'Well, this wasn't really what I had in mind when I decided this was the best course of action,' Orion decided as he stared down at the children whacking Luna with sticks.
It seemed his memory of their "weakness" hadn't been perfect. He was just expecting Luna to become mute. She also became disoriented and it seemed much harder for her to think coherently, which probably accounted for why she hadn't simply tried to take the bandage off.
When Orion had decided to sneak inside a library to search for knowledge databases, he had ordered Luna to stay put while he learn more about the world they had been dropped into. How was he supposed to know she'd forget and wander off?
So here he was, circling the boys and trying to think of the best way to approach this scenario. He recognized that he was fairly intimidating... for a cat. These kids apparently didn't think much of a feline's potential for doing harm though, if they would attack one on a whim. Granted he could put up a MUCH better fight than Luna, but it still wasn't saying much.
The decision was taken out of his hands when a young teenage girl with blonde hair in twin ponytails suddenly rushed in and scattered the boys. Then she picked up Luna and started to walk home, making with the appropriate sympathetic jargon that left Orion rolling his eyes.
_____________________________________________________________________
Usagi looked over her new seifuku with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"You're now Sailor Moon, defender of love and justice," Luna explained, idly wondering where that bastard Orion had run off to in the meantime.
She hadn't asked the question aloud. She wasn't expecting an answer. Hell, she didn't even really WANT to know the answer.
Thus, she was understandably upset when she saw a large gray shape dart in through the window.
"About time we got something human-sized to work with," Orion mumbled, right before Luna snarled and pounced on him.
Usagi's wide, disbelieving eyes moved from her new costume toward the two talking cats that were brawling underneath her desk. "Another talking cat? How many of you are there?"
Given that the two felines settled for trying to tear each others' ears off rather than answering her, Usagi's brain (currently suffering resource exhaustion trying to deal with her new status as a magical girl) was tasked with dealing with the query.
"Ohmigosh! Maybe... maybe ALL cats can talk!" she thought suddenly. "Or maybe... maybe it's like in that movie Dr. Dolittle and I can talk with animals! I AM a magical girl now, apparently..." She gasped as she thought of that. Sailor Moon? No, Sailor Moon didn't sound right. She would be Ranger Athena, and lead her army of cute forest animals into battle against the forces of evil!
Besides, that sounded WAY better than doing the fighting herself. For all parties involved really, except maybe the villain's. She knew that if SHE were in trouble, there's no way she'd want someone like her to come save her.
By the time that Usagi's train of thought had finished its fourth circuit down the wrong track into the Twilight Zone, Orion had finally managed to pin Luna down underneath him such that she couldn't do much other than talk, and if she persisted in doing that too much, he could bite her to shut her up. "Erk! To answer your - stop struggling! - question, no, not all cats can talk. And even if you could communicate with animals, they don't have the intellect for language. I said stop it! I don't have time for this Luna!"
Usagi pouted and looked down at the two moon cats. Then she flushed as she saw the large gray cat laying on top of Luna, who was pinned down on her belly and looking annoyed. "Hey! Don't be doing that sort of thing right here in my room! That's gross! What if you get... stuff on the floor?!" She complained.
Both of the cats fixed her with an evil glare. "SHUT UP," they said calmly, in unison.
"Okay," whimpered the great and powerful Sailor Moon, who was now hiding behind a chair while covering her head with her arms.
"Where have you BEEN, Orion?" Luna growled, trying not to let her temper show.
"I've been doing recon. I've located our first enemy," the gray cat said coolly, deciding that the new topic was serious enough that he could let Luna go without risking being attacked. "It's a low-level harvester class youma operating out of a jewelery store. Looks like part of a foothold operation."
Usagi stared. "Uh... so your name is Orion?" Evidently she was running a few stops behind the bus, as it were.
Orion gave Luna a questioning stare, then turned toward Usagi. "I'm Orion, military advisor of the Order of the Royal Knights. Not that it's around anymore, but it's part of the resume. Where Luna will be acting as your personal advisor and confidant, I'll be helping organize the Senshi in combat and identifying tactical objectives."
Usagi took a moment to digest this. "So, you're a magic talking cat like Luna?"
Orion twitched badly. Their new companion was NOT catching up to that bus. "Are you sure about this girl?" He asked Luna, to which the black cat shrugged.
"Like you say, 'any port in a storm'."
Orion frowned. "I never say that." Then he turned back to Sailor Moon. "As much as I'd prefer a prolonged training session previous to an actual operation, the intel I've gathered suggests that the Negaverse is susceptible to attrition. In light of this, it's critical we attack the harvester now. I guess that means you'll be learning your abilities through field experience."
Once again, Sailor Moon gave the tomcat a worried expression as her mind worked through all that. "That sounds scary..."
A vein popped up on Orion's head, and he turned back to Luna. "At times, a storm CAN be weathered in order to find a better port, Luna." The black cat rolled her eyes in response. As if the stupid military nut knew anything about identifying Senshi.
"Omigosh! Naru's in danger!" Sailor Moon said suddenly, attracting the attention of the moon cats. "At the jewelery store! I've gotta go help her!"
Orion groaned. "Damn it! We're out of time! C'mon, I'll brief you as best I can along the way!"
_____________________________________________________________________
"That was shameful," deadpanned Orion as he stared at Sailor Moon and Luna.
Usagi immediately deflated. "What? Why? I won, didn't I?" She had thought it had turned out pretty good. They had saved Naru and all those people, after all. AND a dashing and heroic figure had arrived in the nick of time to save her and shout encouragement! And after defeating the scary youma, she had even managed a heroic and mysterious exit in front of Naru!
"You gave away your position, gave your enemy a chance to regroup before you attacked, missed about sixteen different openings to destroy the youma despite her human shields, you let yourself get pinned down... if that rose sniper wierdo - who at least waited until AFTER the attack to give himself away - hadn't arrived and given you that stupid pep talk, you'd be ground chum right now!" Orion growled as he remembered the man who had jumped it, launched a single projectile and a speech, and then left. "Who is he, anyway? And why didn't he stick to the attack instead of giving a monologue? And then he LEFT? Are these the types of battles that the Senshi normally fight?"
"I thought he was cool..." Usagi mumbled. "And I still won."
"I have to agree," Luna chided. "It didn't go perfectly, but the mission was a success."
"So was the fight for Stalingrad," Orion hissed. "That doesn't change that it was one of the most boneheaded and wasteful military operations ever undertaken."
He had hoped that maybe a reference to an event from Earth's history as Usagi knew it would help him connect a bit better with the new superhero, or at least foster some appreciation that he had taken the time to learn about historical military pursuits in order to be as much help as possible.
"Sutawan... wait... what's Sutaringu... uh..." Sailor Moon scratched her head as she tried to pronounce the word that she had just heard.
It never did occur to Orion that not all the people trying to fight to save the world would be as big a military buff as he was.
"This is ridiculous!" The gray cat snarled, his tail bushing a bit as his black counterpart stared at him dispassionately. "Look, we can't fight off an enemy like this! We either need some more help, or we need to hand off this 'Sailor Moon' power to somebody more suited!"
Luna's cold gaze shifted into a glare. "I don't TOTALLY disagree with you... but it's impossible. She's Sailor Moon and that's that. I can't just give the transformation item to someone else."
Orion frowned. "Why not?"
"Well, I..." Luna took a moment to clear her throat, as if preparing for a long winded and complicated explanation. "I don't know. That's just how it is."
Sailor Moon sniffled, bunching her hands up underneath her chin. "I... I'm trying my best..."
Orion took one look at the blonde girl and winced. "Yes, I realize that," he allowed carefully, his voice much softer now. "It isn't your fault. But the fact is, some people are born to be scholars and some people are born to be fighters. And you're... uh..." he hedged for a moment, "er... not a fighter," he finished diplomatically.
Usagi frowned, though she appreciated Orion's words. "I thought the phrase was 'a lover, not a fighter'?"
"Where this mangy stray comes from, they don't have much in the way of romance," Luna jabbed. "Really Orion, I don't much like it either, but complaining isn't going to solve anything. 'A general marches to war with the army she's got'."
Orion frowned deeply at this, wondering why Luna was so keen on the idioms rather than debating him directly. The military saying had hit home though, even if he was slightly irked that he had described the alleged general as a "she". Even in the Silver Millennium, military leaders had been almost exclusively male; and he found it mildly annoying how the matriarchial royal hierarchies thought this strange.
Still, he was not one to merely complain about an issue until someone else solved it, nor was he content to sit back and let his displeasure fester. When he saw a critical problem, he solved it.
"Fine," the gray cat said, turning away from the two females and trotting off. "If I have to use the army I have, then I'll just get a new army."
Usagi looked worriedly at the tomcat even as Luna rolled her eyes and turned away. Actually, even if Orion was scarier than Luna, she kind of wished that he'd stay with them. She'd take all the help she could get in fighting monsters, and he tended to be more helpful than Luna, yelling suggestions rather than just complaints. 'I hope he isn't mad at me...'
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(Posted Tue, 07 Nov 2006 03:09)
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