Author's Note: If you wish to comment on my story, either positively or negatively, don't hesitate to contact me at treetop@voicenet.com. Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. So, please, don't sue me because I haven't any money. I do this strictly for entertainment purposes, not copyright infringement.

The Frankenstein Syndrome
by Jeffrey C. Branch
Part Two: Scouts on the Run
Rating: PG-13

"Guys, I'm afraid we just killed a man."

Sailor Mercury's haunting words hung thick and heavy in the air, the raw implications of what she said staggered everyone. Luna, Artemis, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus all stood around the naked, headless body of what had once been a slavering wolf-beast they had fought, staring at it in morbid fascination while, several feet away, Sailor Moon, down on her knees, having just emptied her stomach buried her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably. But her anguished sobs couldn't drown out the wail of sirens coming ever closer.

What seemed like an eternity ago, the Sailor Scouts, in their human guises were enjoying a fun day at the city zoo when the beast attacked. Thinking it a creature from the Negaverse, they transformed and fought it, but it proved to be inhumanly fast and strong, surviving attacks from both Venus and Jupiter before Moon ended the battle with her tiara, lopping off the creature's head. That was when everything went to hell. Instead of disintegrating, the beast simply collapsed, then changed into what was left of a flesh and blood man. It was after Mercury scanned it with her VR visor that she relayed the nightmarish truth to her teammates.

Each member of the Scouts and the familiars silently mulled over what had just happened, their thoughts dark with horror. Moon's thoughts however were darker than all the others combined since hers was the hand that dealt the killing blow. Finally, it was Jupiter who summed up the situation in two words:

"This sucks!"

"And then some. How could this happen?" a visibly shaken Mars wanted to know. "Mercury?"

Mercury, punching keys on her mini-computer shook her head. "Don't look to me for answers right now, Mars. For once, I haven't any."

"Terrific," growled Mars. If Amy's in the dark, then things are really bad, she thought.

Venus, having heard the sirens turned to look behind her and frowned at seeing strobe lights. "Looks like we're about to have company. And I'm pretty sure the cops won't like what they're going to find."

"Why? All we have to do is tell them what happened!" said Artemis.

"Yeah, right! That we fought some kind of super werewolf that changed back to normal after Serena cut it's head off? Get real!" argued Venus. "They're going to want proof about this creature, proof we can't provide. And if you think the cops will just take us at our word, then I've got some beachfront property on Mount Fuji to sell you. In other words, we're screwed!"

"Sailor Venus is right. The evidence does not favor us in the slightest," said a crestfallen Luna. "It distresses me to say this, but we had better get out of here!"

"Right! Let's move!" barked Mars, taking command. "Venus, give me a hand! Jupiter, grab Moon! Hurry!"

Before the Scouts could move, uniformed police officers popped up and surrounded them with guns drawn.

Somewhere else....

Seated at the monitor screen, the balding man's jaw dropped and his eyes bulged in disbelief. Before him on the screen, flat red lines ran across it. This puzzled him since, only a few moments ago, those lines was jagged and frantic, indicating vibrant lifesigns, lifesigns that were no longer present.

"Doctor! Come quickly! The readings just flatlined! Something terminated the lifesigns of our test subject!"

The woman frowned as she walked up to the monitor. She didn't like what she saw. "But that's impossible. We engineered the subject's recuperative powers to function at increased speeds in order for it to recover instantly from any injury, no matter how severe. Do you think that electrical spike could have caused this?"

The man, brows knitted stroked his chin for a few moments before he spoke. "Unlikely. Its lifesigns had faltered, but then grew stronger as it recovered. The only possible explanation for this was that the subject's brain had somehow become detached from the rest of the body, thus depriving it's nervous system of the regenerative abilities triggered by its medulla."

"Someone cut its head off."

"I believe I just said that, Doctor. This means the subject encountered someone with power, tremendous power."

"That is not good, Doctor," the woman grumbled. "We are expected to deliver the finished products to our backers by the end of the month. Twelve days from now. With a flaw having been uncovered, this could seriously jeopardize our timetable."

The man slowly shook his head, a deep scowl on his face. "Timetables be damned, Doctor. The backers will simply have to wait. I'm more concerned with who could've possessed the strength to terminate our subject. Whoever it is, he will have to be dealt with before we can even consider moving ahead with the mass production schedule."

So, how do we combat this problem?" the woman wanted to know.

"First, we will need intelligence. Prepare another subject. But this time, we equip it to provide a video relay to us of its actions. And of whosoever should be foolhardy enough to combat it."

The woman grinned. "Excellent idea, Doctor. I will go to work."

The man returned her grin. "Excellent, Doctor."

"FREEZE! NOBODY MOVE!" yelled the lead officer, a tall, lean, hard faced man in a turtleneck and slacks with steel grey eyes. He looked at the Scouts, then the body on the ground and glowered. "You're the Sailor Scouts! Who's that on the ground? What the hell's going on here?"

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Mars said ruefully. "Mercury!"

The blue suited Scout quickly went into action. "Mercury Bubbles....BLAST!" At her command, a pea soup thick and chilling fog materialized out of nowhere, enveloping the entire area and beyond.

"Don't shoot! Nobody shoot!" the plainclothes cop yelled frantically. "We're in everyone's line of fine! Don't shoot!"

In the confusion, the Scouts bolted. Venus helped the hobbled Mars while Jupiter scooped up the still sobbing Sailor Moon in her powerful arms and they fled the chaotic scene, Luna and Artemis hot on their heels. The Scouts ran a good hundred yards before ducking into a small but heavily wooded park to rest.

"Everyone OK?" Luna asked.

"We're all here. As for OK, that's another matter," said Jupiter, cradling Moon. She gently put a hand over Moon's mouth to stifle her moaning. "What now, Mars?"

"We have to get out of here. The longer we stay, the greater our chances of getting into a fight with the police which would only make an already bad situation worse," said Mars. She stared at her right ankle which was swollen and throbbing. Then she glanced at Moon, who looked like an emotional wreck. Frowning, Mars made her decision. "Luna, Artemis, guys, take off. You'll have to leave Serena and me behind."

Venus and Mercury gasped. Jupiter was incredulous. "What? Have you lost your mind?"

"Don't argue with me, Jupiter! There's no time!" Mars hissed. "Serena's out of it and I can barely walk, much less run! We'll only slow you down! If you don't escape now, we'll never get to the bottom of this nightmare!"

"How will you get away?" Venus asked.

"Easy. We'll change back to human guise. The cops will think we're just two bystanders who got caught up in the chaos. We'll rendezvous at the temple."

"Negative! We'll go to my place instead!" countered Mercury in a rare, forceful tone that invited no arguments. "I want to download the info I scanned on that....creature into my main computer. It might give us some answers."

Mars nodded. "Works for me. Now move!"

Jupiter, scowling, wouldn't budge, and Mars knew why. She knew how much Lita loved Serena, almost as much as she herself did, although she couldn't bring herself to reveal her true feelings to Serena. From day one when Lita enrolled at Crossroads High School, Serena befriended her when no other student would go near the amazonian newcomer out of fear because of the violent reputation she had at her last school. In no time flat, Lita and Serena became closer than sisters because Lita loved to cook and Serena loved to eat, and that bond occasionally made Raye seethe from jealousy. Considering Lita had no family outside of the Scouts, what with her parents having died in a plane crash when she was young, it didn't take a genius like Mercury to know it was tearing Jupiter apart to willingly leave her friends behind.

"Lita, please," Mars pleaded, her voice cracking from emotion. She placed her hand on Jupiter's and squeezed it. "Trust me, we'll be fine. I'm begging you, go, before it's too late."

"All right! We'll go!" Jupiter growled, looking ready to erupt. "But if you two do get caught....then God help this city, 'cause I'll tear it down to find you! And that's a promise!"

Mars shivered. Jupiter, who's fury in the heat of battle matched, if not exceeded her own wasn't one for making idle threats. And with her powers, the Scout of Thunder could easily make good on her grim promise. "Don't worry. We'll be out in no time. See you later."

With a nod, Jupiter gently passed Moon to Mars who held her tight. Then, with a little salute, she, the girls and the cats left.

"Raye? What's happened? Where are we?" Moon asked in a frightened, little girl voice.

"We're still in the zoo," Mars replied softly. "But we're in trouble. The police are after us."

Moon's face fell, her eyes filled with anguish. "Because of me." She started to sob again.

Mars dropped her head. Under normal circumstances, the volatile Scout of Fire wouldn't put up with Moon's whining for so much as a second, especially since Serena was the leader of the team and was expected to be strong for everyone, something Mars relentlessly had to drum into Moon's head. But for once, Mars couldn't help but sympathize with what her friend was going through. If their positions had been reversed, Mars seriously doubted she could handle having murdered a person, even one as freakish as the wolf creature any better. Her heart ached to see Moon so grief stricken, but now wasn't the time to let her emotions show. "Hush, 'Rena, hush. We'll worry about that later. Right now, we have to change back. It's our only hope."

"Fine by me. I don't want to be Sailor Moon anymore." Moon closed her eyes and concentrated, as did Mars. Silvery light enveloped their bodies, altering their Sailor suits into regular clothes and, an instant later, Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars were gone, replaced by Serena Tsukino and Raye Hino. And not a moment too soon.

"Police! Don't move!" a cop yelled at them. He pointed his revolver at the girls.

"Uh, oh," Raye muttered.

In his eighteen years on the police force, the last twelve in Homicide, Lieutenant Hideki Fukoda thought he had seen death in all its myriad and frightening forms. Shootings, stabbings, beatings, hangings, drug overdoses, hit and runs, bombings, even the ugly underworld violence of Yakuza turf wars. But nothing prepared him for what he saw on the ground before him. Despite himself, Fukoda was amazed, even fascinated at how the headless body wasn't bleeding, the blood vessels in its neck looking to have not only been neatly severed but cauterized as well.

Nasty. I'd hate to be on the business end of the weapon that could do something like that, he thought grimly.

"Lieutenant? We found the man's, uh, head. He's not local, sir," said a young and visably nervous patrolman, walking up to him.

"What do you mean, Gito?" Fukoda demanded.

"I think he's an American. There's a tattoo of the state of Texas on the left side of his neck."

Fukoda frowned. He hadn't expected that. "And his clothes?"

"Nothing, sir. No wallet or any other identification either. We've looked."

"What's the body count?

"Including him, three dead, seven injured, one severely, all of them horribly mauled, as if by an animal. Sir, I....I've never seen anything like this before."

Fukoda grunted. He more than understood the youngster's nervousness. The entire situation went far beyond the boundaries of the bizarre. "Son, that makes two of us. Keep looking. There's no way this guy could've just waltzed in here buck naked. I want ID on him. Any sign of the Scouts?"

"No, sir. But from what little I've seen of them on television, and how fast they move, they could be halfway to Yokohama by now."

Again, Fukoda grunted. According to rumors and firsthand accounts from eyewitnesses, the Sailor Scouts were five female warriors----teenagers from what he had heard----possessed of vast superhuman powers who were locked in some sort of ongoing battle against aliens from another planet out to conquer the Earth. Having never seen them in the flesh before today, Fukoda was naturally skeptical until he saw the blue skirted Scout, Sailor Mercury summon the mother of all fogbanks out of nowhere to cover their escape. An escape from what? This? the cop wondered, staring down at the headless body. Were they responsible for this? That doesn't make sense! Those girls are supposed to be on our side! Aren't they?

"Relay this to headquarters, Gito. I want an APB put out on the Scouts. I want them found and brought in for questioning. Understand?"

The patrolman gave a stiff salute. "Yes, sir!"

As Gito left, the sound of footsteps from behind made Fukoda turn around to see another patrolman, a little older than Gito approach with two teenage girls in tow, a blonde with ridiculously long pigtails capped off on top with odangos and a brunette who limped on a bad right ankle, leaning on the cop for support.

"Where'd you find them, Hiyata?"

"Over in the park, sir. They were hiding."

Fukoda walked over and stared at the girls. The blonde, her face streaked from tears was shaking and whimpering and looked scared out of her mind while the brunette's face was drawn and taut from pain. "Okay, what's your story?"

"W-we were goofing off when that....that thing attacked!" the blonde whined.

"What thing?"

"A large, wolf-like creature, sir. It scared us out of our wits!" the brunette replied.

Now Fukoda was really puzzled. He had only been told about a riot and some maniac who was attacking people, no one mentioned anything about a creature. Could it have been one of the monsters the Scouts fight against? "And what happened after that?"

"Don't ask us! We ran! That thing looked like it was gonna kill us!" cried the blonde in a loud, screeching voice, tears rolling down her cheeks in rivers. "Oh, Go-o-o-o-o-d! It was awful!"

"Did you see the Sailor Scouts fight this thing?" Fukoda asked. The blonde's high pitched wailing was starting to get on his nerves.

The brunette shook her head while the blonde clung to her and wept. "Yes, sir! But we didn't stick around for long! We just wanted to escape from that creature before it came after us. That's how I hurt my ankle. Can we go now, sir?"

"Yeah! I wanna go ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-me!" the blonde cried.

Fukoda nodded, if only to get the annoying blonde and her childish bawling away from him. "Hiyata, call headquarters for the Coroner. Then take these two wherever they need to go."

"Yes, sir."

Watching Hiyata leave with the girls, Fukoda frowned, feeling a headache coming on. The more he heard about this incident, the less about it made sense. Now he had to deal with a creature on top of the Scouts who fled from what looked like a murder scene. What did it all mean?

"Sir? The APB's been placed," said Gito, running up to Fukoda. "And reporters have arrived at the main entrance. They must've heard about this on the police band. Do we let them through?"

Fukoda shook his head. "Not until the Coroner arrives to examine the body. Something's going on here, Gito. Something dangerous. And if it involves the Scouts and the sort of trouble they reputedly attract, it could possibly be catastrophic."

Gito looked confused. "But what, sir?"

"I don't know. But, as God is my witness, I mean to find out!"

"ARRRGGHH! This is driving me crazy!" roared a frustrated Lita, ramming a fist into a wall in the living room of the Anderson's spacious apartment. "Amy's busy playing with her toys while Raye and Serena are God only knows where! I should've stayed with them, Mina!"

"For pity's sake, Lita! Calm down! Going postal isn't going to help them! Or yourself!" said Mina, careful not say the wrong thing that would further enrage Lita who, even in human form was strong enough to snap her in two. "Raye knew what she was doing when she told us to leave. Given the situation, there was no other choice."

"Mina's right. The police saw five Sailor Scouts run off. If they found five teenage girls, they would've gotten suspicious. I'm sure Raye and Serena will be fine," said Artemis, not feeling quite as confident as he sounded.

"Raye? Yes. Serena? I'm not so sure," said a glum faced Luna, sitting at the window which faced the street as she watched for her friends. "Slaying creatures from the Negaverse is one thing, but killing a flesh and blood human being, even one as bizarre as that....man-beast is quite another. I can't help but wonder how that will affect her."

Lita eyed Luna suspiciously. "You think she's gonna crack?"

The black cat slowly nodded. "It's a definite possibility, Lita. One we should seriously consider. As much as it pains me to admit this, Serena is not the most emotionally stable member of the team. She wasn't before she received her powers, and, from the way Serena acts sometimes, precious little has changed. I'm deathly afraid this might well be the straw that finally breaks her back."

"No kidding! What did you expect, Luna? You yourself said Serena's been reluctant about being Sailor Moon from the start!" a suddenly furious Mina shouted at the cat.

"Mina! This isn't the time!" warned Artemis.

"Shut up! It's the perfect time!" Mina yelled. She then turned her attention back to Luna. "So what if Serena's not perfect! None of us are! If you ask me, she's held up pretty damn well considering what she's been through while someone twice her age might've already gone crazy! Serena's come through for us more times than I can count! She's not the type to break! Not now, not ever! Don't you dare give up on her!"

"Yeah! Serena's not gonna fold!" Lita argued hotly. "I believe in her, Luna! One hundred percent! If push came to shove, I'd die for her! We all believe in Serena! Even Raye, though she'll never admit it! Maybe you should too!"

Luna felt a large lump form in her throat. If it were possible for a cat to cry, she'd bawl her eyes out. It warmed her heart to see Serena's friends support her so ardently. Yet, at the same time, Luna felt terribly ashamed because her own faith in Serena wasn't as strong as theirs. Just then, Luna heard a car pull up outside. She looked out the window as saw a police car at the curb. Luna didn't know whether to be relieved or worried. The rear door opened and Raye hobbled out, followed by Serena.

"They're here!" Luna shouted.

Lita was first to bolt for the door, nearly tearing it off it's hinges as she flung it open and rushed out. A few minutes later, Lita carried Raye inside and sat her down on the couch. Serena, her head down trudged in behind them and closed the door. She then sat at the same window Luna had been at. Her face pale and expressionless, Serena didn't say a word to the girls, didn't even look their way. That worried them.

"You okay?" Mina asked.

Raye, looking tired and unusually somber nodded. "Yeah."

"What happened?" Lita demanded.

"After we changed back, Serena and I were questioned by the cops. We made sure to tell them about the monster," Raye explained listlessly. "You were right, Mina. I don't think they believed us. Then, one of the patrolmen drove us from the Zoo. But I'm afraid it gets worse from there."

"Worse? In what way?" Artemis asked.

Raye took a deep breath before replying. "The patrolman who brought us here told us that an All Points Bulletin has been put out on the Scouts. I think we're wanted for murder."

Next: Midtown Mayhem

GO TO CHAPTER THREE