Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor X ❯ SX29: Let's Roll ( Chapter 29 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Sailor X #29 Let's Roll (*)

By: John Brengman

Chiba Slums - Yotochib Megacity

Fukuhara Dojo

The young man clothed in a simple white uniform walked softly through
the training area. Around him flowed the noises of the crowded room as
trainees practiced their growing skills in the various martial arts.
All of it was strictly regulated by the dojo master of course, and the
shouts of ki and the subsequent impacts of feet against wooden poles
were completely in synch. The young man spared a glance toward the
sensei watching these proceedings. The black-clothed man smiled grimly
as he gazed at the training session, ignoring the man who followed the
narrow path through the center of the training floor. Likewise, the
trainees didn't seem to notice the intruder. The shouts and the
thudding of foot against wood were crisp and clear.

The young man brushed aside a translucent curtain and stepped into a
short, dark hallway. The only light came from the flicker of the
candles that sat in small alcoves set into the walls. The man climbed
a stairway that rose sharply in a spiral.

The man soon found himself in front of a simple white door and he
rapped three times on its wooden surface.

"Come in, Tetsuo-kun," an almost whispery voice said form behind the
door.

Tetsuo quietly opened the door and slipped into the room. The room was
as dark as the hallway and staircase had been, except that the yellow
flame of the candles flickered occasionally because of a breeze that
blew in from a lone open window. Through the window, the gleaming
lights of the city sprawl could be seen.

An older man sat in the lotus position in front of the window, his
back to the door. Tetsuo paused when he saw this, but then he
remembered that the sensei in the dojo and all of the students would
protect the man in front of him....as he would.

Tetsuo walked to within a short distance of the older man and bowed.

"Master Noboru," Tetsuo said coldly. "Oyabun Yoshiro-san has made a
decision about Marik-chan."

The old man did not move. In fact, the silence seemed to indicate that
he had not heard the younger man. Tetsuo was about to speak again when
he was interrupted.

"You have the package?"

"Yes."

"Is it good news or bad?"

Tetsuo knew that he should not open a package from the oyabun to
Marik, but Noboru had asked, and Marik had failed while on the orders
of Noboru. The package from the oyabun could have very easily been
meant for Noboru.

The rectangular-shaped package opened with a soft creaking sound
revealing nothing but an empty box.

"The news is good," Tetsuo replied.

At that point, Noboru rose to his feet. He was a good half-foot taller
than Tetsuo and soon towered over the men. "Good," he said. "Take the
package to him and inform him of Oyabin-san's apparent good mood."

"Yes," Tetsuo bowed, then started to leave.

"Tetsuo..."

Tetsuo turned around. "Yes?"

"Your business with Oyabun-san is finished?" Noboru asked.

"Yes," came the reply.

"Then resume your position in the family," Noboru commanded.

"Yes, Father," Tetsuo replied. He then turned again and left the room.

With a sigh, Noboru turned his attention back to the lights of the
Yotochib Megacity. As he clasped his hands in front of him, he looked
down at them. A couple digits on each hand were missing. If he closed
his eyes and concentrated, he could almost feel the parts of his
fingers that failing the oyabun had cost him.

It was not wise to fail the oyabun. Marik had just learned that lesson
for the first time. Noboru hoped that there would be no need to teach
that lesson again.

Hartford Airport

Hartford, CT - USA

The shuttle raced away into the blue skies above the airport, and a
security shuttle was dispatched to intercept. As the pursuer drew near
to the runaway, a communications channel was opened.

"Security Shuttle 22 to unidentified shuttle, land immediately or you
will be fired on."

In answer, a small cylinder-like device dropped from the bottom of the
escaping shuttle and two blue bolts of energy spewed from it. The
bolts slammed into the security shuttle and flowed over its metal
hull. The engine of the ship erupted in dark smoke and the ship veered
away.

The runaway shuttle angled its way northeast toward its target.

==> SM <==

Logan Airport

Boston, MA - USA

"Good morning, this is your captain speaking. I'd like to take this
opportunity to welcome all of you to Flight 117 from Boston to
Seattle, a flight that will take about four hours to complete. Please
remain seated until the caution sign has been turned off, and follow
the directions of the flight crew at any time.

"We hope you enjoy your flight, and thank you for choosing National
Airlines."

With that, the giant 797 jumbo-jet started its journey across the
continent.

==> SM <==

United Nations Headquarters

New York City - USA

"Whew," Haruka said with a sigh as she and Michiru emerged from the
rooftop door into the blustery wind. The shuttle that would whisk the
two women away to the Moon Palace and a hot bath sat a few feet away
on the building's helipad.

"I know what you mean," Sandra said with a sigh as she held the door
open for Amy. "I thought I was bad in an argument, but these
people..." She looked back at the door as it closed as though she
thought someone might burst through it.

"We have to be patient," Amy replied quietly. "The Unity Treaty means
that the nations of the world will have to give up sovereignty in some
areas to an organization that no one knew existed five years ago. If
the Luna Foundation had not done its work on the environmental
disaster we face, the opposition would have been much worse."

"Still," Sandra said. "The representatives from southeast Asia didn't
have to be so mean..." At about that time, the four women got to the
waiting shuttle and were proceeding to get aboard.

"Well," Michiru said. "I hope I was able to stop some of the damage
from being done. I tried my best."

"The problem is, time is running out," Sandra said coldly. "Like it or
not, at some time soon, the people of the world are going to fall
asleep and wake up in the thirtieth century."

"I'm sure that the Moon Kingdom will use what time is left in a way to
get as many people on board with their plans," Haruka said. With that,
she closed the shuttle door and signaled the pilot to lift off.

The shuttle gently lifted off from the top of the United Nations
headquarters, did a wide turn and was soon heading south over the
crowded streets of Manhattan. Since they were in regulated airspace,
the shuttle was limited to the speeds used by a jet airplane over the
city. As a result, the four women were able to take in some of the
sights of Manhattan...Central Park, Times Square, and last, but not
least...

The World Trade Center.

Refurbished and rebuilt following the terrorist attacks near the turn
of the century, the gleaming twin towers now stood 115 stories tall,
and were constructed using some materials recycled from the original
buildings. For security purposes, the building was constructed of
reinforced steel, Kevlar-laced concrete, and shatter-resistant glass.
As the shuttle approached, the women could clearly see the oblong
diamond-shaped reinforced structures that followed each of the corners
of the buildings along the entire height of the towers. The rebuilt
trade center was a testimony to the resolve of the people as well as a
realization that a safer building could be built in such a way as to
make it pleasing to the eye.

The trade center buildings slid into the side windows as the pilot
arced the shuttle slowly toward the Bronx. The women didn't seem to
notice. She silently took in the beauty of the glistening city below
them.

==> SM <==

Somewhere over northern Connecticut

Captain Lawrence Harris was tersely informed of the presence of a
hostile shuttle in the skies over southern Connecticut, and while he
took notice of the information and the airspace restrictions that the
notice signaled were immediately in effect, he did nothing to change
the plane's course or speed at the moment.

By the time he did, it would be too late.

The dark shape of the shuttle angled itself onto a path high above the
jetliner. After a few minutes of trailing the plane, the shuttle
accelerated to full thrust and started a downward spiral that sent it
on an intercept course with Flight 117.

Captain Harris saw the shuttle approaching at the last minute as it
descended from the glare of the sunlight and he shouted to the
co-pilot mere seconds before he threw the plane into a quick bank to
the right. However, the shuttle's speed made it easy for it to adjust
for Harris' attempts to escape.

Four short landing struts gently touched down on the back of the
fuselage of the plane, and a large cylindrical appendage started to
descend downward from the bottom of the shuttle. As the cylinder
touched the skin of the craft, a shower of sparks poured outward.
Captain Harris quickly pressed a button that automatically sent out a
distress call as sparks began raining into the back of the cockpit.

As the shuttle locked on to the cockpit of the plane, the shuttle
increased its forward thrust enough to compensate for its weight on
the airplane's fuselage and the fact that the plane's hull had been
compromised.

Before the rain of sparks and shredded metal in the cockpit ceased, a
new whirring noise signaled the opening of a hatch.

Two metal canisters dropped from the cylinder onto the floor of the
cockpit. Before they hit the carpet, they were already spraying a
heavy fog.

The portal though the docking drill closed just as the first faint
wisps of fog wafted upward, and the hijackers smiled to each other.
This entire thing was going almost exactly according to their plans.

"The plane is secured," one hijacker said.

"Good," the other replied as he reached into his coat pocket. He took
out a computer disk and handed it to his partner. "Now for the
insurance policy."

The first hijacker took the offered disk and inserted it into a nearby
computer. The computer recognized the disk, and the flight information
on the screen next to the hijacker was replaced with the stern visage
of a man wearing a white turban. Dark brooding eyes sat above a
protruding nose and a mouth framed by a dark mustache and a graying
beard. Then a message appeared over the face of the man.

PROGRAM OSAMA ONE IS ACTIVE - INPUT COURSE AND DESTINATION

The man at the computer station typed a few things into the keyboard,
then hit the ENTER key. The computer whirred for a few seconds, then
beeped as its reply flashed onto the screen.

COORDINATES SET.

DESTINATION ONE - UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS - NEW YORK CITY

DESTINATION TWO - WORLD TRADE CENTER - NEW YORK CITY

DESTINATION THREE - WORLD TRADE CENTER - NEW YORK CITY

AUTOPILOT ENGAGED

With that, the message began to flash, and the image of the man faded
in and out rhythmically as the computer beeped softly to itself.

==> SM <==

LFHQ Shuttle 7

Sandra was the first to notice the soft banking maneuver that pulled
the shuttle off its course.

"As long as the procedure is carried out precisely according to the
plan," Amy was saying, "there should be no ill effects..on...where are
you going?"

Sandra had stood up and was headed to the cockpit of the shuttle.
"Excuse me," she said to Amy as she got to the entry to the control
area.

"Lieutenant," she said to the pilot. "Why have we altered course?"

"I was just about to tell you," came the reply. "There's a hijacked
plane over Connecticut. Boston, Bridgeport, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Washington have closed their airspace and grounded
flights."

Sandra quickly sat down in the engineer's post behind the co-pilot and
switched its interface to the secondary computer terminal. She grabbed
a set of headphones and put them on. "Give me the flight number and
airline please," she said.

"National Airlines," the pilot replied. "Flight 117."

Sandra typed in the information and the computer accepted her inquiry.

"Got it," she said as she pressed a button to open a communications
link to the Luna Foundation.

"Luna Foundation Control," Luna's voice responded.

"Luna," Sandra said tersely, "access the flight plan of National
Flight 117 and check its systems. They've been hijacked."

A brief pause that seemed to last forever was broken when Luna
replied. "Sandra," she said. "This is very serious. Flight 117 is on
autopilot, and its set to crash into the United Nations headquarters,
and if that fails, the plane will head to the World Trade Center and
make two attempts to crash there."

Sandra sat back slowly in her seat as she head this. The only other
sound in the cockpit was the hum of the computers over the dull roar
of the engines.

"Sandra," Luna said. "The queen has been informed. This hijacking
falls into the Al Quaida model, and you need to act accordingly."

"I understand," Sandra said grimly. Luna had just pronounced a death
sentence for those aboard the shuttle. She pushed another set of
buttons and accessed the computer terminal's voice command system.

"As per the directives found in Luna Foundation Incident File 091101,
under my authority as crown princess of the Moon Kingdom, I declare a
Code Black situation aboard this ship. The sole responsibility of this
ship and the people aboard is to neutralize the threat posed by this
situation by any means necessary."

Sandra paused. The most terrible part of what she had to say was
coming next.

"This can include, and is not limited to the destruction of this ship
and the sacrifice of everyone aboard. Code Black activities authorized
by me, Sandra Tsukino, authorization Sandra Black authorization Alpha
Four Enable."

Sandra arose from the seat and her cobalt-blue eyes seemed to glimmer
with the weight of the new responsibility that had just been put on
her. "Contact New York's traffic control. Tell them to get everyone,
including the military out of the area. This is our problem now, and
we'll handle it." Sandra then turned to go into the aft section of the
shuttle and tell the others the news.

==> SM <==

The Luna Foundation shuttle spiraled down toward the hijacked plane
from within the glare of the late morning sun. It finished its final
loop and leveled off into a straight approach of its target, its
engines flickering with the strain of exertion as the shuttle raced to
catch up to its prey.

It was an agonizingly slow process for those aboard the shuttle, but
slowly but surely the Luna Foundation shuttle was soon directly over
the shuttle attached to the hull of the airliner.

The pilot of the Luna Foundation shuttle then slowly eased the ship
downward until its passage tube aperture lined up with a similar one
on the enemy ship.

From her spot in the rear compartment near the passage tube door,
Sailor Moon flipped a switch. With a cold fury dripping from her
voice, she spoke:

"Let's get these bastards. Computer, initiate combat docking sequence,
authorization Sandra Black authorization Alpha Four Enable. Boarding
party profile."

In a ship-to-ship docking of this sort, the passage tube from one ship
would slowly reach out and barely touch the other ship's port. The
receiving ship's computer would detect the increased pressure of the
reinforced passage tube and automatically lock the tube into place.

That did not happen here.

The passage tube slammed against the shuttle below, acting like a
battering ram. The impact buckled the hull near the portal hatch. The
airliner dipped suddenly from the force of the blow, but the autopilot
dutifully adjusted the plane's altitude to bring it back to a level
course...which brought the hijacker's shuttle back up into range of
their attacker.

On the third hit, the tube's magnetic lock activated and it started
cutting into the hull of the other shuttle.

As the drill cut deeper into the shuttle, Sailor Moon smiled grimly.
Looking at the rest of the Sailor soldiers as the drill cut through
the structure of the shuttle, she gave a thumbs-up.

"Let's roll," she said as she jumped down the shaft.

==> SM <==

"You are trying to strike fear in the hearts of innocent people and I
won't have...it," Sailor Moon started to say in her trademark manner
when she was stopped by the gruesome sight around her.

There would be no need to fight today. No need for attack phrases or
moon magic.

The villains were dead.

Sailor Moon quickly called the others down and started toward the
shuttle's controls. They too were in bad shape as screens flickered
and currents arced across controls.

"Good thing these gloves are insulated against this sort of thing,"
Sailor Moon said silently, "or I'd be one barbecued moon princess."

"These men died from tricinite poisoning," Sailor Uranus said from the
floor behind Sailor Moon, who turned to look. "They probably had it on
a tooth or something," Uranus said pointing to ugly reddish-purple
blotches on the mouth and face of one of the deceased. "It's an
acid-based poison designed to melt things a lot stronger than skin.
Some militaries use it in warheads."

"It would have to be diluted in order for it to be usable as a
poison," Sailor Mercury said as she landed in the room and came
forward to examine the bodies. "Otherwise it would simply eat through
whatever the terrorists stored it in. I've never seen this used
before."

"You didn't hire yourself out as a mercenary for a couple of years
after Galaxia's defeat.," Uranus said with a grim smile. "You learn a
lot while working for Mossad."

"I hate to break up the history lesson," Sailor Moon said, "but these
controls are dead. We can't do anything from here."

"Typical terrorist tactic," Uranus replied. "They figured they were
about to be captured, so they killed themselves but tried to keep
their work intact."

"Can we stop this from the airplane's cockpit?" Sailor Moon asked.

"There's not much choice," Mercury replied. "Either we try to stop the
plane from the cockpit or we call in the military and have them
destroy it."

Sailor Moon tapped a button on her wrist comm. "Neptune, get the
shuttle out of here. Go to a standby position and wait for us to
call." Looking at the passage tube heading down into the cockpit of
the plane, she asked: "Is the air over there safe?"

"It reads safe," Mercury replied as she typed the commands into her
computer. "There are rapidly degenerating trace amounts of a toxic
gas, but the level is well within safety limits...now."

"Let's go then," Sailor Moon said. "We've got to do this fast or a
very bad chapter of history will repeat itself."

==> SM <==

Sailor Moon swept her hair back from her forehead as she entered the
cockpit after dragging the body of the pilot away. Sailor Uranus was
sitting at the pilot's controls, and Sailor Mercury's feet could be
seen as the rest of her was hidden under the co-pilot's controls.
Amongst the dials and indicators on the bank of controls at the front
of the cockpit, the status light for the autopilot glowed an insistent
green as if everything aboard the plane were completely normal.

"Try it now," Sailor Mercury's voice said from within the innards of
the control panels.

Sailor Uranus flipped a switch beside the autopilot to unlock its
controls, and turned a knob. The light

remained green.

"Nothing," she said. "We're still heading for the U.N."

"It looks like the autopilot has about four sets of redundant
circuits," Mercury said as she yanked a wire free. "Try it now."

Uranus repeated her attempt to shut the autopilot off.

"Nothing."

Sailor Moon was staring out the front windows. "Uhm, guys..." she
said.

"One minute please," Sailor Mercury replied.

"You're very quickly running out of those," Sailor Moon stated.

Through the windows, she could see the deep blue water of Long Island
Sound, and beyond that stood the gleaming towers of Manhattan, the
U.N. building, the Empire State Building, and off in the distance, the
two World Trade Center towers.

Sailor Mercury quickly pulled out her computer and slid the cover off
a back compartment. She pulled two connection wires from this
compartment and twisted their ends around the exposed ends of a couple
of wires within the innards of the control panels. She seemed to be
having some luck with this until she heard a loud pop and was showered
with sparks. The display on her computer flicked out as well, and she
tossed the now useless device aside.

"I'm not having any luck down here," Mercury said.

"Well," Sailor Uranus said as she got a good grip on the pilot's
controls. "We'll just have to do this the old-fashioned way."

"Old-fashioned way?" Sailor Moon asked.

"We'll overpower the autopilot by out-flying it."

Sailor Uranus suddenly had her first chance to demonstrate what she
meant as the huge airliner with the hijackers' shuttle still riding
atop it started to nose down gradually over Long Island Sound and
toward the east side of Manhattan and the United Nations headquarters.

Sailor Moon noticed that her comrade was staring intently at the
windows as she held her grip firm on the controls, and barely glanced
at the indicators.

"You're flying by sight alone?" she asked.

"The instruments are the bad guys right now, came the response. "I can
do this. You and Mercury get seated and buckled in. This is going to
get bumpy.

The airliner streaked in toward the U.N. headquarters, but as it was
about to slam into its target, it suddenly jerked skyward and soared
just above the larger of the two buildings that make up the U.N.
complex.

"One down," Sailor Uranus muttered as she fought against the controls
in an attempt to gain altitude. "I can't do much while the plane's
flying level," she said. "My best chance is to try to jink it once it
gets real close to where it's going."

"What's that mean?" Sailor Moon shouted over the whine of the engines
as the airliner screamed over the buildings of central Manhattan.

"It means we're going to get really close to slamming this bird into
wherever it thinks we're supposed to be going," came the reply. "I'd
start praying if I were you. I'm either going to pull this off or a
lot of people are going to die...us included."

The Empire State Building fell quickly behind as the aircraft roared
over the buildings that lined 5^th Avenue and the Avenue of the
Americas. People on the ground scurried out of the way in case the
plane exploded near them, and many drivers on the busy streets caused
accidents because of the distraction of a huge airliner right over
their heads.

As the plane flew over the buildings of Greenwich Village and
Chinatown, Sailor Uranus looked straight ahead to the twin 115-story
towers of the rebuild World Trade Center. She could see the black
X-like reinforcements to the structure of the buildings...there were
two sets of these on each side of both buildings. The towers were more
grim and resolute than beautiful now, but at least they stood. Uranus
had no doubt that if a 797 jet slammed into either of the towers, the
building would collapse. And if either of the buildings was hit the
right way, it would topple onto the other, and that would cause the
second building to fall.

As the plane left Chinatown, Sailor Uranus finalized her plan of
action. As the aircraft screamed over Chambers St, Sailor Uranus
slammed the controls hard to the left and held it there. The autopilot
fought back viciously and the muscles in the sailor soldier's arms
soon began to ache.

But the plan succeeded for the moment.

The plane flipped onto its left wing and careened through the space
between the twin towers and away from Manhattan. The only thing that
buffeted the buildings was the turbulence that followed the speeding
aircraft.

The plane began to drop its nose toward the harbor. The Statue of
Liberty stood out like a green beacon off to the left.

"What now?" Sailor Mercury asked.

Uranus glanced at the autopilot. "This ride's not over yet," she said.
"We're taking another crack at the World Trade Center."

"Oh shit," Sailor Moon breathed as the airplane dipped its right wing
almost into New York harbor and made a tight turn around the Statue of
Liberty that showered nearby boats with a spray of water. Once again,
the twin towers loomed in the front windows.

Uranus gripped the thrust controls and slammed them forward. The plane
leapt forward to its maximum speed.

"What the..." Sailor Moon gasped as the south tower seemed to rush
toward them.

"Shhhh!" Uranus growled. "We have to gain speed!" The imposing
structure of the south tower started to slide slowly downward....but
seemingly not fast enough to prevent a catastrophe.

Very few people below stopped to view the scene. Those at observation
posts nearby thought they were going to see a repeat of the events
they had seen as children.

Instead, the plane cleared the top of the south tower by a few feet
and instead veered to the left. A few seconds later, the airliner
swept across the top of the north tower, missing the building by less
than the height of a person. The plane plowed into the 400-foot
television mast on the top of the north tower, but the force of the
impact threw the tower forward just enough that when it fell backward,
it fell to a resting spot safely at the top of the tower.

Inside the cockpit, the sailor soldiers breathed a sigh of relief as
they realized that the worst was probably over. Then a red light
started blinking insistently at them. The light was the autopilot
indicator.

CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE - FLIGHT CONTROLS LOCKED

"Great," Uranus sighed.

"What?" Sailor Moon asked.

"I still don't have control of this plane," Uranus said, "and now we
have to get it out of the air."

"What can we do?" Mercury asked.

"Ah!" Uranus exclaimed. "Get to the fuse box and kill the electrical
systems. I'll land her manually."

"Land her WHERE?" Sailor Moon exclaimed.

"There..." Uranus said as she pointed. She had gotten the aircraft
turned south toward Staten Island and was pointing to a park on the
island's southeast corner. With that, she started wrestling with the
controls in an attempt to put the plane in the water just off the
coast of Staten Island.

Anyone familiar with that area might know the park.

Great Kills Park.

==> SM <==

"...so, that's the latest on the gripping events that happened today
in Manhattan, as people identified only as United Nations pilots
worked to free a National Airlines 797 before it could slam into the
United Nations building, or the World Trade Center."
"I'm Geraldo Rivera, FOX News, in Atlanta. Now we send you to Lauren
Ishikawa with the details of the police shootings today in Tokyo...."

FINI

"If the future's looking dark,

we're the ones who have to shout.

If there's no one in control,

we're the ones who draw the line.

Though we live in trying times,

we're the ones who have to try.

Though we know that time has wings,

we're the ones who have to fly.

- Rush, "Everyday Glory"

Author's Notes:

September 11, 2001 - This day of tragedy had a profound effect on me
(a week later) and it had a profound effect on the finished form of
this fanfic. Originally, SX29 was to tell the story of the death of
Lt. Ryosuke, a recurring minor character in the series. However, the
attacks of Septermber 11^th made me stop work on the fanfic for a
couple of weeks. When I got back to it, I realized that I had a
different story...a what if....what if our heroes were placed in a
similar situation...

So the changes started. The fanfic originally started as "Test of the
Fire Senshi", then was renamed to "The Evil Ones", then finally
renamed "Let's Roll", in honor of the brave soul who led the charge
against the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93.

Dedication:

This fanfic is dedicated to the souls of those who have died, the
strength of the people who are leading the clean-up efforts, the
courage of the men and women who have taken up the call of the nation
to fight the evil that led to the attacks, and the spirit of the
United States of America as a whole...a spirit that can never be
killed or conquered.

Fanfic ©2001 - John Brengman and Artemis Publishing

Sailor X series inspired by Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,

© 1992 by Toei Animation Co Ltd. and based on Kodansha's

manga production of "Sailor Moon", written by Naoko Takeuchi

This fanfic is freely distributed.

Release date: December 7, 2001

Edited: December 7, 2001