Chapter 204
Nestled into a small shopping plaza midway down tenth street was a travel agency, it was a very odd agency as it was run by four people who hadn't even been born on the planet. Still the four sisters gave it their best shot. And now they had four additional employees to care for.
"Wait I don't understand this.." Diamond said. "You're telling me they haven't developed outer atmospheric travel yet?"
"No, not really. There are a few ships, yes, but not a lot. They fly through the air most of the time," Avery replied.
"The air. Hmm..I see..so no one here wants to travel to any of the other planets in this system."
"No..just the world," Avery said.
"Oh..perhaps there's another job I can do, I was a Prince you know."
"I don't know.." Avery said and glanced out at the others hard at work.
"Isn't this a wonderful world we have here," someone was joyfully saying.
"Quite true, you should see it from space," Rubeus said with a smile.
The person's smile disappeared.
"I'm just kidding with ya," Rubeus said. "Now..anyway..."
"How is this even working?" Diamond asked.
"No idea," Avery said. "But the last seven businesses we tried didn't work, that was clear."
"Maybe you should try not working together," Diamond said.
"But this is a gold mine," Avery said. "Everyone wants to go somewhere."
"Oh..I guess that makes sense in a way," Diamond said.
"Hi everybody," came a voice.
They all looked to see Serena standing there along with Darrien.
"Serena...this is embarrassing," Darrien muttered.
"Too bad," Serena said.
"Hello Serena, what brings you by," Avery said walking up..
"Oh..I just wanted to see how all of you were doing," Serena said. "Is this actually working?" she asked quietly.
"Surprisingly yes," Avery said.
"Well that's good," Serena said. "Trust me it's a lot better to be doing this then trying to take over the planet."
"That remains to be seen," Diamond said. "That is a beautiful girlfriend you have there," he added to Darrien.
"Yeah...that's what I've heard," Darrien said.
"Darrien.." Serena muttered and elbowed him.
And in Lita's room, she sat quietly attempting to bring her mind and spirit into harmony. She could hear the phone ringing in the kitchen. She tensed slightly.
Filter it out. She thought.
It kept ringing.
What if it's important?
It kept ringing.
Fine, fine. She thought and stood up. The ringing stopped.
She kicked her incense over in anger and then quickly picked it back up.
"This isn't working so far," She muttered.
Elsewhere at the Crown Arcade, Andrew noticed Game Machine Joe had emptied out the claw grab game again.
"Joe..come on...you know how long it takes to refill that thing," Andrew muttered.
"Ehh...if they can't make a game that I can't defeat, it's their problem," Joe said.
"Lita told me how you're doing that you know."
"She..did..." Joe said.
"Yeah..could you at least leave a few dolls in there for everyone else."
"Well I do give them out regularly."
"Yeah..but part of the fun is spending the money to use the claw."
"Ah..so that's it..lost profits."
"Well..the company that makes it is wondering why someone is able to beat it so frequently. You could get us sued for fraud or something."
"All right, I'll be more careful," Joe said. "Here..give this to your
sister," he said and tossed a Sailor Moon doll to Andrew before walking out.
"I am not impressed," Queen Nehelenia said. "So far you have sent three of your goddesses to fight the scouts, and all three have been defeated. I want results."
"Queen Nehelenia, I do not believe you are in a position to judge us considering you could not accomplish the same goal yourself," one of the goddesses replied. "Now..leave us to our work and we will prove to you our value. Besides, you are merely here to advise."
"So be it," Queen Nehelenia said. "Then I advise you to find tougher warriors."
"So noted. We believe we have a capable warrior to do battle. This time. The goddess of war."
"Sounds promising."
"She is."
Raye hadn't tried to write a song in months, and she realized immediately that she had forgotten how hard it was.
"What'd I expect to do, just sit down and have it appear on the page?" She asked herself. "Still if I write about what I know it should go quicker."
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in," she said.
Rick appeared.
"Ah...in the universe there is a planet that creates a beautiful melody," Rick began.
"That planet's name is Earth," Raye said. "It was a bit corny wasn't it?"
"Not at all," Rick said. "So..how's it coming?"
"I haven't really started."
"Ah..yes...I know the feeling," Rick said.
"I had forgotten how hard it was. Still I like doing it. And once I get into it, I'm good at it, well relatively good at it. I figured I'd write my own stuff and you'd write your own and if we ever decided to collaborate we'd work together or something."
"Yeah fine," Rick said. "I wouldn't ask you to write another "Carry On" on your own."
"I do like those kinds of songs though. Not as a constant thing, but as an occasional fling."
"Me too," Rick said. "A slow song has it's uses too, occasionally."
"Nice way of putting it," Raye muttered.
"Sorry..it's just my point of view," Rick said. "Some of the songs are beautiful. Others are just slow."
"Yeah..well.that happens."
"Of course you don't write slow songs, you write good ones."
"Now you're just kissing up," Raye said.
"It's what good boyfriends do," Rick said.
"Are you looking for something?" Raye asked with a grin.
"Are you?" Rick asked with a smile.
And they kissed.
"So how'd it go with Hotaru, D.V.?" Amy asked.
"I have no idea," Patterson said.
"What?" Amy said. "What do you mean by that?"
"Uh..it's just hard to explain that's all," Patterson said and headed for the war room.
"Oh no you don't," Amy said and slid in front of the door.
"Wha.." D.V. said.
"I want details," Amy said with a strange smile.
"Uh..why?" D.V. said backing up.
"Hotaru Tomoe is a great curiosity to me, as you may have noticed when I'm curious I try to satisfy my curiosity, now let's hear the story."
"Uh..okay..."
Meanwhile on a hill overlooking a part of the city, Steve sat with a pad sketching the landscape.
How long has it been since I've done this? He asked himself. I mean I like beating people up, provided I have a reason, but this..is fun too. Don't know why, it just is. Life is linear and it eventually ends, but art can last forever..at least in theory..if they developed the right preservation techniques, we're talking cold storage and such. Why am I thinking that? Gotta concentrate on the land.
And he did just that.
Mike meanwhile was starring at a computer screen.
"Hmm...where do I begin," he said. "I will at last give back to the world that has created life and made such easy targets of itself. I shall become an author. The greatest whoever lived. Or at the very least the most despised.. But..now what should I do..I know..I shall write a sentence," he said and typed.
"That sentence is unusable," he said and pressed backspace.
"Well Raye, I think I should give you some time alone to work," Rick said.
"That's not a bad idea, " Raye said. "Not that I don't like have you around though."
"I understand," Rick said. "See you later."
"Bye Rick," Raye said with a grin and then turned back to the house.
"Now it's time to do some work.." she said. "And now I know what to write a song about too."
She walked into her room and shut the door. She then wrote the title of her song on the paper. "MAKING OUT" by Raye Hino.
"Now we just need some lyrics, or maybe I should do the music first..ehh." she said and pulled out a coin.
Her door flung open. She whirled towards it. A goddess dressed in armor leapt at her with a large broadsword. Raye dived out of the way. The goddess spun quickly recovering and swung again. Raye jumped out of the room and faced off against the enemy. The goddess walked out casually.
Raye tossed one of her spells at her, the goddess jumped out of the way of it, but right into one of Raye's kicks, she fell backwards into through a wall. Raye screeched.
"Why do you always have to destroy my house!" She shouted and began to pummel the goddess. The goddess of war slid out from under her and came around with her sword. It nicked Raye's right arm, but Raye responded with her left, hitting the goddess in the face. Raye did a spin kick. The goddess staggered back.
"Mars Planet Power!" she yelled quickly. The goddess grinned slightly and then leapt back down the steps of the temple. Mars chased after her, but she had already disappeared.
"That's just great," Mars muttered and pulled out her communicator.
"This is Mars.." She began with annoyance.
The goddess of war meanwhile was hiding in a nearby alley.
"She is well skilled," she said to herself. "But this was just the beginning.
My next move will be far more deadly." Her armor disappeared revealing only a
dress and a contemporary outfit. She then headed down the street with a smile on
her face.
Minutes later.
"She was very fast, and wore all this armor," Mars said.
"Armor....that's a new one," Venus said.
"She attacked me with a sword and she knew how to use it," Mars added.
"It's strange though that she would just run off," Mercury said.
"I had managed to transform," Mars said. "Maybe that scared her."
"Well don't you worry about it, I'll hang around, she can't take two of us," Guardian Uranus said.
"That is not certain," Sailor Uranus interjected.
"She did run away from one scout though," Jupiter said.
"Yes, but I get the sense she was more feeling you out then anything," Sailor Uranus said.
"It could also be a misdirection," Sailor Neptune said. "To draw our attention elsewhere."
"I hate all this sneaking around," Sailor Moon muttered.
"Whatever there strategy is, it doesn't seem to be working does it?" Guardian Neptune asked.
"How so?" Sailor Uranus asked.
"Well so far, they've sent three goddesses to attack one scout each at a time. Each time they've been beaten. They also try to keep us from calling in help..right?" Neptune asked.
The group nodded.
"So this time, this goddess shows up tries to get Raye, then fails and runs off. And look we're all here now.." Neptune said. "So either it's not good strategy."
"Or it's a trap," Sailor Uranus said.
The scouts all looked around. Nothing.
"Well..not a very obvious trap is it?" Guardian Pluto said.
"Maybe it is just bad strategy," Sailor Neptune said.
"Well if it is we've got nothing to worry about," Sailor Moon said. "But I think we should leave Raye alone so she can keep doing what she's doing, if that's all right with you."
"Sure," Mars said. "Rick can hang around. He'll protect me."
"Raye? Do you want me to ask Maverick to put surveillance on the place?" Mercury asked.
"Well..if he doesn't put a camera on the house itself I guess it can't hurt," Mars said.
"All right," Mercury said.
"Neptune, let's do a sweep of the area, just in case this is a misdirection," Sailor Uranus said.
Sailor Neptune nodded.
That night in a warehouse, a group of darkly dressed figures started unloading some crates from a truck. The goddess of war entered from a side door. The men all turned and faced her, some drew heavy weapons.
"Ah..is that how you greet guests?" She asked.
"Do you have the money?" one of the men asked.
"Of course? More importantly do you have what I want?"
The men opened up a crate. The goddess looked at it.
"Ah..yes..." She said.
Inside was a large machine gun.
"This will mount on a helicopter?" she asked.
"The equipment is all there," the guy said. "Now..the payment if you please."
The mean all aimed their weapons at her.
"Of course," the goddess said. There was a flash of light. Then men all dropped.
"Who need's money," she muttered. Lights flashed on. She looked around. There were several police officers standing all around guns drawn.
"All right..hold it.." they said.
"I stumbled into a bust..how annoying," The goddess said and let off another blast of energy. The police all fired, but did no damage before their energy was drained.
The goddess grinned slightly, put the crate with the machine gun in it back
into the truck, took the keys and drove off.
Half an hour later the building was swarming with police cars as well as some SDF vehicles.
"So we send in some guys to bust up an arms trading ring, and look what we got," Chief Ozaki muttered.
"The negaverse huh.." Nagumo said.
"General...we had nothing to do with it," Maxfield Stanton remarked.
"It's just a general term we use now," Nagumo said. "For anything unexplained."
"Glad we made such an impression on you," Zoicite muttered.
"So...some evil being is here trying to buy guns? That doesn't make sense," General Patterson said. "What would they need conventional weapons for?"
"Maybe they don't have a large supply of energy to work from," Jaedite said.
"It would make the most sense," Malichite agreed.
"But if your goal is to drain energy, you can't use a machine gun to do it," Zoicite said.
"Their goal may not to drain energy, but to kill the Sailor Scouts first from what I hear," General Patterson said.
"So bullets can't kill them," Stanton said. "The force of the attack can knock them back, but they don't work otherwise."
"What kind of weapons were they selling anyway?" Nagumo asked.
"Heavy armaments we think, you know stinger missiles and such."
"What if they plan on becoming terrorists," Police Captain Ozaki asked.
"They could do that without a missile," Jaedite said.
"As you would know," General Patterson said referring to a one time Jaedite threat to burn the city.
Jaedite grinned slightly.
"Anyone have any idea what their plan is?" Nagumo asked.
Everyone looked around unsurely.
"Hmm..I guess that could be expected."
"Heh heh...well at least I'm not the only who's clueless," Chief Ozaki said.
"You think the goddess of war was buying guns?" Amy asked with surprise.
"Apparently," D.V. said typing commands into his computer.
"It's a surprise to all of us too," General Patterson said leaning against a wall.
"But what would they need them for."
"Don't know, but I have a theory," he said. A list appeared on the screen.
"This is a list of all the weaponry reported stolen from manufacturers worldwide." D.V. said.
"That's a lot of stuff," Amy said.
"How are you going to sift through all that to figure out what was taken?" General Patterson asked.
"I have a few leads, here we go," D.V. said and pressed a few buttons, a much shorter list appeared. He stared at it.
"Hmm..machine guns for a helicopter?" He asked.
"What makes you think they were there," General Patterson said.
"It's the only weapons that are dissimilar from the rest in use," Amy said.
"Yes, now the goddess may have just stumbled onto them, but a theory without evidence is this. Goddess steals civilian helicopter, mounts weapons on it, and then kills her target completely unconventionally."
"I'm surprised they haven't thought of it before," General Patterson said.
"But we don't know this is going to happen," Amy said.
"No we don't," General Patterson said. "Still..it's something to watch out for, but D.V. that's going to take a lot of energy out of her isn't it? I mean assuming she didn't have enough to face Mars in the first place."
"Yes, which makes her very vulnerable. However, there is another truth, to attempt to destroy the helicopter would mean it would crash in the city somewhere," D.V. said.
Amy's eyes widened.
"It's so devious it could work," Amy said. "But if the target's Raye she won't get taken by surprise. Bullets can't hurt a transformed Sailor Scout."
"And if the target isn't her?" General Patterson asked.
Raye sighed.
"I feel so stupid..." she said.
"Why?" Rick asked.
"Being targeted by something..you know..I don't like it. People coming out of nowhere and trying to kill you."
"Yeah, that can stink sometimes," Rick said.
"Be serious," Raye muttered.
"All right..I'm just trying to get you to relax. We'll take care of this thing. We always do."
"It's not just that.." Raye said. "They insist on destroying my house."
"Yeah..I noticed," Rick said.
"And now the goddess might try killing me with a helicopter. Now that just takes the cake."
"I usually don't see you in this distraught a mood."
"Yeah..well..I'm sick of it. I sit down to write a song and..."
They were interrupted by the sound of whirring helicopter blades.
"Mars Planet Power!"
"Uranus Power!"
The two shouted and raced out the door. They looked to see a helicopter fly well overhead.
"It's just one of the medical choppers," Uranus said and sighed.
"Something else.." Mars said. "Can't you hear it."
"Wha..." Uranus said and turned. Originally masked by the medical helicopter was the sound of another one. It hovered up from the direction of the steps and opened fire. Uranus and Mars ducked as the machine guns bullets ripped into her house.
"How dare you! Mars..Fire..." Mars began.
"Mars..if you blow it up it could hurt people," Uranus said quickly taking the time to thumb his communicator's emergency button in the process.
"You're right..but.."
Another barrage flew at them. They were hit and knocked down.
"So how do we stop it?" Mars said. "She can't kill us now."
"Oh..can't...I!" The goddess of war yelled. She pulled out a stinger missile launcher and held it.
"Aw..geez.."Uranus said.
"Now...listen up..you two turn back into normal humans or I'll blow up that building over there..." the goddess said.
"You dishonorable..." Mars said.
"Do we have a choice here?" Uranus said.
"Get out of here Uranus."
"What?"
"Do it..she'll settle for me," Mars said.
"I can't.."
"I'll figure it out..just go.." Mars said. Uranus nodded reluctantly and jumped away. Mars turned back into human form. The goddess aimed the machine guns.
A second helicopter dived at her.
"WHAT?" She shouted and pulled out of the way. At the controls were Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune.
"Time for me to go Neptune," Uranus said and headed to the door.
The goddess let out a shout and turned her helicopter around to try and aim at Uranus and Neptune, but Neptune gracefully dropped the helicopter down and Uranus drew her sword. She fired and leapt through the window and tackled the goddess. The two grappled over the controls. Uranus jabbed her sword into the side of the goddess. The goddess screeched and smashed the controls, before diving out of the helicopter.
"Uranus!" Neptune shouted. Uranus took the flight stick and tried to take the out of control chopper in. She piloted it for an apartment rooftop and set and leapt out as it crashed into it and exploded.
"Mars Planet Power," Mars quickly shouted. The goddess of war leapt over her and towards the back of the shrine.
Mars raced after her.
"Hold it!" the goddess shouted. She was standing over the graves of Raye's family, a ball of energy sat in her hands.
"You..." Mars said in horror.
"Now..you turn back into a human or I'll blast your family's remains to kingdom come."
"How could you use that as a threat."
"I'm the goddess of war. I'll do whatever it takes to win, and I know how to do it too."
"NO!" Mars shouted and leapt forward with great speed. She grabbed the goddess and pulled her out of the grave site area, she punched and kicked with a furious speed. The goddess staggered back.
"Mars Fire Soul!" Mars shouted at point blank range. The goddess was blasted to pieces in front of her.
"Mars...are you all right?" Guardian Uranus said hurrying towards her.
"No...not really," Mars said and walked into her room and shut the door.
"Oh look another failure," Queen Nehelenia said.
"They are tough opponents."
"Oh..yes..they are..but you're making it much to easy."
"Well then how would you have us do things?"
"I'm glad you asked," Nehelenia said and grinned.
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