Author's Note: If you wish to comment on my story, either positively or negatively, don't hesitate to contact me at treetop@voicenet.com. Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. So, please, don't sue me because I haven't any money. I do this strictly for entertainment purposes, not copyright infringement.
The Frankenstein Syndrome
by Jeffrey C. Branch
Part Three: Midtown Mayhem
Rating: PG-13
Somewhere else....
The woman worked at a swift but careful pace, installing the video camera relay for the next test. She exhibited no emotion at performing delicate surgery to remove the unnecessary organs so there would be room for the equipment. Her partner walked up to her from another room and stood nearby.
"How goes the work, Doctor?" the man asked.
The woman paused to stretch. "Quite well, Doctor. I should have the video relay completed within the next two hours. Then we will be able to follow the new subject when it goes out into the field."
"How long before the subject will be ready for travel?"
"It will take at least six hours for the implanted equipment to properly settle in for usage. By that time, the subject's increased healing powers will enable it to adjust to the pain of its missing organs. Then you can give the subject the proper dosage for this operation. Do you still plan on tripling the dosage?"
The man nodded. "Most certainly. Once in the field, it should prove to be a most powerful and irresistible force."
"More powerful than whatever destroyed the first subject?"
The man shrugged. "That I cannot say. We will have to wait and see."
"And the motor control function?"
"I'll adjust the computers to allow the new subject to have free rein, or to give us full control if need be. Something we should've had in place yesterday."
The woman yawned. "Very good. Once our respective tasks are complete, I suggest we both get a good night's rest, then conduct the new test in the morning."
"Splendid idea, Doctor. Tomorrow should prove to be a most illuminating experience."
"Us? Wanted for murder? That's not good," said a frowning Mina, wrapping Raye's injured ankle.
"No kidding! That's the understatement of the year!" growled Lita, pacing the floor of the Anderson's living room. "What's the next move?"
Lita looked to Luna and Artemis for advice, but they were at a loss for words, as was a scowling Raye. Amy, the brains of the group might have an answer, but she locked herself in her room studying the scan she made of the man-beast the Scouts had fought at the zoo and, according to Lita, left orders not to be disturbed. She then turned to Serena who sat alone by the window, staring out into space.
Since their arrival from the zoo, Serena hadn't spoken to any of the others, not even to Luna. While everyone knew Serena was in bad shape emotionally since she had inadvertently killed the creature the Scouts all thought had come from the Negaverse, Raye, not known for her patience, even in the best of times had grown weary of Serena's moping. She decided it was time to wake her out of her funk.
"Well, Serena? I'm tired of watching you sit there and pout! You're supposed to be our leader! Talk to us! What should we do?" shouted Raye.
For several moments, there was a strained silence in the room as the girls and the familiars all waited on Serena to respond. Finally, with a heavy sigh, Serena turned around, her face somber and bereft of emotion.
"Nothing," was all she said.
Raye was livid. She tried to stand, but her bad ankle reminded her she wasn't at one hundred percent. "Wha-a-a-a-t? Are you serious? Didn't you hear what I said? We're in big trouble with the police!"
"I heard you, Raye. And you're wrong. The Sailor Scouts are in trouble. We are not," said Serena in an unusually calm voice, putting a heavy emphasis on 'we'. "Until we get some answers from Amy, the best course of action would be for the Scouts to keep a low profile."
Both the girls, and the familiars were taken aback. For as long as they've known Serena, she had never referred to their alter egos in the third person before. To them, it almost sounded as if Serena had disassociated herself from a part of her own life. That alone was enough to make Lita, Mina and Artemis wonder if Luna might be right. Could Serena have snapped from the pressure?
"This is going to sound bizarre, but I believe Serena has the right idea," said Luna, finding it hard to believe the words coming out of her mouth. "With no idea as to what we're up against, it would be extremely foolish for us to go looking for trouble. Especially with the authorities searching for us."
"What do we do if the Negaverse strikes again?" asked Lita.
"Right now, I think that's the least of our worries," said Amy, coming into the living room. She flashed a smile of relief at seeing Raye and Serena. "Thank heaven you two are safe."
"What do you mean by 'the least of our worries?" Mina asked.
"I just finished doing an in depth examination on the readings of the....creature we fought at the zoo. What I found was so incredible, I had to double and triple check my findings, then consult over a dozen online medical and scientific journals to verify my findings."
"C'mon, Amy! Quit stalling! What did you find?" Raye demanded.
Amy took a deep breath before she spoke. "In a nutshell, the creature's body was heavily irradiated from plutonium. Enough to kill a dozen men."
Lita gasped. "Plutonium? Good Lord! Where'd that guy come from? Chernobyl?"
"If what you say is true, wouldn't he, er, it been fried to a crisp or fatally poisoned from that much radiation?" Mina asked.
Amy nodded. "Under normal circumstances, yes. But this looks to be the exception to the rule. I don't know how this happened, but that man wasn't simply exposed to radiation all at once like those poor people were at Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the first atom bombs were detonated in 1945. It appeared to have been gradually introduced into his body."
"Introduced? You mean someone intentionally exposed that guy to plutonium?" a dumbfounded Artemis asked.
"Basically. Every cell and tissue in his body was thoroughly saturated. And that's not all. My scan also picked up two distinct chemical elements in his bloodstream. Androstenedione....and timber wolf estrogen."
"Andro....what?" a curious Serena asked, joining the conversation.
"Androstenedione, Andro for short. It's an over the counter steroid hormone used by athletes and body builders to increase their energy during workouts," said Lita. "In the States, Mark McGwire caught holy hell in 1998 from the media during his chase for the single season home run record because he was using Andro. People thought he was cheating since the drug wasn't sanctioned for use by Major League Baseball."
Luna stared up at Lita, her eyes filled with curiosity. "How is it you know so much about steroids, Lita?"
"Some asshole kids at my old school accused me of using steroids because of my physique and how strong I am," Lita snarled, bitter and painful memories of her old life flooding back into her mind. "They swallowed a lot of teeth after I convinced them otherwise. But here's the kicker, gang. Another benefit of Andro is that it promotes enhanced recovery from strenuous workouts."
"Enhanced recovery. If that's a coincidence, then I'm a youma. That explains how the creature's wounds healed so quickly from our attacks," said Mina. "And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the timber wolf estrogen was used for. This is too crazy for words. What in God's name are we up against?"
Amy shook her head. "I don't know. But one thing's for certain, the Negaverse had nothing to do with the creature we fought today. I'd stake my life on it. That horror, I'm sad to say, was man made."
Seated at his desk at Police Headquarters, Lieutenant Fukoda looked over the autopsy report of the headless man from the zoo, the man supposedly killed by the Sailor Scouts. Even some four hours later, he still had trouble digesting that.
"Fukoda! Anything on the headless John Doe from the zoo?" asked Captain Mura, Fukoda's superior, striding angrily up to his desk.
"Nothing, sir," Fukoda replied. He didn't like Mura who was an irascible, impatient autocrat who always demanded instant results. To Mura, immediately was never good enough, and that clashed with Fukoda who preferred to handle cases at a slower, more deliberate pace to avoid overlooking clues or making mistakes. "We couldn't find any ID on the guy, or clothing for that matter. We turned the zoo inside out."
Mura scowled. "Fingerprints?"
Fukoda shook his head. "He didn't have any. They had been surgically removed, sanded off. By a pro from the look of it."
"Who cares what it looks like, mister? What are you doing about identifying this man?"
"We took a photo of the man's face, including the tattoo of Texas on his neck and faxed it to the FBI office in Dallas," Fukoda explained calmly, trying to keep his temper in check. "I'm betting he's an escaped felon, which would explain the missing fingerprints. How he got here is anybody's guess. If he's on file in the States, they'll turn up a name on him. But it may take a few hours."
Mura's scowl deepened. So far, he didn't like the answers he had been given. Nor did he care for Fukoda's annoyingly casual attitude towards the situation. "What about the Sailor Scouts? You said they might be responsible for what killed that man. Have they been found?"
"Nope. They've vanished, gone to ground. From what little we know about them, they only turn up when some disaster strikes."
"By disaster, you mean when some bug eyed monster comes calling!" Mura snorted. "I don't believe that crap for a minute!"
Fukoda shrugged. Mura was starting to bore him. "Believe what you will, sir. I'm only going by what I've heard. And from what I saw today, I'm inclined to believe there's a lot of truth behind what they're all about."
"Well, I think it's a lot of bull! I want results, Fukoda! And I want them yesterday! Understand!"
"Yes, sir," Fukoda replied, unperturbed.
Mura glared at the detective, then turned on his heel and stomped off. Fukoda shook his head from barely concealed disgust.
"Captain Bligh on the rampage again, sir?" asked Hiyata in a low voice, strolling up to the detective's desk.
"As always. Anything on the Scouts?" the detective asked.
"Negative, sir. The patrols haven't turned up a thing. What next?"
"Like I told Mura, we'll just have to wait for some sort of catastrophe. That seems to be the only thing that draws out the Scouts."
"I just hope no one gets killed when that happens," said Hiyata.
Fukoda nodded. "You and me both."
The sun shined down on Tokyo, bathing it in a bright glow Sunday morning, fulfilling predictions made by weathermen the night before. However, Serena failed to notice, or care about the beauty of the day.
Seated on a bench in the city park, flanked by Amy on her left and Luna on her right, Serena, who barely slept last night continued to replay the nightmare at the zoo in her mind, over and over and over again, oftentimes whether she wanted to or not. Serena felt tired, not just in body but in spirit as well. Reluctantly, the other girls agreed to heed Serena's advice about keeping a low profile, but Amy, at Luna's request came over to talk Serena into a pleasant walk in the park to take her mind off her troubles. Amy practically had to drag Serena out of bed and into the sunshine. Not that the change of scenery brightened her mood.
"Serena, I won't pretend to understand what you're going through, but you have to stop blaming yourself for yesterday," said Amy, putting a comforting arm around Serena's shoulders. "We all assumed that creature was from the Negaverse because it's power was so frightening. If you hadn't acted, who knows how much carnage it would've caused."
Serena, her face lined from sadness heaved a world weary sigh. "I know. But that doesn't excuse the fact that I took a life."
"An unnaturally augmented life. Or are 'super werewolves' part of the natural order of things?" Luna pointed out. "If that creature had been just flesh and blood, Mina would've killed it with her crescent beam, or Lita with her lightning. And from what Amy told us yesterday, that monster had been artificially engineered. Something deadly is afoot here. Something only the Sailor Scouts can combat."
Serena pouted. "I wish that wasn't the case."
"Luna's right. This is exactly the sort of menace we've been put here to fight against," said Amy. "We need you, Serena. Whether you know it or not, you're our center, the glue that holds us together. Without you, everything would fall apart, and the forces of evil would win."
In spite of herself, Serena cracked a grin. "Forces of evil? Good Grief, Amy! That sounds like something out of the comic books I read."
Amy giggled. "So sue me. Speech making isn't my forte."
Now it was Serena who laughed. Feeling immensely better, she broke out in a wide smile and hugged Amy. "Thanks for being here for me, Amy. I still feel bad about what I've done, but I'm not gonna let it torture me anymore. Heck! I'm even starting to get my appetite back. Let's go find something sweet to eat!"
"Now that's the Serena I know and love!" said Amy, the mention of food causing her stomach to growl. "I know just the place in town where we can gorge ourselves on donuts and sticky buns!"
Just then, an incredibly loud, earth shattering boom shook the ground. The girls saw in the distance, a large fireball mushrooming into the mid-morning sky.
"Merciful Heavens!" cried Luna. "What could have caused that?"
"It came from downtown!" said Amy. "The city's financial district is in that direction! We'd better investigate!"
Serena, hesitant at first, set her jaw and stood up. "Right! Let's go!" And the threesome sped off.
The girls and Luna ran in the direction of the fireball. As they got closer, they could hear other sounds: more explosions, the smashing of glass, the screeching of tires, and the screams of panicked people. As the trio rounded a corner, they saw a scene of chaos and madness that, for them was almost a mirror image of what they came across yesterday at the zoo. Only ten times greater.
The monster looked like a gorilla, but it was huge, well over eight feet tall as it lifted a car over its head with frightening ease and hurled it into a building where it crashed and exploded. Behind the monster were the remains of a gasoline tanker truck and a city bus, joined together in a grim union as they were being devoured by flames. Beyond the flaming double wreck were more overturned and burning vehicles and shattered buildings. People caught up in the horrific scene were either trying to escape, or were injured or dying. The scene sickened Amy and Serena.
"I don't think we can afford to keep a low profile any longer," said Amy, pulling out her transformation pen. "These people need our help! MERCURY POWER!"
While Amy transformed, Serena stared at the nightmarish scene and felt a chill run the length of her spine. It was yesterday at the zoo all over again, only worse. Fighting back the fear gripping her heart in an icy fist, Serena took a deep breath and shouted, "MOON PRISM POWER!"
After morphing into Sailor Mercury, the blue suited Scout touched the stud in her right earlobe and her VR visor materialized on her face. Mercury did a quick scan of the brute and gasped.
"Sailor Moon! It's another irradiated creature!" Mercury cried. "The readings of plutonium in its body are three times greater than what I found in the beast we fought yesterday!"
Moon's eyes widened, fear churning her insides. "You mean it's three times stronger than the first?"
"Probably! We're going to need the others! And fast!"
"Ask and you shall receive!"
Moon and Mercury whirled around to see Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus (Artemis clinging to Venus' tunic for dear life) leap from the roof of a nearby three story building down to where their partners stood.
"Boy, am I'm I ever glad you're here! How did you find out about this?" Moon asked.
"That blast must've been heard all over the city!" said Jupiter. "Just my bad luck I picked today to sleep in! What have we got here?"
"Another creature like yesterday, only stronger!" said Mercury.
"Is that a fact? Well, let's find out!" growled Mars, spoiling for a fight. And with that, the Scouts closed in on the beast.
At Police Headquarters, Fukoda was just finishing his third cup of coffee of the morning while reading the FBI report on the headless man from the zoo when the building suddenly shook as the sound of the blast rattled the windows. The detective stared out the window and saw the fireball rise into the sky.
"Christ!" he gasped, staring at the fiery mushroom cloud. Slamming down the cup, he raced for the door leading out of the squad room, just as a startled Hiyaya was running inside.
"Lieutenant! That blast!" the young officer cried. "Did you see....?"
"Are you kidding? Half the damn city probably saw it!" Fukoda snapped, pushing past the patrolman. "It came from the financial district! C'mon!"
"Could it be the Scouts?"
"That's what we're gonna find out!"
Somewhere else....
The woman stared intently at the video monitor following the creature through it's own eyes, pleased at both the workmanship of the camera and the mayhem the monster was wreaking. She then put on a headset and adjusted the attached microphone.
"Doctor. Are you reading me? And is the video relay working properly at your end?" she asked.
"Yes, on both counts," came back the voice of her partner. "The new subject is doing extremely well. This havoc should bring out whoever terminated the first one."
"I do believe that has already happened," said the woman, looking on as the Scouts approached the beast. "Do you see them, Doctor?"
"The five girls you mean? Most definitely. It doesn't seem likely they could have been responsible for yesterday's setback."
"Let us observe. Perhaps they will surprise us."
"RRRAAARRRGGGHHHH!" the beast roared as it charged the Scouts.
"Talk about a well rounded vocabulary!" snorted Venus. "Jupiter! Comin' at ya! Venus Crescent Beam....SMASH!"
As the twin crescents of light enveloped Venus' hands, instead of pointing at the creature, she directed her energy beam down at the street and fired. The force of the blast set up a violent and powerful shockwave that blew the brute off it's feet and sent it flying towards Jupiter.
Grinning like a shark, Jupiter balled her right hand into a fist, reared back and when the beast came into range, she let loose with a titanic punch that hit squarely on the brute's jaw and sent it rocketing like a missile through the plate glass window of a skyscraper.
"Wow! That was some punch!" said an awestruck Moon.
Jupiter smirked and flexed a bicep. "Been working out. C'mon! let's finish it off!"
"Be careful!" warned Luna.
The Scouts ran into the lobby of the building where they found the creature slumped on the floor beside a twelve foot tall marble globe. Snarling, the beast got to its feet, hefted the globe and flung it at them.
"Incoming!" Mercury shouted.
"Mars Fire....IGNITE!" yelled Mars, unleashing a fireball that reduced the globe into so much molten slag. But while the Scouts were caught off guard, the beast slammed its fists down hard on the floor, mimicking what Venus did moments ago. The shockwave knocked the Scouts off their feet and sent them tumbling to the floor.
"Kong's still got plenty of fight left!" said Moon, scrambling to stand. "Everyone out! We need fighting room!"
"Mercury Bubbles....BLAST!" shouted Mercury, and the lobby was suddenly filled with thick, dense, chilling fog. Thanks to the infra-red mode on her visor, she could see the beast thrashing wildly about, unable to see, roaring from rage. "It can't see! That ape's senses aren't as acute as the wolf beast's! Move! Move!"
The Scouts wasted no time exiting the building, just ahead of a large piece of masonry hurled blindly over their heads by the beast. Moments later, it staggered out, looking all around him for its tormentors, its face twisted from fury. When it saw the Scouts, the brute lumbered toward them, roaring at the top of it lungs. Just then, a little boy, dazed and frightened wandered into the path of the monster he didn't see because of the smoke. Snarling, the beast saw the child, lifted a fist and prepared to smash him to pulp.
"Oh, no! That kid!" Artemis cried. "He'll be killed!"
"No he won't!" cried Moon. Her fear pushed aside at seeing the child in peril, the Sailor Scout leader, moving almost too fast to see with the naked eye dashed towards the beast and snatched up the child in her arms. At that moment, time seemed to stand still for Moon as she stared up into the face of the beast and saw something odd. It's left eye was dark and filled with rage while the right looked more like a camera lens. Then, in one fluid motion, Moon leaped an incredible twenty feet to safety before the fist crashed down onto the pavement. In mid-air, Moon performed a picture perfect somersault and landed gently to the ground with her charge.
"Wow! You're Sailor Moon!" cried the boy, oblivious to the danger he was just in. "That was awesome! Can we do it again?"
Moon gave the child a smile. "Later! Now get out here! Venus! Blast that thing!"
"Venus Crescent Beam....SMASH!"
This time, The Scout of Love aimed for the brute's chest and hit it dead center. The beast screamed from pain as it was blasted to the ground. But it didn't stay down long as it got to its feet. Jupiter however was ready as she sunk her fingers into the roof of an overturned compact car and, straining mightily from the effort, lifted it over her head. Before the beast could move, the green skirted amazon hurled it at him, her aim true, the two ton projectile struck the beast and was pinned by the wreckage.
"Now, Mars! Fry the sucker!" yelled Jupiter, the antenna on her tiara already up. "Jupiter Thunder....CRASH!"
"Mars Fire....IGNITE!"
The two pronged assault of searing flame and powerful lightning struck the car at the same time, producing a ear splitting blast as the gas tank exploded before the brute could free itself. A second fireball plumed into an already smoke clouded sky as the beast, consumed alive from the flames howled from agony. This went on for a few moments, then the cries ceased, the only sounds being the crackling of fires, the moans of injured people and the wail of approaching sirens.
"Did you get it? Is it dead?" a nervous Luna wanted to know.
"I don't know," said an apprehensive Moon. Half of her hoped it was, the other half felt terrible for thinking that way.
Mercury, meanwhile, looked saddened. "I wish we didn't have to do that. If that monster was like the wolf-beast, it was human once."
Jupiter snorted. "Tough luck. I won't lose any sleep tonight over what we did. If we hadn't taken it out, that monster would've killed lots of helpless people."
"But we still don't know who was responsible for these mutations," Mercury pointed out. "Taking the creature alive might've given us that answer. We'd be foolish to think this is the end of the battle."
Before Jupiter could respond, she felt a trembling from beneath her feet. A trembling that progressively grew stronger and stronger.
"You guys feel that?" Mars asked. "Are we having an earthquake?"
Mars never got an answer as the ground beneath the Scouts suddenly erupted like a volcano, blowing the surprised heroines and the familiars off their feet. With a deafening roar, the ape beast, its fur still smoking from the blast, leaped out of the fissure, it's one good eye burning from hate. The brute grabbed the first thing it saw, Jupiter by a leg and, lifting her over its head, it ran towards her dazed teammates.
"Look out!" Jupiter screamed, "He's gonna...."
Jupiter's warning came too late as the beast, swinging her body like a baseball bat swatted the others like they were flies. Mars and Venus went down first, the latter cracking her head on the broken pavement while Mars slammed into a streetlamp. Before Moon and Mercury could act, or even get out of the way, they too were pummeled into oblivion by the beast and his helpless, living weapon. The beast then casually dropped Jupiter, bruised, bleeding and barely conscious from the tremendous beating she took. Despite the pain that made even the slightest move agonizing, Jupiter, running on rage from having hurt her friends tried to stand, but was put down by a single blow from the beast.
The scene took on an eerie, deadly calm as the beast, looking strangely satisfied with its handiwork stared down at the battered and unmoving bodies of the Scouts, scattered on the ground before it. Somewhere deep in the recesses of its brain, the monster slowly nodded when it heard two words echo through its skull:
"Come home."
Next: Separation Anxiety