“So, what are we here for?” Mercury asked, trying to steer things into a more constructive direction after Venus had finally wound down. It’s not that she didn’t find Venus’ rant entertaining, it was just that hearing about Minako and Makoto’s romantic failures reminded her of her own.
“I had a vision!” Mars announced like she was offering the meaning of life, rather then a view of the future that offered as much solid information as staring at a scrambled porn channel. In other words, you got a vague idea about what was going on, but you could easily mistake a knee for a breast and end up screwing yourself trying to imitate it.
Mercury knew fortunetelling was mostly based on interpretation and guesswork rather then hard data and facts, so she usually just tuned Mars and Neptune out when they started talking about visions and what-not and asked them what they thought it all meant when they were done. She found the opinion of the person who had the vision to be more useful then listening to the actual vision itself, because if it was a glimpse of the future then it was filtered through their psyche, so really their opinion was much more accurate then anyone else’s interpretation. What this meant was that Mercury’s mind tended to wander whenever she had to listen to anyone talk about dreams or prophecies.
‘Seventeen and never been tongued. Now that sounds a lot dirtier then I meant it to. Although considering how things have been going, the only way I’m going to get a tongue anywhere, is if I learn Yoga. What I actually meant is that I’m seventeen years old and have yet to have a kiss that involved tongue.’ She thought to herself, as Mars outlined the vision she’d received while meditating on her shrine’s sacred flame.
‘I don’t know what’s wrong with the guys around here. Makoto may be a bit tall, but she’s got the ‘talent’ that all the guys in school claim they prefer and she’s an excellent cook with her own place. She should be beating the boys off with a stick... and that also sounds a lot dirtier then I intended it to. Hmmm, I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I’ll have to watch myself or I’ll turn into another Minako.’
Mercury’s thoughts drifted to the other senshi’s dating lives. ‘Minako is enthusiastic and perky. Hell, her entire demeanor screams ‘I put out’ when she’s on the prowl and yet she still ends up alone. Sometimes I wonder if she’s cursed.’
Moon asked Mars to explain something she’d said about the Knight’s aura, drawing Mercury’s attention towards the two. ‘Moon has Mamoru and eventually Rei. I really hope they get together soon, I could use the money from the betting pool (even if I do have to cut Chiba-Moon in for half) to get that book on Ley Line Travel. A little more peace and quiet at the weekly meetings wouldn’t be bad either.’
Venus questioned Rei about what color the Knight’s outfit was, which Rei couldn’t comment on, as the vision was tinted by the flame’s colors.
Mercury considered the Outers’ love lives. ‘Neptune and Uranus have each other and Pluto is way too smug not to be getting laid on a regular basis. Even Chiba-Usa has a boyfriend, that Pegasus prince. If you consider Minako’s threat-promise to Makoto as serious, which I do, then the only two senshi without a possible sex life are Saturn and I. Too bad we’re both straight or that situation would solve itself, not to mention I’d still be alone for a couple of years, because although Hotaru is technically fifteen, she still looks and acts about thirteen and lolicon is not one of my interests.’
Forcefully shaking herself out of her mental monologue, Mercury took note of Moon’s melancholy expression and quickly ran through everything Mars had been saying while she had been distracted, trying to figure out what Rei had said that had made Usagi look so down. ‘Ahh, the knight from the vision is aligned with fire. Well, let’s nip that in the bud right now. We can’t have Moon leading us into a dangerous situation looking so dispirited or it’ll effect us all.’
“Actually the knights were empowered to compliment our powers, not match them, so a knight aligned with fire would either be mine or Neptune’s. Mars’ Knight would probably have powers similar to mine, dealing with ice or water.” Mercury lied glibly. She could always claim the file she’d read on the knights had been corrupted if it did turn out to be Mars’ Knight, but the odds are it wasn’t, as no knights had been active except Mamoru, when the reincarnation spell was cast by Serenity, besides having a moping Moon lead them into battle was a recipe for disaster.
“Oh,” Mars said before shrugging it off as unimportant.
Moon had definitely perked up at the news though, Mercury noted, looking forward to gloating when she won the bet. Normally she wouldn’t take pleasure in another’s loss, but Haruka had been a pain in the ass lately, talking about lesbian instincts giving her the edge in the pool.
“Anyway, the vision showed the guy dressed a lot like Tuxedo Mask and using roses as weapons, but instead of earth he was affiliated with fire, maybe dragons or birds as well, that bit was unclear. He was fighting on our side against a number of enemies. The sacred flame was unusually clear about the place and time, being Statue Park in about an hour. I’m assuming that’s because of his connection to fire, but just in case it’s a trap I thought we could arrive early and scout the place out.” Mars finished.
“Good idea!” Moon beamed at Mars and took a place at her side.
“Yeah,” Minako enthused, having bounced back from her earlier irritation as the possibility of having another male join the group sank in, “it’d be nice to get the jump on the enemy for once, rather then the other way around and you know what they say, forewarned is disarmed.”
Mercury didn’t bother correcting her, figuring it was close enough that everyone should be able to figure it out on their own.
“Yeah,” Moon cheered, “and I prefer an enemy that isn’t swinging swords!”
‘Almost everyone.’ Mercury groaned internally.
“When’d you get a visor?” Makoto asked Saturn, drawing everyone’s attention to the the stylish, dark-purple with silver trim, wrap around visor that Saturn was wearing.
Saturn reached up and felt the side of her new accessory, starting a flow of data across her field of view that outlined everyone’s physical health and weak points. “I don’t know. I didn’t even notice it till you mentioned it. It just appeared when I transformed. Where are the other Outers?”
Mercury spoke up, “Mine appeared the same way. Neptune and Uranus are on their way, but I couldn’t get ahold of Pluto, so I left a message.”
Moon turned to Mercury, “What’s the game plan?”
Whipping out her magical laptop, the blue haired senshi that they relied on for group tactics, compiled and searched through all the news articles available about the park online and quickly formed a basic plan. ”According to Mars, we have one hour before we meet the mysterious new knight, while in battle with multiple foes. Statue Park is a popular local attraction, as everyone that goes there says that they feel more relaxed and mellow after spending some time there. We have three cases of homeless people slipping into comas after spending the night there. All the data suggests a very low level draining operation is in place. It’s much more subtle then we are used to dealing with, so I’ll agree with Mars and say that it probably is a trap, but not on the knight’s part. The length of time it’s been operating suggests that it’s one of Jedite’s schemes that never got deployed. It’s been gathering power for at least two years, based on the hospital reports for the first victim, so expect any youma on site to have a lot of power at their disposal.”
Mercury stared at the screen for a moment before speaking again. “I’d suggest splitting up into three pairs. Mars and Moon enter through the east entrance of the park and Venus and Jupiter through the west entrance. Saturn and I will enter through the main entrance and scan for any surprises while you tell everyone to evacuate. That’ll limit the number of bystanders and Saturn can protect us with her wall if we trip anything. The park is about twice the size of a soccer field with the entire rear half filled with a maze and a lot of statues. The entrances are all connected to the front of the park, which is mostly just grass and flowers with some trees for shade and some ornamental statues. I can’t find any maps of the maze, so try not to get drawn in. It’s probably where the trap is.”
The assembled senshi quickly agreed and peeled off to do their assigned tasks, leaving two figures hiding in the shadows. Ranma saw a flicker of movement following Moon and Mars and slipped after it. He wasn’t sure what the whole vision thing was about, but someone lurking in the dark usually meant bad news. As they neared the park the hidden figure slowed down and fell behind just far enough that Ranma was able to catch a good look at him. He was wearing a domino mask and a tuxedo, complete with cane, top hat, and optional cape.
‘That must be the Tuxedo Mask-guy they were talkin’ about, Moon’s boyfriend. Why’s he hanging back?’ Ranma watched quietly from the shadow of a tree.
Tuxedo Mask watched Moon shoo people out of the park with a loving smile, before he crouched down placing a hand on the earth beneath him, concentration furrowing his brow. The soft glow that slowly built up around the crouching figure’s hand was almost undetectable to Ranma’s senses.
‘It’s got some chi mixed in.’ Ranma noted absently, as he searched through the costumes he’d picked up for a similar outfit. He found a domino mask and all the trimmings easily enough, but no tuxedo. Fortunately, Ranma went through so many of his signature outfits a week that he’d learned to sew new ones out of raw materials, so a tuxedo done in raw Chinese silk was easily within his skill range.
He watched Tuxedo Mask’s form begin to glow with the power he was drawing up, as Ranma made the accents in purple to go with the black on his Tux. The shadows seemed to cling to the crouched figure, covering up the lighter parts of his outfit so he could hide easily, but Ranma didn’t know how to manipulate shadows like that, so he had to make his own outfit as dark as possible, besides it matched Hotaru’s this way and made his allegiance clear.
Ranma desperately hoped that dressing a bit like Saturn would keep the ranting blond off him. Finding a small silver bell-earing, shaped like Saturn, he praised the kami and pierced his right ear, carefully wrapping the item in chi to keep it from ringing. He channeled a small burst of energy to the dragon’s whisker he used for a hair tie, making his hair grow about a foot longer and gathering it into a ponytail to complete his disguise.
His Pop and some other bald guys had gotten the original whisker from him and made soup with it when they’d finally managed to steal it from him, fortunately it was just after his hair growing curse had worn off, but he’d grown used to having a hair tie that didn’t break or burn when he got into a fight, so he’d written Herb asking if he knew of where he could get a replacement whisker. He’d gotten a dark purple one instead of the dark brown one he’d had and he had his suspions that Herb had trimmed it off himself, but it had worked great, so Ranma was satisfied and since it looked so different from the last one, he didn’t have to worry about his Pop stealing it.
‘The only thing I’m missing is roses.’ Ranma thought, before he noticed the rose bush to the left of him. ‘Purple roses?! Why the hell would there be purple roses here?’ A glint of metal attracted his attention to the plaque at the base of the bush. ‘Donated by Kodachi Kuno. Ok, now that I can believe. I’ll have to do something nice to her for this.’ Ranma thought as he stripped the bush bare. He was used to highly unlikely events taking place around him, although this was pushing things a bit and he was seriously wondering if someone was setting him up for something. “I’m getting multiple dark energy contacts from all the statues!” Mercury called out from inside the main entrance of the park in the middle of the picnic area.
Saturn stood ready, but didn’t raise her wall yet. She couldn’t afford to waste energy she might need later. Fading out in the middle of combat could get her friends killed and she wasn’t about to chance that. The Silence Wall wasn’t as draining as healing someone, but it was still draining.
Mercury’s fingers danced across the keys, as she quickly interpreted the data. “It’s a complex web, weaving all the statues together. If I can find the central point we can take them all out at once, otherwise we’re looking at fighting them all till they’re drained of energy and from my readings I can tell you now that’s not a good thing.”
The other senshi stood back to back near their chosen entrances, searching for enemies.
A loud creaking noise from in front of Mercury startled Saturn into raising her wall, just in time to block a flight of stone arrows from a score of cherubs that lined the walls near the entrance to the maze of statues that gave the park it’s name. The arrows shattered loudly, spraying shards of rock that were nearly as dangerous as the arrows themselves, but Mercury paid them no mind, trusting Saturn to protect her.
Ranma watched with concern, as bits of Hotaru’s chi were eroded away with the flood of magic she was using to project a wall in front of her and Mercury, who was in an almost trance like state as her fingers blurred across the keys of her laptop focussed solely on her goal. Glancing over at Mask, he could see that Moon’s boyfriend was waiting for something. The power he had been building up had plateaued at an impressive amount and Ranma knew he wasn’t really feeling it all, as all he could really sense was the tiny flecks of chi mixed in it, illuminating it to his senses like seeing sparks, but not the bonfire that generated them.
The fuku clad magic girls launched an impressive array of attacks, blasting many cherubs into gravel before they could reload their bows. Ranma watched keeping one eye on the battle and the other on his girlfriend. Something was pinging his danger sense, but he wasn’t sure what and he didn’t want to jump in without knowing what was going on or if they didn’t need him to.
A second wave of cherubs from further into the park launched their arrows, before Ranma realized what was bugging him. There were two cherubs behind Saturn and Mercury over the main gate, who hadn’t done anything and as he watched he could see them very slowly turning towards the two. Slow enough that they didn’t catch the eye or register as dangerous and in just the right position to launch a deadly attack from behind the wall.
Saturn saw the danger, just as another wave of arrows were launched from the group the senshi were fighting in front of them. If she dropped the wall to protect against the arrows behind them, they’d get skewered by the ones in front of them. She made her choice and stepped behind Mercury, shielding her with her own body.
Ranma was already in motion when the two cherubs launched their projectiles at Saturn, his form a dark blur against the green grass. ‘Dammit, there’s not enough time!’ He thought to himself, mind racing even faster then his body. The bell in his ear chimed mournfully as Ranma channeled all his ki to his legs as he raced death to its goal. He could see Hotaru’s eyes held not a trace of regret or fear as she waited for the end.
He felt strangely proud of her for that.
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(Posted Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:40)
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