Brought to you by Truly Krappy (T/K) Productions
"Truly Krappy, never half-assed."
Disclaimer: There are no plot holes! None! Oh, and we don't own
Sailor Moon, Trigun, or Slayers. We also do not make any money off of
this. If you are a lawyer looking for money, we're both broke, so
look elsewhere.
Today's story is rated PG-13 for descriptions of things going splat.
---
Chapter Six
---
Ami and Kagato stared silently at the various pictures displayed
before them. The Mercury Computer continued its monologue in dual
languages as the two watched on.
"Knowledge of the species was gained when, during the battle of
Charon, an amplified Silence Glaive Surprise went out of control and
brought one to this universe from another. The battle ended shortly
thereafter when the creature used a devastating attack which appears
to have ripped the souls from all the combatants' bodies."
Ami paled at this, and Kagato grinned. "Sounds like something I'd do
if someone tries to wake me up before I want to get up... definitely
would have came in handy at basic training."
"The Combined attack of all the Senshi, along with Queen Serenity and
most of the Court Sorcerers vanquished the creature. Following the
event, various individuals around the system gained darker powers then
they'd previously proven to have, and most went insane shortly
thereafter.
"The only person to survive was the prince of Saturn, who used the
power alongside his sister, Sailor Saturn, various times throughout
the remainder of the Rule of Serenity. The Court Chroniclers and
Mercurial Scientists all agreed that the influx of black magic was the
merging of parts of the Mazoku's remnants to the souls of those the
pieces encountered.
"How Prince Saturn survived this while everyone else did not was never
understood."
"..." Kagato said, blinking. Ami was still pale, and staring at
Kagato like he might rip her throat out at any moment. She opened her
mouth to speak, when suddenly Tannim and Setsuna walked into the room.
Kagato noticed the restrained anger on Setsuna's face, and quirked a
brow at Tannim. "Luna's out of the bag, eh?"
Nodding toward Kagato, Tannim sat down on a nearby chair. He looked
nervously behind him at the green-haired Senshi. "Yeah, so to speak.
Thought it'd be best to get it out of the way as soon as possible."
Setsuna frowned at the duo. "Explain."
Kagato shrugged. "Not much to explain really... we know quite a bit
about you all..."
"Do you know about my Father?" Ami asked, suddenly.
"You wouldn't know..." Setsuna said with a frown, though the barest
hint of a blush was visible on the Guidance counselors' face.
Kagato grinned at her, somewhat lecherously. "We know everything."
Tannim slowly nodded, though he looked a bit unsure of himself. "Most
everything," he corrected.
Setsuna glanced sharply at Tannim. "What don't you know?"
"Um..." Tannim looked over toward Kagato. "Didn't you say you never
saw season two or four?"
"..." Kagato frowned before responding. "Okay... so we know...
quite a bit, then. How much have you seen?"
Tannim nervously chuckled before responding. "Er... most of season
one, bits of two, three... the rest I know is from online searching or
reading lots of fanfiction. I had an RPG book, though, and that gave
pretty detailed info, even if I didn't get to read it all."
"Hmm... well... I've played the Super Nintendo game on an emulator.
And I have the 'Meet Sailor' books... but only Jupiter and Venus..."
Setsuna looked from one boy to the other, her confusion evident on her
face. She thought she knew the English language pretty well, but
this? Fanfiction? Are-Pea-Gee? Super Nintendo? "What nonsense are
you two speaking?"
"Eh-heh... we're discussing... well, it doesn't matter. We've read
the summaries, dammit!"
Tannim nodded emphatically. "Yeah... close enough for government
work."
Kagato nodded, then shrugged. "What's the problem, anyway? Your
secret's safe, and it's not like there's going to be any more threats,
right?"
Tannim smacked his forehead with his palm. "Dammit, Kagato! Don't
you know the first rule of any supernatual situation? NEVER tempt
fate!" Tannim pointed an accusing finger at the other man. "You just
jinxed the universe!"
Kagato frowned. "As if. It's not like we're in... side... oh
yeah..."
Tannim stared off into the distance, listless. "I wonder what's going
to happen now. Huge monsters? Random attacks by biker gangs? Or
maybe some good old-fashioned undead rising up from their previous
peaceful slumber, descending upon those hapless beings in some poor,
out of the way Japanese town."
The Mercury Computer, currently scanning the rather simplistic
communications of the planets' non-magic-using inhabitants, picked up
something it'd been ordered to watch for at all times. It beeped
once, then displayed on its small screen flash news from Southwest
Tokyo.
The scene depicted was a rather gruesome one, a horde of the undead
were currently ripping into frightened civilians, and, while there
were quite a few dead-dead zombies, most of them were still moving,
despite the fight their victims were putting up.
Tannim smacked himself once more on the forehead. "Aw, crappy."
Kagato frowned at Tannim. "Looks like the last option, Captain
Stupid." Kagato, however, was thankful for the ability to share the
blame of the current situation. If, indeed, it had been his fault,
which he still doubted.
Turning to Tannim, Kagato frowned in thought, and then shrugged.
"Alright. Pluto and I will go check it out, while you and the Silent
Genius here gather the others. If they're anything like our zombies,
you know what to grab on the way."
"Mmm... massive amounts of salt sounds good about now."
"Feh. Grab your gun, dolt. Head-shots, remember?" Kagato took
Setsuna's hand, and grinned at her. "Hold on tight! It's gunna be a
BUMPY ride!"
The two disappeared.
"Oh! Right! Bullets work fine. Luckily, I'm one of the few people
in Japan that has a gun..." Tannim trailed off as he took out his
revolver from the hidden pocket. The only ammunition he owned rested
inside his gun. "Hmm... I'm gonna need more bullets."
---
Despite his new nature, Kagato took a step back once he saw the dead
bodies that littered the city street, and the horde of undead
shambling towards anyone in sight. Irksomely, though, he could feel
himself gaining strength from the death, terror and pain in the air.
Releasing the reeling Setsuna, he retreated to the astral plane for a
moment, confused.
He returned after a moment, a look of grim determination on his
typically chipper face. From the astral plane he had seen Setsuna
disappear into a small, empty alley to transform. Kagato returned
beside her, staring at the few zombies that had begun shambling their
way.
"I don't like this." Setsuna said, matter-of-factly.
Kagato shrugged. "They started it. Let's finish it."
The young man paused.
"God that was such a cliche... lets pretend I didn't say that."
A moment later, the zombies were upon them. Kagato simply jumped
around them, using his multidirectional senses to avoid those that
came up behind him. Setsuna was laying down groups with Dead Scream
after Dead Scream, and after a moment, when she'd given herself a
little room, she turned.
"Hey, aren't you going to do anything besides dance around them?"
shouted Setsuna irritably.
"Umm... I suppose..." Kagato responded, realizing that, while he could
dodge and stuff all day, actually attacking was something he hadn't
yet had a chance to try.
Concentrating for a moment, he summoned a little ball of black energy,
and thought about changing it to fire. The ball quavered, and he
frowned, thinking of how destructive, dangerous, and chaotic a good
fire could be. The ball transformed from a black, evil-looking orb to
a red, transparent sphere.
"Heh." Kagato tossed the ball at a zombie between himself and Sailor
Pluto.
The resulting explosion threw Sailor Pluto through a few of the
shambling monstrosities, while Kagato wisely ducked onto the astral
plane when he saw the wall of flame advancing towards him.
Reappearing beside Setsuna after the fireball had dissipated, he poked
her softly.
"Hey... they're gone, but there are more coming. No time for a nap,"
Kagato said, looking at the charred remains of the zombies within the
blast radius. The blackened walls and shattered windows down the
block made him smirk a bit.
"Maybe... I'll try using a little more restraint next time... heh."
---
Needless to say Usagi, Makoto, and Minako weren't very happy to hear
the news.
"What do you mean, our English tutors know all about us?" exclaimed
Usagi in a state of near-whine.
Ami's computer was still translating back in forth, unasked, while
continuing to provide up-to-date footage of the impending zombie
invasion.
Tannim tried to get the conversation back on track. "Hello! Zombies
are attacking! Killing people as we speak! Need to get moving and
teleport over there!"
"How do we know this isn't some kind of trap?" asked Makoto with her
arms crossed.
Tannim rolled his eyes. "Geez. If I was trying to drain you of your
energy or something, I'd pick the school to do it, and not bother
luring you to some out of the way Japanese village."
Ami interrupted the protesting of the other Senshi. "He's right.
People are dying, and we can't stand here and argue about it all day."
Tannim grinned. "So, are you guys going to do a naked transformation
sequence or what?"
The paint nearly peeled itself off from the walls due to the combined
glares of the Senshi.
Five seconds later Tannim was bodily tossed out of the room. The door
slammed shut behind him as the young man idly rubbed his head in
irritation. "Damn, forgot that translator thing was still working."
Ten seconds and one light show later, Tannim cautiously peeked his
head back inside the room. "You guys done yet?"
Sailor Venus nodded. "But we can't teleport without Sailor Mars. We
just don't have enough power."
"Oh, if it's power you need, I've got that in spades. I think," he
added as an afterthought. "I've never really had myself tested as a
power plant, but the principle is the same."
"Fine. We'll try it your way."
The girls formed a circle around the taller young man, clasping hands.
"Mercury Power!"
"Jupiter Power!"
"Venus Power!"
As a sudden thought occurred, Tannim mumbled, "I wish I had some more
bullets."
"Bullets?" wondered Sailor Moon.
The group disappeared.
---
As the intrepid band of warriors opened their eyes and spread out,
several things were made readily apparent. One was the fact that the
Sailor Senshi (plus one erstwhile dimensional traveler) were not
outdoors, but inside a building. Another was that no zombies were in
sight, hinting toward the idea that perhaps something had gone awry.
That, and the guys trying to load various boxes marked with bright red
warning labels into a couple of trucks, was a strong indication that
zombies were not invading this particular area.
One of the men stumbled, surprised at the sudden appearance of four
women in skimpy schoolgirl-ish clothing, and dropped the crate he had
been carrying. Its corner broke, and several small, round objects
spilled onto the floor.
One of the objects rolled to a stop at Tannim's foot. Slowly, he bent
over and picked it up for closer examination.
It turned out to be a hand grenade.
Tannim looked up in surprise at the men (now labeled as 'terrorists'
in his mind) standing motionless before him. A couple of them looked
down in shame, while the rest gave sheepish grins.
Grinning sheepishly himself, Tannim scratched the back of his head,
before tossing back the grenade. "Here ya go, you dropped this."
The man who had dropped the crate nodded his thanks as he caught the
explosive.
Still grinning, Tannim held up the pin for the terrorist to see.
The terrorist looked down at the grenade to see that it was, in fact,
missing its pin.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Aaaah!" agreed Tannim.
"Eeeeeek!" screamed the Sailor Senshi, as what was going on finally
sank in.
"Yaaaah!" screamed the man as he finally threw away the grenade,
directly into the truck.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" screamed the man's companions, as the grenade
detonated.
Boom, the truck exploded, splaying fire and shrapnel in all
directions.
Tannim hastily grabbed the nearest crate, before shouting toward the
girls. "Teleport! Now!"
They linked their hands and did so without speaking, just as the
secondary explosions were getting underway.
---
As the group of adventurers opened their eyes a second time, they
realized they had succeeded all too well. They were surrounded by
devastation and horror. Bodies littered the streets; some torn apart,
while others merely looked to be sleeping face down. The only
creatures moving didn't move quickly at all, but in a sort of
shuffling, aimless gait. The stench was horrendous; it permeated the
air with the foul smell of blood and excrement.
The Sailor Senshi looked as if they were going to throw up.
Tannim simply sat on the ground and began to fumble with the box he
had grabbed. Surprisingly, the lid lifted easily after undoing a
simple latch and it opened to reveal row upon neat row of low-caliber
ammunition. Quickly taking out his gun, he removed the bullets found
there and stashed them away in a pocket deep within the recesses of
his coat. Tannim then placed the bullet he had pulled from the crate
into the revolver.
"Yatta! Perfect fit!" cried Tannim with joy.
The sound of Tannim's voice shook the Senshi from their stupor. Cries
of outrage followed immediately by the names of their attacks sounded
across the street as they unleashed their power against the lumbering
zombies. Tannim ignored all this in favor for quickly packing as many
bullets into his red trench coat as he could.
With a flick of his wrist Tannim flipped his revolver closed and
stood, prepared to take on whatever evil was threatening humanity.
However, everywhere he looked, he saw he wasn't needed, as the Sailor
Senshi made short work of the zombies in the immediate area.
He paused for a moment.
"Gee, I wonder if there are any survivors?" spoke Tannim in a
deliberately slow manner.
A high pitched scream sounded off to Tannim's left.
"Heh. Plot device works every time."
The young man sprinted toward the disturbance.
---
Kagato grinned cheerfully as he tossed another fireball into the
approaching zombie hordes.
"This... is more fun than it should be," he muttered to himself as he
let loose with another spell. For no real good reason, a memory
suddenly made itself known to Kagato. "Wasn't there... I dunno... a
film crew or something? Are they dead yet?"
Kagato shrugged as he blasted another group of zombies. "Guess it
doesn't really matter..."
---
Row upon row of old-style Japanese houses lined the road as Tannim
sprinted toward his objective. The air was thick with the stench of
rotting flesh, while wisps of smoke clung to the surrounding area like
a death shroud. Tannim passed a group of zombies that were
systematically ripping apart the quivering flesh of the hapless
townspeople they had killed.
BLAM
BLAM
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
Tannim shot them as he ran by. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop to
check to see if the half-mangled corpses held any semblance of life.
The screaming was getting more desperate now, with babbling cries for
help liberally mixed in with incoherent shouting. He quickly and
efficiently ejected the spent casings and reloaded his weapon. The
young man approached the area where the screaming had been coming
from.
Tannim turned the corner just in time to see a small child curled up
on the ground in a fetal position, trapped in an alleyway with ten
zombies. The alleyway itself was smaller than what Tannim was used to
back home, but much cleaner.
He did the math: ten zombies, six bullets.
BLAAAAAAM
The positioning of the zombies in the relatively narrow alleyway
allowed Tannim to aim in such a manner that two zombies were taken
down by one bullet. Unfortunately, due to a pressing desire to save
whoever had been calling for help, the young man was forced to direct
the remaining shots toward the creatures that had almost reached the
cowering person. The six retorts from the Colt revolver were so close
together it sounded like one continuous blast. In rapid succession
seven of the ten zombies all fell to the ground like marionettes with
their strings cut, due in large part because of the gaping holes in
each and every one of the fallen zombies' heads.
The three remaining monstrosities turned around and, with a speed that
belied their lumbering gait, threw themselves at the person who had
slain their brethren.
Just as Tannim received his first good look at the zombies, his entire
body froze in shock at the sight: tattered remnants of what once might
have been human bodies, arms mindlessly outstretched and reaching,
grasping aimlessly as bits of flesh occasionally flaked off. It was
something out of a horror movie given form, and multiplied a
hundredfold from the simple fact that it was here and now, and not
just on a television screen.
The young man was jarred into action as one of the zombies lunged
toward him, mouth gaping wide. Acting on pure instinct, Tannim threw
up his arm to block, and the zombie bit down. Hard.
"YEOUCH!" exclaimed Tannim as the creature sank its teeth deep into
the young man's right forearm.
With a viciousness that surprised even himself, Tannim leapt to the
side of the alleyway, lifting the zombie bodily from the ground, and
slammed his arm against the wall. The head of the zombie crunched
against the brick, simultaneously tearing through the throat and
pulping its head in a gory splash of blood and brain matter.
Not pausing to admire his handiwork, Tannim whirled around with a
fierce kick that terminated inside the head of another zombie.
The red coat-wearing man allowed himself a quick "ew" before jerking
his foot back and ducking the lunge of the third zombie. Tannim
quickly stood up, incidentally catching the feet of the monstrosity as
it was thrown off balance by the move. The young man's features
twisted in to a mask of rage as he swung the creature into the nearby
wall. Repeatedly.
WACK
WACK
CRUNCH
The integrity of the zombie's skull, already compromised by decay,
quickly gave way under the assault. Tannim took a quick, cleansing
breath as he dropped the mangled corpse, gathering his wits about him
after that close brush with death.
"Crappit, that hurt!" the young man exclaimed suddenly as he clenched
his harm where the zombie had bitten him. Blood was seeping from
between his fingers and onto the ground as he held a hand firmly over
the worst of it in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "Guess I
shouldn't have made it worse by bashing that guy's head against the
wall. It drove the teeth even further into my arm," Tannim mused.
The young man tiredly retrieved the pistol that he had dropped
somewhere in the confusion of battle. He looked toward the person he
had saved... only to discover they were looking back at him.
Wait, not at him, but behind...
Tannim had a moment of shocked realization before he felt something
slam into the back of his head. Then darkness.
---
End Chapter Six
---
Author's Notes:
Tannim: Finally, formatted better. Maybe we'll actually get out a chapter seven...