S.I.U. - The Sailor Investigation Unit
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME (Mark A Page)
Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon and Silent Mobius are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Kia
Asamiya, Michitaka Kikuchi, Bandai, Studio Tron, Kadokawa and
Kodansya. All other characters were thought up by me.
Part Thirtyseven
Elementary Elementals
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing that struck Aoi, about the entrance hall of
the Coven's headquarters, was how very grand-guignol it all looked,
perhaps even gothic. She hated gothic. As far as she was
concerned, this was Japan, and gothic had absolutely no place being
here.
The ceiling was so high up that she was sure there wasn't
one.... That the darkness up there was the sky. Surrounded by
doors and mirrored windows, reflecting her underwhelmed presence,
she waited as Kaji negotiated with the guards, through the window
of the adjoining office, to let them into the heart of the Coven.
Aoi did her best to suppress any nervousness she felt about
the cult group. Pagan, despite his efforts to introduce himself as
a member of the Coven, had not actually described what the internal
machinations were like. Word of mouth, passed along from one cop to
another, about past investigations into cult group activities and
raids on cult headquarters had usually been tainted with the lurid
and the horrific. Visions of young, naked men and women, chained to
the walls of every corridor, being flogged and starved and molested,
filled her tired mind.
She yawned. It had been a long time since she'd had any
decent sleep, and thus was slow in registering Kaji's calls to her.
She turned to him as he gestured for her to come to him, pointing to
an open door by the guard office. "They say we can go in, but only
on visitors passes." Kaji grumbled as she stepped alongside him.
"Better than nothing, I suppose." Aoi whispered as one of the
guards stepped out through the door, eyeing them over.
"Who is the woman?" The guard, a tall, pale figure, gestured
to Aoi. "Is she important to you?"
"Well, you can say she is." Kaji harrumphed. "She is my
partner." The guard turned to Aoi with an expression of contempt.
"Your partner? As in matrimony or otherwise." Both Aoi and
Kaji almost facefaulted. Seeing the expressions on their faces, the
guard doubled back. "I'm sorry, but we have to ask these questions.
The powers that be are most concerned with blood lines and pair
bonding. If she were to be found to be suitable...."
"If I WAS to be found suitable, my dear friend, I certainly
wouldn't choose to be some brood mare for your two-bit
organisation!" Aoi snarled, giving the guard the finger before Kaji
stepped in front of her, trying to suppress the situation.
"I can assure you, as far as I know she will not be...
suitable for your purposes." He sweated under the guard's glare.
"Are we to meet with someone in authority?"
"You will be guided by a special officer, to the limits of
your entry." The guard gestured to the doorway. "Please step
through and wait for their arrival in the anteroom." Kaji stared at
the doorway, the corridor beyond lit only by the light from the
guard office.
"Why do we have to wait there? I met with... who was it?
Kuniko... Yes, that was it.... I met Kuniko-san here the last time
I passed through here." Kaji crossed his arms as Aoi stuck her
tongue out at the guard, over Kaji's shoulder. The guard turned
away, icily.
"You can either wait in the anteroom or leave. It is your
choice." He looked as if he was about to step back through the
doorway before Aoi brushed past both he and Kaji, huffing.
"What is it with all this unspoken threat stuff? Are you
people drinking in the bitters, or what?" She stopped by the
doorway to the office and peered in at the second guard. "So do
we get nice little badges with 'outsider' marked on them, so we can
feel REALLY subconscious about being here?" The guard ignored her,
making her puff up her cheeks in frustration. "HEY, FATBOY! I'M
TALKING TO YOU!"
"He's only qualified to reply to his superior." The first
guard followed her through the doorway and stood over her in a
rather intimidating fashion. Aoi looked up at him, unimpressed.
"And who might his superior be?"
"I am his superior. He shall only speak when I let him."
"You're running a right little fascist state here, aren't you?
No talking unless your superior allows you to...." Aoi lifted up a
finger and flicked the guard across the nose. "Tell fatboy to
speak. I can't stand the way he just sits there, ignoring me."
Kaji was cringing through this little display, and was fully
expecting the guard to bite her head off at any given moment.
Certainly, he was making strange little noises as he stared down at
her, his body shivering with what Kaji could only interpret as
anger. He knew Aoi would play up like this, at some stage, just not
so soon.
He was already beginning to accept the possibility that they
would be turfed out the front door, when the first guard spoke.
"Niki.... Please give the lady and her friend their badges, and see
that they are comfortable whilst they await Kuniko-san's arrival."
The guard was sweating, his face contorting as if the words were
being forced from his throat. His partner turned and stared at him.
"Sir...?
"Just do as I say. Or she'll... She'll..." Aoi smiled,
wickedly at the tormented guard, patting him on the shoulder.
"There's a good boy." She turned to Kaji. "So, are you
coming in or not?" Kaji stared at her and the guard in disbelief,
his legs moving by themselves as he stepped through the doorway to
join them. The first guard broke away from Aoi, staggering through
the doorway into the office as if he had just been placed under an
immense strain as his subordinate picked out a couple of badges from
a cabinet, stepping past his partner with a concerned expression to
hand them over.
"Umm.... Please wear these wherever you go through the
complex, and stick only to level one security zones. The main
security office tends to be pretty heavy on people who trespass into
places they shouldn't be."
Aoi pinned her badge on the front of her top. "I'm quite sure
we understand the drill. We ARE police officers." She smiled at
the second guard, making him giggle, nervously.
----o
"PRINCESS! GET AWAY FROM HER!" Setsuna cried, trying to
follow her, but finding she was unable to move her legs. Setsuna
looked down at her legs, wondering what was holding them back.
Visions of nightmares, of being unable to run away from horrible
things of the id, entered her mind as her feet slowly dragged across
the floor towards the one person in the world she had dedicated
herself to protecting, feeling weak and impotent as the figure of
Minako floated towards Usagi.
Usagi, for her part, started to glow, as the waves of energy
struck her with increasing force. Her clothes exploded from her
form, being replaced with ribbons that emanated from the locket on
her chest. With another wave, she was no longer Usagi, but
Serenity, covered in the flowing white robes that represented the
ancient and future princess, her hair fading from gold to silver in
seconds.
Her hands rose, to accept Minako in her arms. "Come to me,
Venus." She said in soft tones. "I will make you better."
"Prin... cess...." Minako smiled, wrapping her arms around
Serenity's form as waves of consuming energy surrounded them, mixed
with a bright white light that blinded the others. Setsuna held a
hand across her eyes in horror.
"PRINCESS!" She cried out, in grief, as both figures
disappeared within the glowing energy. Then there was a cry, and
the energy exploded outwards, literally blowing the room wide open.
Cthulu went rolling out into the courtyard, beyond, letting out
burbled cries of fear and terror as Nobuhiro and Michelle, having
grasped hold of his sides, rolled along with him. Only Setsuna was
able to stand her ground as the blast subsided.
At the center of the blast, a figure fell to her knees.
Setsuna took her hand away, and was stunned to see that the figure
was that of Usagi.
She tried her legs once more, finding them to be free of
whatever invisible bond that held them, and she ran over to Usagi
before the girl fell back, catching her naked form in time.
The cement dust that filled the air was blown away in the
wind, causing Usagi to cough as her eyes fluttered open. "Minako-
chan..." She whispered, registering Setsuna's presence, as if for
the first time. "Pluto...."
"Princess." Setsuna swallowed. "Why do you ALWAYS put
yourself into danger, time and time again?" Usagi put a hand to
Setsuna's face, thinking the woman was about to break out into
tears.
"I'm sorry." Usagi whispered. "It was Minako-chan. I had
to go to her. She's my friend." She paused. "It WAS the reason I
came here. To rescue her from these people."
"I told you... It is too late for her." Setsuna looked
around, nervously. "Maybe not now. What did you do just then?"
"I performed a Moon Healing Meditation on her. I could hear
her voice, calling out to me.... She wanted me to rescue her, from
what was happening to her. It was the only thing I could think of."
Usagi swallowed. "Where is she? Where is Minako-chan?"
Setsuna shivered, trying to avoid eye contact. "She's dead,
Princess." A long silence followed that statement. Usagi looked
away, an odd smile coming to her face.
"You're kidding me, right? I cured her. It's what she wanted
me to do. It's what I should have done from the start. She should
still be here." Usagi tried to sit up on her own, but found she was
too weak to move. "Right? I did the right thing, yes?"
"You... did the right thing." Setsuna took a long breath.
"You saved her from the pain of the transformation."
"So she should still be here." An edge of panic crept into
Usagi's voice. "I couldn't save Mako-chan. But I had the
opportunity to save Minako-chan. SO WHERE IS SHE?" Usagi started
to wriggle, trying to look around. "MINAKO-CHAAAAAN! MINAKO-
CHAAAAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" She shouted.
"Shhhh. Not so loud, Princess! We might be discovered..."
Setsuna placed a hand over Usagi's mouth, but was thrown away by a
sudden burst of violent energy, Usagi's reserves now starting to
return. She crawled away from Setsuna, who did not follow her, not
knowing how to react in this situation.
"MINAAAAKOOO-CHAAAAAAN!" Usagi's voice started to crumble,
emotion creeping in. "She can't be dead. She just can't be. I
healed her. I SAVED her."
"You healed her of something that was intrinsically a part of
her being. All the cells that made up the part of her that was,
essentially, alien, were destroyed. With them went her human cells,
scattered to the four winds. She's DEAD, Princess. She evaporated
the moment you healed her." Setsuna stood as Usagi looked into the
now-muddied waters of the swimming pool.
"She might be in the pool. In that water, somewhere. We've
got to help her." Usagi turned and looked at Setsuna. Her eyes
were tinged with an air of madness, of someone grasping at straws.
"We've got to do something. It's better than just sitting here,
isn't it? WELL ISN'T IT?" Tears cascaded from Usagi's eyes as
Setsuna looked away.
"The best you can hope for... is that her essence returned,
somehow, to Nemesis. It's happened before." Setsuna started to
walk away, pausing briefly. "Until you have some clear sign that
she is alive, we have to accept the fact that she is dead, and is
never likely to return."
"I CAN'T ACCEPT THAT POSSIBILITY! I WON'T! I ABSOLUTELY
REFUSE!" Usagi got up on her knees. "I just can't accept... that
friends of mine... are dead... just like that. They've died before,
but have come back." She paused, wiping tears away from her eyes.
"I CURED HER, PLUTO! SHE IS ALIVE! SHE IS SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE!
SHE IS... SHE IS..."
Setsuna watched as Usagi stared at her hands, shivering
uncontrollably. Slowly, she lifted those hands to her face, and she
screamed, again and again, thumping her fists into the ground.
Blood was drawn as she ripped, tore and rended at what remained of
the concrete and tiles of the poolside.
Setsuna registered the presence of Nobuhiro, Michelle and
Cthulu, watching nervously over the rubble remains of the rear wall,
Usagi's throes of temporary madness. "What's gotten into her?"
Michelle gestured with her hands, still cuffed.
"I don't expect you to understand." Setsuna crossed her arms.
"It's something that runs far deeper than your very shallow, human
spirit and experience."
"Sorry I asked." Michelle huffed. "If she continues with
that, she'll bring a million people with hostile intentions down
upon us all."
"Well, you tell her that." Setsuna stuck her nose in the air.
"I doubt you'd be any more successful than I."
"She says 'I' a lot, doesn't she?" Nobuhiro whispered aside
to Michelle. "Says something about her opinion of herself."
Usagi started to settle, curling up into a ball, sobbing.
Setsuna ignored her watchers and made her way to her side, lifting
her head into her lap, concerned at the injuries that Usagi had
committed against herself. She gently stroked Usagi's hair as the
girl sobbed.
----o
"What was all that about?" Kaji pointed back towards the
guard office as they were left in the anteroom by themselves. Aoi,
ignoring him momentarily, looked what appeared to be a small,
comfortable waiting room over, and flopped down into one of the
thickly-padded seats, looking up at Kaji with a smile on her face.
"What do you mean?" She sat back, placing her hands in her
lap. Kaji rolled his eyes and sat down in the opposite seat,
leaning forward.
"You know what I mean. That guard went all weird when you
gave him the evil eye.... What the hell was that all about, Aoi?"
Aoi feigned indifference, waving him away.
"I really don't know WHAT you're talking about, Kaji.... I
asked him to do something, and he obliged. Hardly surprising."
"It was a miracle he didn't deck you, the WAY you asked him.
It's a bloody miracle we're still in here, even." He paused. "His
reaction was NOT normal, Aoi...."
"So what?" Aoi shrugged. "Next thing you know, you'll be
going on like Pagan about my having some weird kinda power...." Aoi
paused, putting a finger to her mouth. "I wonder if they'll
recognise me, here.... They were, supposedly, interested in me."
Kaji frowned. "We're taking a risk, coming here.... You know
that, of course?"
"Oh, of course." Aoi said, dismissively. "There would be a
few questions asked if anything were to happen to us, you know?"
"Actually..." Kaji paused, then sat back in his seat, saying
nothing more.
----o
She licked her lips as she watched the men in the suits
sweating nervously around the long table. Not that it was hot in
the room, or anything, in fact quite the opposite. But when plans
you have made start to come unstuck, then you are bound to feel a
little nervous.
"Adachi Toran, the President of the Kutamata Corporation, one
of this nation's largest manufacturers of electronic hardware." She
turned to Dietman Manakuto. "Kitamaki Wasaki, the Diet's minister
of Foreign Trade. Kumabuto Hitomaru, General Manager of the Kuto
construction firm, which has won contracts for some of this
country's largest building projects, including the bridge system to
the southern isles and the new plan for the Tokyo Supertower.
Watabara Shinichi, the General Secretary of the Federal Resources
Department...."
"I see you know your bigwigs." Manakuto adjusted his tie,
nervously. "You are acquainted with these gentlemen in some way, I
take it?" Mercury placed one of her hands on the darkened window of
the anteroom and tapped the side of her nose with a finger of the
other. Manakuto got the message quickly. "So, a lady has to keep
some of her secrets, does she?"
"Lady?" Mercury laughed out loud. "You just be careful what
you call me." She turned back to the window. "What little nest of
vipers have these darlings attempted to wipe out that has suddenly
made them all so worried?" She paused. "The Sacred House, maybe?
On the orders of someone within the Coven of Atrocity.... As they
are all members of that dishonorable little group. Or, perhaps,
associate members, who became such because the Coven uncovered
secrets they'd preferred to have kept silent...."
"They are members of the Coven, such as myself." Manakuto
cleared his throat. "You are right that they may not all be
willing. I, however, am."
"And you're the one who converted these gentlemen over to your
cause, no?" Mercury stood and stretched. "Well, shall we be
acquainted? Much as I like the concept of voyeurism, it gets rather
boring after a while if interesting things stop happening."
----o
There was a whirling, wind-like noise as Fitchner found
himself tumbling along a long, multicoloured tunnel. At the other
end was a well-lit loungeroom, with a young, light-haired woman
lying asleep, or unconscious, in a large-ish armchair. He hit the
carpeted floor of the loungeroom with a solid thump, and lay there,
dazed and confused, before taking in the fact that he was no longer
in the comforting surrounds of his own house.
He looked up at the young woman... She was as pale as her
white, albino-like hair. Deathly pale. For a moment, Fitchner
considered the possibility that she was, in fact, dead, before he
saw, much to his relief, that her chest was rising and falling. He
immediately chided himself for taking notice of her chest for longer
than was necessary, getting to his feet and taking in his
surroundings.
Well, it was SOMEBODY'S house, wherever it might be. There
was an element of the religiously clean about the place. He didn't
like the anal retentive sorts who would keep their homes absolutely
spotless, neat and just so, so he immediately felt well put out by
it all. He then stepped over to the young woman and stared into her
face, wondering if this was the person that Sherilyn Meehan was
talking about. The girl who was capable of producing large
quantities of what she described as 'bad blood'. As far as Fitchner
was concerned, it didn't look like this girl had enough normal blood
to suffice, let alone large quantities of the bad stuff. He thought
it best to check the place out before he decided to nab this girl
and drag her back with the recall device.
He looked at the small object, sitting in his hand. In the
greater light of the loungeroom, it looked even stranger than it did
in his own. Almost as if it were a living thing, the resin-like
surface pulsing with the button light. But that was impossible, of
course.... No inanimate object, device, could really be imbued with
a form of life, could it? With what he'd seen and heard in the last
half an hour, he was willing to believe almost anything.
Moving out of the loungeroom, he peered into what was,
obviously, the kitchen. The light was on, but there was nobody
there. There was a door at the far end, obviously leading out into
whatever constituted a back yard, but it was shut. He stepped over
and tried it, to find it locked. Shaking his head, he moved back
out of the kitchen, through the lounge and turned right, into a
small hallway. There were two doors leading off the hallway, before
it turned right, leading to a bathroom. The light was on in the
bathroom, and he could see a dark red stain, like blood, running
from what had to be the bathtub, across the bathroom floor, into
the hallway and disappearing in the far bedroom door. Blood. He
paused, swallowing.... Like a body, being dragged from one room to
another. A freshly murdered body....
He didn't know if he wanted to see any more, but horrified
fascination wouldn't allow him to back away. He moved down the
hallway, towards the bedroom. On the floor of the bedroom, he could
see towels, all bloodied, dumped in a pile beside the door. There
was a soft, repeated, wheezing sound coming from deeper within the
bedroom, and he could see light, cast across its far wall. A
bedlamp.
Fitchner stopped by the doorway. There was the figure of a
very pretty young woman, lying on the bed, roughly dressed in a red
and black kimono. For one horrible moment, Fitchner considered the
possibility that the red in the kimono was.... He put that thought
out of his mind as he turned his nose up at the smell of the reeking
towels.
The wheezing noise was the labored breathing of the young
woman. Her hands were crossed over her chest, as if trying to hold
it down. As she did so, there was a soft cracking noise, like
leather under pressure. The cracking was accompanied by a
squelching that he found quite stomach-turning, mostly since the
noise seemed to be coming from the young woman.
Then she spasmed, her back arching, and there was an almighty
crack. She settled back onto the bed and relaxed, breathing much
more easily. Fitchner wondered if he should step into the bedroom
when the young woman opened her eyes and turned to look at him,
smiling. "Hello." She said, sweetly.
"Hello." He found himself saying back, almost automatically.
The girl giggled.
"Who are you?" The open innocence of her tone belied the
bizarre nature of the situation. Fitchner looked around, trying to
find the words to say.
"I'm... er...." He stammered. "My name is Martin Fitchner.
Sorry to bother you like this."
"Oh, it's no bother. I'm just rearranging a few ribs. They
can get all out of shape when my chest opens up. Makes it really
hard to breathe, you know?"
"I... would imagine so." Fitchner felt like he was going mad.
"Umm.... You said your chest opened up...."
"Hai." The young woman patted her chest. "It's something
that happens every so often. Not very pleasant, but it seems to be
necessary. Why, I don't know. An affliction I was born with,
probably."
"Tell me.... Do you bleed a lot when your chest opens up?"
Fitchner asked the question with deliberate slowness. The girl
seemed surprised.
"Yes, as it happens. That's the reason my chest opens up. A
lot of bad blood fills up these pouches in my chest, and they just
have to be emptied. How do you know?"
Fitchner strode into the room, feeling a little more
confident. "A friend of yours asked me to bring you to her. She
said you would be someone who produces lots of what she termed to be
'bad blood'." He put a hand behind the back of his head. "I know
this must sound kind of silly. I don't really understand what is
going on, here, myself."
"Ah, I see." The young woman looked away, thinking. "And who
might this friend of mine be?"
"She said her name was Meehan. Sherilyn Meehan." Fitchner
held out the recall button. "She asked me to make contact with you,
and bring you back using this device."
The young woman took a breath and swung her legs over the side
of the bed, sitting up and studying the device. The action was so
rapid that it surprised Fitchner. "Very interesting device you have
there, Fitchner-san. Lucifer Folk bioengineering." She smiled. "A
form of living technology. Single function, of course. Gating
retrieval. I wonder if it is able to think as we do...."
Fitchner looked at the device in his hands. "You mean to tell
me that this is a living thing?"
"Of course it is alive. Can't you see its heart beating?"
The young woman stood. "Ano.... I haven't introduced myself. My
name is Hayakawa Arisa." She bowed, politely. "You would be the
father of one Michelle Fitchner."
"You...." Fitchner paused. "Yes, of course you would know
who she is." He sighed, closing his eyes. "It's too much to think
about."
"Of course, Fitchner-san.... Sherrie Meehan could not have
given you such a device." Fitchner opened his eyes, staring at her
in surprise.
"Why forever not?"
"Because, Fitchner-san.... Sherrie Meehan is dead." She
paused. "Or, at the very least, has had her essence sent to
Nemesis. It is extremely unlikely that she would have been able to
return in such a short space of time."
"Well, tell her that." Fitchner put the device into the
pocket of her coat. "She seems to have a lot to talk with you,
about."
"And I look forward to meeting with this person." Arisa
tilted her head. "But first.... Will you do the honors, Maria?"
Fitchner didn't know what she was talking about, until he felt
something come down on the back of his head. Of course, he thought
as he fell to the floor, there had to be someone else in the house.
In seconds, he was out like a light.
END OF PART 37
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter - "Cellular Rejection"
_________
/ @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page)
/ / ^ ^ \ \ ayanami@internode.on.net
/\
\/ \/
\___________/
/_/ \_\ PU
VERSION 1.0 - Friday, 28th May 1999
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME (Mark A Page)
Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon and Silent Mobius are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Kia
Asamiya, Michitaka Kikuchi, Bandai, Studio Tron, Kadokawa and
Kodansya. All other characters were thought up by me.
Part Thirtyseven
Elementary Elementals
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing that struck Aoi, about the entrance hall of
the Coven's headquarters, was how very grand-guignol it all looked,
perhaps even gothic. She hated gothic. As far as she was
concerned, this was Japan, and gothic had absolutely no place being
here.
The ceiling was so high up that she was sure there wasn't
one.... That the darkness up there was the sky. Surrounded by
doors and mirrored windows, reflecting her underwhelmed presence,
she waited as Kaji negotiated with the guards, through the window
of the adjoining office, to let them into the heart of the Coven.
Aoi did her best to suppress any nervousness she felt about
the cult group. Pagan, despite his efforts to introduce himself as
a member of the Coven, had not actually described what the internal
machinations were like. Word of mouth, passed along from one cop to
another, about past investigations into cult group activities and
raids on cult headquarters had usually been tainted with the lurid
and the horrific. Visions of young, naked men and women, chained to
the walls of every corridor, being flogged and starved and molested,
filled her tired mind.
She yawned. It had been a long time since she'd had any
decent sleep, and thus was slow in registering Kaji's calls to her.
She turned to him as he gestured for her to come to him, pointing to
an open door by the guard office. "They say we can go in, but only
on visitors passes." Kaji grumbled as she stepped alongside him.
"Better than nothing, I suppose." Aoi whispered as one of the
guards stepped out through the door, eyeing them over.
"Who is the woman?" The guard, a tall, pale figure, gestured
to Aoi. "Is she important to you?"
"Well, you can say she is." Kaji harrumphed. "She is my
partner." The guard turned to Aoi with an expression of contempt.
"Your partner? As in matrimony or otherwise." Both Aoi and
Kaji almost facefaulted. Seeing the expressions on their faces, the
guard doubled back. "I'm sorry, but we have to ask these questions.
The powers that be are most concerned with blood lines and pair
bonding. If she were to be found to be suitable...."
"If I WAS to be found suitable, my dear friend, I certainly
wouldn't choose to be some brood mare for your two-bit
organisation!" Aoi snarled, giving the guard the finger before Kaji
stepped in front of her, trying to suppress the situation.
"I can assure you, as far as I know she will not be...
suitable for your purposes." He sweated under the guard's glare.
"Are we to meet with someone in authority?"
"You will be guided by a special officer, to the limits of
your entry." The guard gestured to the doorway. "Please step
through and wait for their arrival in the anteroom." Kaji stared at
the doorway, the corridor beyond lit only by the light from the
guard office.
"Why do we have to wait there? I met with... who was it?
Kuniko... Yes, that was it.... I met Kuniko-san here the last time
I passed through here." Kaji crossed his arms as Aoi stuck her
tongue out at the guard, over Kaji's shoulder. The guard turned
away, icily.
"You can either wait in the anteroom or leave. It is your
choice." He looked as if he was about to step back through the
doorway before Aoi brushed past both he and Kaji, huffing.
"What is it with all this unspoken threat stuff? Are you
people drinking in the bitters, or what?" She stopped by the
doorway to the office and peered in at the second guard. "So do
we get nice little badges with 'outsider' marked on them, so we can
feel REALLY subconscious about being here?" The guard ignored her,
making her puff up her cheeks in frustration. "HEY, FATBOY! I'M
TALKING TO YOU!"
"He's only qualified to reply to his superior." The first
guard followed her through the doorway and stood over her in a
rather intimidating fashion. Aoi looked up at him, unimpressed.
"And who might his superior be?"
"I am his superior. He shall only speak when I let him."
"You're running a right little fascist state here, aren't you?
No talking unless your superior allows you to...." Aoi lifted up a
finger and flicked the guard across the nose. "Tell fatboy to
speak. I can't stand the way he just sits there, ignoring me."
Kaji was cringing through this little display, and was fully
expecting the guard to bite her head off at any given moment.
Certainly, he was making strange little noises as he stared down at
her, his body shivering with what Kaji could only interpret as
anger. He knew Aoi would play up like this, at some stage, just not
so soon.
He was already beginning to accept the possibility that they
would be turfed out the front door, when the first guard spoke.
"Niki.... Please give the lady and her friend their badges, and see
that they are comfortable whilst they await Kuniko-san's arrival."
The guard was sweating, his face contorting as if the words were
being forced from his throat. His partner turned and stared at him.
"Sir...?
"Just do as I say. Or she'll... She'll..." Aoi smiled,
wickedly at the tormented guard, patting him on the shoulder.
"There's a good boy." She turned to Kaji. "So, are you
coming in or not?" Kaji stared at her and the guard in disbelief,
his legs moving by themselves as he stepped through the doorway to
join them. The first guard broke away from Aoi, staggering through
the doorway into the office as if he had just been placed under an
immense strain as his subordinate picked out a couple of badges from
a cabinet, stepping past his partner with a concerned expression to
hand them over.
"Umm.... Please wear these wherever you go through the
complex, and stick only to level one security zones. The main
security office tends to be pretty heavy on people who trespass into
places they shouldn't be."
Aoi pinned her badge on the front of her top. "I'm quite sure
we understand the drill. We ARE police officers." She smiled at
the second guard, making him giggle, nervously.
----o
"PRINCESS! GET AWAY FROM HER!" Setsuna cried, trying to
follow her, but finding she was unable to move her legs. Setsuna
looked down at her legs, wondering what was holding them back.
Visions of nightmares, of being unable to run away from horrible
things of the id, entered her mind as her feet slowly dragged across
the floor towards the one person in the world she had dedicated
herself to protecting, feeling weak and impotent as the figure of
Minako floated towards Usagi.
Usagi, for her part, started to glow, as the waves of energy
struck her with increasing force. Her clothes exploded from her
form, being replaced with ribbons that emanated from the locket on
her chest. With another wave, she was no longer Usagi, but
Serenity, covered in the flowing white robes that represented the
ancient and future princess, her hair fading from gold to silver in
seconds.
Her hands rose, to accept Minako in her arms. "Come to me,
Venus." She said in soft tones. "I will make you better."
"Prin... cess...." Minako smiled, wrapping her arms around
Serenity's form as waves of consuming energy surrounded them, mixed
with a bright white light that blinded the others. Setsuna held a
hand across her eyes in horror.
"PRINCESS!" She cried out, in grief, as both figures
disappeared within the glowing energy. Then there was a cry, and
the energy exploded outwards, literally blowing the room wide open.
Cthulu went rolling out into the courtyard, beyond, letting out
burbled cries of fear and terror as Nobuhiro and Michelle, having
grasped hold of his sides, rolled along with him. Only Setsuna was
able to stand her ground as the blast subsided.
At the center of the blast, a figure fell to her knees.
Setsuna took her hand away, and was stunned to see that the figure
was that of Usagi.
She tried her legs once more, finding them to be free of
whatever invisible bond that held them, and she ran over to Usagi
before the girl fell back, catching her naked form in time.
The cement dust that filled the air was blown away in the
wind, causing Usagi to cough as her eyes fluttered open. "Minako-
chan..." She whispered, registering Setsuna's presence, as if for
the first time. "Pluto...."
"Princess." Setsuna swallowed. "Why do you ALWAYS put
yourself into danger, time and time again?" Usagi put a hand to
Setsuna's face, thinking the woman was about to break out into
tears.
"I'm sorry." Usagi whispered. "It was Minako-chan. I had
to go to her. She's my friend." She paused. "It WAS the reason I
came here. To rescue her from these people."
"I told you... It is too late for her." Setsuna looked
around, nervously. "Maybe not now. What did you do just then?"
"I performed a Moon Healing Meditation on her. I could hear
her voice, calling out to me.... She wanted me to rescue her, from
what was happening to her. It was the only thing I could think of."
Usagi swallowed. "Where is she? Where is Minako-chan?"
Setsuna shivered, trying to avoid eye contact. "She's dead,
Princess." A long silence followed that statement. Usagi looked
away, an odd smile coming to her face.
"You're kidding me, right? I cured her. It's what she wanted
me to do. It's what I should have done from the start. She should
still be here." Usagi tried to sit up on her own, but found she was
too weak to move. "Right? I did the right thing, yes?"
"You... did the right thing." Setsuna took a long breath.
"You saved her from the pain of the transformation."
"So she should still be here." An edge of panic crept into
Usagi's voice. "I couldn't save Mako-chan. But I had the
opportunity to save Minako-chan. SO WHERE IS SHE?" Usagi started
to wriggle, trying to look around. "MINAKO-CHAAAAAN! MINAKO-
CHAAAAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" She shouted.
"Shhhh. Not so loud, Princess! We might be discovered..."
Setsuna placed a hand over Usagi's mouth, but was thrown away by a
sudden burst of violent energy, Usagi's reserves now starting to
return. She crawled away from Setsuna, who did not follow her, not
knowing how to react in this situation.
"MINAAAAKOOO-CHAAAAAAN!" Usagi's voice started to crumble,
emotion creeping in. "She can't be dead. She just can't be. I
healed her. I SAVED her."
"You healed her of something that was intrinsically a part of
her being. All the cells that made up the part of her that was,
essentially, alien, were destroyed. With them went her human cells,
scattered to the four winds. She's DEAD, Princess. She evaporated
the moment you healed her." Setsuna stood as Usagi looked into the
now-muddied waters of the swimming pool.
"She might be in the pool. In that water, somewhere. We've
got to help her." Usagi turned and looked at Setsuna. Her eyes
were tinged with an air of madness, of someone grasping at straws.
"We've got to do something. It's better than just sitting here,
isn't it? WELL ISN'T IT?" Tears cascaded from Usagi's eyes as
Setsuna looked away.
"The best you can hope for... is that her essence returned,
somehow, to Nemesis. It's happened before." Setsuna started to
walk away, pausing briefly. "Until you have some clear sign that
she is alive, we have to accept the fact that she is dead, and is
never likely to return."
"I CAN'T ACCEPT THAT POSSIBILITY! I WON'T! I ABSOLUTELY
REFUSE!" Usagi got up on her knees. "I just can't accept... that
friends of mine... are dead... just like that. They've died before,
but have come back." She paused, wiping tears away from her eyes.
"I CURED HER, PLUTO! SHE IS ALIVE! SHE IS SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE!
SHE IS... SHE IS..."
Setsuna watched as Usagi stared at her hands, shivering
uncontrollably. Slowly, she lifted those hands to her face, and she
screamed, again and again, thumping her fists into the ground.
Blood was drawn as she ripped, tore and rended at what remained of
the concrete and tiles of the poolside.
Setsuna registered the presence of Nobuhiro, Michelle and
Cthulu, watching nervously over the rubble remains of the rear wall,
Usagi's throes of temporary madness. "What's gotten into her?"
Michelle gestured with her hands, still cuffed.
"I don't expect you to understand." Setsuna crossed her arms.
"It's something that runs far deeper than your very shallow, human
spirit and experience."
"Sorry I asked." Michelle huffed. "If she continues with
that, she'll bring a million people with hostile intentions down
upon us all."
"Well, you tell her that." Setsuna stuck her nose in the air.
"I doubt you'd be any more successful than I."
"She says 'I' a lot, doesn't she?" Nobuhiro whispered aside
to Michelle. "Says something about her opinion of herself."
Usagi started to settle, curling up into a ball, sobbing.
Setsuna ignored her watchers and made her way to her side, lifting
her head into her lap, concerned at the injuries that Usagi had
committed against herself. She gently stroked Usagi's hair as the
girl sobbed.
----o
"What was all that about?" Kaji pointed back towards the
guard office as they were left in the anteroom by themselves. Aoi,
ignoring him momentarily, looked what appeared to be a small,
comfortable waiting room over, and flopped down into one of the
thickly-padded seats, looking up at Kaji with a smile on her face.
"What do you mean?" She sat back, placing her hands in her
lap. Kaji rolled his eyes and sat down in the opposite seat,
leaning forward.
"You know what I mean. That guard went all weird when you
gave him the evil eye.... What the hell was that all about, Aoi?"
Aoi feigned indifference, waving him away.
"I really don't know WHAT you're talking about, Kaji.... I
asked him to do something, and he obliged. Hardly surprising."
"It was a miracle he didn't deck you, the WAY you asked him.
It's a bloody miracle we're still in here, even." He paused. "His
reaction was NOT normal, Aoi...."
"So what?" Aoi shrugged. "Next thing you know, you'll be
going on like Pagan about my having some weird kinda power...." Aoi
paused, putting a finger to her mouth. "I wonder if they'll
recognise me, here.... They were, supposedly, interested in me."
Kaji frowned. "We're taking a risk, coming here.... You know
that, of course?"
"Oh, of course." Aoi said, dismissively. "There would be a
few questions asked if anything were to happen to us, you know?"
"Actually..." Kaji paused, then sat back in his seat, saying
nothing more.
----o
She licked her lips as she watched the men in the suits
sweating nervously around the long table. Not that it was hot in
the room, or anything, in fact quite the opposite. But when plans
you have made start to come unstuck, then you are bound to feel a
little nervous.
"Adachi Toran, the President of the Kutamata Corporation, one
of this nation's largest manufacturers of electronic hardware." She
turned to Dietman Manakuto. "Kitamaki Wasaki, the Diet's minister
of Foreign Trade. Kumabuto Hitomaru, General Manager of the Kuto
construction firm, which has won contracts for some of this
country's largest building projects, including the bridge system to
the southern isles and the new plan for the Tokyo Supertower.
Watabara Shinichi, the General Secretary of the Federal Resources
Department...."
"I see you know your bigwigs." Manakuto adjusted his tie,
nervously. "You are acquainted with these gentlemen in some way, I
take it?" Mercury placed one of her hands on the darkened window of
the anteroom and tapped the side of her nose with a finger of the
other. Manakuto got the message quickly. "So, a lady has to keep
some of her secrets, does she?"
"Lady?" Mercury laughed out loud. "You just be careful what
you call me." She turned back to the window. "What little nest of
vipers have these darlings attempted to wipe out that has suddenly
made them all so worried?" She paused. "The Sacred House, maybe?
On the orders of someone within the Coven of Atrocity.... As they
are all members of that dishonorable little group. Or, perhaps,
associate members, who became such because the Coven uncovered
secrets they'd preferred to have kept silent...."
"They are members of the Coven, such as myself." Manakuto
cleared his throat. "You are right that they may not all be
willing. I, however, am."
"And you're the one who converted these gentlemen over to your
cause, no?" Mercury stood and stretched. "Well, shall we be
acquainted? Much as I like the concept of voyeurism, it gets rather
boring after a while if interesting things stop happening."
----o
There was a whirling, wind-like noise as Fitchner found
himself tumbling along a long, multicoloured tunnel. At the other
end was a well-lit loungeroom, with a young, light-haired woman
lying asleep, or unconscious, in a large-ish armchair. He hit the
carpeted floor of the loungeroom with a solid thump, and lay there,
dazed and confused, before taking in the fact that he was no longer
in the comforting surrounds of his own house.
He looked up at the young woman... She was as pale as her
white, albino-like hair. Deathly pale. For a moment, Fitchner
considered the possibility that she was, in fact, dead, before he
saw, much to his relief, that her chest was rising and falling. He
immediately chided himself for taking notice of her chest for longer
than was necessary, getting to his feet and taking in his
surroundings.
Well, it was SOMEBODY'S house, wherever it might be. There
was an element of the religiously clean about the place. He didn't
like the anal retentive sorts who would keep their homes absolutely
spotless, neat and just so, so he immediately felt well put out by
it all. He then stepped over to the young woman and stared into her
face, wondering if this was the person that Sherilyn Meehan was
talking about. The girl who was capable of producing large
quantities of what she described as 'bad blood'. As far as Fitchner
was concerned, it didn't look like this girl had enough normal blood
to suffice, let alone large quantities of the bad stuff. He thought
it best to check the place out before he decided to nab this girl
and drag her back with the recall device.
He looked at the small object, sitting in his hand. In the
greater light of the loungeroom, it looked even stranger than it did
in his own. Almost as if it were a living thing, the resin-like
surface pulsing with the button light. But that was impossible, of
course.... No inanimate object, device, could really be imbued with
a form of life, could it? With what he'd seen and heard in the last
half an hour, he was willing to believe almost anything.
Moving out of the loungeroom, he peered into what was,
obviously, the kitchen. The light was on, but there was nobody
there. There was a door at the far end, obviously leading out into
whatever constituted a back yard, but it was shut. He stepped over
and tried it, to find it locked. Shaking his head, he moved back
out of the kitchen, through the lounge and turned right, into a
small hallway. There were two doors leading off the hallway, before
it turned right, leading to a bathroom. The light was on in the
bathroom, and he could see a dark red stain, like blood, running
from what had to be the bathtub, across the bathroom floor, into
the hallway and disappearing in the far bedroom door. Blood. He
paused, swallowing.... Like a body, being dragged from one room to
another. A freshly murdered body....
He didn't know if he wanted to see any more, but horrified
fascination wouldn't allow him to back away. He moved down the
hallway, towards the bedroom. On the floor of the bedroom, he could
see towels, all bloodied, dumped in a pile beside the door. There
was a soft, repeated, wheezing sound coming from deeper within the
bedroom, and he could see light, cast across its far wall. A
bedlamp.
Fitchner stopped by the doorway. There was the figure of a
very pretty young woman, lying on the bed, roughly dressed in a red
and black kimono. For one horrible moment, Fitchner considered the
possibility that the red in the kimono was.... He put that thought
out of his mind as he turned his nose up at the smell of the reeking
towels.
The wheezing noise was the labored breathing of the young
woman. Her hands were crossed over her chest, as if trying to hold
it down. As she did so, there was a soft cracking noise, like
leather under pressure. The cracking was accompanied by a
squelching that he found quite stomach-turning, mostly since the
noise seemed to be coming from the young woman.
Then she spasmed, her back arching, and there was an almighty
crack. She settled back onto the bed and relaxed, breathing much
more easily. Fitchner wondered if he should step into the bedroom
when the young woman opened her eyes and turned to look at him,
smiling. "Hello." She said, sweetly.
"Hello." He found himself saying back, almost automatically.
The girl giggled.
"Who are you?" The open innocence of her tone belied the
bizarre nature of the situation. Fitchner looked around, trying to
find the words to say.
"I'm... er...." He stammered. "My name is Martin Fitchner.
Sorry to bother you like this."
"Oh, it's no bother. I'm just rearranging a few ribs. They
can get all out of shape when my chest opens up. Makes it really
hard to breathe, you know?"
"I... would imagine so." Fitchner felt like he was going mad.
"Umm.... You said your chest opened up...."
"Hai." The young woman patted her chest. "It's something
that happens every so often. Not very pleasant, but it seems to be
necessary. Why, I don't know. An affliction I was born with,
probably."
"Tell me.... Do you bleed a lot when your chest opens up?"
Fitchner asked the question with deliberate slowness. The girl
seemed surprised.
"Yes, as it happens. That's the reason my chest opens up. A
lot of bad blood fills up these pouches in my chest, and they just
have to be emptied. How do you know?"
Fitchner strode into the room, feeling a little more
confident. "A friend of yours asked me to bring you to her. She
said you would be someone who produces lots of what she termed to be
'bad blood'." He put a hand behind the back of his head. "I know
this must sound kind of silly. I don't really understand what is
going on, here, myself."
"Ah, I see." The young woman looked away, thinking. "And who
might this friend of mine be?"
"She said her name was Meehan. Sherilyn Meehan." Fitchner
held out the recall button. "She asked me to make contact with you,
and bring you back using this device."
The young woman took a breath and swung her legs over the side
of the bed, sitting up and studying the device. The action was so
rapid that it surprised Fitchner. "Very interesting device you have
there, Fitchner-san. Lucifer Folk bioengineering." She smiled. "A
form of living technology. Single function, of course. Gating
retrieval. I wonder if it is able to think as we do...."
Fitchner looked at the device in his hands. "You mean to tell
me that this is a living thing?"
"Of course it is alive. Can't you see its heart beating?"
The young woman stood. "Ano.... I haven't introduced myself. My
name is Hayakawa Arisa." She bowed, politely. "You would be the
father of one Michelle Fitchner."
"You...." Fitchner paused. "Yes, of course you would know
who she is." He sighed, closing his eyes. "It's too much to think
about."
"Of course, Fitchner-san.... Sherrie Meehan could not have
given you such a device." Fitchner opened his eyes, staring at her
in surprise.
"Why forever not?"
"Because, Fitchner-san.... Sherrie Meehan is dead." She
paused. "Or, at the very least, has had her essence sent to
Nemesis. It is extremely unlikely that she would have been able to
return in such a short space of time."
"Well, tell her that." Fitchner put the device into the
pocket of her coat. "She seems to have a lot to talk with you,
about."
"And I look forward to meeting with this person." Arisa
tilted her head. "But first.... Will you do the honors, Maria?"
Fitchner didn't know what she was talking about, until he felt
something come down on the back of his head. Of course, he thought
as he fell to the floor, there had to be someone else in the house.
In seconds, he was out like a light.
END OF PART 37
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Next Chapter - "Cellular Rejection"
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/ @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page)
/ / ^ ^ \ \ ayanami@internode.on.net
/\
\/ \/
\___________/
/_/ \_\ PU
VERSION 1.0 - Friday, 28th May 1999