*********
The Heroes We Love
Episode 2
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Chapter 8

	"Are you sure this is the right time, Serena?" Raye said in a very
annoyed tone.  According to Serena, Amy should arrive on a
transcontinental flight number 270 in from Munich on or about 10
o'clock. However, it was eleven now, and still no sign of the Plane. 
Of course Raye was sure that this was the right flight, but she liked
to annoy Serena.  The gate attendant told Serena and her gang several
times that the flight before Amy's was delayed, but they couldn't
take that as an answer.
	The impatient bunch continued to pace around the gate, waiting for
their friend.  Darien and Serena had picked up Richard along the way
to the Airport, they had a big party planned after Amy arrived, but
that was not bound to happen for a long time now.  Richard just sat
at one of the seats by the window and watched the flights come and
go.  Every now and then someone would strike up a conversation with
Richard, but that would end after a short while.
	Just out of sight, Lita would take passing glances at Richard,
looking at him calmly watching the midnight sky and passing lights of
incoming and leaving planes.  Lita was actually talking to Mina, but
Mina shortly realized that she had other things on her mind. During
one of Lita's glances at Richard, Mina became impatient and decide to
act on her impatience. She stepped a little closer to Lita and spoke
into her ear.  "So do you think he'll ask first or you?"
	Lita jumped at Mina being so close all of a sudden and took a few
steps away from Mina.  Then returned Mina's glare with a puzzled
look. "What," she began. "What do you mean?"
	"Oh come on!" Mina exclaimed.  "You've been fawning over him
forever!  And don't you think for a second that I didn't hear you in
the diner earlier today."
	"Hear me?" Lita returned.  "What do you mean?"
	"Lita," Mina walked closer to Lita. "I heard you call Richard a
'Hunk' in the diner, and you've been staring at him all day like back
when we were in Junior High." Mina turned and looked over at Richard,
still staring off into the night sky. "He is handsome, but you don't
know him at all. I mean, he's Darien's friend but that doesn't make
him yours, and, well look at him. He must be years older than
Darien!"
	"Do you have any point you would like make, other than to invade on
my privacy?" Lita spoke harshly towards Mina.
	"Lita, I just don't want you to get hurt, you worked so hard to
break your affection to Freddy, and I don't want you to have to go
through all that again. I care for you." Mina looked into Lita's
eyes.
	"Maybe," Lita began softly.  "You might be right about not knowing
him, I've just met him today, and he did look a little uncomfortable
during lunch at the diner.  But," Lita trailed off.  She looked over
to Richard again.  "I don't know anything about love anymore, and I
feel something from this guy.  Even if it isn't love,  I need to know
why I feel like I do." Lita just stared off at Richard again, not the
same look she wore before, but a newer, saddened look.
	Mina touched Lita on the shoulder and quietly spoke. "I understand,
and its not my business, but, be careful will ya?"  Lita looked up to
Mina, and she just smiled.  "Come on and join me, you need to have
more interaction with people other than looking at the from afar."
	The two walked up to Serena and Darien and joined their already
progressing conversation.

***

	Serena happened to glance over just as Lita and Mina were walking
up, she quickly replaced her look of scorn with a smile and gave a
nod to Darien that they would continue their discussion later.  He
looked back and said nothing, but she knew he understood because he
quickly walked over to her and placed his arms around her waist.
	Earlier in their relationship, Darien had been much taller than
Serena, being he was a collage boy and she was just starting Junior
High School.  He had gotten into the habit of holding Serena just
below her neck, almost like he was strangling her, but too low so
that he would be crushing her collarbone.  It didn't look quite as
hostile as explaining it sounded, just a couple who's heights
clashed.
	However now, Darien had stopped getting taller in his early twenties
and Serena quickly caught up.  She was rivaling his height now, but
he was still taller.  They looked much more like a serious couple
now, than they did when they were younger, but their feelings to each
other never changed.
	"So, what have you been talking about?" asked Mina.  She was
standing with arms folded across her chest, and wearing a big smile. 
Lita was standing just behind her, every now and then looking over
her shoulder at something.
	"Oh, nothing really.  Got anything to talk about?" Serena said back
then looked over Mina's shoulder.  "Lita, is something wrong?"
	Lita quickly turned her head around to look at Serena, then replied,
"Oh, no.  Not really, just wondering when Amy's flight will arrive."
She lied, but it was better than having Serena on her case about how
much older Richard is than Lita, despite that Darien is about five
years her major.  She could even be as lucky as having Darien on her
case as well, Richard was his friend after all.
	Serena apparently bought her cover story because she shook her head
and sighed, "Yeah, it seems to be taking forever doesn't it?" She
walked over to the window with Darien in tow, she looked up at the
partly covered moon.  The sky was clear of any clouds, and the
blackness of space stretched out for eternity.
	Darien looked behind himself and gave a look to Mina and Lita as if
they were interrupting something.  They understood and walked off
towards Raye and Chad.  Darien waited until they were good and far
from him and turned back to Serena.  She was still gazing up at the
sky.
	"Its been awfully quiet lately," she whispered to Darien.  "When she
left, I thought I could never manage without her.  I thought she
would have to read in the papers about the sudden death of four of
the five Sailor Scouts.  But then…" she trailed off.  She wouldn't
stop looking up to the sky, as if she was requesting answers, yet
receiving none.
	She reluctantly continued, "then everything just stopped.  No more
people ending up in the gutter, no more energy sapped children."
	Darien looked down at his little Meatball Head, her expression was
so blank, it almost scared him.  He tried to help her get through
whatever she was going through.  "You were happy when that happened,"
he told her.  She jumped for a second like she hadn't noticed he was
standing there, holding her.
	"Yes," she whispered again.  "Yes I was happy about that, maybe I
still am.  But its like," she struggled for the words, but soon
shrugged and continued.  "Like something's missing."  She reached
into her pocket and pulled out her broach, and held it close to her
chest.  "Ever since I had picked this thing up, I've only wanted to
ditch it for a normal life.  But now, something's changed, I'd hate
to admit it but I think I was getting used to the fighting."
	Darien struggled to see it from her point of view, his mind had been
focused solely on keeping Serena safe.  To him, the less danger
around, the better for her.  However, as he thought about it, he
began to realize she must have fought for something, as he did, maybe
that something has changed, or it was never completed?
	"I've always felt it was my job to protect people," she continued. 
Case and point, Darien thought to himself. "And I suppose that its
good that they don't need protection anymore.  But I still feel I'm
not doing my job, or not doing it right," she quickly turned around
to be face to face with Darien.  "I mean, what if they've been
storing their power all this time, taking small bits and keeping it
instead of what they used to do.  They could be doing it all behind
our backs, and we wouldn't even know."
	She had broke out in a nervous frenzy, Darien grabbed her shoulders
to steady her.  He spoke as kindly as possible to her, "Its okay, I'm
sure there is no 'they.'  We've been careful, we've checked out
anything that could be related to a major threat.  You know all those
times we sneaked out behind the other girls back's, to follow some
crazy lead.  You've been doing your job, its just be slow for a
while."
	He held her close and stroked her head, the beautiful golden threads
lingering between his fingers.  She rested her head on Darien's chest
and wrapped her arms around him.  Her head moved back and forth in
his chest, like a small animal burrowing up against its mother.  He
just stood there and whispered to her, not anything in particular,
just to show her he's there for her, and cares.

Chapter 9

	The five Sailor Scouts stood at the perimeter of the Museum, with a
tall, looming, chain link fence right in front of them.  Sailor Moon
peered through the fence and watched as a large truck drove by
towards the loading dock.  It was unusually weighted in the rear, so
that the front wheels were clearly visible, while the rear ones were
slightly covered by the hub.
	Amy pulled out her mini-computer and her VR Visor and scanned the
truck.  There was nothing inside except for a cylindrical object
somewhere between 900 and 1100 pounds.  She blinked for a moment and
managed to speak to the others.  "It weights a ton! How are we going
to move it?" She waited for a response but instead heard a familiar
phrase being spoken from a fellow Scout.
	"Mars, Fire Ignite!" Sailor Mars cried.  The tip of her fingers
glowed a bright red then glimmers of heat flowed from the top. 
Suddenly a stream of fire was pushed from her hands and turned the
ominous chain link fence to slag.  Amy was angry for her friend's
short temper, and just waited for the alarms for the Museum to go
off.  Fortunately for them, they never did.  Apparently they hadn't
been turned on because of the workers still at the Museum.
	The five Pretty Suited Fighters ran through the opening in the
fence, jumping over the glowing hot metal at the base.  When they had
all safely crossed it, they ran off down a brief slope from which the
fence had been placed on, and towards the direction of where the
truck had gone.  As they got closer to the truck they heard voices,
and as they approached they realized it was from the workers off
loading the giant pod.  They got to a section where three or four
large trucks had been parked with their rears pointing towards the
building.  A quick look told them that the truck they were looking
for was parked last in the line.
	They quietly edged their way to the truck just before the one that
had just arrived.  The voices of the men were loud, like they were
right next to them, and most likely, they were.  Sailor Moon looked
around the corner of the truck and saw a bunch of strong looking guys
stare into the truck as if they were trying to plan out their next
move.  Sailor Moon crawled back to the others and told them exactly
where the men were standing and what they were doing.
	Within a few moments, and some help from Sailor Mercury, Sailor Moon
had formulated a plan to get the huge object in the truck.  Mercury
would cover the whole area with her Mercury Bubbles, then Mars would
start a small fire on the other side of the truck.  That would
distract the men from seeing anything else, they should head towards
the fire while Venus, Jupiter and Sailor Moon herself would work on
getting one of those forklifts and using it to get the object out of
the truck.
	After a few moments they were set, Sailor Moon looked out from
behind the truck again and saw that the men had still not chosen a
method of operation yet.  She smiled and looked back to Mercury, she
nodded to her and she nodded back.  Then Mercury stood up tall and
called out for her power.  "Mercury Bubbles… BLAST!" she yelled out.
	Huge bubbles flew from her hands and soon turned to a thick covering
of fog.  She managed to cover the entire side of the building,
extending way out behind the fence the entered from.  Mars took her
cue and ran out in front of the truck, the men couldn't see her
because of the fog so she aimed carefully where she thought her aim
should be.  With the fog around though, she couldn't be sure.  She
held out her hands and called for her power like she did for the
fence.  "Mars Fire, Ignite!"
	Once again, fire sprouted from her hand and flew through the fog and
hit a pile of garbage leaning up against the museum wall.  She hit
her target despite the large amount of fog, but as she watched she
realized that the fire was quickly dispersing the fog.  She looked
over to Mercury just as she had looked at the fire herself.  When she
returned Mars' glance, she nodded affirmatively.  She understood, and
Mars turned to watch Sailor Moon and her bunch do their job.
	Venus, Jupiter, and Moon all ran into the museum when the men ran
towards the fire.  Inside its storage warehouse they searched around
for a forklift to steal.  They came across one in the far corner from
where they entered.  They didn't have much time so they didn't fuss
about it.  They got in and drove it as fast as they could towards the
entrance, getting there in less than a minute.  They noticed that the
fog was still there although a little less dense as it was before.
	They came out of the museum warehouse so fast she had to slam on the
breaks in order to stop before hitting the truck.  The forklift came
to a stop with a squeal and the trio of girls were tossed against
each other.  Sailor Moon glanced over to where the men where and made
sure that they were still working on the fire.  She then spoke to
Venus and Jupiter, "Come on, we have to get this thing outta here!"
	Jupiter and Venus stared forward into the truck, then the turned to
one another.  Jupiter was the one to speak first.  "I don't think we
have to worry about the pod," she spoke solemnly.  Sailor Moon
quickly turned to look into the truck and saw what the others were
afraid of.  "What on Earth?" she questioned.  By this time they had
attracted the attention of Mars and Mercury, because they too ran
over to them and looked into the truck.
	Mars gasped, and Mercury just stared.

***

	"Miss Anderson?" spoke a voice from the darkness.  Amy pulled
herself from her dark slumber to look for who had spoken to her.  Her
eyes were a bit blurry at first but soon focused on a young
stewardess.  Amy pulled her seat upright and wiped some of the sleep
out of her eyes.
	"Yes?" she responded to the stewardess.  Amy straightened her
blouse.
	"We're about to land, and the captain advises everyone to buckle up
now," said the stewardess.  Amy was about to reply when the
stewardess continued walked down the isle warning people to wear
their seat belts.  Amy quickly grinned and pulled her belt from
inside the fold of the chair and put it on.  She gathered all her
reading material into a single pile and did a quick straightening up
of her appearance.
	She felt a little hot and wiped her hand across her forehead and
realized it was wet from sweat.  She looked up at the small air
conditioner above her and made sure that she had indeed turned it on
before she fell asleep.  She had, and it still continued to blow cool
air into her face as she looked into it.
	She wondered why she felt hot, had she had a nightmare?  It must
have been a very intense one to get so worked up like it had.  When
had she had a dream so intense before?  She couldn't remember, but
she knew that the memories from dreams don't last long because the
brain cannot form the synaptic pathways immediately after sleeping.
	She pushed the thought aside and peered out the window next to her. 
Below was the city of Tokyo, it was strewn with bright lights and
mazes of streets.  Her view was unobstructed because there were no
clouds that night, but it was night and the darkness itself was
limiting.  However she managed to pick out a few things she
remembered from her childhood.  The Tokyo tower was easily visible,
but she could also see a few places she'd been to as a child.  She
saw a restaurant that her parents once took her to, she saw the big
mall that she had been to with Serena once.
	The plane suddenly lurched downward as it crossed into a lower level
of the atmosphere.  Even in perfect conditions, every landing has a
few bumps.  She tried to look ahead and saw what looked like a small
airfield which was the Tokyo International Airport.  As the plane
approached the airport, is size became enormous and looked as if it
would engulf the plane. That thought was dismissed almost immediately
and the plane touched down on the ground flawlessly.
	She waited patiently as the plane slowed down and was towed to a
boarding gate.  She could hear people gathering around the exit of
the plane, probably they can't wait to get down and kiss the ground. 
Amy slowly got up and gathered her magazines and journals and walked
over to the exit.  By now it had begun letting passengers off, so Amy
waited on line and when it was her turn she walked through the exit
into a long tunnel that would lead to the boarding gate.

Chapter 10

	Benton was impatient and nervous.  He was supposed to have waited
behind all the others back in Germany, just to tie up some loose
ends, and to make sure their little *letter* made it to its proper
recipient. However he had been witnessed to more than he wanted.
	Apparently, the recipient didn't take the hint as well as the Queen
would have wished.  Benton had witnessed first hand as the recipient
dashed over to the airport and bought the first flight available to
Tokyo.  Fortunately, the next flight wasn't for another day, and
Benton had already scheduled his own flight for that day.  He would
be a day ahead of the recipient, with more than enough time to tell
the Queen what had happened.
	At first Benton was angry that there were only two flights to Tokyo
per day, he really didn't want to wait as long as he had to.  Not
only were there only two flights, but they left within an hour of
each other.  A poor management of time and resources was what he
thought of it.  However the real kicker to about it was that due to
some minor turbulence in Germany, both flights on this day left
within a few minutes of each other.
	It didn't really matter, but Benton had been on the plane that left
a few minutes earlier.  A few minutes wouldn't matter, but he had
picked up a few habits from living in this time.  He'd acquired the
need to try to be the first at everything, even the minor
satisfaction of leaving a few minutes ahead of a plane was still
satisfaction.
	When the exit out of the plane opened he was first to rush out. 
Holding his laptop, that contained his reports that he carefully
typed out during the plane trip, close to his chest, he dashed down
the ugly Pascal hallway that connected the plane to the boarding
gate.  When he reached the end a man opened the door for him and he
ran past him into the airport's gate areas.  He stopped when he got
into the middle of the area and looked around for his contact.
	He was supposed to meet his contact that would take them to their
new place of residence.  He looked around frantically for anyone that
looked familiar.  As he spun around looking for his contact he didn't
even notice the crowd of people coming out of the gate and heading
towards him. Being he was in the middle of the area, he was in
everyone's way, and it only took one person to make him lose his
balance.
	A woman of about forty years of age, about five feet tall, and way
too heavy for her height was walking up behind Benton and didn't
notice him standing in front of herself, probably because she was
talking way too loud to a meager man walking next to her.  She made a
drastic motion to emphasize what she was saying and accidentally
knocked Benton across the back of his head.
	He was stunned for a second, but a second was enough for him to
forget about the laptop in his hands and drop it to the hard, cold,
stone tiled floor. Benton immediately realized what he had done and
watched as his work fell on its corner and proceeded to split a crack
along the seam and open up.  It spilled its internal components like
blood from a deep cut.  The screen hit the ground and began to leak
the liquid crystal it had so recently used to make pictures.
	Benton let out a yelp and quickly bent down and searched through the
mess. The disk, he thought.  If I can find the disk I'll be fine.  He
pushed through the mess and parts when flying, sliding across the
stone floor.  He had attracted a crowd of people behind him, with the
woman who made him drop the laptop directly behind him.  As Benton
searched through the mess he heard comments coming from the crowd
behind him, ending with "Well, its his fault anyway, lets go."
	The woman who caused him to drop his laptop began to walk off when
Benton suddenly heard a crack like the snapping of a bone.  His
peripheral vision saw that the woman had stopped walking suddenly. 
Benton whipped his head around to see his whole life flash before his
eyes.  Under the woman's incredibly large heels was a part of a black
disk.  Benton looked down in his hand to see the disk drive from the
laptop with no disk in it.
	It had shot out of the drive and the woman had stepped on it.  The
fat, balloted, extra-large, cow of a woman had stepped on his disk. 
Benton's teeth ground together.  He would need to hand those reports
the moment he arrived in front of the Queen, but now, he didn't have
the time to do it.  She would kill him, she'd give him a punishment
worse than death.  Benton was genuinely afraid while at the same time
more angrier than he had ever been.
	The woman looked down and picked up the broken disk and held it in
front of Benton.  She spoke in a loud, cracking voice.  "Is this
yours?" she asked in an almost mocking tone.  Or maybe she said it
sincerely and he just heard it as a mocking tone.  His anger had
reached a climax and he had already decided the woman's fate. 

***

	Rionix sat in a seat across from the gate that Benton was supposed
to come in from.  He had been assigned to be Benton's contact upon
his arrival in Tokyo.  He wasn't fond of the idea of being a contact,
he had also known Benton's personality to be somewhat overbearing and
short tempered.  Fortunately, Rionix had been a more recent addition
to the Queen's more trusted servants, so Benton didn't know Rionix,
and that pleased him.
	Rionix had been watching the gate for Benton's arrival, and when he
came storming out of the gate, the last thing on his mind was to run
over and greet him.  For the sake of boredom, Rionix decided to play
with Benton a bit.  Rionix just sat in his chair and watched at
Benton searched the room, looking for familiar faces.  He even
brushed by Rionix in his search but just like he figured, he didn't
know him.
	Rionix watched as a large woman bumped into Benton, and got a
chuckle when his laptop his the ground, shattering.  When the laptop
had settled Rionix saw the disk drive shoot something black out and
slide across the floor right in front of the large woman.  Benton
frantically searched the remains of the laptop, and Rionix wondered
why.  Surely he must have known that his laptop was beyond repair,
and the hard drive would have been the first thing to get screwed up.
	Rionix looked back at the black thing lying on the floor.  A disk,
he thought.  He must have saved his information to a disk, but had
foolishly left it in the drive of the computer.  He watched as the
woman made some initiations to move and then, much to Rionix'
delight, she stepped on the disk.  He watched as Benton's face turned
to one of horror as he looked at the disk being held in front of him.
Rionix grinned then stopped as he watched Benton's expressions.
	He clenched his fist and his face drained of blood to look white as
a ghost.  Then his pale face took on a look of pure anger and hatred.
 Rionix could read in the man's expressions exactly what he was going
to do.  He was going to kill that woman.

***

	Richard stood up and straightened his collar and pushed some of the
wrinkles out of his shirt.  Darien's friend Amy's plane had arrived
and people had begun to flow out of the gate fluidly.  He pulled on
the cuff of his pant leg. First impressions, he kept telling himself.
 God knows how many of those he has had.  Some were good, and others
were no so good, but as long as he could keep a professional look and
tight lip things ought to go fine.
	Richard moved so that he stood behind Darien and his gang, he wanted
to look like part of the gang without actually being so.  The people
were beginning to thin out, coming out much less main stream now. 
However, from what he heard of Amy, she was the conservative one, if
there was one in the lot that would wait until the end to leave, it
would be her.
	He remembered to put a smile on his face for the incoming, it had
less of a tendency to scare people that way.  He continued to watch
the gate for their friend when he suddenly realized that he had no
idea who he was looking for.  He hadn't seen this woman before, nor
any pictures.  He hadn't even pictured what she might look like, to
him she was just a name. Richard grimaced, he guessed he'd find out
when she arrived.
	He took to looking around the airport terminal, seeing if anything
interesting was going on.  When he turned he back he was looking eye
to eye with Lita, one of Darien's friends.  He was shocked for a
second then regained his calm composure.  She opened her mouth about
to say something to him, or ask him something.  She then suddenly
closed her mouth and turned back around to look at the gate.
	Richard's inner conscious piqued at what she was about to say, be he
decided it might had been easier for his life if he never asked.  The
thought immediately left his mind when he heard the blood curdling
scream.
	He quickly spun around on his foot and gazed off into the direction
from which the scream came from.  His eye quickly picked up on a
group of people gathered around a man and a woman who appeared to be
kissing.  However, it only took him a few seconds to realize that the
man had his mouth at the woman's neck, and she was flowing with
blood.
	The woman's scream died out suddenly as he body fell limp in the
mans hands and he tossed her hunk of flesh to the floor.  The man
looked up at the crowd of people with a gaping smile and
surprisingly, not a drop of blood on him.  The man looked around at
the crowd he had gathered, he had a look on him that was for an
instant looked like regret. The man scanned the room and stopped on
Richard's figure.
	The man's eyes widened and his jaw fell slack as he stared at
Richard from across the terminal.  Richard stared back, not knowing
why this brutal man was staring at him.  But as he stared a glimmer
of recognition flashed through Richard's mind.  He tried to hold onto
the thought, but it soon dispersed itself as Richard spun around to
look at Darien and his friends' reaction.  But to his surprise, when
he turned around, they were gone.

***

	"Hold it right there!" screamed a voice from the rafters of the
terminal.  Benton looked frantically around until his eyes focused on
the speaking form, hidden to him by shadows.  As the blackened figure
spoke, several other forms appeared next to it, until they numbered
five.  The voiced didn't exactly strike fear into his heart, but it
startled him just the same.
	"How dare you feed on the innocent few, our future rests in their
behalf!" yelled the voice.  She wasn't exactly innocent, thought
Benton.  As the voice finished that last word, the figures jumped
from the rafters, one by one in cadence to look like a flowing
shadow.  As the landed they were shown by full light, the first and
one speaking was a woman about Benton's height, with long flowing
blond hair that streamed down in two golden ponytails, one on each
side, with two semi large buns of hair atop her head, which seemed to
look like blond meatballs.
	She was wearing a tight, white sailor outfit with a short skirt at
the bottom, and long while gloves that reached to her elbows in
length.  In the center of her blouse was a bow of blue with a star
broach in the center, and her legs were adorned by long red, heeled,
boots, that reached to her knee.
	To her sides were other women, dressed similarly, however with
different predominate colors in their outfits.  There was a very tall
woman with brown hair in a singular ponytail, whose outfit seemed to
be predominately green, another blond hared woman, who wore her hair
down, and whose outfit was mostly yellow, and a shorter, black hared
woman with shades of red in her outfit.  Finally, to the right of the
dual ponytailed woman, stood a man dressed in a black tuxedo with a
top hat and a fresh rose in his vest.
	The dual ponytailed woman spoke again, "The innocent deserve to be
protected, I am Sailor Moon! And in the name of the Moon," she moved
to show off her battle stance.  "I will right wrongs and triumph over
evil, and that means you!" She pointed a slender finger wrapped in
white at Benton.  He felt many things flying through his head, but
one thing he was not, was impressed.
	However, Benton was not stupid.  He knew that five against one was
odds he cared not to play against, let alone be killed under.  He
needed help, or an escape plan. Unfortunately, his general area, and
lack of a contact, have left him with little help to call upon and an
escape plan would just end up in death when he faced the Queen
anyway.  The proverbial rock and a hard place.
He gathered his thoughts, his enemy would not let him just stand
there and work out a plan, he needed to move quickly.  He racked his
brain for all information he could remember about the infamous Sailor
Scouts, he was an intelligence agent, he should know.  However, his
memory failed him due to the fact that his general area of expertise
was supposed to be German intelligence.  What each person in the
German government had for breakfast wont help him here.
	The thing that most bothered Benton was the fact that his sword of
honor was in his luggage.  The security would never have let him take
it on board the plane strapped to his waist, so he had to hide it
with other things in his normal luggage.  He regretted that decision
now, now that his life depended on it.
	"You going to stand there," yelled a black hared scout, Mars, he
believed. "or give up quietly?"
	"Five against one is hardly fair odds," Benton yelled back.  He
stood tall, as respectable as he could, as he looked around the room
again, looking for any way out.  His eyes fell on the long hared man
standing by the boarding gate again.  Richard. He mind yelled out.
Alive after all this time, I may have a chance with the Queen if I
can tell her about this. As Benton stared into the eyes of Richard,
an alarming feeling rushed over Benton.  He doesn't remember me. So
much the better.
	"Negaverse scum like you doesn't deserve fair odds," the brown hared
woman said, whom Benton identified as Jupiter.  Negaverse? Better
play along.
	"Well," he paused for a second. "you never know what to expect from
your adversary.  I may just prove to be merciful."  Oh boy, that was
a stretch. Considering…
	"After what you did that woman, not a chance," said Sailor Moon, as
she strode towards Benton.  Benton quickly rose his hands in defense.
 As he did, she stopped.  Benton thought back to all the defensive
techniques he had ever learned. I must escape, where on earth is that
damned contact?

***

	I'll let 'em fry. Thought Rionix with a smile.  Its his fault, now
he'll have to deal with it. 
	With a shimmer and a plume of smoke, the figure that was Rionix
disappeared.

***

	What is going on in there? Thought Richard.  Are they having a talk?
 He started to move towards the event. I must get to Sailor Moon, now
my chance. Just as Richard began to move closer to the action, crowds
of people swarmed into his view.  All of them obviously interested in
what was going on, but none of them with enough courage to get really
close.
	Richard sighed as he began to push his way, slower than he wished,
but at least he was getting closer.  Or so he thought, as soon as he
started getting into the crowd he began to question from which
direction he just came from.  The crowd was completely disorienting
him, he needed to get out.
	I can't just leave, I've got to get out of this crowd first.  Can't
risk making a scene.  Richard continued moving in whatever direction
he could, hoping he'd end up outside of the mob, or within it.

***

	Benton was as the verge of a either a complete mental breakdown or a
five alarm rage about his missing contact.  When Sailor Moon started
moving again, the ladder finally clicked.  Benton ripped out the most
elementary spell he could remember ever learning, a fog spell that
his first teacher taught him.  It was a limited spell that only
lasted for a short amount of time, but it would give Benton enough
time to decide what to do next.
	He placed his hands together and silently recited a slew of Latin
words until his hands glowed with a pale light.  He saw the puzzled
looks on the Sailor Scouts' faces just before he released the spell
into his surrounding environs.  The fog was much denser than he
intended, being able to modify the spell was never a talent he wished
to improve on, but now he regretted it.
	He peered into the fog and tried to guess at what direction the
Sailor Scouts had been standing.  The cloud was incredibly
disorienting to Benton, but he rushed off in the direction that he
thought was the opposite of them.  He moved through the fog with his
hands held out far in front of him as he could.  Each step he took he
was relived to have not run headlong into a Sailor Scout.  He was
relived until his hands stuck the chest of a person.
	He was beyond the risk of being embarrassed as he moved his hands
across the chest of the person to find that it was a man.  He looked
up into the face of the person and watched as the fog began to fade
away and the feature of the face became clear.  Benton was better off
with the fog.
	Richard's firm face peered back at Benton, who was just as surprised
as he was.  Benton fell backwards from the face, hoping that Richard
had not remembered him yet.  When he saw the quizzical look on
Richard's face he quickly took the chance to run the other way.  He
ran as fast as his feet could take him, looking back from time to
time, watching Richard's form grow smaller in the distance.
	When he looked back, the fog had suddenly cleared and a few feet in
front of him was standing a scout of midnight hair.  She opened her
mouth and issued a warning for Benton to stop, however, he took no
heed of the warning as he barreled right into the scout with his
fist, knocking her to the ground, and continued running in the
direction he was facing.
	His legs ached, his lungs burned from lack of oxygen, but he
continued running faster than he ever had before.  In front of him
was a glass door, beyond which was his key to escape.  With a new
found hope, he pushed his pain aside and continued to run.  At least
until the pain changed from uncomfortable to immobilizing.  He felt
his body burning, not just his lungs, but his entire torso felt on
fire, his legs decided not to respond to his commands and dropped his
body to the cold floor.  His vision blurred, then turned red and
finally black when the great god of fire committed his body to ashes.

***

	Sailor Moon was walking about in circles as Jupiter, Venus, and Mars
were grouped together trying to look through the fog.  Tuxedo Mask
running towards Sailor Moon, even though he couldn't see her, he knew
where she was.  The other people in the terminal were all rushing
around like chicken with their heads cut off.  A lovely figure
watched the madness from one of the entry gates, dressed like the
Sailor Scouts, except for a blue visor covering her eyes.
	The visor made her look different, but it allowed her to see through
the fog.  Someone else had been using her power against her friends,
a crime that she just wouldn't stand for.  She leapt up over the
crowd and landed in relative proximity of Sailor Moon.  Sailor
Mercury raised her hand and the fog dissipated into the surroundings.
	When it cleared, a surprised Sailor Moon spun around and looked into
the eyes of an old friend she hadn't seen in many years.  The Sailor
Moon that Mercury left would have attacked her with greetings and
showings of friendship, but this Sailor Moon simply nodded to Mercury
then looked behind her to see the figure of Benton rushing towards
Sailor Mars.
	The duo, joined shortly by Tuxedo Mask, ran after the fleeing
figure.  When they reached Mars, she was lying on the floor due to
Benton's right hook to the chest.  Mercury grabbed her hand and
brought her to her feet.  Sailor Moon continued looking ahead and
quickly spoke to the group, "If he gets to that door we'll lose him."
	"He wont," Mars quickly blurted.  She clasped her hands together and
pointed them towards Benton.  Her words were spoken softly but the
sounded as if spoken by a god itself.  "Mars… Celestial… Fire…
SURROUND!"  Gleaming fire leapt from her hands and shot out towards
Benton.  It wasn't her strongest attack, surely she could have used
much more powerful attacks, but she wanted him alive.
	She was totally unprepared when his body began to burn.  Black char
marks seared through his body, his clothing turning to a carbon black
then disintegrated into fine ash.  The body collapsed onto the floor
and turned black.  Finally the fire died away and a gust off wind
took the ashes off into the wind, and into oblivion.
	The very sight of the nearly human body burning before her was too
much, she felt dizzy and placed a hand to her forehead before she,
Sailor Mars, fainted before the rest of the Scouts.

Chapter 11

	Impressive, they murdered him, thought Rionix, standing in the
rafters of the building.  He may have left the place of the crime,
but he still watched, far out of sight by any mortal.  He watched as
the black hared Scout fainted into the arms of the blue hared one. 
Rionix could only grin at the scene before him.  The group of scouts
quickly looked around before running off and disappearing into the
crowd, carrying the fallen scout along.
	Rionix turned to leave the airport when another sight caught his
eye.  A man of somewhere of the age of 40 ran out where the battle
had just taken place, he looked around with a sense of urgency and
the ran off in the direction that the Scouts had just left.
	As the man ran Rionix caught a glimpse of the man's face.  He had
never seen the man before, but the face looked familiar.  As if he
had had the image burned into his mind when he was young.  As he
continued to look at the face, the name slowly surfaced into his
consciousness. Richard Vedas. The name came as a shock to him.  A
face he was never supposed to see, a face that he had been taught to
remember for no reason he could ever decide… until now.
	"The Queen must hear of this," he said to himself.  He left the
airport, this time opening a skylight in the roof and crawling out.
	 
***

	"Damn!" screamed a young man.  He picked up a stack of papers and
ran down a nondescript hallway with six or seven doors leading off of
it.  As he ran, he counted the doors that he passed, when he got to
three he looked up.  Above the door was a plaque that said Jonathan
Patrick, CEO.  The man grabbed the door knob just as the door opened
inward by itself.  The young man fell through the door way dropping
his papers.
	The young man, covered in his papers, looked up to see three suited
individuals and Patrick standing over him.  The young man couldn't
see the three suits' faces very and couldn't determine who they were,
but he didn't really care.  He looked to Patrick and spoke, "He's
moved."
	Patrick looked quizzically at the young man and bent over to pick up
the papers covering the mans head.  He looked into the face of the
man and realized what he was talking about.  He stood back up and
gave several good-bye's to the suited individuals and quickly ushered
them out the door. Locking it when they were gone.
	The young man had gathered his papers by now and was sitting across
from Patrick's desk.  Patrick walked over to the desk and sat in his
well cushioned chair.  "Subject Alpha 1 has moved," Patrick repeated
for verification.  The young man nodded. "Where has he gone?"
	The man rifled through the papers while he spoke.  At this time,
Patrick realized some of the papers were blown up photographs. 
"Tokyo, Japan."  Patrick sighed, it would have to be there. Half way
across the world in the most highly active city in the eastern
hemisphere.
	"Our agents within the Genom corporation have been monitoring the
activity of several beings of enormous power.  Last night, they saw
him in the news." The young man pulled out a series of photographs
with various Japanese logos on the bottom.  The pictures were of an
unknown person biting the neck of an enormously large woman, a fight
between this individual and the Class 12 subjects known as the Sailor
Scouts, and a picture of subject Alpha 1 standing in the aftermath of
the fight.
	"There he is, in black and white," said Patrick as he looked at the
final set of pictures.  He leaned back in his chair and opened the
drawer in front of him.  Inside were a bunch of stamps with various
symbols on them, and a red ink pad.  He pulled one out that said
Project Sigma, Classified. He dabbed it into the red ink pad and
slammed it into the upper right hand corner of all the pictures
except the ones with subject Alpha 1 in them.
	He picked up the pictures with Alpha 1 in them and put them into a
folder with several stamps on it.  He stopped a second, then looked
up at the young man.  "How long have you been watching subject Alpha
1?"
	The young man raised an eyebrow, and replied, "Three years."
	"Do you find it interesting? Satisfying?"
	The young man was curious as to why Patrick was asking these
questions.  "Do you intend to replace me?" he asked, with a worried
tone of voice. Patrick just smiled.
	"Oh, no.  In fact I was planning on extending your privileges." The
young man was very worried by this statement, most likely the result
of watching too much television where the villain always says that to
the people he kills.  Patrick looked down at the folder in his hands,
then held it our to the young man. "I hope you like sashimi."
	The young man took the folder, and let out a deep grin.
	"You have twenty hours. Form a team, take the company jet, and get
over there." Patrick turned his chair around to look out a window
into the city of San Diego.  The young man stood up and walked out
the door.

***

	Gabriel pushed a bunch of his clothing into a duffel bag and zipped
it shut.  He picked up his talisman and, after staring at for a
while, hung it around his neck.  He could feel its energy wrap around
his body, while it was visibly unseen, he could feel its tiny waves
of energy flow through him.  He picked up the bag and brought it down
a flight of stairs and placed it by the door.
	When he turned around Gerde was standing next to him. "Are you
going?" she asked.  Gabriel nodded, and walked to the coat rack. 
"You must be careful, Shattenjager. A false move could cost you
dearly."  Gabriel picked up his brown coat and pulled it over
himself.
	"Is that any different than the last cases I've taken?  Its a very
dangerous job, but I must do it." He grinned to Gerde, "Besides,
it'll give me material for a new book."  He picked up the duffel bag
and slung it over his shoulder.  "If Gracie comes back, which I know
she will, play nice with her."  He saw Gerde tuck in a smile.  "Good
bye, Gerde."
	The door creaked when he opened it, letting in a rush of cold air. 
Outside was a taxicab, waiting for Gabriel. He stood there for a
second, have a final last thought, then rushed down to the cab and
climbed in.

Authors Notes:
	My writing style may leave much to be desired, but at least I hope
I'm getting the gist of the story across to you.  There are a few
things that are bothering me.
	The first thing is the death of Benton, I really didn't want that to
happen, but I realized that he had to die to fit the plot line I
wrote out.  It took me days to do that mean job in a way that it
wouldn't make Benton a martyr. But that's how it came out in the end.
	Another thing is the mentioning of the Genom corporation.  I've
never seen an episode of Bubblegum Crisis, and I can only guess that
the Genom corp. was around at this time. (I estimate the year is
somewhere between 1999 and 2002)  I would welcome anyone to correct
this problem for me.  If I'm wrong, then I'll just have to change the
name to something else.. nothing big.

	Now Richard Vedas is another story that will be written after this
one.  He is my legacy.  I don't want to give away any of Richard's
history, but it'll be good.  I'd love to write Richard's history, but
this particular story requires that he remain a mystery until he
tells us about it.  Richard Vedas was a creation of my design as of
October 31, 1996, all usage of him is forbidden.

	Gabriel Knight is a creation of Jane Jensen of Sierra Online Inc. 
He is a character of unparalleled dynamics and intrigue, and was
first brought to life by Tim Curry, and later made his first live
action debut played by Dean Ericson.  If you are looking for more
in-depth information about this individual, go out and buy "Gabriel
Knight: Sins of the Fathers" by Jane Jensen.  Its available in soft
cover at your local book store.

	And Finally, Sailor Moon is copyright 1992 by Naoko Takeuchi.  While
the characters are not mine, the usage, plot, and interactions are
mine, and are therefore Copyright 1997 by Adam Leigh.