Chapter Seventeen: To Lapse is Human
Despite the blood, Minako hadn't stopped balling her hands since she and Makoto had left the underground lab. Makoto's eyes softened. Minako shouldn't feel guilty. No one was at fault for Sandy and the fish being captured. The robots were cleverer than the Guardians thought, was all.
With her karate and lassoing skills, Sandy could take care of herself. But Fred and Billy… Makoto visualized Billy throwing biscuits at the robots, a Chomp-Bot ripping off Fred's leg. She suppressed a shudder.
One trait that most of Bikini Bottom's residents shared was determination, which Sandy had in waves. She'd keep Fred and Billy safe and use her genius brain to save the other fish.
Besides, Makoto and Minako could call on SpongeBob, Patrick, and the Sailor Team, combine their powers and their ideas to rescue Sandy and the fish.
Makoto opened her mouth to tell Minako her thoughts, but Minako raised a hand.
"I know, Mako-chan," Minako said, voice leaden with exhaustion, burden, self-inflicted pressure. "You don't have to give me a big you-can-do-it speech."
Makoto crossed her arms, anger beginning to replace her empathy. "Oh, really? Then what was I going to say in my big you-can-do-it speech?"
Minako counted off with her fingers, imitated Makoto's voice. "One, that it's nobody's fault, really, Mina-chan. The robots were cleverer than us, is all. Two, with her karate and lassoing skills, Sandy can take care of herself. Those two fish might have trouble, but Sandy has the determination and a big ol' brain to save all the fish."
Makoto gaped. Damn, she was good.
"I see I didn't miss anything. Great."
She scowled. "Screw your savviness."
Minako bowed. "Thank you." Her breath hitched.
"What's wrong?"
"Artemis, Luna, and Diana…" She inclined her head. "Our bickering reminded me of a conversation that would come from Artemis and I. The cats must be worried sick even though we've been gone for only a few hours." She chuckled humorlessly. "I miss the cats and Haruka-san and the others already."
Makoto looked at the sky that served as the ocean's surface. The opaque top of the ocean didn't show anything from above ground, not even boats. "Me too. I wish we could tell them we're all right." Not everything in Bikini Bottom was all right, but as long as the Guardians and Mamoru were alive and fighting, they were all right."
Minako knocked herself on the head. "Duh. All this time, I hadn't thought of calling the Outer Guardians or the cats with our communicators. I mean, the communicators work down here, at least amongst ourselves."
Makoto noticed the slight hardening in her jaw indicating that Minako was berating herself, calling herself stupid, not an effective leader when she was far from it.
Minako rummaged inside her suit's pocket for her wristwatch communicator, asking herself why she'd taken it off in the first place. Makoto gripped her arm. Minako kept rummaging, her teeth grinding.
"Minako." Makoto stepped closer to her friend. "Minako," she said softly.
All at once, Minako's hardness melted. Couldn't hide the pain in her eyes no matter how much she tried. Minako wasn't cut out to be stoic.
"I know this is a dim situation."
Minako's mouth twitched. Was about to say that Makoto had tried to give her the rah-rah speech but wisely kept her mouth shut.
"But you have got to stop beating yourself up. You're doing your best."
"My best isn't enough," Minako shot back, clams startling into the sky. Her uniform faded for a moment, the collar that was visible through the suit and the sense that Makoto felt when a transformed Guardian was near briefly disappearing. Makoto's eyes bulged. Minako's eyes grew as wide as saucers.
"What the hell was that?" Minako whispered.
"Did, did your uniform disappear?" If the deep sea dive suit wasn't in the way, then Makoto would've touched Minako's uniform to make sure that it was there. "I mean, it looks like it's back now, but…"
Minako waved her hand, laughing. "Oh, it's probably nothing but the weirdness of Bikini Bottom. Affecting our powers." Laughed more loudly, trying to drown out her worry.
Makoto narrowed her eyes. "That's bull, and you know it." No one else's whole transformation had ended because they were in a different world.
Another humorless chuckle. "I do. I'm guessing by your reply to my reply that this hasn't happened to you at all."
"That's right. Unless it'll happen to all of us eventually."
"Boy, that wouldn't be good. Which is a huge understatement. Without our powers, I'm not sure how much we could take down here."
"That's the truth." Thanks to her natural physical power, Makoto could fight without her Guardian powers. But for the other Guardians, who relied on their powers, especially their long-range attacks…
Minako let out a long sigh, wrestling with whether to worry about what had happened to the point where she tried to solve it or to pretend it had never happened and keep moving.
She could do both.
Would moving forward be dangerous for Minako? If Venus' powers stopped working in the middle of a fight, and Makoto and Minako had been separated, then Minako might be captured, too.
"In the meantime, we should try calling everyone who's in Japan." Minako dunked her hand inside her pocket again, pulled out her communicator. "Maybe we can speak to the Outer Guardians." She held the communicator to her mouth. "Hello? Haruka-san, Setsuna-san? Luna, Artemis? Are any of you there?" Static answered her. If the rest of the Sailor Team were here, then they could be clearing Goo Lagoon of robots while Minako and Makoto focused on saving Sandy.
"That plan went down the drain," Minako growled, wrapping her communicator onto her wrist.
Now, to save Sandy first, or pursue the rest of the robots in Goo Lagoon?
"Maybe if we keep going through Goo Lagoon," Makoto said, "we'll find another way to reach Sandy and the others. Or the robots will lead us to them." She cracked her knuckles. "Or we could persuade the robots to help us. It worked against one robot I fought in that tunnel."
Minako placed a finger on her chin. "But the robots outnumber us. Even if we get one robot to help us, as soon as it sees the rest of the robots, it'll turn back against us because it'll think it can beat us with an army of robots helping."
"True."
"All we can do is keep moving and clearing out the robots until we reach that island." Minako pointed to the island with the boxes stacked atop, the Ham-mer scrubbing sunscreen on its ham, cocking its head, and taking a bite of the ham, chewing as if scrutinizing the taste. "Find any more robots that might be over there."
Makoto and Minako ran through Goo Lagoon, an excited Mrs. Puff flagging them down. Minako introduced Mrs. Puff and Makoto to each other.
"Thank you so much for saving the children," Mrs. Puff said. "You humans have been surprisingly helpful." Her eyes roamed over them. "Even though you did…"
Minako furrowed her brow. "What did we do, ma'am?"
"My husband." She choked. Shooed them away, hiding her face.
Mrs. Puff was associating Minako and Makoto with whoever had done something awful to her husband. Makoto took a chance, walked to Mrs. Puff, placed a hand on where she thought her shoulder was, and hugged her. The pufferfish stiffened to her touch.
Mrs. Puff sunk into Makoto's embrace. "You don't feel any different than fish do."
Makoto didn't want to let Mrs. Puff go. Mrs. Puff seemed like a wonderful woman who had been wronged by the world and took her grief out on all humans.
"I'm sorry for what happened," Makoto said. The void would always exist in Mrs. Puff's heart.
Mrs. Puff waved her fins. "Please, I don't want to slow you two down. I'm sure you have enough to do around here. And there are plenty more fish who need to be saved."
Makoto released Mrs. Puff. Despite her earlier experiences with humans, she was trusting them to get the job done. And they would.
Makoto and Minako pressed forward, defeating robots. Reached a valley (at a beach?) with a river running through it, inflatable, smiling dragons complete with bat-sized wings lining it.
The toy dragons breathed fire. Makoto let out a sound between a croak and a gasp.
Minako squared herself. "I've seen these things before."
The fire looked like a cross between a fireplace's blaze and smoke, but the fire overlaid the water. Could Rei's fire behave like the dragon's fire?
"Looks like the only way to get through this is to fly," Minako said.
Makoto stretched an arm in front of Minako. "Wait, Mina-chan. What if you lose your powers and plunge into the water?"
"I can swim." Minako readied herself for flight, channeling energy throughout herself. Makoto gripped her shoulder, ready to keep her down.
"But we don't know what's in the water. I get the feeling that there are more than sharks inside."
Minako had to be thinking of the same thing. Even though she was headstrong and stubborn, she was thoughtful. Her moves seemed impulsive, but she did think things through, whether before, after, or during her taking action. If the action involved her friends, then she would think before doing anything, but if it involved only her, then she'd be reckless and take action while thinking of the different possibilities and outcomes.
Minako balanced the Sailor Team. When Makoto thought about it, all the Guardians' personalities played off one another well. Made their team powerful.
"Doesn't matter. We're strong enough to defeat them. I don't care how wonky this place is."
Another thing about Minako: When she set her mind to something, it was nigh impossible to stop her. With Minako, it wasn't a matter of if but when. Whether Minako went when Makoto's back was turned or when Makoto was distracted, Minako would do what she thought was best, consequences be damned, as long as those consequences affected her, not her friends.
But Minako had to realize that no matter what decision she made, her decisions would affect her friends.
So Makoto had to go with her.
Makoto let go of Minako, and Sailor Venus took flight, Sailor Jupiter alongside her, over the dragons.
The dragons snapped their heads at Makoto and Minako.
"Oh, boy," Minako said under her breath.
The dragons flapped their wings, taking to the air and hovering before Makoto and Minako, their smiles more disturbing than frowns.
Were these dragons under the robots' control, or were they toys gone crazy?
Makoto wouldn't be surprised if these dragons always had the capability of moving on their own. Seemed like something Bikini Bottom's toy manufacturers would install these toys with. Must've been a big selling point. Makoto could see billboards advertising fire-breathing dragons that came to life and played with your kids (who cared if those kids were burned to fish filets?) while parents drank their wine and "played" with each other. Anything to distract the annoyances called children.
Maybe the dragons had escaped from their owners and gone rogue, or there was faulty wiring in them, compliments of the robots.
Why the dragons were the way they were wasn't important. What was important was defeating them before they wreaked havoc alongside the robots.
The dragons swooped toward Makoto and Minako, Minako raising her sword, Makoto raising her fist. Time to pop these bastards.
Minako swung her sword in an arc. The dragons breathed out fire, heating Minako's sword so that the blade reddened, smoke rising from it. The blade was too powerful—
The blade began to melt, drippings of steel plopping into the goo. Makoto swerved, hovering between the dragon and Minako, swinging her fist into the side of the dragon's head. Felt like the dragon was closer to iron instead of air. Nevertheless, the dragon flew sideways, crashing into the wall, where it popped and blew haphazardly.
"What the hell is this?" Minako glared at her sword, as if blaming it for melting.
The antenna on Makoto's tiara extended, and electricity crackled around her helmet, spread to her hands, shaping into a disk. She split the disk into two, one for each hand. Threw each disk in opposite directions. The dragons breathed fire, burning through the lightning, darkening their fire from red to indigo and widening their fire into the size of a train.
Makoto glanced over her shoulder. Minako lurched away, flying above the top of the valley. Makoto flew, the fire-lightning blazing past her, scorching her suit across the chest. Thank goodness these suits were durable.
Another dragon flew behind her. Makoto swiveled around only for fire to pelt her face. Her helmet was heated in seconds, Makoto breaking into sweat, like she was about to melt. Makoto coughed, parted her eyes, flew out of the flames. A dragon appeared below, headbutted her behind—perverted bastards—sending her flying toward the first, which bit her arm. Where had it gotten teeth from?
Makoto kneed the dragon, and it careened into the wall, its teeth tearing off from her suit, leaving shallow trench marks. The dragon crashed into a Monsoon, both the robot and the dragon slamming into the wall, the Monsoon breaking, its remote control dropping into the goo. The dragon deflated, a hole from the Monsoon's finger blowing out air.
A Monsoon…
Makoto looked around. Grinning Monsoons and G-Loves descended. Ham-mers bonking themselves on the head, Fodders, Tar-tar Sauces stood at the top of the mountains that formed the valley.
Minako dodged spraying tartar sauce, knuckles white against her melted sword's hilt. Her sword flickered back into her chain, but only five dull, rusted beads remained.
Minako's sword melting could be related to her powers switching off.
But Sailor Venus still had powers. Minako channeled energy around her foot and swung. "Sailor V Kick!" Her leg smashed into a Monsoon; it barreled into the offending Tar-tar Sauce. They fell into the goo, electricity crackling around the river and then fizzling out.
Pulling her arm from her suit so that she could reach inside her helmet, Minako took off her tiara, going old-school. After maneuvering her tiara into her suit's pocket, she stuck her arm back inside her suit's sleeve and took out her tiara, aiming at the robots, determining the best course to destroy most of them in one strike. Minako stuck her tongue onto her lip like she did when she was playing volleyball, concentrating.
Meanwhile, Makoto flew above, tossing balls of electricity to the dragons and the robots below, making them explode, looking between them and her friend. A G-Love careened above her, clasping its hands and slamming them onto Makoto's helmet, rattling her helmet and, in turn, her head. A bell rang through Makoto's head, jarring her, splitting the mountain, the river, the robots, Minako into triplets. Makoto punched air. Made herself look where she was punching, but the G-Love grabbed her fists. Bad idea.
Makoto wrested her fists from the G-Love's, seized the G-Love's hands. She squeezed, breaking fingers off the G-Loves, the fingers splashing into the river.
Minako yelped.
Makoto forgot herself, turning her attention toward Minako. Another G-Love waved Minako's tiara above its head. Dragons and Monsoons surrounded her. Makoto flew, bursting through a Monsoon. Makoto had always thought of herself as hardy, but her body had broken through one of the robots. Her display of power didn't stop more robots from foolishly flying in her way, dragons joining those robots. Makoto kicked; punched; threw electricity, explosions going off in front of her, Makoto flying through the smoke that prevented Makoto from seeing Minako. Although she didn't know exactly where she was going, she hastened. As long as she ended up beside Minako, she could protect her friend, and all would be well.
Makoto pierced through the smoke. Robots and dragons surrounded Minako, blocking her from sight. With her powers, Makoto had to feel something when something awful happened to one of her fellow Guardians—that had to be in the Guardian manual somewhere.
"Rolling Heart Vibration!"
But the robots remained, one shifting so that Makoto could see her friend. Minako's hands were poised to carry hearts, but the golden hearts did not appear.
"Damn it!" Minako and Makoto said. Makoto quickened her pace.
Sailor Venus chose that moment to fade, becoming the civilian, Minako Aino.