"Really?" Kunzite asked, an eyebrow quirking up as
he regarded the huge bug. "You should expect us to
show up at any time, especially since you are supposed
to tell us of new additions to our forces. That
particular one looks very interesting. Can it do
other things or is it just a bug?" With a wave he
brought the dome down.
The Dark Bug buzzed back angrily at Kunzite.
"It?I'm a person! I don't like being a bug! J--
Argusite, whoever you are, change me back right now!"
To Kunzite, Argocite said, "With all respect, sir,
you weren't particularly easy to find. And neither
was I, I thought. I assumed secrecy was paramount."
To the bug, shrugged with a seemingly perplexed smile
and spread his hands. "But Ace, I didn't do this to
you. You did this to you."
One of the Bug's arm feelers curled up into a tiny
fist. Shortly after that, cockroaches came in from
different directions, radiating around the dome's
circle on the ground. A few tried to cross, and got
fried, sizzling.
The Dark Bug looked around at the new arrivals, as
his dread and frustration gave way to wonder.
"It talks!" Zoisite whispered fiercely to Kunzite,
keeping to the ice king's side for the moment. There
was no way that he was getting near something like
that. Glancing at Argocite, he smirked, "Only you
could make a big bug... Just what can he do?"
At the surge of cockroaches moving across his feet
as if to answer his question, Zoisite yelped and
leaped up onto a nearby crate. Perching there, he
stared down at the flood of insects with the same
hatred a cat has for water. "That... is wrong."
Glancing up at the recently transformed Melvin, he
frowned softly. Bugs weren't something he was overly
fond of, and a giant one increased that dislike. A
soft shudder of revulsion crept up his spine, nose
wrinkling. Ordinarily, he'd suggest squishing it, but
with Kunzite there, the last thing he needed was
Argocite seeing him denied something. He's heard
stories about that one and his whip... something that
the sakura had no intentions on being on the wrong end
of.
Argocite looked down calmly at the encircling
roaches, and smiled a bit. "Yes! The gross-out
factor WAS a good idea!"
Teleporting so he wouldn't step on any of the Dark
Bug's new friends, he landed in the circle next to his
new recruit. "Relax, ol' boy. Did you see that?"
He
thumbed to Zoicite on the crate. "You have power.
You can move things. Being a man-sized insect is not
a total unpleasantry!" He folded his arms, leaned
back a little, and shrugged. "Now I suppose you could
find a way back to being your old, humdrum self right
now," he intoned unenthusiatsically. "Go home... make
a sandwich... go to bed... next to your trashed lab...
go back to school with all those cranial-rectal
inverts tomorrow..."
He leaned forward. "Or... before you do, you can
go topside, scare the droppings out of 'em, fire a few
wild ones, and show my cronies here how to get a
little payback. Strictly your choice."
The Dark Bug hovered a little. Then he nodded
slowly. "Payback," he said in a soft, sinister,
smiling voice.
Argocite stuck his hand out. The Dark Bug took it.
They shook and kept the grip. "Coming, commanders?"
the Negaverse recruiter asked. "I think we can still
catch the late show and an energy snack."
And they teleported to the surface.
Jurei-Jurei re-adjusted her mask on her face when
the ground shuddered, causing her to fall on her
toosh.
"Itai!!" she whined, a tear on the side of her
rounded face, then returning to normal, covered in
filth Jurei-Jurei. Upon hearing a noise like a
buzzing (a very loud buzzing), she slowly turned to
look over her shoulder, then straight up.
There, standing there just as casually as you
please, had to be the world's biggest cockroach.
Super-deforming, Jurei-Jurei's eyes got as big as
saucers as sounds stuck in her throat. "Ah... ah...
ahhh...."
Tashande looked up, too, and his reaction was quite
similar to Jurei's. His entire body was sore and his
leg still hurt, but he could deal with it. Now he
just had to do like he was taught, like he was
trained.
"Knight Nuclear Strike!" he shouted out, and then
vanished into apillar of thick white smoke laced with
fire. The pillar rose up into the air, ending with a
bulbous mushroom tip. Small streamers of smoke rose
up around the central pillar. The whole effect was a
nuclear explosion in extreme miniature, but (Tashande
hoped) was only an effect without any of the
unpleasant side effects.
Out of the fading smoke Tashande stepped, clad in
thick black armor. The pieces of dark metal scraped
against each other, letting out interrmittent hisses
as jets of steam escaped it's joints. He reached
to his side and drew his sword, a katana with a blade
that glowed with green energy. He whipped it
menacingly in a figure eight around his body while he
waited for the gigantic bug's assault.
And on the inside of his helmet he was sweating
bullets.
A spiralling of sakura marked Zoisite's entrance
onto the scene. Settling in midair, he crossed one
slender leg over the other to watch the ongoing
battle. Interesting to say the least. A wrinkling of
his nose marked his displeasure at seeing the court
jester again. There was just something about that
girl that he couldn't stand. Tashande recieved a
puzzled look. Here was one of the senshi and their
guardians that he had yet to encounter. Lifting his
fingertips to tap thoughtfully against his lips, he
had to admit that the Knight had one of the more
interesting ways of making the scene. Zoisite's head
tilted thoughtfully, considering what the man
underneath would look like in a Dark Kingdom uniform.
Kunzite appeared with little fanfare, floating to a
rest on a lamppost. Regarding the senshi with a
slight sneer, he folded his arms across his chest and
waited for the show.
~Holy Sacred Raid Can, where for art thou?!~ and
many other thoughts went through the jester's mind.
"Ummm.... sit, boy! Sit! I'll give ya nice,
sweet
sugar cube chan!" she shouted up to it, wondering
briefly if bugs had ears. In response, she threw her
lance up in the air, and caught it, as it turned into
a 30 pound cube of sugar... that was getting stickier
as the rain drizzled.
After noting Knight Nuclear's transformation (and
wishing he had one as cool as that), the Dark Bug
spotted Jurei-Jurei's super-size sucrose block. And
the bigger block of sweetness holding it. But before
he could buzz her way, Argocite caught the Bug by the
shoulder. "Revenge is sweeter," he reminded as he
jerked his thumb toward the movie theater.
Letting it go for now, the insect flew off and
shrugged off the bad memories. His instructor
followed, leaping highly.
It was the same-old, same-old there. The manager
was at the snack counter counting receipts food sales.
The hecklers howled their comments for an unreceptive
audience. The mantis still stomped vehicles.
The Dark Bug smashed through a glass window, making
the ushers and counter guys look up. "Hey, ants!" he
yelled. "Buffet time! Grab a plate!" Soon, ants
swarmed all over the food, causing the workers to jump
and scream. The manager got covered with the red fire
variety, and gyrated with pain as the little crawlers
bit him savagely.
"Tonight at concessions, sirs, we have adrenaline
in fear sauce!" Argocite brayed to his superiors.
Then he sang the old movie jingle, "Let's go out to
the lobby, and have ourselves a treat!" And he shot
an open hand in the air and started sucking up
life-force from the panicking staff.
Tashande followed, climbing after the bug through
it's newly-created entry before jumping into the air
and bringing his sword down on it.
Watching Argocite singing, Zoisite nudged Kunzite
gently. "I takeback every insanity joke I ever made
about Nephrite. He's not as crazy or tone deaf as
that one, and he's got more style. Are you sure we
can't just squash the bug and go home? I don't think
I like something that controls all of the creepy
crawlies in the area."
Jurei-Jurei had dropped the block after she
realized that she was all alone. The three men had
left, the bug had left, and that nice guy who had
saved her had left.
"*Oh man!*" she whined, as a truck went by.
A few moments later, Jurei-Jurei dropped herself
off at the movie theater, and, true to life, the bug
was wrecking havoc in theconcession stand.
"All those people in there!!" she cried. "They
won't stand a chance!"
Climbing in the entry-way, Jurei-Jurei gulped and
ran along the wall, then into one of the two 'plexes,
which was showing the movie she had left only hours
before.
Racing up to the stage part, she leapt in front
of
the movie.
"Hey, I didn't know this was a porn!" shouted a
heckler.
Jurei-Jurei glanced down, part of her fuku had
been ripped in a slit all the way up to her hip.
Blushing furiously behind her mask, she pulled some of
her skirt towards her and shouted, "There's a monster
out there, attacking the employees! Use the emergency
exits and run!!"
There was dead silence from the people that were
trying to watch the movie.
Jurei-Jurei blinked, and tried again. "Don't
you
people get it?! Evil! Very Bad Evil Thing wrecking
Movie Theater! Flee!" she said, making a walking
gesture with two fingers.
"Who do you think you are!" shouted someone.
"I'm
just trying to watch a cotton-pickin' movie! First I
get hecklers, now this bull! I'm outta here."
Jurei-Jurei's eyes widened. "But there really
is
a monster out there!"
"Save it. We hear enough about monsters from
the
sailors who fight in the city, we don't need any
wanna-bes telling us what to do,"said a elderly man in
the front, who got up and began walking towards the
back of the theater. Jurei-Jurei stood there,
dumb-founded, as the movie was played across her body.
"But... I'm a--"
A soda filled with ice beaned Jurei-Jurei in the
chest, spilling out all over the rest of her fuku.
She stumbled back a few steps in surprise, as the
hecklers called out, "Get off the stage!!"
A sense of failure entered her mind, as her big,
emerald eyes shone with tears, while muffled crashes
and screams were drowned out by the show.
Kunzite shook his head slowly. "No, we'll leave
the bug be. It might be gross, but there is some
potential there. Argocite, on the other hand.."
he frowned at the man, winching as he mangled a high
note. "You're right. Nephrite isn't half as bad as
him. At least he can keep a tune."
The Dark Bug, used to dodging big, mean guys all
his life as Melvin, zipped back, narrowly avoiding the
blade. Then with more speed than insects his size
should have, he looped around, hit-and-ran into a soda
fountain which sent a gush of carbonated water all
over Knight Nuclear, and swung out past an usher into
the 'plexes proper.
Argocite, overhearing his superiors' comments, was
surprised that they didn't take some life energy for
themselves. No matter. More for him. Besides, this
was a mission, not a popularity contest. He figured
Beryl would be a lot more receptive about the results.
He finished the drain, and the let the theater
staff hit the tile floor in total exhaustion one by
one. Then he took off after his creation, which had
invaded Jurei-Jurei's theater, blocked out more of the
projector's light, and cast a giant, dark shadow all
over the screen. The crowd then saw and pointed
bewilderedly, but still thought this was just part of
the show.
"Hey!" buzzed the Dark Bug. "How'd you get here
so
quick?"
Argocite arrived, saw the audience still there with
the teary Sailor Senshi, and instantly did the math.
"Aww, poor thing," he doted dubiously. "No one taking
you seriously? Y'know, maybe I should just turn
around, go home, and tell everyone you beat us off and
saved the day."
He took three seconds to mull it over. "Nah."
He
started vacuuming the audiences' life force now.
A sizzle accompanied a cloud of rising steam as the
water evaporated off Tashande's armor. He followed
Argocite, kicking down the door and bursting into one
of the movie rooms. It was dark, incredibly dark for
him. His sword glowed, casting him in a pale green
light. He lowered it, tilting the blade down to give
his eyes a chance to adjust.
*Shit* he thought. There was no way he could use
his powers here. No way. At last he saw the ominous
form of the Dark Bug and rushed it, again lashing out
with his sword.
Sailor Thunder Dragon looked on as Argocite drained
the audience's life force. *Good thing I didn't leave
after all.* She then came out of her hiding place and
attacked Argocite. "I hate to tell you this but
there's one person who believes the girl. Even though
she looks like a jester instead of a senshi," Thunder
Dragon said. She then aimed her Thunder staff at him
and several thunder balls shot of it towards Argocite.
"Oh and evildoer, just for ya to know the name's
Thunder Dragon."
Kunzite raised an eyebrow at the drained staff,
then floated down to grab a tub of popcorn. In his
opinion, they always put too much oil on it to truly
appricate the taste of popped corn. Floating back up,
he chewed thoughtfully on a handfull, holding the tub
so Zoisite could help himself as well. "I love the
special effects," he commented drily, a corner of
his mouth quirking up, "But the lines are passe and
the plot non-exsistant. The villans save the movie
from stupidity, but the superheroes need to work on
their lines. All and all I give it one and a half
stars."
Jurei-Jurei's tears mingled as the bug tore into
the theater, her legs rooted to the spot. The
stinging pain of the uniformed man's words stung
worse than her shoulder, and cut to her very heart.
~No one does take me seriously... not even that
soldier over there,~ she thought, turning her gaze
towards the woman as she exchanged blows with the man.
His clothes were that of the first few foes she had
fought; dark gray it always was. And here... here was
yet another monster.
She held out her gloved hands, sniffling. ~What
can _I_ do?! I can't stop these men!!~
A scream came from a child, as the gigantic bug
picked it up. Jurei-Jurei's eyes flashed between her
gloves and she growled, leaping up into the air as she
thrust out her staff, then slowly pulled it back. The
ruby on top suddenly began to swirl inside, an aura
radiatating from Jurei-Jurei as she gave out a war
cry.
With an overhead swing, Jurei-Jurei launched an
energy ball that solidyfied into a huge medicineball,
aimed right for the creature forehead.
Thunder Dragon's second thunderball smashed into
Argocite's torso, breaking his concentration, and his
energy soak. With that stopped, the crowd finally
realized this was very real, and then leaped out of
their seats and sprinted for the exits.
As the Dark Bug swooped up from Knight Nuclear's
next lash and watched evacuees bump all around him
like a pinballs into a pop bumper during multiball
mode, he tried to calm down the screaming child he'd
snatched from getting stampeded by the fleeing mob.
"It's all right, bud, I'll get you outta--"
SMACK!! Jurei-Jurei's ball beaned the Dark Bug
squarely on the noggin, making him release the
youngster, who darted out the back to the parking lot.
The insect shook the cobwebs off as best he could.
"Now that was a cheap shot!" he clicked angrily at
the Sensh clown princess.
Argocite levitated over the crowd, busy dodging
Thunder Dragon's barrage.
"Hey! How about some air support?!" With that, the
Dark Bug dove down, snatched a heckler from the last
show, and tossed him right at the Draconian duelist.
Thunder Dragon was knocked to the side by the
thrown heckler. *Great flying humans and hecklers all
in the same day. Top it off with a evil person I've
never seen before, now.* Getting up from the ground
she turned towards the person that was thrown at her.
"Get out of here, now," she said then turned her
attentions back towards Argocite.
"Well seems that the creep has brought along a
helper. Ask me the jester can handle the bug. But you
just happen to be in my line of attack. So let's do
this," Thunder Dragon said. She aimed her staff again
at Argocite and fired, this time also sending a few at
the Dark Bug.
Crawling onto Kunzite's lap, his fingers greedily
found the popcorn. After chewing on some, he
swallowed and nodded his agreement. "I think the
special effects are a little too overdone. Just how
many times have huge monsters smashed most of Toyko?
Seems a little too 'Godzilla'ish to me. I wonder if
our reporter friend is getting pictures of this?
Think we can talk him into bringing his girlfriend to
the club again? As for the movie... I'll give it one
star. The director has no talent."
Tashande watched as the big bug turned its back to
him. He looked at the sword it kept dodging and was
starting to lose faith in his weapon, but then again,
what were his options? As it turned he leapt forward,
bringing his sword down on it yet again.
"Ouch!" the Dark Bug yelped as his hardened body
shell took the brunt of Tashande's sword. The strike
still knocked him down, clear of Thunder Dragon's next
salvo. His segmented body shuddered in pain.
That's when the atomic warrior felt a leather strap
wrap around his throat. "No, no, no!" Argocite
scolded. "Stop playing so rough, or I'll drag you
home right now!" And with a jerk, the Negaverse
taskmaster yanked on his Tainting Crop, whipped Knight
Nuclear away from his insect creation, and into the
next section of seats.
Finally, the Bug noticed that all the innocent
bystanders had scrambled the scene, leaving him with
two Scouts, a Knight, his trainer, and two very
unhelpful critics.
"Gotta fly... guys, flies," he mumbled
incoherently. "I need some help here..."
A chorus of buzzing came in. Then through the
doors came swarms of flies, totally blinding the
theater. They got everywhere, covering
sugar-sticky-handed Jurei-Jurei, crawling into
Tashande's armor and all over his body inside, and
into the Generals' popcorn. Sailor Thunder Dragon
felt one fly into her right eye. A set got into
Zoisite's mouth as he tossed in a few kernels.
Tashande struggled and screamed as the flies coated
the inside of his helmet. He flailed his arms and
tried to stand up or pull it off, but he was too
panicked and being stuffed in between seats with his
armor on didn't help the situation at all.
The steam that continually poured from the cracks
of his armor stopped.
Suddenly the cloud of flies retreated from him,
half of them dropping to the floor dead. He could
hear them in his helmet, bubbling and sizzling,
boiling in his sweat. The seats around him twisted
and grew limp, melting from the blisteringly hot
radiation pulsing out of his body.
He planted his sword and pushed himself to his feet
as the chairs sagged to the floor. The linoleum
beneath him bubbled and turned liquid as he stepped
forward, raising one hand.
The air between him and the bug shimmered, a
symptom of the blistering heat radiating out of him in
a beam. Heat that carried enough rads to make your
guts come out your mouth.
"Yuk!" Kunzite yelped, tossing the fly-infested
food across the room. Brushing some out of his hair
and clothing, he glared down at the Bug. "The gross
factor of this flick makes me change my vote to half a
star. Adding the melting mass caused by an idiot
knight, and this film has lost what little edge it
had." Shaking his head, he pointed at the Nuclear
Knight and a dome of shimmering black energy formed
around him. "There, that should hold him."
The Dark Bug, long since realizing that Knight
Nuclear's situation was highly un-good, flew off for
the out door. Argocite said, "Messy, but it did the
job. My lieges, may I suggest following suit? Allour
life-force fodder has fled, and I don't see what
glowing in the dark or more Senshi slap-fighting will
accomplish." And he did a quick-stun energy grab from
the Sailors before teleporting away.
Kunzite sighed and shook his head sadly. "It would
seem that themovie's ending leaves lot to be desired.
If you wish, we can grab some microwavable popcorn on
the way home, and wash the taste of this flick with
a couple of good videos on DVD at my place. Then we
can get back to what we doing before this mess."
"YUCK!" screamed Sailor Jurei-Jurei as she swatted
at the flies all over her forearms.. "Gettemoff
gettemoff gettemoff gettemoff--" But somehow through
the insect blizzard, she saw Knight Nuclear and the
seats around him going into full meltdown. Tossing
off the bugs as best she could, she dashed outside
where she'd left the 30 pound sugar cube, got it, and
headed back into the theater.
With a throw into the air, it turned into an
equally big chilled seltzer bottle. Like a
firefighter, she sprayed the entire room down,
knocking off what flies were still there, and from
across the seating sections, focused the high-pressure
water jet on Knight Nuclear, hoping it'd him down cool
down enough.
Spitting out the popcorn and fly mess, Zoisite
choked for a moment, rather sure that he was going to
vomit up the entire mess. He hated bugs and anything
creepy crawly, especially cockroaches. Nodding in
agreement to Kunzite, he curled against the ice king's
chest as Argocite disappeared and the Nuclear Knight
was turning into another Three Mile Island. "I think
we should get out of here... quickly."
A whirlwind of pinkish white blossoms enveloped
them, teleporting back to Kunzite's flat and leaving
Nephrite to his own escape.
Thunder Dragon looked at Jurei-Jurei. "Well at
least you got rid of the bugs. As for nuclear boy
over there, he's all yours. Besides I'm getting a
little light headed. So in other words I need some
fresh air," Thunder Dragon said going out of the door
closest to her.
As Thunder Dragon made her exit, Jurei-Jurei looked
at the dripping, steaming Knight. She knew she was in
a dangerous spot, but the guy just saved her life!
She couldn't stand around and do nothing!
Then she heard sirens approaching.
Not stopping to think, she ran for the hills. Once
she got a good distance away, she saw it was the cops,
with the fire department, going into the theater. And
there was her hero, all by his lonesome... she
pictured her head turning into a shoe heel. The kind
stamped, "First Class."
The sirens grew louder and finally stopped. The
firemen looked about as the cops started to cordon off
the theater, and paramedics tended to the moviegoers
still around. The manager, with red marks and
swellings all over, sat in a corner, mumbling
hysterical aphasia. The firemen started to load flame
retardant foam into their hose...
Tashande reached up and gripped his helmet,
oblivious to the world. There was the sharp hiss of
escaping steam as he turned it slightly to the side,
then removed it from his head entirely. He held it in
front of him, a grey cloud rising off his head. A
tiny dribble formed at the edge of the helm, a mixture
of water and sweat and liquidated insects. He took a
deep breath, taking in all the warm, poisonous air
around him. Before looking up at the sword he had
stabbed into the soft floor, standing there before him
and casting a cross-shaped shadow onto his tired face
in the dim red light of an "Exit" sign.
A massive cloud of steam ingulfed him and the
armor and sword vanished, leaving him in the same
jeans and scraped leather jacket he had worn before.
The firemen burst into the door and he suddenly
snapped back to reality.
Tashande took off, bounding over some chairs and
bumping a back door open with his shoulder. He raced
out onto the street and, spotting Jurei, chased after
her.
As soon as he was home, Kunzite made a disgusted
noise in his throat and pulled off his clothing.
"That's got to be the most disgusting youma
yet," he grumbled, runnning a hand throguh his hair
several times. "I'm crawling all over the place. I'm
going to have to take a bath. Want to join me, Zoi?"
Jurei-Jurei sank to her knees. "I'm sorry," she
peeped weakly. "I was so useless back there... I
wanted to help, but..."
The Dark Bug landed in a treetop. He tried to
recover from Knight Nuclear's sword strike,
Jurei-Jurei's ball bean, and the rainy evening in
general. "This is insane!" he whispered. "I should've
stayed home... I don't like this! I want to be Melvin
again... want to be Melvin... be Melvin..."
Then he fell to the pavement.
When he came to, he saw Joey staring down at him.
"You're conscious. Good," said the Negaverse
mentor. "Now for our review. You took the initial
transformation shock pretty well. Socking me out of
the blue like that was chintzy, but the mark of
potential. You had ingenuity with the ants and
flies." He folded his arms. "Two major
disappointments, though. What was with grabbing that
kid?! That got you off the attack and left you wide
open! And you should have focused more on the other
Sailor skirts! Smack them down, and grind them into
the floor. This isn't the 18th century! Rules of
conduct are out. Sting or be swatted!"
Melvin made no response; he wasn't in any shape to,
anyway.
"In short, you did better than I expected. The
standard will be higher next time, though. Remember
that."
Joey extended his hand. "Now let's go. Your
mom's
probably getting worried now."
Melvin grabbed hold. He saw with relief his arm
was human again, with the rest of him. Slowly,
stiffly getting up, they piled into the 280 Z.
Zoisite was already in the bathroom peeling off his
clothing quickly, hissing in an irate manner about
bugs the entire time. Fixing his gaze on Kunzite, his
large green eyes shimmered with unshed tears, lower
lip trembling in a pout. "Kunzite-sama... that bug it
utterly disgusting and unruly. Can't we kill it?
Please? For me...?"
Pushing aside the curtian of the shower, he began
trying to coax Kunzite into it, and into his way of
thinking about Dark Bug. "I'm waiting."
***