Moving Changes
Author's Notes: Hello, dearest readers! Multiple "thank-you"s to Fairy-Hyper-Digi-Princess, Amethyst Serenity, Marni (Coming! Coming!), Kaze no Beru (Glad I got you hooked! ^_~ ), Sarah, Keemew 2, Saturnpyroprincess, Kimmi-chan, Truechinook, BenRG (thanks for the rating! I'm so flattered! ^-^), Shinigami (Very astute of you… but I can't say anything yet!), Dearfrenz, and Moonie Chef for reviewing! Domo Arigato to those who put this story on your favorite stories section!!! I feel so loved!!! ^_^ I hope you enjoy the next chapter! ^_~ Happy reading!
~~~*~~~~~~~~~~
Usagi, Si, and Makoto were waiting for Minako outside the baggage claim of the S.F. Airport on Saturday afternoon. Pacing irritably outside the automatic sliding doors, Makoto grumbled to herself about Minako getting lost. Once Usagi reminded her that there were directions in Japanese at the bottom of the signs, and that Minako lived in England for a while and could read English anyway, Makoto stopped grumbling, but still felt nervous, and anxious. Something was off. She wondered if Usagi noticed.
Mamoru pulled his car over to the sidewalk the group was standing on. He had been circling the airport driveway for the past ten minutes, since the cars weren't allowed to stop unless loading or unloading. He rolled down the passenger window, and, leaning over, placed his face in it. "Any sign of Minako?" The group shook their heads. He paused for a moment, dark hair falling over his forehead, and leaned a little bit further out of the window. "Do any of you feel that something's…off?" The group clustered around the window, Makoto answering immediately.
"Definitely, I've been feeling it for a while now. Do you think it's…" The unspoken word triggered a current of excitement, with an underflow of nervousness, through the entire group.
"Youma," Usagi completed, "Now that you mention it, I am feeling dark vibes from inside the airport." She sighed and pouted. "Why did they have to come back now?"
"Aw, Usagi, we all knew the peaceful times couldn't last." Makoto grinned, "Now Si gets to practice some of those moves he learned at Mamoru's with a real youma, and frankly, we all need a practice dummy to get back in shape with." She punched her fist into her hand. "Finally, some action!"
Mamoru drove off on another circuit as the three of them ran inside the sliding doors, only to come to a screeching halt. The line to get to the gates- where the presumed youma was- was long. Very long. Really really really long. At this point, the would-be youma destroyers remembered why they were waiting outside to meet Minako instead of at the gate. Security required all people going to the gate to be on a flight out from the airport, with ID and the ticket to prove it. Even if they could get through with out a ticket, good luck getting through that line within the hour.
"Oh, boy," Makoto said, looking at the vast array of people in the security back up before turning back to the sliding doors, "I hope Minako feels up to fighting youma by herself today.
~~~*****~~~~~~~~~
Minako hurried out of the gate, eager to get Artemis out of his carry case stored in the cargo hold. Poor Artemis! That must have bee horrible, being suck down there with the luggage. She trotted towards the baggage claim, anxious for Artemis, when she heard what sounded like the breaking of glass, and screams. What on Earth is that?! Did someone fall out of one of those windows or something?! She paused, carry bag on her shoulder, and pivoted when she heard what was distinctly a youma's voice, cackling. "Dang it! Youma!" She noticed a few people tearing past her from the direction she came shouting, "Run! Run!" She sprinted back the way she came and tried to find a place to transform to her Senshi form. Everywhere there were people or security cameras. She sighed to herself in frustration, Where can I transform?! She darted in and out of stores, around signs, in corners- nowhere. Then she heard over the intercom,
"Security to Gate 26! Security to Gate 26! Secur..i…uhh…" The voice trailed of with the audible 'thunk' of the woman falling over. Minako growled to herself, Great, police, just what I need. Turning a corner, she ran right into the hall with the gate- and the youma- and she was still detransformed.
"Shit," she took in a deep breath and stepped up to where there was no doubt she'd be noticed. Bodies of unfortunate airplane passengers were scattered around the lobby. The youma, a silver person with wheels instead of feet and steel wings instead of arms, turned, scanning the room for more prey. Its eyes fell on Minako. She took in another breath…"Hey, youma- breath!! Over here, you evil piece of scrap metal!!" The youma smiled and sent what looked like a missile from where the engines under its wings should have been to where Minako stood. She nimbly jumped out of the way, training taking over her airplane-cramped muscles at just the right moment. The youma developed blades out of its wings and began slicing at her. She jumped as it swung at her, and gave it a heel in the face as a reward. As she darted out of the way of each slice, Minako tried to figure out its weakness. Airplane-youma sent out another missile, which was narrowly avoided but ended up hitting a man behind her. On impact it didn't tear through him like a bullet, but opened into cords which wrapped around the man and drew out his energy. Minako frowned, So that's how it does it.
The security guards finally ran in. Quickly assessing the situation, they pulled out their guns and pointed them at the youma, shouting, "Freeze!" Noting Minako, they ordered her to run away, and she took the opportunity to run behind them to find a hiding spot to transform in the hall. The area now being deserted, she found a spot away from a security camera and quickly transformed, sprinting to the scene again with inhuman speed. Jumping over the fallen security guards to land in between them and the youma, she shouted her introduction- in English, of course.
"Stop right there! I am the super sailor-suited soldier, Sailor Venus, and on behalf of my planet Venus and disgruntled airplane travelers everywhere, you will be punished!"
The guards still standing behind her looked astonished at the girl's stupidity. What was this chick in the mini skirt thinking?
Remembering how weak the youma Kunzite faced was, she used one of her older attacks. "Venus! Love-me-chain!" She shouted, magically (with a bit of skill) looping the chain of hearts around the youma with her wrist and finger movements. She paused for a moment, wondering whether to use her basic crescent beam attack, or love and beauty shock. A guard, seeing the youma immobilized, fired a few shots at the monster, breaking Minako's train of thought on her attacks. "Hey! Cut it out!" she turned around, peeved, "Your simple weapons don't even hurt it!" she snapped. Venus heard a growl and a yell from the youma, who had cut through her love-me-chain with the blades on its wings and was now launching itself, and its energy sucking projectiles, at her and the guards. Surprised and suddenly rather scared of the monster, Venus made up her mind.
"Venus! Love and Beauty…SHOCK!" she exclaimed, throwing a deadly kiss at the youma. The attack hit full on, and in a flash of light, the youma disintegrated into a pile of ashes. She sighed, relieved, and turned to see the gaping security officers. "See," she said smugly with a smile, "nothing to worry about if you leave it to the professionals." That said, she walked past the guards frozen in shock, and rushed away to detransform at her previous spot. Minako looked behind her after she detransformed to see the fallen travelers rousing themselves, and trotted back, satisfied, towards the baggage claim. She cheerily told anyone that asked about the monster that it had been destroyed by Sailor Venus, some girl in a yellow skirt who killed it with energy waves from her hands. Most people looked at her as if she'd lost it, but a few foreigners who had heard of the Senshi believed her, as well as a few who hadn't heard of the heroine as well.
Finally at the baggage claim, she picked up a very disgruntled Artemis, who had been circling the baggage claim conveyor belt for the last twenty minutes. "Sorry, Arty," she smiled and quipped at him in English, "I got delayed by a youma. A scary one, too! I've nearly forgotten how to fight alone." Artemis kept trying to interrupt, pressing his nose up to the pet carrier bars in an effort to get her attention, which she ignored. "You really need to start training me for individual battle again- I've grown soft over the last three years." The blonde smiled at the cat's discomfort with her even mentioning something relating to the Senshi in public, much less telling it – to the public's eyes- to a housepet. People would think she's crazy! Artemis glared further as she giggled and collected her luggage- two huge suitcases of it. Picking them up daintily with ease- she WAS a Senshi, after all- she walked out the doors with Artemis past the security guards to meet their friends. She paused for a moment, searching for Usagi's tell-tale golden hairdo. Spotting a golden odango in the crowd, she turned and trotted over to her, shouting "Usagi! Usagi!" Noting a brown ponytail with pink robin's eggs, she shouted "Makoto!" as well. Minako threw herself at the two girls, to the surrounding people and Artemis' annoyance. A joyful reunion was at hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Cambridge area there had been four youma sightings in the last two days, including the Christmas tree youma in Burlington. On the bright side, Kent was using his car even less frequently than before, which was very little, considering his urban setting- (Why drive where you can walk?)- and was getting a lot more exercise. It was a pain to teleport away from a youma attack, then walk back to get the car and drive home, so his feet were his favored mode of transportation.
Walking over to the market after a youma attack, Kent reflected on the happenings of the past two-no, one- no, two- three?- months. Heck, forget months, having Mamoru around at all the past two years was enough to reflect upon, and the last two days even more so. Who'd have thought two years ago that now he'd be battling energy-stealing monsters around town by using magical powers? Mamoru, judging by the esteem in which he held the four stones he carried until they were lost in the packing to Harvard, probably had anticipated seeing his Generals around sometime, or at least knew they existed as good guys. Mamoru /Darien/ Endymion- his prince, leader, comrade, brother-in-arms, someone he truly cared about. Of course, Kent wouldn't be caught saying all that mush aloud except in a near-death experience, but the thought that Mamoru was loved as a brother as well as a prince did float in his head a lot. He snorted to himself a smile on his face, Hm. Duty. What it does to a guy.
Wandering around the market, absently picking up a bag of potato chips, whole wheat bread, cut raw veggies, some healthy sandwich makings, and completely lost in his own thoughts, Kent almost didn't pay attention to the sounds around him. He continued blindly picking up his groceries and thinking of Mamoru and his duty to the prince before it sunk in that he had just heard a scream and a loudspeaker announcement of "Emergency, please leave your shopping carts where they are and evacuate the building calmly; Monster in aisle seven." Kent tossed down his basket with a growl of exasperation and transformed quickly behind the deli counter. Light boomerang in hand, he rushed to the battle in aisle seven with one thought:
It was going to be a long, long week.
~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~