Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. Marui Mercia is a character made up by myself also the characters Jesse Devaries and Joseph Cairns. The content of this writing is strictly for entertainment purposes only and I do not intend to inflict the breaking of any copyright infringements by writing this.
The Zodiac Wars
by Ryan Bodle
Chapter Nine- The Spying Game
Rating: PG
"What else can we do now?" Mina asked, "I'm getting tired of waiting for them to make the first move."
"It would be a good idea to get some more information on them, but I don't see how that's possible," Amy explained. Three girls sat outside the temple whilst the Sun seemed unusually warm for the end of winter and beginning of spring. The doors behind them slid open.
"OK, I'm ready to try this now," Raye announced from the other side. They got up and followed.
"What exactly are you going to try Raye?"
"Usually I just consult the fire for guidance but this time I'm going to see if I can do a star reading to get some clues."
"Star reading?"
"I use the fire to see the positioning of constellations and stars and interpret messages, I haven't done this before, but I figure there's a good chance I'll get answers," Raye explained.
"Sounds good, lets do it," Lita followed. The four girls came the sacred fire and knelt before respectively. Raye central and nearest to the fire, the other three behind and central themselves, Mina to the left, Amy centre and Lita on the right. Raye cocked her head slightly and focused he thoughts.
She saw herself inside the fire, and it began. Normally she would vision cryptic images for answers, however now she was trying something else and unaware of what could happen. The fire became larger in her mind, it grew to the size of the room and she thought it real for a second, then it spread to the town and city and country and finally world. The globe in its flames, it grew smaller and the solar system was now visible. She concentrated harder beckoning to the stars. Then she saw them collected together. Their outlines had faces and showed sorrow.
'What's wrong?' she had asked. Some merely indicated to one side, where a laying constellation was, it turned round and she saw Pisces. 'What is happening to Earth/' she asked. 'What is happening to you?' Pisces shined brightly still weeping until she could the Fortitude again, only this she inside the ship, watching and listening to people working, she rushed by them without control of her motions. She ended up on the bridge where she saw Curien.
"Lord Curien, the super alignment is fourteen days away to completion," a smaller rank reported.
"Very well, have our spy carry on investigations until then, tell him to find the identities of those sailors before then," Curien replied. He stopped, "there's somebody here," he spoke watching around the bridge. "A presence, all too familiar." He began circling around, his senses concentrating hard, bearing down on something. He began nearing Raye, nearer and nearer. "Somebody is listening to us." Raye knew he could sense her presence and backed out from meditation, quickly at first but then slowly to not distort her own senses when she awoke. Her eyes opened and she stayed still for a moment.
"What did you see?" Lita asked, rising from her knees.
"The person responsible for this, something about his next plan, and there's a nega-spy here," Raye replied with efficiency.
"Spy? Who?"
"No idea, but they should be easy to track down, they'll have a great deal of anger and jealousy in them, they always do," Raye explained and turned round. "Amy, they mentioned something about a super alignment, have any idea what that means?"
The blue haired girl thought for a second. "It could mean a lot of things, I guess its some way to increase the power of the monsters we've already fought but I can't be sure how." Raye nodded.
"Meanwhile we have to keep our eyes open for possible spies and catch them before they catch us," Mina went further. "Anyhow, I can't stick around, I've got volleyball practice to go to." The blonde got up and left the other three.
"When are Marui and Cairns due to get here?" Raye asked.
"Tomorrow evening," Amy replied, still thinking about something else. "You think we'll need them here?"
"I think so, definitely to find that spy anyhow. And we have two weeks to prepare ourselves for something to come, at least we know that."
"Its not possible for us to cover the entire city in a sweep to look for that spy just yet," Amy thought aloud.
"The spy is here?" Lita asked. "There've been attacks all over the world, you know that."
"Yes but at first they were based in Tokyo, this shows that they're placing their attacks as far away as possible from us, which means they know we live here," Amy theorised. "I guess we scan the city using my computer bit by bit, but that could take a long time."
"I guess that's all we've got for now, you sure you can pick up a signal on the spy?" Amy nodded at Lita.
"Yes, I've got data from previous fights, the spy should give off similar readings, I think it would be best to separate the city into a grid and cover square by square, it may take a few days to get every part of the city however."
"We'll have to let Luna and Artemis in on this, they could have something to add as well."
"Hey guys! I came as soon as I heard, what's up?" Serena had just arrived.
"Late again, what's the excuse this time?" Raye retorted.
"Actually, I met with Darien after school for a while, Luna let told me as soon as I got home."
"Raye just did a star reading to get an idea on our enemy, she turned up some new information," Lita explained. There was a short brief on what had happened.
"So you're gonna scan the entire city? That could take forever," Serena caught up.
"Yes, but there's nothing else we can do."
"And something is better than nothing," Lita added.
"Perhaps we can help somehow," Serena suggested.
"I was hoping Luna and Artemis could, they managed to detect us when we first appeared, maybe they could get a vibe on nega energy as well."
"I can," Raye put in, "its not a fancy computer scan and it's a bit more limited but I can pick nega-vibes close up."
"Lets wait for the weekend, Marui will be back by then, I'm sure he can divide us properly."
"I'm sure we can do that ourselves, this isn't master mind techniques just bit by bit clearing of the city," Raye replied, "we don't need to depend on him."
"Raye's right," Amy defended, "but it would be good to have some central command structure, Marui seems to be very experienced there, it would be a bad idea to just disregard his help."
"Fine lets wait, meanwhile keep your wits about you, this spy is looking out for our identities," there was an agreement and they parted.
Two days later...
"So you plan to sweep the city and look for the spy I guess," Marui asked as another council took place.
"That's right," Raye replied, "what did you think we would do?"
"What I asked, its what I would have done, have decided how you are going to carry out the plan?"
"By dividing the city into a grid and going sector by sector," Amy replied.
"Of course, but how would you complete the grid, radial, horizontal scans?"
"Huh?"
"Were you going to start from one end and move to the next, or spread out from a central point?"
"Well we never thought about that," Raye said looking down slightly.
"Considering our numbers, I suggest a horizontal sweep. A radial will only spread us thin and we may leave gaps unknowingly. How many of us would be capable of detecting energies given off?"
"Two, Amy's computer and Raye's sixth sense," Serena replied.
"I may have one to add, but I cannot scan at long length's, I have to power down every now and then."
"How long?"
"I can't say, considering I wouldn't be using my powers in battle, longer than you have seen as my energy won't be exhausted so quickly, but it will diminish, Luna, Artemis how about you?"
"Well, we kind of get a tingling sensation at danger from the negaverse but the range isn't far at all." Marui nodded.
"Lady Mars, what range do you have?"
'Lady?' Raye thought, "well, further than Luna and Artemis I guess, but only as Sailor Mars." Marui thought for a while.
"Nobody else?" no replies. "this cuts our abilities down severely." He thought in silence for a while, they watched him. "Four teams. Lady Mercury, accompanied by a volunteer-,"
"Ooo! Me!" Serena interrupted. Marui nodded.
"Secondly, Lady Mars accompanied by Lady Venus and Jupiter. Luna and Artemis as another team, I trust you don't need anybody to keep you company." They shook heads. "Finally Cairns and myself. Anything else?" Nobody said anything, they all seemed fully informed. "Very well, we'll begin tomorrow," Marui turned and left, Cairns behind him. Cairns himself had said nothing the whole time, just leant against a wall with crossed arms.
"Maybe we should kick it in," Mina suggested as the guys had left. "We could be moving around a lot tomorrow."
"Yeah I'll bet," Lita added, "I'm gonna go home, eat and sleep."
"Got any special menu planned?" Serena asked eagerly.
"Nah, just some pasta in a red wine and cream sauce, home made garlic bread or something really simple like that," Lita dismissed and moving away herself. The others somewhat shocked at Lita's perception of simple cooking. Except for Serena who was dreaming of such a dish. At this point they had separated and gone home in the evening dusk.
"Are you going to find the other two?" Cairns asked as the two knights entered Marui's apartment.
"No." Marui answered.
"Why?"
"Because there's only one to find," Marui explained. "Jennings is dead." Cairns turned to him.
"How?"
"Suicide, and secondly, we have a week and a half to push our limits further, something is happening at super-alignment and I don't think its good, therefore we're gonna train, and train and train, until we're at top condition," Marui side tracked. Cairns nodded. "Get some sleep." Lights went out.
'Someone is looking for me, they're after me again. I can feel it, just because....because,' eyes jerked open that night and the force of its body caused it to vomit. A series of coughing and gasps for air followed. 'They'll never find me. I won't give in to them, they'll die first.'
Silence.
Cairns moved a chess piece across the board, amazingly he was gaining the upper hand against Marui. "Power down, you'll lose," he muttered.
"I'm not doing this to win," Marui replied and breathed heavily. His bishop raised and floated, taking a pawn. He gasped. Cairns moved again. "Time?" Cairns brought up a stop clock.
"One hour thirty-two minutes," he replied. A rook moved of its own free will.
"Check." Cairns stopped to think, he was being manipulated in the game. He moved his King from danger.
"Was that apart of the plan?"
"Pushing my options down, making myself think harder," Marui replied. A knight moved this time. "Checkmate." He powered down breathing heavily. Cairns stopped the time. Picking Marui's piece that had just one.
"The knight is victorious," he looked up through the piece at Marui.
"You have training to do, come with me," Marui got up and Cairns followed.
"And how do we manage this without anybody seeing us?" Cairns inquired.
"By being in the middle of nowhere," Marui grabbed his car keys.
"Thirty minutes. How you feeling?" Marui said.
"Just fine," Cairns growled. His arms flexed upwards, one leg in front of the other, he wasn't sweating or anything. Above him lay the rigid form of Marui's body. Cairns was glowing green and testing his muscles.
"I think this is too easy for you," Marui said eating an apple.
"I don't."
"A Millennia ago you could lift a glider from its locking clamps, remember that?"
"Yeah, the Palace hostage scandal. The entire glider bay almost exploded," Cairns replied.
"The last glider was stuck to the ground because the landing locks had failed and you yanked them open and lifted the ship out for the hostages to escape, that must have weighed what? Two tonnes?"
"1.75, and that was for thirty seconds ok, it wasn't a marathon."
"Still," the apple skin cracked as teeth sunk in, Marui spoke through a mouthful, "I'm not the heaviest guy in the world. I must weigh 160."
"170."
"170? Maybe I should get some exercise."
"Yuh think?" Cairns strained. "How long till I have to give this up?"
"How about another fifteen minutes, then we'll do your workout."
"What the hell is this!?"
"Warm up."
Tokyo, South side, evening...
"I've just completed my first sector, nothing came up, I'll move on," Sailor Mercury reported standing on rooftop, she turned to Sailor Moon just behind her. "Ok, lets move on." Sailor Moon nodded in return and the two pounced from their positions, clearing, two or three buildings at a time.
"Sailor Moon?"
"Yeah?"
"I wanted to say thank you for coming with me tonight."
"Hey any of the other guys would've been happy to be here with you as well."
"Yes, but you're the only one who jumped at the chance, it actually, really meant something to me."
"I'm your friend Amy, you don't have to say, I know." The two carried on to search the next area.
"Nothing in this area, we should move on," Sailor Mars informed looking into the air, still honing her senses.
"Sure, I'll contact Marui and let him know," Venus replied. Mars sighed. "What?"
"Please, we don't 'have' to report anything right now, lets start calling when we've found something, its wasting time."
"OK Mars, its just I thought we agreed."
"Yeah I know, I just feel like he's here to make us look dumb and incompetent."
"Why would he do that?" Jupiter asked.
"There isn't one, it's the way we have to ask him as well, before the five of us would just do what we did."
"He's apart of the team now, we're all entitled to opinion and he deserves to know as much as we do, and visa versa," Venus explained.
"Well," Mars began. "I just couldn't get used to it right away," she reasoned. Then she went to her communicator. "Marui, this is Mars, we've finished our first sector and moving on."
"Roger that."
"Lets go," Venus suggested and they left their cramped statures.
"Mars checked in?" Cairns asked looking for conversation.
"Yes, I didn't expect that, she seems very self-assured," Marui replied. "Mind Up!" He powered up and concentrated looking through closed eyes as a third seemed to show everything around him.
The darkness lowered over the city, most of the girls took the time to enjoy the brief period of the Sun just disappearing over the ocean. A sight seen before, but never fully appreciated until now.
"Sailor Mercury to Marui."
"I'm here."
"I think we have about two hours left before some parents will start to get worried about us."
"Agreed, we'll continue for an hour and then finish tomorrow evening." Marui disappeared from the communicator screen.
"You think we'll find the spy?" Sailor Moon asked sitting down with knees curled up to her, a chill began to blow.
"I couldn't say, but we've made some good progress tonight," Sailor Mercury froze.
"What is it?"
"Energy readings, they just almost brightened up the sky for a second then vanished. There it is again!"
"Where?"
"Due South East of us." The communicator sounded. "Mars?"
"Did you get that?" Mercury nodded with a confirming sound. "It was like a hug light got switched on and off. One second I got nothing then it was barely enough to take, then it went again."
"I've got the co-ordinates, about two hundred meters south-south east of the Kindergarten school."
"Lets meet up and search the area, we'll be there ahead of you." Mars disappeared.
"Mercury to Marui, we've picked up energy readings, home in on our communicator signal." Moon and Mercury looked at each other and took off.
Sailor Jupiter landed with some partial grace on the sidewalk, her pressed speed took some balance from her. Venus had reached there just ahead of her.
"Anything?" Jupiter asked.
"A dark alley with trash all about the place, footprints that just disappear and that's it, we missed them," Venus explained as Mars joined them. A distant light flickered, the three looked down the alley to see a dark figure light a cigarette, it was finally aware of prying eyes. Merely tilting its head, it turned back and walked off without panic. "You think that's the spy?"
"If it ain't the guy saw the spy," Jupiter growled taking off after him. The alley ended in the blink of an eye, she looked right to see the guy still walking, a cape dragging behind, no, a coat. "Hey wait right there pal!" she shouted, only to be ignored. Contracting her legs, she jumped the length between them with great ease and was soon in front of him, he was undaunted by the speed shown. "We need to talk." The figure took a puff from his cigarette, skin colour showed for a split second then faded, he exhaled into her face and she grimaced, leaning back with squinted eyes, she fanned the smoke. He had gone.
Behind her, he had removed a sewer cover and prepared to disappear inside. "I don't think so," she reached for him and with surprising speed of his own, he grabbed her arm and flung it to the side causing her to spiral. Her left hand reached behind and grabbed something, by the time she looked at what it was, he had completely disappeared. A street light flickered on at that moment, it was a tie, the kind a cowboy would wear as formal dress. No, it was a hair clip.