Eternal City Crystal Tokyo

New Years Day

It was supposed to be a day of rest after a night of celebration, but accidents didn't follow schedules. The Earth to the Moon shuttle reported a system error on approach to Crystal Tokyo Airport, then lost control on final approach. It splashed down hard on the ferro-concrete of the landing strip, skidding to a stop even as the oversized vehicle burst into flames. It skid right through protective force screens and rammed into one of the main passenger centers, making the disaster even worse.

Cyber Six's black hair was blown around by the breeze as the out of uniform police detective helped direct the emergency traffic. She had been out having lunch with a friend when the call hit, so she was standing there in dress pants and a white shirt, her badge clipped to her breast pocket.

"Ambulances over there," Cyber Six yelled as the first bunch were taking off and more landing, "rescue teams are pulling people out of the shuttle and the buildings now!"

Honey Kisaragi was distracted a moment watching the handsome black haired woman, then the attractive blond visibly shook herself. She hurried over to Cyber Six's side as she said, "The airport's emergency crews are mobilized getting people out of the shuttle, and there are volunteers from the Hardsuit Corps and city police services searching the buildings."

"And the island's fusion reactor?" Cyber Six asked grimly, even as she directed more men to help get people out of the spreading fire.

"The flames haven't reached it yet," Honey told her, "and the staff assures me that the emergency systems will keep it safe."

"That's not as comforting as I hoped," Cyber Six admitted.

Within the burning building Catrine's hardsuit pierced the smoke and flames, the on board sensors helping find people trapped in the rubble. With the suit's superior strength the casually lifted a chunk of roofing off several injured, then guided the medical teams over.

'Don't let yourself be nervous,' Catrine told herself firmly, she and other hardsuit wearing volunteers searching the rubble, 'the suit will protect me.' She smiled slightly under her helm, 'Hell, the suit could save me from a nuke!'

"Good work," Priss Asagiri told her as she helped hold a support beam up over her head, her blue colored suit gleaming. "How you holding up?"

"I'm fine, ma'am," Catrine squeaked, more than a bit in awe of the commander. Priss had appeared at the Hardsuit corps baracks and called for volunteers almost as soon as she heard about the crash, and Catrine had been swept up with the group.

"Well, be careful," Priss cautioned, "it's easy to get dehydrated with long periods of Suit work. Take a break every now and then."

"Will do," Catrine promised as she and another Harduit pilot picked up more life signs and began to dig more injured out.

Up at the Palace Queen Serenity stared out the window over Crystal Tokyo Bay, the silver-white haired women frowning intently. "I want to go help," she growled, her white gown flowing around her.

"I do too," Endymion said honestly, his simple tunic and pants chosen for comfort, "but if we do, most of the people there will be worrying about us, rather than saving people."

"He's right," Minako agreed, the blond haired woman nodding as she watched a news report on a nearby screen.

Serenity bit her lip as more emergency vehicles landed on the island, "I know, but..."

"Besides," Motoko Kusanagi noted, the brown haired military cyborg standing nearby Minako, as usual, "we have a team on scene." She smiled faintly, "And it appears the second generation has leaped into action."

"Second generation?" Endymion looked at her questioningly.

Minako gave her partner a chiding look, apparently not having planned on releasing the information. "Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen are on scene along with Sailor Saturn," she told them, "and apparently Sailor Ares has been seen too."

"Usagi?" Serenity paled a bit, then made herself relax. She was concerned for her daughter, but she knew the young woman had to be given the chance to grow up eventually.

Endymion looked at both intelligence women with a thoughtful look. "You know who Sailor Ares is, then?" he asked.

"We do," Minako admitted, "in fact it ended up being pretty obvious. I think it was the disguise magic that made it hard to figure out."

Serenity frowned at Minako as she demanded, "So who is it?":

"Ran Mizuno," Minako said simply.

Back on the island one of the parked shuttles exploded in a burst of fire and light. The power cores that ran each shuttle were normally quite safe, but they absorbed energy at a incredible rate, and when they hit their limit they became highly unstable.

Sailor Ares grunted with effort as she used her control over head and flames to try to hold the fire back from any of the other structures. "Are you done yet?" she grunted with effort, the fire beating at her shimmering barrier of pure willpower.

"Just about done," Erica Tenoh answered, garbed as her Tuxedo Mask identity as she helped pull people out of the nearest building. "They're evacuating from the west side of the island," she gestured as she ordered the people, "get going!"

"Thank you," a older man nodded, the group rushing away.

"Okay," Sailor Saturn hefted her spear-like weapon, "get clear."

"Right," Sailor Ares jumped away as Tuxedo Kamen followed close behind.

"Just like we planned," Sailor Moon reassured her lover, the pink haired woman putting a comforting hand on Sailor Saturn's shoulder.

"Right," Sailor Saturn focused her will as the flames raged away in front of them, "SILENCE WAVE!" The burst of concussive force blasted out, hitting the flames like the blast wave of a small bomb, driving away the air even as it snuffed the flames.

"Well, it worked," Tuxedo Kamen mused as they took in the wreckage, "but..."

The shuttle was cracked open, the building nearby was listing to one side, and the ferro-concrete base of the island was actually dented. "I guess I'll have to reduce my power more if we're going to use this again," Saturn admitted.

"Well, at least this fire is out," Erica shrugged, "let's go help with the next section."

Cyber Six felt a surge of relief at seeing the younger Sailore Senshi, even though she knew it was a irrational feeling. She knew the girls couldn't solve all their problems, but somehow just having them there felt better.

The fires were being fought into submission, but the damn shuttle power cores were overloading from the heat. Every time they felt they could get a handle on the mess, a shuttle core detonated and they were in trouble once more. It was incredibly frustrating, and there didn't seem to be much they could do about it.

The representative of the shore patrol, Natsuki Tokhia, hurried up to the women even as the black haired athlete wondered why the city cop was running the situation. 'Still, it's not like anyone here stepped up,' she conceded mentally. "Natsuki Tokhia, reporting!" she said, saluting.

"Tokhia," Cyber Six nodded, "Is there anything we can do about the shuttles?"

Natsuki pushed back her black hair, "I've got volunteers willing to try to fly the intact shuttles off the island, but with the unstable power cores..."

"It's too risky, they could blow in mid-air," Cyber Six grimaced.

"The only other option I can think of is sealing them and pushing them into the bay," Natsuki offered, knowing that the shuttle companies would throw a fit over that idea.

"That won't do over well," Honey winced, the blond using a communicator to relay data to the city managers.

"True enough," Cyber Six sighed. Just then a blond haired teen dressed in a skimpy black costume flew by, her staff glowing with power as Cyber Six blurted, "What the hell?"

"Alicia Testarossa," Honey noted, "she's doing community service to make up for trashing a security Hardsuit team."

"Ah," Natsuki blinked. She hesitated, watching the fire dance along the edge of the island then looked over at Honey, "Could I borrow your communicator? I think I know someone who can help, and my unit doesn't have priority clearance to cut through interference."

"Go ahead," Honey passed it over.

Cyber Six found herself listening in, even though she knew she shouldn't. "Mother, it's me," Natsuki started. "Yes, I know I haven't seen you much since I came back from Aqua," then more conversation, "Yes, mother, I know." More gabbing, "I know."

"Poor kid," Cyber Six murmured to herself as fire boats moved into position to pump water on the flames, barely making a dent in them.

"Mother, enough!" Natsuki cut her off, then quickly said, "There is a major fire at the airport, and we are barely keeping it contained." Much more gently the woman added, "We could really use your help." She listened, nodded and smiled, "Thank you."

"Tokhia," Honey looked at her thoughtfully, "as in, Mai Tokhia? The Hime?"

"That's her," Natsuki agreed with a sigh.

It took only a few minutes for her to arrive, then Cyber Six breathed out, "Holy shit." She had seen a lot over the years, but the orange haired woman clinging to the back of a metal armored firebird was pretty damn striking.

Mai leaped off as golden rings materialized around her arms and legs, letting her float above the flames. She crossed her arms and concentrated, her eyebrows coming together as she floated there. Gradually, first with one or two flames then in rivers of fire, the heat energy was drawn up into Mai, the woman glowing brightly.

Seeing the fire weakening the fire fighting teams redoubled their efforts, pouring water and fire fighting chemicals on the blaze. At the same time the deployed hardsuits used concussion blasts to blow out sections of the fire, along with the Senshi and Alicia. Finally the fire was beaten down, the last flames dying away after hours of work.

"Wow," Honey murmured as the now brightly glowing Mai descended to where they stood.

"I have to go vent this heat," Mai said, staying carefully back as the thermal energy practially rolled off her, "I'll be right back." With that she rose like a rocket, shooting far above the city before releasing a burst of fire and light.

Erica sighed tiredly as she took off her top hat, the black haired young woman wiping her brow. "That was too damn close," she sighed.

Catrine took off her Hardsuit's helm, standing taller than her girlfriend for once. "Thank you for your help," she said.

Sailor Ares nodded slightly, "It was kind of cool, working with this many people."

"True enough," Sailor Saturn agreed. She looked at Ares thoughtfully, "You do realize your parents are going to see images of this."

"I'd better tell them," Ares conceded, sighing. "Can I count on you for moral support?" she asked.

"Of course," Sailor Moon agreed brightly.

To be continued...

Notes: Bringing together a bunch of plot threads and characters. I had featured Natsuki Tokhia a while back, so I thought it'd be good to see what happened to her. More to come, of course.