Chapter 4

Battle at the Library

Ami Mizuno walked down the street towards the library. She had a book that she needed to return, but she could have sworn it wasn't due for another week. 'I must have read it wrong.'

"Ami," she turned around to see who had called her. It was Minako. " Ami! Catch that paper!" A sheet of paper flew past her head and through the library doors. Minako ran up the steps and stood beside her out of breath. " Where'd…it…go."

Ami pointed at the library and Minako rushed in. When Ami stepped through the door she felt a chill. She shrugged it off thinking that it was the cold air in the library. The doors behind her slammed shut. She turned around and thought, 'There's something wrong here.' Minako whole body had stiffened and she stood slowly.

" Do you feel that," she asked and Ami nodded. The lights flashed and everyone began to panic. Someone in the back murmured that it must be an earthquake.

Minako and Ami quickly hid in one of the aisles of books, knowing that this was no mere earthquake.

"Mercury Power," shouted Ami. She was then surrounded by a pillar of blue light and when it faded she now stood in her blue sailor uniform.

"Venus Power," shouted Minako and she was the surrounded by a pillar of orange light. When the pillar disappeared she stood in her orange sailor uniform.

Ami, now Sailor Mercury, scanned the area to find the source of danger. When she couldn't find anything she turned to Sailor Venus only to find her furiously shaking the communicator. "The stupid thing isn't working," she said furiously. Mercury then tried hers and also received no response.

There was a sudden scream and the two senshi rushed from behind the shelves. Each civilian had been trapped inside of what appeared to be bubble and all of them were slowly filling up with some liquid. Mercury and Venus looked around the area looking for the youma that was responsible.

Suddenly an orange bubble and blue bubble zoomed towards them. Venus narrowly dodged the one aimed at her, but Mercury had been hit and absorbed by the blue one.

" Hello Sailor Failures," a voice above them said. She looked up and saw the two newest generals floating above her. One had shoulder length silver hair and gray eyes and the other had blond hair and green eyes. " We've been waiting for you," Kunzite, the one with silver hair, said. He then formed one of the bubbles and threw it at her.

Mercury pounded on the bubble's sides hoping it would burst, but it wouldn't, and the bubble was beginning to fill with the strange liquid that was absorbing her energy and her sailor uniform was fading back to her civilian clothes.

Venus, busy dodging the bubbles throw at her hadn't noticed the magazine on the floor and slipped. She expected to hit the floor but was caught by someone. When she looked up she saw the silver haired shittenou smirking at her. " Nice of you to drop by."

Zoisite, who was standing in front of them, formed another bubble and slowly sent it towards Venus, and Kunzite pushed her inside. Venus silently cursed thinking how could she have been so stupid.

" You can't hide from us any longer Sailor Twits. Once all of your energy is drained we'll discover your identities," said Zoisite grinning. ' We've done it," he thought. ' Now no one can get in the way of our plan.' He then looked at Sailor Mercury and some part of him had become worried, but he quickly pushed the feeling away. 'Why should I be worried about her,' and Kunzite was thinking the same thing.

Sailor Mercury's bubble was completely filled and she couldn't think of a way out. 'If I could only freeze it. I might just be able to break it.' She began to pound on the bubbles sides even harder, but slowly her movements began to slow and her sailor suit was beginning to completely fade.

"Mercury," Venus shouted.

" One down three to go," Zoisite said with less enthusiasm.

Mercury's lips moved and the bubble abound her froze and shattered. She stepped out and crossed her arms over her chest and said , " Shine Aqua Illusion!"

A flood of water shot out of her hands to each bubble and each one began to freeze. Venus kicked at hers and managed to crack it open.

" Venus use your crescent beam to open the rest of these," Mercury said. She then turned to the two shittenou and said, " It'll take more than that to defeat us Negascum."

" Well done Sailor Mercury. You managed to foil our plans once again," Zoisite said sarcastically, while part of him was relieved that she'd made it out. " But unfortunately we can't stay."

"Here's a gift for you. See you later, Sailor Failures," said Kunzite. He snapped his fingers and the building began to shake.

When the shaking stopped most of the shelves had fallen over, but hadn't fallen on anyone. The library doors burst open and fifteen firefighters and police officers ran in. One of the officers approached Venus and asked her to help get the civilians out of the building. He sounded familiar but she pushed that thought aside and focused on getting everyone out.

"Mercury, check around the back of the library and make sure everyone gets out. I'll help out around here," and both girls set to work.

Mercury searched between the upright shelves and under any that had fallen over. She hadn't found anyone and was going to turn back, when she saw someone ahead. Their back was turned to her but she could see that their foot was caught under a fallen shelf. Quickly she moved towards the person and began to lift the shelf. She didn't have the strength to lift it to far off the ground. because of the energy she lost in the fight. She did manage to get it a few inches. " Can you move?"

He nodded and moved back a few feet and as soon as he was from under it she dropped it to the ground breathing heavily. "Thanks for the help," he said and when he looked up she noticed it was Zoë. He tried to stand but sank back to the floor in pain. Mercury inspected his foot and concluded that it was sprained. She helped him to his feet and said, " Let's get you out of here before something else happens."

When they had made it to the front doors Zoë said, " Thanks again. I wish there was some way I could thank you though."

"It isn't necessary. It's my job."

" Well I think I should," there was a glint in his eye and she had a feeling that she should hurry up and get him some help. " And I've just thought of the best way to do it." He kissed her on the cheek and her face turned red as a tomato. Right after he pulled away a firemen took him away from her. She began to look around for Venus only to find her behind her, with a smirk on her face.

"So," she drawled, " what was that about."

"It was nothing," Mercury stuttered. "Let's go we've done all we can here," and with that the two senshi disappeared from the sidewalk.

Ami Mizuno sat in her room tired and irritated. She'd finished her homework over an hour ago but she was still up. " How did they do it," she thought aloud. This question invaded her thoughts all afternoon. That and some thoughts about a certain blonde but those were usually pushed away.

She'd tested the communicator a couple of times to make sure it was working properly and it wasn't just broken and all of them had come out negative. "The only way that they couldn't work is if they'd somehow blocked out all signals that came from the building, but I didn't get any readings on the computer.' Then it hit her. "Whatever was blocking our signals wasn't in the library. Therefore, the computer wouldn't be able to sense it because it was shielding it self. Either that or it was using the barrier around us for a cover." Quickly she set to work because if she was right they'd all be in some serious trouble.

Minako Aino sat in her room attempting to do some of her homework, but couldn't concentrate. Instead of concentrating on her work she found herself thinking about the men she'd been encountering lately. One had bleached white hair, he may have been a flirt and a bit unreachable, but it didn't hurt to dream.

The other one was the evil silver haired general. She just couldn't seem to get any thoughts about him out of her head. Especially the one about how it felt to be in his arms. She furiously shook her head. " Stop it. The guy's evil. He'd kill you with out even flinching." She looked at the clock and decided that she'd be able to risk a few minutes of sleep. She set the alarm for fifteen minutes and went to sleep.

When she opened her eyes the sunlight in the room was brighter than what it should have been. She looked at the clock and noticed that it 8:30... in the morning. " I'M GOING TO BE LATE!" She rushed out the house and ran down the street. Suddenly a red car pulled up in front of her. She was about to shout for it to move out the way when the window rolled down to reveal Mr. Williams.