Disclaimer: (checks watch) As of 30 seconds ago, I do not own Sailor Moon or Gravitation . . .(waits) . . . (checks watch) as of 30 seconds ago, I do not own Sailor Moon or Gravitation . . .
Static Electricity
Chapter 3: Wired Discoveries
Serena stared at the blinking computer screen in front of her, and tried not to fall asleep. The initial panic of Artemis' alarm had long since worn off, and Serena just wanted to go home to bed. She leaned her chin in her hands and blew her bangs out of her face, listening idly to the activity going on in other parts of the control room. If only her eyelids weren't so heavy . . .
"Okay, so tell me again what happened?" Mina said edgily as she watched the radar equipment on the other side of the room.
"Everything seemed normal on all monitors until we detected an unidentified energy source within the polar ice cap." Artemis answered. He was checking Lita's arithmetic as she rapidly did calculations regarding heat and distances, muttering all the time under her breath. "It is dangerously near where we suspect Queen Beryl to have her headquarters. A quick scan of it showed the source to be primarily composed of electricity, and we have no record of any human settlements in this area."
"Probably another hit man from the Negaverse," Mina growled. "Just our luck."
"Indeed," the snowy-white cat agreed. "But our database hasn't come up with any information regarding it so far."
They both glanced pointedly to the super-computer near the door where Raye was sitting. Raye was in charge of searching the database for information, but it was unlikely she had even heard the conversation; her music was on too loudly for anything to get through. The dark-haired Scout bobbed her head to the rhythm of the song, and hummed along with the melody, all of which could be heard clearly throughout the control room.
"Amid the rustling wind, the light around me makes a sound that slips through my memory . . ."
"This is ridiculous!" Lita suddenly exploded, throwing down her pen. "I shouldn't be doing this – I'm not the brainer here! Ami!" Lita whined towards the corner where the bluenette was curled.
"Mmmm?"
Lita sighed in exasperation. "What's the physics equation again?"
Ami reeled it off without even looking up from the pages of her Eiri Yuki book, the bluenette's eyes already glistening with tears.
"Oh . . ."
Silence descended on the control room, broken only by the sounds of pages turning, Lita's pen scratching, or the background synthesizations of Raye's minidisc player.
Then, suddenly –
"Oh my god! Artemis, come take a look at this!" Mina's shriek came piercingly. It woke Luna up with a start from where she was curled on top of Mina's computer monitor.
At almost the same time Raye had crowed "A hit!" triumphantly to her own computer screen, but she was completely ignored in lieu of the more urgent beeping coming from the radar screens.
"What is it?" Artemis asked calmly, leaping up onto the computer desk.
"The electricity source. It's moving."
It was true. The power source, which had been passively blinking in the Northern Arctic, was now on the move. It was rapidly approaching Russia, making a beeline straight towards Tokyo, Japan.
"That is so not good!" Mina cried, panicked.
"But what are we supposed to do about it?" Lita wanted to know. Her eyes were wide with anxiety, and she had a smudge of ink on her nose. "We can't stop it. We don't even know whether it's really an enemy or a friend. We don't even know what it is!"
"Yes we do," Came Raye's voice quietly from the other side of the room. "Come over here and take a look at this."
The group crowding around the radar equipment shifted as one across the room to Raye's computer. Even Ami put aside her Eiri Yuki novel to go have a look.
"I was looking through our regular databases without any luck," Raye explained as she typed commands rapidly. "I found it pretty unlikely that this thing would be something we'd fought before, so I wasn't really surprised. And then this thing turned up."
She gestured to an unmarked file in the corner of her screen.
"It was emailed to us 6 minutes ago from an unknown source, but what's funny is that the computer recognized its signature and let the file through. And look –" She opened the file. "This is everything we could ask for."
The file did seem genuine. It contained stats, strategies, and data on many Negabeings the Sailor Scouts had fought in the past. Among them was a page labeled "Galvanize.mk.doc," which Raye opened next.
"The energy source is a being from the Negaverse then?" Lita asked from behind Raye's chair.
"Yes," the dark-haired girl answered. "Her name is Galvanna." She frowned, thinking. "I dunno . . . She seems really familiar. It's like I've seen her before . . . In a vision maybe, though I don't really remember . . ." She trailed off.
"It says that her powers are electricity- oriented," Ami remarked, reading over Raye's shoulder. "Galvanna uses electricity based attacks, putting serious limits on how much power she can use at a time, unless she has a bid energy source she can "plug" herself into, so to speak. And, of course, she's soul-hungry, just like most scum from the Negaverse."
"Hmmm . . ." Though Lita aloud, her brow furrowing. "Why would she come here though? What does she gain from attacking Tokyo?"
"Hello?" Grinned Raye incredulously, turning around and tapping Lita on the forehead. "Anybody home? Have you been outside lately, Lita? Tokyo is electricity central!"
"Not to mention it has the biggest population of the eastern continents," agreed Ami, smiling. Lita rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead where Raye had poked her.
"She must be coming here to power up, and then harvest a few people's soul-energy while she's at it," mused Artemis from underneath Raye's computer chair.
"Yeah," agreed Ami slowly, "but why now? It would be better for her to wait until a lot of people come together, like a rally, or a fair . . ."
"Or a rock concert?" Lita exclaimed, her face lighting up with comprehension.
"That's it!" Agreed Raye grimly, all traces of humour gone from her face. "This Galvanna chick must be waiting until the NG concert next week. There's going to be so many people there, energy will be running high – a pretty tasty opportunity for Negavillians like her."
"And all the equipment for the concert runs on electricity," Ami put in sagely. "Especially since most of it is techno. Microphones, keyboards, speakers, amps; that's a whole lot of voltage!"
"It's perfect," Luna agreed. The black cat jumped lithely off Raye's computer desk and started to pace. "It doesn't matter who sent us this information," she said decisively. "What matters now is stopping Galvanna before anyone gets hurt. The amount of electricity radiating from the Tokyo-Dome will be enough to grant Galvanna immense power. She may even come after the Silver Imperial Crystal." As one, six pairs of eyes flickered towards where Serena was peacefully slumbering. "It's not up the Sailor Scouts to keep this under control."
"And, hey," Grinned Lita, her green eyes twinkling. "Now we have to go to that concert! Poor Serena . . ."
- - -
Serena's head started to slip out of her hands and she awoke with a jerk, barely keeping her nose from hitting the keyboard in front of her.
She listened closely – all was silent in the control room behind her. Swinging around in her chair she found the room deserted. A quick search of the hallway and dark arcade above proved that everyone else, cats included, had disappeared.
Scanning the room once more, Serena's eyes fell on the table in the middle of the space. There, lying among the reams of calculations done in Lita's cramped writing, was a sheaf of five large, brightly-coloured NG concert tickets, and a note:
SHOCKING NEWS!
TIME TO GET UNPLUGGED!
- - -
Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long with the last chapter- I blame the usual: writer's block, plot bunnies, minor insanity, thunderstorms, and GetBackers. Thank you.
RANDOM AUTHOR SPAAAZZZ: ) : Gingi (from GetBackers) walks into the deserted Sailor Scouts' control room. He takes on look at Raye's computer screen and grins;
"I see you've met my cousin."