PRETTY SOLDIER SAILOR MOON: FUTURE
Chapter 64: Quartet vs. Toxicum
The Sailor Quartet were already deep in battle with the Toxicum Soldiers, with nearby buildings and surroundings showing fresh scars from the various attacks they lunged at each other in the frenzy. Ceres was preoccupied with fending Nabar off, effortlessly vaulting and parkouring atop various structures and buildings to avoid the red-haired Soldier's vulture-like crimson claws.
"HAH!" Nabar screamed and crossed her arms together in an X formation, sending a flash of bloody red slashes at Ceres while she ran straight up the side of an apartment complex. Ceres vaulted off in time to avoid the explosion and elegantly twirled high over Nabar.
"Ceres Gorgeous Rondo!" Ceres called out, sending a shower of yellow roses that swirled in a violent storm that threatened to sweep Nabar off her feet. She clenched her hand around a nearby bench, but realized she was completely open to Ceres performing a straight-down dive kick directly over her head.
"Not this time!" Nabar laughed and raised her arm to block it.
Ceres jumped off and hunched, realizing that she was at a disadvantage when it came to raw offensive power. She needed to trap Nabar before doing any real damage, but she wasn't giving her any chances. Ceres wanted to try something different, so she declared, "Resistance is futile. Even if you defeat me here, there will be others who will be able to stop you."
"Bah! Like I haven't heard that one before!"
"I'm serious. We don't want to fight our fellow Sailor Soldiers. Don't you remember what our sworn duty is?"
"Of course I do! To protect the forces of light from evil! That's exactly what we're doing!"
"You're wrong. Even if you lived in such a harsh environment, you should have kept that pledge dear to your heart. Now you've reduced yourselves to wrongdoers who believe the ends justifies the means. You're going down a path of evil, and you know perfectly well what will happen if we allow you to achieve your twisted goal of playing god with Alkima Galaxy."
Nabar seethed with anger. "What would you backwater hicks know about what we've gone through!? We were backed into a corner! We had to make a choice right then and there, morals be damned!"
"And so you forsake your duty in the name of survival," Ceres replied.
"You make it sound like we were only thinking of ourselves! Eris said that once she obtained the Silver Crystal, she would use its power to restore the Alkima Galaxy! But we couldn't trust her after what she did to our homes! We decided to accompany her so that we could use the Silver Crystal to kill Eris and revive Alkima ourselves! That was the only hope we could cling to!"
Ceres looked disappointed. "Even if you were thinking about saving your world, it would come at the cost of launching an unprovoked attack against Neo Queen Serenity. My disgust cannot be described in words of how shameful you are. You have no right to call yourselves Sailor Soldiers anymore."
"Who the hell died and made you god!? I oughta knock you down a few pegs, Your Royal Snobbiness!"
"My, how vulgar. But that's fine with me. I still need to repay you for disrupting my time in the spotlight that day."
Ceres snapped her fingers, and a nearby plant came to life at her beckoning, shooting its deep roots directly behind Nabar when she least expected it. They wrapped around her body tightly, and she swore, "Not this again!"
"Take this! Choking Vine Thrash!"
The roots scooped Nabar off the ground and whipped her body against the wall, then continued flailing about while tossing her about violently. In her stupor, Nabar managed to free one of her clawed hands and feebly slashed in the air, creating more reddish cutting projectiles at Ceres. She easily dodged aside, but lost her concentration on the roots and caused Nabar to fall to the ground in pain.
"Ungh… Damn it… You're gonna regret that…" she threatened.
"Juno Tempest Dance!" Sailor Juno called out, encircling her fists in deadly winds that enhanced her speed and agility. She ran towards Sailor Mangar and unleashed a flurry of punches that couldn't be seen by the naked eye.
"Lavender Aegis," Mangar chanted, surrounding her body in a purple aura that was impervious to all damage. Juno's multitude of punches did nothing to faze her, and when she ran out of energy to continue the attack, Mangar likewise lowered her defensive ability and twirled her spear in her hand before jamming the butt of it right into Juno's abdomen. She reeled from the blow, but got back straight into the battle by jabbing her elbow at Mangar's masked cheek. It did hurt, but Mangar wasn't bothered. She jumped about 100 meters in the air and summoned a group of magical purple spears, all of their blades pointing directly at Juno. Mangar called out, "Bayonet Deluge."
"Whoa, this is real bad!" Juno cringed and immediately started running about. The purple spears rained down upon her as she skidded, vaulted, and rolled about randomly to avoid the deadly onslaught. When the smoke settled, Juno's throat was parched and her aching lungs screamed for relief from the furious running around. Mangar landed in front of the exhausted Juno and raised her weapon high above to smash the blade down upon her head. Juno slipped aside, and the spear hit the concrete so hard that it caused some mortar to break free.
"Che. Not bad, are ya?" Juno gasped. "Think of what we could accomplish if you joined us as an ally."
"That's not happening," Mangar retorted. "Other than retrieving Zarnik and the Silver Crystal, we have no other need for this tiny, isolated world."
"You really care about Midori, don't you? Then why can't you join our side!? That way, you guys can reunite with each other and fight Eris with us!"
Mangar raised her energized purple spear and murmured, "Elegant Javelin Pierce."
She threw her weapon in a narrow arc, and Juno's heightened reflexes allowed her to dodge her head to the side to avoid having her cranium skewered clean through. The javelin struck the ground and lost its hue, and Mangar summoned it back into her hand.
"Why are you being so stubborn about this!?" Juno again demanded.
"You would expect us to side with Selene, who brought upon Alkima's guaranteed ruin in order to protect her own kingdom. There is no word in any language to convey something as evil as that."
"Yes, Queen Serenity made that mistake during the Silver Millennium. But her daughter – our ruler, Neo Queen Serenity – would do anything to rectify that mistake!"
"There is no guarantee of that. The queen may likewise treat us as criminals for allying with Eris and sentence us to a cruel and unusual punishment."
"That's not true! She's nothing like that!"
"Even though she is the daughter of the tyrannical Selene? I beg to differ. What is the expression you Earthlings so like to abuse? Something about an apple not falling far from the tree, I believe."
"Why, you-!" Juno seethed. "You don't know anything!"
Mangar's glare turned fierce. "I say the same to you. As I do not know your queen's personality, you likewise do not know of the despair we had to wade through without relying on someone so 'benevolent and wonderful' as the goddess Selene. I am willing to make you understand our position through lethal force though. Once you endure the same suffering and are cornered into making a terrible choice, your closed-minded opinions will undoubtedly change in our favor."
Juno got into a fighting stance and declared, "Not happening! I would sooner die protecting Crystal Tokyo than siding with you!"
"That is an acceptable outcome too. I would like to not waste my breath trying to convince a hardheaded fool."
"Come on, bug-girl!" Vesta taunted Kadmas with a 'come here' gesture.
The blonde-haired Soldier's bee-like wings flittered to life, creating an incessant buzzing noise as she flew and brandished numerous small daggers resembling stingers.
"Hearth of the Landlord!" Vesta called out, engulfing her whip in flames and cracking it in the air where Kadmas was buzzing about. Balls of fire exploded from various sigils bearing the Vesta symbol, momentarily turning the cold air into a sweltering hot area. Some snow even melted, and it was all Kadmas could do to avoid getting burnt to a crisp. She whirled around Vesta in a continuous loop, flying by so quickly that she couldn't keep up with her movements.
"Wasp's Sting Revolution!" Kadmas yelled, throwing dozens of her daggers at Vesta while continuing to fly in a blinding circle. It was a vicious barrage that Vesta had trouble countering, but she did her best by flailing her whip to try and bat the daggers aside in midair. Some stingers pierced her skin, while others lacerated it. Vesta reeled on her feet, and Kadmas swooped in to try and stab her neck. Vesta managed to block it with the handle of her whip, and they glared directly into each other's eyes.
"You have to be crazy if you think you can use the Silver Crystal's power without dying," Vesta grunted.
"Were you not listening?" Kadmas retorted. "With my newest invention, the Lambda Processor, we can make our dream of reviving Alkima a reality!"
"You put way too much faith into those weird gadgets of yours. You don't even know how powerful the Lambda Power is, do you?"
"Don't be stupid. Unlike a brute like you, my real strength lies in my brains. I've spent countless years researching the Lambda Power, and my Lambda Processor has been programmed with the correct calculations to harness the Silver Crystal's creation energy. All that's left is to take it from your queen."
"Over my dead body!" Vesta growled. "The Silver Crystal is a symbol of peace, not a tool to be used by maniacs like you!"
"Yet it is that very same crystal that Selene used to banish Eris to our galaxy. I think that's a far cry from being a symbol of peace – it's just a potent baddie rejecter that sends villains to other parts of the universe for other people to deal with."
"You're wrong! That's not what her intention was!"
"I'm right, and you know it," Kadmas' sweet smile thinly veiled the sinister undertones of those words. "Well, no point in spending time talking to an uneducated boor. It's time you died now."
Vesta heard a foreboding horde of buzzing sounds and glanced back. A small army of robotic bees swarmed around her back and pointed their metallic stingers at her. She became desperate, and her tiara broke to reveal the red Vesta sigil. Her body overflowed with a searing surge of power that forced Kadmas to fly back.
"Swarm her, my colony!" she commanded.
The bees' eyes glowed red and flew toward the enraged Vesta.
"Qilinbian Flail!" she screamed, and her whip turned into a red-hot weapon that would burn through anyone's hands other than hers. With expert precision, she cracked the burning weapon about in a mesmerizing dance that swatted the bees one by one. Kadmas was astounded that none of her minions managed to reach Vesta. When she wasn't paying attention, a particular crack of the whip lashed at Kadmas' cheek and sharply singed it.
"KYAH!?" she reflexively shrieked and pressed her hand on her face. Blood poured out of the wound, and she became enraged.
"I ain't interested in the flunkies," Vesta grinned. "The one I want to tame is the queen bee herself. Are you ready to submit?"
"Cobra's Bite!" Sailor Kanos shouted, conjuring another icy snake to bare its icicle fangs and charge at Sailor Pallas.
"Pallas Orb: Shield!" Pallas called out and thrust one of her balls in front of her. It grew large enough to completely block her body from the snake, and frigid water splashed on the front side while keeping her safe on the rear.
"HYAAAH!" Kanos screamed as she dashed in wielding her rapier. Pallas shrunk the large orb and equipped it on her forearm like a shield, blocking Kanos' fencing stabs while summoning her pool cue to use as a makeshift rapier of her own. They dueled in a vicious fencing match for a few moments, their weapons clashing and sparking in a whirlwind of precise movements. Then Kanos suddenly grinned, which Pallas couldn't understand why. Kanos pointed two fingers together at the ground, sending sparkles of ice to freeze some snow that Pallas stepped on, making her lose her balance.
"Wha-wha-wha-wha-!?"
"Got you!"
Kanos grabbed her opponent's arm. Then to Pallas' abject horror, Kanos opened her mouth wide and revealed a pair of nasty-looking fangs on the upper row of her teeth. The sight of those horrid, jutted fangs was a stark contrast to the genteel yet charismatic young woman with sleek blue hair and fluid fencing skills. The fangs dug deep into Pallas' arm, and Kanos injected some venom into her bloodstream. It only took a second, but it felt like forever to Pallas. Kanos released her prey and stepped back with a chuckle. Almost instantly, Pallas felt a biting cold sensation course through her arm, and she grabbed her upper arm in a pitiful attempt to stop the venom from traveling through her body.
"That won't work. My race's venom is quite potent, as you no doubt know by now," Kanos said. "As it travels through you, it will freeze every cell in your body dead in their tracks, and you will eventually become a frozen statue."
"Ah… AAANGH!" Pallas moaned as her arm was engulfed in a burning, stinging sensation that crippled her. Then the burning suddenly turned into an arctic cold feeling as small patches of ice started to form on the skin surrounding the bite marks.
"Think of it as liquid nitrogen flowing through your blood. It's only painful for a moment, but then you won't feel a thing," Kanos continued explaining. "Of course, I won't just leave you as a human popsicle. Once you're entirely frozen…"
She casually whipped her rapier about, then thrust it before Pallas' neck and murmured, "Well, I think you can guess what will happen then, hm?"
"Ungh… No… I won't… lose… to this…!" Pallas groaned, now with her entire arm encased in solid ice.
"Oh, come on. Once I inject my venom in my prey, it's over for them. Since I'm done with you, I should go back up my allies. Your sisters will be joining you in the afterlife very soon."
Kanos turned around and was about to walk away, but Pallas raged with all her might, "You're not going anywhere!"
The stricken Soldier got back on her feet, fighting the flesh-searing torture of being frozen alive. Although half of her upper body was encased in ice by now, Pallas was not going to give in. She concentrated with everything she had to call upon her celestial guardian. The Pallas sigil broke on her forehead, and she groaned, "Pallas… Quartet…"
"Oh no, you don't!" Kanos roared, intent on slaying Pallas right there rather than waiting for her to be frozen. She lunged her rapier at Pallas' throat, but then felt a gust of intense power and realized she was being hurled away!
"POWEE~EE~RR~RR!"
"AAAAAHHHH!" Kanos screamed, tumbling wildly across the pavement. Once she stopped flailing about, she pressed her hand against her bleeding forehead and glared at Pallas. To her utter amazement, the Sailor Soldier not only shattered the ice that was engulfing her, but also cleansed her body of the venom. Even the bite marks were gone, as she had been healed by the power bestowed to her by the Goddess of Wisdom and Heroism, Pallas Athena.
Pallas stood triumphantly and pointed her pool cue at Kanos, shouting, "I won't give up! I won't stop until you understand how much you're making Midori suffer!"
"Ungh…"
The other three Toxicum Soldiers noticed their leader in trouble and abandoned their own battles to rejoin her. Mangar helped Kanos back to her feet while Nabar and Kadmas stood in front to protect them from the angered Pallas. The other Sailor Quartet likewise met up with their sibling.
"You guys okay?" Juno asked, worried about the injuries they sustained.
"This is nothing. But we're practically equal in power," Ceres frowned. "We need to turn this battle around, and quickly."
"How strange," Kanos muttered. "We were thinking the same thing."
Just then, the former Camarilla stood side-by-side, and their symbols glowed brightly on their foreheads in their respective colors. The Quartet realized that they were preparing for a powerful team attack.
"Virulent Pressure Wave!"
The evil Soldiers raised their arms and conjured lethal waves of colored fumes that fused to create a noxious aura that could kill all forms of life and reduce inanimate objects into dust. The Quartet had to summon their energies as fast as they could or they would risk being vaporized by the wave. Although they felt terrible about potentially killing Zarnik's friends, they couldn't forgive endangering Earth's people and breaking Zarnik's heart so cruelly. Their combined love for their friends and home gave them the strength they needed to counterattack.
"Let's do this!" Juno shouted.
"To protect our world from evil!" Vesta said.
"To safeguard Small Lady and those she cares for!" Ceres exclaimed.
"And to free Midori from the pain you put her through!" Pallas declared.
"Amazoness Jungle Arrow!"
The four sisters chanted their group attack together, thrusting their hands forth to create an arrowhead of pure energy that shot straight at the vicious aura. To the Toxicum Soldiers' sheer amazement, the arrowhead not only pierced through their attack and disintegrated it, but it engulfed them in an unforgiving wave of agony that threatened to tear them apart limb from limb. They all screamed in both pain and disbelief, unable to comprehend that they had been defeated.
Once the Amazoness Jungle Arrow lost all of its power, the former Camarilla fell to their knees. They no longer had the strength to fight, and the Quartet stood triumphantly over their foes.
"Do you see now?" Ceres asked. "Lies only beget more lies, which only cause more pain and suffering."
"Ugh…" Kanos coughed. "But we wanted to… protect Zarnik…"
"There were other ways you could have done it," Vesta scowled. "You should've told her the truth right from the beginning."
"There's no way… she would have left Alkima… unless she had an important mission to follow," Varan gasped. "She's very stubborn… even if she's fighting… for a lost cause…"
"Don't even… try to tell us… that we should've… worked together… with Alkima's other Soldiers," Nabar snarled. "We all hated each other… to the point of… betraying and… assassinating each other… without second thought."
"That's just too sad," Pallas whimpered. "Couldn't any of you remember why Sailor Soldiers existed in the first place?"
"We tried… to remind everyone…" Kadmas sobbed. "Believe me… we really tried…!"
"I'm sorry things had to be this way," Juno apologized.
Then to the Quartet's astonishment, Kanos looked up at them with an expression as if she had made peace with her inner demons. She urged, "If we are doomed to fail… then kill us right here and now."
"Kill you!?"
"Even if you arrested us, our hearts will not be swayed. Don't waste any more of your time with us. Kill us now, and take care of Zarnik on our behalf. It's the only way to set her free from the sins we committed against her."
"The Queen would never condone that," Ceres said firmly. "I apologize, but we're to take you into custody. Whatever happens after that is up to the Royal Family."
"Khh…" Kanos seethed bitterly. It was right then that the Sailor Planet Attack was fired from Crystal Palace and successfully brought down Upala Acropolis from the sky.