Chapter 250
"Eleven hours," Lord Rekar said staring at the city walls. "They're not going to surrender."
"Lord Rekar...about what I suggested," Materic said.
"Materic, not until I see if I can take their city, then we'll play it your way," Rekar said.
"Very well," Materic said and headed out.
"Tresia, are you ready?" Rekar asked.
"Fully," Tresia said. "When the sun rises we shall take their city."
"Excellent," Rekar said.
The hours passed and the sun rose, dawn spread across the ground. The soldiers lined the walls waiting. The Lucoratorium army advanced slowly. A barrage of energy flew from their artillery and slammed against the walls. Artillery from within the city flew back out and exploded into the lines. The soldiers still came.
"This ends the war, right here," Rekar said.
Tresia hoped he was right.
The troops moved in closer. Energy frew from both sides and smashed into each other.
"I think it's time we put up a little more of a defense," Sailor Pluto said.
"I agree," Sailor Mercury said. "You guys ready?"
The rest of the scouts jumped up onto the wall.
"What is going on up there?" Rekar asked.
"Mercury Ice Storm Blast!" Mercury shouted. A wave of troops were knocked down and a mist hovered over part of the field.
"Pluto Dead Scream!"
"Uranus World Shaking!"
"Neptune..Deep Submerge!"
"Saturn Mist Wave!"
"Uranus Flame of Desire!"
"Neptune Tide of Destruction!"
"Pluto Hurricane Punch!"
"Saturn Ice Rings Blast!"
"Mars Celestial Fireball Surround!"
"Venus Love Chain Encircle!"
"Jupiter Thunderbolt Zap!"
"Moon Spiral Hearts Attack!"
A massive barrage of energy blasted across the ground. The mist cleared. Thousands upon thousands of troops were lying stunned on the ground.
Rekar's jaw dropped.
"How did they..." he said.
"I think I should order the retreat sir," Tresia said.
"Do it, do it," Rekar said.
The scouts all let out cries of victory while the city joined in.
Rekar sighed.
"Looks like we'll need a new plan for this to work," he said.
"Sir now?" Materic asked.
"No Materic, not yet," Rekar said.
"Yes sir," Materic muttered.
"This isn't just about you Materic," Rekar said.
"I never said it was, but," Materic said.
"Never mind Materic, you just make yourself ready."
"Yes sir," Materic said and headed off.
"He's getting a little impatient isn't he?"
"Yes, I hope it doesn't lead to any trouble," Rekar said.
"What kind of trouble are you thinking of."
"I'm not sure yet," Rekar said.
The eagle dived in towards the city and Sy hopped off. Sailor Moon was the first to greet him.
"Hey Sy, did you see it?" Sailor Moon asked happily.
"It was impressive," Sy said. "I bring word from Visara. The Zaiesk are on the move, but they won't be around for a few days."
"Any word out of Jasoriko?" Sailor Jupiter asked.
"No, but that's to be expected, they try not to get involved," Sy said. "Well anyway..Visara needs me back at the base."
"See ya later Sy," Sailor Moon said.
The eagle soon lifted off and was headed skyward.
"It's just too bad, that your attacks don't stun them like ours do. They recover too quickly from your attacks." Latric said. "If they did then we'd have a real chance. I mean you can fight them off, but they'll recover and come back."
"They can't take this kind of beating for long though," Sailor Mars said. "Eventually they'll start getting hurt."
"She's right," Uranus said. "And we have more devastating powers, but right now we're feeling them out, getting an idea of their strength."
"Besides, as soon as the Zaiesk move they'll have to pull out won't they?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"In theory," Latric said. "The problem is that if the Zaiesk destroy them, they'll be along to destroy us in short order, and that's when things get really out of hand."
"Yeah they're tougher aren't they?" Mars asked.
"Much tougher," Latric said. "We had counted on Lucoratorium to help us have a unified front against the Zaiesk, but evidently they've given up on that idea."
"That seems obvious,"Guardian Saturn said.
"In just a few days the first Zaiesk troops will be moving across this ground," Azura said. "Are you prepared for them?"
"Yes," Visara said. "I will let them occupy tis territory, then I'll drive them out."
"It won't be easy."
"Didn't say it would be. And the more people tell me how easy something won't be the more I try to take it on," Visara said.
"Typical," Azura said. "I would expect that from you."
"Yeah, well I'm still pretty much the same as I've always been."
"I know," Azura said.
"Yeah, well..have you decided what you want to do yet?" Visara said.
"I don't want to fight anyone anymore. I want to stay here, not as a fighter, just as a person," Azura said. "I don't want to take sides."
"If only it were that easy," Visara said. "You can stay as long as you like, but if you ever want to get on the action. Let me know."
"I doubt that will ever happen again," Azura said.
And in Jasoriko.
"Ariton, have you seen Sakuro or Tijrio?" King East asked.
"Not since yesterday your highness?" Ariton said.
"Hmm..that worries me," King East said. "Why would they be so elusive?"
"I wouldn't know your majesty."
"Yes I guess you wouldn't," East said. "Send out the guard to search for
them."
"This is actually quite exciting," Sakuro said riding atop a horsk.
"Oh..really?" Tijiro asked.
"They don't let me out into the countryside," Sakuro said.
"True," Tijiro said. "Still we're just riding."
"We're escaping, we're going off to find our loves."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"You're the only one here," Sakuro said.
"I should have brought someone esle along," Tijiro said.
"Shut up and listen you creep," Sakuro said.
"All right, all right," Tijiro said.
"As I was saying, I've never seen such beautiful countryside."
"Me neither," Tijiro said. "Though I'm not a big countryside fan."
"Your comment is not necessary."
"Yes princess," Tijiro muttered.
"So now we wait huh?" Rick said leaning against one of the walls trying to conceal his nervousness.
"Guess so," Steve said.
"I didn't get a chance to ask. What have you guys been up to?" Rick asked.
"Well while you were off marrying Lita.." Steve began.
"Enough about that," Rick said. "Haven't either ever tried to marry someone to solve a problem before?" Rick asked.
Mike and Steve glanced at each other.
"No," they said.
"Uh..that's a bad choice of words," Rick said. "What I meant was.."
"Save it," Mike said. "Let me tell you what me and Steve got to do."
"What," Rick said.
"Get chased by crazed horsemen through an endless forest," Mike said with sarcastic happiness.
Steve merely gave a thumbs up.
Rick sighed.
And in another section of the city.
"So..how have you girls been?" Serena asked.
The four glanced at her with tired eyes.
"Wrong question to ask," Serena said.
"I had a wonderful time stumbling through the wretched countryside of Jasoriko," Lita said.
"I got emotionally brainwashed by some amazons, of course you know that," Mina said. "Oh and Mike stabbed me with his sword!"
"I'm doing okay," Raye said.
"How's it been for you Amy?"
"Confusing," Amy said. "And considering I caused the destruction of an army, and this mess in the first place I feel kinda guilty."
"Just because it's your fault is no reason to feel guilty," Mina said.
"Yeah," Raye and Lita began. "Wait..." they said.
"Amy..no one can blame you. I mean..we have no idea who to trust, we're in this weird world with no insturction manual or even a travel guide. We have to do our best," Serena said.
"But I..was trying to beat Greg..for no real reason. If me and him had just taken ourselves out of it.." Amy said.
"There'd still be a war going on," Serena said. "Maybe this is a good thing."
"Being under seige rarely is," Lita said.
"Well...I don't know," Serena muttered. "Work with me here.."
In another part of the defenses..
"If we coated the ground with ice they would have trouble approaching the gates," Sailor Uranus noted.
"But in this weather, we'd need to keep shooting the ice into it or it would melt, it's not really a viable option," Neptune said.
"Well not yet," Uranus said.
"Yes..it could still be useful."
"Disussing strategy?" Pluto asked walking up.
"We might as well," Uranus said.
"I agree," Pluto said.
"So what happened to you Pluto?" Neptune asked.
"Oh..you really want to know?" Pluto asked.
The two nodded.
"When the school was enveloped with energy I immediately sensed something was wrong, not hard to do right?" Pluto said. "Still..I decided to transform, but as I was, whatever happened happened, I think the transformation process conflicted with the transport they were doing, anyway, I was flung outside the school and was drifitng in the vortex outside of the school itself, I tried to understand it, but then I landed in this field. I was injured, badly, I staggered forward hoping I could find my way to civilization or to an answer. Along the way I ran into some troublesome animals, but evenutally I made it here."
"But you had minor physical injuries," Neptune said.
"My injuries weren't really physical, they were temporal, and there were other things," Pluto said. "The point is the energy interacted with me wrongly."
"Oh..all right," Neptune said.
"Needless to say I should have known better then to interupt such a complex process," Pluto said.
"So you don't know anything about it's nature?" Uranus asked.
"Nothing beyond what they tell me, and they still are hiding things, all the scouts were given reasons and a slight idea of why, but we still don't know how the mechanism worked," Pluto said.
"And no idea when and if we can go back," Neptune said.
"Or how," Uranus said.
"Hopefully we can win this was and Latric will tell all," Pluto said.
"That would be nice," Neptune said.
"So you work out any strategy?" Pluto asked.
"We have a few ideas," Uranus said.
"A few," Neptune said. "But we could use more."
"Well let's see what we can come up with."
"You wanted to see me Hotaru?" Greg asked walking up to her still slightly tired.
"Yes..we haven't had a chance to speak in some time," Hotaru said.
"No I guess we haven't," Greg said. "With this and all."
"Yes. Anyway..I experienced some strange emotions recently."
"Really what kind?"
"Anger..hatred.."
"Those are new to you."
"Yes, I openly expressed them."
"Openly?"
"I tried to rip a girl apart with my bare hands."
"Litterally?"
"Close to it. I really tried to beat her up."
"So you had a catfight."
"Is that what they call it?"
"It's not a good term really," Greg said.
"Yes..well..I hated her..I really did. I don't understand why I should feel this way, especially since she was merely an annoyance."
"Uh..well sometimes, it's the annoying people we hate the most."
"Why?"
"Uh..I don't know for sure. It just kinda happens that way. They're constantly an annoyance. It get's to people."
"I see..so the goal is to end the annoyance, and hatred comes into it."
"Yes, I guess it's that they aren't dangerous enough that you could not be justified in taking care of them and that gets to people."
"Hmm..yes..that does make some sense. She was a princess too, she was almost untouchable."
"So you wanted to take a shot at her. A princess?"
"It is a story I do not wish to relate," Hotaru said.
"Okay, no problem," Greg said. "Otherwise, how are you feeling?"
"I guess I am relatively well. I did laugh at her stupidity a few times."
"That's good I think," Greg said.
"You're still nervous around me aren't you?"
"I don't want to give you bad advice."
"That isn't all the issue. I can tell," Hotaru said.
"I'm not really a social person," Greg said.
"Neither am I, you should feel comfortable around me," Hotaru said.
"Uh yes, well..I.."
"What do you fear about me?"
"Uh..it's not really a fear, it's just.."
"What?"
"I don't know..it's unexplainable," Greg said.
"Oh..I see.." Hotaru said. "Is it curable?"
"Curable?" Greg asked in surprise. "The heck if I know."
"Oh..perhaps there is some sort of medication?"
"No..no..I think it's purely mental."
"Mental? Oh..all right," Hotaru said. "Anything I can do?"
"I don't think so."
"You refuse my offer of assistance," Hotaru said.
"I just don't think you can help," Greg said.
"Why?"
"Uh..I just think..uh..well..I just don't know what you could do."
"We'll see won't we?" Hotaru asked.
"Uh..just what are you thinking of doing?"
"I have no idea, but I will find something," Hotaru said.
"Where?"
"I don't know that either," Hotaru said and walked out.
"Strange," Greg said.
And at a local tavern.
"No..no..no..that's nothing..let me tell you about the time these massive flowers from space attacked," Mike said pounding on a table. Several soldiers were around drinking various forms of alcohol.
"Flowers from space are you mad?" One of soldiers asked.
"No..no..listen..I'll tell you all about it," Mike said.
"He isn't drinking is he?" Steve muttered from nearby.
"I hope not," Rick said. "I don't think we could handle that."
"Yeah," Steve said. "How much you wanna bet he end ups leaving this place face first?"
"No..I'll pass, he might get through this one," Rick said.
"Oh..I see you gentlemen don't know what an F-16 fighter is, well allow me to explain it," Mike said. The group all sat around intently.
"You see..all this is made possible the wonderous product known as gasoline
which powers everything you can imagine, wonderous things.." Mike began.
And later that night on the walls.
"So what brings you out here so late Serena?" Raye asked.
"Couldn't sleep," Serena said. "Haven't slept that much lately."
"That's surprising, I figured you could sleep through a war," Raye said.
"Maybe, but the thing is I'm worried about Darrien, he probably thinks I'm dead or something," Serena said.
"I'm sure he would never believe that," Raye said.
"He might not want to believe it, but the school did disapear you know," Serena said.
"Yes, I guess that's true," Raye said. "Still he knows you two are meant to be together he knows you'll come back."
"I don't even know if I'm going to come back," Serena said. "I've tried to stay as happy as possible through this. But we don't know what's going to happen. We don't even know how we got here. So what am I supposed to do?"
"We'll get through it," Raye said. "We always do don't we?"
"Yeah I guess so," Serena said. "But this time it just seems different."
"It's different, but we'll take care of it. We're the sailor scouts."
"Yeah..how is it you're so opptomistic all of the sudden?"
"Well..you're usually the optomistic one, but you're the one who needs cheering up."
"Oh.."
"Serena..I know we go back and forth a lot. I know we'll still go back and forth a lot, but there are times I think when the two of us understand each other, like no one else can."
"An opposites attract sort of thing?" Serena asked.
"Maybe," Raye said. "I also know that once again fate has seperated you from Darrien and that it must be very hard. If nothing else I can forgive all of your other faults because you're in love and nothing should come between that. I'm lucky, Rick's still here. He tried to marry Lita, but he's still here. I can see him. You don't know. But I think that destiny has shown itself to be a very powerful tie between you two."
"I hope so," Serena said. "You were always better for him."
"What?" Raye asked.
"Sure, you can be a real jerk, a lot of the time, but you could give Darrien so much more then I could," Serena said.
"Sometimes I tell myself that, but then I stop, because Serena you're wrong, you're with him for a reason, you are special to him. Sure I might be nice conversation, I may actually read on the same level as he does, though he is pretty smart..but the fact is you're one of a kind, whatever the impact is on humanity as a result of that."
Serena grinned.
"I'll take it," Serena said.
"So you think you can get some sleep now?" Raye asked.
"Naw..but at least I feel better," Serena said.
"Come on we'll find the others, I bet they can't sleep either."
Serena nodded.
"We have a big day tommorow of fighting off the jokers, they'll be back," Raye said.
"I can't wait," Serena muttered.
And back at the tavern.
"I can't believe this," Rick muttered.
"Me too," Steve said.
The soldiers and Mike were singing a drinking song and letting out laughs as they drank some more. Mike was not drinking but was dancing on a table regardless.
"This is embarrasing," Rick said.
"Is it good for the army to be drinking the night before a battle," Steve said.
"I doubt it," Rick said.
"My friends...I think you are consuming much fine wine," Mike said. "And so I suggest you stop before we get rowdy. After one more round of course."
The crowd roared and took some more drink.
"What is he doing?" Rick muttered.
"I think we should pull him out," Steve said.
The two walked over.
"Mike..come on," Rick said.
"Yeah, you've had a little too much," Steve said.
"Funny, but we're having fun," Mike said.
"Mike..you're encouraging them to get plastered," Rick said. "You know there's an army out there."
"You guys..the alcohol relaxes them and lowers their judgement temporarily, but given a few hours it wears off. They don't get hangovers, that's what Greg told me," Mike said.
"So they can drink all they want with no problems?" Steve asked.
"Exactly," Mike said.
"You're still a bad influence," Rick said and the two pulled him out.
And in the Lucoratorium canmp.
"Tommorow, we try again, and tommorow we win," Rekar said.
"Your lordship please just let me fight their warriors," Materic said.
"No Materic, it is not your time yet," Rekar said.
"I can see that I will not win this argument," Materic said and strode out.
"I've got a plan," Tresia said walking in.
"Is it a good plan?"
"It could work."
"Then bring it forward, I can't wait to hear it," Rekar said.
CHAPTER 231 CHAPTER 232 CHAPTER 233 CHAPTER 234 CHAPTER 235
CHAPTER 236 CHAPTER 237 CHAPTER 238 CHAPTER 239 CHAPTER 240
CHAPTER 241 CHAPTER 242 CHAPTER 243 CHAPTER 244 CHAPTER 245
CHAPTER 246 CHAPTER 247 CHAPTER 248 CHAPTER 249 CHAPTER 250
CHAPTER 251 CHAPTER 252 CHAPTER 253 CHAPTER 254 CHAPTER 255