Sailor Heart - part 4
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
Raye was the third Sailor Scout I had met. We never seemed to have much in common
and used to fight a lot. There were bitter verbal battles waged between Raye and myself until we
decided to agree to disagree and try not to get on each other's nerves. Fortunately, our arguments
never involved serious things like Scout business... except for that one time.
We were busy fighting some Negaverse creeps and we were attacked by water beasts.
"Mars! Fire!..." Said Raye, ready to dust off a beastie.
"Wait, Mars!" I shouted. "I don't think fire's gonna help us on this one. Better let
Mercury handle this one. But first... Heart! Coronary! Shock! Now, Mercury!"
After I had stunned the beast, Mercury laid in to him with nice, cool, ice. Then Sailor
Venus hit it with her Crescent Beam Smash and it was done. After it was over, unknown to me,
Mars came up beside me, spun me around to face her, and resoundingly slapped me across the
face!
"DON'T YOU EVER STOP ME WHEN I'M IN AN ATTACK STANCE!! GOT IT?"
and off she went mad as all get out.
"What was that for? We beat them, didn't we? What's her problem?" I said, hurt (Mars
can surely pack a mean punch) and confused. Jupiter and Venus came over and explained that
Mars needs lots of concentration to perform any of her attacks. If they're interrupted, it creates a
major drain on her. When that happens, she gets really mad and lashes out at anybody close
enough, or if she knows who stopped her, them!
"Great. Just great. Mars is ticked of at me, and what's worse, the unity of the team is
threatened... and it's all my fault."
"No it isn't. You didn't know about Mars, that's all. It's not your fault." said Venus.
"Yeah, she should have known that you were new to the bunch. I think I'll go giver her a
piece of my mind."
"Better not Jupiter. You two have been friends longer than she and I have. I don't want
you risking your friendship with her just for me. I'll go talk to her."
"Well, if that's what you want to do, okay. Besides, I guess it wouldn't look very good
sending a girl in to defend you, right?"
"It's not a very good ego booster, but thanks anyway Jupiter." I kissed her and said
goodbye to the rest of team as I started after Raye. I knew I had to phrase this right or run the
risk of Raye getting even madder at me (and providing a quick end to Round 2). I found her
training for her new hobby; kickboxing. Perfect.' I thought. I've got to find her kickboxing
right when she's mad at me. Nice timing, Heart.'
As I knocked on the wall to announce myself, I could hear her saying things about me;
stuff like ... stupid creep... have to distract me... I'll show him...' and a few other words that I
don't care to mention. She was working over a huge speed bag, hitting it with kicks and punches
until, after a yell of power, she leapt up and hit that bag so hard, that it came loose from the
ceiling and fell to the ground. Gulp!'
"Uhh... Raye?" I started. Keeping an eye on her in case she decided to jump me.
"What do you want?" she was not happy. I guess I couldn't blame her. I hate being
interrupted from anything.
"Look... I... wanted to apologize for what happened earlier. I didn't know about your
little temper problem..." I said in a tone that wasn't meant to imply anything.
"You think I have a temper problem? Pal, you have just made your last mistake!" and
then she started toward me with ultimate fire in her eyes. I ducked out her charge and she
jumped form the floor, ricocheted off the wall and aimed a major kick right at my head. I
sidestepped her again and managed to grab her arm and deliver a hip toss. She landed flat on her
back and I could see that I had hurt her. I wanted to help her up but some part of me held me
back, still on the defensive. She kipped up and was ready to attack again but she stopped for a
second.
"Mars! Star! Power!" She was going to attack me as Sailor Mars? Time for me to even
the odds.
"You wanna fight, Mars, you've come to the right party! Heart! Crystal! Power!"
She had finished transforming first and was already starting her attack. She was out for
blood but I was trying to calm her down. As we exchanged several attacks, both missing each
other, I tried talking to her.
"Mars! You don't want to hurt me and I really don't want hurt you."
"Because you can't hurt me! You can't hurt anything! You're a wimp and I'm going to
show why it was a waste giving you Sailor powers. Even if you were from the Moon Kingdom,
I'm going to eliminate you!"
"That's it! Heart! Coronary! Shock!" The beam of energy hit her and she collapsed on
the floor. Even in her weakened state she was still threatening me.
"If it takes every second of my life, I will hunt you down and finish you. You will be no
more!"
I took this time of Mars' inability to move as a sign to split. I de-transformed and took
off hearing more of Mars' threats behind me. I've got to go see Luna. That is not the
Raye/Sailor Mars we know and love. There's something wrong with her and I'm going to find
out what it is.
I took out my communicator and arranged a scout meeting with everyone except Raye and
Serena; I had called her but there was no response. We were to meet at Lita's apartment instead
of Raye's temple (for obvious reasons) and after I called Mina, I was on my way.
As I made my way through the city, I felt some extremely bad vibes coming from a
shadow that didn't have anything in front of it. I dashed around the corner and into an alley to
transform into Sailor Heart. As I did, I was surrounded by the shadow and a few of his friends.
I knew I was trapped but didn't give in. The four shadows merged into a big one and started
toward me. I knew I had the perfect combination for this guy.
"Heart! Acid! Burn!" The shadow doubled over with the amount of acid I was
producing.
"Heart! Coronary! Shock!" This slowed him down long enough to get my last attack in.
"Heart! Megapunch! Knockout!" A jolt of electricity and fire merged together and
rushed toward the shadow and hit it with an impact that shook the streets and mildly shook the
buildings. The Shadow Monster was gone. Now to get over to Lita's.
When I got to Lita's, everyone was there already. I explained to them why I was late,
after several references to Serena, and filled them in on what happened with Raye. The group
looked at each other transferring the same message of that's not like Raye' and other such
messages. Artemis spoke up.
"Are you sure that it wasn't Raye?"
"Physically, it was Raye, however, I think there's something else to it. If there's an
outside force at work, it knows how to use Mars' powers. That was one of the things that led me
to believe that it wasn't Raye. Raye, from what you all have told me, would never use Sailor
Mars to fight a verbal battle. Besides, she was acting really weird. As I first approached her, she
leapt up into the air and kicked at a speed bag and snapped the rope that held it to the hook in the
ceiling. The only Scout I know who could do that is Lita." I noticed Lita blushing.
I continued. "Raye is not, physically, powerful enough to do that."
"Yeah, but it's possible that she's been lifting weights or something to increase her
power, right?" asked Lita.
"It's possible," Amy spoke up "but I doubt it. If Raye was lifting weights, she'd tell us
that she joined a health club, and, since she doesn't have the equipment at home, weights or
anything heavy enough, it's not possible."
"Maybe she'll talk to me." said Luna. "If she does, maybe I can dig up something."
"Do you think the Luna mind meld will work, Luna?" asked a concerned Artemis.
"I don't know but I'll try it out in case it does. In any case, we've got to assume that
Raye cannot help herself out of this one. I want all you Scouts to be on full alert on your
communicators."
"What about Serena?" asked an up-till-now silent Mina.
"Serena will be told as soon as I find her. Then, I'll go talk to Raye."
"Poor Raye. She must be fighting that presence and losing; her soul is trapped and can't
get out."
"She'll be okay." said Lita and I together as we put our hands on Mina's shoulders. As
Amy was the analytical one, Lita the physical one, Raye the spiritual one and Serena the klutzy
one, Mina was the group's emotional stronghold. She felt every emotion form every Scout, most
of the time.
"Raye knows how to take care of herself, even in an uphill battle." I said
"Once she has that talk with Luna, everything will be okay. You'll see." said Lita.
"I... I hope you're right." said Mina, softly.
After Luna found Serena (and a long verbal fight), she went over to Raye's temple with
Serena behind her. Luna knew should would have liked Lita or myself to go along but she also
knew that Serena needed to sharpen up her bravery skills. As they got to the temple, Luna told
Serena to wait outside, that it shouldn't take long. Serena whined and wailed but eventually said
she would wait. Luna darted into the temple and found Raye cleaning out the fire pit.
"Raye? Can we talk?" asked Luna in her motherly voice.
"What do you want?" said Raye stopping to take a break and talk to Luna.
"I've noticed that you haven't been acting like yourself lately. Is there something
wrong?"
"Why should there be anything wrong?" asked Raye. "I'm perfectly happy with my life
as a Sailor Scout. Why should there be a problem?"
"I never said there was a problem, Raye, but if you do have one, why don't you tell me
about it?"
"I don't have a problem so why don't you just go back to Serena's house?! I'm busy!"
"That does it, young lady! Stand still. I'm going to use the Luna mind meld!" I guess
even Luna has her limits.
Raye tried to resist, but because she was so tired from working, she couldn't dodge the
beam fast enough.
"Let me look into your mind, Raye. I'm here to help you." said Luna.
As Luna watched Raye, she saw an image of what was controlling her. It was definitely a
Negaverse creature. Luna recognized it as The Puppet master. Fortunately for Luna, Raye
couldn't break free from the beam because the Puppet mater could look right at Luna and would
have definitely attacked her by now. Unfortunately for Raye though, the Luna mind meld
couldn't heal Raye of her possession.
The beam ended and Raye, not knowing what happened, passed out from sheer
exhaustion.
"Good." though Luna. "If she's asleep, she can't do any more harm. But I've got to get
to the other scouts right away."
"Luna to all scouts! Luna to ALL scouts! WAKE UP SERENA!" Luna shouted into her
collar-communicator that Amy had designed using her Mercury computer. She had given one to
Artemis as well.
"I have news about Raye that is very improtant! Meeting in an hour at Lita's. We've got
lots to do and very little time to do it! Luna out." Luna looked at the skay as she ran to Lita's
apartment. Only a few hours till sundown. We've got to do it time or Sailor Mars, as we know
her, will be no more.'
At Lita's, Luna filled us in on her experiences with Raye. I was right. Physically it was
Raye but there was an external force at work.
"It's going to take all of our strength to save her; all of us." said Luna re-a-firmming the
point. "Serena, did you bring the crescent moon wand like I asked?"
"Yeah... I did." Serena yawned. "So how do we go about finding Raye anyway? I mean,
she disappears around this time of the day."
"Serena's got a point," said Mina. "Does anyone know where she goes or has anyone
seen her?"
"I think I've seen her going to the arcade on occasion," said Lita.
"Then maybe Lita and I should check there and around the park." I said
"Good idea. You do that. Amy, Serena and I will check out the charms shop and Mina
and Artemis can stake out the temple in case she comes back. Keep your communicators handy
in case one of us finds her and she gets violent."
As Lita and I walked around the park, we couldn't help but notice how beautiful the park
was in the fall. The leaves were all different colors, the trees were half-bare, the breeze was
crisp, it was perfect. I told Lita that I was worried about Raye. I felt that in some small way, I
had driven her past the point of no return. As we were talking, Lita saw her.
"Look! Over there! There she is!"
Raye was already transformed and just seemed to be walking around looking for
something. Lita and I ran up to her to try to talk to her and she attacked us. Luckily, both of us
dodged her fireballs and got into a position to transform ourselves. As I transformed, I
wondered how just the two of us were going to fight her. Luna had said it would take all of us to
defeat the Puppet Master and there was only two out of six Scouts present. The other Scouts! I
almost forgot!
"Sailor Jupiter! Keep her busy while I call the others!"
"That's not gonna be an easy job!" yelled Lita, dodging Mars' celestial fire surround.
"I'll do it as fast as I can. Sailor Heart to all other Scouts and guardians! We've found
Sailor Mars. She's on the warpath! We're really taking a pounding! Don't know how much
longer we can hold out... Arghh!" I dropped my communicator when Mars burned my hands.
As I continued to duck and weave through Mars' attack, I hoped I didn't have to attack her
myself. Then I noticed Jupiter throwing thunderbolts like crazy. I asked her why and she said
that she wasn't aiming at Mars, she was just trying to get her off balance and buy some time till
the other Scouts got there. Sounded like a good plan to me.
Mars geared up for a second attack. Jupiter and I narrowly missed getting hit by a huge
fireball. That's it.' I thought. I've got to do something.'
"Heart! Coronary! Shock!" The energy ball I released hit Mars and she collasped,
taking full impact of my stun beam. She was out for about fifteen minutes and by that time,
everyone was there and comparing notes. None of us noticed Mars getting up execept for Sailor
Moon who, on a gut reaction I guess, managed to push all of us out of the way of the Mars
Firebird.
"Okay Scouts, you know what to do. Nail her with your power!" said Artemis
encouragingly. "Just keep in mind that you won't be hurting Mars and you'll be fine." Sailor
Moon's healing wand appeared and she started the movements to use it.
"Moon! Healing! Elimination! Moon! Crystal! Power!"
"Mercury! Star! Power!"
"Jupiter! Star! Power!"
"Venus! Star! Power!"
"Heart! Crystal! Power!"
"It's working! She turning back to normal, Artemis. It's working!" Mars began to
flicker in and out of transformation. At one point she'd be Sailor Mars, at another she'd be Raye
Hino.
"It's not working, Luna," said Artemis. "The Puppet Master is tightening his hold on
her."
"Then, there's only one last chance. Raye Hino! If you can hear me, yell out Mars Star
Power now! If you don't we will not be able to help you! Say it now!" said Luna with tears in
her eyes.
"M-M-Mars?! S-S-Star?! P-P-Power?!" said Raye as if she was saying those words for
the first time.
There was a huge explosion that knocked everyone about twenty feet from Raye. As we
looked up, we saw her standing tall as Sailor Mars. The question was, did we win or had we lost
Mars to the Negaverse for eternity?
"Sailor Mars?" I managed to stammer out.
"Yep, it's me. I'm back to normal again."
"Let Luna check you out." suggested Venus.
As Luna examined Mars, she explained what it was like to be under the influence of the
Puppet Master.
"It was like standing back and watching something without being able to do anything
about it. I tried to stop the beast myself, but I couldn't do anything at all. I owe you an apology
for what that creep did to you; but especially, I have to appologize To Sailor Jupiter and most
importantly, Sailor Heart. Even though I tried to fry you before, you still hung in to help me in
the end."
"Well, I figured it was just like Artemis said. If I kept in mind that I was hurting the
monster and not you, we'd succeed; and we did because now you're back.!"
Sailor Mars ran over to me and gave me a big hug and I could daggers coming form
Jupiter's sometime jealous eyes. I looked at Jupiter and said, with my eyes, that it's just a
friendship hug, but I could see I'd have lots of explaining to do. Luckily for me, Lita can be a
sensitive, understanding girl; and if you believe that, you'll believe that Queen Beryl was a
friendlier being than Queen Serenity.
(
geocities.com/tokyo/fuji) (
geocities.com/tokyo)