Chapter 201
Serena woke up at eleven that morning.
"Ehh...what day is it?" she asked. She received no answer.
"Hmm..Luna isn't around I guess," she said. "I feel like I've slept for days."
She glanced at her alarm clock.
"Nope..only fifteen hours," she said and got up. "What should I do today? Just do the things I always do I guess. That always works."
"Oh..look who's up," Luna muttered landing on the windowsill.
"Luna..where have you been?" Serena asked.
"Doing things, while you've been sleeping," Luna said.
"Well what could you possibly have me do? No enemies right? THERE ARE NO ENEMIES! RIGHT?"
"Well...not at the moment," Luna said.
"Good," Serena said dressing herself. "But if there's no enemies, what have you been doing?"
"Uh..well..it's not important."
A large grin formed on Serena's face.
"Have you found a boyfriend Luna?"
"No of course not!"
"Oh..all right...if you say so," Serena said and giggled.
"Serena, I was over at Setsuna's," Luna said.
"Why?"
"We were just talking about things. She is very pleased with the Sailor Scouts' progress."
"Well that's great, say..why doesn't she become leader of the Sailor Scouts, then I won't have to deal with all the administration stuff."
"Serena, there is no administration stuff!"
"Oh..well..that's good, because if there was, I would have been avoiding doing it, which is never a good thing," Serena said.
Luna sighed.
"Serena, you're the leader of the scouts in spirit really. They look to you for encouragement. But the rest of the stuff, a leader would normally do, tactics and such are handled quite capably by others, you know that."
"I know..still..why am I even the leader? The scouts know they can depend on me to fight hard for love and justice, but we all do that."
"Serena....why are you so curious all of the sudden?"
"I just wondered why being the leader should be my responsibility even if it is name only."
"Well..you are the strongest Sailor Scout."
"Yeah..but.."
"Serena are you saying you don't want to be leader of the Sailor Scouts anymore? Wait no..you just don't want to be a Sailor Scout anymore do you?"
"I know I've gone through phases like this before. I guess we all do..but Luna. There are so many of us now, couldn't I just sit out the next battle?"
"We normally need everyone," Luna said.
"Are you so sure? I mean with all that energy...how do we know just how much is needed to win. I know in the last battle, I was needed, but that can't be true of all of them."
"Serena, I don't know. At the moment it isn't an issue. But if you left the Sailor Scouts it might not set a good example."
"I know..but...look at it this way. With the robot thing, half of us were messed up with one problem or another and things till got figured out. Sure I was needed at that battle too, but I'm all right with that you show showing up occasionally.....if it just meant I could relax a little."
"I guess you have fought more often then anyone else, with the exception of Haruka and Michiru. But I guess you shouldn't worry about it right now."
"Yeah I guess," Serena said. "Anyway..I'm going to go out."
"Serena..I understand how you must be feeling, but think through all of this carefully."
"I will," Serena said.
Serena was soon headed out the door and walking down the street.
"I can worry about all that stuff later," Serena said. "Now I'm going to get one of those super muffins they have on ninth street, and then the arcade. And after that..I'll see what Darrien's up to. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."
She then went on her way. She had no idea she was being watched.
"Feeling better Greg?" Amy asked into her communicator.
"Sure..I just had to go reinjure myself in the last battle. My back's been killing me," Greg said. "How is it you girls never get this badly hurt?"
"Are you saying you'd like it if we did?" Amy asked.
"No..I didn't mean it that way..I just mean, Rick gets killed, and D.V...well.."
"Sure..Greg..but think of it as taking one for the team and it all works out," Amy said with a grin.
"Easy for you to say," Greg said.
"So how are things besides that?"
"Tense, but the custody hearing had to be rescheduled, it's still a few weeks away."
"Oh."
"I just want to get it over with."
"I understand."
"So how are you doing?" Greg asked.
"Me? Fine. Things have been going well. My friends all seem to be in higher spirits."
"I hope we'll get to see each other soon."
"Me too."
"Well..I've gotta go," Greg said.
"Sure," Amy said and the connection cut off.
Raye and Rick were meanwhile standing up on the roof of the temple hammering a piece of wood over a hole.
"You know I should just get a new roof.." Raye muttered. "We're always up here fixing it."
"Yeah.." Rick said.
"If I had the money of course," Raye said. "Which I don't."
"Yeah.."
"Rick...whatever happened to that band of yours?"
"Oh..the big crushers? We kinda haven't done much in a while."
"I noticed. I'd hate to think though that my involvement had anything to do with it."
"We're from different genres, however, you being involved had nothing to do with it," Rick said. "Still..I really would like to get going again."
"I think I should sit it out though, let you guys do what you do best. I've been meaning to get my song writing going again, but it's been tough lately."
"I know, it takes time. Still..to be honest Raye, I think that while we do have styles that conflict, we had something going that night, you remember opening for Deep Six?"
"Yeah..that was special, before the attack of course," Raye said.
"See..I think that while it may be good for us not to perform together all of the time, there should be some opportunities."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Raye said. "Still maybe we should just start out separately and see where it goes from there."
"What was that?" Rick said suddenly.
"What?"
"I heard a crack or something."
"You did?"
The roof then proceeded to collapse.
"THIS STUPID ROOF!" Raye shouted.
"Well it is only Chad's room," Rick said.
"Where is he anyway?" Raye muttered. "We could have used his help."
"Finally back from Romance camp ey?" Steve muttered chugging down a soda.
"Well.yeah..to be honest they fired me," Chad said.
"Why?"
"Uh...I don't think I can say. Anyway..you left early I noticed."
"There were many reasons, for one thing, Tokyo was going straight to..well..you know...in my absence," Steve said.
"And your arrival solved the problem?" Chad muttered skeptically.
"I helped," Steve said. "But also, I figured a lot of things out. Even though I paid for that stupid camp, I finally decided just wasn't going to waste the time."
"Can't blame you," Chad said. "So you ready to get back out there chick hunting?"
"No..I'm going to wait a little while, I've got some other stuff to do."
"Not rockets I hope?"
"No..no..city ordinance..didn't I tell you?"
"What? They don't allow the launching of rockets anymore?"
"Uh..no..they don't allow me to launch rockets anymore."
"You should be honored," Chad said.
"I've got a copy of it up on my wall," Steve said.
Meanwhile outside the heavily damaged police headquarters, repairs were still underway.
"Geez..I haven't had an office in weeks," Chief Ozaki muttered supervising as the roof was worked on.
"Then again, one could say it was my own fault, for letting myself be taking over by an evil king from another dimension!" he shouted.
Everyone around stopped and looked at him.
"Yeah you heard me!" he shouted. Everyone returned to their work.
"Hey..Serena..how are you this morning.er..almost afternoon?" Andrew said.
"Pretty good, yourself?" Serena asked.
"Well you know.." Andrew said. "The same. You know that girl Haruka right?"
"Sure," Serena said.
"She was in here earlier, set a new high score in the Formula One game," Andrew said. "Which was beating her own high score of course."
"Yeah..she's a good driver."
"She's only in high school though," Andrew said.
"Yep," Serena said. "Say..Andrew..has anyone topped Amy's high score at Sailor V?"
"No...and believe me people have tried," Andrew said.
"Well..time to try again," Serena said slipping a quarter into the game.
"Serena, you never get even one fourth of her score."
"I know, but someday.." Serena said. "It's my destiny."
"Wait a sec..this score is different," She said looking at it.
"It's higher.." Andrew said in surprise.
"Someone must have then," Serena said.
"Well I was off a few days, still..I thought that would have made news. We usually write down who holds the high scores. I'll take a look," he said and moved behind the sales desk.
"Sure," Serena said and went into action. "Now..we'll see who's the best," She said.
"What? Killed already! Jeez..that's annoying," Serena said. "I give up."
"That quickly?" Andrew asked.
"I don't have very good skills today," Serena said.
"Well..it turns out someone beat Amy's score just last night. Some guy named Urawa Ryo."
"Hmm..well..that's interesting. I think I'd better go. This has turned into a disaster."
"Yeah..sometimes it happens," Andrew said.
Serena nodded.
"See ya," she said and hurried out.
Andrew grinned slightly.
"She's so cute," he said.
"All right..I'm really going to do this!" Mina said.
"Do what?" Artemas muttered waking from a nap.
"Become an idol star, I've kept my fans waiting long enough."
"Who?"
"Don't be annoying Artemas," Mina said. "At last I shall realize my dream, and everyone else will realize their dreams too, because I shall sing for them!"
"Mina...why are you so insane?" Artemas asked.
"I'm not insane Artemas..but if you keep making cracks like that I might just kill you."
"Sure..whatever Mina," Artemas said.
"You don't think I can?" Mina said.
"No..I just don't care."
"Oh....well I guess that's your right," Mina said and walked out.
"Strange," Artemas said.
"You're telling me?" came a voice from the window sill. Artemas turned to see Mike sitting there.
"Did you just climb in here?" Artemas asked.
"Sure..I was going to surprise Mina my sole reason was to prove that it could be done," Mike said.
"You just missed her."
"Well..that can be a good thing too," Mike said.
"How did you climb up here anyway? Ladder?" Artemas asked.
"Drain pipe," Mike said.
"There's no drainpipe by the window," Artemas said.
"I brought my own," Mike said.
"Really?" Artemas said.
"They come in handy occasionally," Mike said.
"I'll take your word for it," Artemas said.
"That's always the best course of action when talking to me," Mike said.
"Mike how..nice to see you," Mina said standing the doorway.
"Oh..hey Mina..I just decided to sit in your window today.." Mike said.
"Good...you can hear me practice my singing," Mina said.
"Wait..a second...you mean I actually could be useful by being here," Mike said.
"Yep."
"Oh...and you'll be singing as well."
"Yes."
"Well...time to go..." Mike said and climbed back out the window.
"No you don't!" Mina said and leapt over the bed and grabbed onto his leg. Mike had since grabbed onto his portable drainpipe.
"This isn't stable.." he said worriedly even as the drain pipe began to fall.
"Come back here," Mina said and held on, and she was subsequently pulled out the window, the two fell to the ground surrounded the pieces of drainpipe.
"You know..in retrospect...I don't know why you didn't start cheating on me
earlier," Mike said.
At SDF headquarters.
"Are you sure about hiring the negaverse generals to be advisors?" D.V. asked starring out a window.
"We hired Nephlite didn't we?" General Patterson asked.
"Nephlite's different."
"Yes, but Sailor Moon healed them didn't she?"
"It's merely a question of what can be healed," D.V. said.
"You don't trust them?"
"I don't trust anyone."
"True...but on a relative scale they're at the bottom of your list."
"Yes."
"Well..we don't trust them either, but we're thinking that at this stage, even if they were to try something, the scouts could stop them. And the benefits of their knowledge could be useful."
"Perhaps."
"We're keeping an eye on them."
"I would hope so."
"There's something else I had to speak with you about," General Patterson said. "There are several officers in the SDF a little mystified by your status."
"You mean being the fact that I'm sixteen with top security clearance."
"Yes...even our civilian scientists don't have the access you do. Richter and Tomoe aren't even that high."
"You're still letting Richter work here?"
"He has experience with negaverse phenomena."
"Experience? He gets taken over by evil forces semi-annually," Patterson said.
"D.V. I agree, but Nagumo would prefer to have Richter where he can keep an eye on him too."
"Whatever," D.V. said. "What does this have to do with me?"
"Well..you see..it's been decided we can't leave you with all this access, unless you were to actually become part of the military."
"I'm too young," D.V. said.
"Yes..well..we can get around that, you know with an order from the General in Chief."
"Oh.."
"I don't have time to go to boot camp and officer training."
"That's all right, you don't have to. Yet," General Patterson said. "What we've got for you is a third lieutenant's commission."
"That rank doesn't exist."
"It will."
"I see."
Serena took a detour to Darrien's house and was now sipping on a milkshake.
I don't know why I like these so much. It seems almost cliche. Still.. They are so good.
"Serena...I need your help," Lizzie said sliding into the booth across from here.
"Wha..why?" Serena asked.
"It's my boyfriend.."
"You have a boyfriend?" Serena asked with surprise.
And as Lizzie explained the situation, two narrowed eyes stared at Serena from a roof top. There stood a figure dressed in a grey outfit.
"Just give me my opportunity Sailor Moon," the figure said.
"Well..I don't know how to deal with something like that," Serena said. "Have you tried talking to him."
"He's not the kind of guy I can talk to."
"Then dump him," Serena said.
"What?" Lizzie asked.
"Sure.if he can't be talked to there's no reason to continue the relationship."
"You think so?"
"Yes."
"Well all right," Lizzie said.
"At least I think so..but you have to make your own opinion," Serena said.
"Oh..jee.thanks," Lizzie said.
"Glad I could help," Serena said hurriedly paid her bill and hurried out.
She walked down the street now being shadowed by the figure on the rooftops.
"I will wait for my chance. This will be a swift kill," the figure said.
Now I'll go see Darrien. Serena thought. He should be around I hope
.Lita meanwhile was sitting in her room quietly, with her eyes closed. Some incense was burning nearby. The door opened.
"Do I smell smoke?" her father asked.
"Dad, you broke my concentration," Lita said.
"Oh..sorry...just what are you doing?" her father asked.
"Meditating."
"Oh...why?"
"Because I've decided to take control of my inner self."
"Oh.....why?" her father asked.
"I can't explain it any more than that," Lita said.
"Well you're sure being calm about it, you're not even raising your voice."
"See? It's working already."
"Oh..does this have anything to do with that trip you took?" Her father asked.
"Sort of...I learned some things that lead me to go this way," Lita said.
"Uh..right..just don't join a cult," her father said and walked out.
"Typical," Lita said.
When Serena got to Darrien's apartment, she found out he wasn't there.
"That's all right.." she said. "I can live with that. He's probably busy at the university. I'll leave a note for him."
She slipped a note under the door and headed down the hall. She heard a noise and turned. Darrien's door had opened. Serena turned back.
"Maybe he was there," Serena said and crept back. The door was partially opened.
"Strange," she said to herself. The door swung open and she was barreled over by a figure in grey. The figure raced to the stairwell.
"HEY! What were you doing!" Serena shouted and raced after the person. She hurried up the stairs and onto the roof. A blast of energy flew at her. She was thrown back down the stairwell. She caught her hand on a handrail and pulled off her brooch. A blast of energy hit the brooch and knocked it down the stairwell.
"Oh no!" She screeched and raced down the stairwell, she pulled out her communicator. It was blasted out of her hand. She whirled. A figure dressed in grey, a woman with dark black hair and black eyes stared at her.
"I am the Goddess of the Hunt Sailor Moon, you are going to die today!" She shouted and fired another shot. Serena awkwardly stumbled down the stairs and kept going.
Gotta find my brooch. She thought. The goddess of hunting raced after her firing again. A blast cut through Serena's right arm. She winced and kept going. The goddess leapt into the air and over her. She slid to a stop. Another blast flew at her. She was hit in the leg. She fell to the ground.
The hunter said nothing and built up her energy.
"NO!" Serena shouted and lunged forward wincing at the pain. She smashed into the hunter and pushed them both down the stairs.
The hunter swore in a language Serena didn't understand. Serena staggered away from the hunter even as she was fired at. She leapt into the air and landed face down on the stairs, she had avoided the shot though. She limped down the stairs. The hunter followed and leapt down through the gap between the stairs right to where Serena's transformation brooch was.
"Now you've got to come down here," the hunter said catching her breath.
Serena knew her communicator was back up at the top of the stairs. She also knew she couldn't get up there with her bad leg. Another blast of energy flew at her. She scurried out of the way.
"Don't delay this, you can't keep this up much longer. I'm surprised you've lasted this long," the hunter said.
"Try me," Serena said, her eyes narrowing. The hunter fired at her. She vaulted over the railing and avoided the attack by dropping right on top of the hunter. She grabbed the brooch and crawled away.
"Celestial Moon Power!" She shouted and transformed instantly. The hunter fired at her. She took the hit and was blasted into the wall.
"Moon Sword!" She shouted and leapt forward. The hunter backed up and narrowly avoided being cut.
"Didn't count on that did you!" Sailor Moon shouted and took another swing. The goddess of hunting ducked it and fired a blast. It hit Sailor Moon in the chest, she winced but still leapt into a new attack and practically ripped her tiara off of her head.
"Moon Tiara Magic!" she shouted and flung it. The hunter dived out of the way. It arced back towards the hunter though.
"Behind you," Sailor Moon said. The hunter fired at her again ignoring her. The tiara hit in the back. The goddess shouted.
"Moon Spiral Hearts Attack!" Sailor Moon shouted even as the hunter fired off a last shot. The Spiral Hearts ripped through the blast and hit the hunter. She slammed into the wall. Her blast hit Sailor Moon on the arm, but she took it. The hunter staggered up.
Sailor Moon swung her moon sword into the goddess. She vaporized.
"Ehh...that was...tough.." Sailor Moon said. The door to the stairwell burst open. The outer Sailor Scouts ran in tipped off by Sailor Saturn's powers and confirmed by Maverick's scans that there was trouble.
"What happened Sailor Moon?" Sailor Uranus asked.
"I'm really getting too old for this," Sailor Moon muttered and winced.
CHAPTER 201 CHAPTER 202 CHAPTER 203 CHAPTER 204 CHAPTER 205
CHAPTER 206 CHAPTER 207 CHAPTER 208 CHAPTER 209 CHAPTER 210
CHAPTER 211 CHAPTER 212 CHAPTER 213 CHAPTER 214 CHAPTER 215
CHAPTER 216 CHAPTER 217 CHAPTER 218 CHAPTER 219 CHAPTER 220
CHAPTER 221 CHAPTER 222 CHAPTER 223 CHAPTER 224 CHAPTER 225