Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Moon Princess in Gotham ❯ Flames of Mars ( Chapter 5 )

I don't own Batman or any related characters-they are the property D.C. Comics and Warner Brothers. I also don't own Sailor Moon-and if you thought I did, you belong in Arkham Asylum with the management and union leaders at GM.

 

Moon Princess in Gotham

By

Darknight Squire

Chapter four: Flames of Mars

Ryu Hino was tending the sacred fire at his shrine when he felt his left leg below the knee throb. He'd been a Marine sergeant during the Korean War and the wound was a gift from a North Korean sniper. It only throbbed like that if it was about to rain or-.

The short bald Japanese American Shinto priest turned to the window. Sure enough, the Batman was standing in the window. And with him was a small red and green clad figure Hino had read about but never met.

He stood up and walked over to his visitors. “I see you got my message,” he said to Batman.

The bat-cowled man smiled briefly. “It's not everyday I read the Gotham Gazette classifieds and find see an ad written in Japanese Kanji calling for me.”

Hino looked at Robin. “Oh forgive me, where are my manners? You must be Robin, that Boy Wonder the newspapers have been talking about.” Robin only looked at him in incomprehension.

“He doesn't speak Japanese,” the Batman said.

Hino thumped his head. Hino no baka! he thought to himself, and then switched to English. “I'm sorry. Whenever the Batman comes by, we talk in Japanese. He actually speaks it better than I do.”

The Batman waved his hand. “You don't send a message for me in the papers without grave reason. What did you wish to speak to me about.”

Hino's face suddenly went grave. “Surely you've read about those busloads full of girls who've been disappearing.” The Batman nodded. “All of them were last seen leaving this shrine-they came here to buy the charms we've been selling lately-and the police have repeatedly come by to question me. I've told them everything I know, which is really nothing, but they keep coming each time a bus disappears. If this keeps happening, soon no-one will come to my shrine, and me and my granddaughter could lose our home.”

“I'll look into the matter.” The Batman turned to leave. “Robin and I have pressing business elsewhere tonight, but we'll do what we can.”

As the two drove away in the Batmobile, Robin looked at Batman. “That guy-how did he come to be an informant for you?”

“I knew him a little as Bruce Wayne when his son-in-law Harvey Dent was the district attorney. Antonio Moroni, a gangster whose son Harvey was prosecuting lured him away and, unknown to Dent, sent thugs to kidnap Hino, Harvey's wife Kimiko, and their daughter. I arrived and was able to save the girl and Hino, but Kimiko had fallen into a tank full of industrial waste and Harvey…Harvey became something far worse than Moroni.”

 

“Congratulations, Jadeite,” Queen Beryl said from her throne to her general, “now we have Sailor Mercury to contend with as well as Sailor Moon.”

“My Queen, I apologize-.”

“Silence!” Queen Beryl roared. “Not only that, they were aided by a mortal boy who, I'm told, was trained by that Batman you spoke so contemptuously of! Your youma couldn't lay a finger on a child! What would happen if your other youma had to face the one who trained him, I wonder!”

Jadeite gritted his teeth. Obviously there was a leak in his network, and when he found out who that youma was, it would die. “Your Majesty, all the boy did was distract and confuse my youma Gorgana. And I did not anticipate the arrival of Sailor Mercury. But the mistake I made was draining the humans' energy while still in their own dimension. For my new plan, I shall take the humans here and then drain them right here in the Dark Kingdom!”

Queen Beryl smiled as she contemplated Jadeite's proposal. “Very well Jadeite. But do not fail me this time. Even my patience has its limits!”

And Jadeite faded from sight.

 

“Let me get this straight,” said Dick as he and Luna walked down the street towards Serena's school, “you once visited Krypton? The planet where Superman came from?”

“Yes. On a special diplomatic mission for Queen Serenity.” Luna sighed at her memory. Krypton had been such a lovely peaceful world and she had been saddened to learn of its destruction. But at least something of it survived in the person of Superman.

“Okay,” Dick said hoping to change the subject, “this queen Serenity, her daughter is that princess you spoke of?”

Luna nodded. “Your sister Serena, Amy, and the other Senshi yet to be revived are the reincarnations of the Princess's guardians.”

“You sure Meatball Head wasn't the court jester?”

Luna chuckled; she was actually starting to like this boy. “She couldn't turn into Sailor Moon otherwise. But there still remains what to do about now that you know about us.”

“I won't tell Bruce.” Dick said. Bruce had been angry when Dick told him about revealing learning Sailor Moon's identity and promising not to tell anyone but hadn't pressed him. “He may find out on his own, you know. He is a great detective, after all.”

“Yes there is that.” They stopped and Luna looked Dick square in the face. “It really would be better if you and the Batman didn't interfere. You may be capable by the standards of ordinary humans but none of your acrobatic or martial arts skills or those contraptions you carry in your belts are any good against the kind of enemy we face.”

“Don't underestimate Bruce,” Dick said. “Or me, for that matter. Besides, Bruce is determined to see that no one turns Gotham City into a battleground if he can help it, and if there's any way I can make that person who was pretending to be Boss Zucco pay for killing my parents, I'll do it.”

Luna let out a short breath. She wished Serena showed the same kind of earnestness her brother did. “Oh very well,” she said and did a back flip. “Here, take this.”

Dick picked up the domino mask Luna was pawing. “But I already have a-.”

“But this is no ordinary mask.” Luna said. “When you wear it, you will be able to identify youma disguised as humans. It will also allow you to see objects up to 200 feet in total darkness by the heat they give off, up to 500 yards in total daylight. It also has special microscopic and x-ray capabilities. You will even be able to see through lead-something Superman can't do.”

Dick scratched his head in puzzlement. “Why are you giving me this?”

Luna gave a perfectly human shrug. “If you are to be, shall we say, Batman's liaison with the Sailor Senshi, you may as well be able to do more than distract or confuse the enemy. And another thing that mask can do is that it generates a disguise field that will keep people from recognizing you as Dick Grayson when you wear it. Amy's seen you as both Dick and Robin. How long do you think it will be before she realizes you are the same size, same hair color, and same facial structure? And she also likely knows you were a circus acrobat.”

Dick nodded; he had a healthy respect for Amy's brains. “Very well,” he said.

The two of them came on to Crossroads Junior High, and saw Serena, Amy, Molly, and a couple of other girls just leaving the building. “And where do you think you're going, Meatball Head?” he smirked.

Serena glared at her brother. “I'm just going with these girls to the Cherry Hill shrine in Little Tokyo. They sell these charms that can bring you good luck or help someone finding love.” As she said that last one Serena's eyes drifted and she thought of Tuxedo Mask and Andrew Kyle, the supervisor at the video arcade.

“Remember what Bruce said after you brought home that test with a 45 on it?” Dick said. Serena hung her head; Bruce normally was an easygoing man and patient with her faults, but took a firm stand when it came to her grades. Until she came home with a better test score, Dick had to watch over her when not a home or at school.

Dick looked at Amy. “Don't tell me you believe in that nonsense.”

“Not really,” Amy said, “but having one of those charms couldn't hurt. Students in Japan buy them all the time to help get good grades, I've read.”

 

The girls, Dick, and Luna arrived at the Cherry Hill Shrine's gate just as another bunch was leaving. The man that Dick remembered as Ryu Hino came out, looked at them, and cried out “Well, ladies. Come back for some more charms, eh?”

“Grandpa!” A girl around Serena and Amy's age who looked not-quite Japanese and wore clothes similar to Hino's came out the shrine doorway. “Why don't you put on your glasses?”

Hino looked at the girl, who was obviously his granddaughter. “Because I don't need `em.” He then turned to Dick. “Well, young miss, what kind of charm would you like?”

“Grandpa!” the girl roared while Dick's face turned red and Serena snickered. “That's a BOY! And you say you don't need glasses!”

“And I'm only here because I have to watch my sister,” Dick murmured, although that wasn't strictly true. He knew he might find something that he could report to Bruce about concerning those missing girls. Best to look around for anything suspicious.

A young blonde man dressed like Hino and his granddaughter came walking past the group. Hino's granddaughter suddenly whipped out a Japanese spirit ward and sent it flying-straight at Serena.

“Look out sis!” Dick cried as he grabbed the ward and shoved Serena aside-directly into the shrine wall.

 

Serena blinked, and stood up, her vision blurry. She closed her eyes, shook her head, and then opened them again.

Sitting around her were Amy, Molly, Dick, and the shrine girl. Molly and Amy looked concerned, Dick and the girl worried.

“Serena, I-I'm s-s-sorry.” Dick got out. He was so used to insulting his sister over her clumsiness and other flaws that apologizing to her came hard.

“Me too.” The girl said. “How are you feeling?”

“Except for a small headache, okay. I'm Serena. Serena Grayson.”

The girl smiled. “I'm Raye Hino. I'm sorry, about that. I just thought I felt an evil presence and-.”

“Maybe she was aiming for you,” Serena stuck out her tongue at Dick.

“Or maybe it was just a STUPID presence,” Dick retorted.

Raye suddenly looked Serena, then Dick. “You're two aren't the circus kids that Bruce Wayne took in, are you? I read about it in the papers.”

“Yeah, why do you ask?” said Dick.

Raye's shoulders slumped. “Bruce was a close friend of my parents. But now Mom's dead and Dad-Dad's in Arkham. And I hope he never gets out.”

“Why not?” Serena asked. “Don't you want to see him?”

“Not what he's become,” Raye said darkly.

Luna looked over at the girl. I've got that feeling again, she realized.

 

At the shrine's charm-selling booth, Jadeite smiled to himself. Why hadn't he thought of something like this before, he wondered. He didn't have to kill anyone to assume this identity and he was able to use what he'd picked up from his former tool Jervis Tetch.

The Dark Kingdom's general looked down at his energy-gathering orb. It was filling up with the energy of the girls who'd bought those charms. Soon, he'd be in Queen Beryl's good graces again.

 

Raye waved goodbye to Serena, Dick, Molly and Amy. Luna ran out from behind Raye to join the group. Raye blinked, she hadn't noticed the cat at all.

Just then she looked down and saw a strange red pen-like object. What is this?

The girls and Dick came down to the curb to wait for the bus, where another group of girls who'd just bought charms were waiting.

“Oh darn,” Serena moaned, “we forgot to buy charms!”

Amy looked at the girls who had. “Those girls look like they're out of it.”

“I wish I could join them.”

“Why sis?” Dick chimed in. “You're always out of it anyway.”

Serena just glowered at her brother.

The bus drove up to the curb. Dick suddenly got a weird feeling, as if something wasn't right. Quickly making sure no one could see him, he pulled out the mask Luna gave him and looked at the bus driver. Putting the mask back in his pocket, he cried out, “Hey girls!” They looked at him, puzzled. “Don't get on that bus!”

“Why not, Dick?” Amy asked.

“Just don't.” He reached his pocket and handed Molly a cell-phone. “Here Molly, call your mom on this.”

As Molly dialed, Dick looked at Serena. “That bus driver's a youma!” he whispered.

Serena looked at the girls who were getting on board. “How do you know, Dick?”

“Because of a special mask I gave him.” Luna chimed in after she made sure Molly was still talking on the cell phone.

“Wait a minute,” Serena looked at her brother. “How can you afford a cell phone?”

Dick smirked. “Unlike some people I don't blow all my allowance at the arcade.”

Molly hand Dick's cell-phone back to him. “Mom say's she'll be here soon. But I don't understand-.”

The buss with the girls inside drove off and all of a sudden a strange `hole' opened up in the air in front of it and the bud disappeared.

“I guess that explains what happened to those missing girls,” Dick said.

Molly looked at her friend's brother. “How-how did you kno-.”

“Just a feeling.” Dick shrugged.

Molly's mother came in a couple of minutes-her jewelry store wasn't far from Little Tokyo- and Serena rushed back into the shrine.

She saw Raye sitting over the fire, waving a staff and saying something in Japanese. “Raye!” she called out. The young priestess turned to look at her. “Raye there's something wrong with the shrine bus-!”

“Why are you calling it the shrine bus?” Raye shot back. “It doesn't belong to us. You're just like the police and those reporters who-!”

“Come on, Meatball Head!” Serena saw Dick standing behind her. “The bus may stop by their shrine, but they don't know anything.”

Raye glared at the Grayson siblings as they ran out. “Go away don't come back.”

 

Dick and Serena went back to the curb where Amy and Luna were waiting. Already there were more girls waiting. Amy was analyzing them with a special computer Luna gave her. “They're all being drained of energy,” she said, “and it looks like it's those charms that are doing it.”

“Here comes another bus,” Dick said. “And I'll bet that driver's a youma too.”

Luna looked at Serena. “It's time for Sailor Moon!”

Suddenly afraid, Serena shook her head. “Don't wanna, don't wanna!” she sobbed. Dick groaned and Luna shook her head.

“Look, it's stopping.” Amy called out. “And those girls are getting right on.”

“Come on sis,” Dick whispered, “I hate to say it, but we need you to stop them.”

Serena quickly gathered herself. “Okay. But wait.” She pulled out her disguise pen. “Disguise Power! Turn me into a Meter Maid!” Light swirled around Serena, and all of a sudden she looked like a young woman dressed in a parking attendant's uniform.

“Well, how do I look?” she asked.

“Well, better than nothing,” Luna muttered.

Quickly Serena got onto the bus, followed by Luna and Dick. “Stop!” she cried. “This bus has been making improper parking and must be condemned!”

The driver looked at Serena, and her face twisted into a hideous smile. “Is it now?” The door suddenly closed behind the Graysons, and the bus drove off, into the space-time portal that opened up.

*****

Jadeite sat in his small room at the Cherry Hill shrine, when Raye suddenly came in. She had seen the bus disappear, and got the suspicion this drifter who'd been staying with them since these events started may be behind it.

“Jed!” she cried out. “So you are the one behind these disappearances!”

Jadeite turned to her and smiled evilly. “So I am, he said. He snapped his fingers and suddenly a small portal opened up. “And you're coming with me!”

 

The bus drove into the other dimension, and suddenly was floating on air. Serena's fear of heights got the best of her and she swooned and fell at the door. Sneering, the driver opened it and dropped Serena and Luna to the ground. Brushing aside Dick, who'd just grabbed the door railing to hang on, she jumped out onto the ground after them.

Suddenly Jadeite's portal opened up overhead, and he dropped Raye to the ground. “Take care of her, Lanai!” he cried as he stepped back to through the portal.

Lanai's body shifted and twisted, into a strange cross between a human woman and a hairless ape. “Well,” she called out to Serena as she grabbed a hold of Raye and held a sharp claw to the young priestess's throat. “Surrender your energy or your friend gets it!”

“Not so fast, ugly!” Lanai looked up and suddenly felt two green steel-heeled elf shoes crash into her face. Staggering back, she let go of Raye and saw a red and green clad boy with a yellow cape standing in front of her. “Impudent brat!” She swung at him, but he dodged with the greatest of ease.

Luna went up to Serena, who was whining a fit. “Serena, it's time for Sailor Moon!”

“No don't want to!”

Irritably, Luna nipped her in the leg. “Serena, you've got to!”

Robin kept dodging and leaping over Lanai's punches, swipes and kicks. Quickly he grabbed into his utility belt picked small vial. “Take that, King-Kong's one night stand!”

Lanai screamed as the acid splashed over her face. It couldn't eat away her flesh like a human's, but it did burn.

“Serena!” Luna cried out. “You brother can't keep this up forever. Sooner he's going to wear himself out!”

“Okay.” Serena grabbed the brooch on her chest. “Moon Prism Power, Makeup!”

Robin quickly grabbed a hold of Raye. She looked at him and blinked. “You-your that kid who-.”

“-who follows Batman.” Robin finished for her. “Now c'mon, we've got to get out of here!”

They ran over to where Serena had been, and then suddenly Raye's jaw dropped. “Sailor Moon!” she cried out.

“Right.” Sailor Moon nodded then looked at Lanai. “I'm Sailor Moon, the champion of love and Justice, and in the name of the Moon, I shall punish you!” Immediately she pulled off her tiara. “Moon Tiara Action!”

She threw her discuss of light, and then all of a sudden Lanai reached out and grabbed it. “Foolish girl,” she snickered, “did you really think you could beat me with your little toy?”

“Moon Tiara Capture!” Sailor Moon said, and all off a sudden the tiara grew and gabbed a hold of the youma, binding her in place.

Sailor Moon looked at Robin. “You can't do that with your batarang, can you?”

Luna looked at Raye. “Hurry now! Take that red pen you found and say Mars Power Makeup!”

Raye stared down at Luna. “How come you talk?”

“Never mind that now!” Luna said. “Just do it!”

Raye held the pen. “Mars Power, Makeup!

Red flamed shot out of the pen and encircled ray. All of a sudden she was dressed in a red-faced white leotard and fuku, with a tiara like Sailor Moon's.

Robin blinked behind his mask. “That girl Raye's one of you too?”

“She is Sailor Mars, the Senshi of Fire.” Luna turned to Sailor Mars. “Now shout Mars Fire Ignite!”

“Mars Fire Ignite!” Sailor Mars suddenly felt her hand join with her index fingers pointing to Lanai. Live fire shot from her hands, and burned the youma to ash.

 

In his room at the shrine, Jadeite was watching the energy collect, when all of a sudden his energy ball disappeared. “Blast!” he cursed. “Her Majesty id not going to like this one bit!”

 

Sailor Moon picked up her Tiara. “Okay we've beat that monster, now what do we do?”

“Look Sailor Moon!” Sailor Mars cried out. “The portal-it's closing!”

“How are we going to get up there?” Robin scratched his head.

Suddenly they heard a bus horn honk and saw three buses-obviously the ones that had taken the girls to this strange dimension floating up towards the portal. Suddenly a face wearing a top hat and white mask looked out the driver's window of the lead bus.”

“It's Tuxedo Mask!” Sailor Moon cried out joyfully.

Sailor Mars looked at Robin. “Does she like this guy or something?”

“I guess.”

“Hey, Sailor-Girls and Boy Wonder, I've got all the other girls in here. Care to join the party?”

Sailor Moon touched her tiara to her broach. “Moon Tiara Grappler!” she cried out, and the tiara shot up and grabbed the lead bus door.

Robin took two grapnels from his utility belt and tossed one to Sailor Mars. “Just press the button to fire, and press again to rewind.” He then fired his own grapnel to the lead bus and Sailor Mars followed suit.

 

Amy looked anxiously as she watched the portal get smaller and smaller. “Please,” she whispered, as if in prayer, “please let my friends be all right.”

A horn beeped loudly and a bus appeared, followed by another, and then a third. And inside the front bus, next to the driver, were Sailor Moon and Robin!

 

Raye looked at Robin. “You observe us for the Batman and report back to him, right?”

The boy wonder nodded. They, Serena, Amy and Luna were in her bedroom at the shrine. He was in an ordinary shirt and jeans, but wore his mask underneath a pair of sunglasses. “Don't worry, I didn't tell him who you are. I keep both our secret from you and yours from him.” Of course Serena and Luna both knew the other secret and if Amy had guessed she wasn't telling.

“Fair enough. The Batman saved mine and Grandpa's life once. And can you help teach us some of those moves I saw you do?”

“Sure,” Robin said. “You should certainly be a lot better than Serena over there.”

“Why you-!” Serena rushed over at Robin who jumped over her head and landed right behind her. She turned around, and landed on the floor face first as he tripped her.

Raye looked at Amy as Serena chased Robin out of the shrine. “The way he moves-he's certainly a lot more graceful than that clutz.”

Amy nodded. “Too bad that skill has to go to such a jerk.”

End of Chapter Four

Okay, I made Raye Two-Face's daughter. I want to know what you think. Praise me or flame me, it doesn't matter.

In case you are wondering, Dick is NOT a reincarnated Lunarian. He's just an ordinary sixth-grader with phenomenal acrobatic talent.

In the next chapter: Jadeite opens up a casino hoping to drain the energy from the exited gamblers and then from the fear and panic caused by a homicidal clown blowing it up in The Joker Is Wild!

Omake:

The girls, Luna, Artemis, and Tuxedo Mask followed the blue and black clad man who called himself Nightwing down the long corridor. They entered a room where on a platform lay the sleeping bodies of a thirtyish looking man and woman.

“Here,” Nightwing said, “are the Rulers of New, Gotham Neo-King Endymion and my sister Neo-Queen Serenity.” The girls all gasped in amazement. The man was dressed in what looked like a fancier version of Tuxedo-Mask's outfit, and the woman, in her gown and jeweled tiara, could be none other than Serena.

“But,” Serena said, “if she's me, and you're her brother, than that means you're-.”

Nightwing touched the side of his face. His blue domino mask dissolved and while the face underneath had matured with age and experience there was no mistaking the boyish cockiness in his eyes.

Rini squealed with delight as she ran up to him and jumped into his arms. “Uncle Dick!”