Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part II, "Mizuno the Senshi"
Chapter 6: In which the old and the new are brought together, and valuable information is revealed

[from staff reports]--An attempted robbery was foiled yesterday by a mysterious short-skirted vigilante.

Students at Johns Hopkins University said that several disguised men burst into the classroom at approximately 12pm, and demanded an undescribed crystal. When the instructor refused, he was then shot with what has now been confirmed as a sort of tranquilizer gun.

According to eyewitness reports, a woman wearing a sort of sailor suit burst into the room and subsequently subdued the suspects. In attacks that some witnesses liked to the "Sailor Scouts" of Japanese fame, the woman incapacitated all but two of the suspects. The woman apparently called herself "Sailor M."

Japanese government officials refused to comment, as did Sailor Moon upon questioning in Japan.

-Baltimore _Sun_

"Why the mask? Why not?"

-Minako Aino, _The Autobiography of Sailor V_

"Gee Amy, what are the odds, huh?" Jen's question was directed towards an Amy who was seemingly distraught at the events that had transpired so recently. "I mean, you just *happened* to leave before the gangsters showed up-"

"I'd think that 'gangster' would be a rather melodramatic term," Amy said mildly.

"Anyway, you just happened to leave in time, and just *happened* to come back in time to help out David."

"Yeah." She shuddered. "You have no idea how scared I was when I walked in there."

Approximately six minutes after the would-be robbers were defeated (a time Amy had carefully chosen as being about the time needed to walk from her dorm to her class), Amy had returned to see three men down, a class still in shock over the attack, and a few senior premeds attending to David's wounds. Proving that her mind was at least the equal of anyone else that one cared to name, she had inspected him for a couple of minutes, after which she pronounced him to be in a sleeping state which, curiously, seemed nonharmful. This was confirmed by the EMTs who arrived seconds after this verdict.

Apparently, he had been shot with a sort of large dart. Other than slight bleeding, the round merely inserted a rather strong and potent tranquilizer into the bloodstream. As the doctors at the emergency room confirmed, there would be no permanent effects, aside from memory loss of events in the past 12-24 hours. In Amy's not-so-humble opinion, this was a small price to pay for his continued existence.

"I can take a guess," replied Jen. "But still, you missed all the excitement! Mysterious women in short skirts saving the day--I thought that sort of thing only happened in Japan!"

"Well, I suppose they're more legitimatized now," said Amy, referring to the senshi's integration into Tokyo society and the Japanese federal government.

"Yeah, well try having one of them run for president. It'd be *real* interesting."

"Um, you don't have elections for queen."

And so they whiled away the time. After a few minutes of similar conversation, Jen remembered something.

"Oh, Amy! Are you ready for the game tomorrow?"

"Game?"

"The game! Don't you remember? Opening Day's tomorrow! I asked about tickets, you know, and you said it was okay."

Ah, thought Amy, the game. A lifetime ago, before David and Sailor M and all the present confusion. Maybe it would have been better if she'd stood in bed..."Oh, of course. Silly me. What time was that again?"

"1:05, but we'll want to get there early for all the pregame stuff. You know, introductions, first pitch...Gore might even be there! You would not *believe* what I had to go through to get those tickets."

"Great," said Amy in a voice that would have told any of her old friends that it was anything but great. "Should I take a hat?"

"Yeah. I'll fill you in on the rest later."

A minute later, they walked into their room. Jen was the first to notice the answering machine light as it blinked on and off. She pushed the button.

BEEP.

"Uh, Jen? This is Eric. Look, I'm sorry about the other night, could you call me at 423-4355 please? Thanks."

BEEP.

"Uh, Mizuno-san? Watakushi wa Urawa desu. O'genki desu ka?"

"What?"

"Shhh! It's Japanese, silly!" And pretty badly mangled, too, thought Amy.

"What's he saying?"

Amy cocked her head to one side, trying to simultaneously hear his words, translate them for Jennifer, and realize their importance. "He's coming here. Him...and...Mamo-chan?"

"Who's he?"

"Urawa? You know, the guy who sent me-"

"No, who's Mamo-chan?"

Tuxedo Kamen. Prince Endymion. Technically ruler of Earth. Usagi's only love. All these things and more went through her mind, but Amy said the safest. "An old friend. He must be...gods, near thirty!" Amazing how they were aging. "Anyway, he's coming here in some sort of exchange program...and Mamo-chan's the mentor! I tell you, this stinks something awful...anyway, he wants us to come over to the airport tonight and pick him up."

"TONIGHT?"

"Well, he called from the airport in Neo-Tokyo, and it takes awhile to fly here, including the layover in...Seattle, I think. He said that he's coming on United Flight 137 at around 9. So clear your schedule, we're going to meet him!"

Finishing on this upbeat note, Amy raced out of the door capriciously. Jen looked at the spot that had been occupied by the raven-haired girl, and slowly shook her head.

Flying out of the residence hall, Amy was struggling to go faster when she rounded a corner and knocked over two nondescript men. She rapidly recovered and moved on, shouting a "Gomen!" behind her. The men, however, had considerably more difficulty in resuming their stroll.

"Paul," said the first one shakily, "did you get the number of that chick?"

"Nope," said Paul. He slowly stood and rushed the dirt off of his blue suit. "Oh damn! Did you drop the plans?"

The first one uttered a couple of words that will not be reproduced here. Of greater interest to the reader were the words that followed.

"Uh...there they are!" He walked over to a nearby bench and picked up the piece of paper that had blown under it. He proceeded to closely inspect the sheet.

"Yeah, this is it, Paul."

"Right, Rick. Now what are we supposed to do again?"

Paul is hopelessly paranoid, thought Rick. This was the fourth time that he'd asked to review the plan. And he knew that unless he reviewed the plan with him again, Paul was going to go for number five before long. Rick sighed hopelessly, and wished that some other girl would knock them over. Perhaps some sense might be beaten into his colleague.

"Fine. Now the big plan is to kidnap Number 4."

"Yeah, and who's Number 4 again?"

"We don't know. We have a description and nothing else. No name, nothing. All Hardy is saying is that he's a valuable asset to the organization. Need any more reason?"

"Not particularly. So when do we go after him?"

"Tonight. And then begins phase two. Apparently, Hardy has decided that there's some sort of link between Number 4 and that Sailor M chick. Remember her? The one who did a real number on our guys during Operation Picasso?"

Paul shuddered; one of the operatives in Picasso had been a good pal, and hearing how his body had been frozen in an instant at long distance hadn't been encouraging. "They want *her*?

"Well..." He didn't know whether or not to tell him. Struggling briefly, he reached a decision. There were some people that you had to trust in the world.

"Well, what I heard from some of the higher-ups (and by the way, as far as you're concerned this conversation never happened, okay?), she's Sailor M, and-"

"So why don't we go after...oh."

"Slow. Very slow." He glanced at his watch. "Okay, right now he's heading to the local watering hole for his 6pm drink. Let's give him a surprise when he gets back, eh?"

Overhead, the moon peeked out from above a building.