"Stop, Haruka," Makoto protested as the woman who just
kissed her hopped to her feet and began to try to embrace her again.
"I thought we weren't going to do this again."

AGAIN????

"Listen, you can crash here tonight. I'll go talk to Usagi
tomorrow, and maybe she can say something to Michiru. You know that
Usagi's never blamed you for what happened, ever."

Makoto, apparently, does.  I get the impression from reading so far that
you're writing a fic where Outer/Inner relations have broken down
completely.

For the first time, Usagi noticed another child staring up
at her. Despite the summer heat, the little girl was wearing a
hooded jacket and long jeans. In the shadow of the hood, all Usagi
could see were the glint of eyes-- red eyes, like a rabbit's.

Kelly didn't have any fingernails. Her fingers had the right
number of joints, but they ended in stubs rather than what was
normal. Also, Usagi realized in the strange light of the mall
concourse, her skin appeared very slightly green.

She glanced up at the girl's guardian, Brooke.

"Kelly has a skin disorder," the girl said dispassionately.
It was as if she had the line memorized. Strangely, her eyes
couldn't quite meet Usagi's when she said it.

Oh.  My.  God.

"I like Bunny," she said. "She's really pretty."

"See," Brooke said. "Not all of them are like the Sailor
Senshi. Aren't you glad we came out here to see her?"

"She was really nice, Brookite," the little boy agreed, his
voice quavering. "She kissed Kaliborite and she touched my head."

"Brooke and Kelly, Jasper," the girl corrected
automatically. "Hopefully, everyone we meet will be just as nice!"

This is getting scarier by the paragraph.  They're presumably trying to
blend  in to the point where the senshi get labelled as murderers every time
they bust up an operation.

It was outside the Crown that she saw a most unusual sight.

A Youma General was painting a sign on a storefront.

"We never did figure out how Jadeite set up all his little
business fronts so quickly," Minako noted as the group sat inside
the crown about a half hour later, suspiciously eyeing the last-
minute decorating work going on across the street.

"It is a little difficult to imagine Jadeite and Nephrite
doing 'fixer-upper' work," Rei noted in an amused tone. "I wonder
how hard it was to get paint out of those uniforms."

"I always thought that the Dark Kingdom had a huge stockpile
of gems and precious metals," Ami theorized. "It wouldn't be
difficult to buy a business outright and then come in after the fact
and have youma drain energy from the people inside. The fact that
these youma seem to need technology to drain people's energy hints
at some kind of loss of ability."

Not really.  It hints at the fact that they've FINALLY figuired what made
the Death Buster so much of a threat.  They used machines and manual labor
as much as possible because the senshi have a harder time pinning it down as
a threat.  Don't believe me?  The senshi walked in and out of Prof. Tomoe's
house a half dozen times and never realized the Witches HQ was in the
basement.

Minako nodded at Ami. "And why not attack us directly? If I
was a Youma general, I'd do something to draw us out into the open,
like Kunzite was always trying.

I wouldn't.  Five seasons of SM has proven that drawing out the senshi is
quickly followed by the words "moon dusted."
Once again, the Deathbusters and the Dead Circus have taught us the best way
to deal with the senshi.  Go in, accomplish the objective and get out while
the senshi are trying to deal with your monster-of-the-week.  The current
enemy has apparently only altered this strategy by concentrating on
camoflage and recon.

Also, they may not know who we are,

but I *know* that all the Generals knew who Tuxedo Mask was. Why not
go after him, too? Mamoru hasn't noticed anything, has he?" she
asked Usagi.

I got the impression that only Zoicite, Kunzite and Beryl knew that.  I
can't imagine youma taking orders from a being they KNEW was once an ally to
SailorMoon

Biting her lip, Usagi shook her head. "Oh no! You don't
think they would, do you?"

Minako jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the youma across
the street who were doing their best to set a ladder against the
store front without knocking it over. "Don't you think they would
have, already?"

Once again, I wouldn't.  Tuxedo Mask isn't really a threat, just an
annoyance.  Me?  I'd be blasting any cats that showed up.  In addition, any
"storefronts" would have a stringent no pets policy.

"Artemis didn't bat an eye until he was on top of it, and by
that time it was too late," Minako seconded Rei. "Instead of sucking
energy in, maybe it was pouring energy out."

What makes this truly terrifying is that the senshi have NO IDEA how long
this has been going on.  Was the health club the first assault, or they just
get sloppy after WEEKS of running other scams?

"Uhm... about that," Makoto said, a little guiltily. "I
talked with Haruka last night. She was pretty upset that we left her
and Michiru out of the loop when we went to the health club."

After going thru the DeathBusters arc with their noses stuck in the air and
not lifting a finger during the ENTIRE Dead Moon Circus arc and finally
doing twice as much harm than good during the Galaxia arc, what right do the
Outers have to complain?

"Let's call them and tell them what we're planning," Usagi
said decisively. "I belive that Haruka and Michiru will do what is
right."

Reality Check Scanner Activated:  Hopes in Vain Detected.

I get the distinct impression that the senshi will spend more time fighting
EACH OTHER than the enemy.

* * *

"Dammit, Akie, will you hold the fucking ladder STILL?!"
Cobalt yelled.

"Sorry!" Achorite apologized, doing her best to balance the
ladder against the new deli's awnings. "I'm trying not to tear the
fabric."

"Better the fabric than me!" Cobalt snapped back. "I
swear... if levitating wasn't so costly in energy..."

??????

Achorite nodded, and opened the door of the delicatessen
open. The two just missed five interested women stepping out of the
Crown Fruit Parlor across the street.

This is just about the only mistake they've made so far.  Juuban district is
pretty big, why set up your next operation in a place where the senshi are
known to show up the fastest?

After tending to her injury, Cobalt stepped back out into
the delicatessen's dining room, where two other youma were getting
ready to open shop.

"Okay, ladies," she said, interrupting them. "Hematite,
Inderite, it's entirely possible that the Sailor Senshi will show up
like they did at the health club. We all got out of there okay, but
we very nearly didn't."

She pulled up her tanktop, showing a painful-looking
greenish-black patch on her side. "I'm still healing from where
Jupiter blasted me, and I put everything I had into shielding. If
the Sailor Senshi show up, run."

Judging from this, I get theimpression that the health club wasn't really
all that successful in terms of energy gain.

Achorite nodded in agreement.

"I don't want any heroics," Cobalt continued. "I just want
the both of you to get the hell out. If a police officer asks about
it, say you were running from monsters or something like that.

Better yet, claim that the SENSHI are the ones busting the place up.  Sailor
Moon and the rest would have a lot of explaining to do if they bust up this
place.  Remember:

The enemy didn't steal it or subdue the owner.  THEY OWN IT.
If they leave and refuse to transform or use magic, then the senshi are
assaulting "innocent civillains."
If the energy drain is low enough, there won't be any unconcious bodies to
incriminate them.

Cobalt took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. "Nobody else
has called me for any emergencies. Graphite's always been flighty.
Maybe she found a boyfriend or something?" she suggested.

Nope.  Pluto killed her.

"She's... indisposed," Michiru replied quietly.

Actually, she's out with Pluto, killing youma, but Michiru isn't about to
say THAT.

"D'you think we're gonna get in trouble?" the little girl in
the coat asked.

"Don't think so," the blue-eyed little boy replied. "Cobalt
might yell, but she's always yelling about something. Brookite won't
be mad at us."

"I'm glad," the little girl said. "I like Brooke and don't
want her to be mad, but it was so hot inside."

"Why don't you take the coat off, Kaliborite?"

"Brooke says I'm not supposed to. If people see me, they
might get upset."

This disturbing.  These are obviously youma kids.

"Dunno," the little girl said. "They've got fangs and claws,
but they're small. I don't think one could kill you."

Obviously, they haven't made the two cats = imminent senshi raid yet

Haruka stirred her soup, her eyes darting around nervously.
She was fidgeting nervously and her gazed flicked rapidly between
the different waitresses, all of whom had candy-colored eyes or
strange shades of hair.

Shell-shock?

"There are mechanisms inside the table that are draining
energy, but at a rate even slower than they were at the health
club."

Clever.  They realized what drew in the senshi at the health  club and made
corrections.

Mamoru exhaled and continued. "Youma can't live on pure
energy. They have to absorb life energy from their prey. Also, all
of the technology in the Dark Kingdom had been designed to use
stored life energy. All the little tricks that the generals were so
proud of were little more than the reflected life energy of their
victims."

This doesn't make sense.  Lots of Beryl's youma could manipulate pure
energy.  Plus, since they spent thousands of years in a place with no
ecosystem, they had to have some other means of surviving other than
vampirism.

"I'm sorry," Michiru apologized for her after the background
chatter had resumed around them. "You can't understand how difficult
it is for us to see an encroachment such as this and *not*
immediately attack. It's taking everything I have to keep from
blasting our waitress when ever she comes to the table."

Shuddering, Haruka ran down the street and turned the
corner. She dodged into the alley leaned up sickly against the wall.

After a few seconds, she leaned over and began to cough,
finally vomiting back up the half-sandwich she had just eaten. It
was horrible, terrible, but it felt better to be free of anything
youma-spawned. The sick taste in her mouth and the acid burning in
her throat were far better than the knowledge that she had eaten
something created by a youma.

I get the impression that the Outer Senshi are going to be the main villains
in this story.

"The Sailor Senshi are trying to kill a little girl!"
someone shouted on the streets below. Sailor Moon's stomach churned
as she heard the cry. Surely not. Surely Haruka could not possibly
be planning on...

Three seasons and she still hasn't figuired out that not only COULD Haruka
do it, SHE'S TRIED.

"Listen, Callie or Cobalt or whatever your name is" the
blonde woman told her. "I'm not sure what you're up to, but tonight,
I'm not going to push it. We'll just let sleeping youma lie with the
fishes, okay?"

Cobalt nodded, fairly certain that Venus had just horribly
butchered the phrase.

Actually, she made a reference to "The Godfather."

"What I do know is if you hurt people in this city, I'm
gonna rain down on you like a ton of bricks," Venus continued.
"Draining energy and feeding people dangerous food comes really
close to hurting people. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes," Cobalt said, horrified that the Sailor Senshi had
already discovered the length and breadth of her latest plan.

It's also an empty threat.  The senshi CAN'T shut down the operation,
because Cobalt has the legal high ground.  There is no way the senshi can
prove anything harmful is going on.  If Cobalt's group pulled the same
tactics they did at the health club, they could turn around and demand the
police do something about it.  Remember, they OWN the place.  They have
PERMITS.  If Cobalt had kept undercover, patrons of the health club would
assumed the senshi had gone rogue.

"We'll take Haruka," Sailor Moon said. She had already
helped Tuxedo Kamen to lift the woman's slender body. "Sailor
Jupiter, would you go with Sailor Neptune?"

This is the first indication that Moon has also lost faith in Neptune, as
well as Uranus.

"With Usagi, there's no telling," Makoto replied. "There's a
lot of strength and determination there that she's very careful not
to show the rest of us. If she has to, she'll tear Haruka down and
rebuild her from the ground up."

Michiru sighed deeply. "Will I even recognize her
afterward?"

This is the absolute creepiest passage so far.

Much later, Kaliborite and Jasper sat in the apartment they
shared with their guardian, Brookite, happily watching 'Rabbit
Room'. Bunny the teddy-bear was safely held in Kelly's arms as she
watched. Even if she couldn't see the color of the television, she
could see the faces of the figures and hear their voices. She loved
the real Bunny, because the real Bunny had saved her life... or was
it Sailor Moon who had done that?

It didn't matter. The songs sounded the same regardless of
if Sailor Moon or Bunny sang them.

Well, that's one secret ID exposed.




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