THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 9: "Building a Better Viluy"

By Bill K.

One by one the lights came on, illuminating in succession a room housing the most gigantic computer complex any of them had ever seen - - with the exception of Diana and Sailor Moon. To them it was hauntingly familiar. As one bank of lights lit, they illuminated a cryogenic chamber.

"Pluto-mama!" Saturn gasped out. The senshi bolted for the cryogenic tube.

Without warning, Saturn crashed face first into an energy barrier. The energy gripped the violet senshi and she cried out in agony. As she lost her grip on the Silence Glaive, Sailor Moon lurched forward to try to pull Saturn away. But the energy flung her back itself and Saturn staggered back, then fell to the floor. Pallas let out a squeal of shock and fear while Juno and Ceres knelt down to tend to their fallen comrade.

"It's just like before!" Sailor Moon whispered.

"Indeed," a voice echoed from the darkness. It was a voice familiar to Sailor Moon and Diana, dimly so to Sailor Saturn, but new to the rest. The click of high heels on the floor pinpointed her for them. Stepping from the shadows, wearing a form-fitting anti-contamination suit much like the one Dr. Mizuno often wore, her platinum hair falling softly across her left eye to a large inward curl at the shoulders, was the infamous Yui Bidou - - Viluy.

"Viluy!" Sailor Moon almost spat.

"Princess Usagi," Viluy smiled. Sailor Moon reacted in shock. This wasn't quite the Viluy she met in her alternate future, the cybernetic parody of human life that claimed superiority by virtue of her cybernetic parts. This Viluy looked completely human and impossibly young. But it was the same Viluy in one respect, that being the cruel, merciless gleam in her ice blue eyes and the contempt for a race she no longer claimed and felt superior to. "Yes, I know your other identity. It wasn't a difficult deduction, given who your mother and father are."

Without concern for her safety, since she no longer regarded the senshi as a threat, Viluy clacked across the floor and up to the energy barrier holding them prisoner.

"And yes, I was monitoring you," she continued. "I've been monitoring you since you returned from that strange dimensional nexus that exists within the palace. I know how you went into the past and managed to undo everything I did to change the past. And now that you're neutralized, I can send another android back and finish the job of killing Queen Serenity before she inherits her crystal and her power."

Gasps of horror went up from the other senshi, who hadn't been told of this part of the plot. Sailor Moon lunged forward, but stopped short of the barrier. Diana was by her side, watching as Viluy dispatched an android into a chamber in the far corner of the vast room. The android took its place in the chamber, a transparent tube on an energized pad with a domed top. The tube flared brightly and in seconds the android was gone.

"Gracious!" whispered Diana. "You've managed to duplicate localized time travel?"

Viluy gave the cat an evil look, as if Diana had reminded her of something unpleasant.

"No," the platinum blonde finally admitted. "That process still eludes me. I do know that there is a corridor that allows travel back and forth between times and that you and your princess access it through that dimensional nexus." She glanced angrily at the frozen Sailor Pluto. "I had a way once, but its been barred to me now and I haven't found a way around the barrier." A smile grew on Viluy's face. "So I developed an effective matter teleportation process instead. With this, I project a subject into the dimensional nexus and the subject accesses time from there."

"Teleportation of humans isn't possible scientifically!" Diana argued.

"But the android is non-organic," Viluy replied. "And teleportation of non-organic material is quite simple - - for me."

By now Sailor Saturn was recovering. She rose to her feet with the help of Sailor Ceres and focused on Viluy for the first time.

"Hotaru Tomoe," Viluy said smugly. "My, but you've come up in the world. I remember you when you were just a little girl - - sitting on that towering throne, surrounded by all your plush toys - - consuming the heart crystals of innocents."

"I remember you, too, Viluy," Saturn scowled bitterly. "You were one of the Witches Five. You and the others were always sucking up to my father, but whenever his back was turned, you wouldn't miss an opportunity to torment me."

"And now you're a sailor senshi," Viluy mocked.

"Some of us grow," Saturn retorted, "and some of us just get older!"

It was out of Saturn's mind before she realized it. The psychic dagger released, headed straight for Viluy. Of all the others, only Pallas realized it and gasped slightly. Saturn tried to pull it back for a moment, then let it go.

Few people deserved it more than Viluy.

But in an instant, the room filled with a high-pitched whine. Sailor Moon bent over, covering her ears to try to shield herself from the ear-splitting noise. The effect was worse for Saturn and Pallas. Each senshi collapsed to her knees, Saturn grinding her teeth while Pallas howled in agony and burst into tears.

"Did you think I wouldn't be prepared for your abilities?" Viluy asked as if she were lecturing infants. "That sound is at the precise frequency that interferes with psychic ability."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" bellowed Vesta, impotently trying to shield Pallas.

"Why?" Viluy mocked. "What were you going to do - - strike me perhaps? I seriously doubt your feeble mind could manage many alternatives beyond that."

The others could see the rage welling in the girl. Viluy stood unimpressed.

"Fauna Assimilation - - Elephant!"

Within seconds, Vesta had transformed into a towering elephant. Without hesitating, the elephant charged the barrier head first at top speed. She impacted the barrier, causing it to sizzle and spit. Straining her huge muscles to the fullest, Vesta pushed against the wall of energy. But the barrier held and thrust the huge pachyderm backwards. Juno and Diana had to scramble to avoid being crushed by the weight of the animal. Once on the floor, she reverted to Sailor Vesta. The senshi was dazed by the attempt.

"Just the response I would have expected from you," Viluy sneered. "Apparently you've yet to grasp the fact that brute force has no currency in this situation - - and quite frankly you don't have the intellect to beat me."

"Not," Vesta gasped, her rage feeding her recovery, "beaten yet."

"Juno?" Ceres whispered to her fellow senshi.

"I've been trying to sense a nearby water source, but she's shielded all the pipes," Juno replied quietly. "She must have shielded herself, too. You?"

"I can't sense a plant within half a kilometer of this place," Ceres answered. "She's got us stumped."

And Pallas continued to hold her head and wail.

"Not done yet!" growled Vesta, forcing herself up off the floor. "Fauna assimilation - - Tyrannosaurus Rex!"

With a squeal of alarm, Ceres scampered to the far side of the holding pen, avoiding Vesta's expansion. The senshi's transformation into a twenty-five foot dinosaur rapidly filled the holding pen everyone was trapped in. As her scaly hide pressed against the walls and ceiling of the energy barrier, Vesta roared in defiance at the agony it brought her. The barrier itself sizzled loudly, straining to contain the mass suddenly pressing against it. Viluy backed up, startled that Vesta would attempt such a ploy. The energy whine grew louder, threatening to drown out the anti-psychic squeal.

"Vesta, stop it!" shouted Juno. "You're burning yourself!"

The dinosaur roared a defiant reply and pushed on.

Viluy, mentally calculating the energy capacity of her barrier against the energy needed to contain this new situation, reached a conclusion she didn't like and turned for her computers. She didn't reach them in time. The barrier shorted out and the feedback power surge blew out several of the computers in her bank. Thankfully the anti-psychic whine died with it.

"Ceres, form up on me! I've got an idea!" Juno barked out. "Vesta . . .!"

But Vesta wasn't listening. The huge dinosaur pivoted on legs large enough and powerful enough to crush a bus, its tiny eye and keen smell searching out Viluy. The evil genius gave ground, keeping Vesta in sight at all times. Vesta took a giant step forward and for a moment Juno and Ceres caught a whiff of scorched flesh.

To their surprise, though, both senshi realized that Vesta seemed unable to locate Viluy. That hesitation was quickly seized upon by the icy blonde. A hand held laser pistol, outlawed in the confines of Japan by the Queen, popped up out of a compartment of a nearby console and Viluy snapped it up. A single moment later the pistol was aimed at the hulking dinosaur searching desperately for an adversary it could no longer sense. Viluy's finger squeezed the trigger.

"Silence Wall!" shouted Sailor Saturn and the laser was deflected from Vesta. Hearing the air sizzle from the beam, Vesta turned to the sound of it.

"Aqua Initiation!" Sailor Juno called out.

She cupped her hands and vapor began to swirl to her. By sucking all the moisture out of the air in the room, Juno was able to form a small amount of water she kept formed in a small ball levitating between her cupped hands. When she had every drop, Juno pulled back and launched the ball at Viluy like a projectile. The small globe of water sped across the room and impacted Viluy like a thrown rock. The woman staggered backwards. When she righted herself, Ceres was upon her.

"Pollen Attack!" Ceres shouted, spraying Viluy with a yellowish pollen from a small pouch she kept in her glove. The cloud dissipated and Ceres waited for the anesthetic in the pollen to take effect.

Viluy responded with a vicious backhand blow that threw Ceres to the ground. Juno stared in amazement, for nothing human could stand up against Ceres' pollen. In her peripheral vision, she saw Sailor Moon run to Ceres' side. On her right flank, she felt Saturn behind her.

"Ceres?" Sailor Moon inquired.

"Should have worked," gasped Ceres, wracked with pain. "Hit her right in the face. Oh, my jaw hurts! If she put a bruise on my face . . .!"

Raising her hand, Sailor Moon summoned the Moon Scepter. There was no more time to waste.

"Moon Princess Halation!" she called out. Pink tendrils of energy radiated out, seeking out Viluy at top speed. The tendrils encircled the icy blonde, trying to work their soothing, healing magic on her. But to everyone's surprise, Viluy stood unfazed by the energy.

"It-it didn't work," Sailor Moon gasped, horrified. She turned to Diana. "How?"

"I don't know," the cat replied. "Somehow she's managed to neutralize all of our attacks."

"Was that supposed to do something, Princess?" Viluy sneered. The others moved closer, trying to surround her. Viluy seemed unconcerned.

"This is taking too long," Sailor Moon whispered. "We've got to get back into the past and stop that second android!"

"That's not necessary, My Lady," Diana told her. "We've already dealt with it."

Sailor Moon glanced at her, perplexed.

"Didn't you recognize the android?" Diana inquired. "It was the one in the tree outside of Chibi-Usagi's bedroom. We've already dealt with it."

"Then all we have to do is stop Viluy," Sailor Moon heaved a sigh of relief.

"You don't have a chance of stopping me!" Viluy roared defiantly at the others. "My logic will triumph over your emotionalism!"

"You hurt Pallas!" Pallas yelled petulantly. "And you hurt Pallas' sisters! You're mean and Pallas doesn't like you!" Juno glanced behind her and saw the fury in Sailor Pallas' face, fury she'd never quite seen before. "Beautiful Incantation!"

All the inanimate objects in the room began to shake. Those that were attached to something wriggled urgently. Those that weren't anchored suddenly shot into the air, then propelled at Viluy with the speed of a bullet. But Viluy pressed a crystal stud on the control panel and an energy barrier shot up like a shield, deflecting the projectiles.

"Are you all right?" Juno asked Vesta, who had shed her dinosaur form and returned to normal.

"Back hurts," Vesta replied in clipped fashion. "Don't worry about it."

"So why didn't you attack her?"

"I didn't know where she was! I couldn't see very well in that form and I couldn't smell her at all!" Vesta shot Pallas a worried glance. "Think Pallas can break through?"

Undaunted, Pallas continued until fragments of precious equipment rained down upon Viluy. The energy shield held, though, keeping the metal projectiles from touching Viluy's smooth pink skin. Finally Pallas grew tired and sank to her knees, the final piece of debris wavering in the air and then dropping to the ground.

"An impressive display of PKE," Viluy smirked as Pallas hung her head and panted. "And from a clearly inferior mind like yours. I'll have to make a mental note to study that more closely."

"This has gone on long enough," came the pronouncement from Saturn. She held her glaive in one hand and marched steadily toward Viluy.

"Cautiously, Sailor Saturn," Viluy warned. "I'm prepared for whatever you might want to throw at me."

"Are you?" Saturn queried, continuing to approach Viluy without fear. Closer and closer she drew to the energy shield Viluy still had erected.

Then, faster than the eye could detect, Saturn's glaive struck. It seemed like only a flash of metal caught by the light. But one moment Viluy's energy shield was there and the next moment there was just sparks from something that had been but was no longer. Her hand came to rest and the glaive was in it

And then it was moving again. When next it came to rest, the point was aimed under Viluy's chin.

"Total molecular bonding reversal," Viluy whispered, awed, as the sharp point of Saturn's glaive pressed under her chin. "Fascinating."

"You will surrender yourself to us immediately," Saturn growled and chills went down the spines of Juno and Vesta. "You will restore Sailor Pluto and abandon any plans you have for traveling in time."

"Or you'll slit my throat?" Viluy responded contemptuously.

Saturn held the point of the glaive to Viluy's chin.

"You can't kill me," Viluy sneered.

"You'd be sickened by what I can do when my family and my friends are being threatened," Saturn replied. There was a coldness to her gaze that whispered to anyone willing to listen that she wasn't kidding.

"No, you misunderstand," lectured Viluy, seconds away from death. "That wasn't a judgment. That was a statement."

Suddenly Viluy's hands clamped onto the glaive. Electricity shot from Viluy into the glaive and passed on to Saturn. The violet senshi went rigid, then began convulsing as electricity shot through her.

"She's an android!" cried Juno. "That's why you couldn't get her scent! Why Ceres' sleep pollen didn't work! She's not human!"

"Beautiful Incantation!" screamed Pallas.

Invisible hands grabbed the glaive and wrenched it away from Viluy. The circuit broken, Saturn slumped to the floor. Vesta was about to lunge as Juno checked Saturn, but Viluy erected her energy shield again.

"Can't you morons see the futility of this?" growled Viluy. "The deed has already been done! The world you know is doomed, doomed to be replaced with a reality of my choosing - - one where logic and intellect rule over everything, even if it comes from a society of android life!"

"But you're human!" Ceres retorted. "You'll be dooming yourself along with everyone else! How long will it be until the androids turn on you?"

"Weren't you listening to your friend?" Viluy sneered. "I have a completely artificial body now. She surmised correctly." Viluy turned to Juno. "But you didn't go far enough. I am more than a mere android. I possess the encephalophic engrams of the original Viluy. I am, for all intents and purposes, Viluy, but a Viluy unencumbered by the faults and frailties of humanity. I don't age. I don't tire. I don't love. I am, therefore, the perfect candidate to lead a society of logical, emotionless humanoids."

They all heard Sailor Moon rise. Pallas and Saturn glanced over at her.

"Then when is it supposed to happen?" the pink-tressed senshi asked.

"What?" Viluy asked, puzzled by the question.

"I guess you didn't quite get all the emotion out," the teen continued. "You've been too busy gloating over your triumph and enjoying beating us up that you forgot."

"Forgot what!" Viluy demanded.

"The change. If your android assassin went back in time and killed my mom, why hasn't our present changed? Why am I even here? If Mom died at four, I shouldn't exist! And yet, here I am. Why is that? Why is everything still the same?"

Viluy was about to reply, then stopped short. A look of distress began to grow on her face.

"Something wrong?" Sailor Moon asked, unable to completely conceal her smirk.

"It - - the unit must have failed," Viluy mumbled to herself, calculating probabilities in her head. Then she looked up at Sailor Moon with realization. "YOU DID THIS! You stopped it from happening again!"

"Now, Pallas," Sailor Moon said quickly.

"BEAUTIFUL INCANTATION!" Pallas yelled, gesturing in Viluy's direction with her hands. Viluy crouched behind her energy shield, but the attack wasn't headed for her. The computer console behind her began to crumple as if crushed by a pair of gigantic invisible hands. The energy shield sputtered, then winked out.

"Fauna Assimilation - - lion!" Vesta roared, lunging for Viluy. Half the distance from the android, her body mutated into a full grown African lioness. Vesta leaped at the retreating Viluy and landed about shoulder high, ready to bring her down with superior strength and leverage.

But Viluy shrugged Vesta off and continued on course. It was then everyone realized that she was headed for the transport tube she'd earlier sent her android assassin off in.

"Aqua Initiation!" Juno called out, cupping her hands to make another water projectile. But there wasn't enough moisture left in the air to form much. Sailor Moon had her tiara off and ready to use, but before she could energize it into a disk, Viluy was in the tube and gone.

"Where do you think she went?" Vesta asked, mutating back into a senshi.

Sailor Moon didn't answer, but Diana knew the princess had a good idea where Viluy was headed.

Continued in Chapter 10