CHAPTER 7 - Close Encounters Of The Worst Kind

  /Oh great.../
  Ian Robinson, 21 years of age, a one-time student at Bath
University, looked up at the building he now found himself before.
Once again, his unerring sense of direction when running away from
something had picked, at random, a place to run to.  And, as usual, it
appeared to have chosen badly.
  He shouldn't have been surprised.  In fact, he wasn't.  Instead, he
was feeling some sort of sinking feeling right down in his gut, as he
stared at the building in question.
  Not that he could read the sign situated above the doors.  It
happened to be in Japanese, a language that eight months ago, wouldn't
have featured in his top ten priority subjects required to get ahead
in life.  But he didn't need to be able to understand the sign; he
recognised the building itself.
  /Twice in one hour.  It couldn't happen... could it?/  It was a
rhetorical question.  And he already knew the answer.
  The building was, of course, the mall he had materialised in,
fifty-two minutes ago.  The same one in which he fought a dangerous
monster out for blood (his), and afterwards, was pursued by five
suspicious girls who thought he was part of some Dark Kingdom.
  It was only fitting that he would find himself standing in front of
it after being chased out of an icecream parlour by the leader of that
same group of girls.  /And her cat,/ he added, humourlessly.
  He had decided to walk on by, and forget the whole incident, but
blonde hair in an increasingly familiar hairstyle made him change his
mind.  It wasn't difficult to miss when most of the people in Japan
have black hair.  And those `meatballs' were rather distinctive.
  Ian crossed his fingers on both hands momentarily, and then walked
into the mall.

  According to playground superstition, while `cross keys' promotes
good luck, `double cross keys' actually has a negative effect.  Ian
had a tendancy to forget things when they were related to luck charms.
  Then again, in Ian's case, it probably didn't matter whether he had
one or both fingers crossed.  Either way, his luck was going to be
bad.

  --**************--

  There is much to be said about the effects a major fight has on a
public place.  Take, for example, the astounding absence of people.
Or the half-destroyed stores.  Or even the police line that had been
put up around the area the monster had died.  People avoid this type
of place in the hopes that they wouldn't get caught up in the
consequences of whatever craziness went on there.  Of course, it's not
very effective _after_ the event, but in this case, perhaps it was a
good idea.
  Ian's first mistake was to approach the two men who were searching
through the debris left behind.
  He attempted to communicate with them.  That was strike number two.
"Uh, hi.  What're you doing?"
  The man in the grey uniform lifted his head and glanced at Ian,
subjecting him to a moment's scrutiny.  Obviously, he didn't find what
he was looking for, as he turned back to his work and ignored Ian.
  That should have been enough of a hint to send Ian walking
nonchalantly away, and not attract any more attention.  Sadly, his
third mistake, regrettably not his final one, was that he never
noticed it.
  Not only that, but he went on to catch the general's attention with:
"You're looking for stuff from that Sailor Moon battle, right?"
  Three strikes.
  The uniformed man looked up at Ian, and then turned to his
companion.  "See what he knows," he barked, before resuming his
search.  The casually dressed man was over by Ian before he could
blink, and wasted no time in putting Ian in a rather inconvenient
position; he grabbed each side of his jacket collar, and pulled the
hapless student up to him.  All of a sudden, Ian realised exactly how
much this guy towered over him.
  "Doesn't this count as police brutality?" the would-be student asked
tentatively.
  "It does if you happen to be a policeman," his captor replied
smoothly, sending his hopes plummeting.
  "I'm sorry," Ian said without sympathy, before kneeing the guy in
the groin.
  The results weren't what he had expected.  The man didn't fall and
roll on the floor in agony; in fact, he just stood there, impassive.
Well, not exactly impassive.  A smile began to appear on his face.  A
nasty smile.  Ian swallowed.
  From what he could see of the future, the next few minutes promised
previously unknown levels of pain and torture.

  --**************--
  
  "What?!"
  "I'm afraid so, Usagi," Luna whispered, trying to calm down her
protege.
  "But he can't!  He couldn't have!  He isn't even part of the
Dark..."
  "We don't know that yet," the cat continued, carefully interrupting
so that the girl wouldn't shout out _all_ their secrets.  "Calm down,"
she admonished, "before people get suspicious."
  "He really knows who I am?" Usagi asked in a soft voice.
  "`Glad to see you're not in uniform'?  You did say he was there when
you got to the youma.  I'm not sure if he knows exactly which one you
are, but if he can at least remember that you're a senshi, it won't be
long before he does figure it out."
  Usagi walked on a bit in silence, Luna riding in her arms.
  "So what do we do?" she asked the cat after a few moments.
  "The only thing we can do," replied Luna.  "We must find him before
he finds out how dangerous that knowledge can be...."
  Luna stopped as she noticed that Usagi wasn't listening to her
anymore.  In fact, she seemed intent on the building they were
outside.  "What is it," she asked.
  "Isn't that the mall we were in earlier, Luna?"
  Luna looked over it carefully.  "Hmm...  I think so.  Strange.  This
isn't on the route home.  We must have gotten distracted.  I
think...."  The cat trailed off as she felt a sinking feeling.  There
was a strong source of evil from inside; much more than any youma
alone could create.  "Usagi, I think we've got a problem."
  Usagi looked at Luna with a puzzled expression on her face.  "Huh?"
  Luna's voice was tinged with the dread she felt.  "Kunzite is in
there."

  --**************--

  Sudden pain.  His chest gave slightly under the force of the blow,
and all the air from his lungs was expelled in one breath.  His eyes
shut reflexively from the impact, so he felt rather than saw when his
tormenter threw him across the hall.  He experienced the brief
sensation of flight, before he collided with concrete and slid to the
ground.
  His thoughts were incoherent, and it never occurred to him that he
might have a chance if he used his pistol.  Of course, his body wasn't
really listening to him at the moment, so the thought would probably
have become mere speculation.
  He wondered briefly how much longer he would have to wait before
pain became unconsciousness.  But no, that kind of thinking was
suicidal, despite the temptation to just give up and drift into
darkness.
  He waited for the next blow, wondering if it would be the last.  The
white haired man in the grey uniform had said something about finding
out what he knew.  That, like most fates, had both his advantages and
disadvantages.  It meant that he wasn't going to die yet.  But, from
recent evidence, also meant that as long as he didn't die, there was
no reason to not inflict pain on him.
  He was having trouble opening his eyes, which left him waiting in
the dark.  After a while, he began to feel impatience that he was
being made to wait, tinged with hope that those guys had given up and
gone away.  The ringing in his ears was becoming quiet enough to hear
the conversation around him.  Or rather, a familiar soliloquy.
  "...is bad enough, but picking on tramps who can't defend themselves
is unforgivable.  For love and justice, I am the beautiful Sailor
Senshi, Sailor Moon.  In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"
  Thinking about all the ridiculous poses she must be making, Ian
thought it was probably better off he couldn't see at the moment
anyway.  /Sheesh.  `Saved' again./  Ian sat back, and tried to recover
before the battle was over.  /Who knows, maybe this time, I'll escape
without _anyone_ noticing!/
  And so, he waited.

  --**************--

  He stood there for a few moments, looking at the lone Sailor who
dared to interrupt his research.  He still desired his revenge for
Zoisite; even though the Senshi were not directly responsible for his
demise, he blamed them as if they were.  He wanted to tear into her
and bring her to the brink of death, make her feel all the pain she
could bear and more, for all that she had done.  Only then would he
finally end her pitiful existence.
  But that would be a waste of time in Beryl's eyes.  And Kunzite
wasn't too fond of yet another lecture.  There was still the matter of
the new energy source.  He had yet to discover from where it had come
from, and he didn't want the Sailor Senshi to know that he was
searching for it.  Which meant that he would have to leave before they
became suspicious.  There would be other times to reap his vengeance.
For now, he would have to leave only the youma to handle the threat.
  Even that option was under consideration.  The loss of youmas over
the past year had been a cause of upset in Beryl's court.  That and
the continuing failures had been Jadeite's undoing.  Although the army
of the Dark Kingdom was considerable, Beryl had not liked the way her
strongest fighters had been thrown at the Senshi, only to be defeated
every time.  He was not fond of having to report to Beryl every time
this happened with one of his youmas.  Especially when he also had to
report that their had been no success, that the sacrifice of yet
another youma had been completely pointless.
  Revenge would be sweet if the youma succeeded, although not as sweet
as if he procured it himself.  But Beryl would definitely not be
pleased should yet another youma be sent needlessly to its death.
  It took only moments to come to a decision.  Especially since he had
knew from experience how this opponent was most likely to react.
  Kunzite gazed at Sailor Moon, and said in an amused voice, "Destroy
her," before vanishing.
  The youma was only too happy to oblige.  It quickly transformed into
an altogether more menacing form.
  There would be no questions asked about why this particular youma
had been named "Spiky".

  --**************--

  Ian grimaced as he heard a familiar scene take place around him.
Sure, it had been funny the first time he'd seen the first episode of
Sailor Moon at Uni; for once, someone received superpowers without
really having the courage or knowledge to use them.  However, at the
moment, he was sort of depending on this would-be superhero to prevent
him from getting killed.  Funny just didn't come into it.  Ian half-
opened one of his eyes to keep an eye on things.
  First thing after the preliminary speeches came the expected shout
of "MOON TIARA MAGIC!"  There was a whistling through the air as the
golden tiara spun towards its target, only to bounce off the monster's
armour without fazing it at all.
  Then, there was a twang like a released bowstring as the porcupine-
like creature let off hundreds of needle-sharp quills at the hapless
girl.  Predictably, she squealed and ran.
  /Well, at the very least, she _is_ distracting the bloody thing.../
  His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp quivering twang by his
right ear.  Scarcely daring to move his head, he glanced over at the
foot long quill sticking out of the concrete wall behind him.
Belatedly noticing his rather exposed position, he scampered sideways
on his hands, just making it to the cover of a nearby stall.  He
winced at the thunk that was made as more of the deadly quills hit his
new piece of cover.
  And he almost flew when a ball of fur landed at speed in his lap.
  Momentarily ignoring Ian, the cat poked her head round the edge of
the stall.  "Don't let him chase you around like that, Sailor Moon,"
cried the feline.  "Turn around and use your..."  The cat suddenly
shrunk back, narrowly being missed by a quill thrown in her direction.
  Cursing to herself, the cat suddenly got the feeling she was being
watched.  She looked up to find Ian watching her, with some kind of
neutral expression on his face.  "Meow," tried Luna tentatively, in a
vain attempt to mask her excellent vocabulary.
  "No dice, kitty," Ian said with a small frown.  "I'm afraid I'm not
familiar with your name, and in my experience, cats that can talk
aren't very happy being called kitty.  So you are?"
  "Kitty's fine," Luna muttered, a little suspicious of Ian still.
  Ian shook his head in exasperation.  "Okay then, kitty.  If that's
the way you want it."  And with that, Ian slumped back and got back to
resting.
  Luna eyed Ian intently, indignation building.  "I don't believe it,"
she said.  "You find out I can talk, don't seem to display any kind of
shock or anything about it, make an attempt to find out my name, and
then are content to just sit there and ignore me completely.  Also,
here you are, yet again, in the middle of a youma attack.  And... what
are you looking at?"
  "I'm just wondering if Sailor Moon is about to find out what I found
out about pot plants."
  "And that would be?" started Luna warily, looking around to see what
he was talking about.
  "That they don't make very good cover."
  Luna eeped and started shouting at the luckless girl to get the hell
out of there.  Ian just inched back and resolved to ignore the
attention his hiding place would soon receive.



  --**************--

  End Draft of the Half Completed Chapter 7

Author's Notes:  Well, if Hitomi can post out half completed
chapters... ^_^

As usual, C&C is welcome; encouraged in fact.  I'm not that hot on SM,
so if anyone out there knows better than me, and you find somewhere
where I've broken canon, tell me so I can fix it.  This fanfic *must*
be in character, for obvious reasons.

Credit where credit's due though.  While most of the references here
belong to certain very very well-known authors (Douglas Adams, Terry
Pratchett, etc...), I feel I must definitely credit Hitomi Ichinohei
for the harakei info.  It's lifted almost word for word from one of
her fanfics: "A Son's Duty".  Another must read.  The story, in my
opinion, is well-thought out, with great characterisation.  And if
that wasn't enough, the Japanese culture info (of which the harakei
stuff was part of, and not mentioning the recipes ^_^) definitely
makes it worth reading.  The only complaint about it that I have, (no,
Hitomi, not the grammar; the grammar, as usual, is perfect.  Don't
worry, we'll tell you when you finally do make a mistake (along with
our "shock, horror, Hitomi's made a grammar mistake, Armageddon is
nigh!" expressions,)) is that it isn't finished.  But it's getting
finished!  Even as I write, Hitomi is probably translating the latest
part.  Unless she's working on "Alternate Bubblegum Zone".  Or
"Alternate Ranma".  Or helping with "Clothes Make The...".  Or
actually doing work, rather than fanfics.  Which is probably unlikely
considering it's 3:35 am over here, and she lives, um... I forget.
Which is probably a good thing anyway.

Anyway, enough babbling.  That concludes this part's "Author Time".
Tune in next time when we review yet another brilliant fanfic author;
none other than....

Oops, outta time ^_^

Actually, next time will still be Hitomi Ichinohei, since I haven't
completed Part 2 yet!  So, I'm afraid you'll have to read the above
bit again when I do complete it.  Um, well, I guess you don't _have_
to... but it'll still be there.

Also, thanks to Travis Butler and David Kogan for their invaluable
C&C, without which this fanfic would have still been in its raw state.
And I'd probably still be stuck halfway through Chapter 7.  Wait a
minute.  I am still stuck halfway through Chapter 7.  Oh well.  I'll
get through it one day.  By the way, Travis, this is the revised
version, so if you really want to C&C it again... hey, I won't blame
you if when you come to C&C it, you only do Chapter 7 (what there is
of it, anyway).  God knows I've felt the same way when I do prereading
for Dave Harper.  Anyway, as I said, thanks guys!

Also, I would be interested to see if anyone _can_ find all the
references I made; there _are_ some pretty obscure ones there.

Part 2 should be complete, um, sometime next year ^_^   No, wait, I
wrote that bit sometime last year, so Part 2 should be complete
sometime this year.  I think.  Um, Frito, would you stop looking at me
like that.  You're making me nervous.

Thanks for reading this far.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Ciao, for now.