"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"
Chapter Nine
By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk
Sailor Angel ran through Tokyo, not knowing where she was headed, but knowing she had to find the youma before the others. It was beyond foolish to run headlong into a fight with no backup whatsoever, but the fact that whoever staged the attack had successfully blocked her made her worry. Who could have done it? Whom did she know well enough?
She wouldn't risk the others getting hurt. They needed to stay with Usagi and keep her safe, that was the main objective. Focusing her power, she tried to hone in on negative energy that a youma would produce by being in the city and disturbing the light energy that Usagi filled it with.
Nothing. She was still blocked. But by whom?
Suddenly, a flurry of feathers bolted out of the sky and landed just in front of her. She fell back into a defensive stance, but relaxed when she saw who it was.
"Eternal Sailor Moon! What are you doing here?" she cried in dismay.
"Looking for you! I was afraid the youma had kidnapped you."
"Where are the others?"
She looked sheepish. "I, uh... left them behind."
Angel groaned and glanced about them, trying to see if a threat was nearby. "This is bad! I'm not nearly strong enough to protect you by myself and I can't see who it is who's threatening us. I don't know by whom, but I've been blocked."
A voice like velvet over iron cut through the night air. "Precisely my plan. Thank you for being so predictable."
Both senshi looked up to see a tall man in a black cloak standing atop a nearby building. For a moment, they were reminded of Tuxedo Mask, with the cape blowing dramatically in the wind, but this man had leathery bat wings protruding from either side of his head rather than a top hat, his black hair fell past his shoulders, and his gray eyes were as cold as ice.
He leapt effortlessly from the building to the ground and slowly walked toward the two girls. "How perfect. The two senshi I most wanted to draw out, and here you are, handed to me on a silver platter." He laughed softly, the sound low and sinister.
Angel took up a defensive stance in front of Sailor Moon. "If you think we're going to go quietly, you've got another thing coming!"
He just smiled as he continued walking towards them. "Ah, yes, you always were stubborn when it was most inconvenient."
"What are you talking about? Don't even try to trick me!"
He seemed amused at this. "So you don't remember."
"Remember what?" She brandished her wand threateningly as he continued to move. "Don't come any closer! I'm warning you!"
"Warning me?" He laughed again and made no move to obey her. "You said yourself you don't have enough power to fight me. It really would be so much easier for you if you simply did as I said."
"Yeah, right!" Seeing he wasn't going to stop, Angel whispered to Sailor Moon, "Get out of here. I'll hold him off as long as I can."
"But..." Sailor Moon's large eyes were uncertain.
"Go! It's my duty to protect you! Find the others!"
The moment Sailor Moon moved to take flight, Angel turned to the demon and called out, "Celestial Star Flash!"
The silver stars didn't do much damage, if any at all, but they seemed to distract the demon enough so that the princess could safely escape. However, he didn't seem unduly concerned.
"Alone at last," he drawled.
"You're disgusting."
"You didn't used to think so."
"Trying to confuse me won't work!"
He laughed. "You're already confused, my dear. You think I'm lying? How do you think I managed to block you so successfully? Well, I may as well re-introduce myself if you're not going to remember me on your own." He gave her a sweeping bow. "You may call me Catastrophe."
She nearly gasped. The father of Chaos, the entity that nearly destroyed the galaxy and the strongest warriors it possessed, was standing right in front of her! And she intended to fight him all on her own? He was right, she might as well surrender. But it was the duty of a senshi to fight to the death, if necessary.
Straightening from the bow, he gathered a small orb of dark power in his palm. It was no bigger than a crystal ball, but it crackled with the strength of a large attack. "Now, this won't kill you," he said in a voice that was deceptively gentle, as though he were explaining a concept to a three year old. "But it will incapacitate you for a while and you'll sustain quite a few injuries as well. Being the gentleman that I am, I'll offer you a chance to give up now, rather than put you through such pain. Interested?"
She glared at him. "Not on your life!"
"Oh, well."
He hurled the orb at her at the same moment she yelled, "Celestial Voices Sing!"
It was one of her stronger attacks, but his power bypassed it as though it was nothing but air. The orb hit her full blast, and with a scream, she was knocked flat on her back, twenty feet away. The last thing she saw before blessed unconsciousness took her away from the incredible pain, was Catastrophe picking up the Star Wand from her nerveless hand.
Catastrophe swept the motionless Angel into his arms and they both disappeared from Tokyo. He didn't notice, hadn't even sensed, the tall figure in the shadows that had been watching the scene.
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The rest of the senshi were running through the city, Mercury tapping away on her computer as fast as she could, trying to get a lock on Celeste's and/or Usagi's vital signs.
"There's too much interference!" she said. "I can't get a definite lock on anything, but at least one of them appears to be within a five mile radius."
"Great!" said Phosphora, sarcastically. "They could be anywhere between Tokyo Tower and here!"
"Don't be so pessimistic, we'll find them."
"How? It's not as though Usagi's going to fall right in our laps!"
At that moment, Eternal Sailor Moon landed right on top of Mars.
"Ow!! You are SUCH an odango atama! Can't you even land decently?" Mars also cast a glare at Phosphora. "You just HAD to say that, didn't you?"
Uranus helped Moon and Mars to their feet as the others gathered around, immediately beginning to ask questions and scold simultaneously.
"Why did you leave without us?"
"You know you're not supposed to do that!"
"Where were you?"
"Where's Celeste?"
It took another piercing whistle from Tuxedo Mask to quiet everyone down. A few minutes of explanations and it was clear there was a huge problem.
"Angel was left fighting the baddie all by herself?" asked Phosphora, in shock. "She'll be toasted!"
"You don't seem to have much faith in your friend's abilities," Star Fighter remarked.
She glowered at the now-female senshi. "This is not the time for your snotty comments. And I know Angel's limitations. She's mostly a messenger, after all, she's not really built for combat."
"Then we've got to find her, and fast," said Jupiter.
"You're wasting your time," a new voice rang out. Whoever had said it was female, but she didn't sound familiar to anyone. Her voice was almost cold in its lack of emotion.
The senshi took up defensive postures about their princess and tried to see where the voice was coming from.
"Who said that?" asked Venus.
A tall figure stepped out from a shadowy alley and into the moonlight to face the senshi. She had dark blue eyes, the pupils ringed with gold, and ash blonde hair. She was also wearing a stylized version of the sailor fuku in navy blue and black.
"I did," she said in her emotionless voice.
"And you are?" prompted Mars.
"Warrior Sailor Wind."
Pluto gave a slight gasp at this statement and the others turned to look at her.
"What are you doing here?" Pluto asked Wind.
"My duty."
Turning to the rest of the senshi, Pluto began to explain. "Warriors are only called upon when failure is imminent."
"Why haven't we heard of you before?"
Pluto answered for Wind. "It is forbidden to know of a Warrior's existence, rather like my position at the Time Gates. Each planet has raised one Warrior, the ultimate fighting machine, to protect it in the absence of the senshi and their princess. Warriors only leave their planet for another when the other planet is severely threatened."
"So, which planet are you from?" Jupiter asked Wind.
"Uranus. And the reason you can't read any of my vital signs," she said to Mercury who was typing on her computer with a confused expression on her face, "is because I am not alive. No one had been born since Sailor Uranus with senshi blood and therefore no one had the ability nor the constitution to transform and fight. So, I was created; manufactured, if you will."
"Well, now that we're all caught up," Phosphora said, fuming slightly, "do you think we could get back to the issue at hand? At this very moment, my best friend could be scattered all over the pavement!"
"As I said, you're already too late. Had there been a chance to save her, I wouldn't have wasted all this time."
"In English, please?"
"Catastrophe took her with him when he left."
"WHAT?? You sat and WATCHED him take her??"
"It would have been illogical to fight the demon on my own."
"UGH!"
"Phosphora, calm down," said Star Fighter.
"No, I won't!" she said, rounding on Fighter. "My best friend is in the clutches of some impossible-to-fight demon and I have no way to help her! Why don't YOU try that on for size and attempt to calm down!"
"I HAVE," Fighter returned. "I lost nearly everyone I ever loved when my planet was attacked, and the princess I defended was lost. And I didn't sit around and whine about not being able to do anything about it. I gathered up who I could and went off in search of her." She grasped Phosphora's shoulders tightly. "We WILL find her, but not without a plan. Got it?"
Shocked and more than a little surprised at Fighter's speech, Phosphora merely nodded.
"The one good thing in this mess is," said Luna, "is that Angel did her duty as a senshi and protected the princess." Everyone cast looks at Eternal Sailor Moon. "Sailor Moon, from now on, you are not to go anywhere without the protection of at least one other senshi, understand? Your safety is paramount."
Sailor Moon nodded, from under one wing of Tuxedo Mask's cape.
"Good," said Artemis. "Now, let's go back to Rei's temple. We can start to formulate a plan there."
As everyone started off, Phosphora was surprised when Fighter's arm came briefly around her shoulders in a rough show of camaraderie. It lasted only a moment, but it was not missed by Star Healer.
To be continued...
