When the Senshi are Away, the Cats Will Play
Chapter Two
The day after the rescue, Artemis was sitting the Tsukino families couch, reading the front page of the newspaper. Luna approached him curious "Artemis, what are you reading?"
"It's called a newspaper, but that's not important right now." The white cat looked up and winked, while Luna just moaned. "That girl, Koneko, and her family are in the paper. It seems that her father is a cop, a detective on the Organized Crime Task Force."
"Hmmm...I wonder if his job has anything to do with the kidnapping." Luna pondered out loud.
Artemis winked at her. "Thinking about becoming a detective, Luna?"
"Definitely not! But I am, or at least was, an advisor to the Queen, and I am trained to think about such things."
"Sure, sure." Artemis waved that off. "I actually thought the same thing. Mostly, though, I was just wondering if the kid was all right."
"You always did have a soft spot for children, Artemis." Luna commented, with an affectionate smile. Of course she had no idea she was smiling at Artemis.
Luckily for her, Neither did Artemis, since he was still engrossed in the news article. "It is kind of an occupational hazard for us."
Luna chuckled "I suppose that is true." She laid down, shrugging. "Either way, I doubt we will ever see Koneko ever again."
Artemis looked thought full at her statement, then hopped into the air with no preamble, and did a flip. A small computer, similar though not as sleek as the Mercury computer, landed on the couch. Artemis quickly opened it up and started typing on the keyboard.
"WHERE did you get THAT?" Luna said, eyes wide.
Artemis chuckled, and winked at the black cat next to him. "Pawn shop on Mercury, about a year before the Fall. It doesn't have a tenth of the power of the Mercury computer, heck I doubt it has a hundredth, but it has come in useful. It at least let me play Central Command for a while."
"yeessss. A most, amusing joke...NOT!" Luna muttered, then her eyes grew very wide. "Oh, my. Now I sound like Usagi."
"had to happen sometime. I knew you'd loosen up." Artemis said. "Found it!"
Luna gave up on trying to glare him into proper repentance, since he was ignoring it, and peered over his shoulder, curious about the computer if not what he was doing. "What did you find?"
"Keneko's families home. He hopped off the couch, and paused at the kitchen entrance. "You coming Luna?"
She sighed, and hopped down following the white cat. "I suppose, if only to keep you out of trouble."
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"WHAT did you say?" demanded the large, unpleasant looking man behind the desk.
"I said, Mr. Kuragi, that they claim two cats beat them up. Two talking cats." The man on the other side of the desk replied, tucking his briefcase further under his chair.
Mr. Kuragi leaned back in his chair with a sardonic grin. "Trying for an insanity plea, are they?"
The Lawyer chuckled. "They might have a good shot. They act as if they truly believe what they are saying." His face returned to a more somber expression. "Other then that though, they are telling the police nothing."
"Good." Mr. Kuragi's face also returned to its customary frown. "I suppose I'll just have to call The Gaki in on this."
"Then I suppose I shall be on my way. The less I know about that the better." The lawyer stood, grabbing his briefcase on his way to his feet.
Kuragi nodded, grabbing a slip of paper and writing a quick note on it. "And please, give this to Shin, when you meet him for your appointment tomorrow."
The Lawyer nodded, fully aware that he was going to take two men's death warrants to their prison, tomorrow. "Of course, sir."
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"I swear, Artemis, if you have gotten us lost..." Luna let the threat hang in the air.
"Don't worry, its right here." The white cat stopped in front of a nice, though small, house in the suburbs. "Nice place."
"Yes, a virtual urban palace." Luna muttered, not believing how far she had walked today.
Artemis just chuckled, and started walking around the house. "And would you look at all the cops. I guess they aren't going to let anyone get kidnapped again."
Luna looked around blinking. "What Police?"
"That guy fixing his car, that woman walking her dog, and the patrol car that will be coming around the corner about...now." as a police cruiser turned the block and drove down the road.
Luna blinked, shocked. "How in the world did you know that?"
"Easy, the German Shepard is ignoring us, and the guy at the car would probably be using his garage and not the side of the road."
"And the Police Car?"
Artemis winked. "I saw it between those two houses over there." He jogged away from the black cat, who had face faulted at the revelation.
Luna soon followed, however and found Artemis on the edge of a fence, watching something. She hopped up and took a look herself, finding Koneko playing in a small sandbox in her back yard. A man was pruning his hedges one house over.
"Is he a police officer, too?" Luna asked gesturing towards the gardener.
Artemis glanced over, and shook his head. "Nope, just a really bad gardener."
Luna growled, since she thought she had had that one.
"The two guys in that house with the camera's and binoculars are, though." Artemis blinked. "Luna, are you alright?"
Luna looked up from the grass below. "Who are you and what did you do with Artemis. He isn't that observant!"
"One, yes I am." Artemis said, hopping down himself. "Two, I was Minako's assistant in the Silver Millennium. I was kinda her right hand man at the sneaky undercover stuff. This incarnation isn't much worse at subtle then she was back then."
Luna frowned, then nodded. "Point taken."
"Kitties!" Koneko had finally noticed her visitors, and ran over waving. "Hello Mr. Artemis, Hello Mrs. Luna." She smiled happily at them.
"That is Miss Luna, thank you." Luna said, glaring at the chuckling Artemis.\
"You aren't Mr. Artemis's girlfriend?" The little girl asked.
Luna was glad she was black, so she didn't show her blush, or anger as Artemis literally started rolling with laughter. "No, dear, I am not."
"Oh, that's sad. Poor Mr. Artemis." She grabbed the white cat up in a hug.
Luna watched on, as Artemis mouthed 'help me', and just waved at him.
"Koneko, where are you? Koneko?" Mrs. Shimaka came out of her back door, fearing her daughter had disappeared.
"Over here, mommy." The little girl yelled, and got up, running over to her mother, still carrying the oxygen deprived Artemis. Luna followed.
"Koneko, where did you get those cats?" She said, surprised. She didn't know anyone in the neighborhood that had a black OR white cat.
"They saved us mommy." She said. "This is Mr. Artemis, and this is Miss Luna." Koneko frowned, looking thoughtful. "I think Miss Luna is angry at Mr. Artemis, though. She dumped him."
Artemis, finally shifting in her grasp so he could breath snickered softly, while Luna just looked at the ground shaking her head, mortified.
"So these are the talking cats, hmmm?" The mother smiled at her daughter, and leaned over, looking Luna in the eyes when she looked up. "And what do you have to say for yourselves, running out and not taking your thank you's?"
Artemis was slightly panicked, while Luna took it in stride. "Merrrowwgrrrpprrrrrrr." Making a noise, much longer then most cat's would have, but well with in their abilities.
Mrs. Shimaka blinked at the rather startling audio display, which had continued for several seconds. "Well, I see what she means by talking." The woman chuckled. "I guess I will say thank you then." nodding to both cats with over dramatic respect.
She only sweat dropped a little bit when both nodded (Artemis) or bowed (Luna) in return.
"Well, since the cats are so...well behaved...I suppose you can play with them. Just be careful Koneko!" She said, turning and walking back into the house muttering "Who trains a cat to BOW, for crying out loud."
"Yay. What do you want to play Mr. Artemis?"
"How about hospital. I really need to lay down." he said in a pained voice. Even a cats back has limits.
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"Man she is a cute kid." Officer Tanaka said to his partner, smiling.
"Sure is, I'll give you that." Sgt. Hibuki nodded. "Got a grandkid her age, just as cute." Looking over at his partner. "I'll tell you what, someone tries to lay an unfriendly finger on the girl, is going to get a whole lot of Hibuki brand pain."
"Save some room for Tanaka, Sarge." He returned to watching the girl, and the two cats.
The Sergeant also returned to watching with a video camera. When one of the cats started berating the other cat and Koneko, they both looked away and at each other. "You, umm...You don't suppose those thugs in lock up where telling the truth about the talking cats."
"No, and neither do you. We both have careers to worry about here."
"Right. Probably our imagination."
"Sure is."
AN: Yep, I continued it. And I am still writing "the Kingdom Comes Again " too. I am either an over achiever, or just easily distracted. Oh well.