[FFML] [FanFic][SM][NETTG] Terra in Tokyo Ch. 3 (of 27)

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Right, then!  Setting established?  Characters noted?  Motivation set?
 Let's start blowing things up!!!


Disclaimer:
This story is based on Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi.
This is a non-profit fan work created as a tribute, and no
infringement is intended. All rights to the characters, settings, and
situations of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belong to Naoko Takeuchi,
Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC. ArbyFish belong to
Daniel Oliver and are used with permission.


Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo
Final Mix

---Chapter 3:  Whack the Negamafoozles!

	As Terra rushed toward the burning jewelry shop, a part of her mind
chided her for not having called the police or fire department.
Another part of her psyche retorted by saying that if the building was
on fire, the automatic systems would have already tripped alarms, not
to mention any passerby that might have already called.

	No, as Sailor Chibimoon, she'd have a different task ahead of her,
namely that of eliminating any monsters that might impede the progress
of the fire department when they arrived.  In the words of the
ArbyFish that flew closely behind her, there'd be Negamafoozles, and
she'd have to whack them.

	What kind of a name for a group of villains was Negamafoozles,
anyway? she pondered.  Weren't real villains supposed to have some
sort of dashing, frightening name?  The Legions of Darkness, now those
would be awesome to fight against, or even the Xenon Predators.
Something fearsome to honorably fight against, and become known as a
heroine throughout the land.

	Searching her feelings, she discovered that despite half-abandoning
her superstar idol model dreams, she still craved for a bit of fame.
She wanted to make a difference in the world, and get recognized for
it.  Power to change things, skill to do them well and in an
impressive manner, and notoriety gained by those virtues.  The life of
an adventurer was what she craved, and it was a kind of life she would
easily be denied of in this modern, dull society.

	On the other hand, she considered as she glanced down and fingered
the material of her skirt, Sailor Chibimoon wasn't quite the right
name for the best and brightest of heroines.  Even being called
Supergirl would have been an improvement over what amounted to
"Mini-Moon."  Plus, where there were great battles, people got hurt,
most especially the key players in them.  And when it was all over,
sometimes all that was left was an empty battlefield and razed
landscapes.  There really was no good point to fighting, in the end.

	On second thought, maybe she really didn't want to be a heroine.

	"No!"  Terra shook her head and fought to regain her determination.
"Naru's in trouble, and I have to save her."  Besides, even if all
that was left in the end was a blackened landscape, not fighting at
all would be much worse.  After all, that's why the fighters were
willing to leave behind razed villages in the first place:  in giving
up, what the enemy could do to you paled in comparison to dying in
battle.  It was this line of reasoning that brought forth a certain
battle cry.

	"VICTORY OR DEATH!" Sailor Chibimoon shouted as she charged into the
burning Osa-P, a fist raised above her head.

	People were passed out all over the place--customers from earlier,
having fallen prey to their energy-draining jewelry.  Amidst charred
debris and shattered glass, a withered monster grasped Naru by the
neck, squeezing and extracting a fine white mist from her body.

	"Stop right there!" Terra shouted at the monster.

	"What?" the monster said, turning its neck around one hundred eighty
degrees.  "Who are you?!"

	Terra took a deep breath.  She had been waiting for this.  It was
time to pick a new secret superheroine name she could be proud of, one
much better than the one she'd been given.  "I am... the Eternal
Warrior, the Defender of the Earth and Paladin of Justice.  In the
name of my ancestors and the honor of the righteous, I am the Holy
Warrior --"

	"Nope!  Don't listen to 'er," Arby interrupted, fluttering in front
of her.  "She's really just th' Li'l Anklebiter, Sailor Chibi-moon."

	"Little Anklebiter Sailor Chibimoon!" Naru choked.  There were just
some things, apparently, that one must balk at, no matter how short of
breath one may be.  "What kind of superheroine name is that?!"

	Chibimoon glared at Arby, who smiled pleasantly in return.

	"Wot?" Arby asked innocently.  "Yew's QUOITE chibby, yew is!  Oye'z
seen you, packin' away all that oyce cream."

	"No you haven't!"

	"Well, Oye MOIGHT 'ave."

	"...Anklebiter?!"

	"A'course!"

	"Then, 'Sailor Chibimoon,'" screeched the monster, "you will die
along with her!"  It released its grip and dove at Terra, but then
slowed down and smiled a fanged grin.  "No, I know your type.  I've
got something much better in mind."  It raised its claws high and,
amidst the burning wreckage, the former customers arose with evil
grins and vacant eyes.  "Perish by the hands of your fellow humans!"

	"Oh my," breathed Terra.  She hadn't counted on demonic possession.
Energy-draining monsters with claws she could deal with, but innocent
people being forced to attack her?  That... that, well, simply wasn't
proper.  It wasn't very nice, either.

	Sailor Chibimoon turned around and bolted, the possessed victims in
hot pursuit.  Arby grabbed onto her trailing hair as she fled.

	The Negamafoozle turned back to Naru.  "Now, where were we?  Oh, yes.
 I was going to take your energy, and you were going to die."

	"Some rescue that turned out to be," Naru muttered as she backed
away, nearly tripping over burning debris.

	"Stop right there!" another girl's voice shouted from the entranceway.

	"What NOW?!" cried the monster, turning to face the new silhouette in
the doorway.

	"I am... Sailor Moon, Champion of Justice!  I right wrongs and punish
evil, and in the name of the Moon, you're punished!"

	Naru sighed.  "Oh dear, here we go again."

---

	While this "heroine" thing hadn't gone as well as Terra had hoped,
she still wouldn't have felt nearly as bad if her strange new mascot
wouldn't keep taunting her about it.

	"Wot koind a' chicken is yew?" Arby inquired while hopping on the
girl's head.  "Froied chicken?  Baked chicken?  Roast chicken?  Curry
chicken--"

	"You're not helping, Arby!" Terra panted.

	"Well, yew's a chicken a' sum koind, isn't'chew?  Ya's runnin' loike
one.  Left a yellow streak trailin' CLEAN back ta Oyereland, yew did!"

	"There was nothing I could do!  And look, they're after me!"  Despite
the girl having sprinted away, the possessed people had kept up with
her quite well.  During the chase, her mind kicked back in again and
started thinking, informing her that she couldn't run forever.  She
wasn't overweight or anything, but she didn't exercise much and wasn't
in the best of athletic form.  Plus, she didn't feel any different
than she did before "transforming."  If she got any powers from it,
she certainly couldn't feel them.  What she got amounted to basically
just a costume--and not much of a costume, at that.  It was more like
what young, gold-digging Japanese socialites might wear to impress
rich, lecherous old men that might happen to pass their way.
Actually, if that were the case, then....

	Terra grimaced.  "ARBY!  WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN ME INTO!?!?"

	The ArbyFish fluttered in front of her as she ran, smiling the same
catlike grin he always wore.  "Oh, well, ya's gots ta dress up teenage
girls in miniskirts and send 'em out ta foight Negamafoozles.  Wot'd
th' ten'acle monsters do if we didn't?  Can't 'ave cheerful li'l
snorts goin' about their daily loives wi'out a roight noice challenge
ta prove their worth.  Then they'd get awl stuck up n' worry about
makeup n' gettin' good grades in school, gettin' a good job... can't
'ave that!  Wouldn't be proppa' if we did!"

	"You had better be joking!"

	"Well Oye moight be.  If ya really wanted me ta be, y'see."

	Finally, Chibimoon's stamina ran out.  Leaning over against her legs
and gasping for breath, she slowed to a halt.

	Arby perched on Terra's shoulder.  "Loike Oye said, yew's quite
chibby, yew is.  Just a li'l froied chibby sushi."

	Terra wanted to cry.  She was out of breath, being chased by innocent
people controlled by an evil force, and she'd just left a friend to
die.  It was horrible.  Still, she wished Arby would quit rubbing it
in.

	"Yew cawls that croyin'?  'Ere, OYE'LL give ya somethin' ta croie
about!"  The ArbyFish in question spit on his flipper and rubbed it
onto the girl's neck.  "Don't wash that," he advised when he had
finished.

	"What?!"  Terra's confusion grew.  "AAAH!"  Her neck burned with an
extraordinary pain.  The burn spread to her forehead and her eyes were
blinded for a moment.  She wept from the shock and sank to her knees.
"Wha... what did you go and do that for?!"

	"Sendin' a distress signal," Arby explained.

	"Causing me pain and making me cry?!"

	"A'course!  Perfectly proppa' procedure.  Can't make a mushroom
wi'out breakin' a few 'eads."

	Terra stared at him.  His statement made very little sense indeed.
She saw the possessed horde draw near, but that's when something
wonderful happened.

	There was a flash and a red, long-stemmed rose embedded itself into
the asphalt between her and the possessed people.  High in the air,
atop a lamppost, stood a masked man in a tuxedo.  The mask didn't hide
too much--it covered his eyes but still left much of his face
exposed--but that was enough to conceal his identity... not that Terra
would recognize him anyway, just having come to town.

	The advancing horde stopped and looked up towards him.

	Something about his appearance made him seem incredibly attractive to
Sailor Chibimoon.  She was a little farsighted--she might even need
reading glasses in a few years--so she had no trouble seeing the
concerned expression the man wore.

	"Who are you?" Chibimoon inquired.

	"I am Tuxedo Kamen," the man replied.  "Believe in yourself, Sailor... Moon?"

	Terra nodded.  "Yes.  Chibimoon.  How did you know?"

	"That's not important," Tuxedo Kamen said quickly.  "But what is
important is that you have the power to stop them if you only believe
in yourself--"

	One possessed woman chucked her heavy purse at him and hit him
squarely on the chest.

	"OOOF!"

	The masked man fell off the lamppost, but reacted quickly to roll
into his fall and landed without any harm.  He got back up and was
about to fade into the all-concealing shadows when the group of
mindless drones fell upon him en masse.

	"Tuxedo Kamen," Chibimoon repeated dreamily to herself.  Her mind
once again lay dormant as she watched him struggle against his
attackers.  "Yay, Tuxedo Kamen!  Go for it!  All right!!!"  Looking at
her eyes, one might have imagined that they were beating hearts, full
of love for her rescuer.

	"GAARGH!" the man yelled as he was beaten in sensitive areas and
mercilessly clawed at.  He took out his cane and frantically
retaliated.  His jacket got ripped off and his shirt torn in the
violent scuffle.

	Now, Terra liked a good-looking guy in a tuxedo.  If somewhere along
the line, he mystically ended up wearing less than that, so much the
better.  She continued cheering him on.  Part of her mind reactivated
and wished that she had a camera, or even a cellphone with a camera.

	The clicking next to her drew her attention and she saw Arby focusing
in on the battle with a large mushroom with a lens in it and labeled
indentations on the side that he kept pushing.

	"How ingenious.  A 'mush-camera,'" Terra whispered.  "Promise me
you'll give me copies of those pictures."

	"Roight!"  Arby nodded.  "Oye'll 'ave 'em ready at th' gift shop in
less n' a week."

	"Gift shop?"

	"Well ya gotta sell postcards.  Wot'd th' economy do if we didn't?"

	"Ahh, the economy.  Right."  Chibimoon started to think about that,
but then shrugged and decided against it.  Life was considerably less
painful around Arby if she didn't think too hard about anything he
said.  Turning back to Tuxedo Kamen, she saw that despite him missing
most of his shirt, he still had his top hat and mask on.  He had a
pretty respectable musculature.  "Ooooh, beefcake!"

	Despite having knocked out a couple dozen people, there were still a
large number of attackers Tuxedo Kamen still had to deal with.

	"Arby?" Terra asked.  "Is there any way I can help him?"

	"Well, a'course!"  Arby handed her the "Moon Prism Power for Dummies" brochure.

	Sailor Chibimoon took it and flipped through it.  "Hey, it says here
I pull out my wand and say, 'Pink Sugar Heart Attack.'"

	"In-deed!"

	"Um, giving people heart attacks sounds too brutal."

	"Betta' than the 'Heartburster Mix,' which detonates peoples' 'earts
while they'z still ya chest."

	"Ah, yes, I can see how that would be an improvement."  Terra pased.
"But Arby, wait, you didn't give me a wand!"

	"Is yew loicensed for one?"

	"I... don't think so."

	"Well, then, we can't very well be givin' yew a wand if ya's not
loicensed for it.  A wand's a deadly weapon, it is.  Ya could get
foined for carryin' somethin' loike that."  He handed Terra a large
mushroom.  "'Ere, troie this instead."

	"This?"  The sailor-suited attempted heroine took the giant 'shroom
and pointed it at the possessees.  "This isn't going to hurt them is
it?  Pink Sugar Heart Attack?"

	Nothing happened.

	"Nope," said Arby.  "Just a portobello."

	Terra gave the ArbyFish a meaningful, unflattering look as she beaned
him on the head with the mushroom, which squelched in response, leapt
out of her hands, and ran off into the bushes.

	"An 'orribly mutated portobello," Arby explained proudly.  "It'll
burrow unda' th' ground now n' start subterranean colonies."

	"Wha... but... no!  No, that's not... right?"  Terra gave up and
stopped thinking for the moment.  She turned and saw her rescuer knock
out the last of their attackers.  "Way to go, Tuxedo Kamen!  You won!
I knew you could!"

	Tuxedo Kamen looked at her strangely.  He had a few cuts on his bare
chest, his mask was hanging at an angle, and he looked about ready to
fall over.  Terra ran over to support him.  She took his arm and put
it behind her neck, effectively helping him support his weight.

	"Thank you so much for rescuing me!" the girl beamed at him.  He
smelled nice, too, she noted to herself.  He was good-looking, heroic,
and liked formal wear.  All in all, this fit well into her definition
of a "cute boy."  She wondered if she should call home and get her
mother to fill out that permission slip before she could bring him
over to visit.

	Tuxedo Kamen regained his breath and stood up tall under his own
strength.  "Thank you, Sailor Moon--"

	"Chibimoon," Terra corrected.

	"--Sailor Chibimoon.  This is obviously your first time at this.  But
what I said was true.  If you believe in yourself--and perhaps train a
bit--you can beat any enemy.  These people here will be all right when
they wake up."  The man looked a little chagrined.  "But next time,
please do some of the fighting yourself."

	The redhead quickly nodded.  "Yes, yes, of course!"

	"Now I must go," Tuxedo Kamen said as he walked out of the radius of
the lamplight, and disappeared into the night.

	"What a nice guy," Terra whispered to herself.  Her mind kicked back
in and informed her that maybe, perhaps, she should go back to the
Osa-P to see if there was still a chance to save Naru.  Of course,
after all the time she just took, the place would have burned down
without help.  "Naru...."

---

	Tuxedo Kamen's head hurt, and not just because of all the heavy
briefcases and purses he had been hit with.  On his quest to find
himself, he had suddenly felt the incredible urge to protect
someone--someone very important to him and key to unlocking his
memories.

	Her name, he somehow knew, would be Sailor Moon.  The perky redhead
he'd encountered hadn't been at all what he expected.  He thought he'd
find some sort of typical damsel in distress, not an incompetent,
cowardly Sailor Senshi.  Still, if protecting her would help him
uncover his past, he would do it without hesitation.

	The pillar of light that came from her--a beacon of sorts--had been
unmistakable, though.  She had the sort of power that could help him.
At least now, he knew who to look for.  As he thought about this, his
own mind seemed to waver and fade, and he woke up as Chiba Mamoru, in
bed in his apartment.

	"Weird dream," he moaned.  "VERY weird dream."

	Then he saw the gashes on his body from the fight.  "GAH!"

---

	"Wow, Sailor Moon," Naru gushed, stars in her eyes.  "Not only did
you manage to destroy the youma and rescue me, but you also dashed
into the fire, broke into the safe, and rescued my mother who was
being held there!"

	Sailor Moon brushed back one of her ankle-length blonde ponytails and
blushed.  "Aww, it was nothing."

	Naru turned towards the Knight in green Shining Armor, adding, "And
when that monster called for its master, who opened a gate and
summoned dozens of evil creatures into our dimension... Star Light
Knight, it was really incredible when you pulled out that huge gun and
blasted them all to kingdom come.  And taking on their master like
that?  I thought you'd have been a goner, but no, you sent him running
back to his home dimension with his tail between his legs!"

	The Star Light Knight blew the smoke off the barrel of his large
gatling weapon, hefting it on his shoulder.  "We really went ahead and
kicked some righteous donkey, didn't we, Sailor Moon!?"  He high-fived
the blonde Sailor Senshi by whom he stood.

	"Thank you for helping me, Star Light Knight!" Sailor Moon squealed
with gratitude.

	"Anyway, it's been fun," S.L.K. said, patting his companion on her
back.  He gave her a kiss on the forehead and began to walk off.  "See
you some other night, okay, kid?"

	Sailor Moon giggled and hopped up and down for joy.  "All right!
It's a promise!"  She calmed down when the tall man vanished into the
darkness.  "What a great guy...."

	"Don't worry about the mess," Naru added, indicating the burned-down
ruins of the Osa-P.  "We're fully insured.  Mom and I are safe, and
that's what matters."

	The cat standing next to Sailor Moon tugged on the rim of her blue
boot.  "A-hem!"

	"Oh, right!" Sailor Moon whispered back.  She saluted Naru.  "Anyway,
we have to be going now, but... wherever there are evil youma to
fight, we'll be there.  Wherever there's people in trouble, we'll be
there!"  She started to back off.  "I am Sailor Moon, and... aaah!"
She tripped over backwards into the bushes at the edge of the
sidewalk, tumbled down the hill, and fell out of sight.

	"Now THAT's a superheroine," Naru commented.  She turned towards her
mother.  "Hey Mom, think we should find a hotel, or go visit my uncle
Al?"

	Mrs. Osaka was just recovering from the shock of it all.  "Hmm.  Your
uncle Al's still in New Mexico working on some top secret project
again, so let's find a hotel instead."

---

	In the distance, Sailor Chibimoon saw Naru and her mother get in
their car and calmly drive off.  The pink-sailor-suited girl sighed in
relief.  "Good.  They're all right."

	Arby fluttered up next to her and grinned.  "Yup!  No thanks ta yew.
Left 'em 'oigh n' droie, yew did!"

	"Let it go already!"

	The ArbyFish fluttered barely out of reach.  "Nope!  Gotta remoind ya
'bout this for th' rest a 'your loife.  Otha'woise, ya'll neva'
learn."

	"Learn what?"

	Arby shrugged.  "Oye dunno.  'Spose yew could learn somethin' from
it.  Yew's th' one with th' opposable thumbs."

	"What do opposable thumbs have to do with it?"

	"Mushrooms, a'course!  Mushrooms!"  He took out a plain dinner
mushroom and demonstrated it to her.

	"What do... no!  You're changing the subject again."

	"Oye iz not.  It's a roight noice mushroom, it is!"

	Terra ran her hand through her hair in exasperation.  Her fingers
collided with one of the jeweled barrettes.  "You know, you make it so
hard to think--"

	Down the small hill, out of the bushes, tumbled Sailor Moon, whose
forehead collided with Chibimoon's.

	Terra staggered from the blow.  The other girl fell onto her back.
Both held their heads and cried in unison, "WAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

	"Oh, yew's good at that," Arby commented, and fluttered off.

	Chibimoon tried to focus on the other girl.  "Who are you?"

	Sailor Moon blinked, dazed as she tried to sit up.  "That's a good
question.  Who am I?"

	A cat jumped out behind her and said, "Sailor Moon!"

	The blonde nodded in sudden remembrance.  "Ooooh, right!  I'm Sailor Moon."

	Terra frowned.  A cat had just talked in her presence.  One part of
her mind slapped the other part and retorted that she shouldn't be
shocked at all about a cat talking.  After all, she'd just met her
first talking, flying, mushroom-obsessed ArbyFish.  Anything after
that really ought not to faze her.  Besides, when she was young, she'd
been ill now and again and sometimes had to take strong medicine--seen
talking Frisbees--so surprise really was out of the question.

	"But," Terra whispered.  No buts this time, she had to keep her wits
about herself.  "You're Sailor Moon?"  The other girl nodded, but
Chibimoon stared at her face for a few seconds.  She looked awfully
familiar, but there was something extra shrouding proper examination
and recollection of her face.  She could see the expression without a
problem, but identifying details kept getting dismissed.  It was as if
key impressions kept getting pulled straight out of her mind.

	All right, Terra told herself, it was time to put her brains to good
use.  She traced the path of Sailor Moon's face from the hair, where
it was easy to view what was real, to the eyes and nose, where it was
like the whole view was encrypted somehow.  Thinking of it that way
seemed very odd to the Irish redhead, since encryption just sounded
like a very fancy way of putting someone in the ground, like
inhumation, but it was the term her mind provided for her.

	"Uh, hey," Sailor Moon said, nervously backing off, "why are you
looking at me like that?"

	"Don't I know you from somewhere?"  Chibimoon focused in more
intensely.  Then, her eyes broke the disguise code and saw right
through it.  To her, it was surprising who Sailor Moon ended up being.
 "Usagi?!"

	Usagi gasped.  "Umm, no, no, you must be mistaking me for... Aww,
nuts."  At Terra's focused, smiling expression, she gave up.  "How did
you guess?  Who are you?"

	"It was more a lucky guess than anything else," Terra said in order
to not complicate matters further.  She could explain later, if it
came down to it.  "I'm Terra, Sailor Chibimoon."

	"Sailor Chibimoon?!" the cat asked.  "Where did you come from?"

	"Ireland?" Terra replied, but then wished she hadn't.  Saying it like
that was more of a smart aleck response she'd expect from Arby.  She
hadn't been brought up to act like that, even around talking cats.
Especially around talking cats, because, well, you never know.

	"Terra?" Usagi asked.  "But the only Terra I know is some strange
foreign exchange student... from--" She paused when Chibimoon nodded
at her.  "Oh."

	"I fainted yesterday and you had to bring me home," Terra said.
"Yeah, that's me."

	"Terra-chan!" Usagi greeted in a cheerful, high-pitched voice.  She
held up her cat.  "This is Luna.  She gave me a brooch, and I got to
help fight evil things, and I met this neat guy!"

	"Hi, Luna!" Terra greeted enthusiastically.  "I'm Terra."

	"Ermh," Luna said awkwardly, "hello."

	"Wow," whispered Sailor Moon, looking Terra over, "so you're a Sailor
Scout, too?"

	"Sailor Scouts?  Is that what we're called?"  Eeww, thought Terra.
That was such a dorky organizational name.  The Counsel of Justice she
could take, the Senshi Lantern Corps for sure, or even the Defenders
of Peace and Love, but Sailor Scouts?  She knew a boy once that was a
member of the Boy Scouts of Ireland, but all he could do was try to
impress her with all the amazing knots he could tie.  They were nice
knots and all, but hardly the stuff true heroism was made of.  "How
about we go by something more dramatic, like... Ultra Knight Sabers?"

	Sailor Moon wrinkled her nose at that.  She obviously didn't like
that.  "Yuck!  At least keep 'Sailor' in."

	Terra sighed.  She knew Usagi was right.  It wouldn't be proper to
run around in a skimpy sailor suit without being called Sailor one
thing or another.  "Sailor Knight Sabers?"

	"Naaah...."

	"Sailor Commandos?" Chibimoon tried to bargain again.

	"Sailor Soldiers?" Usagi conceded.

	Terra smiled.  "Deal."

	The cat raised a paw.  "Err, before you two go on and change
everything we stand for, I'd really like to know how this happened."

	"Ummm."  The redhead mentally tried to condense her experiences
starting with the Star Light Knight through Arby, Tuxedo Kamen, and
finally to where she stood now.  Words simply could not cram that much
information into a couple small sentences.  "Despite all evidence to
the contrary standing in front of me right now, I don't think you'd
believe me if I told you."

	"Try me," Luna pressed.

	"Well, you see," Terra began, "it all started with this guy, who hit
me with a gas-powered electric guitar, and then later I met this
thing, that gave me this brooch, and made me read brochures and fill
out forms.  Then I went to try to help Naru, only I... had to retreat,
and then I met this nice man, who saved me from all the people who
were possessed by this one monster.  Did you get all that?"

	"You lost me," Usagi choked, "at the gas-powered electric guitar."

	"Brochures?" wondered Luna.

	Sailor Chibimoon yawned.  Fatigue was finally setting in.  A
combination of jetlag and physical exhaustion had started to take its
toll and demanded to be repaid with interest.  "It really is a long
story, so can I meet up with you tomorrow sometime, like after school?
 I'm kind of tired."

	Luna and Usagi looked at each other, then back at Terra.

	"Fine with me," said Usagi.

	"Tomorrow, then," added Terra.  "I need to get some sleep.  Good
night, you two."

	When the Irish girl had finally departed, Luna and Usagi headed home as well.

	"What luck!" Luna said.  "Our first night and we've already found
another Sailor Scout--"

	"Soldier."

	"Ah, yes, whatever.  Of course, we shall have to verify her identity
and find out who awakened her or by what means she discovered her
powers.  We're going to need a lot of allies in our fight against the
Dark Kingdom."

	"What about the Star Light Knight?"

	"He's something of an enigma.  We'll need to keep our eyes open, but
I for one am glad he was there to help tonight."

	Usagi sighed dreamily.  "Yeah, me too."

---

	The Star Light Knight, in invisibility mode, surveyed the wreckage of
the Osa-P jewelry store.

	Sailor Moon!  He couldn't believe that Arby had saddled Terra with
full-on Sailor Moon powers.  Those abilities always did weird things
to peoples' hair.  He knew Terra supposedly liked ponytails, so she
probably wouldn't care about that, but still, the whole thing could
make the road to unification that much more difficult.

	At least, he thought wryly, she had a decent attack.

	"Moon Tiara Magic?!" he shouted back at himself.  "What kind of
attack is that?"

	"A fashion move," he replied.  "They're fairly rare.  I haven't seen
one of those in such a long time."

	"Not since L--"

	"Don't bring her up again.  She's gone, and I'm alive.  Let's look
forward to the future, shall we?"

	"Who?"

	"Don't remember.  Move along, move along."

	"Very well.  For the immediate future... it'll be no good bugging
Terra at home or school.  She hates me when I interfere like that.
Let's just work with her during battles.  She doesn't seem to mind
quite as much."

	"Yeah, she likes me when we're fighting together."

	"We'll have to do it more often."

	"Yeah..."

	"Maybe we should stir up the ol' hornet's nest some more to make sure
we can fight alongside her more often."

	"But not too often.  She needs rest to recover her strength after a battle."

	"Well, yes, frequently, but not so much that she can't stand back up, right?"

	"Right."

	S.L.K. looked around.  "But in the meantime, where do I go?"  He
sighed.  "I miss my old base.  Takes too much energy to teleport all
the way over there now.  Oh well."

---

	Sailor Chibimoon finally made it home, waved to her mother as she
walked in, and headed upstairs to her room.  In front of her mirror,
she attempted to remove her fuku, but discovered that her outfit
changed back to normal if she just pulled the brooch off her bow.  She
nodded to herself, satisfied by her discovery, then turned and flopped
down on her bed, exhausted.

	"I should exercise more," Terra told herself, but it was her mind
speaking; her words didn't really come from the heart.  She sighed.
"That was a rough night, and school's early tomorrow.  I'm just glad I
got my homework done!"

	A slimy munching noise on the floor drew the girl's attention.  She
peeked over the edge of her bed and saw her bookbag crawling with
oozing, squelching mushrooms.  "AAAH!"  Most notably being consumed
were her books and her homework.

	Terra frantically kicked the mutated fungoids off and threw them out
the window.  "No!  It's ruined!  And these were worksheets!  There's
no way I can redo these now."  It wasn't like she could redraw
everything.  Despite recent improvements, her memory wasn't quite THAT
good.

	Thoroughly depressed, Terra headed over to the bathroom to wash off
her hands.  She ran the water and looked into the mirror.  She stopped
when she saw a green mushroom-shaped mark on her neck where Arby had
rubbed in a bit of spit during the fight.  She took some water and
rubbed at it, but it stung pretty badly as she did, so she decided to
stop for the moment.  Vaguely, she recalled Arby's warning not to wash
it.

	"Aye yai yai, what next?" she wondered.  Shrugging, Terra took the
soap and did the best to clean off her hands.

	"'Ello, madam," the soap said.

	The girl glanced down at it.

	It was Arby.

	"GAH!"

	"'Ello, sez Oye ta Yew ta Me n' Yew back in return!"

	"Arby, your mushrooms destroyed my homework!  And ate my bag!"

	"Ey, they wos 'ungry!  Besoides, can't 'ave 'em raid yer
refrigera'or.  That'd be rude!  Gotta eat yer 'omework, wot koinda
pets'd they be if they didn't?"

	"Mutated mushrooms?  They're not pets.  They're pests!"

	The ArbyFish fluttered onto her shoulder and replied, "A'course!
Quoite proppa' pests, they is.  We'z gonna 'ave a roight noice
infestation in th' basement in a couple a' weeks!"

	"Arby, that's horrible!"

	"No, no, no, it's perfectly proppa'.  It's Survival of th' Fittest!"
He said the last phrase proudly, as if it were some sort of marketing
buzzword.  "Natural evolution at it's foinest."

	"There's nothing natural about it!"

	"Well, there moight be."

	"Argh!  You're very troublesome, you know that?"

	"In-deed!"  His work apparently done for now, he fluttered out the
window, leaving Terra a sack full of confusion in his wake.

	"Oh, it's a Sack o' Confusion," Arby called back.  "Koinda loike a
Bag a' 'Olding."

	The girl walked over and picked up the container.  It was about the
right size to replace her destroyed bookbag, but would it contain any
more unpleasant surprises?

	Terra could only shake her head and sigh sadly.  Intelligence, it
seemed, came with a very high price.  For her, that price was
apparently an ArbyFish.  "Was it really worth it?" she wondered,
looking out at the stars.

---

	The next day, at school, Terra still had to drag her new, potentially
dangerous bookbag to school and explain her distinct lack of homework
to her teacher.

	Haruna-sensei tapped her feet impatiently.  "Well?  What happened to
your homework, if you finished it?"

	Terra fidgeted uncomfortably.  "Umm... my ArbyFish grew mold on it
and fed it to his pet mushrooms?"

	The woman stared at Terra for a while.  "You know," she finally said,
"that's the strangest excuse I've heard all week.  Well, second to
what Usagi just told me."

	"But it's true!" Usagi interjected.  "Aliens DID abduct my homework!
It's probably out in the middle of a cornfield by now, naked, beaten,
and lonely!  Don't you have any sympathy?!"

	Haruna-sensei chuckled maniacally.  "Oh, yes, I have sympathy."  She
pointed at the door.  "Both of you, take these buckets, wear these
signs, and stand out in the hall."

	Both girls sighed and decided not to debate it.  They complied with
their teacher's unreasonable demands and went out into the hallway for
their mandatory embarrassment session.

	"So," Usagi eventually whispered, keeping her voice down so that the
corridor's echo wouldn't carry it far, "how did you become a Sailor
S...soldier?"

	Terra shook her head.  Besides it being a very strange tale, it was
quickly becoming to her a very unpleasant one.  It wasn't so much that
she couldn't figure out how to say, it was more that she preferred not
to relive the experience in her mind any more than necessary.  "It's a
long story."

	"You promised you'd tell me."  Usagi looked at the clock.  "And we've
got time."

	The Irish girl looked at her feet, thought it over, and finally
nodded.  "All right.  First of all, do you know what an ArbyFish is?"

	"Um, no.  What?"

	"You don't want to know.  You don't ever want to meet one.  If you
do, it'll curse you, make your life a living torture chamber, and
there's no way to stop it.  Ever.  Second, have you ever become
smarter by getting your head bashed in by a musical instrument?"

	"Er--?"

	"Didn't think so.  Well, now that we've established that, I can tell
you what my life's been like for the past couple of days."

	The two girls chatted softly.  Terra told her story, about how she'd
come from Ireland not knowing what to expect, and how things had
become progressively more confusing... but then she finally got a hold
of herself and discussed how great it was to have met new friends like
Naru and Usagi.

	"Terra-chan," Usagi said.

	"Just Terra," the other corrected.

	"Oh, right.  Terra, I'm glad you and I can be friends."

	Terra Incognita looked at her companion.  Just staring into those
sweet, innocent eyes of her, she could feel the warm welcome, and
smiled back.  "Yeah, me too."

	Suddenly, despite the rotten things that had happened, even outside
in a form of undeserved detention, the world didn't seem so bad after
all.

---End of Chapter 3

And now it's time for... MIND YOUR MANNERS!!! with Sailor Nuke:

(Scene of Terra running toward the burning Osa-P with the
determination to become a heroine.)

Sailor Nuke:  Some people just act too brainy for their own good.

Sailor Kawaii:  Terra's been so sharp lately, she might cut herself.

(Terra bolts from the oncoming possessed horde.)

Sailor Nuke:  And nobody likes a smart-donkey!

(Tuxedo Kamen comes in and beats down all the attackers.)

Sailor Kawaii:  But she did get one thing right today.  She acted cute
and made that nice man do all the work for her.

(Arby smiles and stuffs a sack of mutated mushrooms down the back of
Terra's pajamas)

Sailor Kawaii:  And, we have to remember, cute takes all kinds of
forms.  See?  That was really 'cute.'  And he got away with it!

(The Star Light Knight blasts away at dozens of youma)

Sailor Nuke:  But take this guy, for example.  He doesn't have any of
those problems.  You know why?

Sailor Kawaii:  He's... cute in an aggressive, masculine sort of way.

Sailor Nuke:  He goes ahead and blows stuff up!  THAT'S how you're
supposed to deal with problems!  Sailor Nuke sez.
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAA!!

Sailor Kawaii:  But if you can't do that, then focus on looking pretty
and make someone else do the work.  Sailor Kawaii says!  Tee-hee!



-- 
Benjamin A Oliver
benjamin.a.oliver at gmail.com

Technical Writer / Translator
M3 Engineering & Technology

Master of Science in Management Information Systems
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona

Writings: Fan Fiction
http://boliver.florestica.com/

Webcomic: Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!! The Early Years
http://nettg.com