Just a friendly reminder: Aiko (Venus), Misu (Mercury), Toki (Pluto), and Tacy (Saturn) are on Earth (Tokyo at the present time). . . . . Annamika (Moon), Ardianna (Mars), Nariko (Jupiter), Noelani (Uranus), and Lirit (Neptune) are on Virgo. BSSM Senshi are Cameo roles to help Nokomis (I already have enough characters.)
Part 10: Into the Mists
Annamika sighed as they passed by what seamed like the 9 millionth store that day. Somehow Ardiana and Nariko thought it would be a good idea to check out some good deals while keeping a lookout for evil. True she liked shopping, but she just wasn't in the mood for it today.
Both Nariko and Ardiana kept a good eye on Annamika as they walked past the store fronts. Somehow they unconsciously felt the need to protect the strawberry-blonde girl. A few of the other mall occupants cast strange glances in their direction, but shrugged them off as close friends.
The three eventually came to the food court where they decided to eat. They picked a table away from the thinning crowd and sat down.
"I wonder if they have found anything yet." Annamika stated between mouthfuls.
Ardiana glanced at the girl before replying. "I'm sure if anything important happened they would have contacted us. Toki made sure we would be able to stay in touch." Adriana chose her words so that it would seam like an ordinary conversation.
"Well." Was as far as Nariko got before their communicators started going off. All three quickly tossed out the remainder of their late lunches and made it into the empty ladies room without so much as a second glance from the other people in the food court.
~Nariko here~ Nariko was the first to answer.
~Guys its Aiko. Something's happened to Nokomis.~
~What's wrong?~ Annamika asked.
~She disappeared on the way here. She never even made it to Toki's. If buy some long shot you see her, let me know immediately.~
Ardiana could hear the sadness in her friend's voice. ~Don't worry Aiko, I'm sure Nokomis will be fine. I here someone coming, we have to go now, talk to you tonight.~
~Bye~ was sent by all before closing the watch like communicators and pulling our hairbrushes from purses. The lady that came in didn't even give them a second glance as she made her way over to one of the stalls.
***
"What do you have to report?" Kali asked her subordinate.
"It seams as if the earth has gotten some power that Virgo had. I felt it."
Kali laughed. "Love, wisdom, revolution, and rebirth. Yes, Earth does have those powers for now. We still need the Earth before we can do anything else so stay there for now."
"Yes Kali-sama." Devi turned and vanished from the room.
"Things are getting to be most interesting aren't they?" Kali laughed again. The pair of eyes blinked from the far off darkness on the other side of the room while Kali was laughing. "We have spent too much time and resources on that pitiful planet to give up now."
***
All five Senshi and three cats stayed close together while wandering through the mists. Luna cast a curious glance at Nokomis every now and then as they walked, but knew better then to ask anything about the future. The cat had to be from the future, Luna never heard of a grey and white striped cat from the moon kingdom times.
Mercury continued the scan with her computer as the group kept going. "We should be arriving at the time gate shortly." She informed the rest of the group. "Good thing the key left us somewhat close to it instead of in the far reaches." Mercury hid a smile as she heard Moon groan at the last statement.
Sure enough, the faint outlines of a large object could just be made out in the distance through the mists. The Senshi almost had to squint to see it, the mists taking their toll on the travelers.
"Stop right where you are!" Came a voice from the direction of the object. "No one is allowed here."
"Pluto!" Sailor Moon shouted. "It's us"
The Senshi broke into a run until they were standing a few feet in front of the time gate. Pluto lowered the time staff from its offensive position once she saw the group.
"Sorry for intruding Pluto, but we need to get Nokomis back to her time." Moon explained.
Pluto looked at the small cat and smiled an all-knowing smile. "Of course I'll make sure she gets to her time. Come up to the gate Nokomis." Pluto raised her staff as the cat walked towards the gate. Multicolored spheres of light flowed from the orb on the end of the staff and into the key hole on the gate. Slowly, but effortlessly the gate swung open. Once the gate was fully opened, revealing nothing but a while light, Pluto lowered her staff. "There you are Nokomis." She said softly.
"Thank you everyone, and farewell." Nokomis walked through the gate. Once she was gone Pluto turned to the Senshi and raised her staff again. They were surrounded by the same pink light that had brought them there and sent home.
"Good luck Nokomis, you'll need it." Pluto softly said looking at the closed time gate.
***
Misu looked up at Aiko after she sent the message to the others. The two of them had opted to stay at Toki's place for awhile. 'Poor Aiko. I hope she can get over this.'
"Find anything out on your computer?" Aiko asked referring to the scans that were running on mercury computer.
"No I haven't, sorry Aiko. There is no trace of Nokomis's power at all."
"If only I had paid more attention to Noko while we were traveling she would still be with us." Aiko hung her head while the tears started forming again.
"Why don't we go out for awhile?" Misu asked hopefully. "There have got to be some fun places in this city."
Aiko looked up with a wicked grin on her face and a gleam in her eye. "We could always go to Tokyo tower. I'm sure we can have lots of fun there."
Misu noticed the look on her friend's face, but decided not to press the issue. If Aiko actually had suggested a place to go then they would go. At least it would keep her from thinking about Nokomis. Besides, Misu had heard rumors about the tower from her research about Japan and wanted to run a few scans. A little bit of sight seeing never hurt either. "Sounds like a great idea Aiko."
"We can walk, it's not far." Aiko grinned as she used the mirror to look like Ardiana again and ran out the door. Misu followed, being careful to double check the locks on the way out.
***
Devi grinned as she surveyed the people wandering around the area. 'This place is perfect.' She assumed her human disguise and made her way into the throng of people.
***
"Wow, I didn't realize how tall it was!" Misu admired the tower. Both she and Aiko were standing at the base surrounded by the usual crowd around the tower.
"And it's the number one tourist attraction in the area." Aiko said. "Long ago there used to be lots of great places, but most of them were destroyed. For some mysterious reason the tower survived practically unscratched."
"It is pretty isn't it?" Said a new voice. Both Aiko and Misu turned to look at the speaker. An average looking girl with medium length dark hair smiled back at them. "I'm Izumi Megumi, pleased to meet you." Megumi nodded her head at the pair.
"I'm Nuri Ardiana, and this is my friend Minerva Misu." Aiko mentally sighed as she remembered the name to go with her disguise.
"First time at the tower?" Megumi asked.
"Hai." Misu was pleased that she could speak the language so fluently. "This is my first time, but Ardiana has been here before" 'She has to have been' Misu thought.
Aiko nodded. "I've been here a few times before."
"Might I ask where you two are from?" Megumi asked.
"Osaka." Aiko answered. "both of us are from Osaka, and This is Misu's first time here."
"Oh that's nice." Megumi smiled at them. "You have good taste in your sight seeing."
"Okiini. Well, we were just taking our last look before we left. Enjoy your visit. Ohnana." Aiko turned and left, glad that Misu was leaving with her.
{Authors note: Aiko's attempt at the Osaka accent. Okiini is thank you and Ohnana is see ya. (And they are probably spelled wrong but oh well)}
"What was that all about?" Misu asked once they were a block away from the tower.
"Something didn't feel right. People around here usually aren't the friendliest anymore, and she seamed almost fake." Aiko looked around while talking.
Misu was about to reply when they heard the screams.
***
Devi grinned as she watched her Yoma attack the crowd from her perch on one of the tower's beams. 'If Kali-sama is right about the four powers here this should get interesting, and Kali-sama is always right about those kinds of things. Today is observation day, no need to rush into things.' Devi laughed as more humans fell.
"VENUS WINK CHAIN SWORD!"
"MERCURY AQUA MIRAGE!" The yoma howled in rage and pain as it was send crashing into the ground with the two attacks. The people not injured or drained ran as fast as they could away from the scene.
Venus watched as the yoma pulled itself back up into a standing position. The green 'skin' of the yoma was starting to drip onto the ground as it snarled at the guardians. "This is for Nokomis!" Venus screamed at their opponent. "VENUS ROLLING HEART VIBRATION!" The attack hit the yoma dead center and split it in two. The two halves moaned before disintegrating into nothingness.
***
Nokomis opened her eyes as soon as the light around her faded. The fist thing she saw was Tokyo tower. 'Great I'm back where I started.' After a quick look at the gloomy sky and the crowd of people and she realized that it wasn't the same Tokyo she had left earlier that day.
Suddenly screams pierced through the normal afternoon sounds. Nokomis set off running in that direction as fast as she could. She skidded to a stop as she rounded a corner and watched as two senshi faced off against some green yoma. Two attacks had just sent it to the ground, and Nokomis held her breath as it got back up. She almost felt faint when she looked closely at the warriors while they were standing still.
'It's Aiko and Misu!' Nokomis could have leapt for joy had there not been a battle going on. She watched Venus yell at the yoma then send her attack at it. 'Wow she's great when she's concentrating.' Nokomis realized that the battle was over and that the guardians were about to depart when something stopped them.
"Well done warriors.!" The dark one cackled.
"Who are you?" Venus demanded glaring at the womanish figure.
"I think you knew one of my co-workers. I must say that you are more powerful then I had thought."
"Listen you witch, I asked you a question!" Venus's face was almost contorted in rage.
"Not very polite are we now?" Devi laughed. "Your lucky that I am merely observing today, otherwise your comments wouldn't go unpunished. Pity isn't it. Oh well, it will soon be over anyways"
Mercury put her hand on Venus's shoulder when she saw her friend starting to glow. Venus glanced at Mercury then back at Devi.
"Well, I really must be going now. If you girls really must know my name it's Devi. Remember that now, you'll wish you never heard of me. Bye now."
"Don't underestimate us" Mercury called out as Devi disappeared into the gathering dusk.
"Let's get out of here." Venus looked around at the people starting to gather again. The two leapt up onto the roof of a nearby building, Nokomis quickly hitching a ride on Mercury's shoulder. The guardian smiled at the cat as they made their way back to Toki's, detransforming before they arrived.
***
"NOKOMIS!!!!!" Aiko hugged the cat after Misu handed her over. They were now back at Toki's, Misu had somehow smuggled the cat into the apartment without Aiko noticing.
"Air!" Nokomis gasped wriggling out of the girl's tight grasp on her.
"Good to see you Nokomis." Misu hugged the cat also, but much more gentally.
"I'm really sorry about loosing you." Aiko told the cat.
"Its allright Aiko. I'm not really sure what happened anyways." Nokomis smiled at Aiko. "Anyways, I saw the fight and you were great Aiko. You hit that thing right in the center and you kept your attention on the fight. I'm proud of you."
"You saw the fight?" Aiko asked.
"Yes, and luckily I managed to jump on Misu's shoulder as you two left."
"Nokomis!" Tacy greeted the cat as her and Toki walked in.
"Glad to see you made it alright." Toki smiled at the group. 'Good to see Aiko happy as well.'
"She came back just as we were fighting some yoma." Aiko babbled as she pulled the cat onto her lap.
"We saw the fight." Tacy said. "Toki and I made it in time to see the final attack beat the yoma, and we waited to see what would happen."
"Why didn't you show yourselves?" Aiko asked. "We could have taken Devi down."
Toki laughed a merry laugh then looked at the group before speaking. "We are on an information gathering mission. We are not going to fight anything unless provoked, like a yoma attacking people. We were ready incase Devi wanted to attack, but it wasn't necessary."
"But what if we could have gotten rid of her?" Aiko pressed on. "That way we would have won and everything would be back to normal."
"Sorry Akio, this isn't going to be that easy." Toki explained. "Lirit Noelani and I, along with Tacy's help, have been gathering information on this enemy and taking out what we could along the way. Some of the battles we fought haven't been pretty. Besides, Devi has at least one superior. It's to early for the head villain to show themselves."
"So we continue gathering what information we can, and train for now?" Misu's question was more of a statement.
"Hai." Toki replied.
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Well that's it for that chapter. Please let me know what you think, it's hard to keep writing and wonder if it's all just wasted. I put the Authors note in the text so you wouldn't have to scroll down to the bottom just to find out what two words ment. Well off to sleep so I can get up early to do my homework for psychopharmacology and read for civil war. Ja matta.
Next time: Plans, what will the guardians do? An interplanetary meeting over communicators, who would have thought?