Sailor Saturn leapt back, avoiding the flailing tentacle for the octopus like creature she was fighting. The creature was eight feet tall, had a reach of over ten feet. Unlike an octupus the creature had no suction cups on the bottoms of the tentacles, and there were only six tentacles instead of eight. Living on the back door to her world meant that she met some rather creapy characters, but this creature won first place.
At first it didn't appear to be very dangerous, it was rather slow, and its brightly colored skin would make it difficult to sneak up on any one, but it was also a warning. One brush against a tentacle had warned her away frm further contact. The skin of the creature was covered with a painful acid, which was causing her skin to peel off where it had touched.
Calling on the power sleeping deep within her, Sailor Saturn screamed "Saturn Rings . . .Surround!"
Rings flew from her hands, enlarging as they neared the creature, to surround it, rotating around it, creating a screen of force containing it safely. Sailor Saturn relaxed, no one had ever broken out of one of her force screens before. Now she had the time to focus on finding a way to be rid of the creature. Unlike the other scouts her powers did not tend toward the destructive, more detective and containment, the destructive abilities she did have, took a lot out of her. Sometimes she was able to send the creatures back where they came from, if she could find the area of the city where they arrived, and get them there as well.
This creature did not give her the opportunity to contemplate its disposal, reaching out with a slimy tentacle towards the force screen it began to glow. Saturn did not get the oportunity to realize what was coming before the creature reached right through the force screen and grabbed her around the waist. The pain was intense, Saturn screamed as she tried to pry herself loose, but it's grip was too strong. Furious she attacked it with the few offensive attacks she had, it didn't even acknowlegde them. Slowly the creature began to drag Saturn towards it. Saturn, desperate to be free, decided that she was willing to risk the chance of experiencing the feedback from a lightning strike, her lightning was different from Jupiter's, she had to call it from a storm, and thus could not be sure of its strength. Luckily it was quite cloudy, and wouldn't take much to call the lightning forth, the clouds just need a bit of help first.
"Saturn Hurricane, Come" Saturn screamed feeling the skin pealing away beneath the tentacle encircling her waist. The wind began to pick up blowing her long braid into her face, the creature paused in the process of pulling Saturn towards it. Saturn reached towards the heavens, bracing her self for the effect of the lightning coarsing through her body. Before she could finish the summons a ninja star flew through the air embedding itself in the tentacle that gripped her, there was an almost inaudible roar as the creature released Sailor Saturn. Not even taking the time to climb to her feet, Saturn screamed at the heave "Saturn Lightning . . . Strike."
A thick bolt of lightning instantly snapped into being. The creature lit up and shuddered as the lightning hit it, branching off of it and striking nearby buildings and lightposts. The whole street was bright as day for a brief second. When the lightning passed the street seemed darker than ever. Rain began to fall as the carcass of the giant octopus thing fell over with a sodden "Thwump".
Catching her breath, Saturn looked through the sudden rain, in the direction the ninja star had come from. There standing on the roof of a nearby building was the white knight. There was a flash of lightning ( natural this time ) and the following sound of thunder, when her eyes cleared, the White Knight had gone. Saturn began the long slow process of climbing to her feet and working her way towards one of the buildings which had an awning. She was just making her way under the awning when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and help support her last shuttering steps to the dry shelter. Startled she looked up and found herself being held by the white knight. At first she was unsure, she did not know how to react. They had fought together many times, but once the battle was over, they usually went their seperate ways, never had they stayed longer than was necessary.
Grimmacing, partly to hide a blush, and partly to hide the pain from the white knight's notice, Saturn looked down at her feet and saw the state of her sailor outfit. It was burn clear through, the skin, visible beneath, was red, swelling and peeling away in long strips.
"Are you alright?" asked a gentle, deep voice in her left ear.
"I'll be fine," she answered in a voice sounding much rougher than she meant, a shudder composed of cold and shock coarsing through her system.
She had been Sailor Saturn for almost a year now, learning to transform and fight evil when it first attacked. In all that time, she had never been injured this badly before. Sighing she steeled herself to endure this . . . excrutiating pain, for as long as it took to heal. It was not as if she could go to a doctor or anything.
"Wow," said a voice approaching from the behind them, "Sailor Saturn and the White Knight." Sailor Saturn looked around to see a reporter and camera man running towards them through the rain. "Can I have an interview?" Sailor Saturn began to regret her wound even more, as it meant a quick escape was beyond her. Sighing in frustration, Sailor Saturn looked up towards the White Knight wondering if he was going to abandon her to this paperatzi.
"If you hadn't noticed, I'm a little hurt," she snapped, hoping to make the reporter change his mind, but as she turn back forward she began to feel a trickle of blood flowing down her leg. Ignoring it, she tried to look intimidating. She failed miserably as the reporter towered over her by more than a head.
"Just a few questions, then I"ll take you to the hospital myself. In fact, I'll call the ambulance now, and we can talk till it gets here," the man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
"I don't need a doctor," Sailor Saturn said a bit unsure.
The White Knight put a hand on her shoulder and, looking at her sternly, said, "She accepts," then turning to her said under his breath, "You need a doctor to see that." Sighing, without the strength to battle both of them, she nodded. Eagerly the reporter gestured to the camera man to turn on the camera.
"I probably look like a witch," Saturn said aside to the White Knight, vainly trying to tame the whisps of hair that tended to escape her braid. Resolutely she faced the camera, as the little light began flashing. The reporter was still talking into his cell phone, and didn't seem to notice that the camera was recording.
The could hear a few words as the reporter argued with the person on the other end of the phone. "We need an Ambulance for Sailor Saturn . . . This is not a prank." Finally he came over and shoved the phone into Sailor Saturn's hands, "They won't believe me." Saturn winced at the pain the sudden movement caused her.
"Hello," she said into the phone.
"This is an emergency channel, I need you to get off this line," A woman replied testily.
"And this just happnes to be an emergency," Saturn couldn't help it, she lost her temper. With rain dripping down her back, the fiery pain around her waist, not to mention the demeaning fact that she was now having to go to see a doctor, Saturn found herself in a very unreasonable mood. "Look I"ve just been fighting a huge monster with acid on its skin. And this acid happens to be causing me intense pain and is causing my sking to peel off. If you are not willing to help me I may just collapse right here . . . " the phone was gently but sternly pulled from her hand.
Looking up she saw the White Knight speaking into the phone, " We're on the corner of Main and Pacific, please hurry." He then turned off the phone and handed it back to the reporter, "They're on their way."
The interview started off well, but it didn't take long for the pain to begin interfering with Saturn's concentration. The reporter tried to keep it simple, questions about the fight, where the monster came from, so on and so forth. But these questions were not necessarily easy. How do you explain to the average person about the evil of the Negaverse, and their desire, whatever there purpose, to collect all the human energy they can, even if it means the death of the humans themselves. The White Knight helped to cover for her lapses, but it became quite obvious that she was not doing well at all. Eventually she could not hear the questions the reporter put to her for the roaring in her ears. The trickle down the back of her leg had not slowed down and was starting to collect in on of her boots. The reporter was beginning to check down the street every few moments, looking for the overdue ambulance.
Finally she had to sit down, though every movement was torture. "Look, can we please sit, otherwise I just might fall," even Saturn could tell her voice was weak. The White Knight quickly reached over and gripped her shoulders helping her to sit on the wet curb and lean against him. As she did so, she felt something split on her side. She tried to resist the White Knight's effort, not wanting to bleed on his very white garments, but he insisted saying "It won't be the first time it got blood on it."
Even though having anything even touch the acid burn hurt more than anything she had yet experienced, she did not want him to let her go. Perhaps the only person who could understand her situation, well besides the other sailor scouts, was the white knight and the white knight was here while the scouts were in Japan. Without realizing what she was doing, she let her head rest on the White Knight's shoulder, not noticing the worried glances exchanged above her head. However it was at that time that they heard the sound they had been anxiously awaiting, the ambulance's siren.
"It's about time," the camera man muttered. "The anchorman says we have enough footage, and to get her to the hospital. If we need more we can film there."
The ambulance skidded around the corner, it's lights blazing. The camera man turned to focus on the incoming vehicle as it approached and slid to a halt, spraying the waiting people with water. Paramedics began filing out from its various doors, but hesitated to approach, as they cast frightened glances at the sizzling corpse of the monster lying in the street.
Angrily a woman pushed past them towards the two individuals sitting in the rain on the curb. Not very clear headed, and unsure about this figure marching towards her so very purposely, Saturn tried to gain her feet in order protect herself. Much to her surprise Saturn found herself too weak to climb to her feet. Her surprise left the woman the opening she needed to grab Saturn's wrist and read her watch. With the woman's example the other paramedics swarm forward and begin asking her questions "how long since the battle?" "Is she allergic to any medications?" "How badly did it hurt?" "Was she injured any where else?" "Did she have any family they could contact?"
The paramedics poking and proding only made the pain worse, despite the fact that they had began a simple treatment of it and had her laying still so as not to irritate it any further. Finally she was ushered into the ambulance and out of the rain, only to find that the white knight had already left. She tried not to feel insulted by this, after all he had another life. Speaking of which, she was supposed to be on her break at work, this wasn't good, she was already in hot water with her boss after she was gone and hour longer than she was supposed to for her lunch break, when she had to battle the vulture twins last week.
As soon as everyone was in the Ambulance the vehicle took off. The paramedics gave Saturn an injection for the pain and Saturn began to feel herself grow relaxed with the effects of the pain killers. As the trip progressed one of the paramedics kept talking to her in order to keep her awake. Even as the medicine dulled her pain it also clouded her thinking, and she found herself unable to think about what may be dangerous for her to talk about, as it might tell them who she really was. So she answered the questions posed to her by the paramedic till her eyes began to grow heavy, her surroundings blurring to nothing around her.