Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 1: Dark Kingdom.
Episode 13: A sound of thunder.

By Razor Knight
Last update: November 25, 2010
Last edited: May 24, 2017

"Demon Hunters? The name sounds familiar, but I don't know who they are, or were," Luna admitted.

Shade shrugged. "From the bits and pieces of the past I can remember, they were on our side back then. It didn't take them long to blow their cover, though."

"Wait, you knew they were around?" Terry asked. He had called the girls and they were all in his mansion once again.

"We met them during the airport battle," Naru noted, "and I don't think they're trying to frame us."

"And even if they were," Terry said, "they're as weak as a normal youma... Unless the one I saw was a rookie, which would explain a lot."

"We could use their help," Usagi said.

"I don't know, apparently their 'boss' doesn't let them interfere, just watch."

Rei snorted at that. "Either they trust our skills, or they don't want to get their hands dirty."

Ami had been checking her computer. "I found something else. They're not really weaker than us, in fact the strongest Demon Hunters were as powerful as a fourth level Senshi."

"Fourth level?" Terry asked.

"It's the stages of a Senshi's power, so to speak," Luna explained. "Right now they're at their weakest, but their power will grow exponentially with each new stage they reach."

"Exponentially, huh?"

"I remember a rumor," Shade added, "of the strongest Senshi being able to destroy planets."

"Wow, that's some power," Terry said with a smile. "But back to the Hunters..."

"The one you met is probably a weak Hunter. The main difference between them and Senshi, other than the limit of their power, is that they don't specialize in any element."

"So they're weaker but can use all elements," Ami said, almost in a whisper, then in a normal voice, she added, "their 'boss,' whoever it is, should be far stronger than us."

"It's also a matter of mana reserves and gathering," Shade noted. "Senshi have the ability to gather mana even when unconscious or asleep, and they do so without having to focus at all. Normal humans could emulate such a skill, but it would take them years to master it, and their reserves would not be as high."

"Senshi are like mana batteries, then," Terry said. "I get what you're saying. These Hunters may be stronger, but their mana will also be depleted faster. If the youma dodge, they're screwed."

"Think they will follow you again?"

Terry shook his head. "I'm sure this Mira girl will tell her allies I know about them. I don't think they're going to be playing hide and seek anymore."

"You really screwed up out there."

Mira glared at her ally. "You would've been found just as easily."

"But we know who the guy is," Calisto noted, "we could follow him..."

"Didn't you hear what I said? He knows we've been following them."

Circe shrugged. "That's not what we should be worrying about. We need to give Aries our report."

"I'll do that myself."

"Mira, you said it yourself, any of us could have been found out. In fact, we've been found out by that guy from the start. We're a team, and if there's any punishment for this failure, we're taking it as a team."

Calisto nodded at that. "We're not only a team. We're friends."

Mira smiled at the other two Hunters. "Okay, let's do this. Just don't tell my brother about this. He'll keep nagging me about it until we're sixty."

"Why aren't you in his team?"

"He wants no help from any other Hunter," Mira explained. "He's not telling me why, though."

"Maybe he doesn't want you butting in while he's dating a Senshi."

"He's not..." Mira sighed. "... Well, at least he wasn't, last time I spoke to him."

Usagi walked in and saw a new girl was sitting near her seat. She walked to her and smiled. "Hi, you must be new, my name's Usagi Tsukino."

"I'm Makoto Kino," the girl said in a neutral tone. The other students had not said a word to her, most likely the rumors had already reached them. But this one, maybe she hadn't heard them yet.

Kino, like the General? Usagi hid her surprise, her smile not faltering as she looked at the girl. "You must miss your old school."

"Not really, everyone in my old school were jerks," Makoto said. She was still upset at all the murmurs from the rest of the class, but this girl... Something about her made it easy to talk to her. "You haven't heard the rumors yet?"

"No, why?"

"Well..."

Umino popped up from besides Usagi right then. It was one of the uncanny skills that boy had. "Rumors say she got kicked out of her last school for bullying someone."

Makoto shook her head at that. "It's not my fault they tried to pick a fight with me. They attacked first."

"They?"

Makoto looked at Umino. "Yes. Five guys. Quite unfair odds, if you ask me."

Umino had to admit the rumors were most likely false. This girl was taller than most other girls her age, but she didn't seem to be the bully type. "Unfair odds, indeed. So, you managed to win, somehow?"

"I 'managed' to win, of course. I said the odds were unfair, but I meant that from their point of view."

"Wait, if they attacked you..."

Makoto smiled at Usagi. "I have no proof of that other than my word, and the 'leader' of that little gang's friends with the principal. Oh well, maybe this school will be different."

Just then, Terry walked in, noticing Makoto, and stared at her. "You don't look like they were describing you out there."

"I know," Makoto said. "Are you done staring?"

Terry smiled. "Uh, yeah, I guess I am. You're Kino, right? Any connection to the army guy?"

Makoto nodded. "He's my uncle. How do you know him?"

"Information's a valuable thing."

"You must be Zephyr. Rumors said you were a grim bastard who chases girls away."

"Depends on the girl," Terry admitted, "and I'm working on the 'grim bastard' part."

"He's got his moments," Usagi noted, "but he's a nice guy when he's not being moody."

"Are you two..."

Terry shook his head. "No, of course not."

"Oh, then the other rumor may be true."

Terry looked down. "Yeah, that one is."

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, I'll get over it. Eventually."

Beryl wasn't happy. Not that she had many reasons to be happy, lately, but her soldiers were failing too much, and too often. They were all in front of her throne, waiting for her to speak. "Kunzite, Aurite, I'm disappointed by your performance. I can almost justify the Tokyo group's failures, since they're fighting several Senshi, but you two only have to deal with a Senshi and a mage in each location."

"I will make no excuses," Kunzite said as he bowed, "but we have both been gathering more energy than the Tokyo group."

"I am aware of that," Beryl admitted, "but I want you to put killing those Senshi as a priority. Our scientists have analyzed the data on the Senshi, and they grow stronger as more of them gather."

"We will focus on bringing them down, then," Aurite said.

"Zoicite, have you found anything about the Ginzuishou yet?"

"No. It's almost as if the crystal was moving from place to place."

"Strange," Luminite admitted, "is it in one of those vehicles humans have?"

"It's a possibility," Zoicite admitted, "we will have to test that theory."

The Queen looked at her Generals. "Remember, we must hurry if we want to take over the planet. Awakening our goddess or finding the Ginzuishou would both make us stronger. And if we kill some of the Senshi before our goddess is back, dealing with the rest will be easier. And there's their Princess to deal with, if she was revived along with the others." She knew the Princess was one of the reasons they had lost in the past. She had underestimated that brat, but she would not make that mistake again.

After school, Terry had decided to make a bit of 'field research' of his own. He had followed Furita, who was, surprisingly, playing along with the "human" act. Furita had a nice sports car (maybe evil did pay after all?) and Terry, or rather Zero, had followed him, staying out of the man's sight.

The car stopped at a park and Zero landed in a small group of trees, turning back to his normal form as he did. He immediately noticed someone familiar there, and for some reason, knew that was his target.

Ami had been in the park for several minutes, sitting in a bench as she typed commands into her computer. She had been searching for clues on whatever the youma were after, but nothing she could see in the database was helping her. But there were too many sectors of the database protected with passwords, or magic, and she hadn't been able to unlock any of those yet.

She noticed someone walking to her out of the corner of her eye, and was about to look at the person, when she heard a grunt. Looking up, she saw the person was Furita, and that he had a small knife lodged in his arm. "Oh dear..."

Furita growled. The park was almost empty, so he had no qualms about transforming into his true self. He looked at the knife almost dismissively, despite the pain he was feeling, and pulled it off. "Must be that stupid underling."

"I prefer the term 'sidekick' myself," Zero noted as he calmly walked out from behind a tree. He looked at his watch and knew this would be an 'enjoyable' fight. This guy was stronger than Luminite, by quite a bit.

Nephrite realized what the others had said was right. This guy had no magic at all. Yet, this was the same guy who had given Luminite a beating last time they fought, so he knew better than underestimated him. "Just let me take care of this girl, then I'll fight you. Deal?"

Zero laughed at that. "I would agree, but since there's no girl..."

"What do you mean..." Nephrite looked around and saw his target was gone. "I will have to kill you for that."

"You're welcome to try," Zero noted, readying his swords.

"Why should I bother fighting you myself, when I can just have someone else do it for me?" Nephrite commented as a figure appeared right besides him. It was a youma, but it looked a lot like the minotaurs of legend. "Taurenis, destroy him."

Zero managed to leapt out of the way as the bull charged at him, and the creature crashed right through a tree, stopping only to get his bearings and locate his target. The creature charged again, and Zero leapt out of the way once more. This time, however, the bull made a sharp turn and headed straight to where Zero had landed.

"This is going to hurt."

"Dark Core!"

"... Or maybe not," Zero said as he saw the creature turn to dust right in front of him. "Thanks for the help, Nemesis."

"I've never liked bullies," Nemesis said, not aware of the pun she was making. "Neir!"

Nephrite stopped searching for his target as he heard that. "What... Nadia?"

Nemesis looked at him. "So you remember me."

"We don't have to fight."

"I will fight you if you don't stop draining humans."

"I'm sorry, I can't agree to that."

"Shabon Spray!"

Nephrite was suddenly surrounded by a thick fog, and looked around. "That's a nice trick. Sailor Mercury, I assume?"

"That's right. Give up or we'll attack you."

"Your mist blocks vision, and that may be enough when fighting mere youma, but..." he smiled as he looked straight to where he knew Mercury was, "...don't underestimate us Generals!" He shot a blast as he said that, and heard a surprised yelp. "We may not see you, but we can still sense your magic."

"Mercury!"

Nephrite was about to gloat, when he felt something hit him from behind, and felt a sharp pain in his stomach. Yes, he wasn't imagining it, a blade was sticking out of his torso. "What the Darkness..."

"You were so focused in fighting Senshi, you forgot about me. A dumb mistake to make in a battle, youma."

"A mistake I won't make twice," Nephrite snapped. He walked forwards, pulling the sword out of his stomach, and turned to face Zero... Who wasn't there anymore. "What?"

"Dark Core!"

The hit knocked Nephrite down, and he realized the two wounds were slowing him down. "Damn it... I'll get you back for this!"

Zero looked around as the mist vanished, and saw Mercury staggering up. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Mercury said. "Thanks for the help."

"I was just passing by," Nemesis noted.

"I was following Nephrite," Zero said.

"Be careful, if he notices you..."

"I'll just run my sword through him again."

"Don't get cocky, he's not the kind to play fair when he really wants to win," Nemesis warned. She then reached her hand out, her communicator appearing in it as she did. "Moon, what's wrong?"

"Where were you, guys?"

"Busy beating Nephrite around," Zero said.

"Oh. Did he hurt anyone?"

"He was going to drain me, but Zero stopped him," Mercury said.

"We're just done fighting a new General," Mars explained, "they're looking for something, but they seem to have no idea where it is."

"Oh, and we also got a new member," Moon said.

That last bit made the three at the park look at each other. "A new Senshi?"

"Yeah, let me explain..."

Usagi liked walking home after school, but she was starting to regret doing it this particular day. Looking over her shoulders, she could see the three men still following her. She was pretty sure she knew what these guys were after, so she needed to get home, and fast.

Being so intent in looking back, however, she didn't see the person walking around the corner until it was too late to dodge. Both went down, and the three men stared amusedly as the two girls tried to stand up.

"Hey, watch where you're going, you..." The other girl realized who this was and caught herself before completing her phrase. "Tsukino?"

Usagi saw who she had crashed on and gasped. "Makoto? I'm sorry, but I was in a hurry..." the blonde looked around and realized her little accident had helped her pursuers catch up with her. Worse yet, there were five of them, not three. "Oh dear..."

"Look at this, guys, we chased one little fish and got two instead."

Makoto stood up, glaring at the man. "Go away before you hurt yourselves."

"Ooooh! Scary!" She was a bit intimidating, actually, now that she had stood up, as she was several years younger than him, but was a few inches taller. "We just want the blondie, so how 'bout you walk away instead?"

"Oh, is that so? Okay then..." She said all this in a rather casual tone, so the left hook she threw at the man was completely unexpected. And painful, too.

"Argh! My nose!" The man staggered back. "Get her, you morons!"

Two of the men quickly grabbed her arms, immobilizing her... Or so they thought. As one of their friends rushed in to hit her, Mako gave him a headbutt, sending him crashing down. That surprised the two holding her, but not as much as her following headbutt, which sent one of her 'captors' staggering back.

Usagi had managed to move to the side, and was watching everything with a mixture of shock and awe. Makoto, now free to use one hand, punched the other man hard enough to make him fall back and release his hold on her. The last of the group glared at her and took a knife out of his pocket.

Makoto smiled at this. "Bringing a knife to a fistfight? You're quite the coward."

"I'll shut you up, girly!"

Makoto waited as the man charged, and backstepped at the last second, barely avoiding being stabbed. As the man passed by her, she knocked him down with an elbow to the back of his head.

Usagi saw the men stagger up and grimaced. Maybe she could transform and stop them? No, Luna said her powers could be deadly for humans. But these guys were going to... No, they weren't fighting, they were running away. "That was..."

Makoto looked at her. "You okay?"

"That was awesome."

Makoto smiled. "I just don't like to see people picking on those weaker than them. No offense intended."

Usagi smiled back. "None taken."

Makoto was about to say something, but a strange noise stopped her. "What was that?"

Usagi leaned around the corner and gasped. "More of them?"

Makoto looked at the scene and couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had heard about monsters attacking people in the city, but she thought they were just dumb rumors. Right now, one of those dumb rumors was ripping a car appart, as a strange looking woman stood besides it. People was running away from the creature, but for some reason, she wasn't too scared of it, herself... Maybe it was because the monster looked like a humanoid ferret with large metal mallets for hands. It was too ugly to be scary.

"I guess we should run and hide until..." Usagi started, but saw Makoto walk out and to the monster. "Wait!"

"Hey you, creep!"

"Hmph, who is this?" the woman besides the monster asked looking at her. "Aw, just some dumb human with a death wish."

"Well, I was talking to your friend, but you're quite a creepy-looking lady."

Zoicite laughed at that. "Who said I'm a woman, kid?"

Makoto blinked at that. "That doesn't really help your case."

Zoicite looked at the monster. "Marret, get her!"

The youma growled and rushed at the girl. However, the girl gave a small leap to the side, dodging the mallet blow. "Okay, you attacked first, now's my turn!" She tackled the monster, punching it in the stomach before jumping away again.

Usagi could only stand there staring as Mako fought the creature for a minute. A normal human girl, taking on youma like that?

"Usagi, what the hell are you doing? Go transform!"

The blonde looked down and saw Luna standing there. "Uh... Right. I'll be right back!"

Luna looked at the girl fighting the youma. "I can sense magic in that girl. Is she one of the Demon Hunters, or is she..."

Zoicite was fed up. A mere human, knocking his youma around like it was a weakling? "Enough of this. Down you go!"

Makoto didn't see the beam, but she sure felt its effects. She was knocked to the ground, and as she looked up, she saw the creature raising one of its hands. "Oh crap..."

"Fire Soul!"

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The two magic blasts hit the creature, vaporizing it on the spot. Zoicite looked to the side and sighed. "So the mighty Sailor Senshi decided to show up. I suppose I can amuse me with you two for a while."

"What are you up to, youma?" Mars snapped

"Just searching for a little something, but our theories were apparently wrong."

"We're tired of you guys," Moon said, "for wrecking cars, we will punish you!"

Mars shook her head at that. "You should really stop that, Moon."

"I agree," Zoicite said, "and she will never say anything again once I'm done with you two!"

Makoto saw the evil man start shooting at the two Senshi, who could only dodge as he laughed. "What the hell's going on?"

"You really want to know? I can tell you."

The girl looked down to the cat and shook her head. A talking cat wasn't all that weird a thing to see right now. "Uh, what do you mean you can tell me?"

Luna looked at the girl. "You want to help them, don't you?"

"Yes, but I'm just..."

Luna saw a symbol appear briefly in the girl's forehead. "You're like them." She leapt up, spinning in mid-air. As she landed, a wand like the ones she had given Mars and Mercury before appeared. "Hold that wand and shout 'Jupiter Planet Power.'"

Makoto was too confused to complain about how stupid it all sounded. She took the wand and looked at it for a few seconds before she decided to give it a try. "Jupiter Planet Power!"

Rings of electricity appeared around her, spinning as her body lit up. The rings shrank fast until they touched her, but she felt no pain. As the light around her dimmed, she was wearing a suit like those Moon and Mars had, but the skirt and neck were green, and the bows pink. "Wow, this is strange. So, kitty, what do I do now?"

"Search for the words in your mind. Focus and you will find them."

"Focus and..." She thought about it for a second, and knew the cat was right. "Here goes nothing. Jupiter... Supreme..." She crossed her arms in front of her body, and her gloves started crackling with electricity. "... Thunder!" She aimed both hands at Zoicite as she said that, and an electric beam shot forth, hitting the unaware General and sending him flying forwards.

"Fire Soul!"

Mars' blast hit Zoicite as he tried to stand up, and the General knew he was on the losing side now. "We'll settle this next time," he said before teleporting away.

Moon looked at the new Senshi in awe. "Wow... Who are you?"

"She's the girl you were talking to before," Luna said.

"Makoto?"

"She's Sailor Jupiter," Luna added.

"Sailor Jupiter?" Jupiter asked. "Wait, who are you girls?"

Moon looked around to make sure there were no witnesses, then turned back to normal. "Welcome to the team, Makoto."

Jupiter smiled. "Call me Mako. Now, explain what the heck's going on, please."

Luna nodded. "Okay, but we should look for a more private place."

"Let's go to the shrine, grandpa's out shopping right now," Mars suggested.

"I'll call the others and tell them about this," Moon said as she summoned her communicator.

A/N: I could have copy-pasted most of Jupiter's intro from Cyber Moon and get this chapter done one month ago, but I'm trying to avoid repeating a lot of scenes from the old version. It's harder than it sounds, trust me, but also worth the extra wait (I hope.)