THEN AND NOW
Chapter 11: "Get Busy With The Plots and Plans"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
The guard at the gate nodded to Princess Usagi Small Lady and smiled as she exited the palace grounds. She returned the smile. So did the two CDP officers escorting her. Those were the terms Usa had lived her life under since she was twelve and actually allowed out of the palace without one of her parents. Two undercover CDP officers had to be with her at all times, for the Queen worried about her safety and the King REALLY worried about her safety. And though Crystal Tokyo was the safest, most harmonious place in the world, it wasn't completely safe.
As they headed for The Promenade, airborne security drones would observe her, dropping coverage when she left their patrol zone. Coverage would be picked up by the drone in the next security area. Usa tried to ignore their presence, but it was always in the back of her mind that her father could be watching at any moment. For the past year she had taken to wearing shorter skirts and more revealing tops, just because she knew he might be watching and she knew how it would affect his sense of propriety.
Casually, she entered a restaurant with her two guardians. The three sat down and had a meal while the Princess outlined her itinerary for the afternoon. The guards knew she resented their presence, but were grateful that she was pleasant about it. After a huge lunch topped off by a gigantic bowl of ice cream, inviting comparisons to her mother's legendary appetite, the Princess excused herself for a trip to the restroom. The female security officer accompanied her as procedure dictated.
Once inside, though, the CDP officer was confronted by a panicked older woman who burst through the door in a frantic state.
"Help me!" the woman cried. "My chest feels tight! I-I think I'm . . .!" And then she fainted there on the restroom floor.
"Go get your partner!" Usa barked. "I think she's having a heart attack! I'll try to keep her stable! Get a medical unit here!"
"Yes, Princess!" the officer nodded, used to obeying authority in a crisis. She ran out the door. Usa smiled. Then she switched off the miniaturized holographic projector that she had modified on her own in her room. She was going to have to thank her Aunt Ami for the instructional files the doctor had innocently recommended to her.
Working quickly, Usa pulled out the black wig and dark visor she had in her purse and put them on. Using the magnetic key that changed the refractory properties of her designer outfit, altering the color of her top from pink to light blue and the color of her skirt from white to black, Usa bowed her head and slid past the two CDP officers and out the back door while they looked for both the stricken woman and for their charge. She was going to have to thank her Aunt Minako for the disguise tips the actress had innocently recommended to her.
Returning to the busy Promenade, Usa blended into the crowd, confident that the observation drones wouldn't recognize her. Her mission was simple: She had learned from her mom that Rei had determined that the Puppet Master demon was most likely to strike in crowds during the day and was attracted by fear. In order to lure it to her, she was surreptitiously (she hoped) setting up several harmless smoke bombs around a perimeter of The Promenade. They would make a loud noise and billow smoke, but were otherwise harmless. In the confusion and rising panic, the demon would appear. She would confront it and take it out, using the power of her pink crystal. Then everyone would be safe.
And her parents would have to acknowledge her ability as Sailor Moon. But as she placed the last smoke bomb, she felt a presence behind her. The girl whirled around, ready to transform into Sailor Moon if it was a threat.
"What are YOU FOUR doing here?" Usa gasped. Behind her, concealed in an alley, were the four former Amazoness Quartet.
"We figured you might need us," Jun replied, curious about the Princess's behavior.
"What's with the disguise and all the smoke bombs?" Ves asked. "Didn't figure a goody two-shoes Princess would be into pranks."
"How did you find me?" Usa demanded. Ves tapped Palla-Palla.
"She sensed your thoughts," Ves smiled wickedly.
"Well get out of sight before one of the observation drones spot you!" Usa hissed.
"We're not that inept," Jun replied. "So what's the plan?"
"Why?" Usa asked suspiciously.
"So we can help you!" Jun huffed.
"Who says I need your help," Usa scowled. "Just stay out of my way."
Turning on the trainee senshi, Usa headed out into the milling crowd of The Promenade. Three of the four looked at each other questioningly, then turned as they always had to Cere.
"Let her make her play," Cere sighed in frustration. "But keep your eyes open and be ready to transform in case she's in over her head."
"Shouldn't we call The Queen and tell her?" Palla-Palla asked.
"We're trying to get on her good side," Cere replied. "I don't think that would do it."
When she was far enough away from the smoke bombs, Usa pressed a button on a miniature remote and detonated them in sequences of three. The loud noise and the billowing smoke made the crowd react precisely as she anticipated. The added noise of observation drones swooping in and initiating their alarm claxons further agitated the crowd. Ves and Jun stayed in the alley and scanned the crowd. Cere, meanwhile, kept her eyes locked on Usa the entire time. She could see the girl was concentrating, as if she was trying to sense something that couldn't be picked up by regular senses. Just then, Ves felt a tug on her shirt. Turning, she found Palla-Palla in a mild trance.
"You sense something, Stupid?" Ves asked.
"Bad thoughts," Palla-Palla replied anxiously. "Not a people."
"Where?" Ves demanded. Palla-Palla pointed into the air. "PRINCESS! THIRTY METERS ABOVE YOU! ON YOUR RIGHT AND JUST BEHIND!"
As she turned, Usa's hand went into the air. Her transformation into Sailor Moon was instantaneous. She squinted for a second. Then a warp formed in front of her chest. As the trainee senshi watched in amazement, a glowing pink jewel emerged from the warp and levitated between her two cupped hands.
"The bad thoughts are making people be mean!" screeched Palla-Palla. Alerted, the trainees spotted a man bend down and rip loose a bannister from The Promenade area. He swung the bannister like a club, knocking a woman to the pavement, then charged Sailor Moon menacingly.
"Transform!" Jun shouted. In seconds the four trainees were in their senshi identities. With the sound of CDP sirens blaring in the distance, Juno pointed at the decorative fountain in the center of the square. "Aqua Initiation!"
The water shot out with tremendous force, striking the possessed attacker in the back and knocking him to the pavement before he could reach Sailor Moon. Instantly another person in the Promenade pulled up a decorative stone as a weapon. Using the spray from the top of the fountain, Juno turned the drops into projectiles and fired them at the second attacker. However, he proved faster than her aim.
"Floral Stimulation!" Ceres called out. A decorative tree in the Promenade suddenly extended its limbs down and plucked the possessed citizen off of his feet, hauling him up into the air where he dangled helplessly. But as before, the moment an attacker was immobilized, another person seemed to fall under the spell and try to attack Neo-Sailor Moon.
"Fauna Assimilation, Cheetah!" Vesta yelled as she charged the latest possessed attacker. Her speed increased dramatically. She cut the distance between the woman in seconds, then leaped up onto the attacker with a prodigious lunge and slammed her to the pavement. Claws sprouted from the fingers of one hand and Vesta was about to slash her victim. But she remembered herself, retracted them, and just punched the woman into unconsciousness. As before, another woman fell under the corrupting spell.
"Beautiful Incantation!" called out Sailor Pallas. Using her telekinesis, Pallas seized the clothing of the attacker, tore them from the woman's body and shredded them into strips. Then she wound the strips around the woman's frame, trapping her arms and legs tightly and mentally tied the strips in knots. As the woman fell over helplessly, Pallas giggled like a naughty child.
While all this went on, Sailor Moon raised her crystal up at the demon she could only sense and focused her will through the gem. Pink energy radiated out from the crystal. Sailor Moon felt the strain of using her crystal in this manner, but she could also feel the Puppet Master demon recoil from its healing energies. It was tugging at the energies, trying to flee before the pink energy dissipated it. Sailor Moon bore down, determined to destroy the entity that was causing so much pain and fear among the population and prove herself a worthy successor to her mother's legacy.
But the longer it took, the more discomfort she felt. And the longer it took, the more frustration she felt. Doubt began to creep into her mind and the doubt and frustration mixed into anger. The angrier she got, the more she felt her pink energy fade. The more it faded, the more it fed her anger and frustration. Finally she felt the demon pull free of her pink energy and disappear to wherever it hid. Sailor Moon dropped her arms to her sides and the crystal returned to its warp.
"Princess?" a CDP officer ventured, approaching quickly from an air car. "Are you all right? What happened here?"
Sailor Moon didn't reply. As her senshi looked on, she just bowed her head and balled her hands into fists of frustration at her sides.
Rei glared at Usa, caught red-handed trying to pilfer the jade statuette from Rei's shrine, and waited for an explanation. For her part, the priest's no-nonsense stare sent chills down the teen's spine, just as it always had ever since that day when she was five. She'd broken something in the shrine and then lied to Rei about it to cover her tracks, not realizing that Rei could read that the little girl was lying. The item, Rei had told her, was inconsequential and could be replaced. The fact that Small Lady had dared lie to anyone and to her of all people was the real crime, a fact Rei drove home with the only spanking the little Princess had ever endured. Rei was the "aunt" Usa always respected the most, but she was also the only aunt who could inspire fear in her.
"Well?" Rei prodded.
Usa sighed in defeat. "I was going to use the jade dragon to attract the Puppet Master demon," she confessed reluctantly. Rei let out an audible sigh of frustration.
"And just how were you planning on invoking its spiritual power?" Rei asked wearily.
"Um, my crystal?"
"And if that didn't work?"
"I'd use the Moon Tier?"
"Muffin," Rei sighed.
"Well, Aunt Rei, you and the other senshi and Mom were all going to go out there and confront it!" Usa exclaimed. "And I remember how much of a strain it was for Mom last time! But you and I both know she won't listen to anyone telling her to sit this one out - - especially me!" She scowled and looked down. "So I was going to take it on myself. After all, I am Sailor Moon. I'm the one who should be taking the risks, not her."
"Muffin," Rei began with a sad smile, her hand cupping the teen under the chin, "you are easily one of the more brilliant minds I've encountered in the thousand years I've been on this planet. And yet, you do some of the dumbest things." Usa frowned, stung. "You were going to take on this demon, who happens to be stronger than the previous one, by yourself when Serenity needed the help of a veteran priest, three veteran senshi and Endymion?"
"OK, you made your point!" Usa groused. Rei could feel the teen's humiliation radiate off of her in waves.
"Your heart was in the right place, Muffin," Rei consoled her. "It usually is. But sometimes you let it override that great big brain of yours. I'm the professional here. If anybody has a chance against this thing, it's me."
"But Aunt Rei, you can't take on that thing by yourself!"
"I wasn't planning on it," Rei replied. Then she sobered. "But you're right, it will be a strain on Serenity."
"Then let me take her place!" Usa pleaded. "I can do it!"
"Well, we can't use the same plan if you sub for Serenity," Rei speculated.
"Then I'll think of a new plan," Usa told her. "We can tailor it for my senshi. We've got a good rapport. We can make it work, Aunt Rei!"
"We've got a good rapport." Rei turned the sentence over in her mind. Had it only been three years ago?
Usa was in a conference room. In front of her were her parents, flanked by Luna and Diana. Behind her were the four girls being forced upon her as senshi. The teen stood in the center of the room, waiting for her parents' reaction to what had transpired in The Promenade. Her mother seemed sad and disappointed and Usa knew she was in for another round of guilt. That was bad enough. But one look at her father told her she really wasn't going to like what was coming.
"Did I," Endymion began, straining to rein in his anger, "or did I not tell you not to go out as Sailor Moon again until we decided you were ready?"
"Pop, I . . ." she began.
"Did I or did I not tell you not to go out as Sailor Moon again until we decided you were ready?" Endymion repeated, his control slipping.
"You did," the girl sighed.
"So in accordance with those wishes, you sneaked away from your security team, staged an incident in the business district that threatened the physical and psychological well-being of innocent citizens, put them at risk, put your senshi at risk, put yourself at risk," Endymion continued, "all so you could prove a point."
"Endymion," Serenity began.
"Pop, that demon is a menace to everyone!" Usa argued. "Somebody's got to do something about it!"
"We're working on a solution, Usa."
"And while you work on it, people are getting hurt!"
"So just what did you accomplish?" Endymion asked her. "Nine innocent civilians are under medical care now because they were either injured by a possessed person or they were injured being neutralized by your senshi or CDP officers. The general populace is even more frightened now than they were before. You came perilously close to overextending yourself by using your crystal to do too much too fast. AND the demon got away." Endymion shook his head. "Honestly, Usa, I thought you had more sense than this."
Usa didn't reply. She just silently burned with the humiliation of her failure.
"You're confined to your room until further notice," Endymion murmured, no longer having any stomach for the proceedings.
The girl who would be Sailor Moon turned and walked - - she didn't run - - from the room, headed for her room. She walked past the Amazoness Quartet and received sympathetic looks that she didn't notice. The door hissed closed behind her.
"You did what you had to do, Your Majesty," Luna told him.
"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Endymion sighed. Serenity stroked his temple. "I actually admire her ingenuity and initiative. But somewhere we failed to instill a respect for rules in her." Pulling himself from his reverie, Endymion focused on the other four teens. "Your actions today were exemplary. You took the initiative to protect my daughter, which is your mission, and despite your lack of training and your lack of familiarity with your powers, protected her life and the safety of the general population with courage and honor. You have our thanks. And I'm now more confident than ever that my wife made the right choice."
Three of the four girls nodded and murmured thanks, while Palla-Palla beamed happily. After they left, Serenity spoke up.
"We have to do something about that demon," she exclaimed. "Maybe Usa wasn't entirely wrong."
"Your Majesty," Luna began with irritation.
"I'm not saying the way she did it was right," Serenity persisted. "But maybe she's right about forcing it out and dealing with it before it hurts anyone else."
Endymion considered for a moment. "Let's consult with Rei and Ami and the others," he said. "Maybe we all can hash out a plan that can actually work."
"So what do you think?" Usa asked.
Rei looked over the expectant faces of the six teens. Usa, of course, desperately wanted her to agree to the plan she'd presented. Rei could also read the emotions of the others: loyalty to her friend in Hotaru, dedication to her mission in Jun, anticipation of a challenge in Ves, loyalty to Ves in Palla-Palla. To her surprise, even Cere was ready to do this, out of a desire to protect everyone from evil - - and out of a personal score to settle with the demon who nearly did her in.
She had to admit it was a good plan. Usa's ability as a tactician was beginning to rival Ami's, and at a younger age. Of course, even the best plan went wrong sometimes. And that was the priest's fear: exposing her favorite person in the whole world to danger. She saw the need to succeed in Usa. The girl kept quiet, not wanting to push for a decision and determined not to be petulant and disappointed if it didn't go her way. But she wanted it so badly; another chance to prove herself as Sailor Moon, another chance to at least keep pace with her mother's looming reputation.
"How can I say no?" Rei responded. The thrill in Usa's eyes was enough to mollify the priest's concerns for now.
"Did you hear that?" Ves crowed as the four former Amazons walked down the corridor. "We aced our first test!"
"Don't know why you're so surprised," Jun grinned. "The Princess may have the moves, but WE'RE the team."
"Wish we'd gotten that demon, though," Cere mused. "Still, I have to admit it was exciting."
Jun and Ves gave her a knowing grin. Even Palla-Palla seemed to realize what was happening.
"Are you finally coming around?" Jun asked.
Cere blushed. "I suppose there's worse things I could do. My powers are pretty cool. And Queen Serenity showed so much faith in us, I really don't want to let her down." She smirked back at them. "And somebody has to keep you two out of trouble."
"As if you could," snorted Ves.
With that, Palla-Palla began skipping down the hall. As she moved, she began singing "We are the sen-shi! Phooey on the or-phan-age! We are the sen-shi! Phooey on Zir-co-ni-ah!"
Jun started laughing. Ves grinned as well.
"Baby," muttered Cere, shaking her head. But she couldn't quite smother the grin on her face.
Concluded in Chapter 12