Cyber Moon: Chronicles.
Act 1: Gathering.
Episode 1: Rebirth.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 19, 2006
The cat walked out of the abandoned building and looked around in awe. It was obvious he wasn't in the same place he'd been when he was put to sleep. From what the capsule had marked, he'd been asleep for over fifty thousand years. Which would explain why his memory was blurry. He remembered what his mission was, but not much more.
There was only one reason for him to awaken: The enemy was back. He could sense the energy of Venus nearm and he knew the Senshi of Venus was close to where he was now. He looked back at the capsule and nodded; only ashes were left of it, at least it's self-destruction mechanism had worked well.
But now, he needed to find the Senshi of Venus and tell her about her mission, before the enemy got to her...
"Hey Minako!"
The blonde girl turned around at the voice. She saw a thin, black-haired girl walking her way. "Hi Hikaru."
"What's up?" Hikaru asked as she noticed Minako looked upset.
"Nothing," Minako said and looked back. "Damn, that cat.."
Hikaru turned to see a small white cat walking on a nearby wall, eyes fixed on Minako. "Aww, what a cute cat."
"It's been following me around. It followed me to school, and on my way back home, and now..." She realized something. "So, you going to cram school again?
"Yeah. I was heading that way right now. I guess I'll leave you and your stalker alone." Minako glared at her as she walked off, laughing.
However... Turning back, she saw the cat was still there. Since she'd stopped, the cat had stopped too. It leapt off the wall as he saw she wasn't moving, and walked up to her. "Okay cat, what do you want?" The blonde asked, her voice almost a growl.
She really didn't expect the cat to answer, but it did. "I'm here to tell you about your mission, Minako. And don't call me 'cat,' my name is Artemis.
"A... A talking cat?" Minako asked surprised as she kneeled to stare at him. His fur was as white as snow, not counting the yellow crescent moon-shaped patch of fur in his forehead, right over his eyes.
"A Mooncat, actually," Artemis corrected.
"Oh, right. That makes a whole lot of sense, a talking cat from the Moon," Minako muttered.
"Minako, if you just listen..."
"Of course, I'll listen to you. And to the blue dancing flowers too, whenever they decide to show up," Minako ranted on.
'Blue dancing flowers?' Artemis thought with a frown. He didn't quite remember Sailor Venus' past self, but he was quite sure she wasn't as weird as Minako.
Several miles away from there, a green-haired woman in a grey business dress watched a thirteen years old boy walk past her. Indeed, he was one of them. She was aware of one of the Mooncats' capsules opening, but she wasn't worried about that. The Mooncats knew their mission, and so did she. If there was any hopes of stopping the youma, they had to find the Senshi.
The boy, Kage for what she'd been researching, looked normal enough. Short, black, spiky hair, brown eyes, wearing a blue shirt and jeans, he hadn't noticed the woman following him. In fact, nobody ever noticed her unless she wanted them to.
"It is time for you to awaken, Kage" the woman said before vanishing.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed since the last time she saw the Earth. A planet that had once been hers, now was overcrowded with humans. She had always, from that day so long ago, cursed Serenity's power. A power that had trapped her and her army in a place that was both unknown and dangerous.
Beryl frowned as she remembered the past. The first few hours had been hectic, first realizing Metallia was in a deep comatose state thanks to Serenity's power, which left Beryl herself almost powerless compared to the power she'd possessed only a few minutes before. Then, realizing their 'prison' was inhabited by creatures that made even youma look normal. Some were massive insects that seemed to have escaped from a fantasy tale, there were also plants that walked on their roots, and even some airborne plants.
The youma, however, had soon shown the wildlife not to mess with them. In the space of two hours, the few surviving youma had literally destroyed a few square miles worth of jungle. Upon realizing there was no way to go back to the Moon or the Earth, since Beryl herself couldn't sense either, and wasn't even sure they were even in the same Universe they were before, they started building a city.
It took them weeks to build a good enough defense wall so the ground predators wouldn't be able to enter the city. Took them months to build a city big enough to shadow even Beryl's birthplace, Arcana. They called it Dark Arcana, the Dark Kingdom.
But without Metallia's power, the few hundreds that survived the Silver Millenium attack were stuck in this new world. There were no stars in this new planet, a thick layer of black clouds was always there to stop the light from whatever star they were orbiting from touching the surface.
Some scientists had even theorized they were in a sub-dimmension of their Universe, where their 'planet' was the only thing that existed, but that had been discarded. Until they tried to send a makeshift probe, five hundred years ago, to take a look at the area over the black clouds. It had found... Nothing. Outside their planet, which was actually far smaller than they'd first thought, there was simply nothing, not even radiation or heat readings. And a few miles over the clouds, the probe had vanished.
Wether or not there was something outside their planet, was now a moot point. After a few months of trial and error, Dark Kingdom's best mages and scientists had built a portal, a gateway to Earth. The portal opened into an island the humans called Japan, which was exactly where the Kingdom of Camelot was in the past.
According to the records the single probe they'd sent out had, time passed differently on Earth and in her world. The dark Queen was sure no more than three thousand years had passed since their arrival here, but on Earth, the records went back for over ten thousand years. Again, scientists had speculated, thanks to the probe's finding of what humans called a "museum," a place where pieces of their past were archived, that a good fifty thousand years had passed on Earth since the battle against Serenity.
Strangely, there were no records of Silver Millenium or any other city, the probe had only found lore mentioning places like Mu or Tir Na Nog, but they were considered only legends. Legends she'd once conquered, and now she had a whole new world to take over.
Jadeite bowed slightly as the Queen walked towards him. "Queen Beryl, the scout is ready. We gave him a magic spell to look human to anyone around him."
"Good. Send him to Tokyo immediately," Beryl ordered. "And what about our other portals?"
"We could only locate two other points on Earth where magic is strong enough to sustain portals. One's in an island country known as England, and the other is in what humans call the United States. "
"Stupid names," Beryl mused. "When are those portals going to be completed?"
"In a few weeks."
"Good. However, I don't think we'll need to use them."
"And why is that?"
"Because I can feel the Ginzuishou in Japan. But I feel it in several areas... Maybe Serenity broke it in pieces to stop anyone from using it. If we gather all the pieces, we could reform it and use it's power to awaken Metallia."
Jadeite nodded. "And with Metallia and the Ginzuishou in our hands, humans will be unable to stop us."
Kage frowned as he walked through the corridor leading to Takamura's office. On one hand, he had a chance to get out of the orphanage for good, but on the other hand... He wondered who would it be this time around.
The first two times he'd been adopted, he hadn't quite fit in. He'd ended up being returned to the orphanage, like a broken toy adults didn't want to play with anymore. He was really starting to wonder if he'd fit anywhere, but he didn't know his question was about to be answered.
As he walked into the office, he blinked. He'd expected to see a couple, but instead there was only a woman there, besides Kari Takamura, the orphanage's director. "Kage, this is Setsuna Meiou." He looked at the woman as Takamura introduced her. Green hair, purplish-red eyes. Her skin was tanned, and she was taller than most adults he'd met.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Meiou," Kage said politely.
"Hello, Kage," Setsuna said with a smile. "Takamura has told me a lot about you, but there's still a few things I want to ask you before I make my decision."
Kage smiled. "Go ahead."
"Okay, so let me see if I understood... I'm the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, and I'm supposed to help you find a princess before the evil youma start attacking," Minako said.
Artemis nodded. "Yes, that pretty much sums up what I told you." They were now in Minako's bedroom, as Artemis had said talking about her mission in public could be risky.
"The whole tale sounds insane. Then again, it's coming from a talking cat--"
"Mooncat," Artemis corrected.
"... Mooncat, so I think I'll bite."
"Does that mean you'll help me?"
"I suppose, it could be fun."
"Minako, this is serious."
"And why can't it be serious and fun at the same time?" Minako asked with a wink.
Artemis sighed. "Okay, this isn't quite what I expected, but I guess you--" He then stopped and looked around, as if he'd seen a ghost. "Oh no..."
"What?"
"The youma," Artemis said. "They're here already."
"You can feel them?"
Artemis nodded. "I can feel magic energy in a short range, which means the monster isn't too far from--" Right then, an explosion rocked the house. "-- Here."
Minako frowned. "Okay then... How do I use my powers?"
"You need to activate them first... Say the words 'Venus Planet Power' and see what happens."
"Venus Planet Power!" The blonde girl shouted. A blinding light surrounded her as her clothes were replaced by a Senshi outfit. A white leotard with a short orange skirt and blue bow, white elbow-long gloves and orange stiletto heeled shoes. "Wow... Cool outfit," she said as she looked at her new suit in the mirror.
"That's the Sailor Senshi's standard suit. Venus' color was always orange. Anyways, no time for chatter right now, Mina. Let's go."
"Mina?" Minako muttered. Then again, she liked that nickname. "Wait..." She searched into her closet for something and smiled as she put a blue eye mask over her eyes. "Here, now nobody'll recognize me."
"... Nobody would anyways," Artemis muttered. "That's why you transformed."
"Oh..." Minako said. "I'll keep the mask anyways. It looks mysterious."
"Whatever, let's just go," Artemis muttered.
Kron released his grip on the human and looked around. This was too easy, there was nothing these humans could do to stop him, and he was having quite a banquet with their life energy. He had been sent there to learn the human's language, and had sent all he learnt to Jadeite a few minutes ago.
Right now he was feeding before returning to the Kingdom. Youma, unlike humans, fed on life energy, so human food places were useless to him. Kron had been forced to hunt down his meal, so to speak. He located his next target and growled at the human, then chased after him. He stopped, however, when she saw a figure standing over a nearby rooftop "What the...?"
"Stop it right there, monster." Minako said as she leapt down to the ground.
"Who are you?" The youma asked.
"I'm Sailor V, and I'll punish you for hurting innocent people," Venus snapped at the monster.
"Sailor V?" Both Artemis and the youma exclaimed surprisedly.
"I'll explain it later," Venus whispered to Artemis.
Kron shrugged "I just wanted to know so I can tell my master the name of my first Senshi kill." Saying that, she shot two small energy blasts at 'Sailor V.'
Venus dodged the blasts, which created two small holes on the wall behind her, and gasped. "Uhh... Artemis, how am I supposed to fight back?" She asked turning to the mooncat nervously.
Artemis realized he hadn't told her how to use her powers and sighed. "Your weaker attack is the 'Crescent Beam,'" Artemis said. "Just aim your finger at the creature and say those words out loud. "
Venus nodded "All right, here goes nothing." She put her hand in front of her, index finger aiming at the youma. "Crescent Beam!" Energy gathered on it, and a small laser beam shot forwards, blasting through the youma's chest. Kron gasped in shock then turned into dust.
"Well done, V," Artemis said.
"I did it!" Venus shouted, then looked around. The crowd was looking at her in awe, as ambulances arrived together with some patrol cars. "I guess it's better to leave before they start asking questions."
Artemis nodded "Right."
'Sailor V' picked the small cat up and leapt up to a nearby rooftop in a single jump. "Wow... I didn't know I could do that," she noticed.
"Your strenght and agility are greatly improved when you transform," Artemis explained.
"Cool, maybe I could use this for Phys Ed," Venus commented.
Unfortunately, Artemis thought, her intelligence wasn't upgraded along with her other attributes.
Author's Notes: Those who read the "beta" version of this (formerly known as Cyber Moon: Dark Kingdom saga) will notice things started different now. As for what Setsuna's up to, you'll have to wait to find out.
About Camelot's location, nope, Silver Millenium's era Camelot was located in Japan, the one in England's lore is just a ripoff ;P.
Also, If you haven't yet, you should read Cyber Moon: Genesis, as that is the true starting point of this fic.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is a creation of Naoko Takeuchi, and I thank her for creating such wonderful universe.