Author's Note: Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. All references to Vulcan are the province of Gene Roddenberry and Paramount Studios. So, please, don't sue me because I haven't any money. I do this strictly for entertainment purposes, not copyright infringement.
The Witches Of Philadelphia
by Jeffrey C. Branch
Chapter Two: That Old Black Magic
Rating: PG-13
A smiling Blair Witasick was feeling good about herself as she crossed South Street, clogged with abandoned cars to kill her enemies.
Sailor Mars was unconscious on the sidewalk beside a store, her head in a slowly widening pool of blood while Sailor Moon, having crashed through a storefront window was in a bleeding, motionless heap, softly moaning from the pain she was in. Just as Blair approached the heroines, a lightning bolt, accompanied by an ear piercing crack of thunder struck the ground in front of the redhead, leaving a smoking hole in the pavement.
Furious, Blair turned to glare at Sabrina who was still on the other side of the street. "Hey! What did you do that for?" she demanded.
Sabrina Mangione was confused. "But, I didn't do that!"
"That's right! I did!" roared a very angry voice to Blair's left. The redhead turned and saw Sailors Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan in combat poses thirty feet away. Sparks were arcing from the antenna on the enraged Jupiter's tiara. "Get away from my friends, or I'll blow you to bits!"
Passersby, what few that remained to rubberneck after the chaos began were stunned from what they saw. Peter Duffy, the comic store worker, one of those gawkers was shocked, barely able to believe what he was seeing. "It's them! The Sailor Scouts! They're real! They're all real!"
Blair, caught off-guard backed away. Venus was first to reach her fallen teammates and was horrified at what she saw. "Oh, no! Sailor Moon's been cut to pieces! And Mars' head's been cracked open!"
Mercury knelt beside Mars, activated her VR visor and did a quick scan of her fallen friend. The readings she got horrified her. "Dear Lord in Heaven! Mars is comatose! Her skull's been severely fractured! And her brain is swelling from the imapct! Her healing powers can't cope with this! Unless Sailor Moon can use the crystal on her, Mars will die within minutes!"
Vulcan, cradling Moon, seethed from an inhuman rage. The only thought on her mind was to kill the girl responsible for hurting her friend. But the Vulcan Scout barely managed to represss her bloodlust. "Jupiter! Venus! Run interferrence! We must keep Moon and Mars safe from harm!"
The Scouts of Love and Thunder nodded, then shielded their friends. "You got it, Vulcan! Nothing's gonna get past us!" said Venus.
"Damn straight, partner!" growled Jupiter. "Let's waste this bitch!"
Blair however, wasn't afraid. In fact, she smirked. "The remaining four. Excellent. The book was right. Sabrina! Now! Destroy them!"
Sabrina, startled to see the other four Scouts acted with a vengeance. "Cumilous....formulae....ELECTRON!"
At the blonde's command, a monstrous bolt of lightning struck at the Scouts who just barely managed to avoid being hit as it blew a hole in the front of a sidewalk cafe and detonated a car when it's gas tank exploded. Screams and shrieks of injured and frightened pedestrians and the arid smell of smoke filled the air as the Venus and Jupiter split up to avoid being a single target.
"Mercury! Civilians are being endangered! Blanket the area to reduce our opponent's visability!" ordered Vulcan.
"On it! Mercury Bubbles....BLAST!" shouted the Scout of Water, unleashing a dense, thick and freezing fog that descended over the street for a square block all around.
Blair and Sabrina were blinded by the fog that qucikly descended over the area. This gave Vulcan the time she needed to help Moon. Placing her fingertips on the sides of her head, Vulcan brought her telepathic powers into play. "Your mind to my mind, Serena. You feel no pain. You feel no pain!"
Moon gasped loudly as Vulcan manipulated the synapses in her mind that registered pain and temporarily dampened them. Moon looked up at Vulcan in puzzlement. "Tal? Where'd you come from?"
"Not now, Serena. Raye is grievously injured. She will die unless you use the crystal to heal her."
Moon nodded. Closing her eyes and concentrating, her body was suddenly bathed in bright, silvery light from the Imperium Silver Crystal in her brooch that stopped her bleeding and healed her wounds. However, it took more effort than usual as, for the briefest of moments, Moon's concentration was diverted by what sounded like a malevolent whisper of a voice in the back of her mind. Still glowing from the crystal's energies, Moon stood on braced legs and summoned her Cosmic Moon Scepter which she pointed at the injured Mars. "Hang on, Raye. I'll help you. Moon Healing....ACTIVATION!"
The energies of the crystal flowed from Moon's scepter and enveloped Mars in the same silvery light Moon glowed from. With the vast power at her command, Moon healed Mars' head wound, but she grimmaced fiercely as the strain wracked her body, causing her to cry out from pain. yet, Moon refused to waver, determined to help her friend. Once the scepter completed it's work, the glow faded from Moon's body and, with a sigh, she passed out and morphed back into Serena. Mercury and Vulcan were astonished.
"Disturbing. That has never happened before," said a concerned Vulcan. "Mercury, is Serena well?"
Mercury, her visor still in place examined the unconscious Serena. "Serena's all right, but using the crystal to heal Raye drained all her strength and she couldn't maintain her Scout form. That's why she changed back."
Meanwhile, Blair came up with an idea. "Bree! Use your powers to blow away this fog! We can't let the enemy escape!"
"Roger that!" said Sabrina who closed her eyes and concentrated. "Cumilous....formulae....VORTEXIS!"
Sabrina called upon hurricane force winds that formed from out of thin air and blew away Mercury's fog with almost ridiculous ease, leaving the street clear once again. Blair smirked as she saw the Scouts, their backs against the store, two of their number unconscious.
"Whoops! Exposed!" said a worried Venus once the wind faded.
"Peek-a-boo!" growled Blair. her head enveloped in a blood red aura. "Mentus....abberatum....DISRUPTOROUS!"
The minds of the Sailors exploded in tremendous pain that caused the heroines to clutch their heads and scream from agony. Even Vulcan with her mental defenses wasn't spared from the brutal, relentless force of Blair's assault. The redhead sneered at watching the Scouts writhing and shrieking on the ground. Blair, walking up to the helpless heroines pressed the advantage, increasing the strength of her attack. The Scouts' screams were terrible to hear, but was music to Blair, a sadistic grin on her lips.
"You stupid looking sluts don't impress me," she snarled. "As enemies go, you're all bark and no bite. So I'll just put you dogs out of your misery."
Duffy, peering from behind a car ten feet away was horrified to see Blair attacking the Scouts. "Oh, no! She's killing them! I've gotta do something!"
Taking a deep breath and praying he'll live to scold himself later, Duffy dashed out from his hiding place and rushed full speed at Blair and Sabrina who had their back to him like a linebacker on the blitz. With a shout, the comic book store clerk launched himself into the air and barreled headlong into Blair and Sabrina who never heard him coming and slammed them to the ground.
With Blair's concentration broken, so too was the murderous pressure on the minds of the Sailors who were seconds away from death. Blair and Sabrina turned on their attacker who was entangled with them.
"Crazy bastard! Get off me!" roared Sabrina, backhanding Duffy across his face with an almost inhuman strength, sending the young man flying and he slammed hard against the side of a parked car. Enraged, Sabrina stalked towards the dazed Duffy. Her body glowed a dark blue as she focused on her power and raised her arms. "Men! You're all alike! Always wanting to hurt us! Wanting to kill us! Not today, clown! I'll fry your ass like bacon!"
Duffy, staring up at Sabrina, the expression on her face one of demonic hatred gulped. "I'm dead," he whispered. Before Sabrina could call down the lightning, Jupiter grabbed her from behind and locked the blonde in a full nelson that made the girl cry out from pain.
"Not so fast!" the Thunder Scout growled. A voice roared inside Jupiter's brain to kill the girl, to rip her heart out, to snap her in two like a twig. "I don't know what your problem is, and I don't care to find out! No one's gonna die here....except you!"
"Over my dead body!" the blonde hissed angrily, ignoring the pain to concentrate. "Cumulous....Formulae....SHOCKORUM!"
Sabrina suddenly glowed like a sun and Jupiter screamed as a murderous surge of electricity shot through the blonde's body and the Thunder Scout was repelled, landing in a heap some twenty feet away, her uniform scorched and smouldering, her flesh reddened from electrical burns. If it weren't for her resistence to electrical energy, the surge would have killed Jupiter instantly.
"Good work, Bree!" said Blair. She quickly climbed to her feet but lost her balance and nearly fell. Looking down, she saw that the spiked heel from her right shoe had snapped off. That sent the redhead into a frenzy. "AARRRGHHH!! Damn you! These were my favorite shoes! You're gonna pay for this!"
"I think not, trollop," said Vulcan who stood in front of her friends, her fists repeatedly clenching and unclenching as she crossed her arms over her chest and a golden sphere of energy enveloped her torso. Vulcan was furious and meant to take out her anger on her adversaries. "You have caused enough damage. Endangered enough lives. Now it is time for you to taste our might! Vulcan Shockwave....STRIKE!"
"That makes two of us! Venus Crescent....SHOWER!" cried an angry Venus who knelt at Jupiter's side, tears of rage streaming down her face as she unleashed a fusillade of golden energy beams which she hurled at her targets. They hurt Jupiter, the one person she loved most in all the world, and nothing would stop her from getting her revenge on her enemies.
At the same time, the Scout of Order thrust her arms outward and unleashed her devastating energy sphere which rippled along the ground with an ear piercing din while growing in size as it streaked towards Blair and Sabrma, slack jawed and horrified at what approached them.
"Oh, shit! Cumilous....formulae....multiplis....ELECTRON!" Sabrina screamed. The collision of Vulcan's sonic blast, Venus' laser beams and a barrage of lightning bolts from Sabrina resulted in a terrible explosion that rattled the ground like an earthquake and could be heard for miles.
The crash of energies severely damaged more buildings, blew out every single storefront window, ruptured the street and detonated gas tanks of abandoned cars, setting them off like bombs, blanketing the entire area in thick, choking smoke. When the smoke dissipated, everyone could see he end result of the battle. Two whole blocks suffered wholesale destruction while injured and battered people lay on the shattered ground. Cars and buildings burned while water shot skyward from a wrecked hydrant. Amidst the chaos, Mars stirred.
"About time you slackers showed up. What kept you?" said a groggy Mars, her head pounding while in the arms of Mercury.
"Excuse us for breathing, your highness, but we didn't know you were in trouble until Tal sensed someone screwing around in Serena's head," Venus growled, helping Jupiter over to where Mars and Moon lay. "What the hell are we dealing with?"
"Two crazy chicks trying to kill us with strange powers," Mars replied. She then saw the unconscious Serena and was shocked. "What happened to Serena? Why'd she change back?"
"She exhausted herself healing your injury," said Vulcan. "You nearly died from a massive head trauma."
Mars winced and placed a hand on the back of her head. "No wonder I've got a monster headache."
Meanwhile, Jupiter frantically looked around her for the two girls, but didn't see them. "Hey! What happened to those wingnuts we tangled with?"
"It would appear they have vanished," said Vulcan, scanning the area. The sound of sirens reached her ears. "I recommend we follow suit. While the Tokyo Police tolerate our exploits to a point, it is highly unlikely the local authorities here will, given the degree of damage we helped to inflict."
The Scouts looked around them at the devastation for the first time. The hideous sight of all the property damage and the wounded everywhere deeply saddened them. "My God. What have we done?" Mercury muttered, a lump in her throat and tears glistening in her eyes.
No one could answer her question. They couldn't bring themselves to try, not even Vulcan who gently hefted Serena into her arms. "Let's get out of here before something else goes wrong," said a somber Mars, slowly climbing to her feet with help from Mercury who put an arm around the Fire Scout's shoulders. Mars felt both weak and heartsick from what had transpired.
Duffy, sprawled nearby climbed slowly to his feet as the Scouts, bearing their wounded turned to leave. He was still finding it hard to believe that the Scouts, thought to be fictional Japanese superheroes in comic books and cartoons actually existed. And the powers he saw them use was staggering. Now they were turning their backs on this catastrophe. That proved to be more than he could take. "Is that all you're going to do?" he asked in a quivering voice. "You're supposed to be heroes! Aren't you going to help us?"
Jupiter, her mood grim staggered up to Duffy and glared menacingly at him. "Help you? Hey, look, pal! We stopped the bad guys!"
"Yeah! But what about all this damage?"
"What about it? There's nothing we can do about that."
As Jupiter tumed to leave, Duffy, now angry grabbed Jupiter's arm. "That's not good enough! You're partly responsible for this! People are hurt! Maybe dying! All you did was turn this street into a disaster area!"
Growling low in her throat, Jupiter lost it. Clamping a hand on Duffy's throat, Jupiter hoisted him off his feet and slammed him against the building. "What do you want from me, asshole? Blood? You think we wanted this to happen? DO YOU?"
"Jupiter! For God's sake! Stop!" cried Venus, pulling on Jupiter's arm. "You're not helping things! Let the guy go before you strangle him!"
The Thunder Scout, shocked by her actions, carefully put Duffy down and he crumpled coughing and gagging to the ground. Not knowing what else to do, the remorseful Jupiter bowed to the man. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to hurt you. Please, forgive me."
Duffy backed away, a look of mindless terror in his eyes. "Get away, you freak! Don't come near me!"
Jupiter's mouth fell open and her eyes widened. Duffy's words staggered the Scout of Thunder like a sucker punch to her stomach. For the first time in her life, Jupiter had frightened the very people she pledged her life to protect. The realization hurt her. Deeply.
Venus sensed Jupiter's anguish and put an arm around the tall girl's shoulders. "C'mon, babe. We gotta go," she said in a soft voice. Venus felt her partner's emotional pain as if it were her own, and it made her want to cry.
Amid the chaos, the Scouts quietly left. Duffy looked all around him at the destruction as police cars, ambulances and fire trucks arrived on the scene. Although he had watched scenes of devastation in amine for years, Duffy never expected to see it happen before his eyes. The sight left him permanently shaken as he turned and staggered away for home. As he did, Duffy silently vowed never to read comic books or watch cartoons again.
The drive from Center City to the Main Line for Blair and Sbarina was mostly silent save for Sabrina calling Samantha and Jeannie and telling them to meet at Blair's house.
The girls privately dwelled on the events of the past hour after they barely avoided getting killed during their battle with the Scouts. The incredible backlash of energy which literally shook South Street to its foundations gave the girls the break they needed to escape. Blair wanted to keep on fighting, but Sabrina convinced her best friend that six against two was poor odds, even with their powers, so they snuck away.
When Blair, still angry over having retreated pulled into the driveway of her lavish home in Bryn Mawr, she and Sabrina saw Jeannie's five year old, dark blue Dodge Ram pick-up truck sitting nearby while the brawny brunette and Samantha stood in front of it. The girls were shocked at the appearance of Blair and Sabrina after they climbed out of the car.
"Holy shit! What happened to you two?" Jeannie asked.
"Not here! Inside!" Blair snapped as she stomped barefoot to the front door. Once inside the elegantly furnished house, the girls followed Blair upstairs to her bedroom. Behind closed doors, the seething Blair pulled off her tattered, smoke soiled, twelve hundred dollar Chanel dress and, mindless of being clad only in her underwear in front of the others, threw on a terrycloth robe with her initials monogrammed on the left breast pocket in gold lame.
"Have you heard about the incident on South Street?" Blair asked Samantha and Jeannie. She knew without looking in a mirror that her appearance was horrible, judging from Sabrina's soot covered face and dirt matted hair, but she would deal with that later.
"Are you kidding? It's all over the dial! Sam and I listened to reports on KYW! The reporters made it sound like a nuke hit the street," said Jeannie. Her brown eyes widened as the realization set in. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Did you two cause that?"
"Not alone, Jean. We had help," said a dour Sabrina. Tired to the bone from having extensively used her powers over a short period of time, the blonde felt like she could sleep for a week. "Blair and I threw down with that enemy the book told us about last week."
Samantha and Jeannie gasped from surprise. "No kidding! Who were they?" Samantha wanted to know.
"Six loopy girls dressed up like comic book superheroes. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen," said Blair, brushing her hair. She decided she had to look at least halfway presentable. "One of those nutcases called herself----get this----Sailor Moon."
Hearing that, Samantha's eyes widened from shock and her mouth fell open. "Sailor....Moon? My God. I....I don't believe it! Blair! Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure! You sound like you know something! Out with it!"
Samantha, her mind reeling, plopped down on Blair's bed. "This is incredible. Blair! Sailor Moon's a cartoon show from Japan. My kid sister watches it every day. She even got me hooked on it! The others with her must've been the Sailor Scouts! But that's impossible! They're fictional characters!"
"Fictional my ass! That bunch was as real as they came!" Sabrina snapped at the Korean girl. "So were those lightning bolts and fireballs they nearly killed us with!" Sabrina then glared at Blair. "The book expects us to fight them? No freaking way, sister! That's suicide!"
Blair harshly returned Sabrina's stare. "You act as if you have a choice, Bree. We both know you don't. None of us do. The book won't allow dissention. We paid a high price for the power it gave us. We have to do it's bidding. And it wants those fools dead. Understand?"
Sabrina was silent for several moments as she stared down Blair. Samantha and Jeannie were also quiet. The blonde looked down at her open right palm and the scar on it, then nodded. Blair was right. Her powers did come with a terrible cost, one she now wishes she never paid. "Yeah. I understand."
"Good. Even though we were outnumbered, we got in a few good licks. We even made two of them bleed. That means they can be killed." Blair then turned to Samantha. "Sam, we're going to need all the information we can get on this Sailor Moon and her friends. Now that we know who the enemy is, we'll need to know them a whole lot better. This war has only just begun! And we are going to destroy them!"
As a rule, Charlotte McCoy hated to fly, but, considering her occupation which regularly took her from from one end of the globe to the other, she saw it a necessary evil.
Tall and lithe with long, braided black hair and dark brown eyes set into a beautiful African-American face, McCoy yawned as she walked through the US Airways terminal at Philadelphia International Airport.
Reaching into the right pocket of her black leather jacket for a ziploc bag of honey roasted peanuts, McCoy popped a few in her mouth and savored the sweet taste of her favorite snack. She then spotted a short, gray haired man with a weathered face dressed entirely in black save for a cleric's collar hold up a handwritten sign with McCoy' name on it.
"Dr. Charlotte McCoy?" the older man asked.
"That's me," McCoy replied. She held out her hand and the older man shook it. "The Archdiocese sent you?"
The older man nodded. "Reverend Thomas O'Neill at your service. On behalf of His Eminence, Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, we're very glad that you've come here to assist us with this situation. I've been told that you're one the very best parapsychologists in the world, Dr. McCoy."
"It's well deserved," said McCoy, shaking O'Neill's hand. "Call me Charlie. Dr. McCoy is my dad. I hate formality even more than I do flying."
"Very well....Charlie. Do you have much luggage?"
"Just a suitcase. I travel light. My job keeps me busy."
O'Neill's face tumed grim. "I'm afraid you'll be kept busy here as well."
After retrieving a hard shell suitcase from the baggage area, McCoy followed O'Neill out of the terminal where a black Lincoln Town Car, bearing special plates for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia quietly idled in front. While the driver put the suitcase in the trunk, McCoy and O'Neill climbed into the back seat, then the driver got behind the wheel and pulled away from the curb.
As the car merged onto northbound Interstate 95 for Center City Philadelphia, McCoy grinned and melted into the seat. "Ahh! Rich, Corinthian leather," she said in a fake Spanish accent. She popped some more peanuts into his mouth. "And who says that working for God doesn't have its perks?"
"We make do as best we can, young lady," said O'Neill, a bit put off by McCoy' casual demeanor. "How much information did Cardinal Francesca give you about your assignment while you were in Boston?"
McCoy shrugged. "Just the basics, sir. However, Francesca seemed almost....afraid to talk about the book, like it was gonna jump up and bite him. Do you believe this Darkhold is dangerous as Francesca say it is?"
"Yes. As Cardinal Francesca told you, the Darkhold is said to be the only written text that survived the Salem Witch trials," O'Neill explained. "According to legend, it harbors the spirit of a malevolent witch who infused her spirit into the book before she was hanged so she would survive beyond death."
"Makes sense. Francesca said the woman sold her soul to the Devil to pull off that trick," said McCoy who then ate some more peanuts. "I got the feeling Francesca knew more about the book's theft than he told me. I debated reading his mind to get the full 411, but figured that would've been....improper."
O'Neill's eyes widened. "Read his mind? What do you mean?"
McCoy tapped her right temple with an index finger and grinned. "I'm a telepath. One of the most powerful in the world. Only that bald guy in upstate New York is stronger. That's what makes me successful in the occult."
"I....I had no idea."
"You weren't supposed to. My abilities developed at puberty, doctors and scientists called me a mutation, just like in the comic books. Thanks to my dad, a Professor in parapsychology at MIT, I wasn't dissected like a frog to see what made me tick, instead, he steered me into his field. Figured I'd be a natural with my gifts. He was right. You're sure the book is here?"
"That's what our sources told us. It took three months to track it down after it was smuggled out of Boston. Can you find it, Charlie? There's already been an incident that may well be connected to the Darkhold."
McCoy nodded, her face set from conviction. "Absolutely. My senses, through long years of training have become attuned to paranormal and supernatural sources. Things like the Darkhold give off psychic emanations that I can pick up. If it's here, I can track it down. But I'll need time to rest and meditate before I can start my investigation."
"I understand. Accomodations have already been arranged for you. I sincerely hope you can help us."
"Same here. Because if what Francesca told me about that book is even half true, whoever's got the thing is sitting on an occult time bomb," said McCoy, her face grim. "God only knows what might happen if it goes off."
Amy wore a look of relief on her face as she entered the hotel room she shared with Talia at the Independence Mall Holiday Inn where the contingent from Crossroads High were staying. The Vulcan girl, Raye, Lita and Mina were inside waiting for her. Despite their healing powers, their bodies ached from the punishment they had absorbed during the recent battle.
"I think were okay with Miss Haruna. She never found out we were on South Street," she told the others after closing the door behind her. "It's a good thing were on our own at the time, or things would've gotten pretty complicated."
"You can say that again," grumbled Raye, her arms folded across her chest. "Having secret identities is a royal pain in the rear."
"And then some," added Mina. "Amy, how's Serena?"
"Sound asleep. I did a scan and found no physical irregularities other than exhaustion," Amy replied. "Using the Imperium Silver Crystal so soon after her battle with the heartsnatchers at Fuchu Prison ten days ago really drained her. Remember, the crystal taps into Serena's lifeforce for it's power. Unless something catastrophic happens between now and tomorrow morning, I suggest we leave her alone. Serena needs all the rest she can get."
"I concur. Considering that our opponents most likely escaped, we will need Sailor Moon's power again. And soon," Talia pointed out. Shoes off, she sat in the lotus position on her bed.
"What went on down there, Raye?" Lita wanted to know. The memory of the frightened look on Duffy's face haunted her. "Give us the full monty. Who were those loony tunes? And why did they want you and Sere dead?"
Raye, frustrated, shook her head. "If I knew, Lita, I'd tell you. My brain is mush right now. I'm still trying to sort it all out myself."
"Perhaps if you start at the beginning, your recollection of this afternoon's events will be more organized," Talia suggested.
"Sounds like a plan to me," said Raye. She paused to collect her thoughts before she spoke. "Okay. Seena and I were walking up South Street when I felt a powerful presence of pure evil. It was so strong, I nearly passed out. 'Rena, believe it or not, suggested we investigate. When we walked around a corner, we faced two girls our age, a blonde and a redhead. They were the source of the evil I felt."
"Do you think they were infiltrators from the Negaverse?" Amy asked. "Heaven knows we've dealt with them enough."
Raye shook her head. "No. They didn't have that scummy, other-dimensional feel I'm all too familiar with. The redhead glared at us, I could feel her hatred of us, she called us 'the enemy' then hit us with some sort of spell that damn near fried our brains."
"Whoa! Hold the phone! You said that chick used magic? Like us?" said a startled Mina.
"Yup. Right down to using phrases like we do. And the blonde was even more powerful. I think she altered the weather over the area to fire those lightning bolts at us."
"Fascinating," said Talia, arching an eyebrow. "And those girls were not familiar to any of you?"
"Nope. Never seen 'em before," said Lita. "I don't get it. Why were they so hot to waste us?"
Amy checked her watch. "It's five p.m. Perhaps we can get a clue from the early news." Picking up the remote which sat atop a 20 inch television, Amy hit the power button and the set came on to reveal an attractive African-American woman and a lean gray haired man. Superimposed behind the man's left shoulder was an illustration of an explosion along with the words: 'DISASTER ON SOUTH STREET!'. The girls suddenly became worried.
"I'm Lisa Thomas-Laury with Marc Howard, and the big story on Action News this afternoon is a catastrophe on South Street," said the woman, her expression grim and serious. "We're now going live to the scene where David Murphy has a live report."
The anchorman's face was instantly replaced by that of a dark haired, moustached man holding a microphone as he stood in front of a fire department engine, it's lights flashing.
"The scene here, Lisa, is one of utter chaos and destruction. At around one thirty this afternoon, the seven hundred block of South Street and portions of the six hundred and eight hundred blocks were completely devastated in what police and fire department officials are calling a freakish explosion of a natural gas main that runs under the street," the man intoned. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the fire engine which was pumping water.
"From what we've been told, while the damage was considerable, there was but one death, that of a Philadelphia Police officer and only twenty four injuries, most of them caused by debris and flying glass. At present, authorities are not saying what triggered the blast. PGW crews have been on the scene since two p.m. investigating. We'll keep on top of this story and bring more information as it becomes available."
"Gas main explosion? Where did that come from?" a puzzled Lita asked as Amy turned down the volume on the TV. "I know I've taken one too many shots to the head as Jupiter, but there's nothing wrong with my short term memory. And that never happened!"
"Of course it didn't. It was a police whitewash," a scowling Mina grumbled. "The cops weren't about to come out and confirm whatever eyewitnesses told them about us, or those whack jobs we fought. So they cooked up that half-baked story about a gas main blast, then fed it to the press who bought it like the brain dead morons they are."
Lita picked up on the resentment in Mina's voice right away, and it concerned her. "Sounds like you've had experience with that sort of thing," she said to her partner.
"Bitter experience, love. Scotland Yard played that same game with me when I lived in England." Mina replied, her anger rising from unpleasant memories of her past. "Those arrogant bastards publically refused to admit I existed and treated me like a pariah when all I wanted to do was help. That hurt in ways none of you will ever know. Chances are we'll be treated like crap here too."
"In retrospect, Mina, it is fortunate that there was no public mention of our alter egos," said Talia. "That might have raised suspicions among our classmates, all of whom know that the Scouts are based out of Tokyo. However, we still might face severe difficulties should we have to operate here."
Amy, Raye and Lita were confused. Mina however, continued to scowl. "What are you talking about?" Raye asked the Vulcan girl.
"A crackdown. The police won't tell the public that they've got superhumans in town, but that doesn't mean they won't be working behind the scenes to make life miserable for us if we go into action," a dour Mina explained. "With a cop having been murdered, that only makes things worse for us."
"And Philadelphia's police department is notorious worldwide for it's reputation of brutality towards thugs who kill their fellow officers," Talia added.
"But we aren't thugs!" a shocked Amy protested.
Mina shot the blue haired girl an annoyed look. "Don't be naive, Amy! The cops won't give a damn if we are or aren't! All they care about is bringing us in to answer for what happened today."
The blonde paused to stare hard at everyone. "Reality check, people. We're not in Tokyo where the cops turn a blind eye to our battles. Here in America, we'll be seen as troublemakers at best, maniacs at worst. And with our powers, that makes us dangerous maniacs, threats to the public, especially after that brawl on South Street. So all bets are off if we show faces again."
Raye, hearing that, frowned. "Meaning the cops might shoot at us. Is that what you're saying?"
Mina slowly nodded. "Bingo."
There was a long period of uncomfortable silence as the girls pondered the situation they were in, one none of them at all liked. Finally, it was Lita who summed things up in her own unique way:
"Hell's bells! We need a vacation from our vacation!"
Two doors down in a darkened bedroom, Serena tossed and turned while she slept, suffering from a nightmare as a result of her confrontation with Blair Witasick who's mind touched hers in a way no one, least of all she herself could possibly comprehend. During that contact which lasted only a millesecond, Serena became privy to another presence in Blair's mind, a presence that had given Blair her great power, but had twisted her soul. And now, that presence had sought out Serena, somehow managed to infiltrate her subconscious, flooding her sleeping mind with dark visions.
In her mind's eye, Serena saw an ancient land in an ancient time. A town made up of settlers from another country who were ruled over by strict, puritanical beliefs of right and wrong, of good and evil. It had been those beliefs that led to an eruption of bigotry, hatred, fear, and finally, bloodletting as members of the populce were systematically hunted after and killed, simply because they were wrongfully perceived as being evil. But something survived the bloodletting. Something truly, and monstrously evil. An evil that refused to die and was working through four unwitting pawns to resurrect itself.
A moment later, the visions ended. With a sigh of relief, Serena rolled over and slept soundly. When she wakes up in the morning, Serena will not remember her dream. The evil lurking in her subconscious would see to that.
NEXT: Do You Believe In Magic?