Sailor Moon: AR Alternate Reality

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Part 3: "Senshi Rivalry"

Written by Strike Fiss, Ninja Crowbotics, 1996

Prologue

Sailor Pluto sat in her apartment's living room, nursing a lukewarm cup of sake. Her steady gaze out the window had lasted for a good hour. She looked into the cup of clear, water like liquid and sighed. "Was I so wrong?" she asked the cup. The fact that it never answered didn't stop her from continuing. "I mean, Sailor Moon, the Sailor Scouts...are they really strong enough? I mean, they beat the Lords..." The sake hung in the cup silently. She smiled to herself. "You know, Alex would kill me if I admitted the Inner Scouts were good. She has this big idea that..." She paused when she realized she was talking to herself. She stood up, suddenly angry. "I don't believe the Lords were that easy to beat." she threw the cup against the wall, making it shatter. "They CAN'T have been THAT easy to destroy..." She looked around at her dark apartment. It almost reminded her of back on Pluto. That's when she remembered WHY the Lords were so unbeatable, and why the Outer Scouts were so passionate about the cause to destroy them. Suddenly, though, a two-millennia-old battle was cut to a sudden end by some weird guy in a white lab-coat. Pluto sat back down. Maybe it was over. Maybe...just maybe...the Lords didn't have a back-door. Maybe, the Omega Web gave the Scouts the advantage they needed to finally get rid of the Lords. Maybe...just maybe...the Lords were gone.

Maybe.

Chapter 1

"Chris?" Ami pleaded. "Uh, Chris? Could you slow down a bit...?" Chris glanced over to the passenger seat. "Well, Ami. I wouldn't want to disrupt traffic, would I?" He had offered to take Ami to her cram-school today, after she had missed the bus. Yes, Chris was now driving. He had applied for and received an international-drivers-licence, and had borrowed Darien's car for the day. "Yes," Ami coughed "but there's no other traffic." Chris smiled. He had decided to test out Darien's sporty-little coupe, and was driving on a back-road at one-hundred miles-an-hour. "True..." he said simply, taking a moment to adjust his sunglasses. Ami began getting worried as the school came into view. It blocked the back-road from continuing. "Uh, we're here...you can slow down, now..." "Now what fun would THAT be?" Chris said happily. "More fun than exploding as we hit that brick wall..." Ami replied quickly. The engine gunned and Chris shifted into the highest gear. "One of the neat things about the drivers course I took is that they teach you the same high-speed driving course as the police learn." Ami nodded quickly. "Wonderful. Now, please slow down..." she said, watching the end of the road creep up at an uncomfortable pace. Chris smiled. "Don't worry. I was a pro-driver back on Saturn." Ami blinked. "Wait...you told me yesterday that you didn't have cars!" "Did I? Mmm, I guess I forgot about that..." "BRAKE!" Ami pleaded. Chris sighed. "Maybe you're right." He slammed the gearshift into neutral, then turned a hard right. The car began sliding sideways, then went into a three-sixty, throwing Ami against the door a few times. In the few brief moments when the car was facing the way it was moving, Ami saw the wall getting closer and closer. Chris began humming the theme-song from Dragonballz as he straightened the wheel, put it in first gear, and floored it. The car was facing backwards, and began screeching against the road. Slowly, it came to a stop. Chris let off the gas, and parked it. Ami was thrown against the seat, and her knuckles were white from holding on. "I-I-I meant you should have applied the brakes!" Chris shook his head. "We were going too fast." he pointed to the wall, which was now one foot away from the back bumper. "Would've crashed into the wall." Ami's eyes widened. "Don't EVER do that AGAIN!" she grabbed his collar and started shaking him. Chris unlocked the doors. Ami got out. Chris smiled. "Do you want me to pick you up after school?" Ami frowned at him, then slammed the door shut, storming off to class. Chris sighed. "I guess she doesn't love me any more..." He put the car in gear. "Thank god." he sighed.

He was so relived, that he didn't even notice the car tailing him.

Rei sat alone in her room, plucking away at her little musical keyboard. Because of the Lords, the schools had been shut down while the city recovered from the destruction. No school. Rei should have been happy. She could have helped out at the temple more, or at least had more free time to spend with Chris. Unfortunately, with the school closed, he, Maury and Andrea were going back to Calgary. Not for another week...but their visit had still been cut short. She sighed to herself. Maybe that horrible dream she had was just a dream. Chris would be gone in a week, and would be far away from City Hall or anywhere else in Tokyo. The dream had not occurred for weeks now, and she was confident the danger was averted. Chris knocked on the door and let himself in a second later. "Hi Rei. Whattcha doing?" Rei looked up from her keyboard and shrugged. "Just wallowing in my own selfishness." Chris lay down next to her. She was obviously mad at the fact he had to go. "You know, Rei...you could always come visit me...it's not just a one-way arrangement." Rei held her chin in her hand. "Now, THAT wouldn't look suspicious." she sighed. "A girl doesn't fly thousands of miles to a different continent, just so she can say hi' to a boy who she just knows." Chris smiled. "You haven't told Grandpa, have you?" Rei blinked, "Why would I want to? He gets all protective of me the minute I mention going on a date with someone. I can't just go up to him and say: Hi Gramps! Guess what! I'm having sex with Chris!" "Well..." Chris shrugged. Rei sighed, then sat up. "I guess I should...sooner or later...but what I want to know is how this little return-trip is going to affect us in the mein time." Chris looked down at the floor. "I'll always be there for you. I don't care if I have to wait another thousand years, to see you again." he said solemnly. Rei smiled. "That's sweet, Chris...but it's not necessary..." Chris sighed. "I think it is." he paused. "You probably guessed Ami has been...interested in me, right?" Rei nodded. "Yeah...she kicked the shit out of me before. Yelling something about me stealing' you away from her." she shrugged. "Why? What does that have to do with anything?" He looked up at her. "To tell you the truth, I didn't really mind. Not until recently. Not until I saw your face after we defeated the Lords." Rei shrugged. "Huh?" Chris sighed. "Well, all this attention...you know...has been great. I really didn't mind Ami's advances until I realized...I know, it IS pretty corny..." he got more serious. "But at that moment, when I saw your face light up when that last asshole vaporized, and we had finally won, I saw you like you weren't Sailor Mars, or Princess Mars, or whatever." He sat up and faced her. "Just plain Rei. YOU'RE the one I fell in love with." Rei looked him in the eyes. "Chris...please..." a tear rolled down her cheek. "Saying goodbye is going to be hard enough..." Chris blinked. "I..." he paused. "Rei, I thought you were okay with this. I mean, I can visit...and I'm trying for a..." Rei pointed to the door. "Please...I need to be alone right now..." she said with her back turned to him. A long pause. Chris walked to the door. "Do you know what I did today?" he asked, stopping abruptly. A quiet sob came from Rei. "I drove like a homicidal maniac through half of Tokyo, just so Ami would get off my back and we could have an uninterrupted last week together." Rei said nothing. Chris hung his head slightly. "All I ask is that you notice my efforts." he paused. "I haven't noticed yours." A quiet swish signified the door closing. Rei turned around with tears in her eyes. "I notice." she said quietly.

Chapter 2

Maury sighed, quietly sharpening his knife. "Chris. I though you were taking Rei out to dinner tonight?" Chris didn't respond. He was buried in a book. His friend frowned. "Fine. I'll stay out of it." Chris nodded finally. "Thanks, Mo. I just need some time to think." Andrea and Maury looked at each other, and decided to drop the subject. "So," Andrea sighed. "What are we going to do when we get back?" "Well," Maury started. "I've been thinking of getting my parents to move to Japan..." Andrea and Chris both looked at him. Maury smiled. "Then me and Lita can be together constantly!" Andrea coughed. "I was thinking we could set up a little organization to fight crime." "Yeah, but we were going to do that anyway." Chris said, still reading. "I'd rather not talk about going back right now, if you don't mind." The conversation died for the rest of the night.

Grandpa sat on the roof, eyeing the rather beautiful full moon over the treetops. "Mmm, I love this time of year." he said to himself. He took a deep breath of spring-time air, and was about to stretch out and fall asleep, as he often did, when something caught his eye. "What the...?" he squinted, allowing his eyes to focus better in the dark. Slowly, the shape of a man appeared below. And he was hiding in a nearby bush, looking into a window in the temple. Grandpa growled to himself. "Damn burglars....they have no respect for culture. In MY time, NOBODY ever tried to steal from a temple!" Silently, the old man slid down off the roof via a tree. Grandpa ran over to another bush and hid, plotting out how to attack the 'burglar'. The intruder stood up suddenly, reviling more of himself. Grandpa gasped as he saw the man was wearing a makeshift ninja-costume. "We're under attack?" he asked himself. Grandpa leaned forward to get a better view. A quick snap signaled he had stepped on a branch. The intruder quickly snapped his head around at the sound and saw Grandpa hiding in the bushes. He gasped and ran. Grandpa leapt out and began chasing him. "Come back here! I'm not letting you escape!" The ninja, however, was a lot faster than Grandpa. Despite the old man's spunk and determination, he lagged behind considerably as the intruder bounded down the stairs and into a nearby car. It was already down the street as Grandpa reached the bottom of the stairs, gasping. "Damn..." he pouted. By this time, the racket had waken up everyone at the temple. Rei, Chris, Maury, Chad and Andrea came running down the stairs in their housecoats. "What happened!?!" Rei asked. Grandpa sighed. "I don't know. Some weird guy was hanging around outside in the bushes." Andrea blinked. "What did he look like?" "But I DID chase him off! HA!" Grandpa smiled proudly. "Come on. I'll call the police." Chris shrugged. "Was it a burglar or something?" "No," Grandpa said, starting up the stairs. "He was wearing some weird black pajamas or something." Chad smiled. "Oh oh. We must be under attack by ninjas." "Actually," Grandpa paused. "He DID look a little like a ninja or something..." Rei, Maury, Chris and Andrea all looked at each other. Andrea ran back up the stairs. "I'll call the others." Chris smiled weakly at Rei. "Looks like our little dispute will have to wait." She didn't say anything, but walked up the stairs. Chris took a deep breath. "Right. Got it. Fine."

Chapter 3

Rei sat quietly in the corner as the Scouts shuffled in. She couldn't help but notice Chris' quiet, unwavering glare at her. His eyes were clearly hurting at her sudden unacceptance of his leaving, but Rei held fast. She knew if she gave in now, she'd only regret it more when he left. Andrea decided to start the meeting for once. "Okay. First of all, are we certain we destroyed ALL the Lords and Watchers?" Darien shrugged. "Well. We pretty much saw the Lords die. We were right there, and we killed all of them. But we never really did know how many ninjas there were. And the police worked the 'clean-up' efforts, so we couldn't find out if any of them survived, but were knocked out during the fight." Mina nodded. "If any of them survived, they might have been able to escape." Ami shrugged. "I hate to mention it now, but I DID do a scan of the area before they attacked. I could look back on my computer's records." "It IS a ninja you saw at the temple," Artemis said, "and I saw a lot of stuff in the Watcher hideout that could have been some weird cloning equipment." Luna nodded. "We might start by going back to the hideout." Darien, Maury and Chris all raised their hands. "We volunteer." Chris said happily. Darien smiled kinda goofily. "I love these break-n-enter jobs." Everyone looked at him in surprise. "Hey...don't think I don't like a little excitement..." Darien smiled. Luna sighed. "Okay. You three go check out the hideout. Chris, bring your computer incase you can hack into their records. If they DID clone with the aid of a computer, we might be able to find records on how many we're dealing with." Chris, Maury and Darien nodded. "Excellent..." Maury replied. Luna continued. "Serena, Rei and Lita. Go down to the police station, and try to get information on how many Watchers they found, and how many of them died." "How are we going to do that?" Serena whined. "I don't know..." Luna growled. "Use the Luna-Pen or something. And not just the records at the crash site and battle-fields. Also when they attacked Chris and Rei at the park, and how many they found at the computer building." Lita nodded. "We'll get the info." she slammed her fists together. "Ami, Mina and Andrea. We'll try and figure out the situation with Ami's computer data and Artemis' lazy memory." Artemis frowned. "Well?" Luna urged. Everyone left, or gathered around the cats.

The three dark figures of Tuxedo Mask, Strike Fiss, and Prince Destiny filled the open door of the Watcher warehouse. All that guarded the area was a flimsy line of police tape. Chris was kind of surprised. Darien shrugged. "I don't think they've looked inside yet. Half the police force in Tokyo was destroyed at the Lord's touch-down-crater." Maury nodded. "Yeah. The poor guys are probably stretched thin enough with the NORMAL crime around this city..." They walked into the black, murky void...careful not to trip over anything in the dark. "Man, I wouldn't want to get trapped in HERE..." Darien snickered. "Do you SMELL that?" Maury nodded. "Wait a second...where's Fiss?" A loud "CHOOOOM" filled the air! They leapt back as a bright light hit their eyes, almost blinding them. They both gasped as they saw Chris... ...who was over by a light switch. "What?!?" he asked, noticing their wide-eyes. They both fell over. "I DON'T BELIEVE...UUUGH!" Maury growled. "Don't EVER freak me out like that again!" Chris smiled. Darien ignored him and began searching the main 'command area.' Chris and Maury walked over to the main ninja training/housing area. "Looks like they were ready to house a couple thousand of the suckers." Maury commented. Chris shrugged. "It would make a good skating rink." he paused. "Maybe a few..." "Complete with cold, misty fog..." Maury pointed to the darkened 'room' across the large warehouse floor. A light fog emanated from it's only door. Darien caught up to them. "Hey, I saw some computer-terminals or something in the command center. Go check it out." Chris nodded. "You two figure out what's in that room over there. I'll find out if they kept any records." Maury and Darien peered into the blackness. "Try and find a light for this place." Maury said. Darien found the light switch and flipped it up to 'on.' They both went wide-eyed as they saw rows and rows of beds. Rather, tables...covered in a thick slime. "Slime?" Darien snickered. "This just keeps getting better and better..." Maury looked down at his feet. "Don't step in that shit. It might be corrosive or something." Darien reached into his jacket and pulled out a rose. He tossed it at the slime, waiting for a reaction. Nothing happened to the rose, and it stayed alive and normal. "Mmm, that's weird. Usually the aliens we fight spray out acid or something. Not yellow-ish Jell-O." Maury shook his head with a smile. "Let's just get some in a jar for Ami, okay?" Darien nodded. "Good idea. She should be able to analyze it, and we can tell exactly what we're dealing with." Maury walked over to one of the 'beds,' and took a closer look as Darien scooped some up into a glass test-tube he found nearby on a table. "Hey, Tuxy. What does this say?" Maury asked, pointing to a label on the bed. Darien looked over. "Oh...it says: Cloning Bed Twenty. Release date, March fourth." They both looked at each other, then ran over to the next bed. "This one?" Maury asked. "This one is a day later." he looked down the row. "Same with all the others. One day after another." Maury took a deep breath. "So, it was a clone per day?" "No...some of these labels have the same release dates...just from these, I say they could have made all hundred or so beds produce ten sets of clones in a month." Darien said, studying the far row. "Oh shit..." Maury blinked. "What?" "This date on the last bed is April eighth. One day after we beat the Lords." Maury sighed. "Great. So there's a clone running around somewhere...even if we DID kill all of them." Darien punched the wall. "Damn! I KNEW we should have checked back at the hide-out..."

Chris sat in Serebe's old command seat, with his computer hooked into the socket in the chair's arm. As his computer downloaded the Watcher's files, his mind drifted back to Rei. She was going through more mood swings then a cat on catnip. He tried to remember why she had been so cranky in the first place. Chris frowned to himself. Why was everything falling apart? First, they had been basking in the aftermath of the destruction of Zoicite. Rei and him were never closer, and everyone seemed happy. Then, the Lords came into the picture. First, a chunk of Tokyo, visible from low orbit, was destroyed. Then, they almost killed the Scouts. Now, there was a mystery ninja. Not only that, but because of the destruction, he had to go home early. Now, Rei was pissed off, and didn't want to be anywhere near him, in case she started feeling bad about his departure. "Great." he said out loud. "Found something?" Darien asked from a few meters away. Chris took a double take, realizing he said it out loud. He glanced back to his computer. "Uh...Well, it's all in Japanese, so I'll have to get a converter from the Internet. At least then, you'll be able to read the text for me." Chris said. "Also, we got a lot more than cloning records. I downloaded as much as I could, just incase it comes in handy." Chris frowned. "Unfortunately, there's not much more than security tapes." Maury smiled. "We got slime!" He handed Chris a vile of slime. Chris smiled. "Cool. Looks like Jell-o. Is it dangerous?" Darien shrugged slightly, making his cape flap. "Well, don't touch it. We found it on the cloning beds. Also, this stuff was on the latest cloning bed. It's green." Chris blinked. Maury nodded. "There's at least one ninja left for sure. He was released from his bed the day after we finished off the Lords. The weird thing was that the gel on it's bed was a different color." "Probably some sort of last resort incase they failed." Darien speculated. "But only one? Even if it's special in some way, I doubt it's any more powerful than a Lord." "Maybe they thought it would catch us off guard." Chris shrugged, shutting his laptop. Maury yawned. "Well, if we're all done, I'd like to get some sleep."

Lita walked into the police station as casually as she could. With the police force cut in half, she should have expected the hustle and bustle...but it was much worse. "SOMEONE GET DOWN TO OKANAGWA!" someone yelled, just inches from her ear, scaring the shit out of her. Lita jumped back to let a police officer through, holding his arm in pain. "I lost two more at the robbery on thirty-second and main. Get an..." "I'm having a VERY bad day..." someone else said, also in Japanese. Rei came in after Lita. "Oh my god..." she had seen this police station a few times during her life in the neighborhood...but it never once looked THIS bad. It was like a war-zone. Lita looked confused, "Rei, do you really think we should be bothering them? They're kinda busy..." "The Lords must have killed off hundreds of police officers. I never thought it would hurt the city like it has..." Rei whispered, kind of detached. "The Lords are dead...yet they're still destroying us." Lita nodded. "I'm going back." Rei nodded. "The last thing they need is two teenagers badgering them for the death-toll." The two began walking out as another twenty "9-1-1" calls came in, and another shot police officer. He leaned up against the wall and sighed. "Come on, Sailor Moon...give us a hand already." Rei turned at the mention of this. So did most of the people in the room. Everything was quiet for the first time that day. "They're not police officers." another person said. "They can't be called on for standard crimes." The shot officer looked up. " I know, I know." He was silent for a moment. "It's just that as soon as the Sailor Scouts arrived, this city's been attacked by everything from killer weeds to aliens." Rei and Lita knew this was true, and they couldn't help letting a few tears fall as the overworked, yet determined men and women of Tokyo Precinct 5 went back to work. Lita opened the door for Rei silently. They walked out the door...now knowing who the REAL heroes were.

Chapter 4

Darien, Chris and Maury walked up the stairs to the temple, contemplating what they had found. Chris had his laptop open, and had translated a good chunk of the text, which wasn't in Japanese, but some weird new language. Modern computers to the rescue...and they managed to translate it. "It looks like some special program was used for the last clone." Chris said. Darien sighed. "So this clone isn't like the others we fought. Great. More surprises." "Not only that, but something called 'Dublotine' was used in the clone's generating gel." Chris said. "I can't find any known chemical that matches it's name or formula. It must be alien." Maury shrugged. "So? Maybe it just makes him see in the dark, or have a longer life-span. Who cares!" he said confidently. "We'll kick his ass like we did the others!" They got to the top of the stairs and headed for the temple.

Rei and Lita had returned an hour ago, and they were all waiting for the boys to return. Luna wasn't happy. "I sure hope THEY had luck in retrieving some records." Ami hung her head. "Sorry Luna. My computer wasn't on during the fights." she shut her little data-recorder. Lita and Rei said nothing. Artemis sighed. "Don't worry, Luna. We know there's a clone still out there, and the Scouts will get him before he does any damage." Luna nodded. "I know. I just hope there aren't more of them." Darien walked in the door. "There's only one." Chris nodded as he came in. "I brought presents!" Everyone blinked and ran up to him. "Okay, for Andrea, Mina, Rei, Lita, Serena and the cats..." he pulled out a box. "Donuts!" Mina grabbed the box and ran off to the corner. "Hey!" Lita yelled, running over as well. Ami walked up to Chris. "What about me?" Maury handed her the test-tube of goo. "Cloning gel!" Ami looked at it. "Do I eat it?" Maury was about to nod when Chris elbowed him in the stomach. "No. We brought it for you to analyze." Luna walked up to them. "Well?" "Well? What?" Darien said. "How do you know there's only one clone?" Darien blinked. "Oh, oh yeah..." Chris showed Luna his laptop. "I managed to download their entire network. In their security files, it shows the intruder alert was still on when we got there. Before us, though, the only person in or out of the building was our mystery clone." Maury nodded. "He must go back every once and a while to see if any more clones survived. It's the logical meeting place for any survivors." "And," Darien continued "because it's been a week, there's only a remote chance any have lived...or have sneaked past the police. If there are any left, they're in police custody, and aren't going anywhere." Lita sighed, donut in hand. "Well. In a few days, this will all be over. All we have to do is track him down, or wait for him back at the warehouse." Luna nodded. "I hope so." Chris smiled over to Rei, but Rei still had the semi-vacant look on her face. "Excuse me...I'm off to bed." he said finally. Lita blinked as Chris walked out. "I wonder what's wrong with him? He hasn't been acting weird all day..." Rei walked off. "I'm going to bed too. Goodnight everyone..." Ami shrugged. "What was that all about?" Mina sighed. "I hope it's nothing." "What? What's nothing!?!" Lita asked anxiously. Mina sighed. "You mean you haven't noticed?" Lita shook her head. Serena was suddenly closer. "Well? Tell me! I LOVE gossip!" Mina ran her fingers through her hair gingerly. "Well, I think Rei is really broken up about Chris leaving next week, and she's taking it out on him." Maury hung his head. "I hope he's okay. Lita's right. He's been acting normal all day long." Everyone looked at him. Maury shrugged. "Chris only acts like that when he's really depressed."

A brilliant white flash was sent out across the darkness as the blade passed into the moon light. A few more flashes were sent out as the mirror-like surface darted in and out of the window's view. Chris brought his sword around in a smooth, slow arch, against an imaginary opponent. Practicing his art of sword-fighting calmed him during times of unrest. And right now, he was up at five in the morning because he couldn't sleep. "You know something, Speedy?" he asked his sword. "You're lucky." 'Speedy' said nothing, but gleamed in understanding. "The worst problem YOU have to worry about is when next you're going to get cleaned. And even then, you don't need it." Chris sighed, swinging around his sword in a quick 'swish.' He was too busy to notice a small, white cat sitting at the door. Chris sat down on the dojo floor where he always practiced, took out a cloth, and began whipping his sword clean. "It's not fair." he told his sword. "We're meant for each other...and we both love each other with all our hearts...so why is this so FUCKING difficult?!?" he yelled. Artemis watched from afar, hanging his head a little. Chris looked at his sword. "I don't know anymore...It still seems like Rei's avoiding me or something. I just wish I knew if she DID love me, or if I'm just too stupid to see that she doesn't." Artemis sighed quietly. The young man in the room ahead of him quietly put away his sword in it's scabbard. "I wish they knew how I felt. Nobody seems to understand." he sighed and rested his head on his sword's handle. A tear fell down his cheek. "I wish they knew what it was like to be unsure who loves you or not." Artemis felt a tear forming too. "I understand, Chris...You're not alone on that one." he thought...then got up and walked away. The white cat walked along down the hallway until he got to Rei's room. Silently, he let himself in. He hopped up on the bed and sat down next to Rei's head. "Rei?" Rei mumbled. "Rei...WAKE UP!" Artemis yelled in her ear. Rei's eyes shot wide open and she jumped out of bed in a furry of flying bed-sheets. "WHAT!!! Wh-wha-what...the hell?" she saw Artemis, sitting on her pillow. "Artemis? What are you doing here at..." she checked her clock "FIVE in the MORNING?!?!" Artemis frowned. "Apparently, we're not the only ones awake." Rei blinked. "*I*'m not even awake!" she growled. "It's TOO EARLY!" she yelled under her breath, so as not to wake up the others. The cat kept his piercing frown on her. "Do you know that Chris is sitting in the dojo right now, unable to sleep because he's worrying about you?" Rei's heart fell. "Artemis..." she sighed quietly. "Do we have to talk about this right now?" Artemis nodded. "Yes. We do." She slumped down on her bed. "Fine. You're a guardian, and I'm a student. If you want to talk about my personal life at five in the morning, who am I to stop you?" "As I was saying..." Artemis continued, "Chris is currently unable to sleep because he's wondering if you still care for him." Rei felt her stomach tighten. "Artemis...he knows I love him..." she paused. "Doesn't he?" "Quite frankly...no. And neither do I, or any of the Scouts. What the hell happened?" he said suddenly. "You two were the envy of the others until the news came in that he had to go." Rei turned away. "I...Artemis...I'd rather not talk..." "You're going to talk whether you like it or not." Artemis ordered. "You and I have always stood up for him. He's a good person, and a valuable alley. He was also your love less than a week ago. Now, I ask you: What the HELL happened!?!" Rei began crying. Artemis blinked, realizing he may have gone too far. "Oh, Rei...I'm sorry..." She shook her head. "No...you're right." she sobbed quietly. "It's just that..." Artemis walked over to her, putting his paw on her leg. "Yeah?" Rei struggled to find the words. "It's just that...he's such a great guy...and it seems like this is all coming to an end because he has to go suddenly." Artemis was quiet. "I just feel betrayed." Rei shrugged, then added a snicker. "It's like he dragged me in, but then cut the line when he said he had to go." The cat nodded. "Well...if I tell you something...will you promise not to tell anyone else." Rei looked down at him. "Yeah...no problem." she said, whipping away her tears. Artemis looked away. "I love Luna." Rei couldn't help but smile. "What? Is that a surprise?" Artemis grinned. "I mean, she's the only other talking moon cat in existence." Rei shook her head. "No...it's not that." she laughed softly. "Now I know why you put up with her constantly tormenting you and putting you down." Artemis sighed. "Well, the point I was TRYING to make is that at least you two know how you feel about each other." he sighed. "I have no idea what Luna thinks of me..." Rei nodded. "I just don't want either of you to go through what I feel." Artemis said solemnly. "Chris is wondering why the hell you've suddenly gone 'PMS-y' on him, and is questioning your relationship." Rei took a deep breath. "Artemis...you're right." she picked him up and gave him a hug. "Thanks. You're the best talking cat I know." she said with a smile. Artemis shrugged. "No problem. Now go over to the dojo. Chris will probably still be there." Rei nodded and got up. She blew him a kiss. "Thanks, Artemis. I hope you and Luna turn out okay in the long run. We're all rooting for you, you know." Artemis's eyes shot wide open. "You all KNOW?" Rei smiled and left.

Chris looked behind him as he heard Rei some in. "Oh...hi." Rei smiled sheepishly. "A while back, you said I wasn't making any efforts toward or relationship. How's waking up in the middle of the night just to see how you're doing?" Chris shrugged. "Fine, I guess." he said, throwing his sword's disk up in the air and catching it. "Artemis put you up for this?" Rei frowned. "Yes. He DID wake me up. But that's not the point." Chris nodded. "So?" Rei walked over to him and gave him a hug. "I'm sorry, my love..." Chris sighed happily as Rei and him were once again a happy couple. "Thank you." he said simply. "Sorry for scaring you like that, Chris...." Rei sighed too. "I'm just so scared of loosing you." Chris smiled and cupped her chin in his hand. "Don't be scared...you never will." Their lips touched in a tender kiss and things went from there. Artemis left the two alone, not wanting to intrude, but still happy he could help.

Ami lay asleep in her room, surrounded by her computer and medical equipment. She had been trying to pull an all-nighter, but had failed around four in the morning. Her computer beeped softly, walking her up. "Whoa...how long was I out?" she asked herself, looking toward her clock. She had spent all night analyzing the cloning gel sample. It was indeed a biological growth-formula, but it also had some peculiar chemicals mixed in with it. If she didn't know better, she would have thought a few of the chemicals were RNA strands. However, this made no sense. They were almost like a virus...except, there was no virus. She dismissed it as a possible growth agent, and was going to study it further when she had fallen asleep. The clock read noon. She gasped. "Twelve? Already?!?" she looked at herself in the mirror and realized she was still in her clothes from yesterday. She had never in her life slept past ten. "Shit." she swore to herself. Chris was probably already awake...which meant she couldn't see him walking around with his housecoat on. She had coming over to the temple every morning, just so she could see Chris. Oh well...she thought. Ami brushed her teeth and hair at the same time, reminding herself all too much of Serena. She then slowed down. "Hey! What if he's impressed that I actually slept in? I should wear something sexy. Just incase." She nodded at her mirror in agreement, and then ran for her closet. SMASH! Ami poked her head out of her closet. "Huh?" The vial of gel had fallen off her desk. "SHIT!" she gasped, running over and scooping it up with her hands before it set in to the carpet. "Yuck! This stuff is gross..." she funneled it into a fresh beaker, then, without thinking, wiped her hands on her shirt. "Ah, I'll clean up the glass later...I've got a Prince to catch!" she giggled to herself, running out the door. "And now that the two have broken up, I might actually have a chance."

Chapter 5

Rei looked up as the sun hit her eyes. "Oh shit...Morning already?" She looked around quickly, realizing she was in the middle of the dojo with her nightgown on. Chris was next to her, and they were wrapped up in one of the loose mats. He was still sleeping soundly, though. Rei smiled and kissed his forehead. "Don't bother getting up...I'll get your clothes." Chris nodded, half asleep. Rei's smile widened. She picked up his sword as well. "I'll put this back too. You have a good sleep. You'll need all your strength for tonight." she cooed. Chris's eyes widened. "I look forward to it." Rei left with a wink, and he dozed back off to sleep. A few minutes later, he felt something poking his arm. "Wha? Hey!" he growled, looking up to see Mary standing over him with a sword. "Sooo, lazy-ass...finally woke up, did you?" Maury grinned happily. "Come on. Practice time!" Chris frowned and got up, straightening his housecoat. "You know, I was having a nice weird dream until you decided to wake me up." His friend smiled. "Ah, so you and Rei patched things up last night, I see." Chris smiled happily. "Meow, meow...cat-chow." he said for no particular reason. "Well, you're acting weird again...so I guess that's a 'yes'." Maury said, tossing him a temple outfit. Chris accepted it and put it on behind a changing screen. "I'll have to tell Rei I already have clothes, then. She went to get some for me."

Ami knocked on the door. A few seconds later, Chad answered. "Oh, hi Ami. What's up?" Ami shrugged. "Not much." she looked around quickly. "Hey, I gotta ask you something." Chad blinked behind his shaggy bangs. "Yeah? What?" "Are Rei and Chris really fighting?" she asked eagerly. Chad sighed. "Yeah...but she still won't go anywhere near me. And I haven't seen her all morning, so I haven't asked her lately." Ami patted him on the back. "Well. You keep trying. I'm sure you and Rei will get together sooner or later." she said. Chad smiled. "Yeah! Thanks, Ami! You're a real pal. You really think she'll break up with Chris?" Ami walked past him. "If I have anything to say about it, yes." As she left Chad puzzled at her words, she walked over to Chris' room. "Hello? Chris?" she opened the door suddenly. "I hope I'm not walking in on you changing or anything..." she giggled. Three beds were arranged along the walls. Andrea, Maury and Chris were out though. Ami sighed. On Chris' bed was his laptop. She smiled to herself. "I wonder if Chris keeps a secret diary of me." She walked over to the computer and opened it up. A password screen came up. She smiled, and typed "AMI" into it. Nothing happened. Ami sighed disappointingly and typed in "SID". Sure enough, the computer started booting. Ami was happily tapping her fingers on the bed, waiting for the computer to offer up all his secrets, when her eyes widened as a picture of Chris came up. "Now, now...Ami...you KNOW you shouldn't be hacking into my computer." the animation said. "This computer is now shut down until I reset it. There is nothing you can do, so I suggest you just put it down and leave." Chris' image frowned. "If you don't, this computer will start to emit a warning signal." Ami shut it quickly, and it powered down. "How did he KNOW!?!" she gasped. Rei cleared her throat. Ami glanced over to her. She was standing in the door way with a pissed-off expression on her face. "Ami, you have five seconds to explain yourself. Then, get off my property." "But..." Ami gasped. Rei threw Chris sword onto the bed and picked up the laptop. "What the HELL is WITH you lately?" she growled. Behind her, Demos and Phobos cawed in agreement. "Are you STILL pissed off at me for being with Chris?" Something in Ami snapped. "Don't SAY THAT!" she yelled. Rei jumped back slightly. Ami looked downright scary. She was almost foaming at the mouth. "A-Ami?" To Rei's surprise, Ami grabbed Chris' sword, and withdrew the blade. "Now...here's the NEW deal, Rei." she growled, holding the deadly blade in front of her. "You have five seconds to explain YOUR-self...but if I were you...I'd use that time to run." Rei gasped...then ran out the door, nearly tripping over her robe. "HELP! AMI'S GONE WACKO!" Ami was already hot on her tail, flailing around the sword. "Now you're gonna die, bitch! HAHA!" she cackled. "No freaking fire-ball's going to save you NOW!" Grandpa poked his head out of his bedroom sleepily. "Rei! I told you to keep it down! I wanted to sleep in..."he turned to see Ami running down the hall after his granddaughter, holding a sword in an attack position. Grandpa blinked. "Ami!! Put that down! You could hurt someone!!" Ami turned to face Grandpa. "SHUT-UP!!!" Grandpa went wide-eyed as Ami continued her pursuit. "Well...I can't say I approve of kids today and their little 'ninja' games..." he shrugged. "One of these days, someone will get an eye poked out, and THEN we'll see how fun it is to run around with swords."

And so, because Grandpa is kindhearted, and a little slow, Ami managed to catch up to Rei, who was desperately trying to stay out of Ami's reach. "Ami! You're not thinking clearly! Put down the sword!" she gasped, diving into the pond. Ami was hot on her heels and dove in too. "Wrong! For the first time in my life, I'm thinking clear!" she growled, swimming after the priestess. "I'm gonna cut off your cunt and FEED it to you!" Rei got to the shore first, and started running again, which gained her some time. "AMI! You're acting like a maniac! Snap out of it! PLEEEEZE!" she yelled, taking off for the steps to lead down to street level. If she could get to a populated area, she might be able to find a police officer or something to help her. Hell, she didn't even have her Star- Wand with her. No ofudas either. Ami was out of the water and seemed to have a second wind. "I'm catching up!" she giggled, holding the sword like a baseball bat. "Strike ONE!" She swung around, catching the tip of the sword on Rei's pant leg. It produced a clean slice. Rei felt her breath wavering as she was running out of room to run. Ami had cornered her into a patch of trees. "Ami...come on! What the HELL is wrong with you!?!" she asked desperately. Ami just smiled. "Strike TWO!" the next hit caused her pant leg to rip off and tangle into her feet. Rei dove forward as her feet bound up, and landed into a bush. Ami skidded to a stop as Rei desperately tried to get to her feet. "Mmm, I thought you'd be more of a challenge to kill." Ami mocked. "Oh well." she brought the sword up over her head of a final blow. "STRIKE FISS!" As Ami brought down the blade, it disappeared in a snowy-blue cloud, and left her to fall over, right into Rei's foot. Rei looked up from the bush to see Chris, running over to her, sword in hand. "Chris?" "Are you okay, Rei?" Chris asked, gently picking her up by her arm. "I-I'm fine..." Rei gasped, still shaken from almost being sliced in half. Chris reverted his transformation with a thought, and his sword returned to where Ami had been holding it before he had recalled it. It dropped harmlessly into the ground. Ami slowly got up, still dazed from the fall. "Honey? Why did you do that?" she asked quietly. "I was about to get Rei out of the way..." Chris put his fist in his other hand and decked Ami across the jaw with a swinging punch. "GOD that felt good!" he yelled, shaking his hand as Ami fell unconscious into a heap on the ground. Maury sighed, putting away his throwing knives. "One question. What the HELL is going on?"

Chapter 6

Ami woke up ten minutes later to see everyone looking down at her. "What the....?" she shook her head slightly, trying to move. Her arms and legs were tied to the bed, though. "HEY! What's going on, here!?!" Mina loomed over to her. "Are you okay, Ami? You flipped out back there and tried to kill Rei!" Chris hugged Rei tightly. Maury nodded happily. "Einstein here remembered his transformation causes his sword to transport to his side. A second later, and Rei would have been dissected into tiny cubes!" Rei smiled. "You sure have a way with words, Maury." Ami looked up at Rei. "Oh, shut up. I really don't feel like hearing you gloat." she smiled slightly. "Why don't you save me the trouble, and just kill yourself right now. Please?" she added sweetly. Serena, who had known Ami the longest, was shocked beyond words. Everyone else became bug-eyed. Ami hadn't just flipped out temporarily...she was going for the whole ball of wax. Lita leaned closer to Ami. "Ami! What's gotten into you?!?" she paused. " *I'm* usually the one who gets pissed off like that!" "I don't believe this..." Andrea exclaimed. "It's like 'The Exorcist' or something. She's freakin' possessed!" Ami just frowned. "Okay...how's this. The fist one who lets me free...I promise not to kill." "Too much sun?" Artemis grinned and shrugged. Darien bent down beside Ami. "Aw, man! What's this stuff on her shirt?" Chris kneeled beside him, "I don't kn- wait! Hey! Isn't that the slime we found at the cloning factory?" Darien nodded, "Mm-hmm, and by the looks of it, she had some on her hands. That's why she wiped them off...on her shirt, obviously." Mina scratched her head, "Do ya think that's why Ami's acting so weird? You think it might have some psychotic effect?" Luna sighed. "We could ask Ami to scan it some more...but of course its Ami whose gone nuts on us." "Do we ever get a break?" Maury grumbled, fiddling with the flaps on his jacket. Lita looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, "Hey...I've been here longer than you, so don't you be complaining already...rookie." She smiled. Darien looked at Chris with a grin. "I think we should see what other information we can dig up from 'Creation Station'. Whadda ya say?" Chris smiled evilly, "As long as we get to break-and-enter..." Maury nodded. "I'm going to stay here...just in case our little clone-buddy drops by for a visit.

Once again, Darien and Chris were at the Watcher's warehouse. It was early morning by the time they got there, so they had to work quickly before anyone saw them there. A sliver of sunlight fell on the floor as Chris hacked his way through a brick wall with his sword. "FISS!" he yelled, making his sword shoot out an energy pulse that knocked the rest of the hole in the wall for them to get through. Darien sighed as they began looking around. "Well, with that sword, you'll never have to worry about locking yourself out of the house." Chris sheathed his sword and took off his sunglasses. "The only problem is that a forty- two inch katana really stands out in a crowd." he added a smile. "Then again, not too many people go around with capes..." Darien walked into the cloning room. "You check out the command center again. Maybe they kept some paper-files." Chris nodded and walked to the other end of the structure. "Just yell if you need any help." Darien nodded. "Also, check for any independent computers. I read somewhere that companies are backing up data on separate systems incase hackers get into their networks." Chris smiled. "Of course!" He put back on his sunglasses and pulled his laptop out of it's pocket on his back. Just as Mercury had gained VR goggles with her data-computer, the Scout's also upgraded their suits with each new power. Chris learned if he brought a computer or anything item he didn't want to carry, he could flip it in a hidden pocket on his coat's back. He opened his laptop in quick snap, and preceded to "Tri-Cord" the area. "Stardate...Fifty-two...point NINE! No signs...of computer records...but-I've GOT...TO...FIND them, Mister!" he said in a "Captain Kirk" voice. Alas, his computer couldn't scan like Mercury's. "Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way..." he muttered, walking over to what looked like a kitchen.

Darien carefully turned over a fallen cloning-bed to get at a wall storage unit. "What do we have here?" he said to himself. On the top shelf was a canister of a translucent liquid. Blue in color. This didn't make any sense. The cloning gel they found on the last clone's bed was green. That meant, this stuff wasn't cloning gel. What was it, then? He carefully pocketed the canister and searching the rest of the room.

Maury sat across the room, reading a magazine. Ami was on the other, still tied to the bed. "You know, Maury..." Ami said sweetly, "If you could help m out of these nasty ropes, I'm sure I could..." Maury looked up at her. "Be quiet. I don't care if you'd help me win the lottery or something. All I care about is that you were chasing around Rei with an intent to..." he smiled. "What was it? Oh yes...You said you were going to slice off her cunt and feed it to her." Ami batted her eyelashes. "But I meant it in the nicest way." Maury lowered his eyebrows. "The worst part is that this little 'phyco-binge' you're on is an improvement!" Suddenly, Artemis came in, yawning. "Any word from Strike Fiss and Tuxy?" he asked. Maury shook his head. "Nope. Your shift?" Artemis nodded. "Sure, I'll take it from here. I think Grandpa was going to get breakfast. Could you bring me some?" Maury nodded. "No prob. Oh, and watch out..." he pointed to Ami. "She's still at it." Artemis watched as Maury left the room, closing the door behind him. Artemis sighed and jumped up onto the chair Maury had been sitting on. Ami kept her eyes on Artemis. All she needed to do was escape. It was only a matter of time.

Chapter 7

Darien tapped his foot impatiently as Chris worked under a nearby desk with a computer on it. "How much longer is this going to take? It's already coming on noon." Chris sat up, banging his head on the desk. "Fuck!" he clutched his neck. "I HATE when I do that..." Darien sighed loudly. Chris sighed back. "It's going to take longer unless you can find a flat-head screw-driver." "Fine. I think I saw one by the cloning machines." Darien walked off. "I don't like this. We should have been gone...LONG ago." Chris slid back under the desk. They eventually did find the back-up computer. A simple PC. However, it was in a rather heavy-duty steel case, and Chris didn't want to cut it open incase he also damaged the hard-drive inside. As Darien walked over to the shelf he saw the screwdriver on, he noticed a beam of sunlight coming down from the roof. "Mmm, that wasn't there before..." he looked up. A roof panel had been removed. Before he could realize why, he felt a swift punch to his kidney. He fell down, clutching his side. As he rolled over, he saw his attacker. The last Watcher Ninja. "You!" he exclaimed, reaching for a rose. The ninja said nothing, but kicked Darien in his side. That only made Darien mad, and he rolled a few meters, allowing him space to stand up. The ninja dropped into a defensive stance. In a swift movement of his arm, Darien let loose a rose at lightning speed. The ninja quickly jumped over it, and toward Darien in a drop-kick. Not to be outdone, Darien managed to take out his walking-staff, and pointed it's tip toward the incoming attack. "Eat THIS!" he yelled, magically extending the staff. It smashed into the ninja's chest, causing it to explode. Instead of blood, however, a rain of green slime splattered on Tuxedo Mask's entire front. He stepped back, disgusted as the Ninja's remains splattered to the ground with a sickening slurp. "Oh my GOD!" Darien gasped. "That was HORRIBLE!" he said, feeling a bit queasy. Chris came running when he heard the fight. "Hey! Are you alright?!?" Darien shivered. "That guy was some sort of bomb! Shit! What is this crap?!?" Chris looked at Darien's hand, which was covered in the stuff. "Bloody hell...that looks like the shit we got from the cloning bed!" "Wait..." Darien went wide-eyed. "You mean the same stuff that caused Ami to go wacko?" Chris also went wide-eyed. "Shit. Quick, we've got to wash that shit off of you! Let's get back to the temp..." Darien shook his head. "My apartment's closer. I'll call your computer after I get cleaned up. Hopefully this shit is washable." Chris nodded as Darien ran off, reverting his uniform to civilian clothes. Even then, his face and hands were covered in slime. Chris looked to his own hand, which now held the hard- drive. "Well, at least the ninja's dead."

Ami had been quiet for nearly three hours. Artemis became curious. He poked his head over the foot of the bed. "Ami?" Ami seemed to be sleeping. Artemis crawled up on the bed. "Ami? Are you asleep?" he whispered. Suddenly, Ami began convulsing, throwing him off the bed. "Shit! She's having a seizure!" Just as quickly as it had started...she stopped. Artemis leapt back on the bed. She was once again sleeping soundly. "Ami!?!" he yelled, shaking her arm. Ami woke up slowly. "Uh? Where am I?" "Ami?" Artemis asked carefully. "Are you okay?" Ami seemed confused. "Why am I all tied up? How did I get into the temple?" Artemis went wide-eyed. "Ami! You're better!" "The last thing I remember was scanning that gel sample last night..." Ami shook her head. "What happened?" Artemis started untying her ropes with his teeth. "We think you were infected with a virus or something. I'm just glad it was only a temporary thing." Once Ami's hand was free, she started untying her feet. "Was I asleep?" Artemis snickered. "Hell no! You were acting really loopy until a few hours ago. Then, you had a seizure or something. I guess that must have meant your body got rid of the virus." "Excellent. That's exactly what I wanted you to think." Artemis looked up from Ami's foot to see her already free of her arm restraints. "What?" Ami smiled at the cat, then picked him up by the scruff of his neck. "You fell for the oldest trick in the book, Guardian." Artemis sighed. "This just isn't my day." She got free of her final restraint and walked over to the closet. "Now Artemis. What am I going to do with you? After all, I can't have you going around, warning Rei that I'm free, can I?"

Rei, however, was down-town for a nice afternoon of shopping. She had washed Ami's infected clothes, and was going out buy some good disinfectant, just in case. She smiled as she saw Chris walking down the street. "Hey! Chris!" She waved. Chris spotted her and walked over. "Hey, Rei! What are you doing down-town? I thought you were going to be guarding Ami all day?" Rei shrugged. "Naw. Artemis offered, so I decided to take a break. I haven't been out of the house all week." They hugged tightly for a moment. "Ahh, so when should I take you out for dinner." Chris reminded her of previous plans. Rei blinked. "Oh yeah! I completely forgot. Mmmm, how about tomorrow? After all, we have to make sure Ami's okay, right?" "Sounds good to me!" Chris smiled. A sudden beep alerted them to Chris' laptop in his book-bag. "What's that?" Chris smiled. "Probably Darien."

Chapter 8

Darien looked like hell. Literally. It looked like he had been stuck in a furnace all morning, then kicked around for a few hours. He now was in his Tuxedo Mask outfit, and was leaning against the side of a telephone booth. He remembered after he got home, he had taken a shower, and even cleaned all his clothes. He even took extra-special care to make sure he washed away all the slime. It didn't work. In a last ditch attempt, he had managed to drag himself over to a phone booth and was dialing up Chris' laptop. "Come on...open up your damn computer, Fiss..." Eventually, Chris answered. "Hey! Darien! What'sup?" Darien coughed slightly.

Rei looked around at the alley. "Mmm, cozy. I really like the trash. Tell Darien if he wants to invite Serena for a picnic with us, he can..." Chris' eyes widened as he heard Darien's voice. "Oh shit...you're infected!?!" Rei tried to lean closer to hear what Darien was saying, but could only hear mumbling. "What's wrong?" she asked. Chris suddenly stood up, "Don't worry, buddy! Hang on. We'll be right there!" Rei gasped as Chris stuffed his laptop into his bad and began running. "What's wrong?!" she gasped, catching up to him. "Darien's gone phyco too. He's about to kill Serena's dad." Chris said quickly, pulling out his transformation disk. "How far is Serena's house from here?!?" Rei looked at a nearby street-sign. "Shit. Five blocks...at least! We can't make it on time if we run!" Chris nodded. "Darien was calling from a phone close Serena's house. We need transportation!" Rei nodded. "Mars Star POWER!" she yelled. Chris followed a second later. "Strike FISS!" The two burst out of the alleyway in full costumes.

Darien felt the last bit of his sanity slip away, and he slammed down the phone receiver. His eyes locked onto Serena's house, which was only down the street. "Don't worry, my love." he began mumbling to an imaginary Serena. "I'll get rid of your dad for you, and then we can be together!" He reached into his tuxedo and pulled out his walking staff, and a department-store catalogue. Darien and Serena's father never DID get along. Once he had suspected Darien of being his daughter's boyfriend, he began flipping out. He'd always insist that Darien was too old, or that Serena wasn't old enough for dating yet. Last week, he had even hung up on Darien after he asked politely where Serena was. *Normally*, he would shrug off that rude remark, but with the virus taking control of his judgement, he was hardly 'normal.' Getting past Serena's mom was another story. She was nice, and he had no desire to kill her. He had to devise a way to get past her in a peaceful manner. He smiled evilly as he rung the gate buzzard. Serena's mom answered. "Hello?" Darien coughed, putting on a fake accent. "Hello, madame. I am from Jiffy Spiffy's Discount Tuxedo Rentals. I was wondering if you would like a free catalogue?" Serena's mother poked her head out of a window to check. What she saw was a young man in a tuxedo, holding a catalogue. "Uh, sure! That would be great. My husband needs a tux for a company party that's coming up this weekend." The buzzer rang, and the gate opened for him. Darien strolled up casually to the door. "Thank you madame." he said politely as she offered to let him in. "Wow, that certainly is a nice costume." she laughed. Darien smiled behind his mask. "Well, the boss makes me wear it." "I'll go get my husband." she said happily, walking down the hallway and turning at the living room. Darien's grin widened. "This is too easy. I should have killed the asshole a LONG time ago!"

Rei slammed the door behind her as Chris pried off the steering column plastic. "You never told me you could hot-wire cars!" Rei smirked. Chris shrugged, finding the right wires. "What else is the Internet good for?" the car's engine roared into life. "Hold on!" Chris slammed the car into gear, and it leapt forward from it's parking stall. Rei held on for dear life as they narrowly missed a bus. "Turn right!" she yelled over the roaring engine. Chris complied, and sent the sporty little car into a sliding turn to the right. "How much further? For all we know, Darien already killed the poor guy!" Rei focused on the blur of street signs and traffic. "Okay, cut across the park! It's the fastest way!" The car leapt up on the curb and crashed through a series of hedges at breakneck speed. "Oooo, this is gonna HURT!" Chris yelled as they hit a hill. The car leapt over a park bench, and preceded to tear up grass as it continued across a baseball diamond. "How much further!?!" Chris yelled, trying to steer around various trees and people. "Past those bushes!" Rei pointed, holding desperately onto her seat-belt. She smiled suddenly. "You know something?" Chris glanced over to her. "Yeah?" "You're sexy when you're high-speed-driving, you know?" her grin widened. Chris smiled back. "Cool." He put the car into top gear and they launched out of the park onto the street, barely missing a police officer. "You know, I can't help but notice how most seventeen-year-olds don't get into many high-speed chases. Do you think I'm unlucky? "Well, you aren't being chased." Rei smiled. "Technically, we aren't in a high-speed..." she paused "THERE!" Rei shouted, pointing to a nearby house. Chris nodded. "Get ready! It's kiwi time!" Rei looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Uh?" "Never mind..." Chris smiled as he parked the car in front of the driveway.

Darien frowned as Serena's dad came into the room. He looked Darien over. "Mmm, nice costume. A little early for Halloween, aren't we?" Darien smiled, and extended his staff. "What the hell?" Serena's dad stepped back. "How'd you do that?!?" Darien looked over to his staff, then pointed it at the man's chest. "Like this." The staff extended outwards, throwing back Mr Tsukino into the wall as it hit his chest. Without a pause, Tuxedo Mask hurtled two roses from his jacket into the shoulders of Tsukino's shirt. He was now pinned against the wall. "Ahhh! HELP!" he began screaming as Darien advanced towards him. Darien sighed. "You're gonna pay for being such an asshole. You should have been more polite." The man frowned. "What the HELL are you talking about? Do I even KNOW you?" "Honey?" Mrs Tsukino came in the room with a tray full of tea. "What's going on here!" she gasped as the situation clicked in her mind. "Oh my..." Darien quickly threw his rose at her skirt, pinning her against the living room wall. She began screaming and threw her tea-tray at Darien. He carelessly batted it away with his staff. "I'm sorry, Miss. But I'm afraid I cannot allow you to interfere. Sorry you had to witness this." "But WHY!?!" she sobbed. "TUXEDO MASK!" Rei called out from the front door. "STOP!" Darien looked behind him to see both Chris and Rei, who were very cautiously advancing on him. "Come on, buddy...put away the rose." Chris urged. Their tuxedo-clad friend paused, holding his head. "Mars? Saturn? How did I get here? What's going on?" Rei smiled slightly. "Easy now...you're very sick. We have to get you to safety. Let's leave these nice people alone." The Tsukinos both nodded their heads quickly. Darien put away his rose. "My god..." he said softly, realizing what he almost did. Chris managed to lead him out of the door as Rei apologized for the intrusion. "Sorry about all this. Normally, he's a lot sweeter and less homicidal." "Yeah...no problem..." they both replied, white as sheets from the experience. Rei walked out with a final wave. "Sorry! Uh, have a nice day!" As the door closed, Serena came downstairs. "Hey...who was here? I heard the door." Her parents were almost in tears. "What?" she demanded. "Hey..." she walked over to one of the roses Darien had pinned her father to the wall with. She plucked it out of the wall...barely noticing it was covered with a weird, sticky goo. "What did I miss?"

Chapter 9

Rei had gone back to the temple with Darien while Chris returned their "borrowed" car. He parked the vehicle and ran before anyone saw him. "Whew!" Chris sighed, "I've got to get more driving in my busy schedule." One thing was bugging him, though. Why did Darien go mental? He said he had a shower as soon as he had gotten home. Chris looked around the alley for a place to sit. "Okay..." he said aloud, sitting on a wooden box. "Ami got splattered by the stuff we scooped up for her to analyze." he paused. "And Darien got splattered when the clone exploded. If he had a shower and was all clean...then that means..." Chris' brain gasped to itself as it remembered what Rei had said earlier. "She washed Ami's clothes?!?" If water didn't wash away the goo...or at least not the effects of the goo...then that means Rei could be infected! And he and Rei had been in contact for quite some time that day, so that means... "I'm infected." Chris reached into his bag and pulled out his laptop. He put on the speaker-phone, and called the temple. Three rings later, he heard the phone pick up. "Rei! Rei! Are you there!?!" AMI was on the other end. "Hello, Chris...it's so lovely to hear your voice again!" "Ami? How'd you get free? Where's Rei? I need to speak to her!" Chris replied. "Oh, Rei is in her room right now, talking with the others. I'd call her for you, but then I'd alert them to my mobile condition. Sorry! Besides, if I gotta be tied up to a bed, I'd rather it be by your hands!" she giggled. "Hey, that's not a bad idea." Chris growled and slammed his laptop shut, terminating the call. "Wonderful."

Ami shrugged and hung up the phone. "Oh well. Back to business." she said, walking over to the Temple's kitchen. "Now, I need something that will really cut her up...but I still want her to suffer..." she giggled to herself, rooting through the cupboards for a knife or something. Andrea walked in, stretching. It was a good five seconds until she noticed Ami. "What the hell?!?" she yelled. Ami gasped and turned around to see Andrea already running toward her. "Oh no you don't, Sailor Hooze!" she jumped up onto the counter-top and leapt over her head. Andrea, though full of spirit and determination, was still not as experienced as the others, and smacked head-first into the counter. She tumbled to the ground, holding her head. "Fuck!" she said simply. Ami smiled. "I admire your determination, so I won't kill you. Besides, you're Chris' sister, and I doubt that he'd love me so much if I killed you." Andrea got up, still holding her head. "Now you're gonna get it, Ami!" she reached behind her for a weapon and produced a frying pan. A second later, it was hurtling toward Ami's head. Ami tried to duck, but the pan's handle spun around and wacked her in the forehead. He fell over, holding her nose. "Hey! That's not very nice!" The sound of the pan hitting the floor alerted the others. Maury came skidding into the kitchen with a knife already in hand. "Andrea! What's going on!?!" Andrea pointed to Ami, who took off down the hall. "Hurry! We gotta get her!" Mina gasped. "Where's Artemis? He was guarding Ami!" Rei nodded. "You go find out what she did to him. We'll get Ami!" Mina nodded, and the group split up. Andrea, Maury, Rei and Lita were running after Ami now. "I sure wish Serena was here to help!" Lita said, now in the lead with Maury. "She was still at home." Rei explained. "The Tuxedo-Mask thing probably made her parents edgy, so she probably stayed home to comfort them." "She's goin' out side!" Maury said, following behind Ami only by a few meters now. Rei sighed. "Isn't it amazing how Grandpa and Chad are always out somewhere when these things happen?" Ami leapt out the back door and made a break for the bushes. They were fairly dense, and it looked like her only chance. Rei was too well protected to simply make a stand and try and kill her. The thing she forgot was that Rei grew up on Cherri Hill, and knew the woods inside-and-out. "Maury! You and Lita go around to that large ruffly tree over there, while Andrea and I head her off." Maury blinked. "But that's in the opposite direction she's going!" Rei nodded. "Just get your knife ready. Try not to totally kill her, okay? It's this fucking slime that's got everyone mental." Maury shrugged and took off with Lita toward the tree that Rei had pointed out. Andrea followed Rei into the bush. "Where are we going? She's already too far ahead!" Rei smiled. "I used to play hide-and-seek in here all the time. Trust me." she said, darting under a low-hanging branch.

Ami looked behind her. Rei and Andrea were still behind her. "Shit!" she gasped, running low on breath. Ahead, she saw a narrow path. "Perfect!" she smiled, now able to run without trees in her way. "Rei! She's getting away!" Andrea yelled. "I'm gonna transform." Rei suddenly stopped, putting her hand on Andrea's shoulder. "Don't bother." Ami saw a clearing up ahead. "HaHA! See ya later, bitch!" she yelled back at Rei. Suddenly, next to the path by a ruffly evergreen, Maury and Lita stepped out into her path. "Going somewhere?" Lita growled. Maury quickly whipped out a throwing knife and launched it at Ami. It hit her leg and she fell over in pain. To Lita and Maury's shock, a green slime shot out from the wound, spraying all over them. "Aww! GROOOOOSS!" Lita yelled, running away from the spray. Rei and Andrea had looped around and saw. "Oh shit..." Rei said. "What?" Andrea asked. Maury wiped the goo off his face with his shirt. "Something tells me this isn't good." Rei sighed and glanced over to Andrea. "Well, at least us two aren't infected." "Um...Rei?" a voice behind them said. Rei turned to see Chris coming up the steps. "Hi Chris! You'll never guess what happened." Chris looked over to Ami, who was now unconscious from the loss of blood...er...slime. "Great. Now we're all infected." Andrea's eyes shot wide open. "What?" Chris sighed. "Rei, when you washed Ami's clothes, you were infected. And you just patted Andrea on the back. Serena's probably the only one of us who isn't going to start acting crazy in half an hour." Rei looked at her hand. "Oh...Are you sure?" "The virus, or whatever the hell that goo is, cannot be washed off." Chris said solemnly. He took out his pocket-knife and flipped it open. "See?" he made a small incision on his finger. Sure enough, instead of a blood, a bead of greenish-slime appeared. Maury looked at Ami. "Thanks a bunch." Lita blinked. "Wait a second! Mina isn't infected either!" Rei gasped. "Unless she touches Artemis..."

Chapter 10

They all ran into the room as Mina was giving Artemis a big hug. The two looked over to see all the Scouts sigh simultaneously. "What? Can't I hug a cat without getting strange looks?" Mina joked. Chris shrugged, walking down the hallway. "Oh, go ahead. Hug anything you want now." "What's with HIM?" Mina asked the others. Lita pointed to Artemis. "You're infected too, Mina. You just hugged Artemis." Artemis went wide-eyed. "Oh shit...you mean the goo isn't water-soluble?" he jumped down from Mina's arms. "Ami touched me! SHIT!" he began trying to dust himself off. "It's no use, Artemis." Maury said. "You're stuck with it the moment you touch it." to prove the point, he used his knife to draw a bead of his own blood. Maury and Lita had just been exposed to the slime, but already their blood looked slightly greenish. Rei nodded. "Okay, first of all, Mina, Lita, Andrea and Maury. We should all try and get rid of any slime on our skins. Maybe we'll have more time if we have less contact with the stuff." Maury nodded. "Good idea." "Darien was the most-exposed, and he changed in only an hour or so. If we can get twice that, maybe we'll have time to search the Watcher's database for a cure." "Okay, me, Chris and Mina will probably have the longest time. We were exposed to it second-handed through you guys. Who knows about Artemis. He's a lot smaller, and has less body-mass. It might be quicker for him." Andrea sighed. Artemis frowned at her. "Thanks for the wonderful information."

"Freakin clones....I don't believe this!" Chris mumbled, walking down the hallway. How the hell could have they all been infected with some virus? They survived countless assholes with super-powers, natural disasters, and aliens. Why a simple virus? He walked into the room where Darien was resting. He was tied up now to prevent him from another assassination attempt of Serena's father. "Hey, Chris. How's it going?" he asked, slightly dazed. Chris shrugged. "Well, now we're all infected except Luna and Serena. I guess you could call that a bad day." Luna came in. "Hi Luna." Chris said. Darien was suddenly untied. He walked over to Luna, and started molesting her. "Uhhh!?!" Chris blinked. Darien was suddenly back on the chair, tied up again. Luna was nowhere to be found. Chris went wide-eyed. "Shit. The virus..." he realized it was taking over. His pal looked concerned. "Chris?" "Oh, it's just this fucking slime. I think it's already affecting me." "How?" he asked. Chris smiled. "I thought I just saw you trying to have sex with Luna." "Uh?" He blinked. "Oh...well it affected me differently...thank GOD..." Chris frowned. "That's weird. Why would it affect us differently?" "Well, I think it just amplifies our sub-conscious." Darien explained. "In fact, while I'm concentrating, I think I can get past the virus' effects. Like right now while I'm talking to you." Chris nodded. "Great. Grrrrr, cheese." "What the hell?" "Oh," Chris explained. "I'm probably going to get a lot weirder. My sub-conscious is a pretty fucked up place." he grinned. Darien smiled, then turned serious. "You know, I just remembered something." "Yeah?" "What about the Outer Scouts? Pluto and the others probably have never touched the slime. We might be able to ask for their help."

Chris remembered the apartment where he had met with Pluto and the others when the Lords had attacked, so he and Maury decided to go check it out. "THIS is the place?" Maury asked. They had pulled up in front of a run-down series of shacks and apartment buildings. They looked abandoned, and had probably been so for a number of years. Chris shrugged. "Maybe they moved?" Maury smiled, "Well, I suppose we should get into character." Chris nodded and pulled out his disk. "Good idea. STRIKE FISS!" "SOL!" Maury followed. A brief flash of sunlight hit him, transforming him into Prince Destiny. Chris was enveloped by a blue sphere of energy, dissipating a second later to reveal him in his costume. "Let's go." Chris motioned for the door, taking out his sword. Maury threw an explosive throwing star at the door's lock, and it flew open in a muffled bang. "Party on."

They made their ways up the stairs to the room where Chris had been. It still looked the same. Chris tried to knock, but it opened as his fist hit the surface. "Hello? Anyone home?" Pluto was sitting on the window-ledge. "I've been expecting you." Maury smiled. "Cheesy line number fifty-three." Chris walked up to her. "I suppose you know about the Watcher-virus, then." She nodded. "We had a feeling the Lords brought some bio-weapons with them." Maury frowned. "You KNEW about this?? Why the hell didn't you TELL US?!?" "Oh please. We can't keep coming to your rescue every time you encounter something knew." she sighed. "How else are you going to learn?" Chris raised an eyebrow. "What are you? Some kind of bitch? I mean, because of you not warning us that the Lords used bio-weapons, we're all infected...including Andrea." Pluto did look concerned. "I'm sorry...but we didn't even know about the virus until we heard about the Tuxedo-Mask incident. We just knew it was a possibility." Chris didn't stop. "And what do you mean by 'we'll never learn'? You didn't come to our rescue...we had to save YOUR asses! You didn't do shit!" Maury nodded just to emphasize the point. Pluto frowned. "Did you come here for help, or to insult me? 'Cause if you want, I'll leave right now." Maury sighed. "Okay, just listen up. We're going to try and quarantine ourselves from the rest of the city so we don't endanger anyone. You guys will have to look after things on the outside. Are you up to that?" Pluto shook her head. "I'm afraid my team is hardly capable of looking after the small jobs like yours can. However, I must ask: Why are you going into isolation?" "I just told you..." Maury began. "Why not just use call upon your best asset?" Pluto interrupted. "Just ask Sailor Moon to heal you with her crystal." Before the two princes could say anything, she leapt out the window and was gone into the night. "The crystal!" Chris smiled. "All we have to do is get Serena to do zap us with it!" Maury nodded. "I don't know why we didn't think of it before!"

Serena tiptoed quietly into her parent's bedroom. They were sleeping quite soundly. "Perfect." she grinned to do herself. Her hand found its way over to do her dad's wallet. He didn't even stir as she lifted it from the little end-table by his pillow. Mr Tsukino provided for his family quite well, and there was more than a thousand dollars worth of yen in it...plus a number of credit-cards. More than enough to do cover the little 'vacation' she had planned. She left their room just as quietly as when she came in. It was time to do do some planning. Serena walked over to do the phone, picked it up, and dialed. The phone picked up on the other end. "Welcome to do the Alberta Tourism Information Hotline!" it announced proudly. "All our operators are busy right now...Please wait until an operator can service your call. Thank you!"

Chapter 11

Rei and Lita burst through the door. "She's not at the mall! We checked everywhere!" they said. Chris had just got off the phone with Serena's mother. "She hasn't been at home all day. They said she wasn't there when they woke up." Mina, taking the role as leader, nodded her head thoughtfully. "Okay. Where else does Serena hang out?" "Mmm, well..." Andrea paused, "she might be at the arcade or comic store." Chris was already dialing the arcade when Ami opened the door and sat down. They had put her in a kind of straight-jacket, just to make sure she wouldn't try killing Rei. Chris had suggested they also put a "Hannible Lecter" mask on her to make sure she didn't bite anyone, but that idea was turned down. Rei avoided making eye-contact with her. "I think I can scan the city for Sailor Moon's crystal." Ami said quietly. They all looked at her in surprise. "Wow...she's not mental anymore!" Maury said hopefully. Chris shook his head. "No. She's still infected, it's just that we're all concentrating on finding Serena, so it doesn't affect our minds as well." Ami nodded. "If I can use my data-computer, I should be able to pin-point her. Remember how we found the rainbow crystal inside Hercules the cat?" Lita nodded. "Yeah, if we can just..." she paused and looked over to Maury. "Ooooh, baby..." Maury went wide-eyed as she literally jumped him from three meters away and started to try and undress him. Chris smiled slightly. "Uh, Lita? You have to CONCENTRATE!!" Lita looked up from a kiss with Maury. "Oh...sorry...I kinda lost it for a second there." Rei sighed. "This is only going to get worse. Who knows if we can shrug off the effects once the gel goes into full effect?" Ami coughed. "Yeah...as I was saying, I'll need my data computer...so could someone untie me?" Artemis chuckled to himself. "Someone else can do THAT. *I*'m not falling for the same thing twice." Luna frowned at him. "I think you're already being effected. You haven't tried to take a nap ONCE today." Artemis turned to look her in the eyes. "Oh, Luna, my sweet kitten, if only you knew..." Rei coughed, interrupting. "Come on, Artemis. Don't be going around saying things you'll regret later." she smiled. Artemis sighed and returned to his watchful demeanor. Chris finished talking with Andrew. "No luck here. We'll have to untie Ami." Mina nodded. "Okay, people...lets try to find her before she can get half-way across the world or something, okay?"

"Oh shit." Maury said as they looked out over the Tokyo sky-line. The Scouts were now all gathered on the roof of a nearby building. Nearby, that is, to the Tokyo International Airport. Sailor Moon's crystal was inside. And it was moving. Ami, who had successfully lead them to the signal without trying to kill anyone, was currently typing away on her data-computer. "She's headed for the boarding area. If we want to figure out what plane she's going on, then we better get Chris access to their computers soon." Chris was already on his computer, and had hacked into the airport via his cellular phone. "No need. I'm workin on it." Darien sighed. "First of all, why is she trying to leave Tokyo?" Mina shrugged. "She never really wanted to be Sailor Moon. Maybe she's trying to get away from it all." Maury nodded. "When you think about it, this virus is exploiting all our little weaknesses and desires." "Chris has gone extra weird..." Lita said. "Rama-lama-ding-dong." Chris replied. Rei nodded. "You're overprotective of Serena..." she said to Darien. "Me and Ami have been...pissy towards each other..." Ami growled slightly. "Just keep concentrating." Andrea smiled. "Maury and Lita haven't changed." They were currently in the middle of a passionate kiss. Darien nodded. "And Mina's leadership qualities have gone through the roof." Mina raised an eyebrow. "Are you questioning my authority?" Andrea coughed. "And I'm stuck with mentally undressing Darien..." she stopped as she sensed the looks from the others. "Never mind." Darien cracked a smile behind her back. Chris looked up from his computer briefly. "She's on the Tokyo to LA flight. Give me a second to see where she's going after that." Maury smiled. "Okay. Now that I know where she'll be, I can use my destiny powers." Mina smiled. "That would give us a tactical advantage. Try to see what she'll do if we bored the same plane." Maury closed his eyes for a second...then winced suddenly. "Uh...I don't suggest we do that." "Why not?" Andrea asked. "If we do, we'll be forced into a battle with her, and the plane will explode over the ocean, killing us and everyone else." Everyone went bug-eyed. "Welllllll, I'm glad we have you on our side, Mo." Chris smiled. "Oh, she's headed for Edmonton." "Where?" Lita asked. Maury answered. "It's the capital of Alberta, over in Canada. Chris and I always go there. It's not too far from Calgary." "Why would Serena, a person who's afraid to go across the city without a detailed map, suddenly want to go across the world?" Rei said. "Maybe the gel didn't only enhance her sense of non-moon-ness." Chris said, closing his computer. "What does she love to do more than anything else in the world?" Luna snickered. "Oh, that's an easy one. Shopping. Shopping's her life." Andrea's eyes went wide. "And what does Edmonton have?" The Scouts were all silent.

The tiller handed Serena her ticket. "Oh my! You're going all the way to Edmonton? Business or pleasure?" she asked lightheartedly. Serena smiled. "Both. I'm going shopping! They have the biggest mall in the world there!" "Well, you have a good trip." the lady smiled as Serena walked past her into the gate.

"West Edmonton Mall." Chris said. "She's going to West Ed." "How are we going to get there?" Rei asked. "If we catch a later plane, we might lose her. She'll have too much of a head-start." Mina picked up Luna and Artemis. "We'll travel by cat." she said happily. Andrea frowned. "Uh?" "Sailor Telleport." Mina announced proudly, putting down the cats. Rei smiled, grabbing Chris by the hand. "Come on, get into a circle." "Ooooh, kinky." Chris exclaimed proudly. They all arranged themselves into a circle, with the two cats standing nearby. "Good luck, Scouts!" "Sol Power!" Maury started. "Mercury Star Power!" "Venus Star Power!" "Mars Star Power!" "Jupiter Star Power!" "Fibs! Fibs I say!" Chris smiled. "I mean, Saturn Disc Power..." "Pluto Masked Power!" Andrea finished. Darien transformed as well. "Let's do it." Luna cleared her throat. "Sailor..." Artemis said in sequence: "TELLEPORT!!" The ground around the Scouts began to break-up as a strange upwards force began acting on the circle. A shaft of multi-colored light extended upwards from their bodies. Just as the light began to reach it's maximum intensity...it was all over. The Scouts disappeared in a sudden flash, leaving the cats alone on the roof-top. A quiet moment set in. Luna sighed. "Wanna go for pizza?"

Chapter 12

Rei slowly opened her eyes as she felt something nudging her. "Uhhhhh?" she moaned. "Chris? Is that you?" She suddenly realized she was floating. In water. "What the hell?" her eyes shot open. In the darkness, she saw a strange shape coming toward her. "Mina? Lita? Chris? Anyone?" She heard Chris cough off in the distance. "Rei! Oh good, I thought you might have hit the side!" "Where is everyone?" Rei asked as the strange shape came closer. A sudden clicking noise filled the air. Rei gasped. "What was that!?!" "Don't worry, honey...we just landed a bit off course." Chris said. Rei recognized the dark shape as it came closer. It was some sort of dorsal fin. Like on a shark. "Omygod! It's coming towards me!" Something rubbery slid past her leg. "AAAAGHHHHHHH!!" she nearly leapt out of the water in her attempt to get away. As she was frantically swimming toward what looked like land, a head popped up in front of her. "AARGHHH! IT'S GOINNNNAAA EAT MEEEE!" Rei yelled out. Instead of teeth coming around her body...the head squirted a stream of warm water at her. It was a dolphin. Rei opened her eyes slowly. "What the hell is going on!?!" Chris was now swimming beside her. "Geeze! I hope you didn't set off any alarms with that scream." he laughed. "We're in the mall." Rei looked at Chris, who was now visible despite the darkness...then turned back to the dolphin floating in front of her. It squeaked happily. "What? Dolphins? In a mall??" Chris pointed to the moonlight coming from the roof. "We crashed in through one of the sky-lights. Luckily, it wasn't alarmed, and the Teleport-bubble broke most of our fall. The rest of the gang is drying off on the pirate ship." The dolphin clicked and chirped...then continued to swim away, probably to sleep. Rei took a deep breath. "Pirate ships too?" Chris gave her a hug. "Welcome to MY turf."

The Scouts gathered in one of the newer parts of the mall that was being renovated. There was no security there, and if there were any guards, the construction would offer more places to hide. Chris sat in the corner, tapping away at his computer as usual as the rest of them decided to get some sleep before the mall opened. Everyone, that is, except Maury. He sat down next to Chris. "What'cha working on?" Chris shrugged. "I just got into the airport. Serena's plane will land in three hours. That gives us at least four hours before she shows up here." Maury nodded and took a deep breath. "Man...It's good to be back." Chris smiled. "I know what you mean. I missed not seeing Japanese text on every sign. Plus, how many other times can you swim with dolphins?" he shut his computer quietly. "Yup. It's nice to be back." Maury smiled evilly. "Wanna do some shopping?" Chris frowned. "Although I'd love to, anything we break into probably has it's own security system, and it's best we stay undetected for now." Maury nodded. They were quiet for a long time as the first beams of sun began coming in from one of the mall's expansive ceiling domes. West Edmonton Mall was quite a sight. It was it's own tiny city. Consisting of one massive main hallway that expanded a few blocks of city street, it then divided up into smaller, yet expansive side halls. Chris had been hoping they'd land in the Water-Park...which would have been a safer target, but he forgot where it was located, and somehow, he directed the group's transport into the Dolphin-Pool. It was the ultimate mall. Theme park, miniature golf-course, car-dealerships, hotel, and even it's own police force. If they wanted to find Serena in it, they'd have to work quickly, and split up. Normally, this wasn't too big of a deal. However, they also had various adverse viral effects to contend with. If they didn't go at each other's throats, managed to focus, and not get lost...they MIGHT be able to pull it off. Chris shook his head to clear himself of a sleepy daze. He looked around, and saw the sunlight outside was much brighter. Maury had curled up and fallen asleep as well. "Well." Chris sighed. "One last adventure before we have to come back for good." He stood up in his shadowy hiding spot as a security guard walked past them. He was headed for one of the entrances. Opening time. Chris sighed, holding his sword tightly on his side. "One last adventure. Let's make it count."

Chapter 13

The Scouts had integrated easily into the early morning crowd, and had decided to make the most of the morning by relaxing. Because they were all in public, they'd be forced to concentrate and not let their viruses take over, so they didn't have to worry too much about that. Rei had offered to take Chris out for a breakfast. Ami wanted to check out the electronic stores, so the rest of the Scouts went with her. "We'll meet you back by the dolphins again in say, three hours." Darien said, checking his watch. Chris nodded. "Get a map first. That way, you won't get lost." he said, pointing to one of the mall's huge directory-map-stations. Andrea sighed. "Don't worry. I'll take care of Darien." she smiled happily. "Oh, and the others." They walked off into the growing crowd. Chris and Rei sat down at a table in the massive food-court. "Uhg. This is going to get messy if a fight breaks out. There's too many people." Chris looked at his watch, which was now set on Alberta-time. "Well, it is Saturday, in the middle of Spring Break, too. If we're lucky, we can get Sailor Moon before the mall closes at six." he checked his watch again. "We'll have a good six hours, probably more if she hurries over here." "Why is it so important that we get her before then?" Rei shrugged her shoulders. "Once the mall is closed, her attraction is gone. She may go somewhere else, and we could lose her. Ami's computer can only scan a limited area at a time, so it's best we do it now and get it over with." Chris said, yawning slightly to wake up. Rei smiled, then sighed. "It's too bad we weren't here for pleasure instead of business." Chris smiled back. "I know what you mean. I'd love to show you this city." he paused "It's a lot like Tokyo, but somehow, it's different." "It feels a lot different." Rei said, looking around at the surroundings. The nearby walkway was laced with a continuous pool of water with a few fountains spurting up water happily to the mall's background music. "This is nice." Chris smiled happily. "Maybe this is just what we needed." Rei nodded. "You're right. Some time alone..." Chris shook his head. "No, what I mean is that now, you've been in MY country. We're even now." he said. "You've been so worried about me and the others leaving that you forgot that I'm not going to some jungle in the middle of nowhere and you'll never see me again." Rei smiled. "Just remember." Chris said, stretching out his arms. "This time, we're still on the same planet. That's a lot better than a thousand years ago!" Rei nodded. "Well. I'm hungry. What does this dump have to eat?" Chris frowned a mock-frown. "Ah! Dump? I'll have you know this place has the best fried Albino-Tarantula Spleens in the world!" Rei sighed. "Chris...remember to concentrate. The virus is taking over your mind again." Chris shook it off. "Oh, sorry." he smiled. "I can get us some pizza if you want?"

Maury grabbed Andrea's shirt sleeve, pulling her away from a shop window. "Come on, Hooze..." he sighed. Andrea was entranced with the bridal-shop. There was a sale on tuxedos. Therefore, her subconscious attraction to sharp-dressed-men took over and she was literally drooling over herself. In the window were four manikins with snazzy tuxes on. "Ohhh, can I stay for a little while??" she pleaded. "You guys can go on ahead!" Darien sighed to himself. "I've created a monster." "Try to concentrate, Andrea...PLEEEZE!?!" Mina sighed. "We have to keep focused and find all the good battle areas in the mall." Ami had taken out her little data-computer. "There are a number of large areas in the mall. Theoretically, the ice-rink or the water-park would be ideal battle grounds. Minimal civilian casualties if something goes wrong." "You WOULD think in terms of death, little miss maniac." Maury growled at Ami. "Unless you have some plan to sabotage this mission, we'll be able to capture Sailor Moon and be home in time for lunch." Ami frowned. "Sabotage? If anything, we'll have to worry about you jumping on Lita at a key moment in the battle." Lita giggled to herself. Maury frowned. "I happen to have more control than YOU do, bitch." Mina growled. "You two SHUT-UP!" They were quiet. Mina nodded. "Okay. Just concentrate, and everything will go fine." "And WHO made YOU boss?" Ami 'suggested'. "Uh?" Mina replied. Maury nodded. "Hey, yeah...how come YOU'RE the one giving orders? I thought this was a team effort." "Well, this isn't much of a team with you trying to undress Lita every five and a half minutes." Mina said quickly. Lita frowned. With her face lowered, she looked VERY evil. "Are you saying my boyfriend can't control himself?" she grumbled. "Yeah!" Maury agreed. Ami and Mina nodded. "Yeah!" they both said. "At least I'm attracted to a GOOD looking guy!" Ami said smugly towards Lita. Maury growled. Lita growled louder. She took a sudden step towards Ami, picking her up by her collar and raising her a good THREE FEET off the ground. "I suggest you shut the FUCK up before I loose my concentration and kick the shit outta you." Ami replied by sticking out her tongue. Andrea joined in. "And if you're so hung up on MY brother, than why are you insulting his best friend?" Mina cleared her throat. "If you all don't mind...we DOOOOO have work to do." Darien sighed. "This is going to be a barrel of laughs...I can tell that right now." Lita put down Ami and walked over to Mina. "You know something, Mina, I just realized what a power-hungry little bitch you really are." Mina's brow lowered and she stood on her tip-toes to appear taller. "Whatever *I* am, it's gotta be better than YOU, you brainless little slut." Maury pushed Mina back. "Oh, so now YOU'RE insulting my Lita. I'm just going to have to kick ALL your fuckin asses now!" "Oh, yes...barrels and BARRELS of laughs..." Darien coughed loudly. Everyone turned to him. Darien smiled. "Okay. Now that we're all paying attention, I suggest we find Chris and Rei. Serena will be coming here in less than an hour now, and we'll have to split up if we're ever going to cover all the exits." The Scouts all nodded. "Sorry." Mina sighed. "This virus is really getting to me." They all exchanged apologies. Even without the virus, it was a hell of a task to track down Sailor Moon in such a huge area. WITH the virus, it was going to be next to impossible.

Chapter 14

Serena tipped the driver and closed the door to the cab. "Thank you!" she beamed. The cab left her in front of West Edmonton Mall's main entrance. She looked at her watch. "Mmmm, lots of time to shop...plus, I can always come back tomorrow!!" she giggled, opening the door and taking a big whiff of the mall's air. "Oooo! I love the smell of commerce in the morning!" Suddenly, a small, nearby girl gasped, pointed at Serena, and yelled: "MOOOOOM! It's SAILOR MOOOOOON!!" Serena gasped. "Honey..." the child's mother sighed. "That's not Sailor Moon. Stop bugging the nice young girl." Serena smiled and kept walking as the child kept a disbelieving eye on her. "Maybe I should get a new hair style first. Sailor Moon is now dead, and so's her old hairstyle!" she reasoned. Deep down, all Serena ever wanted was to be a normal, ditzy girl. Sure, she had times when Sailor Moon was her passion, and her life revolved around fighting evil, but she was never into it one hundred percent like the others. Now, she was living her dream. She had left all that was Sailor Moon behind her, and was willing to start a new life. Luckily, as insurance that the others wouldn't try to get her back, she kept her crystal as always. They'd have to kill her before she'd ever fight evil again. "Sailor Moon is now retired." she said quietly, walking into a hair salon.

Mina lined up all the Scouts and paired them off into teams. "Okay, now, we split up into our groups, and start covering all the exits. Don't forget to check the surrounding stores. She may already be inside." By splitting up, they minimized the virus's effects. For example, Maury and Chris were teamed up, instead with Lita and Rei, just so they weren't distracted. Lita and Rei formed the next team. Then, Andrea ganged up with Mina, and Darien was assigned the task of making sure Ami didn't flip-out again. "Let's go!" Chris said to Maury. Andrea nodded. "Okay, concentrate on the lower-level for now. If she took a cab from the airport, it's most likely she's not on the top floor yet. The cabs only go to the front doors." "Okay," Mina said. "We'll take the main front doors. You guys split up and meet back at the skating rink in half an-hour of we don't see her." Everyone nodded and ran in opposite directions.

An hour later, Serena was walking down the hallway with a bag under her arm, full of comics. "Ah! This is the life!" she exclaimed, running her hands through her new hair style. She had her hair tied back, and it was now tinted instead of straight blonde. Chris and Maury rounded the corner. Serena almost froze. "Oh shit...how did they find me?" she murmured to herself. Despite the fact they were now walking towards her, they didn't seem to recognize her without her meatballs. Serena smiled to herself and kept walking in a casual manner. "I bet they walk right past me!" she said to herself, already planing the next store to hit. Chris sighed as they passed Serena. "Maury, how the hell are we going to find her?" Maury shrugged. "I don't know, but we better find her quick. I promised to take Lita to the water-park." he smiled. "They have nice secluded hot-tubs, and I'm sure nobody would mind If we..." "No, honey. That's not Sailor Moon." a woman said. "See? She even has different hair." Chris and Maury whipped their heads around simultaneously. They turned to the woman who said it, then to the direction where her daughter was pointing. A blonde teenaged girl was checking out a nearby shoe-store. "We can transform. There's no security cameras for another hundred meters." Chris said quickly. "I disabled a few of them with my computer this morning." "In public?" Maury yelled under his breath. "There's gotta be forty people who will see us!" Chris nodded. "And do we KNOW any of them?" he smiled. "Who cares? They're all strangers, and won't even know what's going on until we're half transformed. Come on. Maybe you and Lita will get to take that little excursion after all." That got Maury's attention. "Okay! Let's get the bitch!" he said quite loudly. Unfortunately, that also got Serena's attention. She turned around at the sound of Maury's voice, and saw that they were looking directly at her. "No!" she said simply. Maury and Chris nodded at each other and began walking towards her. "Serena..." Chris said in a calm voice. "Why don't we go outside for a second. All we want to do is talk." he paused. "All we need is your help." Serena backed up a few steps. "Stay back! I'm not going back with you!" Maury held out his hands. "Come on! The others are waiting. All we want is to go home." "RAPE!" Serena yelled, taking off down the tiled hallway at max speed. The forty or so bystanders all looked at Chris and Maury, who appeared to be harassing Serena. Chris sighed. "Oh oh..." Ten of the meanest looking people began advancing on them, mumbling "You perverts!" and "Leave the young girl alone!" and "I'm going to kick your ass!" "Oh oh is right." Maury agreed. "SOL POWER!" he yelled, causing a bright shaft of sunlight to shoot in from a sky-light above. As Maury transformed, Chris took out his disk. "SATURN POWER!" he yelled, and began transforming also. The crowd started to scream and run away from the glowing teenagers. Serena looked back to see Maury already transformed and running after her. "Oh YEAH!?!" she growled. "MOON CRYSTAL POWER!" Sailor Moon appeared out of the flashy special effects, complete with her normal hair-style. Chris and Maury continued to run at her, unfazed. "You wanna make this hard on yourself, go right ahead." Chris yelled. "Protecting the world is more important that a stupid shopping spree!" Maury added, taking out three Sol Stars and tossing them at Sailor Moon. "Hey!!" she yelled, ducking past the Stars, and letting them hit the ground. The explosion produced a small crater. "You wanna play rough? Fine!" she took off her tiara. "Moon Tiara ACTION!" Chris realized that she had used it as a distraction. She had aimed it at a small girl three meters away. "Shit!" he jumped, pushing the girl away at the last second. The girl was then rescued by her terrified mother. Chris looked up to Maury. "Get her! She's aiming at civilians!" Maury was still running after Sailor Moon. "SOL FLARE!" he yelled. From his outstretched hands, a glowing wisp of energy formed into something that did indeed look like a solar flare. The loop of energy shot outwards like a whip, and smacked into Sailor Moon's back. Sailor Moon tripped, and landed face-first on the cold tile walk-way. The back of her suit was charred, and a small patch was bleeding underneath. Despite her injuries, Serena got up almost as quickly as she fell and was again running. Chris, still on the ground from saving that kid, realized that he could circle around and trap her in a nice big open space near the food-court. He got up and started running. "Attention Christmas shoppers!" he yelled out loud. "We're SLASHING prices! Everything must GO!" he cackled, pulling out his sword. The weapon had the desired effect, and people began running for their lives. Less civilians meant less casualties if a battle erupted, and protecting others was a Scout's number one priority.

Rei and Lita were walking down the main walkway. From their vantage point, they could see halfway down the mall's length. It was getting crowded, though, and picking out Serena wouldn't be as easy as they hoped. "Even with meatballs, she'll blend in pretty good." sighed Lita. Rei nodded. "I hope Chris and Maury are having better luck than we are." Lita smiled. "You know, I've been thinking. Maybe you can get Grandpa to let you have a year off or something. Then, you and I could maybe come over here with our boys." Rei took a thoughtful pause. "Do you think they'd mind? I mean, maybe they're looking forward to some time to themselves. You saw how happy they were to be back in their home province again." Lita shrugged. "Well, I know it's only an idea, but you gotta admit that it would be fun!" Rei nodded. "Yeah...but the Scouts? I mean, we almost lost Ami to that educational 'study-abroad' thing she was going on. What do you think would happen if TWO Scouts leave?" "I see your point." Lita sighed. They sat down on a bench that was in the middle of the main walk-way. "And, if we leave, then the others might as well." Rei took a deep breath. "I guess saving the world is more important than our love-lives, eh?" Lita sighed as well. They were both quiet for a long time. "Man," Lita said finally "this IS a big mall." Rei smiled. "Yup." While Lita was taking in the scenery, something caught her eye. "Wait a second...isn't that Maury?" she pointed to a nearby television set in a store's window. Rei glanced to where she was pointing. "He's transformed! Where's that image from?" They both jumped up and ran over to the "store" they saw the image on. It was actually the mall's security office! Inside, three officially-dressed young men were suiting up with pepper spray, clubs and walkie-talkies, obviously about to go and confront the mayhem being caused by Sailor Moon and the two Princes. An older woman was on the telephone, probably calling for back-up. Lita glanced under the monitor that was displaying the image. There was a row of five T.V., and they all had the location of the current image on them. "They're by the food court! Come on!" she yelled, almost grabbing Rei. Rei shook her head. "No. You go ahead. If they move before you get there, I can watch the action from here. Maybe we can set up an ambush if we know where she's headed." Lita nodded and ran off, already pulling out her Star Wand. Rei took out her controller. "Mina! Ami!" she called to the remaining parties. "This is Rei. I'm at the security booth. Get here quick! We found Sailor Moon!" "On our way!" Mina said. "Coming!" Ami replied.

Chapter 15

Maury hadn't given up, despite Sailor Moon's speed advantage. Being relatively new to the Sailor Scouts, Maury didn't have the benefit of two years running away from monsters that Serena had. To slow her down enough, Maury had to use his trusty Sol Stars. "SOL!" he yelled, tossing another volley at her. Maury looked back briefly. "Damn! Where's Chris!" Serena ducked under the latest attack, and kept running as fast as her legs would carry her. "You're too slowwwww!" she said, turning around briefly and sticking out her tongue. When she turned back around, though, she saw a rack of suits speeding in front of her path. Even with her amazing dodging ability, Sailor Moon fell victim to momentum, and plowed into the assortment of men's fall clothing. Chris was standing where the rack had been a second earlier. "He may be slow, but he's not alone." Maury caught up and nodded his thanks. Serena rolled onto her back painfully. When Chris pushed the rack into her, it was the perfect height to smash into her stomach. She lay back, winded. "Nooo!" she said weakly. "Yes!" Chris countered happily. "Now, are you gonna help us, or do we have to kick your ass again?" He paused. "By the way...your head looks like a potato." Serena looked desperately around her for some way to escape. "I do NOT look like a potato!" Maury shrugged. "Mmmm, she's right. More like a lemon." Chris nodded. "Or maybe one of those..." Sailor Moon suddenly leapt at Chris, toppling him over. As Maury realized she was trying to escape, he reached into his coat for a throwing star. "Stop!!" Serena was now picking up speed. However, she was headed for a dead-end. Maury didn't bother running. Chris got up. "What are you doing!" "She's trapped." Maury said. "No! What if she..." Sailor Moon jumped. One of the advantages of being a Sailor Scout was having access to a few handy super-powers. One of Sailor Moon's was jumping. She landed on the SECOND FLOOR of the mall. The "dead-end" she was headed for was also a hole between floors. Chris and Maury knew they were there, but never gave it much thought. Now, Serena was on the top level, and there was nothing they could do but run for the nearest escalator. "That turd burglar is gonna die." Chris growled as they dodged all the shoppers.

Mina and Andrea were the first to show up. They walked up to Rei and peered into the security booth's window. "Ah!" Mina said. "Perfect! Now we we can plan our next move!" "Where's Chris?" Andrea asked. Rei shrugged. "They ran out of the screen. The security people are trying to find them again." The two technicians left in the booth were frantically trying to find Sailor Moon on their security cameras. Suddenly, the mall's intercom crackled to life. "Attention shoppers. Attention shoppers. We are experiencing a minor emergency. At your earliest convenience, try and make your way out one of the exits. Police will be waiting to direct you from there. Remember, there is no immediate danger. Please leave in an orderly fashion. Thank you." Strange enough, there was no panic. A few people jogged out a nearby exit, but most of the shoppers just hurried on their way as usual. Andrea smiled. "Right on. Now we we can kick Sailor Moon's ass in privacy!" Ami and Darien came running towards them. "Did you hear the announcement?" Darien asked. They all nodded. "We should transform now so they don't think we're shoppers and kick us out." Mina said.

Chris and Maury were far behind now, and there was little chance of cornering or ambushing her now. Chris was getting tired. "Man! What is she? A track star or something?" Maury was even worse, having been chasing after her from the very beginning. "You...haffta...use...your...swords!" he huffed and puffed. Chris looked at his buddy. "Are you crazy? That could kill her! The last thing we need now is a dead Sailor Moon on our hands." "We got to do something!" Maury gasped, finally stopping. He keeled over onto a bench, exhausted. "There's an exit where she's running. If she leaves the mall, we're fucked. Even WE don't know this city well enough to play hide-n-seek in it." Chris nodded, also stopping. "Okay. Good point." he paused to catch his breath, then pulled out his second sword. "Looks like it's party time!" he yelled, bringing the two blades together in an 'X'. The air around them began to crackle with energy. "I call upon all kiwis on earth! Give me your power!" Chris smiled. "Yeah!" he yelled, swinging his swords around, then forward, unleashing his attack. The blue disk shot down the hallway at the speed of sound. Serena, who was still heading for the exit, felt the air change...almost like it does just before it rains. The tingling of energy at the back of her neck alerted her that it was Chris' attack. "Nooo!" she yelled, ducking down. By the time she did this, though, the energy disk had already hit. It didn't hit Sailor Moon, though. The disk had gained altitude and hit the roof above her, causing a shower of debris to pile on top of her. Chris and Maury stood eighty meters away. Maury took a double take. "Holy shit! Good aim!" Chris shrugged, putting away his second sword. "I wouldn't say that." he paused. "I was aiming for her back." Maury shrugged. "Whatever works!" The two advanced quickly on the fallen Sailor Moon...not even bothering to notice one of the security cameras was zooming in on them.

"Okay...we found them." Mina said. "Andrea. You lead the way to that section of the mall. Rei, you stay here and help out with coordinating everything. Try and get word out to Lita that we know where they are. She's probably still wandering around." Andrea nodded. "Okay. Come on. Follow me. We're going to have to hurry. That part of the mall is a block and a half away." Darien sighed. "This isn't a mall. It's a freakin city." Rei sighed as they all ran off. She sat at on a nearby bench, watching the security screens inside the booth. She lifted her wrist to her mouth. "Hey, Jupiter." she said into her communicator. "Yeah? Where IS everyone!" Lita replied. "Go over to the skating rink. Chris and Maury found Serena, and we're all going to meet somewhere near there." Rei said, looking at the monitors, then at her little map. "Just remember, she might go mental and overpower our boys. I'm going to stay here incase we have to plot an ambush or something." "No prob. Jupiter out."

Serena woke up as she felt her feet hit something. "Uh?" she said with a start. She looked around. Chris was on one side of her. Maury was on the other. They were dragging her by the arms toward an escalator. Chris looked down at her. "Soooooo," he said, looking over his sunglasses. "You just HAD to pick the 'hard way', didn't you?" Maury nodded. "How come nobody EVER picks the 'easy way?'" "I don't know. But it's annoying." Chris smiled. "By the way, Serena, you're heavy. Ever think of going on a diet or something?" Maury smiled. "She's not heavy. You're just a wussy." "Oh yeah..." Chris smiled back. Serena sighed. "I don't want to be Sailor Moon anymore, can't you see that? Why can't you just leave me alone!?!" Maury looked down at her as they helped her into an elevator. "Don't worry. One last favor, and we'll let you be. If you want to be a go-go-dancing vampire slut in New Mexico, we won't care. And we won't stop you." "Ha!" Serena laughed suddenly. "Sure. Until the next Negaverse monster attacks. Then you'll come running, asking me for 'one last favor.'" Chris sighed, pressing the 'down' button. "Yup. She picked the 'hard way.'"

Rei saw the three get into the elevator. It lead right next to the ice rink. "Right on. Maybe now we can all go home." she sighed. Suddenly, a strange wave of energy passed over her. It was her "evil sense". She jumped up, pulling out a scroll. "Who's there!?!" Ami turned the corner. "Dang. I guess there's no surprising the psycho-chick, is there?" Rei frowned. She hated being called 'psycho' or 'mental' or anything else where here talents were the subject of a joke. "What did you call me?" Ami just smiled. "You've been lucky so far...but now, it's just you and me. Chris and Lita and the others can't help you now." "I won't need their help." Rei said, feeling the last thread of control over her virus snap. "You want a duel, then let's get it over with." Ami nodded thoughtfully. "Okay...but on my terms." she smiled. "Obviously, you have the advantage in powers, so it's only fair that I choose the place of the duel." Rei fell into Ami's ego-stroking. "I suppose. After all, I wouldn't want to kick your ass TOO badly." Ami pointed down the hallway. "Down there, in the water-park. Lots of open space, lots of room to kick my ass in. What do you say?" Rei smiled. "Who's going to notify your next of kin?"

Chapter 16

Chris and Andrea's mom, Sandra, had just finished doing the dishes and decided to see what was on television. She turned it on, just as a special news announcement started. At the bottom of the screen it said: Live in West Edmonton. She checked the channel number. It was CNN. "What's so important in Edmonton that CNN would be there?" she wondered aloud. She sat back in her chair and turned up the volume slightly. A spunky female reported had already started talking. "...no further weapon fire or major activity from inside, but the RCMP are keeping the crowd back away from the mall incase anything further happens." The scene switched to a news-desk. In the top-right corner, a small picture of West Edmonton Mall. "Do the police think this is in some way related to the recent disaster in Japan involving these so-called 'Sailor Scouts' and the aliens?" "No. The police don't think the aliens are involved, and it appears that the enemy in this case could be one of the Sailor Scouts themselves. We are still not sure which one, but I've just talked to a few eye-witnesses, and it is one of the female members." the reporter replied. "What the hell?" Sandra said. "Sailor Scouts?" Chris had told her about them one day when he called from Japan. The view returned to the newsdesk. "To re-cap on the events at hand, West Edmonton Mall has apparently been turned into the battle-ground for a Sailor Scout civil war. The Sailor Scouts, who have been nothing but rumors until a month ago, have so far operated solely in Japan. We can only guess why they've ended up here, and what their motives are." The view switched to a previous interview with an RCMP officer. "We've pulled back all our forces and evacuated the mall, however, we are ready to take action against them if they become a threat to the surrounding area or the City of Edmonton." "Aren't you afraid that the situation could escalate beyond your control?" the reporter asked. The officer cleared his throat. "We are taking every precaution short of going inside. If it escalates beyond our control, then I doubt we'd have much of a chance either way. They are 'super-heroes', after all." he smiled. "Why haven't you gone inside?" "Well, we feel this is a...I feel kinda silly saying this, but...'super-hero matter', and we should let them sort it out for themselves. Not only that but we owe these young people a great debt for destroying the aliens who killed a hundred and twenty fellow law-enforcement officers over in Japan. Surely, if they didn't succeed, we would probably be fighting instead." "I don't believe this..." Sandra said to herself. "I just got word that we have access to some of the mall's security tapes." the guy at the news-desk said proudly. "We'll be able to take a look at what happened just a few minutes ago."

Rei stood on the artificial beach of the wave-pool, keeping a careful eye on Ami, who was farther down the same 'beach'. "Well? What are you waiting for?" she said happily. Ami smiled. It was unlike her normal, calm smile. It was more like the smile on a Negaverse Monster. "I'm waiting for you to make the first move." Rei shrugged. "Sure. Why not?" she said nonchalantly. Even before she uttered the last syllable, her hand whipped around her body, tossing three scrolls at Ami. Ami lifted up her hand in front of her. A jet of water flew across the scroll's path, knocking them out of the sky. Her smile widened as she saw Rei's face. Rei realized that the gust of water came from the pool. Ami could control water. And they were surrounded by it. "Shit..." Rei said simply, taking a defensive stance. The sound of running water around her seemed to giggle with Ami. "You're on MY turf now..." Rei glanced around her quickly, trying to think of an escape. "I can't control water as well as that Sailor Neptune girl, but I can certainly control it enough to kick your butt." Ami taunted. "And I think it's time I proved my point." Rei gasped as she saw a patch of the water rise up and form an ice crystal. It launched forward at lightning speeds, barely giving Rei enough time to dodge. It shattered harmlessly into a potted palm tree nearby. Rei growled. "You wanna rock? Fine. Let's rock." she pointed her finger at Ami. "Fire!" A short blast of fire launched at Ami, but she dodged it easily. "Is that the best you can do?" she laughed. "Mercury!" she yelled, causing an overhanging water-pipe to burst. A powerful jet of water fell on Rei, flattening her to the ground. "MARS FIRE IGNITE!" Rei yelled, struggling to hold her hands up against the gallons of crushing water hitting her. The bigger fire-ball hit the same pipe, causing a large section to break free and fall. Ami gasped and leapt out of the way as the pipe came crashing down exactly where she had been standing. She got up slowly...her smile gone. Apparently, she'd have to work for her victory after all. "Nice try." Rei, now free of the water jet, got up, coughing. "Now I'm going to kick your ass." Ami smiled. "Look behind you." Rei's eyes went wide. A huge stream of water smacked her in the back like a base-ball bat. Rei flew forward, scraping her arms as she landed on the rough slip-proof cement. "Damn it!" she yelled out in pain. "It might be a good time for you to run and hide like a little baby." Ami said, grin returning.

Maury and Chris sat bored, waiting for the others. They were sitting on opposite sides of Serena, who was wallowing to herself quietly. "So, what's weirder." Chris said, adjusting his sunglasses. "A duck driving a tractor-trailer...or a hedgehog singing 'bohemian rhapsody'?" Maury shrugged. "I don't know...at first, the hedgehog...but once I visualize that duck...mmm, I'd say it's close." "Mmm, yeah...I'd say...WHAT THE HELL???" Chris stood up suddenly. Maury looked around quickly. "WHAT?" Chris pointed to the water-park. A large section of it was viable through a set of large windows. "That's Rei and Ami! They're fighting?!?" "What are you going to do?" Maury asked. Chris was already half-way down the hallway. He ran up to the windows, took out his sword and blasted the glass away with a 'FISS!' Maury glanced back to Sailor Moon. She was lookin up at Maury. "Don't you try anything." Maury growled. "I'm still here." Serena smiled. "Who? ME? Me? Try anything? Ha!" She said a bit too easily. Maury sat back down with her. "Yeah...ha." he took out a throwing knife just in case.

Chapter 17

Sandra was still watching when the first blast came. The reporter was babbling away with one of the RCMP officers when the camera shook and a huge "whoooof!" filled the air. "Look up there!" someone said. A large jet of fire was blasting through the roof of what looked like the water park. Then, an equally massive stream of water. People began screaming and running farther away as a fine mist of water began hitting the crowd. "My god..." Sandra said to herself. Soon, it was over, though, and the reporter was back on the air. "Sorry about that folks. It seems as if the activity has returned. We'll try to keep filming as long as it is safe to do so." The scene changed back to the desk. "I've just got word that we're ready to show the security camera clips." The screen now showed a seemingly normal situation in the mall. People were milling about, and everything seemed normal. Suddenly, a blonde-haired girl began running. Two teenaged boys began chasing after her. Somehow, they looked familiar. Unfortunately, the tape cut off. "Witnesses say, that the two teenaged boys, and the blonde girl they were chasing are actually Sailor Scouts. The girl is possibly Sailor Moon herself, the leader of them. The two boys could be some of the newer members who have joined the team just recently. The scene changed again. "Now, I've been told that this next clip is quite spectacular. It involves the same two boys, and Sailor Moon. They now seem to be in fighting uniforms." This time, it showed Chris and Maury on the walkway in a panoramic view. Sandra watched as one of the boys pulled out two swords, and formed a bubble of light around him. Then, the swords absorbed the light, and concentrated it into a disk-attack that launched out at the fleeing Sailor Moon. It hit the roof, and debris began piling on the far-away figure. The attack must have hit the hallway's power conduits as well, because the security camera tape faded out. They showed the clip again. Sandra looked closer. "Oh my god..." the one who pulled out the swords looked almost exactly like Chris...if not for the sunglasses, she might have been able to tell right away. However, she was sure when it zoomed up on Maury. "That's Chris and Maury!?!" The anchor-man returned. "Wow!" he said in awe. "Did you see that sword thing?!?" he asked the people around him. "That was amazing!" Sandra stood up. "No, wait...it can't be them. That's so stupid! They're in Japan right now..." The man continued. "Well, from eye witness reports and available data, the one who did that sword-attack must have been Strike Fiss." "What?" Sandra gasped, recognizing the name as Chris' nick-name. "The was actually the first to kill one of the aliens over in Japan. However, he has only been a conferred presence since a month or so ago." That was about when Chris went to Japan. And then Andrea got abducted, and everything started happening. The aliens, the increasingly less frequent phone calls back home...and Maury too? What about Andrea? Sandra went over to the phone and dialed Cherri Hill temple. "This is crazy..."

Rei could barely breath. She had gotten the wind knocked out of her repeatedly, and her chest felt like it was caught in a giant mousetrap. To make matters worse, her virus wasn't letting her quit and run away. A tiny voice of reason inside saw this and said. "Oh shit! You gotta run! You'll get killed!" Unfortunately, the virus said 'fuck you' to that and forced Rei to stay and fight to the bitter end. Ami, who had a singed boot, but no major injuries, walked up to Rei. "So, little miss camp-fire, I guess you couldn't stand up to me after all." she smiled. "That's okay. I actually expected less of you. I'm impressed that you're still alive to grovel even now." Rei grabbed Ami's boot. "If I go, I'm taking you with me." she gasped. Ami frowned, causing a small wave to hit Rei's hand away from her boot. "Don't touch me, bitch. Besides, anything you throw at me now could barely roast a marshmallow. You're out of lighter-fluid." Rei growled, trying to get to her feet, but only managing to get to one knee. Ami sighed. "Fine. Don't grovel. Time to end this." "You tell fibs." Chris said, walking toward Ami, sword extended. Ami looked like a little kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar. "Chris? Oh! Hi! We were just having a little girl-to-girl chat." Chris pointed his sword at Ami. "Can't you two control yourselves for a few freakin hours? All you have to do is concentrate, and the virus doesn't do shit!" Ami began backing up as she realized Chris wasn't going to stop advancing with his sword pointed at her. "All this virus has done is made me love you more, Chris. And it's also made me a lot stronger." she smiled. "And I bet you like it, too." Chris put down his sword. "You really are full of shit, aren't you?" he sighed, then turned to Rei. "Okay...just to show you two how easy it is to control this virus, I WON'T kill Ami. Now let's get the hell out of here." He put away his sword and helped Rei to her feet. "Thanks." she said simply, getting some strength back. Chris smiled. "Come on. You two can return to beating up Serena instead of each other." Ami's sanity came back in a tidal wave. "Oh my..." she said quietly, looking around her at the broken pipes and debris. Chris turned to her. "Come on, Ami. You too. It's this fucking virus...it's not your fault. Right Rei?" Rei growled slightly. Chris frowned at her. "Okay, okay...Friends, Ami?" she said, extending her hand cautiously. Ami smiled briefly, shaking Rei's hand. "Friends. As always." Chris smiled. "Wow! Now, let's get out of here before I puke! This is too sappy." The three of them walked out through the hole Chris had made through the glass windows. Rei smiled. "I still would have kicked your ass." she snickered. Ami raised an eyebrow. "Ha!"

The fireworks from the water-park had stopped. Maury sat impatiently, waiting for the others to show up. "Where the hell is everyone?" Serena sighed loudly. Maury stood up and began looking down the hallway. Serena slowly reached for her tiara. Maury was much too busy to notice this subtle movement, and kept peering down the hallway. If she killed him, then Lita would most certainly want revenge. Plus everyone seemed to be acting strangely lately, and a homicidal Jupiter was the last thing she wanted. She quietly plucked her tiara off her forehead, causing it to begin to spin. "Moon Tiara ACTION!" she yelled, tossing it at Maury's feet. He was caught completely off guard, and flew head-over-heels as the tiara caused the floor around him to explode. Sailor Moon had retrieved her tiara and was off down the hallway before Maury even knew what hit him. "What the f..." he coughed, picking himself off the ground. Looking behind him, he saw Sailor Moon running away. "Oh shit." Suddenly, Rei, Chris and Ami came running past him. Rei yelled back at Maury. "Well? You coming?" Maury took a deep breath, and began running as well. He caught up to Chris. "Hi! I see the girls cleared up their little dispute?" Ami and Rei nodded. "Cool. Now we can get down to business." Maury said happily. Chris pulled out his sword. "I don't care anymore what happens to me. However, I'm going to make sure Sailor Moon never runs again!" he said. "I HATE running! Grrrr!" he 'Grrrred'. Rei nodded. "I'll slow her down." she pulled out an ofuda scroll. "Mars Firebird...STRIKE!" She combined her fire-attack with the paper, causing it to form the familiar bird-shape. It screeched toward Serena. Serena looked behind her and gasped, diving into a clothing store before it could hit her. "Rei! You meany!" she called back as she began running again. Chris noticed the route. "She's headed for the ice-rink! Isn't that where the others are?" Rei nodded. "Yes! Come on! If we catch up to her in time, we can make sure she can't escape back this way!" "There's four hallways that intersect the rink. Let's hope they're ready for us..." Maury said.

Serena's virus had given her an overwhelming urge to run, so she was far from being tired. "If I have to, I'll run all the way back to Tokyo, but they're NOT going to catch me!" she reassured herself. "VENUS CRESCENT BEEEEEAM!" A shaft of light smacked the ground less than a meter in front of Serena. Serena skidded to a halt using her amazing dodging skills. "No!" she looked up at the beam's origin. Sailor Venus leapt down from the second story to in front of Sailor Moon. "That's far enough." Venus commanded. At her cue, Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Hooze and Sailor Jupiter jumped down from the second story as well, each blocking off Sailor Moon's escape options. A second later, Mars, Mercury, Fiss and Destiny were also on the scene, blocking off her from the rear. Serena looked frightened. "Damn you!" she yelled, jumping onto the ice-surface. The others all jumped on as well, forming a circle around her. Darien motioned to everyone to stay back. "Serena?" he asked softly. "My darling?" Serena growled at him. "This is all YOUR fault! I never would have enjoyed being Sailor Moon in the first place without Tuxedo Mask there! If you never existed, I might have had a chance at a normal life!" Darien stepped back. "I don't think she's in a co-operative mood." Rei tried next. "Hey, Meatball head...all we need from you is..." "DON'T CALL ME MEATBALL HEAD! ARRRGHHH!" Serena flipped, bringing out her Moon Scepter. "I *HATE* BEING CALLED THAT STUPID FUCKING NAME!" she screamed, pointing the weapon at Rei's head. Rei gasped and jumped out of the way as a beam of concentrated energy shot out from the wand, destroying a large section of the staking rink's wall. The Scouts all gasped, taking steps back. Serena pointed the staff around at them all. "AH!" she laughed loudly. "NOW who's on the offensive!" "She's gone wacky!" Chris said, pulling out his sword and aiming it at her in defense. "That's right, Strike Fiss..." Serena giggled madly. "I'm wacky. I'm FUCKING crazy." she giggled some more. "And if you all don't BACK OFF, I'll kill each and EVERY one of you right NOW!" "Serena." Mina said. "You're not thinking clearly." Serena sneered and brought her scepter around at Mina. "Why can't YOU be leader? HUH?" she demanded. Mina frowned. "I'd love to...but that's just not the way things are." she growled. "You're Sailor Moon. Our leader." "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Serena yelled, shooting once more. The beam hit Mina in the hair, causing a small chunk of it to vaporize. Venus looked at her hair, taking the damaged part in her hand. She looked from the hair to Sailor Moon. "Bitch!" "Oh oh..." Lita gasped. "She's always been proud of her hair..." Mina pointed her finger at Sailor Moon. "DON'T FUCK WITH THE HAIR!" she shot out another Crescent Beam at Sailor Moon, who barely dodged in time from it hitting her left eye. Darien took the opportunity and jumped on top of Serena before she could fire her weapon at anyone. "Serena! SNAP OUT OF IT!" he begged. She gasped, unable to move. "Go away! Everyone! GO AWAY!" she yelled. Darien continued to hold her down. Chris, Maury and Andrea all sighed simultaneously. Suddenly, they heard shouting. The police had come in after all. Andrea looked down the hallway. "If we're going to do this, we better do it soon." Lita kneeled down to Sailor Moon's face. "Serena...we're infected with Negaverse Generals!" The Scouts all blinked at Lita. "Uh?" they all asked. Lita kept going. "I'm the real Lita! I've managed to get control back of my body! I must hurry, though. You have to heal us! You know you real friends would respect your decision to leave. These Negatoads want you to stay, though. You MUST heal us!" she said dramatically. Maury smiled. "That's my girl." he bragged quietly to Chris. Chris smiled. "As long as it works." Darien let Serena up slowly. Serena got up and looked at them all. "You're right! You're all Negatoads!" she picked up her scepter. "Once I get you all back to normal, I can live a normal life!" Chris cleared his throat. "No! We need you for our evil plots!" he faked. Darien took a cue. "Uh, yeah! If you return these bodies back to normal, then you'll go on to live a boring life! Why would you want to do that??" Serena walked over to one side of the ice. "My friends would never badger me like this! I must return them to normal!" she lifted her wand in the air. "Moon Healing...ACTIVATION!" A bright white light enveloped the Scouts. "Hey, Maury." Chris said, just before it hit them. "What?" Maury answered. "She said 'moon.'" he laughed stupidly.

Chapter 18

Rei was the first to wake up. The numbing cold of the ice underneath her body was the first sensation she felt. Then, she noticed the twenty police officers standing around her. "Ahhh!" she screamed, startled. The police chief came up to her, offering her a blanket. "Uh, sorry, miss, uh..." "Mars." Rei said. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, miss Mars. We would have moved you off the ice, but we weren't sure if that was safe to do. You were all unconscious." he said. Rei looked down to see Chris besides her. "Where's his sword?" she asked the police officer. "Oh!" he smiled guiltily. "We were just inspecting it." Chris woke up at the word "sword." He got up slowly. "What about my sword?" A forensics man quickly scuttled up to Chris and handed him his sword. "Here you go sir." Chris looked at the police. "I really wish you'd ask before you go around touching super-hero weapons." He pointed his sword up. "FISS!" the blue shockwave appeared on cue, confirming that his sword was okay. He sheathed it. Rei smiled. "Well, you haven't said one word about kiwi fruit, lemon-pie, or ducks...so I assume we're cured." Chris nodded happily, then turned to the officer. "Where's Sailor Moon?" "Uh, she took off just as we came in." the man explained. "Damndest thing. She just jumped up onto the second floor, then out the sky-light!" The others were starting to wake up now. Rei sighed. "Well, hopefully she's still in the city." Chris nodded. He took a step but stopped as he heard a crunch. "What the hell?" he looked down at his foot to see a dark brown rock-like substance under him. It was all around them. In fact, each of the Scouts was surrounded by the stuff. "Mars, is that normal?" Rei shrugged. "I think so. Maybe it healed us by getting rid of the stuff from our bodies, and that's the gel once it's inert." The officer coughed. "Uh, can I get a statement?" he smiled. "A lot of people want to know why you tore up half of the mall." Chris shrugged. "We all had the flu?" Rei smiled. "It's a bit more complicated than that. Sorry, we can't get into it." The others were now awake. Maury helped Lita to her feet. "Great idea. I can't believe she fell for the 'Negatoad' thing, though." Lita smiled. "Neither can I! Maybe the virus impaired her judgement." "One thing, though..." Chris said to the police officer. "If you see Sailor Moon anywhere in Edmonton, put a message on your web-site for us. I'll be checking every hour or so." Darien yawned. "I just chuck the roses. These guys handle the computers." he smiled. "And what a mighty-fine rose-chucking you do." Chris replied. They Sailor Scouts gathered in a circle once more. "Let's go home, Scouts." Mina sighed happily. The police officers watched in amazement as the Scouts disappeared in a shaft of light, leaving a circle of cracked ice behind them.

Chapter 19

"Well, at least we didn't land in water this time." Mina sighed, crawling out of the thornbush they telleported into. Chris coughed, causing a large chunk of dirt to fly out of his mouth. "That's just sick." he said, coughing some more. Maury helped him to his feet. "Don't worry. I hear dirt contains four essential vitamins and nutrients!" Chris smiled. "Yes, I'd like a large orange juice and a dirt-muffin. Thank you." Darien had landed on his feet. "I don't see why we had to come back now. Serena's still in Edmonton, and she's probably getting worse." he said, trying to hide his concern. "What if that virus has long term effects as well? What if it's terminal if it stays in your body long enough?" Mina nodded. "You know, he's right." Andrea, feeling a little jealous that Darien was so concerned about Serena, just walked away. Chris and Maury saw this. "Uh, we better go see if Hooze is alright." Chris said with a smile. The two walked off after her. Ami looked over to Darien. "Well, I can still analyze the gel sample, and we can simulate it's entire life span. Then, we can see if it really is deadly." Darien smiled. "Thanks Ami." he looked at his watch. "Well, I'm going to go home and get some sleep. Gotta be ready for tomorrow." They all waved to him as he walked off. Lita sighed. "Well, can I crash with you tonight, Rei? Darien's right. If we gotta go back to Edmonton tomorrow, we might as well be rested." Rei nodded. "Of course." she looked over to Ami. "All of you can stay if you want." Ami smiled. "Thanks, but I better go home. I haven't seen my parents in two days, and I'm sure they might be wondering where I am." Rei nodded. "I better go see where Grandpa is too." they walked off, leaving Lita and Mina. "Well, I'm going to raid the fridge!" Mina said proudly. "You coming?" Lita nodded. "Maybe I'll cook up a snack or something."

"Andreaaaaaa! Wait up!" Chris yelled, leaping towards her. "Hey!" "Yeah, hey." Andrea replied dismally. Chris was now beside her. "I take it that you aren't too happy right now." Andrea gave him a mean look. "I hate to say it, Hoozy," Chris sighed. "But Darien's already taken." Andrea said nothing. Chris put his hands in his pockets. He was still in uniform, but it didn't really matter since his clothes looked casual anyway. "You know, you shouldn't be rushing into a relationship anyway." he coughed. "Hell, you're only fourteen. The only reason I've even been going out with Rei is because we're absolutely sure of it." Andrea turned to him. "It seems like everyone else has a girlfriend or boyfriend except me." Chris shrugged. "What about Mina? Ami? I don't think your older sis, Sailor Pluto even has a boyfriend." "Well, I don't care. I'm not giving up on Darien." Andrea said, half proud of the fact. Chris took a deep breath. "Well, it's really none of my business." he started. "But what?" Andrea demanded. Chris turned and walked away. "That sounds a lot like Ami." Andrea went wide eyed. Maury, who had been a few steps behind her, placed his had on her shoulder. "He's right. You know. You're the youngest Sailor Scout. You should be more worried about friends and secret crushes than you are about finding true love." Andrea nodded quietly. "I know...I know..." Maury smiled then walked off.

Mina and Lita walked into the kitchen and started to root around for something to snack on. Mina giggled. "Mmm, I wonder if Rei's grandpa has any of those microwavable..." She opened a cupboard, causing Luna and Artemis to fall out onto the counter. Mina and Lita leapt back in surprise. Both cats were extremely wide-eyed, and were blushing. "What the hell?" Mina gasped, looking down at the two. Artemis smiled guiltily. "Oh, hi." Luna was also smiling. "Uh, sorry about all this..." Lita was wide-eyed as well. "You two??? Why were you both in the cupboard?" she looked inside. "Aw, that's just GROSS!" she sneered. Mina don't bother to ask what was so gross. "I hate to say it, but you two love-birds are just under the effects of a virus." Lita smiled. "But you gotta admit, it's great blackmailing material." The cats both lowered their ears submissively. Mina smiled. "Yeah. The OTHER Scouts don't HAVE to know Luna and Artemis have been doing the horizontal tango." Artemis frowned. "Ooo, that's cold." "Well, I guess we should keep them locked up so they don't re-infect us." Lita sighed. As Lita walked off to find a cage or something, Luna turned to Artemis. "You just HAD to pick the cupboard, didn't you? 'Oh, but Luna, it will be exciting!' you said." Artemis shrugged. "If we're lucky, we'll be put in the same cage." he smiled.  Chris' laptop started ringing. "Uh? Shit...Rei! Wake up!" he whispered at Rei, who had fallen asleep with him. Rei blinked open her eyes. "Oh, sorry...just a second..." Chris crawled out of the bed in his housecoat and opened his laptop's Phone-Blaster software. "Hello?" "Chris?" his mom came through. Chris put on the little head-set that came with the computer. "Yeah! Hi mom!" A long pause. "So, how's everything going?" Chris didn't like the sound of that. "Uh, fine? What's up? It's...two in the afternoon over there! Why are you calling?" his mom usually waited until after six, when the phone-rates were cheaper. "Oh, just checking up on you and your sister. How is everyone?" "Actually, pretty tired. Just finished chores actually." he lied, looking at the time. It was almost morning. "That's good to hear." a long pause. "By the way, I have to ask you something about your chores." Chris shrugged. "Yeah?" "Since when do they include shooting out lightning bolts from a pair of swords?" "Oh shit..." Chris said accidentally. His mind went into a panic. "Uh..." "Don't give me any top-secret shit or anything...I want to know what you and Maury were doing in Edmonton, fighting Sailor Moon with the Sailor Scouts!" Rei looked over at Chris. "What's going on?" Chris typed in "SHE KNOWS" on the screen and showed it to Rei. Rei's eyes went wide. "Mom, before you jump to any conclusions, we're the good-guys." Chris said quickly. "And it's not my fault. I sorta came on the job by accident." "Who else?" Sandra demanded. Chris sighed. "All three of us. I guess us super-heroes stick together." he tried to smile. "You're the 'Strike Fiss' guy?" she asked. "Yes, the cats didn't really have a name for me, so I got to pick my own. Maury is Prince Destiny, and Andrea is Sailor Hooze." Chris said quietly. His mom was quiet for a long time. "This is unbelievable." she paused again. "Wait a second. The news said you killed the first alien. YOU said you were a safe distance away!" Chris shrugged. "I lied. Sorry." "You mean you're running around with swords, killing aliens????" "It's the job, mom...we have to. You know, it's the old 'protect the Earth' thing?" Chris said, knowing his mom would only get worse. "Why didn't you tell me?" his mom sighed. Chris thought a second. "We were going to...but if we told you earlier, you would have just gotten all scared and stuff. The others have kept their secrets so far, and we thought we could as well." "This is unbelievable." "I know you won't understand this, but we have to help protect the Earth. We found out we may be getting more trouble in the future." A small laugh. "So, are you having fun chasing all the girls in skirts?" Chris raised an eyebrow. "One thing at a time, mom. Anyway, we were infected by a virus. Me and the others are okay now, except for Sailor Moon and our talking cats. Once we straighten out this mess, I'll talk to you. Okay?" "Talking cats??" "Okay?" Chris repeated. "We'll fill you in when we get back." "Yeah, I guess. But be careful." his mom said goodbye and the crisis was over. Rei smiled. "Well, that wasn't so bad." Chris sat back against the wall. "Yeah, YOU don't have to explain how I sliced off the upper half of a super-being alien sent here by the Watchers to destroy a guy who chucks super-charged roses from some unknown area inside his jacket."

Chapter 20

Everyone gathered in their casual clothes, in the fire-reading room. They were all completely lost. The two cats now needed to be kept apart via bird cages to make sure Artemis wouldn't mount Luna whenever they were free of things to do, or even when they were busy. That was a bad sign this virus wasn't about to stop increasing it's effects by the hour. Mina frowned. "One of these days, I'm getting Artemis fixed." All the males in the group winced, especially Artemis, who instantly stopped trying to gnaw through the cage's lock. Mina coughed. "Okay, first of all, Ami, what were the results from your test of the virus." Ami nodded, back to her professional self. "Okay, first, the virus will continue to escalate her strange behavior until she literally goes crazy." she said, looking off of her little computer.

Okay, that's all I have right now! GRRR!! I may have the rest done as soon as tommorrow. However, I promised EVERYONE that I'd have it done on the 1st of 97, so here you go! I'm SOOOO sorry, but it's hard to write when you are buisy having a new-years party. Sorry again! :) Fear not! The new and improved....and FINISHED... AR 3 will be out SOOOOOON! There's only a small bit left in the story, however, it's IMPORTANT! Ooooh! The suspence! Check back in a day or two!

-Strike Fiss

We are Samurai...The Keyboard Cowboys...

Strike Fiss _-_-------->--))`<---------_-_ Ninja Crowbotics CEO, 1996 ncrceo@ccinet.ab.ca