Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part II, "Mizuno the Senshi"
Chapter 9: In which Amy makes a mistake.

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

-George Santayana

"For it's one, two, three strikes you're out / At the old ball game!"

-familiar song lyric

Oriole Park at Camden Yards was as much an urban renewal project as a ploy to keep the Orioles from leaving Baltimore. The warehouse had been essentially abandoned for decades, and had been seen by many as an eyesore. When the baseball stadium was built, the warehouse had been renovated, with much of its interior being converted to administrative offices for the team. The seventh floor had even been converted into an exclusive restaurant. The Camden Club was, in that respect, one up on the Toronto SkyDome's Hard Rock Cafe. While you could watch a game and eat dinner at both venues, only one gave you actual meals, as opposed to fast food.

The eighth floor, however, remained more or less untouched. As Sailor M reached it, she found it to be rather dark, with indefinable shapes surrounding her. She heard voices, and crept closer, trying not to make a sound.

"So, Mr. Henderson, any last words?"

"Only that I don't know why you've brought me here, you've told me nothing, and-"

"Ah, so our friend wants information, does he? We'll just have to give it to him, eh?"

Sailor M saw a pool of light ahead, and began to crawl towards it, not wanting to think about how much dirt and grime was rubbing off onto her uniform.

"You see, David, we were employed by a very...wealthy...gentleman, to do this. We were only too happy oblige. So, instead of taking over the city, as we'd planned to, we simply staged the attack on your...friend..., kidnapped you, and, now, we will kill you."

She came around a large crate to see that David, looking pretty bad for the ordeal, was surrounded by quite a few burly men, and one man in a three piece suit. Apparently, he was the ringleader; one of the burly men looked at him questioningly. The leader shook his head.

"Not yet, however. We have to wait for her to show up, of course."

The wheels went around in David's head. "So all that talk about a crystal...and a treasure...that was for nothing?" he croaked.

"Of course! Honestly, Dave, what are we going to do with crystals? But it did get M interested, and that was our goal."

In the shadows, Sailor M stiffened. It was like a summons. Taking a deep breath, she leapt from the shadows.

"Who are you to-"

Her spiel was cut short by the need to duck, as several shots had been fired on her. While she had reasonable faith in her bodice's bulletproof properties, her face was not similarly protected. In addition, the fact that she was expected lead her to believe that they were prepared, and would have better aim. So, she tapped her visor into existence and scanned for an advantage.

"Where'd she go?"

"For heaven's sake, turn on a light!"

"I'm on it! Here we--ahhhh!" Shots rang out in the last speaker's direction. Those closest to him noticed a definite temperature drop, and for various reasons shuddered.

M crabwalked through the shadows. She had severely underestimated their manpower; she could now pick up two dozen infrared signatures on her visor, and even eliminating two as the leader and David, there were still twenty-two "bogies." To make things worse, at this point someone had finally gotten to the power switch, and her main advantage was gone in a flash of light.

"There she is!"

She dove, accompanied by the ping of bullets off of odd metal objects. Creeping into a half-opened crate, she mentally calculated how many she could take out with an Arctic Beam, and nearly wept at the answer.

"Okay, girl!" the leader was speaking now; after all, things were about over for her. "Just come out to Mr. Hardy here, and no-one gets hurt. Kapish?"

"No! I love David, and I'll be damned if I let anything happen to him!"

Elsewhere, someone looked on. Things were definitely getting interesting now.

"Amy? You really feel that way?" It was a heck of a time to have a conversation like this, but he had never heard that sort of sincerity before.

"Hai!"

"Aw, isn't this touching," said Hardy. He swallowed. "Now, boys!"

A scream of pain went from one of the boys, causing them to stop in their tracks. They all turned to see that one of their number's hands had been pierced by a single red long stemmed dicot, more specifically a rose.

"Beating on poor innocents is no way to gain a profit! And neither is attacking a Sailor Senshi. I am the beautiful formal suited Tuxedo Kamen. In place of formal wear shops everywhere, I will punish you!"

Everyone, by which is meant absolutely everyone except Kamen, was completely frozen by this speech. A flurry of roses later, twenty-two of them were in no shape to do anything about the situation. A rose through the hand is a powerful deterrent against violence.

This left Hardy. Withdrawing from her hideaway, she faced the master of the situation. But before that, there were a couple of things.

"Tuxedo Kamen. What was with that speech?"

He shrugged. "I figured that if it threw your enemies off guard, it should work for mine, too."

Nodding, she turned back to Hardy. "There wern't any explosives, were there?"

"N-no."

"I see. That makes things a bit easier. You have ten seconds. Who hired you?"

"I don't have to talk."

"Nine."

"I ain't talking!" He began to walk away.

"Zero."

Where's eight through one, asked Tuxedo Kamen silently. Hardy was asking the same question, but aloud.

"I'm not in a mood to count piddling numbers. ARCTIC BLAST!"

"It was Hasti-"

Outside the building, a home run was hit by the Orioles to lift them to a 9-8 victory. No-one, outside of two foreigners in a forgotten corner of the warehouse, knew just how short victory could prove to be.