Chapter 5 – Returning Home
The transporter in the dark sub-basement of the Crystal Palace hummed loudly as it started to wind down after its sudden power up. All of its internal mechanisms were making soft whirring noises that added to the cacophony of noise, echoing off the dark walls while the dozens of multi-coloured lights gave brief flashes of illumination in the dim of the room.
Sailor Earth, Hybrid, and Magik opened their eyes hesitantly as the high pitched screeching of the machine all around them gradually wound down to a dull drone, no louder than the thrum of a hummingbird's heart. Once their eyes adjusted to the gloom of the artificially lit chamber, they founded themselves greeted by the smiles of Sailors Ceres, Pallas, Jupiter, and Venus. Off to the side, Sailor Ceres who was clearly operating the technological marvel threw the last switch at the control panel which put the transporter into its sleep mode to conserve power. Sailor Pallas was standing next to her, ready to assist in a moment's notice, if something went wrong or her sister needed help in any other way. Sailors Jupiter and Venus were in the middle of the room, smiling brightly up at their family and friends. It wasn't out of the realm of possibilities that the transporter could malfunction unexpectedly and cause potential harm to the items or individuals that were being delivered to or departing from the Crystal Palace. In lieu of that, it had become common practice for one or more of the sailors to be present to make sure that the travelers, especially, returned or arrived safely to their destinations.
"The last of the personal invitations have been delivered. I'm sorry that we took so long" Sailor Earth spoke when Sailor Ceres gave the signal that it was safe to step off the machine. The small crowd remained silent in their various positions around room just in case she wasn't finished talking, in which case they didn't want to interrupt.
"You're right, that did take longer than expected. What happened out there?" Sailor Jupiter asked as she narrowed her eyes at her family as they stepped off of the transporter platform to the stone floor. Sailor Venus and her moved up to meet them, her face showing a look of concern. Even though her daughter had more than once proven herself to be a capable warrior, the mother in her still got worried whenever she left her sight.
"We are sorry, Jupiter. We didn't land where we were supposed to, so we ended up having a bit of a walk to the Potters' residence. Not that it wasn't enjoyable with the beautiful weather and scenery but it was still a bit time consuming." Magik answered, moving past her niece to take a lead position in front of them. Sailor Venus came up and gave her friend a 'welcome home' hug. The two of them had gotten very close in the last two decades since her rescue from Negonall and the evil sorcerer, Shang Tsung. It had grown to the point where any free time that Magik had that wasn't dedicated to either her guardian duties or magical studies, or the personal family time she had with Hybrid and his family, was mostly spent with Sailor Venus. If Magik had had a sister, she would have wanted her to be a lot like the blonde haired guardian. One of Sailor Venus' greatest achievements, as far as Magik was concerned, was that she was able to rekindle the long lost love of soccer and field hockey that had used to light up Magik's face with the most radiant smile she had in her arsenal when she had been younger and growing up in the former province of Ontario. On the other side of the coin, if you asked Sailor Venus what Magik's greatest accomplishment was, she would immediately say that it was dedication and willingness to help her to get the various community centers up and running across the city as well as get the leagues that they created for both soccer and field hockey ready for the general public. The organization of team sports and creation of the recreation centers were a couple of things that had breathed new life into the overall population of Crystal Tokyo. If it came down to the people's choice of which Sailor Soldier had done the most for the citizens of the Crystal Kingdom, Sailor Venus would be right up there with Sailor Mercury and her scientific inventions.
"I'm sorry about that. We only have a general location for the town of Sand Hills, but the settlement is so widespread and its limits keep branching out that we still can't pinpoint the exact location s and can only stretch the landing zone to within around ten miles of the teleportation coordinates that the machine has on file." Sailor Ceres apologized from her position at the main control panel as she finished shutting down the machine and joined the rest of the group with Sailor Pallas. Sailor Earth beamed a large happy smile at the group.
"That's alright though Ceres, because we got to see all the beautiful scenery Sand Hills had to offer on our walk. Plus, we met some really nice people and saw a beautiful horse. I wouldn't have given any of that up for anything" Sailor Earth expressed with some enthusiasm. She did that to make her friend feel less guilty about keeping them out longer than expected due to a design flaw in the machine that she and Sailor Mercury had yet to fix but also to put a smile on Sailor Pallas' face since she knew that the young blue-haired sailor loved animals, especially horses. Upon the completion of her statement, Magik turned her head smiled back at Sailor Earth with the beginnings of a tear in her right eye. She honestly hadn't expected the short adventure to leave such a positive impression on her, and it meant a lot to Magik that she would be so touched with meeting Garin and his family who meant a lot to her.
"You should have seen it before the Great Sleep. It looked very different" Hybrid countered, breaking his silence since appearing from the transporter machine. He moved over and put his arm around his daughter, gently pulling her in close to him. Sailor Earth rested her body up against her father's armour and snaked her right arm underneath his cape and around his lower back.
"At least I finally caught up to the rest of you now and got a chance to see the central part of Canadonia" Sailor Earth said, looking first up at her father and then turning back to look at Magik and her mother in succession.
Hybrid and Magik had both grown up in the same general area although more specifically about an hour east of Sand Hills' location by the old method of automobile travel until Magik had been kidnapped and lost for many long years in the underworld hell dimension that was Negonall. Hybrid had left home sometime after that to find his sister, learning who he really was in the process, and eventually turning out to be one of the revered warriors protecting the Earth and appointed guardian of Crystal Tokyo after that.
Her mother, Sailor Jupiter, had passed through the area briefly as well. She'd been on an important mission to locate the former Dark Kingdom general Nephlite's Hi stone so that the Sailor Soldiers could put a stop to the evil shaman Apsu and her Opposito Senshi and their plans of changing the future. The Hi stone was the physical manifestation of all the kindness that Nephlite had possessed before he had been corrupted by Queen Metalia and turned into a servant of the Dark Kingdom. As it turned out, each of the Inner Sailors had been tasked with finding one of the Hi stones of the former generals that were scattered across the world so that their combined positive energy could heal Mamoru who had been slowly dying as a result of an attack by the Opposito Senshi. When Sailor Jupiter had been assigned to search for the stone of Nephlite, she'd had been sent to look around the Marine National Park which was located on the shores of the body of water that used to be called Lake Huron. It was still considered to be part of the central region that the town of Sand Hills was located in , even though the settlement was far to the southwest of where the park had been located.
Even though the threat of Apsu and her Opposito Senshi returning in this time era was a very real possibility the Sailor Soldiers were taking steps to prepare for that and keep an eye out for any signs of trouble. However, that wasn't important right now and the group all knew it. Another smile passed between Sailor Earth, Hybrid, Magik and Sailor Jupiter as they all came to the same realization. Now that Tera had gone to the same general area of Canadonia, every member of the family had visited the region at one time or another, and now knew what it was like. Each of them could feel that it had brought them closer together as they could now share this experience together. Hybrid's piercing blue eyes swept around the room as he tightened his embrace with his daughter and looked at the other people that stood before them. It was at this point that he seemed to notice that someone was missing among them.
"Did Sailor Mercury get called to the hospital again?" Hybrid inquired. She had been the one to send them to Sand Hills when they left to deliver Magik's personal invitations but now was absent which wasn't out of the ordinary, given her incredibly busy life schedule. Sailor Ceres took a noticeable breath in before nodding her head.
"Yes. She got a call from one of her administrative assistants about a build of administrative papers that needed her attention not long after you all left. She asked me to monitor the transporter in case she didn't come back in time and to bring you back if you were done" Sailor Ceres explained.
"And I came over with her to see if she needed help, since Juno and Vesta decided to play hide and seek and not tell me about it" Sailor Pallas exclaimed in a child-ish tone of voice. She emphasized her displeasure at her other sisters by pouting her lips and crossing her arms over her chest. The sight of the innocent young woman displaying her feelings of unintended abandonment by her team mates made it hard for the rest of the group to hide their smiles. Hybrid opened his mouth to ask Sailor Ceres another question but Sailor Venus cut him off.
"Mars is at the shrine, but I couldn't tell you where the others are" Sailor Venus informed him and the others, anticipating his question. The trio of returnees nodded in satisfaction, knowing that they would get more details about their comrades' activities during their absence soon enough once they were available. The important thing was that everyone was safe and right now there were more important things to focus their attention on. An awkward silence was threatening to set in as the seconds of silence ticked away among the group but Sailor Earth took matters into her own hands, and piped up with a topic that she was pretty sure would be received in a positive manner by everyone.
"How are the party preparations coming? Is the event planning all finally finished?" Sailor Venus smiled with the expression of bright enthusiasm evident on her face.
"Everything is coming along rather smoothly, which is surprising given the number of guests we are expecting and overall scale that our queen wants the celebration to have. As long as there are no major delays, everything will be perfect and be right on schedule for the big day!" Sailor Venus was taking extra pride in her report of the celebration preparations because she was one of the major planners for the entire extravaganza.
"That sounds great" Sailor Earth exclaimed, trying to match the level of enthusiasm that Sailor Venus was emitting. The attempt was short lived as it was followed with a mighty yawn that caused her to arch her body as her muscles contracted tightly before releasing. When her stretch was over, she raised one of her gloved hands to her eyes and gently rubbed it. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to go home and have a long nap. Something about teleporting across the planet just wore me completely out." Her parents smiled at her as she started towards the large open entrance to the chamber which lead out to the hallway and the stairs that would take her back up to the surface. The rest of the group watched her departure and each of them briefly thought back to their various teleportation experiences using the machine, recalled what the physical feeling was like on each of their bodies. It could be somewhat taxing to someone that wasn't used to it but Sailor Earth was something of a super sailor with her combined symbiote and sailor powers but Sailor Jupiter didn't think that it should have taken that much out of her.
"I hope you're not coming down with anything, honey" Sailor Jupiter called out to her as Sailor Earth neared the large doorway that was cut into the thick crystalline rock. She looked at her daughter with a motherly concern as she moved to catch up with her. Sailor Earth stopped moving at the onset of her mother's words and turned to face her as she approached. When she was close enough, Sailor Jupiter raised her hand to feel her Sailor Earth's forehead but her daughter jerked her head away with a look of embarrassment on her face. She was nearly as old as the Crystal Kingdom but her mother still thought of her as a little girl which often made things become awkward when she did something like this in public or in front of other people.
"I'm sure it's nothing and I ensure you that I feel fine. I am just a little tired, nothing more mom, I promise." Sailor Earth was doing her best to hold back another yawn as she spoke. She saw her father give her a knowing glance as she turned to look over at him; she smiled over at him and turned her body to resume her exit of the chamber towards the stairs. She didn't make it very far though before both of her parents took up a protective stance on either side of her, making them look like her escort and she, the prized dignitary.
"Alright then, little earth shaker, let's get you home and tucked into bed" Hybrid cooed as he reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately. Sailor Earth smiled up at her dad and gave him another brief hug with her right arm. When he called her little pet names like that, it made her feel like she was invincible and incredibly loved. On her left and unbeknownst to the father and daughter, their brief tender loving exchange was being watched by Sailor Jupiter, and she found herself bursting with warmth and love towards her family. It was the quiet little moments like this that she loved to fondly remember and tuck away in her memory banks, to pull out later in dark and desperate times. These little memories were what kept her warm when the horrors that still remained in the outside world tried to challenge her beliefs in the peace they were trying to maintain on this fragile planet. .
Sailor Venus and Magik moved a short distance behind them, followed by Sailors Ceres and Pallas. The four of them talked quietly amongst themselves, trying to get Magik up to speed on everything that had happened while the trio had been in Canadonia. Judging by the expressions that chased each other across her face as the two members of the Quartet spoke, it was good as well as bad. The family trio up ahead would be made aware of the most current circumstances later, but right now, this moment in time was reserved for a happy homecoming and some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
Sirabi was sitting in a large arm chair in the main room of her apartment. Her eyes were cast downward as she continued to read and study from one of dozens of magic books. This particular book was called "Sorcery and Science" and it was one of her favourites as the author's intent was to present powerful mystic spells that used elements of what would be considered modern science. She was just finishing the chapter on using alchemy to harness the powers of the four elements when she heard a knock on the door.
She glanced over at the clock mounted on the wall off to her left and took note of the time. She didn't know who would be bothering her at this late hour, but it had to be something important and there were only a handful of people that knew her address. She closed the book begrudgingly and waved her right hand lazily. In an instant, the book in her lap and the other magical books that were scattered around on the floor and table flew into a large wicker basket that disappeared up into the ceiling after the last book landed inside it. She smiled to herself as she watched the basket disappear from sight. Magic really was the best hiding spot for anything she thought to herself as she turned around in the direction of the front door of her apartment.Her facial expression changed and she was now scowling, as she walked over to the door. She hesitated when she reached it for a second before lifting her hand and unlocking the deadbolt and chain. She took a deep breath and turned the doorknob to open it. She rarely used the peephole before opening as she felt confident that she could deal with any person on the other side of the door, whether they wished her harm or not. When the door was fully open and she saw who it was, her scowl immediately intensified, and she was hard put not to let out a growl escape her pursued lips.
"Hello, Sirabi. Long time no see. We need to talk." A young man was standing there in the hallway. He looked at her with a smug-looking smirk that hadn't faded at all since she had opened the door. Sirabi folded her arms over her chest and coldly glared at him.
"If you haven't seen me then it means that I don't want you to see me. We have absolutely nothing to talk about. I'm closing the door now." Her voice was matter of fact, and she started to close the door in his face, not wanting to give him any time to voice any sort of protest. As the door got closer to completely closing, in a lightning fast motion, his right arm shot out from his side and wedged itself in the open space between the door and the door jam, blocking it from closing. Sirabi resisted the urge to slam the door against it and hopefully break his arm for his boldness.
"You will talk to me now Sirabi!. I'm the leader on this team, and as your superior, I demand that you let me in and talk to me now." Her eyebrows shot up, and her face iced over as he looked straight into her eyes. His voice dripped with menace and venom and Sirabi knew that he was trying to intimidate her. He had failed on that regard and she didn't care in the slightest why he was here. She had her own things to do than entertain this self-important blowhard. His verbal statement only intensified her anger at him for interrupting her evening.
"You demand? I don't know who in the Negonall you think you are, but you do not have the right to order me around! I don't care if you're the leader of this team and what authority you think you have. You aren't the leader of me, and seeing as we aren't on any mission right now, you will leave now before I snap completely and severely hurt you!" She forced a tight smile to her face, because she thought it might show him just how tolerant she was being or perhaps unsettled him if he thought that she would take great pleasure in reducing him to a whimpering heap in the middle of the hallway. He should be extremely thankful that she hadn't scorched him on the spot as soon as she had opened the door. "I'm going to close the door now, and it would be in your best interest if you left immediately or there won't be enough left of you to fit into a matchbox. Don't ever come here again!" She took a step back and started closing the door again, not waiting for the man to remove his arm from its place between it and the door jam. If he refused to move it, she would just break it off and mount it on her wall as a trophy. As the door began to close again, the man flung his other arm out and griped the edge of the door with his fingers. Using his physical strength, he forced the door open and out of Sirabi's hands before shoving past her into the apartment. As he passed by her, he didn't see the tiny flames that were flickering out of her eyes as her rage at his brash invasion nearly boiled over.
"I said that we had to talk. That means that I'm not leaving until I talk to you" the man snarled at her as he turned back around to face her. He took up a physical stance to try again to intimidate her, building on the nervousness and perhaps fear that his forceful entry into her apartment might have created.
"You'll be leaving in a matchbox if you continue to piss me." She used the 'matchbox' reference again to remind him of her earlier threat. Her voice had gotten considerably rougher, and it made him look straight into her eyes. Tiny flames continued to flicker in her eyes, and the redness of her eyes' sclera caught his attention.
"What is going on? What are you?" The man's bravado noticeably softened as he took noticeably of the unnatural occurrences appearing around the woman standing before him. Sirabi had never demonstrated her magical abilities to him at any point during their relationship, preferring to keep them secret. Seeing the look of fear on his face as he bore witness to the power that she had at her command was beyond pleasure. She smiled at him, revealing sharp jagged teeth that pricked her lips as they pulled back.
"Don't worry about that. You have five minutes. Speak!" She was enjoying watching him become more and more uncomfortable at being in her presence now that he knew about her abilities and decided to prolong the encounter for a little bit longer, at least long enough to learn his reason for coming here in the first place. Perhaps that bit of information could prove useful for what she had in the works. He was silent for a few more seconds as he was still fixated on her face and the miniature sparks that flashed out of them. When she raised her index finger to taunt him, he began talking at a rapid pace.
"I know that you went back to that laboratory on your own after we left. What did you do?" His face tensed up as he attempted to regain his earlier stern look. Her body relaxed in response and her face was slowly returned to normal as his question sunk in with her.
"I wanted to look around on my own. It's so rare that I get a chance to have access to a high security laboratory operated by one of the fabled sailor guardians. I thought that I could maybe find something pretty that I could take home as a trinket." There was sarcasm in her voice, but it was so subtle that he didn't pick up on it.
"That is a lie and you know it! You're planning to overthrow me as leader of the team, aren't you?" The accusation from him came flying out of nowhere, and she felt her heart beat quicker. How could he have known? She thought to herself. She'd done everything perfectly well, planned every detail out to near perfection. No one was to suspect that she had her own interests in mind or that she had even slipped away to go back to the laboratory in the first place. What did I miss? She asked herself. She had to tread very carefully with him now so that she could figure out what had given her little operation away.
"Why would you have that idea?" Her face was now back to normal, and she was narrowing her blue eyes at him.
"I know you, Sirabi. Nothing is ever good enough for you unless you do it yourself. You're also not the follow the leader type. Those two points alone make me wonder why you volunteered to be put on this team to begin with. Who did you convince to give you that appointment, unless you slept your way onto the team?" He raised his eyebrows in question as he spoke, and black and grey smoke began to come from the top of her shoulders as her rage rapidly built up again inside her. The man's smile slipped a little as he saw the unsettling display of inhuman power return.
"I don't sleep my way to the top, you slime! Why do you think I would do that when you didn't even get it from me?" There was poison in her voice and the flames in her eyes became larger and flared out further from her head than before. He took a few steps back as he wondered if he had made a mistake in confronting her on his own. The display of anger only lasted about a minute before she put her hands to either side of her head and did her best to calm herself down. It wouldn't do her any good to become so agitated that she showed her creature form and kill him as much as she wanted to at this point. As pathetic as he was, his sudden disappearance would cause people to ask her questions, given their shared history which could possibly complicate the next phases of her plan. It took about a minute of intense concentration before she was successfully able to suppress the demonic power inside her as she was still new at keeping a handle on it.
"I don't know what your game is, but you need to tell me what's going on right now. It clear that there is more to you than anybody knows about. I know that you're hiding something, and the more fake emotions you put out there, the more I know that I'm right in suspecting you of some sort of treachery!" The man instinctively raised his hand and pointed at her as he barked at her. His voice returned to the menacing tone that he had used when he first arrived and forced his way into her apartment. In response, she simply glared at him.
"Get out! I want nothing to do with you. Don't ever come back to my apartment again. If you do, you will be a bloody smear on the hallway carpet!" She did a simple little twist of her right hand at the wrist and an unseen force of wind appeared behind the man, pushing him in the direction of the door. The unexpected nature of the magical act caused the man to stumble forward, almost causing him to fall down before he was able to catch himself and stand upright again. Sirabi had to contain herself because she wanted to laugh at the frightened expression on his face when he looked up at her with a questioningly look.
He didn't resist her any further and quickly opened the door and hurried out into the hallway, throwing the door closed behind him. When the door shut completely, she let out a little chuckle as she put the deadbolt and chain back on the door before going back to her room. She looked up at the ceiling and mentally willed the basket of books to come back out of their secret hiding space.
She open up the "Sorcery and Science" book again and resumed reading from the point that she had left off on before the unwanted visit. However, she quickly came to realize that she just couldn't concentrate. The visit from her pissant of a team leader had dampened her happy mood and she had to do something now that would perk her up. She started to glance around her bedroom for any ideas, and her eyes fell upon the closet. A malicious grin covered her face, and she bounded off the bed with a gleeful leap. She opened the door and carefully undid the spells one at a time that held the canister of liquid nitrogen behind the wall, and she floated the chemical container into a magical sack that she mentally created and quickly attached a hose to it. She was going to have to go out and practice her scheme to ensure its success when the time came and there was no better time than tonight.
It was late at night, and the great city of Crystal Tokyo lay sleeping. Since the beginning of the laboratory robberies in different areas of the world, more guards and even some members of the Royal Guard had been put around Sailor Mercury's private laboratories that were scattered around the city.
Under the light of the crescent moon shining down from high above, a shimmering air current appeared behind one of those heavily protected buildings and a masked villain with a large backpack came appeared a second later. The slender form of the masked person indicated that they were of the female gender and she easily blended into the limited light provided by the soft moonlight. The guards on duty had just passed by on their rounds and weren't paying to close attention to that particular sector of the compound, because, as far as they knew, the only way into the compound was by coming in the front gate that they had heavy surveillance on.
The intruder danced her way gracefully among the shadows of the building until she found an exterior ventilation shaft. She quickly and quieted pried the cover off the opening and scurried inside, gaining access to the interior of the building. She moved stealthy through the maze of ducts and large pipes, her soft frame allowing her to move without much problem. With every passing second, she drew ever closer to the men and women who stood guard so bravely in their duty to protect this building and its contents. She stopped at an opening in the duct line that she was currently in and peered through the horizontal bars of the cover. Below her was a small group of guards that were huddled around a bay of surveillance monitors.
Behind her mask, Sirabi smiled viciously to herself. This would make her feel better, and she wouldn't even have to do much work. She put her left hand into a hidden pocket of her black leather suit and pulled out a tiny laser cutter. With a the skill and patience of a surgeon, she used the laser to cut a large square hole in the bars of the ventilation cover, using her other hand to catch the piece when it was fully cut out. She quietly placed the piece off to the side before reaching back with her right hand behind her and taking the nozzle of the hose that she'd attached to the chemical container out from its handle and held it out in front of her. She quietly poked the head of the nozzle through the hole she had just cut and waited a few seconds.
She was about five feet above the group of five guards. She picked her target and aimed the nozzle at the first one. She pushed a button on the side of the nozzle and the cold watery spray came shooting out in a forceful stream. The cloud of icy mist engulfed the poor man almost instantly, and before he even knew what had happened, he was completely frozen. The other guards heard the hissing noise of the spray, and turned to see where it was coming from.
Sirabi used the nozzle again and swept it across the other four, freezing them immediately where they stood. She knew that they were dead upon contact as the human body cannot be flash frozen in that manner and survive, but if she left them like this, then it would serve as a clue to the sailor guardians as to what could be coming and that would give them time to prepare. As malevolent as she was, Sirabi was not stupid and she was not prepared to give up her tactical advantage. The other reason that she couldn't leave the guards in their current state was she wouldn't have any fun, now would she and wasn't that the point of this little outing?
She kicked the ventilation cover off with her boot and hopped down to the floor, landing a few feet away from the frozen guards. She stood up and stepped up to the first petrified guard and gently flicked his elbow with a soft open hand jab. The guard's upper body shattered into several large pieces that fell to the floor around the still frozen stumps of his legs. Sirabi's eyes lit up as she watched the results of her action. This was what she'd like to do to that intrusive pain in her ass that thought that he could come over to see her whenever he wanted and invade her home. The internal anger inside her coursed through her once again, and she lashed out by striking the next frozen guard with a powerful roundhouse kick. The result was the same as the first guard. The uniformed woman's body shattered into dozens of pieces that fell to the ground, mixing in with the chunks of the man she'd just killed. She kicked and punched her way through the remaining human popsicles and felt herself starting to smile with genuine happiness as she watched the shards of human remains litter the floor around her. It looked like her plan would work just fine and it was going to be a lot of fun for her too.