* Moonrise 3 *
Author Note: there was, once upon a time, a Sailor Moon RPG. In that, Tuxedo Mask/Endymion was listed as a male counterpart to the Sailor Senshi - a knight. Specifically the Knight of Hope with power to inspire and encourage. This is obviously non-canon as far as the series itself goes, though it would explain something of his capabilities in that series. I am using the Knight concept here because Toltiir is obviously not concerned with being entirely canon-compliant.
* Brockton Bay *
Shadow Stalker dove towards the ground, ready to shift to shadow form in order to land without issue.
Hearing a noise, she partially turned to check behind her.
Taylor had changed to Sailor Moon and was pursuing.
Cursing that the prey didn't apparently accept that it WAS prey, Shadow Stalker drew a knife and prepared to end this close and personal.
"Moon Crystal Heart Attack!"
Shadow Stalker's eyes went wide at the incredibly silly and girly attack. It didn't matter though, she just turned insubstantial to let the attack pass through her.
Except it didn't and smashed into her with all the force of a runaway truck.
"BEAUTIFUL!"
Shadow Stalker felt the word leave her lips and was desperately hoping as she fell into darkness that that word wouldn't be her epitaph. Seriously, bad enough to get killed by a giant pink heart without that.
* PRT ENE HQ *
"Armsmaster, did you see the video of someone in a costume taking a shot at Taylor Hebert and then using a very familiar ability to dive through the roof of a building?" asked Director Piggot through an intercom.
"I also saw the video showing someone who might be Shadow Stalker being hit with a giant pink crystal heart, declaring it beautiful, and then collapsing," admitted Armsmaster, not looking up from working on a gadget. "Which was followed shortly thereafter by this obvious imposter being arrested and currently on her way to Holding Cell 3."
"'Imposter'?" asked Director Piggot.
"I believe that will likely be the official line," said Armsmaster. "Was I wrong?"
"No, actually I think that will work for now at least," agreed Director Piggot. "You have an appropriate way of keeping her from shadowing through a wall?"
"Currently working on a cuff system," indicated Armsmaster. "It will be ready by the time she arrives."
"Good enough," said Director Piggot. "Nicely efficient."
"I try," agreed Armsmaster before the call was terminated. Nice to get some positive feedback for a change.
* February 15 2011. Cauldron *
"No one has used one yet, but there are several of these 'transformation pens' out there now. We have Contessa holding onto the transformation device for 'Pluto'," said Doctor Mother. "Victoria Dallon has the one for 'Venus' while Amy Dallon has one for 'Neptune' and the Ward Vista had the device for 'Mars' but has returned it back to Moon as she rejected that one. Dragon has received the 'Jupiter' pen."
"So, nobody has taken up the offer yet," said Number Man.
"No they have not," stated Doctor Mother. "There was one anomaly. Instead of a pen, a bracer was handed off to Armsmaster. He was told it was for the moon Io."
"Interesting, so she is not restricted to female recruits or planets," mused Number Man. "Even if it is just moons other than her own, that adds a considerable number."
"I don't even want to try and picture Armsmaster wearing a costume similar to Moon's," noted Alexandria.
"No, he doesn't have the legs for it," agreed Contessa, drawing a few odd looks.
"Agreed," agreed Number Man, drawing his own share of odd looks.
"Her father has one such 'transformation item' so I would doubt that this is the likely end result," said Contessa.
* Taylor *
She was the one named Taylor Moon. Taylor Hebert. Sailor Moon. It was somewhat confusing as memories kept bubbling up from a previous life she hadn't actually lived.
She was quite aware that there had never been a Moon Kingdom, in this universe at least. She was also quite aware that there had been now, due to dimensional hijinx.
That, if she needed to, she could say "Sailor Planetary Teleport" and vanish from Brockton Bay and reappear in a ruined city on the moon that had been there for 12,500 years despite it not having been there two months ago.
Time travel caused things to make no damn sense and shifted things around in a generally FUBAR manner. Which was why there was a Gates of Time and a guardian appointed to make sure that kind of crap didn't happen in HER solar system.
Taylor's vision of the future/past had two potential candidates for the position of Sailor Pluto, Time Guardian. One had been the meddler in the fedora. Another had been a girl much younger than herself. Neither was ideal but the woman in shadows had won over the little girl because at least the adult wasn't likely to get grounded by her parents and unable to fulfill duties.
Besides, the slower aging thing would suck more for a pre-teen girl than an adult woman.
Which brought Taylor to the realization that she would be fifteen for the next eight hundred years.
She stopped in mid-step as that thought came crashing down on her. Fifteen was not a good age to pause at. Seventeen was better. Twenty-one would be even better. Naturally, Taylor began thinking about ways around that limitation.
Of course, being Taylor, she found one.
* February 23 2011, Medhall Building *
Nothing unites a people like hatred. Give the people a target and whip them up into a frenzy and you could change a society, a culture, a nation. That had been the case for thousands of years and there was little to indicate it was not the case now.
Max Anders sipped his drink and looked out at Brockton Bay from his position in the penthouse. He knew those lessons, knew history enough that he could point out a hundred times it happened and it was well-documented. Hatred could build an empire, if one used it correctly.
Fear could be used as well, but as fear was an avoidant emotion and hate was an attractant emotion - it was less of a sure thing. Results varied. Using both, again using historical examples, was better as some people were more prone to one or the other. Emotional levers to get a populace to back you.
This healer was doing something different, a much dicier emotion coming forward. Though Max had his doubts as to her doing it on purpose. Panacea had found that providing healing of any number of infirmities got her mixed reactions: gratitude turned to demands and entitlements. "You healed X on Y and I deserved better treatment." "I waited an hour for you to get to me! That's unacceptable!"
Yes, Max was well aware of what went on with some of Panacea's patients. Honestly, he had to give the healing cape props for not welding someone's jaw shut or killing off all their gut bacteria to give them some serious GI difficulties considering some of the attitudes she faced.
Sailor Moon on the other hand, could heal more than bodies. She could heal spirits, left people feeling rested or (in some cases) cheerful. She could cause buildings wrecked in the aftermath of a battle looking as if they'd never been damaged. She could fix things.
Max Anders glanced at the clock. Sailor Moon had an interview a bit later. Normally with some hero interviewed locally he would just have someone else take notes and he'd skim them later. In this case he would watch himself and try to get a better feel for what this relatively new cape was up to. What was her end goal, her reason for going out and doing the things she did?
Endbringer sirens caused him to reconsider his plans for the day.
* Dockworker's Union Office *
Danny Hebert looked up. He knew that Taylor would go. Her healing abilities at an Endbringer fight could be invaluable. She could make a difference.
He didn't want her to go, not at all. To say an Endbringer fight was dangerous was a serious understatement. Good ones were where one-in-four heroes died. It wasn't unheard of for seven-of-ten heroes to be permanently crippled or dead.
"Danny? What's that?" asked Zephron.
Danny blinked and realized what he was holding. He let out a little breath. He looked at the three others in the office at the moment. They were all trustworthy. "Taylor is Sailor Moon."
"Yeah, we know," said Zephron. "Is that one of those Roman dodecahedron things they find at archaeology sites?"
"Not quite," said Danny, tossing it up and down. "You heard about the items she can give out?"
"Yeah, there's been talk about those," said Zephron. "Some people say a Master thing."
"Not quite," said Danny. "It's a way someone without powers can get powers but it comes with a price. Once you take it up, you can't put it down - your life is going to be changed."
"We need to get to a shelter if you're not going to use that," said Lacey.
"No, that's not the siren to indicate it's here, just to indicate that there's an attack underway," said Danny. He looked at the item again before dismissing it again. Tempting as it was to be there for Taylor, it wasn't something he was ready to do. She'd been quite clear about that - if he had any doubts at all then he should not use it.
* Rig, Brockton Bay *
Dragon nodded to Taylor as she arrived. "Follow Panacea, she'll be heading directly for the medical tents."
"Right," said Taylor. "Good luck."
Strider popped in and a moment later they were popping ears from the change in air pressure and heading their separate ways.
Dragon idly tapped the section of armor where her pen was. She hadn't used it, had doubts it would even work for her. But she'd kept it.
* Cauldron HQ *
There was a clatter on the desk, and Contessa knew without looking what had made the noise.
She looked anyway. The odd metal pen had somehow disappeared from the containment case and was sitting there.
Contessa picked it up and went off to find Doctor Mother. If she was going to use it, an Endbringer attack seemed an appropriate time but she was going to make sure the whole thing was monitored.
If she rejected it now, she had this odd feeling it would vanish and not reappear before her again.
* Eidolon *
He circled above the gathering spot, going through his mental checklist and deciding which "packages" he wanted "loaded" for this.
Alexandria had asked for him. Sailor Moon had hit him with her basic healing effect, then paused and directed something more concentrated directly on him.
He was normally pretty dismissive about new capes. Healers were a little different. Healers that might be able to help with his flagging energy reserves had been something he'd found interesting.
It had paid off. There was something that she'd said she couldn't quite reach, but that might come with more experience.
He'd come out of that feeling refreshed and clear-headed as if he'd been wandering around with his brain wrapped in wool. That feeling had faded a bit, the clarity gradually dropping away to something more normal, but he'd also felt as if he'd come back to full power.
He'd also gotten a couple of hobbies and was considering starting the whole dating scene thing. Might help balance things out.
He passed over the medical area, noting Panacea and Sailor Moon joining the regular doctors and the few other healer-capes.
"Five minutes to Simurgh arrival," said Dragon's voice over the wristband. "Simurgh is approaching at 65% of normal speed, reason unknown."
Canberra was being evacuated. Very few people wanted to try and "weather it out" when the Hopekiller was en route but there were always some hold-outs.
Eidolon held position near the projected course of the Simurgh, as ready as he'd ever been.
* Taylor *
That had been the last of them. The nine main wands placed. None had been used.
Nine more had been Knight-level things. Minor little things that had essentially been for apprentices or understudies or whatever you wanted to call them. Those had also been placed. Then there were the true Knights, ones that embodied an emotion and a role within a society. The Prince, the Knight of Hope. The Soldier, the Knight of Duty. The Scholar, the Knight of Contemplation. The Savage, the Knight of Fear. The Artist, the Knight of Inspiration.
The night of the attack, the celebration of the treaty had been an ideal time to strike. The Soldier had held off the forces long enough for the Queen to begin the process of gathering strength but had fallen to treachery. The Savage had been dealing with a loose end and Atlantis had sunk. The Artist and the Scholar? Likely fell before the demon-goddess that had spearheaded the attack.
Old memories that belonged to someone else. I'm pretty sure I was never Princess Serenity. I'm also pretty sure that if I met a real talking cat I'd freak out.
I'd given out what I could because I'd known this was coming eventually. Endbringer fights had been brought up before because I was a healer and the need for healers at these things was pretty damn high.
"Sera Myun? Over here. You can do area-effect healing, right?" asked some Doctor-type whose name-badge read "M'Benga" as he gestured towards an area of one tent.
"Yes, Doctor," I responded and went there. Central area where I could stand and areas for setting down stretchers for a quick in-and-out. "I'm pretty much at full right now, I can manage six Moon Healings before I'll need to recover."
"Good to know," said Doctor M'Benga. "I'll be over there doing triage. Panacea is on that side of this tent. We'll be directing things between the various tents by radio. Any questions?"
"Biomass?" called out Panacea as she looked over her area.
"Pig carcasses from a local barbeque place are en route," said M'Benga. He looked up at a loud cracking noise similar to but not quite thunder. "It's started."
* Captain Straya *
The Simurgh. Her wings spread and serene face, if you didn't know what she did and what she was - she'd actually have a sort of ethereal beauty to her.
"Something off about her usual pattern of attack. Attempting to analyze," said Dragon.
I clicked the left button on my wristband. "Right about that, Dragon. Twitchin' and I'm reading some confusion in body lang. Might be Simurgh-plot thing. Might not." It was the Simurgh after all.
Kangaroo Jack's voice came over. "She ain't singing, mate. What's up with that? Not a complaint, mind ya."
I nodded at that despite not being in line of sight. See, my dinkum is teleporting - but not across water. I got a sense of where everything is immediate around me, so I pop all over a particular fight giving a mighty whackum with me favorite galah-whacking stick. That Simurgh though - I couldn't quite see her just a danger zone all around her.
Frankly, me and Jack and Shiela Shielda - we're all kind of over-our-head inna Endbringer fight. Doing our part, we are, but none of us are gonna be big contribs. I do my teleport whacks, Jack can leap small buildings in a single bound, and Shiela can make a forcefield that's about the size of a bike tire. I teleport in, whack Her Winginess in the ankle, teleport back out and try to stay out of the way of the heavier-hitting types.
Something clicked though and I hit the send button again. "She keeps orienting towards medical. Something that way?"
* Dragon *
Captain Straya was similar to Assault in some ways, acting more foolish than he actually was, according to the files I had available on him. Those files also indicated he had a Thinker-3 rating because he had a decent sense of intuition as well as his area-sense. So if he made an observation, then I took that into consideration with everything else.
I'm very good at multi-tasking so I compared previous Endbringer fights, also Simurgh-only, and tried to project trends based on that.
This behavior was new, so no prior data to indicate whether this was a feint or something that the Simurgh...
Sailor Moon was not a parahuman. Nor was her empowered form strictly human due to having Brute, Thinker, and her healing powers. Who was in Medical Tent #2. Also some anti-Thinker ability per three flags on file from established Thinkers.
The Simurgh was a precog and telepath. If, as those Thinkers had indicated, there was a cloud of uncertainty surrounding Sailor Moon...
What if it extended to the pens?
The Simurgh came to some sort of conclusion and began a high-speed acceleration towards the medical area, literally throwing capes out of her way.