Mythic Sailor Moon
Episode Seven
London, England, Crystal Era
Picadilly Circus
The battle lines were drawn in downtown London. With the rising of the
sun, Nemesite ground forces had appeared out of nowhere, and two dozen
fully armored troopers equipped with high-energy assault rifles were
emplaced on an inconspicuous stretch of road outside a small café.
Within the café, BBC cameras and crew which had been present for the
interview with "the new Sailor Venus" scrambled to take up positions at
the front windows as soon as they saw the troops. In their haste for a
story, the crew completely missed the fact that the guns were pointed
*at* them.
After the cameras had a few moments to get properly focused on the
impressive storm troopers, two figures materialized, dressed in the Art
Nouveau-styled formalwear currently in vogue on Nemesis.
"We are Jacinth..." said the first figure, who wore a tan outfit and had
hair streaked blond and brown.
"...and Hyacinth," finished the other, a reddish-brown haired figure
wearing an outfit that was identical, except it was russet-colored.
"Come out Sailor Venus, and face us."
"Unless you'd like us to kill the camera crew to get to you, that is,"
added the parti-colored blond.
Eriæ, in her Sailor Venus form, walked out of the café. "That's not
necessary," she said in a level tone. "If you want to fight with me,
then I'll oblige you."
"Who said anything about fighting you?" laughed the auburn-haired
figure. "This is your execution!"
"Open fire!" yelled the blond. The ground forces aimed their rifles at
the startled Sailor Venus and began to shoot.
Episode Seven
Devastation! The Terrible Power of the Zircon Siblings
Crystal Palace
The Throne Room
Neo-Queen Serenity and Princess Serenity stood gaping in disbelief and
horror at the tableau displayed on the monitor. "That's Eriæ!" confirmed
the Princess as she pointed at the image of her Sailor Venus being shot
at by two dozen Nemesite elite ground forces. Behind them, Mythic
Sailor Mercury, King Endymion, Kino Makoto and Aino Minako also stared
aghast. On the monitor, Eriæ could be seen dodging the hail of energy
bolts as she dove for cover behind a nearby parked BBC van.
"How far away from here is this scene transpiring? Eriæ is badly
outnumbered by those soldiers with bolt-hurling staves, and the two
leaders have not even acted yet; they're just hovering in midair!"
exclaimed Princess Serenity.
"This is taking place in London, England," the queen replied.
"Londinium? In Britannia?" asked Princess Serenity. "How odd that she
would appear there . . ."
"Hmm, well London *is* where I first acted as Sailor V--" began Minako,
only to be cut off by her teammate.
"We have to get in there and help her now!" broke in Makoto. "It feels
like a trap, but I don't see that we have any choice. We MUST rescue her
now and our only option is a Sailor Teleport."
The captain of the palace guard spoke up. "Mako-chan, forgive me for
saying so but teleports are draining under the best conditions for you
all, and you're still exhausted by your recent ordeals."
Makoto turned her head only enough to glare at him. "We don't have a
choice, Shingo-kun," she bit off. "They probably know Mars and Mercury
aren't here, but we've got another Mercury and Sailor Moon to bring in
against them. That should surprise them and turn the tide. And I AM up
to this fight. That girl needs help and she needs it NOW!" Minako nodded
in agreement.
Neo-Queen Serenity looked as if she were about to disagree when Endymion
spoke up. "I concur with Jupiter. And moreover, I'm coming with you."
"Absolutely not!" burst out both Shingo and the queen.
"Darling, you mustn't! You're just out of your sickbed!"
"Your majesty," chimed in Shingo, "It's just not appropriate for you to
go into battle! We don't know what these people are capable of. The
senshi are *your* guards; it is not appropriate for you to endanger
yourselves rescuing them when the risk can't be properly evaluated."
Princess Serenity nodded. "Eriæ would not want you to endanger yourself.
We four should be up to the challenge of these 'Dark Moon' forces who
have been troubling you. Though those two -- they do seem like
champions. We should be cautious..."
"Probably," said Neo-Queen Serenity. "Do be careful; they might have
some particularly nasty surprise waiting for you. Strike quickly before
they have a chance to spring their trap, or hurt your friend."
"Shingo-kun," Makoto called as she stepped aside from the group and took
out her henshin wand. "Could you call Keisuke for me and tell him that
I'm tied up at work and dinner's cancelled?" Shingo Tsukino nodded in
agreement.
"All right then," Makoto said and turned back to face Minako. "Let's go!
Jupiter Crystal Power, Make-up!"
Northern Greece
Back Roads
Tomoe Souichi shuddered in his sleeping bag. Despite the insulation,
the chill of the ground was seeping into his body and inflaming his
arthritic bones. The pain was not yet strong enough to awaken him from
his slumber, though; he'd spent an entire day in a jeep teaching a
bronze age warrior-woman to drive and he was truly exhausted.
The student in question was awake and pacing. Xena had scouted the area
and found it completely deserted, oddly so for a place with such a good
(to her) road. Now she was stalking back and forth, considering her
options and attempting to formulate a plan. It had been a very long time
since she had been forced to work under such blind conditions. She was
concerned about Professor Tomoe. She needed the man both as a guide and
for his connection to his daughter, the modern Saturn. However, he was
too frail; she could tell that even with the self-moving cart she'd
learned to drive that day, he had been sorely taxed by the travels. And
the small campfire she'd made wasn't enough heat for as aged a man as
he. She suspected he would barely be able to move in the morning.
Tomoe had said that the Queen in this time had shared the gift of long
life with all the people of the world who'd survived the disasters that
preceded her reign. He'd even explained that she'd put the world into a
kind of sleep for almost a thousand years to heal the damage wrought.
Xena idly suspected that another being like Dahok may have been the
cause of the damage but didn't press the issue; Tomoe had seemed very
edgy around the subject.
No, the part she was interested in was where Tomoe explained that at one
time he had been possessed, and the experience had left him too
"tainted" to benefit from the Queen's crystal. Xena thought that the
man had probably rejected the crystal's power in the same way that his
daughter rejected her senshi powers. But that still left him in no
condition to help her. She knelt beside his unconscious form and took
her chakram off her belt. She could still feel a resonance of the Saturn
power within her signature weapon; perhaps enough to do something with
it that she'd once done with the Silence Glaive.
The cycle of existence could be divided into four stages: birth, life,
death, and reincarnation. Saturn controlled the end points, the process
of dying and being reborn, and with them gained powers of physical
healing as well as material destruction and creation. Moon controlled
the more abstract periods in between, and gained powers of spiritual
healing, as well as the ability to purify and to control reincarnation.
Each was able to mimic the other's powers to a limited degree, but it
wasn't easy. What Xena wanted to do now, though, was a stretch of her
powers, but where Serenity had failed with subtlety, she might succeed
with a "brute force" approach.
She held the chakram over Souichi Tomoe's unconscious form. Dark violet
fire began to flicker from its ornate surface. Her grip loosened as she
felt the chakram begin to move under its own power. She kept her
attention focused on it as she released her grasp. It hovered in midair
and rotated clockwise. As she called upon all the skills taught to her
by Lao Ma to channel the crushing power that sought expression through
her, light glimmered in the middle of the spinning ring and a small
pillar of indigo flame flared into being in midair, spiraling counter-
clockwise. The spinning of both the energy vortex and the chakram
increased as Xena kept her will locked on both the conjuring of the
Saturn Power and the containing of it. She quickly broke out into a cold
sweat from the effort as the pillar of energy began to extrude ribbons
of soft velvety blackness from its lower point, ribbons that slowly
extended down toward the unconscious figure of the Professor. When they
touched Tomoe, they swarmed around him and quickly wrapped him in a
cocoon of power. Xena stiffened with exertion as she struggled to allow
just the energy needed to flow through her; she could feel the Saturn
Power rising in the background, double the force, almost angry at being
denied free expression while her chackram spun even more furiously in
response. She grinned wickedly; life on the edge, just the way she liked
it.
That moment of not trying, of just feeling, gave her just what she
needed to turn OFF the flow of power before it ran away from her. The
indigo flame quenched itself and the ribbons cocooning Professor Tomoe
dissolved into traces of vapor as Xena snagged the chakram from midair.
She glanced down at Professor Tomoe and noticed that his hair was still
white, yet his face seemed smoother. She wasn't sure how much age she'd
removed from him, but hoped it would be enough to keep him functional.
Tomoe Souichi rolled over in his sleep and proceeded to have his first
erotic dream in approximately one thousand and forty years.
Predecessor Ruins Beneath the Royal Citadel
Planet Nemesis, Crystal Era
Lady Clarissa and Sailor Mercury were almost to an exit Clarissa
believed would be safe to use. The long corridor they hurried through
reminded Mercury of a high-tech subway train tunnel, but at the end was
a slightly sloping ramp that led up to blast doors.
Standing in that doorway was a man with aristocratic features and hair
so black it seemed to have a blue highlight. Though he was clean-
shaven, his jaw definitely had a bluish sheen to it. He wore an outfit
of some kind of soft, rich material in a midnight blue shade that nearly
matched his hair, and which had a slight glossy sheen to it that made
Mercury idly think to herself that it might be synthetic cashmere. It
was definitely the sort of finery the Dark Moon nobles favored. His
particular outfit consisted of pleated trousers in a formalwear cut, a
royal blue shirt of some shimmering fabric, and a matching loosely-cut
jacket which gathered to a close over his left shoulder where it was
clasped with an ornate crystal brooch sporting the Black Moon emblem. A
cape of royal blue which matched his shirt draped over his shoulders and
gathered into the same brooch that held the jacket. He even wore black
and blue shoes with spats similar to Dimando's, and a pair of the
purple-black rhomboid earrings all of the Nemesites the senshi on Earth
had fought wore.
"Lord Feldspar," Clarissa said in a questioning acknowledgement as she
slowed to a halt.
"Lady Clarissa," he said as he bowed. Despite a gracious tone, the
address had a mocking edge to it, and Mercury thought his grey-flecked
blue eyes held a hostile expression.
"I see you have located Ambassador Mercury." He turned to Sailor
Mercury. "Even though you are an ambassador, this is a restricted area
and you will be subject to military arrest for this act of espionage."
Clarissa gasped; Mercury merely blinked once in consideration.
Clarissa took a deep breath and recovered her poise. "But my Lord
Feldspar, I am a Seated Member of the Oligarchy. I have personally
conducted a tour for the ambassador. I can assure you that only non-
sensitive areas of the complex were visited, and no acts of espionage
were performed by her."
Feldspar scowled in response. "Very slick, Clarissa. Of course I should
have expected a good, plausible excuse from you. You have always had a
glib tongue--how else were you able to occasionally gain Carnelian's ear
after Wiseman saw the lion's share of your influence broken and you
removed from the King's circle of influence? But really, the niceties
mean nothing now."
Clarissa frowned and exchanged a glance with Sailor Mercury. "Lord
Feldspar HAD been one of my secret allies in the Oligarchy, a supporter
of the reconciliation faction," she said bitterly.
Feldspar grinned with self-satisfaction. "You were so eager to push your
grand vision through that you never once questioned anyone else's
motives. In truth, if you really had a chance of success, I would have
stayed with you a while longer, until you had outlived your usefulness.
Instead, I shall immediately fill the vacuum created when the first
invasion was defeated and the Chair of the Oligarchy resigned in shame.
From there, it will be a very short trip to the Amethyst Throne."
"Bastard," Clarissa whispered. "I trusted you!"
"More the fool you," he replied snidely. Sailor Mercury started to take
a step towards him and he immediately pivoted to face her directly. "Oh,
I'm sorry, Sailor Mercury; we've been ignoring you. How rude!" He
raised his right hand and some kind of dark energy began to glitter in
his outstretched palm. "I'll amend that right now." Mercury shifted a
little to her left, interposing herself in front of Lady Clarissa.
"I am a sailor senshi. You are only the eighteenth most powerful noble
Nemesite. I really don't think this is going to be a fair fight," she
said coolly. Feldspar's head jerked back at her words. It was hard to
tell if he was more shocked or insulted. His eyes narrowed as he
regarded her.
"I have studied you, Sailor Mercury. I am not sure what the fools who
you normally fight think, but it is clear to me that you are the most
dangerous of the Senshi is. I have prepared for this." He tapped his
brooch with his left hand and box-like devices deployed from the frame
of the doorway. They immediately reminded Sailor Mercury of the
ultraviolet lights hanging above hospital entrances, except these were
on the sides of the entrance as well as above it. The devices lit up,
and a soft pink radiance filled the air between them.
"Heat shield," she deduced dispassionately. Feldspar chuckled once and
then began laughing heartily.
"Yes! Yes indeed! Part force-field, part heat barrier. Whether you
attack me with ice or water, the heat screen will vaporize it!"
Clarissa pursed her lips and stepped out from behind Sailor Mercury. "I
appreciate the thought, Madame Ambassador, but this man is a subversive
element in my own government. I'm going to be the one to deal with
him."
"Hardly," said Feldspar. He spread the fingers of his right hand wide
and the energy he had been building up formed into a barrage of sharp
glittering crystals which flew at them like shrapnel. As the crystals
passed through the shield they created a ripple effect like rain on a
pond's surface. They also became red-hot.
"Shabon Spray!" yelled Mercury as she parried his crystal barrage with a
blast of high-pressure water bubbles. When their blasts hit, steam and
fog sprayed everywhere, completely obscuring vision for a moment, then
the sound of huge motors starting could be heard. Within seconds,
industrial fans in the complex's environmental control systems
eliminated all of Mercury's fog.
When the obscurement cleared, Feldspar was still standing behind his
shield laughing heartily, but Lady Clarissa was now halfway to him, and
looking angry. She stood oddly still for a moment and then she opened
her mouth as if to begin to speak and made a gesture with her right
hand. . .
Ruby light, as bright and clear as if it were created by a prism,
suddenly swelled beneath and around Lady Clarissa, who stretched out her
arms and began to rapidly mouth unspoken words of power.
"What the--?" Feldspar said, jerking back. Clarissa brought her arms
close together and the ruby light crawled up and over her in a sudden
surge of motion, surrounding her in a gem-like aura for a few moments
before gathering into a boiling sphere between her outstretched hands.
"The rumors were TRUE?" he shrieked in absolute panic.
Then a twenty-foot long jet of flame abruptly lashed out from the
sphere, passed unimpeded through the heat shield, and blasted Lord
Feldspar into nothingness.
Lady Clarissa lowered her hands as the sphere between her hands faded
out. She stood stock still, staring at the empty doorway for perhaps a
full minute until she drew a deep, resigned breath.
She slowly looked over her shoulder at Sailor Mercury. "It had to be
done," she said flatly. She then turned her attention back to the
doorway and walked forward. The heat shield projectors had been melted
to slag by her flame blast, and she carefully picked her way around the
scorched spot on the floor where Feldspar had been standing. As Sailor
Mercury slowly followed up to the top of the ramp, running footsteps
came close. A girl dressed in a dark orange-gold jumpsut came running
towards them from the elevators that accessed the main citadel, a hand
weapon drawn.
"Lady Clarissa!" she yelled in a concerned tone. "Are you all right?"
"Amber, please, keep it down," Clarissa said as the young woman
approached. "We just had a run-in with Lord Feldspar, who had gone over
to the side of the hard-liners within the Oligarchy."
"What happened?" she asked, looking between Clarissa and Sailor Mercury.
"Lord Feldspar. . . won't be bothering you anymore," Mercury said cooly.
Amber's eyes widened and she nodded once.
"Ah, I see, Lady Mercury. Well, anyway, Lady Clarissa, our spy in the
hardliner camp got us word that they were scared by your recent gain in
support and were going to move against you." Amber holstered her pistol.
"I'm sorry, I would have been too late. . . "
Clarissa shook her head. "No, you did the right thing. I'm glad you're
here now. We need to immediately get complete control of the
Communications Annex, then we'll have all internal frequencies at our
control."
Amber's eyes widened. "Immediate control? Do. . . do you mean we're
moving? NOW?" Clarissa nodded affirmatively. She turned to Sailor
Mercury.
"It seems we can't wait any longer. My people will have to sieze
complete control of the government before the opposition does so and
entrenches." She turned back to Amber. "Contact the resistance cells and
have them gather at the Hall of Judgement in one hour." Amber nodded and
darted off to the elevators.
Mercury slowly moved to face Clarissa. "With a level of power like
yours, I don't understand why Wiseman didn't have you on his list, and
why this coup was delayed so long. "
"Well, I'm not really that powerful," Clarissa protested. "My ability to
conjure fire is a potent offense, yes, but it was his own heat screen
that destroyed Feldspar. My blast picked up energy from it, so it was
super-heated when it hit him. As to my omission from the index, well, my
powers are not classified as being psionic in nature. They are magical."
Mercury opened her mouth to say something, but found herself at a loss
for words.
"Maybe it IS psionic, but in a different way," Clarissa appended. "The
children of this generation, such as those you fought in Crystal Tokyo,
they have elemental psionics. Cooan, for instance, is essentially an
augmented pyrokinetic." Clarissa turned away and took a few steps
forward. She slowly raised her hands as if in entreaty. "I'm not like
that. I can sense an . . . underlying universal energy, draw that into
myself and expel it in different forms. The ancient myths, symbols, and
rituals serve to provide a conduit through which these forces can flow.
I call that magic. I'm a sorceress." She turned to look back at Mercury
as she concluded her statement.
"Is it possible you're tapping into some kind of energy source down
here?" Mercury queried. "Psionically drawing from Predecessor
machines?"
"Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that my powers look, feel, and
function as classical 'magic.'" She turned to fully face Mercury again.
"Wiseman hated me and drove the King away from me for a time because my
powers were similar to his. He saw me as a rival and a threat, but of
course he was older and much stronger. Fortunately, he was regarded as
a mere scientist, a servitor of the Amethyst Throne. Not someone who
could directly challenge a titled lady, and I was very discreet about my
powers. Our almost medieval social system saved my life."
Mercury nodded, in comprehension. She had a lot to consider still.
Clarissa nodded her head at the elevators. "Come, we need to get you to
the spaceport. We have less than an hour until our little revolution
gets going. Please come with me and I'll get you safely off-planet."
Mercury followed as Clarissa entered the first cargo elevator to arrive.
London, England, Crystal Era
Downtown
"She's here!" yelled a Nemesite trooper as he turned and waved his
comrades to the alley mouth he was standing in front of. For looking
away from his quarry, he got a Crescent Beam in the head that knocked
him spinning and left him unconscious with a concussion. However, the
loss of a handful of troopers was not a deterrant to the Dark Moon
forces and they closed in on the alley. Jacinth materialized hovering in
midair outside the mouth of the alley.
"Excellent!" he exclaimed as he saw that the new Sailor Venus had
encountered a dead end. His twin materialized at his side, already
smiling at their imminent triumph.
Hyacinth waved her arm and directed the troopers to swarm into the mouth
of the alley, their energy rifles charging for a mass discharge which
would perforate the sailor senshi. When most of her forces had crowded
into position, she and her brother as one pointed at Venus and began to
give the command to fire. . .
At that moment, four other figures leapt into view atop the wall that
blocked off the alley, first among them a woman with long white hair
pinned up in two globes atop her head. As her companions reached the
top of the wall, she was already leaping over it with unbelievable
strength and agility.
"FIRE!" commanded the twins as Mythic Sailor Moon landed in the alley in
front of Sailor Venus.
"Moon Princess.ABJURATION!" she called as she flung out her arms and
focused all her magic into the thought of protecting Eriæ. A powerful
pink and silver aura swirled into being in front of her just as the
energy weapons discharged. Over a dozen energy blasts hit the wall at
once and pink sparks flew everywhere as Mythic Sailor Moon strained to
hold back her friend's certain death.
"VENUS! LOVE ME CHAIN!" bellowed Minako from the top of an adjacent
building. Her chain swept into the crowd of troopers, slapping several
silly and tangling around many of the others.
With timing honed from years of teamwork, Jupiter unleashed "SUPREME
THUNDER!" at Venus' chain, using it to conduct the stream of lightning
she was firing from her tiara right into the troopers.
Amica, however, was not to be outdone. As the weapons fire had now
ceased, she was able to drop into the alley and sprint ahead of her
Princess. She put her hands in front of her chest as she ran, holding
the palms facing. As she skidded to a halt, wisps of mist began to
trickle between her fingers and swirl together into a sphere hovering
between her hands. The sphere cleared, showing within it a single huge,
perfect snowflake. Then swirls of what might be taken for mist -- but
which were actually tiny streams of snowflakes -- swirled within the
globe as the snowflake began to rotate. Similar streams of snow began to
swirl and rise around Mythic Mercury in time with the sphere of power in
her hands.
"Shine . . . Snow . . . MIRAGE!" she called out as she pushed the sphere
and the ice storm surrounding it away from her and streaking at shocked
troopers.
A lash of pure blackness struck her iceball and shattered it; there was
a little spray of ice but the majority of her attack had simply been
negated.
Hyacinth was hovering over her fallen troops now, one arm outstretched.
"At last! Play time begins!" she exulted.
"Oh, BAD!" gasped Sailor Jupiter.
"Out of the alley! Now!" yelled Minako. Mythic Sailor Moon grabbed
Eriæ's arm and draped it over her right shoulder. Amica took a position
supporting the other side and the two of them together leapt to the
adjacent rooftop Minako and Makoto were on.
"Thanks guys," Eriæ said as they carried her to safety. "Minako!" she
exclaimed in relief as she got a good look at the other Sailor Venus on
the rooftop. There was no time to comment on Makoto's presence in place
of Melissa's though. A beam of absolute blackness was screaming through
the air directly at them and they were forced to leap again as soon as
they touched the roof. Unfortunately, Mercury went one way and Moon went
the other while Eriæ dove over the peak of the roof and began to roll
toward the edge.
Then the beam of blackness hit the roof and it disappeared, leaving
nothing but a few splinters behind.
Hyacinth laughed with near-insane glee while her brother floated beside
her smirking. "My turn!" she yelled as she cupped her hands toward
Amica. "Dark Destiny!" a barrage of darts of pure blackness volleyed at
Sailor Mercury, leaving dark, whip-like trails in their wake. Amica used
all her gymnastic skills to flip over the edge of the devastated
building and drop back into the alley.
"Amica, behind you!" screamed Mythic Sailor Moon. Amica immediately
flung herself to the left and allowed the dozen or so streaks of pure
destruction to pass her by and strike the fallen Nemesite troops. The
shocked men had no time to scream as Hyacinth's darts disintegrated
them.
"Her attack is non-linear?" gasped Mercury in shock as she observed the
fading aftertrails of the attack, which clearly showed that the attack
had changed angles in mid-air and tracked her. Jacinth and Hyacinth
paused for a moment to teleport to new locations on the field with
better view of the now-scattered senshi. From their new vantage points
they could not only see all the senshi, there was no chance the senshi
could get their attacks to cross and strike each other.
"Even better, Sailor Icewater!" taunted Hyacinth. "My shards are a
homing attack!" She laughed maniacally. Dark Destiny!" She unleashed a
half-dozen shards from each hand, blasting them up. Obligingly, they
turned and homed unerringly at Sailor Mercury.
"Jupiter! OAK EVOLUTION!"
A withering hail of bioelectric leaves blasted out from the aura around
Sailor Jupiter. Her oak leaves did not negate Hyacinth's dark shards on
a one-for-one basis, but she generated about three times as many
particles so in the end she wiped out most of Hyacinth's attack. A few
well-aimed pieces of wreckage hurled by Minako and Amica finished it
off.
"Ok, my turn again!" chortled Jacinth as he swooped into position in
midair directly across from Sailor Jupiter.
"Jupiter-" began the Senshi of Wood.
"Dark Matter!!" he howled as he unleashed a churning pillar of blackness
and destruction right at her.
"Oak Evolution!" Jupiter finished. Her entire barrage of leaves was
absorbed into the pillar of burning black particles. His attack looked
undiminshed and Jupiter leapt into air to avoid it. A second too late,
she realized her mistake: Hyacinth was in perfect striking position. She
tucked into a ball in a vein attempt to dodge the coming blast.
"Moon Princess, Illumination!!" cried Mythic Sailor Moon from within the
roofless building. A stream of crescent light particles came streaming
up, destroying the remainder of the top half of the alley wall and
parrying some of Hyacinth's shards. Jupiter had changed her path just
enough to avoid the reminder, which hit the buildings on the facing
street and caused a series of implosions that shattered most of the
glass on the streetfront.
All the senshi streamed onto that main street asthe alley was on the
verge of collapsing. "What do we do now?" asked Eriæ.
"We run!" yelled Minako. "Dodge and weave!" she clarified as she raced
down the street.
"We've got to pick our battle ground carefully!" amended Amica as she
dashed after her. Despite her long legs and years of practice, keeping
up with Minako was challenging. If their lives weren't in such danger,
it would have been enjoyable to race.
By this time, small squads of civil defense forces began to take up
positions at the next intersection. Jupiter waved them back as the group
ran by. "Senshi-level threat! Take cover!" she bellowed as loudly as she
could. The men and women of the UK armed forces hesitated a moment.
Mythic Sailor Moon reinforced the order as she ran by.
"Do not disobey Us in this! Do not distract Us, We needs must know thou
art safe!" Perhaps it was her stilted and formally translated English,
maybe it was obvious resemblance to Neo-Queen Serenity, and maybe they
just sensed she was a princess, but the army did as they were told and
took cover.
Hyacinth and Jacinth leisurely pursued the senshi, Jacinth blowing up
the road by spreading his Dark Matter over a wide area and raining it's
component particles along the street, and Hyacinth destroying building
fa‡ades with the arcing shards of her Dark Destiny attack. As they flew
after the racing senshi, the property damage toll mounted at a geometric
rate.
Meanwhile at the Channel Tunnel, linking the United Kingdom to France
Osaka Naru and her new best friend Sailor Jupiter of the Mythic Age sped
through customs at an insane rate. Literally-Sailor Jupiter was driving
a little European sportscar and Naru had fortunately taken the time to
recover her credentials as an agent of Crystal Tokyo External Security
before they left Paris. Thus, she just waved her badge at the customs
officials and they dove for cover as Melissa drove *through* the
barriers and onto the city streets in London. Naturally, she was a
little confused when Naru started screaming at her to start driving on
the LEFT side of the road. . .
"Where's Victoria Place? The radio says they're heading there!!"
exclaimed Melissa quite needlessly.
"I don't know!" yelled back Naru as she dug through the glovebox.
Fortunately the rental agency had placed maps there, so she quickly
found their location and started reading directions off to Sailor
Jupiter.
With some screamed advice from Naru and a few benches and garbage cans
removed from public service, they arrived at Victoria Place, a large
modern plaza built since the Reconstruction in the heart of downtown,
and a replacement for the ill-fated Millennium Dome, just a few minutes
ahead of the running fight between the senshi and the Dark Moon forces.
Naru and Melissa got out of the car and took up positions behind it.
Naru's wrist-blaster was fully charged and ready to go. "You ready?"
Naru asked this other Jupiter.
"The few hours sleep I got while you were driving us to the border were
very refreshing," she replied. "But you are still battered from your
ordeal. The radio says that Eriæ appeared injured. You should take her
away in the car and I will join my teammates in stopping these
Nemesites."
Naru nodded. "Sounds like a plan; which is good because I see a couple
of people flying this way. . . "
From the far side of the plaza the other senshi came running. Makoto and
Serenity were hard-pressed to blunt the attacks coming at them while
Minako and Amica helped Eriæ along.
"Look who's here!" exclaimed Hyacinth as she spotted Naru and Melissa.
"Excellent, we can finish them all in one stroke!" her brother agreed.
The two stopped their pursuit and hovered a little higher as they shared
thoughts and planned their master stroke.
"Eriæ!" yelled Melissa as she saw her battered teammate. "Highness, can
you. . . ?" she started to ask Serenity.
"No, no time, no strength," she replied, gasping from her exertions.
"Naru! What are YOU doing here??" asked Minako.
"Just my job!" she said breezily. "I'll take the injured girl to a
hospital," she concluded.
"Good idea," said Makoto. "Hey! You're *my* counterpart!" she exclaimed
upon seeing Melissa. The two Jupiters seized each other up.
"Melissa, of Sparta. With that reddish hair you must be my successor . .
. "
"She is, and good at it," added Amica as she clapped her comrade on her
shoulder. "But those two flying around are hideously powerful, we are in
real trouble if any of their blows land. "
"Hey, what are those two doing now?" asked Eriæ as Naru tried to get her
into the car.
They all paused and looked up to see Jacinth and Hyacinth floating side-
by-side, arms outstretched, her left and and his right hand just
touching. Suddenly the sky around them seemed to invert from day to
night, and space itself appeared warped. The spherical zone of
distortion rapidly expanded outward from the Zircons, filling the blue
sky above the plaza; the very air above the senshi seemed dimmed as if
an eclipse were blocking the sunlight.
"Holy shimatta! That looks like something out of Akira!" screamed
Minako as small pieces of litter, leaves, and gravel began to fly
through the air into the expanding sphere. Even the air began to rush
toward it.
"Are they. . . they couldn't be . . . " stammered Makoto.
"Is that. . . . A BLACK HOLE?" shrieked Naru, panicking.
Suddenly the inflating sphere of rippling blackness contracted in on
itself, to perhaps only fifty feet in diameter. At that moment, it
launched itself away from the point of its origin, leaving the laughing
duo in its wake. It passed high over the heads of the stunned senshi and
embedded itself into the 23-floor Lloyd's of London building behind the
Victoria Place Plaza. An unholy black illumination suffused itself
through the entire building and cast every line into sharp relief. The
building looked like a lit-up paper lantern for just a moment longer
before it imploded out of existence leaving only a faint shimmering
powder of glass in the air where it once stood.
"We're dead," said Amica quite succintly.
End of Episode Seven
Preview Screen
Next time, on Mythic Sailor Moon:
"Revealed at Last! The Power That Shakes Time!"
Image: The Holy Grail in the outstretched hands of Mythic Sailor Moon
End of Episode Seven
[End Credits Roll - See Episode 3]
Next time, on Mythic Sailor Moon:
Revealed at Last! The Power that Shakes Time!
Image: Sailor Mercury and Lady Clarissa are confronted by a new Dark Moon noble.
Author Notes:
Well this episode has been a long time coming. It's actually been
'mostly done' for months; I just haven't had the time to put the final
polish on it. Also, especially in the case of a cliffhanger like this
episode, I'd prefer to have the next episode finished before releasing
the start. While Episode Eight isn't done, at least the rest of the
fight is so you shouldn't have to wait three months for the next
segment! That's a little better than summer re-runs, right??
I really appreciate the people who've emailed me since the last episode
was posted, asking for more. Also big thanks to my pre-reader/editor
Janice. Grats for the help!
Nightman
Bonus! Character Profiles, 1 and 2 in a series: The Zircon Twins
Name: Jacinth
Earth Name: Jason
Affiliation: Dark Moon, Conquest Faction (Oligarchy hardliners)
Rank: Sub-Commander (equivalent to a Colonel, but acting as a general)
Age: 22 (Nemesis years)
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 135#
Hair: auburn, on the reddish side of brown; shoulder-length
Eyes: brown
Appearance: slender & androgynous. Wears a personalized Nemesite
military dress uniform as a battle costume, brown with red highlights,
and tan piping. Bears the Dark Moon symbol on his forehead.
Primary Attack Power: Dark Matter - a blast of super dense matter
charged with some undefined form of "Dark Power." The attack can be
fanned out or focused, giving it more versatility than typically
expected in a powerful blast attack. Matter struck by his attack
compresses in on itself until it becomes unstable and disintegrates,
though in the case of certain kinds of matter, sometimes there's a very
dense trace substance left--basically, his attack converts matter to
trace quantities of neutronium.
Power Up: Jacinth & Hyacinth can combine their powers to create an
effect where matter & time collapse upon themselves, destroying just
about anything. This effect has been termed "Dark Eternal" and its use
has been strictly forbidden by the ruling council of Nemesis following
the destruction of a large asteroid the twins used for target practice
during the Dark Moon/Synheisa border skirmish three years prior to the
invasion of Earth.
Psychic Abilities: Jacinth & Hyacinth share not only a "twin link" but
also such a strong telepathic link that they are essentially two halves
of one brain. In addition, Jacinth is slightly sensitive to the
"positive wave" given off by the senshi of the Moon Kingdom
Name: Hyacinth
Earth Name: Cynthia
Affiliation: Dark Moon, Conquest Faction (Oligarchy hardliners)
Rank: Sub-Commander (equivalent to a Colonel, but acting as a general)
Age: 22 (Nemesis years)
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 135#
Hair: sandy brown with blond streaks above the temples; shoulder-length
Eyes: orangey-red
Appearance: slender & androgynous. Wears a personalized Nemesite
military dress uniform as a battle costume, brown with tan highlights
and orange piping. Bears the Dark Moon symbol on her forehead.
Primary Attack Power: Dark Destiny - shard-like darts of anti-chronon
particles, they disintegrate whatever they touch (within mass limits) by
negating the temporal presence of the target going forward and backward
in time several milliseconds--as a result they leave trails of darkness
in the air behind them for several minutes. Worse, the shards can
actively home in on a target. They are not unerring and can be blocked
by quickly dodging around an interposing object, provided the object has
enough mass to "use up" all the darts in its disintegration. If the
anti-temporal shards are within Hyacinth's direct sight, the targeting
accuracy increases. Once Hyacinth has released her shards, she cannot
use the power again until all the existing shards have been discharged,
though she can voluntarily dissipate shards that she's already thrown to
'reset' her power.
Power Up: Jacinth & Hyacinth can combine their powers to create an
effect where matter & time collapse upon themselves, destroying just
about anything. This effect has been termed "Dark Eternal" and its use
has been strictly forbidden by the ruling council of Nemesis following
the destruction of a large asteroid the twins used for target practice
during the Dark Moon/Synheisa border skirmish three years prior to the
invasion of Earth.
Psychic Abilities: Jacinth & Hyacinth share not only a 'twin link' but
also such a strong telepathic link that they are essentially two halves
of one brain. In addition, Hyacinth is sensitive to temporal energies;
Wiseman would never have been able to create machines to "hack" into the
Great Portal of Time without her.