Hayley Elderberry
Strikers
PG-13/R
Chapter 2: Get Up in Front of the Class and Introduce Yourself
Disclaimers:
1. Though not the first fan fic I've ever wrote, this is the first
that I'll ever be posting for public display.
2. I do not own Sailor Moon, or the characters of Travis Watson,
Darien Jacobson, or Apollo. Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko
Takeuchi, as well as other companies and such, and the other three
characters are owned by Jendra and appear in the fan fiction story
Universal and Universal B. Her stories are very good and you can
find them on ASMR and Crescent Moon Archives.
3. Why it's not necessary to this story to have read Universal/B,
it would be helpful to at least have a working knowledge of it.
Mainly, know the characters from it and they're relationships with
the other Sailor Moon characters.
4. The rating on this story will fluctuate from PG-13 to R. There
will be some violence and romance along the way, hence the
fluctationgness.
5. As long as I don't make too many mistakes and you can take the
time to, enjoy. I really hope you do.
6. The Strikers, as well as Hunter, are characters I created.
Part 1: A Small Jester
"Master?" came a small voice in the darkness. "Master, are you better yet?
You promised her to me. I want my play. I need my play. My fire. Please master,
I need my fire. Please give me my fire. She needs me! Can't you feel her crying
for me?"
Part 2: Hello Kitty Slippers?! Doh!
"Lily Bates?! Nine year old little Lily Bates?! Wow! Oh my god, it's been
so long!" exclaimed Travis as he took Lily into his arms for a hug.
*Mmm, yeah, this feels good,* thought Lily to herself as Travis hugged
her. *Wait..what is..oh my god, he smells like chocolate chip cookies.* She took a
couple of deep breaths furtively before he pulled away from her. *Wait, 'nine
year old little Lily Bates'? Dear God….
@@@
She watched as Jessica hugged Travis quickly.
"Don't worry Travis. It's not like we meant anything to each other."
"You meant something to me," said Travis, sorrow in his voice.
"Yeah, of course I did sweetheart," said Jessica as she tapped his face
lightly before turning and walking away.
Travis sat on the bench in the gardens, moonlight lighting up his saddened
face.
"Travis?" came a small voice out of the shadows.
Thirteen year old Travis looked up. "Lily? What are you doing out of bed
sweetheart?"
"I needed a drink; saw you and Jessica out here." Lily said as she looked
down at her Hello Kitty slippers.
*God, I just had to wear these to bed tonight, didn't I?* thought Lily
strongly to herself, while blushing on the outside.
"You should get back to bed Lily. Before your aunt and uncle worry about
you."
"Listen, Travis, I just wanted to let you know," began Lily. She sighed,
looked at Travis, then decided on what to say. "I just wanted to let you know that
I remember you. One day, you'll remember me too. I can wait though." She
paused, and then added "I love you. You love me too. You'll see. You'll love me
again, as much as I love you." Lily finished hurriedly before running to Travis,
hugging him tightly and quickly, then running back to her room.
@@@
*That's how he remembers me,* thought Lily to herself. *Shit. Just,* she
hesitated to herself, trying to articulate the words that just would not come, *shit.*
She sighed.
"So, how's it been Travis? I haven't seen you in such a long time."
"I know Lily," said Travis as he looked at his watch quickly. "Listen, I
don't really have time to talk right now. Would you maybe want to meet up for
coffee or lunch sometime today? Catch up with me on things?"
Lily beamed. *Purrrrfect.*
"I would love to Travis. How about at that café across the street, Daisy
Chains, round noon?"
"That would be perfect," said Travis after looking behind his shoulder to
see the café. "See you then," he said and then went along his way.
Lily turned around and walked in the opposite direction than the one she
had been taking earlier.
*Just perfect.* she thought to herself, grinning slightly.
She lifted a small cell phone to her lips and talked lightly into it.
"Operation started. Target fell. Second contact at the Daisy Chains café,
noon."
Part 3: Ugh.
Pain. Horrid, horrid pain.
*And to think, she's the one that gave this to me,* came a thought into the
darkness of the pain.
"Master?" came a voice somewhere to his left.
He groaned again. *And she couldn't even have done me the favor of
killing all of my underlings. No, she had to leave me with this imbecile.*
Part 4: Sailor Venus to the Rescue!
"You have a sister?"
"Yup, found out about her seven years ago."
"What do you mean, you were adopted?"
"Well.."
Lily and Travis caught up on what had happened to Travis over the years
since Lily had known him. Afterwards they caught up on Lily. She told him about
finding her perfect job, about the friends she had, and about the new house they
had all bought together just a couple of blocks from the Juuban Park.
Meanwhile…
"How's it looking, Mercury?"
"Oh, it's going good. So far, he doesn't seem to think anything strange.
She looks ok," Mercury finished as she looked up the man behind her, named
Mars.
"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around?" asked Lily as her lunch date
with Travis came to a close.
"Hopefully, I'm kind of busy lately," Travis said, checking his watch and
realizing how late he was going to be getting back to his work.
"Well, I'd really like to meet your sister and her boyfriend, if that would
be ok," Lily began lightly, smiling nicely.
"Sure, I'm sure she would love to meet someone who knew me so long
ago. Well, I need to be getting back to work Lily, as I'm sure you do too. I'll be
seeing you around, ok?" asked Travis as he made his way out of the eatery.
"Sure, Travis. See you."
"Ahhh, someone please help me!!!!!!!!" came a scream once the two were
outside of the restaurant.
Travis' and Lily's eyes got big, looked at each other, then quickly ran
towards the scream, along with many other people, and each purposefully lost the
other in the crowd.
"Oh, Darien, it's so nice to have this time with you," said Serena as she
cuddled up next to her soul-mate on a bench at the Juuban Park.
"I know what you mean sweetheart," said Darien, resting his head on top
of hers lightly.
Serena sighed and looked around, enjoying the bright sunshine, even if the
weather was cold. The forecasters were saying it was just a freak weather break,
and soon the weather temperature would start dropping to about the twenties or
so.
"At least today is nice though," said Serena, sighing again. Her eyes
wandered languidly around, until finally resting above, looking at the sky, then
suddenly growing wide.
"Reenie!" she screamed as she saw the small lump fall from the sky.
Darien looked up and his Tuxedo Mask instincts kicked in instantly as he
ran under his future daughter and caught her.
"Hiyas!" screamed Reenie as she started a choke hold with a strength
resembling her mother's on Darien's neck.
"What's going on Small Lady? Are you alright? Is the future alright?"
asked Serena, her mouth going a mile a minute with questions while her fingers
traveled her daughter quickly to make sure everything was alright from her fall.
"Mommy!" Reenie cried as she flung herself from Darien and into
Serena's arms. Serena hugged her tightly before setting her down on the ground
and looking at her some more. "Everything's alright Mommy. Puu just said that I
should come here for awhile and Mommy and Daddy agreed."
"Well, as long as your parents agreed, than I guess it's ok," said Serena as
she wondered what reason Sailor Pluto would have to make sure that Reenie was
sent back to the past.
*Unless a new enemy is coming,* Serena thought to herself as her
communicator started beeping. *Oh great. Jinx!*
Around the corner from the Daisy Chains café Sailor Sol was alone in
fighting a youma until back up arrived. Unfortunately, he wasn't having the best
of luck with it and when Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask ran up beside him he
wasn't too surprised that Sailor Crescent Moon was with them.
*Great, future thing, great. Oh, youma, right.* he thought to himself as he
tried his next attack.
"How are they doing?" asked Striker Earth as she joined Strikers Mercury
and Mars.
"So far so good, considering that thing entangles them in spider webs,"
said Mercury.
"That would be very uncomfortable," said Striker Mars.
"Can you imagine trying to wash that out of some more sensitive areas?"
came another voice.
"Hi, Venus. Where's Jupiter?" asked Striker Earth as Mars let out a snort
of appreciative laughter.
"He was coming in from the other side of town, in the north, so he should
be over there."
"Great. Venus, you go to the south, Mars why don't you take east, we'll
handle west," said Striker Earth as she commanded her small band.
"Solar Flare!" screamed Sailor Sol as he attacked the youma, which
dodged it expertly.
"Jupiter Thunderclap Zap!" joined in Sailor Jupiter with her attack as she
and the other scouts joined in the fray.
"This thing can dodge everything!" groaned Sailor Moon as, once again,
the youma dodged another attack. "We're going to have to figure a way to get
close enough to it so that it can't dodge anymore. Mercury, start working on
something with your computer."
Sailor Moon stared at the youma for a moment. Over the past seven years,
when she had first found her twin brother Travis, she had grown a lot. One way
she had grown was in tactical thinking during a fight, and she used this now to her
best advantage.
"Sol, attack with your sword. Mars, while it's distracted see if you can put
one of your charms on it, afterwards, Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask can physically
assault it as Sol tries some more with the sword. Everyone got that?" asked Sailor
Moon, looking at the people she was involving in this fight.
"Got it," everyone agreed.
"Alright, let's hope this works."
Sailor Sol pulled his Sun Sword out of its scabbard and advanced slowly
on the youma. Suddenly he sprang forward towards it, raised his sword, jumped to
attack and was about to open his mouth to scream his attack when he was spun up
into a spider like web that soon began to suck all of his energy from him.
"Sol!" screamed Sailor Moon as she saw the cocoon capture her brother.
"Don't worry, we'll get him out," said Tuxedo Mask, looking worriedly at
the cocoon and trying to think of a way to do what he promised at the same time.
"Ahh!" screamed someone from behind them. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo
Mask turned from looking at Sailor Sol's shell to find that the youma had also
wrapped up Sailor Mercury and Mars, perceiving them to be the biggest threat to
it because of Mar's charms and Mercury's tactical skills on the computer.
"This is not going good," said Sailor Venus as she and Jupiter regrouped
with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
"Moon Tiara Magic!" screamed Sailor Moon in a desperate attempt to free
her family.
Sailor Crescent Moon noticed her mother's attack and joined in with her's
as well, "Crescent Moon Tiara Magic!"
The youma noticed the attacks and quickly drew the three cocoons it had
made of some of the Sailor Scouts around itself for protection.
"Oh no! Tiara return!" screamed both Scouts.
The tiaras returned immediately, and disgustingly, the youma smiled.
Huge gnarled yellow razor blades of teeth gleamed wickedly from it's spider like
body and its eyes gleamed a flat burnt umber. The ground around its feet suddenly
started to shake and crack. Long spidery arms emerged from the cracks and the
bodies of three more spider youmas could be seen.
"Oh hell," said Sailor Jupiter, eyes big.
"Go?' asked Striker Mercury, looking at the newly emerged bodies of the
spider youmas with a cool eye.
"Not yet. They've gotten out of worse situations before, maybe they can
get out of this one. Just tell the others to be prepared to step in if need be,"
answered Striker Earth.
"What do we do?" cried Sailor Venus as one of the youmas in front used
the cocoons of the scouts to block any attacks while the other three hurriedly
scuttled down streets and alleys and returned with more cocoons, more people in
danger, more shields from any advance the scouts could muster.
Watching as her friends were hurting, watching as her life and the life of
her friends were put into danger, watching as Tuxedo Mask had an uncertain look
on his face, and as Sailor Crescent Moon was holding her mother's hand, her eyes
scared, watching as even Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon looked uncertain and
scared, watching as the anger grew, Sailor Venus suddenly knew what to do.
Venus threw back her hair, focused on not only one but all four youmas,
and suddenly yelled her attack towards the heavens. "VENUS DEIFY
MADNESS!" she screamed as she thrust her hands towards the offenders and
small wisps of smoke came softly, but hurriedly, from them. The wisps floated
softly through the air and seeped into the spiders.
The youmas looked at one another and smiled, knowledge between them
of what a puny human Sailor Venus was. Then their eyes kind of glazed, and their
minds began to think, and to realize they were inside the mind of a God as slowly
her attack pervaded into their pores. Their bodies began to shudder and seizure
and they dropped their cocoon shields as they fell to the ground, eight spidery legs
over their heads, to block out the madness convulsing over them.
Seeing that Venus's attack wasn't strong enough to kill them, Sailor Moon
hurriedly pulled out her scepter and finished the youmas off with a little help from
Sailor Jupiter. Then, taking a quick wide eyed glance at Sailor Venus, who had
collapsed onto her knees, trying to catch her breath, Sailor Moon hurriedly went
to help her brother and the other Scouts up from the disappeared cocoons that had
been holding them.
"Now THAT was impressive," said Striker Venus, a note of pride in his
voice.
"Yeah," said Striker Jupiter a bit enviously, "that was very cool."
"Personally, I think that was a bit too close," said Striker Mars, with an icy
glare at Earth. "I just don't understand why we're still waiting to help them out."
"Would you rather help them out now, or lose the element of surprise later
when we could really do some damage?" asked Striker Earth as she remained
calm. "Listen, Jupiter, why don't you follow a group of them, see what's going
on, Venus, take another group, and everyone meet up at the house tonight around
six. We're having a meeting."
Everyone nodded and then went off their separate ways.
"That was too close," said Raye as she looked at the friends around her.
"Yeah, tell me about it," said Travis. "If it hadn't been for Mina…" he left
the sentence unfinished, each person in the room filling in the blank.
"I don't know what came over me," said Mina, looking down at the floor.
"Well, it sounds like you experienced something similar before," said
Amy. "Remember when you first used your love chain? That was a very similar
situation."
"That happened when we were fighting Ann and Alan. Does that mean
they're back?" asked Mina with a frown.
"I don't think so," said Serena. "They know who we really are; they
wouldn't have just sent a youma. If they were really back, and that's saying
they've turned back to evil, then they would just go after us personally. This
looked like just another one of those last ditch efforts the Negaverse has been
making lately."
"I wonder if they're really last ditch efforts or if they're just gearing up for
something," said Amy with a small look towards Reenie, indicating that they
hadn't heard the last of the Negaverse for a while if Serena's future daughter was
with them, a sign that maybe something important was about to happen.
"I certainly hope so," said Lita, worry in her voice as she thought of the
last fight and how close the outcome had been.
"I just don't understand!" screamed Damon. "Why couldn't we have
helped them? You saw how close it got!"
"Damon, I understand, really I do, but you have got to understand that we
just can't go in there with guns blazing. We have to think this out rationally. We
all know something is about to happen, god, we can feel it in the air. If we lose
the element of surprise now, then it's gone, and we can't ever get it back. What if
we need it later on down the road? I know that you miss your family, and I
promise that you'll be with them shortly, but for now, we have to just sit tight and
wait. We can't fail now, not after all these years."
"I'm sorry to say it, but Lily is right," came a deep resonating voice from
behind the two which had spoken. The group in the room turned to look at the
lithe new comer, respect and admiration in their glances.
"Hunter, glad you could join us," said Damon, a smirk on his lips. "You
look a little ruffled there buddy, what, couldn't find any rats to satisfy you?"
The man called Hunter turned his amber hawk like eyes towards Damon, a
small glint in them, "Don't mess with me tonight boy." He said. "I've had more
than a few feathers ruffled today."
"Sorry Hunter," Damon said, instantly contrite. Both liked to throw small
burrs at each other, but both also knew when the other wasn't in the mood.
"Where have you been, Hunter?" asked Corinne, one of her small hands
linked with Gabriel, her thumb lightly making circles along the back of his hand.
"Here and there munchkin," answered Hunter with a wink at Corinne.
Hunter and Lily shared a quick smile with each other and then everyone
got on with business, Hunter telling the rest of the group of the intelligence he had
managed to gather on his last mission.
"The gist of it is there's a new boss in town. No one was saying a word
about him though. Only after some very deep digging was I able to manage to
find that he was fascinated with tales from Earth about the Vikings and he's set up
a community based on their civilization. He has his people live the myths, defend
his surrounding territory by water, and he makes his people travel by boat on the
outskirts of his territory trying to gain more power. I was able to infiltrate his
major metropolis one night. It was very interesting. There were fights among
men, most of the women were either serving drinks or on top of a small stage
dancing for the enjoyment of the men. It was very, very interesting." Hunter
concluded.
"I imagine," said Lily with a small look which Hunter blushed to. "In a
week Corinne and I will try to infiltrate this man's metropolis; what did you say
its and his name was?"
"The city is called Valhalla, of course. The man's name is Odin.
Obviously he's very into the Viking and Norse mythology."
"I don't quite like the fact of you two girls going," said Jeffery. "I mean,
wouldn't we be able to move around more than you would?"
"No," said Corinne. "Among other men they would be secretive of their
actions. When a man of that thinking was with a woman he wouldn't think of her
as a person, merely a thing, so information better left secret would be no problem
to attain. So, in essence, though we have physical limitations to the places we'd
be able to go, we'd be in a much safer and better place to gather information than
you three would."
"Exactly," said Lily. "Now that all this is settled, how about those of us
who should be on duty get to it, and those of us who should be sleeping get to that
and other business. Everyone check in at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. Good night."
*It's SOOO cold!* raged Serena to herself the following day, covered
head to toe in extra layers along with scarves and hats to keep herself warm in the
biting cold. Though the temperature wasn't bad, the wind chill was taking it's toll,
and the extra layers of clothes was adding some much needed warmth to her small
body. She was walking with Reenie to her parent's house so that they could spend
the day with her. Last night she had stayed with Serena and Darien in their
apartment and so the grandparents hadn't been able to see much of her except at a
special emergency family dinner when they learned she was in town.
The two were walking past Juuban Park and Serena looked up excitedly.
"Up here is where Travis says a friend of his from before he moved to
Japan now lives. I can't wait to meet her. It sounded like Travis had a crush on
her. Hehe, I really can't wait to meet her after hearing that sound in his voice,"
said Serena to her future daughter as they past the park's entrance.
"Uh-oh," said Reenie as they heard a scream of pure terror coming from
the park.
"Ugh," said Serena as she hurriedly called the others on her communicator
and then found a well hidden place to transform with Reenie.
"There's a youma in Juuban Park. All Striker's to Juuban Park," said Lily
as she also heard the screams then moments later watched the two women below
her transform.
Lily touched a small necklace that lay in between her chest and focused
her energy quickly as she let her own transformation envelope her. Colorful
ribbons exploded around her, wrapped themselves around her, and then fell
slowly away from her body to reveal Striker Earth, whom hurriedly jumped from
rooftop to rooftop to park to catch up with the two Sailor Scouts.
*At least it's not spiders this time,* thought Sailor Jupiter to herself as she
ran, dodging attack after attack. This youma had the appearance of a gelatinous
mass and had quickly separated into two masses when it had been hit with Sailor
Moon's attack and since then the Scouts hadn't been able to get a hit on either
mass since.
"I think we may actually need to step in on this one," said Striker Earth as
she watched the battle from a tree, hidden from view.
Suddenly the two attacked at once, firing rapidly and hitting Sailor Venus,
Mercury, and Jupiter and trapping them in a goo from it's body.
"Not again!" said Sailor Mercury as she tried to wiggle her arms, hands, or
legs free, but she soon found the more she struggled the tighter the goo became
around her, and so she quickly subsided her thrashings.
"Just hold on!" said Mars as she dodged glob after glob of the same stuff
that had trapped the others.
"These roses aren't doing a damn thing!" Tuxedo Mask screamed in
frustration. "Earth Gem Power!" he cried, turning from Tuxedo Mask into Sailor
Earth.
"Earth Tectonic"
"No!" screamed Sailor Moon. "We can't take the chance it could separate
again! We're almost outnumbered as it is!"
While Sailor Moon had been talking to Sailor Earth neither had noticed
that Sailor Crescent Moon had been dodging an attack but hadn't quite got clear
enough when some of the goo landed on her feet, gluing her to the ground. She
looked up with wide eyes as one of the youmas advanced on her, stretching itself
thin, almost surrounding her, to trap her inside of its body.
"Mommy! Daddy!" she cried.
"Reenie!" Sailor Moon screamed as she saw the predicament her daughter
was in, and in fright screaming her real name. "No!"
"Earth Volcanic Eruption!" screamed Striker Earth as she suddenly
appeared in front of Sailor Crescent Moon, her hands spread out in front of her,
palms towards the ground at the feet of the youma that was trying to attack
Crescent Moon. As soon as she had said the last syllable minor tremors and
quakes appeared beneath the ground of the youma. Suddenly the ground split
open and liquid hot magma poured vertically into the sky, towering above the
youma and surrounding it. The walls around the youma slammed closed and
boiled it inside then slowly returned the earth back to normal, the youma gone.
"Who the hel..." began Sailor Mars as everyone, friend and foe alike,
stared at the newcomer.
"Yo hoo," said Striker Mercury, waving sweetly at the youma. "Bye, bye.
Mercury Ice Capsule Collapse!" she cried as shards of ice flew from her
outstretched hands and puzzle pieced themselves together around the youma.
When they were done an ice blue crystal was around it and it suddenly began to
crack, then it exploded inward, and that youma was gone as well.
The goo had disappeared around the Scouts and they all just stared at the
newcomers.
"Who are you?" Sailor Moon finally asked.
"We're friends," said Striker Earth as she pointed to the group behind her
and Mercury, which included the guys who had stepped up to help in case they
were needed. They waved sheepishly; two of the guys staring at some of the
Scouts like thirsty men in a dessert stare at water, hungrily.
The group smiled, and then turned to leave.
"Wait," said Sailor Sol, staring at Striker Earth. "Don't. Tell us who you
are if you're our friends."
Striker Earth smiled sweetly at Sailor Sol, a misty expression in her eyes
as the wind blew her long black hair around her face. "Now's not the time. We'll
be seeing you." She said, and then the group was gone.
Strikers
PG-13/R
Chapter 2: Get Up in Front of the Class and Introduce Yourself
Disclaimers:
1. Though not the first fan fic I've ever wrote, this is the first
that I'll ever be posting for public display.
2. I do not own Sailor Moon, or the characters of Travis Watson,
Darien Jacobson, or Apollo. Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko
Takeuchi, as well as other companies and such, and the other three
characters are owned by Jendra and appear in the fan fiction story
Universal and Universal B. Her stories are very good and you can
find them on ASMR and Crescent Moon Archives.
3. Why it's not necessary to this story to have read Universal/B,
it would be helpful to at least have a working knowledge of it.
Mainly, know the characters from it and they're relationships with
the other Sailor Moon characters.
4. The rating on this story will fluctuate from PG-13 to R. There
will be some violence and romance along the way, hence the
fluctationgness.
5. As long as I don't make too many mistakes and you can take the
time to, enjoy. I really hope you do.
6. The Strikers, as well as Hunter, are characters I created.
Part 1: A Small Jester
"Master?" came a small voice in the darkness. "Master, are you better yet?
You promised her to me. I want my play. I need my play. My fire. Please master,
I need my fire. Please give me my fire. She needs me! Can't you feel her crying
for me?"
Part 2: Hello Kitty Slippers?! Doh!
"Lily Bates?! Nine year old little Lily Bates?! Wow! Oh my god, it's been
so long!" exclaimed Travis as he took Lily into his arms for a hug.
*Mmm, yeah, this feels good,* thought Lily to herself as Travis hugged
her. *Wait..what is..oh my god, he smells like chocolate chip cookies.* She took a
couple of deep breaths furtively before he pulled away from her. *Wait, 'nine
year old little Lily Bates'? Dear God….
@@@
She watched as Jessica hugged Travis quickly.
"Don't worry Travis. It's not like we meant anything to each other."
"You meant something to me," said Travis, sorrow in his voice.
"Yeah, of course I did sweetheart," said Jessica as she tapped his face
lightly before turning and walking away.
Travis sat on the bench in the gardens, moonlight lighting up his saddened
face.
"Travis?" came a small voice out of the shadows.
Thirteen year old Travis looked up. "Lily? What are you doing out of bed
sweetheart?"
"I needed a drink; saw you and Jessica out here." Lily said as she looked
down at her Hello Kitty slippers.
*God, I just had to wear these to bed tonight, didn't I?* thought Lily
strongly to herself, while blushing on the outside.
"You should get back to bed Lily. Before your aunt and uncle worry about
you."
"Listen, Travis, I just wanted to let you know," began Lily. She sighed,
looked at Travis, then decided on what to say. "I just wanted to let you know that
I remember you. One day, you'll remember me too. I can wait though." She
paused, and then added "I love you. You love me too. You'll see. You'll love me
again, as much as I love you." Lily finished hurriedly before running to Travis,
hugging him tightly and quickly, then running back to her room.
@@@
*That's how he remembers me,* thought Lily to herself. *Shit. Just,* she
hesitated to herself, trying to articulate the words that just would not come, *shit.*
She sighed.
"So, how's it been Travis? I haven't seen you in such a long time."
"I know Lily," said Travis as he looked at his watch quickly. "Listen, I
don't really have time to talk right now. Would you maybe want to meet up for
coffee or lunch sometime today? Catch up with me on things?"
Lily beamed. *Purrrrfect.*
"I would love to Travis. How about at that café across the street, Daisy
Chains, round noon?"
"That would be perfect," said Travis after looking behind his shoulder to
see the café. "See you then," he said and then went along his way.
Lily turned around and walked in the opposite direction than the one she
had been taking earlier.
*Just perfect.* she thought to herself, grinning slightly.
She lifted a small cell phone to her lips and talked lightly into it.
"Operation started. Target fell. Second contact at the Daisy Chains café,
noon."
Part 3: Ugh.
Pain. Horrid, horrid pain.
*And to think, she's the one that gave this to me,* came a thought into the
darkness of the pain.
"Master?" came a voice somewhere to his left.
He groaned again. *And she couldn't even have done me the favor of
killing all of my underlings. No, she had to leave me with this imbecile.*
Part 4: Sailor Venus to the Rescue!
"You have a sister?"
"Yup, found out about her seven years ago."
"What do you mean, you were adopted?"
"Well.."
Lily and Travis caught up on what had happened to Travis over the years
since Lily had known him. Afterwards they caught up on Lily. She told him about
finding her perfect job, about the friends she had, and about the new house they
had all bought together just a couple of blocks from the Juuban Park.
Meanwhile…
"How's it looking, Mercury?"
"Oh, it's going good. So far, he doesn't seem to think anything strange.
She looks ok," Mercury finished as she looked up the man behind her, named
Mars.
"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around?" asked Lily as her lunch date
with Travis came to a close.
"Hopefully, I'm kind of busy lately," Travis said, checking his watch and
realizing how late he was going to be getting back to his work.
"Well, I'd really like to meet your sister and her boyfriend, if that would
be ok," Lily began lightly, smiling nicely.
"Sure, I'm sure she would love to meet someone who knew me so long
ago. Well, I need to be getting back to work Lily, as I'm sure you do too. I'll be
seeing you around, ok?" asked Travis as he made his way out of the eatery.
"Sure, Travis. See you."
"Ahhh, someone please help me!!!!!!!!" came a scream once the two were
outside of the restaurant.
Travis' and Lily's eyes got big, looked at each other, then quickly ran
towards the scream, along with many other people, and each purposefully lost the
other in the crowd.
"Oh, Darien, it's so nice to have this time with you," said Serena as she
cuddled up next to her soul-mate on a bench at the Juuban Park.
"I know what you mean sweetheart," said Darien, resting his head on top
of hers lightly.
Serena sighed and looked around, enjoying the bright sunshine, even if the
weather was cold. The forecasters were saying it was just a freak weather break,
and soon the weather temperature would start dropping to about the twenties or
so.
"At least today is nice though," said Serena, sighing again. Her eyes
wandered languidly around, until finally resting above, looking at the sky, then
suddenly growing wide.
"Reenie!" she screamed as she saw the small lump fall from the sky.
Darien looked up and his Tuxedo Mask instincts kicked in instantly as he
ran under his future daughter and caught her.
"Hiyas!" screamed Reenie as she started a choke hold with a strength
resembling her mother's on Darien's neck.
"What's going on Small Lady? Are you alright? Is the future alright?"
asked Serena, her mouth going a mile a minute with questions while her fingers
traveled her daughter quickly to make sure everything was alright from her fall.
"Mommy!" Reenie cried as she flung herself from Darien and into
Serena's arms. Serena hugged her tightly before setting her down on the ground
and looking at her some more. "Everything's alright Mommy. Puu just said that I
should come here for awhile and Mommy and Daddy agreed."
"Well, as long as your parents agreed, than I guess it's ok," said Serena as
she wondered what reason Sailor Pluto would have to make sure that Reenie was
sent back to the past.
*Unless a new enemy is coming,* Serena thought to herself as her
communicator started beeping. *Oh great. Jinx!*
Around the corner from the Daisy Chains café Sailor Sol was alone in
fighting a youma until back up arrived. Unfortunately, he wasn't having the best
of luck with it and when Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask ran up beside him he
wasn't too surprised that Sailor Crescent Moon was with them.
*Great, future thing, great. Oh, youma, right.* he thought to himself as he
tried his next attack.
"How are they doing?" asked Striker Earth as she joined Strikers Mercury
and Mars.
"So far so good, considering that thing entangles them in spider webs,"
said Mercury.
"That would be very uncomfortable," said Striker Mars.
"Can you imagine trying to wash that out of some more sensitive areas?"
came another voice.
"Hi, Venus. Where's Jupiter?" asked Striker Earth as Mars let out a snort
of appreciative laughter.
"He was coming in from the other side of town, in the north, so he should
be over there."
"Great. Venus, you go to the south, Mars why don't you take east, we'll
handle west," said Striker Earth as she commanded her small band.
"Solar Flare!" screamed Sailor Sol as he attacked the youma, which
dodged it expertly.
"Jupiter Thunderclap Zap!" joined in Sailor Jupiter with her attack as she
and the other scouts joined in the fray.
"This thing can dodge everything!" groaned Sailor Moon as, once again,
the youma dodged another attack. "We're going to have to figure a way to get
close enough to it so that it can't dodge anymore. Mercury, start working on
something with your computer."
Sailor Moon stared at the youma for a moment. Over the past seven years,
when she had first found her twin brother Travis, she had grown a lot. One way
she had grown was in tactical thinking during a fight, and she used this now to her
best advantage.
"Sol, attack with your sword. Mars, while it's distracted see if you can put
one of your charms on it, afterwards, Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask can physically
assault it as Sol tries some more with the sword. Everyone got that?" asked Sailor
Moon, looking at the people she was involving in this fight.
"Got it," everyone agreed.
"Alright, let's hope this works."
Sailor Sol pulled his Sun Sword out of its scabbard and advanced slowly
on the youma. Suddenly he sprang forward towards it, raised his sword, jumped to
attack and was about to open his mouth to scream his attack when he was spun up
into a spider like web that soon began to suck all of his energy from him.
"Sol!" screamed Sailor Moon as she saw the cocoon capture her brother.
"Don't worry, we'll get him out," said Tuxedo Mask, looking worriedly at
the cocoon and trying to think of a way to do what he promised at the same time.
"Ahh!" screamed someone from behind them. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo
Mask turned from looking at Sailor Sol's shell to find that the youma had also
wrapped up Sailor Mercury and Mars, perceiving them to be the biggest threat to
it because of Mar's charms and Mercury's tactical skills on the computer.
"This is not going good," said Sailor Venus as she and Jupiter regrouped
with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
"Moon Tiara Magic!" screamed Sailor Moon in a desperate attempt to free
her family.
Sailor Crescent Moon noticed her mother's attack and joined in with her's
as well, "Crescent Moon Tiara Magic!"
The youma noticed the attacks and quickly drew the three cocoons it had
made of some of the Sailor Scouts around itself for protection.
"Oh no! Tiara return!" screamed both Scouts.
The tiaras returned immediately, and disgustingly, the youma smiled.
Huge gnarled yellow razor blades of teeth gleamed wickedly from it's spider like
body and its eyes gleamed a flat burnt umber. The ground around its feet suddenly
started to shake and crack. Long spidery arms emerged from the cracks and the
bodies of three more spider youmas could be seen.
"Oh hell," said Sailor Jupiter, eyes big.
"Go?' asked Striker Mercury, looking at the newly emerged bodies of the
spider youmas with a cool eye.
"Not yet. They've gotten out of worse situations before, maybe they can
get out of this one. Just tell the others to be prepared to step in if need be,"
answered Striker Earth.
"What do we do?" cried Sailor Venus as one of the youmas in front used
the cocoons of the scouts to block any attacks while the other three hurriedly
scuttled down streets and alleys and returned with more cocoons, more people in
danger, more shields from any advance the scouts could muster.
Watching as her friends were hurting, watching as her life and the life of
her friends were put into danger, watching as Tuxedo Mask had an uncertain look
on his face, and as Sailor Crescent Moon was holding her mother's hand, her eyes
scared, watching as even Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon looked uncertain and
scared, watching as the anger grew, Sailor Venus suddenly knew what to do.
Venus threw back her hair, focused on not only one but all four youmas,
and suddenly yelled her attack towards the heavens. "VENUS DEIFY
MADNESS!" she screamed as she thrust her hands towards the offenders and
small wisps of smoke came softly, but hurriedly, from them. The wisps floated
softly through the air and seeped into the spiders.
The youmas looked at one another and smiled, knowledge between them
of what a puny human Sailor Venus was. Then their eyes kind of glazed, and their
minds began to think, and to realize they were inside the mind of a God as slowly
her attack pervaded into their pores. Their bodies began to shudder and seizure
and they dropped their cocoon shields as they fell to the ground, eight spidery legs
over their heads, to block out the madness convulsing over them.
Seeing that Venus's attack wasn't strong enough to kill them, Sailor Moon
hurriedly pulled out her scepter and finished the youmas off with a little help from
Sailor Jupiter. Then, taking a quick wide eyed glance at Sailor Venus, who had
collapsed onto her knees, trying to catch her breath, Sailor Moon hurriedly went
to help her brother and the other Scouts up from the disappeared cocoons that had
been holding them.
"Now THAT was impressive," said Striker Venus, a note of pride in his
voice.
"Yeah," said Striker Jupiter a bit enviously, "that was very cool."
"Personally, I think that was a bit too close," said Striker Mars, with an icy
glare at Earth. "I just don't understand why we're still waiting to help them out."
"Would you rather help them out now, or lose the element of surprise later
when we could really do some damage?" asked Striker Earth as she remained
calm. "Listen, Jupiter, why don't you follow a group of them, see what's going
on, Venus, take another group, and everyone meet up at the house tonight around
six. We're having a meeting."
Everyone nodded and then went off their separate ways.
"That was too close," said Raye as she looked at the friends around her.
"Yeah, tell me about it," said Travis. "If it hadn't been for Mina…" he left
the sentence unfinished, each person in the room filling in the blank.
"I don't know what came over me," said Mina, looking down at the floor.
"Well, it sounds like you experienced something similar before," said
Amy. "Remember when you first used your love chain? That was a very similar
situation."
"That happened when we were fighting Ann and Alan. Does that mean
they're back?" asked Mina with a frown.
"I don't think so," said Serena. "They know who we really are; they
wouldn't have just sent a youma. If they were really back, and that's saying
they've turned back to evil, then they would just go after us personally. This
looked like just another one of those last ditch efforts the Negaverse has been
making lately."
"I wonder if they're really last ditch efforts or if they're just gearing up for
something," said Amy with a small look towards Reenie, indicating that they
hadn't heard the last of the Negaverse for a while if Serena's future daughter was
with them, a sign that maybe something important was about to happen.
"I certainly hope so," said Lita, worry in her voice as she thought of the
last fight and how close the outcome had been.
"I just don't understand!" screamed Damon. "Why couldn't we have
helped them? You saw how close it got!"
"Damon, I understand, really I do, but you have got to understand that we
just can't go in there with guns blazing. We have to think this out rationally. We
all know something is about to happen, god, we can feel it in the air. If we lose
the element of surprise now, then it's gone, and we can't ever get it back. What if
we need it later on down the road? I know that you miss your family, and I
promise that you'll be with them shortly, but for now, we have to just sit tight and
wait. We can't fail now, not after all these years."
"I'm sorry to say it, but Lily is right," came a deep resonating voice from
behind the two which had spoken. The group in the room turned to look at the
lithe new comer, respect and admiration in their glances.
"Hunter, glad you could join us," said Damon, a smirk on his lips. "You
look a little ruffled there buddy, what, couldn't find any rats to satisfy you?"
The man called Hunter turned his amber hawk like eyes towards Damon, a
small glint in them, "Don't mess with me tonight boy." He said. "I've had more
than a few feathers ruffled today."
"Sorry Hunter," Damon said, instantly contrite. Both liked to throw small
burrs at each other, but both also knew when the other wasn't in the mood.
"Where have you been, Hunter?" asked Corinne, one of her small hands
linked with Gabriel, her thumb lightly making circles along the back of his hand.
"Here and there munchkin," answered Hunter with a wink at Corinne.
Hunter and Lily shared a quick smile with each other and then everyone
got on with business, Hunter telling the rest of the group of the intelligence he had
managed to gather on his last mission.
"The gist of it is there's a new boss in town. No one was saying a word
about him though. Only after some very deep digging was I able to manage to
find that he was fascinated with tales from Earth about the Vikings and he's set up
a community based on their civilization. He has his people live the myths, defend
his surrounding territory by water, and he makes his people travel by boat on the
outskirts of his territory trying to gain more power. I was able to infiltrate his
major metropolis one night. It was very interesting. There were fights among
men, most of the women were either serving drinks or on top of a small stage
dancing for the enjoyment of the men. It was very, very interesting." Hunter
concluded.
"I imagine," said Lily with a small look which Hunter blushed to. "In a
week Corinne and I will try to infiltrate this man's metropolis; what did you say
its and his name was?"
"The city is called Valhalla, of course. The man's name is Odin.
Obviously he's very into the Viking and Norse mythology."
"I don't quite like the fact of you two girls going," said Jeffery. "I mean,
wouldn't we be able to move around more than you would?"
"No," said Corinne. "Among other men they would be secretive of their
actions. When a man of that thinking was with a woman he wouldn't think of her
as a person, merely a thing, so information better left secret would be no problem
to attain. So, in essence, though we have physical limitations to the places we'd
be able to go, we'd be in a much safer and better place to gather information than
you three would."
"Exactly," said Lily. "Now that all this is settled, how about those of us
who should be on duty get to it, and those of us who should be sleeping get to that
and other business. Everyone check in at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. Good night."
*It's SOOO cold!* raged Serena to herself the following day, covered
head to toe in extra layers along with scarves and hats to keep herself warm in the
biting cold. Though the temperature wasn't bad, the wind chill was taking it's toll,
and the extra layers of clothes was adding some much needed warmth to her small
body. She was walking with Reenie to her parent's house so that they could spend
the day with her. Last night she had stayed with Serena and Darien in their
apartment and so the grandparents hadn't been able to see much of her except at a
special emergency family dinner when they learned she was in town.
The two were walking past Juuban Park and Serena looked up excitedly.
"Up here is where Travis says a friend of his from before he moved to
Japan now lives. I can't wait to meet her. It sounded like Travis had a crush on
her. Hehe, I really can't wait to meet her after hearing that sound in his voice,"
said Serena to her future daughter as they past the park's entrance.
"Uh-oh," said Reenie as they heard a scream of pure terror coming from
the park.
"Ugh," said Serena as she hurriedly called the others on her communicator
and then found a well hidden place to transform with Reenie.
"There's a youma in Juuban Park. All Striker's to Juuban Park," said Lily
as she also heard the screams then moments later watched the two women below
her transform.
Lily touched a small necklace that lay in between her chest and focused
her energy quickly as she let her own transformation envelope her. Colorful
ribbons exploded around her, wrapped themselves around her, and then fell
slowly away from her body to reveal Striker Earth, whom hurriedly jumped from
rooftop to rooftop to park to catch up with the two Sailor Scouts.
*At least it's not spiders this time,* thought Sailor Jupiter to herself as she
ran, dodging attack after attack. This youma had the appearance of a gelatinous
mass and had quickly separated into two masses when it had been hit with Sailor
Moon's attack and since then the Scouts hadn't been able to get a hit on either
mass since.
"I think we may actually need to step in on this one," said Striker Earth as
she watched the battle from a tree, hidden from view.
Suddenly the two attacked at once, firing rapidly and hitting Sailor Venus,
Mercury, and Jupiter and trapping them in a goo from it's body.
"Not again!" said Sailor Mercury as she tried to wiggle her arms, hands, or
legs free, but she soon found the more she struggled the tighter the goo became
around her, and so she quickly subsided her thrashings.
"Just hold on!" said Mars as she dodged glob after glob of the same stuff
that had trapped the others.
"These roses aren't doing a damn thing!" Tuxedo Mask screamed in
frustration. "Earth Gem Power!" he cried, turning from Tuxedo Mask into Sailor
Earth.
"Earth Tectonic"
"No!" screamed Sailor Moon. "We can't take the chance it could separate
again! We're almost outnumbered as it is!"
While Sailor Moon had been talking to Sailor Earth neither had noticed
that Sailor Crescent Moon had been dodging an attack but hadn't quite got clear
enough when some of the goo landed on her feet, gluing her to the ground. She
looked up with wide eyes as one of the youmas advanced on her, stretching itself
thin, almost surrounding her, to trap her inside of its body.
"Mommy! Daddy!" she cried.
"Reenie!" Sailor Moon screamed as she saw the predicament her daughter
was in, and in fright screaming her real name. "No!"
"Earth Volcanic Eruption!" screamed Striker Earth as she suddenly
appeared in front of Sailor Crescent Moon, her hands spread out in front of her,
palms towards the ground at the feet of the youma that was trying to attack
Crescent Moon. As soon as she had said the last syllable minor tremors and
quakes appeared beneath the ground of the youma. Suddenly the ground split
open and liquid hot magma poured vertically into the sky, towering above the
youma and surrounding it. The walls around the youma slammed closed and
boiled it inside then slowly returned the earth back to normal, the youma gone.
"Who the hel..." began Sailor Mars as everyone, friend and foe alike,
stared at the newcomer.
"Yo hoo," said Striker Mercury, waving sweetly at the youma. "Bye, bye.
Mercury Ice Capsule Collapse!" she cried as shards of ice flew from her
outstretched hands and puzzle pieced themselves together around the youma.
When they were done an ice blue crystal was around it and it suddenly began to
crack, then it exploded inward, and that youma was gone as well.
The goo had disappeared around the Scouts and they all just stared at the
newcomers.
"Who are you?" Sailor Moon finally asked.
"We're friends," said Striker Earth as she pointed to the group behind her
and Mercury, which included the guys who had stepped up to help in case they
were needed. They waved sheepishly; two of the guys staring at some of the
Scouts like thirsty men in a dessert stare at water, hungrily.
The group smiled, and then turned to leave.
"Wait," said Sailor Sol, staring at Striker Earth. "Don't. Tell us who you
are if you're our friends."
Striker Earth smiled sweetly at Sailor Sol, a misty expression in her eyes
as the wind blew her long black hair around her face. "Now's not the time. We'll
be seeing you." She said, and then the group was gone.
