"Just relax." Nephlite told her. "We'll tell you what to do. Alright, first we have to boot up the gate passage to the BETA-verse. We're doing that right now, it will only take us a moment. After that we'll log you into the BETA-verse."
"How, do I know I'm there?" she asked in confusion. They make it sound like they were logging into their e-mail on the internet. she thought a bit huffily as she waited for an answer.
"Trust us, you'll know." answered Zoisite.
"Well...alright." she muttered.
And now to continue...
---------------
Usagi was beginning to feel like an idiot as she sat in the chair. Nothing was happening really except that a small green light was beginning to blink in the glowing blue visor. "Hey, guys, how much longer will this take because I'm beginning to feel-" Suddenly, the green little light grew and the visor turned green. "Woah! Is it supposed to do that?"
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry Usagi-chan, you're being well taken care of." snorted Zoisite into her ear. Quietly she heard him and another person talk where the only word she really made out was "Sir?" before she heard her brother take over the line.
"Hey, Nee-chan, what's it like!" asked Shingo excitedly. She heard an "oof!" before her mother and father both tried to talk to her at the same time.
"Usagi-chan, are you alright?"
"Don't worry, Usagi-chan, we're right here so don't worry!"
"Hey, I wanna talk to her!" she heard Shingo shout over his parents voices. Usagi rolled her eyes. Leave to her family to steal Zoisite's microphone to say silly things. She could even hear Zoisite demanding his headset back along with Mamoru's snickering and Nephlite's "Oh, dear." Finally, Zoisite got the headset and huffed loudly.
"Alright, Usagi-chan one last step before you're in. On the screen, it will ask for you to verbally give a password. The password will be keyed specifically to your voice, alright?" he said as he typed away. She thought a moment before murmuring a sound of agreement. "Okay, your password is "daughter of Hyperion"."
"Alright." she said. "Um...do I give it now?"
"Wait for a little yellow light to show up in the corner." answered Mamoru.
"It should be there now." commented Nephlite. True enough, a little light began beep in the corner. "Say it when it says "Password"."
She waited another moment before a blinking "PASSWORD" showed up in corner replacing the small light. Taking a steading breath, she gave the password. "Daughter of Hyperion!" she shouted clearly.
Suddenly, just like the green screen from before the entire visor turned yellow. But something different happened this time; the screen flashed yellow for a moment before flashing red, then blue, green, and yellow finally before starting the process again before the colors blended together. Usagi began to feel slightly sea sick and quickly scrunched up her eyes. A moment of dizziness and disconcertation later, she carefully opened herself to find herself floating in a void. "Eek!" she yelled, windmilling her arms about.
"Usagi!"
"Ehh?" she squeaked, looking about. She looked about for what had seemed to be a soft feminine, almost motherly.
"Usagi-san! It's alright, don't worry!" called a very different voice. Usagi gulped a deep breath and closed her eyes once more before carefully opening her eyes once more. Urawa stood above her, staring down with cautious eyes as she gaped at him. "Ahh...Usagi-san, you can get up now."
Blushing thickly, she bounced up onto the balls of her feet and turned to Urawa. "Ah! Urawa-kun, did you hear a voice just now?" she asked advancing upon him. Urawa blinked and took a step back from the young fiery woman. "And where the heck are we!"
"Umm, I didn't hear anything but right now, we've entered the BETA-verse." he told her giving her a wide berth. Such a strange girl! Not unkind, but still very excitable... he thought as she gaped at him before wheeling about to stare at their surroundings.
Usagi was surprised to see was appeared to a pock marked, scarred, grey land. It was like the pictures of the lunar surface Usagi had seen in her science book, except instead of being relatively flat, the ground was penetrated by strange almost stalagmite rocks shooting into the inky blackness that made up an unnatural sky. Instead of standing on the ground, Usagi and Urawa floated at least a meter above the ground. Usagi stared down beneath her feet and gave a shiver of both excitement and fear. At last, she was finally in the BETA-verse!
"Alright, then Usagi-san?" asked Urawa, cocking his head to the side as she viewed the surroundings. "Not quite what you expected, huh?" he said with a grin. She twisted about as she looked but nodded to him anyway.
"I expected it to be a bit more...inviting, I guess!" she conceded, as she looked about.
"Hey, hey, Usagi-chan!" piped Zoisite into her ear. Usagi gasped and jumped at the voice. "Steady girl, no need to panic."
"Where are you?" she asked loudly uncertain of what to do. At her side, Urawa smiled; new people in the BETA-verse were very funny to watch.
"In the same place I was five minutes ago. The control room." he snorted. "About a floor from your body. So, what's it like in the BETA-verse, Usagi-chan?"
"My body!" she squeaked. "Somebody explain exactly what happened, please!" she shouted. To her irritation, she heard her brother steal Zoisite's microphone again and shouted in her ear.
"It was cool, nee-chan!" he shouted in joy. Obviously he was enjoying himself a little too much for her comfort. "You had like a mini-seizure and foamed at the mouth and then you went like "bleh!" and passed out!"
"Usagi-chan, are you okay!" she heard her mother shout over the line. With a sigh, Usagi and Urawa listened as Zoisite wrestled his microphone back from her family. Finally, he had it back in hand and muttered things about "annoying families". Seeing that Zoisite wouldn't be done anytime soon, Nephlite stepped in and began to answer her questions for her.
"Usagi-san, you went through a mild seizure because of an adverse reaction to the log in process. Like a person going into a seizure because of strobe lights." he told her. "Nearly all candidates have it happen the first time which is one reason why those cables are so heavy. Anyway, you're vitals are perfectly fine. Right now, your brain's entered REM state which allows you to gain entrance to the BETA-verse."
"Rem?" she echoed confused. Urawa picked up on her confusion.
"REM state is the state of sleep in which you dream." he answered. "REM state is the only way to enter the BETA-verse. It's physically impossible for us now with the technology we have now to enter the BETA-verse physically. In REM, your brain slips into the BETA-verse just like when you had those dreams before, remember?"
"Are you saying we're dreaming this?" she asked in surprise.
"Something like that. What's happened is you have more less stepped out of your body and straight into the BETA-verse in layman's terms." he explained. "It's like an out of body experience really."
"No kidding." she muttered as she looked about. "So what do here?"
"For today nothing." Mamoru cut in. "On your first dive, everyone gets to dive for about half a hour before logging out. We don't want any youma to find you on your first try. Right now, we're going to have you test out your weapons first."
"Weapons?" she asked.
"Weapons to defend against the youma." answered Nephlite. "A weapon is assigned to a single individual and specified to that person's stats."
"So, I get a weapon." she repeated. She heard her brother shout loudly in the back ground how "cool" it was and how jealous of her he was. "Where do I get the weapon."
"It'll show up in your visor." Nephlite told her quietly.
"My-oh!" she gasped. She hadn't realized she was wearing a visor; unlike her giant headset in the diving chamber, a free floating visor hung in front of her face. Over her left eye, a pop-up menu appeared. In the menu, a list of various types of weapon appeared from sling shots to glaives. She blinked as the menu scrolled down before landing on sword. "Alright, I guess I'll try this one first?"
"Go right ahead." Mamoru told her. "Choose which one you want the most and which suits you best."
"Suits me best?" she echoed. Frowning, she scrolled up the menu til she landed on "Frisbee". "I'm pretty good with a frisbee." she said aloud. She felt warmth grow in her right hand as a little red ok! appeared in the corner. A light flashed and a small crescent shaped boomerang appeared in her hands. Eyeing it warily, she bent her knees and gave it a good toss.
It cut through the air as it arched high and spun back to her. It flew to her hand, glowing again as it made contact with her palm. Feeling more confident with it, she gave it another toss with a smile. "You know, I don't see how a boomerang could be-" she stalled in shock as the boomerang sailed straight ahead and cleanly cut a rock straight through before returning to her. "...a weapon..."
"Nifty, ne, Usagi-chan?" chirped Zoisite into her ear. "That the one you want then?"
"Umm...yeah..." she murmured cradling the boomerang gently in both hands with fascination. "I'll think it'll do."
"Good!" he laughed. "I'll have a specialized frisbee for you next time you dive!"
"Alright, Usagi-san," said Mamoru. "I want you to log off now."
"What!" she shouted. "No! I haven't done anything yet! And where's the moon doll!" she snapped at him angrily.
"Usagi-san..." interrupted Urawa. "We haven't found her yet."
"Wha?" she asked in shock.
"It's true." agreed Mamoru. "The LUNA doll will only come forth when the MOON SENSHI will appear in need of her most. Right now, she hasn't appeared yet to any of the candidates. Anyway, we need you too to log off now. Urawa-san, Usagi-san, log off now!"
"How do we do that anyway?" she asked.
"We start up the exit procedure and then it will ask for your password. When it does, just say it and you'll log out." he answered her. "Now, wait for it to ask and then log out. Understand?"
"Yes, sir." she answered in annoyance. She waited and listened as they started the log out process when something very strange happened. Text flashed onto her visor.
Hello, Usagi.
"Huh?" she gasped. "Zoisite-kun, is this a joke?"
"Joke?" he repeated in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
I've been waiting for you...
...for a very long time.
"Alright, now knock it off!" she shouted in exasperation.
---
"Chiba-sama...I'm getting a strange reading from Usagi's visor." reported Nephlite.
"What's going on?" he asked moving to him. Zoisite turned to talk as well.
"I'm getting the same thing...It looks like messages addressing Usagi-chan!" he said quickly. Mamoru grimaced.
"Could someone being trying to hack the system and communicate with Usagi-san from the outside?" he asked. Zoisite shook his head.
"Impossible. I have the system more secure than Fort Knox! If somebody could manage to hack us, then we deserve to get hacked because I have checked this entire system more than I can count. Do you know how many files that is?" he answered with a twitch at the end. He was a bit maniacal when it came to his baby of a computer.
"So then, what could be doing this?" asked Nephlite, ignoring most of his friend's rant.
"Well, it's not coming from the outside...so it's possible," he said, "that's it's coming from the inside."
Mamoru's eyes narrowed. "So who could that be...?"
"Sir?" asked a voice from behind them. Fish Eye and the rest of the candidates stood there beside the panicky Tsukino family. "We think we know."
"And?" he asked, turning his full attention on her.
"We think it might be..."
---
"...LUNA doll?" Usagi whispered as she realized who was writing to her. Urawa's eyes were as round as dinner plates as he watched her talk to the doll on her visor.
Yes, Usagi.
Usagi, please you must...
...be careful! Your enemies...
...are drawing closer!
"What?" she gasped in surprise, Urawa at her side read the text and gasped.
"Youma!" he shouted as he ducked away, a long dark brown blur flashed and slammed into the spot he had just been. Usagi stiffened and slowly looked over her shoulder.
She wished she hadn't.
About two meters away, a almost skeletal figure retracted the long brown arm that had shot out for Urawa. It looked like a tall woman with brown hair flying out around her head. "She" had brown colored skin pulled taunt over her features as if she almost didn't have enough skin. Her eyes were completely black except for her yellow irises. She wore a long, ragged purple dress and a smile full of shattered, decayed teeth. Upon her forehead, a star burst scar stretched out.
"AHHH!" Usagi screamed as she jumped over to Urawa. In Urawa's hand, light glowed then formed a long, sharp looking sword. Taking the cue, Usagi's boomerang appeared in her hand and she nervously took a defensive posture.
"Ha, think you can stop Morga, then?" barked the youma. "Let's find out!"
Usagi yelped and ducked as Morga pounced upon then and swung her boomerang at her as Urawa sliced at her with the sword. To both of their horrors their weapons bounced off her tough body. "She isn't like the rest of the youma!" stuttered Urawa in surprise. "Zoisite-san, log us out!" he shouted. Usagi felt her stomach drop out as she heard the answer.
"We can't! Something stopping us!"
Usagi! I shall...
...help you! Call out...
...my name and I shall come!
"Alright!" she squeaked. Morga turned and looked at her, mouth gaping open in laughter at her. With a scream, she jumped out of the monster's reach. "Ack!"
Usagi! Do it now!
"Okay! LUNA DOLL!" she screamed.
Her entire shone with golden light, bathing her in calm warmth. Oh... she thought distantly, as the warmth drew into her hand. In her cupped hands, the small, beautiful LUNA doll shone. Morga screamed and hid her eyes from the light as Urawa's mouth formed a perfect "o".
"Usagi! Call out Moon Transform!" called the small doll.
Usagi nodded slowly and lifted out the doll. "Mooooooooon...TRANSFORM!" she shouted. Around her body, the warm golden light returned and swirled around her pulling her into its spin. As she spun she felt the light condescending upon her suit, changing it. Around her chest, armor clinked into place, forming around her breast. Upon her arms, large arm guards snapped into place. On her legs, more armor formed around her. Even upon her head, she felt a change; two small discs appeared on her buns, and her visor disappeared. In her hand, a pink scepter flashed into existence.
"I don't believe it!" gasped Urawa. "Usagi-san is-!"
"The MOON SENSHI!" gasped Zoisite as he looked up to the video screen above him on the monitor. Mamoru's mouth fell open as he looked upon the scene.
"Now, Usagi! Call out Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
"Right!" she shouted. Morga screamed and raced to her; she reached out and quicker than she could stop her caught hold of Usagi's neck. "Ugh!" she yelped as Morga tightened her hold on Usagi's neck.
"Usagi!" gasped Mamoru, as he watched on the video screen above, displaying the scene to the entire control room. There was gasps all around as they watched the monster bare down on Usagi but he was deaf to it all.
"Usagi-san!" gasped Urawa. All thought was suspended as the single notion of "have to help Usagi!" ran through his head making him bring his sword down hard upon Morga's back. With a hiss, Morga let go and swatted at him.
Taking her chance, Usagi jumped away, rubbing her sore neck. Bringing her scepter up, she called out. "Moon!" she shouted, swinging her scepter back. "Spiral!" she called, beginning to spin before stopping, kneeling mid air. "Heart ATTACK!"
Morga barely had a chance to scream as the blast destroyed her. With out even a chance to see the end of the battle, the yellow glow returned, enveloping the entire battlefield. All Usagi heard before she passed was Mamoru's gasped "Usagi!" as she passed out.
---------------
Hah, I'm not dead! I just took awhile! Anyway, the next chapter's already started and I'll tell you it's more of an interlude as the plot moves on. We get to see Usagi's reaction to being the MOON SENSHI along with some Naru/Nephlite/Umino development. They deserve it! Well, see you soon!
