Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 10: Space Invaders.
Episode 132: War of the Worlds.

By Razor Knight
Last update: March 6, 2017
Last edited: June 16, 2017

"Sir, the humans have engaged our Sh'Khout.

"Good. Let them fight, let them struggle. Let them fall. They all fall."

He was a Sh'Tak, a carrier captain. He had conquered dozens of worlds, and would conquer dozens more before his life came to an end. The Kh'Sun were invincible, so it was impossible for these primitive planet to resist for long.

Even if the large carrier wasn't there, Lilith could guess the sky would still be hidden behind the large cloud of ships they were fighting. Small, ovoid and featureless, with no visible weaponry - the blasts came from the ships' front - they were obviously built for efficiency, not fashion.

And yet, the ships were individually weak. So weak even the anti-air cannons the army was using to help took care of them.

She looked south as the sky lit up. They had all figured out using weak attacks would be best, to conserve mana, but in Moon's case, her weakest blasts were enough to take out a few dozen ships per shot.

Sensing danger, Lilith dove aside. One thing Senshi had trained in the past month was flight. A rather simple passive spell negated gravity, and they had trained to be able to move as well when airborn as they could on land. But Lilith had, like a few others, focused her training on something else as well. Seeing the two ships that tried to fly right through her making a second try, she smiled. Her hands lit up and two blasts of raw mana shot forth, taking the two ships down. "Lucky for me, I now have ranged attacks."

Dragon Sun was half worried and half impressed. While he had been using his guns to take down ships, Jupiter had chosen a much direct approach. He saw her leaping from ship to ship, using them as makeshift trampolines, kicking down as she landed on each of them. It was almost worrying to know Mako's kicks could make spaceships explode.

"Less staring at your girl's legs, more shooting things down, Kage."

He turned to see Saturn floating near him. "Speaking of girlfriends, where's the younger rabbit?"

Saturn sighed. "I sort of lost her in the crowd." She almost cringed as she saw a wolf-like creature fly by, shooting at the ships. "It's still weird to have youma on our side."

"Likewise," the 'wolf' shouted before flying away to engage a different group of ships.

A blinding, pink beam of energy could be seen to the north, right then. "Guess I just found Chibi," Saturn said befire vanishing.

Jupiter flew to him, holding a ship with one hand. "Having fun?" he asked.

"Lots," Jupiter said before throwing the ship at another ship, with so much strength, the shrapnel from both shot out and ripped a third ship to shreds. "How was that saying, two with one ship?"

"Don't you go Minako on me," Dragon Sun muttered.

Moon was just done blasting another hundred ships to dust. A part of her was horrified at how easy it was for her to kill so many aliens. So many living beings. But she knew the alternative- no, giving up was not an alternative for them. They had been fighting for at least one hour now, and she could see her friends were running out of energy. Her thoughts were interrupted by her communicator, and she summoned it. The face on the screen wasn't one she saw often, but she had been the one who told the Mooncats to give him a communicator. "General?"

Kino nodded. "Been a long time, Sailor Moon."

"No need for formalities."

"Right then, Usagi. I wouldn't use this if I didn't need to warn you about something."

"What's wrong?"

"A ship that large is hard to miss, and we know the Chinese are getting ready to launch a missile at it, on grounds of it being a threat to their country as well."

"I can guess you mean a nuclear missile."

"Yes. You better get your friends out of-"

"Don't worry, General, I'll handle that problem."

Kino's eyes widened. "You don't mean..."

"While I have no plans to go and conquer the world, I think this will be the perfect chance to show the world just what we can do."

"Good luck, Usagi."

"Thanks."

Moon sensed something, and turned to see Mars there. She didn't look happy. "Rei?"

"I heard most of that. Are you insane, or just dense?"

"Ami and Aiko both said I was strong enough to take a hit from a nuclear weapon and survive."

"In theory," Mars countered. "Usagi, you know I respect you but this is beyond reckless."

Moon smiled. "Thanks for worrying so much about me, but I wasn't planning on tanking that thing."

"Then what- No damn way."

Aiko appeared near them. "Usagi, the General just told me about your plan. With all due respect, what the fuck?"

"I'm not going to shield the city from the blast. Rei could probably do that. I'm not going to disable it, either. I'm going to use it to end this battle."

"Hate to repeat myself, but what the-"

"Shout at me later, I can 'see' the missile is already close."

Mars stared at the spot where Moon had been for a second before growling. "Oh, I will shout at her later."

Moon stared at the missile. It was close now, but she was ready. In theory, she could do the same she had done with Beryl - absorb its energy. But that energy wasn't mana, and she knew she could get hurt. Still, if Ami could get hit by cannon just to test a theory, she was willing to take this risk. It wasn't just going to send a message to the Kh'Sun, but to the whole Earth as well. There, the missile was close enough. Time to try something stupid.

"Sir, one of the humans has left the battlefield. Should we send someone-"

"No, let them run."

"The human seems to be waiting. Some sort of warhead is heading straight for her. Scanners detect nuclear energy in it. As expected from a primitive race... Wait, the human just caught the warhead." The creature observed the scene in shock. "Sir, that human's power is rising!"

"Let me see that-"The Sh'Tak looked at the monitor and paled. "Impossible! How can a single being hold that much power?"

Unfortunately, before anyone could answer that, the human shot at the ship, tearing through shield, and hull like a Kl'arg through Sh'melk.

Aiko was just done telling ChibiMoon about her mother's plans, and the girl wasn't hiding her worry. "She's really going to..."

Saturn smiled. "She can do it."

"That's besides the point, she could get hurt and-"

Saturn silenced her with a kiss. "Stop freaking out and trust her."

ChibiMoon was about to say something, but then the sky lit up as a large energy beam shot up from the bay, piercing right through the carrier. The ship started to ascend as all the smaller ships flew into it - as if they thought, in their panic, that running away would keep them safe. Explosions rocked the ship for a minute as it flew, and then it exploded, the shockwave strong enough to send Senshi and youma reeling back.

"...Holy shit she really did it."

Saturn smiled at Aiko's words. "That's Usagi for you."

Moon appeared near them, breathing heavily. She smiled at them and then flinched. "Hotaru, I may need you to heal-"

ChibiMoon caught her as she started falling, and noticed she was unconscious. "Mom..."

"Don't worry, I can heal her. But I hope those Kh'Sun freaks will take the hint and leave."

Cuprite appeared near them as Saturn started healing Moon. "What in Darkness was that?"

ChibiMoon shrugged. "Mom just absorbed the energy of a nuke and used it to take out that carrier."

"... I must admit I felt a bit of fear watching that beam. Old habits. Most of my troops did very literally run away after her display of power, though."

Moon woke up in time to hear that. "I don't want them to fear me, I want them to respect me."

"It will take a lot of time for them to realize that."

"Thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it, most youma are warriors, and giving them something to shoot at is good to keep the peace. Anyhow, if those aliens show up again, we will be back."

One day passed since the attack, and Usagi was now watching news reports on her gambit. She had to admit it was impressive, seeing it through a camera. She had tackled the missile, then held it in place as she absorbed it - and the energy could be seen flowing from it to her - and then tossed it up and away, before reaching both hands out, palms open, and shooting the beam that marked the end of the battle.

"There's been both bad and good publicity about it," Aiko said. "Some groups are saying you are just Japan's living weapon, and some crap about power balance."

Usagi smiled. "Guess I should have seen that coming."

"Surprisingly, China's leaders apologized for their actions."

"So they're scared," ChibiUsa said.

"I guess that, from their point of view, they're lucky you didn't decide to aim that Kamehameha at them instead."

Usagi grimaced at Aiko's nicknaming of her attack. "Maybe I should give another interview."

"Most close-minded fools won't change their opinion of you just with that."

Usagi nodded at Karin's words. "But I can still try."

Aiko sighed. "Guess we'll have a chance to prove we're here to protect the Earth, not just Japan."

"What's wrong?"

"Several more carriers are coming. I'm trying to predict their targets."

Pluto appeared right then. "They will send them to Tokyo, London and New York. Three of the carriers will come here."

Usagi nodded. "They see us as the biggest threat, then. Wonder if I can get a few more missiles..." She saw the others looking at her in shock and smiled. "Just joking."

"Good," ChibiUsa said.

Aiko called the rest of the team, and some of their allies. "Unfortunately, our Demon Hunter friends are still busy helping with the city's evacuation."

"I'm going to London," Brad said.

Minako smiled. "And I'm going with him. It'll be nice to see the rest of the Diamond clan again."

"I guessed as much," Usagi said. "I'll let you guys decide where you want to go."

"I'm going to New York," Hana said.

Shingo smiled. "I'll tag along, if you don't mind."

"I'm going to London too," Yukiko said, "always wanted to check that city out."

Aiko frowned at that. "Well, go have fun then."

Yukiko flinched. "I thought you would-"

"Someone has to stay here and keep an eye on-"

Usagi walked to Aiko. "I will make a wild guess and suppose you have already made sure distance from the computer isn't an issue."

"... Yes."

"Then what's stopping you?"

"Damn it, Usagi. You can be really nosy."

"It's one of my best traits."

"I felt like I needed to stay around in case mom and dad return, but... I can just teleport back here. Sorry, I was being stubborn."

"You can stay if you want to," Yukiko said.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Yuki."

Haruka shrugged. "Since we already know the city, we'll go to New York."

"I'll go, too," Hotaru said.

"Count me in," ChibiUsa said, "I've never left Tokyo."

"To balance things out, I'll help in London," Pluto added.

Usagi smiled. "Good luck, everyone. See you all after this battle is over."

The Nh'Prowr read the reports with mild interest. Creatures using magic were nothing new, but these were Senshi. Sen'shi. They had blown a whole Kh'rr out of the sky, so the name did fit. "Ky'ma, I know you're there. If you were any other creature, sneaking up on the Nh'Prowr would be considered a crime."

"But fortunately for me," a creature said as she appeared out of thin air, "I am far more valuable to you alive."

He looked at the female, catlike, humanoid creature in front of him. "Do not think I will tolerate a failure. The only thing keeping you alive is that you've never failed me, or my mother when she was Nh'Prowr."

"So, it's the usual then. Brute force and intimidation aren't working?"

"I wouldn't send you if my army was enough. Wait until our current attack is done, then go do what you do best."

"I know. I will bring you victory, master. Those Senshi must have a weakness, and I'll find it." It was, after all, a life or death scenario for her.