Invalid Response - Chapter 5

by Una Moonstar

ANs: Thanks to everyone who's reading, and even bigger thanks to all of you who left a review! I really appreciate the support. And now... the action! On with the show!

(fade out...)

(begin chapter...)

Serena sighed as she gazed briefly out the second story classroom window at Amy and Lita leaving the schoolyard. The weather had continued to betray the season, and it was unnaturally warm. And of course she was stuck here in detention!

"Serena!"

Ms. Haruna's sharp shriek managed to pull the blonde girl back to reality in a heartbeat. "Yes, Ms. H.?"

"You haven't heard a word I've said for the last five minutes! That's why you're here in the first place! When are you going to learn to pay attention?"

Serena cringed. "I promise I'll try harder, Ms. H., honest."

"You always promise! You promise to be on time, you promise to do your homework, you promise to do better on your tests, you promise to pay more attention in class... yet I seem to see a lot of you after school for doing those very things! What is wrong with you?" the teacher asked, exasperated.

Serena felt tears stinging her lids as she closed them to keep them inside. It certainly wouldn't do to lose it in front of Ms. H. now. She'd never take it the right way. 'Her date must have cancelled,' she thought with a lame attempt at an inner chuckle.

The tall teacher continued her tirade as Serena blocked out the harsh words. The small girl fought tooth and nail to keep her emotions in check this one time. It was only a twenty-minute detention. She could make it.

She opened an eye a crack to check the time. 'Good! Only two more minutes!' she thought, relieved. As those minutes came to a close, a muffled beeping came from Serena's bag. 'Oh, no! The scouts! There must be a youma! And Ms. H. hasn't finished yelling at me yet!' Her eyes opened in dismay. The way Ms. Haruna was rambling on, she didn't even stand a chance of getting a word in edgewise, not that that would go over well. So she merely bit her bottom lip and waited for the enraged teacher to putter out like always. 'Hang on, guys. I'll be there as soon as I can!'

Finally, ten minutes later, Ms. Haruna dismissed her, having run out of breath. Serena took off like a shot, a faint "Sorry!" trailing behind her. She tried to answer the beep, but found no one able to answer the call. The brief visual she got before turning the communicator off was the other four scouts fighting something. She swallowed a scream and somehow managed to up her speed even more.

(fade out...)

(scene change...)

Serena took a quick look around when she reached the Tokyo University commons, having transformed into Sailor Moon along the way. There was a large creature that looked like a dark brown and green satyr playing a panpipe. But instead of music, a barrage of silvery thin darts flew from the ends of the reeds. The four scouts already fighting the satyr had all taken a number of hits, but still threw their attacks.

The small blonde super hero jumped out from behind the bushes she had paused behind, having seen enough. "Stop right there, you fugitive of Greek mythology! I won't let you disturb this place of higher learning, no matter how boring it is! I'm Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice, and in the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"

A flurry of darts greeted her as she struck her customary pose at the end of her speech, and she dove out of the way, barely avoiding becoming a giant pincushion. A few of the sharp points grazed her, leaving thin lines of crimson blood in their wake. She hissed loudly at the stinging sensation.

"Never mind the speeches, Meatball Head! Finish it off!" Mars yelled from the right side of the clearing where the others were gathered.

"Right!" The Moon Wand appeared in her hands as Jupiter and Venus double-teamed the large beast to distract it. "Moon Healing Activation!" The flood of light and energy washed over the creature, leaving behind a small man with short blonde hair and black, horn-rimmed glasses. He collapsed onto the lawn.

"Yes!" Serena cried as a brief wave of weakness washed over her. It passed quickly.

"Not so fast, Meatball Head!" Mars shouted from where she stood. "What in the world took you so long? Needed a quick Sailor V fix to get you in the right frame of mind? Maybe bat your eyelashes a few times at Andrew to get the ol' adrenaline pumping, huh? Or wait, let me guess, you forgot!"

"But Mars..." Serena tried to explain. The others seemed a bit shocked at Raye's words, but were doing nothing to stop her.

"Save it, Sailor Moon!" the fire scout interrupted. "I don't have time for your lame excuses. I don't even know why I bother with you!"

"You know, that is a marvelous question," a familiar voice stated from out of thin air. A flurry of flower petals filled the air, then a tall blonde with her hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a gray general's uniform appeared where the satyr had once stood. The scouts gasped.

"Zoicite!" Serena cried. Her knuckles whitened around the Moon Wand.

The general laughed. "Of course, Sailor Moon. And I have to say, that was a marvelous show of leadership there. Arrived just in time to finish my youma off and take all the glory. Isn't that right, scouts?" She turned to face the other four girls. "You four do all the work, and she gets the credit. How fair is that? A klutz and a crybaby is your leader? How utterly embarrassing!" The scouts remained silent. "And worst of all, it was your mighty leader that lost you your only rainbow crystal." Four pairs of eyes widened, while one fell. "Why," Zoicite started as she reached into her jacket, "I believe it's this one right here." The general smirked evilly as she held out the yellow crystal on her extended left hand. Another gasp escaped the scouts.

Serena fought back tears of shame as she remembered how she had lost that crystal. But then another image from that fight popped into her head. She turned her back to the other scouts and cradled the Moon Wand to her chest as a desperate plan came to her.

"See?" the general taunted. "Your precious 'leader' is so ashamed she can't even face you! How can you follow such a pathetic example?"

The small blonde watched Zoicite focus her condescending attention on her fellow scouts from beneath her eyelashes. It was time to put this plan into action.

Uncoiling like a released spring, Serena's right arm shot out, sending the Moon Wand streaking toward the crystal resting on the cocky general's still-outstretched hand. Her body was close behind, and before Zoicite could respond to the sharp crack to her left hand, Serena had dove by, ducking into a somersault and coming up with both the wand and the crystal. "Who's embarrassed now, Zoicite?" she cried triumphantly as she jumped to her feet.

The general backed up a bit in shock as her jaw hit the ground. "You... I..." She drew herself up to her full height in a raging fury. "You'll pay for that, Sailor Moon!"

"But not before you do! Mars Fire Ignite!" A huge fireball slammed into the unsuspecting figure.

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!" A ball of lightning was not far behind.

"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!" A bright yellow beam spun her around one more time and left her dazed and breathless.

"Say goodnight, Zoicite! Moon Healing..."

A flurry of flower petals interrupted Sailor Moon's attack. "You got lucky this time, Sailor Moon. But I'll be back!" The disembodied voice faded with the petals.

Silence fell over the clearing. Then three excited whoops from two blondes and a brunette filled the air. Mina was the first to rush over to the victorious scout leader. "You did it!" she exclaimed as she hugged the smaller blonde roughly and quickly released her. Then the giddy girl began to hop up and down and around the meatball-headed scout repeating, "We have the crystal!" in a taunting tone.

Lita came a close second and crushed her small friend in a huge bear hug. "Man, did you get that witch a good one! I knew we could count on you!"

Amy, always the sensible one, walked calmly over and stopped just outside the perimeter the crazy bouncing blonde had created. Her face creased in the largest smile her friends had ever seen. "Congratulations, Sailor Moon! I knew you'd come through!"

Serena just laughed. At least as much as her restricted airflow would allow, considering Lita's vice grip. "Yes, Sailor Moon, that was quite impressive. I am very proud of you," Luna chimed in.

"Definitely," Artemis agreed. "Who knew you'd have such a big surprise up your sleeve?"

Serena giggled. "Not me, that's for sure!" Her laughter slowly died as she noticed the one missing member of the team standing outside the circle, gaze fallen, hands clasped in front of her, tears dripping from her cheeks to the ground. "Mars?" Serena asked tentatively.

The raven-haired scout brought her teary gaze up to meet the petite blonde's. The tall brunette gently released her unwitting captive. Only the tall bouncing blonde was oblivious to the tension in the air. The small blue-haired scout typed in a few calculations on her hand-held computer, then quickly snatched the giddy blonde and snapped her out of her dizzy state.

"Sailor Moon... I..." Raye began.

Serena smiled softly. "Ms. H. yelled at me for an extra ten minutes, and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. I ran as fast as I could once I escaped. I'm just glad I got here before anyone was seriously hurt. I'm sorry for being so late."

A brief sob escaped Raye's throat. "I'm sorry," she said in a barely-audible whisper. "I shouldn't have said the things I said. I didn't even give you a chance to explain. And then the crystal..." She closed her eyes as the tears began to stream down her cheeks.

Serena stepped over and took the dark-haired girl into her embrace. "Don't worry about it, Pyro. Consider it an advance payback for the next time I screw up. I'm bound to, you know. I believe I've heard Amy call it the law of averages."

Amy smiled widely as Raye began to laugh weakly. She brought her arms around the waist of the girl that held her. "You wouldn't be our Meatball Head if you didn't." She leaned in close to the blonde's ear. "I believed in you, too," she whispered.

Serena gave her an extra squeeze before letting her go. "I thought so," she said quietly. "Now then," she said to everyone present. "I believe it's time to celebrate!"

A cheer went up as the girls powered down and hurried off to their favorite hangout for their victors' spoils.

(fade out...)

(scene change...)

Zoicite collapsed to her knees as she reappeared in the queen's throne room in the Negaverse. She tried to quickly regain her breath when she suddenly felt Queen Beryl's entrance. The general shakily rose to her feet and bowed respectfully, her right fist brought to the opposite shoulder. "My queen," she murmured.

"That was a fiasco!" Beryl shouted without any preamble. "First you fail to lure out Tuxedo Mask, then you lose to the Sailor Scouts the very crystal we regained from them not three weeks ago! What is your excuse this time?"

"My queen, I... I..." Zoicite stuttered, at a loss for words.

"I somehow didn't think you'd have one. That was your last chance, Zoicite. After these last two wastes of valuable energy reserves, I can no longer tolerate your incompetence!" Malachite chose this moment to appear in the throne room in answer to his queen's previous summons. "Feel the weight of my displeasure!" Beryl pointed her right index finger and blasted the doomed general back with a huge bolt of dark energy.

"No!" Malachite cried, watching helplessly as the woman he secretly loved fell dying to the throne room floor.

"Malachite!" the queen snapped, ignoring his outburst. He snapped back to attention out of pure reflex. "You are now in charge of retrieving the rainbow crystals. See what the cost of failure is, Malachite." She gestured to the general lying on the floor gasping her last breaths. "Do not repeat her mistakes."

"Of course not, my queen." He bowed low as Beryl made her exit, the audience soon following. Once he was alone, he rushed over to the broken body left with him. "Zoicite..."

She smiled weakly as he gathered her into his arms. "Just... don't forget me..."

"Never," he said softly, gazing into her dark green eyes. Her smile grew wider as she released her last breath, her body then fluttering away in a flurry of flower petals.

Malachite stood and began to walk back to his chambers, silently vowing revenge on those who took his beloved away from him.