Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Knight's Work Is Never Done ❯ Crisis ( Chapter 2 )

A Knight's Work is Never Done

Chapter 2: Crisis

 

BY: GINSAN

 

 

"Highness, I will have the situation resolved within the month. We have tracked down the last of the Soul Devourers to an isolated section of Jupiter. It should not take us long to find it, and neutralize it."

 

"Very well, Jorowyn. Make sure you all come home to me soon. I would be terribly upset, if you three missed the Royal Ball."

 

A laugh from the now identified Jorowyn. "We would not miss the Ball for anything your Highness. With your leave."

 

*********

 

"It must have escaped. How could it have gotten out of the grid? It's not supposed to be smart enough to do something like that."

 

"This one doesn't seem to be following any of the patterns the previous ones have. There's something different about this one."

 

"By the Queen. Jorowyn, I just remembered that there's a village less than a hour away in that direction. If it gets there before we do..."

 

*********

 

"No. We're too late. It's beaten us here."

 

"It wasn't your fault, you couldn't have known that it would get away. None of the others have ever escaped the trap the way it did."

 

Jorowyn spoke again. This time, his voice sounded cracked and strained. Almost like he was on the verge of snapping. "But I should have planned for it anyway. It's all my fault. All my fault. All these innocent people. It's all my fault."

 

A third voice joins the other two. This one is slightly harsh sounding. Female, but with a masculine overtone. "Snap out of it. We have to stop this thing, before any more people fall victim to it. You couldn't have possibly known that it would get this far."

 

"Come on Jorowyn. We have to go, now. The Queen will be expecting us back for the ball tomorrow."

 

*********

 

Jorowyn's voice speaks out again. "Damn you beast. I will kill you if it's the last thing I do. No more people will fall victim to you and your kind. I swear it."

 

A few shouts, and an ear-splitting scream ensues. After a few seconds of silence, the third voice speaks out.

 

"Finally. How could that thing be so strong? For a second there, I thought it was immune to our attacks."

 

"I don't know. Lets get its Soul Gem, and get back to the Queen. I have a feeling that something bad is happening in our absence. The sooner we get back, and see that nothing is wrong, the better I will feel."

 

*********

 

"What's happened? Who could have done this? Where, where is everybody? The palace is in shambles."

 

"I don't know, Jorowyn. We should look around."

 

After a few seconds pass, another scream.

 

* * *

 

Jordan woke with a start. It took him a few seconds before he realized what had woken him up. He reached over and turned the alarm off. Not that it mattered that the alarm had woken him up. He would have woken in a few seconds anyway.

 

He got up, and started getting ready for school. As he did, he thought back to the dream.

 

It was always the same. Three voices talking about something that he had no clue about, and there were never any images to go with them. Everything was a dull gray fog. Then there was that one, oddly familiar name, which was also about the only thing he could ever remember clearly. The name, and the phrase Soul Devourer. He almost always woke up with a start thanks to that dream. He'd been having the dream since the day they had moved here.

 

He finished getting dressed, and walked out of his room. He stopped in front of the door at the top of the stairs. It was covered with a huge Vegeta poster.

 

He banged on the door a couple of times. "Wake up Nickie. Time for school. I leave in thirty minutes, with or without you."

 

A muffled voice from the other side replied. "It's Morgan, quit calling me Nickie."

 

He banged once more before heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. Due to the mood he woke up with, it was nothing more than orange juice and buttered toast. He finished his off quickly, then headed out into the garage. He checked his motorcycle over, and made a few adjustments while he waited for Morgan to get ready. She showed up, exactly thirty minutes from when he banged on her door, a piece of toast stuck in her mouth. She stuffed a couple of books into her backpack, then quickly finished off the toast.

 

"Hop on. You want me to drop you off at school or near Hotaru's house again?"

 

"Actually, Rini's place, please?"

 

He stared at her for a minute, before grabbing his helmet and standing up. He tossed a second, smaller one to her, and sighed.

 

"I hate you. I really, really do." He paused to put his helmet on. "I'll probably be home late tonight. Dad wants to see me after school. Dinner is whatever you can find in the fridge. And no friends over for dinner. No friends over, period. You can go over to someone's house, but don't bring any more strays home."

 

Morgan put her helmet on, barely managing to get her head into it, for all her hair. She mumbled the whole time.

 

They were at Rini's house within a few minutes. Jordan stayed on the bike, and waited as Morgan got off. He glared down at Rini, who was waiting for Morgan. She slowly backed away from the bike.

 

"Remember what I said."

 

He then sped off and turned the corner, making sure traffic was clear. Morgan sighed and turned to Rini. "Well, now that Mr. Sunshine is gone, do we have time to play that video game you were telling me about?"

 

* * *

 

Classes for the day went smoothly until lunch time. All except for a few weird looks from Mr. Hijira during Math class. Jordan met them all with that all-knowing smirk of his. Lunch time finally revealed the reason behind Mr. Hijira's looks.

 

Mr. Hijira had posted the scores from the previous day's tests. Everyone quickly read the scores, and then looked over at Ami's. Everybody liked to see how they had done compared to her. What they saw instead, was that Jordan had scored a 105 to Ami's 104. They all just stood staring, trying to make sense of it.

 

It was upon this scene, that Ami and a few of her friends stumbled on their way to lunch.

 

"I wonder why there are so many people out here. They can't all be looking at their scores. Just how badly did you beat everybody this time Ami?"

 

Ami laughed at her friend's comment. "I'm not sure, Lita, let's find out."

 

After struggling against the crowd, the group managed to get to the score board. They just stood there for a minute, while they looked at the grades.

 

"Umm, Ami. I don't mean to be critical of you or anything, but shouldn't you have the highest score?"

 

Ami stood and blinked for a few seconds. She just couldn't believe that Jordan, the kid who had paid no attention whatsoever in class, had scored higher than she had. If she was any other person, she probably would have cried.

 

Instead, she did what only Ami would do. "Guess I just didn't study hard enough. I'll have to study twice as hard for the next test."

 

Her friends sighed, having expected just such a response. Though it also meant more studying for them.

 

The rest of the class and students who had been standing around, moaned out loud. Classes were going to be even harder now.

 

For the rest of the day, Jordan seemed to have a permanent smirk on his face. After what had happened to Victor and his goons the day before, no one really wanted to make an issue of it.

 

* * *

 

"I can't believe he had me sit through that board meeting. It's not like I'm ever going to take his place in the company. For all I care, he and his bosses can shove the job up their stuffy, well-to-do assess. At least I managed to get out of there early. Another ten minutes and I probably would have jumped out of the window just to relieve the boredom."

 

All of this was muttered by a slightly ticked off Jordan, as he roller bladed through some alleys near the new house. He tried to blade at least two hours a day as a good way to improve his balance, and the tricks he liked helped with his flexibility. All of which meant better performances at competition. "I'd be better off working for Mom. At least then, I'd be able to do what I wanted, instead of being like Dad. Stuck behind a desk all day, signing paper after paper, and kissing ass on the phone to seal business deals. With Mom, all I have to worry about is a model breaking a leg or, heaven forbid, a finger nail."

 

He did a few jumps over some empty trash cans, and even jumped off the walls a few times. All of this, including the internal dialog about how much he hated his father, came to an abrupt stop as he heard something like a scream coming from nearby. A second later, the scream came again, and now he knew why he had stopped the first time. Someone was calling his name, and that someone sounded a lot like his little sister.

 

"Morgan!"

 

He was off, zooming between junk and trash in the alleys. He came out onto the intersection of several roads. There wasn't any traffic, which was good, since he came shooting out of the alley like a rocket. He stopped in the middle of one of the roads, and looked for his sister. It didn't take him long to see why Morgan was screaming and why she was running for her life.

 

She was being chased by a huge monster. The thing was about eight feet tall, and built like a tree trunk. Literally. It was dark brown from head to foot, and its skin looked like bark. It also had what looked like a set of bull's horns growing out of its head. It had two massive hands, tipped by three nasty claws. Both were bigger that Jordan's head. If it hadn't been for the way his sister was screaming, he would have thought it was a joke.

 

As it was, he was almost instantly in motion, moving towards it. "Get away from my sister, you fucking reject from the ZOO."

 

Jordan's roller blades met the monster's head, as he jumped-kicked it. He caught it by surprise, and the impact sent it flying into the ground about six feet away. It landed in a heap, and didn't move. As soon as his blades touched the ground, Jordan spun and raced over to his sister.

 

"Hey, Morgan, you okay? Come on, speak to me."

 

He was kneeling next to where she was trying to hide behind a tree. She stared at him blankly for a second, before her face contorted further in fear and she started screaming. That, and the sudden shadow covering the two of them, was about all the warning Jordan got.

 

As he spun around to try and protect Morgan, one of those huge claw-tipped hands grabbed him. It lifted him up to its face, and smiled. The breath from the thing nearly knocked him out. It was like some thing had crawled inside of its mouth, and slowly started to decompose.

 

This hardly mattered though, as the thing lifted him up high over its head. Without any warning, it slammed him down as hard as it could into the road. There was a momentary flash of blue light just before Jordan struck the ground. After he hit, the thing let go, revealing a huge crater with a badly bleeding and seriously hurt Jordan lying at the bottom of it.

 

The thing then turned back to Morgan, who had no where to go now. It started reaching towards her. Its hand was less than a foot away from her head.

 

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

 

The claw suddenly froze solid, and snapped off at the wrist. The monster screamed in pain and glanced around for the source of it.

 

"Up here, monster. I don't know who, or what you are, but I won't let you hurt anyone else."

 

The monster had just enough time to look up at the top of a nearby building, as a young girl in a weird looking sailor suit dropped from the roof and landed on the sidewalk. Her outfit had a base color of white. The skirt, the choker around her neck, her collar, and the knee-high boots, as well as the big ribbon on the front were a deep blue color. Her short, blue colored hair waved slightly in the wind, as she straightened up from the crouch she had landed in.

 

She stared the monster down, and got into a defensive pose. "I am the Sailor Soldier guided by the planet Mercury, Sailor Mercury! I can not allow you to harm anyone else."

 

The monster growled at her, and hunkered down for a charge attack. It hadn't taken two steps though before...

 

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

 

Sailor Mercury twirled around and a blast of multi-colored water launched at the monster. It barely managed to avoid the attack, and without any warning, the monster suddenly roared. Almost instantly, it vanished in a flash of black and red light.

 

Like it was a signal, Morgan snapped out of her shock and ran towards Jordan. She knealed down next to him, afraid to touch him.

 

"Jordan? Please be okay, Jordan. I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble. I was walking home and then it just came out of nowhere and..."

 

The whole statement was broken by sobs, and by the end of it, she was nearly hysterical with tears. She bent over Jordan, not knowing what to do. The girl dressed in the weird outfit spoke something into a little computer in her hand, and then put it away. She knelt down next to Morgan, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

 

"It's okay, I've called for help. An ambulance will be here in a few minutes."

 

She shifted position, and bent closer to Jordan, checking on how badly he was hurt. It looked pretty bad. The most obvious injuries were a broken arm, and a busted head. There were also numerous cuts and bruises as well. While she was examining him, she also noticed the crater he was laying in. It was perfectly round, and from the look of it, about three feet deep, by about seven feet wide.

 

Looking at it, brought back the flash of light that she had seen from the roof just before Jordan had hit. Her thoughts were interrupted however, as Jordan's eyes flickered open for a second, and focused on her. A slight look of surprise crossed his face, just before he passed out again. Before she could figure it out, the sound of an ambulance approaching interrupted. She glanced over at Morgan, who was still crying, but seemed to have calmed down a little bit.

 

"I have to go now, but I'll be keeping an eye on you, to make sure that monster doesn't try to get you again."

 

With that, she ran off and disappeared down one of the side alleys.

 

 

 

The ambulance arrived within a few minutes of Mercury's departure. The EMT's really didn't need to have the injured person pointed out to them. The crater was enough of an indicator. However, they were baffled that Jordan was still alive, from the size of the crater, and the fact that he was losing so much blood.

 

* * *

 

Jordan was at the hospital and in the ER within fifteen minutes. The Doctors worked on him for close to an hour, before they came out and had him moved to Intensive Care. Within twenty minutes of the move, his mother arrived. Morgan was with her. She had also been checked out, but other than a few scrapes, she appeared to be fine. Jordan was another story. Yes, he did have a busted head, which now had fifteen stitches, and a broken left arm, which now had a big white cast on it. But that wasn't all. His chart revealed that he had three broken ribs, and a fractured collar bone. All that, plus he was in a healing coma that the doctors said he would probably come out of within a week or two.

 

During the next week, while his mother and Morgan waited for Jordan to come out of the coma, Morgan spent as much time as she could there, while their Mom came everyday after work and stayed for a bit before taking Morgan home. Their dad stopped by once or twice, though his visits never lasted longer than ten minutes. Any time that Morgan was there visiting, one of her friends seemed to be with her. More often than not it was Hotaru, since any time Rini was in the room, Jordan's face scrunched up into a scowl. The Doctors decided that she was a negative influence on his recovery. At least once a day, Ami or one of her friends would also visit, though they never really came into the room. They usually stayed out in the hall.

 

 

 

Eight days after being rushed to the hospital, Jordan came out of the coma. He was slightly disoriented at first, since the room was dark, and he couldn't see anything. After a few seconds, his eyes adjusted to the dark and he noticed that someone was sitting in a chair across the room, near the door. He couldn't really tell who it was though.

 

"Who. Who's there?"

 

His question didn't seem to startle the person because they calmly got up from the chair. The person stepped outside the door, and flagged down a nurse. After a few minutes, she came back in. Yes, it was a she. He could see the outline of her clothes in the doorway, as well as her long hair, which seemed to have a bit of a green tinge to it.

 

"Well Mr. Mallone. You gave us quite a scare there for a bit. People here in Tokyo don't usually tackle monsters on their own. You're lucky to be alive. I've just had the nurse call your Mother. She and your sister have been very worried about you."

 

Jordan stayed quiet for a minute. He noticed, but didn't really care, that she hadn't mentioned his father. He didn't expect that his son being in critical condition in a hospital would tear him away from work.

 

"How long have I been here? And who are you?"

 

The person was silent for a minute, as she thought. "Eight days. You were in critical condition for your first two days, and then they moved you to a private room. You've been in a coma since you got here. You also have a broken left arm, fifteen stitches in the back of your head, a fractured collar bone, and three broken ribs. The one on the right almost punctured your lung. You should be grateful. As for your second question, you can call me Trista. Your sister's friend Hotaru asked me to watch over you."

 

Jordan laughed at that, though it sounded strained and slightly pained. There was something about this Trista person, and the way she spoke, that gave him the creeps. And there was the fact that breathing hurt like Hell.

 

"And why would Hotaru ask someone to watch over a jerk in a coma?"

 

Trista seemed to smile at this. "Believe it or not, she likes you. Also, she said that I would find you interesting. And, now that I've met you, I can agree on that. I'll let you rest now. Your Mother and sister should be here first thing in the morning. Push the red button next to the bed, if you need anything from the nurse."

 

With that, she left and closed the door behind her. A few minutes later, Jordan fell asleep. When he woke up, he felt grateful. For once, he hadn't had that bizarre dream. Well, that and he had a room full of visitors. The buzz from the pain killers didn't hurt either.

 

His sister sat in a chair next to his bed, sound asleep. Hotaru sat in a chair next to her, and waved at him a little when she noticed that he was awake. His Mom sat in the chair by the door, and was just starting to notice that he was awake. On the other side of his bed, a Doctor was reading the monitors hooked up to his body.

 

The Doctor finished writing on a chart in his hands before turning to Jordan. "A good morning to you, Mr. Mallone. I understand from the nurse, that you came to sometime last night. Now that you're awake, I have a few routine questions I need to ask you. It's standard for patients with your type of head trauma."

 

The Doctor asked a few questions, then turned to Jordan's Mother as she approached the bed. "He seems to be fine. No amnesia, and no memory loss. I'd still be careful though. He still has a slight concussion. I'll be back in an hour. I have to make my rounds."

 

With that, the Doctor left, and Jordan's Mother rushed up to him. She carefully gave him a hug, and tried not to cry. Jordan tried to tell her calmly that he was okay, and not to make a fuss. Every time she looked at him in the bed though, the tears started up again. After a few minutes, Morgan woke up, and looked around groggily. Hotaru poked her in the ribs, and pointed at Jordan, who smiled at her slightly. She got up from the chair, and came up to him, crying already.

 

"I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention when I was walking home, and that thing came out of nowhere. I started running, trying to get away from it, but it followed me. If you hadn't shown up, I don't know what would have happened to me. But you got hurt, and it's all my fault!"

 

Jordan waited for her to cry herself out, then lifted her head up to look at him. He smiled slightly and sat up a bit, trying to look normal. "It's not your fault. I shouldn't have told you to go home alone. I should have had you stay over at Rini's or Hotaru's. I'm sure if you were with someone, you would have been OK. It's my fault. I'll be just fine though, don't you worry about it."

 

The last little bit of strength seemed to leave Jordan, and he fell back into the bed.

 

About this time, the Doctor returned and saw Jordan's condition. "I think it's time to let Jordan rest. He's still in pretty bad shape, and I would like him to get as much sleep as possible. You can all come back tomorrow."

 

He stepped back out of the room, and spoke with a nurse about something, while Jordan's visitors left.

 

Hotaru was about to walk out after Morgan, when Jordan called her back. "Hotaru, I need to ask you something."

 

After pausing for a second, she turned around and came back to stand next to Jordan.

 

He looked up at her for a moment before talking. "Why did you ask that Trista person to come visit me?"

 

Hotaru thought before replying. "She's a friend, and she's also interested in unusual occurrences. Plus, she asked me about you the other day after Amara and Michelle mentioned you. She seems really interested in you for some reason."

 

Jordan was silent as he absorbed what she said. "Thank you. And one more thing. Tell Ami thanks for saving me and Morgan."

 

With that, Jordan fell asleep, leaving a startled Hotaru staring at him. She stood there a few minutes, before leaving the room, and joining Morgan.

* * *