I recovered from a recent computer crash. I've been lurking while the 
Hentai war and the "bad fanfic" threads were going on.. and the bad 
fanfics are still coming. I can't take it anymore! I'm compelled to send 
my fanfics for C&C to the list. Just to get them out. Sorry to 
disappoint some people, my fanfics aren't hentai. They do concentrate on 
the Senshi's love lives, though.

If anyone wanted other fanfics of mine, write back. I'm 100% back in 
operation and I can send my older fanfics anytime. If anyone writes back 
using private e-mail, expect to get a response from me with my regular 
pen name, "Hino Rei".

If anyone has a problem with some of the continuity or plot of this, 
tough. They're just recycled ideas that may or may not be exact 
representations of the original series plot. What you see is either 
original or stolen, or both.

"Lights, Camera, and Lots of Action"

Mina was watching a commercial on a TV inside a shop she was passing by. 
Artemis strained his neck to see what she was looking at.

A blond-haired action star, with a white helmet (gold visor) was using a 
laser pistol. He rolled to the side and blasted a mutant alien. The next 
shot had him holding the pistol with a close-up of his face, without the 
helmet, his long blond hair flowing gracefully backwards in the wind. He 
had really nice deep blue eyes. The voice from the television stated, 
"Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You! Prepare yourself for the Adventures 
on the Planet Venus, starring the one, the only, Lance Stockton!!"

Mina asked the ever-present white cat, Artemis, what he thought, 
"Artemis, what do you think of that? Casting a movie about my old turf! 
Hmph!" Artemis looked up at her, and tried to answer the question. 
"Well," he said, "the history of the Venus Kingdom was very important in 
the history of this Solar System." He was drawing a blank. Mina asked, 
"VENUS Kingdom? What is that?" "Well," Artemis explained, "The Moon 
Kingdom was only one of the capitols of the Solar System. The Silver 
Millenium was preceded by eight other Milleniums, each named after the 
home planet that it was based upon. The Moon Kingdom was the kingdom 
where you lived because it was the capitol at the time, and you were the 
Princess of Venus, sent to serve with Princess Serenity." "Yes," she 
said, "you've told me that I was the captain of the soldiers." Artemis 
said to her, "Yes, although you had a hard time remembering that there 
weren't any wars going on. You were merciless!" he said with a rather 
large smile. He was kidding, well, sort of.

So Mina thought to herself, "Wow, then there really WAS a Venus Kingdom. 
And I would have been a queen..." Well, she always thought of herself as 
royalty at heart.

"Ahem," Artemis said, since Mina was becoming spaced out...

All of a sudden, Mina yelled, "HEY! I know what to do! Lance Stockton's 
filming right here in Tokyo! Let's go get the gang and visit the 
studio!" It was Sunday, so they could afford some time off. Time to go 
have some fun! (And maybe meet a few guys (wink, wink!))

---

Prometheus was welding a small piece of electronics, a single circuit. 
It was a delicate procedure, but Prometheus was a very good welder. It 
came naturally. He was a master of machines, but all of this was based 
on Frost's designs. It was his electronics skills, really his 
mathematical skills, that made this possible. With a magnifying glass 
over the work, supported by a simple jointed arm of black painted steel, 
Prometheus was using his glasses as shields for his eyes as he normally 
did. It was a trick he'd learned ever since he was given the ring. He 
thought it was cool.

He stopped welding when he saw the door to the room opening. He didn't 
want anyone to hurt their eyes. It was Serenity...

She asked, "How much progress have you made?" He told her, "I'm nearly 
finished. Just a little more." He placed the circuit beside a mixture of 
tiny wires, circuits, and a complicated series of small machinery that 
vaguely took the shape of... a human hand. Serenity asked, "Will he be 
able to use it?"

Since Frost's hand was amputated, Prometheus had to use Frost's old 
cybernetic research to create a substitude. This hand would have to be 
grafted to his arm with the assistance of Serenity's power, thanks to 
the energy Apollo, the fourth Dark Senshi, was gathering for the Black 
Moon Crystal. He couldn't touch the crystal, so he had to absorb the 
power into his ring, and bring it back. The mission was simple and 
should be an easy success.

The hard part was the delicate operation required to place the 
mechanical hand onto Frost's arm. Much of the forearm was destroyed, and 
couldn't be regenerated easily. They considered it, but Frost regained 
some conciousness and said that he would rather have the mechanical 
hand, since he knew it would work. That was his way, they all thought.

Prometheus answered, "Yes, he'll be able to use it. It'll be better than 
new." The princess frowned, saying in guarded response, "Perhaps, but 
I'm very worried about him." Prometheus nodded. He had taken off his 
glasses and laid them down. He had no need of them now.

She asked him, "Alex, why are we doing this?"

He looked up from his chair at her, blinking, then staring into her hurt 
eyes. He knew what she meant. He had to explain it, though, as well as 
he could. "We're doing this," he began, "because we have to. It's what 
we were meant to do. It's our nature. We are warriors, and..." but she 
said, "_I'm_ not a warrior. Why me?" She was almost in tears...

He rose and took her into his arms. She was sobbing now, slightly, 
softly, not understanding. For that matter... neither did he. He did say 
more, though... "To rule we must battle our enemies. To triumph, to 
bring the two worlds together, we must win... but," he said, "I'm very 
sorry that Frost suffered like this. I'm afraid it's going to change him 
for the worst." She looked up to him, her cheek lying upon his shoulder, 
and told him, "He's so cold now... he was that way before, but not like 
this..." and then she looked away.

He understood. Yet what could he do? "We have to move on, my Princess. 
We have to keep going, and help Frost as much as we can." Yet he 
thought, what is the point of it all?

He'd have to talk this over with someone else.

Serenity wasn't crying anymore. She wiped her tears with her white 
gloves, which she wore only since Frost's accidents. Prometheus thought 
it was in mourning. It made her look so pure, so gentle. She thanked him 
for understanding, and told him that he should finish his work. Indeed, 
he thought. He had to be ready for Apollo to return.

---

Hundreds of small candles lit the room with a deep red glow. The ninja 
sat crosslegged on her mat as she concentrated during this evil 
ceremony. She called out to her master... Above her, beyond in the 
distant mists, the outline of his figure, of his demonic face, was 
revealed. Her eyes snapped open, attentively, gazing at the image of her 
master. He growled, "It has been too long, my child."

She stayed brief and to the point. "The injury to Frost has affected 
them. They may begin to doubt their dedication to the mission."

To this the great beast replied, in its low, animal-like voice, "It is 
as I expected. Without the rivalry between them and the Sailor Senshi, 
they have few ambitions."

She replied to her master, "They would have been so useful..." to which 
he replied, "They are still useful. By hiding our true plans, we may yet 
use them to weaken the Sailor Senshi, and distract them from our goals." 
Yet he was not pleased, saying, "This is a disturbing development. Tell 
me, my dear, what can we use to force them to fight the Sailors?"

The woman answered, "They are angry over the fate of Frost, and desire 
vengeance. Yet they also know that this was not done to him, that it was 
the power of the Silver Crystal. They cannot be forced to act on this."

The beast answered, "Yet they are fond of the clone." She saw his point. 
She said, hearing her own echo in the room, "If they are loyal to her, 
and they consider her the rightful Moon Princess..." a plan was forming.

The beast told her, "It is time to activate the power within her."

---

Serena, Lita, Mina, Amy, and Rei were inside a rather large crowd 
waiting for the main star to show himself. This wasn't part of the stage 
set; it was just a promotional gig, a personal appearance. It just 
happened that the person appearing was a hunk!

A car was moving toward the raised platform, with bodyguards pushing the 
raving fans, mostly girls, away. The limousine was painted pure white, 
except for the black wheels (with chrome hubcaps that must have been 
_very_ expensive). The car rolled to a stop, as the crowd was raving 
wildly and everyone was looking on. The door opened... and they cheered! 
Lance Stockton stepped up on the platform, where everyone could see him. 
The crowd went wild! He was dressed in a really nice white suit, even 
with white shoes, an expensive watch, and that same hair, not really too 
long (just past the shoulders) but blowing in the breeze.

Mina was screaming! She had huge hearts in her eyes as she was just 
awestruck by him. Rei and Amy were both _very_ impressed. Serena would 
have done the same, but she just said to herself, "He doesn't have 
anything on Darien." Lita just stood there, not saying anything. 
Meanwhile, Lance threw a kiss to the crowd. The crowd went wild (again) 
as he got back down, into his limo, and drove off, with the bodyguards 
running beside it again.

When the crowd noises were dying down, Lita said, mostly to herself, "He 
looks like my ex-boyfriend..."

Rei heard that, and was holding her head in her hands. "No," she said, 
"no, PLEASE don't tell me this is happening AGAIN... " she just went on 
shaking her head. Amy patted her on the back and asked her, "Rei, what's 
the big deal?" Rei told her, "I'm tired of Lita falling in love with 
every guy that comes around saying that he reminds her of her 
ex-boyfriend!" Mina pitched in, saying, "Yeah, there's" and she started 
counting on her fingers "Carl, Matt, Jason..."

"Don't forget Joe."

"Oh yeah," Mina said, "Joe." Then she stopped with a confused look on 
her face. "I don't know of any... HEY, WHO SAID THAT?!" Mina turned 
around. The others did the same, too, Lita more slowly than the others.

Standing there, behind them, was a guy with an open beige jacket, yellow 
pants, black shoes, brown hair, and a cool set of glasses. While Lita 
was turning around, the others were opening their eyes wide. Then Lita 
saw him, and exclaimed, "JOE!" She had a big smile on her face.

He waved at her with his left hand, pointing with a little flick of the 
wrist, like he was in something of a pose, and said, "You didn't forget 
Game Machine Joe, did you?" Lita laughed out loud. Mina breathed, "Joe?" 
Rei said to her to the side, "I'll explain later."

Joe said to Lita, "Hi, there, little lady!" It was an imitation of a 
wild west accent. Amy had a really strange look on her face, thinking, 
"LITTLE lady? That must be a joke of some kind."

 Lita said, "Long time no see. What are you doing here?" Serena was 
trying to look over her shoulder. She wasn't having much success - Lita 
was much taller. Joe told them, "Yeah, I work here. I'm a cameraman on 
the new Lance Stockton movie." All the girls at the same time asked, 
"REALLY??" He said to them, "Hey, if you want, I could let you in the 
back. You could meet Lance himself." All the girls were drooling with 
the possibilities, and suddenly thinking about marriage prospects! "He 
won't mind," Joe said, "he's a really cool guy once you get to know him. 
Hey Lita, we have a lot of time to catch up on." He was turning around, 
and stuck his arm out, bent at the elbow, for Lita to take in her arms. 
She did, and they started walking away.

So, Rei told Mina, "Game Machine Joe. He was one of the Rainbow Crystal 
carriers." Mina said, "Oh," and thought about that. It was before she 
joined the team. Rei didn't want to get left behind, so she grabbed Mina 
and Amy and dragged them forward. Serena was already running off after 
Lita and Joe, saying, "Wait for meeee!!"

---

Joe let them into a movie set. They were all together now, asking Joe 
some questions. Lita asked, "Joe, do you have a girlfriend now?" He 
emphatically shook his head and told her, "Been there, done that. Had 
lots of girlfriends, but nothing ever went anywhere." Lita blushed, and 
said, "Yeah, I know what that can be like." Joe asked her, "Hey, maybe 
you and me can get together sometimes, like, for real. You know, old 
times and maybe a date, if you're still having the same luck with 
boyfriends as before." Lita just laughed, and said, "We could both use a 
break!"

Mina was getting impatient, "So when are we going to meet this Lance 
guy, anyway?" They were behind the set, with the equipment. Joe said, 
"What, don't like it here? This here's home. It's where I make my money. 
Well," seeing the expression on Mina's face, "we'll get there soon. He 
should be here right now."

The six went out in front of the set, and Joe was surprised there 
weren't a lot of workers around. Coming through a door on the other side 
of the set, alone, though, was none other than Lance himself. He let 
himself in. The girls squealed as one and started running off at him to 
get autographs, except for Lita, since she didn't really want to let go 
of Joe's hand.

Lance thought to himself, "Joe must have let them in... good. This will 
make it so much easier."

In his actor's voice, Lance said to the girls, "Hi, there, girls, looks 
like you want some autographs." The girls were nodding emphatically. 
Lita said to Joe, "I should go too." Lance reached into his left pocket. 
He pulled out...

a ring...

and placed it on his right hand. It was placed on his middle finger.

Mina gasped. Then they all saw it - it was a golden ring, formed in the 
sign of Venus.

It glowed...

All Lita saw was a flash of light about three seconds long. The other 
girls collapsed to the floor, drained of their energy. Then she saw the 
ring, but she didn't know what it meant. It was glowing, and Lance's arm 
was starting to glow. He pointed his clenched fist at Lita... and then a 
beam of yellow energy reached out at her.

Then, she landed on the floor, hard. She had been pushed from behind. 
She turned on the floor, and watched.

The beam hit Joe. She could _see_ what was happening to him. A stream of 
grey, misty essence was drawn out of his body. Was that his... soul? 
Lita couldn't believe it. The essence merged with Lance's ring, which 
glowed even more brightly. Lance laughed.

Lita looked at him with murder in her eyes. He looked back, undaunted. 
He said to her, "I am Apollo. I am the fourth of the Dark Senshi, and 
you pitiful excuses for warriors will suffer for what happened to 
Frost!" Lita yelled back, as a reflex, "That's not our fault!" He said 
back, "See if I care!"

Meanwhile, something was happening to Joe...

Apollo was... startled. He was saying, "Wh.. What? What's happening?"

A swirling mist of black fog surrounded Joe. Oh no, Lita thought... it's 
not happening again...

The mist receeded, and standing there was a monster...

Game Machine Man!

"Mwahahaha!" He said. "I am Game Machine Man, free once again! It's game 
over for you, bub."

Apollo was not pleased. "How dare you! You dare threaten me?" Game 
Machine Man's weapon arm phased out, and when it phased back in, it had 
turned into an energy blaster. The blaster was aimed straight at Apollo. 
Apollo's ring flashed, and a wave of light surrounded him. When it burst 
open in a flash of small particles of golden dust, Apollo was wearing a 
uniform much like the other warriors, with a golden cloak and a suit of 
gold and white, with white boots. He wore an amber visor, held on his 
head by a gold headband. He had a firm, nasty expression on his face. 
His eyes were barely visible behind that translucent visor.

Lita yelled, "No! You'll hit the others!"

Apollo looked at his feet. She was right. Besides, this creature was 
obviously not under his control. Where did it come from? How was he 
going to deal with it?

Game Machine Man fired a blast of red energy at Apollo. The latter used 
his ring, and a shield of light intercepted the blast, which harmlessly 
crashed against it. Apollo challenged the youma, taunting it, "So you 
think you're pretty tough? Come on, let's see!" Apollo leaped away, 
running outside (not through the door he had come through, but away from 
the set, out front). Game Machine Man took up the challenge, and started 
running after him, saying, "Hey, this game's not over yet! Come back you 
coward!"

To Lita, it was a nightmare come back again. But she had to help her 
friends. She went over to them and tried to help them up. They were all 
groaning, having been drained of energy, but Serena had a harder time 
than most. Lita was lying beside her, trying to wake her up with words 
and by shaking her. "Serena!" she said, "You've got to wake up! You've 
got to help Joe!"

Serena started to wake up. "Hmm? Is it time to go to school yet? I need 
my beauty sleep..." Lita yelled, "SERENA!" That woke her up. Serena sat 
up, saying, "WHAT? What?" She looked around as the others regained their 
strengh. Lita said again that "You have to save Joe! He's been turned 
into a youma again!" Serena was shocked. This wasn't the time to talk, 
though, so...

"Moon Crystal Power!"

Serena transformed into Sailor Moon. She was still weak, but had no 
choice. Lita wasn't weakened, though, so she was ready for action: 
"Jupiter Star Power!" She transformed into Sailor Jupiter, and wasted no 
time saying, "Come on! We've got to catch them!"

Sailor Moon asked, "Them?"

---

It was in another set, one with a lot of rocks set up for combat with 
"aliens". Apollo was leaping and dodging Game Machine Man's rivets 
(which he was firing from a machine rivet gun) that were implanting 
themselves along the walls. Apollo turned, and faced Game Machine Man in 
mid-air with both fists glowing. A series of tear-shaped energy balls 
burst towards the latter, blasting the surrounding artificial rock and 
forcing Game Machine Man to jump out of the way.

"You're mine," Apollo said.

Game Machine Man's forearm turned into a net thrower and blasted nets at 
Apollo. The nets wrapped around him, and Apollo was stuck tight. While 
his ring glowed with fury, Sailor Moon entered the scene, jumping on an 
artificial rock mound. She said, "Alright, boys, that's enough! Your fun 
is over! For Love and Justice I'm the Pretty Soldier, Sailor Moon! And 
oh, am I in a bad mood! You are going to get a big spanking for tearing 
up this nice studio!"

Game Machine Man launched a net at Sailor Moon. She just squealed as the 
net was almost wrapped around her, when... "Sparkling Wide PRESSURE!!" 
Jupiter's attack ripped open the net. The attack went right through the 
roof, blasting a big hole! Debris rained down on the battle.

Apollo's ring grew bright, and a shield of light surrounded his body, 
quickly snapping the bonds of the net. Two laser pistols materialized in 
his hands. He said to Sailor Moon, "I can't handle this one all by 
myself. I'm not a mean guy, so if you want him back, you can turn him 
back yourself."

Game Machine Man said, "Oh no, I'm not going back!" His weapon arm 
transformed into the blaster again. Both fighters ran parallel to each 
other, each blasting at each other, each trying not to get hit while 
hitting the other. A lot of rock and dust flew around. Finally, Apollo 
said, "That's it. Take care of it yourself." He held his right hand high 
and in a flash of light teleported away.

The youma turned to the two Senshi, and smiled. This was going to be 
fun.

After an initial blast (which sent both Senshi flying to either side), 
the weapon turned into a claw, designed to grab an enemy. One claw, two 
Senshi. Hmm. Well, Sailor Moon was the bigger threat, so he sent the 
claw flying in her direction. Sailor Moon got grabbed, and her arms were 
pinned to her side, just like the first time. Except, Game Machine Man 
sent a current of electricity along the metal rod to which the rod was 
attached, and Sailor Moon screamed as she was being fried by the 
electric shock.

Jupiter was just getting up. She didn't know what to do. She had to help 
Sailor Moon, but she couldn't hit him with a direct attack, because it 
might kill Joe. Fortunately, she didn't have to.

The rod was snapped in half by a rose.

While Game Machine Man and Sailor Moon, free of each other's pull, fell 
back, Lita looked up and saw Tuxedo Mask jumping through the ceiling, 
landing on the ground. While Game Machine Man was getting up, so was 
Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Mask told her, "Quickly, use the Crystal!" Serena 
nodded... but Game Machine Man had recovered. He changed his weapon into 
a big hammer, and started swinging it. Everyone had to dodge and duck, 
and Sailor Moon had no time to use the Crystal. Then...

"Shining Aqua ILLUSION!!"

Sailor Mercury froze Game Machine Man in one place long enough for 
Sailor Moon to use the Crystal...

"Moon Crystal Healing Activation!"

The power of the crystal healed Joe, who promptly fell, unconcious. No 
one knew if he was alright...

---Apollo materialized in the meeting room. Serenity and Zeus rushed out 
to meet him. "Do you have it?" she asked, referring to the energy he was 
supposed to gather. He nodded. She held out the Black Crystal. He 
touched the glowing ring of Venus to the Crystal, resting in the palm of 
her hand. Both glowed as the energy was transferred. This done, Serenity 
ran off to Frost's medical chamber, where, hopefully, the operation 
would be a success.

Apollo said to Zeus, "Something strange happened down there..."

---

A Hospital

Everyone was waiting for Lita to come out. Even Darien was there, 
holding Serena's hand. They had taken Joe to the hospital, hoping for 
the best. He was very weak at the time. Serena might have been helped by 
the Silver Moon Crystal's power, but everyone else was still quite tired 
from that energy drain. They had been through worse, though, so they 
could handle it. The important thing w... Lita was walking down the 
hall. She was looking down...

Everyone got up to meet her. Mina asked, "Well?", in a soft voice.

Lita looked up, and smiled. "He's gonna be okay." Everyone breathed a 
heartfelt sigh of relief. Serena said, "I guess the Crystal healed him." 
Lita said to her, "Thank you. I don't know what we'd have done without 
you." Lita was very sincere about this. Serena just smiled back, and 
said, equally sincere, "I'm glad I could help, as long as he's OK." 
Serena added, "Are you okay?" Lita nodded. She said, "I'm just glad it's 
over with."

Amy had something to say, and she was showing it. "Um, guys, there's 
something I need to tell you..." They all turned toward her. Amy was 
being shy about it, but this had to be said, so she said it anyway, 
"I've heard that Lance Stockton is still working on the movie." Everyone 
was shocked. Rei said, "No way! We know that he's a..." Lita said, in 
the middle of this, "Joe doesn't remember anything about it. We're the 
only ones, and if we talk..." Mina finished the thought, "Then we might 
give away who we are."

Since no one was around, Luna, who was sitting on a plain chair along 
with Artemis, sat up and asked, "Why, then, haven't the Dark Senshi 
revealed your identities to the newspapers?" Amy asked back, "Well, why 
would they? What would be the point?" Mina added, "We're the only ones 
involved in this. But we can't let Joe go back to work there!" Lita said 
it wouldn't be for a few days anyway, but a message had came in that Joe 
wouldn't be let go, he'd go back since they didn't need him at the 
moment, or so they had said. The message came from the producer.

Amy said, "We need to look into this more." Everyone nodded.

---

Later, as the Sailors were leaving the hospital, Mina stopped by Amy, 
who was seeming a little down. Mina asked Amy, "What's on your mind?" 
Amy replied, "I haven't seen Christopher lately. No one knows where he 
is. I'm starting to get worried." Mina thought about that, and said, 
"You must have a lot on your mind." Amy said, "Yes, and there's less 
than two weeks to go in the school year. I need to concentrate on my 
studying." Mina said they would all work together, and look into Sailor 
business and into studying, too. Mina told her not to worry. Amy said 
that wasn't much comfort coming from her.

Both girls had a good laugh at that, and went on their way.


(The End)