Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Blessed ❯ Girl From Manhattan ( Prologue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Blessed


Gary Watson
Normal
Gary Watson
1
0
2001-05-19T21:37:00Z
2001-05-19T21:37:00Z
14
9329
53180
Gary's World
443
106
65308
9.2720











Blessed

Prologue 2: Girl From Manhattan

By Libby Thomas (libby@bluebellknoll.com)



Based on characters owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko
Takuechi

Series idea by Little Michi, based on A Duet of Pigtails by
Libby Thomas



Plastic chinked like chimes, the tinkle of small slabs
falling on one another. "I'll
match you and see you up ten."
Smoke wafted in the small Manhattan apartment as a group of people
hunched around a small table, the foursome committing to the ritual they had
every Thursday evening.



Tommy Carrizola looked around then dropped his cards in
disgust. "Fuck, I fold. Ted?"



Ted Andrews looked at his cards, and gave the sort of smile
that gave people pause. Running his
hands through his thick mane of hair, he slapped the cards down on the table,
grinning wickedly. "Okay, read 'em
an' weep: I got two pair. Bill?"



Bill Drake stroked his beard, dark eyes peering at the cards
held in his honey-brown hands. With a
bassoon huff, he groaned and set the cards down on the ground. "Well, looks like I'm not going to win
this week's pot. So much for taking the
wife somewhere nice for dinner on Friday." Finally, he turned to the last person at the assembly. "Well, don't keep us in suspense,
okay? You threw the chips, now play the
cards!"



Eyes the color of deep maroon stared at the other three at
the table. There was a slightest
flicker of a smile followed by the drag of a cigar as the cardsharp took a
puff, the blue smoke of the Cuba Libre special wafting in the nicotine-laden
room. Finally, with an imperious
action, a slender hand laid down the cards in a decidedly spectacular motion,
commenting, "Royal Flush, boys.
Hand over the cash."
Without even waiting for a response, the person stretched over languidly
and grabbed the wads of bills and coins as they replaced the poker chips on the
table.



Ted put out his cig.
"I don't know how the hell you do it. God, you should go play in Atlantic City or something."



The winner said in an even voice, "I tried, believe
me. Let's just say that I'm not very
welcome in the Trump Marina anymore."
The person took another drag from the cigar, adding, "Maybe in
another lifetime, I coulda been one of the Great Hustlers, but that's not gonna
happen. Not now, anyway."



"Sez you," Tommy answered. "Well, I gotta get home before the
missus complains. Need a lift home,
Bill?"



Bill smiled.
"If you would. Marcy has
the car tonight, since she has Parents' Night at the school." Rising from his seat, Bill looked at Ted and
the fourth person and said, "Don't keep up too late, people. Remember that we have to be at the briefing
first thing in the morning." With
that, Tommy and Bill left the apartment, leaving the last two in the place
alone."



"So what do we do now?" Ted asked.



The last person laughed and grinned, slipping arms around
Ted. "I say we go to bed,
hon'. Maybe if we wake up in time,
we'll make it to the meeting so that Cap'n Diamante doesn't chew us both
out." Changing voice, a decent (if
higher octave) imitation of their boss was done. "Meio, Andrews, you two are cops, and while I don't care if
you two are sleeping together, I do care if you bother to make it to morning
briefing on time!"



Ted laughed, squeezing her closer. "Tsu, I swear I don't know what I'd do without
you!" Having said that, he planted
a kiss firmly on her lips, which she hungrily returned. The pair kept at it for several minutes, not
caring about anything other than the love they shared. Finally, Ted yawned and said, "Look, we
gotta be up in a few hours. Let's get
to bed. I mean sleeping, too."



Setsuna Meio, better known as Tsu to her friends on the New
York Police Department, merely smiled at her boyfriend. Flicking her eyes at him coquettishly, she
responded, "Why, Theodore Andrews, I don't know what you mean." But rather than prolonging his torture, she
merely joined him in their bedroom.



* * *



A few hours later, as she got up to stretch, she took a look
out the window and gazed at the New York skyline, the silhouette marked by the
bright lights of the Big Apple and the ambient starlight. Sitting down on a chair by the window, she
looked briefly at the man she loved, then at her own reflection in the
mirror. It had been forever, it seemed,
since her world had changed, and even longer since that distant memory of a woman
that had once been Sailor Pluto.
However, for the past decade she'd been Tsu Meio, a woman that had been
born in Japan but seemed more akin to a local.
In fact, were it not for her name, she would have been considered
American--which she technically was, due to the citizenship she gained three
years ago.



As to how she'd become a cop, during her first year of
living in New York while attending college, she helped the local police track
down a burglar in campus who'd been using magic to hide his tracks. Not knowing that her success was due to the
experience of magic, the officer on-scene made an overture to the 24-year-old
woman that she should consider changing her major to criminal law and join the
force. Missing the need to fight for
what was right and knowing she could make a difference she took that advice;
two years later, Officer Setsuna Meio was the newest member of the New York
City Police Department. In the seven
years since, while she wasn't the scourge of every criminal out there, she'd
earned herself something of a rep on the streets as someone not to cross.



Stretching over she grabbed a picture off her dresser,
smiling and gazing at the image shown within the frame. It was an image of Setsuna dressed in
opulence and Usagi in a bridal gown on the latter's wedding day, the two
friends holding each other dearly and being happy. Since then, Usagi had given birth to the girl that would have
been Chibi-usa in another life, and from what she could tell, Usagi and her
family were happy. Now a shop owner in
Nerima, Saotome Usagi was thrilled to be living free of the constraints of her
old life.



It was a good thing, too: Tsu didn't keep much track of the
old gang, but what she read wasn't pretty.
The Senshi were now fragmented, no longer at their peak and considered
now a part of the problem rather than the solution. Additionally, the new Sailors Moon and Pluto were far weaker than
the originals; from what little she was able to glean about these two girls,
one of them the same age as Hotaru, was that they had to be rescued often. Case in point was a situation two weeks ago
that Setsuna didn't have much info on, most of the Senshi were defeated, and if
it weren't for Ami's brains the world would have been lost. According to the headline of the _New York
Times_ that morning, it was simply a massive crime problem handled by the
mysterious Sailor Senshi, but Tsu knew better--it had been luck, pure and
simple, that had saved the day.



In retrospect, it was better this way, she yawned, for the
future was far different than they had ever imagined it to be. No, Tsu concluded as she put the picture
away and returned to bed, this future was not for the likes of who Usagi and
Tsu had been, and considering how it was turning out, maybe it was for the
best.



* * *



"Okay, listen up, listen up, listen up!" Within the confines of the squadroom, the
officers present were getting their daily briefing. The room was the clichéd conference room you saw in the movies,
with the dingy room and various papers taped to the far wall. Against that same wall was a table with a
coffee machine that served the typical brown sludge and pastries from the local
bakery; the sludge was mean and nasty, perfectly suitable for cops on the
morning beat, while the pastries actually were good for a change, which meant
that the owner of the shop made them and not one of the assistants.



Standing at the podium, facing the rows of uniformed and
plainclothes cops, Captain Alfonse Diamante was just like everyone else in his
room. Many were from other places like
New Jersey, though some of them came from other countries like Japan or even
other planets--like California. But
regardless where his boys and girls came from, they all bled blue and they all
did their damndest to make sure things worked.
None of those departmental scandals here that plagued many of the other
precincts; the job here was to get the job done and save lives. That's what they did. "Now listen up,
boys and girls, we've got an interesting one that the night shift found. If it's what I think it is, we got a case of
World Class daffodils running around here.
Ruskin, hit the projector."
The lights in the room dimmed, and the projector next to the podium went
on, projecting the Power Point display against the screen behind the
captain.



What it showed was not pretty, even if the scene in question
was a seedy strip bar, rumored to also be a known drug joint and prosti
hangout. Well, no one was doing that
here any more, because one had to be alive to do that. People, in various conditions and pieces
were frozen solid, as though they'd been dipped in liquid nitrogen; while
others were frozen in blocks of ice. A
few truly unlucky ones had been stabbed several times, but there was no sign of
anything that had punctured them. While
the presentation was being shows, Alf looked at his officers, seeing the
various expressions. Some were disgust,
some shocked illness, while those on his four best officers--Drake, Carrizola,
Andrews, and Meio--were of clinical detachment and barely contained anger. He hadn't decided who was going to handle
what yet, but these four had already decided they were on the case and that's
why they were the best he had.



The presentation stopping at a critical frame, Alf pointed
at some of the markings on the wall.
"Now, I ain't one of those hoity-toity grad school kids like some
of ya, but here's what we've figured so far.
There's some strange writing on the walls--"



"--which looks at first glance to be Sanskrit, but
nobody can confirm it," Tsu calmly noted.
Seeing the look on her boss' face, she continued. "I took some early history classes in
college, so I can notice an ancient marking here and there." ((Also, it looks like a magical-based
murder--those aren't typical runes--so I'd better get involved.)) "Additionally, a lot of the marks seem
to be of an unknown design, but I'll bet that on closer inspection, it's
nothing more than a stylized variant of known historical markings." Tsu bit down on the tip of her pencil, her
eyes seeming to bore into the projected image.



Alf nodded.
"Figured you were going to say that, Meio, so you and Drake are on
the case. Rodriguez from the night
shift is standing by to give you what they know of the situation." That being said, the station chief continued
doling out the rest of the assignments.



* * *



Several hours later, both Bill and Tsu were at the remains
of The Girlie Show, the site of the grisly murders. They'd been here about ten minutes, and so far, it looked like a
perfectly normal, if inexplicable, murder.
At least that's what Bill saw.
What Tsu saw, on the other hand, was far more dangerous. ((This is Mercurial magic, no doubt about
it, but there's nothing human about it.
It doesn't make sense at all.))
Her eyes, trained to see angles and objects that the normal humans
couldn't and noticed that half the strange characters seemed to glow with arcane
power. "Hey, Bill," she
called out, trying to make the situation seem more like a dual investigation,
"can you check over on that far wall there? See if there's any of that stuff chief was talking about."



"Already did," he replied. "There's nothing on that wall, but
there was something behind the bar that you might want to check out. Oh, and you might want to get a hold of
someone down at SUNY. There's gotta be
a professor there that can figure this stuff out." His finger hitting the button on the digital
camera repeatedly, Bill took dozens of pictures of the sigils, then switched
discs and took more pictures of the other crime angles that he could work
on.



"Might be a good idea," Tsu said aloud, even
though in truth she knew it would be useless.
If it was what she thought it was, no professor living should have the
information.



"Y'know," he said, pausing, "I was thinking
about what you said earlier, like it's Sanskrit or something. A few of these markings look like the
Aramaic I saw in my cultural anthro class, from way back when."



"That's a thought," she announced aloud, though
mentally she was more skeptical. ((I'll
bet the farm that this isn't Sanskrit or Aramaic. I'll have to email a copy to Usagi tonight, and hopefully she can
tell me if it's Ancient Terran. Man,
it's times like this that make me wish I hadn't lost that ancient Encyclopedia
Atlantis that Ami got for me!)) It had
been lost in the move from Japan to New York, and at the time she'd been still
bothered by what had happened; since then the antediluvian tome would have come
in handy at least a couple of times. Oh
well, I guess that's what I get.
Looking at the images one more time she called out to Bill, "Hey,
did you get enough shots for posterity, yet?"



Bill grunted, offering, "Yeah, would you like some
copies for your collection?"
Putting the camera back in its pouch, he muttered, "Hey, it's
almost lunch time. You feel like some
Mongolian BBQ? I know this decent place
around here, if you're up to it. An'
since you won last night, you can pay for it, you big shot, you."



"Sure, I'm game," Tsu answered, glad for the
momentary distraction. "We can
brainstorm some sort of motive out of this other than just the stereotypical
cult cliché." ((Although what we
come up with and what likely is the truth are two very different things,)) the
forest-haired woman mentally added.
"Let's get this over with.
We got some food to scarf, you've got some stuff to come up with on your
laptop for the guys down at SUNY, and I can have some stuff to take home for
research."



With that, the pair completed their sweep of The Girlie
Show, dusting for photographs and using the forensic equipment they had at hand
to see if there was any sign of clues that might help them solve the case. There were none, and that was something Tsu
had expected. A half-hour later, they
departed, taking only a few quick seconds to rattle off some instructions for
the beat cop on hand and to glean some information from the rather less than
savory owner of the establishment. As
they hopped into their car, Setsuna definitely could feel the traces of
Mercurial magic permeating the room, and all she could do was to think of what
it could mean.



As the beat cop reset the DO NOT CROSS tape and turned off
the lights, two entities appeared in the room, looking at each other. The first spoke to the second in a language
that hadn't been heard on Earth in thousands of years and to be honest, not
even spoken still as the communication was telepathic in nature: >>She
could be a danger to our plans. I do
not know who she is, but she is powerful and has seen our markings.<<



The other voice was not as concerned. ]]I wouldn't worry. Magic is rare on Earth nowadays; she may be
just one of those people who have a latent talent for it. Even so, if she did wield it, all she would
know is that there's magic around. She
would have no idea about our sigils, and I'll wager that to her, this place
probably sits on a ley.[[



>>I do not care,<< the first countered. >>I want her dealt with, and dealt
with tonight.<<



The second seemed to make a gesture akin to a head nod. ]]I shall have Fortran attend to it when the
moon is out. An irony, that.[[ There was a motion akin to a bow, and the
second vanished.



The first considered the other's words, then chuckled. >>Ah yes, a delightful irony it
is.<< Then it too slipped into
the void.



* * *



Later, as the day stretched into the nighttime hours, Tsu
furiously pumped out an email in Japanese.
She wished there was time to get a hold of Usagi on the Instant
Messenger software, but she wasn't online; that was to be expected, given the
vagaries of time zones. Tsu quickly did
some calculations in her head and placed the time to be about 9 in the morning
in Tokyo and so Usagi was probably at her business this morning. As she finished up the mail and sent it,
Setsuna briefly toyed with the thought of calling her friend directly but
ultimately did not based on the fact that it might dredge up old memories of
Mamoru, combined with the fact that Tsu had never told Usagi what she now did
for a living.



((Let her think that it's just some idle info I need,)) Tsu
reassured herself. ((It's better that
way, and she won't be worried or pissed that I've gotten back into
crimefighting for a living.)) Shutting
down the computer, she got up and went to the kitchen to make herself some
dinner; Ted was working late on a double homicide case that had popped up
during the day and wouldn't be home in time.



The phone rang, and Tsu grabbed it immediately. "Ms. Setsuna Meio?" the voice
asked. "This is Professor Arban
over at the University. Sorry to call
you at home, but I have some information for you regarding these glyphs your
partner provided me with. I must admit,
though, that I am astonished that these showed up in a contemporary
situation. Had this not been official
business, I certainly would have thought it to be fraudulent. I know that sounds odd, but please, let me
explain."



"You have my attention, Professor." Cradling the phone with her head, she ran
back to the desk and grabbed pen and pad, ready to jot down notes as needed.



"Well, Ms. Meio, these sigils aren't any of the
well-known ancient languages--Aramaic, Sanskrit, Phoenician and the like. However, there has been an ancient language
that is disputed that these symbols do match.
The language is currently being called Atlantean, after the mythical
city of Atlantis, but there's some doubt as to where the language is really
from, as examples of it have been found all over Europe, North Africa, and the
Middle East, and--oh, I'm wandering, aren't I?
Sorry. Anyway, we do have enough
of the language to translate, and what I came up with in a tentative translation
from this language to Latin is 'luna regia morte'. Simply put, that means--"




"'Death to the Moon Queen'. I took Latin as an elective in college," Setsuna added
offhandedly. However, it was all she
could do to counteract the icy hand of fear sliding down her back. ((Mercurial magic, and now this. Something doesn't quite seem so normal
anymore.)) In her mind, she wondered if
it was worth breaking this conversation and getting a hold of Usagi now. ((Granted, she's abdicated the lunar throne,
but still, she's of the line and if this is meant for her....))



But that wouldn't explain why people were killed in a seedy
joint in New York just to get a point across to a person who lived in
Tokyo. Unless that message was meant
for Setsuna, vice Usagi--which would mean that someone knew Usagi and Setsuna's
former alter egos. But if that was the
case, then why all this--and the lost lives of the people used for the
message? Was it symbolic of what was to
come? Or, could it be unrelated, some
other thing that people believed? Could
the term simply be the name of some new weird religious cult, and if so, why
did they use Ancient High Terran; for that matter, how did they even find out
about it?



"Ah, good for you," Arban chirped, unaware of her
pause. "I do have to confess,
though: I'm not exactly sure what the reference is to--the only possible
connection is an early culture that lived in southern Phoenicia that had a
woman as their ruler, but I don't recall any reference to a Moon Queen, per
se. Well, I hope to have more for you
later, but I just felt that you would need to know this information. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to join my
lovely wife for dinner. Good talking to
you, and have a pleasant evening."



"Same to you, Professor. Thanks again." Tsu
set down the phone on the cradle, walking into the kitchen. After dinner, she'd call Usagi and pass on
what she knew. It might be idle
worrying and likely unrelated, but she'd feel better if she--



Setsuna stopped in mid-breath. Her exhalations were crystallizing, the breath becoming
visible. Additionally, the room,
despite the warm night, began to chill considerably. It didn't take long for Tsu to figure out that something was
wrong, and more importantly something was targeting her at this moment. The temperature dropped 40 degrees in the
span of a second, and acting on long unused Senshi skills, Tsu dashed into her
and Ted's bedroom, grabbing her katana off the wall. The katana had been something she purchased on a whim when she
and he went on a vacation to Europe last year; the swordmakers of Spain did
create an undeniably superior product.
((This is *not* the time to think about metallurgy!)) she chided
herself.



The temperature dropped 20 more degrees a second later; Tsu
had just enough time to grab her gun holster and slip on both that and the
sword. Taking off like a rocket, she
shattered the window as she leapt out of her apartment towards the street, four
stories below. Behind her, the windows
and walls of her apartment exploded as massive icicle spikes punched their way
out of it with incredible force. As she
landed on the ground, one hand on her katana's scabbard and the other ready to
draw either blade or pistol as needed, she knew instantly that this was no
longer a matter for the NYPD, that somehow this was now tied in with the Senshi
and that her fears for Usagi's life was now very valid and all too real.



That was when the first beast leapt at her, massive fist
with all-too-sharp claws snatching for her throat. With any other officer, the creature might have had a chance, but
with Setsuna, there were better odds in the ex-Senshi's favor. Grasping the beast by its oversized horns
before it could lay a hand on her, she spun around to its back, then bounced
off the brute, flipping in mid-air. As
she touched the ground, she drew her pistol, aimed and screamed,
"Freeze! Police!" Granted, she knew it was an incredibly
stupid thing to say given the appearance of the situation, but there was a
crowd gathering, light traffic still dotted the street, and the least thing she
wanted to hear was about police brutality against demons, or whatever those
idiots at the newspaper would come up with.



The beast spun and bellowed an unearthly roar that shattered
windows and eardrums for feet around, and at that moment Tsu knew that this
wasn't an intelligent demon but rather more on the lines of a yoma or a
daimon. Regardless, she had its
attention and as it turned to look at her with eyes full of diabolical hatred,
she let him have it. Pulling the
trigger as fast as she could, she sent multiple rounds into the beast's body,
each hollowpoint round making a small insertion point...and leaving a very gory
exit wound. The hellspawn crashed to
the ground, dead in its tracks, and Tsu silently blessed the fact that she had
hollowpoints loaded. Granted, that was
by no means normal armament for the NYPD, but a girl couldn't be too careful
and--



The second one made its presence known as it blasted free of
the street, obliterating the asphalt of the city strike in its wake. Leaving curtains of dirt, the monster howled
angrily at Setsuna and with a speed that bordered on the unreal it charged at
her, moving fast enough that it seemed to be floating on air. Beneath its feet however, the ground
shattered at each footfall came, and Tsu knew there wasn't going to be much
time to reload her weapon, and with a building crowed, things were going to get
worse. Also, there were no indications
that these two were the only demons, and the use of her long-unused Plutonian
powers should remain that way, unless there were no other alternatives. Coming to that realization, she quickly
holstered her gun and steeling herself, slipped her hand down to the katana at
her side.



The demon took the bait and bore down on Setsuna, murder
blazing in its eyes. However, it wasn't
going to get the chance to deal with it.
In a move so smooth and effortless it seemed as if Tsu had barely
twitched, she unsheathed the blade and brought it down and through the
hellspawn, the samurai's perfect one-stroke kill. The inertia of the two pieces still propelled the remains
forward, and what was an intact beast a second later were two bloody clumps of
alien meat behind her.



Sheathing her blade rapidly, she prepared for the next
attack. She looked around clinically,
noted that people were scrambling to get indoors as quickly as they could--not
even the usually jaded Manhattanites were prepared for the appearance of
something even more vicious than them.
In the distance, sirens could be heard; police were on the prowl and
while that gave people some more protection, it also meant that there were more
people that she would have to cover.
With her luck it would be a pair of junior uniforms, the kind that shot
first and skipped the que--



The next thing she felt was the painful crunch of being
pressed into the side of a building the hard way. thrown violently enough to leave an impact crater, she was glad
that she was stronger than a normal human, else she wouldn't have survived--and
even so, she was still going to have a nasty set of bruises in the
morning. Behind her she could hear a
laugh, all-too-human and bearing undertones of scorn and derision. Shaking off the dazedness, she spun and
faced her newest opponent.



The being stood there, arms folded and with an impatient
look. At the first glance, she--if Tsu
got the gender right--could pass for human, even if an oddly dressed one. The second gaze, however, dispelled the
first notion immediately. No human
Setsuna knew had hair that looked like bonded cables of circuitry that glowed
with power, nor did she know any that had eyes that lacked pupils and seemed to
glow with the entire visible light spectrum.
The female was dressed in a bodysuit that had the sort of curves to make
men go mad. Accented with black metal
gauntlets, black boots and a simple dark sash around her waist, stood in the
middle of the street as if she owned it, a veritable King of the Hill awaiting
anyone foolhardy enough to try to make her capitulate.



Tsu didn't relax a bit as she thundered, "Who are you
and what do you want?"



The being looked directly at Setsuna, her eyes alien and
unreadable. She opened her mouth to
speak for a second, and sounds came from it, a series of screeches and chirps
that sounded eerily like a modem going online.
She closed her mouth and eyes at once, and when she opened her eyes,
they'd turned a neon shade of blue, still lacking pupils but at least no longer
pulsing with the shades of the rainbow.
Cocking her head as though to listen to the ground for a second, she
soon straightened it and spoke.



{{I am Fortran,}} she said, with an almost melodious voice
that would have been musical were it not for the fact that her voice sounded
though it were one step above a Speak & Spell's capacity. {{You are Setsuna Meio.}}



Tsu held her expression, but inside she wondered how this
thing she'd never met before could know such critical information like
that. "That's right, I'm Detective
Setsuna Meio, NYPD. You behind all of
this? 'Cause if so, you've quite
obviously got the right to remain silent." The girl merely stood there, staring, as though with
incomprehension. Tsu, somewhat
surprised, snarled, "I take it you do understand the concept of being
under arrest, do you not?"



{{ar.rest

Pronunciation: ah-'rest

Function: transitive verb

Etymology: Middle English aresten, from Middle French
arester to rest, arrest, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin arrestare, from Latin ad-
+ restare to remain

Date: 14th century

1 a : to bring to a stop b : CHECK, SLOW c : to make
inactive

2 : SEIZE, CAPTURE; specifically : to take or keep in
custody by authority of law

3 : to catch suddenly and engagingly

- ar.rest.er also ar.res.tor /-'res-t&r/ noun

- ar.rest.ment /-'res(t)-m&nt/ noun}} the creature
repeated instantly, comically looking for a second like a schoolgirl at a
spelling bee. But there was no
childhood gleam in Fortran's eyes as she added a few seconds afterwards,
{{Arrest is not in operations parameters, Setsuna Meio. My parameters are to execute plan LRM, then
execute peripheral issues in turn.}}
Fortran bit her lip delicately, all all-too-human habit, but just
another oddity in this situation.
{{Situation on-scene requires me to alter mission protocol, but analysis
indicates mission modification will be within acceptable limits.}}



((LRM?)) Tsu recalled, knowing what that meant. ((Luna Regia Morte. That's not going to happen, if I have any
say in the matter!)) "I don't
think you're going to get away with that, who--*what*ever--you are, because I'm
not going to allow it."



{{It is not for you to be concerned about,}} Fortran
answered then pointed her palm at Tsu, adding, {{or for you to halt,
either.}} There was an eight-octave
scream of icicles shattering, and a blast of Mercurial Magic thundered from
Fortran's hand. Tsu dropped to the
floor in an instant and as she slumped to the ground, she knew that she'd
gotten lucky. Turning around as fast as
she could, she noted that an entire building had frozen solid right before her
eyes. Encased in a translucent block of
ice, the four-story structure had people in there that'd been trying to escape
this battle in the streets. Now they'd
have nowhere to run to, and the situation was going to deteriorate further.



Police cars poured into the street on either end like a pair
of wolf packs on the hunt, each of them doing what they'd been hired to
do. Dozens of New York's Finest poured
out of the cruisers, an array of pistols, rifles and shotguns pointed at the
pair. Someone stepped out of one of the
cars, carrying a bullhorn and repeating Tsu's placement of arrest.



"You've got nowhere to run," Setsuna intoned even
though she knew better; if Fortran chose to fight, there was not going to be
much that her fellow cops would be able to do.
Magic in the Americas was woefully sparse and despite the FBI's
purported encounters with aliens, there wasn't going to be much that they'd be
able to do against someone like, say, Beryl or Galaxia. Perhaps it was folly, or maybe even a simple
plea for the alien to give up peacefully, but it was the last chance that Tsu
could see for a peaceful solution to the dangers at hand.



Any hopes of a peaceful end to the whole situation were
shattered as Fortran shuffled her foot in two distinct lines across the dark
tar of the street. Blue fire glowed
where her foot had been dragged, and it was clear that she was setting up a
spell, but one Tsu wasn't familiar with.
When she traced a circle in the center of them, it became murderously
clear what the girl was doing.



Setsuna turned and screamed at the top of her lungs,
"Get out of here! She's
gonna--" But her warning failed to
register in time as flakes of snow inexplicably rose from the ground in the
location where the two groups of officers had been. It increased more and more to the absolute surprise of all
involved. The surprise turned into
too-late horror as everything immediately flashfroze, encasing everyone in an
icefloe that stood despite the burning heat of a balmy July evening.



Tsu, horrified by what had just occurred, took her hands of
her sword, calling up her magic for the first time in a while. She didn't care who felt it, she didn't care
if the Senshi could feel it on the other side of the world. This...thing...had just hit her fellow
police officers and now she was going to do something about it. Her job as a cop entailed solving the
problem at hand and making sure the populace was safe, but she had a personal
obligation to stop this thing. If she
failed, it would go after Usagi and her family, and that was something that Tsu
wasn't going to put up with.



Meanwhile, Fortran acted against the final obstacle in her
path. As motes of magical power swirled
around her, dancing against her golden skin like a thousand faerie kisses, she
almost looked benign and certainly beautiful.
However, that beauty ended as Fortran pointed her palm once more and
wordlessly released a strike of water magic at Setsuna.



No chance of ending this peacefully or even conventionally,
the former Senshi cut loose with her powers.
Thrusting her hands her hands forward, she cut loose with power that she
hadn't released in what seemed like forever.
*"DEAD SCREAM!"* The
two blasts of force impacted against each other, both fighting for supremacy
for just a second before canceling each other out in a violent shockwave that
shook everything for a several dozen yards around. Anything that wasn't firmly attached to the ground was slammed to
the asphalt and concrete like dominos, and Tsu heard ringing in her ears she
was sure wasn't associated with the police cruisers' sirens.



Not even consciously thinking, she dashed forward, ready to
attack the stranger in her midst. She
was going to have to take down this stranger, and soon; innocent lives were
already taken as a result of this being, and Setsuna was obligated to stop
it. Additionally, this
creature--Fortran, she called herself--knew by now that her opponent was not a
normal human; considering Tsu was already being hunted, that should have been
an indicator to begin with.



Sure enough, the emerald-tressed woman was correct. As she got up, Fortran dodged Tsu's initial
punch and looked at her in a different light.
{{Different parameters than expected.
Subject has above normal reflexes.
Subject also has control over magical abilities. Conditions require alteration for successful
result.}} Fortran's eyes flicked
faster, and when they were done, suddenly things had changed and not for the
better. The alien rushed forward to
meet Tsu, and as she came into range, she threw an impossibly fast array of
hundreds of punches.



Several of them connected, and as Tsu backed up, wiping a
rivulet of blood from her mouth, she wondered at what point her life had turned
into a 3D-video game. Again. "That was pretty good, but I think
you'll have to do better than that!"
Almost instinctively, she raised her hand to the air, preparing to call
forth her ancient power as Sailor Pluto, but that time was long since gone for
her. Catching herself in time, she
summoned a sphere of power, then pointed it at Fortran, screaming,
*"LIGHTNING HEART!"*



From Setsuna's hands erupted a massive bolt of energy, the
gout of power sizzling in its own dynanism and leaving the telltale stench of
disrupted ions as the beam burned through everything in its path, including the
very air itself. Burning with the power
of a million volcanoes, the blast connected against Fortran with the gentleness
and delicacy of a tactical nuclear weapon, the blast wave even worse than the
first. Behind the alien a
heavily-damaged building finally gave into the nature of entropy and collapsed
with an eardrum-splintering roar. Cars,
utility poles, and lampposts turned into spectacular fireworks as they
exploded, leaving slagged metal and fire in their remains. As the energy haze cleared, a being
staggered free of the sizable crater in the street.



Fortran wheezed, the look on her face oddly cute for a deep
frown. {{Modification required: subject
Setsuna Meio not responding to parameters for Plan Modification
E324236W3G. Will initiate Contingency
Plan A35672B357.}} Like a ravenous
tiger, Fortran leapt towards Tsu, a vicious thrust kick coming straight at the
heroine with the speed of a bullet.



Setsuna leapt towards her foe, the acrobatic kick coming
straight at her with little chance of evasion.
The forest-haired woman, however, spun to the side like a top, grabbed
Fortran's back and unceremoniously slammed her straight into the pavement. "You know, you're slipping. I wonder if you'll just give up now, or
force me to kill you."



{{Second modification initiated.}} Raising her hand in a maneuver akin to throwing, Fortran
unleashed a series of energy tendrils that would have been similar to Saturn's
own Ribbon assault, save for the prismatic hues of this one. In any case, the results were the same, as
the streamers of energy devoured anything in its path. Like a pack of ravenous wolves they
descended on Setsuna, and there were enough this time that there was going to
be no way for her to get around this.
With an oddly plain face, Fortran said emotionlessly, {{Estimation:
Setsuna Meio will not be able to defeat Prismatic Spray attack.}} Then she looked directly at Tsu and said,
{{You cannot win, Setsuna Meio. Surrender
now and I will make your deactivation as comfortable as possible.}}



*"NO WAY!"* Setsuna snarled. "You're going to have to do better than
that!" Closing her eyes and
searching out for the onrushing bringers of death, she unsheathed her katana
and began to perform a kata, moving through the memories of thousands of
ages. Somewhere in a past long ago this
magic defense had been performed, somewhere she'd learned it and it would serve
her now. Sweeping the blade through the
dark and burning nighttime air until it shone with a power akin to the attack
coming towards her, she opened her eyes slowly, and quickly brought the sword
into guard position. "Last
chance. You're under arrest, or you're
dead! Believe me, I'm a New York cop,
and when I say you'll be dead, I mean *you'll be DEAD*!"



{{Idle comments do not prove intent,}} Fortran answered.



"Watch me, then."
With a fiendish grin on her face, Tsu moved in against the energy beams
and began to dance among them with sword in hand, attacking as she went. The sword dance allowed her to move like a
blur, the steel blade of the sword like a silver flicker of light as it
countered and parried each of the energy streamers, tearing apart this dark
assault. When she was done, she
sheathed the blade, Iajutsu-style, then moved into a fast-draw position clearly
radiating her challenge.



{{Subject has no desire to surrender. Data incomplete. Must return to operations center for further details.}} Fortran cocked her head once in a move that
seemed all too human, yet the next move was even less so as she thrust both her
hands towards her quarry, both glowing with the same hues as the ribbons from
earlier. To Setsuna she intoned, {{My
parameters will let you exist for the moment, but I must deal with other
situations at the moment. In the
meanwhile, I provide you with a challenge, so I may study your abilities and
provide ample chance for my egress.}}



Tsu's eyes were as dark as matter in the deepest portions of
space, flickering with a sanguine intensity.
"Let's just see you try!"
Raising her blade and screaming a warcry as though she were a kozamurai
on the plains of Miura rather than a detective on the streets of the Big
Apple. Time seemed to flicker, though
not by her intent, and she bolted forward, fully intending to see how deep she
could embed her blade into the head of Fortran. The being before her was emblematic of death; even more so of the
death of Usagi, and no way in hell was Setsuna going to allow that if she had
any choice.



For her response, the alien merely arced her arms back, as
though accepting the strike, or becoming an eagle on the wing. From behind her, a miniature sun burst into
being, the bright globe of light pulsating with a rainbow intensity that
slathered the air in wave after wave of prismatic light. Fortran's body began to light up as well,
magical circles beginning to envelop her on multiple planes, creating a living,
dazzling sculpture of light and flesh that would have been beatific to behold
were it not for the fact that streams of bent light violently tore away from
the alien's body, tentacles of energy racing towards Tsu with a clearly
malignant purpose.



At first, Setsuna was ready to block this latest blow, but
determination soon gave way to concern and then fear as the beams of energy
doubled, squared, cubed, multiplying exponentially to more than any human could
handle, even one born of Senshi skills.
As she furiously continued to hack and slash away at the beams that
continued to race onwards, she realized two things: one, that this was about as
effective as trying to swat endless swarms of bees using a blade of grass; and
two: that if she didn't try, she may as well lay down and die.



As the first building behind her exploded into a prismatic
shower of bricks and dust, it became immediately clear that she wasn't the
target, and that the only thing she was doing, in the end, was protecting
herself. But as this final thought came
into her head, it was too late to do anything about it--the final wave of
energy bore down on her with the brunt of a nuclear weapon and as waves of
unconsciousness settled upon her, she swore two things: she was going to ensure
that her friend would survive, if there was some way that she herself would
live through this.



And, as Tsu's mind mercifully shut down through the haze of
pain: ((if I get my hands on Fortran again, I'm going to tear her to pieces,
one bloody circuit at a time!))



* * *



From the edge of the blast area, two beings looked at each
other, then back at the massive crater that used to be four square blocks of
New York City real estate. The air was
oddly silent, charged with the electric and permeable presence of death. Soon enough that would change, as the world
would move once more and with it, the response from city emergency vehicles as
well as the screams of the wounded and those that outlived their loved ones.



Standing atop the building, behind her masters, Fortran
bowed and said, {{Target designate Setsuna Meio has outlasted my assaults. Analysis: Setsuna Meio will live and begin a
counter assault. Estimation: Target
designate Setsuna Meio will attempt to interfere with Operation LRM.}} After a few more minutes of silence, she
added, {{Request termination of unit Fortran.
I have failed in the disablement of unit Setsuna Meio and even allowed
her to continue operation, as to allow my egress before capture and disablement
became a possibility.}}



>>Do not trouble yourself,<< the first voice
spoke in soothing tones.
>>Currently, we are better off having secrecy on our side. Had Detective Meio captured you, we would
have lost that--she is, after all, a member of the city's police force.<<



]]I concur,[[ the second answered. ]]If there is anyone to blame for your failure, Fortran, it is
I. I had assumed that Detective Meio
had little command of magic. I did not
seek to attempt to gain a better understanding of the situation, and to give
you a more rounded picture of what was occuring.[[ There seemed to be a motion akin to nodding, then the voice
continued. ]]I cannot recommend your
dissolution. You are too valuable to
us, Fortran, and we need your generalship in the command of our forces.[[



{{Yes, my masters. I
will process your commands,}} Fortran replied, straightening herself
again. {{Perhaps I may have to send in
one of the others to attack Setsuna Meio.
Perhaps Cobol, or Sisal. Perl is
still not completely ready for operation, nor is Solaris.}}



>>Perhaps. But
the best thing to do is to lay low for a bit.
We have to give enough time to make this appear to be an isolated
incident, and not to be a serious incident for our global plans.<<



]]Indeed, I agree.
Perhaps a month or two cooling off time would be best. Additionally, that way you could oversee the
training for Perl and Solaris.[[
Nothing more to add, the two mysterious figures disappeared, and as if
on cue, the cacophony of sirens and screams began from below.



Fortran went to the edge of the building, staring towards
the crater she'd created, a sizable dent in the earth that was the tomb of
several hundreds of people. At the
northwest edge was a small, unmistakable dot--the unconcious but otherwise
still alive Tsu Meio. Using her
enhanced vision, Fortran noticed that the woman was still breathing carefully
and with no problem; at most she would spend only a week or two in a hospital,
if that.



Somehing in Fortran seemed to grip at her spine; a feeling
that something, somehow was amiss. She
couldn't explain it and to be honest, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to:
somehow, she felt a connection with those people down there, the very humanity
which she'd just snuffed several hundred members of. Could it be that...? No,
she shook her head; to think that, at the very least, was illogical and silly,
to use a more common term. Yet it
couldn't be denied that she had feelings like humans, and to be honest, how
different was a living, "organic" machine that different from a
living, organic "machine" that normal beings were?



As Fortran opened up a warp hole to where her hideaway was,
she realized that would be a question to ask at another time. She still had her sisters to bring into
being, and to train the youngest two of them.
Perhaps, when she had the chance, she would ask her lover Cobol of some
answers to the whole thing--Cobol, though slightly younger than Fortran, seemed
to be much wiser and had more of a tactical mind than the straightforward
Fortran had. That contrasted deeply
with Sisal's fragility, Perl's vanity or the taciturn silence that was Solaris.



Completing the warp tunnel, Fortran at least realized that
there was something that made her family unique: being all living machines,
none of those below could ever understand how, say, Fortran, eldest of the
sisters, were also at the same time their mothers, since she'd created the rest
of them; or how sisters like Fortran and Cobol were also lovers. That clearly wasn't the human way, and if
some of them knew of their existence, the expressions would be...unsettling to
the biologicals.



But in the end, that was none of their business. And were Fortran's forces to succeed, there
would be nothing biological left on the planet to complain or express outrage,
anyway.



* * *



"You want to do what, Meio?!" Diamante was looking at Tsu as though she'd
a second head. "Look, this has got
to be the most hairball theory that I've ever heard as a cop--and believe me,
I've heard a lot of them. You expect me
to believe there's a Japanese angle in everything that happened in the past two
weeks, and that you think it would be best if we sent you back home on an
INTERPOL pass to continue the investigation?" He ran his hands through his thinning hair and looked at her with
a glance that was somewhere between disbelief and pleading. "Do you realize that you're already at
the center of a media storm: you spent a week in the hospital, were one of only
twelve people to survive whatever the fuck it was that happened down by your
place, and at least one of the survivors saw you fighting that terrorist with a
fuckin' sword? An' if that's not enough
for you, let's talk about the massive boom that leveled four square blocks of
prime real estate and killed over 800 people--and nobody can explain a single
thing about the blast, other than it was big and deadly. And that's just the believable shit--we're
not going to get into the reports of you and magic and robots dressed like
scantily-clad women who fire ice and lasers out of their hands!"



In the chair on the other side of his desk, Tsu, her right
arm still in a sling, look at her boss with a pained expression. "I know it sounds nuts, Cap'n. Believe me, if I weren't in the middle of
this, I'd be just as confused as you.
But you saw what was in my report, and that same witness backed up
everything I had. The media furor is
more focused on why I fought the thing to a standstill, while at least fifty of
our beat cops got slaughtered in the process." For emphasis, she tapped her finger on the file she'd placed on
his desk two days ago, saying, "And you've read everything I've had to
say. This terrorist organization is
based out of Japan, and they're intent on something."



"Yeah, but it still doesn't explain why we're calling
for jurisdiction on this, rather than turning it over to the Feds, or even the
CIA. Granted, I don't want either of
those two groups of morons getting their grubby nubbies on *our* collar, but
even I have to play by the rules. And
unfortunately, all of the arrows are pointing to us turning over
jurisdiction."



"I know that.
But I also know that if we turn it over to the Government, they're just
going to botch it up in legal details.
And don't get me started on if they cooperate with the Japanese national
law enforcement agencies. Remember that
I'm from there, so I have an inkling of how they operate. We're much better off if we get the INTERPOL
green light and I work with someone down in the Tokyo Metro Police Department. More importantly, if these guys have the
intelligence to match their firepower, chances are they'll be watching the big
guys, and not us, which means we'll have an advantage."



"Okay, that I can bite. I'll talk to a few guys I know down at the national branch to get
yours and Drake's paperwork cleared."



"Bill?"
Tsu looked at her boss with apprehension. This wasn't something she hadn't expected.



He gave her a smile.
"Meio, I can't send Andrews, because you two are an item--hell,
wasn't it you two who told me you're staying at his mother's place in the
'burbs 'cause your apartment was leveled in the blast? Personally, I don't care about what you two
do on your off time, since you do your jobs damn good, but the rules are rules,
and I've gotta work with them once in a while.
Sides, I've got him working on the blast case, and he and Carrizola are
going to pick up your end of your case here.
Plus, Drake's your partner."



Tsu shook her head, and the look in her eyes was one close
to tears. "Cap'n, he lost his wife
and kids in the blast. The only reason
he's not dead is because he had to work late that night. He's not ready to go after these guys with a
clear mind. You realize that he may go
vig on me."



"Yeah, I know--but I also know you're his friend, and
you won't let him go apeshit if you can.
More importantly, you two are partners, so you have that influence on
him. Third and most important, I can't
clear single operatives for INTERPOL missions, plain and simple. So you're stuck with him." Diamate picked up the phone, a sign that he
was ending the meeting. "Now g'wan
and get outta here. I gotta make some
calls to get you the clearance. Pack up
your shit and see Tanner down in Accounts tomorrow for whatever you need. 'Soon's I get the clearance, I want you two
on the fuckin' plane and your two butts Tokyo-bound within 24 hours, got
that?"



"Clear as crystal," Tsu said, as she stepped out
of the office, knowing that in truth, the situation was anything but. She was now torn in many different
directions, due to her different allegiances.
While she'd somehow managed to spin a report that passed off Fortran's
group--whoever they were; she still had nothing to go by on that--as some sort
of nutbag Japanese cult/terrorist faction that nevertheless had designs on some
criminal factions in New York. She now
had to find some way of proving that.
Additionally, she had to protect her "family", meaning Usagi
and her family. The truth of the matter
was that they were in grave danger, and even with the safety precautions they'd
taken over the years, the threat was still very real. And lastly, there was Bill, who was only being held together at
the moment by his job. One person who'd
looked at the broken man already said that Bill had died when Marcy and the
kids did; it was now Tsu's job to put him back together. But could she do that while doing everything
else? Or would she have to drag him
into her world, so to speak, to have him back her up on what clearly was insane
at best?



She wasn't sure at all, and the questions that kept popping
up more than the answers made her feel no less comfortable about the whole
thing. But, like it or not, she'd
placed herself in this situation and was now going to have to find a way to get
herself back out of it. As she went
back to her desk, she was just going to have to figure out how.



* * *



In the guestroom at his mother's place, Ted put his arms
around Tsu. "Hon, you've been
awfully quiet tonight. Feeling
trepidation about the trip?"



Tsu nodded, but for entirely different reasons than what she
was about to tell the man she loved.
"I hadn't expected the Captain to move so quickly on it. I mean, to fly out tomorrow evening? I was expecting at least three more days to
prepare, not to mention to figure out how I'm going to deal with
Bill." ((And how I'm going to make
all of this mesh together seamlessly, not to mention how I'm going to live down
lying to everyone,)) she added silently.



"You'll do it, Setsuna," he answered. "You have a way of being able to pull
everything off with not a problem at all.
It's like you've got some magic power or something. Hell, if you could survive that explosion
with only a scratch or two, then you can pull off the rest of this and put
those bastards behind bars." The last he punctuated by squeezing her
tenderly, holding her close to him as a sign of how much he loved her.



"Thank you," she murmured as she returned the
embrace. For a minute, things seemed to
gel together, and she almost believed that she could pull it off. But there was some pieces of the puzzle
missing, and without those links, it would be nigh impossible to get the whole
picture put together.



As though he hadn't stopped talking, he added, "One
thing, though: you'd better come back soon, so that I can fulfill the rest of
the stuff that comes with this."
Reaching into his pocket, he fished out a small box and opening it,
placed it in her hand.



Setsuna didn't even have to ask what it was. "But I thought you didn't want to get
married, all that about us being cops and that it would be too hard on us and
stuff."



"I was wrong," he murmured. "Watching Bill bury Marcy and the
kids...it got me thinking. We don't
have long lives in this world, and we have to make the best of it. Maybe just us living together isn't enough
anymore, Tsu. Maybe it's time we took
it a step farther."



In response, Setsuna took the ring out of the pouch and put
it on her finger. It was a bit
oversized, but maybe she could get Naru to resize it while she was in
Japan. "I think it looks nice
there," she cooed, putting her hand out and taking a look at it. "But 'Setsuna Andrews'? It's going to take a bit to get used to
that."



Ted smiled affably.
"You have all the time you'll ever need to get used to it," he
said, smiling. Taking her hand, he
brought her out of the bedroom so that they could share the news with his
mother and family. Tsu happily went
along, pushing the dark thoughts away for the moment. Right now, she was just happy to have a part of her own life on
its track; there would be more to worry about, tomorrow.



((But best leave tomorrow to that time. Tonight is now, and tonight I am engaged to
be married.)) As she smiled winsomely
while Ted's mother fussed over her soon to be daughter-in-law, Tsu could only
imagine how her friends back home and here felt on the occasions they'd gone
through this, and how the future would turn out for them--herself and her
future husband...



...a future, she had to admit, that she never would have had
had she remained as Sailor Pluto. But
Sailor Pluto was a different person now, and Tsu Meio was a different person,
too--one that, at the moment, was far happier than she'd been in ages.



* * *



{{So, is the strike ready?}} Fortran asked Cobol, as she
broke from their kiss.



Cobol nodded, eyeing her sister/mother/lover/leader/whatever
with barely tamped-down emotions. Cobol
was excited, as being with Fortran and planning operations were the two most
important things in her life. Running
her hands through her short, wire-like hair, her rippling eyes settled on the
holographic map in the center of the room.
{{Yes. We have several
contingencies ready for Operation LRM, each set up depending on where we catch
Target Designate Tsukino Usagi. You
will move in and disable the primary target, while Sisal will provide
additional support in liquidating ancillary targets. I will deal with eliminating electronic surveillance as well as
countermeasures and electronic warfare, while Perl will deal with any
biological interference. Solaris will
remain at my side in the unlikely event that additional support is required.}}



{{What are the potential opposition?}}



{{Analysis indicates nothing more than standard law
enforcement. Military forces are too
far away to be effective against us, and standard law enforcement is far too
weak.}} Cobol's eyes rippled red
instead of their normal gray, and she added, {{Conjecture: there are still
paramilitary forces that can be used against us, such as the organization known
as the Sailor Senshi.}}



{{Data available?}}
Fortran's eyes narrowed. If they
were a threat, they needed to be dealt with.
She'd already suffered one humiliating loss at the hands of a
superhuman, even though her masters indicated that she was not to blame. She would not be caught again.



{{Scant data available.
I will detail Solaris to search for anything new that we may have. Estimated time until window of attack is
36.28 hours. Adequate time for our
sister to come up with anything new. As
for current data, I will have that uplinked to your wetware in 32.56
nanoseconds via wireless protocol.}}



{{Download the data to your own file matrices and
hold.}} Turning away from her
companion, the being faced another one of their kind. {{Sisal, status report on the seeds.}}



Sisal, oddly quiet, bowed to her senior, holding a look on
her face that some people would have called cute, had the being been
human. {{They are weakening. Seed designates Ada, Erlang and Occam have
ceased functioning. Candidate Obliq is
not bonding well to their hosts; she may die as well. Only Solaris and Pascal are bonding well enough, and of that,
only Solaris is nearing complete operation.}}
Unspoken in Sisal's flashing eyes was the frustration of not being able
to save what was left of their sisterhood.
When Cobol was born ten years back, she only had the power to create
nine seeds to spawn clones of herself.
So far, none of the other active sisters had the replication ability,
and it was looking more and more as though they would be all that was left.



{{Continue operations,}} Fortran commanded. {{Also task Perl to continue with Solaris'
training, and as soon as feasible, begin data search for supporting information
regarding Data Line 342565467A4526-3Q79 for Operation LRM.}} Looking at Cobol, Fortran said, {{Cobol and
I will be back shortly. She and I will
go interface and dataswap on a bacterial data-transport level.}} With that, Fortran took Cobol's hand and
both women left the room.



If either had turned around, they would have seen the slightly
shocked look on Sisal's face. While
Perl and Solaris were too young to understand what that meant (neither had
begun to pick up on biological nuances yet), Sisal knew her older sisters'
euphemism--the term meant sex. It was
amazing, to use a biological expression, on how, well, human the older sisters
were, in their actions and functions--more so than the younger three. Maybe it was out of all of them, only Cobol
had reproductive functions and had created them all. Maybe it was because of the special biological subsequencing that
only Fortran and Cobol shared; something that the others were missing. Maybe it might have been even (odd as it
was) because none of the others had ever experienced such a powerful emotion as
love. The answers were legion, and none
of them pointed to a reason why things were the way they were for the older
sisters.



But that was a puzzle for Sisal to figure out for a later
time. Perhaps there would be someone to
help her to figure it out in the way that her older sisters were.



* * *



On the plane and somewhere over the Rocky Mountains, Setsuna
was reading over the latest set of notes that Jim Arban had given her regarding
the case. He'd been a wealth of
information and he and his wife had become good friends with she and Ted. But more importantly, though he didn't know
it, he was a link to the past: his near-instinctive grasp of ancient languages,
Tsu had discovered through small amounts of magic, that he was a reincarnation
from the Silver Millennium. Regardless,
he'd become a good friend and was invaluable to her on this case:



====

Tsu,



Enclosed is some extra data I've discovered on
Atlantean. It seems that archeologists
in Egypt have recently uncovered a codex of data that far predates known human
history. Details haven't been released
to the public, but the reason I'm giving it to you is because, oddly enough, it
seems to tie in with your investigation.



The codex has a single line that reads in English:
"Those of the Connected will destroy those of the Millennium, and the
Queen of the Moon and her society will fall to the Regents of the
Ether." I've not a clue of what it
means, but maybe it would help, especially in light of the Moon Queen angles
you've asked me to investigate for you.
Copies of the pictures sent to me by a colleague at the excavation site
are enclosed.



Of course, this may sound funny, but somehow this all seems
so familiar to me, as though I've come across it before. If I believed in reincarnation, I'd venture
so far as to say I'm getting a case of déjà vu. But of course, that's a silly notion, isn't it?



Meredith and I hope that you have a safe trip back to Japan,
and we'll watch out for Ted while you're gone.
Just don't have too much fun back there! :)



Cheers,

Jim

====



"Still reading that letter?" Bill asked, opening
up one sleepy eye.



"Yes. Beats
watching the in-flight movie, and I can't sleep."



"Neither can I.
Nightmares 're still too fresh."
Before she could ask, he added, "I know what you're going to say,
Tsu, and to be honest, I don't blame you.
If I were in your shoes, I'd have recommended that I not go,
either. You have very valid fears that
I could slip the leash and go gun happy there." He gave her a weary half-smile and added, "Nevertheless, I
am a cop. I can't afford to go out for
revenge because someone killed my wife and children. I have to think of all the others that died as well, and that
they're counting on me to issue payback...legally...so they can find rest up in
heaven." He ran his hands across
his beard and grunted. "Yes, I'm a
mess. Yes, I appreciate the fact that
you're worried, and I'm glad you are.
But I'll make it though, don't you worry. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to get some sleep
again. And so should you--it's a
helluva long flight, you know?"



"Don't remind me," she mock-moaned. "I'm all too familiar with the
length." Setting aside the letter
and watching her partner try to get some sleep, she thought about what, in
several hours, she was about to get into.
It was a hot button situation, but hot on the scale of things she hadn't
dealt with in years, and the stakes were far higher and more personal than
they'd ever been for a NYPD Detective or the former Sailor Pluto. But the option--luna regia morte--was one
she was not willing to accept. Pulling
the skyphone off its cradle, she dialed her calling card number into it,
followed by a phone number she knew all-too-well:



"Ah, Konnichi wa.
Hi, Ranma!" she exclaimed in Japanese, glad to find the person on
the phone that she wanted to talk to.
"Hi, it's Setsuna. Yeah, I
know, it's been a while since I last called.
How's everything?"



"Great," the person on the other end
answered. "How's things with
you?"



"Long story," she answered, "but I'll have
all the time in the world to tell you, soon enough. Listen, I'm coming back to Japan on a business trip, and I need
you, if possible, to meet me at the airport.
I also need you to keep this a secret from Usagi, ne?"



"Sure, I can hide it from 'Sagi, no prob," he
replied. "What for, though?"



"A surprise, of course. Look, here's what I need you to do...."



To be continued in

Prologue 3: Battleground Shinjuku

and the main series!



Author's Notes:

More of the same.
Get used to it. ^_^