TO GO, PLEASE
Chapter 8: When Good Dates Go Bad
Rating: PG13
Author: Adrial
E-mail:
TO GO, PLEASE
Hey, everyone! Chapter 8's here as promised, and I really
hope you like it. It's gonna get the wheels turning a little
faster, and there's some definite action.
Reviews and e-mail are definitely welcome and appreciated!
DISCLAIMER: Don't own it, don't want it.
--------------------------------------
By the end of the next three weeks, I was ready to huntdown Gucci, Chanel, or any other mentally distorted stillhetto
endorser and personally beat them to a pulp--or something of that
caliber.
I rubbed my aching feet repeatedly, glaring daggers at the
wall in memory of the five hours Minako and Rei had forced me to
walk run-way style down the aisles of countless shoe stores, all
for one damn pair of feet-killers.
And, of course, I'd allowed myself to be flung from shoe
to shoe just to keep Rei from having a nervous melt down. If she
wasn't badgering Serena for breathing too louldy or burning a hole
into some unfortnuate sales clerk's forhead, the overwhelming abyss
of anxiety would have surely gobbled her hot little head right
up by then.
I couldn't really blame her for being a nervous
wreck--MTV Japan was, after all, taping the talent show live--but
when she stood in front of a store window and stared at her profile
for twenty minutes trying to find out which was her "good side",
I had to dig my nails in my palms to keep from shaking her so
hard that her head popped right off and fell into the growing
pit of burning shoes I longed to create.
My eyes traveled to my unfinished anatomy homework,
and I masaged my temples. The clock read 3:34, and I was having
trouble focusing on the task at hand. With midterms lurking
around the corner, I was liable to snap at any moment.
3:35.
I slapped my pencil down and stretched. The evil
anatomy homework would have to wait until later.
I jumped slightly when my apartment buzzer sounded and
padded across the carpeted floor to the door.
"Hello?" I wasn't sure who would be here now. The
girls were all busy with last-minute preparations, and I
thought that my excuse about needing to spend more quality
time with my mother would have held up for at least another
hour or so.
"Ami-chan? Hey, it's me," Zach's voice rammed into my
senses, and I almost tripped over a shoe as I jumped back. He
and I had silently and shyly melded into a couple after that
blissful night at the rink, and Urawa's face was nothing more
than a blur of color in the farthest corner of my mind at
this point. With the sound of his voice my stomach knotted itself
into tangles with anticipation. I hadn't realized how much I
missed him.
After regaining what little composure I could muster, I
cleared my throat and pressed the answer button.
"Zach?" There was a pause, and I furrowed my brow, praying
that he hadn't left already.
"Yeah, how's the studying coming?"
I sucked in a breath and eyed the blank paper resting on
my coffee table.
"It's...not."
He chuckled, "I can understand that. So you wanna
take a break and come get something to eat with me?
Nothing could have stopped the grin that stretched
across my face, nor the heavy thumping of my heart.
Yes.
"You still there, Ami?"
Stupid! You're supposed to SAY 'yes' not THINK it!
"Um, yeah, sorry--sure, I'd love to go. Give me a few
minutes," I was fidgeting around waiting for his response
when I realized that I hadn't done laundry in ages.
Oh no.
"Sure, no problem. See you in a few."
I tried to ignore the increasing pounding in my heart
as I tore through my closet for an outfit.
"Too big."
"Too green."
"Too grandma-ish."
"Is that Mom's?"
"Spaghetti stain."
Sighing exasperatedly, I grabbed a pair of light blue
stretchy track pants and a matching sweat shirt that Minako
had shipped all the way from America a few months before. I
was definitely not wearing anything that required foot-wear
that would could pose any potential threat to my already
abused feet.
The material was velvety and clung to my legs and torso
nicely I noticed as I sped over to the mirror for a quick once-over.
As I reached for the jacket, I looked in the mirror again
and gasped.
"This is not happening to me!" Not only was my hair was
dissheveled and tangly, but I had a gigantic red hand-print on
my cheek from resting it in my palm during my "studying."
Quickly, I applied some make-up, brushed my hair, threw
on my jacket, and flung myself out of the apartment...
Thirteen seconds later I tore through the door again,
grabbed my keys and shoes, and locked it behind me.
On the elevator I took deep, calming breaths to tame my
rambunctious heart beat while hopping up and down, trying to stuff
my sore feet into a pair of white Adidas.
Be calm, be cool, be collected.
Easier said than done when your boyfriend looked like he
should have been gracing the cover of GQ.
The ride was slower than I anticipated, and I nervously
tugged at the white tank top underneath my jacket and ran my fingers
through my hair once more. I hoped he didn't think the closet ate me or anything; I had no idea how long I'd kept him waiting.
Easy, girl, just breathe.
I contemplated putting on what Minako described as a
'flirtatious smile', but my lips just couldn't do that little
pouty thing. I'd look more like like a bull dog in heat than a
flirt so I had to settle for my usual 'Ami smile.'
The foreign warmth of the sun lay on my back as I approached
him, steering clear of the patches of ice coating the sidewalk.
His smile could have melted the entire block when
he turned to me. I silently thanked whoever made it possible
to have someone smile at me like that.
The glint in his uniquely green eyes caused my insides
to flutter instintively, and I fell into his embrace easily. The
scent of his cologne wafted up my nose, and I resisted the urge
to take deep gulps in the intoxicating smell of him until my face
turned blue. I could definitely get used to this...
"Miss me?" I mumbled against his chest.
"You know it..." He bent down and didn't hesitate to
claim my lips in a heated kiss. My chest burned as I responded
to his lips and wondered where all that pent up emotion had
come from. Had it really been three weeks since our first kiss?
It seemed like yesterday.
His warm hand traveled up to cup my cheek, and I leaned
into his palm, giving in to the passion that traveled up and
down my body.
Just as I was moving to wrap my arms around his neck
and continue the make-out session we had clearly begun, there
was a heavy beating of fists against glass near us, and I
cracked my eyes open reluctantly.
Zach immediately let go of me, and I cleared my throat.
"Get a room, Mizuno!" The super's wrinkly face was
scrunched up like a dried prune as she started banging her
cane against the pane as well, "Or I'll turn off your water for
a month!" You would have never guessed she ran one of the highest
priced apartment complexes in Tokyo.
Her shrivled lips were set in a deep scowl when she finally
teetered off, mumbling incoherently underneath her breath.
My face burned a bright hue of pink, and Zach turned to me,
laughing openly.
"Tell me that wasn't your mother."
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand, tugging him along
the sidewalk and willing my face to cool off. If Chai-san told my
mother I'd been sucking face with some guy for all of Tokyo to see...
I'd never hear the end of it.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and squeezed,
"She's charming, really--I can see where you get your good looks
from," He brought his lips close to my ear and tried to bite at
it, but I placed my hand on his face and pushed it away, making
sure we were far enough away from the building.
When we rounded a corner, I threw my arms around his neck and
slammed my lips against his.
What am I doing?
He responded after the initial shock and we resumed our heated
embrace where we left off.
Whatever it is...I'm beginning to like it...
What ever happened to the old Mizuno Ami--good riddance!
I was enjoying this new, more bold Ami. But, then again, old habits
die hard, right?
I broke our kiss reluctantly, suddenly aware of what I'd
done and how many stares we were receiving.
Zach smiled smugly and wrapped his arm around my waist
as if nothing had happened at all.
"I can't believe I just did that," I muttered to myself,
wondering if placing a paper bag over my head might cover the
burning red that was painted on its surface for the second time
in the past five minutes.
He squeezed my waist and shrugged, "Hey, I have no
complaints whatsoever. In fact, any time you feel like pouncing
on me in public areas again you definitely have my advanced
approval."
Cue the eye roll.
After a few minutes of walking, I broke the comfortable silence.
"So, where are we going?" I really didn't care where the
heck we were going, but at the time it sounded appropriate to ask.
"It's near cam-HOLY SHIT!"
I grunted as my knees crashed onto the frozen ground,
and Zach's body shoved me across the side walk. My chest heaved
over my heavily beating heart, and I shook my head a little to clear
the fog. Zach's arm was wrapped around my waist tightly, and he sat
hunched in front of me, shielding me from whatever was causing the earsplitting screeches blaring from behind his body.
There goes lunch...
I fought the urge to roll my eyes in annoyance.
I pasted on my 'I'm so confused and scared and utterly helpless
because there's no way I could POSSIBLY kick this stupid
youma's big ugly ass. I am afterall a regular, everyday,
average civillian' face.
"Zach?" I whimpered underneath him. There was an
extrememly annoying metal pipe sticking out of the wall
I was plastered against, and it was currently digging a
hole through the small of my back.
I craned my neck up to look at his face. He was
breathing heavily as well, his green eyes wide with stupor.
"What...the...FUCK...?"
He swallowed, daring to take a glance over his shoulder
only to roll quickly to the right, dragging me uncerimoniously
along with him.
And Tokyo Antiques ceased to exist.
Zach was now standing. He tugged me up by my elbows
and sped around the corner that would have been there,
had the wall it belonged to not been pulverized moments
before.
"Damn...hope they had insurance." He muttered,
still staring with his eyes bulging out of his head.
"Zach!" It was my turn to push him out of the way.
He shook his head roughly and started to run with me.
As we raced farther down the street, the ground rumbled
underneath our feet.
"Are those...tires?" Zach kept craning his neck
around to look behind us and I pulled his arm harder.
"I'd rather not--AH!"
My face slammed hard into the ground, scraping
against the freezing cement painfully.
"Ugh...yes...definitely tires." I grumbled
underneath mouthfuls of asphalt.
Actually, a rather giddy team of tires larger
than elephants were bouncing gleefully from place to place
in the street which was flooded with screeching pedestrians.
Trails of fire erupted from the ground as they
skidded across it, pausing every now and then to rise fifty
feet into the air and free fall into the ground causing
mini-earthquakes and collosal craters.
My nose was resting inches from the edge of one of
the larger tire's newest addition to their crater collection,
and Zach and I rose and ran around it.
The smell of burnt rubber wafted up my nose, and
was so thick in the air that I could barely breathe over it.
My poor eardrums nearly self-combusted as a voice
undeniably identical to that of screeching tires sliced
through the air.
"More! More! HEE HEE!"
Zach groaned and slapped his hands over his ears.
The owner, a youma that looked to made out of a
cross between a four wheeler and dump truck, zoomed around
the corner, cackling worse than a thousand finger nails
screeching on a chalk board.
As if to answer their master's command, the tires
simultaneously rose into the air and collided with the frozen
ground promplty thereafter. My legs buckled underneath me
as the ground vibrated violently.
Handfuls of grocery shoppers were screaming their
tired lungs out from having fallen into the pits unknowingly,
their forgotten shopping carts and grocery bags laying
abandoned along the sidewalks.
"We have to get...out of here." I shook with
coughs, and wearily followed behind Zach as we dodged
around flying tires and gigantic potholes.
"Zach! OVER HERE! WE'RE-OVER-HEERRREE!!!"
I screeched to a halt beside Zach and
squinted my eyes. I could barely make out a blur
of blonde that was popping in and out of one of
the craters.
"OV-ER-HERE!" Each syllable was annunciated
with a pop-up flash of yellow.
Zach grabbed my wrist and we raced to the hole.
"Jason! What the hell are you doing down there?"
Zach stared for a few seconds at his friend hopping
uselessly up and down in the hole he was occupying
with another rather pissed off looking male.
"Gee, Zach. I just thought I'd find a nice
CRATER lying around and catch up on autoshop while
a million possessed monster-truck rejects bounce
all over me!"
Zach snorted, futilely trying not to laugh.
"You laugh, Braudell, and I'm going to kill you."
Matt threatened and tried to hop out of the hole again,
barely missing the edge by centimeters.
While Zach erupted into mad laughter, I
bent over the hole and extended my arm for Jason
to grab onto.
"Help me out here, Jason..." I grunted,
trying not to be tugged down myself as he swung
from my wrist like Tarzan.
Zach's chuckles were wearing off.
"Zach, I could...use a little help here
if you don't mind."
He instantly sobered, leaning over the edge
and together we hefted Jason out of the hole.
Matt scoffed, "Hurry up already! I've got
a bone to pick with Mr. Goodyear."
Zach pulled him out with minor difficultly
and dusted off his hands.
"Aw damn...," Jason groaned, "Mrs. Buttersworth
didn't make it."
He held up a sticky brown bottle and watched
despondently as streams of thick syrup dripped down its
sides and onto the ground.
"You'll live," Matt succintly replied, knocking
the bottle out his hands and turning back around to face
the shopping nightmare.
I fought the urge to transform and turned around
in search of any signs of the senshi. As if on cue,
my communicator sounded from the inside of my coat
pocket.
"You have a cell phone? GREAT." Jason jumped
in front of me, "Better call Maaco."
Matt rewarded him with a sound smack on his
head and Jason frowned.
"I though it was funny."
I laughed tightly.
"Um, Zach. I should go and get some help."
Zach immediately snapped back into reality
and nodded. "Yeah, I'll go with you."
Next try.
"No!" I laughed nervously, "Um, I mean,
Jason seems to really be hurt. You should
stay with him."
Jason furrowed his brow and turned around and
around trying to find any injuries he might have missed.
"Um, I'm not--"
I leapt over to him and peered at his back.
"Nope, I see something right...," I flicked my wrist
and a pocket sized blue flame appeared in my palm. I placed
it near his back and he yelped, "Here."
Sorry about that, Jason.
I made a mental note to heal that later. I'd been
dumbfounded the first day I realized the healing powers
of Mercury during a swim meet. A rookie, Saki Ralia, had
taken in too much water out of nerves and had fallen
unconscious in the water. I'd been the first to her and
as soon as I reached my hand over her chest, she'd faintly
been encased in blue light and sprung back to life.
I hadn't perfected my healing powers yet, but I
could definitely heal minor injuries and broken bones.
"Jesus...that hurts like hell. Where'd that come
from?" He twisted his neck to try and see his back.
Matt inspected the burn and shrugged.
"Yeah, so you should stay. I'll be really
quick, promise!" With that, I ran off, leaving
Jason to his ice-burn and the others with confused
frowns.
I took a moment to calm the breaths that were
leaving my chapped lips in quick, labored puffs of foggy
white. The dump-truck youma raised itself on his back
two wheels and revved its engine, slamming back onto
the ground and rumbling in every direction possible.
"Mercury Crystal Power!"
None of the desperately screaming victims
of the rampaging tires saw the eruption of blinding
blue light from behind the partially demolished
grocery store. They continued to scream, their
voices muted by the screeching of the youma and
its accomplices.
A handful of victims had been burned from the
rivers of fire which streaked the ground from the
massive tires and were flailing on the ground
to put themselves out.
I heard the sound of sirens faintly in
the distance and cursed underneath my breath.
Whenever the police or fire department got involved,
the rate of casualties seemed to escalate thanks
to the number of "Super Cops" who would valiantly
put themselves in front of a twenty foot monster
with the inclination that their little toy guns
would scare them away.
"Hold it flame-breath!"
About damn time. I thought.
Sailor Moon leapt out of seemingly no where,
followed closely by Venus, Mars and Jupiter. I
melted back into the shadows of the shopping store
ruins and opted to attack by surprise. They definitely
needed a water attack, and it needed to be exactly
on target.
I cringed when Sailor Mars threw a barrage of fireballs
circling towards the youma's exposed underside as it popped a
wheel-y, and it exploded into a massive ball of pulsing flames.
When the fire withered away, the youma was left, obnoxiously intact
and extremely pissed.
Mars jumped clear of a tire duet and dodged
a cascade of gasoline that erupted from the youma's
back bumpers like silly string.
Venus grabbed Mars' arm with her chain seconds
before she had a chance to fall face first into
one of the craters.
"Jupiter! Hold it with the electricity, would
you?!" Sailor Moon yelled, trying to avoid being fried crispy
as the youma spat Jupiter's electric attacks back at her
in mini-electric fire balls.
Jupiter shrugged, her shoulders sagging at her
obvious shortcoming.
"GEE. I SURE WISH WE HAD SOME WATER TO PUT
THIS THING OUT WITH," Venus yelled conspicuously, her
blonde head turning slowly in every direction in search
of me.
I jumped. I'd been too preoccupied with watching
the scene unfold and disecting the youma's attack rate to
follow through with my earlier plan.
Edging my way past a few tires that were teaming
up to pound away a hot dog stand, I leapt atop a mountain
of debris and powered up my attack.
My break came when the youma backed up and began
screeching towards the senshi on its side. Gasoline and
fire soared out of its middle and front bumpers in sheets
of destruction.
"MERCURY AQUA RASPHODY!"
The car screeched to a halt, jiggling around
as its projectile flames sizzled away to nothing. It
stood on its back wheels as if it were a dog begging for
someone to drop it a pork chop and hopped around, animatedly
screeching.
"Glad you could take a hint, Merc." Venus and
the others appeared at my side in the blink of an eye.
I shrugged, "Sorry. I was with Zach."
They nodded, turning once again to the youma
who had recovered considerably.
"Yeah, well, we would have been here sooner,
but MARS was too busy looking at these "OH SO PERFECT"
platforms," Venus looked pointedly at her, and Mars
scoffed.
Jupiter tapped Venus' shoulder, "You guys, if
you want to continue this little battle later, I highly
suggest you do so, because we're about to be Senshi
road-kill if we don't MOVE NOW!" She pulled their
arms and we jumped out of the path of a jumbo-tire.
I ungracefully tripped over an abandoned shopping
cart and landed painfully on my kneecaps. Jupiter helped
me stand without words, and we ducked again. A spear
of fire grazed the baby hairs on my neck.
For the first time since I'd encountered
the eccentric truck-youma, it spoke coherently.
"CHILD'S PLAY!" It spat, the headlights
blinking in the sun.
Venus and Moon straightened from just having
reduced a handful of tires to fragments of black rubber.
Jupiter's fingertips crackled with pent up
energy and she curled them up tightly into a fist.
"Who are you working for, youma?!" Venus
asked loudly, her stone cold eyes a mask of confidence
and intimidation.
The youma slammed back down on all fours with
a crash and revved its engine as if it were annoyed.
"I WANT THE ONE WHO POSSESS THE HIKARI GEM!"
It growled, the now familiar screeching voice lowered
to actually bearable.
"YOU HIDE HER!" It rumbled, bursts of flame
spurting out from its "mouth" and sizzling on the ground.
Sailor Moon's blonde eyebrows were raised in
confusion, "Hide who?" She said, almost to herself.
"I MUST HAVE THE HIKARI GEM!" The youma
screeched back to its furious stage of spitting fire
in all directions, and began swirling around in donuts
across the ground, waves of gasoline and fire leaving
its sides in circles.
Jupiter raised her index finger to her temple
and twirled it around, "Seems like he's not the shiniest
car in the lot, if ya know what I mean," She deadpanned,
shrugging at our exasperated looks.
"GIVE-IT-TO-MEEE!!" The youma's voice escalated
back to thousand-finger-nails-on-chalk-board level and
Mars threw her gloved hands over her ears.
"Let's just dust his psycho ass already!" She
yelled over its insistent ramblings.
"VENUS LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!" Venus' attack
slammed into the car's side, sending it into a fit of
pain, and Jupiter and Mars (despite my warnings) fired
their own attacks as if they longed for nothing more than
to see it explode into a million discombobulated peices of
sheet metal.
They were hardly disappointed.
I shielded my eyes from the massive explosion.
Sailor Moon yelped and fanned out a lock of her singed
hair.
The satisfied looks in their eyes almost
made me shiver. Those two were far more intimidating
as senshi than...well, never mind. They were just
plain intimidating--period.
As the flames and smoke dispersed, we viewed
the ghastly looking youma which was charred and melted
beyond recognition. Sailor Moon walked toward it with
her nose in the air and promptly finished it off
with a 'HA!'.
Dispirited over their master's defeat, the
army of tires circled the pile of ashes that lay in
its wake and crowded onto it in a mound of smelly
rubber.
The senshi and I watched in confusion before
the dismal pile erupted into flames as well, vanishing
completely, leaving the strong smell of burnt rubber
and gasoline in the air.
Mars and Jupiter dusted their hands off, and Moon
exhaled heavily.
Venus gasped, "God...Look at this place."
But I didn't.
Hikari Gem?
The youma had sparked a candle of curiosity
in my mind and it grew more luminous with each second.
I shrugged out of my thoughts, opting to put them
off until the senshi and I could talk later.
When I did view our surroundings, I had to swallow
the gasp of disbelief. I felt as if I were in one of those
over-done war movies, joyful that the war had ended, but
instantly reminded of what had been lost.
Sailor Moon put her hand over her mouth in
her stupor. Jupiter kicked a hunk of rock with the toe
of her boot. An acrimonious glint flashed in her emerald eyes.
The grounds were littered with debris--demolished
buildings, piles of unidentifiable objects still being
slowly devoured by hungry flames.
Moans of anguish reached my ears, digging into
my heart painfully. I bit my lip and knelt beside a groaning
woman, her legs pinned beneath a slab of cement.
"M-minna! Help me!" I yelled, my eyes clouded by
rueful tears. Jupiter and Venus were first by my side.
"No, wait. We can't just take it off. We might
damage something," I said over the lump in my throat.
The woman's face darkened once more, and I saw the
last bit of hope flee from her eyes.
"What can we do for her, Mercury?" Venus asked
quietly. I tried not to look in to the woman's painfilled
eyes, although I was sure she couldn't feel her legs by now.
"Move over," I said shortly, pushing past Jupiter
and kneeling next to her.
"Jupiter, Venus, when I say lift, you lift." I
instructed, the iciness of my voice causing them to do
so without question.
I placed my hands near the small gap between the
slab and the ground.
"LIFT!"
They grunted and lifted it as high as they could.
"Higher!" I said, my voice sounding almost
desperate. Jupiter strained, gritting her teeth. The
cement suddenly raised a foot higher, and Mars and Moon
were lifting as well.
The woman moaned more, and I quickly shoved my hands
over her midsection, ignoring the blood oozing from her
legs and stomach in a steady stream.
Mercury Remefy!
I closed my eyes shakily, feeling my healing powers
drain from my body and into my fingertips. The woman's body
was slowly encased in an azure glow.
I sensed the strain on my energy. I felt my powers
waver and then rise back again. I didn't stop.
When I could make myself push no longer, my hands
fell limply into my lap and I crumbled onto the ground,
gasping uncontrollably.
The senshi grunted loudly when Venus removed
her hands from the edge of the cement, and produced her
love-chain. She wrapped it quickly around the slab and
tugged as hard as her arms were willing.
The slab fell backwards with a boom that echoed
off the charred walls around us.
I was panting, finding breathing all together
to be an extremely difficult task. Sailor Moon knelt
beside me and began to slowly rub my back.
Suddenly, I felt as if I were standing under a
spring of warm water, bathing in the addicting feeling
of it as it washed over my body and cleansed away any
traces of darkness that were there.
My lungs filled as if they were inhaling for
the first time. I lifted my head, astounded at actually
having the energy to do so and looked into her sapphire eyes
thankfully. Her lips curved slightly and she put her hand
on my shoulder, rising and pulling me along with her.
The woman who had minutes before been saying farewell
to her dithering life, opened her amber eyes wide and shakily
rose onto her perfectly healed legs.
I exhaled heavily, seeing the light of hope
and awe shining in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around
my torso tightly, whatever words she had the urge to
mutter were smothered by her quiet sobs.
I smiled hesitantly and removed her arms
from around me. She grinned, amazed, at all of us
in turn and turned from us with a sigh of a renewed
spirit. A whimper startled her for a moment and as the
senshi and I headed off, she embraced her tiny ashen-
faced son with heart-wrenching sobs of relief.
We did what we could after that. Venus
lifted people out of the deep holes with her chain,
and Jupiter and Mars created light in order for
us to be able to see in the rapidly darkening night.
I gritted my teeth and tucked the pain into its
reserved spot in the darkest corner of my heart, and didn't
look into the pain-filled eyes of the wounded. I'd broken
a silent code when I healed that woman, but the feeling to
undo what had been so unjustly done to her had been too
overwhelming.
Soon, fire trucks and ambulances arrived, and
we stealthily disappeared from sight. Sailor Moon
glanced despondently behind her back and sighed.
It was then that I remembered the pair of
strickeningly green eyes that had watched my back
as I hurried off two hours before without return and
halted in my steps.
"What's wrong, Mercury?" Sailor Moon touched
my arm.
I glanced behind us once more, "I left Zach...
and Jason and Matt," I began to backtrack, "I have to
make sure they're alright. What if..."
I trailed off, my eyes wide with worry. Moon
reached for my elbow.
"I'm sure they're fine, Mercury. Let's
detransform and then we can look for them." She
steered me back to our previous direction of travel
and we emerged from the alleyway seconds later
as five, all but average, college freshmen.
Rei wrung her hands in front of her and
nervously wrapped her black scarf more tightly
around her neck. Minako adjusted her ski hat
on her head, and Makoto picked up her pace.
"Where'd you see them last, Ami-chan?"
Rei questioned, her purple gaze flitting over the
scene we had only just been able to leave to our
memories.
I thought for a moment. Mrs. Buttersworth.
"Over near that grocery store," I pointed and
instantly dropped my arm. The grocery store was now
another field of debris.
We began to run toward the site, searching
frantically for three familiar faces.
Zach, please be alright. I repeated
the phrase over and over in my mind until it played
repetitively.
"I'm telling you! I saw them! MINI-SKIRTS!"
Rei stiffened in place.
"No, I'm not delirious! They were like Super
Barbies! Hey, are you taping this or what?!"
We bolted around.
"I know that voice..." Rei uttered. We
followed her as she began running towards a cluster
of people with cameras and flashing lights.
"Ass hole!" She exclaimed once we reached the
small ensemble.
Jason's eyes, navy looking in the dark night,
flew to Rei's face and stared blankly before brightening.
"Hey, Rei! Come here!" He smiled widely, running
over to Rei and tugging her with him to the middle of the
group, "SEE! One of them looked kinda like her!" He
exclaimed.
Rei scoffed, "Jason! What the HELL-oh...heh heh,
are we on T.V.?" She smiled nervously at the camera lens
that was currently shoved in face.
A news reporter with a quirking eye brow and a mound
of silvering hair (heavy on the hair-spray) leaned in closer
to the couple, "Now, tell us, Mr.--Jason, was it? Just how
many of these "Super Barbies" did you see?"
He rolled his eyes in exasperation and launched
into a re-telling of his near-death experience and how
a quintet of mini-skirt wearing chicks rescued him from
the end of his life. I left him to his imagination.
Rei kept her eyes on the camera, quickly
smoothing down the flyaway strands of her inky hair,
and smiled charmingly from his arm. I gave it five
minutes before she broke out in song.
"Ami!"
Yes. That was the one thing in the entire
world that I wanted to hear at the moment. I was
afraid to turn around and meet the face that had been
floating in my vision for the past ten minutes, for
fear of it being an illusion.
So, I stayed rooted to the spot.
Something warm grabbed my shoulders and pulled
me around, and I was staring into his eyes, feeling his
touch, hearing his voice, and yet, I still wasn't
convinced.
Zach wrapped his arms around my neck in a
tight hug, and I hesitantly stretched my own around his
waist.
"Zach..." I closed my eyes and let myself
melt into his embrace.
He removed his arms from around me and put his
hands on either side of my face.
"God, Ami. You had me scared shitless, do
you know that?" He chuckled lightly.
My eyes were blurred by tears of instant
relief and I laughed against his hands.
His lips crashed against mine before I
could respond further, and I was seeing swirls.
I felt as if I were kissing him for
the first time all over again. He ran his hand
through my disheveled indigo locks, and cupped
one of my cheeks with his palm.
"And here we have a lovely couple, just
rejoined after the horrific battle that took place
here only an hour before. No one knows who or what
these latest monsters are, but the true mystery is the
phantom senshi who seem to appear just in the nick
of time only to vanish..." The news reporter droned on,
and I smiled against Zach's lips.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Ch. 9 will be out next week! dont 4get to hit that little review button! ;-)