Hibiki Ryouga shook his head. So they were now back on Earth, quite near where they'd started out if he remembered correctly, which was good, and Saturn and Pluto were trying to do something with the TempGate to around the planet Uranus "Kina" - OK, "Sailor Uranus" now - had made, which would have been a bit more heartening if he had been able to figure out just what they were trying to do.
"Don't cut it don't cut it - " Neptune sounded quite ready to start glibbering.
Ryouga didn't really blame her as he felt quite a bit like glibbering himself, but - don't cut what? The TempGate?
"We have to, even if it isn't a real Barrett Trap the backlash - "
Pluto told her. Saturn nodded to that. OK, that made some kind of sense, anyway...
"If she made a TempGate from here, she could make one back. She's not too far from where what's left of the old Uranus Castle Satellite is, so she could probably use what's there too - "
"But." Neptune mumbled. "But, but - "
Ryouga noticed that the others quite carefully didn't add "If she was still alive, that is." to what they were saying. Or was it that they actually believed that it was more then likely that "Uranus" was still in the land of the living? Or was likely to continue being in the land of the living, anyway?
"Oh, hell. I'm going to have to set up some kind of camouflage, later - "
Pluto muttered.
"Um?" Ryouga mumbled. OK, that sounded intelligent...
"People are going to think the planet Uranus disappeared under a gravity wave or something, otherwise. It was easier to fudge things when the general tech level was lower, you know?"
"Pluto! Stop worrying about that now!" Saturn called out. Neptune was wringing her hands. Ryouga looked at her, and sighed. He had no idea what to do. Or say.
And it was that moment that Neptune looked up.
A*0-1 regained consiousness. She'd been having a rather nice dream... About a certain Sailor Barrett, of all people.
Xasha. That had been her name back then, yes...Lady Barrett's personal name, that is. The name she'd been using was... Well, she had been Nike, she thought, but it wasn't like she'd been using that name at the time, she didn't think, anyway.
Ahh, whatver, whatever. A*0-1 opened her eyes - and looked right into Kina's - no, Uranus's - face.
Both of them did look and feel somewhat worse for wear, but on the other hand, they weren't dead or missing major bits and pieces of themselves, either. She hoped so, anyway.
"Whaa... you haven't bugged out yet?"
Uranus grimaced.
"Oh, shut up you - and now, hold on-
And it was that moment that Neptune looked up.
"- Uranus!"
And then, the shock-wave rolled over them...
Ryouga rolled up from the concrete road, shaking his head.
"Crackpot."
"Loser."
The two voices sounded weary as anything, but sane. Well, at least that.
"Crackpot.
"Loser, looseer, pants on fire..."
Uranus was back, grabbing A*0-1 around one arm and holding her half over her shoulder. They both, Ryouga noted, looked quite the worse for wear.
"You made a Barrett Trap. You bloody crackpot."
"Nyah nyah, it's not a real Barrett Trap if you've de-coupled the Sacrifice Cannons, I've told you that al-rea-dy -"
Ryouga stared, then. Had Uranus actually stuck her tongue out at A*0-1?
A*0-1, on the other hand, snarled right in Uranus's face. Or looked like she would have tried to if she wasn't so tired, anyway.
"The very fact that you had to de-couple them shows that it was a bone fide real as anything Barrett Trap to begin with, you bloody crackpot..."
"Well...true, I suppose. Megods, A*0-1, you're actually doing the logical thinking thing. Who would have thought?"
Uranus sighed, then, putting A*0-1 down on the ground.
"But it's not like I made them with you in mind, you know. Well, I mean, maybe some of the former me's were thinking about you a little bit too, but it was mostly a Galaxia-thing, if you get my meaning?"
A*0-1 slumped on the ground, flopping a bit.
"Oh yeah?"
"As things turned out, we didn't even go near using them when Galaxia came calling for real, but it made me feel a bit better just to have them at hand, I could tell you that. Well, the former me's anyway."
Uranus added happily, if somewhat drunkenly. Ryouga stared.
Pluto and Saturn simply sighed and shrugged, while Neptune stood up quite suddenly and started walking off to one side.
"Hey, Neptune? - Oh. Um..."
A*0-1, in the meanwhile, had managed to pull herself up to a sitting position.
"So. Is this to be a public execution, or what?"
There was a rather long silence, at that.
"I don't think so." Pluto murmured faintly.
"I would have killed you already if I meant to. Or would have tried to, anyway."
Uranus shrugged. Saturn nodded along with that.
A*0-1 nodded at that. Well, she hadn't thought so, from how Uranus had been acting, but one never knew.
"Well alright, then - then you wouldn't mind if I head home, will ya? Now that this little pissing contest between me 'n Kina -'Uranus' is over, that is?"
"No. Not at all."
Pluto murmured, looking somewhat frazzled.
"However, A*0-1, there are some things we must discuss, anyway - "
A*0-1 sighed. This was all sounding terribly familiar...
Well, at least it seemed they weren't trying to just kill her out of hand, anyway.
"Alright. If you want me to bug the hell out of your Star System, I'll do that. - Jus' give me some time to arrange stuff, alright?"
"Err, as a matter of fact - we don't, I think?"
Pluto mumbled. It had been a long day. Much too long.
A*0-1 narrowed her eyes.
"You'd better not be trying to thrall me, folks. - Or you'll see what 'Overkill' really is capable of."
"No we aren't."
This time, it was Saturn who answered.
"We aren't. Really."
"...Really?"
Saturn nodded firmly. "Really."
A*0-1 sighed yet again. Curiouser and curiouser... " Alright, then - Let's talk. Later, 'kay?"
A*0-1 turned her back on them, and started walking.
Uranus blinked, at that, looking in the direction Neptune had gone, and back at A*0-1.
"Hey. Hey, wait, you."
A*0-1 stopped. "What?"
"Did I win?"
A*0-1 turned, slowly, and gave Uranus a slow look.
Uranus looked gleeful as a drunken gleeful - well, Kiri, frankly. Or Kina too. Maybe.
"I'll admit I'm a cheating crackpot trap-usin' bitch if you'd admit I won, you know! Special bonus!"
A*0-1 sighed, then, though their was the beginning of a twitching smile at the edge of her mouth.
"Alright, then - you won. Just this one time. Cheater."
Uranus smiled, slowly.
"Good."
And then the smile faded from her face.
(Not your foster-brother this time around. Or foster-sister. Or 'not really boyfriend'. Or 'handmaid'. Not here and now. Or heaven forbid - )
(Twins) A*0-1 nodded, a bit of wistfulness seeping through the exhaustion.
(Not twins anymore, either. I get it, Uranus. G'night, then)
A*0-1 turned and hesitated.
"Hey Ryouga, you coming?"
"...Later. I've got things I wanna ask these folk..."
"'Kay, then."
A*0-1 nodded, and started stumbling off.
Only to stop and turn again as Pluto called out again, sweetly...
"Oh, by the way... Uuranuuus..."
Ryouga stared. So did A*0-1, if fact. Had that sweet-looking girl - 'Saturn', yes - took something very much like a glaive out of thin air -
And turned it into - rolled up magazines and newspapers?
And then, Pluto took her staff-thing and followed suit.
Uranus was sweatdropping. "Ahhhhh..."
"Ahhhhhh?" Pluto and Saturn echoed, sweetly.
"Uranus, you - "
" - Idiot - "
Ryouga and A*0-1 looked at each other, then, as Uranus was getting wacked up one side and down the other by - those - Very Special Weapon thingies. Apparently transformed into a good semblance of rolled up newspapers and magazines, for the duration.
Oy, oy, oy. The way some people show they care....
The only one who noticed a half-transparent and more then half naked Tendo Akane slowly fade from the scene was a certain Sailor Saturn - and she wasn't talking.
For now, anyway...
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:29)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.