Chapter Fourteen

The following day, after breakfast, Sylvia went back to the library she'd visited several times since her first meeting with Rolando at the mall. She returned several books to there, and checked out others. While there, she encountered Tatiana again.

When she did, Tatiana asked her, "What brings you here now, Miss Wakefield?"

"The usual book exchanging, Tatiana. What are you doing here, for that matter?"

"I sometimes work here whenever I'm not going to school or practicing my soccer skills, et cetera, Miss Wakefield."

"Is that why you're calling me 'Miss Wakefield' right now?"

"Yes, it is. Just in case others might be around who don't know us well enough, in fact. That's why. What kinds of books are you getting this time?"

"A few mysteries, at least. If not anything else as well, in fact, Tatiana."

"I see. Might we be able to see each other later today, by any chance?"

"Perhaps. When do you expect to leave here for the day?"

"4:30 or so, I think. I'll just have to see how things go for me today, before I can be sure exactly when that might be the case here."

They talked for a little while longer with each other until about 11 or so in the morning, when Sylvia headed off in the direction of Sweet Musicalisti to spend some more time with Moonlight Serenade in her life. Sylvia left the library just after 11 am, and put her things in her van, before setting off for Sweet Musicalisti again. She arrived on the complex's grounds by 11:30, and soon had him ready for riding as needed.

After getting him ready well enough, she then rode off the grounds on his back, so as to be able to patrol for a while in the local area. From about 11:45 or so in the morning to about 3:45 in the afternoon, then, either they patrolled there, or they spent some time with each other in and around the cavern they'd found earlier.

Mostly, they patrolled in the local area, but still spent at least half an hour in and around the aforementioned cavern. They eventually decided to return to Sweet Musicalisti when it was just about 4 in the afternoon. But before they could get all the way back there as they'd left it, trouble arose again in the local area. Trouble, in fact, in the form of even more Arab terrorists, seeking to wreak more havoc on the innocent civilians of the Jerusalem area.

Those terrorists decided to try to cause trouble a few buildings or so away from PPP, at most, just before Skyhorse and others could show up well enough in the area so they could try to stop them all from doing so. The terrorists proved later to be from Hamas and/or Hezbollah, but nobody except the five or six dozen or so terrorists currently present there knew that yet, for the obvious reasons. It was about 4:20 or so in the afternoon when Skyhorse and Serenade arrived near where the terrorists were about to take as many hostages as they then could here, in fact.

They sought to wreak havoc in and around a moderately-sized department store where many people were shopping for assorted things in it. Before Skyhorse and Serenade arrived on the scene, and before any police officers or soldiers could arrive on the scene well enough, those same terrorists took at least a few dozen people hostage in the store, if not even more than that. They did so mainly by threatening to shoot anyone who they knew was trying to escape from the area while they were still holding those people hostage. So nobody tried to get away, for they really wanted to continue living for as long as they all could, of course.

The terrorists soon barricaded all the doors that they could in the store that might possibly be used to get in or out of the store, if they knew of them well enough. But they didn't know all the possible points of entry into or exit out of in the store. For they'd actually not done quite as good a job at planning their current mission as Arab terrorists as they all thought they'd earlier done. Which would become quite evident, when the necessary time came for that to be known arrived for them and anyone else then in the store with them.

The police arrived first on and around the scene. Then the soldiers did, soon surrounding the immediate area when they got there. Then Serenade and Skyhorse did so, followed not long afterward by the rest of the currently-known Scouts and Isaiah. But not the Pilgrim. At least not as of the current time, anyway.

The police soon informed all the Scouts of the situation, when the need arose for them to do so here. For the previous day, while the Scouts had been in their civilian states at school, a new somewhat secret directive from the city's Police Commissioner for all police officers then under his control had been issued at noon local time, effective as of that exact time. It'd first begun to be developed after Skyhorse's first battle as a Sailor Scout. And it'd been cleared by all the necessary governmental officials in the applicable national, district, and municipal governments, by 3 pm on Thursday, December 6, 1990, local time. So, while Sylvia, Kiena, and Mary were still at school, the Commissioner's directive went into immediate effect, as of the aforementioned time of day on Friday. And it'd remain in effect at least until such time as it didn't need to, or another directive from him superseding that same directive was issued by him.

This still-new directive required the police to tell any or all of the available Sailor Scouts whatever they needed to know if and/or whenever their assistance might be required to deal with certain situations and the Scouts were available to help try to deal with them. Whether those situations involved terrorists or not, that was to normally be the case for the police officers under the Commissioner's control, if and/or whenever possible, in fact. Some police officers might not like it much right now. But in due time, whenever that might be the case for them, they might just change their minds, if certain things ever happened to them or to people close enough to them in their lives. That was yet-unknown, though, for all the obvious reasons, of course.

After about ten or so minutes of conversation between the Scouts and the necessary police officers or soldiers, Skyhorse ordered Renaissance and Trinity to positions near, but not too near, the store, for at least the time being. Isaiah went with Ren, and Serenade stayed near the cops and soldiers, after Skyhorse told him what she wanted him to do here. A few moments later, after Skyhorse asked the cops and soldiers to not interfere with the Pilgrim if he made an appearance in the areas sufficiently near them, and they agreed not to, she moved to another nearby location. And she also waited for the proper time for her and her allies to act in the current situation well enough, of course.

When the terrorists made at least one sufficiently bad mistake, she had her allies begin to act in the necessary manner or manners. Ren and Isaiah found a place where they both could sneak into the store without being seen, heard, or detected well enough in rather short order. And they sneaked into it through a ventilation system of some sort. After they were just about to where the terrorists were currently holding their captives, they stayed put until they could move again toward where they'd need to go with each other.

As for Trinity and Skyhorse, they periodically moved as well toward the part of the store where the terrorists were currently located in it. Also without being seen, heard, or detected, for that matter. However, Skyhorse stayed closest of the Scouts to where the main doors of the store were, for the obvious reasons, of course.

Some time later, after the terrorists tried to negotiate for their freedom, offering the hostages' lives in return, the terrorists rejected the offers to them that the cops and soldiers were making to them currently. The terrorists emphasized that by beginning to attack the hostages one at a time with various weapons at their disposal, piping audio and video out to their opponents as they did so. Ten seconds later, at most, the Scouts were in action, and dropping out of their current hiding places, if and wherever possible.

As Renaissance hastily erected some sort of invisible energy shield around the hostages that she could erect it around, Isaiah went fully after one or more of the terrorists then attacking those hostages. Renaissance had only learned she could actually call one forth seemingly out of nowhere that morning, just after she'd woken up in her bed, while Leah was still quite asleep. After she learned that, she'd eventually gone for a drive elsewhere in the Jerusalem area, and found a safe enough place to practice doing that for a little while. While Sylvia had still been at the library with Tatiana and many other people, she'd been practicing that for some time, not even expecting to have to use that new ability of hers later on that day, in fact.

For a while, then, Renaissance maintained that shield around the hostages to the best of her current ability to do so, even while also defending them, Isaiah, and herself at the current time. The ten or so terrorists that she then fought with the help of Isaiah and a sword from the cavern she'd hidden in her subspace pocket, in fact, were soon outmatched by her. For they weren't able to keep Isaiah from harassing them well enough during the battle here, which helped her in it against them.

While they were fighting Ren and Isaiah, Skyhorse and Trinity joined the battle as well. And they took on other remaining terrorists for a while, at least until the Pilgrim showed up and shrouded the area somehow with his usual items. With that done, Trinity soon began leading whatever hostages out of the battle's location that she could lead out of it, once Sky told her to do so. While she then did that here, Sky, Ren, the Pilgrim, and Isaiah covered her retreat with the soon-to-be-free hostages from the area to the best of their combined ability to do so.

The shroud of some sort in the battle's area lasted for about ten or so minutes, at most. And when it dissipated fully into the air in and around there, only about three or four terrorists were still alive and actually able to fight in the area well enough. All the others either were dead, dying, or were alive, but knocked out of the rest of the fight. It took only a few moments more to knock the rest of the surviving terrorists out of the fight, by leaving them defenseless enough for the rest of the fight, and capturing them well enough in it. When that happened, the Pilgrim soon departed the area, without another word to anyone, if he didn't absolutely have to speak to anyone at all here. He left the scene without having even taken a human life in it. Not even by accident, in fact.

As for Isaiah, Trinity, Renaissance, and Skyhorse, of course, they obviously had to defend themselves and the hostages to the best of their abilities to do so. So they had to kill, even if they'd have preferred not to, at the current time, in the battle. They didn't kill everyone, but they killed enough of their opponents to win the battle well enough here, just the same.

Five or so minutes after the battle ended, the cops and the soldiers moved in, and dealt with the surviving terrorists as needed to the best of their abilities to do so. One or two of them went to a local hospital for a while, while the others went straight to jail just as soon as they could do that well enough here. While the cops and soldiers were dealing with the surviving terrorists as needed, then, the Scouts began slipping away, just as soon as they could do well enough and safely enough. And so did their animal companions, from the store's immediate area, in fact.

Soon afterward, all the Scouts and their allies were out of the area again. At least as currently-present fighters against evil people, anyway. Serenade and Skyhorse headed back off toward Sweet Musicalisti, as they'd often do after a battle or a patrol in the Jerusalem area of Israel. Renaissance eventually made her way to the same Athletic Club she'd been at with Sylvia and Liz several weeks, at least, earlier as Kiena. Trinity went back to where she lived with her family, powering down completely to Mary, while doing so. But she only did that when it was safe enough, and appropriate enough, for her to do so, on the way back there, of course.

None of the Scouts or their assorted allies ran into any trouble at all while returning to their respective residences in time, in fact. And they didn't see each other again for the rest of the day, and for the night yet to come, by the way. They eventually all made it back to those residences of theirs, and all were quite soundly asleep again by roughly midnight local time, for that matter.

On Sunday, after church, Sylvia met up with Tatiana, and asked her what she'd decided to call her new dog. Tatiana said, "I'm going to call them 'Vladephrad,' Sylvia. His name comes from a combination of Vlad, Eph, and Rad. Eph comes from Ephraim, which means 'fruitful.' Rad is a German name element that means 'counsel.' Vlad comes from the Slavic name element volod, which means 'rule.' So, in essence, his combined name could possibly mean 'rule of fruitful counsel,' 'fruitful rule of counsel,' or something else entirely which might escape me at the current time, I think."

"I see, Tatiana," said Sylvia, as they did a little shopping with each other at the same mall that Sylvia and Rolando had first met each other at months earlier. They were mainly looking for new clothes items that they could wear periodically over the coming months, especially when spelunking, for instance. They spent several hours together with each other, only parting from each other after Sylvia was paged by Trinity and Renaissance rather unexpectedly.

Sylvia dropped Tatiana off at her residence, when she parted from them, and then joined her fellow Scouts as soon as she could do that well enough. But only after first getting Serenade from his stall as quickly as she could did she join them. That was because the current battle was being fought on the other side of Sweet Musicalisti from where she'd been when paged. She powered up on the way to where Trinity and Renaissance were now fighting a somewhat difficult Negaverse monster by the name of Kutathado. They were fighting this monster near Sweet Musicalisti, but not there, as already stated. They were fighting in and around the grounds of a neighboring farm called Shiloh's Blessed Crown Hall. Isaiah had alerted Mary and Kiena when he'd detected the disturbance, through their communicators. And they'd alerted Sylvia, in turn. Sylvia became Skyhorse just before reaching Sweet Musicalisti's grounds. After saddling Serenade as quickly and as safely as she could, she then mounted him and set off for SBCH's complex, following directions he gave her on the way there.

After arriving there, she soon sent him off in search of the Pilgrim. For right after her arrival there, she saw the size of the related Negaverse monster. The monster was about twenty or so feet tall, with plenty of dragon-like plates covering the majority of his body. His head was much like a gorilla's, but much larger, and with a hawk-like beak with it. His forelegs/arms were much like those of a gorilla or other similar animals. His torso was considerably covered with big plates as already described here, except near the shoulders and waist where such plates couldn't be. From about where his waist was to about where his two legs diverged from the rest of his body, there were no such plates present. Instead, that area was protected by assorted items of clothing and armor, wherever possible. His legs, except for the areas near his feet and on them, were protected by other plates exactly like the ones that were mostly present above his waist region, in fact. His feet and parts of them just above his feet were completely unbound and uncovered, at least in terms of footwear. For his feet were the feet of a dragon, with several toes on either foot as needed. And his tail was about eight feet long and about six feet thick, with several dragon-like plates on it as well.

The three present Scouts fought the monster somewhat ineffectively for a while, with each of them taking hits periodically, some more hurtful than others, of course. Kutathado periodically sent Scouts flying with his tail. Sometimes even into assorted buildings on and near SBCH's complex. Every time he did, the Scouts got even madder, for the obvious reasons. Eventually, they were about to drop totally in the battle. But before Kutathado could execute any killing strokes against any of them that he was then fighting, the Pilgrim, Moonlight Serenade, Isaiah, an unknown woman, and an unknown dog showed up near enough to him, and got at least some, if not all, of his current attention here, in fact. But they weren't necessarily in complete sight of each other or of him. The unknown dog and the woman were together, while Isaiah was perched on a still-standing building post, Serenade was near Skyhorse, and the Pilgrim was standing on the roof of a shed.

The unknown woman and the dog briefly went near Sky, Ren, and Trinity, in order to check on them a little bit. All three Scouts were still alive, but they all were now struggling to stay conscious enough here, of course. And then the woman and dog both moved away from them a quite considerable distance, so as not to reveal themselves completely to those three Scouts just yet, as they were still somewhat conscious here. Or to any of the others that'd arrived on the scene when they just had, for that matter.

A minute or so after they were both far enough away from the three Scouts, and completely out of sight of their future allies, the woman and the dog briefly conversed with each other. The woman asked, "Do I really have to become one of them?"

"Yes, it seems that you actually do have to become one of them, Tatiana. It is time for you to rejoin the ranks of the Sailor Scouts. Your time of current dormancy is now required to end."

"I was a Sailor Scout?"

"Yes, you were, long ago. And I was actually with you when you were put into suspended animation long ago."

"When was that, Vladephrad?"

"About a thousand years ago, more or less, if I remember correctly enough. I'll tell you more later, if and when it comes to me. But at the current time, your services as a Sailor Scout are required, or these particular Sailor Scouts will be disposed of soon, I think."

"Is there no other choice at the current time?"

"Apparently not. Do you remember your last transformation phrase?"

"Not right off-hand, Vladephrad. Why do you ask?"

"Because you'll need one in order to engage your transformation into your Sailor Scout state of being."

"I see. Can I just make up one, then?"

"Say whatever comes to mind, and perhaps it might work well enough for you here."

She thought for a minute, at most, as she also saw the Pilgrim, Serenade, and Isaiah go into action here. This was the case once Kutathado tried to swipe at them all here as he then saw fit, in fact. Some words came into her head, all of a sudden, and they were "Mir Crystal Power."

She said, after considering them for a few seconds, "I seem to have a transformation phrase that I can use here, Vladephrad."

"Good. Now use it, if you feel you must."

"All right. Stand back a few feet at least. I may need a little room to move here while transforming, then."

The dog backed away a few feet from Tatiana, who then called out, "Hey, you big fat ugly thing, stop what you're doing, or face the consequences of not doing so!"

"Who are you, and why are you interrupting my fun here?"

"Nobody whose name you'll be remembering shortly, if I have anything to say about it here. Leave them all alone, and go back to wherever you came from, or prepare to join the rest of your friends in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone!"

"Make me, young infant!"

"I am not an infant! Mir Crystal Power!"

Seconds later, a pillar of brown, gold, purple, black, and silver light shrouded her from the view of everyone else in the immediate area of things here. Inside the pillar, she began changing her appearance, and powering up to her first Sailor Scout state of being here.

Inside the pillar, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, she began changing. Her nearly waist-length blonde hair that she often wore in looping braids changed its current look to seem like a combination of a rattlesnake's coil and a bun of some sort, wherever possible. A gold tiara then appeared on her forehead, with a purple stone, most likely an amethyst, at the base of it. Three stud-style earrings in the approximate shape of bear claws were in each of her earlobes. A brown choker was around her neck. She had a mostly black neckerchief with silver piping on it, with a locket above the knot then in it. The neckerchief was just above a mostly purple sailor-style collar with two stripes of white piping on it. Her mostly white uniform blouse of doeskin was sleeveless, for her current situation didn't currently require sleeves on it. There were three small shoulder pins on each of her shoulders. From outside in on both sides, the pins were in the shapes of bear, dove, and swan heads. There were brown armbands with feathers on her arms from doves and swans. And those armbands were made from assorted pieces of otter and beaver skins that'd been left over after fur trappers and traders elsewhere in Russia had turned other skins into finished products for later sale. The feathered armbands were now about halfway between her shoulders and elbows. Her gloves were black, made of buckskin, and secured at her elbows by bracelets. Those bracelets had bear claw-like beads attached to the exposed parts of them, and they'd been sewn into the cuffs of those gloves. Her skirt was light brown, and made of doeskin, just like her uniform's blouse had been. Her skirt was also non-pleated, as it fell almost to her knees. Many small doves and small swans were embroidered all over her skirt, if and wherever possible. Most, if not all, of them, though, were placed quite near her skirt's hem. Just below her knees, her nearly knee-length boots of buckskin and leather started. The boots were primarily made of buckskin, but they also had black treaded leather soles for them. Silver bear, dove, and swan heads were on either side of the boots as she then wore them here. One head of each type of animal was on either side of both boots, in fact. But they each weren't very large to cover the rest of the boot's upper parts, just the same. They were each about the size of the assorted heads on her skirt, for that matter. Two seconds or so after her boots were fully visible here then, her locket became completely visible to everyone just above the knot in her neckerchief. This locket was fairly round. And it had a design with a standing polar bear behind a crimson shield that bore the letters T, M, and K in silver on it, as it rested above the knot in her new neckerchief.

She then spoke again here, as the pillar of light completely vanished from around her in her immediate area. She shouted, "I am Sailor Mir, now commissioned to fight by the Prince of Peace. My goal is to see peace won as soon as possible for my people, whether they actually are from my land or not, in this Universe of ours. With the strength of the bear, the song of the swan, and the heart of the dove, I will do all I can to see that my people, no matter from where they may come, will eventually see peace come to them for as long as possible in each of their lives. I'll defend all who I possibly can of my people to the best of my ability to do so while I still can in this Universe of ours. I will never grant peace or truce to those who seek to do harm to my people, if I can possibly avoid it at all, while I still live and breathe in my life. Be hostile to me and my people at your own peril!"

A few seconds after she said all those things, she put her left hand on her hip. Then she held her right hand up to the sky in a perpendicular direction to the ground under her feet, so that her hand was pointing with all four fingers and her thumb at the sky above. Then she growled once like a Terran bear was often known to do, and a deck of playing cards materialized in her hand. This deck of cards had 56 cards in it, and there were four Jokers in it. The other 52 cards in the decks were of four different suits. Those suits were Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. The four Jokers were between her fingers, while the other 52 cards were in her palm. She then brought her hand down again, and turned it so that her hand's palm was facing all the way up towards the sky, once her right hand was at her waist-level again. Next, she brought her left hand to the top of the deck of cards, gathering up the Jokers as she did so, and she began shuffling all the cards together, even the Jokers. A minute later, she stopped shuffling the cards and turned up the top card of the deck. It was an Ace of Spades, and the Ace pip in the center of the card was in the approximate shape of a bear's claw.

She studied that particular card, and thought very briefly here, as everyone continued to watch her, before suddenly yelling, "Bear Claw Phasing Strike!" As she yelled that attack phrase, the cards in her hands began changing their appearances and sizes as she began throwing them at Kutathado as she then saw fit, so that they appeared to turn into big bear claws with long nails for them. Kutathado tried to protect himself against her attack. But the cards-turned-claws often phased through his defenses and through his dragon-like plates, if and whenever possible. She unleashed several rounds of that attack, moving even as she still continued to bombard him with them. She did that now, so as to hopefully not allow him to get after her as easily as he might want to, for all the obvious reasons here, in fact.

Within five minutes or so of her beginning to attack him several times with her Bear Claw Phasing Strike attack, he'd begun stumbling around the area, and having a hard time fending off her attacks. Eventually, he could no longer wreak havoc against any of the Scouts or their current allies. And he soon began to tip over towards the ground under him. As he began to do so, the assorted allies of the Scouts quickly ran to where the three nearly-exhausted Scouts were currently lying on the ground here. And they pulled them all far enough away from where they thought he might land here. Fortunately enough for all concerned here, of course. He hit the ground about two minutes after all the Scouts and their allies were far enough away from him to avoid being squashed or anything by him when he did so. Mir weakened him even more, for at least another minute or two. And then she checked to see if Skyhorse would actually be able to somehow finish him off well enough here. By that time, Skyhorse was sufficiently rested, and moved toward him.

As Skyhorse did so, her locket quite suddenly began beeping several times rather rapidly. When she began the process of finishing him off, her sword accidentally hit his right side, and penetrated all the way to one of his stomachs. She tried to free her sword from his side, but couldn't until she had sliced his side at least a little bit here. When she'd done that enough, a few plates suddenly slid to one side, and revealed the inside of that stomach. When she could look inside well enough, she saw several dozen humanoid beings inside it on an apparent ledge of sorts trying to avoid being hit by assorted internal body fluids for Kutathado. Those beings were all alive, but were all barely able to avoid being hit by them at the present time. Skyhorse then called out to Mir, Trinity, and Renaissance, to see if they could help her free those humanoid beings from what appeared to be their eventual doom and digestion. As soon as she did so, the Pilgrim left, for he caught at least a whiff of something that didn't quite agree with him here. What it was in actual reality wasn't yet known here, if it ever would be. But if they ever had to fight another such being, they might eventually learn what it was, if at all possible.

All three of those Scouts immediately came to her side, and began helping her further open up Kutathado here. As the other three Scouts did so, she then freed her sword, and sliced off his head two minutes or so later, after a bit more work on him here. Once his head was amputated from his neck, she moved back to where the others were now rescuing those beings that'd been inside him. It took them at least another ten minutes or so for them to rescue all of them. Even with some help from Isaiah and Vladephrad here, in fact. After all the humanoid beings were rescued from that stomach of Kutathado's, and accounted for completely, they scurried away from their now-dead captor. And they began to immediately repair any and all battle-related damage that'd just been caused to the area in and around SBCH's complex.

Several others in the group of aliens began healing all of the injuries to the Scouts and to their still-present allies. And where needed and desired by them here, they also repaired the battle damage to the Scouts' assorted weapons. It took them all just about half an hour to completely heal all those injuries and the battle damage done to the Scouts' weapons and to the area in and around SBCH's complex. After they all did so, the apparent leader of those beings handed a crystal to each of their human rescuers, and a box of assorted other crystals to Skyhorse, before engaging a certain device on the belt of their quite futuristic-looking outfit of some sort. Ten seconds or so later, then, every single one of those humanoid beings suddenly vanished from sight, as if they'd disappeared into thin air, in a manner of speaking, perhaps.

After the aliens vanished, Skyhorse studied the crystal and the box the apparent leader gave her. She asked, "Serenade, do you have any idea why they gave us these things?"

"Perhaps because we rescued them from the monster they were in, I figure, Skyhorse. I suppose giving these crystals to us is at least partly, if not entirely, in gratitude for keeping them from being digested by Kutathado's digestive system."

"Have you any idea what these crystals will do for us? And what they are?"

"No, I don't think so. I've never seen crystals like these before, if I remember things well enough in my life. I don't know what they're for, in fact, Skyhorse. Perhaps our computers back in our headquarters might be able to identify them and their purposes well enough. But at the current time, I have no idea what these crystals are for. And what they'll do, if used by anyone."

The Scouts and their allies conversed with each other a little bit here, before eventually deciding to leave the area of SBCH's complex behind in their lives. The last of them to leave the area where the battle had just been waged were Skyhorse and Serenade, after they had been alone with each other for a little while again.

Skyhorse powered down again just before they both got back to Sweet Musicalisti, for all the obvious reasons. She, as Sylvia, spent at least some time attending to Moonlight Serenade and his current needs. And she eventually left him behind again in his stall at Sweet Musicalisti. After she did that, Sylvia eventually returned home to Wakefield Castle for the rest of the night.

She was home again there by 11:15 pm local time. Sylvia spent a little time getting herself a rather late supper of assorted items, and worked on some homework for a while, before she got too tired to do so well enough. She retired to her bed by 12:30 in the morning of Monday, December 10, 1990. And she was completely asleep again no more than about fifteen or so minutes after that, lost in more dreams like the ones she'd often had ever since she'd first become Skyhorse here in the Jerusalem area of Israel.