Ok. Hi all! Another story, but this one will have several chapters to it. Don't even think about stealing it. I know where you live. You just don't know it yet... All characters from the Sailor Moon series are not mine, but I worship Naoko Takeuchi for sharing her vision with us all.
Heart of Ice, Soul of Stone
Chapter 1 – Signs of Things to Come
"Mercury, I know you're busy, but I really don't think this thing is just gonna play around all day," Minako yelled over her shoulder as she prepared her next attack.
"I'm trying to hurry, Venus, but this is a lot harder than it looks! My computer is sorting through its DNA right now. It may be another 2 or 3 minutes," Ami answered, frustration clear in her voice.
"If we last that long!" Makoto sarcastically chimed in. "We can barely see it long enough to aim."
This particular youma had a nasty little habit of instantaneously becoming a goo-like mass that could travel along the ground faster than its real form. Its real form is what had caught them off-guard. Normally, the monster looked perfectly human, strangely dressed maybe, but human. Well, they lived in Tokyo after all. You get used to the bizarre fashions.
Ami couldn't seem to get used to these youma. When the Senshi had reached the park, Ami's scanner had read that the youma's presence was no more than 50 feet away. And today, of course, would be the day of a festival, so the youma blended in perfectly with its near floresant green getup. It attacked the Senshi head on before any of them had a chance to prepare, and it left Ami with no opportunity to even try to locate it.
Rei had been the first to recover and retaliate. But the youma had been ready, and with one good energy blast sent Rei into a tree, unconscious. Minako and Makoto were trying their best to hold it off while Ami's scanner was processing. Since she hadn't fully analyzed it, Ami had advised Usagi to stay back, which see was impatiently doing so by Rei's side.
"How's it coming, Ami-chan?" Usagi whispered. She was becoming increasingly uneasy about their situation, especially while kneeling by her unconscious best friend.
"I'm trying the best I can, Sailor Moon, but my computer has never seen a being like this. It seems to not have any bone structure. Its skin is nearly 20 stronger than that of us--," Ami answered.
Just as Ami was trying to explain her findings, the youma got bored playing cat and mouse. It was going for the kill.
"Venus Love Chain…"
"Jupiter Thunder Crash…"
It aimed at Venus and Jupiter, and shot out 2 globs of the sticky substance its skin was made of. One glob got Minako by her hands and tied them together as if she was hand-cuffed. The other patch got Makoto in her right leg and was somehow expanding and traveling up her leg and across to her left. Makoto frantically tried blasting the goo off her with lightning blasts, but only dispersed the muck farther around her legs and torso. Minako, on the other hand, was completely out of commission with her hands tied.
"Mercury! Look! We have to do something!" Usagi yelled to her panicked comrade. "Tell me where to attack it. I'm ready to get this over with."
"Sailor Moon, if we're not careful, we'll be over with! I…I…We can't attack yet. Its skin will repel all of our attacks. Wait for the computer!" Ami tried to calm herself long enough to get out her sentences, but she too realized how bad the situation was getting to be.
Usagi was first to realize that the youma was now heading toward them. If the youma attacked now, Ami didn't have enough time to brace herself, and Rei could be killed with another blow. She took off running in the other direction, taunting the youma into following her. The youma first ran up to Ami and spoke directly to her face.
"And what are you? Their cheerleader?"
Ami sat dumbfounded. She couldn't seem to get her body to catch up with her brain.
"Over here tall, dark, and stupid!" Sailor Moon screamed to the youma.
Offended, the youma shot out small bursts of goo directly in front of where Usagi was running. She tried to evade them, but ended up with the bottom of her left boot stuck in goop. The youma slowly moved from Ami to the sweating Usagi.
"Beep! Beep! Beep!" Ami's computer and visor suddenly started making noise. The visor was finally showing Ami where a weakness was located.
"Sailor Moon! Aim for the youma's diaphragm. It's the only place that's vulnerable!" Ami screamed as quickly as she could.
"I'm failing Biology, Mercury! In plain Japanese, please!" Usagi yelled back, even more frantically. The youma was still marching toward her.
"Oh, for the love of…! Its stomach! Hit it right above its stomach!" Ami yelled.
"You could have just said that," Usagi said under her breath. "Moon Healing Escalation!"
The blast hit the youma dead on, and made it start to gush out another, more liquid substance. Ami immediately took it for the creature's blood.
"You may have gotten one hit in, but remember: I'm still alive," the youma got out between chuckles. It slowly began to fade into the sky. For as much as the Senshi didn't want to believe it, they all had the feeling that their new "friend" would be back soon.
As soon as it left, the muck that had been attacking Makoto and Minako disappeared and left them sprawled in a tired heap. Usagi too was unstuck and feel to her knees, glad to be done with all the excitement. Ami was the only one that was still tense, but she tried to not show that to the others.
"I need to check out Rei-chan. It looks like her head is what hit the tree the hardest. If she needs more medical attention, then we need to find out fast before she has irreversible damage," Ami said as calmly as possible.
"Where do we take her?" asked Minako. "We don't want to move her too much either, in case she has broken bones."
"I agree," replied Ami. "In that case, let's take her back to my house. It's the closest place to here, and if she is really that bad off, the hospital is only 3 minutes away."
The Senshi all detransformed, and took Rei's transformation pen so she could get out of her fuku too. The group proceeded to carefully lift Rei up and got her to Ami's house as fast as they could. When they got there, Ami opened the door and let everyone in. They put Rei down in Ami's bed, and Ami came in the room with a home medical kit that her mother had from the hospital and started to survey the damage.
"My mother won't be home until tomorrow night," she explained, "so if anyone wants to stay here for the night, you can. And someone should call Rei-chan's grandpa and tell him that Rei-chan won't be home tonight."
Usagi and Minako went to the living room to call their parents and tell them they were staying the night at Ami's. Makoto got to work in the kitchen and started making the girls pasta and baked a cake for Usagi. Minako suggested that Usagi use her Luna Pen to disguise her voice to sound like Rei's, and then call her grandpa so he won't worry. Ami finished looking over Rei and decided to go and give the other 3 a report.
"Rei-chan's gonna be fine!" she started. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. "She's got a good sized bruise on the back of her head, and she's probably gonna be very sore for a day or 2, but other than that, nothing's broken. She just needs to get a good night's sleep."
"Good to hear, Ami-chan," Usagi replied. The girls then settled in to eat their dinner. The lasagna was gone in a few minutes. Everyone was hungry from the strenuous activity of earlier that day. Around dessert, Makoto began to notice something was wrong with Ami.
"Ami-chan, you hardly touched your cake, and you only had one plate of lasagna. Is there something wrong?" Makoto whispered to Ami.
"I'm fine, Makoto-chan," Ami answered. "I'm just very tired. We should probably get to bed."
"O.K. Where do you want all the dishes, Ami-chan?" Minako asked.
"Don't worry about it tonight, guys. I think all of us are too tired to do anything about cleaning up. I'll get you all some blankets and sleeping bags. Are you sure that you'll be fine in the living room?"
"We'll be fine. Where will you be?" Usagi asked. "Aren't you gonna get some sleep?"
"I will, but first, I need to work on uploading a new version of my computer that Luna gave me. Then I'll check on Rei again," Ami answered, fatigue showing through her normally happy eyes.
After everyone was situated in their spots, Ami went back to her room, where she knew she'd be working feverously for the rest of the night. She didn't want to worry anyone, but she was still scared from what had happened earlier. Her computer had never taken so long to get its calculations done, and that had cost them all precious time. To make matters worse, she hadn't finished that program download before she got the call from Minako to meet them in the park. Ami's grades had been consistently dropping in school, not very noticeable to anyone except Ami herself. All the stress had caught up to her, and now it was hard for her to sleep the whole night through without the fear of another sudden attack.
Ami, for the first time in her career as a Senshi, was beginning to question her capabilities as a soldier. She was in no way the strongest, fastest, or bravest. But Ami was the brains, and that was why she was still there. They needed her to run the computer. But is that it? Could that possibly be the only reason that she is a Sailor Senshi? Was she becoming… obsolete? If the enemies continued to get more advanced, would she be able to keep up? The realization that she could cause harm to come to her friends was weighing Ami's spirit down. Now even the girls had started to notice her change in moods. And the thought of her friends possibly dieing because of her was starting to drive Ami to a point of madness.
"Would they be better off without me?" Ami wondered to herself as a silent tear rolled down her check and landed on her hand that grasped her transformation pen with a sudden desperation.
--------End Chapter 1
This chapter will have most of the action. Now on to what I do best, DRAMA! If you liked (or didn't) please review. Look out for the next chapter soon!
Sailor Rei Star