Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor X ❯ SX1: Manhattan Project ( Chapter 1 )

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

Sailor X #1 Manhattan Project

By: John Brengman

Edited by: Jamie Lewis &

Thomas Schell

The windows of the room let in the star-speckled night. The light of
the stars paled, however to the light

of the nearby planet, it's light reflecting blues and whites to
everything nearby, including the lunar base that was home to the Luna
Foundation, and the operational center for the Sailor Scouts.

The light from Earth pooled brilliantly in shafts of light shining
through the windows that dominated the far wall of the control room.
The rest of the room was lined with various computer stations that
monitored the Earth, the solar system, and various other things. No
one manned the control room at this hour of the night, so the
computers seemed content to hum and whir to themselves.

All of this pleased Luna, basking purrfully on the throbbing top of
one of the control stations. "Oh, there are times when it is good to
be a cat." The thought drifted lazily through her mind as she soaked
in the rhythmic pulsing.

The lights on the control panel began flashing an insistent red. The
alarm clamored for attention. Luna abruptly awoke. Taking one look at
the control panel that had betrayed her, Luna jumped down and headed
for the hallway towards the residence quarters.

Reaching Brandy's room, Luna burst in and landed on the sleeping girls
bed with a quick leap. She hurriedly pawed at the covers. "Wake up,
sleepy-head!" Luna thought, then quickly dodged the hand that lightly
batted her away. "Not now, Cat," Brandy said sleepily.

Luna growled at Brandy's use of her `pet name' and bit her on the ear.

"Hey!" Brandy yelped as she was jolted awake, "what was that for?"
However, by the time she finished asking the question, Luna was
already bolting for the door on her way to rouse the next sleeping
Sailor.

"Damn it, Cat," Brandy muttered as she began to dress...

==> * * * <==

"How could this happen?" Bethany inquired, her blue eyes looking
worriedly toward the windows.

"I don't know yet," Melissa replied, her gaze focused intently to the
computer monitors, her brain processing the information they were
feeding her. "I'm not even sure where to start."

"Ask Artemis to check for weird energy readings," chimed in a hollow
voice from the windows.

Bethany nodded and leaned against Melissa's chair. "Yes, ask that."

Bethany obligingly fed in the question. The response was not
promising, to say the least.

"Infinity particles?" Melissa gasped. "What are those?"

"They are rare, dangerous, and unstable," Vanessa answered as she
entered the control room while combing her long white hair. As the
guardian of the Timegate, Vanessa was considered the know-it-all of
the group. "Infinity particles combine with certain chemicals to form
reactions. They then perpetuate themselves, generating more and more
particles.

The others looked at each other as if Vanessa had explained it
perfectly.

Cassandra reacted first. "Oh yeah," she quipped. "I buy it."

An offended Vanessa was quick to counter-attack. "Well, you would
understand it better if you paid a bit more attention in physics
class. It's a chain-reaction." Vanessa spoke as though telling a 5
year old what grass is.

Cassandra would have none of it. She shook out her long wavy red hair
and her eyes flashed angrily. She growled, "The TEACHER goes too fast!
I can't keep up!"

Melissa was about to remind Cassandra that `Aunt Amy' had volunteered
to help them out with the more difficult areas of advanced physics
when Luna stopped the conversation with a loud whistle. "Let's stay
focused, girls! This is no time to bicker!"

"What can we do about this situation?" The voice from the windows
queried. Vanessa spared a withering glance for Cassandra before going
to a secondary control panel. "I'll check," she stated in a clipped
voice as she began entering inquiries into the computer. After several
minutes where all attention in the room was on her, Vanessa
straightened up and turned to face the others. "Artemis says that
whatever happened did not happen within the past day.

"In fact," Vanessa continued, "the decay of the infinity particles
suggests that the accident took place more than fifty years ago."

Dead silence filled the room as the implications of Vanessa's
statement sank in. At about that time, Rachel entered the room.
"Unless the galaxy's going to explode, someone's in big trouble!"
Bethany glanced uncomfortably over at Rachel. Although the group did
not yet know each other well, one thing was etched in stone: never
disturb Rachel's sleep.

The circumstances in this case were different.

Sandra stepped forward from the shadows near the window into the light
provided by the control room. "Be careful what you wish for," she
said, her face somber as she pointed at the window.

The planet Earth was gone.

==> * * * <==

The conversation continued as the girls and Luna headed towards the
chamber containing the massive Timegate.

"Do we have any idea who's behind this?" Sandra asked.

"No," Vanessa replied, "but very few people have had access to
Infinity particles. Queen Serenity forbade anyone in the kingdom from
possessing them. Even the rulers of the Negaverse were never insane
enough to use the particles they claimed they had."

"So, let me get this straight," Brandy said with an angry toss of her
long blonde mane, "we don't even know who has these particles?"

"You have the rather annoying knack," Luna stated, "of being
absolutely correct at the most unfortunate times."

Rachel broke in, sick of the verbal jousting between Luna and Brandy.
"Ok! So, we go back in time and stop this at the source. Sounds simple
enough. My question is, if Earth was blown away fifty years ago, why
are we still here?"

The girls reached a set of metal double doors and stopped. "You may
thank the Timegate for that," Vanessa replied. "It generates a field
which protects us from the timestream."

"Oh!" Cassandra exclaimed. "Sort of like those thingamajiggies of
yours..."

Vanessa sighed. "Yes. Exactly like those." She pushed a few buttons on
a panel and the metal doors separated. The room beyond was dominated
by a huge translucent dome-like structure built into the floor. As the
others watched, Vanessa stepped forward and raised her right hand in
the air. She shouted, "TIMEGATE ACTIVATION!" The ring on her right
hand pulsed, and shot a green beam of light into the dome. The light
washed over the dome, and then shot back like a boomerang and engulfed
Vanessa. The group stood and watched while Vanessa and the portal
communed mentally. When Vanessa finally broke the connection, the
green light continued to splash and flicker about the dome as the
portal waited for further commands.

Vanessa walked over to a small table along one side of the room and
pulled out several devices. She returned and glanced at the group.
"Are we ready?"

Sandra stepped forward. "Someone needs to stick around here in case
something else happens while we're gone. Brandy, Beth, keep track of
us. The rest of you," she gestured toward the portal, "let's go."

"Hold on!" Brandy snapped. "Nothing is going to happen here. It's
already happened! You guys are the ones in danger! Cat can handle
things here, right cat?" Brandy turned to Luna and was met with a flat
glare. "r- right?"

Sandra's lips were tight as she took a step towards Brandy. "In case
we don't come back. Someone has to be here. There has to be something,
that you could do..." Sandra looked tensely into Brandy's eyes.
"Please." There was fear there too, and the raw honesty of someone
telling a harsh truth. Brandy met her gaze for a moment. Then the
defiance faded out of her. She nodded once.

"Don't worry about us," Beth stepped up behind Brandy and squeezed her
shoulder. We'll take care of it." She smiled reassuringly at Sandra
and the other scouts. Brandy smiled too, including the whole group in
her apology.

With that, the four senshi stepped into the portal, and into the
past...

Brandy and Luna exchanged glances. "they'll be ok, Luna," Brandy said.

"Of course they will," Luna replied. Somehow, neither of them sounded
sure. Beth simply looked silently at the Timegate.

==> * * * <==

Tinian Island August 4, 1945 7:15 pm

"One scientist bet on the chances that the blast would ignite the
atmosphere.

He offered a side wager on whether it would destroy the entire
world...or

only New Mexico."

* Peter Jennings, "Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was

Dropped" (ABC News, 1995)

The staging area for the secret operation against the Japanese
homeland was a small cluster of buildings grouped around an airfield
on a scrap of land amidst the blue waters of the Pacific. One prefab
corrugated metal building stood near the end of the airstrip. It was
under heavy guard.

Inside stood storage cases, neatly stacked in columns that reached
towards the ceiling. The cases dominated half of the building. The
other half was empty except for a single bay-loaded bomb that sat upon
its storage stand in an area roped off from the rest of the building.

A dark figure kneeled by the cylindrical device. He opened an access
panel and inserted a flat circular object about the size of a
wristwatch. It's magnetic bottom easily attached to the inside skin of
the bomb. The figure replaced the access panel, and stood looking over
at the two prone forms laying unceremoniously in a heap nearby.

With a slight bow to the unconscious guards, the dark-robed man
murmured, "May your aim be true...although that is not really
necessary. Either way, my plan will succeed."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" The robed man whirled and
looked around franticly for the source of the voice...and saw a group
of women standing just inside the huge doors of the building.

"MOON PRISM POWER!" Sandra shouted as Vanessa placed a small
star-shaped device on one of the boxes and activated it.. Sandra's
shout was followed by, "MERCURY POWER!", "MARS POWER!", and "PLUTO
POWER!" as the senshi began their transformations.

The Sailors began to glow. Sandra brought her fist down, and pointed
at the villain, "I am Sailor Moon, Vanguard of Justice! I will right
wrongs and vanquish evil!" The glow around the Sailor Scouts faded,
and her voice called menacingly from the darkness, "and that, my
friend, means you!"

"I am sorry I cannot greet you with an equally impressive display,"
the dark-robed man said urbanely. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am
Scaramanga, Master of Darkness. I regret leaving the company of such
beautiful ladies, but I do have a prior engagement. I leave you to
your doom."

"Not so fast!" Sailor Mars shouted from nearby a stack of crates.
"MARS FIREBOLT BLAST!" A searing firebolt erupted from Mars'
outstretched hand and shot angrily toward the villain. Scaramanga
quickly dodged the blast, and it slammed into the far wall, immolating
some crates.

"Careful now," Scaramanga scolded. "You wouldn't want to damage such
an important part of history, now would you?"

"I hate to admit it," Sailor Moon thought to the Scouts, "but he's
right. No beam attacks near that bomb."

"Yeah," Mercury growled. "Dodge THIS! MERCURY SHARD!" A thick crystal
shard appeared in her hands as she called upon the power of her patron
planet. "Eat this, jerk!" she yelled as she hurled the shard at
Scaramanga. He grunted as he caught it and crushed it in one hand.

"You are trying my patience." Scaramanga stated. "DARKFORCE ATTACK!"
Tendrils of dark energy slid out of Scaramanga, slamming into the
stacks of crates. They showered down upon the senshi as they tried to
scurry out of the way.

As Sailor Moon picked herself up from under a pile of debris with the
help of Sailor Mars, she thought to the group, "Pluto, are those
devices still working?"

"Yes," Pluto replied. "We are still outside the timeline."

"But I am afraid you are out of time," quipped Scaramanga with a
vulpine smile at his own joke. He was now floating above the bomb. His
face twisted grotesquely, as he screamed "ZAI!" On command, a
scorching energy bolt erupted from his fingers and stabbed Mercury
through the chest. Screaming, she fell to the floor.

"Mars", Sailor Moon ordered tightly, "See to Sailor Mercury." Focusing
her attention on Scaramanga, Sailor Moon noted that the villain was
hovering above the bomb, but beneath a heavy-looking utility hook.
With a mental "Ah!", she pulled her tiara from her forehead. "MOON
TIARA MAGIC!"

The tiara activated with a flash, and illuminated Sailor Moon's face
with a pale light. "Screwball in the side pocket," she said as she
bared her teeth in a grim smile. She hurled the tiara at the chain
holding the hook. It ricocheted off the chain and returned to Sailor
Moon who caught it triumphantly. Scaramanga looked up only to see the
hook smash down onto his face. He was driven upon the bomb. The hook
was deflected by his body. It landed a few feet in front of the bomb,
clattering with hollow finality in the big hanger.

"I thought you said no attacks near the bomb." Pluto remarked wryly as
she approached the bomb. As she neared it, Scaramanga faded and
disappeared.

"Hey," Sailor Moon remarked aloud, "I was being careful, unlike some
others we could mention."

Sailor Mars smiled wickedly at Sandra.

"Finished," Pluto said as she removed the Infinity Device from the
bomb. "Mission accomplished."

"Not quite finished," came the familiar voice. The Sailors turned and
saw Sailor Mars staring at the bomb, its sleek metal surface glinting
in the dim light. The other Sailors saw the look in her eyes, and felt
a collective thrill of fear. Sailor Mars intended to incinerate the
"little boy".

"Mars," Sailor Moon said sternly. "Don't."

"You can't order that," Sailor Mars replied coldly.

"I can," Sailor Moon stated, "and I did."

"You can't do this," Sailor Pluto added. "You will alter history.
That's exactly what Scaramanga was trying to do. It wasn't his place
to do so, and it's not yours."

"But people will die if they use this thing!" Mars shouted, as her
face twisted with grief.

Jupiter stepped forward. "Mars, Cassandra, listen to me. People will
die anyways. Just different people. Maybe more people. You can't
second guess history."

"Yes," Sailor Moon said as she stepped in front of Sailor Mars. "And
if you destroy the bomb, you may save the people of Hiroshima, but you
will have to kill me first."

Sailor Mars held her hands in front of her, her gaze locked on the
bomb, ready to send a fiery blast towards the bomb, and towards
history.

"Please move," Mars pleaded as tears welled up in her eyes.

Sailor Moon shook her head no sympathetically. "No," she said quietly.

"We can't pick and choose here, Mars! It is dangerous to tamper with
history! In the future, the earth was destroyed. Do you want to do
something worse? Beth and Brandy are back there! Please!" Pluto
stretched out her hands towards Sailor Mars.

"She's right," Sailor Moon said.

"Yeah, I know," Mars replied as she dropped her hands and fell into
Sailor Moon's outstretched arms, tears running down her face. "It just
doesn't feel good, that's all."

"I know," Pluto smiled, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Sometimes
it doesn't feel good."

"Yes," Sailor Moon said. "But doing what is right when it doesn't feel
good is what separates normal people from heroes." She smiled tiredly
at her comrades. "Let's go home."

==> * * * <==

Hiroshima August 6, 1945 8:02 am

A silver phoenix soared through the clouds over the southern end of
Honshu. Upon the signal from the pilot, the bombardier released a
single bomb which fell toward its target....

From the future, Cassandra watched through the Timegate, transfixed,
as the ground exploded. The atomic reaction sent its mushroom
spiraling up into the heavens, and the silver phoenix flew into the
morning sun.

==> * * * <==

Sandra stood sleepily by the window of her bedroom and gazed out over
the lunar landscape. Illuminating the dark gray of the jagged hills,
Earth glistened, an innocent blue ball. Squinting to look closer,
Sandra saw Japan emerge from night, to start another day. With that,
Sandra quietly disrobed returned to bed.

** FINI **

Fanfic ©1999 - 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: August, 1998

Edited: October 4, 1999

Release: 2^nd Edition: October 4, 1999

Release: 3^rd Edition: January 16, 2001