By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue... three years ago
Fenris Wolfang made his way across the Thunderport III cloud city
on his way to the boarding area where both his ship and his new
employer were waiting. He still felt a slight hangover from the
heavy drinking he`d been indulging himself in at the sleazy
Halflife bar for the past four hours.
He`d have plenty of time to take care of that on his way to his
next hit, thanks to the many bottles of strong liquor he packed in
his satchel. He`d be cooked up in yet another utterly cramped
passenger cabin for a while, if you can call a cabin a one meter
ovoid shape enclosed space with just enough padding to choke you
if you fell asleep in the wrong position and a small television
screen perpetually airing the most inane talkshows.
"No wonder I took up drinking..." thought Fenris, imagining his
upcoming trip.
The crowds along the walkways hurried out of his way, knowing well
what the huge manwolf was capable of, especially after one of his
drinking binges.
At the very end of the airlock corridor, Fenris met with the same
black clad man who had hired him a few hours before, a suitcase
waiting by his side.
"Glad you made it, Fenris. Your money is here." he said.
"So where are you shipping me to? Rishakan? Tollaya? The
end-of-space wastes?" asked the snarling manwolf.
"Another dimension altogether. The necessary assistance will be
given to you once you reach our other operatives on the next planet.
The trip there will take less than seven hours." said the man,
handing over the heavy suitcase to Fenris who grabbed it greedily.
"Just enough time to get nicely drunk on my way there." added
Fenris.
"Yes... there are some extra bottles in your cabin in case you run
out. I am aware of your drinking tastes." replied the man.
"Thanks... going to love working for you." said Fenris, entering
the airlock which slammed shut behind him. A few moments later, the
dirty transport carrier taking Fenris Wolfang to his destiny.
The man dressed in black clothes similar to that of desert nomads
stared from the windows to the depths of space where the starship
was entering warp speed. A few moments after the ship had
accelerated beyond the speed of light, a sinister shadow loomed
over the small frame of the blighted one. His master had arrived.
"Great lord of the dark, my mission is accomplished." he said,
bowing.
Black Baron nodded, acknowledging his minion`s success.
"Master, may I ask a question?" asked the blighted one. Hearing no
reply from Black Baron, he took that as a yes. "Why are we trying
to kill the daughter of Beryl? Isn`t she serving our interests
right now?"
"Correct." echoed the dreadful disembodied voice of Black Baron.
"For now. My mistress is planning for the future at all times, and
this strategy is insurance for the eventual failure of this all too
flawed women."
The blighted one bowed, content with the answer he received.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 41
SUDDENLY A TWIST OF FATE
"Well hello, there, miss Neko!" said the security guard at the
reception of the Poldzer Triangle when he saw the seductive
associate of his employers walking in. She swayed her hips and
moved her arms in the most bewitching manner, oozing sensuality
out of every pore.
"Please, call me Cathryn!" she replied, smiling invitingly.
"Late night work, I take it, Cathryn?"
"You bet, to move ahead in business you have to be willing to work
at any time of day." she said, moving her long slim fingers through
her short auburn hair. She also had long fingernails that looked
they could cut you to ribbons in one swipe... although her demeanor
indicated she`d rather use them for... other purposes.
"That`s not for me, that`s for sure. Give me stable, predictable
shifts any day!" said the man, smiling like an idiot at the
charming woman.
"Thanks, Toshiro, have a good night!" said Cathryn, sliding her
winter coat off her shoulders and walking to the elevator behind the
reception desk. The guard turned around discreetly and took a long
stare at her slim, shapely legs- Cathryn could feel his eyes on her
body, and she was loving every second of it, exagerating her hip
movements to give him an even better look.
She pressed the button beside the elevator door; as she waited, she
dropped a pen from the coat she was holding in her arms. She bent
over directly to pick it up, still turning her back to the man at
the front desk. Her very sensitive ears detected his accelerated
breathing, and she was rather pleased of herself. Showing off her
perfect forms with tight blouses and very short skirts was somewhat
of a hobby to her. Dropping her pen "by accident" happened only too
often in the company of men...
With a short ring, the elevator slid open and she disappeared inside.
"I hope she drops that pen again soon..." thought the guard, turning
his attention to the many security monitors in front of him.
Inside the elevator, Cathryn pulled a small golden key which she
turned inside a slot on the control panel underneath the buttons.
The panel clicked, and the destination indicator switched to "60"
while the elevator cabin sped upwards.
A minute later, the elevator doors opened onto the penthouse of
Crystallite and Fenris.
The lights were turned off for the most part, save one near the
couch where Fenris was sitting, dimmed to a point where it gave
almost no light. The manwolf looked at her, a gloomy expression
on his face.
"Here you are at last. I was waiting for you." growled the manwolf,
his deep voice heavy with reproach.
"Hey, the humans adore me, what can I say? I`d be a fool to let it
go by... besides, it`s not like anyone here has offered to fulfill
MY needs!" she replied.
"Regardless, you should still be on time." said Fenris. "And I
expect you not to use your human disguise in my presence, or in
Crystallite`s."
"Okay, then..." she said, shifting her form to a sleek feline
humanoid look, her eyes becoming those of a cat, her skin covering
itself with auburn short fur while her ears became long and
pointed. Her nails turned into very sharp claws. "Better?"
"Yes, Cathra, much better." said Fenris, a smile returning to his
face.
"So... where`s your precious girlfriend? Aren`t you always by her
side?" asked the cat youma.
"She`s sleeping, and I couldn`t. Besides, she`s the one who deals
with Black Baron, I don`t want her to know of what I`m about to
tell you."
"You`re going over her head? Sneaking behind the back of Beryl`s
daughter???" blurted out Cathra who was stunned at Fenris` plan. "I
want in!!!"
"I knew you`d accept. I want you to spy on Black Baron and his
blighted ones... I haven`t seen them in action yet, but their
actions seem to be effective... and I want to know why. You will use
total discretion regarding these shadow beings at all times, you`ll
be reporting to me directly, and most of all... you won`t breathe a
word of this to Crystallite." instructed the large manbeast.
"You`re playing in her back and yet I feel you still care for her
deeply." observed the sly catwoman.
"Yes, I do. I`d do anything for her. ANYTHING."
"Speaking of our esteemed leader, I was curious, Fenris..."
whispered Cathra as she got closer to Fenris. "When you make love to
her, does she actually use words, or just moan like an animal?"
she asked, purring loudly.
Fenris pulled away from her, repelled by her actions.
"I would never do anything to disrespect her!" he protested. "And
besides, her fragile body could never handle such a strain... she`s
like a porcelain doll, not meant to be played with but placed in a
glass casing to be protected, admired... adored."
"Then maybe it`s time you played with an action figure..." she
said.
Cathra moved in front of him, flexing her highly acrobatic body in
unusual poses. She then dropped to the ground in a swift motion,
making a full frontal split with no apparent effort. "I`m fully
posable, you know..."
"Get out of my face, Cathra... count yourself lucky that Crystallite
didn`t send you to the Osaka mission like all the other creations
of Thorelia, otherwise you`d be no more than another splattered
stain on a cavern wall." growled Fenris. "Displease me and it could
still happen."
Cathra hopped to her feet and hurried out of the penthouse, feeling
she might have pushed her luck just a smidgen too far this time.
* * *
The courageous Emerald Knight led the hunt, his sparkling green
halberd in hand. Close behind him were Sailor Mars and Mercury,
their sacred weapons Hellfire and Deadshot in hand. All three of
them kept an eye out for the many shadowy corners where a sneaky
blighted one was likely to hide, and there were a lot of those.
Sailor Mars kept her psychic senses open, trying to pinpoint the
source of the evil she felt around them; Mercury, on the other
hand, had her visor tapping into her computer sensors and getting
an enhanced image feed for infrared signals.
Although he had no special perceptions to guide him, Shingo relied
on his warrior instincts to help him through. After all, those same
instincts had allowed him to crush the vile fiend once before after
alerting him of his girlfriend`s near demise. Anger stil burned in
his heart over that one- NOBODY hurts his one true love and gets
away with it!!!
It didn`t take the trio too long to find the snakelike being, the
coiled blighted one suddenly springing from a dark corner with two
twisted blades in his hands ready to strike. The knight blocked the
knives easily and gave a quick shove to throw the beast back while
Mercury readied an ice arrow and aimed.
What happened next seemed somewhat surreal to the three warriors,
as the serpentman began a strange danse of darkness that somehow
engulfed his shapes in the surrounding absence of light and made
him that much harder to locate, almost impossible to see.
"Where`d he go?!?" asked Mars as she readied one of her wards
against evil which she had intended to use.
"He`s made himself almost invisible- I can barely see anything
at all in infrared, he`s not even giving off any heat!" replied
Mercury.
"Keep your ears open, girls, this is going to be a rough one." said
Shingo, closing his eyes and trying to figure where the blighted
one was. He hoped his recent training would be enough to help him
through that battle.
* * *
"Those aren`t good for you, Laurella, they could really damage your
health!" complained Umino as Sailor Jendra lit her cigarette.
"So can razor blades, but I lived." wryly replied the young senshi.
One thing she hated was being reprimanded over this one flaw she
never could manage to shake off.
"I`m just concerned, that`s all." said Umino with genuine concern
on his face.
"Sorry I bit your head off there... I`ve just been a bit edgy about
that ever since Akuma almost killed me during the inferno. He made
the same comment before beating the hell out of me that day." said
Laurella before blowing a serie on neat little smoke rings.
"Yeah. I guess we`ve all had our share of demon related pain."
agreed Umino, remembering how Ronmar had taken away his precious
Naru one summer night. The following two weeks, he had hovered in
a state of emotional limbo, living but not really alive.
Suddenly, Laurella sat up straight like Usagi waking up in class,
a terrified look on her face.
"Whoa, what`s the matter?" wondered the geeky Umino.
"Something`s coming over here." whispered Jendra, beads of sweat
dripping on her brow.
"The blighted one? I thought the others would have blocked his
way..."
"NO!!! Not the blighted one... something... worse... a hundred
times worse..." stuttered the frightened senshi as her empathic
senses were assaulted with the immense force of evil moving their
way. She had no idea anything in the universe could be so utterly
devoid of any kindness as that thing, but there it was, coming her
way. And very quickly, she could feel it.
* * *
All around them the shadows were dancing, taunting and mocking the
three young warriors who were desperately trying to locate where
the blighted one was really placed.
"I can`t make him out in this crowd!!!" yelled Emerald Knight in
exasperation, a dozen shadows identical in shape shifting in front
of him, every single one lunging with the deadly blades in its
hands. No matter which shadow attacked him, it seemed that every
one could inflict some serious damage as the slash marks added up
on his armor plates.
"He`s one of them, I can feel it, but I just can`t tell which one!"
replied Mars. She took yet another swing with the sacred blade that
burned as strongly as her soul, slicing up another empty presence
of darkness. The illusion melded itself back into the heavy mass at
their feet before reforming fully at another location.
"They`re trying to confuse us, we shouldn`t destroy any of them
until we figure out where the REAL one is!!!" confirmed Mercury.
Shingo felt a powerful jolt of fear grasping his chest, an
unimaginable terror that he knew wasn`t his own. His bond with
Laurella was warning him of the danger that was closing in on her.
"Sailor Jendra`s in danger, I have to help her!!!" he screamed,
panicking as he was unable to see any way of going through the
huddled masses of black shadows shaped as the blighted one.
"We have to find a weakness in him, a way to defeat him..." said
Mercury, her explanation cut short by a swift slash across her
left arm.
Sailor Mars did her best to focus her perceptions, but dodging
dozens of lethal knife stabs was effectively preventing her from
concentrating. They were losing that fight.
* * *
"Where?" asked Umino, unable to locate anything on his highly
performant computer. If he couldn`t find it there, it meant either
that it just wasn`t there or that it was too powerful to be found...
"It`s... it`s..." tried to say Laurella, pointing to the nearby mall
entrance from which flooded dark smog that congealed itself into a
barely human form that held a roughly recognizable shape.
"There!" she finally managed to say. Her senses were quickly
overloading with the supernatural essence of Black Baron, his
awesome presence beaming out inhuman amounts of hatred, loathing,
anger and disgust blended together into a single sickening emotion.
"Stay away from her!" commanded Umino in a momentary burst of
courage. The dark being slowly turned its head around, a pair of
blood red eyes illuminating onto its face to stare right into
Umino`s.
"What will you do about it, little worm?" asked an ominous
reverberating voice not quite coming from Black Baron.
Umino felt fear gripping his stomach and twisting it around in
knots, but for some reason this feeling of courage he was
experiencing wouldn`t let go of his spirit.
"I won`t let you hurt my friend!!!" added Umino, seriously
wondering if he was having a temporary lapse of reason for
challenging such a menacing fiend.
Black Baron lifted a hand and pointed a finger to Umino. The young
man was flung behind in the air over a dozen feet away from where he
stood, an invisible force blasting him as if a bolt of lightning had
hit him squarely in the chest. "Annoying twerp." muttered Black
Baron before returning his attention to Sailor Jendra.
Trying to stand up and resist the psychic onslaught, she summoned
her diamond Chakram again, a rainbow colored flash of light
materializing into the shining weapon. Her arms, however, had grown
too weak to allow her a good throw.
The shadowy fiend didn`t do anything. He just stood there, imposing
his twisted feelings to the overwhelmed empath who couldn`t stand
so much pain. Her weakened distraught soul was beginning to give
in under the attack.
"Do not resist me, young one, give me what I came for..." said
Black Baron, smiling as best as his dark form would allow him.
"N... never..." whispered Jendra, grasping her head in her hands.
She had her weapon right there in her right hand, yet she was unable
to use it. Desperation came, the last thing she could distinctly
recall before the final blow to her battered soul.
"GIVE IT TO ME!!!" bellowed Black Baron, his voice making the
ground and walls shake around him as his shadowy clawed hands
reached forward and raked the surface of her aura, digging in deep
to inflict as much damage as he could.
The wounded girl screamed as she fell down, a fractured black piece
of her soul flying off from her body and into Black Baron`s hand.
"Another one falls." he muttered, very satisfied of his victory.
* * *
Shingo screamed as he felt his girlfriend being torn apart from the
inside, freaked out and tried to escape the deathtrap set by the
blighted one`s secret powers of darkness.
"Stop it! They`ll shred you apart!!!" yelled Mars, holding him back
as best she could.
"I DON`T CARE!!!" yelled the knight who tried to shake off Mars to
jump into the fray and hack his way through.
Sailor Mercury knew she couldn`t stop Shingo from running to his
lover; she had seen just how much he loved her, and that death
meant nothing to him if he could save the life of the woman he had
pledged his soul to. She wanted to clear a path with her powers
while Mars held him still, but the continuous assault of shadows was
preventing her from lowering her defenses for even a few seconds.
Should she try to use her Aqua Illusion, she would be stabbed in
the back several times over.
"If only we`d been able to reach the others in time..." thought
Mercury, more and more of the dark blades bouncing off her
breastplate and arm protectors.
At this moment, the last thing they expected happened.
Reinforcements arrived.
"STAR GENTLE YUTRACE!!!"
"STAR SIRIUS LASER!!!"
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!!!"
Three blasts of energy unlike anything the senshi had ever seen
soared across the lenght of the mall walkway from the second
balcony and detonated amongst the huddled mass of shadow, clearing
a temporary opening which Emerald Knight took immediately after
breaking off the grip of Sailor Mars. His speed was impressive
considering the armor her wore.
"Follow him, quickly before they fill the gap!" urged Mercury to
her sister senshi. "I have help to finish this up now, I`ll be
fine- help the knight!"
Mars understood that Shingo would need help to face whatever was
attacking Laurella, so she ran fast across the slowly reforming mass
of shadows. As the three Sailor Starlights hopped from their high
perched location to join in on the battle, Mercury smiled.
"My turn now!" she said, smirking.
"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!!!" she yelled, summoning a small drop of water
which she transformed into an icy wave of death that bowled through
the ranks like a plow through fresh snow on the road.
"Boy, did that feel good..." she thought.
* * *
"Jendra?" asked Emerald Knight in concern as he reached the small
eating area where he`d left Umino and Laurella a few minutes before.
The first one he found was Umino who was gradually waking up from
the backward leap he had been through courtesy of Black Baron.
"I`m... sorry..." muttered Umino, barely able to see who was helping
him up.
"Where`s Laurella?" he asked, his voice heavy with tension.
"Can`t.. remember... that shadow guy knocked me out..." he mumbled.
At that moment, Shingo heard and felt the painful sobs of his
defeated girlfriend. He went to the source of the crying, and found
Laurella curled up on the floor amidst the shattered remains of her
sacred weapon, her senshi fuku gone. She was back to her normal
self now, her regular clothes returned by the forced transformation.
"My god... what`s that bastard done to you?!?"
"He... he..." tried to say Laurella, but she couldn`t as much as
finish her phrases. Shingo felt the suffering she experienced, her
soul bleeding itself to oblivion.
"I`ll get him for that, I swear!" vowed the knight.
Sailor Mars arrived after him at the scene only to witness their
failure to protect their good friend. The evil one had beaten them
to the punch once again. Or had he...
"I think he`s still around here..." thought Mars.
"MARS FLAME SNIPER!" she said, forming a flaming bow and arrow in
her hands. While Shingo took care of his broken lover, she would
kill the monster who did this to her.
"What are you doing, Mars?" asked Umino who picked up his glasses
on the floor. He put them back on and thought himself lucky they
didn`t break.
"Using my awareness to find where he`s hiding. He`s still around,
I can feel it!" she replied.
"I`ll go to my computer, maybe that can help..." suggested Umino.
Mars didn`t respond, her attention focused entirely on her opening
senses. She wanted to let the impressions come to her, and come
they did.
She felt the slowly moving tendrils of despair floating across the
room, through the air, increasingly reaching across the city to
choke it into a strangle hold of pitch blackness. It led to him,
talked to her in a language bloated in threats and menaces. She
was on the right track, so she opened the window of her mind just
a bit more, closing her eyes and letting her mystic perceptions
guide her aim.
Unknown to anyone, the smooth forms of the being of shadows slowly
covering her own. His hands moved onto her hands, gently covering
them like a master archer guides a pupil in her first shot. His
head moved close to hers, whispering songs of dread into her ears
to poison her soul with filth and lies.
Inch by inch, he made her turn around, forcing her to take a target
of his own choosing. When he stopped her from moving around, her
flame sniper was aimed directly at the back of the unsuspecting
Emerald Knight, poised to pierce a fiery hole in his hard pumping
heart.
"It`s only too easy to destroy that which you hate, young soul of
fire..." whispered the voice of Black Baron in her ear, using her
uncanny perception of the mystical to invade her mind. "But do
you have the strength to destroy that which you love? Do you have
the power to overtake the limits sent upon yourself by the will
of your kind?"
Sailor Mars` hands wavered in hesitation, her clouded mind refusing
her a clear grasp at the situation before her eyes. Her will was
battling against the evil one`s power, like two bulls locking horns
in a fight neither would accept to lose.
"Surrender your futile belief in love, your hope in the future...
let go of it all." whispered the evil voice.
The young warrior resisted all she could, but the power of Black
Baron was darker still than any she`d ever encountered in her
existance. Against every ounce of willpower she could muster, the
strength of the being`s mind overcame her; she released her
fingers, shooting her fiery projectile towards the heart of the
Emerald Knight.
Then everything around her went dark.
To be continued...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue... three years ago
Fenris Wolfang made his way across the Thunderport III cloud city
on his way to the boarding area where both his ship and his new
employer were waiting. He still felt a slight hangover from the
heavy drinking he`d been indulging himself in at the sleazy
Halflife bar for the past four hours.
He`d have plenty of time to take care of that on his way to his
next hit, thanks to the many bottles of strong liquor he packed in
his satchel. He`d be cooked up in yet another utterly cramped
passenger cabin for a while, if you can call a cabin a one meter
ovoid shape enclosed space with just enough padding to choke you
if you fell asleep in the wrong position and a small television
screen perpetually airing the most inane talkshows.
"No wonder I took up drinking..." thought Fenris, imagining his
upcoming trip.
The crowds along the walkways hurried out of his way, knowing well
what the huge manwolf was capable of, especially after one of his
drinking binges.
At the very end of the airlock corridor, Fenris met with the same
black clad man who had hired him a few hours before, a suitcase
waiting by his side.
"Glad you made it, Fenris. Your money is here." he said.
"So where are you shipping me to? Rishakan? Tollaya? The
end-of-space wastes?" asked the snarling manwolf.
"Another dimension altogether. The necessary assistance will be
given to you once you reach our other operatives on the next planet.
The trip there will take less than seven hours." said the man,
handing over the heavy suitcase to Fenris who grabbed it greedily.
"Just enough time to get nicely drunk on my way there." added
Fenris.
"Yes... there are some extra bottles in your cabin in case you run
out. I am aware of your drinking tastes." replied the man.
"Thanks... going to love working for you." said Fenris, entering
the airlock which slammed shut behind him. A few moments later, the
dirty transport carrier taking Fenris Wolfang to his destiny.
The man dressed in black clothes similar to that of desert nomads
stared from the windows to the depths of space where the starship
was entering warp speed. A few moments after the ship had
accelerated beyond the speed of light, a sinister shadow loomed
over the small frame of the blighted one. His master had arrived.
"Great lord of the dark, my mission is accomplished." he said,
bowing.
Black Baron nodded, acknowledging his minion`s success.
"Master, may I ask a question?" asked the blighted one. Hearing no
reply from Black Baron, he took that as a yes. "Why are we trying
to kill the daughter of Beryl? Isn`t she serving our interests
right now?"
"Correct." echoed the dreadful disembodied voice of Black Baron.
"For now. My mistress is planning for the future at all times, and
this strategy is insurance for the eventual failure of this all too
flawed women."
The blighted one bowed, content with the answer he received.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 41
SUDDENLY A TWIST OF FATE
"Well hello, there, miss Neko!" said the security guard at the
reception of the Poldzer Triangle when he saw the seductive
associate of his employers walking in. She swayed her hips and
moved her arms in the most bewitching manner, oozing sensuality
out of every pore.
"Please, call me Cathryn!" she replied, smiling invitingly.
"Late night work, I take it, Cathryn?"
"You bet, to move ahead in business you have to be willing to work
at any time of day." she said, moving her long slim fingers through
her short auburn hair. She also had long fingernails that looked
they could cut you to ribbons in one swipe... although her demeanor
indicated she`d rather use them for... other purposes.
"That`s not for me, that`s for sure. Give me stable, predictable
shifts any day!" said the man, smiling like an idiot at the
charming woman.
"Thanks, Toshiro, have a good night!" said Cathryn, sliding her
winter coat off her shoulders and walking to the elevator behind the
reception desk. The guard turned around discreetly and took a long
stare at her slim, shapely legs- Cathryn could feel his eyes on her
body, and she was loving every second of it, exagerating her hip
movements to give him an even better look.
She pressed the button beside the elevator door; as she waited, she
dropped a pen from the coat she was holding in her arms. She bent
over directly to pick it up, still turning her back to the man at
the front desk. Her very sensitive ears detected his accelerated
breathing, and she was rather pleased of herself. Showing off her
perfect forms with tight blouses and very short skirts was somewhat
of a hobby to her. Dropping her pen "by accident" happened only too
often in the company of men...
With a short ring, the elevator slid open and she disappeared inside.
"I hope she drops that pen again soon..." thought the guard, turning
his attention to the many security monitors in front of him.
Inside the elevator, Cathryn pulled a small golden key which she
turned inside a slot on the control panel underneath the buttons.
The panel clicked, and the destination indicator switched to "60"
while the elevator cabin sped upwards.
A minute later, the elevator doors opened onto the penthouse of
Crystallite and Fenris.
The lights were turned off for the most part, save one near the
couch where Fenris was sitting, dimmed to a point where it gave
almost no light. The manwolf looked at her, a gloomy expression
on his face.
"Here you are at last. I was waiting for you." growled the manwolf,
his deep voice heavy with reproach.
"Hey, the humans adore me, what can I say? I`d be a fool to let it
go by... besides, it`s not like anyone here has offered to fulfill
MY needs!" she replied.
"Regardless, you should still be on time." said Fenris. "And I
expect you not to use your human disguise in my presence, or in
Crystallite`s."
"Okay, then..." she said, shifting her form to a sleek feline
humanoid look, her eyes becoming those of a cat, her skin covering
itself with auburn short fur while her ears became long and
pointed. Her nails turned into very sharp claws. "Better?"
"Yes, Cathra, much better." said Fenris, a smile returning to his
face.
"So... where`s your precious girlfriend? Aren`t you always by her
side?" asked the cat youma.
"She`s sleeping, and I couldn`t. Besides, she`s the one who deals
with Black Baron, I don`t want her to know of what I`m about to
tell you."
"You`re going over her head? Sneaking behind the back of Beryl`s
daughter???" blurted out Cathra who was stunned at Fenris` plan. "I
want in!!!"
"I knew you`d accept. I want you to spy on Black Baron and his
blighted ones... I haven`t seen them in action yet, but their
actions seem to be effective... and I want to know why. You will use
total discretion regarding these shadow beings at all times, you`ll
be reporting to me directly, and most of all... you won`t breathe a
word of this to Crystallite." instructed the large manbeast.
"You`re playing in her back and yet I feel you still care for her
deeply." observed the sly catwoman.
"Yes, I do. I`d do anything for her. ANYTHING."
"Speaking of our esteemed leader, I was curious, Fenris..."
whispered Cathra as she got closer to Fenris. "When you make love to
her, does she actually use words, or just moan like an animal?"
she asked, purring loudly.
Fenris pulled away from her, repelled by her actions.
"I would never do anything to disrespect her!" he protested. "And
besides, her fragile body could never handle such a strain... she`s
like a porcelain doll, not meant to be played with but placed in a
glass casing to be protected, admired... adored."
"Then maybe it`s time you played with an action figure..." she
said.
Cathra moved in front of him, flexing her highly acrobatic body in
unusual poses. She then dropped to the ground in a swift motion,
making a full frontal split with no apparent effort. "I`m fully
posable, you know..."
"Get out of my face, Cathra... count yourself lucky that Crystallite
didn`t send you to the Osaka mission like all the other creations
of Thorelia, otherwise you`d be no more than another splattered
stain on a cavern wall." growled Fenris. "Displease me and it could
still happen."
Cathra hopped to her feet and hurried out of the penthouse, feeling
she might have pushed her luck just a smidgen too far this time.
* * *
The courageous Emerald Knight led the hunt, his sparkling green
halberd in hand. Close behind him were Sailor Mars and Mercury,
their sacred weapons Hellfire and Deadshot in hand. All three of
them kept an eye out for the many shadowy corners where a sneaky
blighted one was likely to hide, and there were a lot of those.
Sailor Mars kept her psychic senses open, trying to pinpoint the
source of the evil she felt around them; Mercury, on the other
hand, had her visor tapping into her computer sensors and getting
an enhanced image feed for infrared signals.
Although he had no special perceptions to guide him, Shingo relied
on his warrior instincts to help him through. After all, those same
instincts had allowed him to crush the vile fiend once before after
alerting him of his girlfriend`s near demise. Anger stil burned in
his heart over that one- NOBODY hurts his one true love and gets
away with it!!!
It didn`t take the trio too long to find the snakelike being, the
coiled blighted one suddenly springing from a dark corner with two
twisted blades in his hands ready to strike. The knight blocked the
knives easily and gave a quick shove to throw the beast back while
Mercury readied an ice arrow and aimed.
What happened next seemed somewhat surreal to the three warriors,
as the serpentman began a strange danse of darkness that somehow
engulfed his shapes in the surrounding absence of light and made
him that much harder to locate, almost impossible to see.
"Where`d he go?!?" asked Mars as she readied one of her wards
against evil which she had intended to use.
"He`s made himself almost invisible- I can barely see anything
at all in infrared, he`s not even giving off any heat!" replied
Mercury.
"Keep your ears open, girls, this is going to be a rough one." said
Shingo, closing his eyes and trying to figure where the blighted
one was. He hoped his recent training would be enough to help him
through that battle.
* * *
"Those aren`t good for you, Laurella, they could really damage your
health!" complained Umino as Sailor Jendra lit her cigarette.
"So can razor blades, but I lived." wryly replied the young senshi.
One thing she hated was being reprimanded over this one flaw she
never could manage to shake off.
"I`m just concerned, that`s all." said Umino with genuine concern
on his face.
"Sorry I bit your head off there... I`ve just been a bit edgy about
that ever since Akuma almost killed me during the inferno. He made
the same comment before beating the hell out of me that day." said
Laurella before blowing a serie on neat little smoke rings.
"Yeah. I guess we`ve all had our share of demon related pain."
agreed Umino, remembering how Ronmar had taken away his precious
Naru one summer night. The following two weeks, he had hovered in
a state of emotional limbo, living but not really alive.
Suddenly, Laurella sat up straight like Usagi waking up in class,
a terrified look on her face.
"Whoa, what`s the matter?" wondered the geeky Umino.
"Something`s coming over here." whispered Jendra, beads of sweat
dripping on her brow.
"The blighted one? I thought the others would have blocked his
way..."
"NO!!! Not the blighted one... something... worse... a hundred
times worse..." stuttered the frightened senshi as her empathic
senses were assaulted with the immense force of evil moving their
way. She had no idea anything in the universe could be so utterly
devoid of any kindness as that thing, but there it was, coming her
way. And very quickly, she could feel it.
* * *
All around them the shadows were dancing, taunting and mocking the
three young warriors who were desperately trying to locate where
the blighted one was really placed.
"I can`t make him out in this crowd!!!" yelled Emerald Knight in
exasperation, a dozen shadows identical in shape shifting in front
of him, every single one lunging with the deadly blades in its
hands. No matter which shadow attacked him, it seemed that every
one could inflict some serious damage as the slash marks added up
on his armor plates.
"He`s one of them, I can feel it, but I just can`t tell which one!"
replied Mars. She took yet another swing with the sacred blade that
burned as strongly as her soul, slicing up another empty presence
of darkness. The illusion melded itself back into the heavy mass at
their feet before reforming fully at another location.
"They`re trying to confuse us, we shouldn`t destroy any of them
until we figure out where the REAL one is!!!" confirmed Mercury.
Shingo felt a powerful jolt of fear grasping his chest, an
unimaginable terror that he knew wasn`t his own. His bond with
Laurella was warning him of the danger that was closing in on her.
"Sailor Jendra`s in danger, I have to help her!!!" he screamed,
panicking as he was unable to see any way of going through the
huddled masses of black shadows shaped as the blighted one.
"We have to find a weakness in him, a way to defeat him..." said
Mercury, her explanation cut short by a swift slash across her
left arm.
Sailor Mars did her best to focus her perceptions, but dodging
dozens of lethal knife stabs was effectively preventing her from
concentrating. They were losing that fight.
* * *
"Where?" asked Umino, unable to locate anything on his highly
performant computer. If he couldn`t find it there, it meant either
that it just wasn`t there or that it was too powerful to be found...
"It`s... it`s..." tried to say Laurella, pointing to the nearby mall
entrance from which flooded dark smog that congealed itself into a
barely human form that held a roughly recognizable shape.
"There!" she finally managed to say. Her senses were quickly
overloading with the supernatural essence of Black Baron, his
awesome presence beaming out inhuman amounts of hatred, loathing,
anger and disgust blended together into a single sickening emotion.
"Stay away from her!" commanded Umino in a momentary burst of
courage. The dark being slowly turned its head around, a pair of
blood red eyes illuminating onto its face to stare right into
Umino`s.
"What will you do about it, little worm?" asked an ominous
reverberating voice not quite coming from Black Baron.
Umino felt fear gripping his stomach and twisting it around in
knots, but for some reason this feeling of courage he was
experiencing wouldn`t let go of his spirit.
"I won`t let you hurt my friend!!!" added Umino, seriously
wondering if he was having a temporary lapse of reason for
challenging such a menacing fiend.
Black Baron lifted a hand and pointed a finger to Umino. The young
man was flung behind in the air over a dozen feet away from where he
stood, an invisible force blasting him as if a bolt of lightning had
hit him squarely in the chest. "Annoying twerp." muttered Black
Baron before returning his attention to Sailor Jendra.
Trying to stand up and resist the psychic onslaught, she summoned
her diamond Chakram again, a rainbow colored flash of light
materializing into the shining weapon. Her arms, however, had grown
too weak to allow her a good throw.
The shadowy fiend didn`t do anything. He just stood there, imposing
his twisted feelings to the overwhelmed empath who couldn`t stand
so much pain. Her weakened distraught soul was beginning to give
in under the attack.
"Do not resist me, young one, give me what I came for..." said
Black Baron, smiling as best as his dark form would allow him.
"N... never..." whispered Jendra, grasping her head in her hands.
She had her weapon right there in her right hand, yet she was unable
to use it. Desperation came, the last thing she could distinctly
recall before the final blow to her battered soul.
"GIVE IT TO ME!!!" bellowed Black Baron, his voice making the
ground and walls shake around him as his shadowy clawed hands
reached forward and raked the surface of her aura, digging in deep
to inflict as much damage as he could.
The wounded girl screamed as she fell down, a fractured black piece
of her soul flying off from her body and into Black Baron`s hand.
"Another one falls." he muttered, very satisfied of his victory.
* * *
Shingo screamed as he felt his girlfriend being torn apart from the
inside, freaked out and tried to escape the deathtrap set by the
blighted one`s secret powers of darkness.
"Stop it! They`ll shred you apart!!!" yelled Mars, holding him back
as best she could.
"I DON`T CARE!!!" yelled the knight who tried to shake off Mars to
jump into the fray and hack his way through.
Sailor Mercury knew she couldn`t stop Shingo from running to his
lover; she had seen just how much he loved her, and that death
meant nothing to him if he could save the life of the woman he had
pledged his soul to. She wanted to clear a path with her powers
while Mars held him still, but the continuous assault of shadows was
preventing her from lowering her defenses for even a few seconds.
Should she try to use her Aqua Illusion, she would be stabbed in
the back several times over.
"If only we`d been able to reach the others in time..." thought
Mercury, more and more of the dark blades bouncing off her
breastplate and arm protectors.
At this moment, the last thing they expected happened.
Reinforcements arrived.
"STAR GENTLE YUTRACE!!!"
"STAR SIRIUS LASER!!!"
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!!!"
Three blasts of energy unlike anything the senshi had ever seen
soared across the lenght of the mall walkway from the second
balcony and detonated amongst the huddled mass of shadow, clearing
a temporary opening which Emerald Knight took immediately after
breaking off the grip of Sailor Mars. His speed was impressive
considering the armor her wore.
"Follow him, quickly before they fill the gap!" urged Mercury to
her sister senshi. "I have help to finish this up now, I`ll be
fine- help the knight!"
Mars understood that Shingo would need help to face whatever was
attacking Laurella, so she ran fast across the slowly reforming mass
of shadows. As the three Sailor Starlights hopped from their high
perched location to join in on the battle, Mercury smiled.
"My turn now!" she said, smirking.
"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!!!" she yelled, summoning a small drop of water
which she transformed into an icy wave of death that bowled through
the ranks like a plow through fresh snow on the road.
"Boy, did that feel good..." she thought.
* * *
"Jendra?" asked Emerald Knight in concern as he reached the small
eating area where he`d left Umino and Laurella a few minutes before.
The first one he found was Umino who was gradually waking up from
the backward leap he had been through courtesy of Black Baron.
"I`m... sorry..." muttered Umino, barely able to see who was helping
him up.
"Where`s Laurella?" he asked, his voice heavy with tension.
"Can`t.. remember... that shadow guy knocked me out..." he mumbled.
At that moment, Shingo heard and felt the painful sobs of his
defeated girlfriend. He went to the source of the crying, and found
Laurella curled up on the floor amidst the shattered remains of her
sacred weapon, her senshi fuku gone. She was back to her normal
self now, her regular clothes returned by the forced transformation.
"My god... what`s that bastard done to you?!?"
"He... he..." tried to say Laurella, but she couldn`t as much as
finish her phrases. Shingo felt the suffering she experienced, her
soul bleeding itself to oblivion.
"I`ll get him for that, I swear!" vowed the knight.
Sailor Mars arrived after him at the scene only to witness their
failure to protect their good friend. The evil one had beaten them
to the punch once again. Or had he...
"I think he`s still around here..." thought Mars.
"MARS FLAME SNIPER!" she said, forming a flaming bow and arrow in
her hands. While Shingo took care of his broken lover, she would
kill the monster who did this to her.
"What are you doing, Mars?" asked Umino who picked up his glasses
on the floor. He put them back on and thought himself lucky they
didn`t break.
"Using my awareness to find where he`s hiding. He`s still around,
I can feel it!" she replied.
"I`ll go to my computer, maybe that can help..." suggested Umino.
Mars didn`t respond, her attention focused entirely on her opening
senses. She wanted to let the impressions come to her, and come
they did.
She felt the slowly moving tendrils of despair floating across the
room, through the air, increasingly reaching across the city to
choke it into a strangle hold of pitch blackness. It led to him,
talked to her in a language bloated in threats and menaces. She
was on the right track, so she opened the window of her mind just
a bit more, closing her eyes and letting her mystic perceptions
guide her aim.
Unknown to anyone, the smooth forms of the being of shadows slowly
covering her own. His hands moved onto her hands, gently covering
them like a master archer guides a pupil in her first shot. His
head moved close to hers, whispering songs of dread into her ears
to poison her soul with filth and lies.
Inch by inch, he made her turn around, forcing her to take a target
of his own choosing. When he stopped her from moving around, her
flame sniper was aimed directly at the back of the unsuspecting
Emerald Knight, poised to pierce a fiery hole in his hard pumping
heart.
"It`s only too easy to destroy that which you hate, young soul of
fire..." whispered the voice of Black Baron in her ear, using her
uncanny perception of the mystical to invade her mind. "But do
you have the strength to destroy that which you love? Do you have
the power to overtake the limits sent upon yourself by the will
of your kind?"
Sailor Mars` hands wavered in hesitation, her clouded mind refusing
her a clear grasp at the situation before her eyes. Her will was
battling against the evil one`s power, like two bulls locking horns
in a fight neither would accept to lose.
"Surrender your futile belief in love, your hope in the future...
let go of it all." whispered the evil voice.
The young warrior resisted all she could, but the power of Black
Baron was darker still than any she`d ever encountered in her
existance. Against every ounce of willpower she could muster, the
strength of the being`s mind overcame her; she released her
fingers, shooting her fiery projectile towards the heart of the
Emerald Knight.
Then everything around her went dark.
To be continued...