Stardust
a Sailor Moon fanfic
written by Meagen AKA SailorM
Chapter 1, draft 1
begun Friday, July 28, 2000
finished Saturday, August 26, 2000
*********************************************************************
Author's notes: Let's get down to business! The plot may still be
lurking in the shadows, but it's there.
Just so you know, I'm re-writing the prologue, using some ideas
I got from reading a very interesting book. I'll be posting the new
version soon.
Anyways, here's part 1.
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
It was a dark and stormy night...
Well, it wasn't really all that dark. It's never dark in a city.
Various lampposts, shop signs and countless car lights did a pretty
good job of replacing the system's star which was currently working
on the other side of the small planet.
And it wasn't really stormy, either. You couldn't see the stars for
clouds and all the light pollution, but there weren't any special
effects involved. It wasn't even raining.
But it _was_ nighttime. One out of three isn't that bad.
In fact it was a very nice night for a patrol, which was exactly
what Sailor Andromeda and Sailor Moonie were doing.
Andromeda had to admit that Moonie was a fast learner. It had only
taken a few bruises, some minor cuts and several brushes with certain
death to get her to stop trying to make a speech before a fight.
The night had been rather uneventful, apart from a few robberies
and some minor fights, which were easily dispatched with just a few
kind words. [1]
They'd also helped one man who'd lost his way. After Moonie
accidentally made him spill the contents of his bag, which consisted
mostly of other people's cutlery, Andromeda took great interest in
getting him to a place he knew quite well.
It wasn't exactly what he was planning, but he thanked her
nonetheless. After all, he had only suffered minor body damage.
Andromeda was enjoying herself.
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
[1] These being: "Hi. You're all getting a choice right now. Your
choice is to go home or to the nearest hospital. Everyone for the
hospital, please stay right where you are." Blowing up the nearest
trash bin for emphasis always did the trick.
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
A loud beeping sound broke out of the usual night-time noises of the
town. Moonie threw her partner a pleading look. Andromeda rolled her
eyes.
Moonie happily pulled out her blue-and-red communicator and
announced: "Triple-one eM here. Go ahead."
A slight chuckle was heard from the other end. #Read you loud and
clear, Senshi Moonie. Andromeda with you?#
"Yup!"
#Right. I've got here a signal of possible demon activities about
2 miles south-west of your position. Eagle street 43. Probably a red
herring, but could you check it out just in case?#
"Roger, we're on our way."
#That's not my name...#
Andromeda sighed and took the communicator from Moonie. "You were
just dying to say that one, weren't you?"
A slight pause. #Oh, bite me.#
Number 43 at Eagle Street turned out to be a rather small old house,
looking lost among the skyscrapers. Suddenly, Moonie noticed some-
thing shimmering in front of it.
It was a Senshi in a metallic suit, her blond hair decorated with
silvery streaks. Moonie remembered seeing her at Headquarters a few
times. She turned towards them with a look of relief.
"Oh, thank goodness. Iridium, Senshi United." She said.
"Andromeda, likewise." Said Moonie's partner. "ID number..."
"No time for that now", Iridium cut her off. "I didn't know how to
cover the front AND the back, but since you're here, I'll take the
back." With that, she took off into a side alley before any of them
had a chance to say anything.
"What do we do now?" asked Moonie.
Andromeda shrugged. "We take the front." She walked up to the door.
As her friend was reaching for the doorknob, Moonie noticed a shape
moving out of the shadows behind her. Moonie's shout of warning
merged with the sound of Andromeda's spin kick witch caught the thing
in its midsection and threw it violently to the side. It fell to the
ground and seemed to fall apart with a noise not unlike shattering
pottery.
Andromeda, fully alert, dropped into a battle stance and quickly
looked around. For a moment, all was silent.
Then, several more dark shapes, vaguely humanoid, slowly slid out of
the shadows around them. Moonie screamed with fear.
Andromeda's face changed into a lazy, almost maniacal grin. She
turned and delivered another spinning kick to the nearest of the
creatures, following it by a strong uppercut. She threw a few punches
and kicks at another one, and then crossed her arms in front of her
chest. She muttered two short words, and sent a shower of red beams
at the things, destroying several of them.
Moonie was frantically dodging slow, clumsy swipes sent her way.
Finally, she managed a low kick, tripping up the thing. As it was
trying to get back up, she hastily concentrated and with some
difficulties, finished it off with a Heart Candy. She breathed.
"What are those things, anyway?" she called.
"Summonees" answered Andromeda, driving one into the ground in an
absent-minded way. "The weakest type. Someone's going easy on us."
Looking around, she narrowed her eyes. The demons were weak, but
there were many of them. Too many. She reached a decision.
"Moonie, we're going up!" she announced. Grabbing the small senshi,
she jumped.
The building was only two storeys high. Even with the extra load,
she managed to grab the edge of the roof and pull herself up.
She found herself staring right into the featureless face of
a demon.
Andromeda delivered a right hook into it. Pushing Moonie away, she
resumed ruining the work of someone's magic.
The worst disadvantage wasn't being outnumbered, but the long drop
to the street right behind her back. She punched, she kicked, and she
threw her fastest spells. But the things just kept on coming.
She was forced to make a step back. Then another.
She was running out of time.
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
Moonie slowly got up. She still wasn't used to her partner's
incredibly high jumps, and the trip had made her mildly sick. She
shook her head, trying to fight it away. Andromeda needed her.
She saw her, being pushed back... hanging at the very edge.... She
felt the burning need to help, and reached out to that power she knew
well....
As a silvery light appeared between her hands, the demons vanished.
Andromeda staggered forward, falling to her knees. Moonie was so
surprised she lost her grip on the power and the light vanished.
"But... I didn't do anything...", she whispered.
Andromeda snapped up. "I don't like this", she said. Hearing her
partner, she added: "No, you didn't. They just ran away. That's
a very unusual thing to do." She seemed thoughtful for a moment, then
said: "C'mon, let's go."
Grabbing Moonie's hand, she dragged her inside.
'So that's what they were doing... keeping us busy', she was
thinking. She ran down some stairs. 'They ran away. They did their
part. We're too late.' She ran even faster. Moonie barely kept up,
being half-dragged by her friend.
Andromeda heard two people talking in excited but very quiet
whispers. She had trouble finding the source even with her sense of
hearing enhanced greatly by her transformation.
By the time she pinpointed the right apartment, the voices had
vanished and were replaced by the sound of footsteps hurrying off.
Not paying attention to her partner's weak protests, Andromeda tried
to concentrate on the sound. Unfortunately, it was drowned out by
louder footsteps behind her.
She turned around. Sailor Iridium was coming up the corridor.
Andromeda waved at her and tried the apartment's door. It was open.
She rushed in.
The apartment was dark and quiet.
Suddenly, she wondered if she'd been wrong. After all, there was
nothing that could link the conversation to the demons. It could have
been a totally false assumption on her part, and she would just be
barging into someone's flat in the middle of the night without any
reason at all. But something told her she was on a good lead. After
all, no-one summons a bunch of demons just to make a senshi's patrol
more exciting.
She opened the nearest door and gasped in surprise. Moonie, for the
moment too exhausted to look, dropped to the ground and breathed
heavily.
A man lay in his bed, blood flowing onto the pillow from a wound in
his head. Next to him sat a senshi in a perfectly white suit, with
only a slight glitter on the areas which were usually colored. Her
hair was reddish, almost orange. She held the man's wrist in her
right hand as if to check the pulse, and with her left hand supported
his head. She was staring somewhere to Andromeda's right, her
expression blank.
With some effort, she turned her head and focused on the door.
"Oh, it's you", she said in a tired voice.
Behind her, Andromeda heard: "Who are you? We're Senshi United,
and..."
"It's okay", she cut Iridium off. "I know her."
Moonie slowly got up, her gaze fixed on the man. She seemed to be
in a trance as she whispered, "Is he..."
"Yes." The white senshi said, with just a little hint of sorrow in
her voice. "He's dead."
It seemed to Moonie that they all spent ages, frozen like a group
of statues, before Iridium broke the silence. "Dead? Are you sure?"
"He just died", answered the senshi weakly. "He... he was shot."
"Do you know who shot him?" Andromeda asked sharply.
She was visibly startled. Slowly, she put the man's arm down. She
said nothing.
"White Glitter", Andromeda said, walking up to her and grabbing
her by the shoulders. "Who shot this man?"
There was no reply.
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
"Look, it's quite obvious. She seems guilty enough to me."
"She's just had a shock. You can't accuse her based just on what she
says now."
They were all in the next room. Sailor White Glitter was sitting
in a chair, her expression still blank, but there was a hint of
a smile in the corners of her lips. Moonie, despite not feeling well
herself, was trying to take the redhead's mind off the dead man.
Her rather monotone but cheerful blabbing seemed to calm the
elder senshi.
"Look, I've known her since high school", Andromeda said. "We may
have lost contact a bit once we were drafted, but I'm pretty sure
she's never been a murderess."
"Just 'cause she's quiet and gentle doesn't mean she can't snap.
I've seen that often enough", Iridium said.
"You're only talking in general. I know her personally, and I say
she's not that kind." Andromeda paused. "You do realize, of course,
what you're actually saying here."
"Huh?" Iridium was thrown off a bit. "I'm just saying that she's
acting suspicious..."
"That's just it!" Andromeda cut her off. She threw her hands in the
air. "People always ask 'Can you reach the salt?' when in fact they
don't care what the answer to that question is, as long as someone
provides them with some small, white crystals in the nearest future.
"You're just sharing your present thoughts and you don't even stop
to think about one thing; This is a senshi we're talking about here."
Her eyes, burning with strong feelings, locked into Iridium's still
confused ones. Her confidence faded under the stare, and the blonde
slowly brought her hand to her mouth as she realized what Andromeda
was talking about.
There were generally not many rules in the SSU organization. Most
of them were rather guidelines for a more efficient management of
resources. However, there was one law, applying to all senshi, never
forgotten, never worked around. It was simply the very clearly
defined border between what was acceptable and what was not.
It said that if a senshi's actions are the direct cause of the death
of a human, the senshi would, once and for all, lose her license,
meaning the right to wear a uniform, call herself a Senshi, and get
help from other senshi in the SSU. For most senshi, this meant an
end to all they wanted to live for. While many somehow managed to
cope with the double burden, numerous were those who took their own
lives in despair.
Iridium looked away, flustered. Andromeda walked over to White
Glitter and took her hand. "Don't worry", she said. "I won't let
them accuse you."
The redhead looked up, surprised. In a soft voice, she said: "That's
okay. After all, I didn't do it."
"So who did?" Andromeda asked again. Glitter blushed and looked
away.
Glancing down, Andromeda saw the fresh blood stains on the other
senshi's glove.
She closed her hand to cover them and looked away.
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
Andromeda personally took her friend's defense in the SSU Court.
Bit by bit, she took apart the evidence against her and pointed out
every single weakness.
The gun hadn't been found. Andromeda pointed out that White Glitter
had too little time to hide it. And even if she'd had enough time to
conceal the weapon so well that even magical searching couldn't
locate it, then she'd use that time to get out and pretend she was
never there.
Traces of magical energy had been found in the body. But Andromeda
showed that none of Glitter's spells were strong enough to kill,
and the bullet lodged in the brain was a sufficient explanation for
a death. When questioned, the red haired senshi herself admitted
that she had tried her healing magic.
And so, after a few hours' session, a verdict was established.
"We find that there is not enough evidence to show that Sailor White
Glitter is responsible for the death of this man. However, as she
is still under suspicion, she is to be retired from active duty
until further notice."
\\\o/// ================================================== \\\o///
"Well, that's not so bad", Glitter stated blankly as they were
leaving. She paused, and a hint of interest creeped into her voice
as she asked, "You believe me?"
Meagen took a deep breath. "I just... know you. If you say you
didn't do it, I believe you." She looked at her attentively.
"But I'm still wondering about the other thing."
"The other...?"
"You know who did this, don't you." There was no answer. She went
on. "If you didn't know, you'd say so. If you were guilty, you'd say
it was the one-armed man or something. But you're not saying
anything. That means you know - but you don't want to say."
Meagen grabbed her friend by the shoulders. "Please, tell me."
Silence.
"All right, have it your way." Meagen sighed.
"Thanks." A pause, as if she was wondering... "I'll... see you
later." She rushed off.
Meagen watched her go. She smiled slightly. *Always the same. Seems
gentle as a lamb, but when she wants to hide something you'd have to
remove it from her brain surgically. I wonder why she's so dedicated,
actually. Well, I just gotta find the guilty party and I'll know it
_all_.*
Confidently, she set off. There was work to be done.
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Eeek! Chapter 1 is actually shorter than the prologue! There just
seemed like there was too much stuff to write about then, and for
this chapter I had so many ideas that finally I dropped them all and
just put in the bare-boned plot. Please tell me if there's something
which hasn't been made clear enough in the prologue so I can fill
this up a bit.
Cheers,
Meagen
Meagen is SailorM of
o__o *
/(oo)\ |
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^^ ^
Sailor Mooo-n productions
visit my homepage at
http://members.fortunecity.com/meagen/
-------------------------
Some people prefer aliens to common sense.
Then again, common sense is alien to a lot of people.
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