Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, or any other Anime. The original characters hanging around with those characters are mine though, but if ya use them, just tell me.
Moon Cats
Chapter Ten
"But we can't leave Luna behind!" Usagi yelled, even as Hibuki dragged her out of the lab. Alarms were going off everywhere and Akira was dragging his daughter along with them.
"We can't help them now!" Hibuki yelled. "I'm one cop with a pistol, not the Sailor Senshi!" He was hoping the hysterical girl would get his hint. "Now take Reika and get to the car!"
Hibuki released her and turned around expecting Artemis-Daemon to be on their heels. Instead he watched the two scientists ducked under a dropping Plexiglas wall. "What's that?"
"It's in case of a containment breach! That's one inch thick ballistic plastic."
"Might slow him down. Is there a command center of some sort in case of emergencies?"
"Yes."
"Lead us there now!"
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Inside the lab, Luna groggily woke up, peering around and freezing when her eyes fell on the Daemon who was formerly Artemis. The monster cat was eating lab mice like candy, the barely hand-like paw scooping them from a flipped over cage like popcorn.
"Hello... Luunna." It's strange, deep voice said. "Awake noww?"
"Yes Artemis." She rose, blinking in surprise when she realized she had reverted to cat form. "What's going on Artemis?"
"Thinking..." The monster cat said. "Have snack... Killll..."
"No Artemis, you don't want to kill!"
"Yes. Mans do this. Will Killl..."
Luna concentrated, and shifted to her human form. She slipped her skirt and blouse back on quickly. "They'll pay Artemis, but you can't kill them. You aren't a monster."
"IS MONSTER!" He screamed. "Make pay! Make all pay!" The angry creature grabbed the refrigerator and ripped it open, pulling out a dozen or more syringes. Grabbing the rats, he strode to the lab door, and one by one injected each little white rat and threw them out the door. "All Pay!"
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"The others will be here in a few minutes." Usagi said. "I need to find someplace to hide and change in though!"
"Try over there." Reika pointed at a group of vans with the company logo on the sides at the end of the parking lot. "Do it between them." The crowd of fleeing scientists and other folk weren't going anywhere near them.
"Sounds good. You can be my look out, so come on."
The two girls ran over, and quickly reached the vans. "Moon Prism Power!" Usagi yelled, changing into her alternate persona, Sailor Moon. "I'm going to go wait on the roof. You stay here, okay!"
"Just go, I'll be fine!" She watched as Usagi bounced away, sighing.
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Hibuki and Akira Hagisaki burst into the facilities control room. The police Lieutenant scanned the monitors from several cameras while Akira silenced the facilities director with a glare.
"What is he throwing?" Hibuki asked, pointing at the screen showing Artemis-daemon at the lab door.
"Looks like lab mice." The security guard at the monitor said. "But they look like they're growing!"
Hagisaki growled, and nodded. "That cat's injecting them with what he got. I wonder how he knew what to do."
"Cats are far cleverer then most people give them credit for." Hibuki muttered. "But by my count we have twenty-four daemon rats in addition to the cat-daemon and they are spreading throughout that area."
"There is Plexiglas partitions sealing them in that wing. The fire doors are also all now locked and sealed in their own plexi partitions. They aren't getting out of there any time soon."
"I suggest you both look at monitor six then." The Oyabun said. All eyes in the room turned to look, and several people gasped at the cracks one rat had put in the main hallways partition.
"Not soon is a bit closer then we hoped." Hagisaki muttered. "I assume the building is evacuated in situations like this?"
"Yes. Other then us, of course." The administrator replied, staring at the screen. "Oh god, two more are joining him."
"Right. Get you're people out, I'm going to make sure no one's still in the building." Hibuki said, unholstering his gun. "Hagisaki, you're daughters already has probably already done it, but get in touch with my people. I'm sorry but this facility is definitely now under my jurisdiction."
"I assume it isn't going to be kept quiet." The yakuza leader shrugged. "Oh well. Do what you have to do. Let us leave gentlemen."
Hibuki scanned the monitors, just in time to see the rats get the start of a hole in the ballistic plastic wall. "I'd better get moving."
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"A... Artemis! What are you thinking?" Luna asked, backed into a corner by the monster cat.
"Luna Pretty." He replied. Luna looked into his eyes and started to get even more worried, ignoring the paw-hand caressing her cheek. The burning intelligence that usually filled his eyes was fading while madness seemed to be filling its former space.
She gasped when his touches got a little to personal and roughly shoved him, her astounding strength only moving him a step back.
"Grahhh!" The monster bellowed, driving a fist into the wall inches beside her head, causing her to scream in terror. She closed her eyes expecting him to hit HER next, and didn't see her crescent flare with light, or the beam of energy that slammed Artemis across the room.
Opening her eyes, she collapsed to her knees crying. "Oh Artemis!"
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Hibuki ran through the lab facilities halls, kicking open any doors he came to looking for stragglers. He paused when he heard a strange squeal behind him, and slowly turned."
A white rat horribly mutated with canine teeth and over two feet long before it's tail, stood growling at him. "Oh hell." He cursed as the rat leapt at him.
Swinging his arms up lightning fast, the cop fired three times, creating three holes into the rat's body. The shock of the bullets hitting caused the now dead rat to land at his feet instead of on top of him.
"Did you guys hear that?" A feminine voice yelled, and the sound of running feet approached him. "Hibuki! Are you okay?" Usagi, aka Sailor Moon, asked when the inner scouts rounded the corner.
"Oh my god that isn't Artemis is it? Sailor Venus asked eyes already filling with tears.
"No, the cat started injecting rats." Hibuki replied. "We have about twenty-three left now."
The Senshi nodded all of the frowning. Sailor Mercury had already been typing on her Mercury computer. "Most seem to be in a large room to the south, from the presence of refrigeration units and steam tables it's likely a cafeteria."
"Right. Food." Hibuki nodded. "First priority is getting to Luna. I have no idea how to deal with Artemis though."
"I'll get him." Sailor moon said confidently. "One Moon Healing and he'll be back to his old self."
"Sounds good. Mercury, how clear is the path to them?"
"We have one pack of four rats we have to fight through I think. Other then that, it's clear."
"Let's move then girls." The eclectic group of hero's started jogging down the halls, Hibuki changing clips as they ran.
The sailors plus one ran around a corner and slid to a stop. Three rats, as Mercury had predicted, were there, gnawing on the body of a woman. "Damn it!" Hibuki yelled, bringing his gun up and emptying several rounds into one of the monstrous rodents.
The loud shots seemed to shake the Senshi out of their horror. Sailor Mars and Jupiter followed his lead, pumping electricity and fire into the remaining two rats while Venus ran to the woman and pulled her away. "She's not dead! They were..."
"Minako!" Hibuki interrupted the signs of hysterics the girl was showing. "You've seen bad things before! You and Jupiter get her out to some help now!" Both girls nodded, Venus a bit dizzily and Jupiter carrying the woman.
"Why'd you send both? Any of us can carry a person alone." Mercury asked.
Hibuki started running again. "Jupiter is the only one big enough to carry both if Venus faints." He didn't mention that he could have too. He was going to see this through and get all his people out.
They soon after reached the lab door and rushed in, only to find Luna standing, looking at the remains of a refrigerator with Artemis-Daemon out cold across the room.
"Some rescue. You knocked him out already!" Hibuki muttered, through his relief.
"Yes, well I grew impatient. Mars, come here and take these." Luna held up the two clear containers with Daemon eggs inside of them. "I think it's safe to say this is evidence now?"
"Oh ye..." A rat burst through the doors, landing on Hibuki's back, forcing him to the floor on his stomach.
"Moon Tiara Magic!" Sailor Moon yelled, throwing the very accurate spinning disk into the monster, all the hero's sighing as it flew off the cop dead.
The Artemis-Daemon used the distraction to quit playing opossum, and knocked Luna away from the fridge, grabbing two vials from the shelves.
"Revenge!" He yelled, throwing them into a sand filled aquarium, only instants before a beam of healing energy hit him. They all watched as Sailor Moons "Healing Activation" caused him to shrink, returning to his normal cat size.
Luna bent and picked him up. "I wonder what he thought..." She gasped as she saw the sand start to boil, and rope thick worms began to appear on the surface. "Run!"
The group fled rapidly from the lab, heading for the exit. The sound of something howling and glass cracking followed them out.
What's happening?" Akira demanded, standing near the front door next to the scientists who had injected Artemis, Mako standing calmly, and dangerously, behind them. They both yelled in surprise when Hibuki grabbed the scientists.
"How many worms were in your lab?"
"About sixty? Why?"
The shattering of a window, and the disgusting fanged maw of a monster waving through it with a devil rat clutched in the jaws, was the answer he got. "We need the damn self-defense force out here!"
"Maybe not." Sailor Moon, a very ANGRY Sailor Moon, waved Sailor Saturn away from the injured where the other outers were standing guard. "Do it."
The crowd, especially those who knew her, blinked in shock. She frowned. "Do you remember that American film Tremors?" Saturn nodded. "Want to live it?
"Everyone stand back." The shorter girl said, hefting the silence glaive.
"Wait! You can't!" The facility administrator yelled.
Akira Hagisaki grabbed the facility director by his throat. "I, for the board of directors, REQUEST you destroy it all, Ms. Saturn. Leave no stone standing atop another. Immediately."
Saturn nodded, focused her energy, and yelled "Silence Glaive Surprise!"
The silence was deafening, and the destruction was complete.
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"Was this really required, Hibuki?" The police commissioner demanded, staring at the huge gash of destruction that was once a laboratory.
"It was done by the Senshi with the request of a high ranking company representative. I was just investigating a rumor with the assistance of said representative."
"Akira Hagisaki?"
"Yeah." The lieutenant shrugged. "Seems the Oyabun wants his legal businesses very legal. Go figure."
"Fine, but try to cut down on property damage in the future."
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"HOW could you be so stupid?"
"Sorry Luna."
"And how could you let yourself get caught like that?"
"Sorry Reika."
"And why didn't you tell ME about it?"
"I'm sorry Luna. I..."
"Or Hibuki!"
"Reika, it's just..."
"And then there's the chain of command..."
"Aw come on Hibuki! I already apologized!"
Shimaka, who had walked into the room intending to ask a question, backed out silently, shutting the door. "Note to self, pray for Artemis.
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"Yes Akuma?" Adrian asked, walking into his Lab.
"I got what you asked for, and just in time to! The Senshi destroyed the place the next day." Akuma Hagisaki said, holding up a sealed container marked [Daemonite v55-3]. "I'd love to know how you found out about this stuff. I saw its effects, it is weird."
"Yes, well Neptune Data Systems hears much, my friend. And we don't NEED the Internet to do it."
Both men laughed, even as Adrian prepared four vials on the table surrounding the four tubes dominating the center of his lab. "This does speed things up a little, though."
AN: Sorry this took so long. I've got this, and several more chapters of several stories written, but I haven't gotten to typing them in recently. Sorry.
