Part 10---holy Moses! R! Did everyone see that? This part is so rated R, for several reasons, but one of them being the fact that the truck- driver word was kept in its entirety, and variations of it appear, etc. And, once again, i revert back to the Dawson's Creek analogy: if you are young and innocent or deeply religious, don't read this. I say again: people have sex. It happens. And it's not that bad. Dawson's creek looks like hard-core porn next to this...but still, i'm ready to be flamed alive. All disclaimers apply, including i dont own sailor moon, and ANY brand name (e.g. Geo Prism, Newports, Subway, etc.) Just to be on the safe side, i dont' own MLB, any of the team names, players or managers. If i did, i would be swimming in my money. Oh, and another note? i think there's only one part after this. I'm almost done! Tell me what you think. Be brutally honest: Venusorbit1@aol.com Crud! forgot this too! I have skipped a huge segment of time, but once im done with this entire series i might go back and write kind of like a side story about what happened on spring break. I felt it the story would have been just filler if i included it. *************************************************************** Mina watched the scenery flash by the window, all of it clouded behind the curtain of cold gray water falling from the sky. Her window was open a crack, and occasionally a trickle of rain would blow in and splatter her across the face. She welcomed the refreshment, since it was beginning to get unbearably stuffy in the car. Kevin had lowered the volume on the radio until it was barely audible; the repetitive squeaking of the windshield wipers drowned it out. Miles passed before her half-lidded eyes; she longed to let them drop shut, but Kevin was looking a little haggard and either she or Raye was taking the wheel at the next rest stop. Kevin glanced at her quickly, trying to keep his eyes on the slippery road and avoid killing them all. Raye and Jay were in the backseat, Jay’s head on Raye’s lap while he slept. It was Sunday, and they were returning to school after Spring Break, spent rather uneventfully at Junta, California, due to lack of funds to travel somewhere sunnier and with easier access to alcohol. Well, not completely uneventful. Mina had spent half of her break in L.A., at another shoot, and had spent the rest of the time at Kevin’s house. She also had the experience of meeting Kevin’s mega-bitchy ex-girlfriend, an incident that Kevin would have gladly forked over his entire life savings and a few expendable vital organs to avoid. Raye had stayed at the Melman household, which was an experience in itself. He doubted she had a moment to herself to meditate with four Melman males occupying the same space in close proximity to her personal being, and undoubtedly jostling for her undivided attention. Lita and Matt had stayed behind, since Matt’s hometown was quite a distance away and Lita could not bring herself to board a plane again. Zach and Amy had traveled south, to San Francisco, taking Matt’s new prized possession, a brand-new Celica. Matt’s old Outback (station wagon!) had been relegated to his younger brother, Aaron, after Matt had begged his parents for a new car, based on the grounds of constant ridicule and personal embarrassment. Matt had given Zach the keys only after grilling him for two hours on his driving record, his knowledge of manual transmission, and the highway laws of California. There had been a tear in his eye after Zach and Amy had pulled away from the curb. Kevin smiled to himself; Matt would have lent Zach his car if Zach was on the verge of losing his license and was wanted by the F.B.I. and fleeing the country. Matt was rich; he knew he was rich and he didn’t have any qualms about sharing his wealth with the non-rich, mainly, them. Even if Matt were penniless he would have given the shirt off of his back; he was that kind of guy. Kevin estimated that altogether he, Zach, and Jay owed Matt roughly fifteen hundred dollars. Matt would never ask for it back, though, and had probably long forgotten about it. Jay snorted and squirmed in his sleep; he hadn’t been feeling well that day, and Kevin suspected that he was coming down with something. Mina reached back and placed a hand on Jay’s forehead. “He’s hot,” she muttered, and began shuffling through her purse, searching for some Tylenol. “Good thing his mom didn’t know,” Raye said, leaning her head against the window. “She probably would have kept him at home until he recovered.” “He has a game on Tuesday,” Kevin remembered. “Zach, too.” “I don’t know if he’ll make it,” Raye said, her voice soft and full of concern. She ran a hand lovingly through Jay’s disheveled blond mop. He shifted again, kicking the back of Kevin’s seat. Mina smiled softly. Raye had mellowed out tremendously in the last few months; whether it was because of Jay she did not know. She watched as Raye stroked Jay’s head with the tenderness that a mother reserves for her child. Kevin had slumped tremendously in his seat, and she reached over and felt his forehead, too, and almost scared him half to death in the process. “You’re kind of hot, too.” “Thanks. I know.” She grinned. “I meant temperature wise. Do you feel OK?” Her hand traveled down to his cheek, where she let it linger for a few moments. “I’m OK,” he insisted, which everyone knew was a fallacy; Kevin would insist that he was OK if both of his legs were severed and he had been shot. “I don’t believe you!” she sang. “You’re letting me drive at the next rest stop.” “Yeah right, you’re ready to drop off, too,” Raye said from the backseat. “I’ll take over, if you can stand a forty pound head cutting off the circulation in your legs.” “I think it’s more along the lines of eight, you big baby,” Mina said, unzipping her sweatshirt. “Jay’s not that big a genius.” It was getting too hot, and the Blazer’s air conditioner was sporadic at best, and that was on a good day. They reached the rest stop a few minutes later, and Raye practically bolted out of the car all the while frantically rubbing the pins and needles out of her legs. Everyone except Jay stopped to pee, and when they hit the road again, Raye was behind the wheel (after pulling the seat almost all the way forward), Kevin was sitting shotgun and Jay’s head was on Mina’s lap. Soon, Mina leaned her head against the window and drifted off to sleep, and the loudest sound in the car was her heavy breathing. Kevin put one hand to his forehead and covered his eyes against the intrusive light, dim and gray as it was. Somewhere along the halfway point he had developed a killer headache so bad that he could feel the blood forcing its way through the constricted veins in his forehead. Mina’s hand on his face had abated the pain for a few seconds, but he had the feeling that the only thing that could completely knock it away was a couple of Excedrin Migraines and a short, eight-hour nap. “You OK?” Raye was looking at him. “I think Mina has some Tylenol or something.” He smiled wryly. “Tylenol isn’t going to get rid of this one. I’m going to need some fucking Demerol or something.” Raye swerved casually and cut off a van, who promptly beeped angrily with as much maniacal rage as a mechanical car horn could produce. “Screw you, bitch!” she screamed through the cracked window. <> Kevin thought, instantly regretting the decision to let Raye drive the rest of the way home. They’d be sending what was left of him home to his mother in a contact lens case. Raye broke into his mental calculation of Jay’s patience times a fully loaded Raye-bomb. “Mina’s hands took it away for a few seconds, didn’t they?” He looked at her, surprised as the tenderness in her voice. She had relaxed from the van incident; her seat was back, her hand hung lazily on the bottom of the wheel, and black strands whipped backwards in the current of air blowing in. She was an entirely different person than the M-80 who disregarded vehicular laws and harshly exploded at hapless bystanders. It was amazing how much Raye and Mina were alike; they could both switch emotions with the toss of a dime. Beneficial in some cases, Raye-bombed in others. “Yeah.” He spoke the truth; Mina’s hand had taken away the pain, at least temporarily. Unfortunately for him, it had came rushing back like water filling a pipe once she removed it, but those few seconds of pain-free clarity had been well worth it. A smile graced her face. “Her hands comfort,” she explained. “How can I say this without sounding like a sicko?” She gestured with her free hand. They give pleasure; they take away pain, that kind of thing. They comfort.” She took her eyes off the road and looked directly at him, and Kevin was floored by the sheer amount of gravity hidden in the violet spheres. She continued smiling. “If Amy touched you, you wouldn’t even have a headache now. Her hands heal.” She raised one palm up for him to see. “Your hands are like mine.” He blinked, and stared at Raye’s small white palm versus his huge, callous, scarred paw. “How?” “They protect.” He held his hand up to hers, and felt something like a magnetic field repelling them away from each other. The current shifted up his entire arm with a sensation similar to pins and needles. It hummed along his funny bone, and Kevin realized that he was touching magic, actual magic, magic that had existed long before he had, and would continue long after he was gone. “I can feel it.” “I know. Zach and Lita would be able to feel it, too; their hands create.” “What about everyone else? What do their hands do?” <> He felt he needed to know, that by knowing what their hands did, he would know them better. She glanced into the other lane and cut across. “Matt’s hands unify.” She tried to send him the mental image of a handshake, but doubted he received it. Kevin was about as intuitive as a plate of cheese. “He’s a negotiator; he brings together. Jay’s hands-“ She stopped suddenly and grinned. “Jay’s hands deceive, but not in a bad way, per se. He’s clever, he’s quick, and I can sense there’s a higher purpose in his ability to disguise himself.” <> Kevin thought to himself. Raye practically exuded magic; sometimes he felt like she knew much more than what she let on. “What about Darien? And Serena?” Raye put one hand to her mouth, and was silent for a long time. Finally, she said, “Kevin, all I can feel from them is power. Unbelievable power. And love. If you could feel things the way I do, feel people, and then you would understand. You, for example, positively reek of authority.” “Maybe I should switch deodorants,” he deadpanned, at the same time trying to take in the gravity of her words. She laughed. “I feel it from Mina, too, and much more love. Whenever you’re around her, you can’t help but love her. You know what I’m talking about.” “I do.” Kevin didn’t think he was alone in his feelings for her; one couldn’t help but reciprocate the love that she emanated. People that couldn’t feel it simply didn’t want to, they refused the love given to them. The walls they built around their own hearts were so thick that Mina’s golden magic couldn’t penetrate them. << Or they could be knocked down, all at once. Obliterated. On sight. >> Raye shot him a shrewd sideways glance. “You better not knock her up, big guy. She’s my best friend, and I’ll kick your ass.” She wasn’t threatening as much as she was revealing herself, and her feelings for her best friend, and how much she meant to her. But the threat was still present under the concealed sincerity, and one look at the Fire Senshi’s face would tell that Raye Hino was by no means fucking around. “Don’t worry,” Kevin said simply. “And if you have any problems with Jay, tell me and I’ll kick his ass for you. I’ve been doing that since…what? Fourth grade? Fifth? You know, it feels like I’ve known him forever already…” As if on cue, Jay flipped over again in his sleep, bonking his head off of the door in the process, but amazingly, remaining asleep the entire time. Raye smiled to herself, not realizing or not caring that Kevin was there to witness her private moment of contentedness. “Humor,” she said aloud, partially to herself. “He ishumor, it’s what he knows.” Miles passed in comfortable silence before they spoke again. * * * * * * * * * * * Beryl’s rage was so thick it was practically palpable, and her minions were not ignorant to the fact. The remaining shrunk back, out of sight, trying to keep out of sight as one of them presented the newest information to their queen, and faced her wrath alone. She stared at him through half-slitted eyes, strongly resembling a snake or some other reptile as the details turned over and over in her mind. Her red eyes bored into his, and for a long moment she was silent, and thinking. Finally she spoke. “And approximately how many students received the vaccine in the last year? Your life depends on your answer, Zoycite, so I would advise you choose your next few words VERY wisely.” “Less than five percent,” he said at last, hoping his own oversight wouldn’t come back to rather harshly bite him in the ass. Beryl’s hands unfurled; her long red nails flashing. “Less than five? There are four numbers less than five, Zoycite, don’t try to insult my intelligence. Give me the straight odds; what are the chances our pretty little Senshi will come away unscathed?” Zoycite smiled grotesquely, for it was the only way he knew how. “Slim to none, your Highness. Those airheaded Senshi don’t even know how to spell the word ‘vaccination.’” There was a tense moment, as Beryl remained motionless, fixing Zoycite to the spot with her murderous gaze. Finally she relented. “Zoycite you had better be right on this one. I’m going to allow you this one, simply because I’m going to need you in the future. When did you plant the virus in the water supply?” “It’s been two weeks now, your Highness. The students should be symptomatic by now.” “Hmm, maybe you’re not as idiotic as I thought you were.” She smiled at him, the smile of an executioner before he raised his axe. “If the Senshi are sick, then they won’t be able to fight, but knowing them and their overblown sense of humanity, they’ll try. And when they do-“ The three generals emerged from the shadows and joined Zoycite in front of the throne. “You four will eliminate them. ALL of them. And bring me that crystal, do you understand?” They bowed. “Yes, my Queen.” They said in unison. “One more thing,” she snapped. She stood to her full height. “Do whatever you want with the others, including the Moon Princess, but do not touch Endymion. He’s mine, do you understand?” “Yes, my Queen.” * * * * * * * * * * “How are they?” Darien asked, sitting in between Zach and Artemis on the couch to watch the game. He unwrapped his Subway on the coffee table and dug in. “Who cares?” Zach answered through a mouth full of turkey. “I was smart enough to get the flu shot, so screw them.” Darien blanched as his pick for the Final Four blew a ten-point lead. “That’s probably because you’re grandmother made you.” Artemis snickered along with him. “Eat me, Chiba. And Stanford sucks!” * * * * * * * * * * Mina entered the apartment without knocking as quietly as she could. The shopping bag she carried strained under the weight of its contents. <> She tiptoed into the kitchen and started unpacking her giant bag. She entered Matt and Jay’s bedroom first, and finding it unbearably stuffy, made a beeline right for the window and opened it, letting the warm breeze suck out all the stale sickness air. This was her second visit to the apartment that day, since Zach had opted to stay at Darien’s until his roommates recovered, lest he too fall ill and miss a game like Jay did. Of all the girls, only Amy had the misfortune to catch the flu on its infectious trip around Bryce University. Matt had entangled himself in his comforter so badly that a section had wrapped itself around his neck and was threatening to cut off his air. He had most likely done it to himself while turning in his sleep; Matt slept like an eggbeater. Mina untangled it and made the bed over him again; ten seconds later he flipped over in his sleep and pulled them all sideways. She gave it up as a lost cause, and spread another blanket on top of him. Before she had left for class, he had had the chills. She laid the heating pad next to him just in case he woke up. Jay was softly snoring, a sure indicator that he was indeed very ill, since Jay rarely if ever snored, and only when he was in extremely deep sleep. His coach took the news of his illness quite in stride, since he too was plagued with the killer virus, as was nearly half of the baseball team. Mina pulled a bunch of bananas out of her bag and laid them on the bedside table next to the water pitcher; Jay had asked for bananas no less than thirty times before she left that morning, and she didn’t know if it was genuine or delirious rambling. She brought some just in case. << I could definitely not handle him begging for goddamn bananas again like a little girl…Oh what am I saying? I take that back! He’s so sick, let the poor guy have his stupid bananas! >> She checked his forehead again, and was pleased to learn that his temperature had gone significantly down. She busied herself with replacing tissue boxes and refilling water glasses, her heart practically bursting with pride. This is what she was meant to do: comfort if she could not heal. Amy was the doctor; she was the nurse. Matt stirred again and slowly awoke. “Lita?” he whispered, his voice hoarse and weak. “No, Matt, it’s me.” She stood above him so he could recognize her face. “How are you feeling?” He sighed heavily and smiled at her. “There was this one game last year, against USC,” he began. “It was the third period already, and I had been playing the entire game with a broken finger, right? On top of that I had a sinus infection, my head was killing me, and then this huge, HUGE motherfucker checked me on the glass so hard it knocked the wind out of me.” Mina blinked. “Yeah?” He closed his eyes. “That was a friggin’ love tap compared to this.” She laughed briefly and handed him two white pills. “Here. Take this.” “These roofies?” he asked, grinning slyly. “Yes, Matt, they are. I’m planning on knocking you unconscious and then having my way with you. With Jay in the room.” “You probably already drugged him, didn’t you?” He popped the pills in his mouth, and, to Mina’s horror, swallowed them dry. Jay stirred and picked his head up. He was silent for a few minutes, collecting himself. “Mina?” he whispered. “Hi there.” She bent down and checked his forehead. “Do you want anything, hon?” He stared at her blankly for a second, his eyes half-lidded and innocent, before flashing a conniving smile. “Yeah, I want you to sit on my face.” Deathly ill or not, Mina smacked him in the head with a pillow while Matt split his side laughing. “Jerk! And I brought you your damn bananas!” “What bananas?” Kevin was sleeping when she entered the room, sprawled out on his back with his mouth hanging completely open. Mina giggled softly at the sight; she didn’t know how he managed to look so adorable while revealing his molars. She tiptoes around the room, picking up stray tissues and clothes and whatever else happened to be obstructing the bathroom path. She was about to exit quietly when Kevin awoke. “Hey,” he mumbled through the gag of exhaustion. “Don’t go yet.” She was at his side almost immediately. “Hey, how are you feeling?” “Like I just got sacked. This one time, when we were playing UCLA…” Mina rolled her eyes. “If this is another sports analogy, save it, please.” Kevin smiled. “You’re not the one who played with…” “Yes, I know! With a broken finger or a pulled muscle or a brain hemorrhage or no heartbeat! Jay and Matt have basically run the gamut already.” She pressed a hand to his forehead, testing it. “And if you didn’t want to get sick, why didn’t you get the flu shot at the beginning of the year? The nursing program was giving them away free. Zach came by, I gave him one.” “That’s because Zach is whipped by his grandmother. And if I had known you were there I would have gotten two.” She smiled and blushed at the same time and let her hair fall softly in front of her eyes. Kevin reached out and touched it. “Mina?” “Hmm?” She responded, clearing tissues and paper off of the miniscule bedside table. “Why did you want to become a nurse? Shouldn’t you be majoring in like, runway or something?” She stopped as her eyes grew far away, and she spoke to the table as she shuffled its contents around. He didn’t speak; he could tell her mind was in the past. “I used to do this all the time, back in Japan,” she started. “Whenever one of my friends got sick, I felt like I had to do something, like I had to help them in some way or another. I hated it when people were sick and miserable, and I thought I could cheer them up and make them more comfortable. At first, I sucked at it. I had all good intentions, but I was a total klutz! Ask Raye, she’ll tell you some stories.” She laughed shortly and continued. “I just couldn’t stand to see people suffering, especially my friends. As I got more practice I became good at it, and I would actually relieve their pain instead of causing it.” “Causing it?” he echoed, suddenly afraid for his own safety. “Don’t worry about it! I’m over my klutz phase! Anyway, when the time came to choose a major I realized that I might not make it as a model, and I needed something to fall back on, and the only thing I could see myself doing was helping people. I couldn’t really make a career out of being a Sailor Senshi.” “It would be a bitch to claim on your taxes, too.” “That was Jay-ish! ANYWAY, I knew that I didn’t have the discipline or the brains to be a doctor, and besides, that’s Amy’s thing. She’s the doctor-“ She placed two Tylenol in his hand and handed him the water glass. “-I’m the nurse. “Do you want anything else?” He swallowed his water. “Yeah, could you drag the TV in here and hook up the Playstation, change the oil in my car, and then give me a back rub while topless?” Sick or not sick, she couldn’t believe that he had just said that. “How ‘bout not?” He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto the bed with him. “Yikes! Kevin! You’re going to stroke out or something!”He kissed her neck, her face, anywhere his lips touched. She shrieked and wiggled out of his grasp and propped herself up on one elbow. “How ‘bout you get better so if we get a surprise from our otherworldly friends we won’t totally get our asses kicked?” He pulled her close to him. “I’d kick their ass even if I had the Ebola virus.” * * * * * * * * * * * * Serena pulled her light jacket tight around her body trying to block off the chilly breeze, but it cut through the fabric and froze her skin anyway. “Goddess! Mamo-chan, if it’s almost April, shouldn’t it be getting hot or something? I’m freezing to death!” “Here,” Darien said, unslinging Luna from around his neck and draping her over Serena’s. “Luna’s good for an extra hundred degrees.” “I hope that’s not all I’m good for,” Luna muttered, curling her warm, fur-covered body around Serena’s exposed neck. “Serena, the next time you leave the house, please consider the weather before you choose your outfits. I’m not a fashion accessory, you know.” “I’m sorry, Luna, I’m cold!” she whined. “And scootch down a little; the back of my neck is freezing!” “Oh for Heaven’s sake,” Luna grouched, but obliged. “How’s Amy?” Darien asked. “Zach finally went home today, I guess the guys are feeling better.” “She’s doing OK, but she’s still a little weak. How did you keep from killing Zach, anyway?” Darien gritted his teeth at the memory of Zach squeezing the last of his Crest out onto his toothbrush and happily popping it into his mouth while chucking the empty tube. “He had two games and a few practices, so I didn’t have to put up with him that much.” Serena smiled from behind Luna’s abdomen. She knew her boyfriend like the back of her hand, and she knew that he was talking out of his ass. He had probably had the time of his life in the week that Zach stayed over, watching March Madness and drinking beer. General male-bonding. She looped her arm around his. “Darien, I’m so happy!” she gushed. “My friends are finally happy, truly happy, happy in a way that I couldn’t make them no matter how hard I tried. Raye’s mellowed out soooo much; she’s like a whole different person, and she just LOVES all the attention that Jay gives her, I can tell. Of course, she’ll deny it if you ask. And Amy! Do you see the way she even walks anymore? Plus, I got her to skip class one day to watch the baseball team practice; uh, I mean, to watch Jay and Zach practice. Do you even KNOW how long I’ve been trying to get her to cut class? Since like, junior high!” A girl with spandex and headphones jogged past them, her arms and legs bare. She gave them a long look as she passed, and narrowed her eyes strangely. She was panting from effort, and in that instant Darien noticed that while he was shivering in what felt like forty degree weather, the girl’s breath was not coming out in vapors and she seemed perfectly content. <> “Serena,” he barked after the girl rounded the block. Overhead, the streetlights clicked on for the evening. She looked up at him, half her face hidden behind Luna’s black furred body. Then they heard the scream. “Damn!” he swore as they took off down the street. Rounding the corner, he almost tripped over the prone body of the girl jogger who had just passed them. A blast of energy hit the pavement no more than five feet away, kicking up asphalt and sending a shockwave rumbling up their legs. A youma, a smaller one compared to some of the twelve-foot monsters they had faced, zipped back and forth on the street, frequently jumping curbs and sending the few remaining passer-bys diving for cover. It emitted high squeals and low rumbling noises, much like… “It’s a car!” Serena screamed. The youma turned to the source of the noise and revved its engine. She shoved her hand in her pocket and pressed the emergency call so hard that the button left an indent into her index finger, which had gone white under the pressure. * * * * * * * * * *Venus internally panicked when she arrived on the scene and was almost promptly flattened by the car youma. As their luck would have it, the youma wasn’t born from a Geo Prizm or some other dinky car but a full-size Dodge Four by Four with a full tank and gigantic tires. No one had gotten a good shot in yet, and the property damage alone was enough to send her into a low-level shit fit. And the icing on the cake was that they were without Jadeite and Nephrite, extra muscle, Mercury, their intelligence, and Kunzite, their other strategist. Luna and Artemis hid behind a garbage dumpster, watching the battle take place. “Hey!” Jupiter screamed. “Over here, ugly!” “Sailor Moon, duck!” Mars shouted. Moon ducked her head as the intense heat scorched past her and singed the fine baby hairs on the back of her neck. The fireball collided with the shiny red sides of the youma, erupting into a splash pattern of flame that looked magnificent, but did little to slow it on its collision course with Zoicite. “Shit!” he screamed, sticking Mercury’s mini-computer in his teeth and jumping straight into the air at the same time. The youma zoomed underneath, and he managed to grab onto the neck of a streetlight to keep from falling back into the foray. “Yo, somewuff et meef dawn!” he shrieked around the impediment in his teeth. “Just jump, you pussy,” a male voice announced. Moon swiveled around, nearly leaping out of her skin. <> she thought for a split second before a flash of white brushed past her. Zoicite sacrificed half his grip on the streetlight to flip off Jadeite with one white-gloved finger. “Eff you, ash-hoe!” He let go, falling like an ungainly cheerleader into Nephrite and Kunzite’s interlocking arms. “What the hell are you guys doing here?! You’re friggin’ sick!” Nephrite wiped the beads of sweat that had formed on his hairline. His face was pallid. “Yeah, well, there was nothing on TV, so we decided to drop by. Holy crow, what is that!?” Tuxedo Mask and Jupiter were in the duel process of trying to distract the youma and fry it. Kunzite closed his eyes; he replayed the image of when they had first arrived scene by scene, and paid attention to the background. “Nothing’s working yet.” “Nope,” Venus joined the circle. “And what the hell are you doing here? You’re sick!” “You think?” Jadeite’s tone was much more smart-ass than usual. He bent over and put his hands on his knees. She nearly self-combusted with anger. “So what happens if you’re too weak to fight? You’re a liability here, not an asset to the team! Kunzite, you should have known better!” He puffed out in a distinctly machismo, male way. “We can hold our own.”She raged on. “Sure you can! So when you collapse in exhaustion, we’re going to have to formulate a new bloody plan to dust that youma and save the entire street and your sorry ass at the same time!” Mars breezed by, making sure to smack Jadeite on the back of the head as she passed. “Save this for later, guys, we have to dust this thing!” “She’s right,” Nephrite said. The familiar white energy was pulsing in his hands, humming in anticipation. He lined up his shot at the youma’s chest/windshield and relaxed his arms as much as he could. <> They had spent an entire afternoon trying to fine-tune his attack at, get this, a shooting range. Matt Haberman had never even held a gun without the word “Mattel” stamped on i t, much less fired one, but after he squeezed the first shot out of the borrowed .22, he knew the meaning of the word “recoil.” And in the process, he surprised himself by actually liking the feel of the weapon kicking back in his hand while the intense power hidden in the folds of metal leapt out and whuffed a hole through the paper target before he had a chance to hear the crack. Maybe he’d take Lita there someday. His hands positively hummed now, and, biting his lower lip, he took the first shot, holding his arm slightly slack to catch the recoil from the killer comets. << Squeeze, don’t pull. >> He let go, and the restrained comet leapt out, free, pushing his elbow back but allowing him to keep his balance. It whirred through the air and pounded against the side of the youma, burning its side black. It screeched in pain and fear. <> He was the one who noticed that Nephrite held his arms straight out like a sleepwalker, leaving his body no other choice but to absorb all the impact. Everyone cheered. “Nice, shot, Nephrite!” Mask whistled, impressed. “Told you it would work!” The youma swiveled around, maddened and injured, a bad combination for that particular breed. It roared in pain and gunned its engine, aiming right for Moon, Jupiter, and Mars, who happened to be the closest in proximity to each other and therefore, the best target. “Crap!” Moon screamed. Luna almost leapt out from her hiding place. “Sailor Moon! Look out!”“Here!” Venus sent her chain flying across the tight space, stretching across the street like a tightrope. Only Jupiter managed to catch one of the golden links like a handle in a subway car as it sailed over her head. “Grab it, guys!” she screamed, a second too late. She was pulled along with the chain to safety, leaving Sailors Moon and Mars stranded in the path of the killer youma. “NO!!” screamed seven other voices, two particular male ones the loudest. Mars had no choice but to watch helplessly as the youma careened towards her and her princess. She instinctively shoved Sailor Moon behind her and clapped her hands together, knowing that she couldn’t ready a Burning Mandala in time to save them both but she had to try even though it was too late and if she was going down she was going down fighting but she prayed that Serena made it out OK… Suddenly, less than three feet away from them, the y ouma jacked up and sailed over their heads, spraying sparks in the air as its body twisted and tore, and landed on the other side with a deafening crash, sending up clouds of gray dust and flying metal pieces. Glass shattered in the air and rained down harmlessly on the energy dome encasing the two shell-shocked senshi. Kunzite let out his breath and dissolved the dome once he felt the shrapnel had ceased to fly and the girls were out of danger. His face was ash-white from the incredible effort. Tuxedo Mask and Jadeite shared the urge to run up to Kunzite and hug him. “Holy shit, buddy, great save!” Zoicite hooted, pounding his friend and commander on the back. “Way to go, Kunzite!” Jupiter screamed, lightening crackling off her hair in excitement. “Ready to send this bastard to hell, guys?” “Pleasure’s all mine! Hey, dickface, eat Jade-bomb!” Jadeite released his white, smoke-like spiral before it was fully formed; it came out significantly smaller but better controlled and more punch to the ounce. And he saved a literal ton of energy in the process, and was proud to remain standing and conscious after his attack. The spiral swirled towards the pulverized youma, whose slitted mechanical eyes were round with terror. Sailor Moon was halfway to a high-five with Venus when a stream of black energy hit the white swirl at an angle and successfully pulverized it. “How…cute,” a scathing, effeminate voice tittered. “The little boys have learned to use their little baby weapons. And we thought they couldn’t find their dicks with both hands!” Jupiter’s spine went rigid. They hadn’t heard from the Dark Kingdom Generals, in, well, months. It seemed a lifetime ago, but the old fear returned. The fear that this battle would be their last. All four of the Dark Kingdom generals balanced on a ledge on the side of one of the buildings; Zoycite and Malachite tangled into an embrace. Tuxedo Mask snuck a quick look at his Generals, and sure enough, Zoicite was turning green while his face contorted into a mask of horror. Jadeite looked like he was stifling laughter. They leapt down, sending everyone backpedaling a few steps except for Venus and Kunzite. It must have been the leadership instinct, or blind courage, or an incredible amount of stupidity, but they were actually walking towards the threat. Kunzite had his game face on, and Venus looked mad enough to spit nails. “Ready for another round, are you?” she said, fists clenched. Nephlite snickered. “I’ve heard enough of these petty threats, Senshi. Hand over the crystal and spare yourself the embarrassment of thinking up an intelligent sounding threat, Moon. We’ve heard them all, and quite frankly your vocabulary isn’t nearly as plentiful as the air in your head.” For a second, Mask was sure that she was about to cry, but she collected up her stray tears and tried her best to look intimidating, an endeavor that he thought was irresistibly cute. Jadeite’s voice cut into his daydream of some sexual game where he was a Dark General. “You’ll have to get through us first, asswipe.” “That,” Malachite said, “was precisely our plan.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the air was suddenly saturated with crackling black energy so thick that no one could see more than a foot in front of them. It shaved into their skin like grated glass, stuffed up into their nostrils and ear canals, tore at their scalps. Venus pressed her lips together to keep from screaming. When the dust cleared, the Senshi and generals were on their knees, save for Kunzite and Jupiter, who, incredibly, remained upright while they coughed the residue out of their lungs. Nephrite inhaled deeply while on his knees. “Hey, that tasted like Newports.” He got that sentence out exactly two seconds before the youma, doing at least eighty, nearly flattened him while shaving by with inches to spare. It screeched its brakes, swerved around, and revved its engine for another go. Sailor Moon stopped to look at it, and her second of indecision was rewarded with a barrage of dark energy knocking her back into the pavement. “Ugh!” she screamed as her forehead impacted against the unforgiving asphalt. Tuxedo Mask was by her side in a second. She put one hand to the slash on her forehead, her white glove stained red as it absorbed the dripping blood. “I’m OK, I’m OK,” she insisted. “You FUCKER!” Jupiter screamed, raising her hands. “OAK EVOLUTION!” All hell broke loose. Dark energy slashed through the air, clashing with whatever light energy happened to block it. Jupiter got off another Oak Evolution before she was blasted ten feet back by a crackle of black lightening. “Oww,” she moaned. Someone grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet. “Come on,” Zoicite said urgently, pulling her along by the hand. “I need your help.” The ducked and dodged their way across the battlefield before joining Nephrite on the other side. “What are we doing?” Jupiter asked, dazed. Nephrite stepped away from the car he had been hiding. “We don’t stand a chance of kicking their Negaverse asses with that car-mutant buzzing around. We need to even the playing field.” Jupiter peeked at the car and blanched. “What are we…?” Zoicite typed something into Mercury’s mini-computer, and the car let out a soft click as its doors unlocked. “After you, madam,” he said with a flourish. Jupiter climbed in the Jaguar with the solemnity one feels when they enter such places as the Coliseum, or maybe the Louvre. “You’re kidding, right? Who the hell leaves an eighty-thousand dollar car parked on Graduate Ave?”“That guy,” Nephrite said, pointing to an unconscious middle-aged man wearing a three-piece suit and toting a briefcase and a bag of take-out. Sliding into the driver’s seat, he made a face like he was being caressed in the most erogenous zones of his body. “Oh my God, never in my natural life did I think I would even SIT in one of these, much less drive it.” His expression reflected pure bliss. “Fuck you, Neph, your parents probably have a couple parked in their garage,” Zoicite grumbled. Nephrite made a face but fell silent. Sailor Jupiter was still frozen with shock. “So, we’re just-TAKING--this guy’s car while he’s out cold, like that? Isn’t this like, a C felony?” “Probably,” Nephrite responded. Zoicite nodded in agreement. She crossed her arms. “Why did you bring me in here? I’m not taking part in any of this. You two can sharpen toothbrushes and share soap in jail; I’m outta here.” She was about to pop the door of the delicious car open and escape when Nephrite leaned over and grabbed her wrist. “No! Please, um, you really have to help us with this,” he begged. He squeezed her wrist as hard as he could, almost cracking the bone underneath. She yelped, and a single crackle of electricity escaped and hit the ignition. The Jag turned over and roared to life. “Yes!” Zoicite roared as Jupiter’s mouth dropped open. Nephrite immediately launched into a litany of apologies. “I can’t believe you just did that!” she shouted. “Why didn’t you just take the keys off the guy?” Nephrite and Zoicite exchanged looks; neither had even entertained that possibility. “Yeah, that would have worked.” Nephrite shrugged and rolled the car out of its space. “Here goes.” He navigated the Jag around the outskirts of the battlefield, careful not to get hit lest he damage the paint on the tremendously expensive vehicle. Zoicite and Jupiter leaned out the windows and began deflecting attacks that were headed their way. Jadeite noticed them first and whistled approvingly. “Nice ride! Neph, where’d you jack that from?” Next to him, Venus smiled dryly. “Way to go, guys,” she whispered, and turned her concentration back to fighting. Nephrite smiled as he passed Kunzite, who was wearing an expression of either murderous rage or mammoth jealousy. He preferred to think of it as the latter. “OK, we’ve got Kunzite’s attention, now what about the youma?” Jupiter leaned out the window and delivered a Sparkling Wide Pressure to the double boomerangs that were headed their way, and was almost decapitated by the monstrous heap of animated metal. She pulled her head away just in time. “Uh, I think it knows.” “Donuts!” Jadeite screamed. “No!” Mars screamed. As much as he wanted to do donuts at that moment, Nephrite swiveled the Jag around and peeled out down the street, away from the battle, the youma in hot pursuit. The Jag accelerated from zero to sixty in about four seconds. Jupiter’s head was practically plastered to the back of her seat. She could practically feel the power of its engine rumbling through the seat and into the flesh of her cheek, where it jack hammered like an atomic hummingbird. “I’m still in fourth!” Nephrite screamed triumphantly, and began laughing. Jupiter reached over with shaking hands and pulled her seatbelt on. They barreled down the street, a blur of panther-like black and chrome pursued by a grotesquely human-like facsimile of a truck. The youma’s already battered engine had a hard time keeping up with the sleek Jag. “We’re kicking its ass!” Zoicite laughed. Nephrite gritted his teeth together and slowed the car down. “We have to have it right on our tail,” he explained. Suddenly, the youma lurched forward with an enormous burst of speed, and he was forced to downshift and regain their previous speed. “Holy crap! Didn’t see that coming!” Zoicite reported from the backseat. The mini-computer reported that the youma had been fortified with a hit of dark energy, one with Jedite’s signature all over it. “Crap, they juiced it! What’s the plan, Neph?” He ran it by them, and watched as the color drained from both of their faces. “What?” Jupiter put a hand to her forehead. “You’re kidding, right? We’re going to die.” “No we’re not! It’ll work, at least in theory.” “In theory!” Zoicite was screaming, but he wasn’t even aware of it. “In THEORY, Communism works. In THEORY, Neph, I could tape myself to a bottle rocket and blast off to the moon! This is your big plan!?” “Hey, hey!” he held up one hand. “It’s going to work, OK, trust me! Just-“ He reached over and pulled on the beige strap. “Just put your seatbelt on.” The Jaguar roared down Graduate Ave, surprisingly not encountering another car or human being as it whizzed by. “Ready, guys?” he asked. Not waiting for an answer, he jerked the wheel and headed right for the side of a large gray building.“What are you…!” Jupiter screamed, grabbing onto the Oh-Shit handle for dear life. Nephrite checked the rearview to make sure the youma was still on their bumper. It was. “Guys?” The speedometer read eighty. “Yeah?” they responded in little more than whispers. “Pray.” Less than forty feet from the side of the building, he jerked the wheel to the left, sending them all smashing against the side of the interior. The Jag spun around in a nauseous half-circle, its tires squealing like a woman being murdered, coming around 180 degrees until it pointed in the opposite direction. He slammed his foot down on the gas and peeled away, the tires smoking. The youma took the bait. Unable to stop at such a short distance, it had no choice but to slam into the building with an earth-shattering THUMP, cracking the gray concrete and crumbling onto itself like an accordion. Zoicite looked back in time to see it burst into flames as its gas tank erupted. He turned back and patted Nephrite’s shoulder. “I shall never doubt you again, my friend.” They drove back in near silence, quietly relishing the fact that they were still alive and not a smear on the wall along with the youma. They returned to near chaos. Mercury had undoubtedly made an appearance despite her near-bedridden state; the entire area was covered with a fog so thick that only the brightest flashes shone through. Gold light and flame pierced through, and Jupiter’s heart leapt in gratitude. They abandoned the Jag and joined in the foray. Mars was injured; her Burning Mandalas were missing their mark by miles. Sailor Moon had reverted to her very first attack; she was trying to decapitate Zoycite with her tiara. “Shit!” Jupiter swore, flinging a ball of electricity to join with Moon’s tiara. The combined attack picked up speed and caught Zoycite in the leg. He screamed high and loud, like a girl. Malachite immediately swooped down to his side and embraced him. “Kill them, please lover,” he begged. “Do it for me!” Zoicite made a gagging noise. “Oh my God, please DO kill me!” “As you wish,” Malachite hissed, and launched his boomerangs straight for Zoicite. “NO!” Sailor Moon screamed. Before Tuxedo Mask or Venus could restrain her, she bolted forward and shoved Zoicite out of the way before he was hit. By some fluke of physics and coincidence, one boomerang nicked at her fuku in the middle of her chest, ripping the Silver Crystal from the fabric. It flew through the air like a tiddly-wink, landing straight in the hands of… “Why, thank you,” Malachite chuckled malevolently. Zoicite covered the now-detransformed Serena with his body so that the Dark Kingdom generals couldn’t see her. Trembling, Serena pulled her Disguise Pen out of her pocket. “Disguise Pen, turn me, um, oh hell, just turn me into someone else!” A brief flash of light, and a brunette was tucked under Zoicite’s arm. Venus felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach when the crystal landed in Malachite’s white-gloved hand. <> A flash of white broke into her thoughts. It clipped Malachite’s hand, which started gushing with pink blood. His face screwed up in pain and shock, and he released his hold on the crystal. It fell. Kunzite watched it as he caught his boomerang, Darien’s instruction still echoing in his mind. << It says here to hold it vertically, not like a Frisbee. Did you just hear me? NOT like a Frisbee! >> To everyone present, it seemed like time had stretched itself out like a rubber band, expanding to a length beyond t he regions of what the human mind could process. They could hardly move through the viscous liquid that seemed to surround them and pin their limbs to the side of their body. Even the Dark Kingdom generals seemed to freeze in shock, and could only watch as the coveted crystal descended through the air, turning over and over to display its brilliance. No one could move. Except Kunzite. He bolted forward, knocking whoever stood in his way aside. Kevin Belles had been recovering fumbles since the age of eight, and there was no way he was letting this one get by him. The vision in front of him blurred and another one replaced it: green turf and dark green and white Washington State jerseys, faceless heads buried under helmets. The crystal was a regulation brown pigskin skipping across the hard turf, across the white chalk yard lines, taunting him.Nephlyte swooped down from his perch; number fifty-four saw only Washington State green. He threw him a shoulder, knocking him down. “C’mon, Kev,” Jadeite whispered to himself. Time seemed impossibly still those last few steps; as he reached down to recover an object much smaller than what he was used to. His fingers closed around the crystal, and he gripped it so tightly that it would have cracked if it were made of any other material. Serena’s heart leapt in her throat, and she gave a shout of pure victory two seconds before everything exploded into white. * * * * * * * * * * * * “This is NOT Graduate Ave!” Jadeite announced, rubbing the toe of his boot into the gray gravel. Nephrite made a face at him. “Death grip on the obvious, Jeddy,” Nephrite muttered, flipping a loose rock at his friend’s backside. He shook his head and walked away, muttering to himself, not realizing that Jadeite had flipped him off behind his back. “OK,” Sailor Moon said. Her crystal was back, securely fastened to her chest. “Where are we?” It hit Venus all at once, and she straightened her spine like she was standing at attention. “Artemis?” “Yeah?” he asked from Mars’s arms. “This is the Moon.” Luna nodded. “Yes, Venus, it is.” She turned in a slow circle, taking in the horrible emptiness that whistled through the last few remaining towers and columns, none of which stood taller than ten feet, even though the original architecture probably called for much taller structures. It was like walking through Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped. The ground was covered with rubble from the collapsed architecture, most of it what seemed to be white marble that glowed eerily in the dim light. It was covered with layers of dust, like a crypt that had never been disturbed. She knelt down and traced one finger down the side of a felled column, exposing the smooth marble underneath. The finger of her glove was stained black. “Uh, I hate to sound like a total moron,” Jadeite started. “But if we’re on the moon, why can we breathe? According to the laws of Warner Brothers cartoons, our eyes should be popping out of our heads right now.” An exhausted Mercury, sitting next to Zoicite on a slab of stone, wearily punched into her computer. “According to my readings, the atmosphere is about seventy percent nitrogen, twenty percent oxygen, two percent carbon dioxide, one percent hydrogen, one percent…” Jupiter cut her off. “So it’s just like the Earth’s?” “Correct.” “Because!” Sailor Moon shouted. They all looked at her. “Because my mom designed it that way.” She pointed to the black sky above, peppered with glittery stars. “She created an atmosphere and an ozone for the moon so we could breathe. It stops about two miles above us, like a glass ceiling!” She turned, excited. “She never properly figured out how to make wind, since there’s no oceans on the moon…” “Likewise, no jetstreams,” Mercury interjected. “And sometimes there would be tornadoes…” “And they were always inverted!” Mars finished. “They stuck to the bottom of the ozone layer and would hang down! I remember watching them!” “Hey,” Nephrite started. “Hey!” “What?” Tuxedo Mask asked idly, devoting most of his attention to the crumbled ruins in front of him, all the while remembering. << There’s the Praying Shrine, or what’s left of it…only the Queen could go there. And I’m standing right in the middle of the Reflecting Pond! >> Nephrite ran over about a hundred feet, climbing over slabs of crumpled marble to get to his desired destination. “There used to be a tree here, a big one. It was all twisted and gnarly because…” “Vegetation didn’t do so well,” Jupiter explained. “We only had eight hours of daylight.” “Yeah!” << I remember this. It’s all coming back now. >> “It was all magic,” Moon sighed, kneeling down and gathering a handful of gravel. “Everything was kept alive with magic. There was so much of it; it was so commonplace that we never thought we’d run out. And we wouldn’t have.” Jadeite, who had been staring at the remains of what could have been a very high tower, suddenly dropped to his knees as memories assaulted him. << White tower very high smooth marble a single WHITE rope falling down a black-haired girl staring up from the balcony above. >> “Rei,” he said. “What?” “REI THERE USED TO BE A TOWER HERE THAT I WOULD CLIMB WHEN I WOULD COME TO SEE YOU!!!” He screamed loud enough to raise Civil War casualties, but his extreme volume had the benefit of opening mental vaults. Sailor Moon smiled as the weight hit all of her friends in turn. “We knew each other,” Nephrite said, not to the general populace, but only to Jupiter. He ran back to his previous spot. “That tree that used to be here…it used to be our tree! It was in your garden!” Tears swam in her eyes. “I remember,” she choked, brushing the water out of her face. “I remember you.” “Holy shit,” Zoicite mumbled his seemingly phrase of the day. He touched Mercury’s hair as she looked down and blushed. “Holy shit. Ami.” Venus stared at Kunzite, her body shaking despite all of her intentions to stop it. She remembered it all: the first time she saw him, how she almost arrested him, how he would take her to Earth. It was a lifetime ago, and yet, it was here, and now. “Oh Goddess,” she whispered, falling into his arms. He stroked her hair as her tears fell onto his uniform and dotted it darker gray. “I found you again.” Tuxedo Mask smiled as his Generals embraced her Senshi, their happiness radiating like an A-bomb. Sailor Moon sidled over to him and slipped her hand in his. “They’re together again, Endy. Just like you and me.” Jadeite grabbed Mars’s hand and pulled her over. “Here’s where your suite was.” He pointed upwards. “You used to have a tower and a balcony up there, and I couldn’t enter from the inside, so I would have to scale it.” She laughed, a sound of pure glee. “You took your life in your hands to do that, buddy. Minako wouldn’t let me borrow her chain, so I stole that heavy rope that used to tie back the curtains in the hallways.”