Eternal City Crystal Tokyo

Chapter 75

Tuxedo Kamen leaped and rolled, the woman in the tuxedo dodging beam weapons with ease.

"Everyone, we need to break in!" Sailor Ares declared, leading the group while casually slapping beams out of the air with her sword.

Sailor Moon (former chibi-version) gestured with her wand, forming a shield to block incoming beam fire. "The Embassy force fields are up," she said, "how do we do that?"

"That would be me," Sailor Saturn smiled. She raised her glave, concentrated, then slashed down. The force field popped like a soap bubble.

"Wow," Alicia Testarossa blinked, the blonde mage mildly stunned.

"Yeah," Subaru Yagami agreed. She had been thinking of trying a 'Starlight Breaker' like attack, but hadn't been sure she could do it.

"I'll get the doors," Catrine said, the woman piloting a red and black hardsuit. As weapons fire pinged off her armor, she used her suit systems to plug into the locks and over-rode them. The heavy armored doors pulled back.

"All right, first we need to save the hostages," Ares said briskly.

"Bardiche," Alicia ordered her Device, "area scan, holographic display."

The inside of the Embassy came up in a glowing, 3-D display. There were soldiers on the roof, in the command center, and a large group in the main dining room.

"Hostages would be in the dining area," Tuxedo Kamen noted, "they'd want to keep the staff away from anything they could mess with. Or call for help."

"Agreed," Ares nodded briskly. "We'll need to split up. Alicia, Subaru, Catrine and Tuxy, you get to rescue the hostages."

"Why us?" Subaru asked.

"You and Alicia can do force fields to protect the hostages, and Tuxy and Catrine are used to working together," Ares said.

"Makes sense," Alicia agreed.

"Try not to kill the attackers," Sailor Moon added. "We want them alive for questioning."

"Will do," Tuxedo Kamen agreed.

"We'll try," Alicia corrected. If the people they were fighting intended to end their lives, well... they couldn't promise anything.

Both groups headed out...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"You DO realize that this is a huge diplomatic incident," Queen Serenity noted mildly, several hours later.

"I really didn't see how we had an option," Usagi shrugged eloquently.

"True," Serenity puffed out a breath.

The Embassy of the League of Non-Aligned worlds had been seized by a band of terrorists. While various agencies had debated what to do, Usagi had organized her friends, raided the building and rescued everyone involved.

"Did the Ambassador recover?" Usagi asked. The group had rescued her, but she appeared to have been tortured.

"Gail Huff, yes," Serenity had the oddest look on her face. "That's an unexpected complication," she sighed.

"Huh?" Usagi asked.

"Her wounds appear to be self inflicted," Serenity noted.

Usagi blinked, "Say what?"

"Yeah," Serenity made a face. "Mina is looking into it... we'll hopefully know more soon."

"Damn," Usagi muttered. None of the implications of that were good...

"Anyway," Serenity smiled, "while I can't praise you officially, personally I feel that was very well done. Thank you."

"I'll pass that on to the others," Usagi said, blushing a little.

"I hope none of the families are too upset," Serenity mused.

"Yes, well...," Usagi made a face.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"We were so worried!" Michiru yelped once Erica got home. :Are you all right?" she asked, looking her over.

"Mooooooom," Erika sighed, but she submitted to a fierce hug.

"Good job," Haruka clapped her on the shoulder.

"I can sort of see why you don't do this as often anymore," Erika quietly admitted, "that was scary as hell."

"That and Haruka can't really use 'World Shaking' on a small scale anymore," Michiru teased, "if she tried that, no more Embassy."

"That too," Haruka conceded.

Michiru lead them to the couch, "You're probably shaky and a little wired. Sit, relax and have a cup of tea."

"Thanks," Erica agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ran Mizuno entered her apartment, then was pounced on, then knocked onto her back by an annoyed catgirl.

"YOU IDIOT!" First Fang Za'tair growled.

"Ack!" Ran yelped.

"Why didn't you call me?" she added crossly.

"Sorry. I thought we'd be in and out quicker than that," Ran admitted

"Hmph," Za'tair sat back, still sitting on Ran. A bit more meekly she added, "I'm glad you're all right."

"Me too," Ran smiled. She added wryly, "I'm glad it wasn't the Khanite embassy we were raiding. We'd never get past the outer defences."

"Ha. No terrorist would ever take us anyway," Za'tair sniffed. She got up, then pulled Ran to her feet.

"Thanks," Ran said.

"Come! Now, we will celebrate your glorious victory!" her girlfriend dragged her off towards the bedroom.

"Yes, dear..," Ran chuckled.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Subaru's parents were a bit upset over the danger she had been in, but on the other hand were impressed by her meeting Sailor Moon. Caroline's family was still sort of unhappy about her being a Hardsuit pilot, but were proud of her.

Minako Aino frowned as she looked at Ami. "Are you certain?" she asked.

Ami Mizuno gave her a LOOK.

"Right, you wouldn't say that if you weren't certain," Mina admitted.

"WHY, though?" Ami asked, a expression of distaste on her face.

Mina gave her a sympathetic look as she admitted, "That's usually the hardest question to answer, in these sort of cases."

Ami nodded as she put the file on Mina's desk. "This is the only copy of my results, as I assume this is more of your covert stuff."

"It is, thank you," Mina nodded.

They closed up the lab, then Mina went up to her office.

"Morning," Motoko smiled, the full body cyborg studying a file, "we have tentative confirmation on your theory."

"Why tentative?" Mina asked her lover curiously as she sat behind her desk.

"Distance and communication lag." Motoko shrugged, "our agents confirmed the mercenaries were hired, but it'll take time before the physical media get here."

"That's fair," Mina conceded. She thought for a moment, "We'll hold off on confronting them, then. It might even help us, letting them stew for a bit."

"You are a evil woman, dear," Motoko noted cheerfully.

"Thank you," Mina smirked.

"Alucard wanted to know why we didn't send them in. I explained we want to keep them covert, and attacking a Embassy is NOT covert," Motoko smiled.

Mina snorted, "Exactly."

To be continued...

Notes: The original Sailor Scouts, at this point, are HUGELY overpowered. Which is why they're retired, basically. The Outers, interestingly, are actually worse.

"Where did the CITY go, Uranus?"

"Uhm... oops?"