Haruka Tenoh was not a happy defender of love and justice. “What the hell did you just do to Hotaru!?”
Avatar of Sol, Ranma Saotome, was not particularly intimidated by the depowered short-haired blonde, and shrugged nonchalantly. “I just promoted her from ‘Sailor Saturn’ to ‘Guardian Saturn’, increasing her powers and changing her uniform to match.” He glanced down at the petite girl snuggling against his arm. “You might want to think about finding a new Sailor Saturn, too.”
The dark purple eyes of Hotaru Tomoe blinked up at him, as confused as the rest of the girls. Well, the rest of the girls sans a sarcastic Setsuna. “Always two there are, no more, no less. A Master, and an Apprentice.”
“Uh…yeah. I’ve always empowered two protectors from each planet; the Guardian, and the apprentice that the Guardian chooses within a year of being promoted. The Guardians protect their worlds, ‘specially the Heart, and the apprentices protect the Moon and the Royal family and train until the Guardian of their world dies or retires.”
Tapping away at the Mercury computer, Ami was busy confirming everything Ranma that said. Like the rest of the Senshi, she remembered bits and pieces of the former Moon Kingdom, but she was rapidly beginning to think of that older Empire as being less sensible than the new version. For one, it made far more sense to always have a backup Senshi, instead of simply empowering a new one when the old died and expecting them to keep up. Also, this new Moon Kingdom didn’t rely entirely on the Guardians for protection; certainly, some of them were high up the chain of command when it came to the Imperial fleets and the planetary defences, but their primary duty was to oversee the running and the protection of the Capital Cities of their worlds, particularly the Hearts buried deep beneath them that kept many of the worlds habitable. Everything else was secondary to that duty.
Her fingers stopped dancing over the keyboard, and she frowned in thought. ‘Hearts?’ She called up the search function and typed in the word in question. In seconds the results of the search were displayed, and she selected ‘Hearts, Planetary’.
“Incredible!”
The shocked exclamation cut through a certain blonde’s furious tirade, and the assembled group turned to the studious bluehead. She was so engrossed in her reading that she didn’t notice the attention she was getting until Makoto leaned over the low table to peek at the (to her pretty green eyes) upside down computer screen. “What’s incredible?”
Starting as her view of the computer was blocked, Ami blushed under the numerous gazes of her curious friends. “I was just reading about the Hearts of the planets, the artefacts that made mass colonisation of the rest of the solar system possible. More specifically, I was amazed by their power source.” Here, she gazed pointedly at one Anything-Goes martial artist.
Ranma snapped his fingers, suddenly remembering exactly what she was talking about. “Yeah, that’s right. Before that, everyone not living on Earth or the Moon was living in domes and stuff.”
Ami nodded, elaborating a little bit. “After Earth’s Council of Mages brought their idea to Ranma he agreed to help, and ended up powering the Hearts that shielded those planets closest to the sun, and brought light and heat to the worlds further from the sun. That’s what was so incredible; that one person could simultaneously power eighteen Senshi, and bring life to nine planets.”
The Scouts of the inner planets were suitably impressed by this example of their new teammate’s power. The Scouts of the outer planets, while just as impressed, were less uniform in their reactions; Michiru sat quietly, sipping the tea provided while she studied the young man who’d so effectively disabled herself and her comrades. Hotaru was awed, but undeterred from her self-assigned mission to snuggle the hell out of Ranma’s arm. Setsuna was pinching the bridge of her nose as a truly epic headache threatened to form. She also twitched violently as she began to remember one or two things about the Guardian she’d apprenticed under. And Haruka…well…
“How can one perverted wish make one moron so fucking powerful!?”
While Haruka railed at the injustice of it all, Setsuna had noticed a possible (and uncharacteristic) mistake in Ami’s statement. “Don’t you mean sixteen Senshi and eight planets?”
The reincarnated Mercurian shook her head. “No, there are references to another small planet, Vulcan, between Mars and Jupiter.”
Ranma nodded, running his fingers through his hair (carefully, to avoid the limiters). “Yeah, me and Guardian Vulcan were going through the list of hopefuls to choose the new Sailor Vulcan when Beryl and Metallia attacked. Unfortunately, Vulcan got hit almost as bad as the Moon did, and when the rest of Beryl’s forces started killing off Guardians and Sailors, and shattering the Hearts…well, let’s just say it was good luck within bad luck that I was the last living thing on Vulcan when I lost control of my power.”
Usagi, not the most intuitive lass, and chief among those less astronomically knowledgeable ladies in the room, summed up her confusion in a succinct manner, turning to Ami for clarification. “Huh?”
Mercury bit her lip, worried about offending or upsetting the ridiculously fit boy who’d dropped through the roof and promptly wreaked holy havoc with reality. Not that she was scared of him or anything, but he was…well, a ridiculously fit boy. “Vulcan was destroyed, and now there’s just rocks floating where it used to be.
Hotaru traded in the evil eye she was levelling at her surrogate father figure for a big pair of puppy-dog eyes that she aimed her new Sempai’s way. “I know you did the best you could, Sempai.”
Grimacing, Ranma nodded silently and fought down a shudder. He hadn’t been sure what to expect when this whole ‘Great Will of the Universe’ thing had kicked off, but he was pretty sure vivid memories of destroying a planet after watching a whole mess of good people get killed wasn’t on the menu.
After a minute of respectful silence Setsuna cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention as she poured herself a cup of tea. “As interesting as it is hearing about the new past, I think we should be a little more concerned with the future. Most importantly, Ranma, now that you have all of this power, what are you going o do with it?”
For some reason, being pinned under the gaze of those deep red eyes was vaguely unsettling, and it took Ranma a second to answer. “Well, I was thinkin’ of getting some training in, but it’d probably be a big help if I did something to lower my power level first. Maybe…
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(Posted Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:38)
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