Things were pretty silent on the way to Hotaru's house. Hotaru could tell that something was up. She could sense it coming from each and every one of her escorts. All except for Michiru. She knew exactly why she wasn't emitting hatred too, which was something she respected. Although Michiru was nothing like her friends, she still stuck by them. She didn't just up and betray them.
Looking around to all of the kids in the gang, Hotaru realized that none of them would betray each other's friendship. They would always stand by each other's side through thick and thin. From what she had heard from Usagi and Ami, they had already demonstrated that the night before when they stood up for Michiru even though they didn't exactly like the fact that she played the Violin. 'Usagi and Mamoru's groups have more in common than they think.'
At that moment with that very thought, Hotaru decided it was time to take action. "Hey you guys, why do you and the girls fight so much?"
Haruka smirked as she glanced over her shoulder to Hotaru. "Because we're too different. They have done too much to us for us to even try to get along."
"But you're not that different at all. Don't you see? You're just the same in almost every way." Hotaru lowered her altitude as she came up to her house. "Just because you guys don't see eye to eye on everything does mean anything. And besides, what is it that they did to you?"
Before Haruka even got a chance to think of a reply, Mamoru lowered himself to be right next to Hotaru. "You don't know all that there is to know about these kids, Hotaru. Just like Goku said, don't think you know all there is to know about a person."
"Huh?" Hotaru followed the group of departing teens as they lowered themselves down to the ground. "You guys, what did that mean?"
Not a single person from the group spoke. Instead, they just continued to drop themselves until their feet touched the ground. Even then not a single sound arose from anyone. Hotaru found that to be somewhat rude since she had just asked them to explain themselves. She didn't appreciate being refused an explanation. "Hello?"
Michiru looked into the gates that kept anyone from going into the yard. She let her eyes travel to the empty driveway, which indicated to her that no one was home as of yet. "Hotaru, are you ok with being home alone?" She turned around to Hotaru as her friends glared at her for being nice.
"Papa's not home yet?" Hotaru tried to forget about the gang's rudeness as she ran to the gates and peered in and sure enough, her father's hover car was not in its normal place. "I wonder where he could be. I don't want to go in there alone cause of Kaori. Papa doesn't trust her enough to take care of me, but she's an excellent assistant for his project." She turned to look up at the older kids in question of what to do next. "He's not usually late like this."
Haruka and Mamoru gave each other a grin of accomplishment as they approached Hotaru. So she wouldn't think that something was up, they erased their grins and gave her a warm smile. Haruka put her arms around the child and pulled her to the side of the gate. "We'll wait out here with you then."
Michiru found it more odd than Hotaru did that Haruka would suggest that they do such a 'nice' thing, something that was supposedly against what she believed in. But Michiru wasn't complaining. She was just glad that she wasn't the one who would have had to bring it up. She tried to stay away from blowing her cover as much as possible, though she knew that Haruka was up to something, which was the only reason why she had done it. She just wanted to use the current situation to her advantage. "That sounds like a good idea, Haruka." She gave her a wink to show her dedication to the group. After all, this whole idea of getting Hotaru in on their side was her idea, but that was before she figured what they had in mind.
Mamoru smiled at Michiru. He had begun to think that she was becoming soft, but she always had a way to prove that she was still on their side; that she was never leaving. "Great." 'I knew this would work. With this kid's power added to ours we can finally teach the brat and her friends a lesson or two about respecting authority.'
With her arm still around Hotaru, Haruka sat the two of them down against the wall, trying to show her how much of a nice person she could be. And to tell the truth, Hotaru was falling into it. She was beginning to think that there was nothing wrong with these kids except the fact that no one gave them a chance. After all, they had offered to take her home and had done it without hurting her in anyway. They were even being nice enough to stay and wait for her father to return so she didn't have to be alone.
"So, what do you think of Usagi?"
Hotaru perked at that question. She wondered what the driving force behind it was. It couldn't have been just a simple conversation starter, but she hope to use it to try and mend the fences between the two groups.
"I..."
Not even giving her time to answer, Haruka went on. She hadn't ever planned to let Hotaru finish until she made her point and got out what she thought of the girl. "Isn't she just a whinny, greedy, selfish little brat? Someone should teach her a lesson in respect."
Michiru sighed as she dropped her head in shame for her friends. 'How did I know?'
Mamoru snickered. "You got that right. Whenever something doesn't go her way she breaks down and cries. She can't even hold her emotions let alone try to fight a decent fight."
Hotaru shot a scowl up at Mamoru, who continued to go on, bad mouthing her best friend. "She can fight BETTER than you EVER can." 'I should have known something was up. Michiru is the only good one here.'
Mamoru burst out in laughter at that one. "Give me a break kid. She can't fight. When we went into the past with Cell, she could have gone Super Saiyan and killed him, but instead she chose to play with him or whatever she was doing. I don't know. Maybe she was even fool enough to believe that she could have beat him without her Super Saiyan power. I don't think anyone knows what's going on in that screwed up head of hers. Because she failed to take him out when needed, she nearly died and got everyone else nearly killed. In the end, Cell powered up to his fullest, out powering Goku's Super Saiyan three of this dimension. At that point Usagi couldn't even defeat him without all of the power of her friends attached to her own. She was just lucky that his offspring's hate energy was gone by the time he got here otherwise it would have been lights out for earth."
Hotaru was speechless. She had always thought of Usagi as one of the smartest and most knowledgeable fighters around. Her friends and family too. Even after hearing this, Hotaru still wasn't convinced. "Everyone makes mistakes."
Haruka grinned down at Hotaru, who looked to be harder to pull in than the Americans. "Usagi doesn't really want to hang out with you. None of the girls do." She paused when Hotaru gasped. "You don't believe me? Well, why don't you ask them yourself? It's the truth. None of them like you. Usagi is only hanging out with you to get money from your dad. I heard her at the arcade. She said she would do anything for money even hang out with a dork like yourself."
Michiru walked to Hotaru when she got a piercing glare from Mamoru. "Uh...that's right. So you join us where we will like you for who you are. You should hang out with people who will teach you how to fight right instead of the wimpy way."
Hotaru sat in silence as the rants about her best friend's went on. She had never heard such nonsense in her entire life. Her silence only left the gang thinking that she was finally agreeing with what they were trying to pull over on her. BOY, were they wrong.
With the mind link Hotaru knew that this was all a bunch of lies fed to her to make her come to their side. The dark side of the tracks. But it wouldn't work on her. She knew that her friends were real. She knew that the girls had made a lot of mistakes in the past, especially Usagi, but she also knew that she had the biggest heart in the world and that she had given a big piece of it to her. All of her friends had. "I don't know what you have against the girls. They are better people that you could ever be. You're only trying to be nice to me because you know that NONE of you can beat them so you want my help. We'll I'll never hurt any of them. NEVER. You are the selfish brats that need the lesson in respect. Why do you think that you're training under them? Just so you can be humiliated? No! It's because you don't know how to respect yourselves! And when someone doesn't know how to respect themselves they don't know how to respect others! Don't even think about trying anything like this again or else I tell them exactly what you said and let you guys deal with them!"
Fury radiated off of them as they listened to her words. Never in their lives had such a young child spoken them to in such a manner. They wouldn't stand for it. She had to be stopped. She couldn't be allowed to run around, thinking that she was allowed to talk to them with such an attitude.
Mamoru, acting as leader, bent down and grabbed Hotaru by the collar and proceeded to pull her up to his face. "Don't you EVER threaten me unless you want to find yourself lying in some back alley nearly dead."
Hotaru curled her nose and scowled, slightly afraid up into his eyes, which radiated with hate. She knew that he would do it too. From what she heard from Usagi and her family, Mamoru wouldn't hesitate at all. "Don't threaten me!" She pulled her fingers to her forehead and teleported away from his grasp, next to Michiru, where she knew that she was safe. "Leave or I'll teleport to Usagi's house and tell her and Goku on you."
Haruka looked up the street where she saw a hover car turning onto. "Parent alert."
"What?" Mamoru turned to look at the car, which was fast approaching, though it still had a ways to go. He narrowed his glare as he turned to his left, where Hotaru was standing. "This isn't over kid. Don't think you've seen the last of us." With a wave of his hands, his friends followed him as he began walking away from the giant house. As they left, Mamoru realized that he was going to have to work extra hard to get Hotaru into his grasp. He was not about to let her slip through his hands.
Hotaru sighed as she watched the group and her father pull up to the house. She knew that it was far from over. The only thing that she feared was how they planned to take action in trying to pay her back. They had already done such awful things to try and get Usagi back. She didn't want to even begin to imagine what would happen if she were to be alone with them again. 'Great.'
~*~*~
Later that night...
Usagi sighed as she stared into her plate of food. She couldn't decide if she wanted to tell her parents about Michiru or not. She had promised to keep it a secret from her friends, but no one else. But obviously she wanted it to be kept secret or else she would have told her otherwise. 'Hmm...but this is big...'
"Usagi eat your food."
Usagi looked up to her mother, who always seemed to have something to get on her back about. "Yes mom." As she began to eat to please her mother, she began to wonder if any of the adults knew of Michiru's change in attitude. She hadn't really noticed it, but thinking back she couldn't figure out how she could have possibly missed it. Michiru had only forewarned her of Mamoru's plan and that her brother was the one who tipped him off. That was the first sign that she had recognized.
As she continued to eat, she realized that there had to be many other signs for the adults to catch. They always seemed to know what was going on with kids. 'Well that's it. I don't think she wants me to tell them so if they don't already know then that's their tough luck.'
"Usagi..." Goku had a mouth full of food and was already stuffing in more as fast as he could.
Usagi's eyes became wide at the thought that her father would ask her what was wrong. 'Uh-oh. I can't tell him, can I?' She calmly looked to her father in hopes that he wouldn't question her. "Yes?"
"Would it be all right if Hotaru spent Friday training the others with you guys? The others and I want to train late."
Usagi nodded with a smile. She couldn't have been happier that he didn't ask her what was wrong. 'Maybe he doesn't notice. Maybe he's loosing his touch.' "Cool. We miss Hotaru."
"Great." He went back to stuffing his face full of food, only to disgust his wife. "By the way, don't look so upset. You have three days until summer vacation." Goku looked down to an excited puppy, who sat on his foot. "Hey. You want some?" Goku reached over his plate and picked up a piece of meat and dropped it on the floor. "There you go."
~*~*~
~~Three days Later~~
"Five..."
"Four..."
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
"WE'RE OUTTA HERE!" The five friends had made it through yet another year in school. They were now officially rulers of the school. There was no one above them. There was no one left in that school older than them who knew of all their troubles. The only people left to tell the story were the people who had actually witnessed it.
The five girls were the first out of their chairs and the firsts out the door to their summer freedom. They didn't even care about saying goodbye to the other kids in their class. It didn't really matter since they would be seeing them in a few months again.
Minako ran silly out into the main courtyard. "Freedom is OURS!"
Usagi joined Minako in their praising of Summer Vacation. "No more books! No more reports! No more math! NOTHING!"
Ami giggled as she watched to two blondes weave in an out of other screaming students. "I take it you two are happy?" Usagi stopped long enough to give Ami a giant grin and a nod of the head and then she was off again.
"Think we should be getting over to the training sight?"
Usagi slowed down her pace as she slumped her shoulders. "Do we have to? School just got out."
Makoto frowned. "Yes we have to. We need to get those guys to learn some respect, remember?"
Usagi sighed. "I know. But they're just so unwilling to do anything. They don't want to learn from us."
Rei nodded to agree with Usagi. "Tell me about it. They just think that they're better than everyone. But we can't give up on them."
Ami nodded. "Right. We made a promise to Piccolo and Yamcha. We should try to keep it to the best of our abilities, but we really should get going. If we aren't there by the time they get there who knows what they'll do."
Minako jumped into the air, still with a smile. "I'll go get Hotaru, ok?"
Usagi nodded. "K. We'll meet you there."
~*~*~
~~The Forest~~
Twenty minutes later...
For the past three days, no real progress was made by the teens. They didn't really want to learn and as a result, they didn't try their best. They didn't try anything near their best, actually. They were doing it just to spite the girls, something which they were all well aware of.
The girls had no idea of what they were going to do. They had tried and tried over and over to get through to the kids and nothing seemed to be working. It seemed like the nicer and softer they got, the more insolent they became. They didn't care if they hurt anyone's feelings or not.
Usagi even found herself becoming angry and put out by most of the stuff they pulled. If it had not been for the fact that she was doing this for a friend, she would have liked to have given up, but she knew she couldn't do that. These kids had to learn respect. No one else had given them the chance to reform. She was more than determined to give them the chance they deserved. She just didn't know how she was going to do it.
"Hotaru, did dad say if you could fight others with your staff yet?" Usagi looked to Hotaru, who had been given the day off from her own training by Goku to hang out with her friends.
"I can't attack anyone with it, but I can defend with it. Goku says that I need to work on my defending skills cause he's always able to make hits on me."
A wide grin came across Usagi's face as an idea popped into her head. "Well why don't you fight these guys for a while and try to defend with your staff? We'll be doing dad a favor in a way."
Hotaru nodded with excitement. She had never used her staff in any sort of fight against anyone but Goku. "Great." She kneeled down into a defensive position as she held her staff horizontally in front of her; ready for anything that may have been coming for her. 'Uh-oh. I hope they aren't still mad at me. But the girls are here and Goku's just a ways off in the woods training with his friends...I think I'll be ok.'
"Hey!" Makoto wasn't nearly as easy on her students as Usagi was. Though she was supposed to teach them a thing or two about respect, she also wanted to make sure her friends were safe, as well as the fact that the teens needed to know their boundaries. "Don't try anything or you'll be dealing with us! And then we'll tell the adults! After that, you can kiss fighting goodbye." She grinned. "Now play nice you guys." She turned to Usagi with a more serious expression. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Usagi nodded with a kind smile. "I don't think they'll try anything stupid. We have to give them a chance, remember? It's the only way they'll learn. Don't worry if something happens, we can teleport in."
"There's always Goku and Piccolo not too far from here sparring in the woods." Ami added.
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, if they feel us powering up all the way, they're sure to come." She grabbed a hold of Minako and Rei and began to pull them away from the fight with the other two close behind. "Come on you guys, we need to talk about a few things."
As Usagi led the others away, Hotaru was left to fend for herself against the fighters who were, for now, superior to her. "Any time now is fine with me."
Haruka smirked as she pulled Mamoru to her side. "She really is an idiot."
"Of course. Look at who she hangs out with." Mamoru moved his head to a position that would allow him to look over at his shoulder to the remaining five teens, who stood behind him. "Leave this to us. We know what we're doing and I think you'll all understand in a minute."
Haruka kept her smirk as she pulled away from Mamoru and looked at Michiru. "You'll all enjoy this little payback of ours. I promise." Haruka didn't even try to cover up her hate for Hotaru this time as she approached her. "Come on. It's as easy this. If you want to stay well, come with our group. We'll teach you all there is to know about fighting."
Hotaru backed away as she forced herself not to change into an offensive position, a little nervous now, but refusing to admit it. "I don't want to hang out with you guys. Now let's just get the fight started."
Mamoru grinned as he shot a Golden Ki attack at Hotaru, who jumped into the air and hit the Ki blast with the blades of her staff back at Mamoru as if it were a hockey puck. "We're not playing with you, kid." With his fist, which was powered up with Ki, he basically punched his own Ki attack back at Hotaru while he released the power in his fist into the attack to make it twice as strong. "Haruka!" 'She just needs to learn whose boss around here.' He frowned when he saw Hotaru bat the attack back to him. "BRAT!"
"Right!" Haruka took to the air and went flying towards Hotaru at full speed in hopes to dodge her staff and make a hit to the child's body, but no luck came to Haruka, who wasn't thinking clear enough to do anything. Her mind was only filled with anger, which led to her down fall.
Hotaru anticipated the attack and moved her staff to block the punch that came from Haruka. In a quick retaliation, Hotaru lifted her leg into he opponent's stomach. "I know you're better than that." 'Why did I just say that?'
Haruka dropped to the ground with her hand covering her stomach, which was in pain. "You want more?" She didn't even wait for a reply from Hotaru before she started powering up a Ki attack in her hand. She evilly laughed when she felt Mamoru doing the same.
~*~*~
Meanwhile...
"So girls, how are we going to get them to lighten up?"
Makoto turned to Rei with a grin. "We can set rules. Rules that will make them WANT to lighten up."
Minako giggled at her friend's idea. "You really don't like them, do you?"
"They're rude. There's nothing that's ever going to change them. It's obvious. They haven't learned a single thing since we started training them. All they've learned is how to walk in the new gravity. And what's worse it they're brining Michiru down with them."
"That's true." Rei, as well as everybody else, turned their heads to look at the fight, which was escalating into something big. Bigger than it should have gotten. "What do they think they're doing!? They're powering up to their max!"
Makoto pressed her fingers to her forehead as her friends did the same. "Those idiots! She can't block something like that!"
"We have to stop them before they attack!" With that, Usagi teleported along with her friends to the position in which Mamoru and Haruka stood. Minako and Makoto stood behind, Rei and Ami stood on the left while Usagi stood in the right by Mamoru and the Americans. She could feel the hate being emitted from the powerful blasts, which could kill Hotaru, who was on the ground from a previous attack trying to get up. "Hotaru run!"
Justin smirked as he brought his hands to Usagi's back. 'Time to say lights out for the little baby girl. You fell right into it!'
Usagi's eyes went wide. She realized that the attack was not aimed at Hotaru, but joined right in front of her.
Kenneth, Nathaniel, and Zodiac startled all the girls with a flash of Ki energy, distracting them all.
Justin, using the distraction, smirked even more evilly as he pulled his arm back only to punch a distracted Usagi in the back of the head, sending her flying forward. "Goodnight."
"USAGI!" Five distressed girls called out to their friend as she fell right into the path of the powerful attacks that was sure to kill her if they were allowed to make contact.
Mamoru sneered to the girls around. "It won't kill her, just make her realize that we ARE in fact the better fighters. Seeing her fall is well worth giving up our fighting privileges for a while."
Usagi wasn't able to get a grip on herself to try and pull herself away from the two incoming blasts. At that moment, things seemed to slow down to a near halt. She could think more clearly now. She heard nothing around her except for the rumble that was produced by the two blasts that were nearly merged as one. They were heading right for her chest, which would surely kill her. 'Mommy...daddy...'
Her thoughts grew blank as she began to glow a magnificent silver. Her face was no longer that of a frightened child filled with thoughts of her own death. It was a face composed only of tranquility and understanding. 'How did you become so merciless in this world...my love...?' Her body's silver aura grew softer and more generous as it slowly began to move her upwards away from immediate danger of the blast, though still leaving her in its deadly path. 'Until next time...'
Usagi's soft, loving glow, which had left everyone awed, seeming to still time itself, disappeared, leaving Usagi completely clueless as to how she could have gotten so high up into the air. But her wonder was soon taken over by severe pain as the double blast ripped right through her forearm, tearing it completely off. "OOOOOWWAAAAHHHH!!"
Usagi's halted time had ended as she fell to the ground and grabbed her wounded arm, which she couldn't exactly feel anymore, but the pain was there just the same because of the nerve endings. "OWWWE!" Usagi screamed at the top of her lungs, making a large echo throughout the forest.
Usagi's friends, as well as a pale-faced Michiru, ran to Usagi in fear. The kneeled down next to her as she rolled back in forth in complete pain clutching her stub. It was a pain worse than getting her tail grabbed or smashed into the ground by an unforgiving person.
"Usagi try to calm down! We have to stop the bleeding!" Ami tried to reach out to Usagi and grab her 'half' arm and apply pressure to control the bleeding, but only got a kick in the face by Usagi, who didn't know what she was doing and defended herself from any who came near. "USAGI!"
Mamoru himself was even sickened by what he had done. 'My god. I didn't know it was that powerful.' "Hey!"
Hotaru growled as she jumped to her feet and held her staff, blade first, to Mamoru's face. "Take one step closer and you're dead meat." She let her eyes tell how very serious she was. "Back off!" She cringed when she heard the screams of Usagi again.
~*~*~
~~Deeper into the Forest~~
Chi-Chi would recognize the voice of her daughter anywhere. "Goku..."
Goku nodded. "Let's go." He looked around to his sons, Piccolo, and Yamcha. "This sounds bad. I felt the power of Mamoru and Haruka go up pretty high."
Goku cursed himself as he realized that the amount of energy they had expended to train this hard used too much for them to gather enough to teleport. They barely had enough to fly at a snails pace.'This is the last time we all drain ourselves to this extent. What if an enemy attacked? Now we're delayed getting to Usagi.'
Goten's face whitened at the thought of something horrible happening to his sister without any protection. "And the transfer of their energy meaning they had to teleport for something."
Piccolo growled as he set off to meet his son. "He's really messed up big time. Whatever it is, he's screwed up his training for a while."
Yamcha nodded. "All of them have."
~*~*~
Hotaru looked back at Usagi, who was still rolling around, blood running out of her arm. "Usagi you'll die if you don't let us help! Listen to Ami! Please!" Tears began to weld up in her eyes at the thought of losing her best friend. 'Wait a minute...' "Usagi work with me!" She dropped her staff just short of hitting Mamoru with it and ran back to Usagi's side.
Rei turned up to Hotaru with tears as Usagi began to calm down, not of choice, but because of blood loss. "She doesn't have much time. Someone needs to go get Goku."
"I'll go." With that, Minako raised her power level and teleported away to meet up with Goku and the others.
Hotaru knelt down by Usagi and grabbed her good arm away from her hurt one. "Usagi, I know you're in a lot of pain right now but mommy once told me that you can heal a wound like this if you put all your energy into it. You can rebuild wounds."
Usagi's face was full of sweat as she began to pant for air, which she wasn't getting enough of. "I can't. It hurts too much. I'm gonna die...aren't I?"
Makoto lifted Usagi's head to sit in her knees. "You're not going to die. Minako is getting your parents right now. They'll know what to do."
Hotaru began to raise her energy for the use of healing Usagi's arm. "Usagi. Come on. There won't be anything for them to do except take you to the hospital. Then you won't ever have another arm. We can heal it now. Please...let me try."
Usagi nodded as she tried to lift her head, but she didn't have enough energy. "Ok...I'll try to help you."
Hotaru smiled as she began to go to work on Usagi's arm. She lifted her power level to its highest so she would have enough power to work with. "I don't know if this will be enough."
"Why don't we give you some of our energy?"
Hotaru looked up to Rei with an even greater smile. "That should work." She looked down to the tired Usagi. "Hang in there. My mommy told me how to do this before. It should work." She felt the hands of Rei and Ami on both of her shoulders as they began to distribute their energy to her.
For the first time in his life, Mamoru felt sorry for what he had done. He had never expected the attack to be so powerful. "Oh my god. I'm going to get it from dad for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if he never trained me again."
Makoto looked up to Mamoru with a scowl as she wiped Usagi's face clean. "I WOUDN'T BLAME HIM IF HE DIDN'T!" Her attention was taken by another hand being placed upon Hotaru's back. "Oh my..." She looked up to see the serious face of Michiru looking right back at her. She could only reply with a smile of gratitude. 'She really is growing up.'
Hotaru concentrated all of the excess energy she was receiving into Usagi's body. She was trying to stimulate the cells to grow and duplicate to create a new arm for Usagi, using her cell's DNA codes as a blueprint. "This isn't working. I have enough energy, but not enough healing energy."
Usagi winced as another gush of pain ran through her body. "I'll try to help." Usagi raised her power level up as high as she could, which was only an eighth of her max, but it was still something to work with.
~*~*~
Minako arrived just in front of Goku, who was leading the rest of the adults back to the kids. She wasted absolutely no time dashing to Goku. "Goku, Goku! Something happened! You gotta come quick!" She grabbed a hold of his hand and began pulling him forward.
"Wait! Minako! What happened? Wh..."
Minako stopped and turned around. "Well... wewerehavinghotarutrianwiththeotherswhilewetriedtofigureoutwhattodowiththemandtheytriedtokillherbutitwasreallyjustatricktohurtusagi. Ok LET'S GO!" Translation...We were having Hotaru train with the others while we tried to figure out what to do with them and they tried to kill her, but it was really just a trick to hurt Usagi.
"Wait. Slow down. Now please calmly explain what's going on out there."
Minako sighed. 'This is going to take forever... Grabbing him, she starts shaking. "There's no time, hurry."
~*~*~
The area where Usagi's forearm should have been began to glow white with energy. At first, the energy was just in the form of nothing; it was just a chunk of energy place where ever. After a few seconds of tense concentration, the white energy began to extend from the stub and take its form as Usagi's arm. Inside the energy, tiny veins and muscles could be seen. The bone was forming nicely as well.
The kids were in awe over such a thing. Hotaru smiled. "Mommy says this is just like speeding up the process of growing."
Usagi looked down to her arm, which was nearly finished being recreated. "Hotaru..." She looked up to the child, who was ready to pass out from exhaustion. "You...did this for me?" Usagi pulled her newly formed arm away from Hotaru, who had just finished and collapsed into Michiru's arms. "It worked." She started moving all of her fingers and her elbow to make sure that it was a working arm as hand. Her wrist even moved with ease. "You did it!"
(Ok, now that's it until FF.Net is officially up. Seems like some of you are still able to get in so I thought I'd give posting a try, but believe me, IT WAS HARD. ^_^ Anyway, I will be back to my normal daily posting habits as soon as FF.Net is up. Enjoy this one last part until then...BTW...what did you think? Gotta go. Ja )
10
Looking around to all of the kids in the gang, Hotaru realized that none of them would betray each other's friendship. They would always stand by each other's side through thick and thin. From what she had heard from Usagi and Ami, they had already demonstrated that the night before when they stood up for Michiru even though they didn't exactly like the fact that she played the Violin. 'Usagi and Mamoru's groups have more in common than they think.'
At that moment with that very thought, Hotaru decided it was time to take action. "Hey you guys, why do you and the girls fight so much?"
Haruka smirked as she glanced over her shoulder to Hotaru. "Because we're too different. They have done too much to us for us to even try to get along."
"But you're not that different at all. Don't you see? You're just the same in almost every way." Hotaru lowered her altitude as she came up to her house. "Just because you guys don't see eye to eye on everything does mean anything. And besides, what is it that they did to you?"
Before Haruka even got a chance to think of a reply, Mamoru lowered himself to be right next to Hotaru. "You don't know all that there is to know about these kids, Hotaru. Just like Goku said, don't think you know all there is to know about a person."
"Huh?" Hotaru followed the group of departing teens as they lowered themselves down to the ground. "You guys, what did that mean?"
Not a single person from the group spoke. Instead, they just continued to drop themselves until their feet touched the ground. Even then not a single sound arose from anyone. Hotaru found that to be somewhat rude since she had just asked them to explain themselves. She didn't appreciate being refused an explanation. "Hello?"
Michiru looked into the gates that kept anyone from going into the yard. She let her eyes travel to the empty driveway, which indicated to her that no one was home as of yet. "Hotaru, are you ok with being home alone?" She turned around to Hotaru as her friends glared at her for being nice.
"Papa's not home yet?" Hotaru tried to forget about the gang's rudeness as she ran to the gates and peered in and sure enough, her father's hover car was not in its normal place. "I wonder where he could be. I don't want to go in there alone cause of Kaori. Papa doesn't trust her enough to take care of me, but she's an excellent assistant for his project." She turned to look up at the older kids in question of what to do next. "He's not usually late like this."
Haruka and Mamoru gave each other a grin of accomplishment as they approached Hotaru. So she wouldn't think that something was up, they erased their grins and gave her a warm smile. Haruka put her arms around the child and pulled her to the side of the gate. "We'll wait out here with you then."
Michiru found it more odd than Hotaru did that Haruka would suggest that they do such a 'nice' thing, something that was supposedly against what she believed in. But Michiru wasn't complaining. She was just glad that she wasn't the one who would have had to bring it up. She tried to stay away from blowing her cover as much as possible, though she knew that Haruka was up to something, which was the only reason why she had done it. She just wanted to use the current situation to her advantage. "That sounds like a good idea, Haruka." She gave her a wink to show her dedication to the group. After all, this whole idea of getting Hotaru in on their side was her idea, but that was before she figured what they had in mind.
Mamoru smiled at Michiru. He had begun to think that she was becoming soft, but she always had a way to prove that she was still on their side; that she was never leaving. "Great." 'I knew this would work. With this kid's power added to ours we can finally teach the brat and her friends a lesson or two about respecting authority.'
With her arm still around Hotaru, Haruka sat the two of them down against the wall, trying to show her how much of a nice person she could be. And to tell the truth, Hotaru was falling into it. She was beginning to think that there was nothing wrong with these kids except the fact that no one gave them a chance. After all, they had offered to take her home and had done it without hurting her in anyway. They were even being nice enough to stay and wait for her father to return so she didn't have to be alone.
"So, what do you think of Usagi?"
Hotaru perked at that question. She wondered what the driving force behind it was. It couldn't have been just a simple conversation starter, but she hope to use it to try and mend the fences between the two groups.
"I..."
Not even giving her time to answer, Haruka went on. She hadn't ever planned to let Hotaru finish until she made her point and got out what she thought of the girl. "Isn't she just a whinny, greedy, selfish little brat? Someone should teach her a lesson in respect."
Michiru sighed as she dropped her head in shame for her friends. 'How did I know?'
Mamoru snickered. "You got that right. Whenever something doesn't go her way she breaks down and cries. She can't even hold her emotions let alone try to fight a decent fight."
Hotaru shot a scowl up at Mamoru, who continued to go on, bad mouthing her best friend. "She can fight BETTER than you EVER can." 'I should have known something was up. Michiru is the only good one here.'
Mamoru burst out in laughter at that one. "Give me a break kid. She can't fight. When we went into the past with Cell, she could have gone Super Saiyan and killed him, but instead she chose to play with him or whatever she was doing. I don't know. Maybe she was even fool enough to believe that she could have beat him without her Super Saiyan power. I don't think anyone knows what's going on in that screwed up head of hers. Because she failed to take him out when needed, she nearly died and got everyone else nearly killed. In the end, Cell powered up to his fullest, out powering Goku's Super Saiyan three of this dimension. At that point Usagi couldn't even defeat him without all of the power of her friends attached to her own. She was just lucky that his offspring's hate energy was gone by the time he got here otherwise it would have been lights out for earth."
Hotaru was speechless. She had always thought of Usagi as one of the smartest and most knowledgeable fighters around. Her friends and family too. Even after hearing this, Hotaru still wasn't convinced. "Everyone makes mistakes."
Haruka grinned down at Hotaru, who looked to be harder to pull in than the Americans. "Usagi doesn't really want to hang out with you. None of the girls do." She paused when Hotaru gasped. "You don't believe me? Well, why don't you ask them yourself? It's the truth. None of them like you. Usagi is only hanging out with you to get money from your dad. I heard her at the arcade. She said she would do anything for money even hang out with a dork like yourself."
Michiru walked to Hotaru when she got a piercing glare from Mamoru. "Uh...that's right. So you join us where we will like you for who you are. You should hang out with people who will teach you how to fight right instead of the wimpy way."
Hotaru sat in silence as the rants about her best friend's went on. She had never heard such nonsense in her entire life. Her silence only left the gang thinking that she was finally agreeing with what they were trying to pull over on her. BOY, were they wrong.
With the mind link Hotaru knew that this was all a bunch of lies fed to her to make her come to their side. The dark side of the tracks. But it wouldn't work on her. She knew that her friends were real. She knew that the girls had made a lot of mistakes in the past, especially Usagi, but she also knew that she had the biggest heart in the world and that she had given a big piece of it to her. All of her friends had. "I don't know what you have against the girls. They are better people that you could ever be. You're only trying to be nice to me because you know that NONE of you can beat them so you want my help. We'll I'll never hurt any of them. NEVER. You are the selfish brats that need the lesson in respect. Why do you think that you're training under them? Just so you can be humiliated? No! It's because you don't know how to respect yourselves! And when someone doesn't know how to respect themselves they don't know how to respect others! Don't even think about trying anything like this again or else I tell them exactly what you said and let you guys deal with them!"
Fury radiated off of them as they listened to her words. Never in their lives had such a young child spoken them to in such a manner. They wouldn't stand for it. She had to be stopped. She couldn't be allowed to run around, thinking that she was allowed to talk to them with such an attitude.
Mamoru, acting as leader, bent down and grabbed Hotaru by the collar and proceeded to pull her up to his face. "Don't you EVER threaten me unless you want to find yourself lying in some back alley nearly dead."
Hotaru curled her nose and scowled, slightly afraid up into his eyes, which radiated with hate. She knew that he would do it too. From what she heard from Usagi and her family, Mamoru wouldn't hesitate at all. "Don't threaten me!" She pulled her fingers to her forehead and teleported away from his grasp, next to Michiru, where she knew that she was safe. "Leave or I'll teleport to Usagi's house and tell her and Goku on you."
Haruka looked up the street where she saw a hover car turning onto. "Parent alert."
"What?" Mamoru turned to look at the car, which was fast approaching, though it still had a ways to go. He narrowed his glare as he turned to his left, where Hotaru was standing. "This isn't over kid. Don't think you've seen the last of us." With a wave of his hands, his friends followed him as he began walking away from the giant house. As they left, Mamoru realized that he was going to have to work extra hard to get Hotaru into his grasp. He was not about to let her slip through his hands.
Hotaru sighed as she watched the group and her father pull up to the house. She knew that it was far from over. The only thing that she feared was how they planned to take action in trying to pay her back. They had already done such awful things to try and get Usagi back. She didn't want to even begin to imagine what would happen if she were to be alone with them again. 'Great.'
~*~*~
Later that night...
Usagi sighed as she stared into her plate of food. She couldn't decide if she wanted to tell her parents about Michiru or not. She had promised to keep it a secret from her friends, but no one else. But obviously she wanted it to be kept secret or else she would have told her otherwise. 'Hmm...but this is big...'
"Usagi eat your food."
Usagi looked up to her mother, who always seemed to have something to get on her back about. "Yes mom." As she began to eat to please her mother, she began to wonder if any of the adults knew of Michiru's change in attitude. She hadn't really noticed it, but thinking back she couldn't figure out how she could have possibly missed it. Michiru had only forewarned her of Mamoru's plan and that her brother was the one who tipped him off. That was the first sign that she had recognized.
As she continued to eat, she realized that there had to be many other signs for the adults to catch. They always seemed to know what was going on with kids. 'Well that's it. I don't think she wants me to tell them so if they don't already know then that's their tough luck.'
"Usagi..." Goku had a mouth full of food and was already stuffing in more as fast as he could.
Usagi's eyes became wide at the thought that her father would ask her what was wrong. 'Uh-oh. I can't tell him, can I?' She calmly looked to her father in hopes that he wouldn't question her. "Yes?"
"Would it be all right if Hotaru spent Friday training the others with you guys? The others and I want to train late."
Usagi nodded with a smile. She couldn't have been happier that he didn't ask her what was wrong. 'Maybe he doesn't notice. Maybe he's loosing his touch.' "Cool. We miss Hotaru."
"Great." He went back to stuffing his face full of food, only to disgust his wife. "By the way, don't look so upset. You have three days until summer vacation." Goku looked down to an excited puppy, who sat on his foot. "Hey. You want some?" Goku reached over his plate and picked up a piece of meat and dropped it on the floor. "There you go."
~*~*~
~~Three days Later~~
"Five..."
"Four..."
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
"WE'RE OUTTA HERE!" The five friends had made it through yet another year in school. They were now officially rulers of the school. There was no one above them. There was no one left in that school older than them who knew of all their troubles. The only people left to tell the story were the people who had actually witnessed it.
The five girls were the first out of their chairs and the firsts out the door to their summer freedom. They didn't even care about saying goodbye to the other kids in their class. It didn't really matter since they would be seeing them in a few months again.
Minako ran silly out into the main courtyard. "Freedom is OURS!"
Usagi joined Minako in their praising of Summer Vacation. "No more books! No more reports! No more math! NOTHING!"
Ami giggled as she watched to two blondes weave in an out of other screaming students. "I take it you two are happy?" Usagi stopped long enough to give Ami a giant grin and a nod of the head and then she was off again.
"Think we should be getting over to the training sight?"
Usagi slowed down her pace as she slumped her shoulders. "Do we have to? School just got out."
Makoto frowned. "Yes we have to. We need to get those guys to learn some respect, remember?"
Usagi sighed. "I know. But they're just so unwilling to do anything. They don't want to learn from us."
Rei nodded to agree with Usagi. "Tell me about it. They just think that they're better than everyone. But we can't give up on them."
Ami nodded. "Right. We made a promise to Piccolo and Yamcha. We should try to keep it to the best of our abilities, but we really should get going. If we aren't there by the time they get there who knows what they'll do."
Minako jumped into the air, still with a smile. "I'll go get Hotaru, ok?"
Usagi nodded. "K. We'll meet you there."
~*~*~
~~The Forest~~
Twenty minutes later...
For the past three days, no real progress was made by the teens. They didn't really want to learn and as a result, they didn't try their best. They didn't try anything near their best, actually. They were doing it just to spite the girls, something which they were all well aware of.
The girls had no idea of what they were going to do. They had tried and tried over and over to get through to the kids and nothing seemed to be working. It seemed like the nicer and softer they got, the more insolent they became. They didn't care if they hurt anyone's feelings or not.
Usagi even found herself becoming angry and put out by most of the stuff they pulled. If it had not been for the fact that she was doing this for a friend, she would have liked to have given up, but she knew she couldn't do that. These kids had to learn respect. No one else had given them the chance to reform. She was more than determined to give them the chance they deserved. She just didn't know how she was going to do it.
"Hotaru, did dad say if you could fight others with your staff yet?" Usagi looked to Hotaru, who had been given the day off from her own training by Goku to hang out with her friends.
"I can't attack anyone with it, but I can defend with it. Goku says that I need to work on my defending skills cause he's always able to make hits on me."
A wide grin came across Usagi's face as an idea popped into her head. "Well why don't you fight these guys for a while and try to defend with your staff? We'll be doing dad a favor in a way."
Hotaru nodded with excitement. She had never used her staff in any sort of fight against anyone but Goku. "Great." She kneeled down into a defensive position as she held her staff horizontally in front of her; ready for anything that may have been coming for her. 'Uh-oh. I hope they aren't still mad at me. But the girls are here and Goku's just a ways off in the woods training with his friends...I think I'll be ok.'
"Hey!" Makoto wasn't nearly as easy on her students as Usagi was. Though she was supposed to teach them a thing or two about respect, she also wanted to make sure her friends were safe, as well as the fact that the teens needed to know their boundaries. "Don't try anything or you'll be dealing with us! And then we'll tell the adults! After that, you can kiss fighting goodbye." She grinned. "Now play nice you guys." She turned to Usagi with a more serious expression. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Usagi nodded with a kind smile. "I don't think they'll try anything stupid. We have to give them a chance, remember? It's the only way they'll learn. Don't worry if something happens, we can teleport in."
"There's always Goku and Piccolo not too far from here sparring in the woods." Ami added.
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, if they feel us powering up all the way, they're sure to come." She grabbed a hold of Minako and Rei and began to pull them away from the fight with the other two close behind. "Come on you guys, we need to talk about a few things."
As Usagi led the others away, Hotaru was left to fend for herself against the fighters who were, for now, superior to her. "Any time now is fine with me."
Haruka smirked as she pulled Mamoru to her side. "She really is an idiot."
"Of course. Look at who she hangs out with." Mamoru moved his head to a position that would allow him to look over at his shoulder to the remaining five teens, who stood behind him. "Leave this to us. We know what we're doing and I think you'll all understand in a minute."
Haruka kept her smirk as she pulled away from Mamoru and looked at Michiru. "You'll all enjoy this little payback of ours. I promise." Haruka didn't even try to cover up her hate for Hotaru this time as she approached her. "Come on. It's as easy this. If you want to stay well, come with our group. We'll teach you all there is to know about fighting."
Hotaru backed away as she forced herself not to change into an offensive position, a little nervous now, but refusing to admit it. "I don't want to hang out with you guys. Now let's just get the fight started."
Mamoru grinned as he shot a Golden Ki attack at Hotaru, who jumped into the air and hit the Ki blast with the blades of her staff back at Mamoru as if it were a hockey puck. "We're not playing with you, kid." With his fist, which was powered up with Ki, he basically punched his own Ki attack back at Hotaru while he released the power in his fist into the attack to make it twice as strong. "Haruka!" 'She just needs to learn whose boss around here.' He frowned when he saw Hotaru bat the attack back to him. "BRAT!"
"Right!" Haruka took to the air and went flying towards Hotaru at full speed in hopes to dodge her staff and make a hit to the child's body, but no luck came to Haruka, who wasn't thinking clear enough to do anything. Her mind was only filled with anger, which led to her down fall.
Hotaru anticipated the attack and moved her staff to block the punch that came from Haruka. In a quick retaliation, Hotaru lifted her leg into he opponent's stomach. "I know you're better than that." 'Why did I just say that?'
Haruka dropped to the ground with her hand covering her stomach, which was in pain. "You want more?" She didn't even wait for a reply from Hotaru before she started powering up a Ki attack in her hand. She evilly laughed when she felt Mamoru doing the same.
~*~*~
Meanwhile...
"So girls, how are we going to get them to lighten up?"
Makoto turned to Rei with a grin. "We can set rules. Rules that will make them WANT to lighten up."
Minako giggled at her friend's idea. "You really don't like them, do you?"
"They're rude. There's nothing that's ever going to change them. It's obvious. They haven't learned a single thing since we started training them. All they've learned is how to walk in the new gravity. And what's worse it they're brining Michiru down with them."
"That's true." Rei, as well as everybody else, turned their heads to look at the fight, which was escalating into something big. Bigger than it should have gotten. "What do they think they're doing!? They're powering up to their max!"
Makoto pressed her fingers to her forehead as her friends did the same. "Those idiots! She can't block something like that!"
"We have to stop them before they attack!" With that, Usagi teleported along with her friends to the position in which Mamoru and Haruka stood. Minako and Makoto stood behind, Rei and Ami stood on the left while Usagi stood in the right by Mamoru and the Americans. She could feel the hate being emitted from the powerful blasts, which could kill Hotaru, who was on the ground from a previous attack trying to get up. "Hotaru run!"
Justin smirked as he brought his hands to Usagi's back. 'Time to say lights out for the little baby girl. You fell right into it!'
Usagi's eyes went wide. She realized that the attack was not aimed at Hotaru, but joined right in front of her.
Kenneth, Nathaniel, and Zodiac startled all the girls with a flash of Ki energy, distracting them all.
Justin, using the distraction, smirked even more evilly as he pulled his arm back only to punch a distracted Usagi in the back of the head, sending her flying forward. "Goodnight."
"USAGI!" Five distressed girls called out to their friend as she fell right into the path of the powerful attacks that was sure to kill her if they were allowed to make contact.
Mamoru sneered to the girls around. "It won't kill her, just make her realize that we ARE in fact the better fighters. Seeing her fall is well worth giving up our fighting privileges for a while."
Usagi wasn't able to get a grip on herself to try and pull herself away from the two incoming blasts. At that moment, things seemed to slow down to a near halt. She could think more clearly now. She heard nothing around her except for the rumble that was produced by the two blasts that were nearly merged as one. They were heading right for her chest, which would surely kill her. 'Mommy...daddy...'
Her thoughts grew blank as she began to glow a magnificent silver. Her face was no longer that of a frightened child filled with thoughts of her own death. It was a face composed only of tranquility and understanding. 'How did you become so merciless in this world...my love...?' Her body's silver aura grew softer and more generous as it slowly began to move her upwards away from immediate danger of the blast, though still leaving her in its deadly path. 'Until next time...'
Usagi's soft, loving glow, which had left everyone awed, seeming to still time itself, disappeared, leaving Usagi completely clueless as to how she could have gotten so high up into the air. But her wonder was soon taken over by severe pain as the double blast ripped right through her forearm, tearing it completely off. "OOOOOWWAAAAHHHH!!"
Usagi's halted time had ended as she fell to the ground and grabbed her wounded arm, which she couldn't exactly feel anymore, but the pain was there just the same because of the nerve endings. "OWWWE!" Usagi screamed at the top of her lungs, making a large echo throughout the forest.
Usagi's friends, as well as a pale-faced Michiru, ran to Usagi in fear. The kneeled down next to her as she rolled back in forth in complete pain clutching her stub. It was a pain worse than getting her tail grabbed or smashed into the ground by an unforgiving person.
"Usagi try to calm down! We have to stop the bleeding!" Ami tried to reach out to Usagi and grab her 'half' arm and apply pressure to control the bleeding, but only got a kick in the face by Usagi, who didn't know what she was doing and defended herself from any who came near. "USAGI!"
Mamoru himself was even sickened by what he had done. 'My god. I didn't know it was that powerful.' "Hey!"
Hotaru growled as she jumped to her feet and held her staff, blade first, to Mamoru's face. "Take one step closer and you're dead meat." She let her eyes tell how very serious she was. "Back off!" She cringed when she heard the screams of Usagi again.
~*~*~
~~Deeper into the Forest~~
Chi-Chi would recognize the voice of her daughter anywhere. "Goku..."
Goku nodded. "Let's go." He looked around to his sons, Piccolo, and Yamcha. "This sounds bad. I felt the power of Mamoru and Haruka go up pretty high."
Goku cursed himself as he realized that the amount of energy they had expended to train this hard used too much for them to gather enough to teleport. They barely had enough to fly at a snails pace.'This is the last time we all drain ourselves to this extent. What if an enemy attacked? Now we're delayed getting to Usagi.'
Goten's face whitened at the thought of something horrible happening to his sister without any protection. "And the transfer of their energy meaning they had to teleport for something."
Piccolo growled as he set off to meet his son. "He's really messed up big time. Whatever it is, he's screwed up his training for a while."
Yamcha nodded. "All of them have."
~*~*~
Hotaru looked back at Usagi, who was still rolling around, blood running out of her arm. "Usagi you'll die if you don't let us help! Listen to Ami! Please!" Tears began to weld up in her eyes at the thought of losing her best friend. 'Wait a minute...' "Usagi work with me!" She dropped her staff just short of hitting Mamoru with it and ran back to Usagi's side.
Rei turned up to Hotaru with tears as Usagi began to calm down, not of choice, but because of blood loss. "She doesn't have much time. Someone needs to go get Goku."
"I'll go." With that, Minako raised her power level and teleported away to meet up with Goku and the others.
Hotaru knelt down by Usagi and grabbed her good arm away from her hurt one. "Usagi, I know you're in a lot of pain right now but mommy once told me that you can heal a wound like this if you put all your energy into it. You can rebuild wounds."
Usagi's face was full of sweat as she began to pant for air, which she wasn't getting enough of. "I can't. It hurts too much. I'm gonna die...aren't I?"
Makoto lifted Usagi's head to sit in her knees. "You're not going to die. Minako is getting your parents right now. They'll know what to do."
Hotaru began to raise her energy for the use of healing Usagi's arm. "Usagi. Come on. There won't be anything for them to do except take you to the hospital. Then you won't ever have another arm. We can heal it now. Please...let me try."
Usagi nodded as she tried to lift her head, but she didn't have enough energy. "Ok...I'll try to help you."
Hotaru smiled as she began to go to work on Usagi's arm. She lifted her power level to its highest so she would have enough power to work with. "I don't know if this will be enough."
"Why don't we give you some of our energy?"
Hotaru looked up to Rei with an even greater smile. "That should work." She looked down to the tired Usagi. "Hang in there. My mommy told me how to do this before. It should work." She felt the hands of Rei and Ami on both of her shoulders as they began to distribute their energy to her.
For the first time in his life, Mamoru felt sorry for what he had done. He had never expected the attack to be so powerful. "Oh my god. I'm going to get it from dad for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if he never trained me again."
Makoto looked up to Mamoru with a scowl as she wiped Usagi's face clean. "I WOUDN'T BLAME HIM IF HE DIDN'T!" Her attention was taken by another hand being placed upon Hotaru's back. "Oh my..." She looked up to see the serious face of Michiru looking right back at her. She could only reply with a smile of gratitude. 'She really is growing up.'
Hotaru concentrated all of the excess energy she was receiving into Usagi's body. She was trying to stimulate the cells to grow and duplicate to create a new arm for Usagi, using her cell's DNA codes as a blueprint. "This isn't working. I have enough energy, but not enough healing energy."
Usagi winced as another gush of pain ran through her body. "I'll try to help." Usagi raised her power level up as high as she could, which was only an eighth of her max, but it was still something to work with.
~*~*~
Minako arrived just in front of Goku, who was leading the rest of the adults back to the kids. She wasted absolutely no time dashing to Goku. "Goku, Goku! Something happened! You gotta come quick!" She grabbed a hold of his hand and began pulling him forward.
"Wait! Minako! What happened? Wh..."
Minako stopped and turned around. "Well... wewerehavinghotarutrianwiththeotherswhilewetriedtofigureoutwhattodowiththemandtheytriedtokillherbutitwasreallyjustatricktohurtusagi. Ok LET'S GO!" Translation...We were having Hotaru train with the others while we tried to figure out what to do with them and they tried to kill her, but it was really just a trick to hurt Usagi.
"Wait. Slow down. Now please calmly explain what's going on out there."
Minako sighed. 'This is going to take forever... Grabbing him, she starts shaking. "There's no time, hurry."
~*~*~
The area where Usagi's forearm should have been began to glow white with energy. At first, the energy was just in the form of nothing; it was just a chunk of energy place where ever. After a few seconds of tense concentration, the white energy began to extend from the stub and take its form as Usagi's arm. Inside the energy, tiny veins and muscles could be seen. The bone was forming nicely as well.
The kids were in awe over such a thing. Hotaru smiled. "Mommy says this is just like speeding up the process of growing."
Usagi looked down to her arm, which was nearly finished being recreated. "Hotaru..." She looked up to the child, who was ready to pass out from exhaustion. "You...did this for me?" Usagi pulled her newly formed arm away from Hotaru, who had just finished and collapsed into Michiru's arms. "It worked." She started moving all of her fingers and her elbow to make sure that it was a working arm as hand. Her wrist even moved with ease. "You did it!"
(Ok, now that's it until FF.Net is officially up. Seems like some of you are still able to get in so I thought I'd give posting a try, but believe me, IT WAS HARD. ^_^ Anyway, I will be back to my normal daily posting habits as soon as FF.Net is up. Enjoy this one last part until then...BTW...what did you think? Gotta go. Ja )
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