Sailor Moon - Warriors of Ether
Part 3
Amy looked up at sign, then back at the slip of paper. She found
it strange that her assignment partner wanted to meet at the bar of a
restaurant. At least the place looked respectable.
"Good evening, can I help you?" The girl at the front desk greeted
her warmly when she pushed open the front door.
Amy responded with a shy smile. "Ah, I'm supposed to meet someone
here." She glanced down at the paper still clutched in her hand. "Her
name is Dominique Woodburn."
"Oh, of course, she's waiting for you in the bar, just go straight
in," Kerri told her.
Amy nodded her thanks, then headed through the door. She entered
the bar just in time to witness a familiar figure fall backwards off her
stool, taking with her the two men sitting either side of her.
"That wasn't funny Jiro!" Serena complained. The others at the bar
obviously didn't agree, most of them were hiding smirks. Darien had
joined Serena on the floor.
The other young man Serena had spilled sat scratching the back of
his head. "I didn't expect you to react quite like that."
"What do expect? You showed me a severed finger!" Serena
exclaimed.
"It was a joke, see." Jiro demonstrated by pulling his thumb from
the small box. "Just a gag."
Serena stood and dusted herself off. "Well it wasn't funny."
"You can say that again," Darien commented as he got back onto his
seat.
"Amy!" Serena cried happily, spotting her standing at the door.
"What are you doing here?"
Amy suddenly found herself the centre of attention for the group
at the bar. Even the woman behind the bar. The rest of the room somehow
ignored the goings on at the bar. Amy wished she could join them in their
ignorance.
"Oh, I've got to introduce you to everyone!" Serena exclaimed,
dashing over. She was bubbling over like Mina would.
'Now there's a scary comparison,' Amy thought as her friend
dragged her towards the bar.
Serena introduced her to Katsuko, Jiro and his brother Ichiro, the
old man Tashiro, and Namoyi. The last had on a necklace that caught Amy's
attention. Hanging from a silver chain were the symbols of the Sailor
Scouts.
Amy must of been staring because Namoyi glanced down at the
necklace. "Nice, isn't it, I had it made specially and just got it
today." She lifted the necklace and grinned. "If you hadn't noticed I'm a
Sailor Scout fan."
"More like a fanatic," Ichiro joked.
"HEY!" cried Namoyi.
"You never did say why you're here," Katsuko pointed out, neatly
changing the subject.
"She's working with me on a project," a quite voice from behind
Amy volunteered. She turned to find Dominique standing there. "I have a
booth we can work at," the strange girl told Amy.
The pair vanished into one of booths at the back of the room,
watched by the rest of the regulars.
"What a weird pair," Ichiro commented. "You're friend actually
managed to say less than Dominique."
Serena shrugged. "She's always like that when meeting new people."
"And how did a vibrant out going girl like you met a quiet studier
like her?" Tashiro inquired.
"Ah," Serena started intelligently, stuck for a second. Then she
struck on a plan. She'd tell the truth. "I bumped into her and
accidentally knocked her homework out of her hands. She forgot something
when she hurried off and I returned it to her. We've been friends since."
"You know, that's the first time I've heard that story," Darien
commented. Everyone turned to stare him in disbelief. "It was before we
started going out," he explained.
The conversation at the bar turned to other things, including
Aki's new friend. Of course seeing as no one even knew her name it was
all just wild expectation. The night was starting to wind down for Serena
and Darien when her watch suddenly started beeping.
"Curfew?" Katsuko inquired.
"Something like that," Serena muttered. "Come on Darien, lets go."
She grabbed his arm and pulled him from his stool.
"Interesting," Katsuko commented watching the pair leave.
"Hey, Katsuko," called Ichiro. "Give me another!" Katsuko turned
away, not seeing Amy slip quietly out the door.
*****
Sailor Venus snapped shut her communicator. The other Scouts were
on their way and unless the devils started causing trouble her best bet
was to wait for them. She didn't like three to one odds.
The real question was why were they back here. Sailor Moon and
Tuxedo Mask had first fought these creatures here, and Astra had first
turned up here, but usually their enemies didn't return to the scene of
the crime. Okay, so Raye's temple had been attacked numerous times, but
that seemed to be coincidence. Obviously this enemy was different.
She'd been cutting through the park on her way home, it was well
lit so it was safe even after dark. She had spotted the hulking form of
the devil leader pacing around the area and slipped away to transform and
sneak forward. Since returning all she'd seen the devil do is pace back
and forward and scare away anyone wandering near.
A rustling in the bushes behind her alerted her to the arrival of
Sailors Moon and Mercury and Tuxedo Mask. Venus glanced at them as they
settled down besides her.
"What's up?" Sailor Moon asked in a whisper.
Venus waved her hand at the three devils. "Just this, wandering
back and forth," Venus replied.
Mercury activated her visor, and scanned the devils. "The large
one is emitting some form of energy, I think he's scanning for
something," she informed the others.
"So what do we do?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Wait until Mars and Jupiter show up or they find whatever they're
looking for," Venus replied.
It wasn't long before the last two Scouts appeared out of the
darkness. There was a short pause while the situation was explained to
them.
"Right, let's go get them!" Jupiter declared, slamming her fist
into the palm of her hand. Sailor Moon turned, hushed her then returned
to watching the scene before them unfold.
Mars and Jupiter hadn't been the only people to just arrive. Astra
had floated silently into the park and hovered in the darkness watching
the demons. Sailor Moon had spotted her while the others talked, but so
far their strange ally had just stayed still and watched.
"What she doing?" Mars demanded. "And why aren't they reacting?"
"She's surrounded herself with some form of energy, perhaps its
shielding her from them," Mercury suggested.
"Sounds useful," Jupiter commented.
"Declare yourselves devils," Astra declared, sweeping forward. The
large devil turned to face her with a hiss.
"Or then again maybe she's just good at hiding in plan sight,"
Mercury commented.
"Astra, so we meet again!" the demonic leader declared.
Astra gave no sign of being surprised that the devil knew her, but
the cloak hid much. "Am I supposed to know you?" she inquired.
The devil raised a claw to one eye. From their position the Scouts
couldn't see the scar that crossed the eye. "You should Astra, it was you
who gave me this in the Venusian capital."
"You expect me to remember every minor devil I come across?"
"MINOR?!" roared the devil jumping forward to strike the figure.
Astra blurred aside towards where the Scouts were hiding.
"You can't even touch me, I don't why I'm bothering dealing with
you," Astra said flippantly.
The devil roared again and charged forward, crashing both fists
done upon Astra. Astra barely moved to dodge the blow, then leapt over
her opponent pushing down on his head.
"Always easy to rage, eh Orta," Astra taunted. "Probably why
you're still on busy work."
Orta swiped at Astra, who pulled back, the claws barely missing
her robes. Astra laughed as she continued to pull back. "Poor little
Orta, incapable of hitting me. I can't believe I needed help to fight you
last time." Orta continued to slash at Astra, who continued to dodge
backwards, leaping onto the lip of the fountain.
"Why the cunning..." Jupiter commented standing up. She went into
a combat stance and watched the pair closely. The others looked at her
standing their as still as a statue for a few seconds, then three things
happened. Sailor Mars opened her mouth to ask what Jupiter was doing,
Astra shot straight up, and Sailor Jupiter threw one of her thunderclaps.
The ball of energy struck the demon, sending him splashing into the
fountain with a roar.
"Now Mercury!" ordered Sailor Jupiter.
"Mercury Icestorm Blast!" yelled Sailor Mercury, freezing the
water in the fountain.
The two lesser devils who'd been content to watch their leader
battle against the lone warrior decided to aid their leader. They ran
towards the stricken devil, intent on freeing him from the ice.
"Mars, Venus, take care of them," Sailor Moon ordered. As the pair
burst out to attack the lesser devils Sailor Moon strode purposefully
over to the fountain.
Orta looked up at the beautiful sailor suited soldier. "Who are
you?" he demanded.
"I'm Sailor Moon," she told him simply, "I fight for love and
justice, and I'm here to punish you."
Orta gave a roar and broke free of the ice. He towered over Sailor
Moon, laughing.
"Look out Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask shouted, throwing himself at
her and knocking her to the ground. Orta's fists slammed into the ground
she had stood on moments before.
"Right!" Sailor Moon declared, getting to her feet. "Moon Sceptre
Elimination!" she sang, sending the crescent of energy flying into the
devil.
Orta screamed in agony as his body dissolved. Moments later the
pair of lesser devils vanished. The Scouts stood taking in the scene for
a few moments.
"Fascinating, I wonder if that's some kind of incentive to fight,"
Mercury conjectured.
"What?" asked Jupiter.
"When the leader is destroyed, the subordinates go too. It'd
certainly stop any rebellions," Mercury explained.
"Astra's gone again," Mars announced angrily.
"Then let's follow suit," suggested Tuxedo Mask. The others
nodded, then the group split up to head their separate ways.
*****
Deep within the pits of Hell Lucifer sat, listening to the nervous
report given by the imp before him. The small creature cowered before
him, afraid that this might be one of the occasions that the messenger
would be shot.
"The power of the worlds is truly so weak that it will not support
many of us," Lucifer repeated.
"Not quite, my Lord, it appears that the translation effect on the
event horizon of the gateway is forced to process that energy so that we
can survive. Unfortunately the lack of free mana has destabilised the
event horizon and flawed the reprocessing of mana. The effect reaches a
terminal level if enough mana is accessed in the middle realm," Imp
explained.
"Will our eternal enemies also suffer this weakness?" Lucifer
inquired thoughtfully.
"Oh indubitably. The human Astra was only able to dephaze the
middle realm because of the similarities between our's and their's
gateways."
"Good. What of the investigation into the loss of our scouts?"
Lucifer reclined back in his chair.
"I dispatched a warrior called Orta, he was the only living devil
we have that has fought against the humans' champions. He took a pair of
wingless ones. One of my own people also went to watch in secret."
"How did Orta die?"
"Badly my lord," Imp replied with a smirk.
"That was to be expected from him. What have we learnt from his
death?"
"My Imp reports that he was engaged by an individual he identified
as Astra. She apparently knew Orta well enough to lure him into an ambush
by another group. From the description it was difficult to determine
whether this new group is affiliated with the original Warriors of Ether,
however the one who eliminated Orta identified herself as Sailor Moon, a
fighter for love and justice. Astra did not at any time converse with
Sailor Moon or her warriors."
"Are they powerful enemies?" Lucifer inquired.
"Until we are able to stabilise the translation effect they will
be a force to be reckoned with," Imp replied.
"You may go with your life," Lucifer waved at Imp.
"Yes my lord, thank you my lord." The Imp bowed and scraped his
way out of the room.
"And so the cycle begins again," Lucifer commented, smirking.
*****
Serena dashed into the room wailing. "I'm gonna be late!" she
cried grabbing a piece of toast and popping it into her mouth. She
hurried to the door pausing long enough to pull on her shoes, almost
causing Luna to slip from her shoulder. Behind her Sammy gave his mother
a baffled look.
Despite what Sammy was thinking, Serena had not gone crazy and
forgotten that it was the holidays. She had, in fact, slept almost all
the way to a scout meeting.
As Serena left home the other girls were just arriving at the
temple. Amy and Lita were their punctual of course, Mina and Artemis
turned up not long after. The small group then sat down on the stairs to
wait for their leader.
"What did she do after the fight last night?" Raye demanded,
pacing before the seated group.
"She and Darien didn't go back to the bar with me," Amy commented,
not looking up from her book.
Lita popped up besides her, causing Amy to recoil in surprise. The
book slid from her lap and fell closed on the ground. "And what were you
doing in a bar?" she asked suspiciously. Raye and Artemis sweatdropped.
Mina popped up on Amy's other side. "Going boy hunting without
your best friends? How could you?" Mina demanded, sounding hurt.
Amy threw up her hands to defend herself. "It wasn't like that, I
was just meeting someone." Even as she said it Amy knew that was the
wrong thing to say.
"You've got a boyfriend and you didn't tell us? That's real mean."
Mina frowned unhappily. "Does he have a cute brother?" she asked perking
up.
Amy sweatdropped. "My project partner spends her evenings there
waiting for her sister to get off work. It just happened to be the same
bar Darien and Serena have been going to for a while."
"No cute brother?" Mina inquired, pouting.
"Only an older sister," Amy replied. "Serena did introduce me to a
couple of boys, but I didn't get much of a chance to talk to them."
Mina lept to her feet, hand pointing into the sky. "I'll ask
Serena then!" she announced.
-----
Next Time:
The war begins. A new warrior joins the fray. Astra revealed!