Notes at the bottom, as usual. The majority of characters in this story are owned and/or copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi, DiC, Disney, Bandai, Toei Animation, Seagull Entertainment, Graz Entertainment, Sunrise, Mixxzine, Saban, Playmates, and probably a half dozen other corporations which I've neglected to mention. I should add for the benefit of their respective legal departments that I make no claim to the characters which the previously listed or referred to companies have copyrighted, and I am not making any money from the distribution of these stories (if I were, do you think I'd still be working at McDonald's?) The characters which do not appear in either the Sailor Moon or Ronin Warriors shows are mine. Touch them and die. Now that that's out of the way... Crystal Scouts #8 "Dark Skies" Merry set Lucia's suitcases onto her bed. "/Like the room?/" Lucia surveyed the bedroom: plush, ankle-deep carpet, giant four- poster bed, ornate dressing-table, walk-in closet, and bright sunshine pouring in the picture windows, giving the white room a heavenly glow. "/I love it!/" "/That's good, because if you don't, we have four others./" "/No, no, I want this one./" "/We'll have to get you a bookshelf or three for all your books./" She looked at her watch. "/The workmen will be here in a half hour./" Lucia hugged Merry, tears running down her cheeks. "/Thank you, Merry. For everything. I never had friends before--and now I have six, just like that./" Merry wisely remained silent. No cliche about friendship would do justice to Lucia's statement. Two doors down, a similar scene was playing itself out. "This is the last one, Aurelia," Tori said. Aurelia looked around the room, which was much the same as Lucia's, except for a desk which replaced the dressing-table. "I don't know," Aurelia said. "They're all too--posh, too comfy." She reached for her duffle bag. "Do you mind if I just use my sleeping bag and sleep on the floor?" Tori stared at her as if she'd grown three horns and claimed to be from the planet Xandarg, but wisely refrained from saying anything. "No. Go right ahead." The seven girls sat in Merry and Tori's living room an hour later. Roxanne, Chloe and Tori sat on one couch, Aurelia and Lucia on the other, and Merry in a straight-backed chair, while Gail was furiously trying to lean her recliner back. "/Lucia,/" Mery began in French, "/we had to give you a last name. We weren't sure if you would like Brand or Rivers, so we named you Lumiere./" Aurelia translated for the others, who groaned at Merry's pun. Lucia, however, was laughing her head off. "/What's so funny?/" Merry asked. "/That was my nickname back at the orphanage,/" Lucia said. "/My favorite hymn was 'Let Your Little Light Shine', so they called me Lucia Lumiere./" "/Do you sing?/" Aurelia asked. "/Sure,/" Lucia replied. She trilled through a few scales. "/Singing and reading were the only things I could do by myself at the orphanage./" She laughed. "/Opera was my favorite, but I'd sing anything. Did you ever hear advertising jingles sung in operatic style?/" All seven girls started laughing. Merry quickly recovered and restored order within a couple of minutes. "/Secondly,/" Merry continued, "/I enrolled Lucia, Aurelia, and Gail at Sutter Academy. Chloe, you can join us too--it's your choice./" Gail's reaction was somewhat time-delayed due to the translation, but was nonetheless vehement. "Why?" she exploded. "I don't need no education." "Because I truly believe what I told Lucia at the orphanage," Merry said, switching to English. "Everybody deserves a chance to prove themselves. You've never had a chance at all, Gail. I thought sure you'd want that chance." "Ya never asked me," grumbled Gail. "I didn't have to," Merry replied. "I know your drive and determination, and I know you try to excel at all costs. You'll do well at the Academy," "Just as long as she doesn't take any of Miss Nielsen's classes," Tori muttered. Merry pretended not to hear her. "We're responsible for Lucia and Aurelia, which means we have to arrange for their schooling. Technically, Gail, we're responsible for you too. I figured that the best way to keep this team together is to have all its members go to the same school. Chloe, you can decide whether or not you want to come to Sutter Academy with us-- I haven't signed you up for classes yet." "I may need a couple days to decide," Chloe said hesitantly. "That's all right," Merry replied. "School doesn't restart until Monday. You've got five days." "You know, as a tactician, having everyone go to the same school isn't such a good idea," Roxanne said quietly. "It would be better to have everyone split up, in schools all over the city. It would be easier to reach attacks quickly, or investigate odd occurrences." "So far, the enemy attacks have always been wherever we were," Merry replied. "By staying together, we minimize the risk of a one-on-one fight with a monster. We may not always be near the scene, but we won't have to worry about rounding everyone up to get there." "We'll see," Roxanne said. "We knew what they were after before. Now that we've recovered all the crystals, it's anything goes from here on out." "Good point, Roxanne," Tori agreed. "I want everybody to be double- careful. These crystals may give us superpowers, but they don't make us invincible." Gail's hand strayed toward her ribs as she silently admitted the truth of that statement. "I also want everyone to keep a close watch on their crystals," Tori ordered. "Don't leave them out of reach, much less out of sight." Four crystals flashed in silent salute. Chloe fumbled for a minute before finding the Green Crystal in the bib pocket of her overalls. Gail, however, bristled at Tori's command. "I ain't stupid, ya know." "Nobody ever said you were." "I didn't ask for this job. I didn't expect much thanks, but I didn't expect my so-called friends ta treat me like a moron, either. I don't need this." The Indigo Crystal had suddenly appeared in Gail's hand. Just as suddenly, she slammed it down onto the coffee table, leaving a nice dent. "I quit." Moving with surprising speed, considering her broken ribs, Gail headed for the door. "Gail!" Tori yelled. "Get back h--" The slamming of the front door was her answer. Tori bolted from her seat and stalked toward the door. Merry blocked her path. "Get out of my--" "Let her go, Tori," Merry said. "She knows where to find us if she wants to come back." "This is world defense, not a kids' game! She can't--" "I know," Merry said quietly. Deep down, I hope Gail knows it too, Merry thought. Tori had pulled the Windstar off to the side of the Golden Gate Bridge. She stood near the railing, gazing out over the bay, wind whipping through her long red hair. Merry stood behind her, a couple of steps back, in case Tori decided to do something stupid like throw herself off the bridge into the water hundreds of feet below. "Shouldn't we be looking for Gail?" Chloe asked. "She's the boss," Roxanne said, pointing to Tori. "And right now, with the mood she's in, I don't want to cross her." Aurelia had no such fear. "The field trip's been fun," she said with uncharacteristic acidity, "but I think we should be searching for our missing member." Tori continued to stare, red eyes looking at who-knew-what in the bay below. Merry answered Aurelia's challenge. "She wants you and Lucia to know your way around San Francisco. That's why we went to the harbor, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Transamerica Building." Aurelia had finally become exasperated with Lucia's pestering and had quickly translated for her. "/I loved the pyramid,/" Lucia said. "/Very tall, like the Eiffel Tower. Great view of the city./" "The tour of Paris yesterday was interesting, and this one would be too," Aurelia seethed, "except there's only six of us here instead of seven." "Gail grew up on the streets. She knows this city as well as anybody." "That wasn't exactly what I meant," Aurelia nearly exploded. "What are we doing here, anyway?" Tori spoke for the first time. "I'm looking." "For what?" Aurelia asked angrily. "It sure isn't Gail!" Her head bobbed around the bay, mocking Tori's military-style demeanor. "I'm looking too!" she yelled, starting to point. "There's San Francisco Bay! There's Alcatraz! And there, at the end of the bridge, there's Oakland!" Tori turned around and walked toward Aurelia, with absolutely no expression on her face. Aurelia stood her ground, but Tori walked around her and toward the van. "That's Marin County," Tori said over her shoulder. "Oakland's on the other end of the Transbay Bridge, over there." The other five girls scrambled for their seats as Tori started the engine and switched gears as if they weren't there. Aurelia, whether by chance or persuasion, had wound up in the seat behind Tori. She snaked her right arm in front of Tori's and behind her neck in a half-nelson hold. "Where are we going?" Tori nonchalantly peeled Aurelia's hold off with her left hand, keeping her right hand on the wheel and her eyes on the road ahead. "To see an old friend." Tori pulled the Windstar into a parking space. She locked and slammed her door before anybody else could move. Merry unlocked the doors from her side, and the girls scrambled out as Tori fed some change into the meter, then began to walk away. Aurelia's short legs caught up with and matched the much taller girl's powerful stride without making it look like she was actually running. "What makes you think Gail's here in Chinatown?" Tori continued to stare straight ahead. "I'm not looking for Gail." Aurelia stopped dead in her tracks. She had a blank expression on her face, one that someone might have just after hearing unwelcome news and just before the explosion of anger. "I--" she spluttered. "I thought we were--" "You thought wrong," Tori said coldly. Now came the display of anger. "Then what in the seven levels of--" "I told you. I'm visiting an old friend." Tori walked up to the door of a very familiar antique shop. "Now, if you don't mind," she said as she opened the door, "I'd like to be alone." Tori slammed the door shut, locked it and flipped the sign in the window to "closed" within two seconds. Aurelia had barely missed getting her nose hit by the swiftly closing door. She stood still, blinking, for a few seconds before regaining her powers of speech, an octave higher than normal. "Tori! Get your--" Merry put her hand on Aurelia's shoulder. Aurelia shrugged it off, but closed her mouth. "Let her be," Merry advised. "For a few minutes at least. Then you can kick in the door and go after her." "Goody," Aurelia said dryly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can hardly wait." Tori's eyes roved the shop as she stepped away from the door. "Mr. Chen?" she called. "Mr. Chen?" The beaded curtain behind the counter rustled as Mr. Chen stepped from behind it. "Yes, my child?" He looked over Tori's shoulder to see Aurelia's angry face in the window of the door. "Why are you displeasing my customers?" Tori glanced over her shoulder. "That's not a customer. That's somebody I know." She sighed. "Besides, I wanted to talk to you alone." Mr. Chen shrugged. "Here I am, my child." A slight frown crossed his wrinkled face. "Whatever happened to that red crystal? Did you get rid of it, as I hoped?" "That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Tori sighed again. "It _was_ cursed. I lost one friend--maybe more--already this week." "Perhaps it was not the crystal's fault," Mr. Chen said. "Perhaps you are looking for a scapegoat to blame. Why don't you tell me the story?" My friends and I are the Crystal Scouts, and one of them quit today because of me, Tori thought. No way I can tell him _that_. She decided on a vague version instead. "Merry and I brought a girl in off the street, to give her a chance," she said. "We gave her a place to live, food, clothes, schooling-- then today she left because of something I said." "A caged bird does not sing." "What?" "Perhaps she felt smothered, or trapped. Perhaps she did not feel comfortable--even though you afforded her every luxury. You blame yourself?" Tori nodded. "You blame yourself unnecessarily. Your great English playwright, William Shakespeare, once wrote 'All the world's a stage, and the people merely players.' Your performance is the only one you can control--you cannot act for anyone else." Tori gave a wan smile. "You're right, as usual." "Perhaps talking to your friend--asking her why she left--might bring a sense of closure." "I wouldn't know where to find her." "Perhaps she will seek you out." I hope so, Tori thought as her fingers touched the unfamiliar dark blue crystal in her pocket. I have something she needs. "Perhaps." "Are you finished unburdening your soul, my child?" Tori's smile widened. "I guess so." "Then perhaps you could unlock my door, before your purple-haired friend kicks it down." Aurelia had backed away a few yards and was now charging toward the door. Tori raced toward it as well. Tori won. She unlocked the door and threw it open just as Aurelia launched herself into the air, feet first toward where teh door had been. She landed hard on her chest and rolled over to see Mr. Chen standing above her. "You should only extend one foot when executing a flying kick," he said. "Tucking one leg under you allows you to land on your feet." "Thanks for the advice," Aurelia groaned. "Are you all right?" Tori asked, helping Aurelia up, who desperately tried to act as if she didn't want it. "I would have been if you hadn't opened the door." "Tori and I had just finished her conversation," Mr. Chen said. "She would have opened the door in a few seconds in either case." He smiled benevolently. "Patience is a virtue which must be learned." Tori walked outside, snickering softly to herself. Aurelia stumbled to the door, holding onto the jamb for support. "He who hesitates is lost," Aurelia retorted over her shoulder. Tori had rejoined her friends, who were waiting by the Windstar. "Is Aurelia okay?" Merry asked. Tori looked behind her, as Aurelia came wobbling down the sidewalk toward them. "She'll be fine." Aurelia reached the van and leaned heavily against it. "You could have helped me." "You didn't want it." "That was just an act." Merry changed the subject. "How did your talk with Mr. Chen go?" "Pretty well. He helped me to see a couple things more clearly." Tori seemed to stand a little taller. "I'm driving this van home. Lucia, Chloe, and Merry, you stay there in case Gail comes back. Aurelia, Roxanne, and I are going to take my Camaro and search the city for her." "I thought we agreed not to split up the team," Roxanne said. "It's pretty well broken up already, don't you think?" Roxanne shrugged. "Okay, everyone," Tori said. "Hop in." The sound of screaming people a couple blocks away all but drowned out her last word. "On second thought..." Terrified people, first a trickle, then a flood, came pouring from a side street and turned toward the girls. The crowd rushed by them as the girls climbed onto the top of the van to escape them. Mr. Chen stuck his head out of his door and grinned mischievously. "Did the circus come back to town?" "Not exactly," Tori told him. "Go back into your shop and lock the door. Don't come out until someone tells you it's safe. We're going to go get help." Mr. Chen nodded. "Be careful," he said before the lock clicked. Tori waited until his shadow had disappeared from the view through the shop's windows. "Okay, guys. Let's see what we've got." "I wish Gail were here," Aurelia said, a shade wistfully. "Not my fault," Tori replied. "Well, part of it is..." Aurelia pressed. Tori said nothing. Te six girls raced around the corner onto the side street everyone had vacted. A giant bull stood in the middle of the road--not quite a minotaur, because it couldn't stand upright. It was busy smashing cars into each other like toys and seemed not to have noticed the girls yet. They took the opportunity to jump into a narrow side alley. "/This is like Pamplona,/" Lucia said. "No, what this is is somebody getting cute," Tori said after the translation. Nobody caught her reference, so she supplied it. "1997 is the Year of the Ox, in Chinese astrology." "It's not blue, but that's a big ox," Merry said. Tori let that one go without comment. "Ready?" Six bursts of light and six Crystal Scouts came from the alley. They were unprepared for the sight that greeted them. A dark blue haired girl in blue jeans and a dark blue tank top brandished a broken parking meter like a staff at the bull. "I dunno where my friends are," she yelled in a familiar accent, "but ya sure ain't goin' anywhere 'til they get here!" "Gail!" the Red Sailor called, only a few yards behind her. Gail's head inclined over her shoulder slightly, but she kept her eyes on the ox. "I'm a little busy right now..." "I've got a present for you," the Red Sailor said, reaching into her collar front and pulling out the Indigo Crystal. "Catch." The Indigo Crystal went up in a high, graceful arc. Gail turned, tossing the parking meter away from her, as her hands came up to catch her crystal. The bull charged Gail as soon as her back was turned. "Indigocrystalpower!" Gail said, running the phrase together into one word. She somersaulted above the bull's head as it slashed low, trying to gore her. She landed on the back of its neck as the bull found a new target. The Red Sailor's flapping skirt. The discarded parking meter bumped into the Red Sailor's foot as a split-second plan formed in her mind. She saw the Indigo Sailor reaching for one of the bull's horns, finally getting a grip on the right one. The Red Sailor sidestepped to the bull's left, bending and lifting the meter as she moved. As the bull started to thunder by, she jammed the meter between its front legs as the Indigo Sailor yanked hard on its right horn. The bull went crashing to the ground as the Indigo Sailor leapt free and rolled to land beside the Red Sailor. "Metal--Chain!" the Purple Sailor shouted, wrapping the chain around the bull's legs, tying it up as neatly as a rodeo calf. "Stand back," the Red Sailor ordered as the bull continued to thrash around. "Fire--Flame!" The fireball died out a few seconds later, leaving only a pile of ashes and a gray gemstone. "One big barbecue," the Indigo Sailor quipped. "Thanks for the help," the Red Sailor said. "It's good to have you back." The Indigo Sailor pointed to the Yellow Sailor. "Actually, it was her idea that I go." After the obligatory shocked "What?"s, the Indigo Sailor began her explanation. "It took me a while ta get what she was sayin', but she told me she'd had one of her psycho visions--" "Psychic," the Blue Sailor corrected. "Whatever. Anyways, she said if we'd all stuck together today, our enemy woulda destroyed your house--with us in it. I figured ya wouldn't want that, so I left." "And you didn't tell one of us?" the Red Sailor asked. "Nope. I betcha if I had, it'd have made the prediction worthless. It worked the way I played it, anyways." She shrugged. "Besides, if ya really wanted ta know, ya coulda asked her." "We didn't think of that..." "Ya'd make a lousy detective," the Indigo Sailor said. "So the whole thing was jsut an act?" "'Fraid so. Ya ain't gettin' rid of me that easy." "A very touching reunion." The Crystal Scouts searched for the source of the unfamiliar voice. The Yellow Sailor found it first. "/There!/" she announced. "/On that rooftop!/" Three figures stood on the edge of the roof of the building that the Yellow Sailor indicated. One of the three wore gray: a knee-length long sleeved dress, with gray flats and long hair which seemd to alternate color between gray and white. The second wore pink: a miniskirt with a midriff baring top and high heeled shoes, of the same cotton-candy shade as her short pageboy-style hair. The third wore a brown monk's robe which hid its wearer's face and identity. The same voice again--the brown one was doing the talking. "My congratulations. I did not think that you would be able to defeat my ox. Of course, I admit I also did not think that you could defeat my other monsters." The head of the brown one turned slightly to both the gray and pink ones, as if blaming them. "Who are you?" the Red Sailor demanded. "Sorry," the brown one replied. "All you need to know--what you should have known for some time now--is that I want your crystals." "Good luck gettin' 'em," the Indigo Sailor yelled. "Air--Wind!" The brown one's hand appeared from the folds of the robe. The Indigo Sailor's attack slammed into an invisible wall three feet from the brown one. The shield flashed black, then bounced the Indigo Sailor's wind attack back at her, knocking her to the ground and unconscious. "I have neither time nor patience to deal with you personally," the brown one said. "However, I will leave you with my pet. In keeping with our theme, do any of you know what the Chinese consider to be a symbol of good luck?" The Red Sailor answered. "Yes, a...oh, no." A hundred-foot tall dragon shimmered into existence near the brown one's building. "I'll give my pet ten minutes to play with you. By then, there should be nothing left of you but the crystals." The dragon snorted a puff of smoke from its nostrils. The Red Sailor looked up to the roof again, but only the figure of the brown one remained. "I leave you with three words," the brown one said before vanishing. The voice seemed to echo from everywhere. "Prepare to die." Hi, it's me again. Here are the notes... * In case you missed it, Gail's line upon receiving the news of her upcoming schooling is the opening of "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd. It was my class song, so I had to work it in somewhere. * Roxanne's tactical sentiments echo something I've always thought about Sailor Moon: it makes no sense to have everyone attend the same school. Things are a lot easier if everyone is on their own. (Of course, the enemy would probably prefer that too...) * Tori also corrects a common misconception about the Golden Gate Bridge here. (I used to think it connected San Francisco and Oakland too.) * Mr. Chen's quote about patience was a favorite of an ex-aunt of mine. * I thought that a theme for the monsters for this chapter might be fun. Something different to do...