by

Eric Metcalf

Haruka looked through the crowds outside Tokyo's main train station, searching for Michiru. She had found a message from Michiru on her answering machine, asking her to meet outside the station, although she hadn't said why. Glancing through the sea of heads, she finally spotted her friend's sea green hair, and waved and called out. "Michiru! Michiru!"

Michiru saw her and waved back. Haruka started moving through the crowd more forcefully, elbowing and shoving people out of her way, drawing some angry stares and quiet curses. Michiru was moving much more sedately, and not causing nearly the fuss. When they finally met, they embraced then Michiru spoke up. "So, Haruka-chan, why did you want to meet me here?"

Haruka's eyes widened. "Me? You were the one who left the message..." Haruka's voice trailed off as she caught sight of a familiar head of dark green hair walking towards them through the crowd. Frowning, she motioned with her head and simply said, "Setsuna."

Michiru whirled around and, seeing the green-haired woman, ran towards her, yelling. "Setsuna-san, Setsuna-san!" The woman stopped as Michiru nearly ran headlong into her, then smiled as Michiru caught her in a fierce embrace.

Haruka walked up, fire in her eyes, shaking her boyishly short blonde hair ruefully. "So, why resort to this subterfuge, Setsuna-san? You could have simply told us you were back and that you needed to see us."

Michiru turned. "Where are your manners, Haruka-chan? We haven't seen Setsuna in so long, and here you come insulting her before you even greet her properly."

Setsuna simply smiled. "Relax, both of you. It is, difficult, for me to act openly, Haruka-chan, you know that. You both also know that I would not be here if danger was not also close."

"What kind of danger?" Michiru said, then she shivered, as if an icy wind had just cut through her, and her eyes widened in response.

Setsuna seemed to feel it too, and turned towards the train station. "That kind of danger."

"What's going on?" Haruka said, glancing from one to another.

"I felt, well, it felt like a Dark Kingdom energy pulse, like a gate or something. But I thought the Princess defeated them years ago."

"It appears that Beryl's death did not defeat the Dark Kingdom as thoroughly as we had supposed. Come, let us see what is happening." The three began pushing their way through the crowd, like fish swimming upstream, until they entered the station. Moving to a spot where they could see up and down the station, they began looking for anything unusual.

When Michiru finally spotted what they were looking for, she chided herself for assuming that the Dark Kingdom presence would be obvious. "There, he's the one," she said, motioning with her head towards a large, powerful man standing on the platform, seemingly looking for someone in the crowds.

Haruka looked, then frowned. "Are you sure? He's big, all right, but he's not attacking or anything, and he doesn't look like a youma." The man was big, especially among the crowds of Japanese, and his bright red hair would have stood out anywhere. He was heavily muscled and bulky. He was looking around, seemingly looking for someone in the crowds. Scanning around, his eyes settled on the three senshi for a moment, he seemed to squint at them, then he continued looking around.

"He's seen us," Haruka said, looking around more urgently.

"He wouldn't know who we are." Michiru said, chidingly. "Do you see any others?" Both Haruka and Setsuna shook their heads. The big man was now moving through the throng slowly towards them, although trying not to create a disturbance.

Michiru shivered. "He's from the Dark Kingdom, I'm sure of it."

"Let's move outside, see if he follows us, and fight him there," Haruka said, then the trio began moving back outside of the station. Once outside, Setsuna spotted an alley that was back out of the traffic stream for them to transform in, if needed. Haruka was bringing up the rear, watching for their massive shadow. In a minute, he emerged, looking around. Darting into the alley, Haruka and Michiru drew their transformation wands, and Setsuna retrieved her staff.

"Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!"

"Neptune Planet Power, Make Up!"

As each of the women called out, energy flashed around them, obscuring them. Each extended an arm, drawing a circle around them. The circle extended upwards into a cylinder of energy, then vanished with a flash. After the flash, each woman had transformed into a Sailor Senshi. Haruka was Sailor Uranus, with a dark blue collar, skirt and boots, and a yellow bow on her white sailor suit. Michiru was Sailor Neptune, with a dark green collar, skirts and boots, and a dark blue bow. Setsuna was Sailor Pluto, with a black collar, skirt and boots, and a dark bow with a red stone in the middle.

The large man came around the corner, and smiled as he saw the three Sailor Senshi. "Ah," he growled in a deep voice, speaking perfect Japanese, "just who I was looking for. Come to play, have you, little Sailor Senshi?"

Uranus snarled. "I'll show you play, Nega-trash. World Shaking!" A ball of yellow energy appeared between Uranus's outstretched hands. After a moment, Uranus released the ball, sending it flying into the ground. From where it hit, the ground shook outwards, sending anything on the ground flying. Her opponent however, took the opportunity of her loading up the attack to leap into the air with a grace she would never have expected from such a big man. He landed between the three senshi, then he suddenly looked up at the top of a nearby building.

Neptune, thinking that it was a trick, ignored him, and began readying her attack. "Deep sub.." she stopped as two figures dropped down from the rooftops into the middle of the melee. Both were tall men, one more slender than the other.

The stockier one looked around quickly, then shouted something in a language that only Pluto recognized. "Pluto!" he shouted, then wheeled towards her. He made an underhand throwing motion, and a dagger, formed seemingly of pure light, shot out from his hand. The other man wheeled and released a ball of fire at her. Pluto, being less stunned than Uranus and Neptune, was able to block these two attacks with her staff, but then she screamed in pain, and reached for her head. Glancing up, Uranus saw a woman leaning over the edge of the rooftop, glaring at Sailor Pluto. Damn, she thought, a telepath. The large man stepped forward and struck Sailor Pluto on the head, sending her sprawling and apparently knocking her unconscious. The three men turned back to the other two Sailor Senshi. The stocky man again shouted a word, and, before Uranus could react, she too felt the burning inside her mind of the telepath's attack. While this distracted her, the men struck. She was barely able to dodge the light dagger, but the other man's ball of energy struck her square on and threw her back into a dumpster. Neptune winced as she heard the sickening cracking of bone when Uranus hit.

She had time, however, to launch her own attack. "Deep Submerge!" A ball of aquamarine energy formed from Neptune's hands and launched away. The stocky man stepped forward and took the blast square in the chest. While it should have sent him flying, it seemed to have no effect, other than making him turn his head up. Neptune thought she saw a nimbus of energy surround him which glowed with the aquamarine of her blast. Before she could load up for another attack, she too was staggered by the telepath's attack and laid low by combined blows from the three men. She felt a jagged bolt of pain from her left leg through the flashes of pain from the other attacks as she blacked out.

Pluto's head was ringing, her arms felt weak and wooden, and her legs felt heavy as lead. Her hands were shaking as she reached out and grasped her staff, using it to lever herself upright, even though she knew that she was wobbling on her weak legs. She saw Uranus and Neptune lying sprawled on the pavement. Uranus was moaning and trying to get up, but she still seemed pretty much out of it, while Neptune was unconscious. Looking about, Pluto saw no sign of their attackers, but, with her vision blurring, she couldn't be sure. She did see, however, that a crowd was gathering around them, at a distance, and she heard police and ambulance sirens in the background. Not good, she thought, we can't be seen like this. Calling up her power, she managed to open a gate.

Uranus groaned again and looked up. "Get in the gate, now!" Pluto yelled.

Uranus looked at her, more clearly, and tried to get up. "What about Nep,aaaaah," she cried as she tried to move her right arm. Must be broken, Pluto thought, as she moved unsteadily to Neptune.

"I will bring her, just go!" Uranus nodded and, shaking and gritting her teeth, she shambled painfully into the gate of green energy and disappeared. Pluto managed, leaning on her staff and with a will she wasn't sure she had, to slowly drag Neptune towards the gate. Each pull seemed to take an eternity, and to drain her worse than the last, but somehow, she got to the gate, and fell into it.

* * *

"Ean, you've got to get down here, there's a major...oh damn, it quit."

"What, Johansen, what's going on? I haven't heard you this worked up since they gave you that CD-ROM burner." Ean was sitting at his desk, and had been shuffling some rather meaningless reports, when Johansen had called.

"Yeah, well, this is the first time that I actually saw an incident go down."

"What do you mean, saw? You mean, it happened just now, in broad daylight?" All of the other unusual incidents had been late at night.

"Yeah. It had been going on for a few minutes, I wanted to make sure we weren't just having some bum readings, then I called you. It just quit a minute ago, when you heard me cuss."

"Tell me you had the second detector up and running."

"Yeah, we did, that's why I thought we might have been getting bum readings. But when we moved the two apart, the old detector was registering on a different bearing."

"Tell me you got triangulation data."

"Yeah, we're working the math on it now. I think that we've got some patterns in the data, I'm working on maybe isolating them. Some seem to repeat, while others just show up and disappear. We've also got some major events that don't vary much."

"Right. Once you get that triangulation data worked up, overlay it on a Tokyo map, with the margin of error on the map. I'll be down in a minute. Oh, and prep the portable unit for field-testing. Give me some good data, and we'll get to see if that unit is worth what it's cost." Ean hung up, then stood up, took a deep breath, and tried to walk sedately to the elint shack. He couldn't, however, restrain himself from smiling broadly at the thought of Takahara's face when he saw this data.

"There was no incident reported at the time and place you describe. These readings must be faulty." Ean took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to slap Takahara's grinning face. Captain Midra just sat back and looked at Ean.

"The equipment had been checked against all conceivable calibration errors. These data are accurate. Something, we do not know what, happened outside of Tokyo's central train station today. Judging from these power levels, it should have been hard to miss."

"I have heard of no such event, either at the station or anywhere else in the city."

"Would the emergency services be required to notify you if they received a call, but found nothing amiss at the scene?"

Takahara's eyes narrowed. "No, they would not. Do you believe that is what happened?"

Ean shrugged. "I do not know, I am simply exploring all possible options."

"Well, I am afraid I can give you no more aid at this point in time. Please contact me if you have any more definitive information." Takahara rose, nodded to Ean and Captain Midra, then left.

Ean turned back to Captain Midra. "Elint (Electronic Intelligence) monitors Tokyo emergency frequencies as a matter of course. I went back over the tapes for the time during the incident, and somebody would have raised a flag, if they hadn't all been watching the detectors. Police and ambulance units got a call to the train station during the time of the highest incident count. The reports were weird, something really odd was going on, I'm not too sure of my translation, but nobody else got anything more definitive. Well, when they got there, nothing was going down, and nobody saw anything. They couldn't find the caller, they couldn't find any witnesses."

"That's strange. From what I know, most emergency callers in Japan stick around, to make sure the emergency services can question them about what's going down."

Ean nodded. "You're right on the money, that is standard procedure. I'm not sure Takahara's telling us all he knows; he reacted like I was accusing him of something when I mentioned that about not notifying him. I pulled a record search of police reports and calls, and it seems that this is actually not all that unusual. Tokyo has had, from time to time, incidents where the police and medics answered a frantic call to find nothing wrong and no witnesses to whatever prompted the call. Just as a check, I cross-referenced Tokyo's rate versus other Japanese cities, and Tokyo's the hands-down leader. Way out in front, in fact, the others barely even show up next to Tokyo. Something's up here. I'd like your permission to take the portable detection unit and go into the city, in civvies, and see if I can get lucky and get an eyeball on whatever happens in one of these incidents. I'd carry a portable phone, so elint can contact me if the big detectors pick something up. I'll stay mobile just in case."

"Takahara won't approve this, you know that, Ean."

"Captain, Takahara wants definite proof, and the only way to get that is human intelligence, you know that. All of the stuff we've gathered is basically circumstantial, at least until we can figure out what these energy pulses mean. Takahara doesn't have to know what's going on, at least, not until we have something definite to give him."

Midra thought a moment then shook her head. "I can't okay anything official. Take some time off, Ean, you're working at this too hard. Some time on the town might do you good."

Ean felt his heart sink, then she winked at him and smiled. Damn, he thought, I'm getting slow. She can't approve it officially, but that doesn't mean she's going to stop me. "Yes, Captain, you're probably right. It'll be good to get off-post for a while. I think my Japanese is starting to get a bit rusty, as little as I speak it up here. It might be good to get in a little more practice."

"You're right; your accent is showing through to me when you talk to Takahara, and my Japanese isn't all that good. Dismissed, Lieutenant." Ean saluted smartly then headed out. First a stop at the elint shack, then the base post office then back to his quarters to prepare for his trip into town.

Ean walked back into his quarters, fidgeting. Johansen had made the portable energy detector look like a pager, with the bearing and relative strength reading out on the top, but it was still annoying, since it was quite a bit longer than a normal pager. Ean looked down at the letter in his hand. The return address was hers, back in the states. Judging from the postmark date, it had taken about a week to get here. Tearing it open, he began reading, expecting the usual recitation of the past month's events, and a plea to write and call more often. Instead, as he read, his hand began shaking, and he gritted his teeth to keep his jaw from shaking. So, she was saying goodbye. This was the letter every serviceman hated, the "dear john" letter, a sweetheart who couldn't stand the separation anymore. Laying the letter aside, he drew in a shaking breath, and tears welled at the corners of his eyes. Shaking his head, he decided to do something, to get through this his way. Walking over to the speakers, CD player, and guitars in one corner, he sifted through the CDs until he found the one he wanted. Inside the case, there were two disks, one marked with the colorful logo the band had put on it, the other blank. Picking up the blank one, he put it in the CD player, picked up the guitar, tuned it, and then turned on the CD player. A little Brooks and Dunn, maybe some George Strait, and he'd be in a better mood. As the background music cut in, he began playing and singing, working through the music from memory.

Makoto opened the door to her apartment and set her books down. She had just closed the door, and was about to fix herself something to eat when she heard a low, female groan of pain from her bedroom. Reacting by instinct, she drew her Jupiter wand from its Lunar Space pocket.

"Jupiter Star Power, make up!" Energy flared around her; some covered her, the rest flashed around in the form of lightning bolts. The lightning flared in a series of rings around her, like electrons around an atom. The lightning flashed, and she transformed into Sailor Jupiter, with dark green collar, skirt and boots and a bright pink bow on her sailor suit. She started back into the back of her apartment when a very bedraggled and shaky Sailor Pluto staggered in, leaning heavily on the doorframe.

"Hello Jupiter. Could you contact Sailor Mercury? I am afraid we have need of her skills." Looking past, Jupiter could see Michiru sprawled on her bed, with Haruka sitting beside her, holding her right arm at an angle that suggested that it was injured, maybe broken. Nodding quickly, Jupiter pulled out her communicator. Yes, she agreed that Ami needed to be here.

* * *

The sky over Tokyo was rapidly darkening, as was Ean's mood. After working himself into a better mood with his impromptu jam session, he had taken the bus into the city, then spent the rest of the day wandering around fruitlessly. The detector on his belt had buzzed a couple of times, letting him know how annoying it would be, but the signals had faded before he could track them down. Now, he found himself wandering around inside a shopping mall, tired and footsore. Looking around, he spotted a video arcade. Well, he thought, its not a bar, but it'll do for a little R&R. Walking in, he changed some of his yen for the tokens they used in the games, then he found a game he knew. A fighting game, it would let him burn out a little aggression. The only problem, he'd have to stand up to play, and his feet weren't going to like that. Oh well, now's as good as any to burn out my laziness. Putting in a token, he started getting used to the moves of the game again, quickly coming back up to speed.

Minako was following Makoto through the mall, albeit a bit unwillingly.

"Come on, Mina-chan," Makoto said, "let's go to the arcade. That ought to make you feel better."

"I'm just not happy leaving Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna that way."

"You mean, leaving, and not doing anything about it. Well, I feel the same way, and it was just getting worse while we were just standing there." Mina just nodded. She'd never felt as helpless as when she saw Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna lying there, with Ami checking over them. Minako had wanted to charge out right then and there and avenge her fellow Senshi, and she could tell Rei and Makoto felt the same way. The problem was, none of the three Outer Senshi could give Rei enough of a description to do an accurate fire reading. Setsuna seemed to be the only one who wasn't shocked by the attack, and she was still in pretty bad shape from what Ami described as a telepathic attack. Well, Minako thought, I've been hit by those before, and it's not fun. A thought started forming in her mind, a painful memory from her days as Sailor V, but by then they had entered the arcade. Makoto was walking over to the counter and getting tokens, as well as giving the attendant a long wink before she walked over to the Sailor V game. After getting her own tokens, she walked over and started looking over Makoto's shoulder. Makoto, despite playing the game a great deal, wasn't having much luck tonight.

"Damn game. I dodged that!"

"No you didn't Makoto." Makoto slapped the side of the game, then whirled to look at Minako.

She seemed to bite back a sharp attack, and instead motioned with a toss of her head. "Hey, Minako, see that guy over by your game?" Minako turned and, seeing the tall young man standing by the game she played most, and hadn't been beaten at in years.

"Well, it looks like he's at a pretty high level, and I don't think I've seen him put in a new token while we've been here. A little competition might do you good."

Mina sighed. "I just don't feel up to it, Mako-chan."

Makoto smiled slowly. "Five credits says you've lost your edge."

Minako whirled to look back at her. "You saying you think that new guy can beat me?"

Makoto shrugged. "I don't know; neither will you if you don't play him." Minako scowled. Makoto was playing off her pride; that was easy to see. Still, she thought, he's doing pretty well, and he's not that bad looking. Tall, slender but not skinny, straight brown hair, cut really short. Maybe some army guy, but they usually have to go out in uniform. Not the kind I usually like, she thought, but a change of pace might be fun. She saw his eyes darting back from time to time, looking at her and Makoto. Deciding to put on a show, she walked over with a larger sway in her hips than normal, looking at him and blinking her blue eyes. As she walked up beside him, he slid over to one side to let her walk up.

Smiling at him, she pulled out a token. " It's more fun playing against another person."

He shrugged and answered in Japanese, with a strange accent that she couldn't place. "Be my guest." Putting in the token, she started up her character. Deciding in some early intimidation, Minako opened up with her best moves, throwing furious combinations at him. His expression didn't change, but he was being beaten back on the game.

After winning the first round easily, she smiled and tried a new angle to get him into conversation, this time in English. "You're not Japanese, are you?"

"This coming from a blue-eyed blonde? And, no, I'm not Japanese." She blushed a little, but her concentration on the game didn't waver. This time, however, he wasn't sitting back and waiting on her to attack, but was interrupting her combinations with strikes at vulnerable moments.

"Well, I am Japanese, despite the hair and eyes."

"And the British accent?" Man, she thought, he's observant. None of the others ever commented on her English having an accent.

"I, ah, spent some time in England a few years ago. That's where I picked up most of my English." She heard him humming some song that she didn't recognize. It seemed to be upbeat, but a little sad.

"What's that you're humming?"

He shrugged. "Just a song." Before Minako could respond, she noticed that she was now losing the game. Abandoning conversation for a moment, she focused on the game, launching a massive attack. He just sat back, blocked the first few attacks then landed the killing blow.

She stood back. "You beat me! That's major uncool!"

His expression didn't change. "I guess I did, but there' s still round three." Going back to the game, she started in again, but he was still just sitting back, blocking the first few shots, and counterattacking.

"You are good, man, wicked good."

"You're not so bad, yourself. I can see why you don't get beat often."

She smiled at the compliment. "How long are you going to be in town?"

He shrugged. "Oh, maybe just for the weekend, maybe longer. Depends on some things." This time, she learned what he was doing, and stopped walking into his traps. Just before time ran out, he landed a weak attack that was still enough to kill her.

Gaping at the result for a moment, she slapped the side of the machine. "That attack wasn't enough to kill me!"

He let out a deep breath. "I didn't think so either. Want a rematch?"

Minako felt in her pockets, then frowned. "I'd love to, but I owe all the tokens I have left to my friend over there. We had a bet going; she bet you could beat me."

He laughed, then pulled out one of his own tokens. "Here; I'd hate to lose good competition. Oh, and thank your friend for me for the vote of confidence."

Just then, Makoto walked up, a concerned look on her face. "Minako, we've got to go." Glancing back, she saw her white cat, Artemis, prancing around, looking at her with wide eyes, like there was trouble.

Smiling over at the man, she said, "Sorry, but I have to run. By the way, I'm Minako."

"Nice to meet you, Minako. I'm Ean." He shook her hand firmly, and she returned his grip with her own strength. She got so annoyed at people who thought a girl should shake hands like a dead fish. Makoto was pulling on her sleeve, so she followed her out of the arcade. As she walked past she picked up Artemis. The security guard gave her an evil look as they walked out; pets weren't allowed, but she winked at him and he let them go.

As they got outside, she took the first opportunity, as they were walking by a park, to talk to Artemis. "So, Art, what's going down?"

"Rei sensed evil, somewhere downtown. We think it's the same group who hit the outer senshi. We need you two, but sending one of the others would have left the team just too weak." She nodded, then stiffened as she heard a nearly animal roar from the park. Spinning to the sound, Minako saw a large man wearing dark gray clothes roaring and smashing trees. As she watched, open-mouthed, he tore a large branch off of a tree and flung it aside like it was a twig.

"He's a youma!" Artemis said, then jumped down as Minako and Makoto pulled out their transformation wands.

"Jupiter Star Power, make up!"

"Venus Star Power, make up!" Energy in the shape of stars swirled around Venus as she transformed then flashed outward. Venus had an orange collar, skirt and boots and a dark blue bow on her sailor suit.

The huge man saw them and smiled. "Come to play, little senshi? Come play with me." He swung a thick arm out at Jupiter, who nimbly jumped aside.

Something's wrong here, Venus thought, then it hit her. "Jupiter, he's just here to delay us. Go with Artemis and help the others; I'll deal with him."

"But you'll be alone," Jupiter protested.

"I'm used to fighting alone; you're not. The team needs us, but we can't leave this thing to rampage. Go, now." Artemis looked back at her once, then started loping off. Jupiter snarled and left. The youma started to reach out for her, to stop here.

"Crescent beam," Venus called, and her blast of energy smashed into the man's forearm. He howled in pain and swung back to face Venus.

Ean was walking along the sidewalk when he heard the howl. Glancing down, he saw that the howl had come from approximately the same bearing as the detector was reading, and the readings were getting stronger. From the sound of that howl, he was glad he'd brought along his sidearm. Glancing around up ahead, he saw a small park, typical of the ones the Japanese loved to put around Tokyo, and darted off behind the nearest tree. He heard something in Japanese, a low and rumbling voice that sounded more like a talking earthquake than a person did. Then he heard a female voice answering in Japanese, a familiar female voice. Then the female voice shouted something; the detector buzzed enough to make him start, and the deep voice howled. Seeing no one behind him, Ean reached back under his shirt and freed his pistol from its holster. Glancing around the tree, he heard more yells and howls from up ahead, but he couldn't see anything yet. Moving quietly up to the next group of trees, Ean got an eyeful. A young woman, blonde and blue-eyed, wearing a blouse and short skirt reminiscent of some Japanese school uniforms, was fighting a huge man, Ean guessed close to seven feet tall and probably pushing four hundred pounds, wearing some sort of uniform of dark gray. Pulling his Sig-Sauer 226 pistol around to his side, Ean watched as the man-monster dodged one of the energy blasts the girl fired, then swung into a combination attack that landed shots in her ribs and legs. She dropped and lay on the ground, stunned and hurting. The man walked over and looked like he was going to step on her throat.

"Now, little Sailor Senshi, you die," he intoned. Not if I can help it, Ean thought. Stepping out from behind the tree, so that he was behind the man, he brought his gun up to his eyes...

Jupiter's back was Venus's first thought when she heard the booms like thunder peal across the ground. But when she opened her eyes, she didn't see the familiar brown-haired, green-eyed form of her friend. Instead, she saw the youma she was fighting, standing almost directly over her and writhing in pain from something she couldn't see. Quickly rolling away from the youma, Venus saw when it turned around, that something had punched three bleeding holes in its back.

Regaining her feet, she heard a voice call out in accented English. "Hey, fatso! Yeah, you, the big ugly one! If you want to play, come play with me! Oh, do I play too rough for you?!" Moving around the youma, so she could see, Venus did a double take. There was the guy from the arcade holding a smoking gun on the youma, and looking like he knew how to use it. She tried to draw a breath, to yell at him, to tell him to get away, but her injured ribs made the effort agony, and she moaned. The youma swung its head around to look at her, then the thunder sounded again, and the youma roared, and took off after Ean. No, she thought, but Ean was running now, dodging quickly among the trees, stopping and turning like a flushed rabbit. Good, she thought, that youma can't turn that fast, and he knows it. While Ean's gun looked like it was hurting the youma, it didn't seem to be doing that much real damage. Killing it is up to me, she thought, and began focussing her energies. One good crescent beam should kill it, but I'm only going to have enough strength for one shot at this. Ean stopped then, swung around to face the youma, and raised his gun.

"Tired of running, little hare?" the youma taunted.

"Nah," Ean said, "just got too many bullets in my gun." As she saw his trigger finger tighten, Venus acted.

"Crescent Beam!" The beam of energy lanced out and impacted the youma's head at the same instant as the last of Ean's bullets. The head exploded in a burst of light and gore, and the headless body dropped to the ground and began dissolving to dust. Venus dropped to her knees, her breathing shallow and ragged. Looking up, she saw Ean staring at the decomposing body for a moment. She wanted to call out to him, thank him for saving her, but she held back. If she called him by name, he'd put Venus and Minako together, and she didn't think she had enough left to call out at any rate. So she just kneeled there, hand on her injured side, until she heard pounding footsteps behind her.

"Venus, are you all right?" Glancing back, she saw Jupiter and Mercury running down the sidewalk, Artemis running along beside them. Mercury had dark blue hair, with collar, skirt and boots to match her hair and a chest bow a few shades lighter.

Venus tried to smile bravely, but the pain in her side made her wince. "Ribs are banged up, but I don't think they're broken. Scratch one youma."

Jupiter looked at the pile of remains, while Mercury sat down beside Venus, and looked her over. "You killed that thing all by yourself? I guess I was wrong about you losing your touch."

"Not as wrong as you think. I had a little, okay a lot of, help."

"Help, from who? There's nobody around?"

Mercury put a patch of some sort over Venus's ribs, and the pain subsided. "Thanks a lot, Mercury, that feels a lot better."

Her blue-haired friend smiled. "That's what I'm here for. I think Jupiter's apartment is going to look like an intensive care ward, though. Both Usagi and Rei got nicked up in our fight, and the youma got away. Hey, what're those things?" Venus looked up, and noticed Mercury was looking at the remains through a strip of blue over her eyes; her visor.

Walking over to the heap, she fished something out, dropped it and winced when she first picked it up, then steeled herself and got it. "Wow, this is hot. What is it, Venus?"

Venus looked at the small piece of metal Mercury was holding. It was a fat cylinder, and it looked like the outsides had flowed down, rather than being made that way. "It's a bullet. Ean used a gun to help fight it. I guess the bullets don't dissolve along with the body."

Jupiter and Mercury's eyes got wide. "A gun?!? Venus, it's illegal for anybody but the police to have guns in Japan!"

Venus shrugged. "Well, maybe he's a policeman undercover or something. I mean, that's a no-nonsense haircut he's got."

Mercury was still looking shocked when a jeep pulled up by the park, and Usagi got out, wincing as she walked, blonde ponytails flopping. "Hi guys. Mamoru came up right after you split, so why don't you change back and he'll drop everybody off at their houses?" The three girls nodded, and their suits changed and flowed back into their normal clothes.

As they walked back to the jeep and started away, Minako brought Usagi, Mamoru and Rei up to speed on the events since Jupiter had left. "Ooh, a man with a gun! Mina-chan, how do you always meet the interesting men?" Usagi said, smiling at Mamoru so he wouldn't think it was an insult to him. After all, it was Usagi who met him.

Minako shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, he's not like a hunk or anything, but he fought like he's been trained, and he did save my life. I'm not going to ask too many questions. I mean, what if he's like a spy or something, and doesn't want anybody to know?"

Makoto laughed. "Yeah, right Mina-chan, I'm sure he's a secret agent for some government. Come on, someone like that wouldn't risk himself for you."

Usagi smiled. "He would if he was in love."

Rei snarled. "Oh, come off it, Usagi. Always going on and on about love." Rei shook her long, dark hair as she turned away from Usagi.

Usagi looked like she was going to cry, till Makoto spoke up. "Hey, there he is."

Minako looked around Makoto. "Yeah, that's him. Mamoru, pull over."

As the jeep rolled over to the curb, Minako stood up in the back. "Ean, hey, Ean, come over here!"

Looking up, he waved and walked over briskly. "Hi, Minako, what's up?"

She smiled. "Oh, not much. Listen, do you have a place to stay?" Ean shrugged. Yeah, he thought, I could go all the way back to McArthur, but I'll see if I can get some place in town out of this.

"I'll find one."

Mamoru chuckled. "Not this time of night you won't; at least, not any place worth staying in. Listen, I've got some spare space, if you don't mind sleeping on a couch." Mamoru was tall and lean, with short black hair and dark eyes.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd really hate to intrude."

"No, no, it's nothing, especially for one of Minako's friends."

Usagi smiled at him. "You're so sweet, Mamo-chan."

Ean nodded. "Thanks a lot.."

"Mamoru, Mamoru Chiba."

"Thanks a lot, Mamoru. Name's Ean, Ean Hoffman." A firm handshake and Ean climbed in, slipping into the back between Ami and Minako.

After Minako had introduced everyone, Ean shook his head. "Here I am, believing that the Japanese have bred themselves down to black hair and black eyes, and I go and run across two blondes, a brunette, and a lady with blue hair, all in the same night."

"Is there anything wrong with blue hair?" Ami said, looking at him expectantly.

"Not if it's natural, although you would be the only person I've seen with natural blue hair. It's pretty when it's paired with eyes like yours, though."

Ami looked down and blushed a little. "You're too kind." While she was looking down, she surreptitiously got out her compact-computer, and began scanning him.

"Yeah, you should see the looks I get, driving around with this bunch." Mamoru said, "Everybody thinks that they're a bunch of American fashion models, except Rei, and that's because she's always got her Miko clothes on."

So that's what that outfit is, Ean thought, looking over at black-haired Rei in her long, baggy white blouse and equally baggy red pants. "I can see where they make the mistake, especially if Rei's in a different outfit."

Rei looked up, peeved. "Are you always this nice? Mot people I know with buzz cuts tend to have pretty nasty tempers."

Ean's voice changed, even though his expression didn't. Where it had been alternately joking and complimenting, now there was a deadly edge to it. "Who said I don't? The reason you haven't seen it is that that's the first remotely hostile thing anyone's said or done tonight, so why should I be angry?"

Usagi intervened. "Don't listen to Rei, we think that sometimes she' in a permanent tiff. Listen you're American, right?"

"Yeah."

"What part of America are you from? California, New York?"

He laughed. "If you heard me speak English instead of Japanese, you wouldn't ask that question. I'm from the part we call the Southwest, the state called Texas in particular." As they bantered, Ami's computer completed its scan. Her eyes widened as she ran down the infrared image of Ean's body. His temperature was elevated, like he had just been exercising or fighting, and there was a large, hot object sitting on his back. The shape of it left no doubt in Ami's mind that it was a gun, and recently fired too. Glancing over at Rei, she passed her the compact. Rei looked in it, pretending to check her makeup, then passed it back, nodding that she had seen it, but she didn't look surprised. Then, the jeep pulled up to Makoto's building.

Makoto, Rei, and Ami got out. "You all live in the same building? That must be convenient." Ean said.

"Yes, it is," Makoto answered, then the three waved and went inside. Ean noticed that the other two looked almost guilty, like he had noticed something they didn't want him to. These girls seem entirely too serious to be just a bunch of teenagers out on a Friday night.

"So, tell me about Texas." Usagi said.

"Well, there's a lot to tell, depending on what part of Texas you're talking about."

"All of it."

Ean laughed. "We could be here a while."

Mamoru butted in. "Well, Minako won't. See you later, Mina-chan."

She looked over at Ean. "Give me a call when you get ready in the morning. I'm usually an early riser, so let's go do something tomorrow, if you like."

"I'd like that a lot, if I'm available. Unfortunately, in my business, things have a habit of coming up on short notice. If nothing critical pops up, I'll give you a call." She smiled, then walked into the house, waving behind her at them.

"Keep talking. You were telling me about Texas."

"Usagi, give the poor guy a rest. I mean, Rei and Minako, both in the same night, can be a bit much for anybody whose not used to them."

"No, it's no problem, Mamoru. Well, first you have to understand the space. I mean, you can drive all day from one side of the state and, by nightfall, still be in it. There's an old saying, and unfortunately it doesn't translate into Japanese right: 'the sun has ris, the sun has set, and we're still in Texas yet'."

Usagi giggled. "Hey, that rhymes."

"Oooh, very good Usagi, figured that out all by yourself, did you?" Mamoru chided, then cut off her response. "Have to wait till tomorrow to get back at me for that one, Usako. Good night." A quick kiss goodnight and Usagi was walking into her house.

Mamoru motioned Ean forward, and Ean got up and sat in the front seat. "Man, they can be a handful," Mamoru said, switching to English. At Ean's look, "I spend a lot of time in the states, and I need to keep in shape while I'm over here."

Ean nodded. "Yeah, they sound like they can be a handful. If they bicker that much all the time, I'm surprised you can stand it."

Mamoru laughed. "Oh, they were actually on good behavior. They're usually a whole lot worse, especially Rei and Usagi. Well, here we are. It's not much, but it's home."

Takisite slammed his fist into the wall of the ready room. Dargon was over an hour overdue, and he wasn't the kind to be late for no reason. Kela was despondent. Telepaths had a tendency to emotionality, but Kela was better about it then most. Cloak fluttering, Drennan was pacing back and forth, obviously in no better mood then Takisite.

"Are you sure he's dead, Kela?" Drennan asked.

"Yes, dammit, I'm sure. I was in contact with him, like I was ordered to be, and I felt him die."

"No one senshi could kill Dargon, so who killed him?"

"I could see another, a man with a gun. He intervened, shot Dargon, kept Dargon distracted, so he couldn't kill the girl."

Takisite looked at her. "Was the man wearing a uniform?"

"No, but he wasn't Japanese either. What kind of man is this?"

"The only people with guns in Tokyo who aren't Japanese are American soldiers. We still have to reconnoiter the American base in Tokyo. I say we use the opportunity for a little vengeance." His evil grin found two echoes on his team members' faces.

[Continued]

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