Chapter 320

"Mercury Bubbles Blast!" came a shout. The room filled with fog.

Two figures leapt in the window. The three figures didn't hesitate. There was a flash, and several shouts. Guardian Saturn and Sailor Mercury were thrown against the wall.

Serena awoke with a start.

"What's going on..fog? Here?" she said in shock.

"Look out Serena!" Luna shouted.

The mist began to clear. Serena found herself starring at an energy sword pointed straight at her. She let out a shout.

"Quiet you!" the lead figure said.

Serena looked at them in surprise.

"Who are you?" she stammered.

The door swung open.

"Serena what's wrong?" Her father said poking his head in. A sword blast flew at him and knocked him to the ground. Serena heard her mother scream.

"Stop it!" Serena shouted leaping off her bed and tackling the leader. The other two reached down to pull her off. She was thrown against the wall, she hit and winced at the pain.

The three figures stared at her. She faced them now. It was obvious two of them were male, the third a female.

"Your uniforms..you're scouts," Serena said.

"True," The leader said. "The crystal please."

"The what?" Serena said woozily.

"Your crystal, hand it over," the leader said.

"Why do you want it?" Serena said. "And why should I give it to you after you come sneaking into my room like this and hurt my friends!"

"We need it," the leader said. "Now where is it?"

"Sorry..no," Serena said standing up.

"Then we'll just take it," the leader said aiming his sword.

"No ya won't," Serena said. "See, it's in an interdimensional storage space...uh..that's what they call it, right Luna?"

"Yes Serena," Luna muttered.

"So..I'm the only one who can get it," Serena said. "You zap me, and you get nothing."

She grinned slightly. The leader frowned.

"You will give it to me," he said.

Guardian Saturn leapt up. The second male charged and swung his sword, hitting Saturn and pushing him to the ground.

"Now..enough with the distractions," the leader said.

"Who are you?" Serena asked.

"That is not your concern at the moment," The leader said.

"I'm not going to give you my crystal," Serena said defiantly.

"All right then," the leader said and he and the second male began to fire at the limp forms of Saturn and Mercury. They both cried out in pain.

Serena winced.

"We'll just keep doing this until you give us the crystal," the second one said.

"All right," Serena said.

"Serena no.." Luna said.

"I'll give you the crystal if you tell me just why you want it and who you are?" Serena said.

The leader paused.

"Fine, but let's see it first," he said.

"Serena..." Luna said.

"Shut up.." the second one said and fired a bolt. Serena dived in front of it, it threw her to the ground unconscious.

"You idiot," the leader said. "Now look what you've done."

The second one said nothing.

"We cannot stay here," The girl said. "In the time it takes for her to awaken, their friends will undoubtedly arrive."

The leader frowned.

"We'll get it somehow," The leader said. The three leapt out the window and dropped to the ground.

"Where do you think you're going?" came a voice. The three spun. There stood Guardian Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

"We have no time for you," The leader said and fired a wave from his sword. The three dived out of the way in surprise at the speed and power.

"Oh no you don't....Neptune Tide of Destruction!" Neptune shouted.

"Wait don't!" Uranus shouted. A barrage of energy blasted through the yard. The three enemies leapt out of the way. The attack slammed into Serena's house and the one next to it.

"Uh oh.." Neptune said.

Serena's house began to shudder and then tilt to one side, before the second floor slid sideways into the depression Neptune's attack had just created.

"Ooops," Neptune said. Uranus and Pluto punched him. Serena, Mercury, Saturn, and the Tsukinos slid out of the debris onto the ground.

"This is bad," Uranus said.

Out of nowhere the mysterious figures leapt at the three. The two males swung their swords through the Guardian Scouts, causing them to fall to the ground.

"Dang it!" Uranus shouted.

"That's a warning," The Leader said. "We're much better then you are."

The three figures hurried into the night.

Minutes later Sailor Mars, Venus, and Jupiter hurried up. All three greeted the scene with shock.

"What..happened..." Venus said in surprise.

"Uranus..you all right?" Mars asked hurrying to his side.

"Oh..just fine," Uranus muttered.

"What caused all this?" Jupiter asked a wounded Pluto.

"It was a combination of a new enemy and Neptune here's stupidity," Pluto replied.

The three sailor scouts all looked at Neptune.

"I meant well," he said.

Serena staggered up.

"Are they gone?" she asked.

"Who?" Sailor Mars asked.

"Those three scouts," Serena said.

"Scouts?" Mars asked in surprise.

"They attacked us girls," Luna said. "Is everyone all right?" she asked.

"I'll be fine in a day or two," Guardian Saturn said.

Mercury rubbed her head.

"I guess it'll heal," she said.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Luna asked.

"My brother left me a camera and I had the house under surveillance just in case of trouble, and once we saw it well.." Mercury said. "What did they want though?"

"We'll talk about that later," Luna said. "When the family is settled. Right now they have other problems."

Mrs. Tsukino was bent over her groaning husband.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Never mind that, how are you feeling?" Mrs. Tsukino asked.

"I'd feel better if the second floor of the house was where I had left it!" Mr. Tsukino shouted looking at it.

"Geez...who did this?" Sammy asked in surprise.

"An evil malicious force son," Guardian Neptune said. "Pray you never meet him..them..ahem.."

"Neptune.." Serena said storming up to him.

"Uh..yes..."

Serena decked him with a right hook.

"Wow...that's a good shot there Serena," Jupiter said in awe.

"Why are they here?" Mr. Tsukino said staring at the group.

"We were just leaving," Sailor Venus said hastily.

"Wait guys, you can't go now..I need a place to stay," Serena said.

"I guess we have room at our house," Mercury said to Saturn "After all it has nine bedrooms."

Saturn nodded.

"Your family can come stay with us," Mercury said.

"Oh..thanks Amy, that's nice of you," Serena said.

Sirens began to fill the air.

"Mercury, Saturn you make sure the family's okay, Luna..I think we need to talk," Mars said.

Luna nodded.

Tuxedo Mask dropped to the ground.

"You're late!" Serena shrieked.

"Oh..uh..again..ahem..well..uh.." Tuxedo Mask began.

"Way to keep the slump going there," Guardian Neptune said patting Tuxedo Mask on the shoulder.

"We should go," Mars said. Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus leapt off followed by Luna.

"Say Venus where's Artemas?" Jupiter asked.

"I don't know, he hasn't been around much since he met that Persian," Venus said.

"What Persian?" Luna asked quickly.

"Not jealous are you Luna?" Venus asked.

"No of course not!" Luna shouted. "But is he flirting again?"

"Luna, Artemas is always flirting," Venus said with a grin.

Back at the Tsukino household.

Mister Tsukino had since taken an interest in Tuxedo Mask.

"Something wrong?" Tuxedo Mask asked.

"Uh huh," Tsukino said. "You know buddy if you're going to be defending my daughter you could do it better without that stupid outfit."

"But I've always worn this," Tuxedo Mask said.

"And what do you call yourself again? Tuxedo Mask? What kind of utterly stupid name is that. You've got two nouns there, of course you're wearing a tuxedo and a mask you imbecile! Why can't you call yourself the warrior of the night or something, or.... Batman?"

"Dad!" Serena shrieked.

"Uh..this has been what's worked," Tuxedo Mask said.

"Listen buddy, if you're ever going to marry Serena, you're going to have to change some things."

"But I.."

"No buts.." Mister Tsukino said.

A police car rolled up.

"Gee...how did this happen?" an officer asked getting out.

"I'll tell ya," Mister Tsukino said. "It was those creeps and their energy weapons."

"Energy weapons?" the officer asked.

"Uh huh," Mister Tsukino said. "You know those evil types."

"I see," the officer said and turned to his partner. "Better call the Chief."

"They dressed like scouts huh?" Raye asked.

"Yes," Luna said.

"We saw em," Rick said. "There were two guys and a girl. The guys had the same outfits we wore, they were just darker, more complex design too."

"But if they're scouts why are they fighting us?" Lita asked.

"It is strange," Luna said. "Even Haruka and Michiru were more overt."

"And just who are these scouts too?" Raye said. "I mean we've got all the planets covered."

"Except Earth," Steve said."But if Earth had scouts then there wouldn't have been such a big problem right?"

Luna sighed.

"I'm not remembering these at all. I wonder who they are," Luna said.

"Could they be from Earth?" Lita asked.

"I just don't know," Luna said. "This is very strange."

"Well these guys don't seem to be interested in defending the universe," Mike said. "They actually came back to ambush us."

"Yeah, after you destroyed Serena's house they could have just run away," Steve said.

"Did you notice how I carefully omitted that part from my story?" Mike muttered.

"And a good job you did of it too," Steve said.

"This is serious," Raye snapped. "We've got a group of pretty powerful enemies out there who know Serena's Sailor Moon and aren't afraid to use immoral tactics."

"They're fast too," Rick said. "We didn't see them coming."

"We have to be careful," Luna said.

Chief Ozaki sighed and leaned against his car.

"And here I thought I could relax," he muttered.

"I thought you'd be used to this by now," General Nagumo said walking up.

"Used to this?" Ozaki asked. " Used to weirdos, and very powerful weirdos mind you, popping out of nowhere every time I turn around and trashing some part of this city? No I'm not used to it!"

"So any idea who these jokers are and what they were doing?" Nagumo asked.

"The family really has no idea," Ozaki said. "The scouts aren't saying much either."

"Not surprised," Nagumo said. "Still..whoever they were they sure did a lot of senseless damage."

"Yeah," Ozaki said. "That's just what we need, more of that," he muttered.

A van skidded up and Doctors Richter and Tomoe hopped out.

"You might wanna get the oil checked on that thing, it sounds funny," Ozaki said.

"No, it's supposed to sound like that, it runs on cat litter," Richter said.

"Nice invention huh?" Tomoe asked.

Ozaki sighed.

"You two are a disgrace to this country," he muttered.

"Wow..look at this now. What destruction," Richter said.

"Some new enemy force at work?" Tomoe asked.

"Uh..kinda," Guardian Saturn said.

"They're to blame for this, at least indirectly," Sailor Mercury said.

"And just who's going to pay for it?" Mister Tsukino asked. "My insurance doesn't cover this stuff."

"Why don't we worry about that later dear, you're hurt," Misses Tsukino said.

"You should see a doctor," Serena said.

"You and your stupid..."

He glanced around at the others standing around.

"Ahem....stupid luck.." He muttered and headed off to an ambulance, followed by the rest of the family.

The next morning. Amy sat at her computer staring at the camera images picked up the night before.

"They certainly look like scouts," she said.

"But the way they attacked us, really not a nice way to meet us," Greg said.

"No, they didn't seem to act very honorably," Amy said. "Though they may be desperate. I have trouble believing automatically that they're evil, maybe just desperate."

"They don't seem willing to talk about things," Greg said.

"This is quite a mystery," Amy said.

"So..any luck?" Serena said sticking her head in the door.

"Not really," Amy said.

"Come on guys, you're the brain trust of the scouts, if you can't come up with something we're in trouble," Serena said.

"That's not necessarily true," Amy said.

"Yeah, there are other ways," Greg said.

"Logic is not the only answer."

"Especially in our line of work," Greg said.

"You're just making excuses," Serena muttered and stumbled off.

"She's not taking this well," Greg said.

"I think she was hoping that with the galaxy freed of Galaxia's rule that there wouldn't be any more trouble," Amy said.

"We were hoping that, but she always seems to be hit the hardest by the next enemy to come along."

"She feels responsible I think," Amy said.

"It's not her fault."

"No, but she still has trouble with the idea," Amy said. "Besides, it's usually her responsibility to deal with whatever it is that shows up. It takes a lot of out of her."

"Yeah I know," Greg said. "Guess we should try to make this especially easy on her if we can."

Amy nodded.

Some shouting erupted from the floor below.

"How is it my fault!" Serena whined.

"You had to go and be defender of the universe didn't you?" Her father replied.

"I had no choice," Serena said.

"Oh come on, they could have found someone else," her father said.

"It doesn't work that way."

"Just who runs this organization anyway?"

"Well..uh..me.." Serena said.

"No wonder you guys are always blowing stuff up inadvertently," Sammy said.

"Stay out of this!" Serena shouted.

"Everyone should calm down," Mrs. Tsukino said.

"No..this is one of those times when a man must be an angry man," Mister Tsukino said proudly. "And Serena, I think you should be punished."

"Punished?" Serena whined. "For what?"

The shouting continued.

Amy and Greg leaned against the railing of the stairs above and glanced at each other.

"This might have been a mistake," Amy said.

"At least it will liven up the place," Greg said.

"We have to get their house rebuilt as fast as possible."

"And how do we do that?" Greg asked.

"I can't think of everything," Amy said and returned to her room.

"All right, I'll figure it out," Greg said defiantly. "I'm no good at this," he muttered seconds later.

Something smashed on the floor below.

"They're taking a few too many liberties,"Greg said and sighed.

The doorbell rang.

Greg headed down to get it, hoping he didn't get drawn into the argument along the way.

"But I saved the world! Numerous times!" Serena said.

"Probably tripped and fell onto the bad guy!" Her father shouted back.

"When did this get to be an argument over my clumsiness!"

"Respect your father!"

"Now?"

"Especially now!"

"But you're insane!"

"All the more reason!" her father shouted. "Who knows what I might do if provoked!"

"Put the blender down dear!" Mrs Tsukino shouted.

Greg groaned and pulled open the door. General Patterson stood there.

"Morning," he said.

The blender went flying out of the kitchen and smashed into the living room floor.

"That was unexpected," Patterson said.

"No..that was pretty much predictable," Greg moaned. "Uh..perhaps we should talk upstairs."

"Yeah, do you want me to call in air support?" Patterson asked.

"That might be useful," Greg said.

"Do you have any ideas?" Patterson asked.

"Not really," Amy said. "We know they're scouts, or at least they look like them, but aside from that we're baffled."

"But it sometimes takes time to find these things out," Greg said.

"Agreed," Patterson said. "They were after Serena's crystal?"

"Yes," Amy said. "They seemed quite determined to get it."

"I'm not sure they wouldn't have gone farther to get it," Greg said.

"I wonder..." Patterson said.

"You have some ideas?" Amy asked.

"Nothing definite. I'd tell you, but I'm not really going on much," Patterson replied. "Let me do some checking of my own."

"Any help you could provide would be useful," Amy said.

"Uh on that note..General..if there was anyway you could get the..uh..Army corps of engineers to uh.." Greg said.

"Rebuild Serena's house?" Patterson asked.

The two nodded.

"I mean the SDF is a peacekeeping force," Greg said.

"And what we need right now is just that," Amy quickly added.

Patterson grinned.

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

"Ehh..I don't see what the big deal is.." Mike muttered sipping a soda. "Scorn from everyone. At least I didn't blow up a bridge or an office building?"

"Good point," Rick said. "Still you're an idiot."

"Not something I deny, but the powers that be believe I deserve this power, and well I have it," Mike said.

"A sure sign of the decline of civilization," Rick said.

"Agreed," Mike said and took another sip. "So how about Mina's new hairstyle huh?"

"Not a bad choice," Rick said. "But if Raye doesn't lose the blonde look soon I'm going to go insane."

"Ah..not a fan of the blondes ey?"

"No...just not a fan of a blonde Raye."

"Sure..I wish Mina would change back too."

"Why? She's not your girlfriend."

"I still see her enough that it matters," Mike said crunching his soda can on his head.

"That went out years ago?" Rick asked.

"Why do you think I still do it?" Mike said.

"The scouts were better prepared then I expected," the leader said.

"We could have beaten them anyway," the second male said.

"Perhaps, but not without incurring major injuries ourselves," the girl said. "I am sure their strength would make the battle a tough one."

"Agreed," the leader said. "No, we must be careful, we will get out opportunities, but let's not rush into it. They're aware of us now, we cannot take unnecessary risks yet."

"We are running out of time though," the second one said.

"That is also true," The leader said. "And we must strike before they're other forces return wherever they are. The scouts are the weakest they've been in a while, we cannot afford to let this opportunity slip by."

"Uh..sorry about the mess.." Serena muttered. The four Tsukino's were standing in front of a severely battered kitchen. The walls were covered with food and a leg of the table was broken off.

Amy and Greg just stared at them.

"Uh..we'll clean it all up," Mrs. Tsukino said.

"And pay for the damages," Mr. Tsukino said.

The two siblings continued to stare.

"Uh...anything else?" Sammy asked hesitantly.

"We haven't decided yet," the two growled.

"Uh oh.." Serena said.

"Is this bad?" Mr. Tsukino said.

"Incredibly," Serena said.

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