Operation: Reality Check
A Sailor Moon/Reality Jumpers FanFic
By Roehl Sybing
Episode 15: All Too Familiar
Sunday, 8 o' clock in the morning. Jake was the first one from the Jumpers to get in. He was getting the room prepared for the usual day's work. Serena entered the room after a few minutes.
"Hi..."
"Hi..."
"Um," Serena said. "They opened up a new ice cream parlor down the street. I was wondering.....you wanna come later?"
Jake was surprised. "Is she asking ME out on a date?" he thought. "But what about---what about...." He then said out loud, "Sure!"
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Jake thought about that all morning. He was obviously confused. "No, can't be. She just wanted ice cream! But why did she ask me? C'mon Jake, there's no meaning here....I think."
Serena was on the other side of the room, wondering why she asked in the first place. "I just wanted to be nice to him....I wasn't paying any attention to Jake all week cause I was thinking of Darien---wait a minute....oh, I'm so confused..."
"But what if Serena is making the first move? What now? Am I supposed to say no? Even if she's got someone else, I can't refuse!"
"Did I give him the wrong idea? Unless.....if I don't have the wrong idea about him...."
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Later that day, Mike and Mina were having lunch on the roof of the FRC building. No reason, they just wanted a view. At least that's what they told the Jumpers.
"You know," Mina said after taking a bite out of her hot dog. "They say if you drop a dime off this building, it causes a crack in the sidewalk below."
Mike replied, "Gee. Wonder what'll happen if we drop a quarter..."
At that they both laughed a little and continued eating. Just then, they heard a loud explosion. Actually, it was only a portal opening right behind of them, but the sound had surprised the two so much they fell back. Mike got up and asked, "You OK?"
"Yeah, I think. What's going on?"
They were about to find out. A girl jumped out of the portal and headed for the door leading to the floors below. Two men in FRC uniforms followed, shouting, "Get back here! We just want to talk!"
The girl screamed back as she opened the door, "Yeah! I'm sure!"
All three disappeared as the girl was chased into the building.
Mina didn't see the three as she was looking in the opposite direction, but she did hear them. "It can't be..." she said.
"What?" Mike replied. "You know that girl?"
"Yeah! That's....that's......that's Rei!"
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And sure enough, it was Rei being chased by the two FRC officers. She scrambled down the stairs and headed down all the way to the 75th floor. She raced down the hallways, looking for an elevator. Luckily there was an open elevator car. Rei entered it and pressed the button for the ground floor.
"They must be history by now," she thought.
The trip down was long as usual. Finally the elevator opened revealing the bottom floor, but it also revealed that she was held at gun point by twenty other officers, with Hacker One holding the biggest weapon.
Hacker said calmly, "Could you PLEASE come with us?"
"Never!" Rei replied. She quickly closed the elevator door and headed down towards the basement levels. She remembered about the portal on the roof, "Maybe there's another gateway out of here!"
Rei, once again, was running down the hallways, but was stopped by four Jumpers and three Scouts standing in her way.
"You heard Hacker," Jake said as he revealed his communicator.
Sailor Moon stepped forward and added, "Rei, what are you doing?"
"Who are you all?" Rei asked.
"What are you talking about, Rei?" Sailor Jupiter said. "It's us! Remember?"
"I don't know who you are, but..." she went into a fighting position, but was stopped as Hacker sneaked up behind her and put a hand tranquilizer towards her neck. Rei quickly fainted and fell to the ground.
"I have to ask," Hacker said. "What was that all about?"
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Rei was taken to the medical facility immediately. Everyone watched through a one-way mirror as she was examined in her unconscious state. To be safe, she was put on a bed with restraints on each end.
After a half hour, the doctor walked up to the team and gave his diagnosis.
"Well, with the exception of the electro-shock, not to mention a few cuts and bruises throughout her body, she's in perfect health. Our main concern is that she has level 3 memory loss."
Ami asked, "Level 3?"
"Severe loss of memory, but can be recoverable. In time, of course. Almost 65% of her brain has been affected by level 3. She remembers some, but not alot. She was awake before I finished, you can see her now....just be careful; she's a tough one!"
And so they entered into the room where Rei was in. When all nine entered, Rei shouted, "Who ARE you? Get me out of here!"
"Calm down," Jake replied. "You got amnesia, and..."
"That's a lie!"
"Really? Prove it."
"Well.....there's.....um.....OK, you're right."
Lita spoke up, "So, you don't remember anything?"
"That's none of your business.............well, barely anything."
Jake continued, "Well, what was the first thing you remembered?"
"You going to interrogate me now?" Rei replied.
"Excuse me!? The way I see it, you ain't getting out of here anytime soon, so I think you'd better listen!"
"Since when do I have to listen to you? Or any of you?"
Jake seemed to give up. "That's it, I'm out of here." He stepped out of the room and viewed it from the mirror.
"That wasn't nice, you know," Kim said.
Rei turned her head, "Yeah, well...."
Kim decided to take over the questioning. "Hey, you going to tell us what happened?"
She sighed and then told her story.
"A week ago--that's what people told me--I was found in the middle of a street. Some people took me to some kind of hideout they had. When I woke up, I didn't remember much of anything. All I could remember then was my name. I learned that I was in Tokyo, or what was left of it. Well, the people there told me I could stay at their place for awhile. I didn't have any choice; everything else was in ruin! I mean, everything!"
Kim tried to keep conversation going. "Today. What happened?"
"Today, huh? We were all looking around for other survivors. We kinda saw two people at a distance. They were wearing uniforms and had guns in their hands. I thought they might be trouble, so I told the others to run off so I can take care of those two men. They saw me, and chased after me. As I tried to lose them, I looked behind me and I saw one of them holding up some kind of remote. I looked forward, and there was this big...something....right in front of me! I thought I bumped into it, but it was like a hole that you could run through, and so I continued running through this building. Now here I am."
"But that's all you remember?"
"Yeah, I guess that's it....."
Jake continued viewing through the one-way mirror. "How does she do that?" he thought, referring to Kim. Just then, the two men that were chasing Rei just an hour ago walked down the hallway and up to the door where the rest of the team was. Jake stopped them at the door, "What are you doing?"
"Sorry, Tyler," said one of the men looking at Jake's ID card. "We have to take the girl for questioning."
"We've already accomplished that. And the mission profile has been given to us."
"Not under our orders."
"Excuse me?"
"The girl resisted arrest. It is imperative that a report be filed."
"Then file the report! Rei is under our custody now, you can't do anything about that."
"Yes, we can. We're taking her in, and that's final."
Jake stood in front of the door. "I ain't moving."
The two men's eyes changed color as they replied, "Yes, you are!" They picked Jake up and threw him towards the door and into the room. He was thrown with so much force that he flew over Rei and almost into the window on the opposite side of the room. Serena almost rushed to Jake's side, but the officers ordered her to stay where she was.
One of them unlocked the restraints on the bed as he said, "You are ordered to come with us."
"Yeah, right!" Rei replied as she got up from the bed.
Chris asked, "Is it OK if I ask what's going on?"
"This is none of your concern, Jumper."
Chris was very suspicious. "How does he know that we're Jumpers?" Chris reached for his water cannon and fired at the two officers. They fell back and were knocked out.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Mike said.
He was right. After a moment, mist filled the room and Queen Beryl appeared. "This is truly wonderful!" she said. "I get to eliminate all of my enemies in one shot!"
The Jumpers reached for their guns and the Scouts, except for Rei, were ready to transform. But as soon as Queen Beryl waved her hand, all nine suddenly became paralyzed as they dropped to the floor.
Rei stood up and said, "Hey, you leave them alone!"
Beryl turned around and pointed towards Rei. A strong energy beam fired from her fingertips and almost rendered Rei unconscious once again. "I'll finish you off last," Queen Beryl said.
Then something happened. The energy beam gave Rei a slight headache, causing her to have strange flashes racing through her mind. Rei got up off the floor and saw Queen Beryl leaning over Serena. She knew what she had to do.
"MARS STAR POWER!"
Queen Beryl turned around once more and saw Sailor Mars. "What is this?" she shouted.
Sailor Mars replied, "I said, leave them alone!"
"MARS FIRE.....IGNITE!"
She was too weak to create a full attack, but the blast of fire was just enough for Queen Beryl to break her concentration on the rest of the team. The other nine were able to move again. "All right!" Serena shouted. With Queen Beryl caught off guard, they were all ready to fight back.
"MOON STAR POWER!"
"MERCURY STAR POWER!"
"JUPITER STAR POWER!"
"VENUS STAR POWER!"
The Sailor Scouts was now a full team once again. They all intended to take advantage of the situation.
"MOON TIARA....MAGIC!"
"MERCURY ICE BUBBLES....FREEZE!"
"JUPITER THUNDER....CRASH!"
"VENUS CRESCENT BEAM....SMASH!"
Unfortunately, Queen Beryl was able to create a force field around her. But she too was not strong enough to block off the full force of the other four Scouts. Badly hurt, she said, "Foiled again...." She had enough energy left to disappear from the room.
Jake got up and said, "Sailor Mars, eh? Neat..."
"I remember!" Sailor Mars replied.
Sailor Jupiter smiled, "Welcome back, Rei!"
"Yeah......but could someone tell me what we are all doing here?"
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It was now 8 o'clock. Rei went home with Kim, and everyone else went back to their own houses. Except for Jake and Serena. They were just on their way out of the building. Serena realized something, "Oh, I forgot about the ice cream parlor!"
Jake replied, "Heh, I forgot about that too!"
"I'm sorry."
"That's OK."
"Are you still interested?"
"Well actually, not anymore..."
Serena sighed and added, "All right..."
Jake couldn't help but notice Serena's smile fade a little. "You know," he said. "The place is open until ten..."
She started to smile again, "C'mon, let's go!"
They happened to hold hands as they walked into the shop.
TO BE CONTINUED.....