Chapter 4.

 

 

"Nephrite!" "Yes, Lord Kunzite?" Kunzite smiled thinly . "What progress have you made in finding the Tokens of Power?" Nephrite swallowed the bitter gall of his anger and presented a bland face to his superior. "Excellent progress My Lord. My servants have established secure bases and are ready to move against the White Moon traitiors." "That is not what I asked Nephrite. The pitiful remnants of the White Moon are of no consequence. The Tokens of Power are another matter entirely." "My Lord," The title was poison on Nephrites tongue. "We have found no sign of the Tokens. It is our belief that they were lost or destroyed . . ." A bolt of force slammed Nephrite to his belly, smashing his nose into the stones in a spray of blood. "Your thoughts . . .your beliefs . . ." Kunzite rose from his seat on a wave of power and settled beside the supine body of Nephrite. "These are of no concern. YOU . . ." Nephrite groaned as an invisible force crushed him against the floor. " . . .are of no concern.

The Tokens were not destroyed . . .they are eternal. They were not lost . . . their power resonates through the aether even now, to any one that is not mind-blind." Nephrite writhed under the stinging tone of rebuke but had no ready answer. "These are your orders Nephrite . . . go to the bright world with what forces you think necessary and capture one of the White Moon Traitors." "C . . .capture My Lord?" "Yes. From her we will rip the secret of the lost Tokens. And if not she will provide the bait to secure the Princess." "But My Lord, the Princess has never been found. Even the Traitors have abandoned all hope of finding her. They feel that she is lost . . ."

"Idiot." Kunzite peered down at his supine subordinate. "The Princess lives . . .she must live else the Traitors would not. She is the source and foundation of the White Moon; the key to the Tokens. Fortunately the Traitors are much diminished. But we must find the Tokens or the Princess before they grow in power." "It will not be easy to capture one. They are formidable . . .at least sufficiently so that capturing one is much more difficult than simply kill . . ." The breath was forced from Kunzite's body with an explosive grunt. "Alive." Kunzite's voice echoed inside Nephrite's skull. " Alive and intact . . .at least enough to withstand questioning."

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"You owe some more money Jun." "What!" The thin pimply faced boy in the cheap shiny suit glared at Soban. "What the fuck are you talkin' 'bout! I've paid you what I owe you." Soban stared calmly back and he shrank nervously under the gaze of her blind eye. "You rented that gun for two days Jun . . ." "An' I paid you for it . . . 40,000 Yen." He spat on the ground at her feet. "Hell, I coulda' bought . . ." "Nothing. Not even a piece of shit Tokarov. For an American gun . . .a Colt .45 . . ." She indicated the weapon stuffed in Jun's waistband. "That would cost you five times that amount . . . more during these . . .troubled times." Soban said, obliquely indicating recent gang warfare. "Well . . .maybe." Jun tried to sound tough but came off more petulant than predatory. "Anyway I paid you for the two days." "Cartridges are extra. You owe for the rounds you fired." "Huh?" Soban sighed heavily. "Bullets Jun. You have to pay for the bullets you shot." "You ain't even seen the gun. What makes you think I shot it." Soban rubbed a weary hand across her brow. "Because, when you fire a gun you get residue around the muzzle and ejection port." "Huh?" "It gets dirty." Soban pointed to black smudges plainly visible on the shiny nickel frame. "So just tell me how many times you went bang-bang and we can settle up."

Maybe it was Soban's tone of voice, plainly indicating she thought Jun was an idiot, studying hard to be a moron and failing. Perhaps it was the weight of the heavy .45 in his belt or maybe he'd been sampling the drugs he was supposed to be selling. "Settle this up, bitch." Soban looked at the pistol Jun had fumbled from his belt, then back at Jun. "You have to take the safety off first." Jun glanced involuntarily at the pistol. As his attention wavered Soban stepped forward slapping the pistol aside with her left hand while simultaneously a small hard right fist smashed his Adams apple. Jun dropped the .45 and clutched at his ruined throat with both hands. His gagging futile struggles for air were mercifully ended by a spin kick that snapped his neck like a rotten stick.

Jun's gang stood stunned at the suddenness of his death. "You killed him . . .you fucking bitch. You killed Junsan." His second in command, Ryo, started forward aggressively , then stopped at the sight of the gun in Soban's hands. "You wouldn't be so tough if you didn't have that gun." Ryou blustered, conveniently forgetting that Soban had just relieved the late Junsan of this weapon. Soban looked down at the weapon she'd snatched out of the air while dispatching Jun. Ignoring Ryo she dropped the magazine into her hand, racked the slide and caught the ejecting round.

"I'm not going to shoot you. American cartridges are going for better than 6,000 Yen apiece right now. The whole bunch of you piss-ants aren't worth that." She pushed the cartridges out of the magazine, counting them, before reloading the pistol. "He fired two rounds." Soban spoke conversationally over her shoulder as she squatted by the cooling body of Jun. Methodically she stripped off his jacket revealing a shoulder holster with two spare magazines. The idiot probably got the idea of sticking the gun in his pants from TV. She pulled off the holster, counting the remaining rounds in the magazines before emptying Jun's pockets.

"H . . .hey. That's robbery." Soban glanced over her shoulder. "Well I killed him." Calmly she continued to empty his pockets. "OK, two rounds . . .12,000 Yen."Soban counted off bills from a thick roll. "Aggravation fee . . .50,000" Soban made a quick mental calculation. ". . . no 75,000 Yen. Stupidity fine." Soban appeared to make another calculation." 100,000 . . .no . . .ah hell." Soban stuffed the remaining bills in her pocket before turning to Ryo. "What did he . . ." Soban pointed to Jun's body. " . . .shoot. And is there going to be any trouble?"

Ryo wanted to do something . . .anything to avenge Jun. He felt it was his duty . . .that honor demanded it. But in the face of Soban's calm, casual execution he felt paralyzed. "Uh . . .he . . .that is . . .he didn't shoot anything." "There are two . .. " "Wait . . .wait . . .Jun . . .he didn't shoot anything . . .he just . . .shot. He wanted to see what it was like." Soban glanced at the sprawled body. "I hope it was worth it." Stuffing the holstered .45 in her shoulder bag Soban turned to go, then paused. "Listen . . .pour sake over him. Put a bottle in his pocket and leave him at the bottom of the stairs." She pointed to a staircase descending to a lower level of the parking garage. Waiting for a moment to see if her advice had been understood Soban turned and left the remnants of Jun's gang standing in the shadowed recesses of the building.

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Soban hummed a little tune as she walked along. This had been a good night. She checked the contents of her bag, by feel, her head constantly moving . . .checking the crowed. She had almost ten million Yen, plus two hand-guns. None of which belonged to her. Well, she did get a percentage from the local kumi-cho for her efforts. She wasn't a tsukaiipa; the local yakuza were a little old fashioned about employing women, even as "errand boys". She was free-lance; even more unusual among the notoriously clannish yakuza. But she'd impressed the oyabun as a child, when she' lived more or less permanently on the streets. He'd vouched for her when she come looking for work when she was older. And now she did what amounted to temp-work for the yakuza. This night she was collecting money. Mostly gambling, but a little drug money to sweeten the pot. And the two guns. The .45 from Jun and a very nice .44 magnum Smith & Wesson. The .44 she could understand.

A Korean gang was trying to move into the dock area controlled by the yakuza; another family than the one Soban currently worked for but still yakuza. Soban always thought it amusing that the yakuza were more open minded about inducting gajin than the population at large. There were Korean's and Tai's and others working for the yakuza . . .people that a regular, "law abiding" Japanese wouldn't spit on. But even the yakuza had limits. And this Korean gang was over the limit. Well, they had been. Soban noticed that the .44 had been fired and seven rounds were missing from the cartridge box. She wondered briefly how many Koreans were missing from the docks, then dismissed the thought as unproductive. Though it would be amusing to know how many shots it had taken to hit any single Korean. Or perhaps they had all missed and the effort alone had been enough to convince them that the time had not come for Koreans in Japan.

Soban passed a street stall and realized she had not yet eaten. She purchased a pork bun and a flask of tea to eat on her way to deliver her bag. As she walked and ate she idly thought about Jun. Now Jun didn't make any sense. Anyone with the money could get a gun in Japan. But what use was it? Even the police used their guns merely as a badge of office. The only time a policeman fired a gun was in a Godzilla movie; and then the monster always ate him. Occasionally Guns were used in gang wars, but Soban would have known if there were a shooting war going on. For one thing gun and ammunition prices always went up. And you had to pay a little extra to get the police to look the other way. Plus the yakuza were always careful to notify the police so they could be else where.

Shooting a police man was bad for business. The rest would want more money. Soban thought some more as she walked. Jun wouldn't need it to make collections. Not at his level. If a salary-man owed you money you just went and knocked him around. He wouldn't fight back. Mostly they just cried. It was always embarrassing having to knock around someone old enough to be your father. Soban was proud of the fact that she never had to beat up a salary-man. In fact she never had to go to them. Her reputation (and her looks, she knew) were enough to send them to her . . .money in hand. But while it was understood that you could get knocked around if you didn't pay, some things were against the rules. And shooting a salary-man was against the rules. That would be like shooting your milk cow. And they were so much like sheep that just SHOWING the gun might cause a heart attack. So no gun to collect gambling debts. A bank robbery? That was a little ambitious for a little shit like Jun. Possible, but those were mostly smash and grab. Not in the bank, but outside; attacking the bank messenger. There were armed bank robberies, but rarely. Not worth the effort. Much easier to just smash the messenger over the head while he or she was picking-up or delivering.

Of course that didn't always work. She chuckled to herself remembering a botched robbery four years ago in Osaka. Some idiot had tried to rob three bank couriers of almost 140 million Yen. He'd been armed with a crossbow, an axe, stun gun, smoke grenade and a can of mace. Unfortunately, for him, he had so much stuff that his pants fell down while he was escaping and some passerby's mobbed him. Soban chuckled to herself remembering how stupid everyone thought he'd been. Then she thought about Jun and almost laughed aloud remembering his look of surprise as she crushed his throat. The idiot thought just having a weapon made you dangerous. As if holding a sword made you a samurai. It was what was inside you that counted. No, Jun probably wanted to impress his girlfriend . . . or maybe gang members; his own or a rival. Soban finished her simple meal and put her trash neatly into a curb side receptacle. It was then she noticed her thoughtless wandering had taken her well out of her way. She cursed silently to herself and checked her watch, heaving a sigh of relief as she saw she still had a good hour before she was due to deliver her bag. As she turned to retrace her steps she heard the first explosion.

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"It's a trap." Sailormercury looked up from her computer with a sick look on her face. "Please forgive me. It's my fault. I should have . . ." She ducked as an explosion nearby showered the four senshi with dirt and debris. "I'm sorry. I thought it was too easy to follow Nephrite here but . . ." Another explosion, closer this time, forced her down again. "We can assign blame later." Venus fired a quick Crescent Beam into the trees where she thought she saw a Youma hiding. "We were all together on this. We ALL walked into it with our eyes open." She said this last with a hard stare at Sailormars. Mars pressed her lips together but refrained from saying anything else. Venus held her eyes for a moment more then turned back to Sailormercury. "What can you tell us?" "We're surrounded . . ." "Something we don't know?" Mars cut in sarcastically. Venus turned on her with an angry frown and Mercury shrank a little, then seemed to pull courage from somewhere. She straightened and faced Mars squarely. "I screwed up." She said flatly. Both the tone and the language caused Mars to jerk with surprise that would have been comical under other circumstances.

"I screwed up." Mercury repeated flatly. "And when we get out of here you're welcome to a piece of me. But we need to get out first. And I think there may be a way." "Wha . . ." Jupiter swore as a series of detonations rocked the earth and showered them with earth, almost scalding from the heat of the explosions. She launched a Thunder Dragon and had the satisfaction of hearing a Youma death scream. "What way is that?" Jupiter spat dirt from her mouth as she finished her question. "They're not trying to kill us . . ." "You could have fooled me." Mars said darkly. "They did." Mercury put in sourly. "Fool you." She added. "And me. This is a trap. They want to capture one of us." She could feel the temperature in the air drop at her words. Captured by Beryl. The fate worse that death that books talked about. Usually cheap books on bad paper with lurid covers and silly plots. But there were fates worse that death. Much worse. Death was clean, quick . . .comforting. Beryl was none of these things. They had seen to much of her work . . .seen the terror in the faces of too many of her minions to whom death was a mere inconvenience compared to facing Beryl's anger.

Mercury tapped a function key and a schematic of the park appeared. Another key and a series of white and red icons appeared. There were four white icons; there were a lot of red icons. And more red icons appeared as they watched the screen, a sea of red crawling across the map. "They're trying to pin us down." "Doin' a pretty good job too." Jupiter added. "Not quite." Mercury moved a cursor over a point slightly north east of their position and zoomed in. Another function key overlaid a schematic over the area. "This is a city services map . . .it shows all the underground services . . .electric, phone, water, sewer . . ." She glanced up at her friends with a faint grin. "I don't think Youma are big on requesting information from the planning office, so they probably don't know about this." Rei snickered."Yeah . . .A Dark General MIGHT be a bit conspicuous at City Hall." Venus peered at the map. "You think we can drop down a man-hole and escape through the sewers?"

"Ummm . . .not exactly. There's not an access at this point. We'll have to make our own. But the sewer pipes are big enough to crawl through . . .we can follow the pipes . . . come up behind these Youma and escape." Mercury paused and looked up from her computer. "Or counterattack." Sailorvenus's eyebrows disappeared into her bangs. "When we get back home . . .you and I have got to have a little talk . . .TIGER." Venus grinned briefly at Mercury's blushing face then shook her head regretfully. "NO . . .nice idea. And I'd really like to chance it. But this trap is too good . . .and the numbers are too much against us. They can afford to loose a hundred Youma. We can't loose anyone. Let's just break out of here. We'll wait for a better chance to strike back." Venus sneaked a look around the wall they were crouched behind and fired a Crescent Beam into the trees.

Jupiter copied her actions from the opposite side. Then the two withdrew to the center of the slight depression. "All right. Mercury I want you to lay down a Shabon Spray from here to those trees." Venus pointed in a direction almost directly away from the buried sewer line." "There?" Rei sounded bewildered. "But we want to go . . ." "I know where we want to go. I don't want the Youma to know. As soon as Mercury lays down the Shabon Spray Jupiter and I will advance into the trees under it's cover. We'll lay down covering fire. That should draw most of the Youma in that direction. As soon as it looks clear Mercury and Mars will make their way to the buried pipes. Once there, signal. One click on the communicators. Jupiter will join you. Mars and Jupiter blow a hole into the sewers. Then you all go down and out."

"And what about you?" Mercury asked quietly. "I'm going to keep the Youma occupied." "NO! You come with us. You have to . . ." Venus grinned a Jupiter. "Someone has to keep the Youma occupied. Otherwise they'll suspect. I'm used to working solo. Once you guys are in the sewer give me two clicks on the communicator and I'm out of here. I'll loose these guys." She jerked a thumb in the direction of the trees hiding the encircling Youma "and meet you back at he shrine." "Venus . . .Minakochan . . ." Mars turned a pleading face to Sailorvenus. "Come with us. We can all leave together." "Mercury." Venus ignored Mars. "Start the Shabon Spray now." Mercury closed her eyes against threatening tears, then summoned her power. . .

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"Crap . . .crap . . .crap . . ." Soban muttered softly to herself as she worked her way through the trees, trying to find a way clear of the fighting. Another explosion shook the ground. Twin thunderbolts split the sky and a heavy grey mist rolled through the park. Soban shrank back against a tree as a chittering nightmare shape ghosted through fog passing within centimeters of her. She thought for a moment. She'd seen . . .or almost seen . . . five of those . . .things . . .in the last few moments. All headed in the same direction. What she wanted to do was head away from wherever . . .they . .. were headed. But that might run her into more of them. And she knew from long experience with the police that running AWAY from the scene of a crime was the surest way to attract attention. The smartest thing was probably to stay in one place and wait for the . . .battle? . . .to blow over. But with all these things running around, that wasn't an option either. There weren't any good choices . . .just less deadly ones.

 

Sailormercury was running hard . . .chest burning legs aching as she zig-zagged desperately through the growing twilight. She'd lost Mars in the gloom. Or rather Mars had shoved her away when they'd been surprised by a Youma . . .screamed for her to run just before she'd launched a Burning Mandela, then closed for hand-to-hand combat with the monster. And she'd run. She couldn't help Mars in that kind of fight. Not yet. She made a vow that this was the last time she would have to run from a fight. The very last time . . .But now she ran. She was the only one who could find the buried sewer pipes. The senshi's road out of this trap. She had to find the spot. Then she could signal Jupiter. They would join up and could go back . . . . A lance of force smashed Sailormercury into the ground and a Youma dropped from the trees onto her prone body. Hooks of black fire slashed into her body and her transformation dissolved as energy was ripped from her body. Mizuno Ami screamed in pain and fear, her body convulsing under the Youma's mind rape.

******************************************************* Soban's head came up at the first scream. She knew that voice. Before the second scream had died out she was running hard through the mist, her crippled legs protesting each step with sharp spikes of agony. Soban broke out of the mist with a shocking suddenness. On the ground she could see a small dark haired figure convulsing in pain. A huge misshapen creature knelt atop her lashing her with whips of dark fire.

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Thorough pain dimmed eyes Ami saw the misshapen arm draw back for another strike. This one would finish her . . .she wept inside for her family . . .her friends . . .and the princess who would never be found now. The princess who would be re-born in a world controlled by . . . The Youma's head exploded in a grey-green mist and Ami could breath again as the heavy weight toppled off of her. "Amichan . . .Amichan . . .are you all right? Is anything broken?" Gentle hand moved anxiously over her battered form . . .a frantic voice hammered questions . . .that voice . . .she knew that voice. "S . . .soban? What . . .are . . .you" Ami paused to draw air into her abused lungs. "W . .what are you doing here." "That's my question. There ain't a library for miles." Ami chuckled . . .then winced in pain. "C'mon. We gotta get you outta here." Strong hands lifted Ami to her feet. She closed her eyes against a sudden wave of nausea. She opened them to see Soban anxiously watching her with her one good eye.

"You good to walk . . .or should I carry you?" "I'm all . . ." Ami stopped suddenly as she noticed the pistol in Soban's hand. "Where did you get THAT." Ami whispered in horror. "You can get in a lot of trouble . . ." Soban looked at her as if she were crazy, then looked pointedly at the ground. Ami followed her gaze to see the headless Youma and had the grace to blush in apology. Soban gave her a twisted grin and pressed the magazine release which dropped the empty magazine from the .45. She inserted a fresh magazine and let the slide run forward, chambering a round. Putting the pistol on safe she re-holstered the weapon and grabbed Ami under the arm.

"WAIT . . .wait. My friend . . .my friends are still back there. Makato, Minako . . .Rei . . ." Ami twisted in Soban's grasp. "There ain't nuthin' you can do for them. They're pro'ly dead now anyway." Soban said brutally. "NO . . .no. Let me go. LET ME . . ." Ami struggled frantically in Soban's grasp. Soban's fist came back for a blow that would render Ami unconscious. She paused, looking at Ami's bruised and dirty face; Tears etched tracks through the blood caked dirt. Her fist dropped to her side and she sighed heavily. "I'm gonna regret this . . .but I'll go look for them." Ami's face lit with a joy that was painful . . .then dimmed suddenly. "No, it's too dangerous for you. I have to . . ."

Soban put a finger to Ami's lips. "YOU . . .SIT. . .STAY." "I am not a dog . . ." Ami began indignantly. "No. Dog's got sense." Ami glared, then gasped as Soban swung her up in her arms and limped over to a cluster of bushes. "You're hurt." Ami worried noticing Soban's awkward gait. "Old stuff." Soban said dismissively as she stuffed Ami under the bushes. "Now stay here . . .and keep still." She pulled a second pistol and a cartridge box out of her bag. Hesitating she stuffed the bag in beside Ami. "Watch this for me, will ya?" Soban started to turn away then hesitated. "You know anything about guns?" Ami stared, bewildered for a moment. Then shrank back as she realized what Soban was asking. "N . . .n . . .no. And I don't want to learn." She added hastily. "Suit yourself. Better not have it if you're scared of it." Ami watched as Soban disappeared into the mist. Then she hurriedly brought out what looked like a girls compact and began speaking frantically into it.

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Sailormars was not happy. She'd lost Mercury in the fog. And she hadn't lost the Youma. In fact more were showing up all the time. She fired a Burning Mandela at the two closest Youma then dove frantically aside as a third, fourth and FIFTH Youma charged her from different directions. If they were a little smarter . . .or she a little slower . . .they would have her. As they would eventually. She was tiring . . .and dammit here came some more through the mist. She brought her hands up in firing position as . . ."

"'Scuse me. Have you seen three school girls? One's real big, auburn hair in a pony tail? One blond with a red hair-ribbon. And one with long dark hair?" Rei's mouth dropped open in shock. So stunned that she was slow to react as a Youma rose from the ground and lunged for Soban. Who spun aside, placed the muzzle of the .45 INSIDE the creatures mouth . . . Rei flung up her hands as bits of still twitching Youma spattered her face and hair. There was a continuous roll of thunder as Soban blasted two more Youma, then changed magazines. Sailormars finished the stunned remainder before they could recover from the stunning and completely unexpected assault. "Anyway . . ."Soban continued speaking as she wiped the pistol clean. "If ya see 'em, tell 'em their friend Ami is waiting for them over there." Soban jerked her thumb back the way she had come. "An' she's real worried 'bout them." Sailormars stared openmouthed at the spot where Soban disappeared into the mist until called back to reality by the buzz of her communicator.

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"Watch your six." Jupiter spun and blasted the Youma that had been coming up behind her. "You think they ran into trouble?" Venus answered without taking her eyes from the surrounding trees. "Must have. They should have been there . . . CRESCENT BEAM . . .should have been there fifteen minutes ago." She watched the half seen shadow fall from the trees and disappear into the mist covered ground. "We should go check." "HOW!!" Venus sagged in grief and weariness. "I'm open to suggestions . . .I'm sorry Makato. I really thought this would . . ." Venus pressed her lips closed as despair threatened to overwhelm her. A large hand came down on her shoulder and squeezed warmly. "Hey, not your fault. We did the best . . .:" "Scuse me . . ." "AAAAAAAAAA!" Jupiter screamed at the unexpected voice and whirled around hands up in a defensive position. Looking frantically around she saw nothing until she glanced down and saw . . .

"S . . .S . . .S o. . ." "Should you be here?" Venus covered quickly if clumsily. "This is a dangerous place." "Oh Yeah? Well I just gotta ask you a question." Soban answered from under a bush. "I'm looking for three school girls." She quickly described the senshi's civilian persona's. " . . .an' their friend Ami is waiting for them." She finished. "So have you seen them?" Numbly Venus shook her head no. Soban glanced at Jupiter who also answered in the negative. Shrugging Soban began a low crawl away from the site, then paused, looking back over her shoulder. "You guys comin' or what?" Not waiting for an answer Soban continued wiggling through the dirt, then abruptly disappeared from view. Venus stayed frozen for a moment then abruptly . . . CRESCENT BEAM!!!" Scything the golden beam around the blasted the tree line in front of her before dropping to her belly. "Well . . .come ON!" She whispered harshly to her team-mate as she scrambled after Soban.

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"How did you know this was here?" Venus asked pointing at the man-hole they had just climbed out of. "It's not on the city maps." Soban shrugged. "Lot's o' stuff ain't on the maps. They're always addin' stuff an' it takes a while before they update maps an' stuff. An' I make it my business to know stuff . . .all sorts of stuff. Stuff people will pay for." "You want MONEY . . ." Jupiter started indignantly. "Nah . . .but I figger you owe me now . . ." What ever Jupiter might have replied was cut off by a cruelly sneering voice. "Very appropriate . . .crawling out of the sewer . . .like rats."

"NEPHRITE! You stinking . . ." A blast of energy from a hidden Youma smashed Jupiter in the back. Venus whirled to meet this new attack taking her eyes off Nephrite. She paid for this lapse as Nephrite sent a dark-crystal shard deep into her side. Venus screamed as the black energy burned into her flesh. She fell to her knees, hands scrabbling futilely at the burning wound. "Now . . .YOU . . .ARE . . .MINE!" Gliding forward several feet above the ground Nephrite reached down and grasping Venus by the throat pulled her into the air.

"It burns doesn't it?" He whispered in her ear. "It burns and will keep on burning . . .until you tell me what I want to know." Nephrite shifted his grip, grabbing Venus's dangling right hand with his free hand. He tightened his grip, squeezing until he could feel the delicate bones in her hand pop and shift as the joints separated. "Where are the Tokens? Where is the Princess?" Nephrite wasn't really interested in the answer. He wanted to kill Venus . . .tear her into small screaming pieces. With all the shit he had to take from Kunzite he deserved a treat. After all, he had another senshi to question. And it wasn't his fault if he . . .broke . . .one during the capture.

" TELL . . .ME . . .WHERE IS THE PRIN---" Nephrite had the ability to fly, teleport, fire bolts of black energy and generate a very impressive force field . Unfortunately he couldn't do them all at the same time. "I bet this is gonna' hurt." Nephrite looked down in surprise. He had little interest in humans, except as food for his Youma . The small crippled human had escaped his notice. And normally a single human girl would have been no more dangerous to the Dark General than a butterfly.

However Nephrite was entirely concentrated on the attack . . .his force field was at minimum strength. And Soban had Smith & Wesson's finest product pressed between his legs. Even at minimum strength his force field could not be penetrated by a handgun . . .not completely. But the 240 grain .44 caliber slug left the barrel at 1100 feet/second and only had to travel about 3cm before impact. Screaming in a voice only dogs could hear Nephrite dropped Venus and fell to the ground curled in a foetal position. Gagging and gasping Venus felt herself lifted from the ground. "Just a thought . . .but we might want to leave now." Blurrily Venus looked at the small scarred face that faded in and out of view in front of her. "Jup . . .ter. Have to help . . ."

"Awww Jezzzz." Soban grumbled. "She must weigh a TON." Even as she spoke Soban bent, grasped Sailorjupiter around the waist and heaved her to her feet. "Can ya' walk? 'Cause I'm not gonna' haul your sorry . . .HEAVY butt all the way . . ." Sailorjupiter flopped forward limply like a broken doll. "HELL!" Soban shifted her grip so that she had a senshi in each arm. "Ahhh . .shit. . .shit . . .shit." Her crippled legs protested the overwhelming burden with blinding waves of agony. "All right lard butt . . ."Soban wheezed in Jupiter's ear. "Wake up . . .c'mon wake up. I can't . .. " A big fist caught Soban across the temple as Jupiter came awake fighting. "NEPHRITE!!! YOU . . ."

"SHIT! That hurt. Watch what you're doin'" "Huh. . . .What . . .Where's Nephrite?" Jupiter pulled free of Soban's grip. "VENUS! Is she all right . . . What's . . ." "Here!" Soban thrust Venus into Jupiters arms. "You carry her." She turned and headed back the way she had come. "An you guys owe me BIG . . ." It was a glancing blow and not full strength. But Soban was human . . .not senshi. She could feel bones break, flesh tear . . .then she couldn't feel anything at all." "

I'll kill you . . .you filthy little . . ." Nephrite sprayed the air with curses and flecks of foam as he raged at the crumpled form. "I'll rip the flesh from your bones . . .you'll live ten thousand years in torment . . ." Nephrite repeated Venus's mistake. He let himself be distracted while he had an enemy at his back. In his defense, neither Venus nor Jupiter looked very dangerous at the moment.

"CRESCENT . . ."

Nephrite twisted, his hands coming up to fire a black bolt.

"SUPREME . . ."

Nephrite's eyes widened in shock as he heard Jupiter from his other side. Again his attention was split . . .

"BEAM!!"

"THUNDER!!!"

Nephrite's force field flared into the high ultra-violet under the double blow. Screaming in pain and frustration Nephrite teleported away. Venus limped over to Jupiter and sagged against her. "That went well, don't you think?" Jupiter stared wide eyed then started chuckling as she realized she wasn't going to die. Their systems awash in adrenalin both senshi started feeling light headed and giddy. Their chuckles grew until they fell together on the ground in helpless laughter. "What the hell are you two doing!" Jupiter wiped streaming eyes and looked up to see Sailormars glaring down at them. "S . .sh . .she . . ."Venus pointed at Jupiter. "No . .no . . .it was . . .was . . ."

Jupiter tried and failed to force a coherent sentence through her almost hysterical laughter. "Look, Ami's on the communicator. She wants to come to us but she's afraid we won't be able to find the escape route without her. She's almost hysterical . . .says that Soban is in the park looking for us . . .the other us" Sailormars stuttered to a confused stop. "You know what I mean. I told her the last time I saw her she was alright. Better than all right. But we better find her and get out of here." "OH SHIT!" Jupiter sprang to her feet and dashed over to the crumpled forgotten form. Bending down she lay two fingers against Soban's throat. "She's got a pulse!" Jupiter felt weak with relief. "But I think. . .Tell Mercury to get here fast!"

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