work." Tethys Mercury taunted.
"I don't like uninvited guests." Hexuba retorted and fired a blast of lightning from her crystal ball.
"Didn't Mike destroy that crystal ball?" Tethys Mercury wondered, kneeling beside the injured Kai who had been blasted by the smoke from Hexuba's cauldron. "Not good." She muttered, dodging Hexuba's next series of attacks, the spellcaster having backhanded Kai into a stone coffin and releasing the monster in it.
After taking out the Swabbies Treacheron had with him, Mike finished the former general off with his Magna Blaster.
Cornering Mutantrum in the forest, Leo and Maya took out the monster with a combined kick to the chest.
"He landed here somewhere." Karone remarked, looking around the carpark with Damon when she was smacked to the ground by Hardtochoke.
"Might want to avoid hitting the cauldron next time." Tethys Mercury reminded, saving Kai from being blasted by the cauldron's fumes.
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Kai nodded.
"Arise!" Hexuba chanted, the spirit of the monster inside the slab behind the pair rising from its prison.
Kai tried to stop Quakemaker from escaping when Hexuba attacked the couple.
"White Ripple!" Tethys Mercury fired her ice wave at Quakemaker before he made his escape.
"Mystic orb, destroy their hope." Hexuba leapt onto the edge of her cauldron. "Tie them with a rope!"
"Destroy the crystal ball." Tethys Mercury told her partner.
"Right." Kai nodded and pulled out his Quasar Saber, freeing them both with a slash. Pulling Hexuba to the ground, he kicked the crystal ball out of the sorceress' hands.
"My ball!" Hexuba wailed, trying to reclaim the crystal ball when Kai backflipped and slashed the crystal ball into half. "What have you done?" she demanded, seeing the two halves fall into the cauldron.
"Not going to stay around and find out." Kai retorted.
"No!" Hexuba cried when her floating castle exploded, Kai and Tethys Mercury fleeing the scene.
Mike jumped in, freeing Maya from Hardtochoke's grip, the other Rangers having been beaten to the ground.
"Fire!" Leo gave the order, destroying Hardtochoke with his and Maya's Quasar Launchers, Damon's Transblaster, Karone's Beta Bow, and Mike's Magna Blaster.
"They're back." Karone spotted the arriving blue pair.
"Good job." Leo nodded.
"Did you find out where they were coming from?" Karone asked.
"Sure did." Kai replied. "And I don't think there will be anymore old monsters."
"You'll pay!" Hexuba swore, flying in.
"It's Hexuba." Tethys Mercury gaped. "But how did she get here?"
"Hexuba?" Mike echoed.
"We'll debrief later." Tethys Mercury was already on the move.
"Power Rangers, you've destroyed something important to me, now I'll destroy you." Hexuba promised. "You may have destroyed my monsters, but I still have their powers, combined! Monsters of yonder, give me more! You don't stand a chance against me."
"Why do they keep getting uglier when every upgrade?" Tethys Mercury was not amused at the powered-up Hexuba.
"We'll see about that." Leo retorted.
"Iris Luminous Stream!" Tethys Mercury unleashed the familiar rainbow-coloured energy wave.
"Got to take more than that to stop us, Hexuba." Leo remarked, Hexuba's shoulder blasts doing no damage. "Hyper Drive Mode!"
"That only makes me stronger!" Hexuba snapped.
"Then I guess I'll have to take it up a notch." Leo noted. "Red Armour Power!" he summoned his Battlizer. "Locking on target, fire!" he sent his rain of red lasers at the laughing Hexuba. "She just won't stop." He remarked, seeing Hexuba grow in size. "Galactabeasts, arise!" he summoned the Zords.
"Torozord, charge!" Mike summoned the Torozord.
The chuckling Hexuba then wrapped her vine around the two Zords and blasted them with the bullets from her shoulders. "How dare you challenge me." She growled.
"Centaurus, Stratoforce, activate!" Tethys Mercury summoned the two smaller Zords to battle.
Centaurus tackled Hexuba to the ground, allowing Stratoforce to send the giant spellcaster flying with a kick.
With Centaurus weakening Hexuba with its cannon blaster, Galaxy Megazord finished the job with a fully-charged Galaxy Megazord Saber.
"Mike, you alright?" Tethys Mercury looked at Defender Torozord which was getting up. "You sure took a beating back there."
"No kidding." Mike muttered.
Back on Earth…
Nabu was just off the phone with Makoto and nearly dropped his cellphone when Chiba Usagi stood up from his couch and turned to look at him. All of the relaxation he had found talking with Makoto on the way home evaporated the moment he saw Usagi.
He shoved the phone into his pocket and set his pack on the dining table trying to decide how to respond to the unwelcomed young woman standing in his living room.
"Hi, Nabu-kun." Usagi purred. "I'm glad you ditched Rei and Judai-chan. We need to talk."
Nabu's fists clenched spontaneously; she was being very presumptuous.
"How did you get into my apartment?" the financer asked.
Usagi's smile faded and she crossed her arms. "I am not going to bother to answer that. It's the reason I'm here that's important, not the how."
"You've crossed several lines today, Chiba-san." Nabu held back his anger when he thought he detected a slight jerk upwards at the corner of her lips. She thought this was funny? He frowned. He was furious and it was becoming more and more difficult to control it.
"The line where you tell me you aren't interested, Nabu-kun?" Usagi questioned. She moved around the couch and stopped in front of him, invading his personal space. He had to stop himself from taking a step back.
"I'm not." Nabu's frown deepened.
Usagi simply smiled. "Don't lie. I'm offering you a free night. No strings, no emotional entanglement. Just you and me. Makoto never needs to know."
Nabu grimaced. "Sex for its own sake? Really Chiba-san? You don't respect yourself any more than that?"
Her face became an emotionless mask save her blue eyes, which flashed with anger. "Sex has nothing to do with respect." She retorted. "It's a physical act and it feels good. You're the only man I've ever expressed an interest in that I haven't been able to seduce. So tell me something, Nabu-kun, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid you'll like it? That I'll be better in bed than muscle girl? That would suck, wouldn't it?"
Nabu smirked at her. "Where do I start with how wrong everything you just said is? You are one screwed up woman, Chiba, and I don't want anything to do with you. Just leave."
The suddenness with which she closed the gap between them caught Nabu off-guard. Her arms locked around his neck as she kissed him full on the mouth. His repulsion overtook his usual reticence to get violent with a woman. He took her by the forearms to break her grip and shoved her away forcefully.
Usagi managed to stop from crashing to the floor by catching herself on the back of the couch.
Nabu wiped a hand across his mouth and glared at her. "I said, 'Get out!'"
He was shocked when she chuckled as she righted herself. "Fine. But consider this, Nabu-kun. I've always gotten everything I wanted. Just ask Judai-chan. He wasn't really interested either, that is, until I piled him with vodka and screwed him while he was unconscious. Judai-chan was a little tame for my taste but it was a nice little fling. I wonder if Rei knows, or even suspects that I took her beloved's virginity. Hm, maybe I'll have to tell her myself. Why don't you stop by my place later and let me know if I should?"
She sauntered past him and opened the door, where she turned and looked back at him with a come-hither smile. "Or perhaps we could work out a little deal where I keep my mouth shut. It's just one night, Nabu-kun. One night of purely physical pleasure for my silence. At least then that self-righteous conscience of yours would be assuaged in the act. I'll be waiting to hear your answer." With that, she shut the door behind her, certain that Nabu would never refuse her.
Giggling like a schoolgirl, Usagi skipped all the way back to her apartment without a hint of remorse; she had gotten bored with Mamoru within three months of their marriage and with her husband either constantly working late into the nights or on regular overseas trips, she satisfied herself with flings on the side.
Her first affair was with Motoki; she had tried to seduce him into bed when Reika was off on an excavation in Brazil, but he resisted, until she got him incredibly drunk and bedded him right on his martial bed.
When Urawa Ryou returned to Juuban for a three week break, Usagi wasted no time and jumped into bed with him right after their second meeting.
After Urawa left, Usagi turned her attention to the lovers of the Inner Senshi; determined to steal the tasty men from the girls.
And one wonders why the Inner Senshi refuse to have anything to do with their former Princess any longer.
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.