Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 3: War games.
Episode 50: Puzzled.

By Razor Knight
Last update: May 6, 2013
Last edited: June 1, 2017

"I simply don't believe it, the Senshi could defeat the Omega that easily?"

"We should start paying attention to their allies," Onara said calmly. "These three Demon Hunters were stronger than I anticipated, and Warwitch's power seems to be steadily growing as well. Nova has sided with them as well, so it's best for us to keep a low profile for the time being."

"I'm not a patient man," Rubeus noted, "but I'm also no fool. The Senshi are too strong for me now."

"We will find a way," 'A' said from the shadows, "no warrior is invincible. Unfortunately, that applies to us as well."

As soon as they entered the room, Usagi walked up to Luna. "Hey, why didn't you tell me about Chie?"

"You didn't ask," Luna said, ignoring Usagi's subsequent glare.

"So, what's the deal with her powers?" Karin asked. "And is there even a planet Lilith, because I don't remember hearing about it before."

"Lilith was the fifth planet, in the times before the Golden Imperium," Shade explained.

"Cool, what's the Golden Imperium?"

"An era before Silver Milenium, a time without Senshi."

"So a planet used to be between Mars and Jupiter," Terry said. "Wait, that's where the asteroid belt-"

"That's what's left of Lilith."

"Then how can she still be using its powers?" Rei asked.

"Senshi powers are a mystery even to those who spent a lifetime researching them," Artemis explained, "but her powers are, as you could see, dangerous."

"I can't depend on luck," Chie said, "as the universe needs to balance things out."

"Yeah, but if something happens in a battle, then-"

"Bad things could happen to her outside the battlefield, too," Shade explained. "And there's no better example of this than the asteroid belt."

"What, did the Lilith from that time accidentally blow up her world?"

"I only remember legends I read," Luna said, "but some sort of disease started spreading through the planet. It was a deadly disease, created through magic, and the Senshi knew there were chances of it spreading to other worlds, infecting every human being in the system. They didn't have time to develop a cure, so Lilith, who had already been infected, chose to deal with it her own way."

Minako looked at Luna. "I hope you're not implying that Lilith-"

"Legends speak of a broken woman, who had seen her husband and her daughter fall to the disease. She didn't want other worlds to suffer the same fate hers had, and... Perhaps she knew she wouldn't survive the explosion of a planet."

Usagi was shocked. "Destroying a whole world? That's terrible!"

"Even Senshi can make mistakes," Artemis said, "but in Lilith's case, I think her mistake was using her powers without restraint. That started the legend of Lilith's powers being cursed, and the second Lilith didn't heed those words. From what we know, she was killed by a 'lucky shot' fighting against enemies she shouldn't have any trouble fighting against."

"Pluto told me all that already," Chie admitted, "which is why I'm not going to abuse that side of my skills."

"The other side isn't to be abused, either," Luna said, "The better the illusion, the more it will drain your energy, so you won't be able to keep those illusions up for long."

"In short, you'll need to have other means to fight," Terry guessed, "which means you'll have to train your melee skills."

"She could use a weapon, too," Karin noted.

Terry smiled slyly. "Yeah, she could," he said before tossing a small black cube at Chie.

"Huh? What's-"

"That's your weapon," Terry explained. "You can give it whichever shape you like."

Karin stared at Terry as a couple daggers appeared in Chie's hands. "Wait, how the heck did you have one ready for her?"

"I have several more ready," Terry noted, "I thought about that after realizing there could be two Senshi for each planet. Which reminds me..." And with that, he tossed several cubes to the Senshi who didn't have one of those weapons yet. "Have fun."

Usagi looked at Hana. She was the only 'sidekick' who had decided to return to the base along with them. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just... I guess I hadn't realized how serious your job is. How do you keep fighting without breaking down?"

"I don't know, I just know if we don't do it, then nobody else will."

"I take it the 'bosses' you fight are strong?"

"First one wanted to take over the Earth and exterminate all humans," Mako explained.

"Wow, not one for subtlety."

Rei smirked at that. "Well, our last foe wanted to destroy life itself, to exterminate all life in the universe, even if that meant changing history itself."

Hana grimaced. "That sounds dangerous." She looked at the few who were now checking their new weapons. Hotaru was holding a net, Kage had a handgun, Mamoru had a shield (fitting choice, considering his name,) Terry had...

He noticed her staring at him and smiled. "What?"

"Nothing, I just didn't think bombs would be your weapon of choice."

"I've used gas bombs before," Terry admitted, "and this way I won't have to make new ones whenever I use them."

"So, they're just like your old bombs?" Usagi asked.

"No, these will use ice magic, so they'll be freezing bombs, so to speak."

The strangest of all was Brad, however. Minako was right now staring at him in confusion, as he held a thick book. "What's wrong, Mina?"

She looked at him. "Come on, Brad... A book?"

"I can use it to 'store' spells for later use," Brad explained, "and also..." He tossed it at Minako.

Minako dodged the flying book and glared at him. "Hey!"

"I just wanted to illustrate its other use to you."

Ami walked to Kage, and looked at his weapon of choice. "A gun?"

Kage smiled as Ami examined it. "I know how to use one, so I thought I could try combining my magic with them."

Terry smiled. "Guys, watch out, Ami's got a gun."

The others all stared at him confusedly, except for Hana and Brad, who laughed at the pun.

"I estimate that if the input of horrible jokes continues like this, my humor sub-routines will be overloaded in one week, at most."

Usagi looked at Aiko. "You should do something about her speech, it's too..."

"Robotic," Aiko said.

"She speaks like a robot and has no feelings. She could be a good politician," Brad commented.

"Shutting down audio feed," Aiko said in her usual monotone.

"Everyone's a critic," Brad muttered.

"I've waited long enough. It is time to unveil my greatest plan ever!" Game Master said, then started laughing evily.

There was a knock on the room's door, and Game Master stopped laughing. "Dear, are you okay?"

"Uhm, yes, mom, I was just remembering a funny joke they told me at school today."

Game Master's mother sighed. "I sometimes worry about him."

"Let him be," his father said, "it's not like he's trying to destroy the city, or anything like that."

Terry had decided to train. Well, it wasn't quite like training to him, but helping the others was still good practice. He smiled as Ami fell to her knees, panting. "You're a lot better than when we started sparring."

Hana had been watching them, and was quite surprised. Ami wasn't an outstanding melee fighter, but was good enough to keep up with Terry. True, Terry was holding back, as usual, but from what she heard, they had improved that much in only a few months.

Terry looked to the side and saw Usagi tossing her chakrams and recalling them. He saw she was breathing heavily, and sighed. "Rabbit, you should transform, remember they're quite heavy."

Usagi looked at him, then chuckled. "And you're the combat expert?"

He frowned at that. "Hey, now..."

Ami smiled. "He has his dumb blonde moments." Before Terry could say anything, she smiled. "I know what she's doing. If she gets used to their weight in her normal form, they'll be a lot easier to handle in her Senshi form."

Terry looked at her, then at Usagi, then slapped his forehead. "I didn't think of that." He smiled at Usagi. "That's good, Usagi, being able to find ways to improve on your own is the mark of a good warrior."

Usagi smiled, then her face turned serious. "Now that you mention it, I had this crazy idea a while back..."

Terry stared at her. "I'm listening."

"What the Demon Hunters do, that 'Spell Fusion' thing. Would there be a way for us to do the same?"

Terry looked at Ami, who giggled, then turned back to Usagi. "You weren't the only one who got curious about it."

"What do you-"

"Mercury Star Power!"

"Mercury Twilight Power!"

"I guess they like the 'show, don't tell' method better," Hana mused as Usagi waited.

"That's right," Mercury said. "Now to answer your question, Usagi. Mercury..." Mercury's hands filled with ice, and she started spinning, those were the same motions she went through for her Frozen Rage attack.

Dragon Mercury smiled as his two swords were blurred by a veil of ice shards. "... Blizzard..."

"What the heck are they doing?" Rei said, stopping her own training for a second. The others all noticed the two Mercuries and decided to watch their demonstration.

Mercury didn't seem worried when Dragon Mercury run to her, and he seemed ready to stab her through, but Mercury's spinning matched the Dragon's speed perfectly, and she grabbed both swords by the blades, stopping as the ice in her hands all flowed into them. "... Fangs!"

Usagi stared at the attack in a mixture of shock and awe. Mercury had tossed both swords forwards, and the weapons had left a trail of mist behind. But that wasn't as impressive as what happened when they hit the far wall of the room. They dug into it, covering it with a rather large patch of ice.

"Holy mother of combos," Kage muttered.

"Wait, why didn't you tell us anything about that?" Karin asked.

"We didn't want to say a thing until we had perfected it," Mercury said.

"How did you think of such an attack, though?" Mamoru asked.

"It... Well, we both saw it in our minds when we started thinking about how to combine our magic attacks. Being able to even start the spell was much tougher, and getting the timing for it right was-"

Dragon Mercury smiled as he recalled his swords. "We've been working on this when we had some free time, but it's been almost one month since we started training for it."

"No offense, but one month just to pull a fancy trick-" Minako started.

Aiko interrupted Minako. "The power of that combined attack was nearly three times strongerant n Mercury's strongest attack."

"But it's just adding one Twilight attack to her Star attack," Minako noticed.

"I don't think linear math applies to Senshi powers," Brad mused.

Minako looked at him. "I think we should try something like that."

Mercury nodded. "We don't know what kind of attacks or techniques could be discovered this way. They don't need the Senshi doing them to have the same element, either, from what little we know."

"But wait, did the old Senshi have these techniques? I don't remember using them in our past lives," Mako noticed.

"I do remember," Usagi said, looking at Rei and Mercury, and both of them nodded.

"Starlight Stream Storm," Rei said. Still, even thinking about it, she couldn't remember exactly how to use it, "we used it to beat Hissatsu in our past life."

The Dragon looked at Mako. "We asked Luna about that, and she said that each Senshi has different techniques, they depend on the Senshi's personality and, uhm, situation. For example, there were Moon Senshi who were unforgiving and, some would say, cold-blooded. But they had to be like that in order to defeat their foes."

"I don't think being like that-"

Mercury smiled at Usagi. "We know. That's exactly what we mean, you're a Moon Senshi, but that doesn't mean you'll be like any of the Moon Senshi before you."

Usagi nodded. "I get it. So we could try finding new combined attacks."

Aiko looked up. "That will have to wait. There are strange energy readings out there."

"'Out there?'" Hotaru asked.

"Sorry, they're in several places around the city."

"Can you tell us what they are?"

"I can only scan the ones closest to us. They appear to be Tetris pieces."

Rei stared at Aiko in disbelief. "Seriously, what kind of a threat could Tetris pieces be?"

"From what my scanners tell me, they are several meters wide, and as heavy as a bus."

"Yeah, that sounds like a threat," Chie mused. "Let's get them."

"Guys, let's split and check all the areas. Aiko, contact the Huntresses, and give us a list of all the places under attack."

Hana smiled. "I can see she's quite a good leader when she needs to."

Dragon Mercury nodded. "Yeah, but I wouldn't want her to stop being how she normally is."

Mira smiled as she looked at the small screen. It was quite a surprise when Luna gave those communicators to them, but apparently Usagi wanted them to have them. "I know what you're calling us for, Aiko," she said, a part of her mind not sure how she should talk to a computer. "We're seeing them, but my brain refuses to acknowledge the fact there's three huge red balls bouncing around and crushing things."

"The Senshi should be there shortly, but there's other places under attack," Aiko explained.

"More of these balls?"

"No, it's not just Pang, there's also Arkanoid and Tetris."

"You're joking."

"A sense of humor is not part of my programming, therefore I am unable to joke," Aiko noted.

"Right," Mira muttered. "Okay, we'll try stopping those things from crushing civilians."

Circe looked up. "Seriously, they're just metal balls."

"Wait, don't-" Calisto started.

"Firelash."

Calisto sighed as one of the balls split in two smaller balls after being hit by Circe's fire blast. "-attack them yet."

"What the heck's that?" Circe muttered.

"You never played Pang, huh?" Calisto mused.

Just then, some of the Senshi appeared near them. "Those are the second largest balls I've ever seen," Dragon Sun commented.

Lilith looked up. "Pang, huh? Moon's weapons are perfect for this."

Moon knew Chie spent much of her time playing videogames, so she wasn't surprised she would know about those balls. "So, what do I do?"

"Use your chakrams, but don't use too much magic, you'll have to hit those balls several times before you destroy them."

Moon nodded and tossed one chakram at the closest ball. As it split in two, she smiled. "Oh, I get it." She tossed her other chakram, and the two weapons started flying around, hitting each ball as they split, and Moon somehow managed to keep all balls from doing any more damage to the buildings around them. As the last ball vanished, Moon flinched. "That was... Tiring."

"Should I be jealous?" Earth asked as she noticed Lilith was staring at Moon in awe,

"Eh, it's not that, but... I didn't know Moon was that good with her discs."

"That was utterly pointless, though," Saturn commented.

"There's characters who are much stronger than what you've fought so far," Lilith noted. "Next time he could summon the Death Star."

"... On second thought, he can keep sending weak enemies to fight us for as long as he wants," Saturn said.

"A large metal stick bouncing a metal ball around," Venus commented. "That looks stupid."

"Hey now, don't diss Arkanoid," Dragon Venus said.

Venus shrugged. "This should be easy. Crescent Beam!"

The 'paddle' dodged the beam, and still managed to hit the metal ball, sending it down and straight to Venus.

"Light Shield."

Venus smiled at the Dragon as a wall of light stopped the ball. "Thanks. But if that thing keeps on moving, it will be hard to get it."

Nova smiled. "Good thing I'm here, then." She concentrated, and the paddle stopped moving. As the metal ball flew up and past its height, the paddle exploded.

Venus stared up in disbelief. "So... That's it?"

"Let's go help the others, if they even need help, that is," Dragon Venus said.

Mercury was only mildly shocked at what she saw when they went outside. Large pieces of different shapes kept falling down from the sky at a rather high speed, and civilians were doing their best to avoid being crushed by them. She summoned her tonfa and shot an ice ball at a square piece falling to her, and it exploded, vanishing in mid-air. "Okay, it will be easy to deal with the pieces, but I don't think just destroying them will stop this attack."

Mars looked up. "I know what you mean. They're coming from high up in the sky, and don't seem to be stopping."

Jupiter heard a scream, and saw a piece falling straight to a small girl, who was too scared to move. "Damn... Electric Tackle!" She jumped up and straight through the piece, then turned to the girl. "Are you okay?"

The girl nodded. "Thank you, Sailor Jupiter."

Jupiter smiled. "No problem. Now go find a place to hide, we'll take care of those things."

Mercury was talking to Aiko through her visor. "Run a scan of-"

Aiko interrupted her. "What you're looking for is a portal, but it's a thousand meters above us."

Mercury nodded, not minding the interruption. "I got it." She then frowned. "Uhm, Terry, how high can these boards take us?"

"A few miles up," Dragon Mercury said. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that these Tetris pieces are coming out of a portal which is right above us-"

The Dragon summoned his comm. "What is it, Aiko?"

"I've run simulations of that portal, and apparently, only Moon's Star level attack would be able to destroy it."

Moon appeared just then, and heard that last bit. "Huh, what's wrong?"

Mercury decided to give her the short version. "These pieces are coming from a thousand meters above us, and your attack's the only one strong enough to destroy their source."

Moon looked up, then paled. "A thousand meters? Uh..."

"I'll tag along," Nova said, understanding why Moon was hesitating. "If you fall, I'll catch you."

Moon sighed. "Okay, let's go."

It took them a minute to get up there, and Moon looked around in confusion. "What, where is the-"

Nova smiled as a T-shaped piece popped out of thin air. "I guess it's there."

Moon nodded. "Okay, here goes nothing. Moonlight Flash!"

Nova saw a disc of light appear briefly as Moon's orb-shaped attack vanished, then there was an explosion. Moon was knocked off her board by it, and Nova flinched. "Good thing I decided to come here."

Moon felt something stop her, and she saw Nova float down to her. "Uh, thanks," she said, then recalled her board.

"No problem, I had to stop Terry from smashing his face into the sidewalk a few times when he first started using his airboard."

Moon saw there was a hint of sadness in Nova's eyes as she said that. Remembering the past still hurt her a bit, but she was sure her wounds would eventually heal.

A/N: Supervillains have parents too. Specially if they're just teenagers in silly cosplay suits.

I know there were many more puzzle games back then, but the ones I remember were either dumb, rip-offs of other, better games, or downright impossible to bring into real world and have them still look like a threat. 'Oh no, there's some witch girl sitting on a strange machine and shooting colored balls up to the sky!' just doesn't seem that threatening to me.