Chapter 224
"Look at this bruise," Lita said slightly pulling up her uniform dress. The other girls looked at it and let out words of understanding.
"Looks rough," Raye said. "Does it hurt?"
"Only when I hit there," Lita said.
"Can we see the bruise again?" Mike and Steve asked popping up behind them.
Raye and Mina bonked them on the head.
"But that's the worst of your injuries right?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, I just had to run my guts all over the city," Lita said.
"Why pre tell?" Melvin asked sneaking into the group.
"Marathon!" Mina and Raye said and bonked him on the head too.
"That hurts.." Melvin whined and slinked off.
"It should..you peeping...Melvin.." Mina muttered. The others looked at her. "I know I should have put more effort into that."
"Of course the bad news is that Ken's girlfriend dumped him," Lita said.
"Why would she do that?" Raye asked.
"He doesn't know for sure, but that just that things escalated," Lita said.
"Was he trying to apologize at the time?" Mina asked.
"Uh huh," Lita said. "But Ken didn't seem surprised. He won't tell me why. Still..I'm going to try and find him after school."
"Tough luck huh," Mike said. "Of course it's always been my opinion that people from both genders should always be wary of the opposite sex."
The girls all looked at him.
"What does that mean?" They said in varying tones of annoyance, except for Amy who was genuinely curious.
"Ka bong.." Mike said back flipped over the next desk and landed by his chair.
"That was gratuitous," Mina muttered.
"It is good to see you well Lita," Michiru said as she and Haruka walked up.
"Of course, with someone as tough as yourself we would expect nothing less," Haruka said. The two moved on.
"One rarely gets compliments from those two, you should be honored," Raye said.
"Guess so," Lita said.
"The continuance of survival is usually something to be grateful of, it is good to see that you are able to retain your mortal existence," Hotaru said and then moved on.
"That was a compliment right?" Lita asked.
The others all nodded quickly.
"We think," Mina said.
Serena staggered into the room.
"Well look who's here," Raye said.
"Hey!" Mike said and blew into a noisemaker.
"Do you plan for these sort of things in advance?" Greg asked.
"It's all style," Mike said.
"I don't exactly know what that means," Greg said.
"All part of my plan," Mike said and blew on the noisemaker again.
"Well Serena, looks like you're back on track," Lita said.
"Yes, being here on time is something to applaud," Amy said.
"Ehh.." Serena said and fell asleep at her desk.
Setsuna walked in and stood at the front of the room.
"Hello class...Serena? Are you awake?"
Serena's head rose up off the desk.
"No..Miss Haruna, I'm sorry you're going to be single forever," Serena moaned dazilly and her head fell back towards the desk. Raye and Rick dived out of their chairs and caught her before it hit.
"Does she even know where she is?" Setsuna asked.
"It's hard to say," Raye said easing her head down onto the table.
"I think most of us haven't known where she is for some time now," Rick said.
"Granted," Setsuna said. "Someone wake her up."
Mike vaulted up and blew his noisemaker in her ear. Serena perked up and punched Mike in the face.
"Oops," she said. "I was aiming for his stomach.." she said.
That afternoon at lunch the group was all involved in one conversation or another.
"Say..Raye.."
"Yes Mina," Raye tried to say as amicably as possible.
"Well..at the concert last weekend..I didn't get a chance to say how much I liked what you sang."
"Oh...uh thanks," Raye said.
Mina looked at her as if waiting for something.
"What?" Raye asked.
"Nothing..nothing..that's all," Mina said.
"So..in theory the physics of the principle are quite exact," Urawa said.
"Oh I see," Amy said.
"But didn't that principle fall out of favor?" Greg said.
"Not because of the merits of it, is was the politics involved," Urawa said.
"So I took the bread and I stuck it into the plastic tube. Once it was in there..well..you know," Mike was saying.
"I had no idea," Steve said.
"Do guys like other girls to be helping them out after they get dumped?" Lita asked.
"That's one of those no right or wrong answer questions," Rick said. "I've begun to think there can be several possibilities."
Serena was fast asleep on the table top.
Later that day on the walk home."
"A long day at school, and what do I do next, head out to watch out for bad guys," Mike said.
"It could be worse," Amy said. "You might actually find one."
"True.."
"Say..Amy," Urawa said sliding up. "You going to be around this afternoon?"
"No..sorry..Urawa..I'll always be around from 6 on, but Mike has asked me to tutor him in the afternoon."
"Oh.. I see, no problem," Urawa said.
"Yep, she's going to help me get my GPA up to a respectable 1," Mike said with a grin.
"I have no doubt she can get even you up to that high score," Urawa said with a slight grin. "I'll call you tonight Amy."
"Sure," Amy said and grinned.
"He's no fun," Mike said.
"Fortunately for you, you're not dating him," Amy said.
"That could change," Mike said.
"What?" Amy asked.
"I'm just messing around with your highly developed mind," Mike said.
"Please don't."
"Don't worry...I'll be on my best behavior."
Elsewhere.
"Ken..I'm glad I ran into you," Lita said.
"Hello Lita, what brings you by," Ken said.
"Well..I'm trying to help out."
"It's all right."
"It isn't, I know. Can't you talk to me about it?"
"I don't know," Ken said. "It's not something I'm good at."
"Oh come on, I won't go away until you cheer up and tell me what's wrong."
"In that order?"
"No..it probably goes the other way around."
"It's a long story."
"I've got time."
"Somehow I thought you would," Ken said.
Lita smiled.
And at Raye's temple.
"She tried to get me to praise her today," Raye said.
"And you didn't?" Rick asked.
"No, using the oldest trick in the book, she compliments me, and then I'm supposed to compliment her back right. Well I wasn't going to do it."
"But..Raye, she really meant it."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because she adores your singing."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Well..she's said so on several occasions when you weren't around, there are other clues too. Of course she's trying to take shortcuts, but that's only because she's living a fantasy. Everyone who lives a fantasy tries to do that. Eventually she'll figure out that it takes work and she'll do what she has to. Raye, you can be honest with her. Me, Steve, and Mike all have given her compliments, and she's accepted them, but she wants to hear them from a fellow singer. She wants to hear them from someone who knows what good singing is."
"I just can't support getting someplace without working to get there," Raye said. "She hasn't worked as hard as I have."
"Maybe so, but you can tell her that, you don't have to condone shortcuts, but you can give her constructive criticism," Rick said.
"There is such a thing?" Raye asked.
"You're not serious are you?" Rick asked.
"No," Raye said with a grin. "I don't know, I don't want her getting a big head. And she's still got people coming up to her in droves. What does she need me for?"
"Because she knows you'll mean what you say."
"Never much cared for french fries," Guardian Neptune said taking a bite.
"That's your third helping," Mercury replied.
The two were sitting on the roof of a building as equidistant as they could from the other scouts usual hangouts, and homes. If any of the scouts were going to go anywhere out of the way they would let the two now.
"So..this is fun huh?" Neptune said.
"It's just a duty that's all," Mercury said.
"Yeah..sure it is," Neptune said. "Doesn't it stink?"
"What to have to do this?"
"To do any of it. You know fight evil day in and day out?"
"I guess it is unfair that it falls on our head to do it," Mercury said. "But I've accepted it. That's the only way to handle this kind of thing."
"Well not entirely. I mean..accepting something and repressing your feelings about it can be harmful."
"Who said I repress?"
"I didn't mean to accuse..I don't know what you do. I just know that from my experience it was not a good thing," Mike said. "I'm really a messed up individual."
"That's not hard to believe."
"Believe yes. Understand..now that's the trick."
"Let me guess, you're behavior is caused by your repressed feelings?"
"Maybe.." Neptune said. "Actually I've always been messed up inside, but I do know that having this stuff to do hasn't helped any. I mean there are times I get into it. Like everyone does at some point. But it can't always be fun. I mean I've gone into two fights and come out a mess. Rick died only a year ago. I mean..this is not what we call light work."
"I know," Mercury said.
"Listen I'm not trying to be depressing, just sometimes, my defenses collapse. I really don't want to burden you with my problems."
"Neptune, you've earned the chance to talk a little."
"Yeah..but never mind. We gotta pass the time in a better way. So does your computer show any trouble."
"It would let me know," Mercury said. "It is a very good one."
"Good operating system huh?" Neptune said.
"I don't believe it runs conventionally."
"Oh.."
"In fact I have no idea of the internal workings of it," Mercury said. "It just can interface with any computer on the planet."
"That's gotta be useful," Neptune said. "Can it play games?" he asked with a
stupid grin.
Lita and Ken were walking through the park at this point.
"I've suspected for some time that she was going to dump me, she just didn't know how," Ken said.
"What lead you to think that?" Lita asked.
"It was just a feeling, the expression on her face sometimes, the way she said things, but then again I could have just been being paranoid."
"Uh huh."
"But..we had fun, it wasn't like we weren't enjoying ourselves."
"Maybe she was afraid to lose you as a friend."
"Yeah that might have been it," Ken said. "Though she let me off pretty hard. Still we aren't very good at this thing, I mean teenagers."
"Believe me Ken, you're speaking to an expert on inexperience."
"Lita..maybe it was this talk about us staring at other people that got Misao upset. I mean maybe she was afraid it would strain our relationship and mess it up before she figured out a way to let me go."
"That's a good theory."
"And then when I said she was doing the same thing she worried about something.."
"It sounds logical," Lita said.
"Still..given that, it hurts."
"I know. When Steve and I broke up it was rough for a bit, but now we're friends again, and we get along fine."
"But it still hurt," Ken said. "The hurt has to go away."
"You can be part of that," Lita said. "It's not something completely out of your control."
"It is if I don't know how to handle it."
"Well let me see if I can help you. Will you trust me?"
Ken nodded.
"Can I ask you something?" Mercury asked.
"Why not?" Neptune said.
"Well..what do you think of Urawa?"
"Urawa. Hmm..honestly?"
"Of course," Mercury said fearing the worst.
"He seems fine, though I'm not an expert on normal romantic practices."
Mercury grinned slightly.
"I noticed that," she said.
"So did everyone else. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know..Urawa says some things sometimes."
"Like what?"
"It's nothing really. But I asked you since I figured you'd give me an honest answer."
"I'm honored, but why would you think I would give you an honest answer?"
"Because when someone asks you to be honest, you always are."
"I hadn't noticed," Neptune said.
"It's true," Mercury said. "You really are a gentleman the 1 percent of the time you try to be."
"That's not true, I try at least two percent of the time."
"Oh..sorry," Mercury said with a grin.
"Duck!" Neptune said and pulled her out of the way suddenly as a massive chunk of ice slammed into the roof. The two stood up. Two goddess landed at opposite ends of the roof.
"Prepare for combat, the goddess of water is going to destroy you," the goddess at one end said.
"But not before the goddess of ice gets her licks in," the other goddess said.
"Ice water! All right.." Neptune said.
"This is no joking matter," Mercury said.
"You handle Ice, I'll take water," Neptune said.
"Be careful," Mercury said.
"You too," Neptune said.
"Now let's get this party started!" he shouted and leapt forward at the goddess of water. She unleashed a wave of water at him. He fell back.
"Mercury bubbles blast!" Mercury shouted and surrounded the goddess of ice with mist. The goddess immediately leapt to the ground. Mercury's visor slid across her face as she tried to think of the goddesses next move, all the while swinging Maverick's camera around to follow the target. She followed the goddess on her computer as she hurried around to another side of the building and began to climb up the fire escape.
"The surprise is on her," Mercury said reaching the roof and readying her attack.
"Look out!" Neptune shouted and pushed her out of the way of a massive wave of water.
"We can't fight them here!" he said.
"I'm beginning to agree," Mercury said.
"New plan," Neptune said and spun firing his sword at water who dodged it. Neptune charged forward and threw a punch.
"You're not a punching person," water said and blasted him with water knocking him to the roof's edge, he tumbled over it, but managed to land on his feet. Water turned towards Mercury as Ice reached the roof.
Mercury tensed.
"Mercury Bubbles Blast!" he shouted surrounding the area with mist.
She then leapt off the building to find Neptune standing nearby.
"They managed to help us out pretty well there," he said.
"Yes, but once we start really fighting this is going to get ugly," Mercury said.
A barrage of energy flew at them as the two goddesses jumped after them.
"Hey..here's an idea, let's just run around for a while," Neptune said.
"It worked for Jupiter," Mercury said and the two hurried down the street.
"That's not fair, they should turn and fight!" Water shouted.
"That would be the stupidest thing they could do," Ice said.
"So?"
Ice sighed.
"Flood the street will you?" Ice said.
"Oh..right.." Water said and flooded the street sending cars skidding off and crashing into things and sending pedestrians scattering. The wave kept going.
"Light pole," Mercury said and the two scouts leapt into the air and grabbed a hold of it. The wave swept by.
A massive chunk of ice flew through the air right at them. They both dropped out of the way as the chunk of ice smashed through the light and slammed into the ground.
"That's it!" Neptune shouted and fired his sword at the two goddess. They avoided it and unleashed their own attacks combining their two powers. Mercury jumped out of the way. Neptune barely avoided it. Everything froze for several blocks.
"We do not want to get hit with that," Neptune said.
"Mercury..you get out of here, I'll take care of these two."
"You don't stand a chance."
"Of course not..but...think of something while I distract them."
Mercury nodded.
"Be back in a second," she said and leapt off.
Neptune stood facing them.
"Are you prepared to face me!" he shouted swinging his sword around with no concept of skill.
Ice and Water stared at him.
"What kind of loser are you!" they shouted and leapt forward. Neptune swung forward. The two hit him with energy enhanced punches. He slipped on the ice and slid backward. A wave of water flew at him again.
"Jeez.." he muttered and tried to leap slipping on the ice and being full on. He was hit and thrown back several feet, hitting the ice and feeling the pain flow through him. He crawled to a sitting position.
"Neptune..."
A barrage of ice spikes flew at him.
"Tide of Destruction!" he shouted calling on his power. His attack swept along the ice melting it seconds before he rolled out of the way of the spikes and they smashed into a frozen car.
He gasped.
"Fool! I control the water!" water shouted, the melted ice rose up and dropped towards him. He dived under the wave and fired his sword.
The two goddess dived out of the way and ran at him readying their attacks.
Neptune could hardly stand. Mercury leapt down from a roof.
"MERCURY AQUA RHAPSODY!"
The attack flew out in all directions and plowed into the goddesses knocking them to the ground.
"Best plan I could come up with," Mercury said. "I have trouble when I'm rushed," she said.
Neptune grinned slightly.
The two goddess stood up.
"Get out of here..I'll hold them off," Mercury said.
"I can't walk," Neptune said. "My legs are hurt."
"Oh.." Mercury said and her eyes narrowed. "Then get ready."
"For what?"
"I don't know," Mercury said.
The goddesses threw their attacks, the ice spikes and the wave of water.
"Mercury Ice Storm Blast!" Mercury shouted and blasted away the wave of water knocking it back the way it came.
Neptune swung his sword knocking away most of the ice spikes. He grabbed Mercury's leg and pulled her away from the other two, making sure she landed on something soft, namely him.
"Sorry..only way I could protect you," he said.
"No problem," Mercury said.
"Well..well.." came a voice. Everyone turned to see General Patterson standing there holding a strange looking gun.
"Who are you?" The goddess of water shouted.
"General Patterson, do you really intend to fight us?" the goddess of Ice said. "I can kill you with one attack."
"One attack you can't use against them..and besides, I've got this thing," he said looking at a gun.
"And just what is that?"Water asked.
"The latest weapon powered by negaenergy itself, it'll hurt trust me," Patterson said.
"Try me.." Ice said.
"Okay.." Patterson and pressed the trigger. The device began to light up, and whine.
"Just kill him!" Water said.
"It's not worth the energy," Ice said. The whine got to a high pitch, and then the tank which the sound had covered up rumbled right into the goddess of Ice and knocked her to the ground. The tank rolled over her and towards the goddess of water who dived out of the way and blasted the tank down the street with a blast of water.
"You fool don't waste the energy!" Ice shouted standing up bruised.
"Mercury Ice Storm Blast!"
"Neptune Golden Triton Impale!"
The two attacks slammed into Ice and vaporized her.
"Watch out!" Patterson shouted.
A wave of water flew at the two, Mercury grabbed Neptune and jumped out of the way, she landed a few feet away, as the wave slammed into a store leaving a mark. Mercury let out a shriek of pain.
"Was I that heavy?" Neptune said.
The goddess of water angrily built up her power.
A missile roared down the street and slammed into her exploding on impact. She let out a shriek and vaporized.
"Success!" Doctor Tomoe said high fiving Doctor Richter on top of a missile launcher. The majority of the scouts arrived at that point as well.
"Jeez.they didn't even wait for us," Sailor Moon said.
"What a pity?" Sailor Uranus asked.
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