Chapter Three: Sailor Mercury vs. The Shadow Hunter
"Who are you?" Amy asked plainly.
Fargo looked over his shoulder at her from where he was stirring two mugs of tea.
Amy was sitting on the couch, her legs crossed femininely as she watched him.
Fargo had brought her back to his apartment deciding that it was too late to set off for Amy's neighbourhood.
"One of your fans," he replied. "My name is Fargo."
"What do you mean, 'one of your fans'?" Amy wondered aloud.
He gave her a meaningful look.
Amy felt her stomach back flip as she understood.
"You know." she stated, not meaning it as a question.
The expression he had given her said more than words could.
Fargo nodded.
"You're one of the Sailor Scouts. Your true name is Sailor Mercury."
It didn't surprise her in the least. Her life was hardly normal at the best of times but the events of this night had put her days as a Sailor Scout to shame.
Merula had told her that she had known who she really was as if it had been common knowledge.
One more person who knew that she was Sailor Mercury could hardly do her any harm.
Certainly Fargo hadn't threatened her in any way.
Amy didn't even bother to ask him how he possibly knew. Fargo brought over the mugs of tea and handed one to Amy and she focused her attention on that instead.
Fargo sat in a rickety chair as Amy took a sip from her mug.
The tea was strong but not all that bad.
Fargo grunted at her expression. "Ain't poison ya know."
A little embarrassed, Amy swallowed the warm drink.
"So, where are your parents?" she asked, trying to break the uneasy silence.
"Dead. Both of them." Fargo made the reply that had become easier and easier over the many years.
"Oh, I'm...I'm sorry." Amy's face softened.
"Don't be," he shrugged. "My Mom was killed in a terrorist bombing..."
"What?" Amy blinked at him.
"And my Dad was stabbed in the back by a guy he'd thought was a friend...it happened when I was really young. I don't remember either of them so I'm not going to waste energy thinking about them."
Amy was barely listening.
"That's...interesting." She breathed, with just the faintest hint of a smile as she looked him straight in the eye.
"Y-yeah..." Fargo quickly took another drink of tea to give himself an excuse not to say anything else on the matter.
However, Amy was not about to let go of the matter.
"Have you always lived like this then? Lived alone?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation in another direction.
Swallowing the tea Fargo glanced around the shabby apartment for inspiration and shrugged again - this little trick of his annoyed those closest to him. Or it would have done if anyone had been close to him.
"I spent most of my time before I was eight years old in an orphanage. I ended up running off."
"You ran away? But how did you survive in the world without friends or resources?"
He guessed it showed Amy's sophistication that she didn't just say 'who gave you food and where did you sleep?'.
"I got by." Fargo replied in a tone that implied that he didn't want to talk about it.
Amy decided to give him his space.
"So, how did you get involved in this?" She asked, finally getting to the point. "And why are you going out of your way for me?"
"Hey it's my nature to help damsels in distress against evil little witches. I've been after Mu since an incident a couple of years back. I've been on his trail ever since. It's become something of a personal vendetta."
Something in his voice told her that he had not told her the full answer to her question.
Fargo hadn't actually lied to her but still, he hadn't told her everything.
"Mu?" Amy thought about the golden-eyed stranger who had sent her to sleep. "That's his name? But I don't understand. What can you do against him?"
Fargo shook his head incredulously.
"I can hardly believe you just said that! A fourteen year old girl (not that I have anything against the female gender) who gallivants around the city in a short skirt with her four friends fighting demonic warriors from another dimension is asking me what is in my power?"
Amy accepted the rebuke with an abashed smile, which only made her even more good-looking.
"Going to be a cold night...I'll just empty out my trash." Fargo rose, picked up his waste-paper basket – carrying this over to the window, he upturned it and shook out the contents. "Onto that man down there...anyway, we'll get some sleep now and in the morning I'll take you back to the other Scouts. I'll lend you some of my things too, unless you want to walk in like that, that is."
Amy nodded and pulled at the night-gown.
"Not for the war-room, huh?" she agreed.
x x x x x
Meanwhile...
"But what if someone comes along?" the girl insisted, rising to her feet.
"They won't!" he grasped her by the shoulders and pulled her back down on to the park bench with him. "It's one in the morning, who's gonna come along at this hour? And anyway, I really love you, ya know."
His words dampened her anxiety.
A little.
They both settled down on the bench and were soon tangled in each others arms. His lips were red-hot as she closed her eyes, her heart thumping against her rib-cage.
They were in a secluded thicket and if there were any stars in the early morning sky then they were blocked out by the overhanging branches.
It must have been the mild trance the couple had drifted off into that caused them not to hear the cracking of bracken being broken underfoot.
Half-way through mid-grope the girl froze as she heard someone breathing heavily above her.
Whoever it was coughed and hacked as if ridden with asthma.
She broke her lips from those of her lover and looked up.
Red eyes glared down on her, burning with a malevolence that surely must have come from Hell.
She screeched in terror and leapt to her feet.
Then everything went red and she knew nothing more...
x x x x x
Back at the Tsukino household, Serena awoke to the beeping of her communicator.
Grunting as she screwed up her tired eyes she reached down, brought her communicator up to her bleary eyes and pressed the acceptance button.
"Serena? Is that you?" It was Lita's face that appeared on the tiny square screen.
"Hey there, Lita." Serena mumbled, her eyes closed. "What's the matter? Seen any aliens?"
"Not unless you count a creature from the Negaverse. Mina just called to say that Artemis just detected one somewhere in the park."
"Another one?" Serena opened her eyes as she felt a familiar, tired ache spread through her. "That's the third one this week."
"Anyway, Artemis wants you over there with the rest of us right now. Guess I'll see ya soon, 'kay?"
Grumbling to herself Serena brushed off the covers to prepare herself for a long night.
x x x x x
"Huh?"
Amy jolted up from the bed she'd been drifting off into sleep in and sat bolt-upright, listening intently.
She was almost certain that she had heard a woman screaming.
But then again she had been about to drop off so she might have been...
Another scream made her jump to her feet.
That scream had belonged to a boy.
Whoever he was he had sounded as if he had been filled with terror and mortification.
Without thinking twice about it Amy slipped out of the flimsy night-gown and padded over to the clothing Fargo had prepared for her.
She slid into the tight white top and then on went the blue denim jeans and lastly the battered trainers.
Dressed and ready Amy left the room and went to the front door.
As she quietly turned the handle she hesitated.
It soon passed and she looked back at the room in which Fargo slept.
"I'm sorry, Fargo," Amy whispered as she slowly opened the door and slipped out into the cold night. "Forgive me."
It was fantastic night as Amy neared the park. Had she the time she would have probably taken the chance to admire the stars adorning the heavens and giving light to a darkened world.
However she had no time to spare.
Amy stopped just outside the gateway leading into the pitch-black park and listened.
She couldn't see a thing beyond the gate but straining really hard she was able to make out a distant cracking noise.
It was as if someone was doing an awful lot in the middle of a bush or something...
Amy thought quickly.
She had no way of calling the other Sailor Scouts here and they had no idea where she was...
Making her mind up Amy held her arms wide and spread out her fingers.
Her Transformation Pen was spun around in a circle several times in her fingers.
"Mercury Star Power! Make Up!"
A magnificent blue light surrounded Amy's body in a heavenly aura.
Her eyes glowed as her clothing faded away from her body and blue lighting crackled between her fingers. A white sailor's shirt appeared on her body followed by a short blue skirt flickering in the breeze. A gold tiara set with a sapphire stone appeared at her forehead and blue dust floated down to her spraying her finger-nails and painting them dark blue.
A pair of knee-length blue boots and long white gloves completed Amy's transformation into Sailor Mercury.
As Sailor Mercury set off running into the shadow-bound park a plexi-glass visor slid across her eyes and information whirred across it.
Mercury could see perfectly in the dark with its help and a black dot flashing on and off indicated that her quarry was close.
Sailor Mercury prepared herself for the worst as she headed right for the evil...
"Mercury Bubbles!"
The black leathery skinned beast was taken completely by surprise.
It had been in the process of kneeling by the body of the girl whom it had slain minutes before with its long tail extended. The barbed stigma had been inching closer and closer towards the female's neck ready to puncture her delicate skin...
That was when Sailor Mercury arrived.
The monster's black skin was bombarded by several sparkling bubbles of freezing ice, making it scream in anguish.
Taken from behind it stood at its full height and glared around with its red eyes burning to see who had ambushed it.
Sailor Mercury stood at the end of the thicket, a vision of loveliness in the moonlight, her hands cupped in front of her as if she had just pushed something forward.
"You have been weighed by the scales of justice and have been found wanting! You intrude within this world and take the lives of the innocent but no longer. I am Sailor Mercury and as the Princess of Mercury I will stop you!" Sailor Mercury announced.
The sinister entity from the Negaverse curled up its barbed tail and snarled.
It had been a long time since the shadow creature had last had the chance to quench its thirst for human souls and its appetite was tingling.
The beast resolved to kill Sailor Mercury and take her soul first.
Seeing the cruel intent in the monster's eyes Mercury got down to business.
"Mercury Bubbles!" she cried.
This time however the creature swatted away the barrage of ice bubbles with its thick tail. Spurred on by the cold and the frost on its skin though the being dropped onto all fours and sprang forward like a cat.
Gracefully Sailor Mercury flung herself up out of the path of the monster and onto the top bough of a high tree.
From her perch she flicked a switch on her plexi-glass visor as she focused down on the monster.
A red circle homed in on the beast and the screen filled with data.
Name: Black Manta
Element: Shadow Based
Weak against: Light Based Attacks
Notes: Stalks its prey through dark isolated locations. Saps the soul of its prey via the stigma located at the end of the tail and devours it.
Sailor Mercury's brow clouded.
She would have given a lot to have seen Sailor Moon at the moment. Her Crescent Moon Sceptre would have ended this in a heart-beat.
Dammit! She'd been spotted!
Mercury jumped down from the branch as it was splintered by the monster's barbed tail.
She landed nimbly on the ground and cushioned the impact with her hands.
The monster had turned back and fixed her with a baleful glare of hate.
Then she had it.
Sailor Moon wasn't here but she would make do with the next best thing.
Holding her hands straight up at the over-hanging branches she called.
"Shine Aqua Illusion!" a hail of pure coldness shot from her palms and covered every inch of the branches transforming them into pure ice.
Then...CRACK!
The brittle ice cracked and fell into chunks, which showered Sailor Mercury and the beast.
The moonlight beamed down through the gaping gap in the branches.
The beast shrieked and closed its tortured eyes against the blazing white light.
It could not move out of the shaft of light and was evaporated by it.
Sailor Mercury shivered as she transformed back into Amy. At first as she glanced down at the couple who had been attacked by the Black Manta, Amy felt a stab of dread at the sight of their pale faces – she had got here so late, taken such a long time to destroy the demon! Were they... Then she heaved a huge sigh of relief as she saw colour slowly filtering back into their unconscious faces...they would both recover!
The demon had not had the time to digest the energy that it had devoured and now that she had destroyed it the vital essence was returning to the bodies of its rightful owners – the boy and girl who she now realised that she had managed to save...
Someone coughed politely behind her.
Amy turned to see the Sailor Scouts standing there.
"What the HELL happened here?" breathed Sailor Jupiter in wonder.