Just forewarning Standard disclaimer. Sailor Moon is not mine, the idea and the show belong to people much richer than I. Please don't sue!
Dimmer however is mine.. of course if someone wants to use him or any of his transformations for ANY reason "thbbt" go ahead. You have my complete and total permission. I only request you tell me… Hell, I don't care if you don't tell me, it's not like I could find you anyway.
Warning: mild language, also this is my first fic. Maybe some lime sometime in the far future, but I seriously doubt it. Violent scenes, no worse than most action movies, but they actually sound worse when described…
Next Morning
"Okay girls. You ready?"
Dimmer was walking back and forth in front of them. The girls were all paired up. Lita and Rei paired off togetther, and Serena and Amy.
Chad was walking back and forth like Dimmer.
"Yes Sensei!" They all called out.
"Good, we've paired you up like this for a reason. Lita and Rei have experience in this already, but Serena and Amy know next to nothing."
Chad spoke up, "We are going to teach you all martial arts, and you are all going to be worked very…VERY hard. Serena and Amy, being behind we should go a little easy on you both right?"
Serena nodded her head vigorously, while Amy's eyes brightened a little.
"Heeell no," Dimmer answered for Chad, "That means you have to work a hella lot harder, and Chad is gonna be teaching you both just what pain really is. We both expect you here an hour early for every practice session until you're caught up."
Amy and Serena's jaw dropped. Rei and Lita had been practicing for years.How were they going to catch up to that?
Chad looked to Lita and Rei, both looked the part. They both had their practice clothes on, and had stern looks on their faces. "Don't think both a' yous got off easy. If I'm teaching Serena and Amy guess who's 'bout to teach you."
Lita gave him a questioning glance, what could be so different about Dimmer teaching then Chad. It was Luna that voiced the question though.
"What would be the difference, Chad?
Chad looked at the cat, he was still getting used to of it being able to talk. "Haven't you ever seen us train Luna? There is a very distinct difference in our methods. These two will learn to fight like Dimmer, and Serena and Amy will fight like me.
"Ummm… I'm sorry that doesn't explain things too much for me Chad… I mean Sensei."
"What Chad is trying to say, Serena, is that you will learn to be as fast as him. Dodging, weaving, using dangerous, risky attacks that will take lots of skill and practice to use well. Of course you'll learn the basics too, but we have no time to let you get used to of that before teaching you the advanced things. We'll be throwing you into the deep end of the pool and start teaching you to swim while your drowning… probably getting you to hold a 50 pound bag of potatoes while you're at it."
Serena swallowed, that did not sound fun. Amy suddenly wasn't so sure this was such a good idea anymore.
"So what is Dimmer's style than?" Lita asked rather nevously.
"Worse." Chad chuckled, "Mine requires hard work and lots of muscle strains, his requires hard work, muscle strains, and lots and lots of bruises."
"Huh?"
"What our Sensei is trying to tell us Lita, is that while Chad can dodge some of the most impossible of strikes, Dimmer takes the impossible strike head on and gets up for more."
"Quite correct Rei. Glad to see you've been watching. I not only take the damage of these strikes Lita, but I usually cause them too, I end up hurtin' myself to damage my opponent. Chad is usually more interested in gettin' a large combination of hits in to keep his enemy off balance in a fight. I usually finish the fight before it ever gets that far. While I'm able to make each punch at me do less damage than it should, I've also learned to ignore any pain that might happen to me durin' the ones I'm not gonna be able to block. I'm able to dodge easily enough mind you, I'm just not as able at it as Chad. I prefer blockin', parryin', and entanglement to dodgin'. Than I use a powerful enough strike to finish what ever I'm doing in a shot. I can't hit Chad to often, but when I do the fight is over."
"So while Chad teaches the other two what pain is and how to avoid it, you'll teach us a new defintion of it and how to take it?"
"Yep, that sounds 'bout right Lita."
"Though you guys will be learning the basics of both styles for the beginnin', we'll be teachin' you our advanced styles at the same time we teach the basics."
"Please do not forget, we have to pick up our newest scout at the bus stop at noon." Luna called out from over by the wall where she was drinking from a bowl of milk.
Dimmer chuckled. "Cuttin' classes already? That just won't do. Guess the first session is just going to have to be harder than we planned."
It wasn't the words that paled his new student's faces, as much as it was the tone they were said in.
Chad smiled, "Let's do this."
That afternoon
The long, blonde hair of the young innocent looking girl trailed behind her as she walked up the steps to the temple. She looked down at the white cat climbing the large amount of stairs with her, than back to the paper in her hand. "This looks like the place Artemis. I wonder why they weren't there to meet us at the bus stop. I hope nothing happened."
The cat looked around at the people in the surrounding area, and mewed it's agreement.
"Hello?" The blonde teenage girl walked up to the training hall where she was hearing a lot of voices. One such voice was the pleading of another blonde teenage girl who was currently standing on the top of the large building..
"Chad! No! Please no! You can't be serious! I mean this is my first day! I can't doooo thiiiiiiiiiiis!!"
"Nonsense, you two have been doin' great, Amy just did it. Didn't ya Amy?" He called out to the blue haired girl, who seemed a little delerious as she sat on the ground below where the young man and girl were arguing.
"Heh, I remember my first time. I near broke both of my ankles!" Chad smiled fondly at the memory.
"You're insane!"
"Nah, you'll be fine." He looked up in thought for a second, "Well as long as ya remember everytin' I taught ya anyway."
"You've been hanging around Dimmer too much" The blonde giggled, "You got a bit of his accent."
"You fall now…"
Mina's eyes bulged as she watched the boy push the other blonde girl off the building roof.
"What?! Hey what are you doing!" She started running over to where she might land, Mina knew already there was little outside her transformation she could do to help the falling girl. She hoped to try to break her fall with her own body.
Serena tried to remember what Chad had taught her… "Tuck and roll, tuck and roll, tuck and roll…" She just barely caught a glimpse of the girl running beneath her, "Oh no! She'll get in the way!"
It was a surprise even to herself as Serena found herself waiting to the last possbile moment to tuck her arms and legs together to form a ball like she had done on earlier jumps, the difference this time though was how she had wrapped herself around this latest obsrtuction in her path. She rolled both her and Mina into a ball and rolled into the landing taking as little impact from the fall as possible. Serena rolled right to her feet holding Mina in her arms. She was dumbfounded, she had thought and reacted in seconds, she looked up to Chad for confirmation that she actually had done what she thought she had done. Chad was smiling widely and holding two thumbs up. Serena looked back down toward the blonde in her arms.
"Uuuh… hi?" She greeted the onlooker lamely.
"Uh hello? Does a Rei Hino live here?"
"Wow Serena! You were remarkable!" Amy ran over to make sure everything was alright.
Serena smiled back, "Thanks Amy. I really didn't think I had it in me…"
"Umm… excuse me? Could you please put me down?"
"Oops sorry." Serena set down the newcomer, "You were asking about Rei? Yes she lives here, but she's a little busy right now, I could give her the message if you like"
"No need. Serena is it? Luna sent for me."
"Luna? You mean…"
Mina nodded.
"Oh wow! You arrived. My name is Serena, this here is Amy. She's the brains around here."
"Nice to meet you both, my name is Mina."
"That's right. I'm sorry, we forgot to come get you at the bus stop, we got caught up with things here." Amy apologized on their behalf.
"Don't worry about it, Artemis here seemed to know his way around here pretty well."
"Does he now?" Serena bent down to pet the stark white cat when she noticed the familiar moon emblem on its forehead. "Huh? Just like Luna!"
"Yes actually." The cat responded to her surprised statement. "It's nice to finally meet you Serena. Luna has told me a lot about you. I'd like to speak to her. It's been quite some time since I last seen her in person."
"Oh wow! You can talk too! You've got to be the only two talking cats in the world!," sparkles grew in Serena's eyes, "Your probably meant for each other!" She said dreamily.
"Yes well… *ahem*" Artemis coughed, trying to hide the blush showing quite clearly over his white fur, "Could you please bring us to see her?"
"Uh, I'm not so sure that's a good idea…" Amy looked toward the training hall as a paticular loud crash came from inside. "Their in there training."
"What's happening in there?" Mina winced as another crash and high pitched yelp came from inside.
"That would be what Dimmer considers training. Can't say I ever seen him do that myself, but he says he experiences the equivalent amount of pain on a regular basis these days." Chad had hopped down from the roof. "You the new recruit the girls were talkin' about?"
"Ummm… yes?" Mina looked almost afraid, the Negaverse she could take on, but these people were being thrown off buildings for training! And who knows what was going on inside the actual buildings. Just how good were they?
"My name is Chad, pleased to meet you."
"Mina, I'm sorry, I'm at a bit of a loss. We were never told about you or you… unique brand of training, do you do this kind of thing often.?"
Chad scratched the back of his head and laughed a while blushing a little, "Who me? Yeah, Dimmer and I do this all the time."
"Wow you must all be great fighters here!"
"Huh? Oh no! You got it all wrong, this is our first day" Serena smiled cheerfully.
"And you're jumping off buildings?" Mina sweatdropped.
"Normally it'd take longer, but these two are real naturals, it's just like me after I started training with Dimmer."
"Oh nevermind that, I'm sure we can get Dimmer to stop training long enough for us to introduce you, come on!" Serena grabbed Mina by the hand and started pulling her towards the dojo's door.
Mina just let herself be pulled and looked to other people.
Chad nodded to himself, "Sure, after all we should have stopped to pick you up anyway. I'll go in and get some snacks ready."
"Huh? Hey wait for me!" Amy smiled and chased after the two blondes and turned back to watch Chad before catching up "Something he said…"
"What's up Amy?"
"Its nothing Serena, hey lets go see how the other two are working out."
That Morning
"Okay Dimmer… we put this stuff on, now how is it supposed to help us train?" Rei was a little perturbed as she looked down at the old knight's armor that Dimmer had insisted that Lita and her put on. " We transformed just like you asked us to too. Where did you get this stuff anyway?"
"Irrelevant. You are now ready to begin training. Now you and Lita, or would you prefer Sailor Jupiter and Mars?"
"As long as were in training it shouldn't matter."
"Very well, Rei and Lita than. You may have noticed the rather large boulder I have brought into the building last night which is suspended by a chain far above us."
"Last night? Did you get no sleep again!"
"You should know, you came in my room and kept me up for the majority of it." Dimmer rolled his eyes, this was supposed to be training time, he really didn't need this.
"Really Rei?" Lita popped up from behind her shoulder "And what were you two doing up so late?" She asked with a wink.
"N.. nothing! Nothing like that! Tell her Dimmer!"
Dimmer looked over at Rei and smirked, "Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…"
Rei paled, "Hey! Help me out here!"
Lita smiled, "Come on Rei were friends right? You can tell me."
"I am telling you! Nothing happened!"
Lita grinned evily "Methinks she does protest too much".
Dimmer narrowed his eyes. Training was no place for these boy crazy discussions. "Well, they're not listening to me so…" He cut the rope holding up the boulder.
The boulder swung down by its chain, Lita and Rei were too stunned to do anything about it.
Rei yelped and Lita grunted as both were smacked hard up against the walls. The armor and their transformations had protected them from much of the damage, but obviously it still hurt a lot and their impact against the wall hadn't helped either.
Dimmer walked over to the two stunned girls. "Welcome to yor first day of training. If you survive it, I will be happy to welcome you both to your second day tomorrow. Now if your friendly little discussion is over, I would suggest you both work together to hang that boulder back up where it was. It's going to take a lot of effort in that heavy armor your wearing. Today I will help you hook it back up, tomorrow you do it on your own."
"You have got to be kidding? You're not going to hit us with it again?"
"Your endurance must be built up. For heroes of the universe, you are incredibly weak. I will teach you how to roll the impact off of you, so that its impact will do far less damage, being hit once more by a boulder might give you the added incentive you need to concentrate on the training here. You will be much stronger in battle after this, or you will be dead. Now come on there's still most of the day left. Oh and first rule, never take your eyes off the enemy, in this case, the boulder… and me."
Lita and Rei looked at each other. This was going to be a long day.
Luna sat in the corner watching the whole time. She couldn't really believe that Dimmer had just hit her girls with a boulder. She would have warned the girls, but something about Dimmer's training brought back a memory of the Moon Kingdom. Such training efforts were used to bring the kingdom together. The training was devastatingly brutal, but very effective, but where had Dimmer come up with the idea.
Dimmer chuckling to himself as he helped the girls hook the rock back up the the roof. "Good ol' Ranma. It ain't the breaking point, but its close." He smiled, this was still a cartoon right? The girls would be extremely sore tonight, but they'd survive. Proof of that was how they were still able to stand and help him hook this boulder back to the roof.
That Afternoon
It only took Lita and Rei two more full impacts before they started to learn how to take the blows. Not to say they weren't bruised and not slammed into the wall each time, but they were definitely taking less and less of the impact, and Dimmer was just now letting them take a break.
"You two are doing great!" Dimmer waved from behind the boulder, "One more time and we'll call 'er quits!"
Lita and Rei braced themselves for the blow. Dimmer cut the rope and the dojo door opened letting in Serena and the others, just in time to see the boulder smash into Lita and Rei.
"Aaaagh!" After the boulder swung away, Dimmer caught it by the chain before it could swing back. It would have clobbered Serena and Amy who ran to see if their friends were alright.
"Are you two okay?"
"Yeah, were fine…"
"It was a lot harder at the start, but Dimmer's a pretty good teacher when it comes to reducing damage."
Mina and Artemis stood in the doorway, stunned into silence staring at the two downed girls who just took a boulder head on. "and I suppose they just started this morning too?" She looked down to her cat, "If I have to train too, you better get me the roof hopping one, because there is no way I'm going to let myself be hit by a boulder got it?"
"Sure thing Mina, sure thing." Artemis shook out of his stupor.
"Artemis? Is that you?"
"Luna!" The white cat bounded over to her, as she stood up. "Luna its been ages!"
"Its wonderful to see you again Artemis. Is this the Sailor Scout you found?"
"Yes Luna, this is Mina, Sailor Venus. Mina this is Luna."
Mina walked over to where she was being introduced, "Pleased to meet you."
Dimmer's arm was straining as he held onto the chain with one hand and the wall with the other, "I gotta reach the hook!" He said feeling his muscles straining with the effort of just not letting it swing
Amy had run over to see just what kept the boulder from falling back down. She wasn't expecting to see Dimmer trying to put the boulder back onto the hook by himself.
"Dimmer! You're not transformed! You can't do that kind of thing now!"
Dimmer blinked at Amy than blinked again.
"I knew there was some reason this was a whole lot easier last night…" he than realized he wasn't paying enough attention to the chain, and he couldn't hold on any longer.
"Everybody outta da way!!" He screached as the staging used to hang the boulder up fell away from his feet, he was stuck hanging on top of the boulder as it swung toward the wall.
The scouts all leapt away, Mina had scooped up the mooncats before leaping away herself.
"Aaaaagh!" The boulder smashed into the wall and Dimmer flew off face first into the wall himself. The boulder swung away and Dimmer slid down the wall by his face. A muffled, "That wasn't so bad" was his only response before the boulder crushed him into the wall on its second swing.
Sailor Mars and Jupiter stopped the boulder before it was able to swing into him again, while the rest went to check on Dimmer.
"Dimmer are you all right?" Serena peeled his face of the wall to find it a purple, bruised, bleeding, and swelling mess.
"Ne…ver ..bet..ter" Dimmer said dizzily before falling unconcious.
"Well its no wonder you guys forgot me," Mina said drinking some tea with her new found friends, "You guys must have been pretty busy."
"You said it, Dimmer isn't very easy to train under." Lita responded rubbing her sore limbs.
"Chad's no piece of cake either" Serena huffed.
"I think I'll take that as a compliment," He laughed before taking a sip of his own tea. "After all, it takes a lot of work to train you guys into the shape me and Dimmer are in. You guys have done one morning of this, and, except for Dimmer being squashed like a bug, Dimmer and I are doin' this all the time, though mostly its just trainin' through our fights. It was in one day we learned to roof hop. Just like you two did today." He indicated to Serena and Amy.
"You make a good point Chad, but it was the point you made earlier today that really interests me."
"Huh? I made a point?"
The girls laughed and Chad joined them scratching the back of his head with one hand and holding his tea in the other.
"It was when you said you were a natural after training with Dimmer. We seem to be learning at the same rate you both have been. Don't you find it a little bit too much of a coincidence that all of us happen to be naturals? I have little doubt that Mina, when she joins in with Serena and I, will also be a natural."
"Hey that's true!" Serena squealed, "What do you make of it Amy?"
"I'm not quite sure yet."
"Well it may have somethin' to do with the fact that all you girls are imbued with magic or somethin'…" Chad thought aloud with a serious look on his face.
"Yeah, that might be it!" Mina agreed with Chad.
"What might be it?" Chad asked.
"What you just said dummy" Serena giggled.
"Oh did I say that out loud?"
"Just when you think he isn't as dumb as he looks." Rei jibed at him as she walked into the room and sat down.
"How is Dimmer doing?" Serena asked before anyone else could.
"Same as he's always doing when you'd think somone else would have died in his position. He'll be fine. He's just winded with some facial abrasions."
"That's good," Mina said simply.
"Yes, that's good to hear Rei." Luna stated, "Now Amy what is your opinioin on your new learning curve?"
"To tell the truth, I was inclined to Chad's way of thinking, but the theory doesn't work out because of Chad himself"
"Huh?" Chad answered stupidly.
"Well Chad, you have no magic qualities, nor do you have a transformation, yet you have this same learning curb as us."
"Hey yeah, that's right…"
"So its only logical to presume that it has something to do with Dimmer. The problem with that theory though, is that Dimmer didn't train me or Serena, it was Chad."
"Maybe we both have the learnin' curb?"
"Or maybe its from where Dimmer and Chad hang out so much…" Serena piped in.
"But Rei and Dimmer hang out a lot too, they spent an especially long time close together last night" Lita smirked.
"Interesting…" Serena looked over at Rei with a smirk.
"Yes it is Serena, Lita makes a good point. Their must be some kind of different relationship between Chad and Dimmer, something that connects them…"
"Oh Amy, that's not the interesting thing."
"It isn't?"
"No it's the question why Rei was with Dimmer so much last night" Serena smiled, "Especially when she's supposed to be going out with Darien."
"Listen meatball head! There's nothing between me and Dimmer were just good friends alright?"
"Yeah? Than what were you two doing up so late?"
"We were just talking alright!"
"Really? Just talking? All that time, right until morning? That's so romantic!"
"It wasn't like that!!"
Mina laughed, and looked to Amy who appeared be enjoying the show. "Just who is Dimmer any way, Artemis?"
"That's a good question Mina, I've been wanting to find that out myself, Luna?"
"Well Amy knows him best, she was the one who translated for him at, as he refers to it, his point of impact."
"Point of impact?" Mina looked at Amy questioningly.
"Yes, you may have heard on the news of a young boy who fell from the sky causing a small crater in the middle of a busy intersection?"
"Dimmer?"
"Mm hmm. For a couple weeks he had to sleep on a park bench!" Serena put in excitedly.
"Why does ya always have to mention that to the new people?" Dimmer stood in the doorway giving Serena a flat look. His face was mostly healed except for a glow in the dark bandage on his nose, and some in a crossshape further up on his forehead.
"Dimmer your awake!" Serena cheered.
"Gave us all another scare there Dim." Lita smiled.
"You'd think we'd be used to of it after the tokyo tower incident." Rei smirked.
"How did this conversation get on me?"
"Artemis and Mina are curious as to who you are." Luna answered.
"Meow?" Dimmer sat down, "And yas jus' got as far as me bench?"
"Well if you'd like to finish?"
"Nah, you go ahead, It'd be cool to hear it from your point of views."
"Very well than. To continue, it wasn't long before we found out Dimmer has a tremendous learning curb in almost everything he does."
"So its a "learning curb" now is it?"
"You got something better?" Rei asked angrily.
"Uh… No no! It works! Please continue."
"Good than," Amy turned back to Mina and Artemis, "He learned the Japanese language in less than a week, he learned to read it the week after. He's obviously very talented at martial arts, and computers since he's been working with his boss Kintaro."
"Wow! That's pretty cool Dimmer." Artemis studied Dimmer, and suddenly got a very nervous feeling about the way Dimmer was eying him as if noticing him for the first time.
"Kitty!"
Artemis was promptly glomped and in Dimmer's lap.
"Huh? What the?" Artemis looked over to Luna with a puzzled glance as Dimmer settled him down into his lap.
"You get used to of it."
The girls all laughed before Amy continued.
"Not long after we learned Dimmer has his own transformation called Sundown."
"Really? That's amazing, but what did Rei mean by the Tokyo Tower incident.?"
"You might have heard of a young man who, miraciously, survived falling off Tokyo Tower. Once again that would be Dimmer. He seems to have amazing recuperating abilities."
"So just who are you Dimmer?"
"Some guy from a different world who got thrown here through his TV set."
"Is that all there is to it?"
"To my knowledge, I'd like to know why my TV sucked me in. I'm working on a theory that my real body's stuck in a coma, and you guys are all a dream or something."
A pillow was promptly thrown at his face.
"Well I think that pretty much covers him…" Amy thought for a second to see if she remembered anything else.
"Well I want to know a little about his world. What's so different about it?"
"Dimmer took the pillow of his face and smirked, "The fact that it isn't so full of pig tails, sparkles, and ponies."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It don't mean nothin', can we change the topic please?"
"Yeah, enough about Dimmer. Are you really the Sailor V? The one that all the games are based off?" Serena waved her hand in his face as if to wave him out of the conversation.
Mina blushed and looked away.
The moment Serena pulled her hand away from Dimmer's face she heard the faint clicking of teeth together. She blanched as she figured out that she very nearly loss her fingers.
"Well yeah," Mina was saying, "some newscast caught me at a couple places where I got rid of some slimeball who was mugging some people, or stopped a child from getting hit by a car, you know that kind of thing. Nothing too big." She smiled modestly.
"I think you don't give yourself enough credit, what about the news story where you stopped those bank robbers, or that hostage situation." Artemis asked rather smugly.
"Really?" Serena forgot all about Dimmer, "You did that?"
"Well they weren't really all that great, I mean all I had to do was take away their hostage and the police did the rest…"
"Sounds like a stressful situation if you asked me." Lita put in.
"Mina is a great Sailor Scout just like all of you. It'll be nice working with others for once though, its tough to be a lone wolf. Down a little lower Dimmer…. Yeah right there."Artemis's purring could be heard throughout the room, "You're pretty good at this, Luna must have you trained pretty well…"
"Excuse me?" Luna bristled over by Serena.
"Sorry to disappoint Artemis, but Luna doesn't like to be pet too often it seems. She hardly ever lets me pet her."
"Huh? Of course she likes to be pet… especially on the back of her neck… and under her chin…"
"Artemis!"
"Huh? Uh oh." Artemis took off out of the room, Luna wore an angry expression as she chased after him right on his tail.
Everyone laughed at the spectacle of the two running out the door.
"Jeez, I hope I didn't get 'im in too much trouble…" Dimmer chuckled still watching the door to see if the cats would come back in soon.
"Hey Dimmer, before Mina asked the million dollar question about who you were, we were talking about your learning curb."
"Yeah? Figure out anything about it."
"Its not much to figure out Dimmer." Rei gave him a flat look, "You're a genuis. Though you sure don't act like it."
"That's because I'm not one. There's gotta be something else."
"Why don't you believe you're a genuis Dimmer?" Mina asked.
"Quite simple really. In my home I never caught on to things this quick, now its like my body knows what I'm doing before I know."
"Well we don't have to get into that right now Dimmer. What we were talking about earlier was how your learning curb is being applied to us."
"Think its because I'm teaching yas, Amy?"
"That's what I said," Chad answered the question, "but Amy pointed out that I was teaching them too."
"Yes, is there some kind of different relationship between you and Chad than there is between you and anyone else?"
"Hmm.. let me think… Yes! Me and Chad made a deal, and Sundown sealed it for us."
"Oh yeah, so like maybe some of your power was transferred over to me when we shook hands."
"Wait, Sundown is a person? I though you said he was Dimmer's transformation…"
"He's that too, but he seems to have a mind of his own at points too."
"It's reasons such as that one we've begun this harsh training Mina." Lita offered, "You see, if Dimmer or Chad are not around to give us the hand we need. We'll need to be stronger to defend ourselves, especially if Sundown decides to turn against us, no offense Dimmer, we'll need to be stronger to defend ourselves."
"None taken Lita. I transform at my own risk, I know."
"So Sundown's power may have transferred a little into Chad…" Amy thought, "If there was only a way to see for ourselves."
"I might be able to help there Amy.I could try to search there auras using the sacred fire."
"Sounds goods to me" Dimmer volunteered.
"I'm up for it" Chad agreed.
"Good after you're done, you can meet us at the chocolate shop celebrating our newest arrival." Serena smiled.
"Sounds even better, hey snacks are on me tonight, so go ahead and pack it in." Chad laughed.
"Okay! Hey tell Artemis and Luna where we went when they come back, alright?" Mina called as Serena pulled her out the door."
Dimmer smirked and looked to Chad, "In other words, tell Luna where the girls went and ask where she buried the body."
"Took da words right outta me mouth, Dim."
"Ha! Yes its spreading!"
"What is?"
"Nothing at all."
"Come on you guys this may take a while. You guys should have been learning this kind of thing right along you know?"
"Aw, come on Rei, cut us some slack would ya?"
"No Chad, and stop speaking with Dimmer's accent, you sound ridiculous."
"I got an accent?"
The room was dark except for the eerie glow of the flame, its mystical blue light illuminating the three that sat meditating before it.
Rei's eyes squinted as she envisioned in her mind the auras of both Dimmer and Chad. Chad's aura she peered into easily, but Dimmer's was very difficult, had he not opened himself up to her, she was sure she never would have been able to.
A flash of light as she peered closer into flickering of lights. The Aura of people are usually composed of hundreds of colors with one or two being more prominent than others. It was not uncommon to see dark auras lined with a prominent very dark blue or brown, but in Dimmer's Aura there were only three outstanding colors. Black, white and grey, only grey was common, the other two often could symbolize the very nature of the person, telling that they were either good or evil. It was never heard of that both would be found in the same person.
White would represent purity and joy. Black would represent hatred, anger, and distrust. Grey was the mix of the two, everyone had some amount of grey in their aura, but Dimmer had it as his main property. There was no way to desribe such a person, it was like there was an ever lasting battle going on, right now the black held as much space as white and grey combined.
Something about that frightened her.
What also confused her was the only other color in him. It was just a small trace outlining his entire aura. A light green color, usually symbolizing how well intuned with nature one was.
A flash of light
She peered into Chad's aura. His Aura was most prominent with yellow, having a small trail of a very dark green running through it. She smiled, One of happiness and strange tastes, and a small bit of a prankster. The result? He was downright wacky and happy with life, though some of his tastes did have a bit of a dark tint to them.
As she looked further into his aura she found traces of pure black. She had peered into his aura before and knew that that was never there. They were connected.
Rei decided to try something. Releasing her sight of their suras she instead looked at the powers in the room. Her own a deep shade of red light illuminated her, while Dimmer was outlined in shadow. Chad should have nothing. In essence she was right, but to her surprise there was a small trail of shadow tracing the edge of his hand, a single strand of it connected with Dimmer's power.
"A link! A permanent link!" Her eyes opened wide as she loss all sense of the trance, "Is Sundown truly that powerful to be able to create one? Its no wonder Chad has Dimmer's learning curb."
"So we have a permenent link?" Chad blinked, "Woah, when Sundown seals a deal, he really seals it don't he?"
"No joke. Well what harm can it do Rei?"
"Little, he'll feel a little of what you feel at the time, he'll know when your using your power, and he'll take on a bit of your personality."
"Like my accent?" Dimmer smiled.
"Yes Dimmer, like your accent." Rei almost growled that out, just what we need. Another person like Dimmer running about. Even to a small degree she knew that was going to end up nothing but trouble to her.
Artemis crawled out from behind the tree he was hiding behind, he cautiously looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear. "Oh man, I just got here today, open my mouth maybe four times, and already she hates me."
"It serves you right!" Luna called from up in the tree he was hiding behind. "Imagine! Telling Dimmer that! Right in front of everyone too!" Luna's fur bristled as she looked crossly at the white cat beneath her.
"Aw, come on Luna I'm sorry really!" Artemis backed up slowly, ready to sprint at any second should she not see reason. "I don't even know what's so wrong!"
"Telling people I like to be pet indeed. Hmph!" She hopped down in front of him.
"What's so wrong about liking to be pet?" Artemis gave her a puzzled glance.
"It's indecent! To go around being fondled! What do you think we are common house pets!"
"No I think we're cats. Cats like attention, what's wrong with being given some? Luna, we are cats. Its natural to want to be pet once in awhile. We're not human."
"I know we're not human!" Luna's tail twitched violently behind her.
Artmeis looked down under his breath, he asked himself more than he asked her, "Do you?"
Unfortunately she was close enough now to hear him."You think I don't know I'm a cat?!"
"No! That's not what I meant!"
"But its what you said! And its what you think isn't it! I know very well that a cat is exactly what I am!" Luna looked at him with barely kept in rage. She turned around and sprinted into the night.
"Luna, "He called out to her retreating form, knowing already it was too late, "I know you know you're a cat." He spoke once again to himself, "I just wish you didn't hate the fact so much." He turned around to head in the opposite direction.
The girls sat down at the shop laughing and telling stories about the people and hings they had seen, catching Mina up on current events and just making her feel welcomed and comfortable, all the while charging more and more off of Chad's card.
Amy, being her reseserved self simply oredered a parfait, while the other girls were going all out. She looked at the total cost and wondered if Chad knew what he was getting himself into. These girls could eat him out of house and home.
Serena grew suddenly quiet and watchful as Lita and Mina kept their conversation going.
Darien walked in and ordered his coffee. His eyes held rings under them from the little sleep he got last night. He put some of his college books up on the counter and started reading one.
"What is wrong with me?" he thought to himself, "its not like anyone knows who I am. I have no idea how Serena got a hold of that locket, but Tuxedo Mask is just a rumor to her right?" His coffee arrived and he sipped at it. Somehow he just couldn't covince himself of that. "How did she open it?" The question repeated in his mind over and over. It was the question that had kept him awake, and hassled all his study periods. He shut the book he was looking at it in irritation. He knew he'd get no sleep again tonight. He took a long swallow from his coffee and turned around to leave.
PHSSST
"Yuck!"
He quickly turned around grabbing a napkin from an outstretched hand, to wipe the spit up coffee off of his face and his white shirt. Without looking he handed some napkins back to Serena, who when he had stood up, surprised him by being right in his face.
"Ohhh, I'll never get these stains out!" She wiped vigorously at her white blouse.
"Yeah, sorry about that, you surprised me there."
"Its alright." She giggled as she looked at his coffee stained white dress shirt, "I guess it just makes us a matching pair huh?"
"Uh right. I have to get back to studying now, see ya later meatball head." Why the hell was she every where he went lately?
"Not so fast. There's something we need to discuss." Serena got a serious look on her face and tossed the locket to Darien.
Darien caught it, and looked back as Serena crossed her arms. He sighed, "better now than later I guess. Come on Serena. My apartment isn't far from here."
Lita and Amy's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, Serena had just upped and left the table without saying a word and was now leaving with Darien. The whole scene was lost on Mina, who didn't know who Darien was.
Dimmer, Chad and Rei were walking outside the shop when they bumped into Serena and Darien.
Dimmer looked to Serena than to Darien and smiled. "Hey Rei looks like there's something going on behind your back here."
Darien blanched as he realised Serena was hanging onto his arm, more to stop him from running rather than to get closer to him. Serena mouthed the words "Tuxedo Mask" and gestured to Darien. Rei got the idea, while Dimmer had already realized it the moment he saw the two. Serena was probably going to tell him everything. It wasn't like her to keep secrets from the ones she trusted, and there was few she trusted as much as she did her Tuxedo Mask.
"Rei! It's not wha…" Darein stopped himself midsentence as Rei swatted at Dimmer and laughed.
"Lay off Dimmer. Have a good time you two." She winked at Darien, who was now just plain confused.
Serena tugged at Darien to remind them they were in a hurry, and the two left in silence.
Chad just took everything in. He looked at Dimmer and asked the one and only question that would give hime the answers to all of his querries.
"Huh?"
"Darien's Tuxedo Mask." Dimmer answered.
"Oh." Things all became clear.
"Hey! I thought you weren't allowed to tell anybody!"
"Its stupid to keep a promise that's going to be done away with by tomorrow morning. Looks like I'm going to have to get another suit of armor…"
Sailor Moon says:
"Hi everybody! Sailor Moon here! Oh wow! Are we good or what? Dimmer and Chad are training us all! We'll beat the Negaverse for sure now!"
*shot of Luna and Artemis*
"Uh oh. Looks like our cats have some problems to work out. We all have to accept who we are. Luna is having some problems with that it seems. Sometimes it seems really difficult to like who we are, but you have to learn to live as who you are. After all, your friends have. After all you won't be able to enjoy living if you can't enjoy being yourself. Sailor Moon says!"
Reality:
Mike turned off his v.c.r. and sighed.
"That's fine for you to say Serena. You have this great life of a super hero. You're never selfish, have never done anything wrong, and never feel the guilt of really offending a friend, or leaving someone out."
Mike shook his head. "I lie, and cheat. Yell and get mad at my father and sister, and am so selfish sometimes. So many people are hurting out there, and I could do something, but I don't. I feel hate when I see discrimination for no real reason. How can I like anyone who does that, let alone myself. Dimmer is the only one on that show that knows what he's talking about. It's fine for you in that make believe world, but out here this world is horrible. People's hearts are as dry as the concrete streets they travel on. Dimmer hates himself too you know."
A shadow grew over Mike's facial features as he thought about Dimmer and philosophies.
"He just doesn't care that he does anymore. Sure he hates himself, but he hates everyone else just as much, cause their just as bad and sometimes worse. Though I don't see how it's possible to be any worse than some of the things I do. I guess Dimmer already managed to do what you're saying come to think of it, he hates everything he is, and he accepts that fact."
"I wish I knew how he did."
At DiC
"What!? How many experts do we have working on this? And this is what you come up with?!" Jamie was yelliong into his office phone, "Fine. I guess that only leaves us one choice. Alright, call me if you find out anything else."
Jamie hung up the phone. It was good news for his company at least, but what he wanted were answers.
"Watch the show until it tells us."
That's what they came up with. They were only hoping the answer of how Dimmer got there, and his way out would show itself from inside the show itself. They were hoping the problem would rectify itself. That did mean though that the show would not be allowed to go off air. Also it meant that the copyright suits were all being negated, but Jamie decided to pay for it anyway. It would solve any hard feelings over this whole ordeal.
Endnotes: AAH! I missed my update! ;_; I'm sorry, but the only chances I got was when everything was down! This is the first chance I had. I haven't even been able to work much on chapter 24, but I do have a little done. Oh well same ol' scoop.
Please review
And if you do
Uneditted future chapters
I'll send to you.
Okay my ryhming leaves a lot to be desired, that's why I have nothing in the poetry department here. Either way you get the idea. Hope you enjoyed this, but I think the titles of these chapters are getting too ummm… stupid? So I'll probably get offa the whole "a time to…" thing. How about for the next chap "Scout Fighter II alpha?" or "Sailor Combat?"
Don't forgets to leaves me a way to get a hold of ya if ya wants 'em chapters k b'y?
See yas!