A/N: Wow, a new chapter. Huh. It's kinda short, but I needed to get back into the swing of the story. It's still the most insane thing I've ever written, but
"No problem."
Mercury blinked, "Er, I understand if it's a lot of information. I'd prefer quality over timeliness, so don't rush."
Nabiki raised one eyebrow and stared at the girl, "My sister is lying there while the new neighbor braces up a sword sticking out of her chest. I'll have the info here by morning, lunch at the latest." The middle Tendo daughter turned on her heel with military precision and disappeared from sight, the sound of her door closing down the hall signaling the apparent beginning of her long night of research.
Bubbles shivered from her spot beside Akane on the bed, "Scary! Is she always like that."
Ranma frowned, "Nah, she's usually worse. She didn't even charge us!. She must be pretty worried."
Mercury nodded, but her expression was gradually losing its calm mask with each passing moment in this insane household. "Right. Look, this room is getting pretty crowded. I need to go begin scanning for the Swordsmith, and I should take a couple people with me. Akane needs a couple people for protection. Sailor Moon and I--"
"Hold it, if you find this Swordsmith, there's gonna be a fight, right?"
Sailor Moon shrugged, "Well, maybe."
Ranma gave a decisive nod and slammed one fist into his open palm, "Then I'm going with you, er, Mercury."
Jupiter nodded excitedly, "Yeah, me too!"
Mercury frowned, "You're the best fighter, Jupiter, you should probably stay here to protect Akane. That way if anyone tries to attack or reclaim the sword, there will be less property damage." Ranma snorted, wondering how long it had been since anyone had worried about property damage at the Tendo's, except maybe Soun.
Sailor Moon nodded, "Yeah, Venus should go with you, too. She may be able to restrain the Swordsmith with her Chains, and my healing may help here."
Sailor Mars nodded, "I think I had better go try another fire reading. Maybe with a stable victim to focus on I can have better luck."
The Sailor Scouts nodded, and then turned to the rest of the room's occupants. Blossom stepped forward and gestured toward her house, "The Professor may be able to help. He's more experienced with science than magic and spiritual stuff, but you never know. Buttercup can help him. Bubbles, stay here to help defend Akane. I can go with Mercury, Venus, and Ranma. Her abilities will probably be a big help, and that way we can all keep in contact at least sporadically."
Mercury frowned, "What do you mean, 'keep in contact'?"
Blossom waved a hand, "We can all explain later. For now, we really need to get going."
Sailor Moon nodded, and everyone went their separate ways. Mars ran off in the direction of Juuban, Blossom to the house next door, and the scanning team out to the street.
"So which way, Mercury?"
The blue-haired girl that Ranma could almost mistake for Akane pulled out her small computer before answering her blond friend's question. "I know the signal is somewhere in this direction, between here and Juuban. That doesn't narrow it down too much, but it's more than we had yesterday."
Blossom leaned over and studied the translucent projection of a map hovering over the tiny computer. "I don't know this area very well yet. But, if we're trying to narrow it down, and we already know that it's between Juuban and this dojo, why not try and cement one other edges of the search area."
Mercury nodded, "That's as good as any other plan. The best bet is to just keep moving in a straight line until I know we're out of the signal's range."
Ranma pointed up and nodded his head down the street, "Then let's take to the roofs and just go down the street."
Venus frowned slightly, "That's well and good in theory, but how do we plan on getting you two onto the roof? I don't plan on carrying a civilian around all night, and . . ."
The blond's jaw dropped as Ranma casually jumped up onto the roof. Seeing what Ranma was up to, Blossom quickly followed suit and lifted up as well. Mercury and Venus shared stupefied glances before shrugging and jumping up beside their two companions for the search for the mysterious Swordsmith.
When all four were on the roof and had quickly agreed on a direction, they took off. Following the street, they were soon out of sight.
Buttercup appeared in the Professor's lab in a blast of green light that cast the entire room in an unearthly glow for a moment. The man with salt and pepper hair and a crisp white lab coat carefully tipped the test tube and counted out two drops before glancing about the table.
Not looking up from his work, Professor Utonium asked, "What is it, Buttercup?"
"Uh, well, we came here to help, right? Because it's our duty to use all of our special abilities to make this world safer and better, right? And, really, that should be first priority, right? I mean--"
"What happened and how many people know about your powers?" He selected a round piece of paper and dropped it onto the small scale in front of him. Zeroing the scale he picked up a glowing jar and began unscrewing the lid, despite the many warning labels plastered all over it.
"Uh, you're not mad?"
The Professor shot her a brief, though genuine, smile, "Of course not! I know why we're here, Buttercup, I just wanted you girls to have a chance at being normal teenagers for a change. I thought it would be easier for you three to make friends that way."
Buttercup thought about fuku-wearing superheroes and gender-changing martial artists, and wondered what passed for normal here in Japan. "Uh, right. Normal."
"Well, how many and what's wrong?"
"Oh, there's some crazy sorcerer making magic swords and stealing energy with them for some reason, and it's killing and hurting a lot of people. Oh, and just Akane and Ranma from next door, and some superheroes from the next district."
"Ah, that's nice. Did you bring the sword for me to study?" He looked up hopefully.
"No, we can't remove it without killing Akane."
"Isn't that the neighbor girl?"
Buttercup nodded, "Yeah, she's the one with the latest sword in her."
"Ah. Then we'd better go there to study it. Grab the Spectral Meter there, Buttercup. Hmmm."
The two quickly began gathering strange and elaborate pieces of scientific equipment. With Buttercup's super speed, they were very soon heading back to the Tendo compound.
Bubbles sighed, once again feeling left out. She didn't even get to go with the hunky Ranma! Now here she was with this 'Sailor Moon' girl. Bubbles glanced sideways at the girl, watching as Moon tugged a pleat into place, then glanced around in boredom from her seat in Akane's desk chair.
It was too quiet for Bubbles, "I love your hair."
Moon beamed, "Thanks! I work really hard on it, but I've been really busy lately."
Bubbles nodded, "I understand that, believe me. I wish I could grow mine out that long, but it gets in the way when I fly."
"Really? Your sister's (Blossom isn't it?), is almost as long as mine."
"Yeah," Bubbles agreed, "but she pulls it back to help, and it still gets all tangled in fights. She'll spend hours combing it out after a battle. Besides, the pigtails are kinda my thing, and they're more exposed to the wind."
"I can see that. Hmm, have you thought about braided pigtails?"
Bubbles wrinkled her nose, "Yeah, but the make me look like a little baby!"
Moon brought a finger to her chin thoughtfully as she tapped her red boot on the floor, "There's gotta be something you can do! I can imagine the tangles though! Just jumping and running around will make a mess of my hair sometimes, and I don't even want to think of flying!"
Bubbles sighed and Sailor Moon immediately wanted to cheer the other girl up. "Well, at least you don't have to wear these outfits! They're cute enough, but I get the grossest looks from perverts sometimes!"
"Aren't
you the leader? Why not decree a change in uniform?"
Moon
sighed, "I'm the leader, but we didn't have any say in our outfits,
they kinda come with the office."
Bubbles blinked, not exactly sure what the other girl meant. "The boots are great though!"
Moon smiled and extended a red clad calf, "Thanks! The heels are hard to fight in though. I pity poor Venus in those pumps of hers."
Bubbles nodded emphatically, "I can only imagine! We wear these flats just for that reason! Or tennis shoes, sometimes, but we are pretty limited by our uniforms here."
"Here?"
"Yeah, my sisters and I just moved here." Bubbles was just getting to her first encounter with Ranma the day before when Buttercup and the Professor finally returned with a mountain of complicated-looking equipment. Moon and Bubbles shared a glance before casually stepping further away from the sudden conversation of theorems, energy readings, and equations coming from Buttercup and the Professor.
A/N:Okay, there we are. I know it's short, but I really think there are some cute character interactions going on. I should hopefully be able to start writing again, since I'm graduating next week. It won't be a lot, since I have to move, plan a wedding, and find a job, but it will be more than I've done in a long time now.
Please review and tell me what you think!
Pleeai
