A Sailor Mercury fanfiction
NOTE: This chapter has been revised significantly since
its original posting. Thanks, and Happy Halloween!
RIPTIDES One - revised FFML version -
==--
She screamed in pain as the boot slammed into her
chest, despite her attempts to cushion the impact with
her arms.
As her glasses clattered along the hard asphalt
uselessly, Ami doubled over, clutching her chest. This
was it for her, she thought as she felt intense pain
flare in it. At least two of her ribs must have
broken, judging from the pain...
Another blow struck her directly behind her left
ear, snapping her head to the other direction.
Crashing to the ground, she tried not to cry out,
but failed. Sniffing, she opened her eyes hesitantly
and saw two dark figures approach her with intent to
maim. She drew her body closer to herself and pleaded,
"Please, don't hit me again, please. I didn't do
anything!"
One of the boys quickly grabbed a hold of her
blouse, lifting her partially off the ground. He shook
her harshly. "You think you're so smart and mighty,
aren't you? Well, here's a news-flash for you: nobody
likes a snob like you. I HATE people like you; always
showing off their smarts!"
He shook her for an extra measure, then there was
a sharp ripping sound. Ami stumbled back to the ground
with a rip in her black blouse, her chest now exposed.
Her assailant stared at her, surprised, with the
other end of the rip in his hand.
"Hey, Akito, look at 'er; why don't we have fun
as well?"
Ami choked as Akito suddenly grinned, despite the
fact that it was too dark for her to see his face.
"...Akito? No, it can't be..."
"Yeah, why not, Shinji?" Akito yanked sharply on
the cloth, ripping most of what was left of her blouse
off her.
"Stop that, Akito! Please!" Ami cried as she
tried to cover herself up. "We're in the same class;
why are you doing this?"
Shinji snorted as he kicked her shins so hard
that the girl yelped in pain. "Shut up! You humiliated
us in front of the teacher and everyone! We'll make
you wish you hadn't made fools out of us!"
"Please, don't, Akito!" She pleaded.
"Aw, shut UP!" Akito growled as he brought up his
arm, preparing to strike again.
She flinched at the sight and squeezed her eyes
so she would not have to witness it coming. Expecting
the blow, she was momentarily surprised when none
came. Instead, despite having her eyes closed, she
registered a bright flash of light, followed by a loud
crashing noise. A scream followed before being cut off
abruptly.
Silence ensued, except for occasional metallic
noises. Still dreading blows, she kept her eyes closed
for what seemed like an eternity to her before she
finally worked up some nerve to open her eyes. What
she saw was not what she had expected.
"Wha...?" Ami blinked in surprise as she noticed
the ruined structure of an air conditioner resting
atop of her abusers. Glancing up, she realized that
the machine had somehow toppled off the top of a two-
story building and had conveniently landed on top of
the boys.
For several moments she dared to hope that her
ordeal would be over at last. Unfortunately, it was
quickly dashed. Her eyes widened as she saw the pile
shift noticeably. "No..." she whispered as she shook
her head in fear. They were still coming after her.
Instinct taking over her thoughts, she turned
around and tried to run, only to fall to the ground as
one of her legs gave out under her.
"No, no, no!" The blue-haired girl pushed herself
up through sheer willpower, ignoring the unbearable
pain. She had to escape!
"Oh, no no no no..." Ami sobbed to herself as she
limped deeper into the dark alley. She had to escape,
to run away. They were after her, and there was
nothing she could do about it. They always came after
her and hurt her. She wanted the pain to stop.
She wanted it to stop. Insults, hatred,
rejection, abuse, bullies. She wanted them all to
stop. But most importantly, she wanted to be left
*alone!*
Ami Mizuno half screamed, half sobbed
hysterically as she drove on deeper into the dark
path.
--- --- --- --- ---
The faulty G3 Studio presents:
A Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Mercury fanfiction
RIPTIDES
Segment I of VII:
ICE - The Temptation of Water Senshi
By Dark Alpha
--- AlphSailor@aol.com
Sailor Mercury and its associated characters are
copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi. Please do confuse it
with its alias show, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,
though. I'm just writing some fics for that series,
even though BSSMercury technically doesn't exist, for
fun.
This series is currently being hosted at
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/riptides.htm, along
with some extras.
BEGIN segment I of VII: ICE - The Temptation of Water
Senshi
Gah, title segments for my fic just keeps on getting
longer and longer...
--- --- --- --- ---
"AMI!" The cat heaved a huge sigh of fear as he
turned into the branch of the alley and came to a
stop, horrified by the scene before him. Ami was
cuddling to herself on the oil-slicked asphalt,
sobbing uncontrollably.
Throwing caution as well as common sense to the
wind, he ran over to his "owner" and called out her
name. He didn't meow out; he called out in a human-
like voice that didn't quite sound human. "Can you
hear me?"
Still not budging from her side position, she
lifted her head hesitantly. "W-What do y-you want?"
Her voice quivered for a moment before she recognized
the cat as her pet. "A-Artemis? H-how...?"
The cat nodded.
"A-are they g-gone...?"
Again, the animal nodded his head and was about
to open his mouth when Ami suddenly lapsed into a
violent seizure.
"AMI!"
Fortunately, it was short-lived, but Artemis
didn't want to take any chances. "Can you hear me,
Ami? How bad is it?"
She blinked at him. "D... did you just talk?"
"Yes."
The girl blinked again.
"Really?" Ami didn't feel any pain as she pushed
herself up to a sitting position against the brick
wall, shocked beyond her senses.
"Yes, I can talk! But that's not important right
now; we don't have much time left!"
Ami didn't reply, but shook her head instead,
mumbling something. She shook her head again. This
time it was too much for her as she felt dizziness
overwhelm her.
"Are you okay, Ami? Can you stand up?"
As the brief nausea passed, she gave Artemis a
brief look before drawing into herself and mumbling,
"Wonderful. My pet cat can talk. Either that, or I'm
going crazy."
"No, you're not going crazy. I'm the real thing."
Ami tried to inhale some air to relax herself, to
lessen the effects of the adrenaline coursing
throughout her battered body. Suddenly, she doubled
over and groaned loudly in pain, clutching to her
chest. The cat quickly jumped down from the crate and
ran over to her.
"My chest... it hurts." She coughed weakly. The
kick she had received was more serious than she had
thought.
"They really worked you over, didn't they?" Ami
nodded weakly, and Artemis noticed that she seemed be
bit paler than few moments ago.
"A couple of broken ribs, at least..." She
squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the pain.
"And a concussion, probably. How else could I explain
a talking cat...?"
With that last statement, Ami had lifted her head
to gaze at her pet cat. Artemis took a step back in
shock when he realized that her eyes had become
glassy, undilated. Ami was in danger of going into
shock!
He thought fast and hard, but was able to come up
with only one thing of at the moment; he quickly
jumped on Ami's lap and bared his canines, then sank
them into the warm flesh of her arm.
He didn't have to know from being thrown clear
across the space between the walls before crashing
into several trash cans that his attempt had been
successful; Ami's piercing screams told him that his
point had been made.
"Damn you, Artemis! That **hurt!**" Ami spat out
some vile obscenities, though they were lot milder
than the ones he was used to.
He quickly crawled out from under the pile of
refuse, silently cursing whoever invented trash cans.
It would take him days to air out the stench from his
white coat, which was also now pretty much soiled.
"I'm really sorry, but you were about to go into
shock!"
"You think I _don't_ know about the symptoms of
shock?" Ami replied sarcastically as she clamped down
on her bleeding arm wound with her free hand, despite
the fact that she had a fractured radius bone. One of
her assailants must have been wearing steel-toed
shoes.
"They're just playing game of cat and mouse with
me. If I don't resist and play 'dead,' they'll
eventually get bored and leave." She seemed to be
unconvinced by her own statement, however.
The cat quickly played on her uncertainty. "Are
you sure? If you do that, you'll get hurt pretty
badly. Most likely a lot worse than what you're
feeling right now. Do you _really_ want that?"
There was a pause, then a reply, "I don't care
what happens to me, I just want to be left alone."
"I can't let that happen."
Ami turned to him. "Do you have any better
ideas?"
He smiled slightly. For a cat, that is. "As a
matter of fact--"
Artemis was interrupted by a loud rattling noises
from somewhere down the alleyway they had just exited,
and angry voices.
"I'm sure I heard her scream somewhere down that
way--"
"Blast it--who the hell put this thing in the
way?!"
"LOOK OUT!"
"When I get my hands on that bitch, I'm gonna--"
The rest of words were erased by loud crashing noises,
but the intent was crystal clear.
A third set of loud crashing noises quickly
followed, and Artemis had to smile at that. When he
had trailed Ami after the fight, he had used his
Chance magic at random behind him, hoping that it
would help buy them both some time. He was glad that
his gamble had paid off.
But it wouldn't hold two angry boys for long, so
he had to hurry. He quickly turned to the injured Ami,
"We don't have much time, so I'll get to the point
right now. Here." The white cat did a sort of back-
flip, trailing white particles behind him. The magical
particles quickly swirled together and condensed into
an object with a muted sound. It landed on the hard
asphalt with a clanging sound that wasn't quite
metallic. It rolled to stop near her.
"What... was that?" Ami blinked, not believing
what she had just saw.
"Take it--hurry!"
At Artemis' insistence, Ami involuntarily picked
up the object on the ground. When the cat didn't
object, she quickly took this opportunity to study it
in detail. Actually, it didn't have much detail to it,
being a short cylindrical stick not longer than the
palm of her hand. Bearing blue and gold colors, it
also featured an unusual symbol on one end. She was
sure she seen saw a similar design before somewhere,
but couldn't quite recall. Something related to
astronomy?
Artemis walked closer to Ami, who flinched at his
stink. He chose to ignore it and explained, "You've
got to stand up, raise that henshin stick up in the
air and say these words: 'Mercury Power Make-Up!'"
"'Mercury Power... Hey, hey! Hold on -- what are
you taking about? None of this makes any sense! And
what's with this stick?" Ami held up the object.
"That's yours, but we don't have much time left.
Just do it! And HURRY!" He heard a sixth banging noise
and urged Ami on. Not much surprises left. "I'll
explain everything after you do it! Please!" He spoke
fiercely, casting frequent nervous glances back at the
darkened alleyway.
Still feeling slightly dazed, she nodded slightly
before struggling to her feet as she tried to favor
her left leg despite almost unbearable pain. After
what seemed to amount to an inhumane effort for her,
she managed to stand, albeit wobbling a bit. She
raised the stick up high and opened her mouth, even as
Artemis looked at her expectantly...
"On a second thought, forget it." Ami abruptly
changed her mind and lowered her arm.
The cat _almost_ had buried himself two feet
under the ground after her unexpected response. "What
did you just say?! Stop being an idiot and do it now!"
"Why should I?" It had taken her brain some time
to rouse out of its state of confusion and defensive
mechanisms during the savage attack, but she could see
things more clearly than she had moments ago. Too many
things sounded too fishy for her, and it wasn't the
horrible scent of Artemis. "I don't trust you. For all
I know, you could be some kind of demon who's trying
to make a deal with me for my soul." She replied with
cool caution and suspicion, regarding the cat she had
once known as her pet.
Artemis hissed, "No, I'm not. How could you think
of such a thing? And after saving your life too!"
She folded her arms in distrust. "There's no such
thing as talking cats, and I don't believe in magic.
Whatever happened back there was purely by
coincidence, nothing more." A bulky air-conditioner
unit tipping from the roof of a building on the thugs'
heads was almost too much for her to believe in.
"Give me the benefit of doubt." The cat pleaded,
"All you have to do is hold up the wand up in the air,
and shout the words: 'Mercury Power Make-Up!' There's
no harm in doing something like that. Everything will
become clear to you after that."
Another crashing sound occurred, but it was lot
closer this time. Artemis decided to give it one last
shot. "Look, I don't care if you believe me or not,
but I'm trying to save from those monsters! What
you've got in your hands is probably the only thing
that'll save your life, so please do it and we'll
discuss the details later!"
The last of rattling noises ended and Artemis
knew that there was nothing to stop them now. To make
things worse, judging from their voices, they were
*very* angry. Noticing Ami's fearful glance back at
the dark alley, he added, "Or would you rather that
they have their way with you?"
The girl's eyes widened considerably, paling
slightly as she recalled the treatment she had
experienced not long ago. "No..." Squeezing her eyes
tightly, she hesitated for a moment before making a
decision.
There wasn't one, really.
Ami turned to the white cat for confirmation,
receiving a nod in return. As the girl was about to
raise the wand, she paused and glanced back to the
white cat. "You sure you're not a devil in disguise?"
"Yes, I'm sure!"
Well, he *might* be telling truth. After all, if
a demon was involved, the cat would probably have
*black* fur, rather than a white one. "What's in it
for me? Other than probably feeling foolish when
nothing's happening?"
"All you have to do is say those words. No
strings attached, I swear! Hurry up and transform
before those thugs come!"
*Transform?* Ami regarded the white cat for a few
moments, then the way she had just come from, and the
cat once more before shrugging. "Oh, hell with this.
I'll even dance buck naked in front of the devil if
it'll take 'em off my back."
This was NOT the response Artemis had expected,
or wanted to hear.
Ami raised the henshin stick high again and
steeled herself. "Mercury Power MAKE-UP!"
Where she had expected nothing to happen, she
gasped when brilliant blue ribbons rushed out of
nowhere and surrounded her, comforting her. Her
clothes dissolved in contact with them, leaving her
exposed to the tendrils of wispy blue trails. They
explored her body thoroughly, hugging close to her
skin, and reassured her. She tossed away any of
inhibitions she had harbored as she moaned in
pleasure. It was an incredible sensation for her.
Ami slowly spun around and tried to sweep up the
ribbons into her arms. She began to manifest a bright
blue hue, which excited her even further. Each wave of
glittering blue magic over her exposed skin sent
tingles throughout her body as she reveled in the
sheer pleasure of it; so much of it that she had
nearly orgasmed, in fact.
Sadly, as dictated by the nature, nothing lasts
forever; the transformation was brief, yet it had
spanned countless hours from Ami's perspective. She
felt a pang of sadness as the magic drifted away, but
it was a short-lived one.
Then, in a blink of an eye, she *understood.* She
knew who she was, after years of disjointed feeling. A
piece of herself that had been so conspicuously
absent. For the first time since her birth, she felt
like a complete person and she knew what she could do.
As the blue hue that had enveloped her slowly
faded, she gazed at her new outfit in awe. Only
moments ago she had been wearing a soiled and torn
school uniform that bore no similarity to her newest
attire.
Her new uniform resembled a white leotard with a
short blue skirt. A very _short_ one, she noted, and
revealing more of her legs than she was used to. It
made her seem a bit more sexier than usual, though, in
her opinion, but she wasn't sure whether it was a good
thing or not for her.
The new fuku wasn't the only change, though. Gone
were her slip-shoes, replaced by long blue boots with
white trim. Other newest additions were long white
gloves, dainty blue bows on her bosom and back, and
earrings. She was pleasantly surprised by the latter;
she hadn't gotten around having her ears pierced yet.
Noting that her new outfit resembled a sailor's
uniform, she idly wondered how long it would last
before she ran into some trouble.
However, the biggest difference was her physical
well-being. She tested her arms in surprise. She felt
no pain at all. Taking in a deep breath, she found out
that she had no difficulty in breathing at all. In
fact, if she hadn't known better, she would've sworn
that her previous abuse had never occurred. The
injuries she had sustained should have taken at least
three months to heal completely, yet they had
recovered almost instantaneously.
"Oh... wow," was her tiny reply.
No, it went way beyond 'wow;' it was absolutely
GREAT! She could feel immense amounts of raw power
inside her, just waiting for her beck and call. She
reflexively closed her fists and opened them, then
repeated the exercise two more times. Raw power...
And _she_ was the one who possessed it...
Then, just as Ami was coming to the realization
of what had just happened, two boys burst into the
dead end, with angry expressions on their faces.
"There's she is! Yer gonna get it for real this time,
bitch!"
Ami snapped her attention from her arms to the
duo and recognized them instantly as Akito and Shinji
who had only recently caused her pain. The instant she
saw them, her expression flickered into fear
momentarily before darkening into a scowl.
Not expecting an almost scantily clad little girl
with blue hair in a ridiculous outfit, the angry kids
came to an abrupt halt as the said girl faced them
with a cold glare.
"Who the hell are you?!" The Aksito pointed at
her. "And where's that bitch?!"
"She's not here! She must've doubled back
somehow!" The Shinji said to his partner, glancing
around for any signs of the beaten-up girl.
As the boys accused at her for her identity, Ami
frowned at their words; what did he mean by her being
not here? Surely they should've recognized her...
Unless...
"We've gotta find her! Quickly!" Shinji pulled
the first boy along into the direction where they had
just come from. "Come on!"
Something must have happened to influence the
perception of the boys, Ami deduced, so that they
would not recognize her as Ami. Most likely the same
magic that transformed her into Mercury was
responsible.
So that meant... she really wasn't Ami. No... she
wasn't Ami at this moment, but Sailor Mercury. She
clenched her hands into fists as she thought
decisively. That's right, and where she had been
previously unable to do so, she had power to protect
herself as well as... for revenge.
"STOP!"
The boys blinked as Sailor Mercury suddenly
appeared in front of them, blocking their only escape.
She had been nearly five meters behind them less than
a second ago. How'd she cover the distance so quickly?
they wondered.
"You're not going to get away from me that
easily."
Slightly intimidated by Mercury's threat for a
moment, they backed several steps before they realized
it. Eyeing the girl up and down, wicked grins came to
their face. They glanced to each other with a knowing
grin. She's just a little girl, they thought.
Even though they had worked that Ami-bitch over a
plenty, they weren't satisfied. They wanted more, and
worse. They needed to break her, so she wouldn't point
them out to the cops. But at the moment, they wanted
to act out their fantasy of screwing up that Ami-bitch
and _humiliate_ her more than anything.
But they'd have to get rid of this annoying girl
first. Easily done, they agreed.
Mercury read their faces loud and clear, and,
quite frankly, was disgusted by what they had planned
for her.
Nodding to each other, the boys turned to Mercury
with grins on their faces. They raised their
outstretched arms in preparation for grabbing her. No
longer known as Ami, the senshi brought a grim knowing
smile to her face and relaxed her body. She knew
exactly what they would do, despite being still
disgusted. As she brought up her arms in defense, she
spread her legs over the spot she had chosen to stand,
seemingly to move of their own volition, almost as if
remembering some skills long forgotten. She grinned a
deceptive little smile, beckoning to them. "So you
want a piece of me, eh? Go ahead and get me."
Just as she had predicted, they lunged forwards
as one, with the bulky boy taking the clear lead. As
the boys approached her, she allowed her body to react
naturally.
At the last moment, she sidestepped Shinji. Even
as she used her right arm to pull the boy's
outstretched arm into passing past her harmlessly, she
spun around, still propelling the boy forward past her
and giving him an added momentum. Releasing him,
Mercury completed her spin and delivered a well-placed
hand-chop to the back of the boy's neck. Thrown off-
balance by the added momentum, Shinji was easily sent
sprawling to the ground by the blow.
Ignoring the cries of the fallen boy, she quickly
shifted her attention around to the lean boy as she
came face-about with him. She caught his incoming
right fist with her left hand, stopping it.
Surprised by the unexpected resistance, Yaseta,
who Mercury had quickly dubbed the weaker, skinner
Akito, seemed to hesitate for a moment before
delivering another blow, with his free left this time.
Mercury deftly intercepted it with her free right
arm as well.
They remained in that pose, straining to move
their arms out of their lock and staring at each other
with fury in their eyes, unwilling to budge even a
centimeter. For several moments they did not blink.
Somewhere in the background, a white cat meowed,
and Yaseta blinked involuntarily. This was all Mercury
needed to break the stalemate.
Snapping into action, she executed a swift kick
to his groin. Yaseta doubled over in pain, ululating a
piercing scream as his testicles were crushed.
His knees buckled and he clutched to his now
nonfunctional sex organ. In a single blow, she had
effectively dealt him the worst imaginable treatment.
"How'd you like that, you big, bad boy?" Mercury
mocked coldly, her eyes unforgiving.
Not giving the boy a chance to recover, she
delivered a roundhouse kick to his chin. His head
snapped back as he was sent flying across the empty
space before crashing into the brick wall.
Not a moment after she had delivered her
punishment to Yaseta, she quickly dodged to her left,
at same time driving her right elbow deep into the
incoming Futotteiru's gut as he had tried to ambush
her from behind, forcing him to grasp to his belly
with his air forced out of his lungs.
"I haven't forgotten you either." Mercury said as
she grasped both of her hands together into a two-hand
blow against his chin, sending him reeling
momentarily. "And don't think about getting off easy,
either."
The Senshi turned around to face Futotteiru,
having slapped the name on Akito to describe his
deceptively plump body. Despite having more muscles
than fat, he was obviously out of shape, with more
skin sagging out in places that no gymnast would have
dared to exhibit in public.
Futotteiru, having recovered his bearings,
growled at the girl.
"How terrible of you to be beaten by a frightened
little girl like me." Mercury brought her arms to her
face and twisted her body around a bit, painting
herself as a comical pose of a scared girl, as she
taunted the angry boy. "Can't you handle even a
thirteen year-old girl like me?"
Something inside the boy snapped as her words
sparked him into fury. With a loud shout of rage,
Futotteiru lunged forwards, intending to strangle the
girl. He didn't care if he wouldn't have the pleasure
of screwing the girl or not; he would personally wring
life out of that bitch!
Prepared for the incoming lunge, Mercury jumped
nearly two and half meters straight up, splitting her
legs wide like a runner leaping across a hurdle with
grace. Even as Futotteiru sailed underneath between
her legs, she brought down her double-fist against the
back of his head. Futotteiru staggered under the force
of the blow like a drunk, and nearly lost his balance
as his momentum drove him onwards.
Landing effortlessly, Mercury wasted no second of
her opportunity as she spun around into a run after
the swaying boy. Executing a flying kick, her blue
boot smashed against Futotteiru's back with a
resounding crack. This time, the boy lost his balance
and slammed into the moaning Yaseta, who was still
clutching to the spot between his legs. Together, the
boys crashed to the ground amidst screams of pain
and... a new element of fear.
After executing a perfect back-somersault, using
the plump boy as a springboard, Mercury landed softly
several meters from the pile of boys, satisfied but
prepared for any attack.
When she didn't encounter any, she straightened
to her fullest height, feeling more rejuvenated than
she had ever in her entire life. Training her gaze on
the quivering and moaning mass of boys, she pinned
them with the coldest stare she could muster. If looks
could kill, they would have been frozen in an instant.
Her tone chilled their spines as she spoke with words
that seemed to convey force behind them, "I'm not a
'bitch,' and I've been bullied by the likes of you and
others for as long as I can remember. Well, I've had
enough. I won't let anyone push me around anymore."
She paced her arms through a complicated set of
patterns and poses, before settling into a final body
pose that almost resembled a martial artist's. "I am
the senshi of intelligence, and water is my element. I
am... SAILOR MERCURY!"
Facing her abusers, she slowly smiled at the
looks of horror on their faces. "You thought of me as
cheap person, someone to pick on... Well, not anymore!
"I hope you enjoyed the fun you had with me." She
frowned deeply as her lips thinned. "Because it won't
happen again. And I'll see to it that you won't raise
your fingers against helpless girls ever again."
Her eyes sized up the quivering boys and she
grinned as she raised her right arm. A small glowing,
spherical orb of water manifested suspended mid-air
from her curved fingers. Her smile was not a pleasant
one...
By the time the local cops had discovered their
cold prison, they were already long time too late.
* * I C E * *
Sailor Mercury was literally hopping with
delight, bouncing across vast chasms between buildings
and bridging busy streets and highways, abandoning
caution to the wind.
"Slow down, Mercury! WATCH OUT FOR THAT CAR!"
The senshi simply laughed as she bounced off the
roof of the car, patting Artemis' head. "Don't worry;
I can see it!"
Needless to say, the cat in Mercury's arms fears
were not assuaged. "That's not what I meant!"
Mercury did not appear to hear him. Instead, she
gushed on, marveling at her newly-acquired abilities.
"This is incredible! I mean, this should be
technically impossible. This jump alone," Mercury
noted as she executed another of her gravity-defying
leaps, "practically violates the square/cube law! The
only logical explanation is that my mass must have
changed drastically..."
She quickly remodified her hypothesis the instant
she landed flawlessly, allowing her legs to absorb the
force of the impact, before bounding back into the air
again. "No. If this was true, my legs would've been
crushed by the force of the impact. The concrete
beneath me would've been cracked under the combined
inertia and increased mass..."
"It's magic!"
"Not to mention that muscle tendons on my legs
lack energy to propel my body to such heights..."
"I'm telling you; it's magic!"
This time his words caught her attention. "What
do you mean, 'magic'?"
"I'll explain, just please STOP RUNNING!" replied
the stressed-out cat.
"Oh, okay."
True to her words, she stopped running almost
instantly, having found a suitable place for them to
relax on top of a building located in the Thirty-
second district. No sooner than she had come to
complete rest, did she turn around to face the
direction she had just come from in awe.
"Unbelievable! I've covered nearly five kilometers in
less than three times as many minutes! That's strange.
Considering the amount of distance covered in such a
short time, I should be at the brink of physical
exhaustion, yet I'm perfectly fit as a fiddle."
"I'll explain..." Artemis panted, trying to get
his racing heart under control. "That's... magic at...
work..."
"Magic? You're not making any sense."
"The source of your abilities comes from an
unique form of energy, of which only few has ever been
able to tap into. You'd know it best as Magic."
Artemis explained, "It basically amplifies your--"
"That's ridiculous! There's no such thing as
magic!" Mercury retorted, interrupting the cat.
"Yes, there is, and deep inside you, you know
that it's true."
Her carefully maintained expression of
professional demeanor instantly crumbled afterwards as
she realized that Artemis' words were indeed true.
However, her rational side argued fiercely against
irrationality of magic. She shook her head. "We spent
almost two thousand years trying to scientifically
prove the existence of magic with no success, and you
expect me to accept this as basis of explanation?!"
"Look deep inside yourself and you'll discover
the truth."
Mercury glanced down at the white cat doubtfully
for a moment before taking a breath. As she slowly
released it, she closed her eyes.
She raised her arm and gazed at her palm
expectantly. Briefly, she closed her eyes and
concentrated. Moments later, she was rewarded with a
cooling sensation in her hand. The senshi smiled when
she opened her eyes and was rewarded with a perfect
spherical manifestation of water nestled snugly in her
hand. She needed no special instrument to verify that
the ball of water was a perfect sphere, even when
carried to tenth place.
She knew because she had willed it so.
At beck of her mental command, the orb of
liquidated dihydrogen monoxide floated into the air.
Her eyes tracked the ball as it bobbed through crispy
winter evening air. As it spun around Mercury, it
spontaneously transformed into a cube, then finally
into a polygonal shape with four faces.
"The triangular pyramid... the simplest of three-
dimensional polygonal shapes. It expends the least
amount of energy required to support its structure. In
fact, once constructed, it requires almost no
additional support and can maintain its structure
indefinitely without external influence." The shape
slowly came to hover above her raised palm of her
hand.
Mercury gazed intently at the shape floating
above her hand. "Next to the sphere, it's the most
perfect representation of mathematical discrete
structure known. It could be said that it is the
Universal Formula. It's also widely believed that it
may have extraordinary abilities, or perhaps even...
magical properties."
In a blink of eye, the triangular figure winked
out of existence as she dismissed it.
Mercury lowered her arm and stood still as she
tried to cope with the implications of her words.
Gradually, her face twisted as she frowned, reflecting
her struggle.
Artemis quickly realized the core of Mercury's
inner turmoil. "Don't fight it; just accept it!
Nobody's asking you to throw out everything you've
learned. Just think of magic as a separate category,
with its own physics and laws, bearing no relation to
the physical properties." Well, in a way, it was true.
He, however, decided to 'neglect' to mention that
magic did not have ANY form of properties or laws to
follow. Magic simply was. "Think of science and magic
as water and oil. They don't mix, but they don't clash
either!"
"I... guess I'll have to accept your explanation
for now. Until I can find a reasonable explanation,
it'll do for now." She resigned, sighing.
"Speaking of explanations," Artemis piqued up,
"what happened back there? Why did those guys attack
you? I almost didn't make it!"
Just as Mercury opened her mouth to reply, a
shrill sound of alarm shattered the night. The cat
instantly snapped into attention. "That's the burglar
alarm!"
"So?"
This time Mercury almost wilted under Artemis'
glare. "So? _SO?!_ In case you've forgotten, _Sailor
Mercury,_ you're one of the Sailor Senshi, and one of
your duties are to uphold the Justice _and_ punish
those who dares to oppose you and the Justice!"
Mercury had the decency to be embarrassed by her
pet's words, but Artemis' next line quickly wiped it
out of her system. "Or have you conveniently
'forgotten' your lines from your latest punishing of
your abusers?"
He was out of line, and she knew it. She clenched
her fists as she struggled to retain her anger. The
memory was still too fresh for her; _how_ dare he?!
She closed her eyes and silently counted from ten.
Backwards.
As the alarm continued to echo in her ears, she
opened her and replied coldly, "No."
Artemis barely had a chance to blink as Mercury
seemed to shimmer for a moment before she had
vanished. He snapped his head towards the direction
where the alarm had come from. Sure enough, Mercury
was already on her way. And without him this time, he
noted.
It would not be his last mistake as her tutor.
Whereas she had been bouncing across the
buildings in delight barely half an hour earlier, she
skipped across the tops without a thought, her mind
focused solely her task.
The alarm had died out moments earlier, but she
already had pinned down the exact location where the
noise had originated from. Effortlessly, she came to a
slow halt on top of the rooftop overseeing the
location where she had triangulated the source of the
alarm, and gasped.
The streets were littered with bodies of men,
women, children, and even pets. "Oh my god," she
whispered as she covered her mouth with her hands. How
horrible! However, despite the situation, she forced
herself to study the scene below her; she had a duty
to do...
If she found whoever did this, she would make him
pay... _dearly_...
Having barely begun her observation of the scene
of littered bodies, her eyes caught a flash of cloth,
and English lettering, proclaiming some obscure
American music band, emblazoned across the back of the
shirt. She recognized that particular shirt, and knew
of only one person who wore it.
Hoping against fear, she instantly jumped down
and sprinted across the bodies until she came before
the familiar shirt. She reluctantly turned over the
girl and gasped in shock, even as her blood turned
into ice as she recognized the unconscious girl
Despite the fact that the girl's skin tone had
unhealthy blue tone, indicating lack of oxygen to skin
cells, she recognized her. It would be the sight that
would haunt Mercury for the rest of her life.
"Miami!" she cried out as she shook her sister's
prone body. She quickly grasped Miami's arm and felt
for signs of pulse. It was barely felt, but still
beating. "No, no! Please, wake up! I lost Daddy." Even
though she was Sailor Mercury, she was still Ami
Mizuno inside. "You're all I have left of my family! I
don't want to lose you!"
After several minutes of failed attempts to wake
up her sister, she decided to resort to her last
measure. After positioning Miami until she was resting
comfortably on her back, Mercury got to her feet and
stepped back for more room.
She closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate,
pushing aside her emotions for a moment. The maneuver
she was about to attempt was a risky one, and she
needed to maintain her control, despite the fact that
she had been a Senshi for barely an hour.
Using her abilities offensively already had
proven to be simple for her earlier, but this time,
she had to adapt to more defensive position so there
would be low risk of serious harm to her sister. She
spread her arms wide open, as if about to embrace a
family relative, and breathed out her commands,
"Shabon--"
A shrill scream interrupted her. She quickly
swiveled around, prepared for anything that might
happen. She froze in shock as she stared at the source
of noise, an ugly creature throttling life out of a
hapless young woman.
A honest-to-god monster. Never in her wildest
dreams had she believed that such a creature could
have existed. Well, except perhaps in her nightmares.
Then again, if magic really did exist, her irrational
side pointed out, then why not monsters?
As she momentarily observed the beast, an
overwhelming sense of revulsion filled her. This
creature appeared to be a cross between a cockroach
and plant. It sported six hairy appendages with what
appeared to be plant sprouts at ends, of which one was
currently sucking some form of energy out of an
unconscious woman. Oh, yeah, it also had scales
covering its torso and abdomen. She noted that it
appeared to be female, if it could be believed that
those two mounds on her torso were mammary glands.
No, a demon was a more fitting than a beast for
this deformity, she thought as she gazed at her with
morbid fascination, unable to pull her eyes away.
Suddenly, the monster swiveled her head to gaze
at Mercury, its pupil-less green eyes narrowing
slightly. It belched out, "Mmmooooreeeeeeee
eneeeeergggyyy..." even as it released the woman.
The sickening noise of the drained woman as she
crashed to the ground rose Mercury out of her shock.
Everything suddenly became crystal clear to her.
It didn't take a genius of Ami Mizuno inside her
for her to figure out what had happened to her sister
and others. Miami obviously had been caught by this
monster, and had suffered the same fate as this poor
woman. This creature must have sapped so much of her
energy that she had collapsed.
She didn't know what this creature's intentions
were. She didn't want to know, nor had the heart to.
She took one step towards the filthy beast as icy calm
settled into her heart.
She regarded the monster coldly as she bit each
word through her teeth. "You. Hurt. My. Sister." The
senshi raised her arm, her fingers snapping open.
An instant later, the deformity was pinned
against the brick wall behind it, holed by five
icicles, each measuring at least three meters long and
ten centimeters wide. It didn't even have a chance to
utter a scream. Mercury didn't spare the deceased
creature a glance as it collapsed into a pile of
smoldering dust that evaporated moments later.
Even as the corpse dissolved, Mercury had already
turned her attention back to her pale sister. Her
attack, however brief it had been, had taken up too
much of her time. Rechecking Miami's arm for pulse,
she was quite relieved that it was still steady.
Moreover so, it seemed to be beating somewhat faster
now.
Picking off where she had been rudely interrupted
earlier, she stepped back and closed her eyes as she
tried to picture power flowing through her arms and
intoned the magical words; "Shabon Spray!"
Instead of the usual water blast she had used
earlier against her abusers, she tried to will forth a
surge of liquid dihydrogen monoxide into existence
while simultaneously retaining its movement.
Gradually, as she concentrated harder, the
acceleration of her attack slowed to zero. After
nearly ten seconds of intense concentration, she
slowly opened her eyes...
Perfect! She could see a rather large glob of
free-floating mass of water dancing before her. It
squiggled a bit along that way, then squirted into
another before swishing into a different direction.
It, however, remained suspended before the Senshi,
above her unconscious sister. She managed a slight
smile, relived that her gamble had worked.
Now to dump the water on her sister! With a flick
of her fingers, the floating sphere ruptured and...
Mercury blinked as nearly forty-three gallons of
water were dumped on her sister, drenching the Water
Senshi down to bone in the process as well. Okay, she
reflected, she hadn't quite perfected it yet. Needless
to say, it had been more than sufficient as Miami sat
upright abruptly, spluttering angrily.
Well, at least it _had_ worked...
"Can you hear me, Miami? Are you all right?!"
Mercury helped her sister up to a sitting position,
hoping that it would enable her to breathe easier.
"Oww, my head hurts," Miami groused for a moment
before blinking at her rescuer, unable to focus her
eyes clearly. "Wh...who the heck are you?"
Mercury stared at her in shock; she didn't
recognize her?! "Miami, don't you recognize me? It's
me, AaaAIOOWW!" She cried out and clasped her gloved
hand over three long red slits across her exposed
thigh. She glared at Artemis.
The white cat glared back defiantly, and shook
his head briefly.
Oh, right, Mercury realized belatedly what she
had been about to do. Technically, her half-sister and
she had never met as Sailor Mercury.
"Who are you?" her sister repeated.
If her earlier actions were of any indication,
she did not doubt that she would gain a _lot_ of
potential enemies; both human and non-human ones, with
allies sorely lacking for her to fall upon. Given this
perspective, her sister would be in danger if she was
ever to discover her secret identity.
This left her with no choice, really.
"I'm..." She swallowed as she tried to suppress
her emotions for her sister. "I'm Sailor Mercury."
Wiping her eyes clean of tears, she added, "I'm glad
you're all right. You must've fallen and knocked
yourself out. Just relax and you'll be all right.
"Now that you're okay, I've got to check others
and make sure they're okay as well so just sit here
and don't move, okay?" Not bothering to wait for
Miami's response, she hastily got up and diverted her
attention away from her sister by examining other
unconscious people.
Ho, hum. This guy appeared to be in similar
condition as Miami had previously been in. Low pulse
rate, but gradually regaining. Probably will recover
his consciousness soon.
Mercury moved on to another victim, and another.
They all had exhibited same status ailments as her
younger sister had. It didn't take her long to deduce
there would be no permanent harm to the people. Given
plenty of rest, they would be as good as new.
Just then, she heard sirens. Her face quickly
contoured into extreme disgust. Hoo, boy. Here comes
the local blunders. Heading back to Miami, who
appeared to be massaging the muscles in her arms. "You
okay?"
Miami nodded.
"That's good. I've got other stuff to do, so do
me a favor and tell the cops that you smelled some
kind of gas and felt dizzy. Whatever you saw was just
your imagination. Oh, by the way, don't tell them
about me; they won't believe you. Thanks."
Actually, she just wanted to get the hell out of
the place before the police arrived. It would be pain
in the neck to convince them about what happened here
anyway. The concept of a magical super-heroine and
some demon sucking life out people wouldn't settle
well with them.
Besides, they wouldn't be inclined to pay much
attention to her. How would she be able to explain to
the local law enforcers that she apparently had
decided to take the law into her own hands? Moreover
so, wearing a ridiculous outfit like hers and
proclaiming herself as fighter of justice practically
was considered an insanity. The fact that she was
young, being a thirteen-year old girl, would be the
only thing that'd save her.
She wasn't bothered by this; nobody listened to
her anyway. Except for her younger sister, she was the
only one who ever did.
"Sure, no problem! Just wait until I find whoever
did this to me! And when I do, I'll, umm, make him
regret it! Yeah, that's what I'll do!" Miami shouted,
shaking her fist. As she did so, Mercury released her
breath, incredibly relieved. Her sister would be all
right now.
She quickly grasped the white cat, ignoring his
angry yowling, and grasped him tightly as she jumped.
"Sailor Mercury, WAIT--!" Miami cried after her,
but it was already too late. The mysterious heroine
had vanished into the darkness of the night. She
slumped back to the ground, disappointed.
For some eerie reason, that blue-haired girl had
seemed familiar to her, and... hadn't she called her
by her name? She shook her head. It must be her
imagination, she thought as she felt hands prod her
for injuries.
* * I C E * *
Mercury sighed as she watched some paramedics
administer some aid to her sister even as cops
scurried around, searching for clues as to explain the
unexplained. Not that she expected them to find any.
Even the traces of the dust left behind by the
creature when it had dissolved had vanished.
She had never held much faith in local law
enforcement organization, not after they had let that
bastard slip through their fingers months ago...
The senshi shook her head to herself and cupped
her face into her hands as she stared at Miami. She
had really wanted to stay and help her sister as much
as she could, but Artemis was right; it was too risky
for her to stay with Miami, even with her disguise
spell in effect. Besides, she had no desire to place
her remaining family relative in danger.
"That HURT," Artemis groused as he preened his
neck the best he could do atop a bent pipe.
She ignored him. She wasn't in mood to listen to
his complaining, anyway. The near-scare and latest
brush with a monster had seen to that. Instead, she
simply scooped him up into her arms and jumped off the
roof, eager to escape from the scene of crime.
"You've got a lot to explain, Artemis." Mercury
said as she landed on another roof of a building, not
feeling bit winded up at all despite her latest
encounter with the demonic creature.
Nested between her arms, the white cat replied
meekly, "I know."
"Why don't you start with that monster?"
"That's a Youma."
Mercury came to a stop on the top of a low-rise
apartment building several dozen blocks away from the
incident and released the cat to the ground. "Youma?"
Artemis nodded. "Yes, Youma. They're released by
an evil agency known as Dark Kingdom. While I have no
idea why they've come back after all these years, I do
know that they're planning to conquer this world and
destroy everything! That's where you come in!"
"Me?"
"Yes! You're Sailor Mercury, and you're part of a
small group of Senshi who have sworn to stop them
before they accomplish their dark motives."
"That I don't have a problem about stopping them,
but if I'm part of the group that you mentioned, then
why didn't they come to help when I needed it?"
The cat did not reply.
"They're not here, are they?" Mercury sighed and
ran her fingers through her hair. "Figures. Just as I
thought, I'm on my own."
"No, it's not that..."
"Then _where_ are they?"
"I don't know--"
"You _don't_ know where they are?!"
Artemis quickly tried to placate the upset
Senshi, "But I DO know who one of them is, or at least
a possible candidate..."
This silenced Mercury's words. Finally, she spoke
calmly, "So you're telling me that you have no idea
where they are, or who they are? That you think
they're missing? You're just grasping at straws here."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you;
they're missing. I don't know how it happened, but
somehow the group you were in split off and everyone
lost their memories, and were assimilated into the
general populace. Ever since I recovered my memories
three months ago, I've been looking for them but came
across so many dead ends that I was about to give up
when I came across you. When I found you just after
the police brought you in, I just _knew_ that you had
to be one of them!"
The cat suddenly burst into a grin. "Now that
I've found you, we'll be able to find the rest of them
in no time!
"And since we're on this subject, just _what_ had
happened back there, with the police? Did something
happen?" Artemis took a step closer, "Did something
happen at your school, or was it something else? Or...
did something happen to you?"
This gave the Senshi a pause. He didn't think he
had seen Mercury this shocked before. He tried to
press on, "How did that happen? This wasn't one of
your 'usual' abuses, wasn't it?"
Mercury broke out of her trance immediately
glared at him. "Just for how *long* have you been
following me?"
"*Ulp.*" Artemis sweatdropped. He hadn't intended
to let that slip. "Umm, four weeks?"
"With you jumping in like that, especially since
I was about to commit?" She replied tartly. "Too much
of a coincidence, if you ask me. No, I don't buy it.
Care to try again?"
Artemis hesitated at Mercury's unrelenting gaze
and finally gave in, regretting his mistake. "Almost
eight weeks."
Mercury sucked in air involuntarily and leaned
against a nearby chimney to steady herself. She was
hyperventilating. During his stay with Ami as her
'pet,' he had never seen her react like this. It took
the senshi a long minute to bring her breathing under
control.
After few moments, she steeled herself and
clenched her jaw shut.
"Exactly what had happened? I need to know!"
They stared at each other for a full minute
before Mercury turned around and jumped off the roof
with a "I don't have to tell you that."
"MERCURY!"
As the girl-turned-into-senshi bounded across the
rooftop with ease, the cat sighed. That girl needed
some talking to do, and quite possibly psychiatric
help. The unexpected mood swings Ami had been
experiencing within last few weeks were starting to
appear at increasingly frequent occasions.
But first, he had to chase down the stubborn
girl.
* * I C E * *
In the end, it took him almost three hours to
track down Ami again. As Sailor Mercury, Ami had an
uncanny ability to traverse ten-meter gaps between
buildings in a single leap. She'd easily scale a
three-story building with almost no effort at all.
And he was only a cat. Granted, a magical one at
that, but a cat nonetheless. So he had to take long
detours around obstacles where Ami would easily
overcome them. That explained the reason why it took
him so long to track his disciple to a desolate
parking lot, barely illuminated by two street lights.
Fortunately for him, Mercury had made it easy for
him to track her down. All he had to do was to follow
the trail of frozen people. At first, he had been
afraid that she had gone on a rampage, turning people
into human popsicle at random. But after lingering
around for several minutes as police investigated
these cases, it slowly became apparent that Mercury
had only been targeting criminals. He wasn't surprised
that among her victims, abusers, kidnappers, and
rapists had ranked high among those frozen.
He really didn't mind Mercury's choice of
pursuits, but her actions had been... a bit too
extreme, in his opinion. Mercury had to know beyond
doubt that several of the law-breakers would suffer
massive cases of frostbite and probably lose fingers
and toes as the result. And more than once, deaths had
been confirmed.
The cat shook his head; this wasn't what he had
wanted! He had everything already planned out! He had
located not just one, but TWO potential Senshi
candidates. The plan had sounded so simple; go and
reawaken their submerged memories and locate the rest
missing Senshi. Once they had reunited all of the
Senshi, they would search for the elusive missing Moon
Princess and protect her from the Dark Kingdom.
Locating Mercury earlier than he had anticipated
had been an unexpected bonus for him. With her nearly
unparalleled intellectual capacity and aid of her
Mercury computer, he had no doubt that they would cut
the amount of time wasted in their search for the
missing Senshi greatly, thus improving the odds of the
Princess' survival.
Except that Ami wasn't reacting as he had
anticipated. From what he could vaguely recall of
Sailor Mercury, she had been the most reserved of the
Senshi and rarely took the initiative.
Ami simply wasn't following his carefully
arranged agenda at all!
"What a day - I'm bushed!"
Artemis stopped when he heard Ami's response and
thought about the past events. If her reaction to the
boys she had iced, as well as her brutal assault
against the now smoldering pile of what used to be a
youma, were of any indication, he reminded himself not
to get on her bad side.
He jumped up onto a nearby discarded cardboard
box for a place to sit, failing to find one, then
turned around in time to see Sailor Mercury glow a
faint bluish aura.
"Ami, NO - WAIT!"
Artemis's warning came too late as the senshi
willed herself to detransform from Sailor Mercury into
an Ami Mizuno. She perhaps had only a split-second to
utter an exclamation of surprise before she screamed
in pain as her body crumbled to the ground in an
ungainly fashion.
"Argh! What's going on?!" She groaned, clutching
to her pain-ridden chest. She had _felt_ the ribs in
her chest snap, as well as her right radius bone! To
make things worse, her left tibia had almost gave out.
She could sense the warning signs of upcoming
concussion, so she slowly shifted her body to her
back, and raised her legs up in the air against the
wall, to help increase the flow of blood circulation
to her brain.
During the simple execution of the task, her body
ached and screamed out in protest.
As her field of vision cleared somewhat, she saw
Artemis standing upside down, looking down at her. Oh
wait, *she* was looking upside down at him.
"Are... you all right?" The cat winced as he
heard Ami groan again.
Ami nodded. "For the moment, yes. Uaaah," she
gasped several times before relaxing and tried again,
"What happened here, Artemis? I thought I had
recovered completely when I transformed into Mercury!"
"I tried to warn you earlier that it's only
temporary."
"Temporary?!"
The cat nodded. He walked around her head and sat
near her shoulder so Ami wouldn't have to strain her
neck by craning it so far enough to see him, and
develop neck cramps in process. "As you already know,
when you transform into Sailor Mercury, you possess an
innate ability to harness and channel special forms of
magic; and before you ask - no, I don't know how it's
possible. I just know that you can.
"When you will yourself to change into Sailor
Mercury, the same magic that transforms you also heals
any injuries that you might have had sustained. That's
why you recovered so quickly when you transformed the
first time."
"Yeah." Ami nodded. "I felt like I could take on
the whole legion of teachers myself."
The cat regarded Ami oddly, as if unsure of how
to interpret her phrase. After a moment he dismissed
it as unimportant. "However, because your injuries
were healed by magic in the first place, it also
requires magic to *maintain* its present state. When
you revert to your original identity, that focus
disappears. Since you can only focus your magical
abilities effectively as Sailor Mercury, that focus
simply winks out of existence.
"Without magic, there is nothing to maintain your
condition, so your body reverts to its original state.
In another words..."
"...any broken bones healed by magic will break
again when I turn back into myself." Ami finished
flatly. She sighed and covered her face with her
uninjured hand. "Great."
Artemis nodded solemnly. "Unfortunately, any
injuries sustained as Senshi will carry over once you
detransform as well."
"Do me a favor and spare me bad news." Ami
gritted her teeth as she rolled over to her side. "I'm
not in mood to hear any more of them." Closing her
eyes, she took a deep breath. Releasing it, she
reached out to drag her body along the ground.
"Ami! What are you doing?!" The cat cried in
shock.
"What do you think I'm doing?" Ami grated through
her clenched teeth, trying her best to block out the
pain as she used her arms to drag herself towards the
maw of the desolate parking lot with immense effort.
"I'm not going to sit in a place like _this_ and do
nothing. I'm going to sit on that sidewalk over there
instead and wait until someone comes by so I can ask
him to call for some help for me."
She did just that.
END
--- --- --- --- ---
For now.
CONTINUED IN -
RIPTIDES
Segment II of VII:
COLDNESS - Desire to be Alone
And so that concludes Ami Mizuno's first
adventure as Sailor Mercury.
In Segment II, Ami transfers to Juuban, and meets
someone who may turn out to be a friend that she so
desperately needs. And during one of her nightly
missions, Sailor Mercury encounters an unexpected
resistance in form of Sailor Moon.
How will the Senshi resolve their differences?
--- --- ---
Author's notes:
C&C, if you want to offer, will be appreciated
greatly. It certainly would help in development of
further chapters of RIPTIDES.
After nearly a year since I developed this concept, I
have to say that I'm extremely relived that I managed
to finish it. Normally, it would have been released as
early as February '00, provided that no there were no
delays or problems. Unfortunately for me, something
happened.
In Jan '00, when the part was nearing its completion,
I lost two months' worth of progress on RIPTIDES 1 due
to a disk crash, and all recovery attempts failed. To
the date, this was the most devastating loss I've ever
encountered in terms of fanfic writing. Despite the
fact that I had older versions archived elsewhere with
about 40% of efforts made early into December '99, I
never really recovered from the loss.
For months, there was almost no progress made, save
for occasional bursts of writing. But my heart wasn't
into it. It wasn't until this late when Andrew Norris
provided me with an idea that I needed to 'jump-
start,' so to speak, the story. Granted, it was a
small nudge, but it was enough to make me seriously
reconsider giving RIPTIDES another attempt.
I hope that with the completion and release of Part I
will help prompt me to put myself past this staggering
loss and to write the subsequent parts of RIPTIDES.
I've grown to love it too much just to let it die, yet
at the time, the loss of my work in Jan '00 had proved
to be extremely costly and a big blow against me.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'd appreciate C&C. If you
have them, flames can be sent as well but I'll
probably ignore them.
And yes, I AM still working on Dreams Come as They
May. I've encountered a number of unfortunate delays,
the loss of the outline to the entire series
contributing to the massive delay in its progress.
Recently, I enlisted an aid of someone who may one day
turn out to be a co-writer for a part or more of this
series.
In the midst of the delays for DCTM, I've also started
writing a new fanfic series which has seen far greater
pace of development than DCTM ever had. Chapter one is
already completed, and chapter two is roughly 50%
complete. However, don't expect the parts to hit FFML
until chapter 3 is completed, which I hope will be by
end of this year.
By no means, don't expect to see the normally meek and
reserved Ami Mizuno that you're familiar with
throughout this series.
And before anyone complains about Ami's OOCness, she
HAS the right to be. The drastic turning point of
Ami's life took place _years_ before Artemis found
her.
And before I forget, I'd like to thank these people
for their suggestions, C&C, and encouragement:
Andrew Norris, Murmur the Fallen, Kickaha, and
Latin_D.
If there's anyone I've forgotten (and over the year, I
might've), I apologize! ^_^;
For those who're interested, here's her ice score:
09 criminals (crippled and/or killed)
01 youma
And that's only the beginning...
--- --- --- --- ---
DA/R
Dark Alpha --- AlphSailor@aol.com
--- G3 Fanfic Studios
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7233/