Looks like I'm going to get stuff done tonight!


Be it ever so humble...
or
The makings of a strong heart
					Chapter One

The sun shone brightly upon the streets of Tokyo.  People milled about,
doing their normal business, talking, laughing, making business deals by
cellular.  Hardly anyone noticed as five girls in glamorfied sailor fukus
and tiaras on the foreheads dashed by.  Those who did discreetly
pulled their companions into buildings or any kind of shelter.  Those
who didn't frowned as another scantily-clad female pushed past them, a
determined look on her face as she shouted, for no reason at all,
"Juicy-fruit!! Juicy-fruit!!"

One gentleman glared at the woman as she passed from behind the newspaper
he was reading.  "Hey!" he snapped. "It's against the law to streak!" His
eyes traveled down her long legs as his voice trailed. "I'll call
the--authorities--on..."
	
The woman stopped and grinned. She raised a hand and shouted, "Hubba-bubba
madness!"

Pink goo streaked from her fingers and wrapped around the man. With a
shriek, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Ahead of her, the five other girls grounded to a halt.

"Getting her out in the open was a great idea!" the tallest of them
snapped.
	
The girl next to her shook her head, her sky-blue hair bobbing. "If we'd
stayed in the store, we would've been snared for sure.  Here, we have more
of a chance."

Another girl, with raven-black hair, said, "But now it's going to drain
all these people of their energy.  What do we do now?"

"Leave that to me!" growled the first girl.  A thin antenna sprouted from
her tiara.  She crossed her arms.  "JUPITER...THUNDER...."

A bolt of lightning streaked from the perfectly clear sky.  More people
began to discreetly remove themselves.

"CRASH!!!"

She threw her arms and the lightning flashed from her, streaking into the
monster's elongated arms and snapping the pink bands holding the
gentleman.

The monster screeched in indignation and took off through the now-empty
street.

The blue-haired girl gasped. "Be careful, Jupiter!  We don't want to fry
him!"

"Aw, he'll be fine, Mercury." One of the two blondes, the one wearing the 
bow, knealt to inspect the prone man and stated cheerfully, "Yep! Sleeping
like a babe!  And a babe in the cradle is worth two in the bush."

"Uh, Venus" said the raven-haired. "that's supposed to be a bird in hand
is worth two in the bush."

"Whatever."

"Guys?!" Jupiter yelled over her shoulder. She was already well on her way
pursuing the monster.  "Do you mind giving me a hand?!"

The three other girls sprang after her except the last one, the other girl
who wore her hair in the incongrous style of pigtails streaming down from
two round puffs, like meatballs.  Throughout the entire exchange, she had
not said a word, mesmerized by a display of colorful manga in the large
window of a bookstore.  She pressed her face against the window and 
squealed.  "Ooo! The new Rayearth is out!!! Oh, I must get that, I must, I
must, I must!!!"

A few seconds later, the raven-haired girl bounded back and snatched the
blonde away by the pigtails. "Sailor Mooooon!!!! This is no time to be ogling
comic books!!" she huffed under her breath.

Wincing, Sailor Moon whined as she was hustled away from the dazzling
display.  "Aww, Mars, you're sooo meeeeeeeaaaannnn!!!!!!"


Panting, Jupiter swerved to attempt closing the space between her and the
monster.  All the exercise she had gotten ever since she learned she was
Sailor Jupiter, and still she felt horribly out of shape when she fought
for long periods of time.  Perhaps her body was repaying her for the
sumptious meal she fed it the other night.  It wasn't her fault no one was
around to help her eat it.  It wasn't her fault she always made too much
food.  She exhaled sadly as she leapt a bench too soon for her standards. 
It was time to go on yet another diet.

The monster abruptly leapt, clearing Jupiter's hand just as she reached for
its neck. She skidded and looked up, just to see a pink, tropical-fruit
smelling mass plop atop her, snaring her in gooey strands.  She cried out
and got a mouthful of sticky sweetness.

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" tittered the monster.  "Bubbalicious yum-yum entangle!!!"

"MERCURY BUBBLES...BLAST!!!"

The air suddenly dropped fifty degrees, and a strong mist rose up.  In the
cold, Jupiter could feel the gum hardening. With a mighty heave, she broke
the sweet-smelling net apart.

"VENUS CRESCENT BEAM, SMASH!!!"

Jupiter rose just in time to duck a bright-yellow beam that flashed over her
head into the monster behind her.  The monster shrieked as it was slammed
to the ground.

Mars' voice cried out.  "Now, Sailor Moon!"

"All right, all right.  Geez, don't pester me."

"Pestering you is the only way to get you to act nowadays!"

"There you go being mean to me again..."

"GUYS!!!!" This time, Jupiter was accompanied by the exasperated Venus and
Mercury.

"Fine, fine..." Sailor Moon grumbled.  She whipped out a strange scepter
and waved it several times before pointing it at the monster. "MOON
SCEPTER, ELIMINATION!!!"

Stardust and glitter poured from the head of the wand, ridiculously
slight, it seemed.  However, the monster yowled in agony as the stream
swept over it.  It had time to gasp out a last "Bazoookaaaaaa...." before
its body begin to crumble into a pile fine grey powder.  The only
thing that was left was a strange card, wavering in the air for a second,
with a picture of the monster transposed upon it. Then, as it dropped
into the ash, the picture faded to blackness.

The mist wafted away as Venus gave a small impromptu jump. "Hooray! We did
it!"

Jupiter did not answer.  Her mind was replaying her sudden entrapment with
shame.  She couldn't believe she fell for the oldest trick in the world. 

"Dumb," she muttered under her breath.  "Dumb, dumb, dumb!"

"Jupiter?"  A hand touched her shoulder, and she looked up to see Amy's
concerned face. "Are you okay?"

Hastily she scrubbed at her face. "Yeah. Fine. I just--" Suddenly she
became aware of a stinging sensation on her knee.  She looked to see her
right knee glaring an angry red.  "I just scraped my knee real bad, that's
all."

Mercury frowned and was about to reply when a high voice grated above them.
"So, the sailor-suited bimbos think they win again!"

All turned to glare at the two newcomers, floating in the air casually as
though they had been their all their lives.  Their oddness clashed with
the city around them, from their pastel skin to the pointed, elfin-like ears. 
The male grinned, showing small pointed, fangs, then looked at his
companion. "So, my dear, what do you think we should do with these girls?"

The girl smiled, looking strikingly feral.  "I think we should teach these
girls that it isn't nice to run around in skirts as short as that. Don't
you agree, Alan?"

"As always, my sweet."

With a snarl, Jupiter rose to her feet.  She could feel her temper rising
past its boiling point.  "I was having a perfect day until your little toy
decided to wreck it!  Why don't you go back to whatever negaverse you're
from?!"

Alan lifted an eyebrow. "Negaverse? An interesting term. I think I like
the sound of that..." His eyes glittered dangerously. "NOT!!"

Before the scouts could react, a blast, hotter than Mars' firebird attack,
knocked them all to the ground. Jupiter, being in front of the others, took
the brunt of the attack. Her breath whooshed from her as she hit the
ground, but already she was scrambling to her feet, her snarl rising to a
roar, ignoring her small hurts.

Sailor Moon dazingly looked up.  To her horror, she saw that Jupiter's fuku
was on fire, flames licking up the back of her skirt.  Jupiter was too
enraged to notice.

"Lita!" she shouted, uncaring that the two aliens heard. In a panic, she
looked about--Mercury had been knocked out, and besides her bubbles were
good for hiding and hardening things, but putting fires out?--and there
she saw it: a pail some passerby had dropped to get to safety.  Oh, if only it
had water in it...

Lita drew in a deep breath.  She could feel the air charging about her,
lifting tendrils of her hair and rising the hair on her arms.
 
"JUPITER...!!!"

Sailor Moon scooped up the pail and could have cried with relief. Yes, it was
filled with water...there were even a few goldfish swimming about, lost in
their fishy thoughts....

Her rage thrashed inside her, threatening to break loose.  Why must this
always happen to her when she managed to feel good for a while? Well,
she'll teach them a lesson...she'll mess up more than their clothes!  The
air literally hummed with her wrath.

"THUNDER...!!!"

Snagging the pail, too panicked to notice what Jupiter was doing, Sailor Moon
flung the pail's contents towards the burning fuku.

With all the force that was within her, Lita flung up her arms, shrieking
from the pit of her soul.

"DRAGON!!!!!!"

A blinding white streak shot from the heavens to her waiting arms.

At the same time, water, goldfish and all, smacked into her from behind.

The world went ballistic, knocking Sailor Moon off her feet, hurling the
aliens
high into orbit.  Windows shattered and cars rocked from the concussion. 
It was a wonder that the buildings still stood.

For a while, all was silent...

Rei groaned, clutching her head.  She and the other scouts were sprawled
across the wall of a building.  How did they wind up there?  And where
was--

Awareness caused her to sit erect. "What--what happened?"

"Owww...." moaned Serena.  "My head."

Amy shifted to her knees. "That was...some explosion! Was that from the
aliens..."

Mina frowned.  "No..."

"Scouts!  Scouts!"

The girls turned to see two cats, negative images of each other except for
the golden crescent moons on their foreheads.  None of them were surprised
when the white cat spoke.  "We were on our way when a huge explosion
knocked us off our feet!  Is everyone all right?"

"I think so, Artemis." Mina ventured, but Amy's eyes widened.

"Where's Lita?" she frantically asked. "What happened to Lita?"

"I--I don't know," Rei began, but Serena paled as her memory returned.

"She was on fire!  Those weird aliens blasted us, and we were on the
ground, and Lita got up, and her skirt was on fire...and there was some
water nearby and I threw it on her. Next thing I knew..."

The black cat interrupted.  "Was she saying her attack, Serena? Was she?"

"I don't know, Luna. Maybe she was.  I don't--"

"Good Lord!"  Rei scrambled up, horror etched on her face. "Lita! Serena,
how could you...how could you!!!"  She began running down the street to
where they first saw the aliens--a good fifty feet away.

Serena scrambled after her, the others close behind, dread icing her
stomach.  She began sobbing aloud.  "I didn't mean to...I didn't know! 
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

The area they had been in was now a fairly-sized crater, gouts of smoke
rising from it.  The aliens were nowhere in sight, which was a small
blessing.  Rei threw herself into the crater, waving her arms to dispel
the smoke. "Lita!  Lita?"

When Serena first saw the body from the crater, lying peacefully as if
Lita was tanning herself on the beach, she drew up short in mid-sob, as a
hazy memory tugged at her, almost deja-vu-like.  She wanted to scream in
hysteria.  It was happening again...except this time, it was by her own
hand, and that she couldn't take....

"No!"

Rei knelt there, utter shock on her face.  The body looked pitifully
small, shrunken within the scorched fuku.  Her chestnut hair, which was
once her pride and joy and what she always wore in a ponytail, was now
singed short and was spread in a dark nimbus about her.  With a cry,
Serena threw herself into the crater, onto the body.  "My God!  Lita! I didn't
mean!  Don't die! I didn't--I--I..."

Her words faltered into silence, and she simply stared, like Rei, in
shock.

>From the distance, it was hardly noticeable.  But now she was closer and
the smoke was thinning, she couldn't believe her eyes.  The fuku, the
tiara, was the same.

The girl, however, wasn't.

What Serena had taken for singed hair was the actual hairstyle of the
girl, short and bluish-black, hardly singed at all.  In fact, despite a few
smudges on her arms and legs, she seemed unharmed.  Her chest rose and
fell smoothly, albeit clad loosely in Jupiter's (?) fuku.  She was the same
size as Amy, perhaps slightly more chubbier.  One thing that was true: she was
definately not Lita.

Gasps behind them announced the others' presence.  It loosened Serena's
tongue from silence to babbles.  "What?  Rei?  What?"

"This is..." Luna breathed.  "near to impossibility..."

For some reason, they all turned to Amy, but Amy was too busy staring to
offer answers.  She wouldn't even know where to begin.

A soft sound whipped their heads back.  The girl was stirring, turning her
head slightly as a moan slipped through her. "Raaaaaa...."  Her eyes
blinked open, revealing dark pools of midnight.  "Raaaanma? What happened?
Ranma?"


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/===\     LaShawn M. Taylor (tbone@ccm.net)     MSTie#83924
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