Hello!

How's it going! Long time no hear, I know. Glad that you liked the latest 
chapter - I was toiling away on it for a while, there. Kind of lost steam 
over Anime North. (sheepish grin) I am easily distracted by shiny things, 
and they had a crazy purple Galvatron that I just *had* to buy...

Uh... what were we talking about? ^_^

Apparently, between
attempts to conquer the planet there had been nothing Zoicite had  liked

better than to curl

up with the latest tabloids and see who Nana was going to skewer  next.

Probably waiting with baited breath for an expose on Nephrite or  Jadeite.

Or even better: an expose on Nephrite *and* Jadeite!

Zoicite: (flipping through tabloid) "Hey, Kunzite! Guess who's gay!"

Kunzite: "Uh... us?"

Zoicite: "No, no... guess who *else*!"

Kunzite: "Those two girls over there?"

Haruka: "You know, it's pretty rude to point at people."

Zoicite: "No, not THEM! Guess who else!"

Kunzite: "I don't know... Fish-Eye?"

Zoicite: "I give up."

Her only redeeming feature was that she was not as bad as she used  to 

be,

and whenever she tried to explain that to people, they  assumed she was
lying to them again. Nobody would be willing to help her. The only  hope
she had was to find a way to help herself.

One of those things that really should be taught in school:
'If you lie, cheat and steal, you may get what you want right away,  
without
much effort. But eventually you WILL get caught and then you will  lose 
your
good name. Then you will find it takes ten times the effort to  win back 
that
good name.'
(Well, taught in schools other than sunday school).

Trust is easily broken and hard to regain. That's the problem with turning 
over a new leaf: sometimes, if you were bad enough in the past, people 
aren't willing to give you a chance to. Once you are known to be 
untrustworthy, people will suspect you for the rest of your life. It's not 
necessarily fair, but it is the way things tend to work.

It was
almost a relief to realise that she was free to be bad again after so  

much

time spent as a spineless weakling.

Precisely on the lines of Dynasty philosophy as delivered by Kayura.
Oniwabandana was obviously the perfect convert to being a  Youma.

The Youma so nice, they converted her twice... ^_^

He was generous in times of plenty, fair in times of  famine, and - 

which
was important -

understanding when things went wrong.

A mark of intelligence on his part - he's been there himself after all.

Yeah, as I think Jadeite himself put it earlier in the fic, he's got a 
really good reason to believe in second chances. He is more than familiar 
with how it felt when he got burned after trying his best. Now he has 
realised that sometimes people lose even after doing everything right. I 
figure that's going to make him a better leader.

Jadeite's looking more and more dangerous - he knowns how to keep troops 
loyal,
not just afraid of him.

Jadeite's greatest strength has always been the loyalty his youma show him. 
On average, his troops tended to be the smarter, more determined cannon 
fodder. For example, many of Jadeite's troops were trusted to handle things 
themselves and come up with their own plans. Nobody had anything bad to say 
about Jadeite, even when he was losing - heck, Tethys actually risked her 
life to help him get back into Beryl's good graces.

Nobody wanted to work for someone who would kill them the second they  

made
a mistake.

Most youma only served masters like that when they had no other  choice.

That would be most of the time then.

Well... yeah. :)

There was a sudden flash of dark purple energy, and a swarm of

identical women

raced out from their starting point, each one trailing a thin metal  

wire

>from her wrist as

she charged off in a different direction from all of the  others.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! She's a real ninja!

She sure is. In fact, she used this copying ability when she fought Sailor 
Moon.

It did not work very well. I seem to recall that Sailor Mars just torched 
the whole lot of them and left the real one with a severe case of sunburn. 
^_^

It was a shame they had let the palace go to waste like they had: if  it

was still in the shape

that it used to be, she could have seen them clearly even while still

inside the wall.

Cleanliness is next to godliness - and the new owners are most  definitely
among the ungodly, as Simon Templar would put  it.

The Saint?

He looked like a kid. He didn't even look like a particularly

dangerous kid.

And that's another thing to blame on Shin, obviously. It's tough being  the
evil twin of someone who doesn't look especially evil.

Nise Suiko has *lots* reasons to hate Shin... the puppy dog aura is just one 
of many. I mean, even Shin has trouble being taken serously as a hero when 
he looks like he needs someone to pat him on the head and cut his meat for 
him - it's even harder to be taken seriously as a villain when you look like 
that.

I suspect that part of the reason Nise is such a raving psychopath is that 
he is overcompensating for how cute and harmless he looks. ^_^

He kicked your ass,  and now you won't
be happy until you've kicked his back. It's only natural,  man."

"That's got nothing to do with it," Shin argued  halfheartedly, walking 

over

to the table and shuffling through the charts as though he was looking 

for  >something.

Probably a map of Egypt - obviously Nise Suiko is hiding in that bigass
river they have there. What was it called again...?

Oh, you mean "Denial?" Yeah, Shin's got a bit of that. Just a tad. ;)

"Besides, no evil twin could hope to copy your limp wrists and girlish

figure."

Nise would probably be taking notes if he could hear this.

Or just moving Shuu up his "to kill" list, right under "Shin" and right 
above "everybody else". Remember, Nise Suiko happens to *share* that 
'girlish figure' and those 'limp wrists'. I'm sure he is more than a little 
defensive about his looks.

Nise Suiko: "People of Earth - BEHOLD YOUR DOOM! Do not be decieved by my 
wussy exterior!"

"Yeah, *that* would have been a real nice date," Ryo replied snarkily,

then paled and

winced as he realised what he had said. "Aw, nuts...."

BUS-ted

Shin is smarter than Ryo. This is pretty much accepted as fact. Shin can 
also be pretty sneaky, when he wants to be. It's one of the many advantages 
of being known as a "nice guy": people never see it coming. ^_^

I could use the distraction. I am seriously in  over my head, here."

You and Ami both.

I figure that's about right, though - I mean, both Ryo and Ami have grown up 
completely alone, with only one real parent who has never had time for them. 
They've basically raised themselves. Heck, neither of them even had any 
*friends* until after they met up with their respective teams (Okay, Ryo had 
a pet tiger, but I don't think that counts).

These are the ultimate latchkey kids: when the heck were they going to 
master the social arts of dating?

"Trust me, Ryo: girls always have stuff like this worked out years in
advance. You might be a little confused right now, but I can guarantee  

you

that Ami Mizuno knows exactly what she's doing."

*twitch* Good ol' Shuu... you can always count on him to get things  
wrong...

Yep, good ol' Shuu: tough like a rock, strong like a rock... and *smart* 
like a rock. >_<

"She certainly doesn't *seem* very upset," Ami noted  carefully.

"Trust me," Rei growled between her clenched  teeth, giving Usagi a 

dirty
glare, "She was

VERY WORRIED about you. She's just... hiding it really well."

The thing is, without more information, this could be Rei passing off  her
own panic onto Usagi or Usagi really panicking and then forgetting all 
about  it
once the problem is over. You then provide that information, of  course, 
but
I can just picture it.

Yeah, I could see it going either way, too. My image of Rei going nuts with 
worry and Usagi humming a happy little tune while she copied Ami's notes won 
out, though. Usagi *does* worry about her friends sometimes, but only if she 
has a reason to suspect they are in any danger.

him! I happen to
prefer older boys, Usagi: the Samurai Troopers are all too goofy for  my
tastes. Uh, no offense, Ami."

That's just because you haven't met them all yet, Rei. Goofiness is not a
requirement to be a Samurai Trooper...

Rei is really basing most of this off of her exposure to Shuu and Ryo. As 
far as she is concerned, every Samurai Trooper she has met is an immature 
goofball who can't take anything seriously. It's not an accurate portrait of 
any of the Troopers, but it is an image that they can convey to people who 
don't know them.

Especially Shuu.

"Now," she said, with an impish grin, "tell me more about Ryo Sanada.  

Is
he cool?

No, he's hot.

snerk<

Does your heart go all squishy when you look at him?

Oh yeah...

He has been known to have that effect on the opposite gender, yes....

Oh, Ami, I'm so excited for you! Now you and Ryo can go on double  dates

with me and

Mamoru, and we can make them wear matching tuxedoes, and all the other

girls at school

are going to be *so* jealous when they find out that you're dating a

Samurai Trooper - once

we tell them what one is, I mean - and he can walk you home from  

school,
and carry your

books, and...."

"I'm not entirely sure that's how  this works, Usagi," Ami said 

nervously.

You were about to ask her for dating advice, Ami. Too late to back out now.
The Usagi matchmaking service is now in action. You WILL have a cute
boyfriend.  Resistance is futile.

Indeed. Ami was actually hoping for this: now that Usagi is on the case, 
there is no chance that Ami can back out. Her natural shyness is no match 
for Usagi's willingness to shove her into things. And, as Ami herself 
pointed out, Usagi is really, really GOOD at this sort of thing. She's had 
to win back Mamoru so many times that's she's got it down to a science.

"Okay," she said to herself, working her way towards the cockpit,  "so I

have to handle the

plane. Whatever. Can't be *that* much harder than flying a  UFO...."

And safe landings are usually the toughest part of flying... I'm not  
holding
out any hopes here.

Poor Petz. She can land a plane about as well as one of us could handle a 
Roman chariot. Being from the future does not always make somebody skilled 
at handling present day machines. I mean, I'm no slouch with modern 
computers, but if you handed me a bunch of cards and a hole punch I would 
have no idea what to do with them.

Petz is in "cards and hole punch" territory, here.

The Professor had  told her that he liked
*good* girls, now, so that meant she had to be on her best behaviour  

until

he changed his mind.

Man, Elios can really pick his allies.

Kaolinite: "What can I say? Even when I'm being bad... I'm still pretty 
good."

Little Miss Kuromine is being exactly as good as she was told to be, and 
that's probably the most you can expect from her. It's KAOLINITE. Her idea 
of ethics is whatever Professor Tomoe feels like doing. ;)

She knew that she was at least as powerful as Sailor Jupiter was:  Elios

had told her so

when he restored her powers.

Elios should just hope Nise Suiko finishes him off next time. When Makoto
hears that he said that, she's going to be PISSED.

Heh. Yeah, I don't think Makoto will react well to getting rescued by some 
of these people. If nothing else, Petz might want to help out just so she 
can rub it in later.

Anyway, thanks for the response! It's great to know you're enjoying the fic 
so far: I'm starting work on the next chapter first thing tomorrow. Not to 
jinx myself, but I think I might be able to finish it in under a month this 
time! I'd be crossing my fingers, but that makes it really hard to type. ^_^

Later!

-Morgan



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