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. Men in Black and all related characters are the property of Lowell Cunningham and Marvel Comics. So, please, don't sue me because I haven't any money. I do this strictly for entertainment purposes, not copyright infringement.

Scouts In Black
by Jeffrey C. Branch
Chapter Four: Very Uneasy Allies
Rating: PG

"A-CHOOOOOOO!"

"Bless you, Raye," said Serena as she brought Raye a steaming hot cup of tea over to Raye as she lay in her bed, her nose red and her eyes bleary. Serena walked gingerly with the cup, careful not to spill it.

The Shinto Priestess warily watched Serena as she approached her. The last thing she needed right now was for her accident prone best friend to spill the hot liquid on her. And she was already annoyed because she had no idea how she had gotten sick.

Thanks to Agent Kay and his neuralizer, Raye's memories of nearly suffocating earlier in the afternoon during the Scouts' battle with Kragg had been wiped clean. She couldn't remember the alien monster spitting a vile greenish substance on her face that hardened almost instantly, cutting off her air, or Sailor Mercury having to freeze it until it shattered. But the end result of being directly exposed to sub zero temperatures was that it left Raye with a bad head cold.

"If you really wanna bless me, find an ax and chop my head off," growled Raye in a heavily nasal voice. Accepting the cup, Raye suspiciously eyed the tea, then Serena. "Not to sound ungrateful because you're playing nurse, but did you brew this? I don't feel like being poisoned."

Serena stuck her tongue out at Raye. "I love you too, wiseguy. Grandpa made the tea, so relax."

"I'll relax when my head's clear. I can't for the life of me figure out how I got this darn cold." Raye sipped at the tea and it's warmth soothed her considerably. "Mmmm, good. Did you and Amy get into trouble with your teacher after you skipped out on him?"

"Nah. He was so rattled by what happened in front of the embassy, he didn't even notice we were gone." Serena sat down on a chair next to Raye's bed, leaned back, then fell over, eliciting a howl of pain as she bumped her head. Raye sighed and rolled her eyes. "Ouch! What about you?"

"I was in the middle of a free period, so no one missed me." Raye paused to blow her nose, the sound not unlike a honking goose. Serena started to giggle, but an angry stare from Raye made her think otherwise. "One of the advantages of going to a private school and having a flexible schedule. But I'm guessing Lita and Mina might catch some grief."

Serena shrugged as she righted her chair and sat back down. "Goes with the territory I guess." She then paused and a frown crossed her face.

Raye picked up on that right away and cocked an eyebrow from curiosity. "What's wrong, Sere?"

"I'm not sure. Something's been nagging at me ever since I got back from town, and I don't know what it could be."

"Like what? Missing lunch?"

Serena glared at dark haired girl. "I'm serious, Raye! I feel like I've forgotten something very important about what happened down there this afternoon. It's been bugging me something awful."

Now it was Raye frowned. She felt the same way but didn't know how to put her feelings into words. "Hmm. Come to think of it, that's been on my mind too. As if we don't have enough to worry about already, what with those psycho twins out there."

"Yeah. Too bad Talia's not here. She could use her powers to figure out this memory stuff."

Raye shook her head after another sip of tea. "Kill that noise. I love Tal like a sister, but I don't like her poking around inside my head. Once was enough back when we were in Philadelphia."

Serena cackled mischievously. "What's wrong, Raye? Afraid she'll find out how ga-ga you are over Chad?"

"Chad? Me? Get lost, you clown!" snarled Raye, finding the strength to throw a pillow at Serena's head.

Somewhere in Tokyo....

For the last twelve years, the residents of the most populous city on Earth had no idea that a sprawling, futuristic compound which monitored local extraterrestrial activity lay beneath Tokyo Station. Never before had the saying, 'hide in plain sight' rang truer.

Second in size only to MIB headquarters in New York, the Tokyo branch was busier than normal with activity as Agent Emme ordered her staff to launch a city wide search for the alien monster she had fought along with Kay and Jay. After descriptions of Kragg, and his unlikely human partners, the Yoshida twins had been given to agents, they swiftly left on their search.

Meanwhile, Kay, Jay and Emme, after having showered and changed into clean suits delivered their report on their encounter with Kragg to Zed back at HQ. From the deep scowl creasing his face, he wasn't at all pleased with what he had been told.

"Judging from what I heard, I gotta say you hotshots didn't exactly cover yourselves in glory over there," growled Zed over a video feed on a monitor in Emme's office.

"Nobody's perfect. At least we kept a lot of innocent bystanders from winding up toe-tagged," Kay replied. "Remember, this was our first contact with a Zargonian. Hell, even I didn't know what to expect. It's a wonder none of us got killed."

"Kay's right! Kragg is one bad mamma-jamma!" said Jay. "A tail that shoots acid, force fields and grenade launchers that pop out of his forearms, he's a walking arsenal! The dude's a card carrying holy terror!"

"So's my first wife before her fifth cup of coffee in morning. You accepted the risks when you put on the suit," Zed grumbled. "What about those two broads who helped him? What's their story?"

"No idea. They possess powerful mental abilities. Telekinesis for one, telepathy for the other. They may be mutants, I can't say for sure," Kay replied with a shrug.

"Delightful. And how do the Sailor Scouts figure into this?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. They were already slugging it out with Kragg and the twins when we arrived. Emme says the Scouts are the local superheroes around here, if you believe in that sort of thing." Kay then turned to Emme. "What do you know about them?"

"Not much, sir. They first appeared about two years ago, fighting garish creatures that may or may not have been aliens, but we don't know since they never leave any remains behind for us to examine," Emme explained nervously. "The Scouts' battles are usually out of public view, but sometimes, they wind up in incidents like what we were in the middle of today. We've tried to keep tabs on them, but they're as elusive as they are powerful. Depending on who you talk to, the Scouts are either loved or hated by the populace while the police look at them as dangerous vigilantes."

"You think those kids are E.T.'s?" Jay asked.

Emme shrugged. "Nobody knows. We suspect they might be since they're named after the planets in our solar system. Given the incredible powers they have, it isn't possible that they're human. Beyond that, our information about them is painfully scarce."

"Well, that's not your problem anymore. Since Kay zapped their brains, the Scouts won't remember Kragg, so they won't get in your way," said Zed. "People, I want that rat bastard found. Fast. It's clear Kragg's here to assess our strengths and defenses as a prelude to an invasion. And if that happens, everyone on this rock can bend over and kiss their keisters goodbye. Got me?"

"One hundred percent," said Kay.

"But how are we supposed to find that creature-feature?" Jay wanted to know. "Tokyo ain't exactly Mayberry. He's got plenty of places to hide."

"Well that's what you rocket scientists get paid the big bucks to figure out! So get busy, Sherlock!" And the screen went dark.

"What big bucks?" Jay muttered.

"So, how do we handle this?" asked Emme, silently grateful that Kay omitted her outburst of recklessness during the agents' encounter with Kragg in his report to Zed.

"Well, Jay's right about one thing. Even we can't search a city the size of Tokyo for Kragg. And if he's masquerading as a human, that makes things harder," said Kay, thoughtfully stroking his chin. "Emme, what's happening with Kragg's ship?"

"I checked with the crew at the crash site ten minutes ago. They just finished and are cleaning up," Emme replied. "The ship's still in pieces in the crater. Why do you ask?"

"Once Kragg's completed his assessment, his next move will be to contact Zargonia and tell the fleet to come running. But with his ship wrecked, he can't so much as call around the corner, never mind the next galaxy. That gives us some time."

Emme was puzzled. "Time? Time for what?"

"Sounds like you got a plan," Jay said with a smirk.

"Sure do, Slick. I'm thinking Kragg might return to the crash site to salvage equipment from his ship. We'll hide out there and wait for him to show up. Then we take Captain Ugly on a one-way ride to Ambush City."

"What about his lady friends?" Emme asked. "If one of them's a telepath, they'll know we'll be lying in wait before they arrive."

"I've got an idea in mind for that, pardon the pun. I've already taught Jay a few tricks to counteract telepaths, and I've got time to teach you the basics. Like Zed said, let's get busy."

"Righteous! Kragg and those twins are enough of a problem. It's a good thing we don't have to worry about the Scouts on top of that," said Jay.

After a long, hot shower, Amy, wrapped up in a thick, powder blue terrycloth robe padded into her bedroom and sat down at her desk where her minicomputer lay. She was eager to download the data stored from this afternoon's incident with the malevolent women the Scouts fought.

Something else happened out there today. But I can't put my finger on it, thought Amy, her brows furrowed. I need to figure out what that was.

Ever since the battle ended, Amy had been troubled by a faint memory she couldn't recall, and hoped that video recorded from her VR visor would provide the answer she needed. Removing a Firewire cable from a drawer, Amy hooked one end of the cable to a port on the minicomp and the other to her Apple G4 Powermac, then turned it on. Amy brushed her hair while waiting for the machine to boot up, once it did, the data from the minicomp was quickly downloaded onto the hard drive of her main machine as a streaming video file in thirty seconds.

Once the download was completed, Amy played the file, anxious to see if it would fill in the blanks. The blue haired girl watched the following: she and Sailor Moon facing the enthralled protestors inside the American Embassy....outside the building as she, Moon and Tuxedo Mask confronted the villainous twins....lastly, a panoramic view of downtown as she and the others were sent soaring from the embassy by a telekinetic force blast. Amy's face was impassive until the next segment. Then her eyes widened and her face paled from shock.

"Oh, my God," she whispered. "What....what is this?"

What the stunned Amy saw was the assembled Scouts facing a mindbending, terrifying horror with four arms, a tail and an exoskeleton that made it armored like a tank. Leaning forward in her chair until she was only a foot away from the monitor screen, Amy watched as she and her friends battled the huge monster, throwing everything they had at it, only to see the creature come back for more while dealing with the twins who battled alongside the beast. Watching the video, her mouth agape, Amy's mind reeled helplessly from utter confusion.

"When did this happen? And why can't I remember it?" she wondered.

A cold sliver of fear creeped up Amy's spine as she continued to watch the battle with the monster. Then, with a gasp, she watched as a trio of black clad newcomers, two men and a woman join the fray, shooting at the beast with futuristic looking handguns, staggering the brute. Amy's breath caught in her throat as the monster caused the gas main explosion, finally, she saw one of the black suited men, a middle aged Caucasian in sunglasses hold up a tubular, silver object and press a button on the instrument and a blinding flash of light enveloped her.

With a trembling hand, Amy paused the video and, leaning close to the screen, replayed the portion where the man in black hit everyone with that blinding light. Playing that portion again, Amy saw that the Caucasian's partners, a younger African-American man and a Japanese woman were also wearing sunglasses when he used his instrument. Stopping the video, Amy sat back in her chair and tried to make sense of what she had seen. She found the endeavor difficult.

"Could something in that strobe have altered my memory of the battle with that creature?" she mused. "If so, could the others have been similarly affected? I have to find out!"

Rising from her chair, Amy walked to her nightstand where her communicator lay and activated it. "Everyone! Come in, please! This is Amy! I need you all to come to my place immediately!"

Lita was first to respond. "What's up, Ames?"

"I discovered something about that battle we were in this afternoon. Something terrifying!"

"What do you mean by that?" Mina asked.

"It's hard to describe. I'll have to show you."

"I don't think Raye should come," said Serena. "She's in bad shape from a cold she caught."

"Like hell I am! You're not my freaking mother!" Raye was heard to yell angrily. The Shinto Priestess then spoke into her own communicator. "Count me in, Amy! I'll be right there!"

Amy breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I'll be waiting for you. Out."

Once the connection terminated, Amy returned to her desk and viewed the video footage from the very beginning. The chill she felt from watching it wouldn't leave her, despite the thick robe she wore.

"What on Earth are we up against?" she wondered.

In an apartment in a quiet suburb of Yokohama, Seika Yoshida, having just come out of the bath walked up to Sika in the hall. The frown she saw on her younger sister's face worried her.

"I do have to be a mind reader to know something's bothering you. What is it?" Seika asked.

Sika, having already bathed, put an index finger to her lips. "Tall, dark and not too handsome is sleeping it off on the couch. With his temper, I don't want to disturb him. Know what I mean?"

"I'm afraid do," Seika replied with a nod. "So, what do you think about our rather interesting houseguest?"

"Other than he's a walking nightmare, plenty. If that joker's from another planet like he said, then I doubt he's here to see the sights," said Sika. "After watching him fight the Scouts, I think he's some sort of soldier. Maybe he's the advance man for an invasion force."

Seika snorted. "You've watched too many cheesy sci-fi movies. I doubt that's the case."

"Oh, really? Then what about those jerks in the black suits? They had 'X-Files' written all over them. And Kragg knew who they were! Called them MIB, whatever that meant!"

"That's insignificant."

"Insignificant my ass! Those Flash Gordon rayguns they used on Kragg were no joke! Seika, I'm starting to think we've stepped in the middle of something that's way over our heads!"

"Nonsense. And now your voice is rising. Let's discuss this in private."

The twins went into Seika's bedroom and closed the door behind them. After sitting down on the bed, Seika fixed her sister a hard look. "Look, Kragg's appearance here could well be manna from heaven. Because he came from another world, that means he possesses technology far greater than ours. He could help us in our mission."

Sika, unconvinced, shrugged. "Maybe. But can we really afford to trust him? We have no idea what his agenda is, or why he's here. What if he's setting us up for a fall?"

Seika crossed her arms and frowned. "I can't believe that. If Kragg's out to pull a con job, why then did he help us escape from the Sailor Scouts this afternoon?"

"Beats me. But we need to watch him. Kragg may have helped us today, but that doesn't mean he won't stab us in the back tomorrow. Have you tried reading his mind to figure out what he's all about?"

"No. To tell you the truth, Sika, I'm not too eager to try," Seika replied, a brief look of fear, and pain crossing her face. "The human mind is scary enough. Especially those consumed with thoughts of violence like those vermin we faced fifteen years ago. I'm still having nightmares about what I saw when I touched their minds. I don't even want to think about what might be in the head of a monster like Kragg."

Sika, seeing how distressed Seika was clasped her sister's hand and squeezed it tight. "I know the feeling, sis. I live with that pain too. Each and every day. That's why we've sworn to do all we can to fight those bastards. Kragg's either going to be a help, or a hinderance. We've gotta find out which before it's too late."

Seika mulled over what she had been told and nodded. "Okay. I'll give it a try. Let's do it now while he's still asleep."

After throwing on some clothes, Seika led her sister out of the room and they padded into the living room where they found the disguised Kragg awake, his feet propped up on the coffee table and watching sumo wrestling. He turned to smirk at the twins. "Hiya, kids. Done talking about me?"

The Yoshidas were taken by surprise. "You heard us?" Sika asked.

"Yup. Your whispering in the hall carried, and I figured you weren't yakking about Christian Window either," Kragg replied matter-of-factly.

"That's 'Dior'. And kindly take your feet off the furniture," said Seika.

With a chuckle, Kragg complied. "I can guess at what you were talking about. You're wondering if you can trust me, if I'll doublecross you down the road. The paranoia humans display is so predictable."

"In some cases, paranoia keeps us alive. Okay, buddy, let's cut to the chase. Are we going to have to watch our backs around you?" Sika asked.

"Not at all. Like I said downtown, you two fascinate me. And you've got a mean streak I really admire," Kragg replied. "I'm curious. Why are you so bent out of shape about foreigners?"

"We....suffered at the hands of barbaric Americans when we were young," Seika replied haltingly.

Kragg cocked an eyebrow. "Suffered?"

"We were raped. Sodomized. Brutalized. Ever since then, Sika and I have hated foreigners. Especially Americans like those men in black you mentioned. What about you?"

"I'm on a mission to survey planets for possible trade agreements with my world," Kragg said with a straight face.

"Right. Tell us another story, daddy," an openly skeptical Sika retorted. "What's the real reason?"

"Okay, the real reason. I'm an advance scout for a warrior race that lives for combat and conquest. To put it bluntly, we're some serious asskickers. The Zargonian Ruling Council decided that Earth is the next target. My job is to check out the competition, their strengths, weaknesses, defenses, anything and everything I can, then report back to my world. From there, a Zargonian fleet will come to Earth and sack the place. Happy?"

The twins looked at each other in wide eyed shock. After several moments, they turned back to Kragg, expressions of naked awe on their faces. "Cool! Can we help?" Sika asked.

"I feel like I'm riding shotgun with a bank robber," grumbled Mina, glaring at Raye and the white surgical mask she wore over her nose and mouth. The girls, along with Luna and Artemis had quickly gathered at the condominium complex Amy lived at and were headed for her front door. "Do you have to wear that thing in public, Raye? It's bloody embarrassing."

"It's either this or spread my germs around! This cold I've got is no joke!" growled Raye, her voice muffled by the mask. "Just say the word, sweetie, and I'll gladly plant a big fat wet one on you and share my misery."

Mina made a face of disgust. "I'll pass, darling. We're not that close."

"Thank God for small miracles."

"Enough banter you two!" Artemis snapped. "This could be serious! Amy sounded like he was on the edge of panic."

"Yes, And that concerns me. Amy doesn't rattle easily. She must have found something particularly disturbing," Luna mused.

"Maybe it has something to do with those weird feelings we've all been having," Lita suggested. When she and Mina, fresh from detention at their respective schools met downstairs in the lobby with Serena and Raye, the girls hastily compared notes and discovered they were all plagued by a nagging but unreachable memory.

A pouting Serena let out a long, heavy sigh. "Terrific. Something tells me this whole weekend is about to go right down the toilet."

When the group rounded a corner in the hallway, they saw the door to Amy's apartment already open and the blue haired girl standing just outside. The others all saw right away how anxious she looked.

"Hi, Ames. What's up?" Serena asked.

"I've got something very important to show you all. Come in."

The group followed Amy inside as she headed straight to her bedroom. Once inside, Amy closed and locked the door, then sat down at her computer while everyone gathered around her.

"Okay. Here it is." Amy then clicked on the file folder and the video began playing. The girls and the familiars watched carefully, curious to see what Amy was talking about. When the footage with Kragg and MIB ran, the girls were shocked, their eyes wide and their mouths open from disbelief.

"Judas H. Priest!" Lita whispered, stunned like everyone else. "Did all that really happen? We actually fought some four-armed creepazoid? I'll be damned if I can remember it!"

"Same here, love. It's incredible," said a shocked Mina. She turned to Amy with a questioning look in her eyes. "Is this the memory that's been nagging at us? How is it you remembered it, Amy?"

"I didn't. These images were recorded through my visor during the course of the battle," Amy explained. "Believe me, guys, I was just as shocked as you were when I first watched the video."

"Then why can't we remember what happened?" Raye demanded.

"I believe this is why." Amy tapped a couple of keys and replayed the portion of the video that showed Kay flashing the blinding light of his neuralizer at everyone. "That man in the sunglasses used a device which wiped out our memories of the battle this afternoon."

"But it didn't work all the way," Serena pointed out. Like everyone else, she was having a hard time figuring it all out. "I wonder why?"

"Hmm. I think I know the answer. Even though you girls are human, your physiology reverts to your extraterrestrial origins when you morph into Scout form," Luna replied. "Remember, none of you had been born on this world a thousand years ago. Perhaps the instrument that man used was designed to work on human brains, but since you, for lack of a better term, become alien after you transform, that gadget failed to completely erase your memories."

Amy nodded. "That's my theory. My guess is the blinding light emitted from the instrument that man used was some sort of electrostatic neural pulse that affected the right hemispheres of our brains via our optical nerves, putting us all in an instantaneous, trance-like state, not unlike hypnosis, leaving us open to suggestion. While in that state, we were told what to remember....and what to forget."

"That sounds absolutely insidious!" Artemis hissed.

Lita smacked a fist into her palm and let loose a loud and violent stream of profanity that would have shamed a drunken sailor and openly unnerved the others. "That really pisses me off! Who the hell are those clowns to mess around with our heads?"

Amy sighed from nervousness. She was leery about voicing her suspicions about MIB to the others, but felt she had no choice. "I believe those men are part of a super secret organization that hunts rogue aliens hiding on Earth. That monster we fought today must be their target. And I think that....gadget they used keeps the public in the dark about their activities by erasing people's memories about them."

The girls and the familiars gasped from shock. "What? Are you serious?" an incredulous Raye asked Amy.

"Very. There's been chatter on the Internet about these mysterious 'men in black' for years. The fact that they showed up here proves they're for real. Just like that monster we fought."

"And those twins?" Luna asked.

"I'm sure they're human. I suspect their powers are probably the result of a mutation, not unlike Seamus Duncan. As for why they're helping that creature, I can't explain it."

"Ugh. The more I hear, the less I like," Serena grumbled. It was times like this that she hated being a superhero. Especially when her duties as Sailor Moon got in the way of her weekend fun. "What do we do from here?"

"Well, that monster had to have arrived here in a spaceship. And he had to have landed somewhere near Tokyo," Amy replied. "I'll try to access NASA's satellite tracking systems and see if they registed any, er, unidentified flying objects over the last several hours. Why don't you guys go in the living room and make yourselves at home? This could take awhile."

Serena checked her wrist watch and grinned from ear to ear. "Cool! Right on time! Yu-Gi-Oh's about to come on!" Raye rolled her eyes as a giggling Serena rushed into the living room.

Mina shrugged. "Why not. Beats going home to spill over schoolbooks."

"That's 'pour over schoolbooks', angel," said Lita with a chuckle, draping an arm over the blonde's shoulders and pulling her close.

"Whatever!"

Amy shook her head and grinned as everyone left. She then accessed the NASA website and began what she figured to be a long search.

Fortty-five miles south of Tokyo, nightfall….

The area where Kragg's ship crashed was cordoned off. There were no vehicles in the area, nor were there any sign that MIB personnel were in the vicinity. At least no one that could be readily seen.

Hiding behind three thick trunked trees spaced around the crash site twenty feet away for the last three hours, Kay, Jay and Emme waited for Kragg and the Yoshidas to arrive as Kay figured they would. The veteran agent calmly scanned the area every ten minutes with a handheld motion detector for any sign of the villainous trio while Jay stewed from youthful impatience and Emme was openly nervous about a second encounter with the monstrous Zargonian.

"Yo! Kay! You sure Kragg and his crazy girlfriends will show?" Jay whispered into his communicator.

"Absolutely. Why? Got a hot date tonight, Romeo?" Kay replied.

Jay chuckled. "You never know, homes. After all, chicks dig dudes dressed in black."

"That so? Then you should've been a mortician. Girls would die to meet you. Literally."

"You're just jealous, my brother. Like I told you when we first met, I make this suit look good."

Emme was puzzled at the banter. "How can the two of you make jokes at a time like this?

"Easy, Mama-san. It helps to keep us loose and ready to go into action when the shit hits the fan," said Jay in a casual tone.

"Jay's right. When you hunt the kind of bad guys that we do, you can't afford to let nerves get in the way," said Kay. He heard the edginess in Emme's voice and began to wonder if he should have left her behind at the office. Kay was concerned that Emme's lack of combat experience could wind up being a problem. "Short and sweet, Emme, freeze in the field and you end up frozen in the morgue."

Emme gulped quietly. The meaning in Kay's words were all too clear to her. But her resolve failed to waver. She was determined to see this through and become a Special Agent, no matter what.

At that moment, Kay's motion detector softly beeped. He looked at the tiny screen and saw a blip. "Hold on. I've got a bogey at ten o'clock. Showtime, people."

Jay checked the safety on his weapon. "Righteous. Let's dance."

Emme, her heart in her throat, was silent. She looked at how her hands were shaking as she held her weapon. Don't give in to fear, Mariko, she admonished herself. You can do this! You're just as good as Jay! No, better! All I have to do is prove it!

"Remember to concentrate on what I taught you two about mind masking," Kay hissed. "We don't want that telepath picking up our thoughts. When I move, you move. Clear?"

"As glass. I'm ready, partner," said Jay, his confidence high as usual.

"Same here," Emme replied. Taking a deep breath, she wasn't quite as confident as her partners, but she wasn't about to back down, or back out. Not even if it killed her.

NEXT: Boys And Toys

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