Sailor Pluto blinked her eyes as she looked up and down between the piece of paper and the small man with wild white hair and thick black mustache whom had delivered it to her. She was surprised enough that someone could reach her at the Time Gates, where she was appointed by Queen Serenity to be the Guardian of...
...But she was even more surprised by the news they came bearing. There on a pink-toned piece of paper was an order to vacate the premises immediately or face trespassing charges? And that she wasn’t allowed within one-hundred feet of any of the other Senshi due to a restraining order!?
Lowering the piece of paper, Sailor Pluto stared at the kindly-looking gentleman in a brown sweater. “Is this some kind of joke?”
The scientist-looking person shook his head. “I’m afraid not, my dear Pluto. Please, turn in your fuku, and Key-Staff to the Time Gates. You’re fired.”
Her red eyes going wide, Pluto screeched, “FIRED!?”
The man nodded his head again. “Fired.”
“WHY!?” Sailor Pluto screamed as she stared down at the man with her red eyes blazing with righteous fury.
Unphased by the demonstration of the woman, the man explained, “After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is and isn’t a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.”
Sailor Pluto raised an eyebrow. “They stripped Pluto of its planetary status?” Her eyebrow started twitching. “Why?”
Nodding his head, the scientist told her, “For now, membership to the Solar System will be restricted to the eight ‘classical’ planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.”
Steam practically coming out the normally stone-faced Senshi’s ears, Sailor Pluto growled out, “You told me they did, but WHY!?”
“Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet,” The scientist calmly explained to the obviously irate green-tressed woman. “And the new rules state that a planet is a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
“Therefore,” the scientist went onto add. “Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.”
Nodding her head slowly, Sailor Pluto understood humanity’s reasoning for saying why Pluto wasn’t considered a planetary body of the Solar System... but still...
“That is all interesting, good sir,” Sailor Pluto said slowly. “But please explain, why should the laws of man have any impact on what the Sailor Senshi do? We are of a race of far older and superior beings chosen by Queen Serenity to do our appointed tasks.”
The man looked up and stared Pluto in the eyes. “Who do you think sent me and signed your pink slip?”
“What!?” Sailor Pluto gasped. She looked down at the bottom and indeed, there was the stamp of the Royal house of the Moon and Serenity’s signature. Now trembling, she looked back at the man, hoping for a better understanding.
Sighing in pity for the obviously distressed woman, the white-haired elderly gentleman told her, “Serenity based her rule not on conquest, but the structuring of her solar system, which she depended on the guidance of her own scholars to outline for her. As long as a planet was considered part of her realm, she would rule over it fairly, no more, no less. Since it has been decided amongst the modern Scientific Community that Pluto is no longer part of the Solar System, Serenity has decided to go with their judgment. Thus you, being the representative of Pluto, no longer fall under her majesty Queen Serenity’s Rule. You are no longer a Sailor Senshi.”
“WHAAAAAAT!?” Pluto screamed in disbelief. Queen Serenity, whom she had dedicated over two-thousand years of her existence. “This cannot be! Who the hell do you think you are!?”
“Me?” The scientist asked. “Well, I am Albert Einstein. Though the circumstances are not what I’d prefer, I am still pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Blinking her eyes once, twice, thrice, Pluto slowly repeated, “Albert Einstein?” She THOUGHT he looked familiar. “So what happens to Pluto?”
“It is now part of its own separate dwarf planet quartet ring, the Kuiper Belt,” Einstein told her. “Your planet can now rule over itself along with Charon, Nix, and Hydra.”
Her eyebrow twitched at that. Pluto was exiled into it’s own space in the universe? “Lovely...” she drawled out, obviously annoyed.
“It is lovely,” Einstein agreed as he took another piece of paper out of the manila folder he had under his arm. “Now, if you would be so kind, I have some non-disclosure forms for you to write. Even though you’re no longer bound to the contract of a Senshi, we can’t have you just going around telling people this and that about the truths of humanity’s past, present, and future. That would be disastrous you understand.”
Nodding her head slowly, Sailor Pluto hesitantly took the paper and offered pen. “So, tell me...” she asked in a depressed tone of voice. “What’s going t happen to my powers and responsibilities at the Time Gates?”
“It’ll be all right! I’ll take care of everything while you’re gone.” Came a childish voice which Pluto recognized all too well.
Turning around, she saw that it was, “SMALL LADY!?”
Giggling impishly, Chibi-usa said, “Yup! Hey, Puu! What do you think of my new fuku?” she asked as she twirled around, showing that she was wearing a sailor fuku nearly identical to that of Sailor Pluto’s, but obviously one sized for her.
A now twitching Sailor Pluto turned to the elderly gentleman. Raising a shaking finger to point at the young pink-haired girl, she asked, “HER!?”
“Yes,” Einstein said as she gently slipped the non-disclosure form from her other hand before she could crumple it. “It was the only logical choice. She DOES have experience using the Time Gates. And as a secondary Senshi for the Moon, she counts as being part of the Solar System.”
“And now I have some cool powers I can use!” Sailor Chibi-Moon cheered. “Don’t worry, Puu! We’ll still be friends! I’ll call you on the phone every day and I’ll send you gifts. Like right now,” she said as she called forth her little Chibi-Moon Wand. “Here, Puu! You can keep this, I won’t be needing it anymore. Plus, it let’s you use the ‘Pink Sugar Heart Attack’ technique.”
Pluto STARED at the offered little toy.
“Isn’t that sweet?” Einstein asked good-naturedly. “Now come on, Ms. Meioh. Take the gift and give her one in return. I’m sure she could use that Key-Staff with Garnet Orb Talisman of yours.”
Raising her head to the vastless sky of the limbo which held the Time Gates, Setsuna Meioh screamed.
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(Posted Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:21)
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