Author's Note:
The normal disclaimers here of course and that I'm certainly not doing this for money.
There are a few elements that are exclusive to the manga, as you will read, but those only involve character differences than from the anime, such as the Shitennous' relationship. Also, the Golden Crystal, which Mamoru has.
If you need to contact me, my email is Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put fanfiction or something in the subject line so I know what you're emailing me about. And if you're a really nice person (if this pertains to a certain fanfiction that I've done) you might want to put the name of the fanfiction you're referring to somewhere in the email.
All names are like the Japanese say them, last name first. So Kunzite's name would be Kail Rainer in America, but in Japanese it would be said Rainer Kail.
Army of Immortals
Chapter 6: After Sunset
Venus watched as Mercury stared intently at the screen of her visor, counting down the minutes with a silent mouth. She held up her hand and the other Senshi tensed, their fingers itching to release their powers, though unable to use the ones required by the weapons, such as the Venus Chain.
Mercury's hand dropped.
"Crescent Beam!" A beam of bright golden light flew from her finger. With three quick movements, she had sawed off the sides and top of the iron bars in front of them. It fell with a crash, alerting any other prisoners if they had not already been from her attack cry.
The four of them ran down the hallway, followed by constant shouts of either help or catcalls from other cells. Guards ran out of the offices in front of them, yelling at them to stop.
"Burning—"
"No!" Mercury grabbed her arm, her eyes near wild in panic. "They're human beings. We can't kill them!"
"Down here!" Venus commanded, ducking down a side corridor.
She slammed full force into a well-muscled chest. The speed at which she was moving backwards made her to hit her Senshi, nearly causing a pileup on the ground.
"What the—"
"What are you doing?" demanded Kunzite. "We were going to head to the front of the building like we planned!"
Venus grabbed his arm and towed him down the hallway, screaming over the other inmates' voices. "The corridor leading out is nearly all filled with cops. There's no way we can go that way. We have to get out of here."
"No, first we need our weapons," gasped a Knight from somewhere behind her. "We'll be of no help to the Prince and Princess weaponless."
"Mercury?"
"We're running parallel to the room with our weapons," she recited from her computer and visor.
"We need an empty cell to blast a hole through," she muttered.
"The last cell on the right," the blue masked Knight yelled at her, forcing his voice to carry over the din of screaming.
She spotted it just as Kunzite called out, "Nephrite!"
"Meteor Storm!" the Knight in a burgundy mask called out as he slid to a stop near the last cell before the corridor turned. Meteors surrounded by fire flew from his palm and slammed through the bars and the stone wall.
Eight fighters swarmed through the hole, toward the table holding the weapons. Venus grabbed her Chain and twirled it around, calling out, "Venus Love-Me Chain!"
Heart shaped links swirled around the few police officers that had gotten their guns out. She yanked upward and they flew toward the ceiling. Someone grabbed her arm as she turned to run out the front door and she saw why. A veritable army of guards with guns pointed straight at her had placed themselves so strategically that unless they died, there was no way the Senshi and Knights were getting out that way.
Kunzite dragged her through the hole and they ran down the corridor that had turned. Booted feet and constant, 'Stop' trailed at their feet like a dog nipping at someone's heels.
"This is a dead end!" Mercury cried out as they reached the end with no more room to run and no other branching hallways in front of them.
"We can't go back. There's too many of them!" Mars told her, risking a glance behind them.
"Jupiter!"
Kunzite and Venus in the lead moved aside to give her a clear shot. Venus didn't know how she did it on the run, but she got off a flawless shot.
"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
The lightning bolt flew ahead of them and Venus and Kunzite took their lead again. A gaping hole was open before them and they were through it before the dust had even settled.
"Do you know where the Hikawa Shrine up on Sendai Hill is?" Venus asked as they paused.
"Yes."
"Meet us there."
"Agreed."
The two groups, with a mutual good luck, separated and ran in different directions. Venus kept looking around them for tall buildings to leap upon, but there were none tall enough to be of any use to them.
"Hurry, they're gaining!" Mars cried.
"If they get any in police cars, we're caught and fried," commented Jupiter nervously.
"Mercury, get us out of here!" she demanded.
"I'm trying, but there's nothing that we can use!" responded the blue Senshi in panic.
"Bring up the entire city plans, I don't care! Just do something!"
Mars stumbled a bit, her breathing sounding harsh in Venus' ears. They needed to find somewhere to lose the police otherwise they would collapse. Even with the Senshi's endurance, it wouldn't be long before they were worn down.
"To the left!" Mercury cried out triumphantly.
They dodged into an alley and made the one leap that would take them to the top of the building. A glance down told them that the police hadn't the faintest idea where they had gone. But they would if they looked up, unless the Senshi moved.
Venus led the way to the Temple, her legs feeling like lead. The stairs nearly defeated her when she saw them. She and the other Soldiers were tired as death and all they wanted was to sleep.
"Do you see the Knights?" Jupiter asked as she looked around.
Kunzite melted from the shadows, followed by his comrades. Venus motioned for them to follow and knocked forcibly on the door. Mars' grandfather opened the door, his mouth falling open. In the background, they could hear the sound of a newscast announcer telling the people about the arrest of the Senshi and Knights.
"Sir, we need a place to rest. You said you would help us if we needed it."
Her formal words tipped him off and he said nothing about their identities. He nodded and led them to the backroom that no one but priests and priestesses could enter. As soon as the door closed behind them and Mars' grandfather left, the Senshi collapsed to their knees.
"What happened? We easily got rid of the police on our tail," the blue masked one told them.
"We weren't so lucky. We almost didn't lose them," Jupiter muttered.
"Let's get some rest. Then we can formulate a plan," Venus said tiredly then immediately dropped into sleep.
Kunzite and Venus crouched in opposing corners next to the door when Zoisite woke. Immediately his leader motioned for him to stay down and away from the paper and wood sliding door. He did, but accidentally waking Jadeite up as he moved. His friend sat up groggily and rubbed his head.
Venus motioned frantically and Zoisite grabbed him by the shoulders, dragging him from view so his shadow didn't make any pattern on the door, but it was too late judging by the loud voices coming toward them.
Mars, who had jumped to wakefulness when she heard the old man's voice, grabbed Nephrite's hand. Quietly she slid the door open and the eight of them slipped down the hall on soundless feet.
It nearly worked until they heard voices not only in back of them but in front too. Venus grabbed Mars' arm, obviously trying to give her an order without words. The black-haired Senshi, with a grimace, ducked them into a room and soundlessly slammed the door shut.
Zoisite looked around, feeling an unusual amount of heat, and saw a blazing fire in the middle of the room surrounded by a 'cage' of wood. Amazingly, the wood was untouched and unmarred by flames.
"Get away from the door," hissed Kunzite.
On his toes, he slipped behind Sailor Mercury and yawned silently. The old man and someone else were moving toward the door. The shorter and older one shouting so loud that it was impossible not to hear what he was saying.
"I refuse to let you enter this room! None but a priest or priestess is aloud in the sacred Fire Reading room!" He placed himself in front of the two sliding doors.
"Look old man, we have a warrant to search this entire place. You do realize that the Sailor Senshi and Earthen Knights are loose and charged with first degree murder?"
Zoisite's eyes opened wide and locked with Mercury's in shock. First degree? They had not once ever planned to murder police officers, had no motive to. How could they possibly charge them with first degree murder?
"I don't care if they're loose or what they're charged with! You can not enter this room!"
Another police officer came up and laid a hand on the tall man's shoulder. "Don't give the man a heart attack Kusangi. They probably aren't even here. We haven't found a single bit of evidence that they are. Let's just go."
"Fine! Let's go."
A moment later and the only body casting shadows over the paper and wood doors was the old priest, whose head turned to watch the police leave. When all the dust had settled, Mars opened the door slowly and managed to catch the old man as he fell backwards in a heap of robes.
"Is he all right?" asked Mercury anxiously.
Slowly Mars nodded her head. "He's fine, except for being exhausted. It must have taken a toll on his heart."
The Senshi picked the old man up and brought him unerringly to his bedroom.
"You've been here a number of times before, haven't you?" Kunzite asked shrewdly.
Venus looked at him as Mars covered the priest lovingly with a blanket. "Yes, this is a safe house I guess. We've come here a lot when we need help, a place to rest, or sanctuary from reporters."
"Now it's a sanctuary from the police," murmured Jadeite.
"No its not!" cried Mars lowly, being careful not to wake the old man. "It is not a place to hide from the police. We can't do this to him. We need somewhere else to go."
"The control center!" burst out Mercury. She blushed slightly when they all turned to her. "Luna and Artemis said it would be the last safe place if the world fell."
"She's right," Venus said at last. "We don't like the idea of you knowing about our base, but it has a number of advantages to moving there as a safe house. For one, we have a number of computers that we can begin to scan for the Prince and Princess. Mercury said that her computer just isn't strong enough to scan the whole of Japan and possible demon dimensions for them in the time we need. It also has the advantage that no one knows it exists though they're in front of the door more than fifty times a day."
"Hidden in plain sight, huh," commented Nephrite with a glance out the window and up to the shining constellations. "The stars say we should have adequate cover tonight, and that tonight will be the best opportunity to move should we wish to."
"That settles it then," Jupiter said, rather too enthusiastically for Zoisite's analytical brain.
The Knights followed them, unbelievably, to an arcade center by the look of the interior through the bars.
"So how do you plan to get us in?" Jadeite muttered, testing the bars. "I mean, we could break in, but I don't think that would be a wise move, considering we're wanted by the police for first degree murder."
"Easy," murmured Mercury and tapped on her computer.
From inside, a Sailor V video game turned on, the screen blinking almost erratically but in some sort of pattern.
Slowly the bars in front of the door slid up. Zoisite approached the sliding glass doors, but they remained steadfastly shut. "What now?"
"Hold on, this isn't as fast as lightning," Jupiter told him with an elbow in his ribs.
"I take it you've done this before too?" Nephrite asked.
"When occasion demanded it, yes," Venus muttered, glancing around them nervously.
The game screen blinked some more and the doors slid open. "Inside quickly. I hear a police car," Jadeite said and led by example.
In seconds the door had closed and locked behind the eight warriors, the bars descending again. They hid behind various large game consoles as bright beams of white lighted up the interior of the game center.
When there was a lull in the amount of cars and lights passing, Mercury tapped a code on the game keys and the entire console moved to the side, showing stairs descending down. The Senshi immediately went down, half crouching as they went. After a glance at their leader, the Knights followed.
End Chapter 6