Sailor Moon: World Rebirth -Part 1, The Gathering
Episode 3 'Disguise Magic'
The Creator of the plains stood at the top of its tower in humanoid form,
overlooking its kingdom. It was just a few minutes ago when it had seen the
blast of energy. It decided to destroy whatever it was before it could
become a threat. Although it really doubted anything could actually be a
threat. Everything had been fine the last two years and it didn't really see
anything changing now.
But where would they go? They would want to get as far away from here as
they could. So it would sent troops to the borders of the land. But they
would have realized that that was what it would do so they would come
towards the city. But they would have realized that it wasn't stupid so they
would get as far away as from itself as they could get. But then they would realize
that it knew that it wasn't stupid so they would come to the point. Oh
bother.
The Creator summoned a commander to itself. It told it to go to all of the
borders of the region and cut off all ships from leaving. Then go to the
place where the occurrence took place. Continue to search everywhere from
that point. It wanted whoever that was to be found and brought back, alive.
Satisfied that everything would be taken care of it went back to its
watching.
It pulled a bottle out from under its clothes. It carefully unscrewed the
lid and took a sip. It was the last little bit. Time for a refill. It went
over to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of an interesting liquid called
tequila.
**************************************
Within a few hours we had reached the Command Point. Quite a few times we
had had to hide from groups of retlocs. A couple of hours later the city was
coming into view. By then it was black night and the only light we had was
my and Ami's magic. It would have been suspicious for us to enter the city
that late at night, so we set up a tent a mile away from the city. I cloaked
us in darkness with my magic so we wouldn't be found while we were sleeping.
Although I really doubted we would.
In the morning we had a great breakfast from the food that Ami made us pack.
Who would have known that her cooking would have gotten so good. After we
cleaned up Minako brought up our little problem. "So, how exactly are we
going to get into the city. From what you've said they're not going to just
let us in."
"You're right," I told her. "We're going to have to sneak in somehow."
Ami rubbed her chin. "Hmmmmmm. I have an idea."
"Well?"
"Every couple of months or so my family and I bring fruits and the sort to
the city. There isn't any other way for fresh food to enter the city. So we
bring them foods like that and they give us metals, gas, oil, and those
sorts of things. If we used our magic to disguise ourselves all we would
need to persuade is the guards and then just ...disappear."
"Alright. It sounds like a good plan. What do you need us to do?"
"I have completely no idea how to make the disguise. Do you?"
"Yes," I said. "Let's get moving." We left our horses hidden at the
campsight. When we were within sight distance of the city I created the
illusion. Basically all it was, was a cart pulled by an ox. The cart was
covered with a sheet. I changed Ami's appearance so that she looked like a
man. I gave Minako and I farmer's clothes. When we reached the gates, a man
in a uniform stepped out of a door and stood in front of the gates.
"What do you want?" he asked. Ami replied,
"We bring you grains and fruit, and wish to trade them for oil and steel."
The guard strolled up to the cart and looked at the three of us. At a part
where the covering of the cart wasn't tied down he lifted it up.
Fortunately, I had anticipated this and had the illusion already created.
All I had to do was put it where he was looking in. All he saw was some raw
grains.
"Very well. Proceed." I felt a tingling sensation as I led the cart into the
city. I looked over to see Ami felt it too. We came to the same conclusion
at about the same time. Looking back at the entrance, as Minako came through
the air around her tingled a little. As we had come through the entrance we
had been scanned. I took a glance into the guard booth and saw a puzzled
guard pointing at a screen. I urged the cart on a little faster. The guard
came out of the booth and caught up with Ami.
"Excuse me, Sir. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate your cart."
Ami turned around and punched the man in the face. Unprepared, he fell to
the ground. He reached to his belt and pointed a gun at Ami. "Don't move,"
the guard warned. I quickly scanned the area for a place to hide. Ami didn't
need to move. Already weaved, she shot a blast of ice out of one of her
fingers that froze the weapon. I ran and grabbed Ami and Minako and we ran
to an alley across the street. As we ran away, the cart disappeared. But as
it did there was a burst of light that blinded everyone. As we watched, the
guards figured that it was a training exercise from the Creator to make sure
that they were alert.
I watched people pass buy for a minute and then I changed our appearances so
that we looked like three men who looked like everybody else. I left Ami to
maintain her own disguise and we went out on to the streets. We passed a lot
of office buildings and a few shopping centers. Next we went through the
residential area. There were hundreds of apartment buildings and thousands
of houses. We continued through there until we reached the industrial area.
It was there between the two areas that we found what we were looking for.
The city brothels. We walked into one and sat down at the bar as if we had
every right to be there. Ami ordered something light and Minako was shocked.
Ami just laughed and said that Sean had bought her stuff much stronger than
what she was having.
Farther down the bar and at a few tables there was a group of men. They
seemed like the main bit of discussion in the bar, and the ones that carried
the most conversation. Just as we had hoped they were discussing the events
of yesterday.
"Well, whatever that was, it's sure got the Creator worried." One man said.
"Yeah. You should have seen how fast it sent retlocs out to all of the
boundaries of the region."
"It must have been something really important."
"Rumor is that a force to challenge the Creators is forming," one man said.
Haiku noticed that Ami was studying this one pretty closely.
"Don't let any loyalists hear that or they will think that you would have
something to do with it.
"Don't worry," the same one answered. "I reckon that they're afraid of this
place. After all, this is a smelly place full of evil right?"
"Yeah. Whatever."
"Everybody here is on the same side right? That's why we're all here."
"Cheers to a bunch of helpless nobodies." Everyone took a drink.
"But really. If the one who caused all this ruckus was here right now, I'd
give them a pat on the back and buy them a drink." Cheers in agreement came
from around the room. Then the man looked over to see Ami studying him.
"Hey, what are you looking at." Ami caught herself and quickly looked away,
and took a sip of her drink. The man wasn't discouraged. He got off his seat
and started walking over to us. "Do you have some kind of problem?" He
turned Ami around in her seat and looked her in the eye. "Do you know
something we don't?" He threw her to the ground. Ami didn't really want to start a ruckus.
"Can't you speak. Are you some spy of the Creator? I hate spies."
"I ...I" The man picked her up by the front of her shirt and slammed her
against a wall.
"You what?" The breath was knocked out of Ami and she lost her
concentration. She had been holding on to strands of magic the whole time
and she let go of them and they screwed up the disguise spells I was using
on her. Before I could fix what was going on, Ami's disguise flickered and
disappeared. The man dropped her. "W-who the hell are you? Some kind of
witch of the Creator?!"
"Don't you remember me Urawa? Back when I helped you. Ami flashed an image
in his mind as she made him see herself how she looked about six years ago,
then as Sailor Mercury. And some of the little adventures they had. The look
was enough to break the barriers created by the ginzuishou that blocked his memories of the year he
lost. Fortunately that wasn't really a whole lot.
"Ami? I suppose you're responsible for all of this or know who is." Urawa
went back to where he was sitting before. A man spoke to him.
"So, who's the witch?"
"She's not a witch, she's a," He scanned the room to see if any soldiers
were in the room. "Sailor Senshi." Silence covered the room. Ami had gotten
back on to her chair. She was taking a sip of her drink and everyone was
looking at her.
"W-what? Why is everyone looking at me. Uhh.. Haiku..."
"Come on Ami, spill." Urawa crossed his arms. "Tell us what happened last
night. You're not going to be left alone until you do."
"I -don't know anything about last night."
"Gimme a break. You don't live here. There must be a reason why you're here.
Don't worry. Everyone here is on the same side." Ami looked to me for advice
on what to do next. I figured that the more people we can get working for
Resistance the better. And if we come into danger we'll just have to deal
with it. I nodded approval to her.
"Well, I, that is, um, it was just ..the revival of my powers."
"What?"
"Well, after rebirth I lost my senshi powers. And yesterday I got them back,
in somewhat of a light show." There was somewhat of an understanding and
approval in the room.
I saw a figure in a trenchcoat slowly making its way towards the door. I
pointed a finger at it and it froze. I got off of the barstool and dropped
my disguise. That brought gasps from around the room. I could see that
whoever it was, they were struggling madly, trying to get out of there in a
hurry. I grabbed him and threw them into the middle of the room. I could see
now that it was male. I drew my sword and pointed it at his throat.
(Universal sign for 'do something or die'.) "Who are you and why were you
trying to get out of here so quickly." The person said nothing. "Very well
if you don't speak to me I'll make your death so painful, you'll wish I'd
done it quickly." I pressed my sword against his chest.
"Okay, okay. I'll talk. The Creator sent me. It wanted me to find out the
reactions of the people of the city. And even if you kill me it'll still
know something happened to me. That's all I'm going to tell you."
"What do you think I should do to you? I can't kill you, and can't let you
live."
"Kill me. I dare you." I poked my sword at him again.
"It's very tempting, but I'm not going to kill you. I have something better
I can do to you."
Urawa spoke up. "If you dirty up my floor you'll have to clean it." I
ignored him. I pulled my crystal out of my clothes, but I didn't let anyone
see it. That would bring up too many questions. I held my fist out to him.
My fist started to glow, a beam shot out of it to the man and he started to
glow too.
"W-what are you doing to me?"
"Moon Purify...." I whispered. The man went completely limp. Then a black
mist arose from his body. I dropped the crystal back into a pocket. I knelt
down beside the man. "Are you all right Sir?" I asked.
"I ...uh ...where am I?" he said in a confused voice.
"You're in a brothel, in the city."
"Yes, now I remember. I was walking home from work, when someone jumped me
and knocked me out. When I woke up I was in the Command Point, and couldn't
control my body. There was something in my head making me speak and do
things. I'm alright now aren't I?"
"Yes. I got rid of whatever it was that was in your head. Now go home. I'm
sure someone must be worried about you."
"Thank you." With that the man ran out of the bar. I walked over and sat
back down on my stool.
"Well?" I looked over at Urawa. He was speaking for everyone, and he
obviously wanted to know what just happened. I answered as best I could.
"I saw that man moving towards the door. He obviously wanted to get out of
here in a hurry. He had been by possessed by some creation of the Creator. I
just killed whatever it was. And to answer your other question yes, I am who
you think I am." That had to answer whatever he wanted to know. Before my
mission started I had travelled, spreading word of a 'gatherer' who was
going to form a force to send against the Creators.
"So, it's begun," he commented. "What do you want us to do?"
"If you crave the old times, or something better, meet your destiny at The
Gathering. If your cause is true, when the sky turns green, you will find
your way to Crescent Island. Just be there with as many people as you can."
Suddenly a wind picked up outside, loud enough for us to hear. "Oh no. We've
stayed too long."
"What do you mean?" Ami asked. "Why isn't my magic working?"
"It's a Creator." I answered calmly. There was complete silence in the room.
Minako started to get up. "No," I told her. "There's a chance you haven't
been detected yet, Because you're in disguise and you haven't restored your
magic. I need you to come and get us."
"What?" she said startled that I would say such a thing. "You're just going
to let yourself be taken!?"
"We can't take on a Creator," I explained to her. "We don't have the power.
Our only chance is to be able to escape." I handed her a ring. "Use this to
sneak into the point." At that moment the door flew open, sending it across
the room. All we could see was black. Pure evil. The black seemed to suck in
all light around it. Two black tenticles shot out of it and wrapped
themselves around Ami and I. Then we were pulled into it.
********************
Minako was shocked. How was she supposed to save her friends, by herself,
from the hands of a Creator. She took a look at the ring Haiku gave her. It
was just a circle. It had no signs on it or anything. Everyone in the bar
was shocked that they had actually seen a form of the Creator. Minako turned
to the group of men. "What is the easiest way to get into the point?" she
asked to no one in particular.
"What difference does it make to you? Go have another drink son."
'Son!?' Minako thought. 'Who does he think he's talking to.' Minako looked
down at herself. 'Oops, how am I supposed to get out of this stupid
disguise.' Looking at the ring again, she noticed a symbol of the moon on
it. She touched it and it turned into a pen like Usagi's disguise pen. Then
it turned back into the ring. Minako slid the ring on to her finger and her
disguise faded. By now, no one in the bar was surprised by this. She walked
back over to the group of men. "Now, how do I get into the Command Point to
rescue my friends."
"Oh no, not another one." The man in front of her said. "Give up. There's no
way you'll be able to get into that place. It was a nice try but it's over
now. If you want to though you can come and stay with me." Minako pulled out
a knife and slit his throat. It was scary that she had done it so easily
without a second thought. 'What happened to me during those long years as a
prisoner?' she asked herself. She didn't even feel guilty. It was like a
reflex.
"Now is someone going to help me or end up like him?" Someone near the back
spoke up.
"Go through all of the factories, -if you can. You'll find what you're
looking for there."
"Thank you very much." Minako turned around and someone slapped her butt.
She kicked his nose out of place and walked out of the bar. All of a sudden
Minako wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with this. The industrial
part of the city looked like a place of death; especially with it right in
the Command Point's shadow. Anything could happen to her. Shaking away any
idea of not going through with this she walked into it.
She received yells from homeless people lying around, dying. At one point
someone grabbed her from behind. "You look lonely honey, how about you come
over to my place?" Minako just turned around and kneed him where it counts.
As she ran away from him she could hear his yells of anger. She was tired of
getting all of this attention. 'Maybe this ring could help me?' Minako
turned into an alley. 'Now what did Usagi say...'
"Ummm ...disguise power! Turn me into a homeless old man!" A second later
she was gone and all you could see was what you'd expect to see in the area.
Some old bum. 'But what was Haiku doing with something like this? Where's Usagi?'
Minako decided to ask Haiku the next time she saw her, but promptly forgot about it
completely as soon as she stopped thinking about it. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
At last she reached her destination. It was a clear, enclosed passageway from the city to the
command point. There were two guards, one on each side. No matter what she
looked like if the guards saw her she wouldn't be able to get past them, so
she worked with that. "Disguise power, make me invisible!" At first nothing
happened. Then Minako noticed that she was back in her regular clothes. It
looked like it didn't work. But what if it really did work? There was only
one way to find out. Minako approached the guards, and didn't stop until she
was in between them. No response. Taking a closer look at the passage she
found that there was some kind of field blocking it off. Looking around, she
found some controls behind one of the guards. The only way to them was
through the guard. These guards were still shadows, but shaped as men. Maybe
they were once men? Minako just hoped that they could be killed just like
men. Minako pulled a dagger out of her belt and sliced the guards' necks.
They crumbled and burst into dust.
Acting quickly she pressed all of the buttons of the controls at once,
hoping that one was the controls for the passage. One did and the shield
disappeared. One was also the alarm. Minako ran into the tunnel. At about
half-way, she looked back over her shoulder to see shadows gathering at the
entrance. They obviously couldn't see her. Otherwise she would have some of
them chasing her. They probably figured some prowler killed the guards and
ran back into the city. At three quarters of the way through a voice said,
"SECURITY BARRIERS LOWERING."
As Minako neared the end a wall began to lower over the passage. At the last
moment she dove towards the floor to slide under.
Unfortunately she was just a little too slow and slammed into the wall,
knocking herself out.
When Minako woke up it was dark. From the glint on the horizon she figured
it was a couple of hours before dawn. She looked all over the passage but
couldn't find any controls to lower the security barrier. Then the barrier
blocking the way she came in opened, and two shadows stepped through. The
barrier started to close and the other one started to open. She pressed
herself tight against the wall as the shadows passed her. She followed them
through the passage and into a hall, but wasn't fast enough to make it into
the elevator they entered before the doors closed. Shadows could move VERY
fast.
The elevator was at the end of the hall. To the left and right of the
elevator were staircases. One leading up and one leading down. The hall
looked more like it was part of a space station than the inside of a
mountain. She decided to take the stair case leading up. Eventually she
reached another floor. It looked exactly the same as the previous one,
except it was pointing in a different direction. The elevator was there, and
another staircase leading up. At the end of the hall was a screen instead of
a door. She walked down to it and it turned on. There were a number of
choices on the screen. They were Current Orders, Security Schedule, Map of
City, Map of Point, and some others that Minako didn't understand. She chose
to see a map of the point. A spinning three dimensional map appeared on the
screen. She was in one of the ten 'Shadow barracks'. Above that was the
'main control center', and everything above that was just labelled as
'Creator's area'. Underground were cells and torture chambers. Minako
figured that her friends were either in the cells or with the Creator. She
figured that the Creator would want to deal with them. That would be her
destination. She decided to take a closer look at the main control center
and found what she needed. 'Armoury' was how the room was labelled. She
pressed the off button on the screen and just before it shut of it said on
the screen, "For portable version take disc". She looked down to find a rack
of disks on a shelf. It was about 5 inches across by 1 inch thick. Minako
figured it might come in handy and slipped it into her pack. She headed for
the stairs leading up.
"Level 2, Level 3 ...Level 8, Level 9, 10!" Minako finally reached the top
of the shadow barracks. Only one left! With new encouragement the last
flight of stairs was easy. This floor was different than the others. It had
a tiny hallway and then opened up everywhere to the control deck. It
wouldn't have been very hard to get lost; then again, that was the point of
it. She carefully recalled the directions to the armoury and was wondering
how to get in unnoticed when she found the door already open. There were
retlocs lined up and leaving with weapons each on separate sides of the
hallway. It was hard not to run into any of them. Dodging back and forth
while retlocs came running at her she made her way into the room. She
gasped. There was a man giving orders. Not some shadow, an actual human.
"You know your orders," he was saying, "Go to the borders and don't let
anything leave. Search the city. We don't know how many enemies are out
there. The Creator caught two but there could be more out there." In the
room there were boxes and boxes of guns. Minako grabbed one from a pile and
it turned invisible on contact with her hand. In a box labelled 'explosives'
there were a bunch of cylindrical objects that could fit in her hand. She
grabbed four and stuffed them in her pockets. On one wall there were screens
showing videos on how to work the guns and the explosives. The guns shot
lasers that refilled by using strands of magic. The explosives were just
really deadly. 'All of these weapons could be a real annoyance,' she
thought. 'Maybe I should do something about them.' Taking another explosive
out of the box she set it for a minute and ran out of the room. So that
enemies couldn't tell when the explosives were activated, it looked exactly
the same as all of the others. Minako used the gun to blast openings through
hallways to get back to the stairways in the center of the floor. There was panic all around her
with laser blasts seemingly appearing from thin air. She
charged up the stairs leading up. She was almost to the top when she heard
the explosion. It shook the mountain. Unfortunately the armoury was on the
edge of the fortress. So it just made a big hole in the side of it.
At the top of the stairs she saw that the elevator was filling up with
shadows who wanted to see what had happened. As the door closed Minako
tossed an explosive in after them. She ran down the hallway on this floor
counting the doors on the right. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight!" She blasted open the eighth door. Ami was chained to the far wall.
Her eyes were closed. Her face was battered and bruised. Her clothes were
ripped. "Ami are you okay?" Ami looked up.
"Who said that?"
"Ami, it's me."
"Minako? Where are you?" Minako realized that she was still invisible and
fixed it. "Mina, you came!" Minako shot the ends of the chains holding Ami
against the wall. And then the braces around Ami's wrists. "Haiku is in that
room over there," she said pointing to a side room. Minako blew up the door
to find Haiku standing there tapping her foot.
"Well it's about time. Now hurry, we have to go to the next room." Haiku led
them across the hall to another door. It was unlocked. She stepped in and
walked to a table in the middle of the small room. She picked up returned her
sword sheath to her back. "Okay. Let's get out of here."
Minako led them out into the hall and up the stairs leading up. "There's
kind of a mess on the floor below. We don't want to go down there now," she
said. They followed the stairs up and up and up. This staircase was much
longer than all of the others had been. After a little bit they reached the
top. It was a small hallway. There was no elevator door, and no stairs
leading up. There were doors on the left and right, and a small lift on the
opposite side of the room. "Be careful," Minako warned, "We're in the
Creators quarters." They quickly skimmed across the room and got into the
lift. Haiku pressed a button and it started to rise into a shaft in the
ceilling.
They came to a floor with a table with buttons on it in the middle and an
oval-shaped object on the far wall about twice as tall as any of thm.
"This is a link room." Haiku explained. "Resistance wasn't even sure if they
existed." She walked over to the table and fiddled around with some
controls. "It's all password blocked off. What do you think Ami?" Ami was
looking all over the table taking in everything that was there.
"I might be able to break into it." She made her little computer with the
Mercury symbol appear on the table. She opened it up and blew off the dust.
She pressed a few buttons. "It's not very well guarded. I've linked my
computer to whatever controls it. I'll be in in a few seconds. What do you
want me to do?"
"Send us to the border of Toria. We're in Kaipo now." Ami quickly set up the
link and the oval shaped object on the wall changed from black to green.
"Okay. Come on, let's go."
"Go where?" Minako asked.
"Jump through the oval. Go with her, Ami. I'll be with you in a minute." Ami
dragged a reluctant to leave Haiku alone Minako over to the portal. "Just a
minute,"
"What?"
"Minako, give me the ring I gave you earlier." Minako slipped the ring off and
gave it to Haiku. Ami and Minako left through the portal in a flash of
light. Haiku got to work. She began to weave and twist all of the strands of
magic in the room to each other and the ring. When she was finished she let
go of the ring and it floated up into the middle of the room. She quickly
departed via the portal.
A shadow flew ahead as the Creator followed it up to the link room. The
Creator felt it being activated and told its shadow commander to hurry. They
floated very quickly through the halls and stairways of the Command Point.
When they reached the link room the shadow rushed in to find any enemies.
The Creator was too late to warn it. The shadow disturbed the weavings of
the magic strings and they all tried to go through whoever weaved them.
Haiku wasn't there anymore so they just whipped around wildly. The ring
snapped and exploded. The whole room exploded and it blew a giant hole in
the side of the Command Point. Only through magical means did the top of the
point not fall over.
The Creator was going to be in trouble now, and it was not looking forward
to the punishment to follow.
**********
Episode 3 'Disguise Magic'
The Creator of the plains stood at the top of its tower in humanoid form,
overlooking its kingdom. It was just a few minutes ago when it had seen the
blast of energy. It decided to destroy whatever it was before it could
become a threat. Although it really doubted anything could actually be a
threat. Everything had been fine the last two years and it didn't really see
anything changing now.
But where would they go? They would want to get as far away from here as
they could. So it would sent troops to the borders of the land. But they
would have realized that that was what it would do so they would come
towards the city. But they would have realized that it wasn't stupid so they
would get as far away as from itself as they could get. But then they would realize
that it knew that it wasn't stupid so they would come to the point. Oh
bother.
The Creator summoned a commander to itself. It told it to go to all of the
borders of the region and cut off all ships from leaving. Then go to the
place where the occurrence took place. Continue to search everywhere from
that point. It wanted whoever that was to be found and brought back, alive.
Satisfied that everything would be taken care of it went back to its
watching.
It pulled a bottle out from under its clothes. It carefully unscrewed the
lid and took a sip. It was the last little bit. Time for a refill. It went
over to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of an interesting liquid called
tequila.
**************************************
Within a few hours we had reached the Command Point. Quite a few times we
had had to hide from groups of retlocs. A couple of hours later the city was
coming into view. By then it was black night and the only light we had was
my and Ami's magic. It would have been suspicious for us to enter the city
that late at night, so we set up a tent a mile away from the city. I cloaked
us in darkness with my magic so we wouldn't be found while we were sleeping.
Although I really doubted we would.
In the morning we had a great breakfast from the food that Ami made us pack.
Who would have known that her cooking would have gotten so good. After we
cleaned up Minako brought up our little problem. "So, how exactly are we
going to get into the city. From what you've said they're not going to just
let us in."
"You're right," I told her. "We're going to have to sneak in somehow."
Ami rubbed her chin. "Hmmmmmm. I have an idea."
"Well?"
"Every couple of months or so my family and I bring fruits and the sort to
the city. There isn't any other way for fresh food to enter the city. So we
bring them foods like that and they give us metals, gas, oil, and those
sorts of things. If we used our magic to disguise ourselves all we would
need to persuade is the guards and then just ...disappear."
"Alright. It sounds like a good plan. What do you need us to do?"
"I have completely no idea how to make the disguise. Do you?"
"Yes," I said. "Let's get moving." We left our horses hidden at the
campsight. When we were within sight distance of the city I created the
illusion. Basically all it was, was a cart pulled by an ox. The cart was
covered with a sheet. I changed Ami's appearance so that she looked like a
man. I gave Minako and I farmer's clothes. When we reached the gates, a man
in a uniform stepped out of a door and stood in front of the gates.
"What do you want?" he asked. Ami replied,
"We bring you grains and fruit, and wish to trade them for oil and steel."
The guard strolled up to the cart and looked at the three of us. At a part
where the covering of the cart wasn't tied down he lifted it up.
Fortunately, I had anticipated this and had the illusion already created.
All I had to do was put it where he was looking in. All he saw was some raw
grains.
"Very well. Proceed." I felt a tingling sensation as I led the cart into the
city. I looked over to see Ami felt it too. We came to the same conclusion
at about the same time. Looking back at the entrance, as Minako came through
the air around her tingled a little. As we had come through the entrance we
had been scanned. I took a glance into the guard booth and saw a puzzled
guard pointing at a screen. I urged the cart on a little faster. The guard
came out of the booth and caught up with Ami.
"Excuse me, Sir. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate your cart."
Ami turned around and punched the man in the face. Unprepared, he fell to
the ground. He reached to his belt and pointed a gun at Ami. "Don't move,"
the guard warned. I quickly scanned the area for a place to hide. Ami didn't
need to move. Already weaved, she shot a blast of ice out of one of her
fingers that froze the weapon. I ran and grabbed Ami and Minako and we ran
to an alley across the street. As we ran away, the cart disappeared. But as
it did there was a burst of light that blinded everyone. As we watched, the
guards figured that it was a training exercise from the Creator to make sure
that they were alert.
I watched people pass buy for a minute and then I changed our appearances so
that we looked like three men who looked like everybody else. I left Ami to
maintain her own disguise and we went out on to the streets. We passed a lot
of office buildings and a few shopping centers. Next we went through the
residential area. There were hundreds of apartment buildings and thousands
of houses. We continued through there until we reached the industrial area.
It was there between the two areas that we found what we were looking for.
The city brothels. We walked into one and sat down at the bar as if we had
every right to be there. Ami ordered something light and Minako was shocked.
Ami just laughed and said that Sean had bought her stuff much stronger than
what she was having.
Farther down the bar and at a few tables there was a group of men. They
seemed like the main bit of discussion in the bar, and the ones that carried
the most conversation. Just as we had hoped they were discussing the events
of yesterday.
"Well, whatever that was, it's sure got the Creator worried." One man said.
"Yeah. You should have seen how fast it sent retlocs out to all of the
boundaries of the region."
"It must have been something really important."
"Rumor is that a force to challenge the Creators is forming," one man said.
Haiku noticed that Ami was studying this one pretty closely.
"Don't let any loyalists hear that or they will think that you would have
something to do with it.
"Don't worry," the same one answered. "I reckon that they're afraid of this
place. After all, this is a smelly place full of evil right?"
"Yeah. Whatever."
"Everybody here is on the same side right? That's why we're all here."
"Cheers to a bunch of helpless nobodies." Everyone took a drink.
"But really. If the one who caused all this ruckus was here right now, I'd
give them a pat on the back and buy them a drink." Cheers in agreement came
from around the room. Then the man looked over to see Ami studying him.
"Hey, what are you looking at." Ami caught herself and quickly looked away,
and took a sip of her drink. The man wasn't discouraged. He got off his seat
and started walking over to us. "Do you have some kind of problem?" He
turned Ami around in her seat and looked her in the eye. "Do you know
something we don't?" He threw her to the ground. Ami didn't really want to start a ruckus.
"Can't you speak. Are you some spy of the Creator? I hate spies."
"I ...I" The man picked her up by the front of her shirt and slammed her
against a wall.
"You what?" The breath was knocked out of Ami and she lost her
concentration. She had been holding on to strands of magic the whole time
and she let go of them and they screwed up the disguise spells I was using
on her. Before I could fix what was going on, Ami's disguise flickered and
disappeared. The man dropped her. "W-who the hell are you? Some kind of
witch of the Creator?!"
"Don't you remember me Urawa? Back when I helped you. Ami flashed an image
in his mind as she made him see herself how she looked about six years ago,
then as Sailor Mercury. And some of the little adventures they had. The look
was enough to break the barriers created by the ginzuishou that blocked his memories of the year he
lost. Fortunately that wasn't really a whole lot.
"Ami? I suppose you're responsible for all of this or know who is." Urawa
went back to where he was sitting before. A man spoke to him.
"So, who's the witch?"
"She's not a witch, she's a," He scanned the room to see if any soldiers
were in the room. "Sailor Senshi." Silence covered the room. Ami had gotten
back on to her chair. She was taking a sip of her drink and everyone was
looking at her.
"W-what? Why is everyone looking at me. Uhh.. Haiku..."
"Come on Ami, spill." Urawa crossed his arms. "Tell us what happened last
night. You're not going to be left alone until you do."
"I -don't know anything about last night."
"Gimme a break. You don't live here. There must be a reason why you're here.
Don't worry. Everyone here is on the same side." Ami looked to me for advice
on what to do next. I figured that the more people we can get working for
Resistance the better. And if we come into danger we'll just have to deal
with it. I nodded approval to her.
"Well, I, that is, um, it was just ..the revival of my powers."
"What?"
"Well, after rebirth I lost my senshi powers. And yesterday I got them back,
in somewhat of a light show." There was somewhat of an understanding and
approval in the room.
I saw a figure in a trenchcoat slowly making its way towards the door. I
pointed a finger at it and it froze. I got off of the barstool and dropped
my disguise. That brought gasps from around the room. I could see that
whoever it was, they were struggling madly, trying to get out of there in a
hurry. I grabbed him and threw them into the middle of the room. I could see
now that it was male. I drew my sword and pointed it at his throat.
(Universal sign for 'do something or die'.) "Who are you and why were you
trying to get out of here so quickly." The person said nothing. "Very well
if you don't speak to me I'll make your death so painful, you'll wish I'd
done it quickly." I pressed my sword against his chest.
"Okay, okay. I'll talk. The Creator sent me. It wanted me to find out the
reactions of the people of the city. And even if you kill me it'll still
know something happened to me. That's all I'm going to tell you."
"What do you think I should do to you? I can't kill you, and can't let you
live."
"Kill me. I dare you." I poked my sword at him again.
"It's very tempting, but I'm not going to kill you. I have something better
I can do to you."
Urawa spoke up. "If you dirty up my floor you'll have to clean it." I
ignored him. I pulled my crystal out of my clothes, but I didn't let anyone
see it. That would bring up too many questions. I held my fist out to him.
My fist started to glow, a beam shot out of it to the man and he started to
glow too.
"W-what are you doing to me?"
"Moon Purify...." I whispered. The man went completely limp. Then a black
mist arose from his body. I dropped the crystal back into a pocket. I knelt
down beside the man. "Are you all right Sir?" I asked.
"I ...uh ...where am I?" he said in a confused voice.
"You're in a brothel, in the city."
"Yes, now I remember. I was walking home from work, when someone jumped me
and knocked me out. When I woke up I was in the Command Point, and couldn't
control my body. There was something in my head making me speak and do
things. I'm alright now aren't I?"
"Yes. I got rid of whatever it was that was in your head. Now go home. I'm
sure someone must be worried about you."
"Thank you." With that the man ran out of the bar. I walked over and sat
back down on my stool.
"Well?" I looked over at Urawa. He was speaking for everyone, and he
obviously wanted to know what just happened. I answered as best I could.
"I saw that man moving towards the door. He obviously wanted to get out of
here in a hurry. He had been by possessed by some creation of the Creator. I
just killed whatever it was. And to answer your other question yes, I am who
you think I am." That had to answer whatever he wanted to know. Before my
mission started I had travelled, spreading word of a 'gatherer' who was
going to form a force to send against the Creators.
"So, it's begun," he commented. "What do you want us to do?"
"If you crave the old times, or something better, meet your destiny at The
Gathering. If your cause is true, when the sky turns green, you will find
your way to Crescent Island. Just be there with as many people as you can."
Suddenly a wind picked up outside, loud enough for us to hear. "Oh no. We've
stayed too long."
"What do you mean?" Ami asked. "Why isn't my magic working?"
"It's a Creator." I answered calmly. There was complete silence in the room.
Minako started to get up. "No," I told her. "There's a chance you haven't
been detected yet, Because you're in disguise and you haven't restored your
magic. I need you to come and get us."
"What?" she said startled that I would say such a thing. "You're just going
to let yourself be taken!?"
"We can't take on a Creator," I explained to her. "We don't have the power.
Our only chance is to be able to escape." I handed her a ring. "Use this to
sneak into the point." At that moment the door flew open, sending it across
the room. All we could see was black. Pure evil. The black seemed to suck in
all light around it. Two black tenticles shot out of it and wrapped
themselves around Ami and I. Then we were pulled into it.
********************
Minako was shocked. How was she supposed to save her friends, by herself,
from the hands of a Creator. She took a look at the ring Haiku gave her. It
was just a circle. It had no signs on it or anything. Everyone in the bar
was shocked that they had actually seen a form of the Creator. Minako turned
to the group of men. "What is the easiest way to get into the point?" she
asked to no one in particular.
"What difference does it make to you? Go have another drink son."
'Son!?' Minako thought. 'Who does he think he's talking to.' Minako looked
down at herself. 'Oops, how am I supposed to get out of this stupid
disguise.' Looking at the ring again, she noticed a symbol of the moon on
it. She touched it and it turned into a pen like Usagi's disguise pen. Then
it turned back into the ring. Minako slid the ring on to her finger and her
disguise faded. By now, no one in the bar was surprised by this. She walked
back over to the group of men. "Now, how do I get into the Command Point to
rescue my friends."
"Oh no, not another one." The man in front of her said. "Give up. There's no
way you'll be able to get into that place. It was a nice try but it's over
now. If you want to though you can come and stay with me." Minako pulled out
a knife and slit his throat. It was scary that she had done it so easily
without a second thought. 'What happened to me during those long years as a
prisoner?' she asked herself. She didn't even feel guilty. It was like a
reflex.
"Now is someone going to help me or end up like him?" Someone near the back
spoke up.
"Go through all of the factories, -if you can. You'll find what you're
looking for there."
"Thank you very much." Minako turned around and someone slapped her butt.
She kicked his nose out of place and walked out of the bar. All of a sudden
Minako wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with this. The industrial
part of the city looked like a place of death; especially with it right in
the Command Point's shadow. Anything could happen to her. Shaking away any
idea of not going through with this she walked into it.
She received yells from homeless people lying around, dying. At one point
someone grabbed her from behind. "You look lonely honey, how about you come
over to my place?" Minako just turned around and kneed him where it counts.
As she ran away from him she could hear his yells of anger. She was tired of
getting all of this attention. 'Maybe this ring could help me?' Minako
turned into an alley. 'Now what did Usagi say...'
"Ummm ...disguise power! Turn me into a homeless old man!" A second later
she was gone and all you could see was what you'd expect to see in the area.
Some old bum. 'But what was Haiku doing with something like this? Where's Usagi?'
Minako decided to ask Haiku the next time she saw her, but promptly forgot about it
completely as soon as she stopped thinking about it. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
At last she reached her destination. It was a clear, enclosed passageway from the city to the
command point. There were two guards, one on each side. No matter what she
looked like if the guards saw her she wouldn't be able to get past them, so
she worked with that. "Disguise power, make me invisible!" At first nothing
happened. Then Minako noticed that she was back in her regular clothes. It
looked like it didn't work. But what if it really did work? There was only
one way to find out. Minako approached the guards, and didn't stop until she
was in between them. No response. Taking a closer look at the passage she
found that there was some kind of field blocking it off. Looking around, she
found some controls behind one of the guards. The only way to them was
through the guard. These guards were still shadows, but shaped as men. Maybe
they were once men? Minako just hoped that they could be killed just like
men. Minako pulled a dagger out of her belt and sliced the guards' necks.
They crumbled and burst into dust.
Acting quickly she pressed all of the buttons of the controls at once,
hoping that one was the controls for the passage. One did and the shield
disappeared. One was also the alarm. Minako ran into the tunnel. At about
half-way, she looked back over her shoulder to see shadows gathering at the
entrance. They obviously couldn't see her. Otherwise she would have some of
them chasing her. They probably figured some prowler killed the guards and
ran back into the city. At three quarters of the way through a voice said,
"SECURITY BARRIERS LOWERING."
As Minako neared the end a wall began to lower over the passage. At the last
moment she dove towards the floor to slide under.
Unfortunately she was just a little too slow and slammed into the wall,
knocking herself out.
When Minako woke up it was dark. From the glint on the horizon she figured
it was a couple of hours before dawn. She looked all over the passage but
couldn't find any controls to lower the security barrier. Then the barrier
blocking the way she came in opened, and two shadows stepped through. The
barrier started to close and the other one started to open. She pressed
herself tight against the wall as the shadows passed her. She followed them
through the passage and into a hall, but wasn't fast enough to make it into
the elevator they entered before the doors closed. Shadows could move VERY
fast.
The elevator was at the end of the hall. To the left and right of the
elevator were staircases. One leading up and one leading down. The hall
looked more like it was part of a space station than the inside of a
mountain. She decided to take the stair case leading up. Eventually she
reached another floor. It looked exactly the same as the previous one,
except it was pointing in a different direction. The elevator was there, and
another staircase leading up. At the end of the hall was a screen instead of
a door. She walked down to it and it turned on. There were a number of
choices on the screen. They were Current Orders, Security Schedule, Map of
City, Map of Point, and some others that Minako didn't understand. She chose
to see a map of the point. A spinning three dimensional map appeared on the
screen. She was in one of the ten 'Shadow barracks'. Above that was the
'main control center', and everything above that was just labelled as
'Creator's area'. Underground were cells and torture chambers. Minako
figured that her friends were either in the cells or with the Creator. She
figured that the Creator would want to deal with them. That would be her
destination. She decided to take a closer look at the main control center
and found what she needed. 'Armoury' was how the room was labelled. She
pressed the off button on the screen and just before it shut of it said on
the screen, "For portable version take disc". She looked down to find a rack
of disks on a shelf. It was about 5 inches across by 1 inch thick. Minako
figured it might come in handy and slipped it into her pack. She headed for
the stairs leading up.
"Level 2, Level 3 ...Level 8, Level 9, 10!" Minako finally reached the top
of the shadow barracks. Only one left! With new encouragement the last
flight of stairs was easy. This floor was different than the others. It had
a tiny hallway and then opened up everywhere to the control deck. It
wouldn't have been very hard to get lost; then again, that was the point of
it. She carefully recalled the directions to the armoury and was wondering
how to get in unnoticed when she found the door already open. There were
retlocs lined up and leaving with weapons each on separate sides of the
hallway. It was hard not to run into any of them. Dodging back and forth
while retlocs came running at her she made her way into the room. She
gasped. There was a man giving orders. Not some shadow, an actual human.
"You know your orders," he was saying, "Go to the borders and don't let
anything leave. Search the city. We don't know how many enemies are out
there. The Creator caught two but there could be more out there." In the
room there were boxes and boxes of guns. Minako grabbed one from a pile and
it turned invisible on contact with her hand. In a box labelled 'explosives'
there were a bunch of cylindrical objects that could fit in her hand. She
grabbed four and stuffed them in her pockets. On one wall there were screens
showing videos on how to work the guns and the explosives. The guns shot
lasers that refilled by using strands of magic. The explosives were just
really deadly. 'All of these weapons could be a real annoyance,' she
thought. 'Maybe I should do something about them.' Taking another explosive
out of the box she set it for a minute and ran out of the room. So that
enemies couldn't tell when the explosives were activated, it looked exactly
the same as all of the others. Minako used the gun to blast openings through
hallways to get back to the stairways in the center of the floor. There was panic all around her
with laser blasts seemingly appearing from thin air. She
charged up the stairs leading up. She was almost to the top when she heard
the explosion. It shook the mountain. Unfortunately the armoury was on the
edge of the fortress. So it just made a big hole in the side of it.
At the top of the stairs she saw that the elevator was filling up with
shadows who wanted to see what had happened. As the door closed Minako
tossed an explosive in after them. She ran down the hallway on this floor
counting the doors on the right. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight!" She blasted open the eighth door. Ami was chained to the far wall.
Her eyes were closed. Her face was battered and bruised. Her clothes were
ripped. "Ami are you okay?" Ami looked up.
"Who said that?"
"Ami, it's me."
"Minako? Where are you?" Minako realized that she was still invisible and
fixed it. "Mina, you came!" Minako shot the ends of the chains holding Ami
against the wall. And then the braces around Ami's wrists. "Haiku is in that
room over there," she said pointing to a side room. Minako blew up the door
to find Haiku standing there tapping her foot.
"Well it's about time. Now hurry, we have to go to the next room." Haiku led
them across the hall to another door. It was unlocked. She stepped in and
walked to a table in the middle of the small room. She picked up returned her
sword sheath to her back. "Okay. Let's get out of here."
Minako led them out into the hall and up the stairs leading up. "There's
kind of a mess on the floor below. We don't want to go down there now," she
said. They followed the stairs up and up and up. This staircase was much
longer than all of the others had been. After a little bit they reached the
top. It was a small hallway. There was no elevator door, and no stairs
leading up. There were doors on the left and right, and a small lift on the
opposite side of the room. "Be careful," Minako warned, "We're in the
Creators quarters." They quickly skimmed across the room and got into the
lift. Haiku pressed a button and it started to rise into a shaft in the
ceilling.
They came to a floor with a table with buttons on it in the middle and an
oval-shaped object on the far wall about twice as tall as any of thm.
"This is a link room." Haiku explained. "Resistance wasn't even sure if they
existed." She walked over to the table and fiddled around with some
controls. "It's all password blocked off. What do you think Ami?" Ami was
looking all over the table taking in everything that was there.
"I might be able to break into it." She made her little computer with the
Mercury symbol appear on the table. She opened it up and blew off the dust.
She pressed a few buttons. "It's not very well guarded. I've linked my
computer to whatever controls it. I'll be in in a few seconds. What do you
want me to do?"
"Send us to the border of Toria. We're in Kaipo now." Ami quickly set up the
link and the oval shaped object on the wall changed from black to green.
"Okay. Come on, let's go."
"Go where?" Minako asked.
"Jump through the oval. Go with her, Ami. I'll be with you in a minute." Ami
dragged a reluctant to leave Haiku alone Minako over to the portal. "Just a
minute,"
"What?"
"Minako, give me the ring I gave you earlier." Minako slipped the ring off and
gave it to Haiku. Ami and Minako left through the portal in a flash of
light. Haiku got to work. She began to weave and twist all of the strands of
magic in the room to each other and the ring. When she was finished she let
go of the ring and it floated up into the middle of the room. She quickly
departed via the portal.
A shadow flew ahead as the Creator followed it up to the link room. The
Creator felt it being activated and told its shadow commander to hurry. They
floated very quickly through the halls and stairways of the Command Point.
When they reached the link room the shadow rushed in to find any enemies.
The Creator was too late to warn it. The shadow disturbed the weavings of
the magic strings and they all tried to go through whoever weaved them.
Haiku wasn't there anymore so they just whipped around wildly. The ring
snapped and exploded. The whole room exploded and it blew a giant hole in
the side of the Command Point. Only through magical means did the top of the
point not fall over.
The Creator was going to be in trouble now, and it was not looking forward
to the punishment to follow.
**********