I pity anyone who has to deal with Makoto during PMS. It cannot be fun in any way possible. Thanks Hoshimare for the review. Ahh...Seiya dead. It brings tears to my eyes. Tears of joy, that is. I take Ikki's viewpoint on the matter of Seiya; his only merit is that a pretty, winged horse is his guardian constellation. And that is it. Disclaimer; see earlier installments.
A string of curses left her mouth in a very un-sailor senshi sort of way. Sailor Jupiter attempted to push herself up to her knees, but she got as far as her palms on the ground when a white hot flash of pain whipped up her back. She fell back with a groan.
"I don't think anything's broken," said Sailor Mercury, who was seemingly out of the brunette's vision. "But there's going to be some intense bruising."
"Lovely." She attempted to rise again, this time swiftly, so that she was on her heels by the time the pain had ended, leaving a dull ache between her shoulder blades.
"Um...that probably wasn't a good idea." Ignoring the Avatar of Ice, Jupiter braced her self, and leaned back on her heels, before straightening to her height, and then quickly hunching over again.
"Shit!" She hissed, arms wrapped around her stomach. "The minute I see that silver-haired bastard again, oooo I am going to-"
"Makoto!" Ami scolded, hand pressed to her mouth, eyes wide. Sailor Jupiter rolled her eyes.
"Oh, chill. My back hurts like hell. I am allowed profanity. As a matter of fact, I..." But she trailed off as the sight before her took stock in her mind; spread throughout the amphitheater were bodies of men and women laying in various positions, all not moving. Jupiter looked down at the body nearest to her and shuddered.
"Oh God," she moaned, stepping away. Mercury fell to her knees, and slowly began checking vitals. She felt the forehead of the unfortunate, and then her hand moved to his wrist.
"He's...he's alive!" She said in wonderment. An idea dawning on her face, she whipped out her computer, and began staccato typing its keys.
"They're all alive!" She cried joyously. Sailor Jupiter frowned.
"What? Are they all vegetables or something?"
"Kind of. Right now, their bodies are in a deep sleep. Like a coma. But they're perfectly fine. If only we can figure out what did this to them..." But something had just occurred to Sailor Jupiter, something that made her jump, and scour the place.
"Where's Minako?!" She demanded. Mercury, however, was lost to the world as she surrendered to the enticing puzzle before her. Snarling in frustration and pain, Jupiter turned around, and saw a group of people standing on the stage.
Huh. There were two standing, wearing some sort of armor. Two guys down on the ground; one crouched on his knees, the other sprawled on his back. She sighed in relief when she saw that Sailor Venus was there kneeling too.
Sailor Jupiter began to slowly limp over, determined to find out exactly what was going on there. Once she had staggered up the stage, she made her way over to stand next to the tallest man there.
"I am going to kill him, silver-haired creep." She said vehemently, cradling her stomach. Both the men there turned, looking a bit startled, and then fell into a shocked stare. So she was imitating the hunchback of Notre Dame...what was it to them?!
"Are you okay?" The tall one asked, quirking an eyebrow. Makoto found that she rather liked his charcoal blue eyes. She gingerly tried to push her shoulders back, and was rewarded with a twinge of pain. She settled for slumped.
"I'm great, thanks," she said, sounding kind of strained. However, there attention was whipped back as the blonde guy said something to Sailor Venus in a hoarse, cracked voice.
"...Hakuchou...?" The bubbly blonde asked, almost questioningly. The other man, decked out in pale green armor, frowned.
"How does she know your name, Hyoga?" He asked softly, green eyes suspicious. As the blonde man started a slow, hesitant explanation, Jupiter caught sight of Sailor Venus' face, and sighed heavily. She was wearing her 'oh-dear-there's-a-hurt-puppy-we-got-to-help-it' face. Big blue eyes with tears pooling at the corner, the stricken expression. It was all there.
"Wipe that look off your face right now, darling. We're leaving," Sailor Jupiter said. Venus jumped, and noticed that her brunette friend was standing besides one of the men, looking annoyed and in pain.
"Jupiter!" Practically squealing, she leapt up and threw herself into the injured party's arms. Not a good idea.
"AHHHCK!" The tall brunette shrieked. She fell backwards as knifes pierced her back. She screwed her eyes shut, and clenched her jaw.
"Oh no! I didn't know you were injured! Why didn't you say you were injured?!" Jupiter groaned, keeping her eyes shut.
"I said all of ten words to you, idiot!" she wailed in reply.
"There's no need for name calling." Jupiter could practically hear her pout.
"She can't walk," said an authoritive, deep voice. Hmm, it was the guy with the blue eyes. Nice. "Maybe we should take them to the Estate."
"You can't just go taking girls off the street, Ikki," the other one replied. "And we need to get Seiya home...we need to break the news." Sailor Jupiter, being in extreme pain, and extremely extreme annoyance gritted her teeth.
"He's not dead, you morons," she snapped, opening her eyes. Deep green ones were staring right back at her.
"What do you mean?" he asked sharply.
"I bet you didn't even think of taking his vitals," she replied snottily. Venus sweat-dropped in the background.
"You'll have to excuse her; she gets kind of testy in pain." The blonde senshi said weakly. The blond man yelped, and grabbed the fallen one's shoulders.
"Seiya? Seiya damn it, wake up!" The man with green eyes and long black hair turned back to Sailor Jupiter.
"Explain why he won't wake up." Sailor Jupiter rolled her eyes and was about to say something similar to, "I'm not Sailor Mercury, how should I know?" but with a few explicatives, when Sailor Mercury broke in.
"Well, he is in a sleeping coma at the moment. I am on the verge of figuring out why." She said primly, clutching the computer.
"Shit. There's another one," Ikki said, peering at her closely. "We really should take them to the Estate, Shiryu; not only do they know what's wrong with Seiya, have you ever seen anything like them?" The one called Shiryu sighed.
"Ikki. You are blatantly tactless." He turned to Jupiter, Mercury and Venus.
"I am Shiryu, the Dragon. We are the Saints of Athena. As you can see, something greatly evil is threatening our world. We would be greatly honored if you would accompany us to the Kido Estate, where we reside." Mercury blinked, and she began to speak.
"We will go with you, but please understand that there are more of us." A dull flush had spread through her cheeks at the way Shiryu had focused all of his attention on her as she spoke.
"More of you?" Ikki inquired, crossing his arms.
"There are nine planets, nimrod," Jupiter muttered. He turned to her, and rose his eyebrows, a little smirk on his lips.
"Why the hell didn't we know about them?" he asked, turning back to Shiryu. The Dragon shrugged.
"Ikki, you can carry her to the Estate," he said firmly. Jupiter frowned.
"Sailor Jupiter, thank you." She said conversationally. Shiryu bowed slightly.
"My apologies. Hyoga, you carrying Seiya?" Hyoga began to lift the limp body of the still one.
"Yes. I've got him." Shiryu looked about thoughtfully.
"Then I believe that is it."
Author's note; Hahahahahahaha! I really had you going there about Seiya, huh? Hahahahahhahaha! As if I could kill off ponyboy. Especially with such an easy death. If I were to kill off Seiya, it would involve a lot of pain. But that is just me.