Chapter 9 – Intimidation and Interrogation
Prince Diamond sat upon his throne in the small private room off the bridge of his starship. He was staring intently at an image that the ship's master computer had taken during .the opening attack at the city of Crystal Tokyo. It was a still picture of Neo-Queen Serenity staring up at the ship. Well, more specifically, she was staring up at him as he'd dropped in on the battle to see his plan unfold from above. He was staring at her as if she were the only thing that made his heartbeat like a drum.
"Zoom In!" The computer did so, now showing him the image of the queen from the waist up. That wasn't good enough for him. He ordered the computer to zoom in again. After a couple of seconds, the image showed Neo-Queen Serenity's head. The look on her face was angry and fierce. Prince Diamond still wasn't fully satisfied. He ordered the computer to zoom in one last time, a clear tone of annoyance in his voice.
"Those eyes…" He was so entranced with the blue eyes of the queen that he couldn't even tell if it had only been a thought, or if he had just spoken it out loud. He sat there, sipping his red wine, and growing more and more infatuated with Neo-Queen Serenity with each passing second. Time seemed to slip away as he lost himself in the twin pools of blue sapphires.
A flash of movement caught his eye as the air rippled just a few feet away from him, breaking the spell the image had on him. Rubeus appeared a second later, but he remained silent, waiting for his prince to acknowledge his presence. As the silence drew out, Prince Diamond pushed a button on the arm rest of his chair, and the image evaporated, pushing the darkness that the light from the image had kept at bay back into the room. Prince Diamond turned to face Rubeus, anger and annoyance at being disturbed etched into every line of his face.
"What do you have to report, Rubeus?" The question was spit out, like poison from a snake bite. Rubeus picked up on it immediately and steadied his shoulders. He could tell it was best to relate the information he had quickly and leave the prince to his privacy or else he was sure he would feel his wrath.
"My prince, our initial attack has leveled much of the areas around the western part of the Crystal Palace. Early estimates have indicated heavy civilian losses, which will further weaken the moral of the remaining populace. The spirit of the people has been effectively broken. The droid army is now in the process of hunting down any survivors of the initial attack in the targeted areas before we move on to the next quadrant of the city. The second round of bombardment is scheduled to begin in a few minutes." The prince did not change his facial expression upon hearing his report, but continued to stared back at the red haired man evenly.
"Are there any problems to report?" The prince sneered at his underling as he asked the question. He wasn't so arrogant to believe that their attack had gone completely perfect. Rubeus looked away from Prince Diamond for a second or two, shifting his body uncomfortably. The prince tilted his head to the side as his suspicions were confirmed. Reluctantly, Rubeus spoke after a few more seconds of silence, swallowing hard before opening his mouth.
"Our ships have been unable as of yet to penetrate the energy shield around the Crystal Palace as of yet. It's made up of a type of energy that we haven't encountered before or even considered when we were making the main laser and projectile cannons. It's possible that it could be the power of the Silver Moon Cry-"
"No, it is not the power of the crystal," an echo-like voice cut in, silencing the rest of Rubeus' report. From the middle of the open floor between the two individuals, the Wiseman rose up like a ghostly specter. He was still in the cross legged position that he was usually seen in, and the crystal ball was levitating a few inches off of his lap as he floated about two feet above the floor. His false hands of many colors were moving restlessly around the crackling glass ball as he stared it intently. Although Rubeus was curious, he knew better than to try to ask Wiseman how he knew that. The prince's advisor probably wouldn't answer him anyway. Rubeus ignored Wiseman, and turned back to face Prince Diamond. He was not looking forward to giving the prince the rest of the bad news, but he knew that he had to. He swallowed hard again before he spoke again.
"My prince, the Scorpion has been captured by a group of the Earth's main guardians, the Sailors. It is unlikely that they have executed him as of yet and have merely imprisoned him somewhere in the Palace." It was at this time that the prince's face changed. Before it ranged from bored annoyance to simple annoyance, but now it was very clearly a high degree of anger and fury. Prince Diamond knew that if Scorpion started talking, he would give the Sailors information about the Black Moon and their forces. This would now make the takeover of Crystal Tokyo much harder than it needed to be.
"You fool! The Scorpion was your personal responsibility! If the Sailors or Neo-Queen Serenity get him to open up, he will give them information that could be disastrous to us!" It was almost as if lightning bolts were shooting from Prince Diamond's eyes as he stared at Rubeus.
"My apologies, my prince, I should have known that his advanced age would…" Rubeus broke off. He couldn't stand looking at the anger and disappointment that radiated from his leader's eyes any longer as he spoke, lowering his head in a bow of penance. Prince Diamond cut him off before he could continue his sentence, and it with such vehemence that Rubeus' body shuddered in fear.
"Enough! I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses any longer! This is your mess, fix it now!" Rubeus bowed his head again, having lifted it when Prince Diamond addressed him. He disappeared in another shimmering air current a second after the prince had finished his order. Once the two of them were alone, Wiseman spoke up.
"We need to bring the Black Crystal here to us. Its power will fortify our soldiers, and make the Silver Moon Crystal useless to the Sailors." Prince Diamond's hand itched towards the button on his arm rest again. He wanted nothing more than to spend his time, staring into Neo-Queen Serenity's eyes.
"I'll have Emerald send it, along with herself. With the Scorpion captured, we have to cut our losses and re-strengthen our ranks." Prince Diamond settled back in his throne after speaking, but he couldn't stop himself from glancing at the computer screen's power button.
"I agree, my prince." The Wiseman's hands were still encircling the crystal ball in his lap as he spoke. Prince Diamond finally rested his head on his hand, leaning heavily on his arm rest. He crossed his right leg over his leg, letting his foot dangle in the open space.
"Leave me then Wiseman. I wish to be alone to contemplate what is to come next." Prince Diamond purposely didn't look at the black cloaked figure.
"As you wish." The response came seconds before the Wiseman sank back into the floor, presumably disappearing into the lower levels of the starship. The prince sat in rigid silence for a few seconds more, making sure that he was absolutely alone. When he was sure that he was, he commanded the computer to bring up the last image that he'd been looking at, Neo-Queen Serenity's soulful eyes. It took only a nanosecond for the computer to respond, but it quickly conjured up the picture that he'd been losing himself in earlier. Before long, he started whispering to himself again.
"Those eyes…those fierce, defiant, beautiful blue eyes…"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Sailor Juno exclaimed. Her young voice drew a few pairs of eyes over in her direction from the large group of people around her.
"I don't like the green-suited, scorpion man. He's a meanie" Sailor Pallas added with a pout. She crossed her arms over her chest and slumped her shoulders. Her body's posture reflected the ill feelings she held for the man she was looking at.
"Well, it could have been the other one," Sailor Moon said quietly. Beside her, Sailor Mercury shifted her weight from one foot to the other, rubbing her left elbow with her right hand as she instinctively cast her eyes downward. This was a clear sign that she knew what Sailor Moon had meant when she said it could have been the other being that went by the name of Scorpion. The yellow and black clad ninja warrior that also went by that moniker had almost killed her when ordered to by the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung. Even though the attempt on her life had been over two decades ago, to Sailor Mercury every detail jumped out at her as if it had just happened yesterday. The green suited villain also known as Scorpion was chained to the wall of a cell by his wrists, and every so often he would shake his manacles menacingly at whoever looked at him. The mechanical tail that was his primary weapon had been forcibly removed from him and was now lying in the hallway, far outside of the cell where it would remain until Sailor Mercury could analyze it at a later date. Sailor Mars instantly picked up on the distress in Sailor Mercury's body language, and looked at her friend with sincere sympathy in her violet eyes.
"Open the cell." The order came from a very calm Neo-Queen Serenity. Sailor Mars was the closest to the locking mechanism in the wall, so she broke her gaze at Sailor Mercury and hurried over to do her queen's bidding. She put her right hand flat against the biogenic scanner and waited for the sensor to power up. Once the sensors were up and running, a thick green line started at the top of the screen, and slowly began to move down the surface of Sailor Mars' hand. Once the scan was complete, a digitized voice rang out for all of them to hear.
"Access granted Sailor Mars." There was a series of mechanical clicks, and the locks on the cell door unclasped. The cell door slid open with a metallic whine, until it clanged to a halt at the end of its track. Neo-Queen Serenity entered the cell first, followed by King Endyimon, Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon. The cell wasn't very large, so the other Sailors and Guardians gathered outside of the cell, looking in through the bars, and simultaneously providing a wall of defense in case Scorpion decided he might want to try his luck at escaping. The queen took up a position directly in front of the villain while the rest of them fanned out behind her.
"MacDonald Gargan. We would like to speak to you." The queen was hoping to catch more flies with honey if she treated the man with politeness and respect. The Scorpion didn't verbally respond to her, but his mouth and eyelids flickered, showing that he had indeed heard her. Neo-Queen Serenity decided to press on and try to appeal to what remained of his humanity. They didn't have much time to try to save the rest of the city.
"We know much about you, MacDonald. We found your personal file when we dismantled the laboratory of Norman Osborn. We know that you were ostracized by your peers, and that your father was less than supportive of you as you were maturing into a young man. That living environment created developmental anti-social behaviors in you, and that was what Norman Osborn used against you to recruit you for his genetic engineering experiments. But it was your resentment for all of humanity because of your upbringing that made you accept his offer, wasn't it?" Neo-Queen Serenity paused again, trying to find out if the Scorpion was going to respond at all to the personal information she'd just revealed to him. The Scorpion continued to remain silent, although his body noticeably twitched along with his eyelids, which were still closed. Taking this as a sign that her words were bringing back some sort of memories, she decided to get to the point of the conversation. "MacDonald Gargan, we are willing to offer you amnesty for your past offenses against Crystal Tokyo and the planet Earth. You would be restored to the identity of MacDonald Gargan with the full rights and privileges of any citizen of the Crystal Kingdom. In return, we would like to know everything that you can tell us about the Black Moon and its leaders." There was a long pause after Neo-Queen Serenity finished speaking, and everyone in the room was waiting on bated breath to see what the Scorpion's response to the queen's offer would be.
For the first time since being brought into the Crystal Palace's prison, the Scorpion lifted his head and he looked directly at the seemingly human porcelain doll that stood before him. His face muscles tightened as mentally analyzed the offer she thought he might want. His light green eyes flashed from deep within the eye holes of his mask, and the look that he gave the small audience in front of him was intended to induce fear, or at the very least uneasiness. Unfortunately, he could see from their faces that it hadn't worked. He was no threat to them with his hands encased in the heavy silver manacles that held him prisoner and they knew it. Even if he had been younger and in his prime, he still wouldn't have been able to rip the chains from the wall.
"No one but my mother calls me MacDonald." He did his best to sneer menacingly at Neo-Queen Serenity as he addressed her. Though her shoulders were bare, she made a physical show of squaring them to show the Scorpion that she was neither afraid nor intimidated by his false bravado.
"Very well then Scorpion. Do you accept my offer?" She was the picture of self-righteous anger and defiance, standing up for the lives of the people that had perished in the attack and the ones that were still in danger.
"I'm no rat, queenie. So it looks to me like your choices are to either send me back to the Dark Moon or leave me down here to rot for the rest of eternity. Do what you will with me, it doesn't matter but I am not talking." A blanket of defeat and disappointment wrapped itself around the Sailors and the Royal Family when the Scorpion lowered his head and made it clear that he wasn't going to say anything else. From his position outside the prison cell, Hybrid spoke up in a quiet voice when Neo-Queen Serenity glanced her eyes over in his direction.
"My queen, a moment?" Neo-Queen Serenity looked at the Scorpion one last time before turning back to Hybrid and nodding her head. She stepped outside the cell and followed Hybrid as he lead her away from it and the rest of the group so that they could talk into private.
Back inside the cell, King Endyimon stepped up to take the now vacant spot where his wife had just stood, while Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Moon made a barrier between the prisoner and the still open cell door. Hybrid led Neo-Queen Serenity a short distance away, down the hallway, but still far enough that Scorpion wouldn't be able to hear them. When he felt that they were far enough away, Hybrid stopped and turned to face his queen. He looked into her eyes, and took a deep breath to steady himself before he began to speak. "My queen. We need to know what he knows, and as much as I admire you for trying to bring it out of him in the gentlest way possible, we don't have the time to wait around for him to have a change of heart." Neo-Queen Serenity said nothing, but the look in her eyes told Hybrid that she agreed with him, although it also said she was wary of what he might say next. "With the highest of respect to you and King Endyimon, I love this world, and this city. But I will not stand idly by and watch as the people that I swore to protect are suffering and being slaughtered by these invaders." His passion came out in his voice, and she could see the emotional pain that was coming from the storm raging inside him.
"What are you implying, Hybrid?" Neo-Queen Serenity's voice was quiet, but hard as steel. This was going to be a defining moment between her and Hybrid. Suspicion and unease grew in her as she waited to hear if her suspicions were true. He can't be referring to what I think he is, can he? When Hybrid didn't answer right away, she began to begin that her suspicions were right. When she spoke next, her voice was cold as ice. "I will not condone the use of torture or other barbaric practices under any circumstances! It goes against the very ideals that this kingdom was built on!"
"Not torture, my queen. I am merely suggesting that we use the methods that are available to us at the present moment." Hybrid could feel the tension building between them, and he knew that he was walking a very fine line with his queen right now. Neo-Queen Serenity was very black and white when it came to topics like this. There was no leniency for those who disobeyed, and there were no grey areas to be considered.
"Then what do you mean?" Confusion colored her voice, and he thought he might be able to present it to her in a manner in which she would agree to.
"The Scorpion is a monster. A human turned into a monster, but a monster nonetheless. What I propose, is that we use a monster of our own to get the information that we need without breaking any of the sacred laws that you've put into place." Neo-Queen Serenity stepped back from him with a look of fear flashing from her eyes. The realization came to her almost immediately and hit her hard. She was already shaking her head before she spoke.
"Hybrid, you know that you can't use the identity of Carnage or his likeness. It is expressly forbidden by my royal decree." The queen's voice was now flat but hard at the same time. She didn't want to even think about one of her guardians talking about breaking one of the laws that they were sworn to uphold. The idea that Hybrid would even suggest using his former persona and the painful emotions it would stir up not only with her but every one of the Sailors as well was almost unreal.
"No, not Carnage. Scorpion has already seen him when I was captured by Norman Osborn and subjected to the chemical brainwashing that he used on me. Thus my presence in that identity won't have the desired effect that we need right now."
"Then who are you…" She trailed off as she looked towards Hybrid's face, and followed his gaze over her shoulder to the young brown haired woman in the red and black Sailor uniform down the hall behind her. She turned her head and immediately saw the only person he could be referring to.
"Hybrid! That is your daughter! How can you suggest sacrificing her innocent soul for mere information?" Shock and surprise mingled in with hurt and anger as the queen couldn't decide what to feel. She, like him was a parent and it was inconceivable to her that a parent would willing ask their child to do such a potentially dark task like interrogate a prison using fear tactics.
"Yes, but she also possesses a symbiote that Scorpion has not seen so we will have the element of surprise on our side." He was keeping his voice calm as he spoke, confidence ringing out of his every word. "Her other identity is not illegal according to the law of Crystal Tokyo, and she has been regularly purified by the Silver Moon Crystal for over three centuries. There is almost no chance that she will lose control and allow her symbiote to take over." He continued to look back at Tera, who in turn was staring at Scorpion inside the cell and had no idea about what was being said about her. A look of pride radiated from his face as he stared at his beautiful and strong daughter. "I know that she can do this and I believe she is our best bet for getting the information that we need in a timely manner."
Neo-Queen Serenity didn't say anything for quite some time. She was thinking about what Hybrid had suggested, and even though she didn't want to admit it to herself or anyone else, she couldn't shake the notion that it could work. The method Hybrid was suggesting was much darker than what she would have liked, but it could work. The queen turned her body until she was fully facing the group of guardians that were all counting on her. Hybrid took a step forward and stood next to her, remaining silent as he looked towards the group as well.
"If I agree to this, she cannot touch Scorpion at all. She can only use words and her physical presence. If she breaks those rules, or shows any sign of losing control of her symbiote, I will pull the plug on the whole interrogation and she will be disciplined accordingly." Neo-Queen Serenity did not turn to look at Hybrid as she spoke. Hybrid remained silent and stared at his daughter for another second or two before nodding his head once to show that he agreed to her terms.
"Ok…do it." Neo-Queen Serenity flatly said, not moving her body. She wasn't sure at first if Hybrid had heard her because she hadn't turned towards him, and her voice was barely above a whisper as she had to force the words out of her mouth. Hybrid did not reply back. He just walked forward, back towards the group and gently put his arm around Sailor Earth's right arm. From his position down the hallway, Neo-Queen Serenity watched as he led her away from the group so that he could talk to her privately. Neo Queen Serenity remained away from the group, silently wondering if she had done the right thing. This was going to be plaguing her until it was over and done with and perhaps long after this was over. She watched Hybrid take Sailor Earth on the other side of the group, perhaps using them as a buffer between them and the white queen.
On the other side of the hallway, Hybrid and Tera reached a position against the stone wall that marked the end of the hallway that was lined with prison cells. Tera looked at her father with a questioning look as she could tell that something was up. Hybrid saw his daughter's look and got right to the point.
"Tera, honey, we need you to use your other half to interrogate Scorpion." Hybrid came right out and said what he needed to, instead of wasting time with pleasantries.
"What? What do you mean, dad?" The young woman looked up at him in surprise and confusion at what he had just told her. She hadn't expected him to say that to her and it caught her completely off guard.
"What I mean is for you to use your symbiote to intimidate him enough and play on his internal fears so that he will be more inclined to answer our questions. We can't plan a course of action against our enemies until we have the information we need." The clarification of his original statement helped a little and Tera's face relaxed slightly back to its normal expression.
"So you want me to use any means necessary, then?" Her voice came out quietly and she was already dreading the answer that she thought was coming. Her father shook his head and put his right hand on her shoulder in a fatherly manner.
"No, not any means. It's important to stay true to yourself and what you believe in. It is true that I'm asking you to do something that is unconventional, and may border on the proverbial dark side but I don't want you to cross over and become worse than the enemies that we are fighting." Sailor Earth gave her father a small smile as his words sunk in. She reached out and placed her left hand over his that was still on her shoulder. Hybrid pulled Tera into a tight hug. He loved his daughter with every fiber of his being and even though he thought this was the only way to get what they needed, it still hurt him emotionally to ask her to do this. He shuddered inside when he thought about having to tell Sailor Jupiter that this was all his idea.
"Ok, dad. I'll do it." She hugged her father harder, tightening her grip around him. When she finally pulled back, her facial expression showed him that she was afraid about what was being asked of her but she was still going to do it. She was going to be brave and she was going to do her duty.
"We all believe in you, honey. We know that you can do it." He leaned in and whispered those words into her ear because he couldn't trust his voice not to break if he spoke louder. "Neo-Queen Serenity has ordered you not to touch the Scorpion at all. Do what you have to but don't break that rule or we will lose any chance we have at gathering this information." Hybrid looked down into his daughter's green eyes. The seriousness of the situation communicated itself from father to daughter and she gave him a curt nod of her head, accepting the expected hindrance to her performance. Hybrid hugged his daughter one last time before walking back to the group, leaving his daughter by the stone wall. Sailor Earth was left alone for a few brief moments so she could plan her approach on her own.
"Guys…" Hybrid's voice pulled the attention of everyone around the cell area to him as he approached them. When King Endyimon and the others inside the cell looked towards him, he tilted his head towards the door of the cell, and everyone inside the cell knew that that they were to exit it.. Once Sailor Venus was the last to leave, Sailor Earth immediately entered so that there was no room for any verbal exchange between Scorpion and anyone else. Sailor Jupiter had drifted over to her husband as King Endyimon and the others left the cell and when she saw her daughter entered the cell alone, she gave him a confused glance.
"What is she doing in there?" There was an undertone that Hybrid didn't exactly recognize but he could tell that she was not happy. He was well aware that as soon as he told her that the reason she was inside that cell on her own was because of him, he was going to be in the basement of the doghouse for a long time once this war was over.
"She's doing what needs to be done so that we can start to plan a counter attack against these invaders. She's our last hope of winning this war." Sailor Jupiter gave him a look that said he was definitely not off the hook and they would conclude this conversation in relative privacy later.
In the cell, everyone's attention was riveted on the stare-down between Scorpion and Sailor Earth. He turned to face his newest visitor and when he saw the tall young brunette, he smiled at her before he started chuckling. His quiet laughter echoed off the walls, making it sound even more menacing than it really was.
"You Sailors must be really desperate if you think that this little child can make me talk when your all-powerful, majestic leader has already failed. What are you going to do, sweetheart? Appeal to my humanity with your little puppy dog eyes?" While he spoke, the Scorpion leaned forward as far as his restraints would allow, trying to intimidate Sailor Earth as much as he could. He was sorely and quickly disappointed because she didn't even flinch as she hardened her gaze on the villain.
"Not exactly…" Her voice was flat, as if he didn't deserve her consideration or respect. Closing her eyes, she focused all the anger and rage from the unprovoked attack on her family, friends and fellow citizens by Scorpion and the people that he served. The emotions that those thoughts brought about were channeled internally to call forth the alien entity that shared her body. From somewhere behind her, long thin strips of dark green flowing, living tissue began to sprout from various points on her back. The dark jade skin contrasted sharply against the bright red of her sailor uniform as it moved over her body's frame. In seconds, the un-Earthly material had covered her from head to toe. Her Sailor gloves were gone and now each fingertip sprouted a razor sharp claw that extended for several inches longer than a human fingernail. Her red boots became human-like feet but each toe now had a talon that stretched out further than where the ends of her boots had been. Four long tentacles were lazily weaving in the air behind her. A pair had sprouted from just under her shoulder blades, and the second pair was just above her hips in the small of her back. She opened her eyes revealing that they were now nothing more than a pair of solid white tear drops. Her nose, ears and hair were now hidden behind the thick alien skin that covered every inch of her. A ghastly hole opened where her mouth had just been on her human body and the proportions of it were all wrong. It opened almost a foot in span. When the long, black, needle-like teeth came sliding up out of her gums, it only made the sight more unsettling. Looking at Sailor Earth now, there wasn't a shred of red or the Sailor uniform in sight. Scorpion blinked hard and rapid. Only a few seconds earlier, there had been a slender young woman in front of him but now there was only a green and black monster that looked like it was ready to tear him to pieces.
The Scorpion's facial expression changed from false bravado to one of fear and nervousness. He began to pull on his restraints, losing the battle to his brain's fight or flight instinct. The metal restraints did their job however and he wasn't able to budge them at all. His head switched back and forth from looking at the restraints and the monster that stood a few feet away from him.
"Now will you start answering some questions?" Sailor Earth asked, narrowing her large unblinking eyes. That gesture only made her look even more menacing. The sweet and feminine voice that she possessed was gone and was replaced by a rough, raspy sound that was as alien as how she looked now. The Scorpion straightened up as much as his restraints would allow and did his best to regain his composure. He puffed out his chest and squared his jaw. He was stronger, faster, more agile, and more durable than any human. If Norman Osborn was to be believed, he was even more powerful than the Sailor guardians as well. That meant that he should have nothing to fear from this woman, no matter what she looked like now.
"Big deal! So you can change your clothes in a flash. I've seen your kind before, so if you think that you can scare me with your 'monster face' and your little waving tentacles, then you've failed." He barked out his words so no one would be able to judge his emotions or thought process. He was unsuccessful in that regard as Sailor Earth was able to pick up on the subtle breaks in his words which was one of the clear telltale signs that he was lying. Intending to capitalize on this latest development, Sailor Earth took a slow, deliberate step forward.
"Oh…you must be referring to that cheap, black synthetic creature that your boss created?" The mocking tone in her voice was there for everyone to hear. She took another step closer to him and she saw the instinctive twitch of his muscles under his green body suit in response. He was reflexively gearing up for a fight. "That was not a real symbiote." Sailor Earth held up her right hand, letting Scorpion see the swirling and flowing alien skin of her arm up close. His eyes grew larger and that flash of fear that she'd seen ever since her transformation, intensified.
Sailor Earth leaned in close to Scorpion and outside of the cell, Neo-Queen Serenity who had rejoined the group after seeing Sailor Earth enters the cell, tensed a little. She silently hoped that her young guardian would remember the rules that her father had relayed to her. Inside the cell, Sailor Earth lowered her arm and eased her posture, resting her body weight on the balls of her feet. "A smart man like you must have heard of the red symbiote 'Carnage' right?" Her voice was quiet and deadly, but it noticeable rose in volume and intensity when she said the name of her father's former identity. The Scorpion's physical reaction to her words confirmed that he did indeed know about him.
In his former life before the Great Sleep, the Scorpion had been an unsuccessful private investigator and part time investigative reporter. Once the Earth's population had been reawakened following the environmental calamity that had plunged it into the lifesaving hibernation, professions like his had been rendered obsolete by the Crystal Kingdom that had emerged from the ashes to guide the new order of things. Even though he had been forced to seek a new way of living, he still retained that internal sense of curiosity and a desire to know the truth of things, even after he'd joined up with Norman Osborn.
He had heard about the incident in Crystal Tokyo involving the red symbiote known as Carnage and had researched it extensively once Neo-Queen Serenity had released the details of it to the public. When Norman Osborn had captured Hybrid and the original sailor guardians, he had mentioned the red symbiote in passing. This had caused the Scorpion to revisit the old archives regarding the matter during his downtime. Now, he intimately knew everything there was to know about the red symbiote 'Carnage' and the atrocities that he had committed.
Sailor Earth saw that he recognized her father's other identity and pressed her advantage. She leaned in so that her head was right over his shoulder, making it easy to whisper directly into his ear that covered by his light green mask. Behind her, Neo-Queen Serenity was shifting her weight back and forth from one leg to the other. It was a sign of her growing uneasiness about the situation that she was now being forced to bear witness to. Several of the other sailors were mirroring her reaction.
"You must know what he did then. The number of people that he murdered and how much chaos he created. Here's a fun fact for you, Scorpion. He is my father. That means that anything he can do, I can do better. Furthermore, when your former boss unleashed him against us, I was the one to beat him." The words from her mouth were said in a low decibel, forcing him to pay attention if he wanted to hear her. She said each word slowly and deliberately, making sure that he didn't miss anything. Her symbiote could smell the nervousness radiating off the Scorpion's body. "So, if I can defeat such a powerful enemy all by myself, what do you think I could do to you if you don't start talking?" To emphasize her point, she leaned away from him and morphed her right hand into a dangerous looking spike.
"You can't hurt me! You're a sailor, and your queen wouldn't let you hurt me. You have rules to obey." His words came out, but there was fear clear in each of them and not much conviction behind them. The Scorpion was calling her bluff, and Tera's next move was going to be critical. If she backed down now, the Scorpion would close up again and would then be impervious to any other forms of interrogation. Neo-Queen Serenity and the other guardians anxiously watched for what was going to happen next.
Sailor Earth had pushed things to the point where she had to do something drastic or lose control of the interrogation entirely. Sailor Earth was silent as she was thinking about how she could break the Scorpion. She could tell from the stench of nervousness that was coming off him that all he needed was one more good push. She had an idea, but she was a little hesitant to follow through with it. The idea would bring up a lot of ugly history for her friends and family that they would rather leave in the past. From underneath the alien skin, she flicked her human eyes over to her parents, watching them for a few seconds. She remembered her father's words to her and she knew that she had to play on his fears.
"My father gained access to the Crystal Palace and almost single-handedly, defeated all of the sailor guardians that he came in contact with. He even almost managed to assassinate Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endyimon in their own throne room, all of that in only a matter of minutes." She paused for effect, letting the magnitude of those actions sink into the Scorpion's mind. "He almost brutally murdered each and every one of them, including me, while I was still in my mother's womb. That kind of darkness can be easily passed from father to child. And in some cases, the child can even be more evil than the parent."
The Scorpion's mind recalled all the research that he had done on that topic, instantly knowing that she was right in everything that she had said. When he was a reporter, he had covered several stories about children of violent criminal growing up to be equally or even more violent and dangerous than their parents. A bead of sweat rolled down from his forehead and became visible in the eyehole of his mask. Sailor Earth morphed her spiked hand into a double-bladed axe. She let the Scorpion take in that sight before dozens of arrowheads and poisonous barbs broke out over every other square inch of her body. The Scorpion noticed them and the reality that every single one of them was pointed at him. "It could be true that the sailor guardians and my father and aunt might be able to eventually overpower me should I choose to hurt you, but I'm sure that you would agree that I can cause you excruciating pain before even one of them makes it into this cell." To get her point across, she dropped her body into an attack pose.
"You're lying!" The Scorpion tried to sound confident, but the hesitant manner of his voice belied him and the Sailor Soldiers could hear a few stutters in his sentence.
"Then let's find out!" Sailor Earth's voice reverberated off the walls of the cell as she lunged forward and simultaneously morphed her bladed arm into a pointed lance.
"Tera…NO!" Neo-Queen Serenity screamed as she watched the green creature spring forward. The other sailor guardians leapt into action as well, determined to get into the cell before the cold blooded murder of the Scorpion came to pass.
"ALRIGHT, I'LL TALK!" The Scorpion's scream came a fraction of a second after Neo-Queen Serenity's. Sailor Earth's attack immediately shifted so that the lance struck the wall behind him, inches from his head. She immediately pulled her arm back and took a few steps towards the door of the cell. Sailor Venus and Sailor Uranus were the first to enter the cell. They quickly put themselves between Sailor Earth and Scorpion. "I'll tell you anything that you want to know! Just keep that thing away from me!" Scorpion's voice wailed as he watched the rest of the sailors file into the cell, interjecting themselves between the green monster and the prisoner. From outside the cell, both Sailor Jupiter and Neo-Queen Serenity turned to look at Hybrid. He felt their collective gaze but could only look at them in return. He knew why they were looking at him. This had been his idea and it had very nearly gone bad. Hybrid maintained his faith in his daughter and that she knew what she was doing.
"She did it. She was successful and she didn't resort to physical violence. We can now learn what we came here to know." It was the only defense that he had even though he knew that it was a very thin one at that. Both Sailor Jupiter and Neo-Queen Serenity remained silent. They knew that they couldn't argue with what he had said but the methods were still questionable to both of them. The look on Sailor Jupiter's face reminded him that there was going to be a private conversation between the two of them regarding his idea once they got home. Hybrid looked back into the interior of the cell, knowing that he was going to be mistrusted by his queen and his wife for a while, but taking comfort in knowing that he'd been right all along. Unfortunately, right now was not the time to argue his case. He was so fiercely proud of his daughter, and he couldn't wait to tell her.
End of Chapter 9