Gaijin
Part 23
The start of the worst day yet.
++++++++++++
Haruka cracked her knuckles as she glared at the two men standing before her. "Well, it has been a while hasn't it boys?" She was floating above the stage calmly as the crowd roared with excitement behind her. She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced back at the monsters that were quickly moving down the stairs towards the field and stage.
"Kill her!" screamed Kunzite as he pulled Zoicite by his arm and away from her.
The things jumped into the air in unison towards her, five of them at once. Each roared as it extended its claws and teeth outward.
Haruka's body became a blur of motion and the beasts were tossed aside almost casually. "You know better than that. You two fools seem to have enough memory to realize what I've done. You can't win."
"Damn her," growled Kunzite angrily.
Zoicite raised his palm and shot a ball of power towards the girl as he moved behind the idol singer's hanging body.
The girl kicked her feet and squealed in fear. "Don't just sit there! Get me down!"
Haruka raised her palm and swatted the energy ball into the air. It shot into the night sky above them and exploded in a spectacular flash of light. "There's no chance for you to win." The monsters were recovering and backed away in a loose circle around her.
"Didn't you hear us fools? Destroy her!" snapped Zoicite.
One of the monsters reluctantly stepped forward.
Haruka turned into a blur of motion and appeared directly in front of the thing with her hand raised in a backhanded strike. The creature sailed into the wall and hit the concrete just below the stands with enough force to shatter the area in front of the seats. It roared a final time and vanished in a flash of light. The woman had a deep frown on her face as she vanished again and appeared above two more of the things that were standing together, she pushed their heads into the dirt and they also vanished with pained death screams.
Haruka slowly rose to her feet from her knees after the maneuver and glared at the two men. "Come on, stop playing around and fight. At least die like men."
Zoicite looked worried, while Kunzite merely smirked. He turned towards the remaining pair. "Kill as many people as you can before you die."
The things roared as they turned towards the crowd and jumped into the air.
Haruka's eyes went wide as she saw this happening. "No!"
Both men backed away slowly into the shadows of the stage as she vanished from in front of them.
The things never reached the ground; Haruka's fists and pure speed stopped them both in the air. They were no more than ten feet apart from each other when they jumped and she simply punched them both out of the air and towards the ceiling. One of them slammed into the cracked surface of the wall at the top of the stadium, sending another pile of debris into the field, while the other simply dug a deep gouge into the dirt.
The one who had hit the ground survived, it had what appeared to be a turtle shell on its back, and a reptilian appearance. Haruka merely frowned at the thing and stared at it. "So, you're a little tougher than your friends?"
The thing grunted as it moved to its feet, mindlessly staggering back towards the crowd to follow its last orders.
Haruka merely raised her palm and frowned. "Walk this off." A ball of purple energy formed in her hand and she screamed as it blasted forward and slammed into the thing's back. The creature roared angrily as it was vaporized in a small explosion.
There was a silence in the stadium as the girl simply floated above them for a moment and looked around. She shook her head and gasped as she looked down at the ground. "I can...fly? What happened to me?"
The crowd in the stadium cheered as she floated back towards the stage. She stood for a moment looking around at the people; they seemed to think this was a part of the show. She couldn't even remember where her date was sitting, and she certainly wasn't going to try and find her like she was. She hung her head and sighed. "Oh well."
"Hey! Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me!?" screamed Hikari from where she hung. She was wiggling violently against the microphone chord and looked a little upset.
Haruka floated up to her and grabbed her around the waist. "Sorry, just a second."
The girl looked up at her dumbly. "Hey...did Kato hire you?"
"Hire me?" said Haruka as she floated up into the rafters and began to work at the knot that held the girl. She was using one hand to untie it and floated back to the ground to set the girl on her feet after she had finished. She simply walked behind the girl and started to untie the chord from her back.
Once Hikari was free she turned to look at the woman in front of her. "That was so cool!"
Haruka realized that the crowd was still cheering and that Hikari had her hands clasped rather tightly. "Uh, thanks?"
The backup singers slowly began to move back towards the stage along with some of the crew as they began to peek around from their hiding places back stage. Two young girls rushed up to the pair as they stood together in the middle of the stage.
"Wow!" cried one of them.
"She's right! That was awesome!" agreed the other.
Haruka frowned slightly as she realized that she was becoming surrounded. "I have to go."
"What? You just got here!" cried Hikari as she grabbed her arm. "Tell me what they paid you! I'll double it!"
"Sorry," replied Haruka softly as she shook her arm loose with surprising ease and floated up into the air. "I've got places to be." She raised her arm into a fist over her head and tucked her free arm at her side as she rose into the air and into the sky. "Bye."
"Wait! Who are you?" called Hikari into the air after her.
Haruka glanced back at her for a moment. "Uranus." She shot into the sky and vanished into the night.
Hikari pouted cutely as she glared at the ground in frustration. "Dang. She was a babe too."
Her two backup singers looked at each other nervously. "Not as cute as us though, right?"
"What are you kidding?" asked the girl as she stared at them for a moment.
The pair burst into tears. Fortunately for Hikari's image, the crowd's cheer was far to loud for the conversation to be heard.
"Aw, man," grumbled the girl as she sighed and tossed the remains of the dead microphone onto the stage. "I guess we should go back to the hotel then. Not much we can do to top that."
The two girls pepped up immediately. "Yay! Room service!"
Hikari merely looked up at the sky for a moment and sighed. "Oh well...maybe I can contact her agent or something?"
++++++++++++++++++++
In the shadows above the crowd, hidden in the shadows of one of the exits, a tall figure stood watching the scene. It was a woman, with a long staff in her hand. She merely stood silently as she watched the scene unfold before her.
Finally, after the young idol singer walked off the stage she spoke softly. "Uranus...do you know what have you done?"
+++++++++++++++++++
Haruka stood on the edge of a tall rooftop, dark brown tiles tilted away from her in every direction as she overlooked the city before her. "Now what?" she muttered as she stared at her hands for a long moment.
"Maybe back to Tokyo now?" she mused silently as she clenched her fist. "There's something going on here though..."
She sighed and shook her head, willing the power away from her body. She stood for a long moment as the energy burned around her. The costume remained as it was.
She looked down at herself and paused for a moment. There was no thought for a long moment, and finally she realized what was wrong. "I can't change back?"
"No, you cannot."
Haruka turned around with her fists raised as she faced the voice. "Who?"
"An ally," replied the woman who was cloaked in a long brown cape and hood. "One that you are not yet ready to meet."
Haruka's face contorted as her mind struggled for a moment. "Pluto?"
The woman's lips turned slightly, but Haruka could still not see her face. "Yes."
"But...how? I was..."
"Alone?" asked the woman calmly. Her light smirk never faded away. "No, you were not. The others were merely sleeping still..."
"But..."
"Now, you must fight alone. Final protocol is only to be used after the Queen's death, and only when a single of our number remains alive. Fortunately for you, the Queen has been dead for some time, and the reawakening of the others has not yet occurred. You hold the power of three of the most powerful senate."
"You mean..." stammered Haruka as she fell to her knees.
"I am afraid so, the power will remain with you until your eventual death. Although, no one is quite sure how long that will be. It could be in a few years, the energies eating away at your very being, or it could be an eternity, the sheer power within you will not allow you to die."
The girl stared forward with her jaw clenched tight. "No..."
"You have chosen your own path, and now you must face it."
"Why didn't you stop me? Why didn't you say something?!" snarled the angry Haruka as she jumped to her feet and pointed at the woman before her.
"Because, I have not yet awakened. I am the senshi of time, not its master. It is my task to guard the gates, and keep others from using its power. Only the queen herself may command me to meddle in the affairs of the past, and always against my own strictest warnings to do so."
"Queen? There's no..." Haruka's eyes went wide as she stepped away from her. "You're not..."
Pluto's smirk grew ever so slightly. "Are you surprised?"
"I suppose I shouldn't be," grumbled Haruka as she sighed and hung her head.
When she looked up, the woman was gone once again.
"Damn." She sighed and looked down at herself for a moment. The dress would come off, so it wasn't like she was stuck in the costume. She decided to return back to her hotel room for now, a good night's sleep would have to do for now. She had a lot of thinking to do anyway.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Carrot sat up and tossed his sheets off of his body. He was sleeping in a small cot, in one of the extra rooms in the clinic. Gia and Mei Lin shared the main bedroom of course, leaving him with a room designed for patients who had to stay overnight. Gia never really used it, and it was used more for emergencies than anything else. Most patients that bad were sent to a hospital. To him, it was a safe place to pass out, for the most part.
"Ouch," he grumbled as he shielded his eyes from the sunlight outside. He stood up and closed the curtain before he slipped on a pair of pants and slippers. He staggered out of the room with his eyes half shut and frowned at the trio that sat before him at the table. "Hi."
"Good morning!" said Mei Lin cheerfully.
"You certainly seem cheerful," agreed Gia.
Luna stared at him for a moment and turned to look at her. "No he doesn't."
"It's a figure of speech," replied Gia with a small sigh.
"You remember anything yet?" asked Carrot as he sat down in front of the animal and shoved her aside in favor of the cup of coffee he'd just poured himself.
"No," said Luna irritably. "Why would I want too?"
Carrot ignored this and simply stared forward.
"I've got to get to work soon. Mr. Yamada hasn't been there in like two days, so I'm swamped. He says he's following up on that murder story of his."
"Murder?" asked Gia as she turned to face the young Chinese girl.
"Yeah, real scary stuff. People are getting cut to pieces, so far there's only been two attacks. It's on the other side of town though." She nodded her head seriously as she spoke. "The police say they've got leads though, and that he'll be caught soon."
"Wonder how long that'll last?" grumbled Carrot irritably.
"A serial killer in Japan? That seems like something we'd have heard about by now," commented Gia.
"Yeah right. The government probably doesn't think broadcasting something like that is a good idea," commented Carrot. He veered away from the conversation when Gia gave him a rather dirty look. "Yamada? That's the guy they stuck you with isn't it?"
"Yeah, he seems upset. You keep getting the front page instead of his murder story. He thinks it's much more important. The boss says the story is too bad for us to run like that."
"Yamada is probably right," replied Carrot as he sipped at his coffee lazily. "Still, this country has a way of sweeping really nasty things under the rug."
"Hey! I work hard to get those pictures of you!" snapped the girl.
"Whatever," grumbled the boy as he stood up and walked towards the shower.
"That's a good idea," said Gia. "After all, you've got a date tonight."
Carrot froze where he was standing and slowly turned to look at her. "Um? Today is Friday?"
Gia smiled cheerfully and nodded.
The boy smiled at her nervously and walked into the bathroom. "Excuse me."
+++++++++++++++++++
Four hours later...
"Carrot! Carrot! Come out of there!" snapped Gia as she pounded on the door.
"I don't wanna!" cried a weak sounding voice from inside the bathroom.
"He's been in there all morning!" growled Gia as she turned to look at Spike.
"Gee, I never thunk he'd be dis shy," said the man as he stared at the door.
"I've tried the lock, I've tried forcing it open, he's got it barricaded with something."
Spike scratched his head and sighed. "I dunno. I guess I can break it down for ya."
"I'll kick your ass if you do!" cried Carrot from inside. "I ain't goin out today! I'm stayin in here!"
"You jerk! I have to go to the bathroom!" growled Gia as she pounded on the door.
"So go across the street! They've got toilets there!"
"You little son of a bitch!"
Spike started to back away from the scene, but Gia whirled around and grabbed him by his ear. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"Uh, I was jus..."
"I'm staying here!" cried Carrot from inside the bathroom.
"Stop being such a wuss all you have to do is go to dinner or something!" cried Gia.
The door cracked every so slightly and Gia gasped as she saw Carrot stick his head out of the bathroom. "You think this is going to be that simple?"
She stared at him, he actually looked terrified. "Who cares about Michiru!? She's the least of my worries. I've got a date tonight and I'm a superhero. Every asshole I've ever pissed off will probably run into me tonight, I probably won't even make it to her house!"
Gia stared at him for a moment as he popped his head into the door again and closed it. "Did he just call himself a superhero?"
Spike nodded slowly. "I tink."
The woman's frustrated frown grew stronger and stronger. "What the hell is wrong with..."
Carrot slipped his hand back inside the door as Gia was silenced by a warm sticky fluid that covered her mouth.
The woman growled in rage and stared at the door as she rolled up her sleeves. She turned to look at Spike and pointed at the door.
The man hung his head and turned to face it. "Sorry bout dis kid."
"Aw man..." grumbled Carrot from the other side. He was thrown against the ground with the door slammed on top of him as Spike barreled into the room with his shoulder held low. The large man stumbled on top of the door, flattening the boy further.
Carrot blinked as he shifted around under the door, flailing his arms helplessly. "Get off you big oaf!" He froze and slowly turned his head as his extra senses picked up danger suddenly. "Uh oh."
Gia was standing over him glaring down with her heel tapping against the floor. She didn't look happy, and couldn't speak to him. It was the one good thing about his position at the moment.
+++++++++++++++
Hikari Negashi sat in her hotel room with a frown on her face. She was wearing a bathrobe and had a towel tied around her head. The room was huge, and she was reading over a newspaper. She hadn't gotten the front page, but there was an entertainment section, and she'd made the cover of that.
The two backup singers sat nearby in two other chairs that sat around the small coffee table. They each had their own copy of the paper, although Hikari doubted they actually read anything more than headlines.
"There's some really weird stuff going on in Tokyo," commented one of them.
"Yeah. Look at this guy," agreed the other as she held a large photo of Spiderman up to Hikari's face.
The girl frowned at it. "You're supposed to be looking for reviews of last night's concert."
"Well, I couldn't help but notice. I mean, he's got a really tight butt."
Hikari snorted in disgust at the picture. "What would I care about that."
"Well, I guess I can understand it, even if I don't agree with her," replied the other girl cheerfully.
Hikari ignored her and frowned at the page in front of her. "Super woman shows up for Hikari concert. Great stage production...What?" She slammed the page down on the table, sending the pair flailing back fearfully. "What's this?" said Hikari as she smirked at the page in front of her. It was the second page of the entertainment section. A young blonde girl's photo was shown on the page. "A quote from the article," announced Hikari. "He seemed like a nice guy, and he took me to the show. I had no idea that she was a part of the show. Her disguise was quite convincing too..."
"Um?"
"What?"
"Seems our super woman brought a date to the show with her..." said Hikari as she held up the paper.
"Hey, she's kinda cute..." responded the first girl.
"Yeah, that super chick has good taste," agreed the other.
Hikari merely chuckled at this as she tossed the page aside. "A woman like that...is the only thing that can satisfy me."
"Aw man," grumbled the first girl.
"This again? Jeez Hikari, you make us feel so unloved sometimes."
"Can it. I know the both of you sleep around on me regularly."
"You're mean!" whined the pair in unison.
Hikari stood up and started to untie her robe as she walked towards the bathroom. "Sometimes I wonder why I put up with all this cuteness crap all the time." She paused and glanced around the room. With a heavy sigh she opened the bathroom door and walked inside. "Oh right. The money, gotta remember the money."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Zoicite and Kunzite writhed on the ground in agony, dark power surged through their bodies as Beryl watched from in front of her crystal. Her face was contorted into a mask of rage and she raised her hand again, sending yet another ball of dark power into the pair. "Fools! Imbeciles! I should destroy you both, and I would if I didn't need you so badly now!"
"Forgive..." started Zoicite.
"There will be no forgiveness this time fool! Do you realize what your bungling has unleashed upon us?!" She put up both her hands and the two men on the ground screamed as the pain that coursed through their bodies intensified. "An Outer Senshi that has invoked the final protocol? You should have retreated the moment she arrived! Do you realize how strong the outer senshi are?"
"We..." started Zoicite.
"Find the others, destroy them! If we kill her now, the other unawakened Senshi will return at full power, rather than the weakened form you fought before she called fourth all that power! Now we must destroy them, before we deal with her."
The two men could not move from where they were sprawled across the ground.
"Once you two recover, you're going back to Tokyo. Once there, you will seek out and kill the remaining Outer Senshi. Those brats will probably try to stop you if they find out, so make sure they do not. You will also bring me the Silver Imperium Crystal, once we have it, we can awaken Metallia, and then not even the Final Protocol will be able to save them."
Zoicite staggered to his knees finally, and Kuzite quickly followed. "What of Uranus? We cannot ignore her."
"Find ways to keep her busy. If you fight her now, you will be destroyed."
The pair growled under their breath as they bowed their heads.
"Have you killed that boy yet?"
"You know we haven't," responded Kunzite quietly.
"Once you recover, see that you do," responded Beryl as she raised her hands and formed the dark energy in her palms once again.
++++++++++++++++++++
"He has left us in quite a bind."
Hakage turned and frowned at Kei as she walked up beside him. "What do you mean?" They were standing in Hisami's office. Both of them looking at the blade that hung from the wall quietly.
"The old man..." replied Kei calmly as she looked up at the sword.
"What of him?" snorted the larger man as he turned away.
"Don't play stupid with me. You've been staring at that wall for two hours now, you've never given it a second glance before now."
"It has a rich history, even I can become nostalgic from time to time."
"That blade is our darkest curse."
"No, the one you wield is your darkest curse. This sword, is a symbol of power."
"Power," snorted Kei through a rough laugh. She reached for the blade slowly. An angry energy crackled, brushing the tips of her fingers lightly as she held them back just out of range. She could feel the tingling sting on the skin of her hand and closed her eyes. "It is a useless power."
"You know that it will destroy us one day."
"Or bring us into a new age? That is the legend, is it not? Will we fade into shadows, destroyed by the darkness, or will we simply continue on forever?"
Hakage pulled her hand down, tired of watching her burn her skin needlessly. "Nothing lasts forever young Kei. This blade could mean our end, or it could simply be a new rebirth, until our true end comes to pass."
The girl snorted and turned away. "Since when are you so philosophical?"
"Times call for such things."
"Meaningless."
"Perhaps. Yet you come to look at this blade at times as well."
Kei didn't argue, but slowly pulled the knife from her side. "I too deal with my own curse. You know that."
"Kill the ones you love, or die in agony?" responded Hakage.
"Don't mock me," replied Kei.
"The sword belongs to him. It has chosen its master."
Kei simply stood with her back to him, her face hidden in shadows. "Perhaps it has. I've seen nothing that proves this."
"You and I are all that remains to carry on the name of our clan. Is that not enough?"
"It doesn't matter. I will kill him, or I will die. The fate of our clan rest with you, should I fail."
"You will be destroyed, he is far stronger than he was before."
"So am I."
"Hikyu is insane, a shadow of his former self, but you...you continue, despite what the Grandmaster has told us. Why?"
Kei did not move from where she was standing. "You know why."
"Do I?" asked Hakage stonily as he continued to look at the blade.
Kei looked at her knife and slid it back into place slowly. "Yes. I too have a curse to deal with. My own heart has betrayed me."
"You love him?" Hakage did not sound surprised, or really very interested in the answer. When he turned his head to look, Kei was gone.
He merely turned to stare at the sword again in silence.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Wo Hin Shu stood calmly on the docks overlooking the massive shipping interest of Tokyo. He was dressed in an expensive dark blue silk suit and had a cellular phone held up to his ear as he walked. He was a Chinese man in his early thirties, he had a long braid of solid black hair hanging down his back. "He's coming."
"So?" asked the well-dressed man who stood beside him. He had on a brown suit and tie of his own. He was a Japanese man who was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes.
"We need to be ready for his arrival. Our operation has been noticed."
"A fight?" asked the other man calmly as he walked beside the Chinese man.
"Possibly. He'll be diplomatic at first. He's far too old and weak to risk otherwise. He'll also be well protected."
"I've heard stories of his elite guards. They say he has a clan of shinobi protecting him."
"You of all people should know the truth behind that."
"If I do, what makes you think I can just tell you?" responded the man calmly.
Wo Hin smiled lightly. "Perhaps it is a good day to die then?"
"Perhaps, but I have no desire to cut my life short needlessly. I'll be going shortly. I've got business of my own to deal with today."
"Hisami is a businessman, if our operation is tight enough, he will turn a blind eye towards us."
"If he feels you are not moving against him, perhaps. This is a dangerous trade. It is a bit more than the police are willing to overlook."
The Chinese man frowned at the man beside him. "I am aware of that, dealing with the Yakuza is not much different than my own Triad roots. There are strange things going on in Japan lately, I feel a great disturbance in the mystic energies of this place. I am simply making a profit off of the uneasy feelings of the citizens. I make them feel safer."
"I think that kind of thinking might be a mistake," responded the Japanese man calmly. "Do not underestimate the damage you are causing Wo Hin."
A man wearing a hardhat walked over to the pair and bowed deeply. "The third shipment is running ten minutes behind schedule."
The Chinese man turned to frown at him. "Then do something about it. We can't afford any screw ups today." He then turned towards his companion. "I think that Hisami will be impressed."
"If he hasn't decided he wants you dead already," responded Yoshida calmly. "Perhaps you'll be able to eat with me tonight. If not, I shall call a toast to your spirit with Hisami."
"What more can a man ask?" replied the Chinese man coolly as he turned to look at the docks.
The Japanese man slipped into the back of a parked limousine and closed the door. He sank into the leather and poured himself a glass of bourbon. "To those about to die." He downed it and motioned at his driver. "Go. This place stinks of death."
"Maybe it's just the fish market?" replied the man as he nodded outside the window.
"No. There is a darkness that comes here that even I would not tamper with."
+++++++++++++++++++++
Carrot stood outside the clinic with a frown on his face. He looked a little scratched up and had on a long black coat over his clothes. "Damn. Now where can I go to hide out?" He glanced around up and down the street. With a heavy sigh, he started down the sidewalk. It was still early yet, and he had several more hours to go before he had to meet with Michiru at her house.
Unfortunately, in his mind, that wasn't a good thing. He also had no idea where he was going to go now. Gia pretty much ruled out the clinic for a while, she was royally pissed.
So, he simply started walking down the street, looking at store windows and whatever else caught his eye. He avoided electronics stores, having remembered the fateful newscast that had lead to him fighting Goblin in the middle of a festival. He also stayed within the crowds, mingling into the crowds as best he could. Well, as well as a tall American boy in a big black coat can mix into a crowd of Japanese. "Great. I stick out like a sore thumb."
"Indeed you do, dark creature."
"Damn. I knew it." He slowly turned and found the tip of a spiked mace pointed at his face. The crowd was instantly absent from anywhere around him.
It was a large Chinese woman, a really large Chinese woman. "Damn. How the hell did I miss you coming?"
The woman's smirk fell slightly. "You dare mock me in such a position?"
"Lady, I don't even know who you are."
"You'll not fool me. You hide in the shadows and cling to the darkness like the demon you are!"
"Great, another insane woman. Just what I need," muttered Carrot under his breath. "Who the hell are you, and what do you want? Answer first, you can hit me with that thing later on."
"I am Mao Lin. Grandmaster of the holy fist, and High Priestess of the Temple of Light!"
"What?" grumbled Carrot as he stared at her. "Okay. What's that got to do with me?" He was watching the huge weapon very carefully despite his casual stance. He concentrated on the air around him, waiting for the familiar feeling. It did not disappoint.
The woman cried out angrily as she slammed the mace into the ground where he stood. He jumped back away from her and landed in a crouched position in front of her. "Great. I knew this was gonna happen! Who the hell else is gonna show up?"
Mao Lin hefted the weight out of the ground and shook the pavement out of the spikes calmly as she prepared her next attack. "I am all that is needed to destroy you!"
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that," commented Carrot as he ducked under a thrust and hooked his foot around her wrist, she was tossed aside as he twisted his body as he performed a handstand.
She landed on her shoulder and quickly moved to her feet just in time to see him turn to face her again. "You're fast."
"Whatever. Are you done yet? Can I go? I kinda got a date later, and I can't really go home to change..."
"You do not take me seriously?" snarled the woman angrily as she set her feet into the ground.
"I'm kind of wondering what the point of this is?" said Carrot as he stepped back slightly.
"I am honor bound to destroy any evil I find," replied the woman calmly. "I wasn't expecting to find such a vile spirit here, but since I have, I must follow through!" She jumped into the air and swung the massive weight down in a wide arc.
Carrot easily sidestepped the move and bounced towards the edge of the crowd. Those standing around him quickly moved away. "Yeah, frightened masses, thanks a lot!" he snapped at them.
The woman pushed off of her landing and aimed the mace at his head like a spear. He ducked back and was forced to close his eyes as a shower of dust and brick pieces fell onto his face from the impact of the weapon on the wall.
"Ptu! What the heck are you doing!? You tryin to blind me or something?"
"Why yes," was the simple reply.
Carrot felt the tingling again, but could not yet open his eyes. He quickly flipped into the air and landed just in time to duck and dodge another strike. "I gotta get out of here!" he muttered as he tried to force his badly watering eyes open. He could feel the force of the weapon passing over him as he dodged blindly, using only his spider sense to escape being plastered to the ground.
"He is skilled!" growled Mao Lin as she took a step back to catch her breath after the flurry of attacks.
Carrot was leaning against the wall again and rubbing at his eyes with his hand. He managed to keep one of them open at this point and was resting against the corner next to an alley. "You through yet?"
"Not even close," growled the woman irritably. She stood to her full height and started to mutter something under her breath.
"Hey...I've heard that bef..."
"Into the darkness, I banish thee!" cried the woman as she thrust her hand forward.
"Oh shit!" cried Carrot as a solid wave of burning air slammed into his body. He was tossed back into the ally and landed hard on his back.
"Heh. No one can withstand the power of my spirit!"
Carrot groaned painfully. "Shit. Oooh, that really sucked."
"What?!" gasped the woman as she hefted her mace in front of her again. "How can..."
The boy staggered to his feet and glared at her angrily. "What the hell are you doing lady!? Are you trying to kill someone?"
She had already started chanting again.
"Aw man, that's it, I'm out of here!" He jumped up and caught the bottom of a fire escape.
Mao Lin thrust her hand forward and screamed again. "Into th..." She paused as she realized that she'd done little more than shatter several bags of garbage. "What? He runs from me?"
She glanced around the area and the people who still remained didn't look like they were about to say much of anything. They all looked nervous and edgy.
"Damn. Another time then."
+++++++++++++++++++++
"Oh come on! It's just a date! Just relax, you'll have fun!" mimicked Carrot as he pulled his Spiderman shirt on over his chest. He was dressing on a rooftop near to where he'd fought the Chinese woman. "Sure, I'll have a great time, if I don't end up shot at the end of the night."
He pulled the mask over his face and shoved his clothes in a vent shaft. He'd decided to pick them up later, closer to when he had to meet Michiru. "If I'm not already dead that is."
He turned towards the edge of the rooftop and flicked his wrist. A line shot out and he pushed off the edge and into the air.
Unfortunately, he never noticed the movement behind him. The shaft he'd tossed his clothes into dented inward almost violently as something invisible moved through the air behind him. The shrieking of metal being torn in half also went unnoticed, as he was too far away by that point. His clothes seemed to toss themselves into the air as something pulled them out and slowly became visible.
"Spiderman..." hissed Venom as it narrowed its eyes at the slowly shrinking figure that swung away into the city. "Heh. What should we do? He seems...occupied..."
The thing looked contemplative for a moment and grinned at itself as it thought up an answer. "Yes, we'll just play with him...for now. Heh."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Kajura frowned as he stared at the docks. He had a pair of binoculars in his grip and didn't look very pleased with what he saw.
Saito was leaning against the hood of the car with a cigarette hanging from his lips. "See anything."
"Yeah. Wo Hin Shu was just talking to Hisami's number two man."
"Hmmm. What about?"
"Don't know, they had their backs to us the whole time."
"Think they know?"
"If there was anyone besides just the two of us here? Probably."
Saito shrugged his shoulders and shifted his coat. "I'm gonna sit in the car. You're the one who's so interested in this."
"He's not supposed to be here for a little while yet," said Kajura as he glanced away from his binoculars at his partner.
"I know. Still, I hope what you just saw wasn't the meeting we were waiting for."
"I doubt it," responded Kajura.
"See any security?" Saito tilted the seat back and turned the radio onto a low volume. He snorted in disgust as it immediately started playing a Hikari Negashi song. "Crap..." he switched the station and found a nice regional station. It was old stuff, but good for background noise.
"Just a few guards and dogs. I'm not storming that place on my own ya know. I'm calling for backup as soon as our man arrives."
"Good. I don't want you getting any crazy ideas," snorted Saito. "I don't want to end up dying with you because you get all hot under the collar about revenge."
"I'll remember that," replied Kajura calmly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Saito as he sat up suddenly.
"Well, if I go nuts, and decide that storming that place on my own is the only way to do this, I'll do it myself."
"Jeez, don't be such an asshole."
Kajura merely smirked and lowered the binoculars as he lit a cigarette of his own. "You make it too easy sometimes."
"I got some Miso soup. Want a cup?" asked Saito as he pulled a thermos out of the back seat of the small cruiser.
"Why not? It's a little chilly," replied Kajura as he put the binoculars on the hood. "I doubt we'll miss anything. That schedule of his has been dead on so far. Number two spent his allotted time just as planned."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Hisami frowned as he glared out across the city from his window.
His secretary strolled into the room wearing a low cut skirt. She was a pretty woman in her mid twenties, her hair was tied back and a pair of glasses rested on her nose. "Sir, it's time for your appointment to start."
He nodded slowly and lifted his considerable girth from the chair. "Yes, I know. Have all the preparations been made?"
"Yes. Your security is already securing the route as we speak."
"Excellent. Have Kei meet me in the lobby."
"Yes sir," replied the woman. She had no idea who 'Kei' was, she'd never seen her. The man walked by her without giving a second glance and she picked up her phone and pressed the red button near the bottom. "Have Kei meet with Mr. Hisami in the lobby."
++++++++++++++++++++++
"Kei, meet Hisami in the garage. You will ride with him," the old man hung up the phone and turned to look at the girl sitting across from him.
"He'd better behave himself," responded the girl as she stood up and wrapped a long red scarf around her neck. She was wearing her leather bodysuit again and adjusted the bracers on her arms as she walked towards the door.
"She's forgetting her place," said the old man as he frowned at the door after it closed.
"Perhaps," said Hakage as he appeared beside the old man from the shadows. "I do not think it will be a problem. She has her own reasons for the way she acts now."
"You know of them?" asked the old man calmly.
"Maybe I do."
"I shall accompany Hisami in his car. I had planned to ride in the front, while Kei sat with him as a personal guard."
"That would not be wise," agreed Hakage.
"Kei grows dangerously independent."
"No, she merely prepares for what is to come. I think she will fall back in line once she defeats that boy."
"If she defeats him," corrected the old man.
"If she does not, I do not think that there will be much of a problem."
The old man snorted at this and shook his head. "There is little I can do about it now. I will speak with her when we return."
"Yes, you do that," replied Hakage as he turned away.
"I'll see you when we get there. Do not forget your orders Hakage."
"I have not," replied the large ninja calmly. "Hikyu?"
"We cannot rely on him."
"Understood."
"I know you once trusted your brother Hakage, do not be fooled by what he has become. Hikyu has his own agenda now."
+++++++++++++++++++
"What are you doing here?" snarled Hisami as he glared at the thing in front of him angrily. "You're supposed to be with Hakage."
"I was told I would be accompanying you."
"That was when you were still one of my shinobi," replied the old man with a disgusted snort.
"I was not told otherwise. I will guard your position from the air."
"You are too conspicuous. You'll accompany us on the ground as planed. You'll ride with Hakage in the back."
"I said I would be guarding your position. I never said anything about coming along."
Kei ignored him as she walked by Hisami and opened the front passenger door. She paused to glance at the old man and simply took her seat next to the driver.
Her grandfather strolled up to the man and monster and looked between them. "What do you mean?"
Hisami's face was flushed with anger as he glared at the thing in front of him.
"I will go into the city and have a little fun. The police will be so occupied with me, they won't have a single unit to spare. You could walk into the bank and take whatever you wanted by the time I'm through."
"If he does this, he will be away from us," said the old man as he looked up at Hisami. "I've already told you how much I trust him. I will not be held responsible for him any longer."
"Very well. Go and get yourself killed if you want. I won't have anything to do with the matter any longer."
Hikyu merely grinned at him ghoulishly. "As you say."
Hisami plopped himself into the rear of his vehicle and it rolled away. There were several other vehicles as well, mostly containing bodyguards.
"I wonder why they ever thought you might even be slightly useful sometimes," commented Hikyu as he turned back towards the building. The elevator opened up in front of him and he simply stared inside as the wings flapped their way out. "Still, this should be fun if nothing else!" With an insane sounding laughter, he shot forward zooming between cars as he sailed out of the exit and into the Tokyo sky.
++++++++++++++++++++
"Usagi?" Mrs. Tsukino frowned as she poked her head into her daughter's room. She opened the door and walked all the way in while glancing around. "How odd. She should be home from school by now."
Her daughter had been staying out late after school recently. She was always home by dinner, and it wasn't quite time for that yet though. Still, it was rather unusual for the girl. "I guess she just has a lot to talk about with her friends since she got her voice back. It seemed like it was gone for so long." She smiled to herself as she walked out of the room and moved on to the chores that still needed to be done.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Ami Mizuno sat with Minako, Makoto, and Rei Hino. They were all at the arcade, and sat around a table with Artemis hidden away.
"It's nice to see us all together again," said Rei with a forced looking smile.
"Well, it's still not all of us," commented Minako.
"There's nothing we can do about that now," snapped Artemis a little sharply.
The girls went silent, each feeling badly about bringing such a hard subject up for him. Luna was still gone, and he seemed to be getting shorter in temper.
"So what can we do now? If we get seen as the senshi again, we're all grounded."
"Maybe a costume change?" offered Makoto.
"Are you dense? Do you really think our parents won't figure it out? It might work once or twice..."
Minako grinned cheerfully. "Besides, maybe the world doesn't need the Senshi anymore? I mean look at this." She held up a paper with Spiderman on the front page.
"He's not from around here though, and we have no idea if he's going to stick around much longer or not," said Ami as she hung her head and sighed. "He might just be here on a temporary passport. Most likely he is."
"Well, there's been rumors of something else in Kyoto. There was some sort of sighting at a concert or something."
"Probably just an add for some sentai show," grumbled Rei. "We can't back down. We have to assume that no one else is going to help us."
"What can we do? I don't want to get grounded again," whimpered Minako.
"Everything is falling apart," muttered Artemis. "I don't know what I can do to help either."
"It's not like we can beat our parents up and make them let us go," grumbled Ami as she glanced at the animal for a moment. "This isn't an easy problem. We're just going to have to find some way to explain it to them. There's no one else that can do it."
"That won't be easy with him plastered across the front page," muttered Rei as she stared at Spiderman's photo. She seemed to space out for a moment, but quickly shook it off.
"What's with you?" asked Minako.
"It's nothing, just a weird vision I had recently," replied the girl softly. It was obvious she didn't want to talk about it. She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut to block out the sight of those horrible eyes in her mind. They had stared back at her, full of nothing but death and emptiness.
"Well, we've got to do something," grumbled Makoto. "I can't stand just sitting here like this."
+++++++++++++++++
It knelt in a puddle of blood. Hacked remains of human bodies littered the ground.
There was darkness all around it; the light that hung in the center of the room was covered in red, giving the room. It looked human, but there was no hair on the thing's body as it kneeled in the corner, casually making circles in the pool of blood at its feet with its clawed finger.
It seemed almost contemplative in the bodies of the men that surrounded it. They were all scum, yakuza men. It didn't really care who they were. An upended table with cards scattered around the floor was in the middle of four upturned chairs. Bullet shells littered the ground around the floor.
"Heh. This isn't enough...I need more..."
It stood up slowly facing the wall.
"More death...more..."
It raised its hand behind its back and pointed at the light that hung from the middle of the ceiling.
"...Carnage."
The light exploded, leaving only darkness behind.
"Soon..."
It walked over to the table and picked up a newspaper. On the cover was Spiderman swinging through the air between two buildings. "Wait till they get a load of me." It reared its head back and laughed.
+++++++++++++++++++++
^_^
^_^
Guess what?
TBC...
Next Time: Carrot thought he had it bad before?
Part 23
The start of the worst day yet.
++++++++++++
Haruka cracked her knuckles as she glared at the two men standing before her. "Well, it has been a while hasn't it boys?" She was floating above the stage calmly as the crowd roared with excitement behind her. She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced back at the monsters that were quickly moving down the stairs towards the field and stage.
"Kill her!" screamed Kunzite as he pulled Zoicite by his arm and away from her.
The things jumped into the air in unison towards her, five of them at once. Each roared as it extended its claws and teeth outward.
Haruka's body became a blur of motion and the beasts were tossed aside almost casually. "You know better than that. You two fools seem to have enough memory to realize what I've done. You can't win."
"Damn her," growled Kunzite angrily.
Zoicite raised his palm and shot a ball of power towards the girl as he moved behind the idol singer's hanging body.
The girl kicked her feet and squealed in fear. "Don't just sit there! Get me down!"
Haruka raised her palm and swatted the energy ball into the air. It shot into the night sky above them and exploded in a spectacular flash of light. "There's no chance for you to win." The monsters were recovering and backed away in a loose circle around her.
"Didn't you hear us fools? Destroy her!" snapped Zoicite.
One of the monsters reluctantly stepped forward.
Haruka turned into a blur of motion and appeared directly in front of the thing with her hand raised in a backhanded strike. The creature sailed into the wall and hit the concrete just below the stands with enough force to shatter the area in front of the seats. It roared a final time and vanished in a flash of light. The woman had a deep frown on her face as she vanished again and appeared above two more of the things that were standing together, she pushed their heads into the dirt and they also vanished with pained death screams.
Haruka slowly rose to her feet from her knees after the maneuver and glared at the two men. "Come on, stop playing around and fight. At least die like men."
Zoicite looked worried, while Kunzite merely smirked. He turned towards the remaining pair. "Kill as many people as you can before you die."
The things roared as they turned towards the crowd and jumped into the air.
Haruka's eyes went wide as she saw this happening. "No!"
Both men backed away slowly into the shadows of the stage as she vanished from in front of them.
The things never reached the ground; Haruka's fists and pure speed stopped them both in the air. They were no more than ten feet apart from each other when they jumped and she simply punched them both out of the air and towards the ceiling. One of them slammed into the cracked surface of the wall at the top of the stadium, sending another pile of debris into the field, while the other simply dug a deep gouge into the dirt.
The one who had hit the ground survived, it had what appeared to be a turtle shell on its back, and a reptilian appearance. Haruka merely frowned at the thing and stared at it. "So, you're a little tougher than your friends?"
The thing grunted as it moved to its feet, mindlessly staggering back towards the crowd to follow its last orders.
Haruka merely raised her palm and frowned. "Walk this off." A ball of purple energy formed in her hand and she screamed as it blasted forward and slammed into the thing's back. The creature roared angrily as it was vaporized in a small explosion.
There was a silence in the stadium as the girl simply floated above them for a moment and looked around. She shook her head and gasped as she looked down at the ground. "I can...fly? What happened to me?"
The crowd in the stadium cheered as she floated back towards the stage. She stood for a moment looking around at the people; they seemed to think this was a part of the show. She couldn't even remember where her date was sitting, and she certainly wasn't going to try and find her like she was. She hung her head and sighed. "Oh well."
"Hey! Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me!?" screamed Hikari from where she hung. She was wiggling violently against the microphone chord and looked a little upset.
Haruka floated up to her and grabbed her around the waist. "Sorry, just a second."
The girl looked up at her dumbly. "Hey...did Kato hire you?"
"Hire me?" said Haruka as she floated up into the rafters and began to work at the knot that held the girl. She was using one hand to untie it and floated back to the ground to set the girl on her feet after she had finished. She simply walked behind the girl and started to untie the chord from her back.
Once Hikari was free she turned to look at the woman in front of her. "That was so cool!"
Haruka realized that the crowd was still cheering and that Hikari had her hands clasped rather tightly. "Uh, thanks?"
The backup singers slowly began to move back towards the stage along with some of the crew as they began to peek around from their hiding places back stage. Two young girls rushed up to the pair as they stood together in the middle of the stage.
"Wow!" cried one of them.
"She's right! That was awesome!" agreed the other.
Haruka frowned slightly as she realized that she was becoming surrounded. "I have to go."
"What? You just got here!" cried Hikari as she grabbed her arm. "Tell me what they paid you! I'll double it!"
"Sorry," replied Haruka softly as she shook her arm loose with surprising ease and floated up into the air. "I've got places to be." She raised her arm into a fist over her head and tucked her free arm at her side as she rose into the air and into the sky. "Bye."
"Wait! Who are you?" called Hikari into the air after her.
Haruka glanced back at her for a moment. "Uranus." She shot into the sky and vanished into the night.
Hikari pouted cutely as she glared at the ground in frustration. "Dang. She was a babe too."
Her two backup singers looked at each other nervously. "Not as cute as us though, right?"
"What are you kidding?" asked the girl as she stared at them for a moment.
The pair burst into tears. Fortunately for Hikari's image, the crowd's cheer was far to loud for the conversation to be heard.
"Aw, man," grumbled the girl as she sighed and tossed the remains of the dead microphone onto the stage. "I guess we should go back to the hotel then. Not much we can do to top that."
The two girls pepped up immediately. "Yay! Room service!"
Hikari merely looked up at the sky for a moment and sighed. "Oh well...maybe I can contact her agent or something?"
++++++++++++++++++++
In the shadows above the crowd, hidden in the shadows of one of the exits, a tall figure stood watching the scene. It was a woman, with a long staff in her hand. She merely stood silently as she watched the scene unfold before her.
Finally, after the young idol singer walked off the stage she spoke softly. "Uranus...do you know what have you done?"
+++++++++++++++++++
Haruka stood on the edge of a tall rooftop, dark brown tiles tilted away from her in every direction as she overlooked the city before her. "Now what?" she muttered as she stared at her hands for a long moment.
"Maybe back to Tokyo now?" she mused silently as she clenched her fist. "There's something going on here though..."
She sighed and shook her head, willing the power away from her body. She stood for a long moment as the energy burned around her. The costume remained as it was.
She looked down at herself and paused for a moment. There was no thought for a long moment, and finally she realized what was wrong. "I can't change back?"
"No, you cannot."
Haruka turned around with her fists raised as she faced the voice. "Who?"
"An ally," replied the woman who was cloaked in a long brown cape and hood. "One that you are not yet ready to meet."
Haruka's face contorted as her mind struggled for a moment. "Pluto?"
The woman's lips turned slightly, but Haruka could still not see her face. "Yes."
"But...how? I was..."
"Alone?" asked the woman calmly. Her light smirk never faded away. "No, you were not. The others were merely sleeping still..."
"But..."
"Now, you must fight alone. Final protocol is only to be used after the Queen's death, and only when a single of our number remains alive. Fortunately for you, the Queen has been dead for some time, and the reawakening of the others has not yet occurred. You hold the power of three of the most powerful senate."
"You mean..." stammered Haruka as she fell to her knees.
"I am afraid so, the power will remain with you until your eventual death. Although, no one is quite sure how long that will be. It could be in a few years, the energies eating away at your very being, or it could be an eternity, the sheer power within you will not allow you to die."
The girl stared forward with her jaw clenched tight. "No..."
"You have chosen your own path, and now you must face it."
"Why didn't you stop me? Why didn't you say something?!" snarled the angry Haruka as she jumped to her feet and pointed at the woman before her.
"Because, I have not yet awakened. I am the senshi of time, not its master. It is my task to guard the gates, and keep others from using its power. Only the queen herself may command me to meddle in the affairs of the past, and always against my own strictest warnings to do so."
"Queen? There's no..." Haruka's eyes went wide as she stepped away from her. "You're not..."
Pluto's smirk grew ever so slightly. "Are you surprised?"
"I suppose I shouldn't be," grumbled Haruka as she sighed and hung her head.
When she looked up, the woman was gone once again.
"Damn." She sighed and looked down at herself for a moment. The dress would come off, so it wasn't like she was stuck in the costume. She decided to return back to her hotel room for now, a good night's sleep would have to do for now. She had a lot of thinking to do anyway.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Carrot sat up and tossed his sheets off of his body. He was sleeping in a small cot, in one of the extra rooms in the clinic. Gia and Mei Lin shared the main bedroom of course, leaving him with a room designed for patients who had to stay overnight. Gia never really used it, and it was used more for emergencies than anything else. Most patients that bad were sent to a hospital. To him, it was a safe place to pass out, for the most part.
"Ouch," he grumbled as he shielded his eyes from the sunlight outside. He stood up and closed the curtain before he slipped on a pair of pants and slippers. He staggered out of the room with his eyes half shut and frowned at the trio that sat before him at the table. "Hi."
"Good morning!" said Mei Lin cheerfully.
"You certainly seem cheerful," agreed Gia.
Luna stared at him for a moment and turned to look at her. "No he doesn't."
"It's a figure of speech," replied Gia with a small sigh.
"You remember anything yet?" asked Carrot as he sat down in front of the animal and shoved her aside in favor of the cup of coffee he'd just poured himself.
"No," said Luna irritably. "Why would I want too?"
Carrot ignored this and simply stared forward.
"I've got to get to work soon. Mr. Yamada hasn't been there in like two days, so I'm swamped. He says he's following up on that murder story of his."
"Murder?" asked Gia as she turned to face the young Chinese girl.
"Yeah, real scary stuff. People are getting cut to pieces, so far there's only been two attacks. It's on the other side of town though." She nodded her head seriously as she spoke. "The police say they've got leads though, and that he'll be caught soon."
"Wonder how long that'll last?" grumbled Carrot irritably.
"A serial killer in Japan? That seems like something we'd have heard about by now," commented Gia.
"Yeah right. The government probably doesn't think broadcasting something like that is a good idea," commented Carrot. He veered away from the conversation when Gia gave him a rather dirty look. "Yamada? That's the guy they stuck you with isn't it?"
"Yeah, he seems upset. You keep getting the front page instead of his murder story. He thinks it's much more important. The boss says the story is too bad for us to run like that."
"Yamada is probably right," replied Carrot as he sipped at his coffee lazily. "Still, this country has a way of sweeping really nasty things under the rug."
"Hey! I work hard to get those pictures of you!" snapped the girl.
"Whatever," grumbled the boy as he stood up and walked towards the shower.
"That's a good idea," said Gia. "After all, you've got a date tonight."
Carrot froze where he was standing and slowly turned to look at her. "Um? Today is Friday?"
Gia smiled cheerfully and nodded.
The boy smiled at her nervously and walked into the bathroom. "Excuse me."
+++++++++++++++++++
Four hours later...
"Carrot! Carrot! Come out of there!" snapped Gia as she pounded on the door.
"I don't wanna!" cried a weak sounding voice from inside the bathroom.
"He's been in there all morning!" growled Gia as she turned to look at Spike.
"Gee, I never thunk he'd be dis shy," said the man as he stared at the door.
"I've tried the lock, I've tried forcing it open, he's got it barricaded with something."
Spike scratched his head and sighed. "I dunno. I guess I can break it down for ya."
"I'll kick your ass if you do!" cried Carrot from inside. "I ain't goin out today! I'm stayin in here!"
"You jerk! I have to go to the bathroom!" growled Gia as she pounded on the door.
"So go across the street! They've got toilets there!"
"You little son of a bitch!"
Spike started to back away from the scene, but Gia whirled around and grabbed him by his ear. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"Uh, I was jus..."
"I'm staying here!" cried Carrot from inside the bathroom.
"Stop being such a wuss all you have to do is go to dinner or something!" cried Gia.
The door cracked every so slightly and Gia gasped as she saw Carrot stick his head out of the bathroom. "You think this is going to be that simple?"
She stared at him, he actually looked terrified. "Who cares about Michiru!? She's the least of my worries. I've got a date tonight and I'm a superhero. Every asshole I've ever pissed off will probably run into me tonight, I probably won't even make it to her house!"
Gia stared at him for a moment as he popped his head into the door again and closed it. "Did he just call himself a superhero?"
Spike nodded slowly. "I tink."
The woman's frustrated frown grew stronger and stronger. "What the hell is wrong with..."
Carrot slipped his hand back inside the door as Gia was silenced by a warm sticky fluid that covered her mouth.
The woman growled in rage and stared at the door as she rolled up her sleeves. She turned to look at Spike and pointed at the door.
The man hung his head and turned to face it. "Sorry bout dis kid."
"Aw man..." grumbled Carrot from the other side. He was thrown against the ground with the door slammed on top of him as Spike barreled into the room with his shoulder held low. The large man stumbled on top of the door, flattening the boy further.
Carrot blinked as he shifted around under the door, flailing his arms helplessly. "Get off you big oaf!" He froze and slowly turned his head as his extra senses picked up danger suddenly. "Uh oh."
Gia was standing over him glaring down with her heel tapping against the floor. She didn't look happy, and couldn't speak to him. It was the one good thing about his position at the moment.
+++++++++++++++
Hikari Negashi sat in her hotel room with a frown on her face. She was wearing a bathrobe and had a towel tied around her head. The room was huge, and she was reading over a newspaper. She hadn't gotten the front page, but there was an entertainment section, and she'd made the cover of that.
The two backup singers sat nearby in two other chairs that sat around the small coffee table. They each had their own copy of the paper, although Hikari doubted they actually read anything more than headlines.
"There's some really weird stuff going on in Tokyo," commented one of them.
"Yeah. Look at this guy," agreed the other as she held a large photo of Spiderman up to Hikari's face.
The girl frowned at it. "You're supposed to be looking for reviews of last night's concert."
"Well, I couldn't help but notice. I mean, he's got a really tight butt."
Hikari snorted in disgust at the picture. "What would I care about that."
"Well, I guess I can understand it, even if I don't agree with her," replied the other girl cheerfully.
Hikari ignored her and frowned at the page in front of her. "Super woman shows up for Hikari concert. Great stage production...What?" She slammed the page down on the table, sending the pair flailing back fearfully. "What's this?" said Hikari as she smirked at the page in front of her. It was the second page of the entertainment section. A young blonde girl's photo was shown on the page. "A quote from the article," announced Hikari. "He seemed like a nice guy, and he took me to the show. I had no idea that she was a part of the show. Her disguise was quite convincing too..."
"Um?"
"What?"
"Seems our super woman brought a date to the show with her..." said Hikari as she held up the paper.
"Hey, she's kinda cute..." responded the first girl.
"Yeah, that super chick has good taste," agreed the other.
Hikari merely chuckled at this as she tossed the page aside. "A woman like that...is the only thing that can satisfy me."
"Aw man," grumbled the first girl.
"This again? Jeez Hikari, you make us feel so unloved sometimes."
"Can it. I know the both of you sleep around on me regularly."
"You're mean!" whined the pair in unison.
Hikari stood up and started to untie her robe as she walked towards the bathroom. "Sometimes I wonder why I put up with all this cuteness crap all the time." She paused and glanced around the room. With a heavy sigh she opened the bathroom door and walked inside. "Oh right. The money, gotta remember the money."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Zoicite and Kunzite writhed on the ground in agony, dark power surged through their bodies as Beryl watched from in front of her crystal. Her face was contorted into a mask of rage and she raised her hand again, sending yet another ball of dark power into the pair. "Fools! Imbeciles! I should destroy you both, and I would if I didn't need you so badly now!"
"Forgive..." started Zoicite.
"There will be no forgiveness this time fool! Do you realize what your bungling has unleashed upon us?!" She put up both her hands and the two men on the ground screamed as the pain that coursed through their bodies intensified. "An Outer Senshi that has invoked the final protocol? You should have retreated the moment she arrived! Do you realize how strong the outer senshi are?"
"We..." started Zoicite.
"Find the others, destroy them! If we kill her now, the other unawakened Senshi will return at full power, rather than the weakened form you fought before she called fourth all that power! Now we must destroy them, before we deal with her."
The two men could not move from where they were sprawled across the ground.
"Once you two recover, you're going back to Tokyo. Once there, you will seek out and kill the remaining Outer Senshi. Those brats will probably try to stop you if they find out, so make sure they do not. You will also bring me the Silver Imperium Crystal, once we have it, we can awaken Metallia, and then not even the Final Protocol will be able to save them."
Zoicite staggered to his knees finally, and Kuzite quickly followed. "What of Uranus? We cannot ignore her."
"Find ways to keep her busy. If you fight her now, you will be destroyed."
The pair growled under their breath as they bowed their heads.
"Have you killed that boy yet?"
"You know we haven't," responded Kunzite quietly.
"Once you recover, see that you do," responded Beryl as she raised her hands and formed the dark energy in her palms once again.
++++++++++++++++++++
"He has left us in quite a bind."
Hakage turned and frowned at Kei as she walked up beside him. "What do you mean?" They were standing in Hisami's office. Both of them looking at the blade that hung from the wall quietly.
"The old man..." replied Kei calmly as she looked up at the sword.
"What of him?" snorted the larger man as he turned away.
"Don't play stupid with me. You've been staring at that wall for two hours now, you've never given it a second glance before now."
"It has a rich history, even I can become nostalgic from time to time."
"That blade is our darkest curse."
"No, the one you wield is your darkest curse. This sword, is a symbol of power."
"Power," snorted Kei through a rough laugh. She reached for the blade slowly. An angry energy crackled, brushing the tips of her fingers lightly as she held them back just out of range. She could feel the tingling sting on the skin of her hand and closed her eyes. "It is a useless power."
"You know that it will destroy us one day."
"Or bring us into a new age? That is the legend, is it not? Will we fade into shadows, destroyed by the darkness, or will we simply continue on forever?"
Hakage pulled her hand down, tired of watching her burn her skin needlessly. "Nothing lasts forever young Kei. This blade could mean our end, or it could simply be a new rebirth, until our true end comes to pass."
The girl snorted and turned away. "Since when are you so philosophical?"
"Times call for such things."
"Meaningless."
"Perhaps. Yet you come to look at this blade at times as well."
Kei didn't argue, but slowly pulled the knife from her side. "I too deal with my own curse. You know that."
"Kill the ones you love, or die in agony?" responded Hakage.
"Don't mock me," replied Kei.
"The sword belongs to him. It has chosen its master."
Kei simply stood with her back to him, her face hidden in shadows. "Perhaps it has. I've seen nothing that proves this."
"You and I are all that remains to carry on the name of our clan. Is that not enough?"
"It doesn't matter. I will kill him, or I will die. The fate of our clan rest with you, should I fail."
"You will be destroyed, he is far stronger than he was before."
"So am I."
"Hikyu is insane, a shadow of his former self, but you...you continue, despite what the Grandmaster has told us. Why?"
Kei did not move from where she was standing. "You know why."
"Do I?" asked Hakage stonily as he continued to look at the blade.
Kei looked at her knife and slid it back into place slowly. "Yes. I too have a curse to deal with. My own heart has betrayed me."
"You love him?" Hakage did not sound surprised, or really very interested in the answer. When he turned his head to look, Kei was gone.
He merely turned to stare at the sword again in silence.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Wo Hin Shu stood calmly on the docks overlooking the massive shipping interest of Tokyo. He was dressed in an expensive dark blue silk suit and had a cellular phone held up to his ear as he walked. He was a Chinese man in his early thirties, he had a long braid of solid black hair hanging down his back. "He's coming."
"So?" asked the well-dressed man who stood beside him. He had on a brown suit and tie of his own. He was a Japanese man who was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes.
"We need to be ready for his arrival. Our operation has been noticed."
"A fight?" asked the other man calmly as he walked beside the Chinese man.
"Possibly. He'll be diplomatic at first. He's far too old and weak to risk otherwise. He'll also be well protected."
"I've heard stories of his elite guards. They say he has a clan of shinobi protecting him."
"You of all people should know the truth behind that."
"If I do, what makes you think I can just tell you?" responded the man calmly.
Wo Hin smiled lightly. "Perhaps it is a good day to die then?"
"Perhaps, but I have no desire to cut my life short needlessly. I'll be going shortly. I've got business of my own to deal with today."
"Hisami is a businessman, if our operation is tight enough, he will turn a blind eye towards us."
"If he feels you are not moving against him, perhaps. This is a dangerous trade. It is a bit more than the police are willing to overlook."
The Chinese man frowned at the man beside him. "I am aware of that, dealing with the Yakuza is not much different than my own Triad roots. There are strange things going on in Japan lately, I feel a great disturbance in the mystic energies of this place. I am simply making a profit off of the uneasy feelings of the citizens. I make them feel safer."
"I think that kind of thinking might be a mistake," responded the Japanese man calmly. "Do not underestimate the damage you are causing Wo Hin."
A man wearing a hardhat walked over to the pair and bowed deeply. "The third shipment is running ten minutes behind schedule."
The Chinese man turned to frown at him. "Then do something about it. We can't afford any screw ups today." He then turned towards his companion. "I think that Hisami will be impressed."
"If he hasn't decided he wants you dead already," responded Yoshida calmly. "Perhaps you'll be able to eat with me tonight. If not, I shall call a toast to your spirit with Hisami."
"What more can a man ask?" replied the Chinese man coolly as he turned to look at the docks.
The Japanese man slipped into the back of a parked limousine and closed the door. He sank into the leather and poured himself a glass of bourbon. "To those about to die." He downed it and motioned at his driver. "Go. This place stinks of death."
"Maybe it's just the fish market?" replied the man as he nodded outside the window.
"No. There is a darkness that comes here that even I would not tamper with."
+++++++++++++++++++++
Carrot stood outside the clinic with a frown on his face. He looked a little scratched up and had on a long black coat over his clothes. "Damn. Now where can I go to hide out?" He glanced around up and down the street. With a heavy sigh, he started down the sidewalk. It was still early yet, and he had several more hours to go before he had to meet with Michiru at her house.
Unfortunately, in his mind, that wasn't a good thing. He also had no idea where he was going to go now. Gia pretty much ruled out the clinic for a while, she was royally pissed.
So, he simply started walking down the street, looking at store windows and whatever else caught his eye. He avoided electronics stores, having remembered the fateful newscast that had lead to him fighting Goblin in the middle of a festival. He also stayed within the crowds, mingling into the crowds as best he could. Well, as well as a tall American boy in a big black coat can mix into a crowd of Japanese. "Great. I stick out like a sore thumb."
"Indeed you do, dark creature."
"Damn. I knew it." He slowly turned and found the tip of a spiked mace pointed at his face. The crowd was instantly absent from anywhere around him.
It was a large Chinese woman, a really large Chinese woman. "Damn. How the hell did I miss you coming?"
The woman's smirk fell slightly. "You dare mock me in such a position?"
"Lady, I don't even know who you are."
"You'll not fool me. You hide in the shadows and cling to the darkness like the demon you are!"
"Great, another insane woman. Just what I need," muttered Carrot under his breath. "Who the hell are you, and what do you want? Answer first, you can hit me with that thing later on."
"I am Mao Lin. Grandmaster of the holy fist, and High Priestess of the Temple of Light!"
"What?" grumbled Carrot as he stared at her. "Okay. What's that got to do with me?" He was watching the huge weapon very carefully despite his casual stance. He concentrated on the air around him, waiting for the familiar feeling. It did not disappoint.
The woman cried out angrily as she slammed the mace into the ground where he stood. He jumped back away from her and landed in a crouched position in front of her. "Great. I knew this was gonna happen! Who the hell else is gonna show up?"
Mao Lin hefted the weight out of the ground and shook the pavement out of the spikes calmly as she prepared her next attack. "I am all that is needed to destroy you!"
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that," commented Carrot as he ducked under a thrust and hooked his foot around her wrist, she was tossed aside as he twisted his body as he performed a handstand.
She landed on her shoulder and quickly moved to her feet just in time to see him turn to face her again. "You're fast."
"Whatever. Are you done yet? Can I go? I kinda got a date later, and I can't really go home to change..."
"You do not take me seriously?" snarled the woman angrily as she set her feet into the ground.
"I'm kind of wondering what the point of this is?" said Carrot as he stepped back slightly.
"I am honor bound to destroy any evil I find," replied the woman calmly. "I wasn't expecting to find such a vile spirit here, but since I have, I must follow through!" She jumped into the air and swung the massive weight down in a wide arc.
Carrot easily sidestepped the move and bounced towards the edge of the crowd. Those standing around him quickly moved away. "Yeah, frightened masses, thanks a lot!" he snapped at them.
The woman pushed off of her landing and aimed the mace at his head like a spear. He ducked back and was forced to close his eyes as a shower of dust and brick pieces fell onto his face from the impact of the weapon on the wall.
"Ptu! What the heck are you doing!? You tryin to blind me or something?"
"Why yes," was the simple reply.
Carrot felt the tingling again, but could not yet open his eyes. He quickly flipped into the air and landed just in time to duck and dodge another strike. "I gotta get out of here!" he muttered as he tried to force his badly watering eyes open. He could feel the force of the weapon passing over him as he dodged blindly, using only his spider sense to escape being plastered to the ground.
"He is skilled!" growled Mao Lin as she took a step back to catch her breath after the flurry of attacks.
Carrot was leaning against the wall again and rubbing at his eyes with his hand. He managed to keep one of them open at this point and was resting against the corner next to an alley. "You through yet?"
"Not even close," growled the woman irritably. She stood to her full height and started to mutter something under her breath.
"Hey...I've heard that bef..."
"Into the darkness, I banish thee!" cried the woman as she thrust her hand forward.
"Oh shit!" cried Carrot as a solid wave of burning air slammed into his body. He was tossed back into the ally and landed hard on his back.
"Heh. No one can withstand the power of my spirit!"
Carrot groaned painfully. "Shit. Oooh, that really sucked."
"What?!" gasped the woman as she hefted her mace in front of her again. "How can..."
The boy staggered to his feet and glared at her angrily. "What the hell are you doing lady!? Are you trying to kill someone?"
She had already started chanting again.
"Aw man, that's it, I'm out of here!" He jumped up and caught the bottom of a fire escape.
Mao Lin thrust her hand forward and screamed again. "Into th..." She paused as she realized that she'd done little more than shatter several bags of garbage. "What? He runs from me?"
She glanced around the area and the people who still remained didn't look like they were about to say much of anything. They all looked nervous and edgy.
"Damn. Another time then."
+++++++++++++++++++++
"Oh come on! It's just a date! Just relax, you'll have fun!" mimicked Carrot as he pulled his Spiderman shirt on over his chest. He was dressing on a rooftop near to where he'd fought the Chinese woman. "Sure, I'll have a great time, if I don't end up shot at the end of the night."
He pulled the mask over his face and shoved his clothes in a vent shaft. He'd decided to pick them up later, closer to when he had to meet Michiru. "If I'm not already dead that is."
He turned towards the edge of the rooftop and flicked his wrist. A line shot out and he pushed off the edge and into the air.
Unfortunately, he never noticed the movement behind him. The shaft he'd tossed his clothes into dented inward almost violently as something invisible moved through the air behind him. The shrieking of metal being torn in half also went unnoticed, as he was too far away by that point. His clothes seemed to toss themselves into the air as something pulled them out and slowly became visible.
"Spiderman..." hissed Venom as it narrowed its eyes at the slowly shrinking figure that swung away into the city. "Heh. What should we do? He seems...occupied..."
The thing looked contemplative for a moment and grinned at itself as it thought up an answer. "Yes, we'll just play with him...for now. Heh."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Kajura frowned as he stared at the docks. He had a pair of binoculars in his grip and didn't look very pleased with what he saw.
Saito was leaning against the hood of the car with a cigarette hanging from his lips. "See anything."
"Yeah. Wo Hin Shu was just talking to Hisami's number two man."
"Hmmm. What about?"
"Don't know, they had their backs to us the whole time."
"Think they know?"
"If there was anyone besides just the two of us here? Probably."
Saito shrugged his shoulders and shifted his coat. "I'm gonna sit in the car. You're the one who's so interested in this."
"He's not supposed to be here for a little while yet," said Kajura as he glanced away from his binoculars at his partner.
"I know. Still, I hope what you just saw wasn't the meeting we were waiting for."
"I doubt it," responded Kajura.
"See any security?" Saito tilted the seat back and turned the radio onto a low volume. He snorted in disgust as it immediately started playing a Hikari Negashi song. "Crap..." he switched the station and found a nice regional station. It was old stuff, but good for background noise.
"Just a few guards and dogs. I'm not storming that place on my own ya know. I'm calling for backup as soon as our man arrives."
"Good. I don't want you getting any crazy ideas," snorted Saito. "I don't want to end up dying with you because you get all hot under the collar about revenge."
"I'll remember that," replied Kajura calmly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Saito as he sat up suddenly.
"Well, if I go nuts, and decide that storming that place on my own is the only way to do this, I'll do it myself."
"Jeez, don't be such an asshole."
Kajura merely smirked and lowered the binoculars as he lit a cigarette of his own. "You make it too easy sometimes."
"I got some Miso soup. Want a cup?" asked Saito as he pulled a thermos out of the back seat of the small cruiser.
"Why not? It's a little chilly," replied Kajura as he put the binoculars on the hood. "I doubt we'll miss anything. That schedule of his has been dead on so far. Number two spent his allotted time just as planned."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Hisami frowned as he glared out across the city from his window.
His secretary strolled into the room wearing a low cut skirt. She was a pretty woman in her mid twenties, her hair was tied back and a pair of glasses rested on her nose. "Sir, it's time for your appointment to start."
He nodded slowly and lifted his considerable girth from the chair. "Yes, I know. Have all the preparations been made?"
"Yes. Your security is already securing the route as we speak."
"Excellent. Have Kei meet me in the lobby."
"Yes sir," replied the woman. She had no idea who 'Kei' was, she'd never seen her. The man walked by her without giving a second glance and she picked up her phone and pressed the red button near the bottom. "Have Kei meet with Mr. Hisami in the lobby."
++++++++++++++++++++++
"Kei, meet Hisami in the garage. You will ride with him," the old man hung up the phone and turned to look at the girl sitting across from him.
"He'd better behave himself," responded the girl as she stood up and wrapped a long red scarf around her neck. She was wearing her leather bodysuit again and adjusted the bracers on her arms as she walked towards the door.
"She's forgetting her place," said the old man as he frowned at the door after it closed.
"Perhaps," said Hakage as he appeared beside the old man from the shadows. "I do not think it will be a problem. She has her own reasons for the way she acts now."
"You know of them?" asked the old man calmly.
"Maybe I do."
"I shall accompany Hisami in his car. I had planned to ride in the front, while Kei sat with him as a personal guard."
"That would not be wise," agreed Hakage.
"Kei grows dangerously independent."
"No, she merely prepares for what is to come. I think she will fall back in line once she defeats that boy."
"If she defeats him," corrected the old man.
"If she does not, I do not think that there will be much of a problem."
The old man snorted at this and shook his head. "There is little I can do about it now. I will speak with her when we return."
"Yes, you do that," replied Hakage as he turned away.
"I'll see you when we get there. Do not forget your orders Hakage."
"I have not," replied the large ninja calmly. "Hikyu?"
"We cannot rely on him."
"Understood."
"I know you once trusted your brother Hakage, do not be fooled by what he has become. Hikyu has his own agenda now."
+++++++++++++++++++
"What are you doing here?" snarled Hisami as he glared at the thing in front of him angrily. "You're supposed to be with Hakage."
"I was told I would be accompanying you."
"That was when you were still one of my shinobi," replied the old man with a disgusted snort.
"I was not told otherwise. I will guard your position from the air."
"You are too conspicuous. You'll accompany us on the ground as planed. You'll ride with Hakage in the back."
"I said I would be guarding your position. I never said anything about coming along."
Kei ignored him as she walked by Hisami and opened the front passenger door. She paused to glance at the old man and simply took her seat next to the driver.
Her grandfather strolled up to the man and monster and looked between them. "What do you mean?"
Hisami's face was flushed with anger as he glared at the thing in front of him.
"I will go into the city and have a little fun. The police will be so occupied with me, they won't have a single unit to spare. You could walk into the bank and take whatever you wanted by the time I'm through."
"If he does this, he will be away from us," said the old man as he looked up at Hisami. "I've already told you how much I trust him. I will not be held responsible for him any longer."
"Very well. Go and get yourself killed if you want. I won't have anything to do with the matter any longer."
Hikyu merely grinned at him ghoulishly. "As you say."
Hisami plopped himself into the rear of his vehicle and it rolled away. There were several other vehicles as well, mostly containing bodyguards.
"I wonder why they ever thought you might even be slightly useful sometimes," commented Hikyu as he turned back towards the building. The elevator opened up in front of him and he simply stared inside as the wings flapped their way out. "Still, this should be fun if nothing else!" With an insane sounding laughter, he shot forward zooming between cars as he sailed out of the exit and into the Tokyo sky.
++++++++++++++++++++
"Usagi?" Mrs. Tsukino frowned as she poked her head into her daughter's room. She opened the door and walked all the way in while glancing around. "How odd. She should be home from school by now."
Her daughter had been staying out late after school recently. She was always home by dinner, and it wasn't quite time for that yet though. Still, it was rather unusual for the girl. "I guess she just has a lot to talk about with her friends since she got her voice back. It seemed like it was gone for so long." She smiled to herself as she walked out of the room and moved on to the chores that still needed to be done.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Ami Mizuno sat with Minako, Makoto, and Rei Hino. They were all at the arcade, and sat around a table with Artemis hidden away.
"It's nice to see us all together again," said Rei with a forced looking smile.
"Well, it's still not all of us," commented Minako.
"There's nothing we can do about that now," snapped Artemis a little sharply.
The girls went silent, each feeling badly about bringing such a hard subject up for him. Luna was still gone, and he seemed to be getting shorter in temper.
"So what can we do now? If we get seen as the senshi again, we're all grounded."
"Maybe a costume change?" offered Makoto.
"Are you dense? Do you really think our parents won't figure it out? It might work once or twice..."
Minako grinned cheerfully. "Besides, maybe the world doesn't need the Senshi anymore? I mean look at this." She held up a paper with Spiderman on the front page.
"He's not from around here though, and we have no idea if he's going to stick around much longer or not," said Ami as she hung her head and sighed. "He might just be here on a temporary passport. Most likely he is."
"Well, there's been rumors of something else in Kyoto. There was some sort of sighting at a concert or something."
"Probably just an add for some sentai show," grumbled Rei. "We can't back down. We have to assume that no one else is going to help us."
"What can we do? I don't want to get grounded again," whimpered Minako.
"Everything is falling apart," muttered Artemis. "I don't know what I can do to help either."
"It's not like we can beat our parents up and make them let us go," grumbled Ami as she glanced at the animal for a moment. "This isn't an easy problem. We're just going to have to find some way to explain it to them. There's no one else that can do it."
"That won't be easy with him plastered across the front page," muttered Rei as she stared at Spiderman's photo. She seemed to space out for a moment, but quickly shook it off.
"What's with you?" asked Minako.
"It's nothing, just a weird vision I had recently," replied the girl softly. It was obvious she didn't want to talk about it. She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut to block out the sight of those horrible eyes in her mind. They had stared back at her, full of nothing but death and emptiness.
"Well, we've got to do something," grumbled Makoto. "I can't stand just sitting here like this."
+++++++++++++++++
It knelt in a puddle of blood. Hacked remains of human bodies littered the ground.
There was darkness all around it; the light that hung in the center of the room was covered in red, giving the room. It looked human, but there was no hair on the thing's body as it kneeled in the corner, casually making circles in the pool of blood at its feet with its clawed finger.
It seemed almost contemplative in the bodies of the men that surrounded it. They were all scum, yakuza men. It didn't really care who they were. An upended table with cards scattered around the floor was in the middle of four upturned chairs. Bullet shells littered the ground around the floor.
"Heh. This isn't enough...I need more..."
It stood up slowly facing the wall.
"More death...more..."
It raised its hand behind its back and pointed at the light that hung from the middle of the ceiling.
"...Carnage."
The light exploded, leaving only darkness behind.
"Soon..."
It walked over to the table and picked up a newspaper. On the cover was Spiderman swinging through the air between two buildings. "Wait till they get a load of me." It reared its head back and laughed.
+++++++++++++++++++++
^_^
^_^
Guess what?
TBC...
Next Time: Carrot thought he had it bad before?