Chapter 30: Tick-Tock Magic Carpet
"Ha ha! I'm already awake! And I DO know where I am! I'm obviously inside a giant clock!" Pierre Fromage declared as Kou Yaten woke up beside him.
"Good for you. You're in a giant...WHAT?!" Yaten exclaimed as she sat bolt upright and looked around. Yes, that's exactly what it looked like, Pierre was correct. But why would they be in a giant clock? Why would that evil Sailor Senshi send them here, of all places? This certainly wasn't the most dangerous place Yaten could think of, although it definitely wasn't very safe.
"I just wanted to say that because it would be stereotypical to be all confused and wondering where I was," Pierre answered.
"What do we do next? Just sit here? I think that would be a good idea."
"Yes, if we do that, then we'll break the rules for this kind of story. Characters who get sucked into alternate worlds always make the mistake of wanting to explore, and then they get lost and in trouble," Pierre agreed.
"And they often listen to disembodied voices that tell them fake ways to escape or about hidden treasure that's guarded by monsters," added Yaten.
"Hey, what do you have against disembodied voices?! You're mean!" Yaten and Pierre stared. That voice sounded familiar, like one of the Magic Knights!
"I don't hate them. They're just very cliche," explained Pierre.
"Aww, but cliches can be interesting if they're done right. You know why things often become stereotypes? It's not just because of laziness and prejudice, it's also because certain ones are really popular," answered the voice.
"Can you at least tell us your name?" demanded Yaten.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Hikaru Shidou," giggled the mysterious voice.
"How do you do that if it has nothing to do with your fire powers?" wondered Pierre.
"Actually, I'm not a disembodied voice. I just was playing with you. I'm up here!" Pierre and Yaten looked up to see Hikaru sitting on a spot that looked like it would be impossible to reach unless one rode on the giant clock hand that was circling the area.
"And you want us to come up there? Forget it, I'm not moving from this spot," Yaten retorted.
"Really? Not even for this coupon for free caviar?" Hikaru called teasingly.
"You think I'm stupid? That was probably given to you by the evil Sailor Senshi as a trick."
"Evil Sailor Senshi? You mean like that fat one down there?"
"No, Sailor Nemesis! The one who took on Clef's form as a trick!" Pierre called back.
"Clef...wasn't Clef?" Hikaru whispered, shocked. That might've been true. The last she remembered, Clef had appeared to her and Umi just after Fuu had left for her mission to lock those two Sailor Senshi together and get the power of Sailor Caramel's forehead. But he didn't seem like he was himself; he shot a beam of energy at them out of his staff and after that...all she remembered was waking up in here. It had taken awhile before her whole body had appeared, which was why Yaten and Pierre first thought she was being a disembodied mysterious voice.
"That's right! And so was that stuff about if you're killed here, you'll go back to your own world," added Yaten.
"But how do I know?" Hikaru wondered, "HOW DO I KNOW?!"
"Cookie Prism Power, Make Up!"
"What'd you do that for?! Now she won't trust us!" snapped Yaten.
"She's attacking, that's why!" Sailor Cookie exclaimed as Hikaru came leaping at them in a fiery streak. He shoved Yaten out of the way and she crashed into the wall behind them.
"Flame Arrow!"
"Paper Cut Slash!" Now it was Yaten's turn to push Sailor Cookie out of the way, as his sheets of sharp paper were mostly burned by Hikaru's fire. A few of them did manage to give Hikaru some paper cuts, but this didn't faze her much given that she had faced much stronger enemies when she was battling Zagato's minions in Cephiro.
"Ruby..." Hikaru didn't get to finish her attack call, as Sailor Cookie used the technique that had worked well on Umi--holding her down with his body.
"Now just let us kill you. You'll go back to your world," repeated Yaten.
"Never! You HAVE to be tricking me! You Sailor Senshi are evil! Sailor Lollipop didn't want to make peace; she just threw her energy thing at me!" Hikaru protested.
"That was because you were going to kill Madoka; did you expect her to let that happen?" Yaten retorted.
"Of course I did! I gave them a choice and they chose to have her killed!"
"No they didn't! I wasn't there, but from what Maria told me, Akane just decided that there was a second choice--to fight back instead of just letting you either kill her or take her powers."
"Yaten, she's not going to listen. Let's just throw her off this ledge...OW!" Sailor Cookie jumped up in surprise as Hikaru bit his arm and then pulled out her sword. She lunged at him and he backed up into Yaten, sending them both falling over the edge of the platform they were standing on. Hikaru had also mistimed her jump and she, too, plummetted. Down out of the clock tower they fell, ending up outside in the blue sky. They landed rather ungracefully in a heap on a flying carpet that just happened to pass by at that time.
"Yaten! Who's that you brought with you?" asked a startled voice.
"Whoever it is brought a Magic Knight!" added someone with an English accent. Mortimer and Taiki were riding the magic carpet too.
"Great, now I can push all of you Sailor Senshi to your doom! MWAHAHAHA!!!" crowed Hikaru.
"Not if we do it first!" retorted Mortimer, and he shoved Hikaru off the carpet. The last they saw of her was a flash of red light.
"That was strange. Now where are we going?" asked Yaten.
"Wherever the carpet takes us," answered Sailor Cookie; then he detransformed. The carpet suddenly swooped upwards and stopped at what looked like a giant moving sculpture. There were about 5 wide, flat pyramids, all floating over a white walkway. The carpet flew over to the edge of the walkway where there was a large purple button with a "!" sign on it.
"Oh no. I'm not going to push it. That would be too obvious."
"Pierre, that's a stupid reason," retorted Mortimer and he pushed the button down. Luckily, all it did was flip the pyramids over so that one could jump from one to the other, if one wanted to. The carpet then flew away, taking the group to what looked like a house floating in the sky.
"I bet that's where the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk lives," said Mortimer.
"Then he'll want to eat you, since he likes the blood of Englishmen," snickered Pierre.
"What?! I'll teach it to eat me! Chocolate Power, Make Up!" Mortimer called, holding up his bracelet and transforming into Sailor Chocolate.
"Sit down. It's not a good idea to be attacking so impulsively and you might fall off the carpet," scolded Taiki.
"Crystal Surround!" called Sailor Chocolate, ignoring Taiki's advice and attempting to encase the house in crystal, but all he managed to do was bar the door. The translucent crystal over the doorway glowed bright orange, and then a stream of fire shot through, blasting a hole in the crystal.
"It's Hikaru! Cookie Prism..."
"It doesn't matter. The carpet's taking us away," interrupted Yaten, clamping her hand over Pierre's mouth. The next thing they sailed by was a ship in the sky.
"If we got off and went on that, we would really be Sailors," joked Mortimer.
"I wonder where the carpet will take us next," wondered Pierre.