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Sailor Moon: Holy Knights of Valor
Chapter 2 - Nephrite
By A-kun
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Queen Beryl snarled loudly as she watched Jadeite's last moments.
"NEPHRITE!" Queen Beryl bellowed.
Nephrite appeared before his queen. About 6'5", the tall general looked rather masculine save his wavy brown hair that reached down to the middle of his back. His brown eyes showed that he may be a servant of the queen, but he was no laughing matter.
"Yes, your majesty?" Nephrite asked.
"You are now my general. I want you to collect energy from the humans AND deal with those damn brats!" Queen Beryl declared.
"I will, your majesty." Nephrite said.
"However, with the Sailor brats and this knight, I think it would be best if you brought Zanis." Queen Beryl said.
Nephrite froze. Zanis was one of the few Old Ones. He had been in the Dark Kingdom as a General when Queen Beryl had taken the throne.
"ZANIS!" Queen Beryl bellowed.
"You _bellered_, you over-inflated sack of hooey?" Zanis asked, fading in next to Nephrite.
Zanis looked about ninety-six, a long white beard ran down from his chin. His fierce grey eyes, however, showed greater power than even Nephrite had. He leaned heavily on an old staff with his right arm. He wore thick gray robes and wore fuzzy pink slippers with bunnies on them.
Beryl's eyes narrowed at the sight of the great and old warrior. Nephrite wondered if age had given Zanis a death wish.
"Don't use that tone with me." Beryl growled.
"Beryl, I can remember a great deal of time before you were even conceived. My power rivals, if not surpasses, yours. It's only for Metallia's sake that I even bother coming to you." Zanis snapped back.
Beryl's snarled.
"And don't bother trying to frighten me. Your bark is worse than your bite. If fact, it even sounds worse. Have you been eating frogs again?" Zanis asked.
The court was silent as Beryl's eyes glowed with fury. She unleashed a tremendous blast at the old warrior. Zanis raised his left hand. The blast was stopped cold turkey by an invisible shield. Nephrite watched with mixed emotions. Respect for the old man, fear for his life and surprise as Beryl's blast was stopped. Finally, Beryl stopped her attack. Zanis lowered his hand and turned to Nephrite.
"Come on, let's go before she starts ranting on and on about respect for the queen. You have much to learn, young Nephrite." Zanis said, turning.
Nephrite glanced at Beryl, then followed the old man.
Nephrite watched as Zanis called forth a servant.
"Ted here can help you gather energy, Nephy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got more pressing matters to attend to." Zanis said, leaving.
Nephrite blinked as Ted appeared. Ted looked like an average human. In fact, Ted WAS an average human.
"Hi." Ted said.
"You're only an ordinary human..." Nephrite commented.
"A normal human by DAY, by night, I work retail." Ted replied
Nephrite wondered what the hell Ted was talking about.
"Anyhow, I've been studying Jadeite's collecting patterns and I've noticed one large flaw. It was always stationary and painfully obvious as people started having serious mood changes." Ted explained, pointing to a picture of one of Jadeite's plan failing miserably.
Nephrite recalled that battle. It was one where Jadeite had placed energy stealing devices in a bunch of stupid clocks and had everyone hype up so he could get more and more energy. The youma that he had sent, however, was a good one, but lacked very much battle experience.
"So, what's your plan?" Nephrite asked.
Ted smiled evilly.
"A suprisingly easy one, in theory. However, you'll have to ask for a bit of power from the great Metallia." Ted replied.
Nephrite frowned.
"I don't want to push it just because I'm the new head general." Nephrite replied.
"Just assure Metallia and Beryl that your strategy is nearly perfect." Ted replied.
"Tell me the plan first." Nephrite responded.
"All right, do you know why energy collection is so difficult?" Ted asked.
"It requires a great deal of energy to form a large enough container for the energy." Nephrite answered, a tad of annoyed.
"And do you know why you can't steal energy from humans when their bodies are prepared for battle?" Ted asked.
"Child's play. The adrenaline in their blood lowers the amount of energy that can be drained." Nephrite snapped.
"So, we've determined that drawing energy is easiest when humans are relaxed and that large energy collectors use larger amounts of energy. So, tell me, why did Jadeite's plans fail?" Ted inquired.
"He was usually making the effect too obvious. You said so earlier." Nephrite stated, growing impatient.
"Right. Now, if you could mask the energy collector's effect as something else, would you be found out easily?" Ted asked.
"....no." Nephrite said, seeing where the plan was going.
"Now, we've determined that the greater the amount of energy you want to draw in, the larger the container you need and thus the more the power you require to make that container. Now, what's going to attract more attention: a lot of people falling unconscious around a particular location or an occasional person falling unconscious in random parts of the town?" Ted asked.
"The latter.......I see what you're getting at. If we place thousands of small energy collectors all around the city on hot days, we could gather enough energy!" Nephrite exclaimed.
"Bingo. You're beginning to catch on as to how things work." Ted replied.
"But, the energy needed to make THAT many....that's why you wanted me to talk Beryl and Metallia out of some power." Nephrite said.
"Exactly." Ted replied.
"Thanks a lot, Ted." Nephrite said, leaving.
"No problem." Ted said.
Nephrite left. Zanis reappeared next to Ted.
"Lord Zanis, I do believe we have a new ally. Once we get a hold of a tiny bit of Beryl's energy, we'll be able to drain her completely." Ted said.
Zanis smiled.
"Good. Now, can you explain to me how to program my VCR? I wanna get the Simpsons tonight..." Zanis began.
Usagi relaxed. Jadeite was gone. Now, there wasn't anything to worry about. Then, she noticed something.
"Ami, can't you get Rockman to do anything except guard the Temple and play with all the kids who have Nerf toys?" Usagi asked.
"I'm afraid not. At least he's becoming popular with the kids..." Ami commented as she typed on her Mercury computer near Usagi.
"Yeah. Ami, you're simply stunning sometimes." Ben commented, sitting down between the two girls.
"You lucky dog!" Shigeru said.
Ben groaned as he noted his friend walking up the steps to the temple. Shigeru had a perverted smile on.
"Shigeru-" Ben began.
"THAT'S why you wanted me to work last night! You wanted me outta the way so you could have both these fine ladies to yourself!" Shigeru said, smiling widely.
Ben smacked his hand onto his forehead and slid it down his face, trying to regain his composure.
"THAT'S NOT IT YOU MORON!" Ben yelled.
"Then, praytell, what WERE you doing last night?" Shigeru asked.
"Now, how the heck am I supposed to answer that without you getting some perverted idea?" Ben asked rheotorically.
"There's no way." Shigeru replied, grinning evilly.
"I thought not." Ben replied, shaking his head.
"Anyhoo," Shigeru said, sitting down next to Serena, "I thought I'd come here and find out why the heck you've been so secretive lately."
"Secretive?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, you've been messing around with Ami and Usagi. Not to mention you got that Temple Babe to notice you. I figure either the four of you were doing something naughty," Shigeru said, smiling lecherously before regaining his composure, "Or you gotta a secret."
"Yeah, I've gotta secret. But I can't tell you without having to kill you immediately afterwards." Ben responded.
"Damn. One of those, eh? Ah well. You wanna go to the beach this weekend? Me and the rest of the team are going to go during break. Coach says playing volleyball in sand will help us on the court, though I think he's a little messed up in the head." Shigeru commented.
"Sure, what the hey. Break is in a few weeks, right?" Ben asked.
"Yeah. Hey, Usagi. You and Ami can come too. Heck, invite any of your other friends, too. My aunt's owns a hotel and she said we'd get to stay for half-price." Shigeru said.
"Sure! I LOVE the beach!" Usagi commented, smiling widely.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to go." Ami commented.
Rei stepped out of the temple and noted the small group.
"What's going on?" Rei asked.
"Yo, Rei. We're planning on heading to the beach during break, you wanna come?" Usagi asked.
"The beach? SURE! I'd love to!" Rei said, smiling.
Shigeru and Ben looked at each other.
"Twins separated at birth?" Ben commented.
"Doubt it. After all, their hair color is different." Shigeru replied.
"Well, Usagi's got blond hair while the rest of her family has dark hair." Ben offered.
"You're right. That's kinda unusual, ain't it? Ah well, see ya, Ben. I gotta get home, or Mom'll spaz." Shigeru said, racing off.
"Damn, that reminds me. I gotta get going too." Ben said, grabbing his bookbag.
"Bye, Ben." Usagi said, waving.
"Except for Shigeru's lecherous side, they're both very nice boys, wouldn't you agree, girls?" Luna asked, hopping onto the railing next to Rei.
"Hey, where have you two been, anyway?" Usagi asked.
Rei frowned, "Usagi, you know that I have to meditate everyday."
"But you usually do it earlier in the day, don't you?" Usagi asked.
"Actually, it's usually later in the day unless something's troubling me. But I decided I needed to clear my thoughts. Actually defeating a Dark Kingdom General might've gotten to my head if I didn't realized that we were really lucky." Rei said, sitting down.
"True. I couldn't even hurt him the last time I tried to take him on." Usagi said, sighing.
"Usagi, you shouldn't blame yourself. After all, the Generals have probably had years, if not decades to practice with their magic. We've only had a few weeks at most." Ami replied.
"Yeah, I guess. Anyhow, where WERE you, Luna?" Usagi asked.
"I was out scouting for Dark Energy. I'm almost certain that Jadeite was only the beginning. We'll have to be on our guard if they decide to attack again." Luna answered.
"That's true." Rei said, frowning.
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