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Chapter 2


by deDanaan


The Plot Thickens


At the temple everyone sat around a table eating snacks as they waited for Ami and Mako to show up. They all looked up as they heard a crash in the corridor.

"If Yuuichiro is eavesdropping..." began Rei. She tapered off as she heard feminine moans from outside the door. Mamoru stood up and slid the door open. Everyone grinned at the sight of Ami and Makoto lying in a tangle of limbs just outside the room.

"Hey!" Usagi called to them through a mouthful of food. "I thought I was supposed to be the clumsy one!" That was too much for the others and they bent double with laughter, all semblance of composure thrown to the wind. Ami and Mako blushed scarlet and looked sheepish as they tried to get up off the floor and maintain the last scrap of dignity they had. By the time they had brushed themselves off and caught their breath the laughter had subsided. Ami began to speak as she reached over and poured herself a cup of green tea.

"We have news from the hospital. It seems that three of our 'friends' have disappeared."

"What!" chorused the others in unison. Ami continued.

"The two who remain have suffered some sort of concussion, but my mother said the other three just seemed drained, and only needed rest. When she went to check in on them during her afternoon rounds she discovered they were gone." She took and sip of tea and Makoto took up the story.

"The hospital was hopping when we got there. Security guards and orderlies were combing every floor but nothing turned up. When we asked if we could peek in on the remaining two--using the excuse that Ami had been on the scene of the accident--Dr. Mizuno wouldn't let us, as she said the hospital had enough trouble on their hands. Then she had to get back to work and we ran all the way back here to tell you the news." It seemed no one knew what to say and they all sat around in silence for a few minutes. Then Artemis spoke up.

"I don't like this. Luna and I spent most of today analyzing the readings we recorded in the park. They're like nothing we've seen before. It isn't Nega energy, but it isn't anything from earth either."

Rei added her own thoughts to Artemis's observations. "When I tried to read them this morning I got the same impression. Neither good nor evil, but definitely not from around here. And I couldn't really get an imprint of their spirits." She shivered and hugged her arms tightly. "Now that three of them have disappeared, I have the willies." Everyone else in the room nodded in agreement. They had had peace and quiet for a little over six months and it had been nice, but it seemed like it was coming to an end, being blown out of Tokyo on an ill wind.

Luna looked around the room at everyone. "I have an idea. We should split up into groups and look around in the vicinity of the hospital....Ami, what time does your mother's shift end?"

"She gets off at six, why?" Ami answered.

"We could really use a closer look at the two gentlemen who are still guests at the hospital. If we disguised Usagi using the Luna Pen so that she looked like you mother, the two of you could get into their rooms and you could check them out. Your Mini-Computer and Visor have powerful analytical properties that might turn up something we've missed." Ami nodded, but Usagi looked hesitant. Luna continued, "The rest of us can search in the surrounding area and maybe even head back to the park, if we have time, to see if we can turn up anything new."

Everyone agreed and split into teams. They also agreed not to transform unless it was absolutely necessary, and to maintain communicator silence with Usagi and Ami unless contacted by them first. Mamoru, Mina, and Artemis took the area to the north of the hospital while Rei, Mako, and Luna took the area to the south. Usagi and Ami went to the hospital to watch and wait.

Usagi and Ami were hiding in the bushes by the hospital parking lot waiting for Dr. Mizuno to leave. Usagi was fidgeting and it was beginning to get to the usually cool Ami. "Will you cut it out, Usagi! You're driving me to distraction." She was busy keying away at her Mini-Computer.

"I can't help it, Ami. I'm nervous. I haven't used the pen for a while and never to disguise myself as someone I know." She paused for a minute. "Hey, why didn't I do this before? Think of all those meetings with my teachers that my parents would never have had to go to if I had've thought about showing up disguised as one of them." Ami shook her head in mock disgust. Just then, Dr. Mizuno came out of the main door of the hospital and went to her car. They watched as she got into it and drove away.

"Poor Okaasan. She looks really tired. It must have been a very tough day." Ami commented to Usagi as she watched her root around in her dimensional pocket for the Luna Pen. She finally fished it out with a triumphant grin and held it up above her head.

"LUNA PEN DISGUISE POWER. Make me look like Dr. Mizuno." she called. A moment later she heard Ami gasp.

"Wow, good job! You look just like my mum. Okay, let's go and get this over with." The two of them stepped out of the bush and entered the hospital.

The desk clerk looked up as they came in. "Forget something, Doctor?" she asked. Usagi/Dr. Mizuno nodded and the clerk continued. "It's not surprising after the kind of day we've had." Then she noticed that Dr. Mizuno's daughter was with her. "Hey, Ami! How's it going?"

"Very well thank you, Shimizu-san." Ami turned to her mother and tugged on her sleeve.

"Can we hurry, Okaasan? I have a homework problem I'd like to discuss with you when we get home." After nodding at the desk clerk again, Usagi/Dr. Mizuno allowed herself to be led in the direction of the observation rooms by her impatient daughter.

The clerk shook her head and laughed. "Kids!"

When they were out of sight, Usagi let out a gasp of breath. She hadn't realized she'd been holding it. "Phew!" she whispered. "This is more nerve-wracking than being Sailor Moon." Ami nodded absently and continued checking charts for patient names. At the end of the corridor they found the room containing John Doe #1 and #2.

"Okay, Usagi-chan. They're in here." whispered Ami. "Their location is to our advantage. It's quiet in this wing and the next rounds don't begin for another half hour." She knew quite a bit about the habits of this hospital, as it was where her mother spent most of her time. She opened the door and slipped quietly into the room, motioning for her companion to follow.

The two men were hooked up to machines with monitors that displayed their condition in bright green. Usagi went over to one machine and seemed almost hypnotized by the regular pulse running across its face every few seconds. Ami grabbed her arm and shook her out of it. "Listen, Usagi-chan, I want you to go through the drawers and closets and check out their personal belongings. I doubt they were removed from the room, and may give us some clues as to where they come from. I'm going to transform so I can utilize my Visor." Ami pulled her transformation wand out of her dimensional pocket and held it above her head.

"MERCURY CRYSTAL POWER!" she called out, and in a matter of seconds Sailor Mercury was standing in her place. She quickly activated her Visor and began gathering data which she furiously keyed into her Mini-Computer. "Interesting..." she intoned as she watched the readouts scrolling across the inner surface of her Visor.

"What?" Usagi asked as she began opening doors around the room in her search for their personal effects.

"They seem to possess some sort of innate magical abilities but I'm not sure what just yet. They are also healthy males in their mid-twenties and seem to have the same basic genetic make-up as we do, although there are some small differences." replied Mercury.

"Uh-huh," Usagi commented to no one in particular. One of the doors opened up into a small closet that contained two distinctly different sets of clothing. "I've found their stuff, Mercury." She said over her shoulder as she lifted the hangers out to get a closer look at the items on them. One outfit was gold and the other was white. "I wonder who owns what?" she asked as she looked over at the occupants of the beds. She brought them over to where her friend was standing to see is she needed to scan them as well.

Mercury turned to look at the clothing and analyzed the material. "The cloth used to make these outfits is very peculiar. It seems to be stain, tear and temperature resistant."

"So are our fukus, so what?" Usagi/Dr. Mizuno responded. Mercury frowned.

"That's just my point. Our fukus renew themselves with every transformation. These clothes aren't even on their bodies, they're hanging in a closet and there isn't a mark on them. Don't you think that's strange? We did find them lying on a patch of scorched ground this morning, after all."

"I wonder where they shop." Usagi mused out loud. Seeing Mercury frown again at her she continued. "Okay, I see what you're getting at. What else have you found out about them?"

"Well, the clothes themselves don't seem to be magic, but there seems to be some sort of glamour surrounding the cloth, as if someone has reinforced already strong material." She stopped as one of the men in the room let out a groan and both she and Usagi/Dr. Mizuno turned to look at him. His head had slumped to one side and he was moaning so low it was almost a whimper. "We'd better hurry up." said Mercury as she moved over to stand next to the man who was coming round. "Is there anything else in that closet?"

"What?...Oh yeah, let me check." answered Usagi. She rummaged in a bag in the bottom of the closet and came out with two belts that sported very strange buckles. The buckles were silver and each held a stone in the centre of a very interesting design.

"What do you make of these, Mercury?" Usagi/Dr. Mizuno asked as she held out the belts for Mercury to see.

"Hmm...my Visor is getting the same reaction that it has whenever it is trained on one of our transformation wands, Tuxedo Kamen's roses or the Ginzuishou. I don't know about you, but I think we should take these belts with us when we leave so I can study them further." Usagi looked at her questioningly. "We'll only be borrowing them--put them in your pocket. I'm just about done here." She keyed some more information into her computer and snapped it shut. Usagi secreted the belts in her dimensional pocket, and after replacing everything else in the closet she moved beside Mercury to get a closer look at the man who had just stirred. His hair was long and silver and lay loosely around his shoulders. Just as she leaned in to look at him his eyes snapped open, startling her. Her gaze was snared by a pair of silver-grey eyes, unlike any she had ever seen before.

"Banphrionsa Gealach?... Princess Moon?" he asked weakly. Usagi was shocked. She was not in her princess form or Senshi form, but disguised as Dr. Mizuno. Who was he that he could see through her disguise and know her as Serenity? She looked up at Mercury to see she too was troubled by his question. He turned his eyes to look at Mercury. "Banphrionsa Mearcair?...Princess Mercury?" he whispered hoarsely. It was Mercury's turn to start. He knew them both, but who was he? He seemed to have exhausted himself with his observations and lapsed back into unconsciousness. The pair of puzzled scouts took this as their cue to leave, and Mercury reverted to Ami.

"Let's go, Okaasan." Ami said to Usagi/Dr. Mizuno as they linked arms in the hospital lobby. They waved at Shimizu-san as they made their way out of the main doors.

"We'd better contact the others and let them know what happened." Ami said to Usagi as she watched her dismiss the disguise. They were hiding in the bushes on the far side of the parking lot again. Usagi nodded. She felt a chill run down her spine as she recalled the man looking into her eyes and calling her by her title. Mercury shivered too, as she called the others on the communicator.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

On a rooftop not far from the hospital, a man dressed in red was pacing back and forth. All of a sudden he stopped and cocked his head as if he could hear something on the wind.

"Quartz Sadar has awakened." He spoke into the shadows, where his two companions were sitting in silence. "I can feel his mind again."

"What about my brother?" asked the blue-clad man, stepping out of the shadows. "Can you feel his mind, Garnet Sadar?" The man in red shook his head in the negative.

"He is still unconscious, Lapis. He was the first of us to come through after all, and took the brunt of the shift force--all at his own insistence--You of all people should understand his hero complex as you know his geas." Lapis Sadar smiled crookedly at him.

"I can't handle just sitting around doing nothing!" exclaimed the third man, who was swathed in green, as he came out of the shadows. "I say we go and take them out of there and back to the place we found earlier today. We can't be running around the streets of this town looking so bloody conspicuous!"

"Calm down, Agate!" Garnet Sadar reprimanded. "I have just lost the link with Quartz's mind. He is unconscious again. We will be doing them no favours if we remove them from the hospital before they have regained their strength."

"I say we just lay low for the rest of the night and start getting settled in tomorrow. We have absolutely no idea how long this mission is going to take." added Lapis.

"Very well," conceded Agate, "but I don't like the idea of leaving them there overnight. We don't know what could happen." The three men then fastened their veils across their faces and proceeded to make their way back to the apartment, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Usagi and Ami met with the others at their scheduled rendevous, the arcade.

"We must get back to the temple." Ami said simply. The others knew what this meant and they left, en masse, for Rei's home.

"We must consult the fire, Rei." Usagi added, as they left for Cherry Hill. "This has been a very strange evening and we have something to show you." Rei shrugged at the others as it was seldom Usagi made sense to her.

Back at the temple, the scouts settled in to wait on Rei. Her power allowed her to consult with the sacred fire but it didn't make it any easier on those who waited for the results. For close to an hour, those who waited outside the room were tremendously nervous.

"Hsst, stop it Ami-chan!" whispered Usagi.

"What? I'm not doing anything.

"Okay, Mamo-chan, enough already!" shouted Usagi into the silence

"Enough of what, Usako?"

"Mako-chan, what are you up to?"

"I'm not up to anything, Usagi-chan."

"Okay then, it must be you, Mina!"

"It must be me doing what, Usagi?" Mina replied, looking up and tossing her blonde hair out of her face. "I'm doing nothing."

After a moment of reflection, they rounded on her as a group. "It's you, Usagi-chan. Stop fidgeting if you know what's good for you!"

"Waaaahhhh! You always pick on me!" Usagi gave a wail and it was just like old times. Everyone chuckled, the tension broken for the moment. Rei came from the sacred fire just then, a puzzled look on her face that let everyone know she had more questions than answers.