Bwa-hah-ha! Another update! I know, I'm awesome. It's okay. You can say it…..no, seriously….please say it…..*silence*….sigh. Well, I like me. And my cats loves me…..when I'm holding tuna….so it's all good. But I love all 7 of you beautiful reviewers! It's almost double digits!
Apologies to The Game fans, I PROMISE, I am working on it. An update is very close. Stupid dialogue…..Crazy-ass Minako…
Disclaimer: I don't own it, I don't own them. Though I would pay pretty much EVERYTHING I had if I could.
And give it up for Crystal Rei-chan! WWWWHHHHOOOOOOOT!
Without further ado, on with the show…..
"If a Jupiter runs into a tree in the forest…" A loud bang sounded and she looked up to see the sparkling fire-works of a holographic flare explode into existence. She smirked and skidded to a halt. It was game-on.
Or so she thought. Nearly thirty minutes later, and she'd actually only managed a run-in with one other scout. The ball of water had come from nowhere, completely catching her off guard, and she'd only barely managed to stand when the first punch was thrown.
Despite her own combat prowess, Outers were not Outers for nothing and Neptune was proving quite adept at close quarter sparring. Jupiter could think of little else, given how busy she was dodging fists and knees, but she made a mental note to commend the sea senshi later. She was getting winded. Kami but this was supposed to be the most elegant senshi? Neptune was a freaking animal and Jupiter couldn't respond fast enough to do much more than block her body from onslaught.
But her heart was set on a different water senshi, and after a good ten minute rumble, she gathered as much strength as she could, slammed the Outer in the solar plexus, and sprung backwards, ready to make a run for it. They faced off in the small clearing they'd rolled into, and Jupiter felt a little pride puffing in her chest when she realized that Neptune was panting almost as hard as she was. The violinist perked an eyebrow at her.
"I don't believe I've sparred that hard with you in a long time." Jupiter leaned over, her hands gripping her knees as she fought for air.
"I think…. the last time…..was when…..we were….fighting….for real." She panted out and Neptune nodded.
"It seems Venus was onto something with this idea then no?" Jupiter felt a completely different type of flush light up her face.
"Maybe…" She mumbled and the other senshi smirked, like she knew what was tumbling around in the brunette's suddenly ecchi head. Neptune dropped her fighting stance so suddenly that Jupiter reflexively jumped back into hers. Confusion etched on her face when the aquanette turned to walk away from her.
"Well, this was fun but we are not each other's main goal now are we? Ja ne!" She waved a hand behind her head as she disappeared into the trees and the lightning senshi let out a groan at the dismissal. She could handle having her ass kicked by Uranus, but to have the blonde's girlfriend so thoroughly own her? Gah, there went her ego.
It had taken her another five minutes to catch her breath fully, and then she was back on the hunt. Another five minutes picturing exactly how hard she was going to have to train to keep up with Neptune the next time they ran into each other, and she found her target. Well, actually, she found evidence of her target. Her eyes wider than her face and her mouth open to the ground, she looked up at the easily fifteen foot high wall of solid fog.
"Well, somebody's been practicing." She muttered to herself and walked up to it, goosebumps appearing over her skin the closer she got. So not only was the fog thick, it was freaking cold too. She harrumphed and eased her arm into it, noting that after just a few inches she couldn't see her own hand. She almost couldn't feel it either. Kami! What the hell was the fog made of? After only a few seconds she yanked her arm out, cringing to discover it was now a solid ice cube. She shook it viscously to regain the feeling in her fingertips.
There was only one senshi who could make a wall of freezing fog nearly three times her height. How in the hell was Jupiter supposed to find Mercury in there? She'd be a sitting duck, completely at the smaller senshi's mercy. And that just would not do. Mercury was obviously not taking any chances when it came to Venus finding her. She must REALLY hate clubbing. The kind of energy required to keep this up…. If anyone found her she probably wouldn't put up much of a fight. Hmmm, now there was a thought.
With a grin, Jupiter began a trek around the fog, trying to get an idea of the size of the Ice senshi's hiding place. Maybe…just maybe, with a little bit of luck, she could form an attack plan. And after ten minutes or so, she realized that Mercury must hate clubbing with all of her being. As in, would sell her soul to avoid it. Like, would forgo homework for at LEAST a month if it meant avoiding a certain blonde and a bar.
The fog wasn't in a circle, or a triangle or even any kind of recognizable shape. It had curves and points and juts. As if that didn't make it hard enough, Jupiter was fairly certain the walls were moving. Fading in and out, back and forth. It was impossible to tell the outline, so walking into the mist you'd have no clue where you were and there was no way to tell how long it'd take you to make it back out. It would literally be like walking into a freezer the size of a moving football field, blindfolded, and trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. With a whimper she flumped to the ground and stared up at her new opponent in defiance.
This would not beat her. This would not stop her. Oh no. Weeks and months of tip-toeing around Ami and now she had the PERFECT way to get her alone and move things along. Their first date was so close that she could freaking TASTE it. She would NOT be defeated by an oversized Shabon Spray. She contemplated just electrocuting the whole thing, but then decided that frying her would-be date was probably not the best way to start the relationship off.
She stood, stretching her legs, and decided to just keep circling the fog and maybe find a weak spot. Mercury couldn't be good enough to keep up a solid front on a form this size forever. A crunch of leaves sounded behind her and she had just enough time to duck before a Crescent Beam shot over her head.
Gritting her teeth, Jupiter looked up to see Venus standing a few yards away, a smirk on her face, her pose as perfect and as model-esque as ever, save for a few twigs that were sticking out of her hair like they were growing from her skull. When the blonde noticed her noticing, she hastily ripped them out, striking a pose once again.
"Pay no attention to the evil, vile shrubbery!" She commanded and Jupiter couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow.
"What'd you do? Fall down a hill into a bush?" Her fearless leader's face fell briefly.
"I did not FALL into a bush. I'll have you know I chose to HIDE in a bush for a tactical advantage." She huffed in indignation. Jupiter scrunched up her nose and cocked her head, smirking as the truth of the sentence wormed its way out.
" You were hiding from Uranus weren't you?" Venus's lip quivered slightly before she broke out into a full blown pout.
"She won't leave me alone!" She whined, tears spilling out and Jupiter only crossed her arms and smirked.
"Serves you right." Venus stuck her tongue out.
"All I did was try to bring a little beauty into the world. Was that so wrong?"
"Uranus thinks so." Venus groaned.
"I should just try and take your bow so at least I'm safe this round." Jupiter slid into a defensive stance. She had not just gotten her ass handed to her by Neptune, managed to walk away and to find Mercury only to be taken out by Venus.
"You can try." She challenged and for a tense few moments they stared each other down until the unforgettable rumble of a distant World Shaking sounded. The blonde's serious face lasted only point three milliseconds longer before she crumbled.
"Don't let her get me!" She cried and Jupiter about face-planted.
"Well you should keep it down then at least." She shushed the mess of tears in front of her. Venus immediately clamped both hands over her mouth and turned slowly in the direction of the distant fight. After a few silent moments she removed her hands and heaved a relived breath, Jupiter only rolled her eyes in response.
"Is she the only one you're running from?" Venus snorted and stomped the ground.
"I haven't had the time to run from anyone else. That damned Outer is everywhere I go!" Jupiter cocked her head to the side.
"No sign of Mars yet?" Having completely forgotten about the second threat to her existence Venus whimpered and whipped her head around.
"Oh Kami, no! Did you see her? Is she close?" The blonde was all but crying and Jupiter felt at least a little pity. She'd be a mess too if the had the hentai force that was Uranus and the apocalyptic force that was an angry Mars after her. She held her hands up in a placating manner.
"No no, calm down. I haven't run into her. Only Neptune, and now… this." She muttered, waving a hand in the direction of the white wall. Venus scrunched her nose up.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen any sign of her either. No flaming trees or anything." Her eyes grew wide. " Do you think she's hiding out? Just waiting for me to pass by all innocent and unsuspecting?!" The tears came back again and Jupiter snickered.
"Yeah right. Mars doesn't have the patience to wait in hiding. Especially when she's angry. No sign of her probably just means she went a different direction." The Love Senshi's shoulders relaxed a fraction, her imagined list of enemies now cut in half. That brought her attention to the half she knew for a fact was not in a different direction and she fought for a distraction from her overwhelming, although completely warranted fear of the tall blonde Outer.
"So, what do you plan to do about this?" Jupiter looked again to the fog wall the Venus had motioned to a made a face.
"I….. have no idea." The blonde bit her lip to keep from snickering and then abruptly dropped her smile as yet another 'World Shaking' rumbled in the not nearly distant enough distance.
"Right then. Well, I've got to run, literally. Good luck with that." And just like that, the orange clad senshi was off. Though not before Jupiter swore she heard mumbling that sounded suspiciously like 'one innocent bottle of mascara'. Shaking off her odd encounter, she bit her lip and continued her trek around the mass of cold air. Somewhere in that mass of cold was her future date, all she had to do was find out how to get her out.
Briefly she considered yelling out that Venus was gone, on the off chance that that would be enough to draw her genius from the icy depths. That would however kill her element of surprise. Maybe she could offer a trade? Yell out that Venus was close and that Mercury could come and surrender to her so Venus could not get to her? Tempting as it was, it was sneaky, and Jupiter was determined to win her first date with at least a little bit of honor. That really only left her with the first plan she'd come up with. To circle until she found a spot weak enough to avoid being turned into a human ice cube, and run hell-mill through until she ran into her little ice-sprite. With a huff of resignation, Jupiter pushed on.
After a few passes and more time than the brunette would ever admit to, she was sure she'd found her spot. The lightning senshi chewed on her lip as she stared through the mist. At least here she could see a few trees in. And though they were obviously covered in a thin sheet of frost, it wasn't nearly the freezing temperature of the surrounding fog. This was probably her best bet. Even if it wasn't, she'd wasted enough time wandering. Electricity was making her skin crawl and she itched to just do something. Even if that something was as suicidal as walking into Tokyo's own winter wonderland from hell.
A bout of logic snuck its way into her head and she sighed. Looking around to be doubly sure that no one would see how ridiculous she was about to seem, Jupiter began doing jumping jacks. Humiliating to be sure, but she needed to amp up her internal temperature a few degrees if she was ever going to survive long enough to find Mercury. With a smile she figured if nothing else, the genius would be proud of her for remembering that little lesson. Bouncing on her toes, she was talking herself up to just go for it until an odd noise made her turn her head.
"Help meeee!" Venus screamed, covering the distance between them with a speed that even Haruka would be jealous of and slamming into the startled brunette.
"Venus?" Jupiter questioned in confusion, looking down at the mass that she hadn't actually identified by sight, but by decibel of piercing wail. A mass that was now in her arms and attached to her with a force that she'd only ever dreamed Ami capable of. Big watery baby blues stared up at her.
"Oh Kami, help! She found me!" Sure enough, Jupiter could hear the undergrowth crashing as another body headed their direction. She took a step back, her leader still clutched to her body. The crashing grew louder and Jupiter could just make out an all too familiar voice.
"Oh Venus! Come out come out wherever you are!" Uranus's cheerful voice rang out and even Jupiter swallowed hard, making a mental note to never ever get on the wind senshi's bad side. Cause, holy shit, this was just all kinds of scary movie, evil bad guy, you are soooo dead kinda doom.
In fear for her life as the harbinger of doom herself bore down on them, Venus completely lost it. Panicked, the blond looked down and Jupiter had barely a moment to tense. Exclamation points of alarm dotted around her as her fearless leader had a mental breakdown. She swore she could hear alarm bells sounding in the background.
"I'm sorry about your date but this is life or death!" In slow motion, green eyes watched in horror as a white glove reached out for her bow. An epic orchestral series finale song played in the background. Symbolic images flashed in the sky. Fingertips grazed her broach and Jupiter snapped into action. Every survival instinct the brunette had kicked in and in a flurry of movement she ripped herself backwards, battling away grabby fingers. She managed to fall in an undignified heap on her ass, but with her bow still intact. She let out a whoosh of relief that was short lived as the blond dove at her headfirst.
Jupiter only barely managed to roll away, leaping up just in time to let Venus eat a faceful of dirt. Panting, they both whipped their heads up as the really quite frikken scary voice of the Outer rang out.
"Here's Johnny!" Venus gave a pained cry and launched herself at the frozen brunette. With Uranus terrifyingly close, and Venus mentally disconnected, Jupiter called upon her most sacred, treasured, and vital senshi power. The one thing she could think of in such a traumatic situation.
She ran.
Spinning on her heel, she tore off headfirst into the mist, ignoring the goosebumps that instantly covered her bare skin in favor of putting more distance between her and the blond explosion. One of them would no doubt bring an end to her short lived Operation: It's Not A Date Date, and she was sure she'd rather not lose to either of them at this point. With Uranus in the mood to make an Inner suffer, Jupiter wanted to avoid the racer for as long as humanly, or not quite so humanly in the senshi case, possible. And Venus, well, she had a distinct feeling that had Venus tagged her out, she'd be following through on that 'Dare her to get naked with you' thing sooner rather than later. Either way, running was a wonderful option.
However, it became very obvious very quickly that she had in fact been incorrect about her so-called 'best bet'. The mist closed in and along with a swift drop in visibility came a swift drop in temperature as well. After tripping over a plant of some sort and nearly losing her footing in the newly laid sheet of snow that seemed to be everywhere, she skidded to a stop, mostly because at the speed she was going she suspected she'd end up having an intimate face-to-face with a tree. And that was if she didn't freeze to death first. Like, where the hell had all this power of Mercury's BEEN this whole damn time?
The mist was heavy and thick and took the sound away. Some sort of weird, senses-numbing parallel dimension. Who turned off the sound to the whole frikken world? For a moment Jupiter was left in absolute freezing, blinding silence. No clue which way to go. All of their training certainly hadn't prepared her for this type of situation.
She took a few steps absently, no real direction in her movement. Briefly she rubbed her arms, trying to bring back the feeling in them. Kami, their date would totally be worth this, right? If she turned into a giant Jupiter-cicle, Mercury'd thaw her out, right? In all kinds of…body warming type ways. Well… there was a thought. She'd just about decided to just head off into the abyss again when a bloodcurdling scream sounded behind her and the mist parted.
"Aiiiieeeeeee!" Jupiter whirled around and was greeted with the sight of Venus running full-tilt towards her, hand outstretched as if she could reach Jupiter's bow just by sheer will power. And if the wide-eyed, red-faced, frazzled-hair, terrified expression of the senshi of Love was not enough to put fear in Jupiter's soul, the absolutely evil expression of the tall blonde senshi only a few paces behind was more than enough.
Deciding quickly that freezing to death wasn't a bad option after all, ecchi body-warming fantasies aside, Jupiter kept running. Uranus may have been faster than her, and a terrified-for-her-life Venus may have come in a close second, but Jupiter was fighting for love. And damned if that didn't give her a bit of extra strength. Using every reflex she had to avoid the trees popping out of the fog with split second notice, she didn't slow down until the chaos behind her was out of earshot. And it took awhile. The wind senshi's evil cackle went first. Then the Love and Beauty Shockwaves. Venus's screams took the longest to fade away. Jupiter felt a little guilty, even as her legs kept pumping. But honestly, the girl had brought it on herself.
Sadly, karma had apparently decided that today was the day that Jupiter was going to pay for as many of her past transgressions as possible, and the very second the well-endowed senshi relaxed, thinking she was in the clear, an odd sensation overtook her. In her hyped up state, it took her an extra millisecond or two to figure out what it was. It was like, her feet weren't even touching the ground. Sparing a look down, she figured out why.
Not only had Mercury surrounded herself with her moveable ice-box, but had done so while hiding at the base of a hill, or cliff, or ravine of some sort. It was a brilliant tactical move in all honesty. Anyone dumb enough to brave the blinding cold would have been stumped when they came across the nearly vertical drop. Nigh impossible to traverse without being able to see where you were going. And Jupiter would have to commend her on it later. Right now however, she was far to busy experiencing her own particular solution to the 'how to reach the bottom of the hill' problem. That being of course, that she had run right over the edge.
Letting loose a scream that even she knew sounded ridiculously girly, she flailed her arms in a desperate attempt to stay upright, now running pretty much straight down the mountainside. Hello adrenaline. She wasn't doing an altogether bad job of it, and for a brief moment, she actually thought she'd make it out unscathed. Gravity however had teamed up with karma and as her body overtook her feet, Jupiter had one last fleeting thought.
'Holy Crap is this going to hurt.'
She hit the ground hard and rolled, bouncing over dirt and ferns and a snow bank and through a tree and then through some mud and another tree and wow that bush had gotten way too intimate with her and holy god snow was NOT supposed to go there Kami kami kami kami…! The ground leveled out, and with a final anticlimactic whump, she came to a sudden screeching halt.
For a moment, she didn't move. Wondering how many bones were broken or if she was even conscious. She thought honestly that she'd gotten a break. She had to have landed on a pile of moss, because as she took stock of her injuries, or lack thereof, she noticed that whatever she'd landed on was soft. And warm. And…..moving? What the hell?! Jupiter forced her eyes open for the first time since beginning her downward spiral and found herself looking down into the startled blue orbs of the ice senshi herself.