And so it continues.  Quick notes here:  Minako, for the sake of my
sanity, knows that Kunzite was behind the Dark Agency (whatever it was
really called) the first time around and assumes that's who is doing it
now.  She's right, but she doesn't know that for certain.

Hmm... none of my usual babbeling... so I guess... well, if you like it
or not, send me an e-mail telling me what it was you (dis)liked about it
and/or any suggestions you have for future/present chapters.  Believe
me, ideas that get thrown at me tend to stir up things that get put in
:)  As the party scene in this chapter will attest.

Disclaimer goes here!

Tales of V&J 
Part 2

	Minako glared at her class schedule again.  "I don't want to do this."
	Makoto frowned but placed a reassuring hand firmly on her back as she
sat down on the bed beside her.  "We don't have a choice."
	"I know!  We can just go destroy the gateway and be back in Tokyo by
tea time!  There's no reason for us to be playing at college students."
	"No," Makoto said, shaking her head solemnly.  "We're not here to
destroy the gateway, we're here to distract the Dark Kingdom.  If we
destroy the gate now, it'll just be that much harder on the girls back
in Japan."
	Minako whimpered but let it lie.  It had been her plan, after all. 
Once again she turned her attention to the schedule.  "I can hurt Ami,
though, can't I?"
	Thoughts of her own hideous schedule fluttered through her head. 
"Maybe you should call and apologize."
	"Why should I apologize?  I didn't do anything."
	"You know how touchy she is about her name," Makoto said with a sigh. 
"We're the only ones that ever call her Ami and I guess she just got a
little bent out of shape about you calling her "M" all the time."
	Minako mumbled something that Makoto didn't quite catch.  "How would
you like it if everyone called you Venus all the time?"
	Minako sighed.  "I guess you're right.  But it's her own fault for
hanging around in the Royal Laboratories all the time.  You can't keep a
secret identity when you work with the same people for hundreds of
years."  Even as she said it, however, she was picking up the laptop to
place her call.

***

	General Kunzite's latest reports told him that none of the other
Generals were faring better than he was in the invasion.  
	Zoicite was having no luck with the Silver Crystal, Nephrite's research
was dead ending at every turn, and Jadeite was just messing everything
up.  Heaven forbid Beryl would actually deign to do any of the work on
her own.
	From what he could discern, however, Jadeite's failures were more due
to his own incompetence than anything else.  His own problems seemed to
be because of an immensely strong foe or foes that had decided to pop up
here, in London of all places.
	The reports of the incident with Gisei, the youma that had been used to
break the last seals on the gate, indicated that these new enemies were
very similar to the ones Jadeite was facing.  The biggest difference
seemed to be that these were tougher by several orders of magnitude.
	Most of the reports were gathered from more mundane sources than he was
used to.  Evening news broadcasts, for instance.  He reviewed the shaky
video taken by one frightened tourist again and tried to make sense of
it.
	The youma was out of control.  Reckless, but ferocious.  The girls show
up, one starts making a speech and then, when the monster interrupts
her, kills him almost effortlessly.
	The first question was, where had these girls come from?  Possibly
Tokyo, but that implied that they were here because they knew about his
operation.  If that was the case, he was going to have trouble no matter
how he proceeded, which made no difference in his plans save adding an
edge of caution.
	Secondly, why the long speech?  Since the youma was apparently no
threat the them, why had they hesitated to kill it?  It was almost as if
they were toying with it, which didn't bode well, either.  Sadism in
one's enemies is rarely to be desired, though it was somewhat better
than righteousness.
	He sat back to brood on the matter.  However he decided to handle this,
he would have to act swiftly and quietly.  
	Maybe his foes wouldn't react quickly enough to stop him.  After all,
if there were only two of them...

***

	Things were quite a bit better now.  It was pretty hard to get Ami mad,
and it was fairly easy to get her to forgive you if you were truly sorry
about it.  Of course, she had a knack for MAKING people sorry about it,
but that's something else entirely.
	Minako looked over the new schedule.  The word "quantum" was entirely
absent and the word "theory" only appeared once as "Societal Impact of
Technological Theory" which appeared to be one of those social awareness
courses.  Ami had refused to relent, claiming it would be an educational
experience for the both of them.
	Minako wasn't so enthusiastic, but other than that it was a very
reasonable schedule, though Ami, apparently deciding on one last jibe,
had placed both of them in Japanese 101.  Somehow, Minako got the
feeling that it was going to prove her most annoying class.
	She didn't, have any classes she was really looking forward to,
either.  Some computer classes would have been nice, since her skills
with machines from this time were not very good.  She could do amazing
things with a comp, but only if it was circa 2800 AD or later.
	That meant there would be a lot of spare time for scouting out
Kunzite's operations, which, if their welcome had been any indication,
might well be in full swing.  	
	She sighed lazily and stretched out on the bed and then shivered a bit
at the chill.  There was almost a full blown storm raging outside, but
it was a bit light on the lightning for that.  She found one of the
blankets they had bought the night before, snuggled into it, and settled
down for a nap.  
	Right now, there was nothing to do.
	Of course, there was the Dark Kingdom to fight and classes to attend,
but those weren't real worries.  After all, there weren't here to make
the grade, and youma shouldn't actually prove to be worse than a good
morning workout.
	Back home had been worse.  Here, at least, she didn't have to worry
about handling pirates or other matters of security.  Well, not yet, at
least, but who knew what the future held?  She knew some of it, but not
so much that she couldn't act surprised when it happened.
	She stretched her arms out slowly above her, colliding slightly with
the head of the bed.  Well, bed was a bit liberal, it was really just a
glorified cot.  This was another one of the things she'd have to fix as
soon as those credit cards arrived.  
	The room was small, even by dorm standards.  The university, being
situated near the heart of London was finding space a scarce commodity
and living space was low on the list of priorities.
	One room, about the size of a van, one closet about the size of a shoe
box.  That's all they were assigned.  It was clean and it was dry.  In
short, cozy, but it could have been worse.
	She lay there in a hazy nonthoughts for a while, savoring the total
lack of anything to do.  	She was starting to miss Artemis a bit.  Not
that she usually saw much of him after he and Luna had made themselves
court fixtures, but there was something about London that reminded her
of the old times.  The two of them against the world, or so it had
seemed.
	Lazily, she rolled over onto her side and immediately fell out of the
narrow cot.  She hit the floor lightly, the fall being only a couple of
feet, and lay on the floor for a few minutes, trying to figure out what
she was going to do about the bed.  With the way she tossed about in the
night, there was no way she was going to manage to sleep on something so
narrow.
	After a bit of examination, she managed to get the mattress roll off
the frame and dropped it on the floor.  She did the same to the second
cot and started rearranging things with a passion.  
	When she was done, the collapsible frames of the beds had been stored
away in the closet, taking up fully half the space, and the mattresses
were now occupying one corner while the little dresser slash desk took
up the other.
	She was just about to settle in for another naplike reverie when the
door opened and Makoto walked in wearing a soaking overcoat and carrying
two arms full of damp shopping bags.
	"What did you get?" Minako asked, relieving Makoto of her burdens.
	"Some food, soap, books, and some clothes," she paused to take in the
room.  "Been redecorating?"
	Minako nodded happily while rummaging through the bags.  "So, what are
we going to do for the rest of the night?"
	"Well, there's a little party on this floor so that everyone can get to
know everyone, and after that I want to go out and see a bit of the
town."
	"Sounds good to me," she had gotten to the clothing bags by this
point.  "Mako-chan, I wish you'd told me you were going clothing
shopping as well.  You didn't get much that I can wear."
	"Don't worry, we'll get you some stuff tonight or tomorrow.  It's just
that I saw those coats on sale and decided they would be a good idea in
this weather.  That took most of the money I had on me,"  she said as
she removed the damp coat she was wearing and hung it up to dry.  
	She found one of their few towels and began trying to get her hair
dry.  "Any word from Mercury on those credit cards?"  Something about
the room caught her attention again.  "Say, weren't those beds taller
before I left?"

***

	Minako sipped gently at her cup of soda and shifted a bit on the sofa. 
In total, there were only about a dozen people living on their floor. 
That was rather surprising, but the dorms were usually less than half
full during the summer.
	That's what Sandie, said, anyway.  Sandie, a shortish black girl, was
one of their new floor mates.  She, Makoto, Minako and three other
girls, Jillian, Susan, and Cassandra ("call me Cassie"), and one guy,
apparently Cassie's boyfriend,  were sitting in the small common room at
the end of the hallway and chatting.
	Most of the rest of their new neighbors had only put in brief
appearances before disappearing for other gatherings and activities.
	The room was essentially just a spare dorm room that had been converted
to a TV room as part of a project to make the older dorms more livable. 
One folding chair, a rocking chair, a handful of small tables, and two
small sofas were the extent of the furnishings, but even that was
woefully inadequate for a floor that, during fall semester, would house
several dozen people.  Right now, however, it was cozy, but sufficient.
	Jillian, who appeared to be of Indian decent, though her name made that
questionable, had commandeered the rocking chair beside the small
television (which only got one channel, heaven knows why) and was going
on about how excited she was to be starting college.  Most of the others
were bearing it with a smile as she echoed their own feelings.
	"And I can't wait to find out what my professors will be like.  Do you
think they're going to give a lot of homework because I've heard that
university professors like to do that."
	"Nah, they're usually no worse on you than other teachers," Susan, who
was still a freshman, but had been there for the fall semester, said
knowledgeably.  She reached up one hand idly to brush a strand of dark
hair out of her eyes.
	"Depends on what kind of teachers you had in high school as to whether
that's a good thing.  I've had a couple I really wouldn't want to see
again."  Cassie, the tall, blond American, winced a bit and snuggled
closer to the guy she'd brought to the party with her.  She was nearly a
full head taller than he was and they made an odd couple.  His name was
Mike or Mitch or something.  No one was really certain.
	"It's not that bad unless you're in one of the really tough fields.  I
had a friend in law last semester and they have it pretty bad," Susan
said.  She was overly pleased with her knowledge and Minako was starting
to dislike her.
	Jillian whimpered theatrically.  "I'm in law..."
	Makoto shifted uneasily away from Minako as best she could on the small
couch.  Sandie, who was sitting on the couch with them, had been giving
her an odd look for the last half hour and she couldn't help wondering
if it was because of the way Minako kept snuggling up to her.
	She would have to ask Minako later if their kind of relationship was
reviled in England during this period.  It happened periodically
throughout human history, but attitudes were as regional as periodical.
	Sadly enough, such things still appeared even in the Crystal
Millennium.  She still remembered with some distaste the incident with
the South American Union's prime minister a few hundred years back.
	"So, Markio," Cassie's question snapped her out of her internal
worrying.  "Why did you and Misato decide to study in London of all
places?"
	"Well-" Makoto began, but Susan cut her off.
	"Yeah, did you guys totally mess up or what?  I've heard that most
students that come from Japan can't get into schools there."  Yes, Susan
was shaping up to be really annoying.
	Minako leaned forward and said, "No, my father was British and wanted
me to study here.  Is that such a problem?"  She gave Susan a dirty look
and settled back against Makoto, who was trying her best to move through
the end of the couch.
	"What about you, Mariko?"  Jillian asked, apparently oblivious to the
various "looks" going around the room.
	"Um, I'm studying international politics and there's only so much you
can learn in one place," Makoto added.
	"But you two knew each other before coming here?" Sandie asked, her
voice just vaguely suspicious.
	"Yeah, we went to the same high school," she said levelly. 
            "Well, that's nice.  You came with a friend and then you
make several more," Jillian said, smiling innocently the whole time. 
"Say, Susan, you've been here a while, what are the good places to eat
around here?"
	After that, wandered from topic to topic for a while, and the small
amount of tension that had been building in the room dissipated without
incident.	

***

	The last of the youma saluted and left his command center just before
midnight London time.  
	The briefings had taken quite a while, but not as long as he had spent
selecting youma that were as intelligent and skilled at covert
operations as possible.  In all, there had only been available about
score that were even remotely qualified.  Of those, he had taken the
half dozen most suited to the job and given them their assignments.
	Soon, if things went well, he would be gathering energy regularly, even
if it was in small packets.  He judged anything else to be too big a
risk.
	After some debate, he'd decided that the best way of dealing with these
new enemies was simply to avoid ever having to face them.  It was an
overly optimistic approach, but hopefully one that would pay off until
he could come up with something better.  
	Perhaps he should see how Jadeite was handling his side of things. 
That might give him an idea of what not to do, at least.

***

	Some hours after the gathering had ended, Minako and Makoto were back
in their room, trying to decide if a night on the town was worth braving
the storm, when the laptop started beeping for attention.
	Minako activated the screen and began absorbing the information going
past.
	"What's up?"  Makoto asked, looking over her shoulder.  It proved
unnecessary since she could easily tell what the computer was going on
about.
	Seven energy signatures had just shown up on the London grid, probably
youma, but heavily masked by shielding of some sort.  Only Ami's
technical knack allowed their scanners to detect them at all.
	"Someone's trying to be quiet.  And a lot of someones, at that," 
Minako mumbled as she keyed in tracking commands.  "Must be up to
something big to send seven at once."
	Makoto nodded to herself.  "Can you tell where they're headed?"
	"Too soon.  They've only just cleared the gate.  But it looks like
they're fanning out pretty widely.  May be several diversions and one
main action."
	"Yeah, sounds like a decent plan, I guess.  But how do we tell which
one's the real target or if they're all real problems?"
	"I don't know.  How about we ask one?"  Minako smiled as she punched in
the tracking commands that would feed the location of the nearest youma
into their visors.
	Makoto tossed her an overcoat.  "Let's go."

***

	The youma wasn't hard to find.  There weren't many people walking the
dark streets of London in such heavy rain and Mercury's tracking
software proved up to the task.
	"We need to question it, so try not to kill it."  Minako said.  She was
in her Senshi uniform, but wearing the heavy overcoat on top of it to
keep out the rain.  Short skirts and damp weather were a bad
combination.
	Makoto nodded.  "Just let me take care of it."  She was still a little
irked with that Sandie girl and was looking to take out her frustrations
on someone.
	She looked down from her perch on the roof of a short apartment
building.  The youma was sidling along the street below, and as it
stepped past her perch, she stepped off the roof and came down on the
youma's head with her fists.
	The youma instantly crumpled to the ground, her force being quite
considerable.
	She picked herself up from the ground, the impact with the youma's
misshapen skull having sent her backwards more than she could compensate
for, and tried to wring some of the water out of her coat.
	Minako landed lightly beside her and moved aside the coarse wrappings
the youma had been wearing.  The only thing she found was a pool of
greyish mud which was quickly dissolving into nothing.
	"You hit him too hard!" she said, bopping Makoto on the arm lightly.
	"Sorry, his head was softer than I expected."  Makoto was nursing her
wrist, which had been twisted in the impact.  "I promise to hit the next
one from the ground."
	"No, I'll handle the next one," Minako said.  "If you keep that up,
we'll run out of youma before we get answers.  We only have seven, you
know."

***

	The youma pulled his cloak closer around itself as he hurried along the
rainy London streets.  All his shielding spells were geared toward
magical scans and he was relying on the deep hood to protect him from
visual observers.  With so much rain coming down, there wasn't really
anyone outside to worry about.
	But any delay could still prove fatal, General Kunzite had been very
specific on that.
	He was within only a few blocks of his destination when two figures,
clad in bulky trench coats against the rain, stepped from the shadows of
an alley ahead of him.  Moving quickly, he let his head sink back into
the shadows of his hood and made to scurry past them without stopping.
	The figures, however, moved to intercept.  He cursed silently to
himself and stopped to face them.
	"Excuse me," one of the figures, a female from the voice, asked him. 
"The General sent us as aids on your new assignment.  He said you would
brief us on what needs to be done."
	He involuntarily hissed under his breath.  Aids?  General Kunzite had
been very specific about what the assignment entailed and this wasn't
part of it.
	He did, however, have reports on the expected resistance and two
figures, at least one of them female, was definitely part of that
profile.
	"General sent?" he queried in a harsh voice.  His English wasn't very
good, though few of the other youma were any better at it.  The taller
one nodded.
	"Come out of rain to talk," and he pushed his way past the two into the
dark alley.  "Must tell as ordered."
	The alley, not much wider than a shoulder's width apart soon twisted
around a bit till there was a clear shot back the way he had come but
cover a few strides ahead.  He stopped there and turned to face the two
figures.
	"General say that mission very important.  He say that when "aids" show
up I to give them this."  He reached one hand out of the concealing
depths of his cloak and fired a blast of energy above and to the right
of the others.
	As plaster and brick rained down in a concealing shower, he sprinted
the three steps backward that provided him with a covering corner and
threw back his cloak.
	His massive hands flexed as the talons drove their way into aging
mortar and he quickly propelled himself upward, away from the floor of
the alley.  He was almost to the roof of the building when a shout came
from below and a glowing band wrapped itself around his torso.  
	With one gut wrenching moment of vertigo, he was pulled clear of the
wall and almost plummeting toward the ground.  Claws scrabbled on brick
to slow his decent, but he landed hard, severely damaging one of his
legs and making escape difficult if not impossible.
	One of the figures, the smaller one, stepped closer to him and knelt
down beside him.  "I believe you were about to tell us about the big
plan?"
	Pain dampened his senses, but still he cast about furiously for a way
out.  There was none.
	"Cannot tell.  Will die if tell," he knew what was coming, what he
would have to do.  
	"Well, if you tell us, you might die.  That's true.  But if you DON'T
tell us..." she trailed off dangerously.
	"I tell!  I tell!" he exclaimed, calming himself as much as possible
for what was to come.
	"Well, talk."
	"General Kunzite send us out on mission.  He say that there two girls
who try to stop him.  He say they may come for us.  Very bad, he say,
they come."  He moved to get, but found a foot in his chest.
	"If they come, he say... he say..." suddenly his voice shifted as he
allowed the spell to release itself.  Three or four arcane syllables
rolled forth and then the world was enveloped in blinding white.  
	Orders are orders, after all.

END
-- 
Tim Williams
http://www.angelfire.com/tn/twillia/ 

"This time, we're leaving nothing to the imagination.  We tried that
last time, and, in our opinion, it didn't work." -- Henry Rollins,
"Driveby Shooting"