Disclaimer: My sincere gratitude to Takeuchi-sensei who created this wonderful world for us to dream in. respectful bow in the general direction of Japan As we all know, all rights belong to her. I hope you enjoy my portrayal of her creations.
Hello to Love-J my fifth reviewer! I'm glad you like my story, and yes I'll be sure to check yours out. After I catch up on all the ones I got behind on, that is. ^-^ {sigh} More travel next week. Oh fun. Anyhow, I will admit right now that I am not a reviewer, which is why I don't nag other people to review. I'll try to let you know what I think, though, once I get a chance to read it. And now, as I said:
I do not write for reviews, but I sure enjoy compliments, constructive criticism, and grammatical corrections. So if you feel like it, please press that little review button, and let me know what you think. - Raya
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The Sleeper Chapter 10 – Intermission *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Crystal Palace – Crystal Tokyo*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Empress Night started as Queen Yeti collapsed to the ground with a thud. She looked over at her henchmen, and belatedly began to re-evaluate the situation. They were all trembling with fury and exhaustion. Queen Yeti and King Muerte lay sprawled on the ground. Queen Yeti was gasping for breath, while King Muerte was attempting to rise to his knees again. King Arashi still knelt, and was glaring at King Endymion.
She watched as King Endymion gave him a tauting smile. King Arashi's eyes narrowed. Then, he threw a Black Perfect Storm right at King Endymion's face. The silver shield surrounding the Senshi of Sol buckled, but held. King Arashi keeled over with a thud louder than Queen Yeti's and lay still.
The Senshi of the Sol System didn't appear to be any worse off than when the fight had started. The Inners had managed to push themselves up to sitting and kneeling positions in a square facing their queen. The King stood just outside of the square, behind the Queen and a little to the right. The Outers formed a triangle around the Inners and the King: Super Sailor Uranus on the left, Super Sailor Neptune on the right, and Super Sailor Pluto a little behind the Queen to the left. Super Sailor Uranus and Super Sailor Neptune were still laying on the ground looking more dead than alive, but their challenging voices and glares were still strong.
Neo-Queen Serenity was the only one who actually looked worse. She was pale, trembling, and sweaty from the effort of holding the shield in place. Her lips were bruised, and there was a little blood on her chin from where she'd bitten through her bottom lip to stop herself from crying out at one point. Despite this, her eyes were closed in concentration, and her hands held the Silver Crystal high and steady.
"What? Is that it?" came Super Sailor Neptune's taunting voice. King Muerte had managed to lever himself up almost to his knees. "I should have just stayed home and painted my nails."
"Oh, it doesn't have to be a complete waste of time, Neptune," Super Sailor Venus called out sweetly. "Jupiter and I were thinking of going to Marcella's after this for a manicure and pedicure. You're more than welcome to come along. I think she still has that Ocean Delight nail art kit you like so much."
"Really?" Super Sailor Neptune asked as she turned her head away from King Muerte to look at Super Sailor Venus. "I haven't been to Marcella's in a while. Maybe we can go get some tea at The Garden afterwards. Mmm, and I can restock my chocolate supply, too."
King Muerte let out a garbled yell, and flung a formless blob of energy at Super Sailor Neptune's back, then collapsed once more. The silver shield simply absorbed the energy and continued to shine.
"Very clever," Empress Night said with narrowed eyes. She managed to keep the grudging respect she was beginning to feel out of her voice. "Taunting them into berserk mode, and then letting them waste their strength in useless single attacks. But that tactic only works if we're not aware of it." She smiled evilly.
"Such a good defense, that shield. There's only one small problem with it." Her smile grew to a grin as the Senshi fixed their eyes on her. "It's not mobile," she whispered, then began to laugh. "We'll just leave you ladies here and go help ourselves to what we came for. Oh please, don't bother getting up," she added as Super Sailor Uranus and Super Sailor Neptune began to lever themselves up. "I'm sure we can find it ourselves."
Still laughing, she settled in to wait for her court to recover enough to walk. She renewed her attack, throwing a ball of energy at Neo-Queen Serenity. She kept the power up just enough to pin down her enemy, but not enough to exhaust herself.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Tsukino House – Tokyo *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lady thrashed around on Usagi's old bed, then woke up with a soft choked cry. "Mama!!!" She sat up, shivering and clasping the stuffed pink bunny to her chest.
Her eyes flew around the dark room, fearful, as her breath came in gasps. Slowly, her breathing settled down and she began to relax as she recognized where she was. She looked down on the floor beside the bed and saw Luna laying on a pillow. Somehow, she had managed to sleep right through Lady's nightmare.
Lady lay back down, then leaned out of the bed to rub Luna's head. This made Luna jerk awake. "Oops. Sorry, Luna," Lady whispered.
"ChibiUsa-chan? It's all right."
"What are you doing on the floor? Don't you usually sleep in the bed?"
"Well, I didn't want to wake you. Diana told me that you've had a rough time, and you didn't look like you were sleeping all that deeply, so I thought I'd stay on this cushion down here."
Lady gave a soft laugh. "Don't be silly, Luna. You wouldn't wake me up. Diana sleeps with me all the time now." She gave a soft sigh. "Actually, that's probably why I'm not sleeping too well right now. Where is Diana?"
Luna put her front paws out in a very cat-like stretch, then stood up. "She was talking with Artemis when I left. I thought she'd be here by now." Luna jumped up onto the bed and rubbed her head against Lady's face. "I'm sure she'll be back soon. Why don't you just go back to sleep for now? If she doesn't come in soon, I'll go looking for her."
"Okay," Lady said sleepily settling herself back down into the comfortable bed still clutching the stuffed rabbit to her chest. She blinked at Luna, who adopted the "sitting lay" pose, feet under her, front paws tucked in, and tail wrapped around to the front. "Night, Luna. And thanks for watching over me."
"It's my pleasure," Luna blinked at her with a smile. "Good night, ChibiUsa-chan."