Chapter 4
Tokyo Hospital, Central.
"Did you hear about the mugging?"
Two nurses were working at a small alcove in the ICU section. One, a
gentleman, was filling out paperwork while the other, a woman, filled a
syringe.
"No. What happened?" the woman asked.
"Some guy tried to rob and rape this one woman. It seems that somehow,
no one's really clear on how, he managed to get his hands on a Colt .45.
In spite of the laws."
The woman whistled. She wasn't quite sure what a Colt .45 was, but she
vaguely heard something about it a movie once. She was pretty sure it
was very large gun.
The man continued, "Yeah. So he's taken her money and is just about to
drop his pants. They're in some back alley by the docks, by the way.
Anyway, just as he's about to whip it out, some punk shows up and tries
to be a hero. There's a fight, and this one cop I know shows up on the
scene. Says it's the most incredible thing he ever saw."
"What happened?" The female nurse had finished filling her needle and
placed in on a tray. Her curiosity had overwhelmed her though and she
stood to the left of the other nurse, hanging on his every word.
Seeing he had his audience captivated, he took a sip of his drink
before resuming. "The hero is some kind of insane martial artist. He's
got this sword out, and he's moving so fast he's barely more than a
blur. My cop friend swears, he swears, that with his own eyes he saw the
rescuer dodge bullets."
"You're kidding."
"Nope. Dead serious. Dodged six of them."
"That's amazing."
"There's only one problem."
"Oh?"
"Colt .45s have seven bullet clips."
"Oh. What happened after that?"
"Well, the cop breaks up the robbery and arrest the perp. The injured
guy gets taken to the ICU. He's in room 17-a."
"You mean that Shara guy? The Gajin?"
"Yep. Last words before passing out were 'I'm going to get myself. He
must suffer.' They're thinking of taking him to a head shrinker when he
wakes up."
***
Tuxedo Kamen took a few quick bounding leaps and disappeared behind
some tall buildings. The Senshi, Jupiter and Moon carrying Mars, fled
through the artificial canyons of Tokyo, and were out of sight within
moments. The mysterious stranger ran like hell, hijacked a taxi, and had
the driver step on it.
The Senshi regrouped at Rei's shrine, as usual. After everyone
detransformed, they collapsed in exhaustion.
"He's back!" Usagi wailed. She began to bawl, tears streaming down her
face.
Rei, usually the first to jump on her when she began to weep, just
shuddered in empathy. There was something absolutely terrifying about
this man. More than his inhuman efficiency or absolute ruthlessness, it
was the fact that the whole time he had a completely blank expression.
Nothing fazed him, nothing made him flinch.
"But how? We dropped an elevator on him!" Minako was staring a blank
wall, something akin to hopelessness on her face.
"It's different."
Everyone turned to Ami, who was staring at her computer with calm,
focused features.
"We destroyed the last one. I made sure. Absolutely sure. There is no
possible way it survived. I scanned the remains, and you remember when
we threw the wreckage into the sea. Whoever sent the first one sent this
one too."
"Well then, we'll just have to beat this one too!" Usagi had calmed
herself. "We're the soldiers of love and justice! We will win!"
"Right!" the others, impassioned by Usagi's heartfelt, though short
speech, all raised their voices in agreement.
"Joy. Girl Scouts versus Death Machines: The Return. With twice the
special effects and a new guest star no doubt."
The five girls whirled around, hands leaping to henshin rods. Standing
in the doorway, black jacket hanging to the floor, Cyanide leaned
against the wall. He was idly tossing and catching a knife in one hand.
"You're back!" Rei leapt to her feet. She tried to leap anyway. It was
more of a slow stagger. She hobbled across the floor and embraced the
tall man. With an obvious sense of being ill at ease, he returned the
gesture.
"I see someone's happy to see me."
As the shock brought about by the arrival of their most unusual ally,
wore off, questions rose to the forefront of several Senshi's brains.
"I thought you weren't coming back again? Ever?" Makoto asked.
"I wasn't planning on it. However, something came up. I made a quick
stop in America to do some shopping and then came here." Cyanide
replied. He had been amazed by how much normal people prized the
precious metals that were found so easily in the Dark Kingdom. Using
only a handful of rubies and emeralds, the fence he had seen had been
very willing to allow him to take his pick of the back room.
"Are you here to help us with the machine?" inquired Minako.
"Wasn't the full purpose of my arrival but sure. What the hell? What's
the destruction of a cybernetic assassin between friends." Cyanide was
amazed at the way he reacted to these girls. He had hated them and all
they represented for most of the last decade, and now he was about to
put his life on the line for theirs. Again. "Women." he muttered too low
to be audible. One in particular, he edited himself mentally.
Usagi beamed at everyone. This was so cool! Cyanide, even though he did
have a really weird name, was back from the dead. Well, she had assumed
he was dead. When she had used the Ginzoshou to bring everyone back last
time, she had mentally included him. The strain had hospitalized her for
a week, but no one complained too loudly. She knew that every time she
used it she was risking death and worse. But she had to. Without her
friends, what use was the future?
***
"He's back!?" Diamond roared.
"Um, yes." Topaz had succeeded to the possession of the Prince's favor
and sat next to him in affairs of state, like the viewing of the bet.
Now though, he regretted his position as Diamond was looking ready to
kill something in his fury and didn't look like he would be too picky as
to who.
"Have him killed! Now! Yesterday! Before yesterday! GO!"
"Yes Diamond Sir!" Topaz bolted from the room.
The people left held their breaths, afraid inhaling too deeply would
attract the prince's misplaced wrath. It didn't do them any good though.
"And you all go too! I want Cyanide dead! As of this moment on, he's a
class seven wanted man!"
The room emptied before the echoes of the royal voice had faded away.
In the hallway outside, Onyx briefed Topaz on Cyanide's new status.
"A class seven? I though the scale only went up to five? What is the
reward on him now? Diamond's right leg and throne?" Topaz was
incredulous.
"No. The scale does go to seven, it just hasn't happened in eight
hundred years that anyone's been that wanted. It's considered an act of
treason not immediately try to kill him. Anyone found guilty of not
trying to kill Cyanide to the best of his abilities will be executed."
Onyx had history as his secret hobby and was probably one of the few
people in the world who understood what was going on. "Hell, even
Serenity's only a class six."
"We're openly at war with Serenity."
"That's class six."
"And Cyanide's a class seven?"
"His highness wants Serenity alive. Keeping Cyanide alive long enough
to turn him over to the Prince could be considered an act of treason."
"Wow."
"Tell me about it."
***
It had been a fairly productive meeting. Cyanide had left about two
minutes after he showed up, and in his absence the Senshi had held a
quick, but serious discussion of what needed to be discussed. Mainly the
fact there was now another mechanical assassin. Pearl was still out
their somewhere, doing bad stuff. And this new guy who melted was trying
his hat into the ring.
The Senshi were not strangers to facing multiple opponents so that
didn't worry them. No, the problem was usually the opponents had a
tendency to be of the master and mindless minion variety. Baddy attacks,
Senshi arrive, baddy summons lesser baddy, big baddy flees, lesser baddy
gets toasted, repeat ad neaseum. None of their new opponents were
following the regular system.
Still, the Senshi remained cheerful. They had survived, in the end, the
last time, and they were confident that victory could be theirs now. No
horribly grim foe could stand against the warriors of love and justice.
===
Deep meanigful quote of the chapter: "Ah, shit." -Cyanide upon stepping
in dog excrement. Off camera.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. I'm not making money on this. I'm
probably deeply offending the artistic sensibilities of everyone so I
really doubt I ever will. Suits filed against me will be met with wild
laughter at the thought of me having money to give someone else,
followed by an embarassing display of humble pleading.