The ever-underestimated Tuxboy stood on the roof of a nearby building. Things were going bad for the Senshi, once again. Indeed, they seemed to be trapped by this group of fiends. However, the attacks seemed to be more to subdue rather than kill. Could they actually be alies?
Well, no matter. He had a job to do.
Five roses tore through the air stem-first like darts of justice. One dart struck the block of ice Sailor Pluto was imprisoned in, shattering it. Another flew between Hellcat and Venus, startling Hellcat, and embedding in the concrete they stood on. The Crimson Bands of Cytorrak were disrupted by a similar rose, dropping Mercury to the ground. A rose knocked Namor's trident away from Mars. Another forced Moondragon off Jupiter and Neptune's case. Finally, the crack of pavement awoke Sailors Moon, Chibi Moon and Saturn from their forced slumber.
"Tuxedo Mask!" squealed Moon.
"Who wimp-man?" querried the Hulk.
"Sailor Moon! Fight with all the strength of your heart, but remember that these may not be your true enemy!" the tuxedoed defender of love and justice shouted words of encouragement to the Sailor Senshi below. Each set their jaw grimly and focused on their opponent.
The senshi were giggly, scatterbrained girls, but they weren't completely stupid. They realized that standing around powering up their attacks would get them nothing but a beating. That meant they couldn't use their higher-level powers without a distraction, but their basic-level powers they could call up with almost no effort, no need to stand around leaving themselves vulnerable. With a brief nod to each other, they scattered themselves amongst the Defenders, some going after targets that had previously defeated them itching for a rematch, others choosing new targets.
Sailor Venus was one that wanted a rematch, so she approached Hellcat. "Venus-LoveMe-CHAIN!" she chanted quickly and called forth her chain of hearts. She caught it and began twirling the free end about her hand in a large circle as she squared off against Hellcat. The two circled each other warily, quick snaps from Venus's chain discouraging Hellcat's approach.
"Okay, Tall, Green and Ugly, time for round two!" Sailor Uranus said as she approached the Hulk, cracking her knuckles more for show than anything else.
"Hulk strongest there is!" the green behemoth growled as he rushed Sailor Uranus.
Sailor Uranus grinned. This time she was ready for the big green youma (although it didn't seem femaform like the their previous enemies). She got a sense of the strength and the speed of this creature from their last encounter.
Uranus stepped aside, letting the Hulk's fist pass by a whisker. "Then it's a good thing..." she began as she grabbed the huge arm as it passed. "...that Judo teaches how to use the strength of your opponent..." she continued, stepping into the Hulk's path. "...AGAINST him!" she finished, executing a beautiful Judo move that sent the Hulk tumbling head over teakettle into a concrete wall. "So, how now, green cow?" she teased.
"GRAAHHHH!!!" the Hulk roared, rushing Uranus again, bellowing, "HULK SMASH!!"
Sailor Uranus grinned, then vanished from Hulk's vision, revealing a sturdy wall had been behind her, and Hulk was steaming at it full-tilt.
*CRASH!*
"Heh. Hulk certainly does!" quipped Uranus as she landed lightly on the ground.
Sailor Moon stared down Doc Strange, her tiara spinning furiously above the fingers of her left hand. The message was clear: I can get this thing off faster than you can get off a spell. And it was true, too. No more spinning around, no more saying "Moon Tiara Action"... just a flick of the wrist was all that was necessary to send this weapon off, and she had gotten quite good at controling the spinning projectile, even fancy tricks like getting it to return to her after throwing it. Doc Strange had two rips in his puffy shirt to show for it.
Sailor Mars, facing off with Namor, solved the problem of being decked by Namor by the simple expedient of not being hit. Since she was inducted into the sisterhood of the senshi, she saw the value of taking some martial arts training, training that was paying off now as she avoided Namor's blows and attempts to spear her with the Trident of Neptune.
"Give it up, woman!" humphed the Atlantean, "You cannot defeat the son of Atlantas."
"'Atlantas'?" repeated Mars. "So you live underwater, eh?" Mars dodged an attempt to skewer her as she prepared her attack. "FIRE SOUL!" she called, a ball of fire gathering near her index fingers, exploding in a ball of flame before her.
Namor yelped and lept back, giving Sailor Mars some breathing room. "Fire! You're like that human torch fellow!"
"Not quite. But I've got more than enough power to turn you into fillets," she said with a confident sneer. Talkin' trash is fun, she decided. "And you might want to look behind you."
"I will not fall for such simple tricks, fire-breathing vixen!" growled the Submariner.
Mars's smile became a lazy grin. "Don't say I didn't warn you, then. ^_^ "
"What?"
"Silence Glaive..." came a whisper from behind him.
"Curses!" Namor turned to face the voice, automatically throwing up his trident to ward off the incoming attack.
"...SURPRISE!!" the last word came out as a mighty shout as Sailor Saturn brought the Silence Glaive down, the blade corsucating with energy, to cleave Namor's trident in twain. Namor had a moment to look surprised as the remains of Neptune's gift explode in his hands.
*BOOM!*
Sailor Saturn uncovered her face after the explosion died down, as did Sailor Mars. Both saw Namor laid out on the ground in the middle of a crater, his body quite carboned.
"Yeah!" Saturn cheered, giving Mars a high-five.
Mars accepted it. "He certainly was surprised!" she quipped.
It was round two of Moondragon vs. Sailors Jupiter and Neptune. Moondragon had tried to take them down the same way she did last time, but it didn't work as Jupiter wasn't using those attacks that needed time to charge. Furthermore, every time she tried to check on Neptune, Jupiter would punch her and call attention back to herself. Which meant... Uh oh!
"DEEP SUBMERGE!" cried Neptune, conjuring up a great gout of water.
Fortunately for Moondragon, the call of the attack was, with the split-second realization it was coming, was enough warning for her. "Dammit!" cursed Jupiter as Moondragon ducked out of the way of the Deep Submerge.
Meanwhile, in Sailor Venus vs. Hellcat, Mina caught lucky break in the form of Hellcat's ankle. As Hellcat looked down to see her ankle wrapped up in a heart-linked chain, Venus sprang into action. "Yee-HAW!!" cried the Senshi of Love as she twirled the chain above Hellcat, wrapping her in coils of chains. "Gotcha!" she whooped, holding the chain taut around her opponent.
Uranus glanced at her three teammates and grinned. She had aligned herself perfectly, and the Hulk was really steamed. She made a face at the mean green machine. "*BLEAH!* Can't hit me, ya big green lummox!"
"PUNY WOMAN MAKE FACE AT HULK! HULK SMASH PUNY WOMAN!" bellowed the Hulk and came at Uranus like a freight train.
Neptune had joined in the attack on Moondragon. The double-team prevented her from using her own powers effectively. Still, they couldn't defeat her like unless...
Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus disappeared. Then Moondragon felt a sharp pain, then nothing.
"Hulk mess up!" the Hulk observed, seeing that it was Moondragon underneath his fist instead of the puny blonde woman he was fighting before. Moondragon was clearly out for the count, complete with swirly eyes. @.@
"YOU MAKE HULK HURT MOON FRIEND! HULK SMASH YOU!" roared the Hulk and bolted at Uranus again.
Instantly, Sailor Uranus ducked under the Hulk's fist and brought the attack she had been preparing to bear. "World... SHAKING!" shouted Uranus triumphantly, and drove her fist into the Hulk's... um... family jewels. The blast wasn't as powerful as her normal World Shaking, but it certainly did the job. The Hulk's eyes swelled to enormous proportions, his skin turned purple, and he fell to his knees, clutching at his privates.
Uranus looked quizically at her fist. "Hmm... Looks like the Hulk has one weakness..." Uranus remarked.
Sailor Pluto jumped up and smashed another ice-floe down, forcing Iceman to abandon it and return to the ground. Iceman regarded the woman who seemed as cold emotionally as he was physically, and whom he had beaten not twenty minutes ago. She wasn't powering up to do that 'Dead Scratch' attack, or whatever she called it, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good since there was no chance he would be on the receiving end of one of those, and a little bird told him that would probably be a Bad Thing; it was bad because Pluto was no longer the easy target she was when she powered that attack up.
"BURNING MANDALLA!" came the cry of Mars, and a thousand rings of fire slammed into Iceman's back.
"ARRGH!" screamed Iceman as a few centimeters were taken off his icy body. "Man, that smarts! Let's put you on ice, Hot Stuff!" growled the Man of Ice and released his ice-powers.
"DEEP SUBMERGE!"
Iceman was hit with a great gout of water just as he was releasing his powers of cold. The gout absorbed the cold of his attack and froze instantly, turning him into a mountain of ice, with Iceman at the center of it.
"The irony is agreeable," remarked Pluto with a cold smile.
The Sorcerer supreme found himself the only one facing off against the Senshi, and he was impressed. They had fought quite a comeback battle, turning almost assured defeat into victory.
As she walked into view, Mercury dispelled the visor that shielded her eyes, as well as the microphone that had appeared with it. It was a good thing that last week she discovered the senshi's earrings were more than just decoration — they were also tranceivers to send and receive voice instructions. She had sneaked off and started directing the fight from afar. "You're lucky. You and your teammates do not scan as evil. The true source of the evil we picked up earlier has gone."
The Sorcerer Supreme's eyebrow raised, recognizing her as the true brains behind the Defenders' Waterloo. So this superteam thought they were agents of evil at first. Again. He also noticed that although these girls now had most, if not all, of the Defenders at their mercy, they made no move to eliminate them. As the tuxedo-clad man had put it, they might not be enemies. Yes, perhaps it was time to talk.
Doctor Strange recognized the girls now. He remembered stories about stories about the Sailor Senshi, tales of these self-proclaimed Champions of Love and Justice™ moving through the sorcerers' grapevine.
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(Posted Fri, 27 Jun 2003 21:11)
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