Hahahahahah! Finished at last, here it is, you lucky people you.
Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. None of those
characters are in any way, shape or form owned by me. However, the Star
Knights and Sailor Terra *are* my creations (in their present forms) if
you want to use them in a fanfic' of your own, give me some credit,
okay? The only reason I didn't ask Takeuchi-san for permission to use
her characters is because: #1 I don't know that much Japanese and #2 I
don't know her e-mail address...
I set this just after the Senshi return to the present after
visiting Crystal Tokyo. (That places it between Sailor Moon R and Sailor
Moon S.) By default, I'm using the Sailor Moon S attacks and
transformations for Sailor Moon and the other Senshi simply because I
can envision them a bit better when I write... [Author checks his
Senshi henshin .AVI files again, to make sure he didn't delete them by
accident the last time he straightened out his hard drive... ^_^]
Be warned, I use a lot of the manga's plot developments in this
series... Which means, yes, Princess Fireball *will* appear in a future
volume. ^_-
Now, on with the show!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A beautiful starship cruised along. It'd just dropped out of
Lightspeed and was rapidly approaching its home port on the Moon. A
silver haired man in some sort of gray military uniform was at the helm,
checking his instruments periodically. A young woman dressed in pants
and a long sleeve shirt (with the sleeves rolled up) walked in and sat
in the co-pilot's seat. She smiled and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"All work and no play makes Ryu a dull boy," she commented. "Why
are you so worried about the autopilot? You designed it yourself."
Ryu smiled. "Because, *I* can still pilot this crate better than
any autopilot. No matter how advanced the programming might be. I
don't intend to end our honeymoon by auguring into the ground."
"Don't be so morbid, Dear." His wife frowned and shoved a lock of
her red hair out of her eyes. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then
she smiled. "Kiss me, you fool." The newlyweds moved a little closer
together. Ryu reached out to activate the autopilot, and was shocked to
see another ship flying nearby. It wasn't crystalline like his, it
looked like a flying sword... It had to be the others.
A tiny hologram of a smiling man in an orange version of Ryu's
uniform appeared on the console. "Oops. Bad timing..." He smiled
wickedly. "Hope I wasn't interrupting anything important," he commented
innocently.
"Hi, Hiro, how was your vacation?" Ryu asked carefully. One had
to be careful around the Hiro the Hentai. Growing up in a court full of
some of the Silver Millennium's most beautiful women had made him into
the Silver Millennium's most notorious Peeping Tom... Not *his* family
per say... But the rest of the Venus Court wasn't bad looking...
"Just fine... Pity the Princess of Jupiter's still on the Moon.
That would've been the highlight of *my* vacation on Jupiter..." A hand
flashed through the holofield in the blink of an eye as it connected
with Hiro's jaw. "OW! Err... Eiji says 'Hi.'" One constant in the
Universe, Eiji was *very* careful of how anyone talked about *that*
princess especially Hiro. "Basically it was business as usual. Keiichi
ended up in Cloud City's antigrav pods, reinventing them for the 10th
time. Ken drank three bars out of business. Eiji went hang gliding.
Err... I just went sightseeing. [snicker]"
Ryu laughed. "The Dark Phantom strikes again!" He sobered. "One
of these days you'll get caught and I won't help you. I recommend you
clean up your act."
Hiro looked hurt. "I don't have a _dirty_ mind. I happen to have
a refined appreciation of the female form, that's all..."
"'Refined appreciation?' More like dark obsession..."
"I'm really offended you think of my that way..." He broke
contact.
Suddenly a feeling of dark dread clutched at Ryu's guts. "No...
Not that, not now..." A bright flash of energy blossomed up from
Lunaria, the Moon's capital city, the full fury of the Silver Shadow
Crystal unleashed... Ryu snatched at the controls, trying frantically
to enter Lightspeed... Just as both ships' engines roared to full
power, the wave of energy slammed into them. The people within both
were tossed around like dolls. Ryu looked up, dazed, just before he
lost consciousness, he saw an eerie, gray mist beginning to fill the
cabin. Outside the ship, more swirling mist flowed everywhere.
Starguild Productions Presents:
A New Moon Order Production
Star Knights: The Return
Volume 1 of the Star Knight Legacy
by: Berk' "REM" Watkins
(The Author Formerly Known as "Kai Neflite")
"USAGI, WAKE UP!!!" Luna yowled.
"WAAH! I'M SOOO LATE!" the blonde girl sobbed as she launched out
of bed. "Luna, why didn't you wake me up sooner?"
The black cat looked up at her princess. "You know why... I
*did* wake you earlier, but you went back to sleep."
"TRY HARDER NEXT TIME!" she whined. "Rei's gonna murder me...
The meeting starts in 10 minutes." She struggled into her shoes as she
ran down the hall and dove out the door at top speed.
Rei was sitting outside of the temple, waiting patiently for their
habitually late leader. She heard a loud crash at the foot of the
steps. Right on schedule, her own schedule that is. Usagi came up the
steps at full tilt, tripping over the top one and plowing, face-first,
into the ground. By some major miracle her face wasn't reduced to a
bloody ruin.
"OWIE! That hurt..." Usagi pulled herself up off the ground, one
eye was obviously well on its way to developing a nasty bruise.
"Come on, Fluff-For-Brains, the meeting's about to start." Rei
snagged the leader on the Sailor Senshi and drug her into her room.
Ami was fiddling with a few settings on her microcomputer. Every
few moments she'd frown and try a new setting. "Guys, I called this
meeting because of some odd readings I've been getting recently. As you
know, the Dark Moon Family used a lot of time travel. As far as I can
tell, time travel is inherently dangerous, and has a destructive effect
on the fabric of the space-time continuum..."
"In plain Japanese, Ami. If you want to live in the country, you
gotta speak the language," Usagi said, dazed.
Ami blushed. "Ahem... Time travel is a Bad Thing(tm). It makes
the universe thin and like something thin, it can tear. If the universe
tears, something Very Very Bad(tm) could come through the tear.
Something so bad that it could make Queen Metallia look like a girl
scout." Her computer began to beep frantically. "Oh no... A tear!"
She began to run several programs in an effort to identify what had
fallen through the short-lived tear in reality. She discovered two
things had come through, two objects, each the size of an American semi.
One object rocketed off towards the outer planets, while the other
drifted towards the Moon. She had a tough time tracking the objects,
they only seemed to show up on gravatic scans. They were invisible to
radar, laser telescope, hell, even optics had a hard time tracking
them... "Two objects. One headed for the Moon. The other towards the
outer planets... I can't get a solid lock on either of them, so I can't
tell you which planet the second craft is headed for... You guys up to
a Sailor Teleport?" They nodded.
"Mercury Star Power!"
"Mars Star Power!"
"Jupiter Star Power!"
"Venus Star Power!"
Then all four said, "MAKE UP!"
[Insert stock footage of notorious 'magical girl' nude henshin
sequences here... H_H]
"Moon Cosmic Power, MAKE UP!"
[Insert Sailor Moon's transformation here...]
The five Sailor Senshi joined hands, concentrated, and vanished in
a flash of light. Their target, the Great Seal that once laid in the
center of Queen Serenity's throne room.
The Senshi appeared standing on the Great Seal of the Silver
Millennium. Around them spread the rubble of the great battle that
destroyed a civilization. They could see a spacecraft in the distance,
it looked like it had been made out of pure crystal.
Sailor Mars looked around, a confused expression on her face. "I
don't sense anything evil, but... I do sense a great deal of power
nearby." She scanned the horizon carefully. She pointed off into the
distance. "That way, the power is over there!" The Senshi headed
towards the source of Rei's psychic reading.
When they arrived at the location, they got a shock. A man and
woman stacking stones on a grave site.
"Total destruction... There wasn't anyone left to even bury
her..." he wiped a tear from his eye. "Whoever did this," he gestured
to the destruction around him, "will pay."
The woman draped an arm over his shoulders and pulled him closer.
"Ryu, how long have we been gone? The only things left of her were dust
and the jewels she'd been wearing... I have a feeling we were asleep in
Limbo for a _very_ long time." She leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Everything we knew is dust... Come on, let's go."
Ryu knelt on the ground next to the grave. "Good-bye, Mother, I
can only hope you have found peace. I don't know if I ever will again."
He stood up and they both headed back towards the ship.
A voice squeaked over the dustdunes... "For love and justice, I
am the pretty sailor-suited soldier Sailor Moon! In the name of the
moon, I will punish you, for desecrating that grave!"
Ryu whirled around and looked right into the eyes of a blonde
haired Senshi in a uniform he didn't recognize. "The Sailor Senshi?
Still alive? Not bloody likely... The blast should've wiped out all
the life that existed on the Moon!"
Sailor Moon and the others staggered back... "But-but..."
"By the way, imposters, THERE NEVER WAS A SAILOR MOON!!!" He
hopped back a few meters and crossed his arms over his chest, fists
clenched. "Psyche, you ready?"
"The time for inaction is over," Psyche whispered. She held her
right hand up. "Terra Prism Power, MAKE UP!" [typical henshin sequence
here, note striking similarities to Sailor Moon's transformation
sequence] When her transformation was over, she was dressed in a blue
green skirted sailor skirt with light purple bows. The light purple
choker at her neck was held in place by a golden, quartered circle.
Matching circles were at the tops of her boots and the brooch on the bow
on her chest was another quartered circle, with a small, red gemstone
set in its center. A few moments before that brooch had been her belt
buckle.
Grey metal bracers appeared on Ryu's forearms, with a clanking
sound [remember the sound the armor made in Ronin Warriors?]. "Moon
Sentinel Power, TRANSFORM!" A violent dust storm swept up around him,
obscuring him from view. Moments later, the dust cleared, revealing his
new uniform. He was now dressed in a two tone gray outfit, with black
adding to it's stark form. Gray tunic, darker gray pants, suede, black
boots that came up to the mid-calf, a suede, black leather jerkin, and a
gray sash tied over the bottom half of his face. His bracers, each
covered with an intricate carving of an oriental dragon, remained on his
forearms. "Prepare to face the wrath of the Dragon of the Moon. I am
Moon Knight!"
The red-head joined her companion. "If you think he's mean, you
ain't seen nothing yet. Run in terror 'cause I'm Sailor Terra. Of
course, you already knew that, so why bother continuing this spiel?
ATTACK!!!"
Moon Knight charged at the Senshi, while Sailor Terra jumped into
the air.
Sailor Jupiter went reeling thanks to a flying kick via Sailor
Terra... Makoto realized she was in deep trouble. This 'Sailor Terra'
wasn't just a Senshi, she was a trained warrior!
Terra went into a sideways stance, feet about shoulder width
apart, and each hand held up at shoulder level, both shaped into a 'claw
fist.'
"Wui Wing Chun?" Jupiter muttered, "Oh hell..." She suddenly
squinted and deployed her lightning rod from her tiara... "Sparkling..."
electricity began to crackle around the rod... "Wide..." energy
crackled around her fist... "PRESSURE!!!" She tossed a ball of
lighting fast pitch softball-style at the blue green-skirted Senshi.
Terra tucked up and rolled under the thunder ball, hopping to her
feet and catching Jupiter in the breadbasket with a kick. She added
injury to insult when she decided to use her special attack...
"Vajura..." she muttered, crossing her hands above her head. "BLAST!"
she howled, swinging her hands to one side and into a forward pushing
motion... A beam of blue-white energy lashed out from her hands,
tagging Jupiter and sending her for a loop.
Sailor Venus, who'd been looking for a clear shot, decided it was
time to put in her $.02 worth... "Venus..." and energy vortex blazed to
life around her... "Love Me..." she raised a hand above her head and
made it into the 'Devil's Horns' sign... "CHAIN!" the vortex coalesced
into a single chain of tiny hearts, which she promptly used to lasso a
*very* angry Sailor Terra...
The gray-clad Knight was giving the other three Senshi a hard
time. Sailors Moon, Mercury, and Mars dove in various directions as a
phalanx of needles sliced through the air. Many of them slammed into
rocks and exploded, taking their victims with them...
Mercury stood up from behind a rock and moved both her hands over
to one side... "Shabon SPRAY!" She charged up a blast of cold energy
and tossed it in the general direction of the angry man. The
battlefield was cloaked in a thick fog.
The fog began to glow in a silvery light from within almost
instantly as some great power began to burn it off. "Aura... CRASHER!"
Moon Knight shouted crossing his hands over his head and bringing them
down to slam into the ground. A wave of energy blasted out in every
direction for several meters, shoving the three Senshi away and to the
ground. Then he noticed the capture of Sailor Terra.
"WAIT!" he shouted. "Do what you will with me, but please don't
hurt my wife. I surrender," he whispered.
While this charming melee went on, several more rifts opened up in
the space-time continuum. The escapee of one such chughole in reality
was trapped in a crystal, when he was caught by Earth's gravatic pull
and slammed into the north pole he was freed, allowing him to teleport
to God knows where...
Another escapee was sealed in his mystic armor against the vacuum
of space so he blasted off towards the asteroid belt without a care in
the world. He had a lot of work to do before he could face his old
enemies in the House of Satori again...
Several shadowy figures streamed off towards Earth, hit its
atmosphere and faded from sight.
Edison Bell tumbled out of another hole and looked around with a
slightly confused look in his eyes. "Now then," he remarked, totally
ignoring the vacuum thanks to the forcefield generator on his belt,
"Where am I?" He rummaged through his oversized overcoat, seemingly
looking for something. "I knew I shouldn't have taken that left turn at
Alpha Cygni..." He pulled the map from 'Time Bandits' out of his
pocket, got his bearings and stepped behind a molecule. [Sorry guys, I
couldn't help it... ^_-]
The Senshi moved closer to the now passive Moon Knight. Sailor
Moon cautiously asked, "What were you two doing here?"
"Burying my mother," the knight replied grimly.
Sailor Mars muttered something about a proper leader not rushing
blindly into a situation and causing a lot of misunderstanding. Jupiter
shushed her and Venus released Sailor Terra from the Love Me Chain.
"I'm sorry about being so hostile when we first saw you..." Sailor
Moon said sheepishly.
"Sailor Terra and I didn't exactly react to you very properly
either... You obviously are the Senshi and must have quite a story to
tell, however this isn't the place to talk." Moon Knight stood up and
gestured towards a wall, where a door suddenly appeared. "There's a
little place in subspace I often go to where I can relax. I can't
guarantee you a meal, but I believe there should be water to drink."
Without further adieu, he opened the door and stepped through.
Sailor Terra followed as did the other Senshi.
The scene on the other side of the door was a true shock.
Beautiful, silver grass stretched off into the distance as far as the
eye could see over gently rolling hills. The sky above was black and
starlit, but no Earth hung overhead.
"This is as close as a friendly and powerful sorcerer I knew could
get to a recreation of my favorite part of the Moon Kingdom. The area
was called Tranquility Prefecture, I haven't the faintest what it's
called today. Can you clue me in, Mercury?"
"Judging form the general topography of the area I'd have to say
this corresponds to the Sea of Tranquility in the real world," Sailor
Mercury said while typing away at her computer and taking readings with
her visor.
Moon Knight sat down on a rock next to a stream and closed his
eyes for a moment in thought. "Please, tell me what happened to the
Kingdom, it's very important."
The other Star Knights arrived on Saturn, with a mission. The
blast from Lunaria had been the Silver Shadow Crystal, right? Therefore
they were going to get the highest amount of firepower they could and
come back to help. The firepower in question: The Eye of Janus.
The problem: Saturn's capital, Silence, was where the Eye was
being kept. The cloud city of Silence had turned into a ghost town.
Hiro looked around, caution shadowing his normally cheerfully
gleaming eyes. "Alright guys, transform, we might need the power."
"Mercury Sentinel Power!" the blue haired member of the group
shouted, crossing his bracer-covered arms over his chest.
"Venus Sentinel Power!" Hiro intoned.
"Mars Sentinel Power!" a raven haired man shouted, his bracers
clanking against several medallions on chains around his neck as he
crossed them.
"Jupiter Sentinel Power!" Eiji snarled, crossing his arms.
"Star Knights, TRANSFORM!" they all chorused as their
transformation effects detonated around them.
Mercury Knight appeared in a frosty blast of frozen air and ice.
Venus Knight's uniform coalesced out of a column of golden light.
The Mars Knight stepped out of the firestorm that was his
transformation.
Jupiter Knight formed in a raging maelstrom of thunder and
lightning.
Mercury Knight activated his Heads Up Display and his minicomputer
and began scanning the area. "I'm getting a reading.." he muttered, "Oh
hell... DUCK!"
A stream of purple energy streaked between the Knights, scattering
them in various directions. The beam coalesced into a familiar figure,
now dressed in an unfamiliar uniform. Jadeite stood on the steps of the
royal palace, looking down at the stunned Knights with sadistic glee.
He now wore black pants tucked into black, mid-shin length boots. He
also wore a long sleeved button down black shirt. Purple energy
crackled between his hands as he charged up an energy blast to send a
them. "I'm reclaiming my prize! Tell the Senshi that the first time
they met me I was on a leash! THE WORLD SMASHER HAS RETURNED!!!" The
Star Knights went flying when the blast hit, they just didn't have
enough time to recover from his arrival, even in their transformed
states.
Venus Knight staggered to hit feet, a thin ribbon of blood making
its way out of the corner of his mouth. "Time to put down a rabid dog,"
he snarled. "You will NOT get the Eye of Janus!" He stood upright and
held one had over his head. "Spiral... BEAM!" he shouted, his hand
clenched into a claw. He swung his hand down and gestured at Jadeite.
Several energy beams shot from his fingertips, spiraling together into a
rope of golden energy that slammed into the escaped sorcerer.
"That it?" Jadeite mocked. Venus Knight didn't have time to
scream before he was fried by Jadeite's purple energy blasts.
Jupiter lurched to his feet and shouted, "THUNDER ASSAULT!"
sweeping his hands towards Jadeite and launching a pair of electric
blades at the sorcerer. Jadeite laughed it off and sent Jupiter
reeling.
Jadeite stopped laughing when Mars Knight used not only his
Burning Hurricane attack but several of his enchanted, explosive cards
on the evil magic user. Everything for several meters was concealed by
thick, sulfurous smoke.
When the smoke cleared, Jadeite was nowhere to be seen. There was
a pretty good chance that he'd gone into the palace though, considering
the fact that the main gates now hung off their hinges.
Jadeite walked into the center of the Great Hall of the Saturn
Palace. High overhead hung the deep purple glow of a crystal not unlike
the Silver Shadow Crystal. The Eye of Janus was almost his, after a
thousand years of striving. He shattered the deadly wards worked into
the air around the artifact and flew up to it.
[Gimme the Prize (Kurgen's Theme); Queen; A Kind of Magic]
Energy arced out of the crystal and flowed into Jadeite's body,
changing him, altering him, making him more powerful than anyone would
really want to think about.
A dark cloak appeared around Jadeite, causing him to be concealed
in its shadows. His eyes glowed like twin, purple fires from the depths
of the cloak's hood. In his hand he held a black staff that seemed to
be a twisted mockery of Sailor Moon's old Moon Stick. It was as long as
he was tall and ended in a sharp, jagged, angular crescent. Inside that
crescent was set the Eye of Janus, glowing like an evil strobe heralding
pain, hurt and everlasting torment.
The Star Knights came in just in time to get the first taste of a
new born godling's power.
Saturn Palace ceased to exist.
"Star Knights... RETREAT!" Eiji shouted.
The Knights crossed their arms before them.
"POWER SLIDE!" they shouted in unison. Each vanished in a
streaming flash of their color.
Four colored streams of energy shot away from Saturn. The orange
beam trailed slightly behind the others, flickering as its power began
to fail.
At the orbit of Jupiter, the orange beam failed and it's occupant
slammed into Europa, only the magic of his uniform kept him alive in the
harsh environment. The other beams continued, each beginning to weaken
slightly, but not enough to matter yet.
Jadeite appeared next to the fallen Knight. "Feel up to a few
tests?" he said sadistically. The Eye of Janus flared.
Moon Knight looked around at the Senshi sitting nearby, they'd
just finished telling him a story that made him both hopeful and, in a
way sad. "So, that's what happened? At very least you stopped that
demon and its pet witch before it could do any more damage... That
still leaves Jadeite unaccounted for though..."
"Why are you so worried about Jadeite?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Perhaps its time we told you our story," Sailor Terra replied.
"Do you want to tell them?" she asked of her husband.
Moon Knight nodded and stood up. He made several sweeping
gestures with his hands and muttered something softly under his breath.
In moments a slightly odd image of the solar system appeared overhead.
"This is how the solar system looked, two thousand years ago.
Before the World Smasher made his debut. Jadeite Ralmarth, a
practitioner of black arts decided to display his power, and magically
bored a hole to the center of the fifth planet, Janus. Once there he
stole that planet's spiritual focus, a crystal known as the Eye of
Janus. Without its spiritual focus, the planet detonated. The magic
involved in its destruction spread the fragments out swiftly, forming
the asteroid belt.
"Jadeite was imprisoned in Limbo for his crimes... However he
must have escaped and freed Metallia with the help of Beryl. I suppose
Beryl freed him in return for his servitude, that would explain why he
seemed to have less power when you met him..."
Subspace shook as something began to influence it. Jadeite's
grinning face appeared overhead, seemingly forged out of stars. "I HAVE
THE EYE NOW, PRINCE RYU. I WILL NOW EXACT MY REVENGE ON THE HOUSE
SATORI ONCE AND FOR ALL!" he boomed.
"Prince Ryu? Who *are* you?!?" Sailor Moon asked, her ears
ringing painfully from Jadeite's display.
"I am Prince Ryu of the Royal House of Satori, the ruling house of
the Moon Kingdom. Princess Serenity was my younger sister!" he shouted
over the rumbling of the ground. A silver crescent moon briefly gleamed
on his forehead.
"Wait.. I used to be Princess Serenity.. That means you're my..
big brother..." her face twisted up in concentration. "Why weren't you
the heir to the Moon Kingdom then?"
"The throne goes to the eldest daughter for all the planetary
kingdoms. We were a matriarchal society," he replied.
A black gloved hand burst out of the ground and grabbed Ryu by the
ankle, tripping him up. A dark figure burst out of the ground (the hand
was his). "How ya doin' Ryu? Feelin' a little down?" the man snarked
as he landed and pulled out a Ninja's short sword. He was dressed in a
manner rather like the Shadow. Long, flowing cloak over fine clothes, a
colorful sash tied around the lower half of his face, and a fedora (of
all things) perched rakishly on his head. "Ryu here used to call me
Hiro, but you can call me Hades now, I think it suits me better." Hades
proved his point by firing a barrage of dark energy from his hand with a
shout of, "DOOM BEAM!"
Senshi went everywhere, and Moon Knight took the blast full in the
chest without even flinching.
"It seems to me that you are in need of an attitude adjustment,"
Moon Knight remarked idly. "I think I'm going to have to beat some
sense into you, Hiro." Moon Knight launched into the air, tossing a
storm of his needles at Hades as he traveled.
Hades deflected the needles with his sword and a few well placed
energy blasts and took to the air himself. "No more idle chatter. I'm
the strong one now AND I'M GONNA PROVE IT!" Hades ran one hand along
the dull, back edge of his sword and swung the blade in an arc at his
former leader. "Dark... SLICE!" he called out, the sword trailing black
fire as it was intercepted by a sword that appeared out of nowhere in
Moon Knight's hand.
"Tsukinoken, The Sword of the Moon. You cannot win in a sword
fight against me, Hiro," the gray clad Knight pointed out.
"STOP CALLING ME HIRO!" Hades howled as he landed on the ground.
"We will meet again!" he snarled as he slashed at the air and vanished
in a flash of black light.
Moon Knight landed from his jump and dismissed his sword. He
whirled to look at Jadeite's grinning face, still hanging in the
heavens. "YOU WILL *NOT* GET AWAY WITH THIS!" He snarled in pure fury
and launched one of his Aura Crasher attacks at the projection,
shattering it.
"Who was that?" Venus muttered as she lurched up on one knee.
"That was your past life's brother, Prince Hiro of the House
Ishtar, Prince of Venus."
"*THAT* was my brother in a past life?" Venus blurted, losing he
balance in pure shock.
"He _has_ been a bit friendlier..." Sailor Terra commented
sarcastically.
The ground began to shake again as rocks tore up, out of the
ground like jagged teeth.
"Looks like Jadeite's started making a few cosmetic adjustments.
I advise we get out of subspace, quick." Moon Knight opened another
door out of thin air and rushed through, a group of very jarred Senshi
hot on his heels. Moon Knight closed the door and dismissed in with a
gesture. "We should be safe for the time being... Jadeite will vent
his wrath on my refuge before he tries to attack me again..."
No sooner had he said that then they all went flying. Three
people on ballistic flight paths crashed into the group.
"Get *off* of me you LUNKHEAD!" Sailor Mars snarked.
"Listen up, Miss Priss, you can take that attitude and SHOVE IT!"
Mars Knight blasted as he climbed to his feet, the many medallions and
gems hanging around his neck and of his belt clinking softly. "It's not
like I had a *choice* of who I was going to land on!"
"Why you arrogant..." Sailor Mars muttered, fire dancing in her
eyes and around her body.
"I'll show you arrogant!" Mars Knight muttered under his breath
and gestured to Sailor Mars, the resulting arcane stink bomb sent
everyone running.
"They never did get along very well..." Moon Knight wheezed as he
cast a minor breeze summoning spell to dismiss the stench. "Low blow,
Mars, behave yourself."
"But Moon Knight, I look at her and hear her shrill voice and all
I can think of is my sister. I've *got* to hear the story about
this..."
"Do tell," Jupiter Knight and Mercury Knight muttered as they
extracted themselves form the tangle of Senshi [why do I get this
feeling every Hentai reading this is drooling right now?].
"SHRILL VOICE!!!!!????!!!"
"Deeper and deeper we go..." Jupiter Knight whispered. He turned
to Sailor Venus. "Milady, you may want to duck. I sense... a common
thread between this Sailor Mars I see before me and one I knew a long
time ago... I see what has happened now, I see it quite clearly..." he
said in a sing-song voice.
"Shao Lin faze out in progress," Mercury Knight muttered. "He'll
get over it in a second..."
Sailor Mercury began to take readings on the slightly entranced
Knight, to find his psychic index had gone up to inhuman levels! It was
like he was fusing to the very fabric of the universe!
"Err... Pardon, what was I saying?"
"You tranced again, Jupiter. Anything to report?" Moon Knight
asked, glancing nervously back at the escalating fight between the
Shinto mystic and the Hermetic mage.
Sailor Moon was watching the fireworks like it was Chinese New
Year or something... "Wow, I love fireworks!" she bubbled.
"Reincarnation," Jupiter Knight stated matter-of-factly.
Sailor Jupiter looked at him strangely. "How'd you come up with
that by looking around like you were on a trip for a second or two?"
"I needed answers, so I asked Nature. It replied," the Jovan
Knight answered.
Sailor Jupiter gulped and backed up, "This is too strange for TV,
guys... Who *are* you?"
Mercury Knight was the first to speak up, "Keiichi of the House of
Hermes, Prince of Mercury."
"Jupiter Knight, Eiji of the House of Zeus, Prince of Jupiter.
Though I wasn't in court often. The place of a priest is not in a royal
court playing games of state."
A small explosion overturned a dustdune. Keiichi grinned, "The
firebrand having a friendly contest over there with Sailor Mars is Mars
Knight, Prince Ken of the House of Ares, Prince of Mars. If Eiji is
right, and he usually is, Ken's just catching up on an old argument...
In the old days, Princess Rei didn't like Ken's choice in magical arts
very much, so they tended to fight a lot."
Mars Knight came flying backwards over a dune, the energy for
another spell weaving between his outstretched hands. He tossed a small
puffball of fire at Sailor Mars as she came over the dune herself.
"DUCK!" the Knights shouted, following their own instructions...
Had any astronomer been looking at the Moon at that instant, there
would've been no way to miss that blast, but by some stroke of luck they
were all looking elsewhere...
Mercury Knight wiped some of the soot off his face, "They forget
*we* aren't immune to magical fire..."
Moon Knight sighed heavily and gave up any hope of salvaging this
pseudo-family reunion. Everything had gone to hell in a hand basket...
"I try, Psyche, I honestly try..." he winced as one of the Marses
launched another fiery assault on the other, with no effect other than
it caused a lot of fire and noise that only succeeded in making
everybody else miserable... "That's it..." he growled. He muttered
another weak spell under his breath and stood up. "MARS STAND DOWN!" he
boomed through the spell's voice-boosting effects.
Needless to say, it worked. Mars Knight fell slap over in shock.
Sailor Mars turned an interesting shade of purple and fell over too,
apparently the shout had frightened the breath right out of her. Sailor
Moon had fainted and was muttering something about "ice cream" over and
over...
"*That* was effective..." Sailor Venus commented, her ears
ringing.
"You want to take another elective? What's that gotta do with
anything?" Sailor Jupiter said absently. The shout had temporarily
deafened her.
Moon Knight sighed again and leaned against the hull of his ship.
Sailor Terra joined him and they agreed everyone else could sort this
whole mess out...
Jadeite surveyed his handiwork with all the care of a master
craftsman. The arcane replica of the Tranquility Prefecture now suited
his tastes perfectly. Wind-swept plains of gray dust and jagged rocks
jutting into the black sky like teeth as far as the eye could see, and
beyond. [Tenchimuyo! fans should recognize this scene from the
movie...]
"Hades, I want you to go to Earth," he said, matter-of-factly.
"Yes, Master," the corrupted Knight whispered.
"Takes these four medallions and find four men descended from the
Outer Planets' noble houses... Use the medallions on them," he held out
four medallions each with a symbol for one of the Outer Planets on it.
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
"I understand, Master." Hades took the medallions and vanished in
a flash of unlight.
"I love it when a plan comes together," Jadeite muttered as he
went to work creating a proper citadel to house his grandeur.
Hades appeared outside a dorm building at Tokyo University. Four
exchange students from Europe had just left on their way to their
afternoon classes. Fate had drawn these men together, Hades would bind
their destinies for all time.
He transformed into civilian clothes and walked up behind them,
the medallions carefully concealed in his hands. "Good afternoon,
gentlemen, could you tell me which way the Science building is?"
The sea green haired man spoke first, "Go down three blocks and
turn right."
"Thank you very much," Hades said, not meaning it in the
slightest. As the men turned to leave he carefully slipped the
medallions into their backpacks. "Mind if I give you a gift for your
assistance?"
"There's really no need," the sea green haired man replied.
"I insist... DARK PLANET POWER!"
The medallions in the men's backpacks activated, summoning suits
of corrupted armor and bonding them to the men's souls. The kind men
ceased to exist, replaced by dark warriors, loyal to Jadeite.
The corrupted Saturn Knight laughed coldly, "We are the Dark
Knights. I am WAR!"
"I am Famine," intoned the corrupted Uranus.
"You can call me, Pestilence," snarled the evil Neptune.
"Death," said Pluto, in a voice as dead as his new name.
"Time to go to work, guys, the Master wants to see you
immediately," Hades instructed.
The Dark Knights followed Hades back into subspace.
Meanwhile, the Star Knights had persuaded Mars Knight *not* to try
to blast his reincarnated sister to Kingdom Come anymore. Sailor Mars
had decided to give the red clad Knight the cold shoulder, the very cold
shoulder.
"Perhaps we should go to Earth, after all, that *is* where the
people are," Mercury Knight suggested.
"It's not going to be easy, I'd guess Earth's changed a lot since
you guys saw it last," Sailor Venus advised.
"I'm getting hungry," Sailor Moon whined.
"You're always hungry, Dumpling Head," Sailor Mars griped.
"I AM *NOT*!!!! WAAAAH!" Sailor Moon lapsed into a sobbing fit,
dropping to her knees and doing her best to irrigate to dry Lunar soil
with her tears.
"I wonder," Moon Knight muttered.
"What, Ryu?" Sailor Terra asked in Gaelic.
"What went wrong in *her* reincarnation? All the other princesses
act exactly the same as they did before," Moon Knight replied in the
same tongue.
"Nature versus nurture? You have to admit, your sister *did* live
a sheltered life. This might've been how your sister would've turned
out had she not been raised to rule for Day One," Psyche philosophized,
still speaking in her native language.
"I suppose..." he admitted.
While they were talking, the Knights and Senshi had gotten the
whole mess sorted out. They *would* return to Earth, targeting a Shinto
temple they frequented in their current home town. The Star Knights
would then follow, using Jupiter Knight's link to the fabric of reality
as a tracer.
The Senshi joined hands, with Sailor Terra standing in the center
of the circle, because she couldn't help with the teleport (she'd never
been to the shrine). The Knights waited patiently off to the side.
When the Senshi vanished the Knights crossed their arms over their
chests and vanished in their own Power Slide teleport.
Jadeite regarded Hades' handiwork from his new throne of Obsidian.
In fact his entire citadel was made of Obsidian, with glowing, green
Jadeite set into the black, glassy stone here and there for contrast.
"I like them, Hades, I like them a great deal. I want you to go to
Earth and soften the Senshi and Knights for me... Here is the address I
want you to attack," he handed Hades a slip of paper with the address
for the Hikawa Shrine on it. "Take this gem," he handed Hades an
emerald cut piece of Jadeite, "place it on the forehead of the statue
you see in this projection," Jadeite created the image of a samurai
statue. "The monster it will create will be a mix of Youma and Golem, I
think it should counter Mars Knight and Sailor Mars' powers quite
well..."
"I shall go now, Master," Hades intoned as he faded from sight.
"Soon, my Dark Knights, you shall ride on the wings of hell and
bring forth my vision... A dream world of pure CHAOS!" Jadeite's evil
laughter boomed throughout the citadel, the purple energy of the Eye of
Janus flaring brightly in the throne room.
Unseen on the asteroid Icarus, a man in black armor sat down on a
throne very similar to Jadeite's in a castle very similar to Jadeite's
and waited. "Time waits for the patient," he whispered to unseen beings
dwelling in the shadows. They silently agreed with him, their Dread
Lord was very wise.
Usagi was busying herself at polishing off a large bag of
tangerine flavored candies when Ryu and Psyche returned from their
shopping trip with Minako and Makoto... She'd had to stay home and do
her homework, with Luna watching her like a.. err.. cat to make sure she
did it... Now she was sitting on the steps leading to the Hikawa
Shrine, waiting impatiently.
She barely recognized the couple when they came up to her!
Psyche'd had her normally long, shapeless hair cut and styled, she
now wore her hair in a long braid reaching down to her waist. Her
clothes were still tomboyish, but a bit more feminine...
Ryu had undergone a more drastic change. Gone was the military
uniform, and in its place a white, button down shirt and gray dress
pants... He'd styled his long hair into a pony-tail reaching down to
the middle of his back.
"Wow..." was all she could say.
"Well," Ryu said pragmatically, "we *look* like people from this
century now.. and as soon as Keiichi's done we'll have histories too.
My name's Ryu Satori, I majored in Ancient History at the University of
Virginia in the United States."
Psyche snickered. "My name *was* Psyche Drake, but now I'm Psyche
Satori. I met Ryu at UVA, where I majored in Phys Ed."
"Satori I understand, but Drake?" Usagi questioned.
"Drake is another word for Dragon... Don't tell me you've
forgotten who me and Endymion's parents were?" Psyche said, shocked,
"King Arthur Pendragon and the Lady Guinevere."
Usagi fell slap over, the BADOOM! sound effect echoing for
blocks...
Keiichi hacked his way through the world's databases like Ryu's
sword through a Youma. "Mere children..." he muttered as he bowled over
the FBI's defenses and created several new people in their records...
"Now for everybody else.." he said softly. He pulled out his
minicomputer, interfaced it with the computer in the cybercafe he was in
and punched the "Execute" button.
Ken appeared in the sandy wastes of Egypt in a flash of fire. He
shook his head slightly at the drain of using his own teleportation
spell and headed for a sand dune totally similar to the three billion
around it. He shoved a large amount of sand out of the way with a
powerful digging spell and entered a hidden cavern. "Puck! It's time
to wake up!" he shouted into the small lair of his old friend.
A voice muttered in a Celtic accent, "'Tis about time ye came ta
see me, ye bloody oaf!"
"It's nice to see you to, Apple Breath, is my spare set of civvies
still here?"
"O' course, do ye think *I'd* be wearin' 'em?"
"Who knows? Maybe you got some fashion sense while I was gone..."
The Celtic-voiced being laughed out loud and fell of his perch
with a loud thud. "Ouchie..." he muttered.
Eiji walked out of the second hand store, now dressed in loosely
fitting pants and shirt. He put a rather beaten fedora on his head and
headed to the Hikawa Shrine, the wind blowing idly at his formless,
shoulder-length hair.
Hades appeared in a park near the Juban district and placed the
Jadeite stone on the forehead of a nearby statue. The statue opened its
green, glowing eyes and laughed coldly. "I am Blitzritter, what is your
command?" it said.
"Raise Hell," Hades whispered as he faded into the gathering
shadows of dusk...
Back in subspace, Jadeite set up a chess set made of Obsidian and
Jadeite. He set black pieces on the board that greatly resembled his
Youma, Golems, Hybrids and Knights. Then he set up green pieces that
bared a striking resemblance to the Senshi and Knight's forces... "Let
the games begin," he murmured to no one in particular. He moved one of
his Pawns forward two spaces, it looked just like Blitzritter...
Keiichi came back to the Shrine with a huge grin on his face.
"Good afternoon, Eiji Tanaka, and Ken Fukamachi. My name's Keiichi
Masamune."
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Masamune," Ken said with great mirth.
Ken'd changed into a black, button down shirt and red pants and sport
coat. His myriad talismans were nowhere to be seen... Ken'd slicked
his short, black hair back from his face with some sort of jell, making
him look almost like some sort of gangster with odd fashion sense.
Keiichi'd adopted the T-shirt and jeans look instantly, which went
well with his hairdo, which happened to look like a blue tinged version
of the Operative's from Tenchimuyo! The Movie... (a "Bowl Cut" with a
long ponytail). His expressive, blue eyes peered out from behind
totally functionless glasses, just to make him look the part of a
computer genius. "Shall we go in? I've got papers and so on for
everybody."
"That would be wise.." Eiji whispered, "I sense a storm coming..."
Not very far away, Blitzritter stood on a rooftop, summoning a
storm the likes of which hadn't been seen in Japan for millennia...
Talk about living up to your name.. Blitzritter *does* mean "Lightning
Knight" in German after all..
"When do *we* get a chance at the Star Knights?" Pestilence whined
from his vantage point near Blitzritter.
"You'll have your chances, all of you will," Hades muttered darkly
from the shadows. He pulled out his Ninja-to and started to check for
burrs on its cutting edge... "We'll all face the Star Knights again..
and that pathetic Moon Knight will be the very last to fall, he'll see
all he holds dear wither before his eyes," the former Star Knight
predicted coldly.
End Part 1...
Begin Part 2...
It was the largest meeting of warriors of the Silver Millennium
since the Silver Millennium ended. The Senshi sat around the table in
Rei's room. The Knights were scattered around the room, Ryu sitting
cross-legged slightly behind Usagi, with Psyche leaning up against him.
Keiichi was looking over Ami's shoulder at her computer as she worked on
finding some weakness in Jadeite's new-found power. Ken was floating
eerily over the whole scene, snoring faintly. No one really minded,
after all the odd things they'd seen over the past year or so a floating
man in poorly chosen clothes wasn't too shocking. Eiji was occupying
his time by reading one of Makoto's fighting tournament magazines. No
one had said a thing for the past ten minutes and the silence was
getting painful...
Makoto suddenly spoke up, "I never met Jadeite... but he doesn't
seem like your typical Dark General..."
Ryu sighed, relieved that the silence had been broken. "I noticed
that.. he seems different from the history books I read when I was
growing up... He seems like a madman..."
Minako muttered something that sounded like "Crazy like a fox..."
Ken woke up, if he'd ever been asleep, and replied, "I sense a
great power in Jadeite... A power that goes beyond mortal
understanding... He has changed, considerably..."
"And with the Eye of Janus..." Keiichi muttered darkly.
"Wha' dos thish Eyebar shingy *goo* ehweh?" Usagi murfed through
her third fried yam in as many minutes...
"This 'Eyeball Thingy' enhances the power of the wielder... It
makes their natural abilities downright godlike. A magic user like
Jadeite can do just about anything with the Eye," Ken explained.
"I must be the one to challenge Jadeite..." Ryu whispered.
"WHAT!?!" every Knight and Senshi exclaimed.
"I'm a magic user myself.. I have the best chance of beating him
at his own game," he explained, "My powers focus mainly on alteration
and enchanting.. Ken's a good example of someone with a talent of the
evoking of energies... If I can get close enough I might be able to
wrest control of the Eye from him.. or destabilize the Eye so that it
destroys itself..."
Jadeite looked up from a green-tinted crystal ball and laughed
like a maniac (not a big stretch for him...). "*That's* priceless! I
wish I had a holocrytstal to record that wonderful moment! Destroy the
Eye of Janus? I think not... Hades, you and your little friends can
pulverize those refugees from a bygone era now. Let Blitzritter soften
them up."
"Your command is my only goal, Master," Hades' voice replied from
thin air.
Back in the real world... "Blitzritter, CRY HAVOC AND LET SLIP
THE DOGS OF WAR!"
"Somebody call my name?" War remarked.
Hades punched the Dark Knight for being a twit.
Blitzritter held his Nagatama over his head and chuckled softly...
In subspace, Jadeite's hand hovered over the Blitzritter-shaped
pawn...
"RAGING STORM!" Blitzritter howled. The full fury of the storm
gathering overhead swirled down to Blitzritter as a powerful tornado.
The Dark Knights dove for cover across the street as the building they'd
been standing on ceased to exist.
"By all that's unholy..." Pestilence muttered.
"Right on schedule..." Hades commented.
Blitzritter strode out of the rubble, streamlined and no longer
made of stone. He was made of metal now, and crackling with raw power.
He gripped his Nagatama with one hand held it overhead, swinging it in
circles. He brought the polearm down abruptly and laughed out loud. "I
feel like killing something," he whispered, his voice sounded like
distant thunder...
Eiji and Ken both winced as thunder shook the shrine to its
foundation. Usagi shrieked and hid under the table.
"I sensed a great disturbance in the natural order," Eiji
muttered, grabbing his hat and pulling a poncho out of his backpack.
"There's enough magic in this storm to light this town for a
year..." Ken remarked just before he vanished in a puff of sulfurous
smoke.
Eiji charged out into the storm, thunder and lightning making the
approaching evening look like day.
Usagi cowered under the table, whimpering slightly...
"I remember the time we visited Earth the first time... Serenity
had never seen a storm before.. the lightning scared her to death..."
Ryu said softly. "If Eiji and Ken are worried, then we have good reason
to be as well... I advise I and the other Knights go out.. If we need
back up we'll call."
"What's this macho nonsense?!?" Rei howled.
"Rei..." Ryu said patiently, "This is not a normal storm..." As
if to confirm his statement, red lightning crashed through the sky
visible through the window behind him. The power went off. The red
lightning that continued to arc around the sky gave him an eery
appearance. "That is a Ley Line Storm... The Dragon Lines in Tokyo are
pouring massive amounts of magic into the environment... Any fully
emerged Senshi that isn't in a place of psychic refuge is going to
experience nausea and extreme weakness... Any Knight that goes out in
this is going to get a 50% power boost. We Knights draw on Wild Magic
as a power source, you Senshi draw on Order Magic for your powers.
There's enough Wild Magic flying around out there to put an unshielded
Senshi in the hospital."
Rei blanched and dropped her protest.
"Moon Sentinel Power, Transform!" he called out as he dove out the
door, a dust storm whipped up around him, transforming him into Moon
Knight. He bounded up over the tree-tops with muscles enhanced by
massive levels of raw magical power.
Mercury Knight had slipped out of the room, unnoticed by all and
was waiting patiently on the corner for his gray-clad leader. "So,
which way, boss?"
"I'd have to say..." he waited for the predictable explosion...
"That way..." he pointed towards the east.
"Once again through shot and shell..." Mercury muttered as he and
his leader rushed to catch up with the other Knights...
Jadeite picked up the transformed Blitzritter figurine and placed
it on an obsidian hex-map. He placed several more pieces on it, each
for a Dark Knight or Star Knight. He chuckled softly to himself and
began to move the pieces closer together, one hex at a time...
Mars Knight ducked behind a wall as Blitzritter lobbed a lightning
bolt from his hand, blasting a Yugo to hell and gone... Suddenly he
heard a man shout, "Richter CRUSHER!" in the distance. A blast of dark
blue energy detonated under his feet, sending him airborne...
A man in black armor trimmed in dark blue chuckled evilly from a
block away. "So, this is the mighty Mars Knight... I'm not very
impressed..."
"Who the hell are you?!" Mars shouted over the storm... He
noticed Blitzritter was gone.
"The name's War. I'm the master of elemental earth, so I hope you
don't mind if I dig your grave for you!" he mocked. He suddenly
crouched and punched the ground, calling down his attack again. Mars
leaped out of the way of the energy, only to be showered by the debris
of an exploding wall. He was buried under hundreds of pounds of
concrete...
Jupiter Knight had a problem... He was up against a man in black
and aqua armor, that had a taste for water...
"Tidal... SMASHER!" Pestilence howled, doing a pirouette in the
middle of the street, despite his armor, and ending the move by pointing
at Jupiter. A wave of water suddenly blasted out of the ground and
slammed into the Knight, pressing him into the wall and leaving a *deep*
dent in it...
"This is bloody embarrassing... These Knights aren't a challenge
in the slightest..." Pestilence remarked as he sauntered off down the
street, robbing a flower shop along the way. He liked the lilies they
had in that day, they were extra wilted.
Moon Knight blasted through Famine's defenses life a laser-guided
bomb going into a hotel window. He found the weakness in Famine's
defenses and pounded him with a full strength punch. The black and
yellow-clad Dark Knight fell to the street with a massive, smoking dent
in his armor.
Mercury paired off against a man in black and dark green armor and
proceeded to methodically break every joint in the Dark Knight's body...
In moments Death was a half-paralyzed lump, twitching feebly on the
ground. "Sorry 'bout that," Mercury said sarcastically, "I can
recommend a good chiropractor... Naah..."
The street detonated in front of them as Blitzritter made his
grand appearance... Jupiter and Mars staggered up the street behind it,
looking rather worse for wear.
"I am Blitzritter, you are dead meat," the Hybrid monster stated
coldly.
"Mercury.. Give me the low-down," Moon Knight muttered as they
backed up slightly...
Jupiter and Mars bought them the time he needed to scan the
monster for weaknesses... "He's immune to lightning.. and most forms of
magic... I'd say we need to take out the gem on his forehead..."
"That sounds like a plan," Mars shouted as he ducked under the
monster's Nagatama.
Jupiter ducked under a very well executed kick and leaped into the
air. He came down on the gemstone with a very powerful punch,
shattering the Jadeite crystal instantly... Blitzritter let out a howl
like a lost soul as he staggered back, clutching at his head like it was
about to split open.
"GAME OVER!" Moon Knight shouted as he summoned his sword,
Tsukinoken... "CELESTIAL RETRIBUTION!" he shouted. He charged at the
monster, the sword glowed with an aura that looked not unlike moonlight.
He swung at Blitzritter's waist, slicing through the monster like a hot
knife cuts through butter. The monster shrieked once more and melted
into a puddle of slagged metal that quickly shrank and vanished. He
paused for a moment, crouched down on one knee, almost like he was
praying, with his sword arm extended away from his body to the side.
The he dismissed the sword and stood up.
The sky faded back to it's former cloud-free state. The storm was
over...
Mars held up the hastily summoned illusion of a piece of poster
board with a number on it. "And from the Martian judge... 9!" he
shouted.
"I must admit.. Tsukinoken comes in very handy..." Jupiter
remarked as they took the back way back to the shrine.
"Now if Endymion.. Mamoru could only use the Earth's Celestial
Sword, Excalabur... No one ever figured out why it wouldn't work for
him... He *is* supposed to be Terra Knight after all..." Mars remarked
grimly.
"The universe is a vast and mysterious place," Jupiter remarked,
"I shall not try to explain its workings."
Moon Knight paused for a moment.. he felt.. odd. "Go on without
me, guys... Tell Psyche I'll be along soon. I need to check something
out."
"You got it, boss," Mercury assured.
Moon Knight crossed his arms over his chest and whispered,
"retroform..." His uniform dissolved into gray dust, leaving him in his
civilian clothes. He walked off in a random direction, he could feel
something pulling at his soul.. calling to him...
The members of the House of Satori all had rather limited
telempathy, the ability to broadcast and receive emotions. Right now he
realized he was feeling someone's terror and pain.. and it tore at his
soul like a jagged knife.
He could hear a little girl sobbing in the distance... "For a
fully emerged Senshi, a Ley Line Storm is dangerous. They will
experience nausea and weakness... For an unemerged Senshi, a Ley Line
Storm causes great physical and spiritual pain as their Starseed
temporarily short circuits," he muttered, remembering an old lesson in
Magical Theory as applied to the Senshis' power sources, the
Starseeds... The crystals implanted in their bodies that helped
regulate Order Magic so they could transform and use their powers...
He made his way into a playground, where a small girl sat in one
of the swings. She was clutching the chains of the swing for dear life,
the look on her face spoke volumes on pain.
"No child should have to face that.." Ryu whispered softly. He
went over to her and stared into a surprisingly familiar face.
The little girl whimpered and suddenly latched onto him like a
limpet. "Usagi Tsukino.. need to find.. Uncle?" she promptly passed
out. Ryu carried her back to the shrine.. There was only one Usagi
Tsukino in all of Tokyo, his sister, Sailor Moon.
"Has anyone seen Luna or Artemis?" Ami asked.
Minako frowned for a moment as she finished helping Makoto with
dinner (a dangerous proposition). "Hmm.. I think I heard Ken say
something about teleporting them to America... They got some sort of
reading from over there with some gizmo or another they dug up from the
Silver Millennium."
"Usagi, call your parents and tell them you're staying at Rei's
tonight.. something's just come up," Ryu called out as he returned. He
caught Rei's grandfather trying to spy on his wife while she bathed and
glared daggers at him. The elderly man scampered off with a true
feeling of dread in his soul. "I think deciding to stay here was a big
mistake," he muttered. Usagi came back from calling her folks to find
Chibi-Usa asleep, clinging to his shoulders.
"Chibi-Usa?!? How'd she get back here?!?" she exclaimed, prying
her daughter from the future off of him and laying her down on the
floor, resting her head on a pillow that'd somehow migrated into Rei's
room from the living room couch. "Chibi-Usa, can you hear me?" she
asked softly.
"Mommy?" she mumbled sleepily as she slowly woke up. "Uncle Ryu!"
she exclaimed as she woke up fully. She made an instant recovery and
gave the Knight a hug. "You don't know me, but you will. I'm Usagi
Satori, but everybody calls me Chibi-Usa!"
"I know... That was Serenity's nickname when she was little.." he
said idly.
"You gave it to me... Or that's what Mommy told me..." she said
with a grin. "Mommy sent me back to learn how to be a Senshi," she
pulled a locket out of nowhere in particular and held in up to Usagi.
"Good thing I haven't used it yet..." she remarked nervously.
"Is this what I think it is?" Usagi asked carefully.
"It's my locket.. I can use it to turn into a Senshi like you!"
she gushed.
"Well..." Usagi muttered, "You can't be Sailor Moon, that's *my*
job..."
Ryu looked down at his newly discovered, time traveling niece.
"Well, you're Chibi-Usa.. So why can't you be Sailor Chibi-Moon?" he
asked.
Chibi-Usa's face lit up in one of the most adorable smiles this
side of Neptune.
About that time, Eiji and Ken staggered in. They redefined the
term "Black and Blue."
"What happened to the dynamic duo?" Makoto said casually.
"Our natures are *slightly* different from normal Knights..." Ken
complained as he slowly sat down on the floor.
"I am very in tune with nature, and Ken uses Order Magic... We
suffered a slight loss of power from the magical chaos instead of a
power boost..." Eiji explained.
"Wait.. Ryu uses some magic too, why didn't he loose power?"
"Because I don't use Order Magic.. When I chant, it's a mental
exercise.. I use Wild Magic," Ryu explained.
"What do you mean?" Ami asked, curiously, "What's the difference?"
"You cast Wild Magic spells by exercising mental power to suggest
how the magic should behave. Order Magic has to be drug kicking and
screaming to do what you want it to, a bunch of chanting and spell
focusing and so on."
"Oh..." Ami said. She filed that little bit of trivia away for
future reference.
Psyche came in, rage glaring in her eyes. "That little troll was
spying on me after you left... Rei, do something about him or I swear
by all that's holy I'll break every bone in his lecherous little body!"
she snarled.
A thump sounded outside... The little perv had followed her!
Psyche was out the door in a flash, hoisting the little man up by
the front of his robes. "Listen up you fraction of a man. I'm a Wui
Wing Chun Master and if you continue to spy on me, I and my Hwarang
Do/Moo Gi Gong Master husband will introduce you to a whole world of
pain." Blue green light glowed in her eyes faintly.
Rei's grandfather headed for the hills.
Psyche came back in, furious. "Ken, Eiji, get lost." The bruised
twosome complied. When they left, Psyche immodestly dropped her
bathrobe and started rummaging through a duffel bag for change of
clothes. Usagi blushed at her sister-in-law's near-nudity (she was
wearing panties [do I hear those Hentai drooling again?]). What got the
most reaction though was the silver oriental dragon tattoo coiled around
her left upper arm. "What?" she asked.
Usagi and Ami stammered at the same time, "Y-your clothes!?!"
"So? We're all family here... And Ryu's my husband..."
Ryu shrugged. "I think they're just a bit modest."
Makoto shrugged. "Nothing I haven't seen in the showers at the
athletic club," she remarked.
Minako was still a child of Venus and didn't bat an eye at the
whole situation.
Chibi-Usa'd known her aunt for centuries, she was used to her
habits.
"What's with the tattoo?" Makoto asked cautiously.
Psyche laughed as she finished dressing for bed. "It was a
wedding present from Ryu... He's got a matching on his arm," she
pointed out as she pulled her robe back on over her pyjamas.
Her husband nodded.
"Didn't it hurt?" Ami asked, turning slightly green.
"No needles... It isn't *really* a tattoo, Ryu used his magic to
change the skin coloration on both our arms."
The Senshi blinked in surprise.
"How'd he do it?" Ami asked innocently.
Ryu and Psyche both flushed, and Ryu suddenly vanished. "Ask
again when you're older, Ami," Psyche said delicately. "I for one am
worn out.. I'm going to go to my room and sleep for at least a year..."
"You do look a little worn out," Minako remarked.
"Well... Good night, to all. Don't stay up all night reading
manga." Psyche grinned, and pulled the hairpins out of Usagi's hair as
she left, causing her hairstyle to fall apart.
"GARAGH!" she howled.
Psyche snickered. "GOT YA, DUMPLING HEAD!" she called out as she
scampered down the hall, feeling at least a century younger.
Psyche crept into her and Ryu's room. Ryu was already laying on
the futon, his own dragon gleaming in the moonlight. "You okay, Ryu?"
she asked.
"Hmm? I was just thinking..."
"About?" she asked as she crawled in next to him.
"Everything... We're a thousand years from where we're supposed
to be.. and.. I'm worried about Jadeite..." he said distantly...
Psyche recognized this mood... Back when they'd met fifty, no
over a thousand, years earlier Ryu had been a withdrawn officer in the
Moon Kingdom's Navy... He was totally out of place in the military, and
it was trying to pull him apart... He'd retreated into himself in self-
defense.
She snuggled up close to him and draped one arm over his chest.
The silk sleeve of her pyjamas swished against the sheets. "Let Jadeite
worry about himself.. Let the world worry about itself.. Remember one
thing, Prince Ryu Auric Satori, you are my husband, and I'll always be
here for you..." she smiled and rested her head under his chin.
"I'll try to keep that in mind..." Ryu whispered. He reached down
and lifted her face into view. He kissed her softly on the lips for a
very long time.
Chibi-Usa borrowed a piece of paper from Rei and started writing
things down on it.
"What're doing, Chibi-Usa?" Ami asked as she looked up from her
Chemistry book.
"Makin' a list..." the pink haired girl remarked.
"For what?" Ami responded.
"A party... There's gonna be a big party in a few weeks... I can
remember..." the not-as-young-as-she-looks girl said cryptically.
"Everything needs to be perfect.."
Usagi settled down next to her daughter and looked over her
shoulder. "What kind of party is this?"
"A secret," Chibi-Usa replied simply.
Jadeite glared at his minions angrily. He crushed the figurine of
Blitzriter in his hand and rushed over to the regenerated Death. He
cuffed the Dark Knight so hard up beside the head that he knocked his
helmet off. Jadeite clobbered Famine right in the still-regenerating
dent in his armor, blasting a hole in it. Pestilence got a backhand to
the face. War got kneed in the crotch. Hades didn't get pounded
because he wasn't visible at the moment.
"Hades, why shouldn't I kill you?" Jadeite asked coldly.
"Because I had the sense not to attack the Star Knights during a
Ley Line Storm. Blitzritter was a fool," Hades answered from the
shadows.
"Good point... Get these fools out of my sight while I think up
a new plan," Jadeite muttered coldly.
"As you command," Hades replied.
ONE WEEK LATER...
Keiichi, Ken and Eiji had gone into business together. Keiichi's
computer talents had swiped enough money from various Yakuza clans to
fund a small country, and it'd allowed the Prince of Mercury to play
with his favorite victims, the Yakuza hitmen. Hitmen tend to get
discouraged when their buddies come back frozen in blocks of ice and
every bone broken.
A combination bookstore/cybercafe.. Not exactly rare in Tokyo..
but the unusual habits of one of the owners (Ken) brought people in by
the droves.
Ken showed up for work dressed all in red, red tunic, red pants,
red boots, red cloak and a *huge* red hat. During the lunch hour he put
on a truly impressive magic act. His sleight of hand was so good no one
noticed the cards he was using to cast fast effect spells.
Keiichi learned the ins and outs of current computer technology
practically overnight. Not a difficult task for someone who's IQ went
off the top of modern scales. He made sure the cafe's computers didn't
do anything unpleasant, like blow up or something.
Eiji did one of the things he did best, cook. He'd made sure
they'd hired someone to help him keep up with the customers and then
went all out.
Who was the hired help? A lovely young woman who'd come to Tokyo
from Kyoto looking for work as a voice actress. She'd been universally
ignored, even though she showed signs of being truly great. Eiji
suspected his red-loving friend had fallen for the raven haired beauty,
considering that his "Lovely Kaiura" got any bouquets he summoned with
his magic.
For her part, Kaiura had observed his advances with detached
amusement, and strung him along for pure entertainment value.
For the third day in a row, Ken did his very best to get Kaiura to
go out on a date with her... To no avail.
"Mr. Fukamachi, I already have a date tonight..." About that time
a blue haired young man came up to her. "Mr. Fukamachi, I'd like to
introduce my boyfriend, Rowen Kines."
"How ya doin'?" Rowen drawled in Bronx-accented Japanese.
Ken suddenly felt edgy.. He wasn't sure if it was jealousy or
something more... Rowen seemed to exude power.. Wild Magic at it
purest... Ken slid a card out of his sleeve and into his hand, a card
for reading auras...
Rowen's aura glowed a medium blue as bright as the sun... Kaiura
gleamed a slightly dimmer yellow... Both their auras were saturated
with Wild Magic.
"Pleased to meet you," Ken said absently. His beeper, mercifully,
went off. "Uh-oh I'd better get going, see you later!" he called out as
he rushed off to find a phone. He silently thanked Mary Magdeline he
didn't have to face that oddly powerful pair.
Ken picked up the phone and dialed the number his beeper had
displayed.
"Satori," Psyche answered.
"You called?" Ken asked.
"Yes, full meeting, our place. Be here in an hour."
"Gotcha!"
Ken hung up and grinned. Keiichi'd used some of the money he'd
acquired to help the Lovebirds get an apartment.
Ami and Keiichi conferred on their readings and turned to face the
gathered Knights and Senshi. "You first, Ami," her brother said.
Ami started the briefing since Artemis and Luna were still in
America. "I've been trying to figure out who the Dark Knights were that
attacked Ryu and the others. I've analyzed their powers and come to the
conclusion that they're corrupted Knights representing the planets
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto... We're facing our own people."
Keiichi shook his head. "The problem is, as we Knights and Psyche
know, there were no Outer Knights... None ever emerged."
"Then who are these guys?" Usagi asked, looking up from the ever-
growing list of things she, Chibi-Usa and Mamoru were buying for someone
Chibi-Usa hadn't even named yet...
"Maybe blood descendants of the noble families..." Ken offered.
"Maybe..." the others conceded.
"Any news on Artemis and Luna?" Minako asked.
"I got a message last night," Usagi answered. "They're almost
ready to come back... There's something happening in America, but
they're not sure what. Luna's almost convinced she saw her brothers
Prometheus and Epimetheus the other night."
"Wow, she's got brothers?" Makoto remarked. "She never told
us..."
"She is a cat after all," Ryu remarked. "She didn't mention them
because she thought they were dead.. I thought they were too... They
weren't on the Moon when Beryl attacked."
"If they've shown up something big's going to happen," Eiji
warned.
Jadeite strode back and forth in front of his throne, glaring down
the steps at his servants. "It is obvious to me that I'm surrounded by
brainless fools!" he rebuked. "The only one of you with any sense is
Hades, and he's a bloody COWARD!" In an instant, the Staff of Dominion
was in his hand, seething with energy. Jadeite suddenly calmed, almost
like he was high on the power of the Eye of Janus set into the staff's
head. "I know how to deal with the situation though..." he purred.
The Eye of Janus flared brightly, energy lashed out from it and
struck the floor of the throne room, mere centimeters from the Dark
Knights' feet. The stone of the floor cracked and shattered.
A black, stone hand reached up out of the crater and pulled the
rest of its body out.
"I am Raidier," the creature spoke. "No mortal force can stand
against me." Raidier was a being of terrible beauty. He was made of
obsidian, in a humanoid form. His hands were clawed and blades
projected from his elbows and knees. Whenever he spoke his jadeite eyes
flashed with a bright green light. The blades on his arms and legs
retracted to mere spikes.
"See if you can do something right..." Jadeite muttered foully.
"As it is spoken, so shall it be done," Raidier intoned. Reality
rippled around him as he stepped across dimensions.
"I don't think Raidier's a good choice of creations to attack the
Senshi and Knights head on," Hades warned.
"He's not going to attack the Senshi and Knights head on...
Raidier is my ultimate creation and he already knows my plan. He will
not be attacking them head on..." Jadeite gloated.
Raidier appeared outside the Hikawa Shrine. Purple energy shot
out of him as he created a false shell of Human flesh around his almost
skeletal stone body. Clothes formed as well, gray and of a formal cut.
He began to make his way up the 99 steps, however he ran into a slight
problem. With each step the force pushing against him increased, until
the sacred power of the Shrine sent him tumbling down the steps. He got
back to his feet and held the damaged skin on his face back in place,
where it rapidly sealed up. "A minor setback," he muttered. His purple
aura flared brighter than ever, seeping into the protective shell around
the shrine and momentarily punching a hole through it. He grinned
wickedly and stepped through.
Rei winced as she felt a force ripple along her spine. Her entire
body suddenly felt dirty... The taste of oil in her mouth...
Evil... Pure evil... Something awful had entered the shrine...
"Mars Star Pow-" suddenly a powerful fist punched through the
paper wall, catching her in the stomach and cutting of her breath.
"There'll be none of that, Rei Hino.. or should I say Sailor
Mars?" Raidier said softly. "I believe you'll be going with me now..."
Purple, choking smoke filled the hallway.
Makoto ran down the alleyway, pulling out her transformation stick
and shifting into her Senshi form. The odd man in the gray business
suit was hot on her heels.
"Sparkling Wide Pressure!" she shouted, spinning around and
tossing one of her patented thunderballs at the creature... Just to
find she'd attacked empty air.
She didn't even feel the hand that reached out and touched a nerve
bundle on her neck, knocking her out.
Minako was checking off items on her portion of Chibi-Usa's list
when she rounded a corner and simply vanished.
Ami and Keiichi were playing a game of chess when the board
detonated. Keiichi hit a button on his minicomputer in his jacket just
before he hit the wall.
Usagi and Chibi-Usa left the house on their way to the mall, just
in time for Usagi to get sucked into a wormhole. Chibi-Usa shrieked at
the top of her lungs and ran for Ryu and Psyche's apartment a few blocks
away. As she rushed down the back street she pulled her locket out of
nowhere in particular and opened it. "Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" she
shouted in desperation. Her pink-skirted Senshi uniform materialize
around her, turning her into Sailor Chibi-Moon for the first time. She
used her desperate state and Senshi power to bound up to Ryu's second
story balcony.
Ryu was outside in an instant, scooping up the small, frightened
Senshi. He did his absolute best to find out what had frightened her
so. When he did find out his rage was great enough to justify his name.
Moon Knight and Sailor Terra (with Sailor Chibi-Moon in tow)
headed for the Red Wizard Cafe/Book Emporium, hopping from roof-top to
roof-top.
Keiichi was laid out on a couch in Ken's office, an ice bag over
one eye. Moon Knight checked on his friend while Sailors Terra and
Chibi-Moon filled the other Knights in on what had happened.
Keiichi gradually recovered and clambered into a sitting position.
"The monster Jadeite's created is like nothing I've ever seen before...
I'd bet anything he used Dark Magic to place a Human criminal of some
sort into a new, Golem body... He's got power to spare... I don't know
how we'll beat him."
The entire building shook when the street outside exploded,
sending people scurrying for hiding places. The Star Knights and
company came rushing out of the alley next to the cafe. Tsukinoken was
already in Moon Knight's hand, burning with the promise of celestial
retribution.
"Come to subspace, fools, face Magus Jadeite and perish!" Raidier
mocked out of nowhere. The crater in the street had been turned into a
portal into subspace.
"I notice you didn't call him master..." Mercury pointed out.
"I acknowledge no master, I only work for him.. AAAAGH!" Raidier
howled as an energy bolt flashed out and struck an unseen figure on the
top of a telephone pole. Raidier fell to the pavement, a hole burned
straight through his chest. "Damn you Jadeite..." he muttered as his
flesh dissolved, and then his real, stone body.
"Come hither and perish," Jadeite crooned.
"Once more into the breech..." Mars muttered.
"Well.. It sure beats *working* for a living..." mercury
remarked.
"Why do I need an excuse? He's an evil that must stopped,"
Jupiter stated bluntly.
"It's showtime," Terra whispered.
"We gotta save the Senshi!" Chibi-Moon chirped.
"I agree, on all counts," Moon Knight said, "Let's do it!"
The Senshi and Knights jumped into the portal.
Hades and the Dark Knights stood at the ready at the portal's
exit. They were all hidden behind stones that projected out of the
ground like jagged teeth. "Get ready," Hades rasped. He summoned his
Ninja-Go and prepared to attack his former comrades. He winced as a
splitting headache threatened to black him out. The Knights arrived.
"CRY HAVOC!" he shouted, slicing the rock he was behind with his sword.
The Dark Knights pulverized their own rocks, shoving them towards the
Star Knights and hopping back.
"Move in closer! Aura... Crasher!" Moon Knight shouted.
Sweeping both of his hands down to the ground and unleashing his energy
attack as far from his body as he could. The energy wave appeared just
beyond the group, blasting the onrushing rock to sand.
Chibi-Moon pulled out a small wand and pointed it at Death.
"Twinkle Yell!" she shouted, firing off a shot of sparkles.
"That it?" he asked sardonically.
Chibi-Moon shrieked and ran away.
"Time to end this once and for all!" Hades shouted. "Dark Venus
Power!"
"Dark Saturn Power!"
"Dark Uranus Power!"
"Dark Neptune Power!"
"Dark Pluto Power!"
"Dark Planet Powers, UNITE!" Hades shouted, pulling a black shard
of crystal out of his cloak and holding it over his head.
Energy arced from each Dark Knight into the crystal. The crystal
began to hum, very loudly and at a very high pitch.
The Star Knights and Sailor Terra howled in pain and fell to their
knees.
Psyche whimpered as the Wild Magic generated mark on her upper arm
re appeared and her Senshi uniform dissolved into her civilian clothes.
She managed to roll over before passing out. Her transformation brooch
had been obliterated. Inside her body, the Starseed used to regulate
her powers had shattered as well, a bloody trail flowed down her face
from the center of her forehead.
The other Knights reverted as well, red energy crackling around
their bracers and falling to the dusty ground. Their bracers were
covered with tiny cracks...
Hades gasped and fell unconscious, the headache that had been
building in his head finally exploding. Darkness seemed to flow around
him like a black cloud as his body finally rejected the evil Jadeite had
injected into his soul. He was in his Venus Navy uniform with his
bracers over his sleeves, they were cracked as well.
Psyche felt like she was floating... She opened her eyes to find
she was floating on a her back in the middle of a large lake.
She couldn't do anything but float, she was sooo tired...
She could see someone coming towards her, walking on the water
like it was dry ground.
"Mother?" she asked sleepily.
"Hello, Dear Heart," the Lady Guinevere said softly.
"I hurt..." Psyche muttered.
"Your Starseed was shattered, Dear Heart..."
"I know.. I'm so tired..."
"You can't give it to it. You have to fight it." Guinevere
reached out to her. "I want you to take my hand."
"I-I can't..." Psyche whimpered.
The Dark Knights were dazed from the power drain.
The Star Knights were experiencing a power failure.
Hiro, Prince of Venus was back in his right mind, but unconscious.
Psyche was comatose, her head cradled in Ryu's lap as he wept
silently. His soft heart had bested him. The only thing he could think
of was what she'd said a week earlier... She'd always be there for
him...
He wasn't there to be with *her* when she needed *him*...
He could feel something in him dying, and try as he may he
couldn't stop it...
"Listen to me, Psyche. *You* *must* *take* *my* *hand*! If you
don't you'll die.. and so will Ryu's soul..."
"Ryu?" she said distantly... She'd found something worth
fighting for...
Just before dusk in the dreamworld version of Camelot, two hands
met.
A new dawn rose over the horizon. A light brighter than the sun
had ever given off illuminated everything. Psyche looked around, at her
mother, at herself...
She was dressed in an oddly designed, female version of a Star
Knight uniform... She didn't have a sash around the lower half of her
face and she had some sort of cloth strip tied around her forehead...
She looked down at her reflection in the lake. The Kanji for "Military
Arts" was emblazoned on the headband around her head and a yin-yang
symbol was over her heart. She wore the tunic, pants and jerkin of a
Star Knight... She glanced at the reflection of her back, to find a
rampant oriental dragon emblazoned on the back of the jerkin. The
bracers were odd.. Instead of having dragons, they were engraved with a
cross-hatching pattern. The hand-end of the bracers were different as
well, there were now projections out over the backs of her palms...
Hand-guards...
"Now you understand... Do you not?" her mother asked.
"I must return to the Isles, soon," Psyche whispered. She
understood what this meant, all too well.
Rage boiled on Ryu's veins as hot as fire... He charged at Death,
Wild Magic flaring around his bracers. Suddenly, energy arced from his
bracers to Psyche's body and the other Knights. His rage had unleashed
the full fury of Wild Magic. The cracks healed on their bracers, as
they reformed into the hand guarded, crosshatched ones Psyche had just
dreamed of...
"I see it..." Ryu whispered as he tossed the Dark Knight like a
rag doll. "Moon Dragon Power... TRANSFORM!" he shouted, raising one
fist overhead.
"Mercury Dragon Power!"
"Jupiter Dragon Power!"
"Mars Dragon Power!"
Hiro staggered to his feet, shaking the cobwebs out of his head.
"Venus Dragon Power!"
"STAR KNIGHTS, TRANSFORM!" they shouted, raising their right fists
into the air as well.
[Princes of the Universe; Queen; A Kind of Magic]
It was a sound like distant whispering... Suddenly coiling
streams of energy blasted up in a ring around each Knight with a mighty
roar. Anyone who looked closely at the swirls would realize the swirls
were actually tiny oriental dragons of energy, swirling a eddying around
each warrior. They formed into the Knights' new uniforms, male versions
of the one in Psyche' vision and in their colors.
"We're baaack," Venus Knight said mockingly. He vanished in a
puff of orange smoke.
Mercury Knight did a spectacular forward flip over Famine,
grabbing him and throwing him.
"Moon Knight, we'll handle these clowns. You go get Jadeite!"
Mars shouted.
"Where's Psyche?!" Moon howled.
"Right here," the newly awakened Terra Knight said from behind
him.
"Nice clothes," Ryu appraised, "The extra blue green suits you."
"I thought a change of wardrobe was in order," Psyche said with a
smirk.
"Hey lovebirds," Keiichi snarked, "Get rolling, you got a genocide
to squash and a pack of Senshi to save."
Eiji dodged a punch from Pestilence, "By the way.. Where's Chibi-
Moon?"
"I'm coming!" Chibi-Moon shouted. As she passed the slightly
dazed Death she made sure to kick him in the crotch, making the Dark
Knight whimper and fall over.
"You're a mean kid," Terra remarked as they ran towards Jadeite
Obsidian Fortress.
"I'm a lot older than I look, acting like a nine year old's so
much fun though..." she replied.
Moon Knight skidded to a halt at the gates. He clenched one hand
into a fist and held it up to eye level. "I think I'll knock... AURA
BUSTER!" He pointed his fist at the gate and opened his fist,
unleashing a massive energy bolt at it and knocking the massive gates
off their equally massive hinges. "Want a magazine subscription? Make
a donation? How about we just make a withdrawal!" Moon Knight howled as
he rushed in.
"God I love it when he talks like that..." Psyche muttered as she
followed him in, Chibi-Moon hot on her heels. Maybe one of these days
she could get him to speak out more.. she'd always been the one in the
pair with a loud mouth and was beginning to worry if Ryu had any kind of
attitude to inflict on the enemy whatsoever.
Usagi wasn't in pain, but she sure wasn't comfortable.. She
realized whoever'd kidnaped her hadn't taken her locket.. Big Mistake.
"Moon Cosmic Power, Make Up!" Nothing happened...
"Hello, Usagi Tsukino. Welcome to my humble abode," Jadeite
remarked from his throne.
Usagi and the other Senshi had been suspended from the ceiling by
chains attached to their wrists, now stretched up overhead.
"Really interesting decor, Jadeite!" Psyche roared as she, Moon
Knight and Chibi-Moon strolled in.
"Jadeite," Ryu snarled, sounding a great deal like his namesake,
"We come for you!"
"Freezing Storm!" Mercury Knight shouted, sweeping his hand in a
downward arc. A blast of bitter cold, ice and freezing water blasted
towards Famine. The Dark Knight fell to his knees as the first stages
of frostbite set in on his extremities... His armor struggled to keep
him from passing out due to hypothermia. Mercury kicked Famine under
the chin, making the man's chattering jaws clack together and sending
into unconsciousness.
Death got punched from behind and blasted into the next county
when Hiro reappeared and clobbered him in the back of the head. He
followed that up by pointing his palm at the Dark Knight and shouting
"Golden Laser!" A beam of golden energy flashed out of his hand and
tagged the Knight in the back, sending him into the land of happy dreams
and unpleasant nightmares.
With a shout of "Fusion Bullet!" Mars Knight tossed a concentrated
sphere of plasma at Pestilence. The sphere detonated, leaving the
corrupted Neptune Knight very scorched. Pestilence slumped to the
ground with a metallic shriek of tearing metal.
An electric field arced between two prongs that'd deployed from
each bracer. "Thunder..." the lightning now arced between his bracers.
"BUSTER!" he shouted. War didn't have a chance to jump out of the way
before 1.21 Gigawatts shout through his body. He invented a new dance
step, the Lightning-War Watusi, and did a good impersonation of a
beached whale.
"Four down!" Mercury called out.
"One the ground," Venus added.
"Let's get going, Ryu might need help," Jupiter advised.
The Knights took off on foot, they couldn't teleport in subspace.
Moon Knight rushed at Jadeite. Using his Wild Magic to frighten
the wizard into trying to block him with his staff.
It worked.
Ryu's red-tinged Wild Magic arced through Jadeite while Jadeite's
powerful, purplish Dark Magic arced through Ryu.
Ryu howled in pure agony. He realized there was no way to wrest
control of the Eye for Jadeite.. That meant he had to disrupt the Eye,
destroying it.
While his flesh broiled he ignored the pain and reached out with
his mind. He felt for the power flow from the Eye to Jadeite. He
feinted an attack at the flow, distracting Jadeite. Ryu lashed out with
his Wild Magic, altering the Eye's molecular structure. The Eye began
to hum dangerously as Ryu retreated.
Jadeite howled in terror as the Eye exploded soundlessly. A light
brighter than the sun on Mercury blinded everyone.
When everyone's vision cleared they saw sparkles floating around
the room, all beginning to concentrate on one point. Ryu took the
glowing sphere and held it in his hand... It formed into a crystal much
smaller than the Eye of Janus, exactly the size of the Silver Shadow
Crystal. It gleamed with a red light from deep within, making it look
like a massive ruby of the highest quality.
"The Dragon's Eye..." Chibi-Moon whispered.
Ryu looked at the others in the room, he knew instinctively that
the castle was collapsing... He reached out with Wild Magic, through
this "Dragon's Eye" as Chibi-Moon called it and warped the fabric of
subspace. He and the others vanished.
The Knights just entering the citadel vanished.
They all reappeared at the scene of the earlier battle against the
Dark Knights. In the distance, the citadel collapsed in on itself.
"A tomb of stone for a monster," Ryu said distantly. He used his
magic to open another portal into normal space. He stepped through,
into his apartment, and collapsed. The Senshi and Knights charged
through the portal just in time. Without Ryu's maintenance, the portal
slowly slid shut. "So tired... I need.. sleep..." Ryu smiled at the
thought of victory.. and fell asleep.
THREE DAYS LATER...
Chibi-Usa was beside herself in pure mirth. "Thanks for letting
me through this party here Aunty..." she said to Usagi's mother.
"No problem... Who are these people you're throwing this party
for though?"
"Another Aunt and Uncle of mine moved here from America.. Aunt
Psyche knows why I'm throwing the party.. but she doesn't suspect *I*
know..." the pink haired sneak gloated.
"Pardon?"
"It's a surprise!" she shouted.
The Senshi and Knights snickered.
"Well... she would be the one to find out, whatever it is..." Ken
remarked.
"Huh?" Keiichi and Ami said from the coffee table. They still
hadn't been able to get out of that deadlocked chess game.
"Eiji.." Minako asked, "Could you teach me some of your moves?"
"Perhaps.." he said idly, "It requires a certain amount of
motivation..."
"Oh, I'm motivated alright," she said. {He's so cute...} was the
only thought in her mind...
{Minako... All I see when I look in your eyes is the woman I once
loved... But is that woman still in there?} Eiji wondered.
Makoto wasn't very responsive. She was too busy mentally
undressing Hiro Kisaragi, the incredibly handsome Prince of Venus... He
was so cute she didn't care if he was a lech...
Hiro, for his part, was seated across from Makoto, using a well-
practiced technique of misdirection to make others think he was looking
somewhere else. In fact her was enjoying the wonderful view of Makoto's
panties, she was so busy trying to figure what he looked like under his
clothes she hadn't crossed her legs when she sat down. Law of Peeping
#1 Be prepared for anything... Makoto still looked just like she did
in her past life. As tall as he was.. athletic.. "vast tracts of
land.." The Hentai Prince was in heaven...
Ryu and Psyche finally arrived. Just to receive a thunderous
"SURPRISE!" from their gathered friends.
"Wha?" Psyche whaed.
"Geh?" Ryu gehed.
Chibi-Usa bounced up to them, giving Psyche a big hug.
"Congratulations!" she chirped. She pulled Ryu's ear down to hearing
range of her whisper. "Psyche wants to tell you something..." she
whispered impishly.
Psyche sighed, resigned to the fate set upon her by the pink-
haired moppet. "Alright... Alright... I confess... I'm sorry I
didn't tell you sooner, Ryu... I'm pregnant..."
Everybody cheered.
"How'd you find out?" Usagi's mother third degreed Chibi-Usa.
"I have my ways..."
"Ryu.. Are you alright?" Psyche asked nervously.
Ryu developed a rather curious expression on his face.. and passed
out.
Back on Icarus, a man in black armor sat on his new throne made of
steel. "Jadeite was a fool..." he remarked. "The Star Knights have
become even more powerful thanks to his meddling... This whole affair
begs further study."
The creatures in the shadows agreed... Their Dread Lord was very
wise indeed.
End of Volume 1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Author's Notes...
Psyche is pronounced Psi-key... I borrowed her name from Cupid's wife.
The only Star Knight who's name means anything is Ryu's. When put into
Japanese name order his name Satori Ryu means "Enlightened Dragon." The
Auric part of his name? Well... I wanted to imply that Queen
Serenity's husband was related to the Venus monarchy. Auric is a
corruption of Aureum, an archaic name for Gold.
Who are Kaiura Hoshino and Rowen Kines? Read another one of my upcoming
projects and find out... Heh heh heh... (Power from the AR-MOR...) ^_^
Character Data (general notes)
Keiichi Masamune:
Planet - Mercury
Powers - Water/Cold
Advantage - Intelligence
Age - 198 (physically 20)
Hiro Kisaragi:
Planet - Venus
Powers - Metal/Light
Advantage - Agility
Age - 209 (physically 21)
Ryu Satori
Planet - Moon
Powers - Psi
Advantage - Wild Magic
Age - 210 (physically 21)
Psyche Satori
Planet - Earth
Powers - Soul
Advantage - Combat Training
Age - 190 (physically 19)
Ken Fukamachi
Planet - Mars
Powers - Fire
Advantage - Order Magic
Age - 213 (physically 21)
Eiji Tanaka
Planet - Jupiter
Powers - Wood/Thunder
Advantage - Mystic Combat
Age - 224 (physically 22)
Why are they so old? The Starseeds the Senshi have retard their
aging, the more powerful the Senshi become, the more slowly they age.
Whatever force empowers the Star Knights also grants them a greatly
lessened aging rate which improves as their power increases.
The Silver Illusion Crystal also grants an increased lifespan to
those near it often, lengthening the lifespans of the Senshi to virtual
immortality (barring accidents).
See you later, I've got new Knights to design and sketches to
finish!
Berk' "REM" Watkins...
"When subjected to the distorted surrealism of the
upper northwest corner of the 42nd dimension,
lemon's turn light purple and any political figure can
be expressed in abstract terms as an algebraic
equation."
- The #1 Reason Why Fish
Wear Vests.