[FFML] [FanFic][SM][NETTG] Terra in Tokyo Ch. 4 (of 27)

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Disclaimer:
This story is based loosely on Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon by Naoko
Takeuchi. This is a non-profit fan work created as a tribute, and no
infringement is intended. All rights to the characters, settings, and
situations of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belong to Naoko Takeuchi,
Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC. ArbyFish belong to
Daniel Oliver and are used with permission.  Gotta have ArbyFish.
Wouldn't be proper if we didn't.


Hmm.  The anchor of the first couple chapters too much?  Let's fast
forward through it then.  Now is the time for tell, not show!
...'cept in bits.  Blown up squishy bits.  Nomnomnomnom.

...

Aw, who am I kidding?  I love exposition.  ^_^

Right-o!  Onwards!


Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo
Final Mix

---Chapter 4:  ...The Whole Crew Already?

	Weeks passed, and the events that transpired the night of the attack
at the Osa-P gradually faded into the public background.  Naru and her
mother moved away to Okinawa to start a new life, far away from
jewelry and the youma that used them to drain energy.

	As for Terra and Usagi, the two girls got to know each other quite
well as they worked, studied, and fought together.  There were many
more strikes made by the Negamafoozles in an attempt to gather large
amounts of human energy.  They were all thwarted by the brave Sailors
Moon and Chibimoon, helped in generous amounts by Tuxedo Kamen and the
Star Light Knight.

	The ArbyFish disappeared the morning after that first fateful battle.
 Just as mysteriously as he came, he was gone, leaving no trace save
for the strange mark hidden on Terra's neck.  Luna could not explain
it and the Irish girl never told her new friends about the truly
strange creature named Arby.  Some things were best left forgotten.

	Usagi gradually improved in strength and confidence as a Sailor
Soldier, aided by Luna's insight and knowledge of how the girl's
powers functioned.  Terra, on the other hand, was left with only a
tattered brochure with advice that didn't work.  She didn't even have
a wand.  Their kitty companion was unable to help Chibimoon improve
her combat prowess, and as a result the cheerful, intelligent teenager
mainly joined Sailor Moon as moral support from safely behind the
usually present defense of Tuxedo Kamen.

	Meanwhile, Sailor Moon and the Star Light Knight would typically go
up front and whack the Negamafoozle together but good.

...

	In the midst of the battle, Terra frowned at the turn of phrase her
mind had produced.  "Go up front and whack the Negamafoozle together
but good?" she whispered.  That sounded very, very wrong, for some
reason she couldn't quite place.

	"Sailor Chibimoon, get down!" Tuxedo Kamen shouted urgently in her direction.

	"What?!"  Suddenly distracted and unable to dodge, Chibimoon got
nailed hard in the chest with a huge glob of demon-energy-laced mud.
It slammed her against the wall and stuck her there before starting to
constrict.  "AAAH!" she shouted, pathetically gasping for air.

	"Chibimoon!" Sailor Moon cried, reaching for her tiara.

	"No time for that," the Star Light Knight said.  He pulled out his
handgun, pointed it at the youma's head, and fired.

	The amorphous monster's head exploded in a splash of wet sand, but
quickly reformed.  Its features shifted from one side of its body to
the other as it turned to face the Star Light Knight.

	"Normal lead bullets," the youma hissed in glee, "can't hurt me!"

	S.L.K. smiled.  "Yeah, maybe not."  He took out a rectangular
cartridge with octograms and runic inscriptions on it, then popped out
the clip from his weapon and replaced it with the cartridge.  "But how
about magic EXPLODING TIP lead bullets??!?!"  He aimed low and fired.

	"AAARGH!" the youma cried, hopping up and down and holding its
blasted, blackened foot.  "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!"

	"Your turn, Sailor Moon," S.L.K. invited warmly, waving at their
quarry.  "BLOW IT TO BITS!!!"

	The blonde nodded.  "Right!"  She took off her tiara, charged it with
energy until it was a disc of light, and threw it at the youma.  "Moon
Tiara Frisbee Action!"

	The youma screamed as it got hit, and crumbled into a pile of ashes a
second later.

	"BOO-YEAH!  Great job, kid," S.L.K. whispered to Sailor Moon with a
hint of pride.  His watch beeped.  He looked at it.  "Oops, gotta go.
See you next fight, okay?"

	"Yeah, I'll see you next fight!" Sailor Moon called after him as he
departed into the all-concealing shadows.  She sighed dreamily.  "He's
incredible."

	Tuxedo Kamen helped pull Chibimoon from the sticky mud that held her.
 "You still haven't learned how to defend yourself," he lectured.  "If
you keep this up... I don't know what might happen!"

	"I'm sorry," Terra apologized emphatically.  "It's just that... I
don't know what to do."

	The masked man shook his head.  "I'm sure you'll figure it out
eventually.  But for now, I must go now as well."

	Sailor Chibimoon nodded sadly.  "Until next time, then."

	Tuxedo Kamen tipped his hat at her and also disappeared into the
shadows.  "Until next time."

	Chibimoon walked over to her companion, thinking about her own
situation.  "He worries so much about me, but I can't do anything...."

	Usagi stopped staring towards the space where Star Light Knight had
disappeared and looked at her friend.  "Aw, don't be too hard on
yourself.  After all, you've been with me from the start."  She
thought about that.  "Okay, maybe not the start, but just after the
start.  But still, you've kept coming with me.  You have no idea how
great it is to have someone I know behind me!"  She blushed.  "Even
though the Star Light Knight helps me fight, you're there for me if I
need you."

	Terra attempted a pleasant laugh, but it came out half-hearted.
"Thanks, Sailor Moon.  I appreciate you trying to help me feel
better."

	Right about then, a little girl in a poofy pink dress came up to
Terra excitedly and exclaimed, "Sailor Chibimoon?!  I can't believe
I'm really meeting you!  I'm your biggest fan!  You're the greatest!
I've got all the newspaper clippings of stuff you've done, my mommy
makes me costumes like yours, and I just love you so much!!"

	Perking up immediately, Chibimoon smiled at the cute little groupie,
almost embarrassed at the praise being heaped upon her.  "Why, thank
you--"

	Then the child looked a little puzzled.  "But I've got just one
question.  Why do you suck so bad?"

	Terra's expression fell.  "Ah, that is, I--"

	Sailor Moon slapped her forehead as all her ego-boosting efforts fell
apart with six simple words from a clueless child.  "Uh oh, look at
the time!" she cried, pointing at a clock on the wall.  "We're gonna
be late!"  She grabbed Chibimoon by the wrist and tugged her away.

---

	The two soldiers for Love and Justice found a good hiding spot,
changed back to their school clothes, and made it with five minutes to
spare.  Nevertheless, something Terra's groupie had said about her
kept cycling through her mind.

	"Indeed," whispered Terra sadly as she slumped over her desk, "why do
I suck so bad?"

	"Um, hey, you don't suck," Usagi tried to console her.

	The not-so-plucky Irish lass looked at the other girl.  "Really?  In
what ways don't I suck?"

	"Oh, well, that is," Usagi began, but stopped and was unable to come
up with anything for a while.  She finally ventured, "You've got good
hair?"

	"I do?"  Terra pulled a pinch of her coarse red hair over and
examined it.  Again, she'd wasted excessive amounts of conditioner
trying to get it to behave, to no avail.  She'd even gotten an intense
perm a few days back, which turned out instead to be a temp five
minutes afterwards.  It wasn't that her hair was messy.  It was
actually fairly well-ordered, but ever since she had her mind tampered
with, her locks just seemed to have ideas of their own, incompatible
with her preferences.  Her hair really liked being evil lately.

	"No," the blonde relented, "I guess you don't have good hair."  She
brightened.  "But don't worry!  I'll think of something."

	Terra sighed.  "Thanks for trying, though, Usagi."

	"No, I've got it," Usagi thrust back into the conversation.  "You're
really smart!"

	"Hmm."  Terra considered that.  "That's... I guess that's a good
quality of mine."

	Haruna-sensei waved to the class as she came in, took out the essays
that the class had turned in the previous week, and started to hand
them back.

	Usagi got a seventy-four and she breathed a sigh of relief.  "Oh,
good!  Mom's help paid off."

	Terra got a seventy-one.  Her lower lip trembled.  "But!  But... I
put so much effort into it!"  She raised her hand.  "Excuse me.  Why
did I just get a seventy-one?"

	The teacher brought herself up tall and cleared her voice channel.
"Incognita-san, despite your poor manners in debating grades in the
middle of class, in front of everyone else--some of whom would be glad
to have a grade as high as yours--I will, in deference to your
nigh-incorrigible ignorance of Japanese etiquette, tell you.  First of
all, do you remember how many pages it was supposed to be?"

	"Four pages?"  Terra thought back and kicked herself.  So, that was
why.  "All right, I admit that giving you ten pages was a bit much.
But it's good to have lots of detailed information, isn't it?"

	"Oh, yes, I agree.  But that wasn't the worst thing.  Do you recall
the theme of the essay I assigned you?"

	"Of course," Terra said.  "Just like you said in class, it was
contrasting the policies of ninth century feudal daimyos with two
other forms of government--one more ancient and one more recent."

	Haruna-sensei nodded.  "Very good!  Now, I loved how you compared
Japanese feudalism to the modern British Parliament.  Since you're
from there, I can see why you chose to use that form of government in
your essay."

	The Irish girl frowned.  "What was the problem, then?"

	"It was the five pages of sci-fi novel you wrote after that.
Interplanetary monarchies founded ten thousand years ago on the
principles of love, magic, peace, and Earthling repression?  You're a
good student, but please, try to take the next assignment more
seriously.  Good writing, though.  That's why I didn't take off fifty
percent, which I probably should have."

	Terra flipped through the pages of her essay and confirmed her
teacher's assertions.  "Oh my.  I'm... sorry, then."

	"Don't worry about it," Haruna-sensei beamed.

	A buck-toothed boy in the back with a bowl-cut raised his hand.
"Miss Haruna?  Why didn't I pass?

	"I'm very glad you asked, Takeda-san.  Quite apart from the fact that
you didn't answer the essay question, type it, or put your name on the
paper, you only wrote twelve words.  I even memorized them and
considered putting them to music.  You wrote, and I quote in your
charming rural accent, 'Feudalism's bad.  My granddaddy died in a feud
once.  Feuds are bad.'"

	The boy turned red with embarrassment.  "That was wrong?"

	"Sorry, but yes, it was.  So, you see, I couldn't quite bring myself
to give you a passing grade on this assignment.  In fact, please talk
to me after class.  We have so much to discuss."  Smiling, the teacher
shuffled the papers on her desk and said, "Would anyone else like to
complain about their grade?  No?  Good, then let's continue."

	When the next lesson started, Terra was still trying to track down
the source of her error.  She remembered writing every word of her
essay, but right now she wondered where she'd gotten it all from.
Since her mind had turned out to be such an excellent source of facts,
she'd taken to writing her assignments straight off the top of her
head without consulting much in the way of outside materials.  Though
it had never happened before, she supposed that she could have slipped
into a fiction-writing mode without noticing it.  But she'd felt so
calm and sure that what she wrote about had been real, despite never
having heard about it in her life.

	"Curiouser and curiouser," Terra whispered.  Her mind referenced her
situation and comment back to the works of Lewis Carroll, and found
the comparison very appropriate.  It was like she'd fallen down a
rabbit hole and her life had been flipped upside down since the
incident with S.L.K. and that gas-powered electric guitar.

---

	Outside, during lunch, Terra fell down a rabbit hole.  Or, rather,
she slipped into one and her leg got caught and twisted a bit.  "Ow!
I didn't see that one."  She squirmed around in an attempt to get out,
but she was at a really bad angle for such a feat.  "Aah, this is
deep.  Um, help?  Someone?"

	Terra had gone behind some bushes to eat her lunch in solitude so she
could further analyze her essay without interruptions, but it looked
like those plans would have to wait.  "I hope there aren't any snakes
in this hole."  She had a modest fear of venomous serpents, stemming
from stories she'd heard about her homeland and Saint Patrick.  But
then part of her mind comforted her by saying not to worry.  A snake
down a rabbit hole?  Preposterous.  Why, the very idea...

	...suddenly didn't seem such a remote possibility when Terra felt
something scaly caress her calf.

	She screamed in mortal terror.

	A brunette in a uniform with a light brown skirt came around the
corner.  She was a little tall for a Japanese Junior High student, a
part of Terra thought, but then again, she herself was considered by
many to be somewhat more developed than average for a girl her age.

	"Excuse me?" Terra called in an urgent voice.  "Could you please help
me out of this hole?"

	Having heard the scream, the tall girl immediately hurried over,
grabbed Terra's arm, and yanked her out of the ground.  In the same
motion, she swung the redhead through the air, shaking off the dirt
and placed her lightly on her feet.

	Terra held herself tense for a moment, not daring to move after
witnessing the sheer strength of the young woman in front of her.
"Hot dang... er, I mean, oh my."

	The shapely teen titan laughed softly.  "Pretty strong, huh?"

	Terra nodded wordlessly.

	"You're welcome.  Say, I'm new around here.  My school exploded--but
it wasn't MY fault, so don't get any ideas--so I just transferred over
today.  I'm Lita.  What's your name?"

	"Call me Terra," Terra said.  "I'm very glad to meet you, Lita."  She
then glanced at the other's new student nametag.  "But your nametag
says Kino Makoto."

	"Hmm?"  Makoto glanced down at her blouse.  "Oh, Lita's my stage
name.  I used it when I tried to become an actress.  That didn't work
out, but still, I like it a little better than Makoto.  Makoto sounds
too much like a boy's name."

	Terra thought about that and discovered that she wouldn't enjoy
having a boyish name, either.  So if it happened to her, she would
probably likewise search for a more feminine nickname.  "Oh, I guess
that's all right, then."

	Another girl, this one wearing a private school uniform, dashed
through the bushes to their location.  "Was someone here screaming?"
she asked urgently.

	"I'm sorry, that was me."  Terra looked at the new entrant.  She was
also somewhat taller than the young Irish woman, with a slightly
thinner build, and had long raven-black hair.  A voice in Terra's head
noted, however, that despite the proportional difference, they could
probably get by wearing each other's clothes; they would just rest a
little different and be shorter or longer here and there.  In the
presence of both her and Makoto, Terra started to feel a little short.
 She smacked her head and tried to stop thinking when her mind started
compiling estimated height, weight, and other statistical data.
"Stupid me, I slipped down a hole and thought I felt a snake."

	The black-haired girl pointed at Terra's foot.  "About that.  I think
you should stand very still."

	"Why?"  Terra looked down and froze in place.  There was a
three-foot-long red and black snake coiled around her ankle.  "EEEK!"

	In a smooth, graceful movement, the girl in the private school
uniform reached down and grasped the snake by the head and pulled off
its resting place on Terra's ankle.

	Whimpering, Terra ran around and hid from the reptile behind Makoto.

	"This isn't poisonous," said the snake-handler.  She knelt down and
let it slip back into its hole.  "It's a constrictor that hardly ever
bites.  It eats vermin and it's small.  I don't think it could hurt
you even if it got wrapped around your neck."

	It's also not native to the region, added a voice in Terra's mind.
She shook her head to clear it of errant thoughts and peeked over
Makoto's shoulder nervously.  "Ah heh.  Yeah, sure.  Is it gone yet?"

	"Pansy," the brunette muttered at her.

	Still clinging to her arm, Terra whispered back, "Umm.  I'm deathly
afraid of snakes, okay?"

	"Hey, don't worry about it," Makoto said.  "A lot of people are."

	"And pandas," Terra added, shuddering.  "And clowns!"

	Makoto helped her over to the edge of a garden wall where she could
sit down.  "Riiight.  There aren't any clowns or pandas around here,
so don't worry about them.  Calm down, okay?"

	Behind them, past the bushes, a samurai clown chased a panda through
the school grounds with a bokken.  The panda held up a sign that said,
"Don't look at me, I'm just a harmless panda!"

	Terra breathed a sigh of relief.  "Thank you, you two, for helping me."

	"No problem."  The raven-haired student nodded at Terra, looking her
over thoughtfully.  "Hmm.  We've just met and I can already tell.
You're a real basket-case, aren't you?"

	"Yes, yes I am," Terra admitted.  Guilty as charged, she thought.
Unlucky in combat, struggling through school, and lugging around a
sack full of uncertainties, phobias, and doubts.  No amount of thought
nor intelligence could fix that, it seemed.  "And I suck really bad,
too."

	The medium-tall girl looked puzzled by Terra's statement, but then
her eyes glistened with understanding and her shoulders started to
shake when she giggled and then laughed.  "It's good to meet an honest
person, for once.  What's your name?  I'm Rei, by the way."

	"I'm Terra."

	Makoto lifted a hand when Rei's inquisitive gaze refocused on her.
"And I'm Lita."

	Rei bowed slightly, in a rather proper manner.

	Terra looked between Rei and Makoto.  "Pardon me for asking, but why
haven't I seen you around here before?  And those aren't Juuban
uniforms."

	"My school got blown up," Rei replied.

	"Mine too," added Makoto.

	Rei stared at the brunette.

	"It wasn't my fault!" Makoto protested, perhaps a little too emphatically.

	"I didn't say it was," Rei replied, and turned toward the redhead.
"We transferred in temporarily until they can find the bomber."  She
tilted her head at Terra.  "Didn't you hear?  More importantly, didn't
you see the police and security guards who are here to make sure this
place doesn't blow up either?"

	"Ah heh."  Terra rubbed the back of her head.  "I've been kind of
distracted all day, so I guess I must have missed them."

	Makoto chuckled.  "You're funny, Red."

	"Please, call me Terra," Terra said.  "Or I'll start calling you Makoto."

	"Oooh, touche."

	Terra smiled.  Her mind might not be able to give her a perfect life,
but at least it could supply her with witty quips.  She turned towards
Rei.  "That was... amazing, what you did with the snake.  How can you
move so quickly?"

	"I eat right, exercise, and work at a shrine," Rei replied,
shrugging.  "In other words, I just do."

	The Irish girl nodded at that.  There were things that just came
naturally to some people.  She turned toward Makoto.  "And where'd you
get so strong?"

	"I did martial arts with my old boyfriend," Makoto said, and then
peered at Terra curiously.  "Actually, you kind of remind me of--"
Her eyes started to get sparkly and dreamy, but then she caught
herself and pounded on her head.  "No, no!  What am I thinking?!"

	Terra blinked at the brunette, and looked over at Rei.  "So, did you
just come in today, or have you been coming for a while?"

	"I don't know about Lita, but I've been coming here for a week."

...

	The three talked at length and became fast friends.  Usagi joined
them and brought yet another friend.  The next one to come was named
Mizuno Ami, whose school had not spontaneously combusted, but she just
moved in and this was the nearest educational institution to her new
home.

	Ami bowed in greeting.  "It's nice to meet you three."

	"I wanted to meet Ami-chan after so many people were talking about
her in the hall," Usagi said.  "Then my cat Luna got attached to her,
so we started talking, and then finally we came over here."

	"Yes," Ami added, petting the black cat curled around one of her
shoulders.  "I'm surprised how much it likes me.  It's like it knows
me from somewhere."

	"Wow, neat," Makoto said in awe.  "So, YOU'RE that one genius girl."

	Ami nodded shyly.

	"Well, it's been nice meeting you," Rei said.  "But I have a few
things I need to study for before lunch break is over."  She started
to walk off.

	"No, don't go!" the cat on Ami's shoulder called after the private
school student.

	Everyone stopped.  Now, this was rare.  When felines started
spontaneously speaking perfect Japanese, it was time to start
listening.  Even if it were just asking for catnip, by golly, you gave
it catnip and asked if it wanted milk with that.

	"Oh my," said Terra at the unexpected situation.  She was the first
one to break the silence.

	Ami turned quizzically toward Luna, but cautiously didn't say anything.

	Rei looked at the others and pointed at Luna.  "Did that thing just--"

	"Yes, I did," Luna said.

	"Hey, where'd you learn to talk?!" exclaimed Makoto.

	"Shhh!" Luna hushed her.  "I'll tell you all about it, but right here
and now is not the place.  Is there somewhere private we can talk
about this?  All five of you together?"

	Caught off-guard, Rei stuttered for a second and said, "T-there's the
Hikawa Shrine.  I work there and it's usually very quiet.  We could
go... right after school?"

	"Yes, that would work," Luna agreed.  "I know where the Hikawa Shrine
is.  Can I get you all to agree to meet me there just after school,
which if I am not mistaken, ends in about three hours?"

	Rei, Ami, and Makoto wordlessly nodded.

	"Good, then I will meet you all there.  Before then, I have some
things I need to check and take care of."  The dark-colored feline
leapt onto the school's perimeter wall, glanced back, and then jumped
away.

	"That was rather unusual," Ami finally said.

	"We do not see that sort of thing every day," Rei agreed.

	"Cool," whispered Makoto.

	"What's gotten into Luna?" Terra asked Usagi.

	"I don't know," Usagi replied.  "Maybe she got bored?"

---

	The remaining classes went by uneventfully.  Terra got a math quiz
score back.  It wasn't perfect, though, since she'd somehow mistaken
the divide sign for an ancient letter that signified "thousand."  She
berated herself about it all the way over to Rei's shrine.

	"I can't believe I missed those problems," Terra cried.

	"You still got a better grade than I did," Usagi whined, showing her
highest math score yet of forty-three.  She had apparently broken all
kinds of studying records to do that well.  The piles of manga hanging
out of Usagi's overstuffed bookbag suggested the variety of study had
been somewhat inefficient.

	Rei greeted Usagi and Terra at the door.

	"You're late," said the dark-haired girl.  She was wearing the red
and white robes of a shrine maiden.

	"We didn't run," Terra explained.  "But we came as quickly as we could."

	"Come inside," Rei urged.  "Your cat's been quite informative."

	"She has?" Usagi wondered.  "That's strange.  She usually isn't."

	They entered, walked past a snoozing elderly priest, and came to a
private room.  Rei followed and slid the door shut behind them.

	Luna was in the middle of lecturing and answering questions.

	"Hey," said Makoto, "if I'm a mystical warrior reincarnated from the
past, then how come nobody told me?"

	"I'm telling you now," Luna noted.

	"Oh yeah," Makoto whispered to herself.  "That makes sense."

	"This is all very interesting," Ami said, pausing to take a brief sip
of her tea, "but if we're going to be joining you to battle a large
group of evil youma, we'll need more proof than your word alone."

	"What more proof do you want?!" exclaimed Rei.  "This is a freaking
TALKING CAT we've got here."

	"But it's true!" whined Usagi.  "I've fought these things.  They're
really, really bad."

	"The strange phenomenon and witnesses are compelling evidence,"
conceded Ami, "but at the very least, we'll need weapons with which to
fight these creatures."

	"I say yeah to that, too," Makoto said, pounding her fist on the
table.  "One or a dozen monsters I can take, but armies of 'em?  We're
gonna need some serious firepower."

	"You will have exactly that," Luna said, looking quite pleased that
the conversation seemed to be going her way, overall.  She jumped into
the air and did a quick somersault.  In a sparkle of magic, three
pen-like wands of different colors with planetary sigils on them
dropped onto the table.  "You'll use these."

	"Pens?" asked Makoto.

	"They're magic.  Call them Transformation Rods, call them Morphing
Sticks, it doesn't matter.  They are what give you access to your
powers."

	"Our powers?" Ami inquired.

	"Yes," said Luna.  She pushed the blue one towards Ami.  "You are
Sailor Mercury.  You control the powers of ice, water, and fog.  Hold
the pen high and, say Mercury Power, Make Up."  She pushed the red one
toward Rei.  "You are Sailor Mars.  You control the power of fire.
The phrase to activate this is Mars Power, Make Up."  Finally, she
gave Makoto the green rod.  "You are Sailor Jupiter.  You control
lightning, wind, and plant life.  Say Jupiter Power, Make Up!"

	The three girls took their pens one by one and thoughtfully
considered what they were doing, and each decided to accept the
challenge.

	"Mercury Power!"
	"Mars Power!"
	"Jupiter Power!"

	"Make Up!"

	Luna looked at Terra and Usagi.  "You two as well," she urged.

	The blonde and the redhead nodded.  "Right!"  They held the brooches
on the bows at their chests and said in unison, "Moon Prism Power,
Make Up!"

	The light and power, which filled the room, lasted for seconds, and
after what seemed like minutes, the sequences were all complete.

	"Will you join us in our battle against the Dark Kingdom?" Luna asked
the three new Sailor Soldiers.

	Sailor Jupiter looked over her new outfit, shrugged, and said, "Sure,
count me in."

	Sailor Mars pursed her lips as she thought over the various
implications of what her next decision would mean.  "I don't know all
we'll face, but somehow, this feels right.  I will."

	Sailor Mercury took a deep breath, examined her gloves, looked at
Luna, Terra, and then Usagi, and said softly, as if she were asked to
take someone's place at the gallows, "Yes."

	Sailor Moon jumped for joy.  "Yay!  All right!"

	"I'm very glad," Luna said, breathing a sigh of relief.

	Sailor Chibimoon clapped her hands together and smiled the smile she
had been born with and used for years.  "Isn't this so nice we're all
together again?"  She didn't have time to think of why she had
appended "again" to her statement, because she remembered that she
still had chores she promised her mother she would do before the day
was out.  "Oh my, I have some things I need to take care of.  Does
anyone mind if I head off?  No?  Good, then I'll see you later."

	Sailor Chibimoon undid her transformation and hurried out.

---

	A couple of hours later, at home, Terra finished up her chores by
sorting through some old newspapers for her mother.  There were the
usual things, like kidnappings, political discord, terrorist
activities in Ireland, but there were also brief mentions toward the
back of hers and Usagi's occasional vigilante actions.  The media had
apparently decided that Sailor Moon was the leader, and that Chibimoon
was the sidekick.

	"Well, it's not like I actually do anything," Terra muttered.  The
papers didn't have much to say about the occult enemy against which
they'd struggled--the unknown aggressors she'd come to think of as the
Negamafoozles, thanks to a certain someone's odd manner of phrasing
things.  Thinking of which, where WAS Arby, anyway?  Had he been just
a dream... or a nightmare, rather?

	It was right about then that Terra heard the pet entrance on the
front door flap around.  This instantly worried her, partly because
she didn't have any pets, but mostly because she distinctly recalled
not having a pet door anywhere in her house.

	The girl felt an odd presence behind her, the likes of which she
hadn't felt in weeks.  The only way to describe it was as completely,
utterly wrong, and against everything she believed was real.

	Terra was about to turn around to face this malignant thing when,
almost like a sprouting slime mold, Arby the ArbyFish jumped up in
front of her, wearing a safari hat.

	"G'day, Madam!"

	"GYAAAH!"

	"'Ello sez Oye ta Yew ta Me n' Yew back in return!"

	"Arby!"  Terra gasped for breath.  "Where have you been all this time?"

	"Oh, 'ad ta go on a research trip.  'Ere, lookit this."  He took out
a sack and produced a large white-segmented mushroom.  "It's a
Horrible Hooded Huffing Hessian Hissing Horde 'Shroom.  It's
VENOMOUS!"

	The mushroom hissed and bore its fangs.  The girl squealed in fright
when the mushroom tried to lunch at her neck before Arby grabbed it
and stuffed it away again.  "'Ere, get back in there."

	It was true that Terra had missed Arby.  She missed him the same way
one typically missed a sharp kick in the shins and punch in the nose
by a beloved and cherished friend.  She missed him like all the nasty,
unnerving habits her grandmother had, she missed him like mold on a
moist bagel after a particularly humid week.  Actually, come to think
of it, she didn't miss him at all, but it simply wasn't proper to
think of an acquaintance in negative terms the first time she'd seen
him in such a long while.

	Before she could stop it, her mind processed all of the clues Arby
had given her, and it still made no sense.  "Let me get this
straight," Terra said evenly.  "You went on a safari... in GERMANY?!"

	The creature nodded.  "A'course!  Great place ta observe ecological
evolution n' societal welfare a' th' local woildloife.  Went big game
'untin', too."

	"Big game hunting?" Terra asked.  "In one of the most developed
countries in Europe?"  Then she looked down at the old newspaper she
was about to toss out.  One of the front-page stories was about a
wealthy CEO of a European automotive company who had gone missing.
Her eyes widened.  "Arby, no!  You didn't!"

	"'Course Oye did!  Took pictures, too."  The ArbyFish held up a slice
of a mushroom with a picture of him standing triumphantly beside a
German businessman that had been strung up by his heels.

	"You killed him?!"

	Arby looked offended that she'd even consider such a thing.  "No,
that'd depreciate th' stock!  They's an endangered species, they is!
'E wos just a li'l stunned."  He placed a thick scientific report on
the table.  "Oye took some measurements, collected sum blood n' stool
samples, then tagged 'em, put a radio collar on 'em n' released 'em
back into th' woilde roight noice n' proppa'."

	"Oh, well, I guess it'll be okay, then."

	"Oye injected 'em with tracking 'shrooms, too.  Left a warning on 'is
desk about not ta leave town or travel faster than four'ee moiles n'
hour, 'cos if 'e does, the 'shrooms'll explode!"

	"Arby, NO!  That's horrible!"

	"No, no, no, it's perfectly proppa'.  Gotta keep track of ya
endangered species.  Wot'd th' environmen'alists say if we didn't?"

	"But... but!!  They'll explode, the... mush...rooms?"  Terra
struggled to stop herself from thinking.  Whenever she was around Arby
and she tried to think, things just seemed to get worse.  Just smile
and nod, she coached herself.  Just smile and nod.

	Mercifully, a rumble outside caught Terra's attention.  She went to
the window and looked out to behold the entire city broken and aflame.
 Her mouth formed a big 'O' and she placed her hands at her cheeks.
"OH NO!"

	Arby fluttered over and perched on her shoulder, watching the event
take place.  People burned alive, buildings fell, and monsters ran
through the streets.

	Above it all hovered the giant wavering visage of a blond man in a
grey uniform.  "Sailor Soldiers," his voice bellowed across the
landscape.  "I am Jadeite, First General of the Dark Kingdom!  What
you see before you now is just an illusion.  But you have become quite
a bother for us as of late, so we challenge you personally to a
battle.  Meet us tomorrow evening at Tokyo Airport, or what you have
seen before you will become reality.  Be ready for us.  ONE WAY OR
ANOTHER, TOMORROW NIGHT, BLOOD SHALL BE SPILLED!!!"

	The man, the fire, and the carnage vanished, leaving Terra wide-eyed
and wondering what in the world she was going to do now.  On the one
hand, there were three more Sailor Soldiers to help out with the
fight, but on the other, she still had nothing to work with.

	"Oh, looks loike YEW's got'cha work cut out for ya," Arby said.
"'Ave fun.  G'boie!"  He started to flutter out the window, but Terra
caught him by the tail.

	"NO, Arby.  You're not leaving this time without telling me how to
use my powers!"

	The ArbyFish looked at her.  "Wants ta use ya powers roight proppa,
does yew?"  He took out a newspaper clipping and handed it to her.
"'Ere, read this."

	Terra read it, but as she did her brow furrowed in impatience.  "This
is an ad for anger management courses!  How do you expect me to--HEY!"
 The ArbyFish had slipped out of her grasp and once again gone out of
sight.

	With a useless newspaper clipping in one hand a tuft of moldy fur in
the other, the girl asked rhetorically, "So what do I do now?!"

---End Chapter 4

It's time for... MIND YOUR MANNERS!!! with Sailor Nuke.

(Scene of S.L.K. shooting the sand youma in the foot.)

Sailor Nuke:  Today, we learned that we can get ANYTHING done with
enough brute force.

Sailor Kawaii(yells):  NO, WE DIDN'T!  Today's where we learned that
if you're a cute talking kitty cat, you can get people to believe
ANYTHING!

(Scene of Luna lecturing to all of the prospective miniskirt-wearers.)

Sailor Kawaii:  You don't think that they'd have listened if Luna were
some big, ugly dog or crow, do you?  No!  They listened to Luna 'cause
she was CUTE!

Sailor Nuke:  Whatever!  It was still about blowing things up.  Sailor
Nuke sez.  BWAHAHAHAHHAHAAA!

Sailor Kawaii:  Remember to look nice and be cute when asking people
to do things.  Sailor Kawaii says!  Tee-hee!

...

There, that wasn't so bad, now, was it?

Thanks to those that are toughing it out and still reading! Your
stalwart enthusiasm will be rewarded.  With bacon.  Well, maybe not
bacon, but still!  ^_~

-- 
Benjamin A Oliver
benjamin.a.oliver at gmail.com

Technical Writer / Translator
M3 Engineering & Technology

Master of Science in Management Information Systems
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona

Writings: Fan Fiction
http://boliver.florestica.com/

Webcomic: Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!! The Early Years
http://nettg.com