Sailor Heart 

Sailor Elements

Chapter 7:  "The Other Windy City"

     Aria was still in shock when she got home.  She still couldn't believe
that she, as well as
three of her four siblings, were actually Sailor Scouts.

     "Elemental Scouts, to be exact." Poseidon told her.  "You came from
the Kingdom of
Earth which was in existence at the time of the Moon Kingdom.  You are the
guardian of the
winds.  You have their powers to fight against evil and you must use them
to help your brother
and sisters in their struggle with the Negaverse."

     "That's pretty heavy," said Aria; still a little bewildered at the
talking cat that was
feeding her all of this information.  "What is this Negaverse, anyway?"

     "The Negaverse is a race of beings that live outside our universe,"
Adrian started.  "Led by
Queen Beryl, they plan on destroying this universe and conquering all of
the people in it.  1000
years ago, they attacked the centre of our universe; the Moon Kingdom.
Before the final battle in
that war our ruler, Queen Serenity, used what was left of her powers to
enclose us in little balls
of
energy and send us into the future so that we could live in peace."

     "Poseidon was also sent into the future with us, so that if the
Negaverse threat ever rose
again, us Elemental Scouts would be there to stop them." Tara finished.

     "Knock me over with a feather," said Tara with excitement.
"Unbelievable that I could be a
Elemental Scout... and that three out of four siblings are Scouts as well.
Poseidon, is it possible
that Aqua..."

     "  ...is a Scout as well', right?  Is that what you were going to
say?" Poseidon's brow furled
and his whiskers stuck straight out as stiff as and as sharp as needles.
"It's an amazing
coincidence that you are all together in this one earth family but there is
no guarantee and also no
way to determine whether or not Aqua is a Scout.  If there were a way, I
would have checked you
all after I found and awoke Adrian.  Now, can we please drop this subject?"
Poseidon stomped
out of the room as only cats can stomp and immediately Flame and Adrian
looked at each other.

     "Gee, what's his problem?  Get a little too much catnip this morning?"
quipped Aria under her
breath.

     "We think he's hiding something," said Flame, attempting to explain
the situation.  "Ever
since Poseidon found me, Adrian and I have been getting the suspicion that
he's been holding
something from our knowledge."

     "We were hoping that it would have been that the rest of you turn out
to be Scouts and so far
we're right.  But I'm starting to wonder if there is more to it." Adrian
looked totally pensive for a
few seconds before Tara snapped him out of his reverie.

     "I guess we'll find out if and when Aqua becomes a Scout.  Till then,
we're still just
guessing."

                         *    *    

     Sitting in her throne room, Beryl was doing some very heavy thinking.
She thought back
about how she'd been striken with the "plague of Scouts".  The Scouts were
popping up like
weeds.  First there was Sailor Heart, then Sailor Fire, followed by Sailor
Earth and most recently
Sailor Wind.    She thought back to the days of the war with Earth; more
specifically the House
of Endymion.  She gazed into her mystic pool as it flashed images of the
war on Earth.  A
thought struck her.

     "Wait one second.  There were five Elemental Scouts!  Water.  Sailor
Water has yet to appear. 
But how?  When will she appear?"  The thought was puzzling to her.

     Meanwhile, Jaedite was having problems of his own.  He paced through
his quarters and
continued to mumble to himself.

     "It's all Neflyte's fault that we're failing.  When I was gathering
energy, we were actually
winning some battles.  Now, we always come up with the short end of the
stick.  I must find a
way to keep Neflyte out of action.  It's only then, that we can defeat the
Elemental Scouts and
conquer the universe.  We're failing through no fault of mine.  It's all
that Neflyte's fault.  There
must be a way to rid ourselves of those blasted Elemental Scouts and rid
myself of Neflyte."

     "That fool Jadeite!" Neflyte threw a small statue of Jadeite against
the wall and smiled as it
shattered to pieces.  He was also pacing his quarters and contemplating
what his next move
should be.  Neflyte's world was that of the mystic and he frequently
consulted the stars in silent
meditation.  Now, was no different.

                                                *    *    *

     The sun was just peaking over the horizon as Aria and Tara were
getting ready for the school
trip.  This time, they would be visiting Tokyo Tower, and if they were
lucky, they'd get to travel
to the top of the tower where they could see the whole city.

     "Are you guys ready to go yet?" Adrian was checking his watch as he
waited for his sisters to
come down the stairs.

     "That's the trouble with living with four girls, they'll take forever
to prepare for the day."
Poseidon was laughing.  As he finished, the four girls came down the
stairs, grabbed their
lunches and filed out the door all the while talking about girl things.

     "That was pretty impressive.  Bet they can't do that again." smiled
Adrian as he grabbed his
own lunch and his car keys.

     "Not even if they tried," mused Poseidon, whispering to avoid being
heard by the girls.

     They all piled into Adrian's car and sped off toward the tower.  The
topics of conversation
ranged from boys to music to kidding with Adrian about him and the tall
girl with the brown
ponytail that he'd met a couple of weeks ago.  When they arrived, they got
out and Flame, Aqua
and Aria started for the tower.  Adrian pulled Tara behind for a second to
give her a copy of a
communicator that Poseidon had given Adrian.

     "Poseidon will have one of these for each Scout by the end of the day.
Use it only in extreme
emergencies, okay?"

     "Right...  Only if the Negaverse attacks.  And I'll keep an eye Aqua
too.  Just in case she starts
to show any signs that might indicate that she's a Scout."  Tara was as
determined as ever even to
carry out seemingly simple tasks.

    "If anything happens, contact me and Poseidon and I will be there as
soon as we can."

     "Come on Tara!  We've gotta meet our classes!" Flame was always one to
be early for stuff,
and she naturally expected the others to fall into that pattern.  She hated
tardiness.

     "Alright, alright... I'm coming."  She said goodbye to Adrian and ran
to catch up her sisters.
    
      
                                        *       *       *

     "Even though you have failed me before, Neflyte, I've decided to give
you another chance.  This time, though, you will go on your own."  Queen
Beryl was holding court.  "Jadeite has proven himself worthy to me before,
so now, the challenge falls to you.  Come back with energy for the
Negaforce or suffer the fates of eternal dark sleep!"

     "I will not fail you, my Queen.  I will have energy when I return."
Saying that, he disipated from view on his way to the city.

     "Queen Beryl, why keep this excuse for a general around?"  Jadeite was
irate.  "If I've already proven myself to you, why tolerate another of his
failures?"

     "Are you questioning my command?  There is strength in numbers and the
stronger our numbers are, the better our force becomes when the time to put
an end to the Elemental Scouts arrives."

     "Then I must make sure Neflyte succeeds.  If he does fail, and Beryl
does put him to sleep, who knows how short her tolerance for failure
becomes."

                                        *       *       *

     "Sure is windy today,"  a friend of Tara's was saying.

     "That's just because you're up here, dummy," said another.

     Tara was just suspicious.  It hadn't been windy when they left this
morning.  She had also checked with Aria to make sure it wasn't her trying
out her powers.  It wasn't.  Tara found and pulled Flame and Aria around
behind a support beam and told them about her suspicions.

     "So, do we call in Adrian and Poseidon?" asked Aria.

     "No.  Let's not do anything in a hurry."  Tara always loved to take
control of things.  In emergencies, she was the cool, calm and collected
one.  Now, she didn't seem to be any different.  "This could be a regular
wind.  I mean, who knows?"

     "You don't think it merits a worry or two?" asked Flame with a touch
of sarcasm in her voice.

     "Not yet.  I... Gee, that wind sure is picking up."

     As the girls turned around, they saw people hanging on to the sides of
the tower to keep from blowing over the side.  Unseen by the girls, a
strobe ball of energy above them, was slowly intensifying and growing
larger.  Above that, in the very top of the tower, a shadowed Neflyte
stood, admiring his work.

     "If this keeps up, the Negaforce will have enough energy to last an
enternity.  Look at them struggle.  It's only a matter of time before they
become weak.  I've tuned this wind to be strong enough to keep them under
pressure and to weaken as their energy is drained.  Beryl will be quite
pleased."

     Meanwhile, Tara, Flame and Aria had ran down to the bottom of the
tower where there was no wind at all and contacted Adrian.  Aria filled him
in on the wind and hadn't noticed Neflyte until she looked up to gauge the
wind situation.

     "Neflyte's here.  Better get here on the double!" Tara said.  "We'll
transform and see what we can do."

     "Do it!  I'm there!"

     "Wind!  Crystal!  Power!!"

     "Fire!  Crystal!  Power!!"

     "Earth!  Crystal!  Power!!"

     The girls transformed and ran back up into the tower where they'd left
their classmates.  Most of them were hanging on to what they thought was
dear life, but Neflyte's winds had died down to a comfortable level.

     "Neflyte, you're not gonna get away with this!!"  Sailor Earth and
Sailor Wind were tending to their friends as Sailor Fire faced their enemy.

     "My dear Sailor Fire, I've already gotten away with this!!  See this!
The energy I've collected from these pathetic humans.  It will serve the
Negaverse well!!"

     "I won't give it the chance!  FIRE!  COMBUSTION!  FLARE!"  A flare of
pure flame rose up and hit the energy strobe with all of it's fury.
Neflyte was laughing at her.

     "Did you actually think I'd  risk the possibility of you destroying my
strobe without making any preparations?  Of course not, you fool.  It's
surrounded by a sheild that not even your powers can penetrate!"  Neflyte
continued his laughing.

     "Fine... How about some of mine?"  Sailor Earth was up and ready to
fight.  "EARTH!  TECHTONICS!  RUMBLE!"  A bolt of her power charged toward
the strobe and it hit the force field.  The strobe bounced around like a
ping pong ball in a plastic bottle but remained undamaged.

     "Okay... we can't get at the strobe, but let's try you." Adrian said
running in.  "HEART!  ACID!  BURN!"  A searing beam of power sprang forth
from Sailor Heart's index finger and hit Neflyte directly.  Neflyte,
unguarded by any sheild staggered back, absorbing the blow.

      "I grow weary of this Sailor wimps.  I'll be leaving now and taking
my strobe with me.  And just so you don't think about trying to stop me,
I've left a little present for you.  Barometress.... Rise up and destroy
these pests!  NOW!"

A dark force rose from the floor and the winds started to pick up again,
fiercer than the first time.  "I am Barometress...  Master of all winds.
You cannot stop the Negaverse!!"  She made a blowing motion and the air
pressure above the Scouts increased, pushing them down.

     "I'd use some of my power, but I'm afraid it'd blow all around us and
cause a blaze." Sailor Fire was frustrated as she yelled to Sailor Heart.

     "Yeah, I guess that goes ditto for me too.  Sailor Earth's power up
here could rock the tower to it's foundations."

     "Maybe it's time we fought fire with fire.  Or in this case, wind
against wind."  Sailor Wind rose steadily.  Stretching her arms out to the
side she concentrated on her power.  "I call upon the powers of the winds.
The cyclones, the hurricanes, the tornadoes... help me fight this ill wind.
WIND!  HURRICANES!  BLUSTER!"

     All of a sudden, a greater wind arose and began to offset anything
Barometress could throw at them.  The other Scouts rose to full height and
launched all of their attacks at the same time.  They all made perfect
contacts and the Barometress disipated.  Soon, the winds calmed and settled
at Sailor Wind's request.  Soon, when there was no-one awake to see it, the
Scouts transformed back to their regular identities.

     Ambulances had started to arrive to cart away the energy-deprived.
When the paramedics found Aqua,   Adrian said he'd take her to the hospital
in his car.  The doctor came up and said that since Adrian was her sister,
he could just take her home since Aqua had family members that were awake.

     As they drove home, they talked some more about the day's events.
Flame, Tara and Adrian congratulated Aria on her defeat of Barometress.

     "You did good today, sis.  I'm proud of you." said Adrian.

     "As am I." laughed Poseidon as he smiled.  "You're all starting to get
your old form back and that's wonderful."

     As they got to the house, Adrian carried Aqua up to bed where Tara
tucked her in.  It had been an exhausting day for all of them, but they
realized that something big was about to happen.  Neflyte had gotten away
with the stolen energy and there was no telling how the Negaverse would use
it.

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/fuji/1422

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