And now -
"Uranus" and A*0-1 were facing each other over the field, lurking madness in both their eyes. A*0-1 was on her knees, and a "Gate" even now growing bigger and well defined right above Uranus's raised arms...
Hibiki Ryouga sighed. He'd had better days. Really.
And two more steps, and Pluto was in hearing distance -
"Yo. You. Pluto-person. You seem to be the spokesperson here - can't you do something?"
Pluto stopped cursing. The sudden silence was eerie.
"She wasn't supposed to be able to do that."
" - Huh?"
"No, I mean, I knew she could, theoretically, but I didn't know she knew how, or remember how, and - "
"Oh, you mean, um, "Kina" and her TempGate."
Ryouga sighed, again. That name seemed to - "fit", for some reason, even though he couldn't remember just what "Kina" had been like. Some other incarnations of that particular person were much easier to remember, frankly, even if their paths had diverged quite a while back.
"Well, maybe she just remembered how to now?"
Pluto stared at him like he was the one who had grown two heads, now.
"I don't think so, it takes practice to do that kind of thing properly, even if you know how, and - "
Oh, right.
And then -
"You...You..."
A*0-1 appeared to have reached her limit. She had rose to her feet, hands clenched, battle aura flaring crimson.
Uranus laughed, aura howling white and amber and blue.
"That's more like it - Come on then, Sailor Overhyped darlin'!"
There was a great crash, and Uranus and A*0-1 were both gone. The TempGate itself was still hovering above them, however, looking quite solid.
"Hey, you're right." Ryouga mumbled. "That's one well made TempGate..."
"That is not the point."
The younger Senshi with purple eyes - "Saturn", yes - snapped, and Ryouga recoiled involuntarily.
"Pluto - help me get a "fix" on them. The Gate - TempGate? - seems to be anchored in the Uranus forcefield, but if they're really going to go at it -"
"Oh, um, yes. Right."
Pluto blinked, and took up her Staff. Saturn turned towards the dazed Neptune, who was still staring blankly were Uranus and A*0-1 had just been.
"Neptune, come back here, Uranus needs you!"
"...Uh. ...Um. Right."
Neptune blinked, bringing her hands to her face.
"What should I do? What can I do?"
"Um."
Saturn seemed to think about this.
"Could you sort of make a "web" around where's there having their little - thing? I'll feed you some extra energy..."
"Alright, I'll try..."
And then the little girl was looking at him.
"- Mister?"
"Um, yeah?"
Ryouga blinked. The girl was scary in some ways... And not just because of her power wattage, either.
"Could you help us, or at least not hinder us, please?"
"-Yes'm, ma'am... Err, I could try to "weave" with you folk and help find those -"
- Bloody idiots-
"People?"
"Oh, thank you!"
The girl dimpled. Ryouga felt somewhat better in spite of himself.
"OK, then everybody - one, two -"
The Senshi and Ryouga clustered together. Ryouga ended up between Saturn and a still somewhat dazed Neptune, holding hands.
"-GO!"
A*0-1 looked up at the starry skies. Or down. It was hard to tell, with no gravity to speak of.
"Hey, come on now, you can't remember how to generate artificial gravity? Really."
Kina. No, she was "Uranus" now, wasn't she.
And Uranus was looking at her, in a faintly glowing forcefield, coldly smirking...
"Welcome to my planet's vincity, or the closest thing to it, then, "Nike". Or maybe I should just call you A*0-1 for the time being. Since it's not like I can remember "Nike" all that well, and all. Unlike Ha'shel."
A*0-1 hissed. That name...
"Call me what you like, then, Uranus. Wee. Artificial links must have been improved a lot, since I remember - you almost feel like a real Senshi or something, now!"
Uranus's smirk only got even bigger and colder, which made A*0-1 pause. Had she been missing something?
"Senshi powers usually primarily come from their Starseeds, A*0-1 dearest - I thought even you should have known that by now, really? Even if extra power does come through the "Link", it has to be funneled though one's Starseed anyway - Which does explain you a lot, now that I think about it..."
A*0-1 hissed. From when had Kina had been able to taunt her?
"It's a nice planet, though there's no chance of it developing a viable eco-system in a million years, I'm afraid - I used to have a chain of satellites around it, though. It was nice to have some kind of Life System around, even an artificial one. - One does so miss life on one's linked planet, or around, it, anyway. There's this certain humm - Not that you'd know that, of course..."
A*0-1 shuddered. This was all wrong. All wrong.
"And what about the original Sailor Uranus, Kina? What did you do with her? Or him? Or them, maybe?"
Uranus just waved her hand.
"Oh, of course it's a "them", most planets have more then one potential Senshi Starseed linked to them, you know that. It's not like Senshi never do the death and rebirth thing, after all - and it wouldn't do to leave things wide open while waiting to reincarnate, right? - Damn, is it that your memories are actually that spotty or you just never paid any attention - well, either is possible, I suppose, since it's you. I've never managed to figure out if your memories are "selective" or just plain bad in general - "
Uranus mock-sighed.
"Well, as to your original question - I didn't do anything to them at all. They're still all there as far as I know, drifting in space or being various life-forms in general. Some of them have gotten into the habit of reincarnating as Thinking Beings regularly, and are even beginning to reach the "Senshi's helper" stage, the last time I checked, actually..."
A*0-1 ground her teeth. Damn her.
"So you "took over" a planet without any active Senshi. Good for you."
"Oh yes it was. It was so - unsettling to be without one, y'know! Not that you'd know that part, I suppose..."
Uranus's eyes were cold, cold, cold... ferociously cold.
"You've never felt your Link crash and burn as your planet died, after all - "
A*0-1 almost jumped back till she remembered that she couldn't really do that. Not in space.
"Black-hole's don't crash and burn that easily, do they now? They don't usually bear life either on the other hand, but -"
Uranus gave her an utterly insane grin, then.
"I can remember up to the third time, you know. Or maybe the forth? Feeling my planet die. Eh, Ha'shel?"
A*0-1 reeled again - Nononodon'trememberthatnow - and hissed, feeling the power raising. This was insane. It was Kina. It was Kina linked to a planet out on the boondocks which didn't even have a viable eco-system.
Where the hell was all this power coming from?
"Well here goes then, A*0-1-"
And then the battle, such as it was, began in earnest.
Power, power and more power which built up, crashed, and built up again -
"Alright, there they are - "
Saturn muttered.
"Well, that much is obvious."
Ryouga muttered.
"The idiots."
Neptune bit her lip, concentrating.
"Alright, it's stabilized for the moment - the space-time around the place they're actually fighting is, I mean. How's the TempGate?"
"Alright for the moment." Pluto murmured.
"OK, let's see if we can see or hear more..."
"..."Ha ha ha ha, have you been slacking off, "Nike"? Didn't think that was your style..."
They could hear Uranus's taunting quite clearly.
"And I didn't think "Teamwork" was yours, Kina!"
And that was A*0-1.
"What, jealous, "Nike"? They're just trying to make sure the TempGate doesn't go down, you know- It's nice to have Teammates one can depend on, don't you think?"
A*0-1 answer to that was just a hiss of rage.
"And you haven't seen nothin' yet - why, they haven't even even started to feed me extra energy, yet!"
Oh, boy...
"Was that a cue, or was that not a cue?"
Neptune muttered.
"That was just taunting at the moment, I think - but we should get ready to move anyway, in my opinion."
Pluto murmured.
Saturn sighed.
"Uranus has - issues about this. Doesn't she."
"Oh, if she's the reincarnation of who I think she is, yes she does."
Ryouga mumbled.
"They both do, actually. Have lots of issues, I mean. With each other, and with - other stuff."
"I wish she could have regained those particular memories either sooner or a lot later then she did, then - "
Pluto sighed, again.
"The timing is... Won-der-ful."
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(Posted Mon, 14 Aug 2006 06:49)
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