Chapter 351

Outside Police Headquarters, Mina leaned against a fencepost. Setsuna stood beside her.

"I honestly thought Sylia was under someone's control," Mina said. "But she's not is she?"

"It's hard to say," Setsuna said. "But all the scouts who could tell us aren't here, so they're going to have to keep her in jail until we find out for sure. Still, from her actions.." Setsuna said.

"I know, she seemed to be acting human, just irrationally," Mina said. "But could all of this have driven her to break down like this?"

"It was very stressful," Setsuna said.

"I guess so," Mina said. "It's too bad."

"I know," Setsuna said. "She has a good heart, but to be so consumed like that..."

"It's tragic," Mina said and sighed. She then began to walk out.

"Are you all right?"

"No,"Mina said and kept on walking.

I don't think the kidnaping itself shook her up that much, it's what she saw happen to her friend. I don't really know what to say though. Setsuna thought. In fact I don't know if there's anyone who has anything they can say.

At the Cherry Hill Temple.

"What a mess this war has become," Serena said. "You take a perfectly good person and even she can be torn up by it. We have to end this all now."

"Serena, we do our best," Raye said. "But there are so many enemies out there."

"Then we'll fight them off, but I want to do it now."

"Serena, we don't know what we should do," Raye said. "Besides, the enemy is still hanging around here, we have to watch out for them."

"I know, but...I don't know anymore."

"Serena, don't let it bother you. This stuff happens."

"I don't want it to happen."

"You can't save everyone."

"I should be able to."

"That's just not the way life works, but you can save a lot of people if you don't let this stop you."

"Oh it's not going to stop me," Serena said clenching her fist. "It's not even close to that."

There was a knock on the door of her apartment and Haruka was surprised to see Sai and Ai standing there.

"So where have you two been?" she muttered.

"Around," Sai said. "We had a good reason for not showing up."

"Which was?" Haruka asked.

"Can we come in?" Sai asked.

Haruka nodded.

"The enemy is back," Ai said as the door closed.

"I noticed," Haruka said with annoyance.

"We were tracking them," Sai said. "We believe we've found their base here."

"It is unlikely that you knew that," Ai said.

"I hadn't found it yet," Haruka said. "Though I'm usually good at finding out that sort of thing."

"Regardless of that," Sai said. "We've been studying them and their operations. You'd be surprised what they're up to over here."

"Like what?" Haruka asked.

"They've been slowly infiltrating each member of the government in the hopes of starting a war," Sai said.

"We observed this over time," Ai said. "But thought it best to let them attempt it before moving to strike against them."

"You could have told us," Haruka said.

"Well you don't trust us and we still have trouble trusting you," Sai said. "We've told you now."

"So Coral might be under their control," Haruka said.

"Fraid not," Sai said. "What good is she to them, everyone knows how she stands. An abrupt change in position would only lead to suspicion."

"I see," Haruka said. "It's too bad. She was acting on her own."

"As far as we can tell," Ai said.

"Well should we stop this infiltration?" Haruka asked.

"I'm not sure," Sai said. "They're still in their planning stages, here and in New York it seems, they're building to something big. Right now we have the time to study them to find out what they're goals are, we move early and we lose potential intelligence."

"We move too late and the world could be at war," Haruka said.

"Of course, but you above anyone else should realize the risk in dealing with such operations," Sai said.

"True," Haruka said. "We should talk to the other scouts about this."

"I'm not sure we should," Sai said.

"I don't keep secrets from them."

"Haruka, you know they may do something rash," Sai said.

"Caution is suggested," Ai said.

Haruka glanced at both of them.

"Sailor Pluto should be told," she said.

"Agreed," Sai said.

"But you two should really be working with us more," Haruka said.

"Old habits," Sai said.

"You would understand," Ai said.

"So I would," Haruka said.

New York.

"It's so hard to keep a hotel room in this city!" Maverick muttered diving under an energy attack.

"Wonderful town isn't it?" Sailor Neptune said unleashing her attack at an enemy.

Several minions smashed through windows and plummeted towards the ground. Guardian Mercury leapt after them.

"This place is too crowded," Sailor Mercury observed sliding over the back of a car and dodging a minion.

Guardian Saturn leapt over her and swept away an enemy.

"I hate New York, I really do,"Guardian Jupiter said. "I even hated it when these monsters weren't running around."

"Oh, you've been around before then?" Guardian Earth said dispatching a wave of energy.

"Touring."

"Oh..right.." Guardian Earth said. "You kinda have to get used to the city."

"I'd prefer not to," Guardian Jupiter said.

Earth let out a laugh.

"You wouldn't think they'd get so mad at us for blowing up one of their hives," Maverick said.

"Why is that?" Sailor Neptune said. "It's our first success since we arrived."

"Yeah, but still, they haven't sent a big monster," Maverick said.

"Maybe they're taking their time," Sailor Saturn said slicing through a minion.

"Guess you have a point," Maverick said.

A massive rumbling began. The fighting stopped. The ground shook.

"Oh..here we go," Guardian Earth said.

"They hired King Kong, wonderful," Maverick said.

The group all waited as the rumbling got closer. The New York crowds had scattered by this point. Standing facing them was a giant about ten stories high. It resembled a human but with strange bluish skin and all sorts of weird extremities sticking out of it.

The giant starred at them.

"Time to climb another building," Maverick said.

The giant ran down the street at them, causing them all to scatter.

"I really like this one," Guardian Earth muttered.

"Enough of this," Guardian Mercury said.

"What are you planning?" Sailor Saturn asked.

"All of you just get ready to react," Gmerc said and leapt against a building, he then ricocheted off of it and onto a nearby one at an angle, he shot off another one hit an alley and pushed himself into another wall. He vaulted up towards the Giant's head. The creature spun.

"MERCURY Devout Revenge!" he shouted unleashing his attack at point blank range. The Giant was hit and stumbled back. Mercury grabbed his swords quickly and dug them into the giant. It yelled. Gmerc held on.

"Aim high," Maverick said and.

The scouts unleashed a barrage. Gmerc leapt off the giant, as the blasts impacted. The giant began to fall only to dissipated in mid air.

"Well that was easy," Guardian Earth said. The others just sighed.

"Where are these monsters coming from anyway?" Sailor Mercury muttered. "We didn't notice anything that could produce them at the hive."

"Just more of the mystery," Maverick said. "I'm getting sick of all this conspiracy stuff."

"Fortunately we can put an end to it soon," Sailor Saturn said.

"If they give us the chance," Sailor Neptune said. "We've hardly a had a minute to rest in the past day thanks to them."

"Then we need to make a preemptive strike to wound them," Sailor Saturn said.

"And what do you suggest?" Guardian Earth asked.

"We blow up their headquarters," Sailor Saturn said.

"And where is that?" Guardian Earth asked. "I didn't know we knew that."

"Their base is right where we'd expect it to be," Sailor Saturn said.

"What?" the group all asked.

"We've been there before," Saturn said.

Minutes later.

"Not the Infinity Building!" most of them shouted.

"Indeed," Sailor Saturn said. "But I didn't want to deal with the skepticism you would all have until we had dealt with more immediate concerns."

"Of course, it's genius," Guardian Mercury said. "Distract us with one office, while having the entire building be a base of operations."

"Saturn you're sure about this?" Guardian Jupiter asked.

"The enemy could not stop thinking about it during this battle," Sailor Saturn said.

"Gee.." Guardian Saturn said. "What are they planning to do anyway?"

"Advance bases are always useful when planning an invasion," Sailor Neptune said.

"So this would be their launching point," Guardian Earth said. "Interesting. But this extends far further then we think doesn't it?"

"No, most of the countries criticizing Japan are merely pawns," Sailor Saturn said. "I listened to their thoughts. They were truly believing in their cause."

"The CIA guy, wherever he was, said that Churchill was only the face but not the brains," Gmerc said.

"Well that much was obvious," Sailor Neptune said.

"So what do we do...storm the place?" Guardian Jupiter asked.

"We don't know how many innocent people are in there," Sailor Mercury said.

"Or what kind of defenses they have," Maverick said.

"Besides, they must have other hives around the city right? I mean, shouldn't we destroy their forces out here before a major attack," Guardian Saturn said.

"We need to plan this out," Guardian Mercury said.

"Hotaru, you said you had gained a lot of information from your telepathic scans though, yet we know so little," Sailor Neptune said.

"That is because I have had little time to explain what I know," Sailor Saturn said. "Perhaps now I will have the chance."

"Maybe you should explain on the way," Maverick said.

"To where?" Sailor Saturn asked.

"To wherever we're going to find to hide, I'm very tired," she replied.

"Good point," Guardian Earth said.

"Maybe rest would be a good idea," Sailor Neptune said.

"There's no maybe about it," Maverick said. "Let's go find somewhere where I can sleep."

The scouts were soon hurrying off as sirens came closer.

Elsewhere.

"They know where the base is don't they?" Churchill said.

"Of course they do. But they can't do a thing about it."

"Yes, but shouldn't we be even more aggressive."

"We are doing all that we can."

"Yes, but..."

"Are you having doubts."

"No, I...uh..look..they're going to beat us unless we start killing some of them you know."

"I doubt it. We are doing well."

"But..' Churchill said.

"We just need to stall them anyway, and they're not helping their cause either. Don't worry. We'll soon have a war, and all of this will be a moot point."

"If you say so."

"You guys don't look too good," Serena said into her communicator.

"Should we?" most of them replied.

"Uh..sorry," Serena said. "I mean..I hope things get better."

"Easy for you to say.." they all replied.

Serena shrank away from the communicator. Setsuna took it.

"Tough over there huh?"

"Yes, but we're making progress," Sailor Neptune said. "We've located the enemy base."

"Have you destroyed it?" Serena asked.

"It isn't that easy," Sailor Neptune said. "There are innocents in the way as well as the fact it's a massive skyscraper, we can't just blow it up."

"That's never stopped us before," Serena said.

"Yes, but this skyscrapers destruction could take out several blocks. We can't do it," Neptune said.

"Hmm..guess not," Serena said.

"We're having our own enemy problems here," Setsuna said. "But I'm sure we'll resolve them soon."

"Keep us posted," Neptune said. "It may make sense to make a joint attack."

"Good idea," Setsuna said. "You all be careful."

The group all started laughing sarcastically.

The link was cut.

"What is going on over there?" Setsuna said.

"Doesn't seem good," Serena said. "Say Setsuna you zap people a lot to keep them from finding things out, could you just zap Sylia so she doesn't remember any of this."

"Alter her personality you mean?"

"Well..yeah."

"Can't do it."

"Why not?"

"Because if I did it for her wouldn't I have to do it for everyone who's been changed by traumatic experiences," Setsuna said.

"Couldn't you?"

"I don't have that much power. And also, Serena, Sylia can be helped in conventional ways, she isn't hopeless. Also, considering the circumstances, me recreating Sylia's personality would not look very good. Finally, I am not allowed to do it. There are rules limiting my power, rules you might not understand, and I can't really go into it."

"Oh," Serena said. "I just feel sorry for her."

"Me too," Setsuna said.

"I'm going to go find Mina, she's really shaken up."

"That's a good idea, she can probably use the company," Setsuna said.

Serena headed off.

Still so innocent. Amazing. Setsuna thought.

"So have you talked to Mina yet?" Steve asked.

"I've been afraid to," Mike said. "I mean she's hurt inside."

"Well duh, I thought you were perfect for that."

"Nah..I'm no good at this. Not when it's bad."

"Aw..come on you wimp."

"Wimpiness has nothing to do with it," Mike said. "She needs to work it out herself."

"If you say so," Steve said. "I just didn't think it was that simple."

"Oh trust me it is," Mike said. "She'll figure it out. But I gotta go do something."

"Sure you do," Steve said as Mike hurried off.

Steve grinned and turned back the way he was going.

"I'm not going to see her you know," Mike said appearing beside him.

"Wha..stop doing that!" Steve said.

"Just wanted to get the point across," Mike said and hurried off again.

"Mina?" Serena asked poking her head in the door of Mina's room.

"Hello Serena," Mina said.

"You okay?"

"Sure...sure...no problem."

"Now I know better," Serena said. "Don't worry about Sylia, she'll feel better soon. They'll help her out. It was probably just stress."

"Yeah," Mina said. "Probably. She didn't deserve it you know. She's not a scout, she's not destined to deal with this."

"I know," Serena said. "It hurts me too. But she'll be fine. Someday."

"And what about us. Just how long can we keep going?"

"Forever."

"What? You believe that?" Mina asked.

"Well.." Serena said. "Nothing's stopped us yet."

"But it gets harder every day."

"Not really," Serena said.

"You're always complaining, always vowing to punish everyone for destroying your happiness though."

"Venting I guess."

"But.."

"Sure I get upset, it isn't fair for us to have to do this, but we do it, and we manage to have fun along the way," Serena said. "We all survive. We're not the ones we should be worried about. It's the people we protect."

"Well we didn't protect Sylia did we?"

"Sure we did. Plenty of times, when we saved the world. She can still live. She got caught up in something that she couldn't handle, but she'll survive, and she'll be back doing what she's good at someday, thanks to us."

"But we drove her insane."

"Yeah, but how many people would have died, if we weren't around?"

"It's not that simple to me," Mina said.

"Me neither," Serena said. "But it helps to think about it that way. Come on Mina, you'll be fine."

Mina sighed.

"Guess there's no point in crying is there."

"Well if you want," Serena said.

There was a rustling in the bushes below

The two whirled.

"Come out of there!" Serena shouted hurriedly out of the window.

"Oh..uh..whoops..sorry.." Mike said. "Didn't mean to really."

"Mike..were you coming to see how I was doing?" Mina asked.

"Well..sure..uh..was I wrong?" Mike asked.

"No," Mina said. "No you weren't. I guess there's hope when I still have friends who care like this."

She wiped a tear from her eye.

"Thank you guys," Mina said clutching Serena.

"Mike get in here," Serena said.

"Oh..uh..right." Mike hurried in within a minute. Mina pulled him into the hug.

"Besides..it's not like Sylia's in that much trouble, right, I mean..they're just going to keep her under observation," Mina said.

"Right,"Mike said. "And the mental hospitals are pretty nice. I mean, she'll meet all sorts of interesting people."

"Well that's an upside then," Mina said.

"Don't worry though Mina, we'll win this war, someday we'll beat them all back," Serena said. "Serena, promise me something it'll make me feel better," Mina said.

"Yes?"

"You have that pageant tomorrow with Darrien. Go and enjoy yourself and put all of this, behind you," Mina said.

"You got it," Serena said.

"Thank you," Mina said. "Mike..have you seen Yaten?"

"He's picking through garbage somewhere I imagine," Mike said.

Mina burst out laughing.

"You can't even carry out a feud right you know," she said.

"Well..I'm new to the idea," Mike said.

"Come on I'll buy you both dinner," Mina said.

"All right," Serena said.

"Serena," Mike said. "I'm going to eat more than you tonight just to prove it can be done."

"You are?" Serena asked. "I like a challenge!"

"Let me just find Yaten. I want to know what his excuse is," Mina said.

An hour or so later.

"Uh..I was just letting you sort things out," Yaten said nervously.

Mina stared at him.

"Silly, you don't wait this long," Mina said grinning slightly.

"But..i.." Yaten said.

"Fool," Mina said. "Guess I can forgive you, but Mike here's looking better and better everyday."

Mike gave a victory sign from behind her.

"We'll just see about that," Yaten said.

"Well anyway, come on Yaten we're going to dinner," Mina said.

"The four of us?"

"Yep," Mina said.

"All..right.." Yaten said hesitantly.

"He's scared, isn't that cute?" Serena asked.

"What's he afraid of..besides you and me of course," Mike said.

Back in New York, the sewers.

"Looks like another hive," Sailor Mercury said peering into her computer.

"Let me check," Gmerc said glancing at his watch.

:It was a good idea to look for access tunnels that were capable of supporting the hive," Sailor Neptune said. "As well as be able to get the enemy to where we were in the city. This was the closest."

"Well it was nothing really," Guardian Saturn said.

"No you deserve credit," Guardian Jupiter said. "We've been so busy fighting it's been hard to logic this all out, but you managed to."

"There's a hive and a swarm of enemies waiting," Gmerc said.

"All it took was a little smarts to find this one," Guardian Earth said.

"Too bad we didn't have any of that before," Guardian Jupiter muttered.

"Should we go then?" Sailor Neptune asked.

The group all nodded and they were soon running down an access tunnel.

"Wait a second," Sailor Mercury said. "We've got enemy forces approaching."

"The usual?" Maverick said readying her sword.

"No, this is odd," Sailor Mercury said. "There's some different energy signatures with them."

"Yes you're right," Gmerc said. "These look familiar...duck!"

The group all did. A barrage of energy flew over them as the enemy emerged from the tunnel and came a to a stop. The scouts all stared at them.

"Well scouts, didn't you think you'd meet us again did you!" came a shout.

"Aw..geez...not them again," Maverick and Gmerc said.

"Who are they?" Guardian Earth said.

"We are ARGOSANTE!" came a shout with varying pronunciations.

"How many of you are there!" Gmerc shouted.

"Well, we don't keep in touch with all of the distant family members, hard to say," One of the Argosante said.

"That's it, I'm taking you all down!" Guardian Mercury shouted and charged forward.

"I'm with you!" Maverick said.

And soon the two sides were jumping into a massive brawl.

"I didn't know they could be annoyed that much," Guardian Earth said.

"The argosante have a way of making that happen," Guardian Saturn said.

And the battle continued.

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