Blurb
Dark War Opening Theme
[Cue Moonlight Densetsu as the opening music.]
Gomen ne sunao ja nakute
(Shot of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen, back to back, in defensive poses.)
Yume no naka nara ieru
(Shot of Sailor Mercury and Starhunter in similar poses.)
Shikou kairo wa shotto sunzen
(Shot of Mars and Venus is similar poses.)
Ima sugu aitai yo
(Shot of Jupiter and Laura in similar poses. Macavity tumbles past Makoto and Laura, who both sweatdrop.)
Nakitaku naru you na Moonlight
Denwa mo dekinai Midnight
(Shot of Luna and Artemis, both sitting on their haunches, slowly orbiting each other.)
Datte junjou dou shiyou
Hatto wa mangekyou
(Macavity suddenly appears between them, douses both from a seltzer bottle, then vanishes, leaving two wet and obviously pissed off kitties.)
Tsuki no Hikari ni michibikare
(Shot of The Chairman. He is standing against a dark background, and has his hand stretched out towards the camera, a lot like Jadeite did with his energy ball in the first few TV episodes. Instead of an energy ball, The Chairman is holding a globe, which he then closes his hand around, crushing the globe. Throughout, his face is emotionless.)
Nandomo meguri-au
(Shot of Argent sitting on a tree branch, waving his index finger at the camera in a "No, no, no." motion.)
(Brief instrumental (organ?) riff)
(Shot of Laura at her equipment, franticly punching buttons and turning dials)
(Macavity appears behind her, sneaking up on her. She casually grabs a pillow from somewhere and tosses it behind her, tagging Macavity before he can get close to her.)
Seiza no mataki kazoe
(Close-up of Eternal Sailor Moon, a sad look on her face)
Uranau koi no yukue
(The view pulls back. Eternal Sailor Moon is sitting, looking out at a view we cannot see. She's not alone. Tuxedo Mask is right behind her, hands on her shoulder, comforting her.)
Onaji kuni ni umareta no Mirakuru Romansu
(Continue to pull out. The rest of the cast is now seen. Macavity is at Sailor Moon's feet, while the Inner Senshi and Laura are in a small semi circle behind her.)
Shinjite iro no Mirakuru Romansu
(Finally show that the whole gang is looking out over a pristine, untouched landscape. A couple of fairies (butterfly girls) fly by as the opening fades out...)
Sailor Moon Dark War
Episode Four: Face of the Enemy.
by Andy Combs
What has gone before:
After six months of peace following the defeat of Galaxia, a leprechaun named Macavity appeared before the Senshi warning of a new enemy. With Macavity's help the Senshi easily defeated the first two attacks of the new enemy, whom Macavity calls the Dark Ones.
The leader of the Dark Ones, known only as The Chairman, has put their plans on hold while his servant Argent continues to probe the abilities of the local defenders, the Sailor Senshi, and tries to solve the mystery of why they have a leprechaun assisting them.
Last episode Argent dropped a Kraken in Tokyo Harbor, and it might have defeated Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, if Macavity hadn't knocked Argent into the water, forcing Argent to destroy the Kraken himself. Mars demanded that Macavity explain who or what the Dark Ones were, and Macavity promised an explanation.
Rei finished sweeping off the courtyard area just as her friends began to arrive.
Ami was first to arrive, followed soon by Minako and Makoto. There was no sign of Usagi, though that was not much of a surprise. The day Usagi was on time for something besides eating or shopping was the time Rei should consider putting up her robes. That had to qualify as one of the signs the world was about to end.
Usagi finally came crashing up the temple steps, a full fifteen minutes late. It didn't really matter, since Macavity hadn't put in an appearance yet either.
As soon as Usagi, panting from running, reached Rei, the diminutive form of Macavity materialized right beside her. Rei frowned at the leprechaun. His timing...
She sighed and motioned the two of them into her room, where the others were waiting. Mamoru was back in America for a week or so, but had promised that he would catch the earliest flight back that he could.
The girls circled around the table where they usually gathered to discuss Senshi business, and Macavity landed in the middle of the table.
Macavity spoke first. "Let's see. Where to start... How much do you know about the Silver Millennium?"
"The Moon Kingdom? Not a lot." Ami responded. "We know we lived there once, long ago, but none of us remember much more than fragments of that life. I know that I sometimes have fairly detailed dreams about that time, but once awake it all evaporates like most dreams." The rest of the girls nodded. They had obviously had similar dreams.
"I thought as much. You do at least know how it ended - destroyed by Beryl and Metallia?" Usagi nodded. "But can I assume you know nothing of its history? Of what came before?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Very well. The Silver Millennium was mankind's second great age, created when humanity broke free from slavery under an oppressive alien race. Before the Slavers came the Golden Imperium, mankind's first great age. But before that... Before even the Golden Imperium. That's where we must look for the secret of the Dark Ones."
"The Ancients?" asked Ami quietly.
Macavity just stared at Ami for a few moments, then burst out laughing. "Now, where did you learn *that* name, lass?"
"It's just something from a fragment of memory. Something about the Ancients inhabiting this world before humans."
Macavity grinned. "It's been a long time since I heard that name. You're correct, the Ancients did inhabit this planet before your race, but they are not the Dark Ones. By the stars, I doubt your race would stand a chance if they were. Little was known about the Ancients, but at a minimum, they were immensely powerful. No, the Dark Ones are more recent than the Ancients, but that's still not saying much.
Hmm. Let me tell it like this..."
"There once was a group without a home. I know not what happened to it, but they had become travellers. Moving from world to world, searching for a new home.
Finally they found what seemed to be a perfect world. Luscious, pristine, and best yet, unoccupied. They quickly settled there, making it their own. They established a new civilization there.
The civilization flourished for tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, existing in harmony with the planet, until a new element entered the situation. One of the indigenous animals of the planet proved to be much more intelligent than they had believed, and had been secretly watching them and learning the ways of civilization. Eventually the natives were discovered, and the travelers made a fatal mistake. They enslaved the natives, turning them into laborers. This continued for thousands of more years, as the natives continued to learn civilization from the travelers. But even worse, the natives were learning the ways of magic as well. And the natives proved to be quite adept at the use of magic.
Eventually the natives rose up in revolt, and the travelers discovered to their horror that the natives had been keeping both their true numbers and their facility with magic hidden for centuries. Once the revolt began, and the far more numerous natives proved to have the advantage, and the race found themselves facing defeat and extinction.
They faced a hard choice, and in the end they chose to flee rather than to perish. And so they left their home for elsewhere, intending to never return.
The natives then built their own civilizations, which rose and fell, and eventually the ones they had driven out fell from memory, becoming little more than legends and fairy tales.
As I'm sure is quite obvious, the natives I speak of are you. Humans. The planet is this one. Earth. Terra. Whatever you want to call it. Your true homeworld."
"And the others? The wanderers?" Rei asked.
"They moved on. However, they were given no time to build ships for any sort of mass exodus, and so had to flee in another way. They opened a gate in the fabric of reality. A doorway to another world."
"A parallel dimension," Ami interjected.
"Correct, but they had little experience with dimensional travel, and soon discovered that they hadn't traveled nearly as far as they needed. There are an infinite number of large, full dimensions, but for each full dimension there are a number of smaller, connected dimensions linked only to it."
"Like the Dark Kingdom?" asked Ami.
Macavity nodded. "And it was one of these "pocket" dimensions into which they retreated. The only path out of there led back into this one first. By the time they realized this fact, the humans had established wards over the possible dimensional paths. Individuals could and did bypass the wards, but they had managed to retreat with their whole population mostly intact. There was no way short of a war that they could get the bulk of their numbers past the humans.
"On the other hand, the world in which they found themselves was quite beautiful in its own way, and was in fact better suited to their magical nature than Earth had been. For they were beings almost more of a magic nature than a physical nature. Actually, labeling them a single race is inappropriate as well, for they are of diverse natures.
"It was because of those diverse natures that they split into two factions soon after reaching their new home. One group looked around their new home and, liking it, decided that they were tired of fighting. They simply wanted to settle their new home. The other faction wanted to mount an assault on the world they had just left, reclaiming it and punishing the ones who had usurped it from them. It is this faction that I now call the Dark Ones.
"But reclamation was impossible at the time, so the Dark Ones were forced to settle into their new homes just like the rest. But they never forgot their hatred of humanity, nor did they forget the world they were forced to give up.
"Time passed, and they watched for opportunities. I know of only one time when they attempted a full invasion, and it failed totally, but that's a whole other tale.
"In one way or another they have been interfering with humanity all along. The large gates have been sealed shut since the flight, but there have always been ways for adventurous young folk to find their way here from there. And then there are the ones like Argent, able to weave gates between the worlds at will. Argent is somewhat unique, fortunately. He's the strongest warpsmith I've ever seen. I suspect he could travel anywhere in the multiverse he wanted. Unfortunately, like most of the Dark Ones, he's still obsessed with this one world, and has no eyes for any other."
"Hold on a moment," Rei spoke up.
"Yes, Lady Mars?"
"You say that these Dark Ones have been visiting this world all along?"
"Well, both groups have, actually. The reasons may vary, but individuals have indeed been visiting for millenia."
"I think that you lie, Mr. Leprechaun. If there had been supernatural visitors to this world for as long as you claim, then surely we would have heard something about them."
Macavity gave Rei the best poker face she had ever seen. There was nothing readable in his expression. "And what makes you think you've never heard of them?"
Rei opened her mouth to respond, but found herself speechless.
Macavity broke into a grin. "You humans are such a bundle of contradictions. Without a shred of proof you'll follow any religious teachings dangled before you, and yet there are other things that your skepticism refuses to acknowledge, not unless proof is placed right in front of your eyes."
Rei glared at Macavity, but said nothing, sure there was an insult to her faith in there somewhere, but not quite able to identify it for certain.
Macavity continued. "As an example, think of yourselves. Except for those who have actually seen you in person, what does your average Japanese person think of you? Oh sure, occasionally one of the tabloid photographers manages to get a blurry photo of you, or maybe a better photo of one of your enemies, but the mainstream media won't even touch the subject of Sailor Senshi. They explain away sightings of you as mass hysteria, and find other explanations when you leave physical damage behind. The rate of gas main explosions has risen significantly in the past several years, according to officials.
"Thus, to your average person, you are simply urban legends. Mythical figures." He reached into his coat and pulled out a Sailor Moon UFO-catcher doll. "Or worse, you're fictional characters to be marketed and exploited." He tossed the doll into the air, where it vanished with a pop. "But few actually believe in your existence."
Rei just rolled her eyes. "Is there a point to this?"
Macavity gave her a sad look. "Just trying to use your own experience to illustrate the point. Look. You've seen how you yourselves have drifted into legend status, and you are still active, creating new stories for the tabloids to write. Think about a visitor a hundred or a thousand years before. How are you likely to hear about them by this point? Why, as legends or myths. And that's how it is with the Dark Ones, and the other faction as well. You know of them through your myths.
"I said before that they had many names. Whenever you humans encounter them, you tend to name them anew. I think you are ready to hear of a few of those names. The traveling civilization as a whole have been known as elves, faerie, yousei, shilde. The Dark Ones are most commonly known by a name that shows them in contrast to their more peaceful cousins. The peaceful ones have been called the Seelie Court, the Dark Ones, the Unseelie Court."
If Macavity expected a dramatic reaction to this announcement he was disappointed. Ami was frowning, but none of the rest of them showed much response. Rei herself had heard a couple of the names before. Yousei was Japanese for fairy, for one thing. Rei got a sudden mental image of a bunch of butterfly-winged girls holding little spears attacking the Senshi. It was a ridiculous image, and Rei pushed it away before she started giggling at it.
"Okay, Mr. Leprechaun, I guess I can see that. We" - Rei motioned at the other Senshi - "know that mankind had colonies across the solar system, but humanity as a whole has totally forgotten it. I guess it's not too hard to accept another, older race having inhabited here even before humanity. To accept that many of our myths and fables stem from individuals of this race is a bit harder, but after what I've seen in the last few years, I sometimes think I'm ready to believe almost anything."
Macavity just grinned.
Rei continued. "Very well. What good does this history lesson do us?"
Macavity shrugged. "That's your problem. You asked for the information, what you do with it is up to you." Rei had to frown. He was right. He had never promised the information would be of practical use.
Ami spoke up again. "Well, how about answering this one: Why are they here, now? What are they up to?"
Macavity nodded. "That is indeed a good question. And one I have no ready answer for. As I mentioned, they attempted to invade in force once before and were repelled easily. It was after the fall of the Silver Millennium, and that was their problem. Magic left this world with the Fall, and the Dark Ones, being magical beings, need magic. They invaded a world that was in anarchy, ripe for the taking, but where most of their weapons would barely function, if at all. Even without a united Political structure, mankind repelled them easily. They retreated and have not returned in force since.
"Until recently, that is. Now we have Argent popping up here and there, releasing creatures for no detectable purpose. I know Argent better than that. He's not only powerful, but smart as well. He has a purpose, be sure of it. Pray that we figure it out before it's too late. And even worse, while Argent's the only Dark One on Earth that I'm directly aware of, he was never the type to be doing something like this on his own. There is most certainly someone behind him, directing him. One of the Dark Lords, most likely. And that is who we truly have to fear.
"But back to your question. Why here and now? I don't know. The situation on this world is now no better for the Dark Ones. Magic is still in very short supply here. And to make things worse, the Earth now has defenders. You, for one, but there are also the conventional forces of mankind. If the Dark Ones were driven back by disorganized humans wielding swords and bows, how do they think they stand a chance against organized militaries with tanks and jets? An ogre may be tough, but I doubt one could withstand a direct shot from a tank. It just doesn't fit.
"And the 'here' fits even less. Why begin their attack here in Tokyo, where the strongest magical defenders in the world reside?" Macavity shook his head. "I plead ignorance."
Ami spoke up. "I might have an answer to that one." Rei rolled her eyes. She knew what was coming. Ami's "Synchronicity Zone" theory, about how Tokyo was surrounded by an area in which probability was warped, which served to bring most enemies here first, and which made it probable, if not certain, that the Senshi would be in the area of individual attacks. Ami had been working on the theory for a couple of years now, trying it out on everyone who knew enough about the Senshi for her to trust. She had yet to find anyone who could follow her reasoning enough to take an educated opinion one way or another on the theory.
Macavity, on the other hand, seemed to follow her exactly. When she finished, he nodded. "That would explain a lot of things." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, it fits. You are truly the Senshi Mercury."
Minako frowned. "What fits?"
Macavity stared at Minako for a few moments before speaking. "How much do you know about the nature of magic?"
"Almost nothing," Minako replied.
"Very well. I'll try to keep this simple. Magic is the manipulation of magical energy, or mana. Most magic rewrites reality in one way or another. A teleport spell simply says that the person is really there rather than here. Your Senshi attacks tend to summon up elements that did not exist moments before and direct them to various purposes. Magic spells are simply the structure by which this modification of reality is performed.
"Now, there are many different sources of mana in the universe, but there are really only two main ones. The first is from life. All life generates mana. From the smallest microbe to the largest whale in the sea, all generate mana as they go through life.
"But it's the second source that is important in this case, namely planets. All planets generate mana at an immense rate. Much more than any one living being could generate. And, under normal circumstances, this mana is then released into the surrounding atmosphere around the planet. Free mana, by it's very nature, tends to warp reality. A normal planet with free flowing mana will not see enough warping to be really noticeable, but if other conditions are right, it can and will push the right atoms together to create primitive life, and then slowly move that life up an evolutionary chain.
"On these 'normal' planets, mana flows up to the surface of the planet through a series of pores, or "wells", and then flows out across the surface, to be gathered and used by anyone with the knowledge to do so. But on *this* planet something strange happened. At the same time as the Moon Kingdom fell, something happened to the wells on Earth. They were capped off, sealed. How, why, by whom? Who knows? But the flow of mana ceased, leaving the surface without magic.
Minako started to ask a question, but Macavity cut her off. "How does that fit in with Lady Mercury's theory? I'm getting to it. I said the wells were sealed, not destroyed. They're still there, right where they've always been. They vary greatly in size, but all are sealed. From the smallest personal well to the giant royal well that once sat under Arcadia itself. The Arcadian well, which once sat under the throne of Beryl herself, still sits under one of mankind's greatest cities."
He gently tapped a foot on the ground under him. "The capital of Japan sits on the exact site where Beryl's capital once stood. And deep below us lies what is now more appropriately called the Tokyo Well. Sealed for thousands of years, but now leaking mana into a mana starved world, unless I miss my guess. It's no wonder that probability is so screwed up in this city, with that sleeping giant down there."
Macavity's talk about sleeping giants prompted Rei to extend her mystical senses down there herself. If any of them could feel the Well below them, it was her. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but she thought she could feel something down there. She shook her head and brought herself back to the present.
Argent sighed as he sipped his drink. He was in a modern high-rise apartment that the Chairman had provided him as a base of operations on this world. He could see why the humans had become so decadent. This was a life one could come to enjoy.
"Are you fighting humans, or becoming one, brother dear?" came a sultry voice from the shadows at the side of the room.
Argent frowned at the shadowed shape. "Aurium, *dear* sister," - his voice dripped with sarcasm - "what brings you to this human-infested orb?"
"Why, I'm just checking up on you, brother. Can't a girl show concern for her only brother?"
"I guess there's a first time for everything," snapped Argent.
"Brother! You wound me."
"Not for lack of motivation, I don't."
"Well. I *had* come to deliver a message, but if this is how I'm to be treated..."
"Let me guess. He's ready for transport, correct?"
"How did you know?"
"Because I've been waiting for that message. And besides, I doubt they would have trusted you to deliver anything more complicated."
Silence filled the apartment momentarily, then the shadows shifted, and Aurium was gone.
Argent grinned. That had been enjoyable. He finished the drink and rose. Time to get to work.
"And how do you fit into this complicated situation?" Makoto asked.
"Me?" Macavity grinned. "Why, I'm just..." He stopped suddenly. "Argent's just opened another gate, fairly close by." He gave the location.
The Senshi looked at each other, determined looks in every eye. All quietly pulled out their transformation items.
Macavity grinned at this, and faded from sight.
The last few people were streaming out of the grocery store as the Senshi arrived. Mars nodded to herself in satisfaction. Not a bad response time.
There was obviously quite a commotion inside, but what caught her attention was the figure leaning up against the front of the building. Argent. Obviously his presence had been noticed by the other Senshi as well, as all had turned to stare at him.
Argent noticed the Senshi at about the same time, and grinned widely, the grin being made slightly crooked by his facial scar. "Welcome, welcome. We've been expecting you." Mars went into a combat ready stance, noticing peripherally that the other Senshi had done the same.
"My goodness. I'm afraid this just won't do. You see, you have much more pressing business inside." The Senshi didn't move. Various random crashing noises could still be heard coming from inside the store. Argent rolled his eyes dramatically. "The problem is that you got here so fast, the goblins haven't had time to start killing the hostages. So you could waste time out here fighting me, or you could go inside and maybe save a few of your fellow vermin."
Mars glanced around at her companions, but saw in their faces that they all knew there was no choice. Saving lives took top priority any day. Argent motioned them towards the door once more, this time taking several steps back to give them plenty of room. The Senshi rushed past him into the store.
Argent grinned. That had worked well enough. There weren't really any hostages, but it had been a convenient enough lie to get the Senshi to enter and engage the goblins inside, as well as his other surprise.
"When are you so flowery, old friend?" Argent glared at the source of the voice: the leprechaun.
"You again. Who the hell are you? You seem to know quite a bit about me, but I'm sure I've never met *you* before. And I certainly never had a leprechaun as a friend."
The leprechaun grinned. "Now, now. I asked my question first."
Argent just glared.
"Hmm. Okay. If you don't want to answer, don't. But don't expect me to answer your questions either."
Argent considered momentarily answering the pest's questions, just to see if it would answer his own. He dismissed the thought. That would be playing the leprechaun's game. Bad idea.
After a few more moments with no response, the leprechaun shrugged. "Well, much as I enjoy this stimulating conversation, I'm afraid that I have other things to do. Until next time..." The leprechaun faded from sight. Argent frowned. He was going to have to do something about that little pest.
Sailor Mars danced and wove among her enemies, her every motion bringing destruction to her opponents. One moment a kick sent a goblin flying back into a shelf to land in a crumpled heap. The next, she grabbed a crude spear from another, reversed the spear to hit the goblin with the haft, and broken the spear in half before tossing it away.
Thoughts of any sort of mercy were the farthest thing from her mind. The enemy would offer no such mercy. She couldn't afford the luxury herself.
One of the goblins swung clumsily at her with a club. She grinned. She was so much faster than it that it seemed to be moving in slow motion. She easily dodged out of the way of the swing and then danced in close. One sharp jab to its throat and there was one less goblin in the fight.
She began to look around for more opponents when something whooshed past her ear. A quick glance showed a small knife protruding from a nearby box of cereal. A modern knife. One of the goblins appeared to be improvising.
A quick look around spotted the knife thrower on top of one of the ceiling supports over by the meat section. He was already preparing to throw another knife. And given how close the first one had come, Mars realized that she needed to eliminate him before that could happen. A quick application of senshi enhanced legs and she was among the ceiling supports, about halfway between her original position and the sniper. The sniper had seen this, however, and was already shifting his aim to her new position. Mars still had the advantage in speed, and had leapt straight at the sniper before he had even finished shifting his aim, let alone had a chance to throw. Mars crashed into the goblin and the two of them tumbled off the support towards the meat section below.
Mars tried to shift to land on her feet, but found herself entangled by the desperately struggling goblin. She mentally sighed. No problem, really. A fall from this height was no threat to her enhanced body.
And it proved to not really matter, as her fall was broken by some large furry object. Mars couldn't see what it was, being still tangled up with the goblin. But the thought began to penetrate that there was nothing in a supermarket that should be this large. Nor this furry for that matter.
When she heard the thing begin to howl in fury, she begin to worry.
When a huge hand reached up to grab her and the still struggling goblin, she began to be afraid.
Fortunately she didn't have to be afraid for very long, since a few moments later everything went black.
Macavity watched the ongoing fight. As usual the senshi were having no problems handling the goblins. The ability levels were just too different.
Once again he puzzled at the purpose of it all. Argent knew the goblins were useless, so why keep using them? The only answer that fit was that, like they did for the Hounds a couple of battles back, the goblins were serving to cover up something else. But if that was so, where and what was the real threat?
Macavity didn't have to wait long for an answer. Suddenly a bellow of rage echoed throughout the store, followed moments later by a white and red missile speeding across the store. Macavity barely had time to spot the missile before a green and white streak came from the side to intersect it. The two shapes then landed and slowed down enough to be seen. The green streak had been Sailor Jupiter, who had leapt up into the air to catch the other, which proved to be the still form of Sailor Mars.
The rest of the senshi quickly converged on Jupiter and Mars. Mercury grabbed Mars' wrist. "Her pulse is strong. I'll take care of her while the rest of you deal with whatever took her out." The others nodded and headed as a group towards the meat section. Only a few goblins remained to threaten them as they moved, and these were easily dealt with.
Macavity already had a pretty good guess as to what they would find, and his suspicions were soon confirmed. In the center of the meat section stood a thoroughly enraged ogre. Large empty sections of the nearby shelves showed what he had been up to before being interrupted by Sailor Mars.
The Senshi skidded to a halt at the sight of the monster. The ogre was just over ten feet tall and covered with a light brown fur. A huge mouth filled with nasty looking teeth was still bellowing its rage. The ogre spotted the Senshi and roared a challenge before charging at them.
Macavity quickly shouted out information to the Senshi. "It's an ogre. Strong and nearly invulnerable, but not a lot faster than the goblins, and even less intelligent." As he finished the ogre was reaching the Senshi, who scattered. Jupiter leapt right over it, and let loose a small ball of lightning as she passed. Aside from singeing its fur, the lightning had little effect.
"Hiiii-Yaaaa" screamed Venus as she launched herself at the ogre feet first. She hit and rebounded away, out of reach. While the ogre obviously felt that attack, it did not appear to have been harmed by it either.
"Silver Honey-Moon Crisis Kick!" came Sailor Moon's attack from one side. Macavity could again sense the amount of sheer power contained in her attack, but as had been the case against the Kraken, the blast seemed to have no effect other that creating a nice light show. Sailor Moon nodded to herself, as if she had expected the result, and then she did something Macavity would have never expected, she turned and ran away from the fight, darting down one of the food isles and vanishing from sight. Macavity frowned. He hadn't thought her a coward.
Jupiter and Venus were doing a good job keeping the ogre occupied. They had stopped using their magical attacks once these had been shown to be almost useless, and were instead playing hit-and-run with it physically, darting in to make one or two strikes, then away before it could respond. Mars must have been caught by surprise by the ogre since it showed no sign of being able to catch Jupiter or Venus. On the other hand, they were doing no harm to the ogre either, so it was turning into another stalemate.
"MOON ETERNAL HALATION!"
Macavity turned to see Sailor Moon up on top of one of the isles, wielding a different wand. She spun around and ended up pointing the wand towards the ogre. Suddenly the end of the wand erupted with what appeared to be a miniature nova. A blast of light erupted towards the ogre. But Macavity could tell that the light was really only a side effect. The attack itself was pure, concentrated magical energy. That much magical power, uncontained, could warp reality in an area the size of Tokyo. When contained and focused on a single spot, say an ogre, there was little doubt of the outcome. The ogre screamed momentarily, then seemed to fold in on itself, shrinking and folding until it vanished from sight.
Jupiter landed beside Moon. "Nice attack. Be a little more careful when you aim it, though. If I hadn't heard your wind-up, I would have been right beside that thing when it hit."
Moon flicked her tongue at Jupiter. "But you did hear it, so you weren't there, so everything worked out."
Jupiter rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's go see how Mars is doing." Moon nodded, and they turned to head back to the other side of the store.
Venus landed beside Macavity. "Are there many more that strong among the enemies?"
"As strong as the ogre? Not really. An ogre is one of the strongest creatures I know of. As a race that is. I know of some powered individuals that have been stronger. But an ogre still isn't that dangerous given it's slowness and stupidity. There are creatures who serve the Dark Ones that are much less powerful than an ogre, but far more deadly."
Venus nodded. "We'll just have to be more careful, then." She leapt away in the same direction the others had gone. Macavity sighed. The fate of the world in the hands of a bunch of overconfident teenagers. Why him?
Macavity had never really subscribed to any of the human religions. In his opinion, if there indeed was a divine being out there, he or she had one definite trait: a totally twisted sense of humor. How else did someone explain some of the weird twists life tossed around? Oh, Macavity did his best to liven up the universe in his own way, but even after all this time he was still an amateur compared with some of the practical jokes God played with the universe. Teen-aged defenders, indeed.
Moments later Macavity materialized over by where the Senshi had gathered around their fallen comrade. Mars was awake, and trying to sit up, but Mercury was holding her down. Macavity nodded. Senshi were very hard to injure. Even a whack from an ogre should leave no lasting damage.
Macavity drifted over to float by Sailor Moon's shoulder. "Not bad work, Lady Moon. I did notice that you seemed unsurprised when your first attack failed. What happened?"
Sailor Moon smiled broadly. "I'm Sailor Moon. It's my job to save the day." Macavity gave her a hard stare, but Sailor Moon just gave back an innocent look.
Jupiter spoke up. "Actually the credit for that one goes to Tuxedo Mask. He's the one who figured out why the Crisis Kick didn't work against the kraken." Sailor Moon had put on a pouty frown as Jupiter popped her bubble of credit. "The Crisis Kick is a blast of healing magic. Or maybe it's a dispelling magic. Whichever, it was originally intended for restoring people possessed by evil energy back to human form. But the current enemies are not possessed. They are already in their natural form. So the Crisis Kick did nothing against them."
"I can tell the rest, Jupiter-chan." said Moon. "I wanted to hit the monster with the Crisis Kick once more, to be sure, but I didn't expect it to work. It didn't, so I slipped away to try to come up with a new attack. This is the first time I've actually had to work up a new attack. Before, they've just sorta happened. So I guess I cheated and came up with an old attack, instead of a new one. Though I don't remember the Moon Princess Halation being quite that bright."
Macavity shook his head. The girl didn't have a clue as to just how much power she was throwing about. Thank Serenity they were on the same side.
Argent took a deep drink of his wine. That had been one of the most horrifying sights he had ever seen. To be erased from existence like the ogre had been...
Argent shivered at the thought. That much power could devastate armies. He quickly downed the rest of the drink and moved to a desk to compose his report.
He lightly tapped his pencil, mentally organizing his thoughts for the report. That much power in the hand of an enemy... Hmm. Enemies... An idea was beginning to form. But it would take work.
For now he set the idea aside. He had a report to write.
A figure sat in a lotus position, staring deeply into the flames. Not Hino Rei, but Sailor Mars. Her current problem had nothing to do with Hino Rei, and everything to do with Sailor Mars.
She had been overconfident. Secure in the knowledge that she was faster than the goblins, she hadn't even considered that she could get caught by what amounted to bad luck.
She could feel the self-doubt creeping in. This was not good. If she began to doubt herself she would be of little use to the team.
A quick meditation technique pushed those thoughts away. Another time. She focused on the holy flames. Somewhere in them lay the answers she needed.
At least she hoped so...
Next episode... Laura joins the group for an day of fun at an amusement park. At least it's fun until the Dark Ones show up.
Author note. This is the last episode I published way back when I was originally writing this. Episode five was mostly written, but never published. But I'm having trouble finding a copy currently. I may have to re-write it from scratch. A couple of episodes further down the line were written by other Sailor Moon Expanded authors, but I'll hold off posting those here until I reach their proper position in the story. If someone wants to peek ahead, they can be found on the Sailor Moon Expanded web site. www dot tuxedomask dot com.