Chapter 2
Luna was the first to awaken after their kidnapping. She shook herself a few times, and then began to look around for the Sailor Senshi. What she saw did not please her in the least. Tall stone-gray walls surrounded a relatively small room. What it lacked in comfort and niceties it made up in downright dismal looks. There was absolutely no ornamentation, no paintings or artwork. It was as if the owner of this lair did not want to be distracted by anything that would get in its way. It looked like the ceiling went on and on. Luna herself was enclosed in what appeared to be a floating prison made of a metal she had never seen before. The Sailor Senshi, Chibi Usa, Mamoru, Artemis and Diana were limp and prone on the floor of their separate box-like cells. All were floating about thirty feet in the air and . If Luna or anything did manage to escape, they would be immediately killed or mortally wounded upon reaching the floor. Oh dear, Luna thought as she began to pace worriedly, this does not bode well for our chances of escaping. I do hope that somebody will wake up. I sincerely doubt that any amount of yelling is going to do me any good. Even Luna could not explain the dread that she felt when she considered just staying put and waiting. She knew that they could not stay here for long, for whatever reason. A sinister laugh echoed in the immensely tall room which caused Luna to jump and hiss in fright. Tall, dark and beautiful, an extremely dangerous looking woman floated down from what appeared to be the room's invisible ceiling. She would have had shoulder length black hair if it wasn't already tightly restrained in a severe looking French braid. Her face was drawn tightly over sharp facial features. Her coal black eyes glittered in the dim light that was provided for this place. Her eyes lacked any other coloration excepting the dark pupils of her eyes. This of course, was the one and only Ryuu Kuki, famed bounty hunter and killer of the Milky Way Galaxy. "Why are we here? Why are we held hostage with no explanation?" Luna shouted as loud as she could at the still figure that was descending rapidly from above. "Why, why, why. Is that all you can think of to greet me, the hunter and killer of all this pathetic universes' criminals?" Kuki's mocking tone of voice grated on Luna's sensitive ears. The voice itself wasn't unpleasant, except that the owner was the only thing standing between Luna and death, a fact of which she was certain. "In fact, I would think that you would be honored to share a very special occasion with me. I have been waiting to be called on to serve my masters, but they have overlooked me because of my past history with their other generals," The last word was voiced with an all too audible hiss. "Do you not know what special meeting of the stars is arriving, almost on our doorstep?" "I have absolutely no clue as to what you are talking about." "Oh, but haven't you heard?" The woman smiled diabolically. "No, I suppose not. Well then, the task of instructing you on this wondrous occasion falls to me, I suppose." "Imagine the entire universe, at the beginning of time, when the Sailor Senshi were created. Think back to when Sailor Nebula was created. You know of the Teaching Ballads, don't you? No? Well, they state that when she emerged, the Negaforce was born at the same instant. Therefore, they had a linked life, one being unable to live without the other. The newly created Sailor Senshi could not stand to look at her, because of the fact that she was somehow bonded with such an evil thing. A growing hate began to emerge from the Sailors, and it was concentrated on the Terrifying Senshi. "Sailor Nebula was murdered. Horribly. But it wasn't by Queen Serenity's hand. No, it was by a simple serpent named Jadoku. He was a lowly helper to you Moon Cats, and he wanted to rise above his station. He decided that the best way would be to kill one of the Senshi, and then frame one of you as the culprit." "But why? Why would Jadoku do such a thing?!" For Luna had realized that the Jadoku that she was referring to was the same one who was a steadfast companion to Fukumi. "Oh, that part of the story will have to wait untill later," the sinister woman sneered after a slight pause. "I have much better things to do than tell you bedtime tales. Ta ta!" and with that, she vanished. On that lasting note, Luna turned to find that Artemis, Diana, and Chibiusa had finally awakened. "What is going on here, Luna? Where are we?" Artemis asked as soon as he felt strong enough to stand. Luna sighed inwardly. It wouldn't be very good to show any emotion other than optimism at the moment, but she hated explaining things. "Weird," was the only comment from Diana after Luna had stopped talking. But she was only a kitten, so it was to be expected. "Can you call Mako-chan and Fuku-chan? We need their help more than ever in this crisis," Artemis seemed to have recovered his cleverness at last (he had been babbling during Luna's explanation). "Actually, I haven't really had any chance to, since Kuki appeared right after I came to," Luna admitted shamefacedly. She pulled out what looked like a very small and flat pager from the place where she kept the Luna pens. "Mako-chan, can you hear me? Fukumi, answer me if you hear this." "Fuku-chan, that sounded like Luna!" an excited voice burst over the little communicator. "Mako-chan! Thank goodness," Luna sighed with relief. "Are you two alone?" "Yeah, we're in Mamoru's apartment. Where are you guys? You never showed up for our meeting." "To tell you the truth, I have no idea. We are in the lair of Ryuu Kuki. She kidnapped us. Can you track us at all?" This time Fukumi's voice came over the little communicator, along with her face on the viewing screen. "No. Ami-chan's with you, right? Of course she is," she answered her own question. "Why else would you be calling us?" "I don't know," Luna answered angrily. "Now, do me a favor and find Jadoku for me. I need to talk to him." "That's the thing, Luna. As soon as the communicator started going off, he disappeared like his tail was set on fire. I was trying to catch him while you and Mako-chan were talking, but he was too fast." "Oh dear," Luna commented worriedly. "Well, what you need to do is-" The communicator shattered, nearly impaling Luna with the shards of plastic that ricocheted off her cell's walls. The last glimpse she had of the other cats and Chibi Usa was a terrified one, as Luna's and their cages began to turn opaque and sound-proof. Luna began to pace, when a small figurine of Kuki appeared directly in the center of the cage floor. "Tsk tsk tsk. I thought you had been raised with some manners. Don't you know its impolite to call for help while you are being held hostage?" she asked, looking mockingly at the infuriated cat. Luna shouted at her, "I don't care! Go away!" "Oh, really, fine then. I'd just better provide you with some company before you get bored. Ta ta!" Before Luna could comprehend what that meant, she was falling only10 feet to the floor. She must have lowered the cages while she was talking to me. Happily, Luna noticed that the other Sailor Senshi had finally woken up. After another round of explanations, everyone decided to try each of their powers on their larger holding area. They had no effect on the heavily reinforced walls. "I don't think that this is going to work," panted Sailor Venus after dodging her own reflected Crescent Beam. "Yeah," Agreed Sailor Mars. Her hair and fuku were heavily burned from her last effort. "Let's see if there is anything here that'll help us out," Sailor Moon suggested. "From you, Usagi, something like that is a surprise to hear," muttered Sailor Mars as they all detransformed and started walking around, trying to find a place to escape. They had no luck. All of a sudden, Chibi Usa found a cylinder near to where she had been unceremoniously dumped to the floor. "Hey, everybody! Look what I found!" Chibi Usa yelled as she waved it over her head. "Let's see, Chibi Usa," everyone chorused as she held it out to Ami. This puzzled them for a moment, but they realized that since Ami was the smartest of the all, it was logical for her to look at it. " Hmmm, this is very interesting," Ami mused as she turned the cylinder over in her hand. "Its very light weight, and there seem to be a series of buttons. I don't want to risk pushing them, as it may cause a bomb to go off. What do you think we should do, Usagi-chan?" "What? Oh. Ummm, I guess you should try to see if it'll do something, I suppose." Ami stared at her in disbelief. "But I just said that doing so may cause the cylinder to explode!" "I think Usago has a point, Ami," Mamoru said kindly. "If Kuki really wanted to kill us off right away, she would have done so before we came into this place. She must have a purpose for us." "Alright, I'll give it my best shot," Ami said shakily. The gang held their breath When Ami keyed in the surprisingly correct code, bright lights started to emit from the tiny object. It startled Ami so much that she dropped it. It didn't make much of a difference because the cylinder had begun to float. For some reason, the cylinder began to melt and reshape itself into a sphere-like structure. The lights began to move around the small enclosure, finally coming to rest on a single point on top of the sphere. Once all the lights had united on the exact center, the cylinder began to crack open. A bright light covered all of the Sailors, causing them to feel an immense pain wash over them, searing their flesh untill they could see nothing but a bright, angry red light.
And then there was darkness.
Luna was the first to awaken after their kidnapping. She shook herself a few times, and then began to look around for the Sailor Senshi. What she saw did not please her in the least. Tall stone-gray walls surrounded a relatively small room. What it lacked in comfort and niceties it made up in downright dismal looks. There was absolutely no ornamentation, no paintings or artwork. It was as if the owner of this lair did not want to be distracted by anything that would get in its way. It looked like the ceiling went on and on. Luna herself was enclosed in what appeared to be a floating prison made of a metal she had never seen before. The Sailor Senshi, Chibi Usa, Mamoru, Artemis and Diana were limp and prone on the floor of their separate box-like cells. All were floating about thirty feet in the air and . If Luna or anything did manage to escape, they would be immediately killed or mortally wounded upon reaching the floor. Oh dear, Luna thought as she began to pace worriedly, this does not bode well for our chances of escaping. I do hope that somebody will wake up. I sincerely doubt that any amount of yelling is going to do me any good. Even Luna could not explain the dread that she felt when she considered just staying put and waiting. She knew that they could not stay here for long, for whatever reason. A sinister laugh echoed in the immensely tall room which caused Luna to jump and hiss in fright. Tall, dark and beautiful, an extremely dangerous looking woman floated down from what appeared to be the room's invisible ceiling. She would have had shoulder length black hair if it wasn't already tightly restrained in a severe looking French braid. Her face was drawn tightly over sharp facial features. Her coal black eyes glittered in the dim light that was provided for this place. Her eyes lacked any other coloration excepting the dark pupils of her eyes. This of course, was the one and only Ryuu Kuki, famed bounty hunter and killer of the Milky Way Galaxy. "Why are we here? Why are we held hostage with no explanation?" Luna shouted as loud as she could at the still figure that was descending rapidly from above. "Why, why, why. Is that all you can think of to greet me, the hunter and killer of all this pathetic universes' criminals?" Kuki's mocking tone of voice grated on Luna's sensitive ears. The voice itself wasn't unpleasant, except that the owner was the only thing standing between Luna and death, a fact of which she was certain. "In fact, I would think that you would be honored to share a very special occasion with me. I have been waiting to be called on to serve my masters, but they have overlooked me because of my past history with their other generals," The last word was voiced with an all too audible hiss. "Do you not know what special meeting of the stars is arriving, almost on our doorstep?" "I have absolutely no clue as to what you are talking about." "Oh, but haven't you heard?" The woman smiled diabolically. "No, I suppose not. Well then, the task of instructing you on this wondrous occasion falls to me, I suppose." "Imagine the entire universe, at the beginning of time, when the Sailor Senshi were created. Think back to when Sailor Nebula was created. You know of the Teaching Ballads, don't you? No? Well, they state that when she emerged, the Negaforce was born at the same instant. Therefore, they had a linked life, one being unable to live without the other. The newly created Sailor Senshi could not stand to look at her, because of the fact that she was somehow bonded with such an evil thing. A growing hate began to emerge from the Sailors, and it was concentrated on the Terrifying Senshi. "Sailor Nebula was murdered. Horribly. But it wasn't by Queen Serenity's hand. No, it was by a simple serpent named Jadoku. He was a lowly helper to you Moon Cats, and he wanted to rise above his station. He decided that the best way would be to kill one of the Senshi, and then frame one of you as the culprit." "But why? Why would Jadoku do such a thing?!" For Luna had realized that the Jadoku that she was referring to was the same one who was a steadfast companion to Fukumi. "Oh, that part of the story will have to wait untill later," the sinister woman sneered after a slight pause. "I have much better things to do than tell you bedtime tales. Ta ta!" and with that, she vanished. On that lasting note, Luna turned to find that Artemis, Diana, and Chibiusa had finally awakened. "What is going on here, Luna? Where are we?" Artemis asked as soon as he felt strong enough to stand. Luna sighed inwardly. It wouldn't be very good to show any emotion other than optimism at the moment, but she hated explaining things. "Weird," was the only comment from Diana after Luna had stopped talking. But she was only a kitten, so it was to be expected. "Can you call Mako-chan and Fuku-chan? We need their help more than ever in this crisis," Artemis seemed to have recovered his cleverness at last (he had been babbling during Luna's explanation). "Actually, I haven't really had any chance to, since Kuki appeared right after I came to," Luna admitted shamefacedly. She pulled out what looked like a very small and flat pager from the place where she kept the Luna pens. "Mako-chan, can you hear me? Fukumi, answer me if you hear this." "Fuku-chan, that sounded like Luna!" an excited voice burst over the little communicator. "Mako-chan! Thank goodness," Luna sighed with relief. "Are you two alone?" "Yeah, we're in Mamoru's apartment. Where are you guys? You never showed up for our meeting." "To tell you the truth, I have no idea. We are in the lair of Ryuu Kuki. She kidnapped us. Can you track us at all?" This time Fukumi's voice came over the little communicator, along with her face on the viewing screen. "No. Ami-chan's with you, right? Of course she is," she answered her own question. "Why else would you be calling us?" "I don't know," Luna answered angrily. "Now, do me a favor and find Jadoku for me. I need to talk to him." "That's the thing, Luna. As soon as the communicator started going off, he disappeared like his tail was set on fire. I was trying to catch him while you and Mako-chan were talking, but he was too fast." "Oh dear," Luna commented worriedly. "Well, what you need to do is-" The communicator shattered, nearly impaling Luna with the shards of plastic that ricocheted off her cell's walls. The last glimpse she had of the other cats and Chibi Usa was a terrified one, as Luna's and their cages began to turn opaque and sound-proof. Luna began to pace, when a small figurine of Kuki appeared directly in the center of the cage floor. "Tsk tsk tsk. I thought you had been raised with some manners. Don't you know its impolite to call for help while you are being held hostage?" she asked, looking mockingly at the infuriated cat. Luna shouted at her, "I don't care! Go away!" "Oh, really, fine then. I'd just better provide you with some company before you get bored. Ta ta!" Before Luna could comprehend what that meant, she was falling only10 feet to the floor. She must have lowered the cages while she was talking to me. Happily, Luna noticed that the other Sailor Senshi had finally woken up. After another round of explanations, everyone decided to try each of their powers on their larger holding area. They had no effect on the heavily reinforced walls. "I don't think that this is going to work," panted Sailor Venus after dodging her own reflected Crescent Beam. "Yeah," Agreed Sailor Mars. Her hair and fuku were heavily burned from her last effort. "Let's see if there is anything here that'll help us out," Sailor Moon suggested. "From you, Usagi, something like that is a surprise to hear," muttered Sailor Mars as they all detransformed and started walking around, trying to find a place to escape. They had no luck. All of a sudden, Chibi Usa found a cylinder near to where she had been unceremoniously dumped to the floor. "Hey, everybody! Look what I found!" Chibi Usa yelled as she waved it over her head. "Let's see, Chibi Usa," everyone chorused as she held it out to Ami. This puzzled them for a moment, but they realized that since Ami was the smartest of the all, it was logical for her to look at it. " Hmmm, this is very interesting," Ami mused as she turned the cylinder over in her hand. "Its very light weight, and there seem to be a series of buttons. I don't want to risk pushing them, as it may cause a bomb to go off. What do you think we should do, Usagi-chan?" "What? Oh. Ummm, I guess you should try to see if it'll do something, I suppose." Ami stared at her in disbelief. "But I just said that doing so may cause the cylinder to explode!" "I think Usago has a point, Ami," Mamoru said kindly. "If Kuki really wanted to kill us off right away, she would have done so before we came into this place. She must have a purpose for us." "Alright, I'll give it my best shot," Ami said shakily. The gang held their breath When Ami keyed in the surprisingly correct code, bright lights started to emit from the tiny object. It startled Ami so much that she dropped it. It didn't make much of a difference because the cylinder had begun to float. For some reason, the cylinder began to melt and reshape itself into a sphere-like structure. The lights began to move around the small enclosure, finally coming to rest on a single point on top of the sphere. Once all the lights had united on the exact center, the cylinder began to crack open. A bright light covered all of the Sailors, causing them to feel an immense pain wash over them, searing their flesh untill they could see nothing but a bright, angry red light.
And then there was darkness.