Lucky number 13!
The FFML, it lives... in one incarnation, or another, or both. I'm
trying out both the Google Groups way and the traditional manner of
getting it across. I'm kind of liking the Groups
threaded-conversation possibilities. Could get a hundred replies to
the story, on or off topic, with no need for moderation since it's all
contained inside the thread. If the same thing happened on the
regular FFML, there'd be admins to answer to.
In any case, I'll be posting to both until the true winner emerges and
the victor stands astride the other, dripping sword in hand and the
taste of battle on its lips....
Where was I? Ah, yes, fanfic.
This story is a retelling of my older story, Nuke 'Em 'Till They
Glow!! The point of it was to finish a story, whatever the cost,
whatever it takes. The story has been written to the end, so it has a
conclusion. It will be finished because it IS finished. Revisions
will occur, though, based on any comments received. Already from the
prereaders and editors there have been strong suggestions to modify
the ending and some of the pieces that lead up to it.
Any comments to the story will help determine what the final shape of
the story will be, whether it rises up in triumph, or the story
finishes off as a cruel tragedy.
Besides, we've got Larry F on some of the final pass editing, and I
tend to listen to what he says, even if I initially disagree with it.
Punctuation discussions and sentence structure.
We've gone through this chapter pretty thoroughly. Spell checked,
proofread, plot checked... but experience has shown we're still human
so we may have missed something. Still, we've made the effort and few
could ask for more. ^_^
Earlier chapters are available at:
http://boliver.florestica.com/tint/index.htm
Chapters 1-10 are there, and I can repost 11 and 12 to the Google
mailing list group for another archive reference if anyone would like.
In the meantime, Terra in Tokyo continues!
Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo
---Chapter 13: Right! Take Your Lumps.
Rei greeted Jupiter and Chibimoon at the front door to the Hikawa
Shrine. The first words out of the frantic shrine maiden's mouth
were, "You're alive! Good! They came at us so fast. We couldn't
hardly do anything! Did you get a crystal?!"
Chibimoon placed her Violet Rainbow Crystal into the dark-haired
girl's hand, closed it, patted it, and gave a sturdy thumbs-up and a
forced wide grin before slumping limply back down into Makoto's grasp.
"Chibimoon, are you okay?" Rei asked, shaking the exhausted girl by
the shoulder. "Chibimoon!"
---
When the Irish girl finally woke up, she found herself lying on a
futon in a nondescript room. It took her a minute to recognize it as
part of the Hikawa Shrine. She had on a set of light-red pajamas that
she could only imagine belonged to Rei. On a cushion nearby, she
spied her transformation locket, and she heard her friends' voices
coming from a room on the other side of the hallway.
Terra didn't really feel like moving. Despite having just woken up,
she was still really tired.
"Heh," she laughed derisively at herself, "you'd think I stayed up
all night or something."
She forced herself to sit up, and her muscles trembled with every
movement. Taking stock of her situation, she discovered that the
swelling from the fight on her face and around her ribcage had gone
down, but her body was still covered with bruises.
"So much for trusting the ArbyFish," Terra muttered as she fingered
the cursed mushroom mark on her neck. It kind of itched a bit. She
waited for Arby to show up in response to her words, but he didn't
come. "I said, 'So much for trusting the ArbyFish!'" She wanted to
talk to that little creep and make him do whatever he could to fix her
up. He still didn't appear. "Why won't you come when I call, Arby?
You always did before to bother me, so why not when I actually need
you?!"
When her not-so-trusty mutant animal mascot failed to materialize,
the girl sighed and realized that she'd just been talking to herself
and acting silly. With that, she decided to put the creature out of
her mind for the moment, however difficult that may have been.
Her strength failing her, she slipped back down and rolled onto her
side to stare at the wall for a while longer.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, being a world-saving heroine.
She was supposed to appear in a brilliant show of light, destroy the
demonic villain-things, then wave a fond farewell to the grateful,
adoring masses she just saved, and have the rest of the day off to get
perfect grades in school or go out with a cute boyfriend. But no, she
didn't get such luxuries.
Why did she have to be so self-sacrificing all the time?
Why did she have to half-kill herself to do anything meaningful for
whatever cause she fought for? Her friends didn't seem to have any
trouble using their powers. What made her so different? Wasn't she a
proper Sailor Soldier?
Her mind unable or unwilling to supply her with acceptable answers,
Terra spent another hour staring at nothing, lightly dozing, before
dragging her lazy, battered carcass to the other room.
---
The clackety-clack of Ami's fingers on the keys of her little Mercury
laptop computer lent a monotonous business-as-usual air to the latest
meeting of the Sailor Soldiers. The fact that the rest of them were
having huge plates full of pancakes for breakfast didn't seem to ruin
the atmosphere. Rei ate in a dignified manner while Usagi and Makoto
gobbled them down like a pair ravenous hyenas that hadn't tasted
succulent prey since the last rainy season.
In front of Ami's computer lay the Violet Rainbow Crystal, the sole
prize from all their hardships the previous night.
"The molecular structure on this crystal defies all currently known
scientific principles!" Ami proclaimed.
"Yeah, well, so does Luna," Usagi retorted.
"Watch your mouth," the talking cat in question cautioned before
going back to nibbling on a couple pancakes of her own on a plate on
the floor.
"No, don't you see?" the bookish girl pressed, obviously quite
excited about her findings. "The energy content in this fragment
alone greatly exceeds the entire world's power grid!"
"So it'll electrocute us if we stick our fingers in its socket?"
Makoto wondered, making Ami slap her own forehead.
Rei looked up. "Can we use it to get an advantage over the Dark Kingdom?"
"We might," Ami said, but looked skeptical at the suggestion.
"However, in its present form, that power is so tightly packed,
nothing we have could extract enough energy to make a difference. It
needs another few patterns to make it work properly. I imagine the
other six fragments would work like keys for each other once they're
brought together."
"Wow," Usagi awed. "In that case, I'm sure glad we kept the Dark
Kingdom from getting all the pieces."
Rei nodded her agreement. "That's right. As it is, they're mopping
the floor with us. If they acquired any more power, we wouldn't even
stand a chance."
"Hey, we took down one of their generals," Makoto said. "At least
our team's still complete."
"Speaking of which," Ami said, "how is our 'good luck charm' that
helped bring us a small measure of victory last night?"
"I'm here!" Terra announced, her voice cracking from fatigue as she
slid the door open and stumbled in to take a seat near Usagi.
"Hi, Terra-chan!" Usagi chirped happily. "I'm glad you're doing
okay. We thought you might sleep the whole day away." She slid a
plate of syrup and butter-laden pancakes in front of the redhead.
"Here, we saved you some pancakes. Nothing like a good breakfast to
make you feel better in the morning, huh?"
The exhausted girl slumped down onto the table, her face landing
squarely into her food.
"...Terra-chan?"
"Yesh'm! I'm finejushtgottashlmmmhphh...." Dripping with syrup,
Terra sprang back up like a powerful geyser, alert and at attention,
before wavering and beginning to fall again. Usagi and Makoto caught
her.
"Careful," Rei said, "those are my pajamas that you're getting all sticky."
"Eh, we'll wash 'em."
"They could still get stained."
"Sorry, Rei," Terra muttered. "I'm just a little tired this morning."
"Gee, you think?" the shrine maiden deadpanned.
"And you look all beaten up," Usagi noted, poking at a big bruise on
Terra's cheek.
"Ow," the redhead said apathetically when Usagi poked the tender
area. "Ow," she said again when the action was repeated. "Owwww...."
"Was she injured fighting Zoicite, or fighting the youma?" Ami inquired.
Makoto folded her arms. "Feh, no. The youma didn't even get close to her."
"Then... what?" Rei asked.
"Lita beat the tar out of me," Terra explained. "And I mean the
living daylights. She was, like, 'RAWR!'" She made a pointy slashing
gesture with her fingernails. "I used my powers to bash the youma's
head in later, but she beat me up first."
"Really? That's wonderful!" Luna said, then paused and amended,
"Wonderful that you managed to use your powers again, not that Sailor
Jupiter pummeled you, that is. Really. I mean, you've sometimes
complained that you don't really have any powers worth speaking of."
"Have I?" Terra asked dazedly, then nodded. "Yeah, seems like I
have. Oh, by the way, did I ever tell you guys--"
"--gals," Makoto corrected.
"--fellow adolescent human beings of the female persuasion," the
redhead compromised in an eloquent manner totally unbefitting her
pale, tired, beaten countenance, "how I managed to save you all from
the Four Generals that one night?"
"Yeah, you have," Rei replied. "Some days we practically can't get
you to shut up about it."
"Really?" Terra thoughtfully thrust her tongue into her cheek and
winced as she probed a particularly tender patch of pummeled flesh.
"Ouchie." She attempted to remember the date and time when she'd last
bragged about the heroic event, but failed to remember when it had
occurred. "I hadn't noticed. Hmm. Did I tell you about the big
apocalyptic thing that happened?"
"Yes," Rei said. "And now's about when you talk about how you
manipulated time, traveled back, and beat the four generals up with
your bare hands, then saved us from certain death. Thank you. We're
very grateful! Can we please get on with our lives now?"
"Hey, I like telling that story." Terra stuck out her lower lip.
"It makes me feel useful."
"I don't think anybody here would say you're not useful," Luna said.
"You've proven yourself on multiple occasions."
"Now if you could do that kind of stuff ALL the time," Makoto mused,
"then we might actually have a shot at winning against the Dark
Kingdom. But from what we've seen, your powers are kind of hit and
miss, so we can't really go in counting on them. Look, you even
healed up really fast for a while, but now it looks like even that's
stopped working. You're random."
"Random randomness," muttered Terra.
"And that's another reason why," Usagi continued, patting her foreign
friend playfully on the shoulder, "you're our good luck charm."
"Yeah, that's nice and all," Terra admitted, "but I'd rather be
the... perfect-gets-all-the-glory-princess-warrior-whatchamacallit."
"The Mary Sue of whatever story they're going to write about us in a
dozen years when this is all over?" Ami inquired.
Terra looked confused. "The who in the what now?"
Ami cleared her voice box and explained, "Some hack fiction writers
tend to make a few 'all-knowing, all-loved, and all-powerful'
characters. The writer crafts her story so that things always go this
character's way, and as such the story tends to end up a bit bland
because of the lack of true worry or conflict. These story-destroying
characters have tended to become known as 'Mary Sues' because one of
the first recorded characters of these types was, in fact, named 'Mary
Sue'."
"Mary Sue, huh?" the Irish girl slurred as she wiped the syrup off
her face with a sleeve, raising Rei's hackles a little bit. "You
Japanese people sure have strange names."
Ami coughed and shook her head at the statement. "I believe the
term's origin came from an English-speaking country. I wouldn't
discount Ireland as a possibility."
"How do you know so much about fiction characters and stuff?" Usagi
asked. "Are you a writer?"
Ami smiled slightly. "Why, yes, I have dabbled a little." She
pushed her computer over so the others could view the screen and
brought up a page of text. "Would you like to see?"
"Wow! Ami-chan really is a great writer!" Usagi squealed as she
paged through the document. "This is neat!"
"I will be studying to be a doctor, though," Ami said modestly.
"However, one day, I imagine perhaps gaining more fame though the
works I write."
Terra took the computer as it went by and skimmed through it. "Oh,
cool. It's about a socially inept android girl named Vicki. Grammar
looks good, spelling's perfect..." She trailed off when a memory
stirred from her childhood. "Wait a second. This is Small Wonder fan
fiction!"
Ami's eyes widened. "You know the series?"
"Uhh, yeah," Terra said, gingerly pushing the machine away as if it
were covered in slimy goo. "My family had a satellite dish, so we got
some foreign channels, and I think I saw some of it."
"Excellent! How many episodes did you see?"
"I don't know. Ten, maybe?"
"Did you like it?"
"When I was six, yeah, I think I liked it."
"I have great hopes for this story I'm writing," Ami said with more
than a hint of excitement. "Perhaps I shall become a renowned
novelist!"
"Ami," Terra said levelly, "this isn't even an original story.
You're writing Small Wonder fan fiction!"
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Yes! Don't you see?! It's... Small Wonder fan fiction! You're
making a novel from a barely mediocre eighties American sitcom. Ew!"
Ami took her computer back, shut it loudly, and glared at her in a
manner that virtually screamed, "We are no longer friends." Sparks
seemed to flare between them as Terra returned her gaze, despite any
fatigue. Neither party seemed willing to back down.
"So," Usagi interjected, desperate to stop the almost inevitable
violence. "Um, by the way, what are we going to do to... get
Rei-chan's grandpa back from the Dark Kingdom?"
That seemed to break the tension. Everyone, especially Rei, sagged
at the recollection that they still had other more important
responsibilities to attend to besides their own tastes in
entertainment.
"Yeah, what DO we do about that, anyway?" Terra wondered. She
grabbed a pair of chopsticks and fumbled around with them in an effort
to lift pieces of pancake into her mouth. She had relatively little
success.
Rei looked down. "As annoying as he is, I really miss him."
"We could find out how to get into the Dark Kingdom, then raid the
place," Makoto suggested.
"We would have to be very cautious if we did that," Luna said. "They
likely have hundreds of youma roaming around."
"Millions of buggers and foozles," Terra muttered nonsensically as
bits of her breakfast fell into her lap. "Blastwaves, I say!"
"A proper strategy would help," Ami agreed with Luna. "But first, we
would need to know where they're coming from. Are they using some
kind of portal, or teleporting directly to and from their realm?"
"How would we even figure that out?" Usagi wondered.
"We'll have to wait for the next attack," Rei supposed.
"Bait and switch," Terra whispered disappointedly when she discovered
the presence of walnuts in her food.
"Maybe there's some way to lure them out," Ami suggested. "After
all, we have something they want."
"And we want to keep it from them," Luna reminded her.
"And where's Tuxedo Kamen?" lamented Terra. "I want my Tuxedo Kamen."
"Whatever we do, we'll need all the help we can get," Makoto said.
"Too bad Tuxedo Kamen had to rush off after we helped bandage him up.
Did we even get his phone number?"
"I like plums," Terra said, seemingly to herself.
"I'm hungry," complained Usagi.
"But you just ate a huge stack of pancakes!" protested Rei.
"Well yeah," said Usagi, "but just a second ago, I got really hungry again."
"Nuclear weapons," Terra added as if speaking to her pancakes. "It's
the only option."
"Y'know, it's too bad we can't get some real military help with these
youma," Makoto said.
Terra sighed and sipped her juice. "I could really use some milk."
"Milk sounds good," Ami agreed, then stopped. "Wait. No, it
doesn't. I'm lactose intolerant!"
Rei looked back and forth between everyone, and noted that for some
reason, they had adopted some of Terra's mannerisms. Usagi, who sat
closest to Terra, had hunched over the table in a similar manner to
the redhead's eating posture. "Ahh, Terra-chan, are you influencing
people on a subconscious level?"
Terra stopped and glanced up at her. "Uh, no. Why would I do a
thing like that?" She paused, then shrugged. "Or how, for that
matter? You must be imagining things."
The miko shook her head, her eyes losing focus. "Oh, right, I must
have been imagining things."
The Irish girl nodded. "I'm just trying to eat breakfast here."
"You can eat your breakfast there."
Terra threw her hands up impatiently. "C'mon, I'm not the crazy
gaijin you think I am."
"You're not the crazy gaijin I think you are."
"Thanks, now let's move along."
"Yeah, move along, move a--Hey!" Rei finally caught herself, snapped
out of it, and pointed an accusing finger at whom she perceived as the
culprit. "Stop that! You're doing it again!"
Terra blinked blearily at her. "Doing what again?"
"Some kind of mind trick!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Rei."
Luna hopped up on the table and looked into Terra's eyes. "No," the
cat said, "I think she's on to something here. Terra-chan? I want
you to try to influence me to do something I wouldn't ordinarily do."
"I'd rather finish breakfast first," Terra replied with more than a
little forcefulness before returning to poking at her pancakes with
her chopsticks.
Luna's eyes glazed over and she turned away. "Oh, then finish your
breakfast first." A moment later, she stopped. "That's it!" She
returned to face everyone. "I really, really wanted her to
demonstrate, but she made me turn away and I very nearly forget about
it!"
"Neat!" Usagi giggled. "Terra-chan's got psychic powers!"
Terra raised an eyebrow. "I do?"
Makoto nodded slowly. "It sure looks like it."
Usagi took Terra around the shoulders and pointed at Rei. "Ooh!
I've got an idea. Make Rei-chan say she'll give me all her manga!"
But then Rei rushed over and tackled the blonde.
"Oh no, you don't!" Rei half-yelled. "Terra-chan, make Usagi say
she'll stop being such a ditzy odango-for-brains!"
"Reeei-chaaan!" Usagi cried.
After the two broke off from their wrestling match, they started
chasing each other around the room, taunting each other.
"Heh," laughed Makoto. "I don't know, being able to influence people
might be a fun thing to have."
"What I don't get, though," Ami said, "was how she came to have those
powers in the first place."
"Think back," Luna said to Terra. "When do you usually start being
able to use your powers, or when do you discover new ones?"
"You mean," Terra considered, "like after everyone died and I was
able to reverse time? Or like when I had that snake-thing torn out of
my head, then I started being able to heal up fast?"
Luna nodded. "Or after you and Sailor Jupiter had a fight."
The girl's eyes widened when realization hit.
"So what you're saying is," Terra said, "to use my powers I have to
get beat up?"
"Sailor powers tend to have an emotional element to them," Luna said.
"I think it may perhaps be each time you experience some profound
mental anguish."
"My goodness, I must be blind," Ami commented with respect the sudden
obviousness of the mystery behind her friend's powers. "Of course,
that has to be it!" She started typing frantically on her laptop.
"I need to feel emotional grief to be useful?!" Terra asked incredulously.
Luna nodded. "Yes, something very traumatic."
"No pain, no gain," Makoto said with a shrug.
Suddenly, Terra's expression hardened and became very determined. "I
WANT those powers, and I want them NOW." She took a deep breath and
looked at the tall brunette. "Lita, I have a big favor to ask. Can
you please beat me up as hard as you can?"
Makoto grinned and cracked her knuckles. "You don't have to tell ME
twice!" She lunged at the Irish girl with a swift blow to the solar
plexus, then followed up with a hard uppercut to the chin and a blow
to the mouth, loving every second of it. By then, Terra was waving
frantically for her to stop.
"That's enough! That's enough!" Terra coughed, blood dripping from her mouth.
Makoto frowned and backed off. "But you said--"
"Don't mind what I said," Terra shot back hurriedly.
Luna winced. "I... think it only works when you've transformed."
She thought about that. "On the other hand, you were using telepathy
a moment ago, so maybe there's something else to it."
Ami shook her head at the sight, while Rei and Usagi stopped
squabbling when the door slid open. Kasumi Incognita came in, smiling
brightly and carrying a large tray of pancakes. "You seemed to like
them so much, I made more--OH MY!" She dropped the tray in shock.
"Mom! Whashyoudoin'here?!" Terra slurred through her rapidly swelling jaw.
"What happened?!" Terra's mother asked in abject shock.
Makoto hid her red-splashed hands behind her back and whistled
innocently while Kasumi went nuts.
---
Whether it was fatigue from the previous night's battle or massive
internal bleeding, Terra couldn't tell, but she felt tired, weak,
frail, and otherwise kaput. She didn't resist when her mother hauled
her into the bathroom and got to work on cleaning her damaged face and
jaw. It hurt to talk with her cheeks so swollen, so she couldn't give
any straight answers.
Makoto apparently didn't want a mother's wrath poured out upon her,
so the tall girl explained briefly that the redhead had taken a nasty
fall. When asked to confirm the story, Terra merely nodded. While
Makoto didn't want to suffer any vengeful motherly harm, Terra didn't
particularly want to get yelled at for requesting such a stupid thing,
either.
On the other hand, Terra thought, Mom doesn't yell; she just looks at
people in a very concerned manner with her head tilted and her hand on
her cheek. Still, she'd probably get upset in that very special way
she always does.
While Terra may have only recently acquired psychic powers, her
mother always had her own kind of voodoo mind control. The mere
thought of her mom looking at her like that, disappointed or sad,
filled her with indescribable shame. Like now, for example, as Kasumi
treated her bruises, she had that same concerned motherly look on her
face which could melt the heart of anyone who saw it.
Kasumi had secured some ice from the kitchen and was using it to help
reduce the swelling. "Why did you ask your friend to hit you?" she
asked.
"But... I didn't tell you about that," Terra replied in surprise
while moving her jaw as little as possible.
"Usagi told me," Kasumi explained.
"She would," the girl muttered.
"And besides, it was rather obvious. So, tell me why."
"I thought it'd give me magical powers."
"You thought being badly injured would give you magical powers?
Terra, I thought you had gotten past that naive stage of your life."
"Yeah, well, the evidence was pretty downright compelling."
"Tell me."
Over the course of ten minutes, Terra explained the circumstances
behind the pain-equals-gain extrapolation. Since her mother already
knew about the part-time sailor-suited-warrior-for-love-and-justice
thing, there was little point in holding anything back.
"I see," Kasumi said pleasantly when her daughter had finished.
"Have you thought of finding a way to use your magic powers that
doesn't involve you getting hurt?"
Terra held her hands up helplessly. "Mom, I'd love to find a way,
but I don't even know where to begin."
"Think about it," Kasumi advised.
"I HAVE been thinking about it," Terra replied, then trailed off.
Wait, she thought, HAVE I been thinking about it? "That's it! I'll
think about it! Brilliant!" She tapped her knuckles lightly against
her forehead and said, "Okay, mind, tell me how to use my powers
without getting hurt."
A set of diagrams appeared in Terra's mind, detailing what she had
been feeling and what she had done to use any new abilities she
developed. There were three kinds of energies involved, red, green,
and black. She first felt the weakest, the red, when she first
transformed into a Sailor Soldier. The green, by far the ickiest of
the three, had come when Arby made the cursed mushroom mark on her
neck. Finally, she had experienced the black after all her friends
had died, and enabled her to manipulate time.
"But what are those?"
The red was innate power, and had grown considerably since the first
battle, but it was still comparatively weak. The green was...
indescribable and now permeated her entire body, whatever it was, but
focused at the mark on her neck. The black felt like something very
close to the girl's darker emotions: sadness, frustration, agony, and
even anger, but there was something beyond that which she couldn't
quite place.
In essence, using specific abilities mostly had to do with properly
focusing her emotions. If she wanted to use them, she had to be clear
and without doubt. Her grip on any useful powers was too tenuous for
anything less than absolute concentration. If she had a proper wand,
that would make things a lot easier for using anything in the red
category, but the more intense black stuff still required an enhanced
mental state to employ.
"Wow, I didn't know that; that's a good analysis," Terra whispered to
herself. "If you can do that, mind, how about telling me how I can
get Tuxedo Kamen to go head over heels over me?"
Tie a rope, said her mind, to your and his ankles, and roll down a
hill. Terra frowned at the response her mind supplied. "Hey! That's
not what I meant. I want him to fall in love with me."
Figure it out yourself.
"But... you're my mind! You're supposed to help me."
Forget it.
"Terra?" Kasumi interrupted the girl's musings after watching her in
concern for several minutes. "Who are you talking to?"
The Irish girl looked up at her mother. "Hmm? Eh, just talking to
myself. If I ask my mind questions, it usually has some good
answers."
"Oh." Kasumi raised an eyebrow, but then resumed her normal happy
attitude. "That's very nice. You should ask it things more often.
How about asking it how you can heal yourself?"
Terra was taken aback. "Oh, that would never work. It's too easy!"
"Try it."
"Okay. Hmm, mind, how do I heal myself?"
The green energy, her mind replied, was what had healed her before,
but it functioned on its own; she had no control over it. It wasn't
any good anymore. In fact, whatever the green was doing seemed to
slow her natural healing process, and could possibly be having more
deleterious effects. No, best not pursue the powers of the cursed
mushroom mark. The black energy didn't seem the sort to be useful for
bodily repair, though it could help her in the event that her body was
too damaged to move on its own, such as during the time flux event at
the airport. That left the weaker red energy, but it needed a focus
of some kind, and she would still have to figure out an energy pattern
that worked for healing.
The pattern appeared in Terra's mind, along with usage instructions
and how it applied to the red power.
"Oh, so it IS that easy," said Terra after a while. "I wonder why I
hadn't thought of it before."
"You know how now?" Kasumi inquired hopefully.
Terra nodded. "Yup! Now, it'd sure be nice if I had a wand or
something to help me focus."
"In that case, could this work?" Her mother pulled out a
foot-and-a-half-long scepter with a pink handle, a red top, a crescent
moon, and some gold wing-things.
The girl took it. "Yes! Perfect!" Still seated, she twirled it
around between her fingers, waved it left and right, then finally
clasped it tightly in both hands. "Omega Sailor Recovery!"
Terra felt a burst of warmth flow through her body, her vision cut
out for a second, and then she found herself standing in front of her
mother, completely healed and wearing her Sailor Chibimoon outfit.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she deactivated the sailor suit and ended
up back in Rei's borrowed pajamas. In a moment, she discovered her
clothes were absolutely clean, as was her hair and the rest of her
body.
"Wow, hehehe," Terra half-laughed, half-giggled while trembling from
the sudden power rush. "Hehehehehee. Better than a warm shower.
Heh."
Rei dashed in. "What in the world?! Is something--" She saw Terra.
"Oh. It looks like you figured out how to heal yourself?"
The redhead nodded emphatically, still shaking as if she'd taken a
huge hit of an illegal substance. "Hoo-yeah! And I figured out how
to use my powers. Well, some of 'em, actually. Look! I know how to
control minds." She waved her magic wand in front of Rei's face.
"You want to dance around like a giant chicken!"
Rei started to move, but caught herself, and with every ounce of her
will, replied, "No, I--BACOKK!" She covered her mouth and glared at
Terra. "Stop that!"
"Heheheh-hee," Terra giggled, and rushed out into the room where the
other girls were seated. Waving her hands, she declared, "You are all
now my faithful and loyal servants! Bow before me!
Bwa-hah-ha-haaaa!"
Makoto, wearing a big tinfoil hat, looked up at her. "Oh, hi,
Terra-chan. Looks like you're feeling better."
"Hmm-hmm!" Usagi agreed with a hearty nod, her odangos bouncing up
and down under their thin metallic covering.
Ami, also wearing a tinfoil hat, smiled broadly while doing an
analysis on her computer. "It looks like I was right. A small
Faraday cage WILL block the psychic mind-control waves."
"Terra," Kasumi called from the other room, "please stop abusing your
new psychic powers. I mean, what would the neighbors say?"
Terra sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Aw, you guys are no fun."
---
By the time everyone settled down, Kasumi had brought in another
round of pancakes. She even gave Terra a knife and fork so she could
eat them in a more efficient manner.
"Mm, these are great, Mom," Terra said after she finished her first
couple of bites.
"I'm glad you like them," Kasumi beamed, looking positively
resplendent with her own tinfoil hat.
"You know," Luna said, her ears covered in foil, "all that's been
going on this morning is giving me a plan for how we could get back
the rest of the Rainbow Crystals."
Usagi looked down at her. "Really?"
The cat nodded. "Yes! As well as save everyone that's been
captured, including Rei's grandfather."
"Cool!"
"As we've found out all too well, we've lacked any real advantage
against the Dark Kingdom. However, when things are at their darkest,
one person always comes through."
"The Star Light Knight!" Usagi squealed, hopping upwards.
"Actually, I think she was referring to Terra-chan," Ami corrected.
Usagi dropped back down. "Oh, right."
"Correct," Luna said. "Right now, she has the ability to manipulate
others' minds, and I suspect this would work on the Dark Kingdom's
generals as well."
"Ya think?" Terra wondered.
"It's worth a try," Rei said, tightening her particularly thick
tinfoil hat. "Especially if it means getting Grandpa back."
"So what's she supposed to do?" asked Makoto. "I mean, it's not like
we just send her up to tell the general to give us the crystals back,
is it?"
"Actually, it's a lot like that," replied Luna.
Terra burst into laughter, getting milk up her nose and spewing it
all over the place. "Oh, that's a good one, guys! I can just picture
it! 'Hey, give us our crystals back.'" Her expression turned dour.
"Then I get a big energy beam through my skull when he snaps out of it
a second later. I'm going to die again, guys, I just KNOW I'm going
to die again if we try anything like that."
Kasumi, humming to herself, instantly sprang into action with a paper
towel, wiping off her daughter and cleaning the sprayed areas and
people, including Rei and Ami.
"ACK! My fanfic!" Ami cried, frantically trying to get the liquid
off her laptop before it started to seep in.
Makoto leaned forward. "Can't you do something to, like, make the
control last longer?"
"Hmm." Terra thought about it. "Yes, it might be possible," she
said, and held her wand aloft, "if I use THIS!"
Luna and the girls stared at it blankly.
"A plastic toy wand?" Rei deadpanned.
It was Usagi's turn to burst out laughing. "Woahohoh! That's funny,
Terra-chan!"
"What?!" Terra nearly shouted. "No, it's a Mystical Magical Cutey
Moon Rod or something." But when she actually looked at it, she
discovered that it was indeed hollow and made of plastic. Looking
closely, she saw a TOMY logo. "What the hey...?"
"I got it for her at Toys R Us," Kasumi explained brightly.
"Right," Terra said disbelievingly as she stared at her mother, "and
Ami got her computer at Radio Shack. And I'm Princess Terra of the
GOSH DARN *MUSHROOM* KINGDOM!! What did you do with the wand that I
had, Mom? You must have swapped it out or something."
"Silly!" Kasumi appeared somewhat amused. "That _was_ the wand I
gave you," she insisted.
"And I did get this at Radio Shack," Ami said, pointing at her
laptop. "Luna only helped me upgrade it."
"Oh," Terra said, and put aside the toy. "I guess I won't be needing
this, then." Something occurred to her. "Hey, why is my mom here,
anyway?"
"We called her up so she wouldn't worry," Usagi said.
"You actually called her?"
"Of course we called your mother," Rei said. "What kind of
insensitive creeps do you think we are? She insisted on coming over,
and since you already told her everything, we couldn't convince her
not to come."
"Actually," Makoto added, "we called everyone's parents and said we
were having a sleepover over here. And I guess we were; we just
didn't tell them we were fighting youma just before."
"Why not tell them the whole truth?" Terra asked.
"It would cause too many problems," Makoto replied.
"So says the girl who doesn't HAVE any parents."
"THANK YOU FOR BRINGING UP SUCH A PAINFUL SUBJECT!" Makoto growled
while glaring at the redhead. "Rub it in anymore and you're going
back to the hospital... IN A BAG THIS TIME!"
"Oh my," blushed Kasumi. "I'm sure there's no need for that."
"Heal your way out of THIS one, Red," the brunette said darkly.
"We have our reasons for not telling our parents," Ami said while
she, Kasumi, and Rei worked to hold back Makoto's lunge.
Terra shrugged while being careful to stay out of the angry girl's
range. "It works fine for me."
"Yes, but you're weird," summarized Ami.
"And you're not?"
"No, not compared to you, I wouldn't say."
"Hey, I'm not the only one with strange characteristics." Terra
glanced sideways at Ami while downing her last pancake. "I mean...
Small Wonder fan fiction?!"
Ami wasn't the pouting sort, but she nonetheless managed to do so
now. "Yes! Small Wonder fan fiction. Do you HAVE to make it sound
so trite?" She took a deep breath and regained her composure after
the outburst. Makoto finally calmed down as well. "Back on the
subject at hand, the next time we encounter the generals, we can have
Terra-chan influence them into either giving us back the crystals, or
allowing us enough of a distraction so we can defeat them."
Luna nodded along while Ami made her suggestion. "That's actually a
very good idea."
"And if there's more than one of them?" Terra asked. "If I have to
do some kind of area-effect brain scramble, won't you all be affected,
too?"
"No," Rei said, "we'll all wear these tinfoil hats."
"Brilliant!" Terra exclaimed, slapping her hand against the table.
"We'll whack those Negamafoozles like there's no next Tuesday!"
"Yeah," Usagi agreed. "Now, we just have to wait for another chance
to go up against the Dark Kingdom."
"I wonder when that'll happen," pondered Makoto.
Right about then, the sky outside darkened somewhat. Kasumi went to
the closed window and looked out. "Oh my," she said, and motioned for
the others to come over. "I think it's for you." She slid the glass
pane aside, allowing a previously muffled noise to come in loud and
clear.
"--and I commend you, Sailor Soldiers, for putting up such a valiant struggle."
"Sounds like Kunzite," Makoto whispered.
Everyone went to the window, and indeed, a huge image of the Fourth
General glowed high in the clouds.
"But you cannot win," Kunzite continued. "Already, we've slain the
Soldier of Venus as well as her companion. You will be next. Apart
from you, a handful, you have no friends. We lead legions upon
legions of powerful youma, and we will win. However, we may spare...
most of your lives, if you turn over the seventh Rainbow Crystal."
"Double-paned windows?" asked Ami, examining the layered glass.
Rei shrugged. "Grandpa liked his peace and quiet."
Kunzite paused as if listening to someone. "Yes, we require the
seventh Rainbow Crystal, as well as that annoying member of yours,
Sailor Chibimoon. We will exterminate her upon delivery. The rest of
you will no longer be of any consequence to us, once we have the whole
crystal reunited."
"What did he say?!" Rei half-yelled in befuddlement.
Ami stared. "They just declared war on Sailor Chibimoon!"
"And they don't think the rest of us are a threat," Makoto noted, and
punched Terra playfully in the arm. "Way to go, Terra!"
Terra's mouth fell open. "Oh, how... lovely."
Kunzite continued his speech. "Meet us at the Starlight Tower
tonight, at... let's say two hours before midnight. Bring us the
crystal and Chibimoon, and we will spare your lives." Again, he
looked like he was listening to someone. "Oh, right. And all
ArbyFish are expressly not invited. Again, at the top of Starlight
Tower, two hours before midnight."
The Fourth General's image faded from the clouds, and the sky's
brightness returned.
"Excellent," Luna said. "We can follow the plan exactly like Ami-chan said."
All the girls looked at her. "We can?" they asked.
"Yes. We'll send Terra in with the Rainbow Crystal, have her use her
powers on the generals, then the rest of you can come in during the
next phase of the plan."
Rei nodded. "It works for me, but we'll be walking into an obvious
trap, just like last time."
"No, not like last time," Makoto cut in. "This time, we're setting
up a trap of our own."
"Great!" Terra said sarcastically. "Now I'm a landmine."
"Not just any landmine," Usagi said. "A mind-controlling landmine!"
"If it's okay with your mother, that is," Luna said, nodding towards Kasumi.
"Oh my," said Kasumi with a start, "this is going to be dangerous, isn't it?"
"Mom, please, can I?" pleaded Terra. "I mean, when else am I going
to get as good a chance to save the world?"
"Have you done all your homework?" her mother asked.
"Um, no," Terra mumbled.
"Well, I can't very well let you go off saving the world if you
haven't finished your homework," Kasumi said, with some firmness.
"I'll finish my homework before I go," Terra insisted.
"All right," Kasumi continued with a nod, "finish your homework and
we'll talk about it some more."
---
"Ey!" Arby said as he watched Kunzite finish his speech. "Not
invoited?!" He put on his derby hat and stood up straight. "'Spose
Oye gotta bring th' door proize, then."
The ArbyFish threw his mallet over his shoulder and briskly hopped
off towards the Starlight Tower.
---
On a hill towards the outskirts of Tokyo, the Star Light Knight
chuckled to himself when the message from one of the head
Negamafoozles ended. "Kunzie wants another chance to beat the gals,
huh?"
"Yeah, they're like that," he replied.
"You don't think they'll actually manage to kill our core being this
time, do you?"
S.L.K. shook his head. "Nah, I'll be there to protect her."
"The generals are very powerful," he advised himself. "And non-magic
technology doesn't work against them. You have to be magic to do them
harm."
"That shouldn't be a problem." S.L.K. looked at his newly built
mechanical hand, in the middle of which was imbedded a glowing
multifaceted white crystal. "Not now that I have my very own Phantom
Silver Ginzuishou Crystal of the Imperium to fight with. Its power
now energizes my entire body, and then some."
He flexed his hand and let the power flow through him. "Oh yeah,
that's the stuff! This old clunker of a robot body really needed the
boost."
"Make a few Rainbow Crystal copies, and they look as good as the
originals. I only needed a few seconds' contact with each to make
them, and perform the switch. But I had several days to get ready for
this."
"Took all my reserves, but it was worth it. Man, was it worth it."
"In any case," he whispered, "what comes next'll be an awesome
battle. Perhaps... perhaps even when I can reunite with her."
---
On that same hill, in the concealing shade of the trees, another
individual approached the metallic man from behind. She--definitely a
she, no mistake about that, from the miniskirted outfit--hesitated,
but apparently wanted to approach him.
"Da--" she began to whisper, then stopped and shook her head. "No,
no longer. My destiny is a different one." The young woman
straightened and headed towards him. "Former Fleet Supreme Commander
'Tom," she called in a formal tone. "Now known to the world as the
Star Light Knight?"
S.L.K. turned around with a start, mildly surprised. "Who wants to
know?" he inquired. "Another one of those Sailor girls?"
"That's not important," the young woman replied quickly. "But I am
the bearer of bad news."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes," the girl said. A breeze parted the shade enough for S.L.K. to
see her hip-length blonde hair, accented with stylish bangs and orange
highlights. "I regret to say it, but I must inform you. Your
daughter is dead."
S.L.K. stared at her. "I have a daughter?!"
The girl laughed bitterly. "No, I suppose you don't, not anymore."
Her voice was full of sadness, as if at any moment she might break
down and cry. "Goodbye... Star Light Knight." She dashed off,
disappearing entirely.
"Hey, hold up!" S.L.K. called after her, and attempted pursuit, but
she was gone. He eventually gave up. "Aw, forget this. I've got a
core being to protect!"
The Star Light Knight headed off towards the tower.
---End of Chapter 13
And now it's time for... MIND YOUR MANNERS!!! with Sailor Nuke.
Sailor Nuke: Today, we learned that the best way to make friends...
(Scene of Terra and Makoto squabbling)
Sailor Nuke: ...is to pick fights with 'em!
(Ami, Kasumi, and Rei have to hold Makoto back to keep her from killing Terra.)
Sailor Nuke: They'll thank ya for it afterwards.
(Terra looks all weak and helpless after she gets up)
Sailor Kawaii: On the other hand, nothing says lovin' like getting a
little bit of sympathy from your friends.
(Terra cries out her depressions while her friends try to comfort her)
Sailor Kawaii: Don't be afraid to show your tender side.
(Terra's crazed from performing the Omega Sailor Recovery)
Sailor Nuke: But don't REALLY let 'em get to you when you're down.
Be strong, be tough, and show some spunk! Sailor Nuke sez.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!
(Kasumi looks all worried at her daughter)
Sailor Kawaii: And make sure you look good while you're doing it.
Sailor Kawaii says. Tee-hee!