"I can't believe that we can't saw through this chain," Rowen said as the two of them sat on a park bench, both of them wearing rather depressed looks on their faces.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Ami said, agreeing with Rowen for one of the first times. Ami's eyes scanned the park, her eyes briefly passing over her car, which was parked by a curb. Her eyes continued to look over the park, many memories coming back to her.
I've had so many battles in this park. Her eyes fell on the small gazebo where Serena almost died from having her energy sucked from her body and Darien, who had broken up with Serena, kissed her to wake her up, just like in the fairy tales.
I wish I had someone to do that to me. I may not show it, but I'm actually really jealous of Serena and her relationship with Darien sometimes. Ami looked down at the chain connecting her to Rowen, who's head was buried in his hands.
She looked at the chain and prayed silently that Rowen wouldn't lift his head out of his hands. Reaching into her sub-dimensional pocket, she pulled out her computer and silently and quickly, scanned the chain that connected her to her archenemy.
"Shit!" she exclaimed as she put her computer away. "What?" Rowen asked, lifting his head out of his hands.
"I figured out what this chain is made out of. It's made out of titanium, that's why we couldn't saw through it."
"How do you know what it's made of?" Ami sighed in annoyance.
"Think about it Rowen, it's the only thing it could be made of. The only chance we have to get this off is to either melt it or freeze it." An idea struck Ami.
Oh, wait, I can't do that. I can't freeze the chain using my power. Then Rowen would know my secret identity and I can't tell anyone about that. Oh shit. Forget that idea. As she was thinking about the situation she was in, she tried to think about someone who could help her get out of it.
Who could I go to with this impossible situation? Hmm... Ami thought about it for a little bit longer before it hit her.
I could go to Andrew! He's really good at pulling himself out of sticky situations. I mean, come on, he's best friends with Serena and Darien and probably slipped up before they got together.
"I got it!" Ami said.
"What do you have?" Rowen said.
"I know who we can to go to get help. Come on, let's go." She stood up and dragged Rowen across the park, him yelling behind her all the way.
***
"What do you mean you don't know what to do?" Ami exclaimed.
If I have to stay handcuffed to Rowen any longer, I think I just might kill him. He's always shooting some sarcastic remark back at me and I've had enough of it.
"I'm sorry Ami, but I don't know what do tell you. I mean, I can probably guess who did this to you and your friend," Andrew said.
"He's not my friend," Ami said through gritted teeth.
"I'd have to agree with her on that one," Rowen said.
"Well, whatever. But, I'm betting that Serena did this to you. This has Serena's name written all over it."
"Which means I'm doomed," Ami said.
"Why do you say that?" Rowen asked. He really didn't know Serena at all. Andrew and Ami shared a look.
"Well, if this is all Serena's idea, then that means that she's probably the one in charge of the keys for the handcuffs. Which means we're doomed. Serena has never been able to hold on to a key to save her life," Ami said.
"Oh, great," Rowen said, "So I'm stuck with you?"
"Well, it's not like I'm happy about it!" Ami exclaimed, "I mean, all you do is complain about how much this sucks and how my ideas are never going to work."
"Well, what about you? You've been nagging me all morning about this situation." As Ami and Rowen fought in front of Andrew, a smile spread over his face.
Oh, this reminds me of Serena and Darien when they first met, always fighting with each other. They ended up getting together in the end, like I knew they would eventually. Maybe it's going to be the same thing with these two.
The argument was rudely interrupted when the three of them heard a scream coming from the street. The three rushed outside and all gasped. There were two huge monsters terrorizing the streets. They looked like dinosaurs and they were smashing everything that got in their path.
I wonder where the other Scouts are? I mean, I'd transform to fight with them, but I don't want to give my identity away to Rowen. Ami's hand itched to reach into her sub-dimensional pocked to get her transformation pen, but she rejected that impulse. Andrew had long run off in fear when Ami and Rowen rushed back into the arcade, each of them wanting to transform to fight, but neither of them wanting to tell the other about their secret identity.
"Rowen, get back into the arcade," Ami said as she dragged Rowen behind her, who was running as well.
"No need to tell me twice!" he exclaimed. Ami led him into the back room and remembered something else as Rowen closed the door.
"No, Rowen don't close the..." She stopped and sighed in defeat as she heard the door click shut. "...door," she finished. Her blood boiling in frustration at being handcuffed to Rowen all morning and to not being able to fight the monster, she exploded.
"Now look what you've done, you idiot!"
"What did I do?" Rowen said, yelling back at Ami.
"You locked us in this room. It automatically locks when shut and it unlocks from the outside. So, now we're stuck in here until we can get someone to get us out."
"Well, it's not my fault. You never told me that it would lock and I never knew. You don't have to be so hard on me because I didn't know that. I've never been here before, you obviously have."
"If you had listened to me, this wouldn't have happened," Ami yelled.
"Well, I was a little busy trying to get away from those monsters, if you didn't notice."
This is it, the truce is off, Ami thought.
"You know, you really are stupid, did you know that?"
"I am not stupid," Rowen said, taking a step closer to Ami, getting in her face.
"Oh yeah? Do you have proof to show me otherwise? Because everything I've seen from you has been pure stupidity." Ami said, getting closer as well. Their faces were not 5 centimeters apart as they glared at each other. At any moment, the tension between them was going to explode into something that neither of them was prepared for.
But, it never got that far.
Before something could happen, the door burst open, flying off of its hinges and landing on the ground by their feet. Ami and Rowen turned and looked wide eyed as one of the monsters they saw outside on the street stood in the doorway, looking at them like they were dinner.
"Uh-oh," Rowen said as Ami picked up a crate and threw it at the monster. It hit the monster in the face, which only made it mad. Once it had shaken its head to clear the pain, it held out its right hand. Ami watched as light gathered into the palm of the monster's hand.
"Rowen, get down," she said pulling him down to the ground. The two of them narrowly missed getting hit. Then, the two of them stood up, fire in their eyes, ready to kick some butt. They both had the same thought.
I don't care if s/he finds out about my identity. It's better than dying. At the same time, both of the warriors, who were rather pissed off, called out their transformation line, each of them oblivious to the person next to them; they were too absorbed in their own transformations.
"Mercury Crystal Power, MAKE UP!!"
"Armor of Strata, DAO INOCHI!" Seconds later, Ami stood there as Super Sailor Mercury and Rowen stood there in his armor. They both turned to the other one, ready to explain what had happened to them.
Their eyes focused on each other and their eyes widened in surprise. For a moment, they thought that the other one had disappeared, but then, they looked down at the handcuffs that connected them and they figured it out.
"You're Sailor Mercury," Rowen exclaimed.
"And what are you?" Ami asked.
"I'm a Ronin Warrior."
"A what? Never mind, let's concentrate on killing this monster." They turned and prepared to fight the monster, who was powering up. In order to confuse it, Ami cried out, "MERCURY BUBBLES BLAST!" and a fog spread over the room and the rest of the arcade.
Turning to Rowen, she asked, "Do you have any cool powers?"
"Yeah, but if I used them here, I might destroy half of the city block."
"Well, is there anything else you can do?" Ami asked, panicking a little.
"I can shoot arrows at it."
"Well, when the fog fades slightly, do that." Rowen nodded and waited as Ami took out her computer and scanned the monster.
"Its weak points are its eyes. Aim for the eyes."
"Wow, what is that thing?" he asked, indicating her computer.
"It's my computer. I'll explain afterwards, but we have to kill this thing." As the fog faded, the monster charged and Ami cried out, "SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!" A stream of ice water hit the lower half of the monster, freezing it in place. Rowen looked on in amazement.
She looked so beautiful doing that attack. Rowen was beginning to accept the fact that he didn't hate her as much as he used to.
I have to admit, she's really not that bad when she's not mad at me. Ami turned to Rowen and said, "Fire your arrows." Rowen did as he was told and fired two arrows, aimed at the thing's eyes. Each arrow buried itself in the eyes of the creature and it screamed. Ami scanned the monster again with her computer and was happy to find that its energy level had gone down.
"Good, now I can kill it." Ami sucked in a deep breath and called out, "MERCURY AQUA RHAPSODY!" The monster, which was half frozen, died on impact and disappeared. Ami sighed exhaustedly, and let the slight fatigue take over her body.
Noticing that she was tired, Rowen said, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I just used three attacks in less than 5 minutes, though. I'll be ok in a few minutes." Ami detransformed and Rowen did the same, each of them in their regular clothes again. A nervous silence spread over to the two teenagers (they are 19, still teenagers) and Ami was the first to break it.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Rowen's only response was that he started to walk out of the backroom of the arcade with Ami following close behind.
***
"So..." Ami trailed off as the two of them sat on the same park bench that they had sat on earlier.
"Yeah," Rowen said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Ami was sitting up straight, her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. For the first time, the two of them were experiencing a silent moment. No insults, no words.
Ami took a sideways glance at Rowen before looking away quickly, a pale blush spreading over her face.
He really is very good-looking, gorgeous even. And when he's not fighting with me, he's actually pretty nice. But, after the way I've treated him, I'm surprised if he even wants to speak with me again. Little did she know that Rowen was thinking the same thing.
They looked at each other, their eyes locking, before they burst out into roaring laughter. Rowen clutched his sides in laughter as Ami tried to wipe tears from her eyes.
"What a day, huh?" Rowen asked.
"You said it," Ami said, "Yesterday, I never figured that I'd wind up being handcuffed to you and having you find out about my 'extra-curricular' activities."
"Yeah, I know. I mean, come on, yesterday, we hated each other. But, now..." Rowen said, trailing off.
"Now what?" Ami asked, putting her hand on Rowen's shoulder. He looked up at her and sat up straight, his eyes never leaving her. Ami's own eyes went wide as she tried to identify the look in his eyes.
Well, one thing's for sure, no one has ever looked at me like this before, Ami thought. Rowen's free hand came up to caress Ami's cheek softly and Ami gasped at the feeling. Slowly, Rowen leaned in towards Ami. Ami felt their noses brush and right when their lips were millimeters apart, Rowen stopped.
"You're ok with this, right?"
Ami only smirked and said, "You're going to kiss me, aren't you?" Rowen nodded and Ami continued. "Well, if you don't kiss me now, I'm going to have to hurt you." Rowen chuckled lightly before closing the gap between their lips.
Ami felt her stomach doing flips inside of her and she reveled in the feeling. They kissed slowly, yet passionately and neither of them wanted the feeling to end. Ami tried putting her arms around Rowen's neck and Rowen tried wrapping his arms around her waist, but the handcuffs prevented them from doing anything of the kind. They broke apart and look down at the handcuffs.
"What are we going to do about these things?" Rowen said.
Ami looked down at the handcuffs with a calculating gaze before saying, "Hold still." Putting her free hand over the cuff on Rowen's wrist, she poured her power out of her hand. Slowly, Rowen saw the cuff around his wrist freeze over before breaking off.
Ami did the same for the cuff around her wrist and said, "Strong chain, cheap lock." As Ami set the handcuffs down on the bench, Rowen pulled Ami onto his lap and kissed her neck. Ami giggled before turning back to Rowen, kissing him square on the lips.
***
"MOON GORGEOUS MEDITATION!" Serena smiled in satisfaction as the monster disappeared. She turned back to the three other Scouts and the four armored warriors that helped out her and the Scouts.
"Thank you for your help," Serena said to the four armored warriors as the other scouts went over to stand with Serena.
"Well, we must be going now. Good-bye." Serena and the other Sailor Scouts took off for home, moving as fast as they could by using their power. Each of them was anxious to get home to see if Rowen and Ami had killed each other by now. As they reached their house, they stopped running and detransformed before continuing their trek home.
"So, what do you think has happened to them?" Lita asked.
"Well, they probably haven't killed each other," Raye said, "I left Sage there to guard them to make sure that they don't inflict any bodily harm to each other."
"Do you think that they've hooked up?" Mina said.
"Mina, I think it's a little early to be making that assumption," Serena said as their house came into view. They walked up the driveway only to spot that the front door was wide open and Ami's car was missing. Their faces took on confused looks as they rushed up the walkway and into the house.
Serena was the first one to reach the basement door, which was also wide open. Serena rushed down the stairs and looked around, not spotting the two blue-haired teenagers anywhere.
She walked back up the stairs and said, "They're not here."
"I wonder where Sage is? I left him here earlier," Raye said.
"What happened?" a male voice said. The four girls turned to the see Ryo, Kento, Sage, and Cye, who had also detransformed before heading on over, standing in front of them.
"Ami and Rowen are gone," Mina said.
"Yeah, because SOMEONE wasn't here to guard them," Raye said pointedly at Sage.
"Hey, it's not my fault. I had an emergency to take care of," Sage said.
"Oh yeah, what emergency?" Raye asked.
"I'll only tell you what it was if you tell me what your emergency was," Sage demanded.
Raye just sighed and said, "Ok, fine, don't tell me."
"And stop arguing, we have to find them. What if something happened to them? Or the handcuffs?" Serena asked, "I spent a pretty penny on those handcuffs just for this project. We have to go and find them. Let's just hope that they aren't too mad at us, assuming that they've figured out it was us who did it."
"Oh, Serena, this little scam has your name written all over it," Mina said, "Ami's going to have figured it out by now that it was you who handcuffed her to Rowen. And she's either going to thank you or kill you, depending in her mood and the state of her relationship with Rowen at the moment. But, we have to look for them now." The eight teenagers walked out of the door and began searching for their two friends.
They made their way to the park where they found Ami's car, but not Ami and Rowen.
"I wonder where they are," Serena said to the group.
"Oh, look," Lita said, "There's the arcade, maybe they went there." The group went over to the arcade and entered the building, only to find it completely devoid of other people and in a state of destruction.
"What happened here?" Mina asked.
"Looked something came along a trashed the place," Kento said.
"Yeah, but what?" Lita asked as the girls followed a path of destruction to the backroom. When they saw the state of the back room, they gasped. There was stuff strewn about and the door had been thrown off of its hinges.
"Oh my god, Andrew's not going to be very happy when he finds out what happened," Raye said as Serena looked around the room.
"Hey guys, look what I found," Serena said picking up a gold arrow off the ground. "I wonder where this came from," Serena said as the guys appeared in the doorway.
"Hey guys, look at this," Serena said as she showed the arrow to the guys. The guys exchanged looks. They recognized that arrow; it was one of Rowen's arrows. Sage was about to say something about the arrow when he too spotted something.
"Hey, look, there's ice surrounding the doorway. Where'd that come from?" Now it was the girls' turn to exchange looks. The only person that they knew who could create ice like that was Ami, which meant she had to have been here.
Well, wherever they are now, it's not here, Serena thought.
"Come on, you guys, let's keep looking," she said as she walked out of the backroom. The group made their way into the park and searched for the two geniuses. Cye was the first to spot them and when he did, his jaw dropped. He stopped walking and stared.
Kento noticed that his best friend had stopped walking and he turned around and said, "Hey, Cye buddy, what's wrong?" He followed Cye's gaze and also stopped in amazement. The others all did the same thing at the sight in front of them.
In front of them were Ami and Rowen, sitting on a park bench, making out. Ami, who was sitting in Rowen's lap, giggled as Rowen nibbled on her earlobe before kissing her again on the lips.
The group of eight just stared at the kissing couple. They just thought that by handcuffing them together, it would get them to resolve their differences. They never imagined that they'd be kissing like crazy.
Mina was the first one to snap out of it.
She said, "I figured that something like this would happen." Serena was the next one to shake herself out of her daze.
The minute that she believed that what she was seeing in front of her was true, she said, "Ami?" Ami and Rowen's bodies froze. Ami recognized the voice and was slightly annoyed that she was being interrupted. Slowly breaking away from Rowen, she turned towards Serena and slowly said, "Yes?"
"What are you doing?" Serena repeated.
"What does it look like?" Ami asked in response. Before Serena could say anything more, Ami reached behind her and picked up a pair of handcuffs, the cuffs frozen and covered in ice.
"Serena, the next time that you feel you need to handcuff the two of us together," Ami said, "You might want to consider buy handcuffs that won't freeze off when I use my power." Rowen only nodded.
"Yeah, it didn't take much energy on her part to freeze those handcuffs off. Like she said, strong chain, cheap lock." The girls looked at Ami in shock. She had told him about her power?
"Ami, you didn't..." Serena said. Ami knew what she was talking about.
"Serena, you don't have to worry, I had to. There was an emergency at the arcade. A monster attacked when we were locked in the backroom. I took care of it," Ami said. Rowen looked at her with his eyes wide.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't have been able to take care of it if I hadn't weakened it for you."
"Yeah, well, I was the one who told you how to weaken it. Without me, you wouldn't have known where to shoot."
"I could have figured it out. Eventually, I would have led it outside where I could show it real power," Rowen said.
"Oh, so I don't have real power?" Ami asked, joking around with Rowen; she knew he didn't really mean it and that he was just teasing her.
"I'll admit that your power is pretty impressive, but you haven't seen anything until you've seen me."
"Oh really?" Ami said.
"Really," Rowen said. Ami laughed lightly before giving Rowen a quick kiss. The other Scouts and Ronin Warriors were confused. The guys wanted to know that Ami was talking about and the girls wanted to know what Rowen was talking about.
"What's going on?" Kento asked Ami. Ami looked at Rowen and said, "Do you think we should tell each other's friends about our secret?"
"Yeah, I don't see why not," Rowen said. Giving each other a small smile, Ami and Rowen stood up and called out their transformation lines.
"Mercury Crystal Power, MAKE UP!"
"Armor of Strata, DAO INOCHI!" In seconds, Ami stood there as Super Sailor Mercury and Rowen stood there in his armor. The guys and girls each figured it out quickly and turned to the other group.
"You!" they each cried out at each other as their brains processed everything. The guys figured out quickly that it was the girls who were the Sailor Scouts and the girls figured out quickly that it was the guys who were the Ronin Warriors.
Ami and Rowen only stood by, smiling, as they watched their friends stand by in amazement. Rowen detransformed into his sub-armor and wrapped his arms around Ami's waist. Giving her a kiss on the neck, he said, "I think they're a little shocked."
"Well, may I remind you, that we were when we both transformed and found a warrior instead of a human being on the other end of those handcuffs." Rowen let go of Ami's waist as both of them detransformed.
Ami turned around and said, "Should we leave them to talk things over?"
"Yeah, we should," Rowen said, "Let's get out of here."
"Ok, then give me my keys back," Ami said, holding out her hand. Rowen took her keys out of his pocket and handed them to her. Ami smiled at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards her car.
"So, where do we go?" Ami asked Rowen as they got into her car.
"Oh, I don't know. How about we go and get something to eat. I'll pay as part of an apology for being so mean to you in the beginning of the school year."
"Alright, but next time, I'll pay. I have to apologize too, you know," Ami said as she started her car. She gave Rowen one last smile before driving off, leaving their friends to figure out things for themselves.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Ami said, agreeing with Rowen for one of the first times. Ami's eyes scanned the park, her eyes briefly passing over her car, which was parked by a curb. Her eyes continued to look over the park, many memories coming back to her.
I've had so many battles in this park. Her eyes fell on the small gazebo where Serena almost died from having her energy sucked from her body and Darien, who had broken up with Serena, kissed her to wake her up, just like in the fairy tales.
I wish I had someone to do that to me. I may not show it, but I'm actually really jealous of Serena and her relationship with Darien sometimes. Ami looked down at the chain connecting her to Rowen, who's head was buried in his hands.
She looked at the chain and prayed silently that Rowen wouldn't lift his head out of his hands. Reaching into her sub-dimensional pocket, she pulled out her computer and silently and quickly, scanned the chain that connected her to her archenemy.
"Shit!" she exclaimed as she put her computer away. "What?" Rowen asked, lifting his head out of his hands.
"I figured out what this chain is made out of. It's made out of titanium, that's why we couldn't saw through it."
"How do you know what it's made of?" Ami sighed in annoyance.
"Think about it Rowen, it's the only thing it could be made of. The only chance we have to get this off is to either melt it or freeze it." An idea struck Ami.
Oh, wait, I can't do that. I can't freeze the chain using my power. Then Rowen would know my secret identity and I can't tell anyone about that. Oh shit. Forget that idea. As she was thinking about the situation she was in, she tried to think about someone who could help her get out of it.
Who could I go to with this impossible situation? Hmm... Ami thought about it for a little bit longer before it hit her.
I could go to Andrew! He's really good at pulling himself out of sticky situations. I mean, come on, he's best friends with Serena and Darien and probably slipped up before they got together.
"I got it!" Ami said.
"What do you have?" Rowen said.
"I know who we can to go to get help. Come on, let's go." She stood up and dragged Rowen across the park, him yelling behind her all the way.
***
"What do you mean you don't know what to do?" Ami exclaimed.
If I have to stay handcuffed to Rowen any longer, I think I just might kill him. He's always shooting some sarcastic remark back at me and I've had enough of it.
"I'm sorry Ami, but I don't know what do tell you. I mean, I can probably guess who did this to you and your friend," Andrew said.
"He's not my friend," Ami said through gritted teeth.
"I'd have to agree with her on that one," Rowen said.
"Well, whatever. But, I'm betting that Serena did this to you. This has Serena's name written all over it."
"Which means I'm doomed," Ami said.
"Why do you say that?" Rowen asked. He really didn't know Serena at all. Andrew and Ami shared a look.
"Well, if this is all Serena's idea, then that means that she's probably the one in charge of the keys for the handcuffs. Which means we're doomed. Serena has never been able to hold on to a key to save her life," Ami said.
"Oh, great," Rowen said, "So I'm stuck with you?"
"Well, it's not like I'm happy about it!" Ami exclaimed, "I mean, all you do is complain about how much this sucks and how my ideas are never going to work."
"Well, what about you? You've been nagging me all morning about this situation." As Ami and Rowen fought in front of Andrew, a smile spread over his face.
Oh, this reminds me of Serena and Darien when they first met, always fighting with each other. They ended up getting together in the end, like I knew they would eventually. Maybe it's going to be the same thing with these two.
The argument was rudely interrupted when the three of them heard a scream coming from the street. The three rushed outside and all gasped. There were two huge monsters terrorizing the streets. They looked like dinosaurs and they were smashing everything that got in their path.
I wonder where the other Scouts are? I mean, I'd transform to fight with them, but I don't want to give my identity away to Rowen. Ami's hand itched to reach into her sub-dimensional pocked to get her transformation pen, but she rejected that impulse. Andrew had long run off in fear when Ami and Rowen rushed back into the arcade, each of them wanting to transform to fight, but neither of them wanting to tell the other about their secret identity.
"Rowen, get back into the arcade," Ami said as she dragged Rowen behind her, who was running as well.
"No need to tell me twice!" he exclaimed. Ami led him into the back room and remembered something else as Rowen closed the door.
"No, Rowen don't close the..." She stopped and sighed in defeat as she heard the door click shut. "...door," she finished. Her blood boiling in frustration at being handcuffed to Rowen all morning and to not being able to fight the monster, she exploded.
"Now look what you've done, you idiot!"
"What did I do?" Rowen said, yelling back at Ami.
"You locked us in this room. It automatically locks when shut and it unlocks from the outside. So, now we're stuck in here until we can get someone to get us out."
"Well, it's not my fault. You never told me that it would lock and I never knew. You don't have to be so hard on me because I didn't know that. I've never been here before, you obviously have."
"If you had listened to me, this wouldn't have happened," Ami yelled.
"Well, I was a little busy trying to get away from those monsters, if you didn't notice."
This is it, the truce is off, Ami thought.
"You know, you really are stupid, did you know that?"
"I am not stupid," Rowen said, taking a step closer to Ami, getting in her face.
"Oh yeah? Do you have proof to show me otherwise? Because everything I've seen from you has been pure stupidity." Ami said, getting closer as well. Their faces were not 5 centimeters apart as they glared at each other. At any moment, the tension between them was going to explode into something that neither of them was prepared for.
But, it never got that far.
Before something could happen, the door burst open, flying off of its hinges and landing on the ground by their feet. Ami and Rowen turned and looked wide eyed as one of the monsters they saw outside on the street stood in the doorway, looking at them like they were dinner.
"Uh-oh," Rowen said as Ami picked up a crate and threw it at the monster. It hit the monster in the face, which only made it mad. Once it had shaken its head to clear the pain, it held out its right hand. Ami watched as light gathered into the palm of the monster's hand.
"Rowen, get down," she said pulling him down to the ground. The two of them narrowly missed getting hit. Then, the two of them stood up, fire in their eyes, ready to kick some butt. They both had the same thought.
I don't care if s/he finds out about my identity. It's better than dying. At the same time, both of the warriors, who were rather pissed off, called out their transformation line, each of them oblivious to the person next to them; they were too absorbed in their own transformations.
"Mercury Crystal Power, MAKE UP!!"
"Armor of Strata, DAO INOCHI!" Seconds later, Ami stood there as Super Sailor Mercury and Rowen stood there in his armor. They both turned to the other one, ready to explain what had happened to them.
Their eyes focused on each other and their eyes widened in surprise. For a moment, they thought that the other one had disappeared, but then, they looked down at the handcuffs that connected them and they figured it out.
"You're Sailor Mercury," Rowen exclaimed.
"And what are you?" Ami asked.
"I'm a Ronin Warrior."
"A what? Never mind, let's concentrate on killing this monster." They turned and prepared to fight the monster, who was powering up. In order to confuse it, Ami cried out, "MERCURY BUBBLES BLAST!" and a fog spread over the room and the rest of the arcade.
Turning to Rowen, she asked, "Do you have any cool powers?"
"Yeah, but if I used them here, I might destroy half of the city block."
"Well, is there anything else you can do?" Ami asked, panicking a little.
"I can shoot arrows at it."
"Well, when the fog fades slightly, do that." Rowen nodded and waited as Ami took out her computer and scanned the monster.
"Its weak points are its eyes. Aim for the eyes."
"Wow, what is that thing?" he asked, indicating her computer.
"It's my computer. I'll explain afterwards, but we have to kill this thing." As the fog faded, the monster charged and Ami cried out, "SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!" A stream of ice water hit the lower half of the monster, freezing it in place. Rowen looked on in amazement.
She looked so beautiful doing that attack. Rowen was beginning to accept the fact that he didn't hate her as much as he used to.
I have to admit, she's really not that bad when she's not mad at me. Ami turned to Rowen and said, "Fire your arrows." Rowen did as he was told and fired two arrows, aimed at the thing's eyes. Each arrow buried itself in the eyes of the creature and it screamed. Ami scanned the monster again with her computer and was happy to find that its energy level had gone down.
"Good, now I can kill it." Ami sucked in a deep breath and called out, "MERCURY AQUA RHAPSODY!" The monster, which was half frozen, died on impact and disappeared. Ami sighed exhaustedly, and let the slight fatigue take over her body.
Noticing that she was tired, Rowen said, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I just used three attacks in less than 5 minutes, though. I'll be ok in a few minutes." Ami detransformed and Rowen did the same, each of them in their regular clothes again. A nervous silence spread over to the two teenagers (they are 19, still teenagers) and Ami was the first to break it.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Rowen's only response was that he started to walk out of the backroom of the arcade with Ami following close behind.
***
"So..." Ami trailed off as the two of them sat on the same park bench that they had sat on earlier.
"Yeah," Rowen said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Ami was sitting up straight, her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. For the first time, the two of them were experiencing a silent moment. No insults, no words.
Ami took a sideways glance at Rowen before looking away quickly, a pale blush spreading over her face.
He really is very good-looking, gorgeous even. And when he's not fighting with me, he's actually pretty nice. But, after the way I've treated him, I'm surprised if he even wants to speak with me again. Little did she know that Rowen was thinking the same thing.
They looked at each other, their eyes locking, before they burst out into roaring laughter. Rowen clutched his sides in laughter as Ami tried to wipe tears from her eyes.
"What a day, huh?" Rowen asked.
"You said it," Ami said, "Yesterday, I never figured that I'd wind up being handcuffed to you and having you find out about my 'extra-curricular' activities."
"Yeah, I know. I mean, come on, yesterday, we hated each other. But, now..." Rowen said, trailing off.
"Now what?" Ami asked, putting her hand on Rowen's shoulder. He looked up at her and sat up straight, his eyes never leaving her. Ami's own eyes went wide as she tried to identify the look in his eyes.
Well, one thing's for sure, no one has ever looked at me like this before, Ami thought. Rowen's free hand came up to caress Ami's cheek softly and Ami gasped at the feeling. Slowly, Rowen leaned in towards Ami. Ami felt their noses brush and right when their lips were millimeters apart, Rowen stopped.
"You're ok with this, right?"
Ami only smirked and said, "You're going to kiss me, aren't you?" Rowen nodded and Ami continued. "Well, if you don't kiss me now, I'm going to have to hurt you." Rowen chuckled lightly before closing the gap between their lips.
Ami felt her stomach doing flips inside of her and she reveled in the feeling. They kissed slowly, yet passionately and neither of them wanted the feeling to end. Ami tried putting her arms around Rowen's neck and Rowen tried wrapping his arms around her waist, but the handcuffs prevented them from doing anything of the kind. They broke apart and look down at the handcuffs.
"What are we going to do about these things?" Rowen said.
Ami looked down at the handcuffs with a calculating gaze before saying, "Hold still." Putting her free hand over the cuff on Rowen's wrist, she poured her power out of her hand. Slowly, Rowen saw the cuff around his wrist freeze over before breaking off.
Ami did the same for the cuff around her wrist and said, "Strong chain, cheap lock." As Ami set the handcuffs down on the bench, Rowen pulled Ami onto his lap and kissed her neck. Ami giggled before turning back to Rowen, kissing him square on the lips.
***
"MOON GORGEOUS MEDITATION!" Serena smiled in satisfaction as the monster disappeared. She turned back to the three other Scouts and the four armored warriors that helped out her and the Scouts.
"Thank you for your help," Serena said to the four armored warriors as the other scouts went over to stand with Serena.
"Well, we must be going now. Good-bye." Serena and the other Sailor Scouts took off for home, moving as fast as they could by using their power. Each of them was anxious to get home to see if Rowen and Ami had killed each other by now. As they reached their house, they stopped running and detransformed before continuing their trek home.
"So, what do you think has happened to them?" Lita asked.
"Well, they probably haven't killed each other," Raye said, "I left Sage there to guard them to make sure that they don't inflict any bodily harm to each other."
"Do you think that they've hooked up?" Mina said.
"Mina, I think it's a little early to be making that assumption," Serena said as their house came into view. They walked up the driveway only to spot that the front door was wide open and Ami's car was missing. Their faces took on confused looks as they rushed up the walkway and into the house.
Serena was the first one to reach the basement door, which was also wide open. Serena rushed down the stairs and looked around, not spotting the two blue-haired teenagers anywhere.
She walked back up the stairs and said, "They're not here."
"I wonder where Sage is? I left him here earlier," Raye said.
"What happened?" a male voice said. The four girls turned to the see Ryo, Kento, Sage, and Cye, who had also detransformed before heading on over, standing in front of them.
"Ami and Rowen are gone," Mina said.
"Yeah, because SOMEONE wasn't here to guard them," Raye said pointedly at Sage.
"Hey, it's not my fault. I had an emergency to take care of," Sage said.
"Oh yeah, what emergency?" Raye asked.
"I'll only tell you what it was if you tell me what your emergency was," Sage demanded.
Raye just sighed and said, "Ok, fine, don't tell me."
"And stop arguing, we have to find them. What if something happened to them? Or the handcuffs?" Serena asked, "I spent a pretty penny on those handcuffs just for this project. We have to go and find them. Let's just hope that they aren't too mad at us, assuming that they've figured out it was us who did it."
"Oh, Serena, this little scam has your name written all over it," Mina said, "Ami's going to have figured it out by now that it was you who handcuffed her to Rowen. And she's either going to thank you or kill you, depending in her mood and the state of her relationship with Rowen at the moment. But, we have to look for them now." The eight teenagers walked out of the door and began searching for their two friends.
They made their way to the park where they found Ami's car, but not Ami and Rowen.
"I wonder where they are," Serena said to the group.
"Oh, look," Lita said, "There's the arcade, maybe they went there." The group went over to the arcade and entered the building, only to find it completely devoid of other people and in a state of destruction.
"What happened here?" Mina asked.
"Looked something came along a trashed the place," Kento said.
"Yeah, but what?" Lita asked as the girls followed a path of destruction to the backroom. When they saw the state of the back room, they gasped. There was stuff strewn about and the door had been thrown off of its hinges.
"Oh my god, Andrew's not going to be very happy when he finds out what happened," Raye said as Serena looked around the room.
"Hey guys, look what I found," Serena said picking up a gold arrow off the ground. "I wonder where this came from," Serena said as the guys appeared in the doorway.
"Hey guys, look at this," Serena said as she showed the arrow to the guys. The guys exchanged looks. They recognized that arrow; it was one of Rowen's arrows. Sage was about to say something about the arrow when he too spotted something.
"Hey, look, there's ice surrounding the doorway. Where'd that come from?" Now it was the girls' turn to exchange looks. The only person that they knew who could create ice like that was Ami, which meant she had to have been here.
Well, wherever they are now, it's not here, Serena thought.
"Come on, you guys, let's keep looking," she said as she walked out of the backroom. The group made their way into the park and searched for the two geniuses. Cye was the first to spot them and when he did, his jaw dropped. He stopped walking and stared.
Kento noticed that his best friend had stopped walking and he turned around and said, "Hey, Cye buddy, what's wrong?" He followed Cye's gaze and also stopped in amazement. The others all did the same thing at the sight in front of them.
In front of them were Ami and Rowen, sitting on a park bench, making out. Ami, who was sitting in Rowen's lap, giggled as Rowen nibbled on her earlobe before kissing her again on the lips.
The group of eight just stared at the kissing couple. They just thought that by handcuffing them together, it would get them to resolve their differences. They never imagined that they'd be kissing like crazy.
Mina was the first one to snap out of it.
She said, "I figured that something like this would happen." Serena was the next one to shake herself out of her daze.
The minute that she believed that what she was seeing in front of her was true, she said, "Ami?" Ami and Rowen's bodies froze. Ami recognized the voice and was slightly annoyed that she was being interrupted. Slowly breaking away from Rowen, she turned towards Serena and slowly said, "Yes?"
"What are you doing?" Serena repeated.
"What does it look like?" Ami asked in response. Before Serena could say anything more, Ami reached behind her and picked up a pair of handcuffs, the cuffs frozen and covered in ice.
"Serena, the next time that you feel you need to handcuff the two of us together," Ami said, "You might want to consider buy handcuffs that won't freeze off when I use my power." Rowen only nodded.
"Yeah, it didn't take much energy on her part to freeze those handcuffs off. Like she said, strong chain, cheap lock." The girls looked at Ami in shock. She had told him about her power?
"Ami, you didn't..." Serena said. Ami knew what she was talking about.
"Serena, you don't have to worry, I had to. There was an emergency at the arcade. A monster attacked when we were locked in the backroom. I took care of it," Ami said. Rowen looked at her with his eyes wide.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't have been able to take care of it if I hadn't weakened it for you."
"Yeah, well, I was the one who told you how to weaken it. Without me, you wouldn't have known where to shoot."
"I could have figured it out. Eventually, I would have led it outside where I could show it real power," Rowen said.
"Oh, so I don't have real power?" Ami asked, joking around with Rowen; she knew he didn't really mean it and that he was just teasing her.
"I'll admit that your power is pretty impressive, but you haven't seen anything until you've seen me."
"Oh really?" Ami said.
"Really," Rowen said. Ami laughed lightly before giving Rowen a quick kiss. The other Scouts and Ronin Warriors were confused. The guys wanted to know that Ami was talking about and the girls wanted to know what Rowen was talking about.
"What's going on?" Kento asked Ami. Ami looked at Rowen and said, "Do you think we should tell each other's friends about our secret?"
"Yeah, I don't see why not," Rowen said. Giving each other a small smile, Ami and Rowen stood up and called out their transformation lines.
"Mercury Crystal Power, MAKE UP!"
"Armor of Strata, DAO INOCHI!" In seconds, Ami stood there as Super Sailor Mercury and Rowen stood there in his armor. The guys and girls each figured it out quickly and turned to the other group.
"You!" they each cried out at each other as their brains processed everything. The guys figured out quickly that it was the girls who were the Sailor Scouts and the girls figured out quickly that it was the guys who were the Ronin Warriors.
Ami and Rowen only stood by, smiling, as they watched their friends stand by in amazement. Rowen detransformed into his sub-armor and wrapped his arms around Ami's waist. Giving her a kiss on the neck, he said, "I think they're a little shocked."
"Well, may I remind you, that we were when we both transformed and found a warrior instead of a human being on the other end of those handcuffs." Rowen let go of Ami's waist as both of them detransformed.
Ami turned around and said, "Should we leave them to talk things over?"
"Yeah, we should," Rowen said, "Let's get out of here."
"Ok, then give me my keys back," Ami said, holding out her hand. Rowen took her keys out of his pocket and handed them to her. Ami smiled at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards her car.
"So, where do we go?" Ami asked Rowen as they got into her car.
"Oh, I don't know. How about we go and get something to eat. I'll pay as part of an apology for being so mean to you in the beginning of the school year."
"Alright, but next time, I'll pay. I have to apologize too, you know," Ami said as she started her car. She gave Rowen one last smile before driving off, leaving their friends to figure out things for themselves.