Chapter Six: Daytime Sessions                    


It had been several weeks since the theater and neither the Priests, or the Shadow senshi had resurfaced. Usagi, Minako, Ami, Rei, Makoto and Mamoru were at a malt shop, passing the time in the usual, teenage fashion, "I wonder what they're doing right now."

Mamoru's eyes slowly moved to Minako and noticed her belated sigh, and the sullen look on her face, "Who? The Priests or the Shadow senshi?"

"Both."

Usagi looked to Mamoru once, then noticed Ami was reading much slower than usual. Rei was staring at nothing out the window and Makoto sighed, stirring her milkshake bit boredly. After a moment, Usagi got a devious grin on her face and planted her chin on her hands.

"You guys are stuck on them, aren't you?"

"What?" Rei said, snapping out of her trance and looking to Usagi with a look of surprise on her face. Mamoru put his hand to his face as the yelling would begin, but Usagi giggled wickedly and leaned a bit closer to Rei.

"You guys like the Shadow senshi. Even you, Rei. I saw how you were eyeing Yamito."

"I think your odangos have finally cut the air off to your brain, Usagi." Rei seethed back and put her fists on the table. Usagi just grinned even more wickedly and made a small circle on the table with her finger.

"Come on, Sailor Mars? Shadow Mars? Match made in heaven? Besides, Yamito is really cute."

"So why don't you date him then?" Rei snapped and looked back out the window, silently seething but not totally convinced that what Usagi was saying was false.

Usagi just grinned and looked at the rest of them, leaning close to Mamoru and hugging his arm lightly, "All of you like the Shadow senshi. Just admit it, and maybe you'll be as happy as me and my Mamo-chan."

"Ridiculous." Ami said bluntly and placed her nose into her book even more, acting as if she wasn't part of this conversation.

"Oh, so you four have been moping around for the last couple of weeks not because of the Shadows, but because....."

Usagi trailed off and waited for an answer, but nothing came for a moment. Makoto just looked at her with her straw hanging out of her mouth, Minako cleared her throat a bit and played with her hair and Ami stayed firmly in her books. Usagi laughed triumphantly and sat back, proud at making her point. Rei finally looked over at her and seethed, growling in a deep voice, "Just because, you odango atama."

Usagi took that as Rei's surrender and shook a finger at her, "The cool, collected Rei has a cruuuuuuush." By now Rei was leaning across the table to choke her with one of her odangos.


It was about noon when the Outer senshi gathered to train in some woods outside of the city, and the sun beat down on them from behind some low clouds. Taking a moment to talk it over, the three senshi stood in a small circle and Super Sailor Pluto looked to the others with a worried look, "These new enemies are strong. I'm afraid the Sailor senshi won't be enough to stop them."

"You don't have to stay out here with us, Setsuna. Isn't your job at the Time Gate more important?"

Super Sailor Pluto looked at Super Sailor Uranus with a blink and shook her head lightly, "No, it's fine. I have been given permission to help in this fight."

"Then perhaps we could join you." The voice startled them all and they looked up find see all the Shadow senshi floating in the air, looking down at them, "Sorry to startle you." Shadow Mars landed softly on the ground in front of the, soon followed by the others. Super Sailor Uranus glared at him coldly and faced them with a casual stance.

"What do you want?"

"We wish to train with you. We need see how powerful you are, to judge if we stand a chance against the Priests." He explained and looked at her with an equally cold stare. Shadow Mercury rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and spoke in a quiet tone to them.

"We would train with the others, but that would be a little.......distracting."

Super Sailor Neptune rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip, speaking in her soft dialect, "I think you'll find us more than adequate to handle the Priest. But, if you are so eager for it, I think we can accommodate you." She gave Super Sailor Uranus a quick glance and the confident grin on her face told that she was up for it as well.

Shadow Mars nodded once and turned his head to the side, "Jupiter, here's your chance to see how tough you really are. You pair with Sailor Uranus. Mercury, try and not rely so much on your triad when facing Sailor Neptune. Venus, I would hate to see Sailor Pluto hurt your face with her staff, so watch it. Does that sound like good pairs?" He slowly looked back to the three Sailor senshi and waited for an answer. Super Sailor Uranus shrugged lightly and nodded, then added an offhanded comment with it.

"What will you be doing, supervising?"

He just smirked a bit and started to walk off, calling over his shoulder to her as he did, "Meditating."


Splitting off into a clearing, Super Sailor Uranus faced Shadow Jupiter with a smirk, feeling like she was hindered by sparring him. He just uncrossed his arms slowly and rolled his neck a bit, then raised his hands in a stance she had never seen before, "Shall we begin?"

"Whenever you're ready."

Running at her quickly, he started to throw very unusual punches at her, flicking his wrists at the last second to change the place of the punch. She was a bit put off by it at first, but soon was knocking his fists away with no real effort. As the two backed up a bit, she started to counter with kicks, which were skillfully avoided by him. She was actually impressed a bit, and jumped back from him for a moment. Changing his hand positions again, he grinned widely and danced from foot to foot a bit, "Not bad, Sailor Uranus. You're a pretty good fighter."

"Pretty good? Hah, I'm going to knock that smug grin of your face. " She quipped and lunged forward at him, throwing an elbow right at his face. Turning to the side a bit, he pushed his hand along her elbow and took farther than she expected with her inertia. As she became off balance, he threw her elbow towards the ground and flipped her over, though her agility let her land on her feet and not her back. Being in the awkward position, she kicked her leg back and caught his ankle, knocking his feet out from under him and causing him to land on his back. As his weight came down, however, he kicked his legs up and then sprung back, coming to his feet again. Turning to the side quickly, he threw his forearm out to strike her, which she promptly blocked with her own forearm. The two struggled against each other for a moment, and even laughed a bit between them. As a mutual gesture, they both jumped back and landed a few feet away, ready to square off again. This time, Super Sailor Uranus twirled her Space Sword in her slender fingers and brought it to a stop along her shoulder, looking at him with a growing sense of respect, "You do well with hands, but let's see how you handle weapons."

Shadow Jupiter just grinned and reached behind his waist, then unsheathed his own sword slowly. Making a few movements with it, he stood ready with the sword along his arm, raising his eyebrows a bit, "You're speaking my language, Sailor Uranus. Let's see how that butterknife handles against my blade."


"Hey, seriously, try not to hit me in the face. I'm going to be a model someday, ya know?" Shadow Venus said looked over Super Sailor Pluto a moment, then smiled a bit weakly."

"Then perhaps someday you'll model my clothing line." She replied and returned the smile, not making any attacks just yet. His eyes seemed to brighten at he idea and he nodded a few times, then gave her the peace sign.

"For real! It's a deal. But, we better get started, okay? The boss gets ticked when I screw around." Still set in his little joke, she just blinked and nodded slowly, not yet getting the humor in his nickname for Shadow Mars. Taking her Garnet Orb staff in her hands, she waited for him to attack. "I hope you're ready, cause here it comes! Venus Passion Link!" Along his forearm, an orange glow formed and sprouted a small point at the front, which resembled the bottom end of a heart. While she watched, he pulled his arm back and winked, then thrusted his arm forward at her. The point in the glow suddenly shot out into a long whip of energy, and slowly curled towards her at great speed. Using her usual display of skill, Super Sailor Pluto leaped out of the way and let the whip sever a tree in half, then come reeling back into the point of light along his arm. Landing a few feet away, she watched the point of light return and relaxed a bit, smiling still very lightly.

"That attack looks very familiar, Shadow Venus. Did you know that one of Sailor Venus's attacks is similar to that?"

He stood straight a moment and ran his fingers through his mop of blonde hair, his brow furrowing in thought, "Really? It's just like that? Man, I thought I had a really coo......Hey, where'd you go?" He stopped and looked around with a blink, seeing her figure wasn't there anymore. Right behind him, she was coming down with her Garnet Rod staff raised to knock him over the head. Right before the contact, he looked forward and suddenly got a bad feeling in his stomach.


Super Sailor Neptune was looking around quickly for Shadow Mercury with a tensed up look on her face. She could hear a whistling noise in the distance and suddenly ducked as some object zipped past her head. She looked up to see Shadow Mercury jump out of a tree and catch the object, landing lightly and holding it ready to throw again. The object had three retractable, curved blades connected to a piece in the middle augmented by the symbol of Mercury. He didn't move for a moment and spoke in a tensed up voice himself, "I'm very impressed. The only people that dodge my triad are the Priests, and they almost always lose some clothing in the process. You're very light on your feet."

She thanked him quietly, then abruptly used her Deep Submerge attack. Jumping out of the way of the attack, he spun once in the air and hurled the triad at her one more time, it becoming nothing more than a blur in the air. It flew around a bit, then changed direction and headed straight at her. In a graceful step, she moved to the side and grabbed it out of the air. As he landed, his eyes were wide in surprise and she enjoyed his expression, then looked down to the weapon with a considerate eye, "It's very beautiful. You know what they say about things of beauty?"

"They are almost always just as deadly?" He ventured and tilted his head a bit while he watched her. She just laughed lightly and lowered the triad to her side, but something got her attention. Looking out of the corner of her eye, she say Shadow Mars kneeling under a tree, his eyes closed and face relaxed. She was disturbed as she almost saw another person with him, like an aura that superimposed itself over him, "What is Shadow Mars doing?"

Shadow Mercury looked to him also and blinked, then spoke in a reverent voice, "He's meditating, I suppose. When he was living at his Mother's shrine, he sometimes spent days like that. Sometimes he scares me with how quiet he gets, like he holds everything about himself right in those silent stares." She was almost as disturbed at his tone, as she was at Shadow Mars's face, which seemed to have just lost all life in it all together. "I hate to insist, but we should continue. You wouldn't like him when he gets interrupted from his meditation. It's not pretty." She just looked back to Shadow Mercury and nodded, walking towards him to hand his triad back, but keeping a weary on the figure sitting in his own seclusion.


Shadow Jupiter pulled his mask down around his neck and sighed, "This thing is hot. Whoever designed these damned uniforms needs to be shot."

"At least you don't have a skirt that's about two times too short for it to be anything more than a peep show." Super Sailor Uranus quipped and punched him in the shoulder as she walked by to take a new position. He rubbed his shoulder and winced, then turned to face her one more time. What he found was she had turned right around and planted her elbow into his chest, sending him flying back and into the trunk of a tree. As soon as he had hit the tree and slid to the ground, she slashed her sword across and severed the tree in half, right above his head. Her sword even cut the tops of his spikes and sent a few strands of hair falling past his face. His eyes were frozen open as he looked up and a look of terror was plastered on his face, which actually made her lose concentration and thrust the sword forward very sloppy. As her sword stabbed into the tree, he rolled out of the way and to his feet, looking at her with a gaping mouth. He patted the top of his hair affectionately and smirked, "Thanks, I needed a trim anyway."

"Quit whining, you big baby. Are you going to continue or not?"

Suddenly, he looked to the lowering sun and blinked, then lowered his sword slowly, "Oh uh, not."

"What?"

Spinning his sword around quickly, he sheathed it behind his back and looked to her with a sheepish grin, "I gotta cut this little exercise short. I have something I need to do."

Lowering her sword as well, she looked at him in disbelief and shook her head, "What could you possibly have to do that would cut this short?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's just guy stuff." She steamed a bit and wanted to really go over and punch him, but he waved her anger off and started to walk towards Shadow Mars in the distance, "Lets go back to the others." She scowled at him and followed, a little pissed he had just stopped them right in the middle. He eyed her a moment and laughed at her expression, then ran his hand through his hair again, "I can't believe you cut my hair."


Shadow Venus was panting heavily and threw his attack forward once more, but the slow speed at which it approached Super Sailor Pluto made her smirk and slap it out of the air effortlessly with her Garnet Orb staff. Hunching over a bit, he tried to catch his breath and shook his head, "That wasn't cool at all. That Dead Scream thing you do it a pain to avoid. You didn't have to use it three times, ya know?

"A typical model, always complaining to the designer about their techniques. Do you want to stop?"

He suddenly looked up at her with a smile and cheered, "Sure!" Realizing how loud he said it, he soon covered his mouth and blinked, then slowly looked to Shadow Mars. He was on his feet again and shaking his head at him, but Shadow Venus laughed a bit and looked back to Super Sailor Pluto, "Yeah, I think we're done now. Not that it wasn't fun, just I don't like to use all my power at once, ya know?" He rolled his head a round and waved his hand for her to follow, then started over to Shadow Mars also. She just shook her head and smiled, and continued to smile at him the whole way over there.


Shadow Mercury was dodging a barrage of Deep Submerge attacks and starting to slow up. One of them hit right next him and he managed to jump away in the nick of time, but when he rolled to his feet, he found Super Sailor Neptune's foot waiting. He reeled back from her kick and opened his eyes to find her gone, much to his dismay. He looked to the side for her and her foot connected his face once more, spinning him to the ground and breathing heavily.

She began to walk over to him as he stood up slowly, a little bit of concern in her eyes, "Maybe you should use your advanced form. Then we would be more even."

"I'm all right."

His change in tone made her stop where she was and blink at him. He was obviously frustrated at the moment and the fact he wasn't facing her made her a little cautious, "But shouldn't you train as Super senshi as well?"

"I said I'm fine!" He snapped and whipped around, hurling his triad at her with blazing speed. She barely had time to get out of the way before the triad whizzed past her head and slammed into a tree, a mere inch away from Shadow Jupiter's face.

Shadow Jupiter blinked slowly and turned his head to him, a frozen look of surprise on his face. After that passed, he tore the triad from the tree and raised it up in a fist, shouting loudly at him, "Dammit, Kurai! You almost took my head off with this thing!" Shadow Mercury removed his mask and took a few breaths, then relaxed his stance a bit and looked slowly to Super Sailor Neptune. Apologizing to her quietly, he walked past her towards Shadow Jupiter to retrieve his triad. She watched him in shock, amazed at how hot his temper was behind that quiet, refined exterior. Slowly, she followed him as well as the group started to gather around Shadow Mars.

Shadow Jupiter tossed the triad to Shadow Mercury and steamed, but he said nothing about it. Shadow Mars watched them a moment, then looked to the Sailor senshi with a lighter expression on his face, "Thank for helping us. Perhaps we will do this again."

"Anytime." Super Sailor Uranus said with a bit of a grin to Shadow Jupiter. Shadow Mars lifted off the ground and disappeared into the clouds, soon followed by the others. The three Sailor senshi watched them disappear and gathered once more back into a small group, a different outlook on the Shadow senshi than when they had gathered earlier that day. Super Sailor Uranus looked to the others candidly and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, they aren't so bad after all. I wonder why they won't use their advanced form though."






  Chapter Seven: Off Time