Disclamer: I am in no way responsible for the ownership of said Moon, or any of her friends. I am a starving college student, so even if you wanted to sue me, you wouldn't get jack!

Italics: Thoughts

Chapter 16: "The Battle for a Realm"

Jonathan, Ami, Luna and Artemis watched as the rest of the girls and Darien jump to the street below, 4 floors down.

"Uh, Ami?" Jay looked a little sick.

"Yes?" she said turning to him.

"When we rendevous, I'm taking the stairs." Ami laughed and continued to type away on her little computer. Jay then had a thought.

"Hey, Ames! How long until those things actually breach the surface?"

Ami stopped typing and looked up, "We have about two minutes. Why?"

Jonathan just began to tare Darien's stereo away from the wall.

"Mood music!"

Ami just rolled her eyes.

Jonathan finally succeeded in moving the speakers out on the balcony so that the girls could hear and maybe encouraged. He didn't have to look very hard for the right CD. Darien, in all of his obsessive compulsive ways, labeled al of his burned CD's. Jonathan chose the "workout" CD. He hoped that it had just the right music. When it started, he cranked it, and to his utter surprise and amazement, the Top Gun theme started to play.

Darien and the girls heard the music and felt a brief boost. Serena turned to her boyfriend and said, "Hon, I never knew you had it in you. You never cease to amaze me."

That brought a blush to Darien's face, and he moved to kiss his love. Mina looked back to where her guardian angel was watching over her, and waved. She saw Jay wave back and blow a kiss. She made a motion to catch it, and then returned the favor. She loved how her new boyfriend was so fun.

I hope that he and Artemis get along. Woah! What was that! Mina suddenly felt a tremendous shockwave, and almost fell. Serena would have, if she had not been in the arms of her lover. Rei and Lita turned to where the source of the shockwave occurred and gawked.

The original hole that the first Hell Knight appeared from was now glowing an even more blood red and menacing than before. Just as the heads of ten demons appeared over the top of the crater, a loud crack was heard from behind them, and the first shot of the battle took down a Hell Knight as it climbed out. There were only two Hell Knights present so far, and the girls were already trying to focus their attacks.

Behind the Knights, a mass of Maggots and ghouls were poring from the hole. Moon finally snapped out of her terror at seeing these monsters. The Scouts were still not used to these frightening yomas. The Negaverse only had goofy looking ones. Somehow, Serena thought that if there really was a Hell, then these must have come from it!

As the girls readied themselves for attack, another loud crack was heard and the second Knight exploded in blue-gray ooze.

"Mina, tell your boyfriend to leave some for us!" Rei yelled over at Mina.

"I think the music has gone to his head." Mina laughed and crescent beamed a maggot right between its two heads.

"Hah! Take THAT! I do better without the gun!"

Before she could say anything else, a ghoul had snuck up on her and was about to swing his bladed arm at her. When she noticed a presence behind her, she turned and it was too late for her to ready an attack. She readied herself for a quick end, but to her surprise, the ghoul disintegrated before her eyes. She regained her composure and waved to the balcony.

My Guardian Angel.

Jonathan was lying prone on the balcony, his .50 caliber AT rifle ammo standing to his right, ready to be used at the moment it was needed. He already felled two of the biggest demons on the field. He felt tired from just shooting two of the things.

Damn! How come I feel like crap already? I only fought with Lita for a little bit this morning! I shouldn't be this tired!

He shrugged off those feelings when he saw the ghoul sneaking up on Mina. He yanked the bolt back on the side of his rifle, letting the shell fly away. He grabbed a fresh round, and rammed the bolt home. He sighted the ghoul in his scope, sucked in half a breath, and squeezed the trigger. The round struck the ghoul and it simply disintegrated. He noticed that he didn't feel as tired as when he dropped the Knights.

That's odd. I think that I might finally be understanding this! Before he could finish his train of thought, his services were needed once again. He left the thought on the back burner as he helped out Mars with a quick shot at a group of ghouls surrounding her. They vanished in a gray cloud of liquid. Mars shook herself of the gray blood, and glared at Jay. Then she smiled and waved.

"Wow! Ami remind me to never make Rei mad!" His request fell upon def ears, as Ami was still typing furiously at her mini-computer.

"Heh, just find out their weakness and make it snappy! I'm running out of ammo here."

Jonathan returned to his task of covering.

Moon and Mask were having a grand old time taking out the weaker ghouls and Maggots.

Moon sent three of the Maggots to their hell with her tiara attack and Mask finished off five ghouls with his sharp cane. Serena noticed that the Hell Knights and a large number of ghouls passed them and were headed for Darien's apartment.

"Mask!" She yelled for his attention.

"Yeah!"

"We let some through! They look like they are headed for your place!"

Darien followed her gaze and froze. The Knights were being killed as soon as Jay could reload, but the ghouls were using them as a shield. Finally, all of the ghouls, about 50 of them, reached the lobby of Darien's apartment, and started making their way inside the building.

Lita, Rei and Mina saw this happening as well, and they tried to get to Darien's apartment. Before they could move, they heard a voice from the direction of the gaping hole to hell.

"Well, well, well. So this is the pitiful resistance this realm has thrown at us. No matter. The ghouls will take care of the Avenger." The fire-red headed man said, his long purple rode flowing behind him. He had a body suit similar to the ones the Dark Genreals wore, but it held on clear seams. It looked as though it was never meant to come off.

The girls turned and said, "Who are you?"

He looked at them and snapped his fingers. Maggots started swarming out of the hole and running toward them.

"Oh crap! I can't believe that this is happening!" screamed Lita as he charged up another supreme thunder attack. Before she could attack, a loud battle cry echoed from the depths of the hole that would make a grown man cry out right. Luckily, the Scouts faced death so many times before that they weren't afraid of much. The figure that rose from the hole shined a dark obsidian with red veins bulging and a light gray aura surrounded it. It then opened it's four glowing, blood red eyes arranged in pairs one on top of the other, and glared at the three girls. It was at least a foot taller than the Hell Knights, and slightly more massive. It had two mouths, one in the other, like the aliens from the same movie, which it flashed at the girls.

When his eyes settled on Mina, they narrowed.

"Yyoouu! II rreemmeemmbbeerr yyoouu! Yyoouu wwiillll bbee ffiirrsstt!" His stereo voice carried a weight of vehemence as he charged at Venus.

Before he could get any further, two more cracks filled the air, and two big holes appeared in the Behemoth's chest. He merely flinched and kept on coming. The girls then heard a very angry war cry form behind them.

Jonathan was out of ammo.