Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 3: War games.
Episode 53: Doomed.

By Razor Knight
Last update: May 15, 2013
Last edited: June 2, 2017

"Are you okay?"

Usagi sighed. "Yeah, Luna, I'm-"

"I can tell you're worried about something."

"Yes, I am. That Game Master guy, he hasn't attacked for almost one week now."

"I thought you didn't like fighting."

"I don't, but I know I'll eventually have to fight that man. I wish he would just come out of hiding already."

Luna smiled. "You'll beat him, I'm sure of that. But I thought you would be more worried about... Well, you know."

"About what happened in that comet?" Usagi asked. "It was strange, one moment I fall down, the next I wake up. No lights, no angels, no nothing."

"It was fortunate that you could be revived without Saturn's help," Luna noted, "but you need to be more careful."

"Careful?"

Luna jumped back in surprise. Usagi seemed upset about what she had said. "Yeah, I mean-"

"Luna, I'm no expert in astronomy or aything like that, but even I know a rock the size of our neighbourhood crashing into the Earth would be a very bad thing. If I had to choose again, I would have done the same thing."

Luna shook her head. "Sorry."

"For what?"

"I forgot how selfless you can be. And you're right, it's something you had to do, but... It doesn't make it easier on any of us."

"I know that." Usagi sighed and stood up. "I think I'm going to the-"

"Hi, sis."

Usagi turned to the door and frowned. Shingo was standing there, smiling at her. "Hey, don't you ever knock?"

"I just wanted to tell you you should stop talking to your cat while mom and dad are around. They could figure it out."

The girl had a hard time hiding her surprise. Did he know? "Figuring what out? I'm not doing anything here."

Shingo looked at Luna. "She's been around for a while, huh? In fact, she showed up at about the same time Sailor Moon was first seen."

Usagi didn't like where his line of thought was going. "Shingo, I hope you're not implying what I think you-"

"I know you are Sailor Moon."

"Seriously, you're insane."

Shingo sighed and shook his head. "I see, you'll just keep on denying it. Guess you don't trust me."

Usagi saw Shingo walk out of the room, and looked at Luna, who nodded. "Shingo."

"What?"

Usagi smiled. "You're not wrong, but it's not something I can tell everyone."

"Guess it isn't. It was a shock for me, you've always been lazy, unreliable, selfish..."

"Hey!"

Shingo smiled. "But even though we argued a lot, I've always known you do care about others more than about yourself."

That was, Usagi admitted, something she had never expected to hear from her brother. "How did you figure it out?"

"It's a wonder mom and dad didn't," Shingo noted. "You're never around when Sailor Moon shows up. Also, this kitty doesn't have the mark Sailor Moon's cat has, but-"

"I don't?" Luna asked. "Oh, right."

Usagi smiled as Shingo stared at Luna, then realized what Luna meant. "Well, he would have figured it out much faster if he could see it."

"See it?" Shingo asked, then gasped. "No, wait... I can see the mark now. But how?"

"It's a spell I keep active at all times," Luna explained, "it lets me and other Mooncats hide our marks from non-magical beings, and some weak magical beings may also be fooled by it."

Shingo nodded. "Anyhow, I suppose you were heading for the dojo, right?"

Usagi sighed. "You know too much for your own good."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me, sis."

Aiko looked up at the screen. "Hope that answers your question."

Terry smiled as Minako stared at the screen in shock. He had to admit, however, that Aiko was a good Doom player. "Yeah, the base's computer can play any game you may think of."

"Wait," Brad said as he looked at the screen, "Game Master must have access to either magic or a lot of money and advanced technology, right?"

"Yeah, why do you-"

"Holy crap, it was you all along!"

Terry stared at Brad for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Good theory, but if it was me, I would only summon hot girls from videogames, not a Pac-Man or Tetris pieces."

"Uh, yeah. Guess you're off the hook."

"Are we even sure he's working on his own?" Minako asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Access to magic and technology. Doesn't that sound like that Onara guy?"

Terry looked at Ami, who was staring at Minako in awe, then back at the blonde. "You're right."

"We didn't think about that before. Maybe he is working with Onara."

"If cyborgs don't work, send some geek in a Rockman suit," Brad commented. "Sounds like the perfect plan to me."

Usagi walked in and looked around the room, noticing most of her friends weren't there. "Hey, where's everyone?"

"Slacking off," Terry said.

"You seem a bit upset," Hotaru noted.

"Shingo knows who I am."

"Really, how did he find out?"

"He noticed I'm never around when Sailor Moon shows up. Also, even if he couldn't see Luna's mark, he still saw she looked 'just like' Sailor Moon's cat."

"The spell makes it extremely hard for someone to figure things out, but it's not impossible."

Usagi nodded at Ami, then looked at the screen. "Hey, is that Doom?"

Aiko stared at the screen. "Not exactly." The creatures in the screen were from that game, but the scenery was from a Tokyo street. "There's hundreds of creatures out there, all from Doom."

"Where's Doom Guy when you need him?"

"Seeing how things have worked for us," Hotaru noted, "he'll be trying to rocket us down."

"Hey, as long as there's none of those huge demon guys-" Minako stopped as the ground shook. "Crap."

"The others have been already alerted," Aiko said, "and Mars and Nemesis already engaged the enemy near their houses."

"Let's go get them," Usagi said, "perhaps that coward will stop hiding after this one."

"Hey, it could be worse," Terry noted.

"Worse than huge demons with rocket launchers for arms?" Minako asked.

"Yeah, he could be using Gal's Panic."

"... I don't know that one."

"Be glad you don't," Brad commented.

"Snow Angel."

Warwitch smiled as her attack turned a dozen imps into monster popsicles. Those things looked tougher in the game. She was about to fly up to scan the area, when she noticed a large, gross ball of meat floating to her, along with a large, fat demon with miniguns for arms. "Damn, I thought they would only be from the first Doom."

"Chimera's Breath."

The witch couldn't help but wince. The two creatures had been surrounded by a thick cloud of gas, and it had turned them both into blobs of flesh in a matter of seconds. "Disgusting, but effective."

Mira came flying to her. "These things are all over the city."

"Hope the Senshi figure out how to get rid of their source."

"Moonlight Flash!"

The attack tore through a few dozen enemies, and Mercury sighed. "We can keep on blasting those things down, but more will come to fight us."

"I know that, but we can't let those monsters hurt civilians."

Mercury nodded. "I'll try to find where the creatures are coming from, you guys try to keep them from doing too much damage to the city."

"Venus..."

"...Light..."

"Explosion!"

The attack tore through several trees, and the explosion itself turned a few cars into shrapnel. Dragon Mercury winced and then looked at Mercury. "What about the damage our own attacks do?"

"Just keep the monsters busy," Mercury noted, "I'll find out what we need to kill to stop them for good."

"Hope we find them soon," Saturn said, "those creatures are weak, comparatively speaking, but sometimes quantity is more important than quality."

Mars shot a couple arrows, piercing through the demon's chest. The normal monsters weren't such a challenge, but she had seen them attack civilians. There weren't enough of them, even adding Warwitch, the Huntresses and the twins, to stop these monsters. She took her communicator out and sighed. "Guys, this isn't working. There will surely be casualties before long, and we can't find the source if we have to stop to fight each and every demon."

Dragon Sun's face appeared. "I've already taken care of this. Reinforcements should be arriving soon."

"Good, but they better hurry," Mars noted, then put her comm away. She was just done doing that, when she saw five figures appear near her. More enemies? No, these were... "Demon Hunters?"

"Sailor Mars, leave the creatures to us."

"But-"

The man looked at a rather large demon walking their way. "Brunhilde's Spear."

Mars saw the demon be skewered by a massive spear, and smiled. "I suppose I shouldn't get all the credit, just this once." She summoned her airboard and flew away.

"So that's the legendary Mars?" Another Hunter commented. "She doesn't look that tough." Just then, a cyber-demon was turned into a walking pyre, vanishing after only a couple seconds of burning. "..."

"I think that should make you change your mind about them, Ceti," the first Hunter mused.

"Ceti, Epsilon, stop slacking around, we have a monster army to take care of," the third Hunter, the only female of their squad, said.

"As you command, oh mighty Persephone," Epsilon muttered.

Mercury looked at the data in her visor. "There's at least fifty Hunters out there right now. None of the unknown ones comes up to our level, but some of them are close to a Twilight Senshi."

"This is annoying."

Moon saw the rest of the group, along with Warwitch, Nova and the three Huntresses, flying to them. "It sure is, there's too many of those demons around."

"At least we don't have to go searching for color-coded keys to open doors," Dragon Sun commented.

"So, if there's creatures from Doom two, then that means the final boss should be a large wall."

Saturn stared at Lilith. "You're joking, right?"

"No," Lilith said, "but I haven't seen anything like that around the city."

Dragon Mercury looked south, and muttered some choice insults in English. "What the hell is that thing?"

Moon looked in the direction the Dragon was pointing at, and her eyes widened. There was a very large demon there, not unlike the ones with rocket launchers for arms (Lilith had called those Cyber Demons,) but this one was at least fifty meters tall.

"The bigger they are, the bigger their rockets are," Dragon Venus said.

"I don't remember any boss like that in the game," Lilith admitted.

"Never said I didn't like to mod my games."

Moon saw Game Master floating near them. "You..."

"I'm not here to fight. I just want to offer you a chance to surrender before I start taking this game seriously."

"Game?" Moon almost shouted. "That's what this is for you? There could be people hurt or killed because of this, and you call it a game?"

"Hmph, I knew you wouldn't give up. I'll leave, then-"

"Moonlight Flash!"

Game Master smiled as a white energy shield formed behind him. "Are you sure you should be wasting your energy when there's a huge demon wrecking the city?"

Moon glared at the spot Game Master had been floating in, before looking at the demon. "If we kill the boss, the game ends, right?"

"Yeah," Dragon Mercury said.

Mercury scanned the creature, which was slowly walking to them, crushing trees and cars as it approached. "We will need to use a few of our combined attacks to take that one down, so we should-"

Moon shook her head. "Leave it to me." If was she was planning worked, then that demon was as good as gone.

"But your attack is not strong enough to-"

Moon looked at Mercury. "Trust me, Ami."

"Okay." Mercury stared at Moon in awe. Was she about to use a new attack? No, Moon's motions were the same as usual, why was she using the same attack?

"Moonlight..." No, Mercury could see it was different, Moon had pulled both her hands back, and they were both wrapped in light. "Pulse!" She started punching the light circle rapidly, alternating her left and right fists, and instead of a single light orb, dozens of small orbs shot forth. The first few seemed to hit the demon's skin with no effect, but after a few seconds, the rain of orbs pierced right through the giant demon's chest. The creature howled in pain before vanishing, and Moon smiled. "Hey, what do you know, I can beat videogames after all."

"Awesome, you got a new attack," Jupiter commented.

"That wasn't a new attack," Moon said, "at least not technically."

"What?" Mars looked at Mercury. "What's she talking about?"

Moon smiled. "I know that when I get a new attack, I can see it in my mind first. Even those combination attacks some of you do work that way, right?"

"Yeah, that's true," Mercury said.

"Well, I didn't use that attack because I saw it in my mind. I've been wondering about something Luna said before, and I guess I finally figured it out."

Dragon Mercury stared at Moon for a few seconds. "You mean you created that attack on your own, it wasn't something you 'unlocked,' so to speak."

"I've learnt something from training," Moon said, "sometimes just waiting for a magical solution to win a fight doesn't work. I wanted to be stronger, and something Saturn said today made me finally understand what my attack was missing."

"Sometimes, quantity is more important than quality," Saturn said, recalling what she had said minutes earlier. "Oh, I see. Instead of one large orb, you used dozens of smaller ones to slowly break through the enemy's defenses."

"Luna once said that techniques used by Senshi are different with each new generation, that each Senshi has different attacks. After seeing you guys do those combined attacks, I started wondering if we couldn't just create our own attacks."

"It's not a new attack, technically," Dragon Sun noted, "but still, modifying it like that is quite impressive."

Mars looked at the point where Game Master had last been. "Wonder what that moron will use next?"

"The White Mage from Final Fantasy?"

Lilith looked at Earth. "As long as she doesn't know Holy..."

Mercury was checking her computer. "Good, killing that huge demon caused all the other demons in the city to vanish. Also, the Demon Hunters are healing those who were injured by the monsters."

Dragon Sun looked at Moon. "By the way, Aries asked for permission to act if a large-scale attack like this happens again."

"Sure, we'll need help if anything like this happens," Moon said. "But why is she asking..."

"Hunters don't interfere with Senshi battles unless asked to by them, or authorized to do so beforehand," Dragon Sun explained, then looked at Mira. "Well, most of them don't."

"Shut it, Kage."

"Make me."

Mira smiled deviously. "Mute."

Saturn blinked in surprise as the Dragon tried to shout at Mira, but no sound came from him. "Wow, that's nice. Can you teach me that spell?"

"Uh, not sure you could use it. Why?"

"To use it whenever he starts trying to be amusing and fails."

Dragon Sun made a few signs with his hand, then poked his own throat with it. "Damn it, I didn't think mom would teach you that one spell."

Mira smiled. "And I didn't think she had taught you how to cancel it."

Moon wasn't really paying attention to her friends. She had a bad feeling about this war, Game Master was calling it a game, but this attack had been quite serious. She wanted to end the war quick, but how? 'If he wants to pretend this is just a game, then it's one game I won't lose.'

A/N: At least this time those evil Doom monsters didn't kill any rabbits.

That scene with Usagi and Shingo may hint some Cyber Moon readers on one of the things this version will (possibly) be missing.

As for the game Terry mentioned, if you're above eighteen years of age or a pervert (or both,) you may find info about it via Google. I'll admit Gal's Panic would make for a very "interesting" fight for the Senshi, but I'm trying to keep this fic below R rating.