Hi all,
Here's part 8 of Endworld: Moon Run.
(Warning: This fic contains scenes of extreme violence.)
ENDWORLD: MOON RUN
CHAPTER 7: RED STAR ATTACK
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"Are we there yet?"
"179..." Geronimo counted under his breath.
Blade stiffened slightly as he looked at Sailor Moon and said, "No.
"
"How long is this going to take?"
"I already told you, at least three days and we've only traveled for
one."
"Oh," was Sailor Moons reply.
She sat down and went back to staring blankly out the back window.
She let out a small sigh and Tuxedo Kamen slid over and held her in a
comforting embrace. Blade shook his head slightly and put his
attention back on driving. The relationship between those two still
made him uncomfortable, but he was able to live with it and excepted
it as, (big breath) One Of Those Things You Wouldn't Understand If
You Were Not Born Before The Big Blast And If You Did Understand It
And You Were Born After The Big Blast You Would Probably Go Insane.
(Phew!!!)
"What's her problem?" Geronimo inquired of Mercury.
Mercury replied with, "She's worried about our friends."
"I don't blame her," Geronimo said, "but we're not exactly doing
anything particularly safe. Doesn't she care about what happens to
her?"
"Not when any of her friends are in danger. It's one of her better
and worst qualities."
Geronimo pondered this. He could see what Mercury was saying. If
one of her friends was in trouble Sailor Moon probably fought like a
ragging Banshee with a bad headache, but if she couldn't help them,
like now, she probably would be distracted and not fully committed to
battle. That would be a serious handicap.
The people in the SEAL lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence as
they continued on their way.
Meanwhile in New York City......
The dirty, rubble filled street had not seen any use by anything
else than Zombies for a long time. That was about to change.
A bright flash of light winked into existence and out of it several
forms appeared. The first was Ail and he was accompanied by several
Supiriors and one Mark 2 Supirior. This Mark 2 was identical to the
first one and Ail turned to address it. "P-002," he said in a
commanding tone, "tell the other Supiriors to spread out and do a
building by building search."
The Mark 2 looked at Ail and replied, "We know what we must do. We
do not need you to repeat Primators orders."
"Damn, smug robot," Ail muttered under his breath, "If you weren't
holding my wife, I swear I'd....."
"You'd what?" P-002 said calmly, "You keep forgetting that my
hearing is much better than a humans or a normal Supiriors."
"Never mind! Just get to searching for that device so your master
can finish his little toy."
"The Time Adjuster is no toy."
"NEVER MIND! Just get going. I shall call out one of my Cardians.
"
"That is not necessary."
"Your master seems to think it is."
The Mark 2 Supirior just shrugged and moved off to begin the search.
Ail brought out his flute and a blank silver card. One of the
reason that Primator had allowed Ail to visit Anne after the briefing
was that Primator knew about Anne's precognitive ability to select
the best Cardian for missions and he wanted a Cardian present, just
in case the Freedom Federation tried to interfere in some way. He
looked at the single card and watched as an image of a being with
several eyes on its head, one on each hand, one on each fingertip,
some on its chest and stomach, and several tentacles protruded from
its back with more eyes on the ends of each one appeared. "Cardian
Ey-Se-U!" Ail shouted, "I command you to come forth!"
He brought his flute to his lips and began to play. The card
floated in the air and started to glow. The glow pulsed in time with
the music and it glowed brighter and brighter. The card transmutated
and out of the light stepped a larger version of the image that had
been on the card several seconds ago. "Cardian Ey-Se-U at your
command," it said.
Back at the SEAL, the next morning.................
Blade jerked the steering wheel hard and slammed on the brake as the
loud sound shot through the SEAL. Blade looked at Geronimo and asked,
"What was THAT?!?"
Geronimo replied, "I don't know," as he looked out the window.
Blades nerves were on edge as he turned back towards the others.
Everything had been going so well. They had gotten through their
first day without any trouble and their second day had started pretty
quiet as well... until now that was. Blade looked at the others and
said, "Did you see where that came from?"
Mercury and Tux looked sheepishly at Sailor Moon as another loud
snore erupted from her mouth. "Man!" Geronimo observed, "I never
thought a human could snore so loud."
Sailor Moon woke up with a jolt at that point and looked around.
"Are we there yet?" she asked sleepily as she suppressed a yawn.
Blades temper ignited. "No!" he roared like a wounded lion, "Since
you have asked me that question at least 375 times...."
"379, but who's counting," Geronimo muttered under his breath.
"...let me tell you that, we are NOT 'there yet'! We will NOT be
'there yet' for another day at least and if you, any of you, ask me
that question again, I'm going to....."
His rage dissipated like morning dew in the sun as he saw Sailor
Moons eyes fill with tears and as she started crying, large streams
of water shooting out all over the place. "WHAAAAAAAA!!!!, " she
sobbed, "WHAT DID I DO??? WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME?
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAA!!!!"
If looks could kill, then Blade would have been dead on the spot
from the glares that he got from everyone, even Geronimo. Blade felt
he had shrunk to two inches tall and sat back in the drivers seat and
started them on their way again. Geronimo leaned over and whispered,
"That was WAY out of line."
"I know, I know," he whispered back, "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me."
"Think she'd forgive me?"
"Maybe.... in a little bit.... when she stops crying."
Blade winced inwardly and cursed at himself softly. It had been
more than her questions that had set him off. It had been building
for a while. He had been upset that he had been able to live a few
months in blissful peace and now he had to go on a mission for
someone he didn't know, having to face one of the most dangerous
groups out there in one of, no, THE most dangerous city he knew and
he had to take along a group of people he had never worked with who,
for all he knew, would get eaten by the first Zombie they saw. So he
had taken his anger out on the kid. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
Geronimo saw the brooding look on Blades face and decided to do
something so everyone would cheer up a little. "Hey Blade..." he
asked, loud enough so everyone could hear him.
"Yeah?" Blade muttered in reply.
"What WOULD you do if someone did ask you 'the question' again?"
Blade suddenly realized where Geronimo was going with this and
grinned slightly as he said, "Think of the most horrible, cruel,
degrading and painful thing that can happen to you."
"You'd do THAT?"
"No. I'd do even worse."
Geronimo paused for several seconds as a large grin plastered itself
over his face and Sailors Moon and Mercury, along with Tux looked up
and started giggling as they also realized where this was going.
Geronimo said, "Sorry, you made me curious," and then
overdramaticaly asked, "Are we there yet?"
Everyone burst out laughing, including Blade. It was good, clean
laughter that cleared the tense atmosphere. "Hey kid," Blade said
back to Sailor Moon, "sorry about the yelling."
"It's (ha ha) o.k., (hee hee) I know I can be annoying sometimes.
Bwahaha!"
Mercury looked at Moon surprised and asked, "You do?!?"
"Hey," was Moons reply, "I don't get yelled at by Rei and Luna all
the time without learning that I do have a few points to fix."
"That does not matter right now," Timeiand said as he suddenly
appeared in the SEAL.
That was another thing that had been bugging Blade. This guy kept
popping in and out, giving marching orders and then dissapearing
again. "What do you want this time?" Tuxedo Kamen asked.
"I just came to warn you. We're VERY close to the Russian border.
They have helicopters doing patrols. There is one in the nearby area.
"
"Now he tells us!" Geronimo said as he sat up and looked out the
window, "There it is!"
Everyone looked out the front window and saw a large, brown
helicopter come towards the SEAL. It fired its machine guns and the
high caliber bullets bounced off the SEALs armor. Geronimo shook his
head and said, "With all the experience the Russians have had with
the SEAL.... the pilot must be kidding."
"Maybe he's a new guy," Blade responded, "either way we better get
out of here before he decides to try his missiles."
"I thought you said this vehicle had offensive capabilities?"
Mercury inquired.
"It does," Blade replied as he put the pedal to the metal, "but
we've only got one of the weapons that would take that thing out, and
I don't want to risk the chance of missing."
The SEAL leaped forward and all the passengers in the back were
thrown against the back door. (Except for Timeiand, who had again.)
The pilot finally realized the futility of using bullets and began to
fire its rockets at the SEAL. The first rocket missed by a large
margin and blew up a portion of the highway. The next two were much
closer but still did not hit the madly swerving vehicle. The last
one also did not hit its target, however it did hit the road mere
inches from the SEAL, flipping it end over end.
The SEAL flipped several times and amazingly, impossibly, by some
incredible fluke of luck, it landed on the ground right side up.
Naturally, everyone had been thrown all over the vehicle and had
landed in a pile in the middle.
Blade sat up and got off of Tuxedo Kamen as he asked, "Is everybody
all right?"
"I'm fine," Tuxedo replied.
"Same here," Geronimo said.
"I'm okay," Sailor Moon said sickly, "but I think I made a mess back
here. (Urp.) How about..... oh no! AMI!!!"
Blade looked down and saw what had made Sailor Moon so upset.
Mercury had first hit the back of her head hard on the side of one of
the metal bucket seats and then he and Tux had landed on top of her.
Their weight, combined with Mercurys small stature, had put her in a
state where she now clutched her ribs with one arm and the back of
her head with the other. The arm on her head had a small trickle of
blood dripping down from it.
"I-I," she said shakily, "will... be... fine."
"Good," Sailor Moon said, her voice gaining a whole new, completely
uncharacteristicly angry tone, "Now I'm gonna make that jerk in the
copter PAY!!!"
Before anyone could stop her, Sailor Moon threw open the back door
and raced out into view of the helicopter. "Hey you!" she yelled
skyward, "I am Sailor Moon the champion of Justice and in the name of
the Moon...."
She was cut off as the pilot opened fire with his machine guns and
Sailor Moon dodged out of the way and finished in midair with, "...
I'll punish you."
She landed on her knees and her momentum carried her into a forward
roll that looked more graceful than it really was. She went end over
end several times and came out of it on the side of the road and got
to her feet. She pulled her scepter from its subspace pocket and
aimed it at the helicopter. She charged it up and cried, "MOON
PRINCESS HALATION!!!!"
The bolt of energy fired from the scepter and hit the helicopter
right in the propellers. The propellers went flying off as the piece
of steel that connected it to the rest of the copter was
disintegrated. The helicopter hovered in midair for a few seconds,
and Sailor Moon could easily imagine the nervous look on the
helicopter pilots face.
Suddenly, and lacking any grace, the helicopter crashed to the
ground and exploded in a huge fireball. "If only Rei could have seen
that," she muttered and then she rubbed her knees, which had lost a
good patch of skin during her roll. "Ouch," she exclaimed, "That
stung."
"I am never going to get used to that," Blade said as he and the
rest of the group, with the obvious exception of Mercury, ran over to
her.
Sailor Moon just smiled and held her hand up in a victory symbol.
Then before anyone could say anything else she ran back to the SEAL
to check on Mercury. "Ami, are you all right?"
"I think so," was her unsteady reply, "but I may have some fractured
ribs and quite possibly a concussion."
"Is that bad?"
"It could be."
As they were talking, the three male members of the group gathered
closer. "This is bad," Geronimo said, "I'm no Healer but even I can
tell that girl has a concussion."
"That does it," Blade said, "We have got to go back and get her some
medical attention."
Tux shook his head, "We can't, no time. It took us two days to get
here. Two days back and then another three to try again, we'll be
over the week time limit."
Blade shot back with, "How do you know that Time guy was right? We
might have more time than we think."
Tuxedo Kamen shook his head again and said, "Trust me. I've been in
situations like this more than you have. We have no choice but to
keep going."
END CHAPTER 7
NEXT: CHAPTER 8: HERE'S PRIMATOR!!!
Well, now BOTH groups are in a pickle. In the next chapter..... Our
heros in Androxia try to escape, but now they must fight against the
entire forces of Primator and quite possibly, Primator him-or-herself.
Can they survive? If you don't know what to do by now....
May The Spirit Preserve You!