.include disclaimer.h
Jack Staik wrote a cute little Sailor Moon altaverse
idea the other day called Sailor Moon Redux. The
story below is a rantish ripoff of that story and I have no
intention of continueing it unless the origional author
begs me to. (I have too much on my plate as it is anyway.)
If he cares to use any part of this idea for it, feel free.
My appologies for not asking before I wrote
this, but I wrote it before I'd realized I'd done so.
.include Rant.h
ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Whyforinthehfil is it that
people continually treat Minako Aino aka Sailor V & Sailor
Venus as if her brains and personality were made
of tofu in Sailor moon fanfiction? It doesn't *allways*
happen, I know, but it happens often enough that it gets
very, very, old. Maginalization of Characters is a
trend that pisses me off to no end! So much so that when
I read series that otherwise are quite good and they reduce
one or more characters to carcatures of their true complexity
and glory, it is more than enough to drive at least this
reader screaming away into the night.
Yes, I know that certain characters are occasionally reduced
to said carcatures via the 'dubbing' process, but an author
should hopefully realize that two dimensional cardboard
cutouts are no fun to read about and at least do some
research about the subject matter.
of course all of this is Imho.
...Hey, why is everybody stareing at me like
that?....I'll sit down now. ^_^;;;; <hides claymore rather
unsuccessfully behind back>
.include c&c.h
Overall, other than my ranting? Good fic idea. Artemis is ooc
for the origional source material as was pointed out (though I think
I made him even worse!) but for the purpose of the intro/bit
it worked. I like. Be interesting to see what effect the
'change of transformation style' has on the outer senshi. Even
if Haruka, Michi & Setsuna are allready transformed (doubtfull)
it should at least affect Hotaru, which would be both frightening
and an idea I want to seen. As it is in a rather rough state, I'm
not going to quibble about format, grammer, spelling etc, not
that I noticed any problems anyway.
.include fic.txt
<note: the new costume for Minako is based off of the 'uniforms'
from Sakura Wars.>
.
A bit later, Ami was whistling tunelessly while heading in
to the temple for a Senshi meeting - a bit late, but the bus
had been slow, and it was excusable. As she neared the door,
she heard Usagi and Makoto questioning their newest recruit.
Who seemed to have more than a few floors missing.
"So Mina, what did you do in England?"
"Oh England? Well, I fought crime as Sailor V, champion
of justice! Just like I did before."
"Before?"
"England wasn't where I started as Sailor V you know,
and before England -"
"We were right here in Japan, right Mina?" Artemis jumped
in cutting the blond off in midsentence.
A slightly confused expression crossed Minako's face briefly
as Artemis gazed directly into his charge's eyes.
"Um..yea...." The blond seemed to find something puzzling as
the look continued but momentarily cleared up, chirping, "So it
really wasn't much different from what I've been doing here!"
Ami Mizumo's eyes were almost the size of Plates. The amount
of directed power Artemis was giving off was rather high at the
moment, far above the level Luna was capable of - and the amount
of power *Minako* was radiating was simply obscene, easily
approaching and perhaps surpassing Usagi's power level, but not
doing anything. If the cat had known that she was watching she
was sure he would never have dared do what he was doing - which w
as a very obvious, at least to a telepath, mental compulsion.
And a very strong one.
Glancing sideways, she met Rei's eyes briefly and made a
jerked her head back towards the scene. The priestess�s eyes
widened and an expression of pure outrage flashed across her face.
>You don't suppose that he's been brainwashing her the entire
time she's been a Senshi, do you?<
>I thought I'd fixed that tendency in him...Let me check.<
>He had better not have been. Minako is a nice girl, if a
little ditzy.<
>....judging from the amount of mental blocks and memory
seals, he's probably been doing corrections on her every day, Rei.
I'm amazed she can even think at all with this done...no wonder
he wasn't affected permanently by my reprogramming - he's a more
experienced telepath than I am, obviously, though not as
powerful....what in the WORLD?<
>What is it?<
>I guess I'm not as adept with this yet as I thought I was.
She noticed me, Rei. And she kicked me out. Him to. I feel
like someone has gone over the inside of my head with a brick.<
Though the telepathic conversation might have taken minutes
in normal speech, mind to mind it had taken mere seconds, for the
two, and with a final conspiratorial glance at each other they
headed towards the door.
Back inside the temple, Minako blinked twice and rubbed at
her eyes, as -something- made itself known to her. There had
just been two telepaths inside her skull.
One of them had touched on...places within her that were s
sealed off. She'd felt that, and it had...frightened her. She'd
hit them with her empathy powers, the same abilities that let her
track the enemy as Sailor V and Venus, forcing a stunning wave of fury
and fear through their hearts and minds until both were forced out.
Someone has been messing with my head. Oh well, at least
now I know...I'll figure out WHO later and give them a piece of my
fist. Now, lets see if I can break these things. Nobody blocks
Aino Minako's memories!~ The blocks were there, still, and she could
still sense them - and she found, tear them away, each broken seal
resulting in a cascade of memories, and the relief of one more limit
placed on her mind.
Becoming 'Sailor V' the first time, how the transformation
seemed to wrap me in silver wire and bend me into a different shape...
Meeting Higashi-Sempai. Killing...Higashi...sempai? And...him
too. ...Adonis...and....Alan abandoned me...he didn't love me....I
was inside that building when it exploded? Kaasan yells at me and
hits me? Papa's 'speriments? Those little machines... it hurt!
The moon kingdom. Kunzite! NO! ~
It took only moments for all of the walls that had been placed
there to be torn away, and in the aftermath Minako reeled but briefly.
~...Kami's...more of me was sealed than not...~
~who...did this to me...?!~
"Who.....DARES?!!!"
"Gahh! Minako, what's with you?" Makoto and Usagi were taken
completely off guard by Minako's sudden scream of rage.
"Somebody has been screwing with my head Mako and it better not
have been your happy lucky nerd friend or there'll be hell to pay, but
I don't think it was, I was more thinking of a certain Cat - "
Minako snarled suddenly, breaking off in mid rant to hurl herself
through the door a certain white moon cat was fleeing through, bowling
both Rei and Ami aside like tenpins.
"Who is gonna be stringing Tennis rackets when I catch him!"
"It was for your own good V! It couldn't have been avoided!"
The cat dodged his suddenly far to fast charge frantically, scampering up
a tree as if he had no need to climb at all and could walk on air.
"My good? MY GOOD!? You put shackles on more than half my
memories! You were making me forget things from this time too,
not just the old days! When I catch you cat, you are dead! DEAD
YOU HEAR ME!"
"If I hadn't done it you wouldn't have become a sailor Senshi!
You modern life was overwhelming the template for some reason!
You weren't going to become Sailor Venus anymore and you were
overloading the Sailor V Heshin! You'd have wound up just
like them!"
Utter silence fell as Minako suddenly stopped beneath the
branch Artemis was hiding on, and the other Senshi at the entrance
to the fire shrine shared a collective dark look.
"....Right. Just like them. My own abilities enhanced to
give me a natural mastery of the powers, rather than the Sailor Senshi
bit that was so bloody !@$%! awkward to work with and learn how to use.
I'd have been more powerful than ever, instead of the second string
person I am now. Okay. Pardon Moi if I FAIL TO SEE HOW THAT'S A
BAD THING!" Panting in fury Minako directed a class five Death
Glare (tm) at her erstwhile guardian and seemed to consider simply
creating kitty swiss ah la crescent beam for a moment before abruptly
getting a thoughtful look on her face.
Everyone else picked them selves up, the lucky ones removing
their hands from their ears in the aftermath of the some hundreds of
decibel shout.
"Good lungs on that girl." Makoto shook her head back and forth,
letting the ringing noise that had attempted to take up residence
firmly out the door.
"What did you say? I can't hear anything, my ears are
ringing." Usagi was holding her hands to the sides of her head
still, having not quite gotten them there in time to damp the sound.
"Yells good doesn't she?" Ami winced at the sound of her
own voice as she helped a shaken looking Rei up off the floor.
The headache she had coming on was going to be a dozy.
"Well, mister guardian cat friend mentor of mine, I think,
maybe, just maybe, there are going to be some changes around here
from now on. Provided you manage to stay out of my arms reach for,
oh, the next three months or so, you might even live to see them.
First though, I have an idea I want to try."
Reaching into her blouse Minako produced a small crescent
shaped compact and a glittering magic wand.
"I wonder what would happen, after all, if I were to
deliberately overload the pattern, by, oh, using two different
transformation foci at once, and wishing for what I want to
happen?" At her words (and slightly deranged smile) the moon cat
realized that he was about to loose the last Sailor Senshi to the winds
of change and went back to full panicked mentor mode.
"V - No it'll kill you! There's no way a human could survive
two foci!"
"Heh. You've been in my head little kitty, so you know that
argument won't work." The cat had time to almost slip off the
branch of the tree before Minako raised the wand and compact together
before her and shouted out, "Venus and Moon power transform!"
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the two items started to glow and pulse, the aura swiftly
enveloping Minako and growing stronger by the instant.
From the porchfront, Rei and Ami gaped openly, one at a
spiritual impression and the other at a magic level reading from
the Mercury computer, and then grabbed Makoto and Usagi, hauling them
swiftly inside the temple.
Outside Minako glowed gold, ribbons of silver and gold power arcing
about her wildly, and lifted slowly off the ground.
When she reached three feet the glow pulsed and the two
items in her hands shattered with a earsplitting thunderclap,
releasing a sphere of gold fire completely engulfed Minako
and briefly outshone the sun before suddenly erupting upwards
towards the sky, shearing through the branch a few inches from
Artemis's nose.
In its aftermath a thick pillar of smoke drifted up from a
shallow, nine foot wide crater in the front yard of the Cherry hill temple.
After a moment of utter silence, Makoto inquired softly,
"Did Sailor Venus just go crazy and blow herself to kingdom come?"
Before any of those in the temple could respond, and
before Artemis recovered his dazzled eyesight to catch sight
of the crater, a softly rapturous Minako's voice drifted out
from inside the pillar of smoke.
"Nah. I don't do kingdom come. Crazy is questionable."
Flying(?)effortlessly from within the smoke she set down on the
ground at the edge of the crater, and began examining her new
uniform.
Black, red-pink and gold were the dominant colors, white
having become suddenly quite scarce, and it didn't resemble a
Sailor suit at all; Instead it resembled a strangely antiquated
military uniform - a pair of tight white pant/tights, gold knee
length boots with red-pink highlights at the cuffs started it from
the bottom. Above the waist formal black jacket with gold panels
on the sleeves and pink-red highlights at cuffs and throat were the
main part, the jacket clipping securely closed to one side with a number
of gold buckles. Under the jacket, only a few inches of a ruffled
white silk shirt could be seen at the throat, mostly covered up by
the pink-red bow and gold heart choker tie there, slightly lighter in
color than the cheery red bow that still held her hair back.
Fingerless white gloves emerged from the sleeves, and a long chain of
gem-centered gold hearts held the immense Nodachi that was sheathed
across her back in place. The Venus Symbol decorated the back of the
Jacket in metallic gold.
All in all, Minako thought it was acceptably cool.
"Sugoi. Good fighting clothes. No more panty shots to the
enemy. And I get a magic weapon that I can actually use! Ha!" After
few more moments of examining herself (unsheathing the sword and
twirling it about while the other Senshi examined her in openmouthed
fascination), Minako turned her attention to Usagi and bowed formally.
"Venus Senshi reporting for duty, Hime-sama! Since that is what I
do, it seems. Mum. I have got to work on my love life...in my free
time that is." The words were formal and the bow that of subject to
queen, but the slight edge of lunacy in Minako's voice spoilt the effect.
"...ano..." It was a bit more than Usagi was prepared for.
"I thought you wanted to be an Idol, Mina?" Makoto blinked and
asked as Usagi was busy trying to adapt to being called 'Princess'.
"That week, yep. If Neko-baka had asked next week it would
probably have been different. This week? I want to be as powerful
and skilled as possible so I can get my duty as a Senshi out
of the way fast and see if I can catch a boyfriend who I don't wind
up getting killed. And possibly skin a cat."
Beside them, Ami was busily studying the transformed Minako
through her visor and making little noises in the back of her throat.
"Um...Okay, Minako...what did you just do to yourself?"
"Ah, I just changed my transformation so I can access my full
power, not just a third one way or the other, and opened myself up
for being able to practice sorcery, since I remember how from the old
days - I'm tired of not being able to cast forcefeilds and teleport
when all the bad guys can. Oh, and I've integrated my magic a bit
more thoroughly into my body too. Meshes well with some things that
have happened to me, so I don't have to transform, and can call the
fighting uniform with a thought. And I called my sword back too,
fat lot of use it was doing me sitting around on the moon. I like
it better as a Nodachi." As the rant wore on, the Makoto and Usagi
were both getting a bit cross-eyed and by the time Minako wound down,
even the other Senshi were looking rather dazed.
Minako however, had cocked her head sideways as if listening
intently, and her expression faded from maniac cheer to an Icy detachment.
"Drat. I seem to have messed up." She murmured. Looking up
at the other Senshi (and ignoring a sputtering white cat in the background)
she assayed a small apologetic frown. "Hey, Ami? You know how we all
have a certain ability to sense special things? Your scanners, Rei's spirit
sense, Mako's probably got electricity sense -if she could make heads or fins
of it in the city is another matter- and so on?"
"It was a trend I'd noticed, yes. You have something similar?"
"Yea. I can feel emotions, magic, evil energy and such fairly well.
Um, and...judging from the reactions that are happening to my transformation
just a second ago..."
The telepath sighed tiredly. "You were noticed?"
"You could call it that. I suggest you all get ready to do some
serious kicking of Burro's, because in about five minutes Cherry hill
Temple is going to be mobbed by half the Youma's between here and Hawaii."
"By the way, one of your earlier remarks to Artemis leads me to
believe that you are in some way...abnormal in the humanity department..."
"I'm a Cyborg. Experimental Full body nanotechnic and genetic
augmentations. Just something my dad entered me in when I was much
younger. It's been dormant. Isn't now. But enough about my screwed
up family history. Oh, and by the way - here they come."
"Their funeral." Makoto cracked her knuckles as Usagi assumed a
loose fighting stance and Ami shifted behind the two fighters for cover.
The air at the base of the hill rippled like a lake into which
several hundred boulders had suddenly been pitched, and and instant
later the disturbance spat a legion of Youma, Droids, Lemures, and
other...things that commenced their charge on the temple.
As they did, Minako turned, drawn sword glittering in the light
of the setting sun and smiled. "Senshi, Sanjo!"
Gamlain, transuniversal courier & Hero for rent
Sheldon Burnham gamlain@airmail.net
Http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/8762/index.html
"Obstacles are for killing." Xian Pu, Ranma 1/2 volume 1.