'Till now we've seen people planning. Here we see plans going awry. And the return of the greatest badass in the whole 40k lore.

by lord Martiya

Act 2: Mice, Men and Divinities

How long had he fought? How long had he lived only to fight? He had lost count. Something around twenty-two centuries... And yet, he still fought. He still searched a reason. And once again he had enrolled in an army with perfectly forged documents-he had many talents, after all. And once again, he had been picked by the drill sergeant to show how the recruits were still weak. It happened EVERY SINGLE TIME he joined an army from the Anglo-Saxon nations.

"Should have put on some fat..." he said. But he still had what people nowadays called an heroic build.

"WHAT'S YOUR NAME, KIDDO?" the sergeant barked.

"Sir, Charles Zim, sir."

The sergeant managed to conceal the surprise. He had chosen the name on purpose.

"You think you're hot excrement with all the body building you do, don't you?"

"Sir, yes, sir." It was the truth.

"Care to prove it against your sergeant, kiddo?"

He smiled cockily. Just as if he was a braggart. He wasn't, and the sergeant had more trouble than he expected. And was bewildered when he realized he took a dive. He could have crushed him, but it wasn't good form for a recruit to beat up the instructor on the first day, and the sergeant was the guy who knew his job, not a bully.

And so he had a couple decades in the US Army before heroically 'dying' again. Who knew, maybe this time he'd find out why he was still alive (assuming that the wife hadn't lied).

That morning Mamoru had held a discussion with one of his professors, impressing him enough he would start considering giving him the chance for an early major. The fourth of the group. In the afternoon, after buying some stock about to increase in value and selling other that were about to go down (one crashing due the owners being involved with the latest attempt to fill the void in organized crime caused by Sailor Venus and Jupiter's dismantling of the Yakuza and everything similar in Minato Ward. They never learned to not get on their turf), he was using a fake identity and a false face to having a chat with a businessman.

"You must see, mr. Prostátis, that whatever 'irregularity' you allegedly discovered would be-"

And at that point Mamoru brainwashed the member of General Dynamics' board of directors he had approached with the pretence of blackmail, chosen specifically due having overhear Minako (who still held the job as 'part-time cop' she got after her journey to Beijing and the destruction of the Dark Agency. The less he thought about the legal basis, the better) ranting about the guy using the company's influence on the US government to bury his involvement in some crime or another. Through him he'd be able to approach the other directors and do the same service to them, and then he'd have control over one of America's main military contractors. After which... Well, Minako's birthday would come soon, and exposing the guy would be a good present once he didn't need him anymore.

Maia Talioshvili usually had a good life. A cute-looking, brown-haired girl from the Georgian city of Poti, she was an excellent medical student at Tblisi State University, soon to graduate at the top of her year. She had friends, no money problem, her future career looked promising... And was being chased by a robed creature with chalk-like skin wielding a scythe.

Maia owned a gun, a Makarov pistol phased out by the army, and had shot the thing when it had attacked, but to no effect. She could only run... Right in a dead end.

She backed away from the thing as it came close, trying desperately to get away or at least postpone her death. And, as it extended its hand toward her, the creature was bisected by what appeared to be a broadsword of energy held by what appeared to be the Japanese superheroine Sailor V. Who was with a dark-haired girl with a very similar outfit, changing only in the colours.

"What the hell?" she whispered, shocked by what was happened.

Sailor V said something that Maia could not understand... And, suddenly, she remembered. And the superheroine found herself pushed on a wall by an invisible force, before Maia canceled it.

"I apologize, Venus." she said as her body changed, her hair becoming black and much longer, her eyes green, her skin deeply tan, her height diminishing, and her figure becoming curvier, her face and body shape now similar to a slightly shorter Neo Queen Serenity. "I didn't want to remember, I still don't want it, and reacted instinctively. Even if it's clear you had a good reason. But how did you find out about the daemon?"

"Didn't know, Boss." Sailor Venus replied.

"What?"

"Long story, would be faster if you read it from her mind." Sailor Mars (Maia remembered her too, now) suggested.

'Maia', or Boss, as she used to go before that, did just that. And laughed a happy yet cruel laugh.

"Congratulations: you topped Wan Wan's absurdity." she said as her magic styled her hair almost identical to Sailor Moon, down to the odangos and long pigtails, but with free hair flowing between them and reaching for the knees. "And gave me a reason to continue.

"Once I'm finished I want to know what I've missed. Understood?"

Sailor Venus made a mock military salute, and Boss teleported away. Then she returned.

"By the way, have Artemis make my identity as Maia disappear."

And she teleported away.

"So... That's your infamous trainer?" Sailor Mars asked. "I expected her to be... Different."

"After everything she suffered through, you either get her or Galaxia." Sailor Venus replied. "By the way... Any idea how she's was doing?"

"Let's lay the ground rules." Galaxia declared to the various rulers of her homeworld. "I am in charge above everyone, but my law can be summed with just these words: don't make me come over there. That means no wars, no discrimination, and no eating other sentients unless they've been sentenced to death," the last prohibition said while looking at the king of the Snake Men "and if you have disputes you can't solve by yourselves you come to me. Or else..."

Galaxia fired a blast of energy at the blue-skinned man with a skull face dangling from the roof, disintegrating him.

"Am I clear?"

Everyone declared their assent.

Mamoru's apartment in Tokyo wasn't looking as usual. For starters, furniture and everything was toppled and scattered, as if a cyclone had spontaneously formed itself inside. And in a way, it had. Also, there were twenty one large naked man lying in a pile, the best looking one on top holding a metallic cube while trying to decide if he should laugh or cry.

"What the-"

"You were dead! DEAD!"

"Actually, I was supposed to be deader than that..."

"Don't worry, I'll make it true!"

"Don't you dare, you-"

"SILENCE!"

The one who cried, a blond with a crew cut and a very annoyed face, punched in the face one of the others, as if he expected him to protest. As he was about to.

"Now, anyone has any idea what happened?" he asked.

"I do." the one on top replied. "You know how the best laid plans of men, mice and divinities tend to go awry, right? Well, Thirsty was improvising."

"WHAT?!"

The shout came from all the others. With full justification.