If *anyone* wants to be a pre-reader, please feel free to let me know.
Here's the thing as updated as I've been able to get it with C&C so
far, and time limitations. I *think* this part is as filled out as
it's going to get, so after this any updates should include the next
scene(s).
With all the time issues going on, I may need a co-author to really
get anywhere.
(When it rains, it puddles... Wait, that's not quite right. Anyway,
The MUSE struck hard this week and now I've got notes for several
potential sequels lying around, as well as this to finish...)
--------
Decoy
Yuuchiro's Lodge
2000 December
Whap!
"Eek!" yelled a startled Usagi. "Rei! You almost hit me!" She
nervously brushed traces of the snowball off the jacket that Mamoru had
bought for her a week ago and slipped into the building behind her. Her
face lit up with the memory even as another near miss sprinkled more loose
snow over her head and shoulders.
Minako popped up next to where Usagi had just been and lobbed another
snowball back at Rei. "Ha! I will avenge Usagi! Take that Rei!" she
shouted and grinned.
The snowball shot through the air and hit Yuuchiro directly in the face,
knocking him backwards. "Yuuchiro!" Rei shouted at him. As his arms and
legs started flailing, she turned back to Minako and continued yelling
"you! Take this!" cutting loose with a trio of well placed snowballs.
As the counter-fire began, Rei let out an "eep" herself and ducked,
letting some of the snowballs hit the landscape behind her, this just
missed Yuuchiro who had cleared the snow out of his face and sat up.
Unfortunately, the tree next to them had taken one too many hits and
finally dumped its load of snow right on top of Yuuchiro and Rei.
"Yay!" Minako crowed, throwing her arms into the air and giving a little
dancing hop. "I wi-" a loose snowball exploded in her face and cut off her
exclamation. She sputtered out some snow and wiped her eyes clear, and her
jaw dropped at the sight.
"*Ami?* How- you- **what?**" sputtered Minako.
Ami shrugged at her even as a small smile twitched at her lips. She
turned to look at another person, who had taken partial cover a bit
farther away.
Hotaru dropped her arm in a signaling motion, and Rei, Yuuchiro and
Ami all cut loose with a full barrage of snowballs.
"No fair!" Minako complained, and desperately tried to shield her face
with her arms. She stumbled backwards around a corner of the lodge, and
the other four gave chase.
A moment later, the quartet shot back, dodging and running for cover as
their fortunes reversed. Minako ran around the corner, screaming "charge!"
as she led Makoto, Gurio and Shingo, all fully armed with snowballs, back
towards the others.
The Battle had begun.
A few minutes later, the door to the lodge opened and Usagi stuck her
head out. "Hey! Where is... Uh oh." She grinned weakly and froze
momentarily. A second later she screamed and ducked back inside, getting
the door shut about a half second before eight snowballs thudded into it
and the surrounding wall.
--------
"Move it you; make some room for me."
Luna grumbled as Artemis squeezed up next to her by the window. She
cracked one eye open and glared at him, then shut it against the early
morning sunlight. "It's too early to fight," she muttered.
"Hush," Artemis said quietly. "I just want to get some sun too... While
I can."
Luna cracked an eye to look at him. "You think there's going to be
trouble?"
Artemis continued to face the window, ignoring her for a moment. He
looked down from the slowly brightening landscape and flicked a glance at
Luna. "Nah," he said, "not really." He fell silent for a moment, with his
tail twitching.
Luna had started to doze off when Artemis spoke again. "It's just that
most of the times we see all of them together like this something happens.
Or it sure seems like that."
"Be quiet and worry somewhere else," Luna snapped, having opened both
eyes to glare at Artemis. "I'm not going to let you ruin my day."
Artemis turned on the sill.
"And don't ruin theirs either; this *is* a vacation."
Artemis settled down on the sill and watched out the window.
--------
Narita
Juliana Metzdorf's normally bright contralto snapped "you!" harshly (in
English). She had just clearing customs at Narita and stopped for a second
when she saw who was waiting for her. Juliana was slightly above average
height, with shoulder length reddish brown hair and a rather dark tan. She
was dressed casually in slacks and a sweater; just warm enough for the
current season.
A warm tenor voice responded, "hi Jules, nice to see you again. I've got
a black pen on me this time just in case. I have to admit; you were right
about trying to draw wards with a crayon." Randall Widler grinned at
Juliana as he answered in accented Japanese. He shifted the cane he was
using to walk to his left hand and offered his right to Juliana. Randall
was a tall, black man with a medium build and a crew cut. He was wearing a
trenchcoat and boots were visible below that.
Juliana grit her teeth and ignored Randall for a moment. "Don't call me
'Jules'," she grated out, but relented and briefly shook his hand.
The two of them started walking through the terminal, collecting
Juliana's luggage and heading down to the trains. Randall leaned heavily
on his cane as they walked. "I'm kind of surprised to see you here,
considering how that last 'incident' went." Juliana broke the silence and
looked down at his knee; a light brace was obviously on it under his
pants.
"Crystal Consulting is not a large company, you know. I was about the
only person that could work on something like this." Randall explained,
pausing as they entered the train.
"Yeah, you or the other two stooges," Juliana shot, referring to the
other two people in Randall's sub-department. Randall gave her a dirty
look.
"You can drop the hostility any time now." Randall said as they took
seats a little distance away from the other passengers on the train. "As
I was saying, I'm also the only one in the area that's free right now;
Agnes is tied up in other company business."
"That leaves me here, as your mentor, and you as the magical mystery
girl." Randall's gaze softened a bit. "And we're going in now."
Juliana looked startled. "What?"
"It's started already. We'll have maybe an hour at the last stop for you
to warm up, then it's showtime."
"Darn it! I wanted to go sightseeing first."
"It'll have to wait. How much did you get in your briefing."
"You're the briefing; I just got e-mail with a reservation and orders to
get here, and very little time to pack."
"Ah, well," Randall began. He looked around to see how close the other
passengers were, switched to English and lowered his voice a bit. "Two
months ago, there was a break-in at the university in London. Dr.
Graham's office was ransacked and several of her papers on Egyptian
hieroglyphics were stolen. Two weeks ago, that got put together with a
number of other crimes with the same m.o. And the targets were all occult
or paranormal related. We took the list to Dr. Graham, and two days ago
she figured out what the thieves were- are after.
"There's apparently a... demon of sorts sleeping or some such in a cave
or chamber near our destination. And there's an ancient ritual for using
that kind of demon as a power siphon. Dr. Graham believes that the thieves
intend to use this to drain the Tokyo area of either life energy or
everyone's souls; the translations describing the demon were a little
ambiguous.
"Given the excessive power level of this demon, we'll need a Sailor Scout
to take it down."
Juliana interrupted. "Wait, I thought the Sailor Scouts were just an
urban legend!"
"Oh, they're real all right. There's too many consistently weird things
going on in Tokyo for there not to be something supernatural. Besides, we
got solid evidence of Sailor V."
Juliana looked startled. "You do?"
"Mind you, it's evidence only to someone who's mystically sensitive, like
the near-dozen in department five, but the authorities don't recognize magic
items even when they're bitten by them. So Agnes got them."
"Them?"
"Sailor V's boots."
Juliana blinked, then started laughing. She covered her face with her
hands, muffling the sound and rocked back and forth with the force of her
laughing. A few passengers noticed and looked in her direction.
Randall looked at her with concern. "Are you okay?" he asked after a
moment.
Juliana lifted her head and inhaled. Tears were streaming down her face
from laughing so hard. "Evidence," she giggled. After a few more seconds
she got a hold of herself and wiped her face. "Do go on," she said with a
silly grin on her face once her breathing was back to normal. She dabbed
at her face with some paper tissue.
"Um, yeah," said Randall, skeptically. "Well to make a long story short,
Agnes figured out how to... weave the enchantment on the boots inside out.
Basically, the boots wear *you*, and make you fit *them*.
They'll turn you into Sailor V as long as they're on, for up to about six
hours; after that the enchantment gets unstable. So you," he pointed a
finger at Juliana, "are going the take on a demon."
"Er," said Juliana, no longer smiling, "why couldn't the Sailor Scouts do
this?"
"Unfortunately, their existence is *still* only rated as probable,
and we don't have any reasonable way of getting in touch with them. As for
the original Sailor V, no-one has seen any sign of her in years. We
*know* the demon is going to 'wake up' tomorrow; we don't know if
the legendary Sailor Scouts are anywhere nearby. Better safe than
sorry."
"Why me?"
Randall shrugged. "Some fighting experience, and spell-casting - well,
wards at least - under pressure. Our best assessment of Sailor V is that
she was a combat mage."
"Oh come on! *How?* Agnes is the most powerful mage I've heard
of on three continents, and she can barely light a match. You expect me
to believe there are people around who are orders of magnitude stronger?
Where's everything in between then? Huh?" Juliana demanded.
Randall shrugged. "Given what I saw of Sailor V in London, that's the
only reasonable explanation." He paused for a second and added, "it bugs
me too. Hopefully we'll have an explanation someday."
Scowling at the whole situation, Juliana exhaled noisily. "Okay, I'll
play along for now. So what happens after six hours?"
"No idea," admitted Randall.
"Bwah?"
"Worst case is 'Certain Death', but that's unlikely. It would probably
just be 'Most Unpleasant', but survivable.
"Oh, yeah," added Randall, "you can only use them once."
"...'Most Unpleasant'..." Juliana echoed, with a scowl on her face that
said 'I'm going to scream real soon.' "...fight a demon too..." she added,
muttering under her breath.
After an uncomfortable pause, Randall changed the subject, "so, how
was your time in Brazil?"
During the rest of their trip, Randall told Juliana a few more details.
Near dawn, the two of them reached a small shelter a little way up into the
mountains. It wasn't much, but it did provide some walls and a roof, and a
place for Randall to offer some final training to Juliana before her
mission started.
"Okay, then you move your hands like this." Randall demonstrated the
gestures of Sailor Venus' 'Crescent Beam'.
"Like this?" Juliana tried to imitate him.
Randall frowned. "Almost," he stepped beside her and reached for her
hands. She stiffened for a moment and then let him guide her hands. "More
like... this," he guided her through the pattern, repeating twice to be
sure she had it.
"And you've got the trigger down, I'm sure." Randall stepped away from
her and grinned.
Juliana offered a small smile in return. "It's kind of hard to forget.
'Crescent Beam!'" she pseudo-shouted, grinning at the idea of an ordinary
phrase being a magic word.
"Where *does* her power come from?" she asked after a second.
"Nobody knows. Nobody even has any theories."
They both looked thoughtful for a second.
"Well, I guess I'm set." Juliana sat down and pulled off her boots.
Randall pulled out a pair of calf-high girl's boots sized approximately
for a 14-year old and handed them to her, commenting, "remember, once you
get these on you have six hours to get back." He held a wristwatch in one
hand and added, "I'll start the timer for you. The alarm will go off with
15 minutes to spare."
"Where did the company get these anyway?" Juliana asked as she finally
got to look at the boots she had heard about the night before.
"Sailor V used them as a decoy during one of her numerous capers in
London," explained Randall. "I guess she forgot to collect them
afterwards. Jeff pulled them out of the rubble after things quieted down
and brought them in."
"Well," said Juliana as she started pulling on the boots, "the moment of
truth arrives."
Her foot slid into the boot. There was a little resistance at first as
her adult-sized foot had to be squeezed into the opening, but once her heel
touched the edge of the boot, her foot slid in without resistance. Both of
them stared at the odd sight of her bare foot against the much smaller
booted foot.
"The fit's just right," Juliana said after a second, her voice quavering.
She stuck her bare foot in front of her booted foot and completely obscured
it. Then she reached down, brushed off her bare foot, and pulled on the
other boot.
When her heel hit the bottom of the boot, the world shifted around her.
She *shrank*. The boot, her boot now, was suddenly larger in her
grip. Her eye level moved down by about a handspan making the sight of
the boot suddenly pop forward. Her chest flattened somewhat. The spot on
the bench where she was sitting felt like it had been warmed by someone
else, a larger someone else. Her coat and clothes changed too, leaving
her dressed in a light sailor fuku, but the cold seemed to have receded to
the background as well.
Sailor V inhaled sharply, held it as she was reminded of the difference
in her now narrower shoulders and torso, and exhaled slowly. She let go of
her boot and stared at her now gloved hands and arms, noting their new
shape and lighter skin color.
An errant puff of air teased a bit of her longer hair over her shoulder
into view. Sailor V started to brush it back with one hand, then grabbed
it to stare at its now blond color and new length.
"Houston," she said shakily in *someone else's voice,* "we have
now entered the twilight zone."
Randall handed the watch to Sailor V after a moment, and she fumbled it
into place, pausing for a second after it was secure. She looked up at
him. "Godspeed sailor," he said after a second, and saluted her.
Sailor V sloppily returned his salute, froze for a second, then whirled
around and rushed out of the shelter.
Randall stepped to the entry and watched Sailor V leap up the mountain,
each leap covering more and more distance as she adjusted to her new
abilities. Then he stepped over to their pile of stuff, and tossed it into
a duffel bag. He grabbed his trenchcoat from a bench, bundled up against
the chill, slung the bag over his shoulder, and started trudging up a
side-trail, leaning heavily on his cane.
--------
Sailor V *leapt* up the mountain. Each jump left her breathless
with her new ability; she felt as though she were in a videogame, arcing
forward into the air with the wind rushing past her, she stared down at the
ground several times her own height below her. Then the ground ahead of
her rushed up to her and her feet touched and her legs cushioned the impact
and she was up in the air again...
--------
Yuuchiro's Lodge
A hint of sunlight warmed Makoto's face as dawn greeted the day. After a
few seconds, she sneezed in reaction and startled herself awake. "Devour,
oh Baku, my evil dream," she muttered to herself even as the scraps of the
dream from which she had been awakened faded from her mind.
--
Delusion of Reality