FOURTEEN
Coardite stood alone in his chamber. His minions were all dead. He paced back and forth.
"It is time for the final battle. The Sailor Scouts must be destroyed. I know
their identities. It's simply a matter of catching them by surprise. I remember
from my original reconnaissance that they all ate lunch at that one school. That
makes things easy. I'll merely attack and wipe them all out. I'll have the
advantage of their hesitation to change their forms with all their classmates
around. This will work," he began to laugh.
Coardite appeared in the bushes near the lunch court at Crossroads. It was empty except for the people arriving at school.
"I'm early," he said. "No matter. I'll wait....or better yet..I'll go fill up
on energy."
At Central Junior High School, Raye was in the middle of a verse of the song stuck in her head when she was interrupted by a question from her teacher. Having been totally aloof to the subject matter the entire class she had no idea even what the question was, let alone what it was about.
"Could you repeat that ma'am?" she asked.
"Good to see you were paying attention." The teacher replied sharply. "I asked which planet is suspected of having had life on it?"
"Uh, well," she hesitated in response, "Earth."
"Earth? What a novel idea. Earth. Of course Earth has life on it! I meant the other planet in the solar system suspected of having life?" the teacher yelled.
"Well they all sort of did." Raye said without thinking.
"Oh really, since when are you the expert on interplanetary life?" The teacher asked snidely.
Since I was princess of the planet Mars back in the days of the Moon kingdom, Raye had wanted to say, regardless of the embarrassment, her teacher wouldn't believe it anyway so she held back.
"It's just that I heard Mars had life a while ago."
she meekly said.
"Well, you got the answer right. Finally. What a surprise."
The teacher than turned back to the blackboard and began writing more things
down on it. Raye took a glance at the clock, 8 minutes till lunch, I'll be glad
when this is over.
Serena sat in the back of her history class. She wasn't too interested in and
her thoughts drifted from the negaverse to Darrien. She glanced at the clock and
saw there was 7 minutes left till lunch. Good, I'm hungry she thought.
Lita looked at the board. She just didn't find it interesting that day. Her thoughts were on Steve.
I like that haircut. She thought. Her stomach growled. She looked at the clock.
6 minutes left till lunch. Thank goodness.
Amy had no trouble taking down the notes in class. Still she wasn't absorbing the information like she usually did. Something was distracting her. There was the Maverick question. He's one of four people. The obvious choice would be Patterson. An angry boy with access to weaponry, but Patterson is also very withdrawn especially among girls. He doesn't seem like someone who would charge into battle recklessly like Maverick sometimes does. Furthermore, Mina said he practically tackled her to keep her f rom getting hit. Could Patterson really do that? Rick Fujimori seems to be reckless enough to do any one of those things. Raye said she saw Maverick kick like Fujimori. Of course Mina said Maverick flipped like Mike did. Exactly like Mike. Of course she could just have just seen it that way. But it would explain why Maverick was able to cover her to be save her. Then there's Steve. Lita says Maverick punches the way Steve does. I'm not sure that Maverick has the build of Steve. It's hard to tell. He might and Maverick has the ability to take some hits and fight right back. One of them is capable of doing all three of the other things. Unless...of course...there were four of them? Oh...I don't know. I can't merely figure this out, I'm going to have to see it.
5 minutes till lunch.
Mina felt a tinge of worry as she sat in her Spanish class listening to the
teacher babble on. She had no clue what he was saying. She was worried about
what this worry of hers was. I'm probably just hungry. She thought. 4 minutes to
go.
Coardite blasted the inhabitants of the marketplace and drained their energy. Vending carts, store windows and cars were all blown apart by his onslaught. He began to laugh as more and more people feel to the ground and the energy built inside of him. A dozen of so police cars skidded up and their occupants emerged, their guns drawn.
"Hah!" Coardite yelled as they fired. The bullets exploded against a shield he quickly erected. He blasted the group and gained more energy. More sirens accompanied the arrival of more police.
"Enough of this. I've got an appointment with destiny," Coardite said and
walked away from the chaos and back towards Crossroads.
"Coardite himself," the boy said looking out of the tree at the Negaverse figure passing by near him.
Where's he going? It must be Crossroads. He's going to ambush the Sailor Scouts. Brilliant plan. To bad for him I'm going to throw a kink into the works. With that the boy pulled out a small crystal from his pocket.
"Maverick," the boy said and his transformation began. His clothes changed to
a dark black and outfit and a helmet surrounded his face. A visor swept over his
eyes and a sword formed at his waist with the crystal embedded inside it.
Coardite continued to move towards the school. The sound of boots hitting the ground behind him made him turn quickly. Maverick stood there his sword at the ready.
"YOU!" Coardite yelled.
"Coardite it's time to end this." Maverick said.
"Indeed I'm going to destroy you and the Sailor Scouts."
"To get to them, you'll have to get me first!"
I need to get those Sailor Scouts. Coardite thought. But....if I let Maverick go, he can probably warn them. Besides....I want to destroy him so badly! The Sailor Scouts are doomed anyway. Time to sweep this pest aside.
"Die!" he said leaping at Maverick, Maverick dodged and sliced Coardite's cheek causing black blood to seep out. Coardite turned quickly and sent an energy backed punch right into Maverick's stomach Maverick staggered back. Coardite followed it up with a kick to the face and a blast of energy from his hand sending Maverick flying to the ground.
Enough of this. I want the Sailor Scouts. With them gone I can finish him anytime. He thought and turned and ran towards the school.
Maverick was not as hurt as he looked and struggled to his feet, it took him a second, but he was soon in hot pursuit of his foe.
"Where are you going Coardite? Afraid to fight me?" Maverick yelled after him. He saw him up ahead almost to the school. Maverick let a blast fly, it whizzed by Coardite causing him to glance back and send a blast of energy back at him. Maverick fired again, nailing his target in the leg. Coardite staggered and pivoted firing another blast of energy at Maverick in defiance. Maverick dodged and leaped at his enemy, his sword drawn. Coardite countered and rammed a foot square into Maverick's jaw. It sent the hero flying into a nearby spot of trees. Coardite continued on again closer and closer to the school, he came within view of the lunch court when another blast whizzed by him.
"Curse you!" Coardite yelled and turned and unleashing a wave of energy which Maverick dodged. The attack blew apart several trees. Maverick fired a blast in return which whizzed through Coardite's legs a little too close for the Negaverse Commander's comfort.
"ENOUGH! I will destroy you now!" Coardite yelled and formed his own energy sword. The two faced off across the area in front of the food court.
"What's going on?" Serena said weaving into the crowd, her friends right behind her.
"It's those negaverse jerks!" Someone said.
"That was Rick," Raye said.
"Maverick's going to fight the guy," someone else said.
"Steve said that," Lita realized.
"Kick his butt Maverick!" A third guy yelled.
"That's Mike's voice."
"Which means only one thing," Amy said.
D.V. Patterson is Maverick. The five sailor scouts thought.
"Coardite! You and your negaverse scum are responsible for the deaths of my parents. For that I will destroy you!" Maverick shouted.
"Oh....what a heartbreaking story," Coardite muttered. The two charged. Maverick swung with his sword. Coardite blocked. Coardite returned a swing. Maverick blocked it and kneed Coardite in the chest. Coardite ignored the blow and swung downwards. Maverick rolled away and swung at Coardite's bad leg. Coardite felt the cut, but still managed to block the upswing of Maverick's attack. Maverick's face tightened. He swung hard and fast, Coardite tried to block the blows, but they were coming very quickly. Cuts began to form on Coardite's shoulders as Maverick cut into them. Coardite jumped into the air and landed on the roof. Maverick followed. Coardite shot a blast of energy at him. Maverick ducked and the attack hit the metal fencing around the roof and crackled forming a massive hole where Maverick had been standing. Coardite quickly charged at Maverick before he could stand again. Maverick staggered back towards the edge. Coardite grinned. Maverick reached out and grabbed Coardite's claw arm. The two fell over the edge and flew downward crashing into a lunch table below. A cloud of smoke rose.
Coardite and Maverick both staggered up as each was stunned by the blast. Coardite reached out with his claw and grasped Maverick's right arm. He flung the hero into the school wall. Maverick fell down. The crowd of students all began to scatter. Coardite blasted all of them and drained their energy. He hoped the Sailor Scouts were part of the group. He turned back to Maverick who was once again standing with his sword drawn.
"You idiotic fool. Your courage will be your end," Coardite said.
"I'm not finished," Maverick said and fell to one knee. Coardite blasted him with a massive force of energy. Maverick's sword hilt shattered and the crystal inside it fell out shattering into four pieces.
Maverick collapsed to the ground, pain shooting through him. His visor lay in pieces next to him revealing his dark black eyes and strands of his hair. Coardite walked over and grabbed Maverick by the neck with his claw and began to slowly crush him.
I have to conserve my energy in case those Scouts show up. Coardite thought.
One of the pieces of crystal, now blue began to glow on the ground.
A strange shape formed on Maverick's uncovered forehead. The design similar to an "h". The crystal suddenly changed into a golden object with the same "h" symbol on a blue field a the top.
"What the....." Maverick gasped.
"Begging for mercy?" Coardite asked.
"NO!" Maverick shouted and kicked Coardite in the groin. Coardite released his grip. Maverick rolled and grabbed the power stick.
"SATURN POWER!" He shouted and to Coardite's utter shock Maverick began to change. His black outfit became white lined with blue. His black cape became covered with blue and the hero began to stand. Coardite just stared at the unexpected sight.
"Saturn Rings, blast!" Saturn yelled sending several blue rings of energy at his foe. Coardite was hit and staggered back as the pain burned. Saturn fell to a knee, incredibly weak.
"No more!" Coardite shouted and sent a blast flying at the weakened Saturn. Saturn tried to move but still felt the blast slam into his left leg and shattered the bone. Coardite's eyes narrowed and he screamed in anger as he readied a death blow to the now immobile Saturn.