I'm ba-ack.
Oh stop crying. You're a big boy. Its not that bad.
Authors Notes: Very skippable, no bearing on fic.
Yes, I return. I'm also working through my C&C
backlog as fast as I can. I know who I owe it too,
and believe me, I am working on it.
What has gone before:
Senshi vs Terminator.
Both the T-1000 and the T-101 have gone back in time to kill the Senshi.
Cyanide's returned as well, on orders from Setsuna to make peace with
Mars. Prince Diamond is REALLY unhappy about CN- lack of a demise and has
made him the most wanted man in existance. He's wanted dead, not alive.
C&C would be nice.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: chapter 5.txt
-- Desc: Chapter5
Chapter 5
Much to the dismay of the Senshi, fate seemed to be
determined to make them struggle for the peace they
desired. A mere two days after their last conflict, they had
another run in with Pearl.
Pearl had begun a series of hit and fade raids,
darting in and grabbing what energy he could before
teleporting away. By and large, this system worked very
well, provided he retreated within a few minutes. This time,
he did not.
He crept into a hotel, early one morning, and went
from room to room, draining people while they slept. Since
no one was awake, no one realized what he was doing, and
it looked like he would make it through the entire hotel
without difficulty.
Unfortunately, a friend of Minako's was visiting and
staying in that particular hotel. She had just arrived, and her
internal clock was telling her that it was the middle of the
afternoon. She had been on the phone with Minako when
Pearl had warped in, drained her dry, and warped out.
The blond Senshi of Venus, hearing her cry and
Pearl's echoing laughter in the background, had
immediately called the other Senshi. Ten minutes later,
they caught up with Pearl and did their little 'defeat the
forces of evil' thing.
Then the T-1000 showed up.
The fight had changed from 'get him before he gets
away' to 'get away before he gets us' instantly. The Senshi
fled to the roof and barred the door. The metallic morphing
mechanical man simply liquefied and flowed under the
door.
Trapped on the roof, eight stories up and no nearby
building to jump too, the Senshi engaged it in a running
fight. It fought, and they ran. They circled the roof of the
building about five times in their frantic attempt to escape.
The thick veil of bubbles which covered the roof was all
that kept them from being caught.
Then the T-101 burst through the barred door,
carrying enough hand ordinance to boggle the mind, and
the fight had really gone down hill for our heroines.
The Senshi's violent death was averted by the
timely arrival of salvation, in the form of a long range, high
explosive mortar shell. It landed in the middle of the T-
1000's left pectoral and exploded. The silvery innards were
scattered across the roof like a spent water balloon and the
other mechanical assassin was thrown through the now
gaping hole in the floor. The Senshi escaped through an
elevator shaft and were safe.
Until Pearl reappeared and blasted Jupiter insensible
from ambush. He also managed to tag Moon and Venus
before the others could launch a combined attack, from
which he fled. The Senshi quickly formed up and lifted
Jupiter to her feet, intending to carry her to safety. None of
the others was hurt enough to require them to also need
assistance. They proceeded out the lobby and onto the
street.
Of course, therefore, it was at this moment that their
second assailant pulled himself together and jumped down
from the roof of the building. He landed directly in front of
them.
Staring into the eyes of uncaring death in human
shape, the Senshi had been sure they were dead. Cyanide
took the opportunity to prove that while good may triumph
over evil, a drive-by in a stolen car triumphed over
androids. The Senshi piled in, and they fled.
To be stopped by the flesh covered cyborg, who
fired twenty AP rounds into the engine block of the vehicle.
Their getaway car crashed to a halt, with the help of a
cement wall nobody really needed anyway. If they had
needed it, who would have left it standing right there under
a building?
Reeling and barely conscious, Cyanide was no
assistance as the now extremely bruised Senshi exited the
car with all due haste. Had this been a John Woo fanfic, the
car would have exploded a moment later. As it was, it
caught fire and decided to try a phoenix impersonation. The
pyre worked wonderfully; the rest was lacking.
Standing in the middle of a three lane road, Cyanide
laying at their feet like a beaten dog, the Senshi tried to
stare down their foe. Jupiter collapsing a few seconds into
the contest did not help their cause. The incredibly muscled
android, not having a 'getting stared down' protocol,
decided to use the next best thing, the 'attack with extreme
prejudice' protocol. The Senshi were not amused, and
Mercury decided to write a strongly worded letter to the
inventors of their opponents when the identity of such
parties became known. Sky-Net most likely wouldn't have
cared, though, so the fact that it never happened probably
wasn't too terrible an event.
The Senshi scattered as the massively built engine
of death bore down on them, guns 'a blazing. It went after
its primary target, Sailor Moon, with the exclusion of all
else. This proved to be a mistake as the other relatively
healthy Senshi, already irate at their friends' injuries and
fanatically loyal to she who would be their Queen, released
a concentrated triple blast of might and magic into its back.
It went down hard.
At that point Pearl attempted to finish Jupiter off by
using his most powerful version of Black Pain Energy.
Jupiter, already the recipient of one such assault, was on
guard for a second one though and rolled aside, allowing
the asphalt three feet to her right to undergo the extremely
agonizing death instead. The asphalt appeared not to be
particularly concerned, though its true feelings were
unknown. Figuring out what asphalt is thinking has always
been one of the harder things to do. It might have been
weeping its angst to the stars. We'll never know.
Pearl, scowling in displeasure, prepared to launch
another powerful blast. As he rose and charged the black
ball which would signal Jupiter's demise, he glared at the
Senshi, cause of so many of his problems. With this one
dead, he would be one step closer to avenging his Queen,
ruling the world, and becoming the most powerful entity
alive.
Cyanide shot him in the head. A magic shield,
fortuitously cast earlier, prevented him from killing his
adversary, though, and making me change the rating on this
to [Extremely Gory]. Oh well.
Then the two Terminators rose to their feet, not too
much the worse for wear. Pearl staggered to a standing
position as well. The Senshi decided that crying and
running screaming to the hills was a good plan of defense.
Wasn't all this, they asked the heavens, just a bit excessive?
The heavens answered by hitting Pearl with bolt of
lightning. While Love and Justice's fuku clad champions
stared, surprised at receiving an answer both conclusive
and helpful, lightning hit the liquid metal Terminator as
well. A moment later, the cybernetic android was on the
receiving end of a high amperage plasma stream as well.
Everyone looked at Jupiter. She grumbled and
muttered, "I could do that too."
"Then I think that was complete and utter
justification," Mercury commented. The other Senshi
nodded silently and stared as their foes lay in smoking
piles.
"Well, we are the Senshi of love and justice." Moon
felt this turn of events give her strength.
On a distant building, Tuxedo Kamen pouted. The
kami had stolen his thunder.
However, as should be no surprise, both
Terminators rose to their feet a moment later. The T-101
added a few lines of code, loosely translated as "increase
danger level from extreme meteorological retaliation," to
its opponent's listings of possible attack abilities. The T-
1000 did something similar.
Cyanide was slightly more doubtful of the powers
that be's participation in the apparent recent save. Both he
and Jupiter were still barely cognizant, the Terminators had
risen to their feet, and Pearl was no where to be seen. If the
kami were personally intervening, they sure didn't do a
very effective, albeit flashy, job of it. Also, that meant the
kami were real, and Cyanide really hoped that was not the
case. Large amounts of his past would be
very...inconvenient...in that eventuality.
The T-101 took aim and attempted to fire its
submachine gun. It succeeded in discovering that all sorts
of mechanically unhealthy things had been done to the
firing mechanism by the lightning. The weapon exploded.
Pearl ran away, as he seemed to be habitually doing.
After a moment's pause as Cyberdyne Systems
processors evaluated the situation, both of the T series
robots began to stride towards the heroines.
"You know, this is somewhat ridiculous. I hit that
damn thing with an AT shell, and it fixed itself," Cyanide
complained from where he was lying. His attempts to rise
had proven so far to be ineffective.
A moment later, the combat resumed. Silent and
efficient, the two machines attacked without any flash or
display. Venus and Mercury found themselves fending off
the flesh covered assailant while Moon kept the other one
distracted. It was a loosing battle.
Jupiter, almost recovered, went down hard and
stayed there as the T-1000 put almost four feet of a blade
through her rib cage, barely missing her heart. Moon dove
to her aid, seeing the polymorphic assailant was preparing a
coup-de-tat. She succeeded in keeping Jupiter alive, but at
the expense of being nearly eviscerated. In a shower of
blood and bone, she crashed to the ground. She lay without
moving.
Seeing her friend hit the pavement in such a
disabled state, Mars grew furious. This unliving
monstrosity, this soulless being of death and pain, it was
trying to kill her future Queen! It wanted to prevent the age
of love, peace, and other great stuff from happening. This
was not to be.
And so, in a fit of desperation, Mars did the
unthinkable. Forsaking her inherent Senshi powers of
righteousness, she opted to use a technique which called on
simple destructiveness.
She drop kicked it.
Now, this was a full out drop kick. It involved
running a few yards to build some speed, leaping into the
air feet first, driving both delicately ruby shod feet into the
small of the recipient's back, and falling to a fully prone
position afterwards. She was actually aiming for his head,
but hey, any hit is better than a miss. The impact of the
small, good looking magical girl drove the nasty, nasty
machine well away from Moon's fallen form. With a
resounding impact, it collided into a convient wall, and lost
exterior definition.
As Mars pulled herself to her feet, elated for the
moment at her successful heroics, Venus appeared. Arms
and legs akimbo, she flew over Mars' head, nearly ten feet
above the ground, and twisted as she arced earthwards. The
street broke her fall.
Before Mars react, a large form <though large in a
well proportioned way, definitely not plump>, also female
and also in a sailor suit, came into forceful collision with
her back. The impact bowled the raven haired girl from her
feet and deposited her on her posterior. Jupiter, for she had
been the projectile in question, rolled aerially twice more
before joining Venus. The two of them lay there,
unconscious, inert, and definitely not looking their best.
The multitude of large bruises added to this.
Mars stared for just a moment, her mouth opening
involuntarily in shock. Then she whirled and saw the face
of their assailant.
"Hmm. Nice jaw. Big Muscles. I bet Minako would
hit on him if he wasn't an inhuman android bent on our
personal demise. Urrk" The last part being caused by one
well formed hand clutching her throat and lifting her from
the ground. She hung there for a moment, both of her hands
grasping the one which supported her. As her desperate
arms tried to lift her enough to take a breath, the unfeeling
eyes examined her.
Target Acquisition: Positive
Tactical Advantage: 97%
Resultant Action Selection: Terminate
The arm to which the hand strangling her was
connected pulled back, readied, and swung. Mars felt the
cement wall behind her give as she was forced through it.
Snapped into a daze by the pain and growing sense of being
lightheaded, she relaxed as she was pulled from the crater
and swung wide. Again she was thrown at the wall,
deepening the spider web of cracks even farther. In a single
pitiful gasp, she coughed up the bit of blood which had
managed to get past the strangulation grip.
Then the cavalry arrived. The cavalry being one
Crystal-Tokyo rejected, over armed, emotionally
constipated gunman with very little self preservation, a
great deal of no longer repressed filial duty, and extremely
gothic clothing color taste. Having finally recovered the use
of his lower body, he sprang to the cybernetic monstrosity's
back and pulled it off balance.
The aforementioned cybernetic monstrosity, CPU
caught unprepared, dropped Mars in a failing attempt to
regain balance. The two went down in a crash and a very
short fight followed. It culminated with Cyanide trying to
fly, failing, and proving people do bounce when they meet
pavement at high velocity.
Again resuming its feet, the assassin scanned the
area. The Senshi were incapacitated, the other machine was
in apparent outline flux, and Mystery Target 1 was inert.
Termination time.
Tuxedo Kamen dove heroically to the aid of his
fallen lady love and her companions. Eight seconds and
forty three broken bones later, he decided to take a short
nap, inbedded to the waist in a projection TV.
Reaching within its jacket, the machine produced a
massive submachine gun. Yes, another one. It aimed at
Mars and initialized Death Com 1.
Death Com 1 was slowed, but not permanently
prevented, by a great deal of pyric energy in the form of a
red blast. The blast proved sufficient to toss the machine
some forty feet and deprive it of that particular weapon.
Standing upon a roof, one hand clenched into a fist
what glowed and flickered with crimson light, a figure in
purple and green stood defiant. His strong features and
impressive musculature stood out through the slightly
obscuring cloak. He looked down from his spot, gazing at
the combatants below. Soldiers of love, they lay unmoving
beneath flinty gray eyes.
"Listen up. I'm only going to say this once," the
man said, his deep and serious voice echoed across the
street. "There is strictly NO killing of Senshi allowed when
I've got this much money and power riding on the wager!
None! Not one single heroine may be harmed, got it!? And
if you don't, I'm just gonna keep lightning bolting away!"
Pyrite stared at each of the parties below, trying to silently
emphasize this point.
*****
"He's not allowed to do that!" Bera-something
screamed.
"Yeah! That's cheating!" one of the other faceless
toadies cried.
Diamond looked around at his court and examined
the general attitude. While the more vocal of those present
seemed to be unilaterally opposed to Pyrite's interference,
the majority were merely looking to be entertained.
Diamond was one of this group, and this certainly appeared
to be entertaining.
"Overruled. He's valid. Bookie, reset the odds
accordingly," Diamond passed down his decision gravely.
The bookies scurried to fulfill his orders.
*****
After they had finally found time to catch their
breath, the five heroines and two somewhat-kinda-sorta-
maybe-in-a-way heroes hid atop a small building. Tuxedo
Kamen had disappeared earlier, after they had evaded the
unfriendly attentions of their robotic acquaintances, and
was no doubt doing something heroic, noble, and
mysterious. He was that kind of guy.
They had fled almost immediately after Pyrite had
arrived. While the two machines were incapacitated, one
with tactical evaluations, one with something else, Pyrite
had grabbed the bunch of them and teleported for all he
was worth. Carrying the seven of them had been severely
draining, but he had managed. Reappearing a few short
blocks away, they had retreated for all they were worth.
Their rescuer, having received none of the extreme
punishment of the others, was unwinded. As he sat against
an air-conditioning unit, he watched the others form a small
circle. The Senshi were in a very companionable huddle
which showed signs of extreme comfort between the five.
Cyanide had attempted to stand within listening distance
but not in the circle itself, but that had failed when the
circle simply shifted to include him. He had tried to retreat,
but as battered as he was, Cyanide was merely able to shift
slightly. From Pyrite's perspective, it all looked the same.
He couldn't hear what they were discussing, and all he
could ascertain was that Mars had a great ass. Venus wasn't
bad either.
Pyrite didn't know quite what to make of Cyanide.
He was pretty sure that the single most wanted man on
Nemesis was aware of his dubious distinction. It did not
seem to be a source of concern though. Also, with what few
vague hints of Cyanide's past Pyrite knew, he was quite
surprised that he was not trying to kill the Senshi as much
as their other foes. Pyrite shrugged.
Still, Cyanide had been a very successful gunman, if
slightly strange. Except for the fact his aim was terrible,
and he seemed to rely on putting an immense amount of
lead into the air to hit his target, he was a first rate
combatant. Other than the drug addiction he had worked
through, his obsession with some green haired woman no
one else knew the identity of, the tact of a rabid, charging
rhino, a total ineptitude for magic, bad body odor, ugliness,
poor personal hygiene, lack of money, common ancestry,
and being a complete asshole, he had only a few character
flaws. Pyrite mentally corrected himself. After those few,
Cyanide had more character flaws than he could possibly
name. He idly wondered if he'd be able to accidentally have
the SOB killed. The wager certainly had nothing in it about
that man's survival, and Diamond would probably reward
him very well.
From the way the Senshi were treating him, he was
somewhat trusted, for who knows what reason, especially
by Mars. Pyrite considered himself somewhat neutral
towards him personally, those few dozen murder attempts
had been purely business. He did get the vibe that Cyanide
was not as friendly and forgiving as he was himself.
The object of this consideration, feeling eyes upon
him, looked up. He met Pyrite's gaze for a moment,
gesticulated profanely with his left hand while making
threatening gestures with a pistol in his right, and mouthed,
"Burn in hell, you piece of shit."
"Sheesh. Some people just can't let things go,"
Pyrite muttered. He concluded that turning his back on the
black clad gunman might not be the wisest of ideas.
More important to him though, were the Senshi. He
had wagered far too much on them surviving to allow some
childish vendetta to affect his aspirations to keep them
alive. Besides, Cyanide could be useful as a human shield.
Pyrite continued to think. After getting tired of that
within three seconds, he hopped over the side of the
building and floated away to do a little recon.
The Senshi, in spite of their recent forced retreat,
were in high spirits. They had survived an fight with all
three of their enemies, no small feat, and had gained a new
ally for the cause of love and justice. They were loath to
trust Pyrite completely, but he had helped in the fight and
claimed to be only interested in helping them stay alive.
Also to the good, neither of the mechanical
assassins seemed to be intent on injuring innocents. Pearl
was still alive and no doubt up to no good, but they had
stopped him from his energy draining plan. He seemed to
distinctly favor flight over a fight, something that the
Senshi were grateful for. They were alive and ready to
bravely battle the forces of evil in the name of love, justice,
and all that great stuff. They just needed to figure out how
to do said battling without dying.
After they reaffirmed their dedication to the cause,
Mercury announced her latest discovery. The silvery one
that seemed to be able to shape change at will was made of
some strange alloy that never occurred naturally. If it came
within half a kilometer of them, her Mercury Computer
would detect it and let her know. The other one was still
only detectable within distances so small as to be pointless.
She was working on expanding that.
Jupiter, with Mars' support, suggested some form of
trap, though she was at something of a loss as to what.
Perhaps throw it into a pit and then fill the pit with cement?
There were problems, like how to keep it in the pit while
the cement was drying, but she felt that she could work
around them.
Surprisingly, it was Moon who seemed the most
pessimistic. She had seen half her friends die because of
that thing once and the thought of having to go through that
again terrified her. The Ginzoushou had been able to bring
everybody back, but there was always the chance that it
wouldn't be able to again. She'd try, try without a moments
hesitation. But there was still a chance she might not be
able to save everyone. That scared her.
"Don't worry, Sailor Moon. We're stronger than
ever, we have new friends to help us, and we've beaten it
once before. We're the good girls, and no nasty machine
can beat us. We won't let any of these evil robots do
anything!" Venus tried her best to cheer their almost always
otherwise perky leader up and the show of support did
work. She was rewarded with a bit of a smile, and bit more
fire came back to Moon's eye.
"Of course, they can still sure fuck us up in the
attempt," someone, who shall remain nameless, thought to
himself.
"You're right, Venus. Come on, lets go home."
Jupiter suggested. She then offered to perhaps let herself be
persuaded into baking cookies for anyone who wanted
some, and they left in higher spirits.
*****
In a scorched and pocked part of the Tokyo street
system, a form rose. At first outlines were undeterminable
and moving. Slowly, very slowly, though they began to
refine. The silvery form began to crystallize into a
discernable outline. As details became distinguishable the
overall humanity of the thing's shape became undeniable.
Long legs ended in small slippers. A short skirt appeared
over the thighs. A torso, two arms, and a head appeared.
The hair, long and full, fell unbound to the waist. Sensuous
curves and a full figure appeared. Fuku clad, and with looks
to kill, the very noticeably female figure was ready to take
on anything.
Sailor Mars looked around the empty street, a
calculating gleam in her eye. It was totally unlike anything
that had adorned her visage before. She held herself with
mechanical confidence, as if the possibility of her failing
was simply non-existent. One hand opened, closed, and
opened again, the fingers flexing. It curled into a viscous
claw, ready to rend those who would unwittingly allow
themselves to be close to danger. A sinister purpose was
much closer to being fulfilled.
Then she dissolved into a puddle of formless goo.
A moment later, she reformed. At least, she tried
too. It only lasted another few seconds before again the
transformation ended. This was repeated several times.
Eventually, the formless puddle of goo gave up and
resumed a different form. It's CPU decided that for
whatever reason, Target 3's form was uncopiable, at least in
that state.
If it could shrug, it probably would have. But it
couldn't, so it didn't, and it stalked out into the night.