I Have A Headache! – Chapter 7
By: Eternal Rose
"When life gives you Nesa, beat her to a pulp." .
Dimension SM
"Ne, Usa-chan, now that Baka-ru (here Makoto gestured in Mamoru's direction) is gone, do you think maybe you could let us know what's going on with you?" The taller girl seated herself gracefully by the table, folding her legs Indian-style as she leaned back and crossed her arms behind her head in a stretch. "After all, we are the Sailor Scouts. There's nothing we can't do together."
Usagi, for her part, carefully considered the set of pilots before her. Wouldn't it be interesting if Wufei was stuck here instead of me. She pondered idly. It would certainly give him a much healthier respect for women. The girls were comrades, made friends by the arms they were forced to bear in defense of their only home – much like she and the pilots were. Something subtle was different though, eluding her thoughts as they chased after it. Deciding to worry about it later, she looked at the brunette on her left.
"I do not remember anything here." Usagi said as simply as possible, granting a response, honest as ever, to those whose fighting skill had proven them worthy. "Those monsters. Explain."
Her normally bright blue eyes remained impassive as they wandered from each to the next. Ami of the blue haired fame (Blue. Still not properly adjusted to that. Must remember to ask about use of dye.) did not seem entirely surprised by her declaration, just slightly puzzled.
"Yes, we figured that out already." Idiot. The Mercurian senshi thought, before continuing, "Usagi, what is the last thing that you do remember?"
With the control born of months spent in Duo's company, Usagi kept herself from rolling her eyes. The girl actually seemed to expect an answer… yeah right. Like that was going to happen anywhere this side of L1. Usagi merely waited patiently for the answers she needed.
"The youma, or monsters, are sent here by an evil spirit." Rei said when it became clear that Usagi would not answer their questions. Usagi's eyebrow twitched minutely upward, before being carefully schooled back into the blank mask that continued to cover her face. Evil spirit… okay… because those exist, I'm sure. "We fight them to protect the Earth."
"The thing is, we don't want them hurting our loved ones." Makoto interjected. "The Nega-sleaze has been known to kidnap us, so it isn't exactly a safe line of work. Luckily, all of our transformations have a disguise magic built into them to conceal our identities."
Wow… well that's just convenient, isn't it? Usagi struggled momentarily with the urge to roll her eyes, but overcame it with her years of practice in the great art of having only one facial expression. She paused for a moment, pondering that which she had been told.
"The colonies?" She asked eventually, her voice even and steady. The other girls looked at her, blinking slightly, and glanced at one another. With an inaudible sigh looming in the back of her mind, she repeated somewhat insistently, "The colonies?"
Ne, Usa-chan, what colonies?" Minako asked. She reached for her backpack and pulled out a world studies textbook. Opening it to a map of Earth, she passed it to her princess. "See? Pretty much everywhere is its own country now. Like they say, live free or fly!"
"Die, Minako." Ami corrected unthinkingly as Usagi studied the map. She quickly began to leaf through the pages as Minako turned to face Ami in confusion. The Mercurian girl, distracted as she was by her worry over the blonde with the odangoes did not realize her peril until a chain formed around her. "Mina-chan, what…?"
"Who are you and what have you done with Ami?" The orange outfitted sailor asked. Ami gaped openly at her as Makoto and Rei leaped to their feet in Ami's defense. "In the name of Venus, I shall – Hey!"
Sailor Venus yelped as the senshi of Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter, grabbed hold of the far end of her roped and pulled on it ala a game of tug of war. Unprepared as she was for such an attack, it slipped easily from her grasp. Unfortunately, at was at this precise moment that Usagi realized the colonies did not yet exist wherever she was. Distracting as this information was, she heard the far end of the chain speeding towards her a fraction of a second too late to duck from its path.
As the bright orange object impacted with the side of her head and effectively rendered her unconscious, she had time for but a single more coherent thought. Twice in one day!
Dimension GW
"That was awesome!" Heero squealed as he jumped somewhat clumsily from Wing. The other pilots shared a definitive look but managed to maintain their silence. Heero giggled quietly to himself. I gotta say, pretending to be ditzy is twice as much fun here, what with the reactions it gets me.
The battle had been somewhat stereotypical, if one ignored the unique but effective moves Wing had been forced to perform. This also required that one ignore the fact that said moves were supposed to be physically impossible. Gundams were built to be sleek and graceful, but it seemed that even they could be pressed into some rather awkward positions when the pilot didn't bother to care about the probabilities involved.
The pilots, some rather grudgingly (cough Wufei cough), admitted to themselves that Heero was not as weak as he had seemed to be. In spite of his head injury, as they had taken to referring to his altered state of mind, the princess had been rescued and was once more among them. Rather, that is to say, she would be among them shortly. Sandrock, in whom Quatre had agreed to bear Relena, had been injured leaving the battle and as such was flying slower then usually. As the three remaining (sane) pilots turned to enter the house, Sandrock had just appeared on the horizon.
"What do you think?" Duo asked Trowa quietly. "Should we leave Relena to discover what's happened on her own and leave Heero to her mercies, or should we take him with us and protect him."
Trowa looked soundlessly at Duo and raised an eyebrow. He then cast a knowing glance back at Heero, before once more facing Duo. The braided boy nodded.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, too. The look on her face is gonna be too priceless for us to miss the reaction, and the best way to make sure we see it is to keep her from him until absolutely necessary. Plus," he added as if the thought struck him from the blue, "it would be kinda mean to abandon anyone to that girl, 'specially someone who can't remember that she's obsessed with him."
"Oi, Heero!" Duo called. The boy in question spun from his examination of Wing to face his fellow pilot.
"Yeah, Duo? What do you need? Is there something I can do? Do we have another mission?" The light that filled the Prussian eyes before him forced Duo to suppress a shudder, but the former street rat could not deny that it's timing coincided perfectly with the mention of the word mission. Some things never change. He observed silently.
"Sorry buddy, no mission this time, but we were thinking you could help us get things ready for when Q-man and Relena get here." Duo replied.
"Who's Relena?' Heero asked innocently, once more studying Wing for any flaws that needed to be fixed. Duo blinked.
"Man, you really do have all the luck sometimes, being able to forget her." He gave an ironic laugh. "But you're not half as lucky as you would be if it were her who'd forgotten you."
Joy. Heero thought, choosing to ignore the braided baka in favour of studying his beloved machine. Here's hoping this one isn't anything like Mamoru-baka. I don't think I could handle two of those in my life.
"Ne, Hee-man, you coming?" Duo asked, heading once more for the house. Heero, however, had become lost in his own thoughts, and didn't notice his name being called. He also didn't notice how close Sandrock had gotten to base, and consequently wasn't paying any attention when the gundam landed beside Wing. Perhaps if he had been keeping an eye on the situation he would have braced himself for the jarring wind and impact tremors, but distracted as he was, Heero suddenly found himself floating through the air.
As the aftershock of the landing tossed him forcefully against a nearby wall, Heero could only think of one brief complaint. Twice in one day!
Dimension SM
"Sailor Moon!" The other girls gasped as they watched their leader once more crumple to the ground. Ami struggled against her end of the so-called love chain as the three other girls rushed to their friend's side.
"Is she all right?" The girl asked as she attempted to make the rope slide from her body. When at last it did so, she wasted no time in hurrying to join the others. Whipping out her computer, she quickly scanned the unconscious girl's body. "It looks like she'll be fine. Just a concussion."
"Just a concussion? Just a concussion?" Minako shouted, still looking intimidating in her Venus costume. "First it's 'Die, Minako' and now it's 'My friend is unconscious but it's okay because it's Just a concussion'? Who or what has gotten into you Ami?"
"Mina," Makoto began, her voice betraying her agitation, "Ami was just correcting you. You hurt Usagi because Ami was telling you the correct way to say that quote!"
"This is all my fault." Ami murmured as Rei exited the room to retrieve some ice for her head. "I knew Minako's inability to quote things properly would cause trouble one day, I knew it! Why didn't I ever make the time to teach her proper usage? If I had, none of this would have happened and Usagi would still be fine."
"Usagi wasn't fine to begin with." Rei remarked as she ran swiftly back into the room, the cold material in hand. "Who know? Maybe this will unscramble things in Odango-chan's head."
This, they all silently agreed, was to be fervently hoped.
Dimension GW
"Heero!" Duo could not quite control the yell that was ripped from his throat as the lithe body of pilot 01 collided head first with the hanger's wall. Wufei and Trowa, who had by this time reached the entrance to the house, spun about at his shout, and came swiftly back to their friend's side.
"Heero?" Duo repeated more quietly but slightly more panicked as he reached his friend's side and slowly turned him over. "He's unconscious! C'mon Hee-man, you can't keep doing this to me, wake up!"
"Duo, Wufei, Trowa?" The soft voice of the Arabian echoed in the open hangar as the pilot opened his suit and turned to assist Miss Relena from it. Relena who had, all told, been quite put out that it had not been Heero who personally rescued her from the compound. Wufei glanced quickly at the fair haired pilot, before refocusing on the braided baka and perfect soldier who looked anything but perfect that lay before him.
"Allah, what has happened?" Quatre exclaimed as he caught sight of the body on the floor. He jumped swiftly from the gundam, leaving Relena behind in his haste to aid his friend.
"Heero, man, you gotta stop this stuff." Duo continued, chattering incessantly in an effort to rouse his friend. "Shinigami says you can't keep pulling this kind of stuff, you know? Otherwise we'll have to start calling you Headwound Heero, ya know?"
"Injustice." Wufei murmered. Trowa glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. "It is not right for Maxwell to mock his better while he is incapable of defending himself."
"Awww man, don't tell me you think he's better than me too, Wu-man?" Duo said, mock-offended. Wufei did not respond verbally, though the look on his face was more than easy enough for the other pilots to read. Gently, Wufei picked up the body of his fallen comrade and carried it into the compound.
"Sally will be here soon, won't she?" Quatre remarked aloud. Trowa nodded. Together, the three pilots began to walk back to the compound, none of them noticing that the blonde former queen of the world was still trying to figure out how to get down from Sandrock.
A gentle quiet filled the residence of the five most feared fighters in the known universe, interrupted only by the usual ramblings of the one known as the god of death. Things were, it seemed, back to normal. Quietly, they all hoped that it would remain so.
End Chapter 7
Review Replies
AnimeMonster – I cannot tell you how perfectly timed your review was to spur me into finishing this chapter, which I literally resumed work on a few days ago. Thanks for your kind words, and do know that it is on my list of priorities… although I will admit it's not tops at the moment. ;;;;;;
Keeper of Destiny – Thanks for reviewing, I'll try to keep the wait down in the future!
Syunikiss – Glad you're liking it so far! Thanks for reviewing!!!
Asia-chan – Good to hear from you, I hope you're still around!!! Thanks for being an uber loyal reviewer!!!
SilverCaladan – Kindly keep your brother – I've enough trouble with my own!!! Besides, no worries, my beta Cheryl is already beating up on me - - although not too badly, as she's been given tempting tidbits of my 50,000 words from November to keep her going. .
Bright-Anarchy – I agree that comedy is harder in some ways, but it does have a flow all it's own. Thanks for your compliments and kind words!!!
Sailor Vegeta – I know, I know, I take way too long to update this and it's only gotten worse, but I'm glad you liked Makoto tossing Mamoru! (That was my fave part, too. .)
Firefly-chan – I am honored and proud to know that you could find no flaws with the last chapter and liked it enough to review. What can I say, I'm a grammar whore. ;;;; Thanks for reviewing!!!
Love and Chocolate,
Rose