THE OUTLAW

Chapter 7: "Freedom Of Choice"

By Bill K.

Quad was on the line. He'd just asked Jun-Jun if she wanted to have some fun.

"How did you get my link?" she gasped, stunning to be even hearing him.

"I've got ways," he replied matter-of-factly - - as if there was no place on Earth she could hide from him.

"What ways?" Jun-Jun asked warily.

"Look, you want to have fun or not?" he demanded.

"Why me?" Jun-Jun asked, while a part of her brain howled in protest. "I'm not one of your crowd."

"I hang around with who I want to hang around with," Quadrel replied, "and nobody tells me otherwise. Not my friends - - and not your sister."

"My sister?" Jun-Jun cried. "What do you mean?"

"Your sister came to see me earlier," he told her. "The one with the mountain of hair."

"And?"

"We exchanged points of view."

"So you're asking me out just to spite her?"

"Look, birdee," Quad began and she could hear the annoyance in his voice. "I asked you because I thought we could have some fun together. You got a tight little body and you don't go to tears when my vehicle hits two-hundred. Don't read anymore into it. Now do you want to go or not?"

Jun-Jun paused, torn. Each moment of silence made her nervous. She expected to hear Quadrel disconnect at any moment.

"I," Jun-Jun whispered, "shouldn't."

"Your loss," he commented blandly. The link went dead.

So did Jun-Jun's heart. The girl flopped back onto her bed, wondering if she'd just destroyed any chance she had to be happy ever again.

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In the library wing of the palace, Usa and Hotaru worked together researching a paper. She had been able to leave her quarters only through her father's intervention and only because it involved school work. Usa didn't care so long as it got her out of her quarters and let her see Hotaru. The paper was for their history class and dealt with the middle twenty-seventh century confrontation between Queen Serenity and the group of rebels led by Dimando. Known in the history files as The Nemesis Rebellion, the topic was first suggested by Hotaru. As they delved into the research and Hotaru realized the Nemesis Rebellion's connection with the Black Moon invasion of the early 2990s, she offered to change topics.

By that time, though, Usa had developed a keen interest in the rebels who had been turned to evil by the strange entity they all would later know as Wiseman.

"You know, the more I read about Dimando," Usa commented as they researched, "the more tragic he becomes."

"How so?" Hotaru asked. "Because he was in love with your mom?"

"No, that part's just creepy - - especially considering how much I look like her."

"Because of Wiseman?"

"That's part of it. You didn't have to be evil to fall under Wiseman's spell - - Wiseman was evil enough for anybody. You just had to be gullible." She looked down. "Like certain people."

"Or unwilling to see both sides," suggested Hotaru. "That's the way Dimando comes across to me. He felt cheated and denied, and he was so convinced he was right that he didn't see how his actions were affecting other people. And once he and his friends fell under Wiseman's influence after they exiled themselves to the Black Moon, they were easy prey."

"Sometimes I wonder if that's a good explanation for me, too," Usa mused. "Somebody so convinced she's right that she doesn't see how she's affecting others."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself. Or were you secretly planning on conquering the twentieth century?" Hotaru asked, her shy smile masking the sly dig at her friend.

Usa smirked. "Pop banned me from using the Door of Time, remember?" she volleyed back.

Just then Diana ran into the room. She leaped up onto the table the two girls were working on and skidded to a stop. Both girls could see she was quite agitated.

"My Lady, there you are!" Diana exclaimed.

"What's up, Diana?" Usa asked, noting the cat's urgency.

"Your mother was involved in an incident at the gate just now!" Diana reported. "There was a young girl - - and she had a knife!"

Usa was out of her chair and out the door like a shot.

"Is the Queen all right?" Hotaru asked.

"Yes, yes," Diana replied. "But it was so dreadfully frightful, Hotaru!"

The doors of the Royal Chambers whisked open just in time to allow the speeding Usa to pass through unrestricted. The pink-tressed tornado looked around and spotted her mother sitting at a table with Luna. She bolted for the room and ran right up to the seated monarch.

"Mom!" Usa gasped. "I heard about the girl with the knife! Are you all right?"

"Yes, Usa, I'm fine," Serenity nodded. "Fortunately nobody was hurt."

"What did she want with you?"

"The girl wasn't after me," Serenity explained. "I only tried to resolve things peacefully. Apparently she has a dispute with Jun-Jun."

"Jun?" gasped Usa.

"Yes, it's apparently over some boy," Serenity added. She looked squarely at her daughter. "Usa, could you go to her? Jun-Jun seems very distraught. I think she could use a caring friend right about now."

"Sure," Usa nodded, galvanized by the idea. "I'll go talk to her right now." She turned to leave, but turned back. "You're sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine," Serenity smiled.

"Then I'm gonna go," Usa said and flew through the door. "Don't wait up!"

"What else is new?" Serenity smiled to herself, both forgetting that Usa was grounded.

"I must say, the Princess does have a caring heart," Luna commented, "as big and as wide as her impetuous streak."

"As long as she keeps the first, I'll live with the second," Serenity concurred.

"I thought you two were fighting," Luna said knowingly.

Serenity bowed her head to hide a small, grateful smile. "I guess we're not anymore." Then she let out a huge sigh. "And I'm so glad! I HATE being the strict parent!"

"I can certainly see why," scowled Luna. "It isn't as if you're very proficient at it."

"Oh, stop picking on me!" huffed the Queen.

On her way to the quarters the Asteroid Senshi shared, Usa ran into Cere-Cere. The girl had been spending some time with Gallan and had heard nothing of the confrontation outside of the palace front gate. When the Princess related what she knew, Cere-Cere broke into a run for their quarters, Usa trailing.

"Hello, Cere-Cere!" Palla-Palla chirped sweetly. She was sitting in her corner with her dolls. "Hello, Princess! Did you come to play with Palla-Palla?"

"Palla-Palla, where's Jun?" Cere-Cere asked frantically.

"She's in her room," Palla-Palla said, her expression of joy fading. "Jun-Jun is very sad about her boyfriend. She says he's bad for her, like too much candy. Palla-Palla thinks she has a tummy ache, only higher up."

Cere-Cere and Usa exchanged pained expressions.

"I'd like to get this creep and claw his eyes out," Cere-Cere muttered. She knocked on the door. "Jun? You OK?"

"Maybe she doesn't want to talk," Usa suggested. "Who is this guy, anyway? The one from the beach?"

"Yeah. His name's 'Quadrel', I think." Cere-Cere knocked again. "Jun?"

"I'm beginning to wish we'd never gone to that beach," mumbled the Princess.

When there was still no answer, Cere-Cere grew worried.

"Palla-Palla, she didn't leave, did she?"

The girl shook her head, her dangling balls whipping around. "Palla-Palla has been here since school."

"Jun, open up," Cere-Cere responded, pounding on the door. "We can talk about this!"

"Computer," Usa demanded of the room's environmental control computer, "location of Jun-Jun in the palace."

"Jun-Jun is not in the palace," replied the computer.

"Override authority, Princess Usagi! Entry into sleeping quarters of Jun-Jun!"

The door slid open. Usa and Cere-Cere entered. As the computer had told them, the room was empty. The room's window to the outside was open.

"She went out the window?" Usa gasped as she peered out, expecting to find Jun-Jun's dead body on the ground below. "It's four stories up!"

"That doesn't mean a thing," Cere-Cere replied, disappointed. "She's a professional acrobat, Usa. We both worked higher than this with the Dead Moon Circus." From the window,Cere-Cere peered out into the approaching night of the city, worry etched on her face.
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The sun had set over the western sky. Artificial light decorated the beach. Its only occupants were a couple of youths surfing and about twenty dropouts on the north end who clung to the place because there was nowhere else they wanted to go. A pair of air cars buzzed the area at high speed, drawing cheers and whoops from the people on the ground.

Quadrel was propped up against the side of his vehicle. He downed some saki and felt the liquid's pleasant burn in his throat. His interest in this scenario was dying with the day. If only there was something new and exciting. The women of the group had long since drifted away, due to his indifference. Kaoru was nowhere to be found and that somehow was a relief to him. His air car superiority was unquestioned. Creating sonic booms was no longer a challenge. He needed something, some spark to his life, a challenge to prove his mettle. Was it like this in the old days for the samurai he so admired? Did they have down time between their titantic adventures?

A presence invaded his sense of space. He turned around and found Jun-Jun standing at a cautious distance from him. She was dressed in a short, flattering white skirt and a long-sleeve, midriff-baring light green top. The ensemble showed her smooth legs and tight stomach off to good effect. But her red mouth was timid and her green eyes unsure.

"Hi," she ventured haltingly.

"Thought you weren't coming," Quad said neutrally.

"Guess I was wrong," she replied and it almost sounded like "I surrender".

His mouth curled ever so slightly and Jun-Jun thought she would explode with delight. "You look good," he said. "You ought to dress like that more often." He looked around, vainly searching the area to see if it held anything even remotely as interesting as Jun-Jun. "Want to go somewhere? This place is getting dull."

"Where did you have in mind?" Jun asked cautiously.

"I know a place on Mt. Fuji that's big enough to land an air car," and he flashed her a confident smirk, "if you're a good enough pilot."

"And if you're not?"

He shrugged. "Splat."

Jun-Jun flashed back to her first time she somersaulted off the high wire, the trepidation she felt before she executed the maneuver and the elation she felt when she succeeded. The thrill was similar to what she felt now.

"Besides," Quadrel added, "it's nice and quiet."

"But air cars are restricted from Mt. Fuji," Jun-Jun brought up, "and foot travel isn't allowed at night."

"Rules," sneered Quadrel. "Nobody tells me what to do. Do you want to go?"

Jun-Jun recalled the desolation she felt the last time she'd refused him.

"Yeah," she replied, concentrating on his magnetic attraction to drown out her inner voice of reason.

It was a short jump by air car to Mt. Fuji. Through the efforts of Queen Serenity, Mt. Fuji was still a pristine mountain, barely affected by the passage of time and the advance of human civilization. Unlike Everest, Aconcagua, Ojos de Salado, McKinley, Kilimanjaro and a host of other once impressive peaks now eroding due to humanity's exploitation or neglect, Mt. Fuji remained a glistening symbol of Japan's past and strength, much to the joy and pride of the Japanese people. It was one more reason they loved Queen Serenity.

The air car's landing shook the placid mountain. Some rocks tumbled down the slope, shaken loose by the air pressure forced down by the craft's landing and the vibrations of its engines. Unconcerned, Quadrel emerged and surveyed Japan from on high.

"I really don't think we should be here," Jun-Jun reiterated.

"Stop being afraid," Quadrel countered. He extended his hand and Jun-Jun moved to take it. "You let your life be run by rules, you won't experience anything."

"It's not just that," she argued cautiously, lest she make him mad. "The environmental damage of an air car up here is real. That's why those rules were put into place. We have to respect that." Quadrel jerked and pulled her up against him. Jun-Jun felt her insides tighten.

"There's only one rule I concern myself with," Quadrel replied, gazing deeply into her eyes. "That's the rule the old samurais followed: 'Live for today. The past is set in stone and the future is in the hands of the gods. The only thing you can affect is the now.'"

"But . . ."

"Look out there," he continued, pointing out towards Tokyo. Jun-Jun looked. From their vantage point, the countryside took on a vastness without losing its tranquility or its fragile beauty.

"It's very impressive," Jun-Jun whispered.

"And if you'd 'followed the rules'," Quadrel added with a sly, bad-boy grin, "you never would have seen it." He cocked an eyebrow, daring her to dispute him.

It was an impressive sight. That and Quadrel's proximity to her was making Jun-Jun feel giddy. Her skin tingled with excitement. If only they could stay here, just the two of them. Such thoughts were quickly becoming Jun-Jun's definition of utter joy.

"I'd think you'd know something about the samurai code," Quadrel said. He released her and sat down on the edge of the bluff they'd landed on. "You are a senshi, aren't you?"

"It's not something we think about," Jun-Jun replied. Quadrel extended a silent invitation to sit next to him and Jun-Jun slid in beside him.

"What's it like?"

"It's a duty. We're supposed to protect the Princess. We're also supposed to protect people in danger."

The youth nodded. "Had any battles?"

"A few."

"Battles where you could die?"

"Any battle is a battle you can die in," Jun-Jun told him.

"Ever kill anybody?" Quadrel asked.

"Quad, what my sisters and I do isn't like those virtual games in the arcade," Jun-Jun cautioned. "It's real, and the life or death of too many life forms depend on us and how we respond. It's not how many of the other guys you can kill. It's protecting life with as little bloodshed as possible."

"Yeah," Quadrel nodded, "but you could kill if you had to, right?"

"If I had to," she whispered. "But it's not something I look forward to. It's the price I have to pay for the second chance the Queen gave me."

"Spoken like a samurai," Quadrel nodded respectfully. "I wish I could be in your place. An exciting life, a chance at every turn to prove your strength or die an honorable death."

"I'd rather live an honorable life," Jun-Jun replied. Quadrel looked at her, surprised.

"Don't you see what you have? Your life is so fulfilling."

Jun-Jun snuggled up against Quadrel.

"I think this is a lot more fulfilling," she cooed.

They sat and surveyed Japan arm in arm.

"You're a lot deeper than a lot of birdees I've been with," he murmured. "You've done things that would curl the hair on most honeys - - as a senshi and before that. You're tough as a guy and yet you're tender like a girl. I've never run into anyone like you before. And you're really beautiful, too."

"You think so?" Jun-Jun asked, her head leaned back against his shoulder so she could look into his eyes.

"I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true," he said in a carefree tone. "I don't lie because I don't have to. I'm not scared about what other people might think of me. If I say you're beautiful, then you're beautiful."

"OK," Jun-Jun swallowed, beaming happily at him, "then I'm beautiful."

Quadrel bent in. He shifted his shoulders so Jun-Jun eased down to the surface of the bluff. His lips pressed to hers and Jun-Jun inhaled. Her arms snaked around his neck to hold him in place.

Not that he was going anywhere anytime soon.
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"Captain Akinori," called a junior monitor technician in the Regional Safety and Security complex. "Monitor drones have tracked air car disturbance in the Mt. Fuji area."

Captain Akinori massaged the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He was forty-seven and a career safety officer with the Crystal Tokyo force, which served all of Japan in conjunction with local officials. Public stupidity or indifference always irritated him, but seemed to do so more the older he got.

"How much do you want to wager it's some Dropout and his girl looking for a late night sex rendezvous?" muttered the officer.

"Shall I alert a patrol?" the technician inquired.

"That was the gist of Chief Nakamura's 'Get Tough' policy mandates," Akinori replied. "I hate wasting personnel on these damn Dropouts, but maybe it'll finally get through to them. Yes, send a patrol. Have the trespassers apprehended and booked."

Continued in Chapter 8