Since the meeting, things had quieted down. Chronos and Zeusu seemed to be nonexistent anymore and the only attacks were from Herumesu, who used light blue diamonds to infects an object or person that would in turn draw the attention of the senshi. The Amazon senshi moved in with the four sisters only days after Ha-desu's death. Having the company of the Amazon Senshi proved useful after Herumesu used one of his diamonds to infect half of the sisters' perfume shipment.
Sailor Star Fighter wasn't the only weak one of the three. Star Maker and Star Healer proved to be just as weak. Their male counterparts also showed their own weakness. They were very different in personality from their female selves and normal things like running or even waking up in the morning proved difficult. Sailor Star Prism, who chose to be called Hoshiakarino Dohi on Earth, found herself as nurse for the three unfortunate men. Hezaa and Arissa ended up helping, too, leading to a couple peace treaties. New names were brought about for the males as planned. The male Seiya was named Tsukiyo. The male Taiki became Yozora, and the male Yaten became known as Kuuchuu.
The powerless senshi did all of the research they could but found it to be fruitless. Not even with Humetsu's passage into ancient records did the senshi find anything. Keitorin, much to her dismay, found herself spending longer periods of time with her brother, who while unable to be a sailor senshi, was still able to summon the Kasei Katana ken Tate in the heat of battle. Keitii, Tiijei, and Torevaa began to cover for the senshi with a long and well-managed string of lies and excuses.
All in all, things slowed down and sometimes time even seemed to stop. With nothing more than a few attacks to go off of, the senshi could do nothing more than to go about each day normally. For a couple weeks things were that way. Then, just when the others began to forget their troubles, Zeusu made a comeback...
"Jakku, I'm home," Arissa said to an almost-empty house. She climbed the stairs to the second floor and stepped into her room... and on Jakku's tail.
He screamed as a cat does and jumped a clean two feet into the air. He scurried into his bed and stayed there a moment before poking his head out. "Next time, poke me!" he grumbled.
"I didn't know you were asleep!" Arissa said as she plopped down on her bed. She untied her navy blue bow and let the scarf fall on her bed. She looked at it tiredly and found something else. "What's this?" On her bed, just beneath her scarf, was a small business card. She recognized it as the card Jack Emery had given to her in the park many weeks ago. "What is this doing here?" she asked.
"I grabbed it after Hezaa dropped," Jakku said. "I thought it would be good if you kept it handy. You never know what the future will hold."
Arissa nodded, looking at the card. She sighed and imagined what it would be like to be a part of a traveling Jazz Ensemble. Beep, beep, beep, beep... "What's that?" Jakku asked from his bed.
"My communicator!" Arissa shouted in surprise as she pulled it from her bag. She flipped open the top but instead of finding the image of the one contacting her, she found the little screen to be fuzzy, as if communications were down. "Something's wrong," Arissa said as Jakku jumped up. He looked at the screen and gasped.
"Let's go," he said. Arissa nodded.
"Juno Jungle Thorns!" Sailor Juno shouted as she raised her hands into the air. Great thorns rose from the ground but the monster jumped over them. This monster was a huge, evil version of a rose from the nearby bushes. It jumped the sisters but was promptly destroyed by Sailor Vesta. Yet, every time they destroyed one rose monster, another came from out of nowhere. Pallas was already down and out, but Keepers Earth, Pluto, and Saturn arrived to help. Keeper Mars and Sukotto arrived, too, and Venus, Mercury, and Moon weren't far behind. While they had all tried to contact Arissa, their communicators all received thorns from the monster that shorted them out. They could only hope that Morii could find Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and the Starlights and hope that they would show up soon, because now the monsters where doubling.
"It's a senshi death trap!" Saturn shouted as she destroyed one rose monster. It promptly turned into two more. "We're gonna die!" she wailed.
"Saturn, shut up!" shouted a voice. "Uranus Space Sword Blaster!" A bright beam of light ripped through a couple dozen rose monsters, leaving Uranus and Neptune to land safely. "Keep it together, Saturn!" Uranus shouted.
Tears streaming from under her tattered mask, Saturn nodded. She swallowed hard and raised her hand. "Dosei Danbira!" In her hand appeared a silver broadsword with a black handle. "Let's do this!" she shouted in a wavering voice. She ran forward past Neptune and Uranus and shouted, "Saturn Death Ribbon Waltz!" She swiped the blade at the rose monsters in front of her and as she did, black, silver, and violet ribbons flowed from it, tangling into the roses and squeezing the life literally from them.
"That's more like it," Neptune said as she lifted her mirror up. "Submarine Reflection!" She let the mist of the mirror flow around her as she turned in her spot. Before she could finish, however, a thorny vine wrapped around her waist and pulled her up. She screamed in both pain and fright.
"Neptune!" Uranus shouted. She began running up the vine that held Neptune. As she ran, a second vine followed. She turned her head to look. As it reeled back to strike her, waves of light struck the vine and burned it away. Uranus turned back to her path and kept running. In nearby trees, Sailor Star Prism stood with the Starlights, her star-framed orb in her hands. Fighter jumped and ran just behind Uranus. Prism, Healer, and Maker leapt down to join in the fighting.
"I'm right behind you Uranus!" Fighter shouted, trying her best to keep up. Uranus nodded in acknowledgment. She had her sword ready and was about to use it on upcoming vine when Fighter screamed. Uranus turned a moment to Fighter trapped by a vine, her star falling to the ground. Before Uranus could react, two more vine came at her from her right and left. One wrapped around her waist while the other wrapped around her right wrist, forcing her to drop her sword. She and Fighter looked down to the fight. Fighter let out a cry of dismay. The Amazon Senshi were trapped in the vines, as were Venus and Mercury. Healer and Maker where fighting unsuccessfully, their attacks never going very far. They were snared in moments. Sailor Moon, Star Prism, and Pluto where fighting off the rose monsters as best they could, but the monsters turned into vines and soon captured tem as well. Earth continued to send miniature earthquakes at the monsters, swallowing them whole, but they came back in the form of vines sprouting from the ground. Only Saturn, Mars, and Sukotto were left. The three of them were protecting the sisters the best they could.
"Can you hold them off Saturn?" Mars asked.
"Not by myself, no!" Saturn wailed.
"You two hold them off, I'll be right back!" Sukotto shouted. Sword in his right hand, shield in his left, Sukotto charged into the mass of vines and roses. "Mars Flare Up!" he shouted. He sent the flames wheeling into the mass, burning them to a crisp. Yet, the vines kept growing and the roses kept coming. "Damn it!" He shouted as he hacked and slashed. A great wave of vines came crashing down, swallowing him up.
"Sukotto!" Mars shouted as a vine lifted him securely into the air. She kept throwing fire and Saturn kept slashing, but they were pulled in as well, swallowed right up and then lifted into the air. The vines then pulled back, much to the sisters' surprise. The vines hovered in a group like a tsunami wave frozen in place. The trapped senshi were held by the vine above the wave. From the ground in front of the sisters appeared General Zeusu.
"Dear Black Moon Sisters," he said rather thickly. "It is good to meet you. I trust you are, by now, aware that we have interest in you. If you will come quietly, we will release certain sailor senshi. If not, we will squeeze the life out of them."
"Why are you asking," Petz asked. "You could very well just snatch us away like the others."
"True, true," Zeusu said, "It would work but then again I need you four for live bait."
"I can't contact anyone!" Arissa cried as she ran. "Uranus and Neptune don't have communicators, and neither to the Starlights!"
"Keep running!" Jakku shouted. "I feel something up ahead!"
"Jakku! Arissa!" shouted a distress female voice.
"Morii!" Jakku shouted. "Morii we're here!" Morii came into view up ahead.
"There's an attack!" She shouted. "Zeusu turned a munch of rose bushes in the park into monsters in order to capture the sisters! The monsters took out the communicators and Pallas is down!"
"Right," Arissa said as she help up her potpourri bulb. "Jupiter Keeper Power, Make-up!"
"Bait?" Karaberas said in question.
"Yes," Zeusu said. "I may have the senshi in vines as bait, but you four are better bait."
"For whom?" Cooan asked.
"For me!" Jupiter shouted as she ran at them. "Thunder Cyclone!" Zeusu jumped away from the attack, which his a few vines. Jupiter skidded to a halt in front of the sisters. "That was the point, wasn't it?" she demanded. "All of this wasn't just to capture the sisters, it was to get me."
Zeusu smiled. "You're smarter than before," he said. "Yes, much smarter than in the past. I must ask, how did you know?" As he spoke the wave of vines began to move toward them.
"Jack Emery," Jupiter said. "I realized on my way here that Jack Emery bore an unmistakable similarity to you. I found it to be too fishy."
Zeusu smiled. "Smart," he said. "You figured it out from nothing. Instinct must have played a role. Too bad it is too late." He snapped his fingers and disappeared. The wave of vines approached. Before they were swallowed, Jupiter held up her staff. The vine fell, trapping them. Then, a tornado of leaves, flowers, and lightning tore through the vines, obliterating them. "You've gotten powerful!" Zeusu yelled from above. "If you want to save your friends, be back here at half past midnight!"
"No!" Jupiter cried as she ran. The vines began to swirl into the sky, taking the screaming senshi along with them. Before Jupiter could grab any of the vines, they were gone. She fell to her knees in exhaustion, looking to the sky before collapsing.