Insightful and obserant people will notice that I keep switching between
spelling the title "Eclipse" and "Ecllipse." Turns out, after doing a
little research, that "Eclipse" is the proper way. What I find very
interesting though is that no one commented on the fact that I was
mispellig it. Ah, the weirdnesses of the FFML.
Now, on to the fic.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: SMT8.txt
Chapter 8
Moon screamed and leapt. As she hit the ground, the car in front of
her was perforated.
"Mars Fire Soul Bird!" Came a cry from her right as Mars released
her most powerful attack. The target of the attack was hit straight on and
reeled for a moment before retaliating with a barrage from its SMG. Mars
was hard pressed to get to cover as small impact craters tracked across the
wall behind her.
Mercury sat and typed furiously, analyzing as fast as she could.
The fight was currently a stalemate but she had no illusions about who
would win in the end. All the enemy needed was one lucky shot, for one
of the Senshi to trip on a pebble, and it would be over. Since Cyanide had
disappeared earlier, their slight advantage of an experienced gunman was
gone. Now, they were on their own. While Mercury never doubted for a
moment they would win in the end, she needed to figure out how.
As Moon dived for cover after launching a kick to its head, a flying
rose symbled Tuxedo Mask had entered the fight. Unfortunately, he was
interrupted in the midst of his heroic speech by being shot.
Abruptly Mercury noticed something. Whatever computer
controlled the attacker, it either was not very fast or was controlling to
many sub programs at once. There was always a one to five second delay
before a stimuli occurred and it retaliated.
The agent strode across the earth towards the fallen hero. As it
leveled its weapon at him, Venus hit it in the back with a Cresent Beam
Shower. It turned and focused on her, firing away.
"That's it!" Mercury exclaimed. She rose and leapt for the car
behind which Moon was hiding. She counted seconds as she flew and as
she predicted, just as she landed, the machine began firing. 'Three seconds
for non-offensive targets.'
"Waii! It just keeps firing and no matter what we do, it doesn't
stop!" Moon whined.
"Listen, I figured out something. It always attacks the most recent
target it sees. What's more, its reflexes aren't as fast as ours. If we all keep
moving, constantly, it won't be able to get a good shot off. Tell the others,
keep moving and attacking and we can wear it down." Mercury crouched
in the relative safety behind the horribly damaged car and passed her
discovery on to her companion. Her companion reacted typically.
"Right! You tell Mars and I'll tell Jupiter and Venus. Let's go!"
And with a complete change of both mood and personality, she rushed of,
fearless of the bullets still flying through the air.
"I wonder if she's Manic/Depressive?" Mercury asked herself
before rushing off to do her own part.
From that point, the fight began to turn in the Senshi's favor.
Constantly running interference for each other, they launched attack after
magical attack, tirelessly wearing down the attacker. Mars and Jupiter,
who everyone quickly discovered did the most damage, darted from
behind a corner to under a car to behind a fallen tree. Wherever they could
get cover, they waited for a moment until one of their compatriots drew
the thing's attention someplace else. Then they would pop up, strike hard
and fast, and run like hell, usually only a few feet from a trail of lead
projectiles.
Within a few minutes of this new technique, the Terminator was
missing most of its clothing and had great gashes and burns where the
metallic insides showed through. It seemed that victory was at last at hand
for the Pretty Soldiers for Love and Justice.
"This won't do at all," Diamond grunted as he watched the 'Glass.
"Topaz, send one of your monsters."
"Yes milord." Topaz began to summon the energy for a time gate.
"Um, Milord Prince. Might I make a suggestion?" It was
Argentium again.
"Certainly, oh favored one." At this there was some confusion and
protest, especially from Sodium. "What is it?"
"Why send just one?"
"That's the way we've always done it." Diamond replied, taken off
guard by the question.
"Yes, Milord. But you've also always failed. Send a half dozen."
Argentium decided to risk it all with that comment.
Diamond looked at him, uncertain whether to annihilate him where
he stood for that bit of rudeness, take his suggestion, or both. He
eventually decided. "Very well. Topaz, send a half dozen."
"Milord, it shall take me quite some time to marshal that much
energy."
"Fine. You send one now." Diamond then began picking people at
random. "You look strong, you send one too. You too. And you. Hunk-O-
Dirt? You send two."
"Send them where?"
Diamond abruptly realized he had forgotten who he was dealing
with. "You, take two monsters, whichever two you want, send them back
through time, and have them appear on the time in the 'Glass. Tell your
monsters to try to kill the Senshi."
"Oh. OK." and Hunk-O-Dirt began summoning his own magical
energy.
Back in time, the Senshi began to rejoice. It looked like victory
was imminent. Then Death Ninjas, Mark 2, began popping out of midair.
A bunch of them too. Needless to say, the Senshi were not appreciative of
this particular development.
"AHH!" Seemed to be the general statement of sailor suited
opinion.
Monsters began running everywhere. After a moment of tactical
standings adjustment, the agent decided that these newcomers were not
threats till they attacked, and it proceeded to ignore them.
It resumed its Senshi assault and now, with so many new menaces
to distract them, its opponents were unable to use the team work which
was their greatest strength. As a result, it began to look like they were
going to get an ass whooping.
"Could you please stop using those words?" Mercury asked
politely, though by now she was quite frustrated.
...
It was to this scene that Cyanide returned. While previously his
mood had been incredibly foul, his encounter with Mars, his reaction to
his own complete loss of control, and the knowledge that he had
embarrassed himself horribly, had brought him to a cold rage, the type
which gets lots of things killed. He dove into the fray and began shooting
everything. If it moved, he took a pot shot, and he wasn't to concerned
with whether it was a bad guy or not.
As the violence level escalated, not that it wasn't already quite
significant, Jupiter found herself crouching around a corner, waiting for a
chance to strike. She also found herself back to back with Cyanide, who
was engaged in shooting first, shooting second, shooting third, vaguely
considering asking a question, shooting again for good measure, blowing
off asking that question, and shooting a few more times for the heck of it.
A pile of empty shotgun shell casings was rapidly collecting around his
feet.
"Look, we can take care of these monsters, We've fought their ilk
before. But we need that machine taken care of for a while. Can you do
that?"
Cyanide shot the machine in question, recocked his gun, shot a
monster, recocked his gun, and began looking for another target.
Jupiter took that as a yes.
"All right. Go on three. We'll take out these monsters in the most
effective manner possible."
Finally Cyanide reacted. "You have a howitzer around here?" He
then fired four times, making up for the temporary pause in violence.
"No. We'll use a method better than that."
"Kick 'em in the jimmy and hit 'em while their down?"
"No!"
"Nerve gas then kill while they're distracted?" Cyanide knew he
was reaching but he couldn't figure out where she was going.
"No!"
"That's pretty effective."
"We'll use magic and the power of love and justice," Jupiter
declared proudly.
"What a crock." And Cyanide dashed across the parking lot, firing
all the while.
Beaten, battered, and bruised, the five Senshi sat in a circle,
gasping deeply. They would not have been able to win except in a rare
burst of inspiration, Jupiter had made a Thunder Dragon bite someone
_there_ and then Moon had eliminated him while he was otherwise
occupied. That had been enough to change the tide of battle and they had
finally won, defeating the last ninja only seconds ago.
"So, <pant pant pant> what's between <pant pant> you and <pant
pant> that guy, <pant pant> Mars? <pant> And come to <pant pant pant>
think of it <pant pant> what's his <pant> name, anyway? <pant pant
pant>" Jupiter asked.
Venus was wondering the same thing and had also had her
curiosity very much peeked by the scene earlier.
"I don't know. Not who he is, his name, anything. But I get the
feeling I'll be seeing a lot of him." Mars said, thinking deeply.
"Well, he does appear to be taken. Sheesh. And he looked so much
better than my old boyfriend." Jupiter mourned.
"Yeah. The cute guys are always unavailable." Venus grumbled.
"Speaking of unavailable," Mercury asked. "Where is he?"
"Oh, he's keeping the machine thing distracted. He lead it away
when we concentrated on the ninja guys." Jupiter said.
There was a short silence, then in a very strained voice, Mars
asked, "How long ago was this?"
"Oh, about half an hour or so." Jupiter replied, still intent on
catching her breath.
There was another, strained pause. Then abruptly realization hit the
tall brunette like a slug from a forty five.
"Oh no! He's alone with-" She was prevented from saying anything
more by the simple expedient of Mars clutching her around the throat and
screaming in her face.
"HE'S BEEN FIGHTING THAT MACHINE FOR HALF AN
HOUR! He could be dread by now!" She bellowed, an impressive feat
considering her usual octave and range available.
As if to prove her right, a man in black fell from the sky and
crashed into the roof of the only undamaged car around. His trenchcoat lay
spread over the car, effectively blocking him from view.
Mars bolted towards the fallen figure, who wasn't moving to much,
or at all really, and opened her mouth to scream his name. This was cut off
as she realized she didn't know his name and shouting 'Yo! It's that tall
dude with the thing about the color black!' just wouldn't cut it. Instead, she
simply shouted incoherently.
Moments later, all five of the Senshi were clustered around the
fallen body of their savior. He lay inert, eyes closed. Looking up, Mercury
was able to deduce that he most likely fell from the third story viewing
post on the Tokyo Tower. It was almost directly above them. Her attention
was drawn back to the fallen figure as he groaned and forced out a few
words.
"He's up there, and I managed to put a few bullets through that sub
he keeps shooting me with. Go kick his ass. I'm gonna lay here and enjoy
my pain for a while."
Mercury quaffed her almost automatic request for him to refrain
from using swear words.
"Right! Come on, Sailors! Lets go defeat the final force of evil!"
Moon stood tall, and lead the rush back towards the tower. Everyone who
could walk went with her.
Several minutes later, while Cyanide calmly enjoyed the light
show going on above, another dark figure entered his line of sight.
"Hey."
"Hello." Tuxedo Mask replied.
"You look like you caught a few bullets back there."
"Yeah. Magic regeneration, though. I'm fine. You look like you
aren't in such great shape yourself."
"Swan dove off the Tower, landed here. Would really appreciate
any of that regeneration shit if you can spare it."
"Sorry, can't loan mine out. I'd just like to speak to the other
mysterious man in black who appears to be working with me."
"I ain't working with you. The second that damn thing's gone, I'm
returning to my own time. Do me a favor will you?"
"Sure, what?"
"There's a pocket in my coat. Other side, yeah. Feel that cylinder?
Take it out and pass it over." Tuxedo Mask did so.
Cyanide twisted the lid off and removed a small, hypodermic
needle, filled with a orange liquid. He inserted it into one of the veins in
his arm and pressed the plunger, ejecting the contents into his blood
stream.
"So, this is a one-shot for you? Get in and get out?"
"Yup. Protecting those chicks is a job I can deal without. Ahhh.
That's the stuff."
"It'll be a sad thing to miss you, even if you-heh!" Tuxedo Mask
leapt back as Cyanide pried himself out of the car and stood on his feet.
He was shaky for a moment before his stance firmed up.
"What was that?" The formally clad hero asked.
"Go Juice. Special recipe. It'll get me back on my feet and moving,
though my heart may explode later. Other than the magic cure potion, it's
got my favorite mix of stuff to get you moving and keep the pain away."
The other raised an eyebrow, though he feared he already knew the
contents.
"Weird little mixture I ran across on Nemesis. Will eliminate pain,
heighten sensory perceptions, and magically heals almost every wound on
the body. Problem is it's only temporary. In about three hours, everything's
gonna come back with a vengeance. Actually worse than it was before."
There was a slight pause as Cyanide worked the kinks out of his
back.
"So, I hear you and Mars are an item. Together."
Cyanide turned and looked at him as if he had grown another head.
"What?"
"You know, in love."
Cyanide turned slightly green. "That's just disgusting, you sick and
twisted man."
Tuxedo Mask watched as Cyanide vanished into the shadows, his
mind blank behind masked eyes. What was going on now?