Empire of the Dark Ami
by amiwakawaiidesu
------
(Just for the record, I don't own any of the characters from
"Sailor Moon", on which this story is based.
As I set out, I expect this story to be around 15 chapters or so,
although I guess we'll see if my estimate is off later. At any
rate, please feel free to let me know what you like, or don't
like, about the story).
-------
CHAPTER ONE
"Pawn to Knight 3; check."
"Um...King to Bishop 6."
"Rook to Queen 3; checkmate."
Usagi leaned back on her hands and sighed, looking at Ami across
the chessboard between them. Although Usagi was Ami's guest for
the evening--and Ami was as nice a person as there was in the
world--Usagi still felt like Ami's personal punching bag whenever
they played this game.
"You know, Ami-chan, I am going to beat you one of these days."
"I'm sure you will," Ami replied with a bright smile, laying down
the pencil with which she'd been recording the game. "You lasted
almost 25 moves this time. So would you like to play again?"
"No, that's all right. I feel a little more stupid every time we
play."
Ami smiled slightly. Back when they were both in junior high
school, Ami had taught Usagi how to play chess, but Ami had gone
easy on her at first. However, Usagi realized what Ami was doing-
-playing to a draw or playing to a stalemate--and finally she
insisted that Ami play to win.
That was not an easy thing for Ami to do; she loved Usagi very
much and she felt bad about the quick checkmates she inflicted on
Usagi after that. But Usagi was insistent that chess was good for
her (making her more worthy of Mamoru), and little-by-little,
Usagi had improved. Now that they were both seniors in high
school, Usagi was actually sharp enough to beat most of the people
they knew most of the time.
She just wasn't good enough to beat Ami.
"I think you're too hard on yourself, Usagi-chan. You're
definitely getting better."
"But we've been playing for five years now, and I still haven't
beat you!"
"Yes, but you can beat your dad and your brother...and you even
beat Rei once."
"That's true," Usagi said, with a goofy grin; "that was pretty
sweet."
"But we don't have to play again if you don't want to. It's
almost dinnertime anyway."
"Food is good."
"I usually just make myself a sandwich when Mom is gone," Ami
said, "but I was talking to Makoto and I think I might actually be
able to cook us dinner..."
"Perish the thought," Usagi said, pulling out a wad of 500-yen
notes. "I think my mom knows you don't like to cook much, so she
gave us some extra money for dinner."
"Hey, I can cook...sort of. If it's in box..."
"Well, no need for that. I say we go out and party!"
Ami looked at Usagi dubiously.
"Okay, well, we don't have to party, but we could still go out.
What do you say? It's my treat."
"All right," Ami said, "you win."
* * * * *
Since Ami's mother had suddenly found out she had to work at the
hospital, Ami wasn't sure if Usagi's mother would still let her
spend the night that Sunday like they'd planned; ostensibly, the
reason for the visit was to give Usagi intensive tutoring before
her first semester finals. But Tsukino Ikuko seemed to have the
utmost respect for Ami--the gifted girl who was friends with her
not-so-gifted daughter--and let her go anyway. For Ami, that
trust was something very precious--even though she and Usagi
happened to be goofing off at the moment, giggling together as
they shared a couple of okonomiyaki at a sidewalk stand near the
Shibuya River. Presently, the subject of their laughter was
Usagi's old friend Umino, and his antics in science class on
Friday.
"I can't believe," Ami said, "Umino brought a whole bag of shrimp
to the school like that!"
"Well, he said he was going to grill them with his solar oven..."
"But it's the middle of November!"
"Yeah, well, that's Umino for you; I can't believe I was actually
thinking of hooking you two up once..."
Ami looked at Usagi with horror.
"You're kidding!"
"No, I thought you'd look kind of cute together. But he is kind
of a dork..."
Ami just shook her head.
"Still, I bet you'd have really smart kids..."
Ami suddenly blushed, turning a bright shade of red.
"Oh no," Ami said; "they'd probably all look like Umino!"
Usagi laughed hysterically.
"You're funny, Ami-chan," Usagi said.
"Maybe we should be getting home now," Ami said; "it is getting
dark."
"Okay. But just one game at the arcade first."
"Usagi-chan--we're supposed to be studying!"
"But we studied all afternoon. Come on, it won't kill you."
And so Ami tagged along with Usagi as they headed back toward
central Juubangai, and entered the Game Center Crown. On the plus
side, it was warm in there, and Motoki brightened perceptibly when
he spotted the girls. Motoki, of course, was more like the kind
of man Ami visualized when she imagined falling in love--a
handsome college student--but Motoki already had Reika. Thus,
they were just good friends.
"Out with the girls?" Motoki asked.
"No, it's just us two," Usagi said; "Ami invited me to stay over
tonight."
"So Mamoru must be out of town."
"Just make me feel like the second banana," Ami said.
"Actually, Ami," Motoki said in a confidential whisper, "there is
something interesting I wanted you to see. Come over here."
Curious, Ami followed Motoki to the side of the F1 racing game-
with Usagi right behind--then followed his lead and peaked around
the corner of the game toward the Sailor V game.
"There," Motoki said; "do you see that person playing the Sailor V
game?"
"You mean the little kid with the blue hair?"
"Well, yeah--he looks just like you!"
"Hey, yeah," Usagi said, also speaking in a whisper, "he does look
just like Ami! Have you been fooling around behind our backs,
Ami-chan...?"
Again, Ami turned bright red, for the resemblance was uncanny; the
boy looked no older than five or six, but he looked very much like
Ami in his hair color and the shape of his face. Further, despite
his childlike attire, the look on his face was very poised and
purposeful--unusually so, for someone of his age--and when he
looked back at Ami, Usagi and Motoki, they all ducked back behind
the F1 game, realizing they'd been staring.
"Well, he certainly isn't mine!" Ami said.
"Could he be a cousin or something?" Motoki asked.
"Or maybe a secret brother you never knew about?" Usagi asked.
"I don't think so," Ami replied. When she peeked back around the
edge of the F1 game, though, the boy was gone.
"Let's just ask him who he is," Usagi suggested, and shortly they
had all fanned out to search for the boy. He seemed to have
vanished, however.
"Weird," Usagi said to Ami. "Maybe he's like your future child,
who came back to the past to meet you."
"Like Chibi-Usa?" Ami asked, with a raised eyebrow.
Usagi shrugged.
"Motoki," Ami said, searching for a more logical answer, "have you
seen that boy around here before?"
"Well, yeah--I was meaning to tell you about it. I saw him here
on Friday, right after Usagi came and left, and I think I saw him
outside your school earlier in the week."
Ami and Usagi looked at each other ominously.
"This is seriously weird," Usagi said.
"Well, maybe you should just play your game," Ami suggested, "then
we can go."
"Actually," Usagi said, pulling her coat closer to her, "I don't
think I want to now. Maybe we should just go back to your place."
* * * * *
Inevitably, Ami and Usagi both found themselves looking out for
the strange boy as they headed back toward Ami's apartment, but he
remained elusive. In fact, Usagi began to suspect that the boy
wasn't just weird but downright supernatural.
"Maybe he's the ghost of your dead brother," Usagi said,
mysteriously, as they entered Ami's apartment and took their shoes
off.
"I don't have a brother."
"But maybe your mother had a baby that died as an infant, and now
he's haunting you!"
Ami rolled her eyes.
"And maybe you've been watching too many episodes of the 'X-
Files'," Ami replied. "Now why don't you go get comfortable in
the living room, and I'll go get some textbooks so we can practice
our English."
Usagi appeared crestfallen. English was one of her worst
subjects.
"Oh, and maybe you should close the balcony door, too," Ami said,
noting that the drapes in the living room were now fluttering in
the breeze; "Mom must have left that open when she left."
So saying, Ami then turned to gather her textbooks from her room.
On the way back, though, she noticed a strange light coming from
the area of the living room--and also inferred from the breeze she
felt in the hallway that the balcony door was still open.
What in the world is Usagi-chan doing...? Ami thought.
But she was utterly stunned, however, when she reached the living
room. For when she entered the living room, she saw Usagi--now
apparently unconscious--floating in mid-air amidst a glowing
golden radiance. Further, two strange figures were now standing
behind Usagi just inside the sliding glass door, one the strange
little blue-haired boy from the arcade, and the other--for want of
a word--herself!
But not quite herself, somehow; although the woman looked
virtually identical to Ami in the shape of her face, her eyes and
her hairstyle, her clothes were unlike anything Ami had ever seen.
Broadly, her costume resembled that of a Sailor Senshi, but it was
black all over and criss-crossed with cordlike bands that wrapped
around her torso, her arms and her legs.
"See, Mother," the little boy said, "she looks just like you."
"So she does, Hoshi," the strange woman said, speaking in Ami's
own voice as she laid a hand aside the boy's head. "She can't do
anything to stop us now, though."
"What is the meaning of this!" Ami said; "who are you?"
"That is none of your concern," the woman replied; "I will be
needing your friend, though, so I'm afraid your little study-
session will have to be canceled."
Ami scowled, reaching for her transformation stick; the strange
woman seemed to know what the stick was for, though, for she
raised her hand and cast a bolt of lightning toward Ami before she
could even begin her transformation phrase. Dodging the lightning
bolt and rolling back into the hallway, Ami counted herself lucky
just to be alive.
But she wasn't about to give up that easily; raising her
transformation stick again--now under cover in the hallway--Ami
invoked the power of transformation...
"Mercury Crystal Power, Make-Up!"
...then waited a seeming eternity as a swirling flow of water
transformed her into Sailormercury. In reality, the change was
almost instantaneous, but it couldn't happen fast enough for
Sailormercury, who was already preparing an attack as she headed
back toward the living room.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody--!" Sailormercury exclaimed, releasing her
most powerful attack just as she rounded the corner. However, the
golden glow, Usagi, and both strange visitors were now gone, so
Sailormercury's watery blast simply sailed through the balcony
door--still open, with its curtains flapping in the breeze.
"Shimatta..." Mercury muttered, rushing to the balcony to search
for any sign of Usagi and the strangers outside. Since the
balcony was nearly 40 meters off the ground, her immediate fear
was that Usagi might have fallen to the sidewalk in front of the
building, and she looked over the edge with a sickening sensation
in her gut. Even with her VR visor, though, she couldn't find a
trace of Usagi either on the ground or in the air.
There was, however, something very peculiar hovering in the air
just beyond the balcony. Invisible to the naked eye, the fabric
of space-time was now closing rapidly around something that looked
very much like a hole in the fabric of space-time itself.
Incredible, Sailormercury thought; an opening to another
dimension...?
Her next immediate thought, as she watched the hole shrink, was
that she ought to call Minako--acknowledged second-in-command of
the Inner Senshi--and tell her what had happened. If she paused
long enough to do that, though, the hole might disappear
altogether, along with any chance of finding Usagi. If she wanted
to follow Usagi, she would have to enter the hole now, while it
still existed.
But this is insanely dangerous, Sailormercury thought; if I
try to jump out there, that's 12 stories off the ground! If I
miss--or it isn't a portal--I'd be killed!
And I don't even know where the portal leads to. It could lead
right into deep space, or the heart of a star for all I know...
On balance, though, she doubted that the portal led to anyplace
terribly inhospitable--or at least any place so inhospitable it
would kill the strange woman, the boy and Usagi. For the woman
obviously hadn't gone through all the trouble of opening up an
interdimensional portal just to kill Usagi. If she wanted to kill
Usagi, she could just as well have done that right there in Ami's
apartment.
But it was still all so weird--first meeting this strange boy,
then meeting a woman who looked exactly like her, then seeing
Usagi grabbed from right underneath her nose in her very own
apartment! If she weren't as level-headed as she liked to think
she was, Sailormercury would have almost been inclined to think
she was hallucinating--or that the whole thing was just a gag
cooked up by Usagi and the other Senshi.
But none of the Inner Senshi knew how to rip open the fabric of
space-time--not even Sailormercury herself; this was real, and
Sailormercury was the only Senshi with even so much as a chance to
do something in time to save Usagi. It was just scary, realizing
that her only chance to save Usagi might be a leap into mid-air 35
meters above the ground.
"Oh, enough thinking already," Sailormercury muttered, dashing
back into the hallway and finding a coil of nylon cord in a broom
closet. She then tied one end around her waist, tied the other
end around a sturdy drain pipe and climbed up onto the ledge of
the balcony--as close to the closing portal as possible.
"I've got to do this..." Sailormercury said to herself, even as
her knees trembled and the breeze whipped at her hair, "but I
still ought to tell SOMEBODY what I'm doing first..."
* * * * *
The somebody Sailormercury decided to tell was Luna, who happened
to be at Usagi's house at the moment, happily chatting with
Artemis via an Instant Messenger service on Usagi's new computer.
When a priority message from Sailormercury popped up, though, she
turned to that instead. Unlike with the Instant Messenger, the
message from Sailormercury's communicator included video, and Luna
was startled to see wind blowing the Senshi's hair around-
wherever she was.
"Luna, listen," Sailormercury said, "I don't have time to talk,
but I want you to keep an eye out for Usagi."
"What?" Luna asked; "why?"
"I don't have time to explain; I'm about to leap off my apartment
balcony."
"Sailormercury, no! School can't be that bad--!"
Sailormercury smiled slightly.
"It's not like that; I just don't have time to explain. Sayonara,
Luna..."
Then the line fell dead.
"Mercury!" Luna cried, suddenly throwing her paws up against the
computer screen. "What the hell? Mercury--!"
But Sailormercury was gone, and 'sayonara' clearly meant she
didn't expect to be coming back any time soon...
by amiwakawaiidesu
------
(Just for the record, I don't own any of the characters from
"Sailor Moon", on which this story is based.
As I set out, I expect this story to be around 15 chapters or so,
although I guess we'll see if my estimate is off later. At any
rate, please feel free to let me know what you like, or don't
like, about the story).
-------
CHAPTER ONE
"Pawn to Knight 3; check."
"Um...King to Bishop 6."
"Rook to Queen 3; checkmate."
Usagi leaned back on her hands and sighed, looking at Ami across
the chessboard between them. Although Usagi was Ami's guest for
the evening--and Ami was as nice a person as there was in the
world--Usagi still felt like Ami's personal punching bag whenever
they played this game.
"You know, Ami-chan, I am going to beat you one of these days."
"I'm sure you will," Ami replied with a bright smile, laying down
the pencil with which she'd been recording the game. "You lasted
almost 25 moves this time. So would you like to play again?"
"No, that's all right. I feel a little more stupid every time we
play."
Ami smiled slightly. Back when they were both in junior high
school, Ami had taught Usagi how to play chess, but Ami had gone
easy on her at first. However, Usagi realized what Ami was doing-
-playing to a draw or playing to a stalemate--and finally she
insisted that Ami play to win.
That was not an easy thing for Ami to do; she loved Usagi very
much and she felt bad about the quick checkmates she inflicted on
Usagi after that. But Usagi was insistent that chess was good for
her (making her more worthy of Mamoru), and little-by-little,
Usagi had improved. Now that they were both seniors in high
school, Usagi was actually sharp enough to beat most of the people
they knew most of the time.
She just wasn't good enough to beat Ami.
"I think you're too hard on yourself, Usagi-chan. You're
definitely getting better."
"But we've been playing for five years now, and I still haven't
beat you!"
"Yes, but you can beat your dad and your brother...and you even
beat Rei once."
"That's true," Usagi said, with a goofy grin; "that was pretty
sweet."
"But we don't have to play again if you don't want to. It's
almost dinnertime anyway."
"Food is good."
"I usually just make myself a sandwich when Mom is gone," Ami
said, "but I was talking to Makoto and I think I might actually be
able to cook us dinner..."
"Perish the thought," Usagi said, pulling out a wad of 500-yen
notes. "I think my mom knows you don't like to cook much, so she
gave us some extra money for dinner."
"Hey, I can cook...sort of. If it's in box..."
"Well, no need for that. I say we go out and party!"
Ami looked at Usagi dubiously.
"Okay, well, we don't have to party, but we could still go out.
What do you say? It's my treat."
"All right," Ami said, "you win."
* * * * *
Since Ami's mother had suddenly found out she had to work at the
hospital, Ami wasn't sure if Usagi's mother would still let her
spend the night that Sunday like they'd planned; ostensibly, the
reason for the visit was to give Usagi intensive tutoring before
her first semester finals. But Tsukino Ikuko seemed to have the
utmost respect for Ami--the gifted girl who was friends with her
not-so-gifted daughter--and let her go anyway. For Ami, that
trust was something very precious--even though she and Usagi
happened to be goofing off at the moment, giggling together as
they shared a couple of okonomiyaki at a sidewalk stand near the
Shibuya River. Presently, the subject of their laughter was
Usagi's old friend Umino, and his antics in science class on
Friday.
"I can't believe," Ami said, "Umino brought a whole bag of shrimp
to the school like that!"
"Well, he said he was going to grill them with his solar oven..."
"But it's the middle of November!"
"Yeah, well, that's Umino for you; I can't believe I was actually
thinking of hooking you two up once..."
Ami looked at Usagi with horror.
"You're kidding!"
"No, I thought you'd look kind of cute together. But he is kind
of a dork..."
Ami just shook her head.
"Still, I bet you'd have really smart kids..."
Ami suddenly blushed, turning a bright shade of red.
"Oh no," Ami said; "they'd probably all look like Umino!"
Usagi laughed hysterically.
"You're funny, Ami-chan," Usagi said.
"Maybe we should be getting home now," Ami said; "it is getting
dark."
"Okay. But just one game at the arcade first."
"Usagi-chan--we're supposed to be studying!"
"But we studied all afternoon. Come on, it won't kill you."
And so Ami tagged along with Usagi as they headed back toward
central Juubangai, and entered the Game Center Crown. On the plus
side, it was warm in there, and Motoki brightened perceptibly when
he spotted the girls. Motoki, of course, was more like the kind
of man Ami visualized when she imagined falling in love--a
handsome college student--but Motoki already had Reika. Thus,
they were just good friends.
"Out with the girls?" Motoki asked.
"No, it's just us two," Usagi said; "Ami invited me to stay over
tonight."
"So Mamoru must be out of town."
"Just make me feel like the second banana," Ami said.
"Actually, Ami," Motoki said in a confidential whisper, "there is
something interesting I wanted you to see. Come over here."
Curious, Ami followed Motoki to the side of the F1 racing game-
with Usagi right behind--then followed his lead and peaked around
the corner of the game toward the Sailor V game.
"There," Motoki said; "do you see that person playing the Sailor V
game?"
"You mean the little kid with the blue hair?"
"Well, yeah--he looks just like you!"
"Hey, yeah," Usagi said, also speaking in a whisper, "he does look
just like Ami! Have you been fooling around behind our backs,
Ami-chan...?"
Again, Ami turned bright red, for the resemblance was uncanny; the
boy looked no older than five or six, but he looked very much like
Ami in his hair color and the shape of his face. Further, despite
his childlike attire, the look on his face was very poised and
purposeful--unusually so, for someone of his age--and when he
looked back at Ami, Usagi and Motoki, they all ducked back behind
the F1 game, realizing they'd been staring.
"Well, he certainly isn't mine!" Ami said.
"Could he be a cousin or something?" Motoki asked.
"Or maybe a secret brother you never knew about?" Usagi asked.
"I don't think so," Ami replied. When she peeked back around the
edge of the F1 game, though, the boy was gone.
"Let's just ask him who he is," Usagi suggested, and shortly they
had all fanned out to search for the boy. He seemed to have
vanished, however.
"Weird," Usagi said to Ami. "Maybe he's like your future child,
who came back to the past to meet you."
"Like Chibi-Usa?" Ami asked, with a raised eyebrow.
Usagi shrugged.
"Motoki," Ami said, searching for a more logical answer, "have you
seen that boy around here before?"
"Well, yeah--I was meaning to tell you about it. I saw him here
on Friday, right after Usagi came and left, and I think I saw him
outside your school earlier in the week."
Ami and Usagi looked at each other ominously.
"This is seriously weird," Usagi said.
"Well, maybe you should just play your game," Ami suggested, "then
we can go."
"Actually," Usagi said, pulling her coat closer to her, "I don't
think I want to now. Maybe we should just go back to your place."
* * * * *
Inevitably, Ami and Usagi both found themselves looking out for
the strange boy as they headed back toward Ami's apartment, but he
remained elusive. In fact, Usagi began to suspect that the boy
wasn't just weird but downright supernatural.
"Maybe he's the ghost of your dead brother," Usagi said,
mysteriously, as they entered Ami's apartment and took their shoes
off.
"I don't have a brother."
"But maybe your mother had a baby that died as an infant, and now
he's haunting you!"
Ami rolled her eyes.
"And maybe you've been watching too many episodes of the 'X-
Files'," Ami replied. "Now why don't you go get comfortable in
the living room, and I'll go get some textbooks so we can practice
our English."
Usagi appeared crestfallen. English was one of her worst
subjects.
"Oh, and maybe you should close the balcony door, too," Ami said,
noting that the drapes in the living room were now fluttering in
the breeze; "Mom must have left that open when she left."
So saying, Ami then turned to gather her textbooks from her room.
On the way back, though, she noticed a strange light coming from
the area of the living room--and also inferred from the breeze she
felt in the hallway that the balcony door was still open.
What in the world is Usagi-chan doing...? Ami thought.
But she was utterly stunned, however, when she reached the living
room. For when she entered the living room, she saw Usagi--now
apparently unconscious--floating in mid-air amidst a glowing
golden radiance. Further, two strange figures were now standing
behind Usagi just inside the sliding glass door, one the strange
little blue-haired boy from the arcade, and the other--for want of
a word--herself!
But not quite herself, somehow; although the woman looked
virtually identical to Ami in the shape of her face, her eyes and
her hairstyle, her clothes were unlike anything Ami had ever seen.
Broadly, her costume resembled that of a Sailor Senshi, but it was
black all over and criss-crossed with cordlike bands that wrapped
around her torso, her arms and her legs.
"See, Mother," the little boy said, "she looks just like you."
"So she does, Hoshi," the strange woman said, speaking in Ami's
own voice as she laid a hand aside the boy's head. "She can't do
anything to stop us now, though."
"What is the meaning of this!" Ami said; "who are you?"
"That is none of your concern," the woman replied; "I will be
needing your friend, though, so I'm afraid your little study-
session will have to be canceled."
Ami scowled, reaching for her transformation stick; the strange
woman seemed to know what the stick was for, though, for she
raised her hand and cast a bolt of lightning toward Ami before she
could even begin her transformation phrase. Dodging the lightning
bolt and rolling back into the hallway, Ami counted herself lucky
just to be alive.
But she wasn't about to give up that easily; raising her
transformation stick again--now under cover in the hallway--Ami
invoked the power of transformation...
"Mercury Crystal Power, Make-Up!"
...then waited a seeming eternity as a swirling flow of water
transformed her into Sailormercury. In reality, the change was
almost instantaneous, but it couldn't happen fast enough for
Sailormercury, who was already preparing an attack as she headed
back toward the living room.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody--!" Sailormercury exclaimed, releasing her
most powerful attack just as she rounded the corner. However, the
golden glow, Usagi, and both strange visitors were now gone, so
Sailormercury's watery blast simply sailed through the balcony
door--still open, with its curtains flapping in the breeze.
"Shimatta..." Mercury muttered, rushing to the balcony to search
for any sign of Usagi and the strangers outside. Since the
balcony was nearly 40 meters off the ground, her immediate fear
was that Usagi might have fallen to the sidewalk in front of the
building, and she looked over the edge with a sickening sensation
in her gut. Even with her VR visor, though, she couldn't find a
trace of Usagi either on the ground or in the air.
There was, however, something very peculiar hovering in the air
just beyond the balcony. Invisible to the naked eye, the fabric
of space-time was now closing rapidly around something that looked
very much like a hole in the fabric of space-time itself.
Incredible, Sailormercury thought; an opening to another
dimension...?
Her next immediate thought, as she watched the hole shrink, was
that she ought to call Minako--acknowledged second-in-command of
the Inner Senshi--and tell her what had happened. If she paused
long enough to do that, though, the hole might disappear
altogether, along with any chance of finding Usagi. If she wanted
to follow Usagi, she would have to enter the hole now, while it
still existed.
But this is insanely dangerous, Sailormercury thought; if I
try to jump out there, that's 12 stories off the ground! If I
miss--or it isn't a portal--I'd be killed!
And I don't even know where the portal leads to. It could lead
right into deep space, or the heart of a star for all I know...
On balance, though, she doubted that the portal led to anyplace
terribly inhospitable--or at least any place so inhospitable it
would kill the strange woman, the boy and Usagi. For the woman
obviously hadn't gone through all the trouble of opening up an
interdimensional portal just to kill Usagi. If she wanted to kill
Usagi, she could just as well have done that right there in Ami's
apartment.
But it was still all so weird--first meeting this strange boy,
then meeting a woman who looked exactly like her, then seeing
Usagi grabbed from right underneath her nose in her very own
apartment! If she weren't as level-headed as she liked to think
she was, Sailormercury would have almost been inclined to think
she was hallucinating--or that the whole thing was just a gag
cooked up by Usagi and the other Senshi.
But none of the Inner Senshi knew how to rip open the fabric of
space-time--not even Sailormercury herself; this was real, and
Sailormercury was the only Senshi with even so much as a chance to
do something in time to save Usagi. It was just scary, realizing
that her only chance to save Usagi might be a leap into mid-air 35
meters above the ground.
"Oh, enough thinking already," Sailormercury muttered, dashing
back into the hallway and finding a coil of nylon cord in a broom
closet. She then tied one end around her waist, tied the other
end around a sturdy drain pipe and climbed up onto the ledge of
the balcony--as close to the closing portal as possible.
"I've got to do this..." Sailormercury said to herself, even as
her knees trembled and the breeze whipped at her hair, "but I
still ought to tell SOMEBODY what I'm doing first..."
* * * * *
The somebody Sailormercury decided to tell was Luna, who happened
to be at Usagi's house at the moment, happily chatting with
Artemis via an Instant Messenger service on Usagi's new computer.
When a priority message from Sailormercury popped up, though, she
turned to that instead. Unlike with the Instant Messenger, the
message from Sailormercury's communicator included video, and Luna
was startled to see wind blowing the Senshi's hair around-
wherever she was.
"Luna, listen," Sailormercury said, "I don't have time to talk,
but I want you to keep an eye out for Usagi."
"What?" Luna asked; "why?"
"I don't have time to explain; I'm about to leap off my apartment
balcony."
"Sailormercury, no! School can't be that bad--!"
Sailormercury smiled slightly.
"It's not like that; I just don't have time to explain. Sayonara,
Luna..."
Then the line fell dead.
"Mercury!" Luna cried, suddenly throwing her paws up against the
computer screen. "What the hell? Mercury--!"
But Sailormercury was gone, and 'sayonara' clearly meant she
didn't expect to be coming back any time soon...