Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 4: Death Busters.
Episode 71: Hunters, hunted.

By Razor Knight
Last update: December 20, 2013
Last edited: June 9, 2017

"I think this could be interesting. I barely have any data on her combat skills."

Usagi knew Aiko was right, but she was still worried. Most of them had not seen this girl fight other than in short battles. "I hope they don't get hurt."

"I can heal her," Saturn said, "and I bet she knows how I fight already." She then turned to her foe. "Let's get this started. Grim Edge."

ChibiMoon looked at the incoming attack. She could jump over it, but Saturn would be expecting that. She could block it with an attack of her own, but that would let her foe attack again. So, she chose the third option.

Saturn was barely able to dodge, and was quite impressed. ChibiMoon had run straight through the attack, and tried to stab her. "That was reckless."

"It worked."

"You didn't hit-" Saturn finally realized ChibiMoon was only holding one sword. She looked down and gasped as she saw the other sword was right under her. "What-"

"Moonlight Screen."

Saturn was, again, barely able to dodge as the sword lit up and a wall of light appeared on it. "Okay, let's stop fooling around. Grim Wave!"

ChibiMoon's hands were wrapped in stone, and she used them to block most of the hits. However, that gave Saturn enough time to move, and the pink-haired girl found herself with a glaive's blade milimeters away from her throat. "Well played. I yield."

Usagi looked at Aiko. "That was fast."

Aiko nodded. "But I got some interesting data. She lacks skills, but her dual power can make up for that. In fact, the damage ChibiMoon sustained from taking those hits was minimal."

Kage had been looking from the side. "Shouldn't we call her ChibiEarth when she's in that form?"

"You used the same joke in the future," ChibiUsa muttered.

"A Senshi never excels in more than one form of magic," Ami lectured, "or at least that's what the legends say. I'm guessing ChibiUsa's strongest side is her lunar magic, and that her dual form boosts them further."

"A good guess," ChibiUsa admitted, "there's been other dual Senshi around in Crystal Tokyo, and it's always clear that one of their powers overshadows the other."

"Anyone we know?"

"You know I can't answer that," ChibiUsa noted.

Usagi looked at Hotaru. "Are you okay?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, you and Terry are the last two-"

"There's also the Huntresses, and Umino," Hotaru noted, "but even if I knew for sure I'm a carrier, I would still trust everyone will do their best to stop our foes."

"I'm not letting anyone die if I can help it," Usagi said.

Terry had been silently listening, but suddenly stood up. "Guys, there's something I've been wondering. What about the two rogues?"

"What do you-" Ami started, but then she understood what he meant. "Oh. They could also be the carriers."

"That makes no sense. Why would they be looking for the Talismans if they were?"

"We don't know how many Talismans there are, and perhaps they never considered themselves as carriers."

"We'll have to wait and see, then," Usagi said, giving ChibiUsa a sideglance, but the young girl simply shrugged.

For some reason, she didn't feel like waking up. She thought she was over that phase already, though, so... As she opened her eyes, memories of the last few minutes before her unscheduled nap returned. "Hey, what the heck-"

The man looked at the blonde. "Shut up, kid. We won't harm you, if you behave and your boyfriend pays what we'll ask for your safe return."

Minako sighed. These men had sneaked on her as she walked to the base, and knocked her out with a tazer (she even remember hearing one of them comment on how the tazer shouldn't have taken that long to knock her out, just before she lost consciousness.) She also remembered bits and pieces of her past life, so she knew her 'old self' had gone through a similar incident. And she meant to show these guys not to mess with her. Seriously, using chains to tie up a Senshi? "Here's the deal, guys. If you let me go now, I won't hurt you."

The man (who wore a clown mask,) laughed at that. "Oh boy, I don't know who you think you are, kid, but you're tied up to a chair. And even if you somehow manage to untie yourself, you're just a weak kid."

Minako glared at the man, noticing five more men had walked in (four men, one was obviously a woman,) and then laughed as well. "Never heard the saying, 'looks can deceive'?"

The man wasn't so sure of his words when he saw his 'victim' break the chains effortlessly. "Who... What the hell are you?"

"I'm just a weak kid," Minako said before punching the man straight in the face, sending him flying back. "Oops," she muttered, looking at the other four.

"Listen, lady, we don't want any trouble. Just leave, we won't stop you."

"Oh, so I'm a 'lady' not a 'kid now, huh?" Minako mused. "And really, you won't stop me? You can't stop me."

It only took half a minute, and none of her 'captors' was in good shape after she was done, even though she had made sure not to hurt any of them enough to kill them.

"Now, how to get these guys to jail..."

"I can help with that."

Minako smiled at the newcomer. "Yeah, I guess you can."

Nova looked at the criminals, who were barely conscious at best. "Shit. You didn't use-"

"No lights, just my fists and legs."

"Impressive," Nova said. "I'll go get these bad boys in their cage."

"See you," Minako said right before Nova vanished, along with the five thugs. "... I think Brad's going to love hearing about this whole mess."

Miles away from the Senshi base, a different group of heroes was enjoying a break from training. However, one of them didn't seem to be enjoying herself, and the others had noticed.

"Something on your mind?"

Emi looked at Aki. "Uhm, not really."

"You're quite out of it," Maria noted, "what's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Of course we will, you're like a sister to us," Aki said.

Emi bit her lip as she thought about it. "Likewise, and I don't want you to hate me."

"Now you're worrying me," Aki muttered. "Spit it out, girl."

Emi sighed. "It's fun going out with you two, but sometimes I feel like you would have a lot more fun on your own."

Maria stared at Emi for a few seconds before smiling. "If we wanted to have other kinds of fun , we wouldn't have invited you."

Emi blushed slightly. "I... Guess you're right."

"Isn't there anyone you like?"

Emi shrugged. "I'm not sure. The only guy I know who's not taken is my brother."

"What about girls?"

Emi looked at Aki blankly. "I would be lying if I said I never thought about that, but..."

"You're blushing."

"Am not."

"If you don't want to talk about it, we'll stop asking," Aki said.

"It's not that I don't trust you to keep a secret. I just don't even know what I feel for that person."

"Gotcha. In any case, let's enjoy the -"

Emi flinched as Aki and Maria fell down. Yes, she definitely liked it more when their enemies hadn't learnt how sneak attacks worked. "Damn it, give those back!"

Mimette laughed. "No, we'll keep them. Now stand still while we take yours as well."

Emi was about to attack her foes, but then sensed something. "Okay."

Eudial frowned and started scanning the area with her eyes. "You're giving up easily, that has to be a trap."

Mimette also started searching. "Damn it, are the two weaklings planning on attacking us?"

"Hadoken!" A blue fireball hit Eudial, knocking her down. "Heh, I always wanted to shout that one out."

Emi looked at Game Master. "Let's get them."

Mimette glared at them. "You won't win this, fools!"

Emi saw them vanish and frowned. "That's the usual trick. Can't they get new ones?"

"Why change what already works?" Eudial snapped from behind her. She turned around, and then realized her error. "Gotcha."

Game Master put an energy shield around himself. "You're not going to beat me so easily."

"So we can't attack you, but you can't attack us either. We just have to wait until-" Eudial was cut off as a fire column shot from underneath her.

"Really now," Game Master said, mockingly, "shields that don't let the player attack? That's too cliche."

Mimette frowned. "Let's see if that shield can handle this!" She shot an energy blast, then sighed as it bounced off the shield. "Okay, it can."

"World Shaking!"

Game Master was knocked down to the ground. "Damn it, what are you idiots doing?"

"The world won't be saved if the Talismans aren't found."

Mimette smiled. "Thanks for the help, girls."

"We're not your allies," Neptune snapped.

Game Master summoned a very large sword and charged at the two Senshi. "I don't care if you dress like Senshi, you're nothing like my friends!"

"Deep Submerge." Neptune sighed as the guy was knocked out by the blast. "Okay, do your worst."

Mimette took the guy's heart and then sighed. "Damn it, four duds in one single day, that's a new record."

Uranus was holding three of the crystals. "Give that back."

Mimette smirked. "Come and get it."

"Moonlight Pulse!"

"Moonlight Screen!"

A wall of light appeared in front of the two Witches, who were caught off-guard as the barrage of blasts hit them from behind, knocking them straight into it. The wall shattered and zapped them both with energy, causing Mimette to drop the crystal she was holding. "What the darkness-"

Moon glared at the two women. "Leave."

Uranus shook her head as the villains left. "You're naive, why let them leave when you could have finished them off?"

Moon walked to Uranus and then snatched the three crystals off her hands. "You should be glad I'm 'naive' then, because you wouldn't be around if I hadn't stopped my friends from fighting you. I must admit I had to stop myself from doing that a couple times as well."

The two rogues started walking away. "Save your speeches, it's obvious who the carriers are now. We will save this world, and not even you, 'Princess', will stop us."

"I will not let anyone die."

"Are you really willing to sacrifice the world just to save a few?"

"I'm willing to try finding a way to save the world which doesn't need any sacrifices."

Neptune was about to say something, but then shook her head. "Let's just go."

Emi was the first to wake up, but couldn't even sit up. "Damn it... It's worse than what brother described."

"You're closer to 'normal humans' than we are," ChibiMoon explained. She then looked at the two other Huntresses as Game Master sat up. "Damn, let's not take any risk," she added as she summoned her communicator. "Hotaru, come to the coordinates I'm sending you as soon as you can."

"Was on my way," Saturn noted, "Aiko told us about the battle, but it was over before we could gather. Still, I felt like something could go wrong..."

"Good, just hurry."

"Understood."

Game Master was sitting on the ground near them. "Sorry, I tried to save them, but I suck."

Moon shook her head. "Even I make mistakes, but learning from them is what matters."

"True, next time I'll just use the largest energy beam I can, and kill them on the spot."

Moon flinched. "If that's the only way-"

"You know, in a way I agree with those two."

Moon looked at ChibiMoon. "What? Why?"

"I know you think killing is never good, and I may agree with that at times, but I'm not just a carbon copy of you. You don't kill evil beings if you can help it. I don't kill evil beings if they can run away before I shoot them."

Saturn landed in front of them right then, but didn't waste a second with formalities, instead rushing to the two Huntresses who were still unconscious. "Shit, this will be a challenge."

Emi flinched. "Are they-"

Saturn shook her head. "Alive, but barely. Just let me focus."

Emi turned to look at Saturn as she tried to heal her friends. "Wish I could help..."

Saturn groaned. "Damn it, I don't think I have enough energy for this."

Moon looked at her daughter, who nodded. "Since we didn't waste that much energy, let us help."

Saturn saw the two Moons close their eyes, and their crystals lit up. She felt the rush of energy almost instantly. "Good, this will do."

Emi managed to sit up and smiled as her friends' bodies lit up with light. "Now that's one badass healing spell."

Maria and Aki suddenly sat up and looked around, confused. "What did-"

Emi decided to give them the short version. "Witches got us, Game Master helped but was also beaten, the two Moons saved the day, and Saturn healed you back from the brink of death."

"... Sounds like a normal day in this city," Maria muttered.

Saturn sighed. "So it's either me, Terry, or those two rogues now."

"We'll have to make sure those women don't get you."

"What if it's really the only way..."

Moon looked at Saturn, then at ChibiMoon, who was giving her a neutral stare (which surely meant she knew something but couldn't tell them about it.) "There's always a third choice."

"Only five more targets," Eudial said.

"Four," Mimette corrected.

"Why? Couldn't that kid Senshi be-"

"I asked the twins about it, they said that girl is from another era, and that she could never be a carrier. But they said she may be useful for us."

"How so?"

"They didn't tell me, and I knew better than prying."

"So, should we go after our two former students?"

"No, we could need them to get the other two. And you know how that human saying goes, 'let's save the best for last.'"

"... And then I left."

Brad stared at Minako in shock. "Damn, I'm sorry you had to go through that because of m-"

Minako shook her head. "Brad, I've gone through much worse, like having my heart ripped off my chest."

Mako smirked. "From what you describe, you're almost as strong as me."

"Your physical strength is nearly equal right now," Aiko noted, "but that's due to Minako having been a Senshi for longer, and thus having more time for her human form to adapt to them."

"Don't worry, Brad, if they try to hurt you, I'll protect you," Minako mused.

Brad shrugged. "Iron Wall."

Minako saw a wall of iron - not surprising given the spell name - rise in front of Brad. "What-"

"Bull's Rage. Colossus Arm. Titan's Strength." As brad chanted those spells, his arms shone with magic, and he swung one at the wall, punching right through it.

"Holy shit," Terry exclaimed. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"You may be able to learn," Brad noted, "but you'll have to find a teacher first."

"Brad, don't be an ass."

"Actually," Ami noted, "we should consider learning some of those spells. We can't use elemental spells we're not attuned with, but I've observed the Huntresses when they fight, and there's many spells which don't seem to have an 'element.'"

Brad sighed. "That's true, but Demon Hunters have never taught Senshi their techniques."

"Why?"

Brad looked at Minako for a few seconds before answering. "Not a damn clue, actually."

"Let's go ask."

"Now?"

"Yes."

Terry saw the two walk into the elevator. "Well, that escalated quickly."

Ami smiled. "We could say it 'elevated' quickly."

Aiko stared at Ami for a few seconds before throwing her arms up in defeat "damn it, not you too, mom."

A/N: Yes, Minako used a saying right. The world's doomed.