And I had meant for Lex Luthor to appear in this chapter, but I kinda got distracted and sent a youma instead. Ooh, now there's an idea, what if Lex and the Dark Kingdom were working together? That'd be cool. Anyway, I'll get around to answering my mail soon.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sailormoon_Superman_Crossovers, for notification of updates, but also discussion if people so desire it.
Catherine.
Fly Me To The Moon
Chapter Three
Last night's events have yet to be sufficiently explained by anyone. Even Superman was at a loss to describe what had transpired, other than to state that he was disgusted at the actions of the girl who called herself 'Sailor Moon'. He said quite vehemently that, "there are many ways to bring a criminal to justice. Violence is never the right path."
Aside from her outlandish clothing, Sailor Moon seemed from all descriptions to be almost shy and hesitant, her manner at odds with her actions. And indeed, we have yet to find out anything about her real motives, other than she claimed she was a warrior for love and justice, yet seemed little more than a vigilante…
"I thought it was just a dream", Molly said, reading over Serena's shoulder at the newspaper spread across the desk. Remembering that she was not supposed to know anything about what had transpired the night before, Serena forced herself to look up curiously.
"You were there?" she asked softly.
"Sure", Molly grinned in anticipation of her storytelling, "It's my Mum's jewellery store. This shape-changing thing had taken Mum's place all day, and I didn't even know." Molly dumped her bag unceremoniously on the floor and sat beside Serena, looking up to make sure that the teacher hadn't arrived yet.
"So, that's why your mum was acting so weird. I thought someone had put some bad milk in her coffee yesterday morning." Serena smiled again, this time more genuinely.
"Yeah, and if Sailor Moon hadn't come along when she did, I feel sure we would have all died."
Serena pointed to the paper before her. "Superman was there. He could have saved the day."
"He wasn't going to though", Molly's eyes were wide and full of some emotion Serena couldn't recognise. Could it have been fear? Molly continued talking quickly, gaining momentum as she progressed. "He was just standing there in midair, thinking about things and trying to hold the monster back. But you know what? Superman couldn't stop the monster from draining our energy and I don't think the Morga-thing would have stopped until we were all dead, including Superman."
"You really think it could have kill Superman?" The thought had never occurred to Serena, "He's invulnerable, isn't he?"
"I dunno", Molly shrugged, then leaned over to read the rest of the newspaper article.
Serena was herself more than a little confused. How had Clark found out about the attack at the jewellery store? The police were only considering arriving as she left the scene in something resembling a hurry. Superman must have gone straight to Clark's house after the attack for the story to have made it to this morning's front page. But why? And why would Superman say such horrible things about her? If Molly was correct, Sailor Moon had saved his life last night.
But, Serena found herself thinking as Miss Haruna walked into the classroom and started taking the roll, it's not like I don't feel the same way. Destroying the youma was wrong, there had to have been a peaceful solution to the situation.
Later, as she started the walk from school to the Daily Planet, Luna dropped from a fence onto Serena's shoulder. The girl yelped and instinctively went to throw the cat off, but was stopped by a quickly-voiced apology.
"Oh, it's you", Serena said in a flat voice, not caring if anyone walking down the street heard her talking to her cat. Her eyes stared at her shoes and she shuffled along, not paying much attention to her path.
"Yes, it's me", Luna said with a patient smile. "I've been watching you all day, Usagi, and I want to know what's wrong."
"Does something have to be wrong?"
"I saw you reading the paper, Usagi. You shouldn't let what the reporter said get to you. He wasn't there, he doesn't know a thing about our enemies."
Serena stopped walking, and looked up, eyes shining with tears. "I don't know anything about our enemies either, Luna, and yet I still killed one of them. That's against the rules no matter which society you come from, be it earth or moon-based."
"Usagi, you have to listen to me. If you hadn't stopped that monster, it would not have stopped until each and every living thing on this planet was dead. And death is the only way to stop them."
"How do you know? Maybe we could have captured it and had it taken to prison or something. Violence is never a solution." Serena was glaring at the cat, tears falling past her control.
"I've fought them before, a long time ago. They killed everyone I had ever cared for." Luna jumped from Serena's shoulder, and stalked off, her tail twitching and anger radiating through her body.
"I didn't know", Serena whispered, suddenly afraid as well as confused and lost. Luna disappeared into the crowd and Serena was jostled rather painfully by those passing her and knocked to the ground. Her nose cracked almost painfully against someone's shoe.
"Oi, Odango Atama", a male voice sneered, and Serena looked up in utmost horror.
"My name is Serena", she said as she got back to her feet and picked up her bag, "can't any of you get that right?" Defiantly, she wiped some of the tears from her face, tossed her hair over her shoulder and stomped off in the general direction of the Daily Planet building.
The young man looked at her curiously as she walked away, wondering at the sense of déjà vu that passed over him at the unusual meeting. A part of him wanted desperately to run after the girl and comfort her, holding her until she stopped crying, but another, frightened part told him that he didn't want to be late to class. Pushing away the thought that he was frightened, Chiba "Darien" Mamoru continued walking towards the university, hoping that the strange girl would be alright.
Thankfully, her work at the Planet was uneventful. Although Jimmy would not stop talking and theorising about Clark's story of the cute Sailor girl, after a while Serena was completely able to tune his words out and concentrate on her own duties. Photocopying and filing: not what she thought she would end up doing when she got her chance to work at the Daily Planet, but at the same time somehow fulfilling. So long as she kept in mind that what she was doing was indeed helpful to someone, Serena could use the monotony to keep her mind off her troubles. Which was really all she wanted.
And it wasn't until she was retrieving her backpack from Jimmy's cupboard at the end of the day that Clark came over to speak with her. "What's wrong, Serena? You've a face like a wet week."
How could she possibly respond to that? How could he be so happy and cheerful, when her whole word had been turned upside down and a lot of it was his fault?
"Why did you write those horrible things about Sailor Moon?" The words were small and soft, involuntary. A moment after, Serena could not believe that she had spoken. What power did this man have over her that he could get her to lower her defences around him so completely?
Clark's eyes had widened as he tried to comprehend what Serena had asked. "Well, I wrote a story, based on what Superman told me about her. Do you know something that would suggest that I was wrong?"
"The jewellery store belongs to my friend Molly's mum. Molly said that Sailor Moon saved them; that Superman wasn't able to fight the monster." Defiantly, she met his gaze, as if daring him to contradict her.
"Maybe Superman didn't want to fight the monster. Maybe he hoped to bring it to a peaceful resolution." Clark's tone was even, but his eyes were wary.
"Maybe Sailor Moon didn't think she had a choice. It's entirely possible that she thought that killing the monster was the only way to stop it from killing Molly and the others." Serena found her voice rising despite herself and tried to get control of her emotions.
"There is always another choice to violence." Clark too was becoming agitated, such that Serena found herself stepping up to him, raising a finger angrily.
"There was no other choice. If Superman had hesitated any longer, Molly would have died. Sailor Moon too."
"You don't know that. She might be invulnerable like Superman."
"Molly said Sailor Moon was bleeding when she left. That doesn't sound invulnerable to me. If you ask me, Sailor Moon sounds like a nice normal girl who was made to fight a battle that went against her very nature. Molly said that Superman drove her off in tears, that doesn't sound like a hardened criminal to me."
Clark took a deep breath and was about to reply to Serena's almost-screamed response when a shout from Mr White's office had them both jumping in shock.
"Kent! Tsukino!" He mispronounced Serena's last name slightly, but she wisely chose to ignore it. "In here now!"
Serena walked demurely into the Chief's office, head lowered and face red with embarrassment. "I apologise for my behaviour, Clark-san", she said before the Chief could get a word in.
"What the Sam Hill was going on out there?" The Chief glared at his reporter and the office junior balefully.
"I disagreed with Clark's opinion on Sailor Moon. I do not believe that she is a bad person and so I started arguing with Clark. I apologise for getting carried away and understand if you decide to punish me for my behaviour."
Clark immediately leapt to Serena's defence, saying something about it being his fault and that he was entirely too excitable, which that Serena suspected was a lie but wasn't about to call him on. Through it all the Chief just sat there, watching, listening.
Finally though, their babbling drew to a halt, and he took a deep breath as if to start screaming at his two employees. But when he spoke, his tone was calm and his accent softened a lot to the point where Serena didn't have to concentrate so much to understand him.
"Clark, I know you've been under a lot of stress lately, but that's no reason to go picking on Serena. And Serena, if you don't agree with Clark's opinions on something, you have a nice option available to you that doesn't involve screaming at him."
"Yes sir", she said with a sigh, "I am very sorry to have interrupted your routine so much."
"I wasn't talking about quitting, girl, use your head", the older man shook his head almost in disgust as Serena's head snapped up in shock. "I simply meant that you could always write a story expressing your opinion on the matter."
Serena's eyes opened wide with shock, suddenly realising that this was a really good idea. She could write something for the school paper, and maybe, just maybe, she could change the minds of the kids at school. If they started thinking Sailor Moon was not a bad person, then the opinion could spread, and then maybe if enough people believed in her, she could convince herself that she wasn't a bad person.
She looked up a few moments later to see both men grinning at her for she had been lost in thought. "Thank you, sir", she said with a quick bow, "I'll keep my promise and send you a copy. Thank you, Clark."
Flashing her biggest smile at the two of them, Serena practically skipped from the office, slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading for home with a slightly lightened heart. She didn't notice the briefly distracted look that flashed across Clark's face as he said his farewells to his boss and left via the fire escape.
Luna was waiting for her outside the Planet building.
"There's a youma attacking couples in the park", the cat said discretely as they made their way through the peak hour crowds. Serena felt a sinking of her heart and inwardly a part of her thought that she might start crying.
Resolutely, feigning a confidence she did not feel, Serena turned towards Centennial Park. One foot after another, she walked quickly towards her destiny, knowing that to run would attract too much attention.
Thinking it all over, Serena realised that she had no choice in the matter, no matter what Clark had said. Maybe she was a criminal, maybe she was a monster, but she would fight, and she would win. That was the promise she made to herself, she would always protect those people who needed her, those who could not defend themselves.
She would never know what prompted Luna to speak, but the words cheered her immensely.
"The way of the Senshi is never easy or painless, but I believe you can do it, Usagi-chan."
"Moon Prism Power, Make-Up!"
The words tore from her throat as if themselves drawn by magic, and the strange music that Serena felt could have been the melody of her love for the world emersed her in a world of light and power as the transformation magic turned her into a more powerful being, one who could be heartless towards her enemies for the sake of her friends and the sake of the world. She could be like Sailor V.
Dashing out from the alley in which she had transformed, Sailor Moon started running the last few hundred metres to the park. But halfway there, she crashed into a tall man who hadn't thought to get out of her way like everyone else on the street was doing. For a brief moment she found that she nose was pressed rather firmly into a green jacket that smelled like a mix of roses and a masculine fragrance that was rather nice, to tell the truth.
"Odango?" The word was soft, but caused Sailor Moon to look up in fright at the thought that someone, even someone as annoying as this jerk, could have recognised her. But his eyes were unfocussed and a grimace of pain marred his otherwise handsome face.
"I'm sorry", she said, "you must have mistaken me for someone else. I'm Sailor Moon."
"Sorry", he slurred, still not really looking at her. Suddenly, he fell to the ground in a faint. Sailor Moon looked around in a panic.
"What do I do, Luna?"
The cat was also looking around with wild eyes. "Pick him up and bring him over here", she said shortly, moving towards a bus stop a few metres away. Sailor Moon was only a little surprised to find that she could easily carry the probably heavy man, though she knew she wasn't strong enough even in this form to do it for very long. After positioning the jerk on the bench, she sighed.
"We don't have time to see that he's alright, do we?" Luna shook her head in response. "Very well, we'll come back to check up on him once we're done." Sailor Moon took off at a run, the black cat at her red-booted heels.
Neither of them looked back, so neither saw the flash of rose-coloured light that engulfed their patient before he disappeared from view.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Superman was already on the scene when Sailor Moon arrived, but she was forced to stop and stare in amazement when she saw that there were three reporters on the scene, one taking photos and the other two notes as the scene unfolded, not one of them offering to help in any way. Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised, but a part of Sailor Moon was glad that she didn't recognise any of them as being from the Daily Planet.
And then she realised that the Planet was indeed represented, as Lois Lane dared to use capsicum spray on the youma's eyes. Superman was there with her, him holding on to at least four tentacles. Why is it that monsters always have to have those creepy things? Sailor Moon wondered, as she decided that she had better interfere.
"Luna", she ordered decisively, her eyes never leaving the sight of the reporter and the superhero attempting to hold off the youma by themselves, "see what you can do about getting the couples to safety." For indeed, around the youma, no less than six pairs of young romantics were unconscious or near to it, having been the youma's first few victims. "I know most of them are in no state to move, but if we get them away from the youma it won't be able to use them as hostages. I'll deal with the monster." With a nod, the cat disappeared, blending into the shadows created by the setting sun.
Sailor Moon positioned herself so that she would be able to get a clear shot of the creature without endangering those so close to it. But they were all moving too quickly, Miss Lane lashing out with vicious karate moves, and Superman and the youma struggling at almost super-speed. She had to stop them somehow. There was nothing for it but to raise her voice and make a dramatic entrance.
"Those who interfere with young couples falling in love do not deserve the pleasure of knowing romance", she said in her best schoolteacher voice, wondering where the garbage she was sprouting came from. "For breaking those hearts that have just found love, I, Sailor Moon, will punish you in the name of the moon!" With a leap, she threw herself at the youma, calling out, "Sailor Moon kick!" as she did so.
The high heels of her boots landed on the youma's face, and it fell to the ground with her standing on top of it, a tremendous feat for the normally-klutzy Sailor Moon. Miss Lane had jumped back from her furious attack, and Superman had let go of the tentacles he had been holding. The youma rolled to one side, so that Sailor Moon fell, but gloved hands reached out to stop her fall and she was able to push herself back up without losing a beat. This was her battle and the others seemed to realise this backing up.
"For taking away my normal life, for replacing my innocent hopes and dreams with fears and responsibility, I will defeat you and every enemy sent at me. You will not have this world while I live." The words were barely whispered as punches were exchanged on both sides, Sailor Moon being hit almost as much as she hit the youma, but Superman was able to hear, and he paused for a moment, trying to assimilate this new information.
However, Sailor Moon had forgotten about the youma's tentacles while concentrating on its arms and legs. Long green vines reached up and wrapped around her, one pinning her arms to her waist as another tightened around her neck. A strangled gasp was the only sound the young superhero was able to make as she felt her life being drained away along with her oxygen.
Superman moved forward, but someone else was quicker. A flash of red darted between Sailor Moon and the monster, and with a cry it withdrew two tentacles that had been neatly sliced in half. On the ground rested two red roses, the stems sharpened to a fine blade and the petals still looking as fresh as if they had just been picked. "Tuxedo Mask?" Sailor Moon gasped, looking in the direction she thought the rose must have come from.
"In the name of love, I will not let you perpetrate this crime", he said from the tree to the screaming youma, which probably did not hear him. "Sailor Moon, you are fighting well. I am here to fight with you. Use your tiara now to free us from its presence."
She nodded, reaching up towards her tiara.
"Stop." Superman stepped between her and the youma.
Sailor Moon closed her eyes, readying herself to argue with him, but Tuxedo Mask looked up at Superman and spoke softly, yet forcefully. "The youma are not of this world. They are the forefront of an invasion force that will destroy the earth if they are not destroyed. This is our destiny, to protect the world from those who would do evil to it. If you do not wish yourself and all you love to be enslaved to these beasts, stand aside."
Sailor Moon was shocked. This was the goal of their enemy? To enslave all living things and feed off their energy until the earth was dead and lifeless? It was no wonder that she was called to fight them so urgently.
"Will you explain later?" Superman asked, one hand almost unconsciously reaching out to hold Lois Lane's. She didn't seem to notice either, her eyes fixed on Tuxedo Mask's face. He nodded. Closing his eyes as he made a decision, Superman stepped to one side, letting go of Lois' hand and fixing his eyes on the youma so that he would watch and accept his part in its fate.
Sailor Moon reached a hand up to her tiara, feeling the song of its magic thrill her. "Moon Tiara, Action!" she screamed, throwing it at the youma and watching as the monster crumbled to dust upon impact. After the burst of light had died down, Superman and Miss Lane turned to Tuxedo Mask expectantly, but he only shook his head.
"Now is not the time for explanations. They must come later, for much still needs to be accomplished. Farewell." He turned and started to walk away, as Lois started tending to the injured and Superman debated following the hero and questioning him further. It was Sailor Moon who chased after him, catching his arm and making him turn to her.
"Please", she said a little breathlessly. "At least tell me who you are."
"I cannot tell you that yet", the hero's voice was slightly sad and Sailor Moon held tighter to the hand that she had.
"Then tell me why I have to fight."
There was a long pause, as Tuxedo Mask thought about this. During that time, Luna came over and stood next to Serena, rubbing her tail against the girl's leg encouragingly.
"Because you are the only one strong enough." With that, he turned again, leaping away from her and disappearing over the trees. Sailor Moon had no idea how he managed such a trick, she was too busy feeling sad that he was gone. She looked down, and saw by her feet a single red rose.
"Sailor Moon", she turned at the sound of her name, shaking her head slightly to break herself out of her reverie. Superman was walking towards her at a slow pace, as if worried that she would run again.
"Yes?"
"You're bleeding", he said, holding out a piece of his torn cape in one hand, "do you mind if I bandage it?"
"No", she made herself smile, though once she winced with pain as he wrapped the strip of red fabric around her arm. She hadn't even noticed the wound until he mentioned it, but now it was throbbing dully, a grim reminder of what the price of failure in her mission was.
"Sailor Moon?"
Suddenly she became aware of where she was once more, having drifted off again, twirling the rose in her fingers.
"I'm sorry; I didn't understand." The words were barely audible, but she heard them nonetheless and leapt at the superhero, wrapping her arms around him. "I can't help you destroy those creatures", he said finally, "but I won't stop you either."
Knowing that this was probably more of a compromise of Superman's morals than she could have ever hoped for, Sailor Moon smiled and stepped away, disappearing into the shadows like a golden flash of moonlight.
By the time they'd returned to the bus stop that had been on the way to the battle, the jerk was gone. Sailor Moon felt a brief flash of irritation at him. How dare he just disappear like that when she was trying to do a good deed! It just wasn't fair!
"I guess he must have recovered", she said, not sounding altogether convinced.
"I guess so", Luna agreed reluctantly.
"I hope he made it home okay."
"Me too."
They stood for a moment, each worried and not sure what to say. Then Luna, having decided that perhaps everything was indeed alright, smiled and leapt onto Sailor Moon's shoulder, nuzzling her face.
"I think it's time we went home too", the cat said, "you mum will have dinner ready and everything." Seeing the sudden grin on Sailor Moon's face made the cat feel better about everything that had transpired.
"And Serena, you did really well tonight."
"I'm not a bad person after all", Serena said, more to herself than anyone else, "I may be the only one who can fight this battle, but I will make them sorry for picking a fight with me."
And the moon seemed to brighten in response to that promise.
"Molly? This is Serena… I was wondering if you'd like to be interviewed for the school paper…"
Dear diary,
I think I've figured it all out.
Problems should be solved by those who see them; that is something I read in a book a while ago, and that is something I have now come to believe. I apologise for what I wrote last night, it seems juvenile and tedious looking back on it. Since then, I have come to terms with my actions and made some decisions.
Sometimes we have to do things we don't like to protect those we love. That is my sacred duty, it is my promise and my destiny, and I will do whatever it takes to protect the people of this world.
I am Sailor Moon, the champion of love and justice, and I will stop the invaders from destroying my world, no matter what the cost. I will find Luna's princess and save everyone, because it must be done and I am the only one to do it.
This I swear.
All drama aside, I wonder what Tuxedo Mask looks like without the mask…