The Cupid 500
"What are we going to do?" Minako asked excitedly.
Usagi glanced at her blonde companion and smiled evilly. With Usagi's haircut, the two girls looked just alike. It had been hard, but Usagi had finally convinced Minako to let her hair down, and let her borrow her red ribbon. Looking at the two girls, you would think that Minako was Usagi and vice versa.
This of course, was what Usagi planned.
"I'm going to play a little prank on Duo tonight, Mina-chan. That's all. But here's what I want you to do. Take these paints and paint black over all of Duo's windows. Then I want you to just do random things to the house. Only to his things, though. I've given you a complete inventory of his things, so you won't destroy something of Hiiro's. That would be bad. Okay?"
Minako bobbed her head up and down. She absolutely adored pranks. "Hai! Good luck! Ano, Usa-chan? What are you doing with that bad of Mako-chan's clothes?"
A wicked giggle escaped her mouth. "You'll see," she said laughing.
Usagi fished her key out of her pocket and slid it into the lock. Luckily for her, he hadn't thought to change the locks on all of them. Slipping into Duo's house, she closed the door behind her and tiptoed through the dark to his room. She let herself into his room and shook her head at Duo, who lay on his side on the left of the bed. Unbidden, a memory of her resting her head nestled under his chin rose to her mind. Batting it away, she crept into the closet and did what she came to do.
Using all of the stealth techniques that Trowa had taught her, she fixed Quatre and Wufei's rooms. Padding down the hall, she came to a stop in front of Trowa's door. He would be the hard one. Trowa and Hiiro. They'd wake up, and she'd actually have to convince them of her idea. Luckily she was a friend of the two.
She opened the door and was instantly placed at gun point. Usagi smiled and pushed the gun away. "Konichiwa, Tro-kun. You okay?"
Trowa stared at her and put his gun back under his pillow. ".."
"I'm here because I want to get revenge on Duo. I just need to take all of your clothes. Just come over to my house tomorrow morning, and I'll give you something to wear. But if I leave clothes here, Duo will be able to get them, and I don't want that. Okay?"
".."
"Yes, I know it's a cruel and unusual punishment. But did you hear how he broke up with me?"
".."
"No? It was bad. Will you be a good brother and let me do what I have to do?"
Trowa grunted and went back to his bed. Usagi snickered. She was having more fun as an adult than she ever had as a teenager. Her teenage years were filled up with too much fighting to even breathe, she reflected as she emptied Trowa's closet. Whispering a thank you to him as she exited, she proceeded down to Hiiro's room.
She didn't even stop to think, but walked right into the room. Hiiro didn't move from his bed. Almost worried that he had died of a heart attack or something, she studied him. Ah-ha! His chest was moving, and he wasn't asleep.
"Konichiwa, Hii-kun."
"Hnn."
Usagi rolled her eyes and walked over to his closet. She opened the top drawer and raised a pair of his boxers up high. A smile danced across her lips and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"South Park?" she asked incredulously.
"Hnn."
Stifling a laugh, she stuffed his boxers (SpongeBob too, she saw) and all of his other clothes into her bag along with the other four men's clothes. Bowing a thanks to Hiiro, she ran out of the room with a sadistic smile on her face. With what she was doing put together with what Minako was doing, Usagi was certain that Duo would blow up.
Outside, she discovered that she could not see Minako at all. She frowned, until a tiny fragment of a badly hummed melody floated to her ears. Suppressing a laugh, she followed the sound until she came across Minako kneeling on the ground happily painting flowers, hearts, bunnies, and rainbows on Duo's car. She had written things like "I love bunnies" and "Rainbows are symbols of peace" on the sides, along with big yellow smiley faces.
"Great job, Minako-chan!"
Minako looked up and smiled innocently. "What do you mean? I just thought it would look prettier like this," the blonde explained.
Usagi coughed and hauled her twin to her feet. "Come on! Let's run over to my house and celebrate!"
Minako considered, and then nodded. "Saa!"
Giggling evilly to themselves, the two girls snuck down the street towards Usagi's parked Jeep. Duo was going to get it! After all, Usagi had some pent up anger than needed to be released soon anyways, or there would be some unfortunate deaths soon. Oh well. It was lucky for her that this at least gave her a chance to date Yohji. Hah! Lucky her.
She and Minako roared back to her small house/studio. Spontaneously deciding to rent some horror movies and order in some pizza, the blondes made for her house with all possible speed. Chatting about what they had done with their lives, they discovered that Destiny had grabbed them and flung them in totally opposite directions. Minako was scandalized when she found out that Usagi spent her days crawling around under cars, and Usagi was positively delighted when her friend confessed that she had the reputation of being Hollywood's "Bad Girl". How she got that name, she had no idea, but her managers never let her wear anything besides black anymore, if they had anything to say about it.
They picked up the pizza, made the drive-through boy blush, got their movies, and sped home at about twenty miles over the speed limit. Not that Usagi gave a damn; she could always bribe a cop into "overlooking" her "accident". So, narrowly missing several other drivers, Minako and Usagi got to the shack that Usagi liked to call home.
Despite Usagi's belief, her house wasn't really in all that bad of shape. It was cute. That was the way to put it. Her studio/house was two story and had a ramshackle balcony hanging at a precarious slant off of the front. Below that was the front porch with several burns and a hanging swing. Her house was made of hundred year old bricks. It had been expensive to buy, but in the end it had been worth it to get away from her parents, who still seemed to think that she was fourteen.
As Usagi shoved her new key into the lock, she wondered with a snicker what her father would have said if he had known she had gone out with Duo at one point. THEN she wondered what he would say if he knew she was Sailor Moon. He'd probably have a heart attack and then have a fit about her short skirt. Deciding that it really didn't matter (since he was NOT going to find out either one of these truths) she dragged Minako into her slightly cluttered house and locked the door behind her.
She smiled hugely at her friend and swept her arm in a wide semi-circle. "Well, Mina-chan? What do you think?"
Minako clasped her hands under her chin and went starry eyed. Gazing around at the living room to the left, and the kitchen to the right, she sighed in wonder. The living room was a small room with large windows, a big screen TV, a long couch, and a recliner. A coffee table sitting between the TV and the couch and chair was littered with papers, pencils, and all sorts of spectacular doodles. Minako didn't say a word and just rushed to the kitchen.
The kitchen was just as wonderful as the living room. It also had several large windows and a bright, cheery atmosphere. A sink was located directly under a window, looking right into the street. Pots and pans were hung on a rack across the far wall. Minako was overcome by the tidiness and cheerfulness of the place that should have looked like a war zone.
Running out of the kitchen and further down the hall, she came to a closed door. Usagi grabbed the doorknob before Minako could enter, however. Usagi shook her head and grinned.
"This is the tech room," she announced as she swung the door open.
Minako's mouth dropped open.
Before her was a computer glowing with a soft light. Scattered around the screen were post-it notes and CDs. Binders and pens were strewn across the floor. Huge machines with millions of wires attached to it were lined up against the walls, and a pair of headphones lay dormant on a hook.
"You did all this?"
Usagi nodded. "Hai. I got Hii-kun to come over and help me set this all up. The store's sound systems and computers were pissing me off, so I just bought one, took it apart, and made Hiiro help me make a new one. This connects to every room in my house. I can make it play whatever I want for an alarm, or it can remind me about things when my trusty post-it notes fail, and it can do all sorts of other things! But anyways. Shall we continue?"
With another awed look at the disappearing room behind them, Usagi yanked Minako up the steep, narrow stairs. Once upstairs, Usagi pointed down one side of the hall.
"That's where the big bathroom is. And that," she said pointing down the other way, "is my room."
Before Usagi could protest, Minako was opening the door to her room and walking in. At Minako's startled intake of breath, the bunny zoomed into the room behind her and gasped in dismay.
Duo's dirty clothes were all over the floor, intermingled with her own. Her bed was still rumpled from the night before (Crazy: keep your dirty minds out of this, ppl!), and the smell of Duo's cologne was still hanging in the air. Minako turned to her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
"You hated Duo, Usa-chan? It hardly looks like it. Rumpled sheets? You must have been busy last night."
Usagi scowled. "It's not like that! Duo and I lived together! Frankly, I don't see how I could possibly have the energy to have sex with him every night," she added with an impish grin.
Minako flushed a light pink and hurriedly backed out of the room. Laughing to herself, she led Minako back downstairs so they could watch their collection of movies, which included The Shining, The Exorcist, Psycho, and several other highly terrifying movies.
The two did not close their eyes that night.
"Doodoo, doodoo, good morning!" the speakers sang out.
Usagi tugged the blanket tighter about herself and glared at the speaker hanging from her ceiling. "Baka speaker," she muttered.
"Usa? Is it light out yet?"
Usagi nodded the affirmative, remembered that Minako couldn't see her from under the blanket, and replied verbally. "Hai, it's daytime! Monsters are all gone! They should be coming soon," she said thoughtfully.
Sure enough, there was soon a knock on her door. Usagi cackled evilly and raced to her tech room, Minako hot on her heels. Quatre's blonde head was looking from side to side nervously, obviously terrified that someone was going to see him. He had sneakers on, and had a sheet wrapped around his shoulders superman style. He rang again.
Minako's mouth formed into small 'o'. "Usagi-chan," she said finally, "he's kawaii."
"Go answer the door then!"
Usagi's blonde companion looked uncertainly down at her short orange shorts and white spaghetti shirt and then skeptically up at Usagi, who have her a thumbs-up.
"Knock 'im dead, Mina-chan!"
Letting a tiny giggle escape her mouth, the hyperactive blonde bounced over to the door and threw the door open. The boxer wearing boy with a cape took a step back, guiltily taking in the blonde standing before him.
"Usa-chan?" he asked uncertainly.
"Nope!" Minako said cheerfully. "Usagi-chan is inside in her lair, probably cackling evilly at poor Duo's predicament. I," she announced regally, "am the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Minako Anio!" she smiled, flashing him the victory sign.
Quatre was already nodding, realizing that this couldn't be a lie. She certainly looked like the Goddess of Beauty and Love, he thought with a furious blush. He opened his mouth to say something when Usagi popped her head through the open door.
"Come in, come in! Duo might get here soon!"
"You're not planning on giving him his clothes back?" Quatre asked in shock.
Usagi looked at him like he had grown another head. "Absolutely not! We're in the middle of a break up! We couldn't simply GIVE HIM HIS CLOTHES BACK!"
"I completely agree," Wufei said pushing past the three into Usagi's house. "I say that you should kidnap him, tie him to a block of ice and whip him three hundred times."
Everyone stared at Wufei as he continued to not look at them, pulled up his boxers a bit, sat down on the couch, grabbed the TV remote, and began flipping through the channels. Minako blinked.
"Does he do this a lot?" she asked.
Usagi nodded, not at all disturbed. "Hai. Whenever he's pissed he comes over here, helps himself to some Wheaties, and starts watching TV. Duo and I usually join him once we wake up."
Wufei twisted around on the couch and raised an eyebrow, giving her the exact same look she was getting from Quatre and Minako. Usagi scratched the back of her head and smiled sheepishly.
"We used to join him after we woke up," she amended.
Everyone seemed satisfied with this and began talking again. The four were having a marvelous time making fun of Britney Spears in her music video "Slave 4 U" when the bell rang again.
Usagi stared at the door and then almost stood up, but then was shoved back down onto the couch by an overenthusiastic Minako, who was already running for the "lair". Wufei, Quatre, and Usagi leaned backwards against the couch and stared down the walls, waiting for the other blonde to reappear. Sure enough, there was the sound of a door being flung open and then Minako's bare feet thumping quickly against the hardwood floors.
Minako bolted towards the door, nearly ran into it, and flung the door open with a large welcoming smile on her face. Hiiro grunted and shoved her aside, while Trowa got a faint pink tinge on his cheeks as he followed silently in Hiiro's wake.
She frowned and closed the door. How dare they ignore her!? Yes, she did have her eye on Quatre, but all the others were cute too, and it wasn't like she'd particularly mind snuggling up close to Wufei, Hiiro, or Trowa. Although Trowa's hair looked like it could get in the way of a kiss. His bangs looked lethal. Wufei looked like he'd rather shoot her than kiss her, and Quatre looked like he'd die of blood loss. So. Her best bet was Hiiro.
With this decision made, she marched over to the couch were Hiiro was just sitting down and plopped down beside him. Usagi raised an eyebrow, already guessing Minako's motives. Well, Hiiro was in for a ride then, she thought with a smirk. And wouldn't Relena bitch about it? Ah, good times, good times.
"So," Wufei asked finally, "when do we get our clothes back?"
Usagi opened her mouth to respond, she felt Minako's pleading eyes bore into the back of her skull. Sighing to herself, she brought up a huge smile. It wasn't like she'd mind seeing them in their boxers for a while longer..
"Gomen minna, demo I decided that they smelled bad so I put them in the washer. No, don't you dare, Hii-kun! My bras are in there too, and you're not touching them!"
Grumbling to himself about baka onnas (and managing to sound remarkably like Wufei) he sank back into the couch seat and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He stared stoically at the dancing Ms. Spears for a minute and decided that she might not be the best thing to watch while you were sulking, and so transferred his attention to the two girls.
Minako, as mentioned before, was not wearing an incredibly modest outfit, and Usagi wasn't attired much better. She wore long red silk pants and had a tight, tiny white halter top with a gold dragon winding across the chest area. She had stuffed her feet into fuzzy red slippers at the last minute, and was now curled up against Wufei's arm, much to his discomfort. The poor Chinese man could hardly keep himself from looking nervously around for Duo, who would no doubt be ready to impale him for "making moves on his girl". He finally remembered that Usagi and Duo had broken up, and grumbled to himself about Satan and temptation.
Usagi, overhearing him, smiled to herself. When she had first broken up with Duo and they thought it was quits forever, she and Wufei had gotten together for a small amount of time. It had just been a fling, and they both knew that, but sometimes Usagi looked up at him and remembered why she had dated him (secretly) in the first place.
That supremely irritating warm, fuzzy, glowy feeling imbedded itself into her stomach, and she groaned. Ugh. Either Yohji or Duo was coming close, and she knew sure as Hell that it wasn't Yohji.
Sure enough, five seconds later there was a furious pounding on her door. "USAGI! OPEN UP! USAGI!"
Usagi smiled to herself and zoomed up the stairs. Running down the upstairs hall and out onto the balcony, she rested her elbows against the rail and leaned over. Duo, realizing she was up there, backed up and glared at her. She smiled to herself. Damn he was fine. but he wasn't hers anymore. So. Think about Yohji, she coached herself. Amazingly enough, a picture of Yohji in his boxers came to her mind and she found that she quite enjoyed it.
"Duo, darling! How simply marvelous that you could come and join us. Might I dare to comment on your beautiful Target boxers?"
Duo clenched his fists. "Usagi, this isn't funny!"
Usagi smiled again and nodded her head. "Quite the contrary, my dear. I find it quite amusing. I take it that you'd appreciate some clothing? Black pants, black T-shirt, black shoes; the usual?"
"Yes!"
"Please," she commanded.
"Just get me the damn clothes, Tsukino."
Usagi laughed, a merry, twinkling sound. "Tsk, tsk, tsk Maxwell. It seems that you simply don't know how to treat a lady! Frankly, I'm ashamed of you. Fei-kun, could you grab me the clothes that are lying on my bed? Yes. Those." She flashed a big smile at Wufei, who had come to stand beside her and peer curiously down at the partially dressed Duo.
Duo clenched his teeth when he saw Usagi and Wufei standing next to each other. It did NOT help the image when he saw that Wufei was in his boxers and Usagi was wearing her dragon pajamas. Contrary to their belief, he knew damn well that they had dated for a while. Back when Usagi had been a teary eyed, weak willed blonde schoolgirl. He knew, and he had been terrified all of his dating career with Usagi that when they broke up the next time she'd go to Wufei and never come back. But she never did go back to Wufei, and so his fears had been laid to rest. But there they were. But what had Usagi done with Yohji?
God damn that woman, he said yet again in his mind. He heard another one of Usagi's laughs, and he looked up just in time to catch the clothes right in the face. Ripping them away so he could see them, his mouth dropped open.
"You're joking," he said in shock.
Usagi shook her blonde head, sending her hair flying all around her. Duo tore his eyes away and stared at his clothes for a while longer. She had thrown him Vans, some baggy blue jeans, a baggy green Billabong shirt, a white undershirt, and a light brown striped button up shirt. Usagi smiled cheerfully down at him.
"I always thought that blue, green, white, and brown would be your colors," she said thoughtfully. "I never thought I'd have a chance to find out, but here you are! Try them on, dear!"
He threw the clothes down. "No!"
A perfectly waxed eyebrow lifted, and that impish smile quirked Usagi's lips. "Oh? Well I'm not giving your clothes back, and I have a wonderful collection of previous boyfriends' clothes that I can throw down to you every day. Somehow I don't think you'd appreciate that. Now get them on and leave, Duo."
Realizing that girls passing through the neighborhood were staring appreciatively at him, he swallowed his pride and pulled on those awful clothes. Usagi and Minako, watching from a window, giggled when he left for his newly redone care with his hands deep in his pockets.
"Usa-chan, I'd take him if I didn't know you still liked him," she murmured.
"I don't still like him!" Usagi whispered back heatedly.
Minako rolled her eyes. "Yeah. That's what they all say. Now who's this new boyfriend of yours?"
A slow smile spread across Usagi's face, and she gave a tiny chuckle. "Ah. Yohji. Possibly the hottest guy on Earth. I'm helping him get revenge on Saori, and he's helping me get revenge on Duo. Of course, I'm also using him just to date him. He was my third choice after Duo and Wufei."
Minako leaned down towards Usagi, pointedly ignoring the nervous stares of the three men in the room. "You dated Wufei!?"
"Hai!"
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Is he a good kisser?"
Usagi paused as if remembering. Then she burst out laughing, and began nodding in between peals of laughter. "Hai! Hai, he is! Go for it, Mina- chan! Unless you want Hii-kun?"
Minako bit her lip, and then sighed. "I can't decide! Which do you think I should take?"
Usagi snickered. "Well, I've never tried Hiiro before. From experience I'd tell you to take Wufei, but there's something about Hiiro that makes me think that he'd be a phenomenal kisser. Up in the A range somewhere."
"A range?" Minako gasped. She snuck a look behind her at Hiiro's face, and then nodded, turning back to Usagi's window. "I completely agree with you. I'm going to go for the gold. So does Hiiro have a stalker currently?"
Usagi shuddered. "Hai! Ever heard of Relena?"
"You mean the Queen? She's stalking Hiiro? And he's refusing her?"
The bunny nodded, and then let a crafty smile come to her lips. "See, they don't know I know, but I found out a very big piece about their pasts. For instance. All five were the Gundam pilots in the war. Duo, Quatre, Hiiro; all of them. Kinda ((sexy kinda)) crazy, hmm? The point is that Hiiro is the Perfect Soldier and has an unhealthy hatred of Relena."
Minako nodded dreamily, and then jumped about five feet into the air when an ear-piercing wail filled the air. Hiiro, Wufei, and Quatre were on their' feet looking for an attacker, while Usagi's mouth hung open in soundless horror. Finally words came to her.
"Oh, fuck!" she yelled as she sprinted towards her "lair".
Minako managed to get inside seconds before she closed and locked the door behind them. Usagi threw herself at the swivel chair and spun around so that she was facing the computer. Her hands flew across the keyboard, eyes never leaving the screen. A map of Japan came up. She clicked on a city. Tokyo came up. There was a pulsating red dot in one corner of the map, and Usagi clicked on it. It showed a blown up version of Sakura Park, and Usagi swore.
"What is it?" Minako hissed, angry at being ignored.
Usagi cast an apologetic look at Minako, and then made a flicking motion with her hand. She was suddenly holding a winged broach in her hand. Minako's jaw dropped, and her anger deflated like air let out of a balloon.
"We have to fight?"
"We have to fight," Usagi confirmed. "I've had this computer monitoring the space around Earth for several years now. I've pretty much destroyed everything that even looks like it's headed for Earth, but I guess something got by me this time. Moon Eternal Power!"
With a short burst of light ESM was standing there, looking kind of surprised. Minako smiled in relief. At least she wasn't going to have to wait for three minutes for Usagi just to finish her damn transformation.
"Venus Crystal Power!"
Moon and Venus smiled at each other in satisfaction, closed their eyes, and were gone. When they opened their eyes again, they were standing in the middle of a park, and the roaring of a monster was filling their ears. A terrified scream shattered the air, and was joined by several others. Moon, panicking, had a sudden inspiration.
"Wings of Speed and Strength!" she called out.
There was a painful shredding sound, and Moon's pathetic wings extended, muscled out, and grew actual feathers. She gasped in pain, but bit her lip hard to keep from crying out loud. Moon gave her wings an experimental flap and almost blew the clapping Venus off her feet.
"Gomen V-babe," she said flashing a victory sign.
Venus grabbed a hold of Moon's arm and laughed weakly. "No problem. Now lets go!"
Moon wrapped her arms under Venus' shoulders and took off with one powerful flap of her wings. They flew at breakneck speed towards the direction of the screams, and finally found the youma. It was in the form of a man sitting placidly on a park bench eating an ice cream cone. If it weren't for the fact that he was glowing, there were still people lying all around his feet, and that he had badly concealed horns, they wouldn't have guessed.
Deciding that speeches were worth crap, Venus raised a hand and made a tiny motion, consisting of a tiny flicker of the fingers and a small glowing dot in front of her hands. "Double Crush!"
Her new attack took all of about a half of a second. The small glowing dot became a small glowing heart and zipped towards the man. It hit him full on the chest and he immediately collapsed. He struggled to get up for a second, and then laid still. Moon and Venus cautiously walked up to him.
"You didn't announce yourselves."
"It's a waste of time," Moon announced. She lifted her hand and pointed it at the youma's back. "Now tell us who sent you and what you want with Earth."
He chuckled. "Ah. Little Sailor Moon. A pleasure to finally meet you. I'm sure you'd love to know the answers to all those questions, but I'm afraid I'm under strict orders not to tell you who I am, where I'm from, who I work for, or what our motives are. That's simply against policy. I would, however, love to fight or kill you. Shall we dance, Venus? I used to love dancing with the pretty princesses," he said with a vicious snarl.
His body exploded with a bright, sickly yellow light, and he stood up. Fangs slid from his teeth and two still bleeding puncture marks appeared on his neck. The color drained from his face, leaving only black eyes, black hair, and blood red lips. His fingers became reminiscent of claws, and gargoyle like wings sprouted from his back.
"And now I'll bet you're wondering what the hell I am. Well, I'll tell you. I'm a type of demon that feeds off of joy, laughter, and the screams of those in pain. That makes me a very strong demon, Miss Venus. Do you think you can dance with me?"
Venus' eyes narrowed. "I did think you were kind of kawaii while you looked human, but now you're kind of creepy looking. Not to mention that you need a breath mint. But still, even though I don't want to dance, I'd love to join in your little game. Venus," she cried bringing her hand back like a pitcher ready to throw a big ball of energy crackling in her palm, "Gun!" she shouted, throwing it at him.
"Missed me," he taunted.
"Twilight Cannon!"
Moon stared angrily down at the scorched section of the sidewalk that was the only reminder of him and scuffed her boot on it. "Hai, she missed. But I didn't," she said irately. "Come on V-babe, we should probably go tell the others about this."
Venus rolled her eyes. "Gee, you think? Golly, where'd that bright idea come from?"
Moon punched her lightly on the arm and dragged her into the air. "I'll drop you if you say something like that again."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Watch me!" Moon laughed as she let go of Venus' arms.
The blonde senshi fell through the air, screaming at the top of her lungs. Laughing, Moon swooped down and caught her before Venus even got close to the ground. Venus clung to Moon like a burr, until she thought about something.
"Oi, Sere-chan? Where'd we get those new attacks? I had two of them! They just came out of the blue. Double Crush and Venus Gun. Hmm. And you had tat Twilight Cannon! Where the hell 'd that come from?"
Moon shrugged, uncomfortable. "I don't know. The Gizuinshou (sp!!!!) wanted me to use something called the Triple Beam on him, but I somehow got the feeling that it was really destructive."
Venus nodded to herself, already going off on another tangent that Moon wasn't even listening to. The part that she neglected to mention was that after she refused to use the Triple Beam, the Gizuinshou had felt disappointed. Put off. Cheated of a good time. So either she was really going crazy, or her crystal was developing a sick, horrible taste of what to do to enemies.
Moon landed at the Sendai Temple and took her locket off, changing back into Usagi with a burst of dark blue light. Venus raised an eyebrow at the color, but changed back into Minako and followed Usagi into the shrine where Ami, Rei, Makoto, Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, and Hotaru already were. Usagi had called a meeting on their long flight over, so that she'd be saved the time of having to wait for them to get there. Rei met them at the door and ushered them into the Great Fire room.
Upon seeing the room, Usagi's belly began doing unpleasant acrobatics, obviously protesting against the wave of teenage memories that came swarming back to haunt her. Minako, sensing her friend's discomfort, shoved her into a sitting position and plopped down next to her.
"I'm Sailor Venus and I have two new attacks, both of which I used on a youma who Moon here dusted with a single attack. Directly following these happenings we talking about it, and Usagi confessed that the Gizuinshou wanted her to use an attack called Triple Beam which is a much more destructive attack than the Twilight Cannon, which is what she used to dust the bakemono. She also stole Duo's clothes and made him wear colorful clothes," she announced.
Rei coughed slightly, but Hotaru burst out laughing. "I was wondering who it was that kept on pacing outside of my door! Duo was standing there all day! I didn't even recognize him! Looking back, the colors actually DID look good on him. Where'd you get the idea, Usa-chan?"
"CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE ENEMY?" Rei shouted. "Good. Usagi, I want you to put you hands out, palms facing the fire. Okay? Okay. Good. Now close your eyes, and envision the youma you saw today."
Usagi shut her eyes as told and was suddenly seeing a surprisingly vivid picture of something else entirely. Rei rocked backwards with the force of the vision Usagi was being presented with. She tried to pull herself out, but it seemed liked she was locked in place.
"You came here," a cold voice sneered in her mind, "so stick around and see what your dear princess is going to see too."
Helpless against the power of the picture, Usagi quit struggling and watched as she saw herself come onto the picture. She was wearing her crown, yes. But she was not wearing her usual ivory princess dress. She was wearing a replica of her princess dress, but it was gray with gold symbols across the chest. Instead of the fancy Empire waistline tied with pearls, a small gold bow was tied under her chest, letting the gray folds of the dress fall freely from that. Her hair was still done up in the two buns, but Usagi got the feeling that this was not important--- that SHE was not important. Her first reaction to THAT was "Fuck this!", but something made her turn her head to the left of where Serenity was running down the sidewalk.
There was a tiny little boy sitting there with a shadow on his wrist looking intently at her. He checked his watch, looked back up at the retreating Serenity, and shook his head. It wasn't time yet.
The image blurred and then solidified, showing Usagi a clear view of her leaning down on her balcony rail with her arm outstretched, letting the clothes fall onto Duo's face. The boy was there again. His shadow was bigger, and this time when he checked his watch, he smiled. It was not the smile a little boy should have been smiling. It was the smile of a hungry, half-crazed animal out for blood. He disappeared, and then the image was destroyed.
Usagi and Rei were hurtled back towards reality, and Usagi's eyes snapped open at the same time Rei's did. They both looked at each other, and then Usagi got up and walked out of the room without a sound. Worried, Minako jumped up and walked after her.
Minako finally caught up to Usagi, who was shaking her head numbly. It couldn't be real, she told herself. None of it had happened. Slowly but surely she began to convince herself that the images had just been mind games of the enemies, made to trip her up and make her doubt herself. None of what the voice had said to her was true.
"Usagi, what happened?" Minako asked for about the thousandth time.
Usagi shook her head forcefully. "Nothing happened. The new enemy planted a goddamn picture in my head that was supposed to make me think that---ah, never mind. It's not important. We'll kill them just like we destroyed all the other ones."
Minako's face said that she wasn't so sure, but she stayed silent. Something that looked a lot like desperation was in Usagi's eyes, and she really didn't want to make Sailor Moon into a crazed psychopath bent on the destruction of everyone that looked remotely like their new foe. It would just not be a good thing. No, Minako thought, warily edging away from her oblivious friend, not good at all.
Usagi suddenly jolted to a complete stop, nearly making Minako run into her. Angry, Minako walked around to Usagi's side and prepared to ask her what was going on, when she saw what Usagi was staring at.
"Aw, shit," Minako said in utter shock.
That, Usagi thought witlessly, just about summed it up.
"What are we going to do?" Minako asked excitedly.
Usagi glanced at her blonde companion and smiled evilly. With Usagi's haircut, the two girls looked just alike. It had been hard, but Usagi had finally convinced Minako to let her hair down, and let her borrow her red ribbon. Looking at the two girls, you would think that Minako was Usagi and vice versa.
This of course, was what Usagi planned.
"I'm going to play a little prank on Duo tonight, Mina-chan. That's all. But here's what I want you to do. Take these paints and paint black over all of Duo's windows. Then I want you to just do random things to the house. Only to his things, though. I've given you a complete inventory of his things, so you won't destroy something of Hiiro's. That would be bad. Okay?"
Minako bobbed her head up and down. She absolutely adored pranks. "Hai! Good luck! Ano, Usa-chan? What are you doing with that bad of Mako-chan's clothes?"
A wicked giggle escaped her mouth. "You'll see," she said laughing.
Usagi fished her key out of her pocket and slid it into the lock. Luckily for her, he hadn't thought to change the locks on all of them. Slipping into Duo's house, she closed the door behind her and tiptoed through the dark to his room. She let herself into his room and shook her head at Duo, who lay on his side on the left of the bed. Unbidden, a memory of her resting her head nestled under his chin rose to her mind. Batting it away, she crept into the closet and did what she came to do.
Using all of the stealth techniques that Trowa had taught her, she fixed Quatre and Wufei's rooms. Padding down the hall, she came to a stop in front of Trowa's door. He would be the hard one. Trowa and Hiiro. They'd wake up, and she'd actually have to convince them of her idea. Luckily she was a friend of the two.
She opened the door and was instantly placed at gun point. Usagi smiled and pushed the gun away. "Konichiwa, Tro-kun. You okay?"
Trowa stared at her and put his gun back under his pillow. ".."
"I'm here because I want to get revenge on Duo. I just need to take all of your clothes. Just come over to my house tomorrow morning, and I'll give you something to wear. But if I leave clothes here, Duo will be able to get them, and I don't want that. Okay?"
".."
"Yes, I know it's a cruel and unusual punishment. But did you hear how he broke up with me?"
".."
"No? It was bad. Will you be a good brother and let me do what I have to do?"
Trowa grunted and went back to his bed. Usagi snickered. She was having more fun as an adult than she ever had as a teenager. Her teenage years were filled up with too much fighting to even breathe, she reflected as she emptied Trowa's closet. Whispering a thank you to him as she exited, she proceeded down to Hiiro's room.
She didn't even stop to think, but walked right into the room. Hiiro didn't move from his bed. Almost worried that he had died of a heart attack or something, she studied him. Ah-ha! His chest was moving, and he wasn't asleep.
"Konichiwa, Hii-kun."
"Hnn."
Usagi rolled her eyes and walked over to his closet. She opened the top drawer and raised a pair of his boxers up high. A smile danced across her lips and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"South Park?" she asked incredulously.
"Hnn."
Stifling a laugh, she stuffed his boxers (SpongeBob too, she saw) and all of his other clothes into her bag along with the other four men's clothes. Bowing a thanks to Hiiro, she ran out of the room with a sadistic smile on her face. With what she was doing put together with what Minako was doing, Usagi was certain that Duo would blow up.
Outside, she discovered that she could not see Minako at all. She frowned, until a tiny fragment of a badly hummed melody floated to her ears. Suppressing a laugh, she followed the sound until she came across Minako kneeling on the ground happily painting flowers, hearts, bunnies, and rainbows on Duo's car. She had written things like "I love bunnies" and "Rainbows are symbols of peace" on the sides, along with big yellow smiley faces.
"Great job, Minako-chan!"
Minako looked up and smiled innocently. "What do you mean? I just thought it would look prettier like this," the blonde explained.
Usagi coughed and hauled her twin to her feet. "Come on! Let's run over to my house and celebrate!"
Minako considered, and then nodded. "Saa!"
Giggling evilly to themselves, the two girls snuck down the street towards Usagi's parked Jeep. Duo was going to get it! After all, Usagi had some pent up anger than needed to be released soon anyways, or there would be some unfortunate deaths soon. Oh well. It was lucky for her that this at least gave her a chance to date Yohji. Hah! Lucky her.
She and Minako roared back to her small house/studio. Spontaneously deciding to rent some horror movies and order in some pizza, the blondes made for her house with all possible speed. Chatting about what they had done with their lives, they discovered that Destiny had grabbed them and flung them in totally opposite directions. Minako was scandalized when she found out that Usagi spent her days crawling around under cars, and Usagi was positively delighted when her friend confessed that she had the reputation of being Hollywood's "Bad Girl". How she got that name, she had no idea, but her managers never let her wear anything besides black anymore, if they had anything to say about it.
They picked up the pizza, made the drive-through boy blush, got their movies, and sped home at about twenty miles over the speed limit. Not that Usagi gave a damn; she could always bribe a cop into "overlooking" her "accident". So, narrowly missing several other drivers, Minako and Usagi got to the shack that Usagi liked to call home.
Despite Usagi's belief, her house wasn't really in all that bad of shape. It was cute. That was the way to put it. Her studio/house was two story and had a ramshackle balcony hanging at a precarious slant off of the front. Below that was the front porch with several burns and a hanging swing. Her house was made of hundred year old bricks. It had been expensive to buy, but in the end it had been worth it to get away from her parents, who still seemed to think that she was fourteen.
As Usagi shoved her new key into the lock, she wondered with a snicker what her father would have said if he had known she had gone out with Duo at one point. THEN she wondered what he would say if he knew she was Sailor Moon. He'd probably have a heart attack and then have a fit about her short skirt. Deciding that it really didn't matter (since he was NOT going to find out either one of these truths) she dragged Minako into her slightly cluttered house and locked the door behind her.
She smiled hugely at her friend and swept her arm in a wide semi-circle. "Well, Mina-chan? What do you think?"
Minako clasped her hands under her chin and went starry eyed. Gazing around at the living room to the left, and the kitchen to the right, she sighed in wonder. The living room was a small room with large windows, a big screen TV, a long couch, and a recliner. A coffee table sitting between the TV and the couch and chair was littered with papers, pencils, and all sorts of spectacular doodles. Minako didn't say a word and just rushed to the kitchen.
The kitchen was just as wonderful as the living room. It also had several large windows and a bright, cheery atmosphere. A sink was located directly under a window, looking right into the street. Pots and pans were hung on a rack across the far wall. Minako was overcome by the tidiness and cheerfulness of the place that should have looked like a war zone.
Running out of the kitchen and further down the hall, she came to a closed door. Usagi grabbed the doorknob before Minako could enter, however. Usagi shook her head and grinned.
"This is the tech room," she announced as she swung the door open.
Minako's mouth dropped open.
Before her was a computer glowing with a soft light. Scattered around the screen were post-it notes and CDs. Binders and pens were strewn across the floor. Huge machines with millions of wires attached to it were lined up against the walls, and a pair of headphones lay dormant on a hook.
"You did all this?"
Usagi nodded. "Hai. I got Hii-kun to come over and help me set this all up. The store's sound systems and computers were pissing me off, so I just bought one, took it apart, and made Hiiro help me make a new one. This connects to every room in my house. I can make it play whatever I want for an alarm, or it can remind me about things when my trusty post-it notes fail, and it can do all sorts of other things! But anyways. Shall we continue?"
With another awed look at the disappearing room behind them, Usagi yanked Minako up the steep, narrow stairs. Once upstairs, Usagi pointed down one side of the hall.
"That's where the big bathroom is. And that," she said pointing down the other way, "is my room."
Before Usagi could protest, Minako was opening the door to her room and walking in. At Minako's startled intake of breath, the bunny zoomed into the room behind her and gasped in dismay.
Duo's dirty clothes were all over the floor, intermingled with her own. Her bed was still rumpled from the night before (Crazy: keep your dirty minds out of this, ppl!), and the smell of Duo's cologne was still hanging in the air. Minako turned to her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
"You hated Duo, Usa-chan? It hardly looks like it. Rumpled sheets? You must have been busy last night."
Usagi scowled. "It's not like that! Duo and I lived together! Frankly, I don't see how I could possibly have the energy to have sex with him every night," she added with an impish grin.
Minako flushed a light pink and hurriedly backed out of the room. Laughing to herself, she led Minako back downstairs so they could watch their collection of movies, which included The Shining, The Exorcist, Psycho, and several other highly terrifying movies.
The two did not close their eyes that night.
"Doodoo, doodoo, good morning!" the speakers sang out.
Usagi tugged the blanket tighter about herself and glared at the speaker hanging from her ceiling. "Baka speaker," she muttered.
"Usa? Is it light out yet?"
Usagi nodded the affirmative, remembered that Minako couldn't see her from under the blanket, and replied verbally. "Hai, it's daytime! Monsters are all gone! They should be coming soon," she said thoughtfully.
Sure enough, there was soon a knock on her door. Usagi cackled evilly and raced to her tech room, Minako hot on her heels. Quatre's blonde head was looking from side to side nervously, obviously terrified that someone was going to see him. He had sneakers on, and had a sheet wrapped around his shoulders superman style. He rang again.
Minako's mouth formed into small 'o'. "Usagi-chan," she said finally, "he's kawaii."
"Go answer the door then!"
Usagi's blonde companion looked uncertainly down at her short orange shorts and white spaghetti shirt and then skeptically up at Usagi, who have her a thumbs-up.
"Knock 'im dead, Mina-chan!"
Letting a tiny giggle escape her mouth, the hyperactive blonde bounced over to the door and threw the door open. The boxer wearing boy with a cape took a step back, guiltily taking in the blonde standing before him.
"Usa-chan?" he asked uncertainly.
"Nope!" Minako said cheerfully. "Usagi-chan is inside in her lair, probably cackling evilly at poor Duo's predicament. I," she announced regally, "am the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Minako Anio!" she smiled, flashing him the victory sign.
Quatre was already nodding, realizing that this couldn't be a lie. She certainly looked like the Goddess of Beauty and Love, he thought with a furious blush. He opened his mouth to say something when Usagi popped her head through the open door.
"Come in, come in! Duo might get here soon!"
"You're not planning on giving him his clothes back?" Quatre asked in shock.
Usagi looked at him like he had grown another head. "Absolutely not! We're in the middle of a break up! We couldn't simply GIVE HIM HIS CLOTHES BACK!"
"I completely agree," Wufei said pushing past the three into Usagi's house. "I say that you should kidnap him, tie him to a block of ice and whip him three hundred times."
Everyone stared at Wufei as he continued to not look at them, pulled up his boxers a bit, sat down on the couch, grabbed the TV remote, and began flipping through the channels. Minako blinked.
"Does he do this a lot?" she asked.
Usagi nodded, not at all disturbed. "Hai. Whenever he's pissed he comes over here, helps himself to some Wheaties, and starts watching TV. Duo and I usually join him once we wake up."
Wufei twisted around on the couch and raised an eyebrow, giving her the exact same look she was getting from Quatre and Minako. Usagi scratched the back of her head and smiled sheepishly.
"We used to join him after we woke up," she amended.
Everyone seemed satisfied with this and began talking again. The four were having a marvelous time making fun of Britney Spears in her music video "Slave 4 U" when the bell rang again.
Usagi stared at the door and then almost stood up, but then was shoved back down onto the couch by an overenthusiastic Minako, who was already running for the "lair". Wufei, Quatre, and Usagi leaned backwards against the couch and stared down the walls, waiting for the other blonde to reappear. Sure enough, there was the sound of a door being flung open and then Minako's bare feet thumping quickly against the hardwood floors.
Minako bolted towards the door, nearly ran into it, and flung the door open with a large welcoming smile on her face. Hiiro grunted and shoved her aside, while Trowa got a faint pink tinge on his cheeks as he followed silently in Hiiro's wake.
She frowned and closed the door. How dare they ignore her!? Yes, she did have her eye on Quatre, but all the others were cute too, and it wasn't like she'd particularly mind snuggling up close to Wufei, Hiiro, or Trowa. Although Trowa's hair looked like it could get in the way of a kiss. His bangs looked lethal. Wufei looked like he'd rather shoot her than kiss her, and Quatre looked like he'd die of blood loss. So. Her best bet was Hiiro.
With this decision made, she marched over to the couch were Hiiro was just sitting down and plopped down beside him. Usagi raised an eyebrow, already guessing Minako's motives. Well, Hiiro was in for a ride then, she thought with a smirk. And wouldn't Relena bitch about it? Ah, good times, good times.
"So," Wufei asked finally, "when do we get our clothes back?"
Usagi opened her mouth to respond, she felt Minako's pleading eyes bore into the back of her skull. Sighing to herself, she brought up a huge smile. It wasn't like she'd mind seeing them in their boxers for a while longer..
"Gomen minna, demo I decided that they smelled bad so I put them in the washer. No, don't you dare, Hii-kun! My bras are in there too, and you're not touching them!"
Grumbling to himself about baka onnas (and managing to sound remarkably like Wufei) he sank back into the couch seat and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He stared stoically at the dancing Ms. Spears for a minute and decided that she might not be the best thing to watch while you were sulking, and so transferred his attention to the two girls.
Minako, as mentioned before, was not wearing an incredibly modest outfit, and Usagi wasn't attired much better. She wore long red silk pants and had a tight, tiny white halter top with a gold dragon winding across the chest area. She had stuffed her feet into fuzzy red slippers at the last minute, and was now curled up against Wufei's arm, much to his discomfort. The poor Chinese man could hardly keep himself from looking nervously around for Duo, who would no doubt be ready to impale him for "making moves on his girl". He finally remembered that Usagi and Duo had broken up, and grumbled to himself about Satan and temptation.
Usagi, overhearing him, smiled to herself. When she had first broken up with Duo and they thought it was quits forever, she and Wufei had gotten together for a small amount of time. It had just been a fling, and they both knew that, but sometimes Usagi looked up at him and remembered why she had dated him (secretly) in the first place.
That supremely irritating warm, fuzzy, glowy feeling imbedded itself into her stomach, and she groaned. Ugh. Either Yohji or Duo was coming close, and she knew sure as Hell that it wasn't Yohji.
Sure enough, five seconds later there was a furious pounding on her door. "USAGI! OPEN UP! USAGI!"
Usagi smiled to herself and zoomed up the stairs. Running down the upstairs hall and out onto the balcony, she rested her elbows against the rail and leaned over. Duo, realizing she was up there, backed up and glared at her. She smiled to herself. Damn he was fine. but he wasn't hers anymore. So. Think about Yohji, she coached herself. Amazingly enough, a picture of Yohji in his boxers came to her mind and she found that she quite enjoyed it.
"Duo, darling! How simply marvelous that you could come and join us. Might I dare to comment on your beautiful Target boxers?"
Duo clenched his fists. "Usagi, this isn't funny!"
Usagi smiled again and nodded her head. "Quite the contrary, my dear. I find it quite amusing. I take it that you'd appreciate some clothing? Black pants, black T-shirt, black shoes; the usual?"
"Yes!"
"Please," she commanded.
"Just get me the damn clothes, Tsukino."
Usagi laughed, a merry, twinkling sound. "Tsk, tsk, tsk Maxwell. It seems that you simply don't know how to treat a lady! Frankly, I'm ashamed of you. Fei-kun, could you grab me the clothes that are lying on my bed? Yes. Those." She flashed a big smile at Wufei, who had come to stand beside her and peer curiously down at the partially dressed Duo.
Duo clenched his teeth when he saw Usagi and Wufei standing next to each other. It did NOT help the image when he saw that Wufei was in his boxers and Usagi was wearing her dragon pajamas. Contrary to their belief, he knew damn well that they had dated for a while. Back when Usagi had been a teary eyed, weak willed blonde schoolgirl. He knew, and he had been terrified all of his dating career with Usagi that when they broke up the next time she'd go to Wufei and never come back. But she never did go back to Wufei, and so his fears had been laid to rest. But there they were. But what had Usagi done with Yohji?
God damn that woman, he said yet again in his mind. He heard another one of Usagi's laughs, and he looked up just in time to catch the clothes right in the face. Ripping them away so he could see them, his mouth dropped open.
"You're joking," he said in shock.
Usagi shook her blonde head, sending her hair flying all around her. Duo tore his eyes away and stared at his clothes for a while longer. She had thrown him Vans, some baggy blue jeans, a baggy green Billabong shirt, a white undershirt, and a light brown striped button up shirt. Usagi smiled cheerfully down at him.
"I always thought that blue, green, white, and brown would be your colors," she said thoughtfully. "I never thought I'd have a chance to find out, but here you are! Try them on, dear!"
He threw the clothes down. "No!"
A perfectly waxed eyebrow lifted, and that impish smile quirked Usagi's lips. "Oh? Well I'm not giving your clothes back, and I have a wonderful collection of previous boyfriends' clothes that I can throw down to you every day. Somehow I don't think you'd appreciate that. Now get them on and leave, Duo."
Realizing that girls passing through the neighborhood were staring appreciatively at him, he swallowed his pride and pulled on those awful clothes. Usagi and Minako, watching from a window, giggled when he left for his newly redone care with his hands deep in his pockets.
"Usa-chan, I'd take him if I didn't know you still liked him," she murmured.
"I don't still like him!" Usagi whispered back heatedly.
Minako rolled her eyes. "Yeah. That's what they all say. Now who's this new boyfriend of yours?"
A slow smile spread across Usagi's face, and she gave a tiny chuckle. "Ah. Yohji. Possibly the hottest guy on Earth. I'm helping him get revenge on Saori, and he's helping me get revenge on Duo. Of course, I'm also using him just to date him. He was my third choice after Duo and Wufei."
Minako leaned down towards Usagi, pointedly ignoring the nervous stares of the three men in the room. "You dated Wufei!?"
"Hai!"
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Is he a good kisser?"
Usagi paused as if remembering. Then she burst out laughing, and began nodding in between peals of laughter. "Hai! Hai, he is! Go for it, Mina- chan! Unless you want Hii-kun?"
Minako bit her lip, and then sighed. "I can't decide! Which do you think I should take?"
Usagi snickered. "Well, I've never tried Hiiro before. From experience I'd tell you to take Wufei, but there's something about Hiiro that makes me think that he'd be a phenomenal kisser. Up in the A range somewhere."
"A range?" Minako gasped. She snuck a look behind her at Hiiro's face, and then nodded, turning back to Usagi's window. "I completely agree with you. I'm going to go for the gold. So does Hiiro have a stalker currently?"
Usagi shuddered. "Hai! Ever heard of Relena?"
"You mean the Queen? She's stalking Hiiro? And he's refusing her?"
The bunny nodded, and then let a crafty smile come to her lips. "See, they don't know I know, but I found out a very big piece about their pasts. For instance. All five were the Gundam pilots in the war. Duo, Quatre, Hiiro; all of them. Kinda ((sexy kinda)) crazy, hmm? The point is that Hiiro is the Perfect Soldier and has an unhealthy hatred of Relena."
Minako nodded dreamily, and then jumped about five feet into the air when an ear-piercing wail filled the air. Hiiro, Wufei, and Quatre were on their' feet looking for an attacker, while Usagi's mouth hung open in soundless horror. Finally words came to her.
"Oh, fuck!" she yelled as she sprinted towards her "lair".
Minako managed to get inside seconds before she closed and locked the door behind them. Usagi threw herself at the swivel chair and spun around so that she was facing the computer. Her hands flew across the keyboard, eyes never leaving the screen. A map of Japan came up. She clicked on a city. Tokyo came up. There was a pulsating red dot in one corner of the map, and Usagi clicked on it. It showed a blown up version of Sakura Park, and Usagi swore.
"What is it?" Minako hissed, angry at being ignored.
Usagi cast an apologetic look at Minako, and then made a flicking motion with her hand. She was suddenly holding a winged broach in her hand. Minako's jaw dropped, and her anger deflated like air let out of a balloon.
"We have to fight?"
"We have to fight," Usagi confirmed. "I've had this computer monitoring the space around Earth for several years now. I've pretty much destroyed everything that even looks like it's headed for Earth, but I guess something got by me this time. Moon Eternal Power!"
With a short burst of light ESM was standing there, looking kind of surprised. Minako smiled in relief. At least she wasn't going to have to wait for three minutes for Usagi just to finish her damn transformation.
"Venus Crystal Power!"
Moon and Venus smiled at each other in satisfaction, closed their eyes, and were gone. When they opened their eyes again, they were standing in the middle of a park, and the roaring of a monster was filling their ears. A terrified scream shattered the air, and was joined by several others. Moon, panicking, had a sudden inspiration.
"Wings of Speed and Strength!" she called out.
There was a painful shredding sound, and Moon's pathetic wings extended, muscled out, and grew actual feathers. She gasped in pain, but bit her lip hard to keep from crying out loud. Moon gave her wings an experimental flap and almost blew the clapping Venus off her feet.
"Gomen V-babe," she said flashing a victory sign.
Venus grabbed a hold of Moon's arm and laughed weakly. "No problem. Now lets go!"
Moon wrapped her arms under Venus' shoulders and took off with one powerful flap of her wings. They flew at breakneck speed towards the direction of the screams, and finally found the youma. It was in the form of a man sitting placidly on a park bench eating an ice cream cone. If it weren't for the fact that he was glowing, there were still people lying all around his feet, and that he had badly concealed horns, they wouldn't have guessed.
Deciding that speeches were worth crap, Venus raised a hand and made a tiny motion, consisting of a tiny flicker of the fingers and a small glowing dot in front of her hands. "Double Crush!"
Her new attack took all of about a half of a second. The small glowing dot became a small glowing heart and zipped towards the man. It hit him full on the chest and he immediately collapsed. He struggled to get up for a second, and then laid still. Moon and Venus cautiously walked up to him.
"You didn't announce yourselves."
"It's a waste of time," Moon announced. She lifted her hand and pointed it at the youma's back. "Now tell us who sent you and what you want with Earth."
He chuckled. "Ah. Little Sailor Moon. A pleasure to finally meet you. I'm sure you'd love to know the answers to all those questions, but I'm afraid I'm under strict orders not to tell you who I am, where I'm from, who I work for, or what our motives are. That's simply against policy. I would, however, love to fight or kill you. Shall we dance, Venus? I used to love dancing with the pretty princesses," he said with a vicious snarl.
His body exploded with a bright, sickly yellow light, and he stood up. Fangs slid from his teeth and two still bleeding puncture marks appeared on his neck. The color drained from his face, leaving only black eyes, black hair, and blood red lips. His fingers became reminiscent of claws, and gargoyle like wings sprouted from his back.
"And now I'll bet you're wondering what the hell I am. Well, I'll tell you. I'm a type of demon that feeds off of joy, laughter, and the screams of those in pain. That makes me a very strong demon, Miss Venus. Do you think you can dance with me?"
Venus' eyes narrowed. "I did think you were kind of kawaii while you looked human, but now you're kind of creepy looking. Not to mention that you need a breath mint. But still, even though I don't want to dance, I'd love to join in your little game. Venus," she cried bringing her hand back like a pitcher ready to throw a big ball of energy crackling in her palm, "Gun!" she shouted, throwing it at him.
"Missed me," he taunted.
"Twilight Cannon!"
Moon stared angrily down at the scorched section of the sidewalk that was the only reminder of him and scuffed her boot on it. "Hai, she missed. But I didn't," she said irately. "Come on V-babe, we should probably go tell the others about this."
Venus rolled her eyes. "Gee, you think? Golly, where'd that bright idea come from?"
Moon punched her lightly on the arm and dragged her into the air. "I'll drop you if you say something like that again."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Watch me!" Moon laughed as she let go of Venus' arms.
The blonde senshi fell through the air, screaming at the top of her lungs. Laughing, Moon swooped down and caught her before Venus even got close to the ground. Venus clung to Moon like a burr, until she thought about something.
"Oi, Sere-chan? Where'd we get those new attacks? I had two of them! They just came out of the blue. Double Crush and Venus Gun. Hmm. And you had tat Twilight Cannon! Where the hell 'd that come from?"
Moon shrugged, uncomfortable. "I don't know. The Gizuinshou (sp!!!!) wanted me to use something called the Triple Beam on him, but I somehow got the feeling that it was really destructive."
Venus nodded to herself, already going off on another tangent that Moon wasn't even listening to. The part that she neglected to mention was that after she refused to use the Triple Beam, the Gizuinshou had felt disappointed. Put off. Cheated of a good time. So either she was really going crazy, or her crystal was developing a sick, horrible taste of what to do to enemies.
Moon landed at the Sendai Temple and took her locket off, changing back into Usagi with a burst of dark blue light. Venus raised an eyebrow at the color, but changed back into Minako and followed Usagi into the shrine where Ami, Rei, Makoto, Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, and Hotaru already were. Usagi had called a meeting on their long flight over, so that she'd be saved the time of having to wait for them to get there. Rei met them at the door and ushered them into the Great Fire room.
Upon seeing the room, Usagi's belly began doing unpleasant acrobatics, obviously protesting against the wave of teenage memories that came swarming back to haunt her. Minako, sensing her friend's discomfort, shoved her into a sitting position and plopped down next to her.
"I'm Sailor Venus and I have two new attacks, both of which I used on a youma who Moon here dusted with a single attack. Directly following these happenings we talking about it, and Usagi confessed that the Gizuinshou wanted her to use an attack called Triple Beam which is a much more destructive attack than the Twilight Cannon, which is what she used to dust the bakemono. She also stole Duo's clothes and made him wear colorful clothes," she announced.
Rei coughed slightly, but Hotaru burst out laughing. "I was wondering who it was that kept on pacing outside of my door! Duo was standing there all day! I didn't even recognize him! Looking back, the colors actually DID look good on him. Where'd you get the idea, Usa-chan?"
"CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE ENEMY?" Rei shouted. "Good. Usagi, I want you to put you hands out, palms facing the fire. Okay? Okay. Good. Now close your eyes, and envision the youma you saw today."
Usagi shut her eyes as told and was suddenly seeing a surprisingly vivid picture of something else entirely. Rei rocked backwards with the force of the vision Usagi was being presented with. She tried to pull herself out, but it seemed liked she was locked in place.
"You came here," a cold voice sneered in her mind, "so stick around and see what your dear princess is going to see too."
Helpless against the power of the picture, Usagi quit struggling and watched as she saw herself come onto the picture. She was wearing her crown, yes. But she was not wearing her usual ivory princess dress. She was wearing a replica of her princess dress, but it was gray with gold symbols across the chest. Instead of the fancy Empire waistline tied with pearls, a small gold bow was tied under her chest, letting the gray folds of the dress fall freely from that. Her hair was still done up in the two buns, but Usagi got the feeling that this was not important--- that SHE was not important. Her first reaction to THAT was "Fuck this!", but something made her turn her head to the left of where Serenity was running down the sidewalk.
There was a tiny little boy sitting there with a shadow on his wrist looking intently at her. He checked his watch, looked back up at the retreating Serenity, and shook his head. It wasn't time yet.
The image blurred and then solidified, showing Usagi a clear view of her leaning down on her balcony rail with her arm outstretched, letting the clothes fall onto Duo's face. The boy was there again. His shadow was bigger, and this time when he checked his watch, he smiled. It was not the smile a little boy should have been smiling. It was the smile of a hungry, half-crazed animal out for blood. He disappeared, and then the image was destroyed.
Usagi and Rei were hurtled back towards reality, and Usagi's eyes snapped open at the same time Rei's did. They both looked at each other, and then Usagi got up and walked out of the room without a sound. Worried, Minako jumped up and walked after her.
Minako finally caught up to Usagi, who was shaking her head numbly. It couldn't be real, she told herself. None of it had happened. Slowly but surely she began to convince herself that the images had just been mind games of the enemies, made to trip her up and make her doubt herself. None of what the voice had said to her was true.
"Usagi, what happened?" Minako asked for about the thousandth time.
Usagi shook her head forcefully. "Nothing happened. The new enemy planted a goddamn picture in my head that was supposed to make me think that---ah, never mind. It's not important. We'll kill them just like we destroyed all the other ones."
Minako's face said that she wasn't so sure, but she stayed silent. Something that looked a lot like desperation was in Usagi's eyes, and she really didn't want to make Sailor Moon into a crazed psychopath bent on the destruction of everyone that looked remotely like their new foe. It would just not be a good thing. No, Minako thought, warily edging away from her oblivious friend, not good at all.
Usagi suddenly jolted to a complete stop, nearly making Minako run into her. Angry, Minako walked around to Usagi's side and prepared to ask her what was going on, when she saw what Usagi was staring at.
"Aw, shit," Minako said in utter shock.
That, Usagi thought witlessly, just about summed it up.