Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Saga of Mercury ❯ The Scout Rings ( Chapter 13 )

The Saga of Mercury

Chapter 13

"The Scout Rings"

Written by Jose I. Ramos

Portions based on "Mercury Knight stories" by Ryuuen No Miko

"Sailor Moon" and all related characters are copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, TOEI Animation and other agencies.

Storyline © 2002 Jose I. Ramos

PDF conversion services provided by Fast PDF, LLC

DISCLAIMER

As usual, "Sailor Moon" and all related characters are copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, TOEI Animation and other agencies.

The Saga of Mercury story is copyrighted by me, however content in some chapters is based on the Mercury Knight Stories as described in the Chapter 1 Introduction.

Please feel free to write a critique or send your comments to HRFANNY@AOL.COM with the subject line, in all caps, SAGA OF MERCURY. If you do not do this then the filter will block your e-mail.

Chapter 13 - The Scout Rings

"That was the most surprising moment of my life," said Greg.

Greg was in his living room, talking with Luna and Artemis. After Sailor Mercury's fog attack, Greg, as Mercury Knight, dashed to Mina's apartment to get Artemis. Upon reaching the apartment, he didn't even have to knock… Artemis was standing right there with his "something's up" look. Then he ran to Serena's house, and asked Sammy if he could borrow Luna (to which Sammy agreed without hesitation).

Luna and Artemis stayed in Greg's house overnight to try to figure out… in peaceful quietness… what the deal was.

Before he went to bed that night, Greg tried to talk to Amy over the phone, but was politely rejected by her mother, Mrs. Mizuno.

"I'm sorry, Greg, but I can't allow you to talk to her," she said. "Amy claims that you hurt her feelings."

"Ma'am, I did not try to hurt her feelings, believe me. You don't know the entire story."

"Well, although I appreciate you calling to set things straight, I feel it best to just let Amy alone for the rest of the night."

"Oh… all right," Greg conceded.

It was past eleven in the morning when the two cats began to get some ideas about everything. At that point, they heard the doorbell ring.

Greg stood up. "Oh great, now what?" Looking at the cats, he said, "You guys better hide."

Luna and Artemis hid behind the sofa.

Greg nervously walked to the door to see who it was. He could see a tall figure through the opaque glass, so he knew from that point that it wasn't Amy coming to apologize. It looked like his father.

Greg thought up something quickly, unlocked the door and opened it wide.

"I'm sorry, sir," Greg started, squinting his eyes, "but I brought home two cats and I need them to be around for a while…"

"Two cats?" said a familiar voice. "That's perfect with me."

Greg opened his eyes.

"Darien!" he said. "Ha… well, if anyone was going to come over here besides my father, I should have known it was you. Come in!"

Darien took his shoes off and came in. After a moment, the two gentlemen sat on the floor with Luna and Artemis.

"So, Darien," Greg started, "are you on the `Serena and Rini' watch?"

"Uh, no," Darien responded, "I haven't been on any kind of watch at all. I tried calling Serena and Rini last night, and all they did was shout some nasty things at me… and at each other… Then this morning I tried to go to their house and cheer them up. I brought Serena flowers… heck I even brought Rini a bouquet, too. Serena and Rini looked at each of their bouquets… and then threw them in my face! Serena complained that she had two fewer flowers than did Rini. Rini, on the other hand, complained that the flowers had a funny smell."

"It's the same problem with Amy and I. Not with flowers or smells, but… you know… absolutely no contact whatsoever. We normally talk on the phone every night… or every afternoon, if we have a date in the evening… but for the first time in months, that never happened."

"Have you seen any of the others lately?" asked Greg.

"I tried to talk to Mina this morning on the phone," said Artemis. "She was yelling at the top of her lungs, WHY DID YOU GO AWAY! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU CRAZY CAT? Blah, blah, blah. She also mentioned that Venus Knight was a filthy slob."

"I was going to try to talk to Serena and Rini today," said Luna, "but… if you already tried, Darien, then there's no point in me trying."

"Well I know that we've all failed," said Artemis, "but Luna and I believe that there's an answer to all of this."

"Let me guess," said Greg. "A youma from the Negaverse threw everyone out of whack?"

"Partially correct," Luna responded. "We believe it's actually Queen Sorinya who sent out a powerful hypnotic wave and brainwashed everyone."

"Are you sure it was Sorinya?" asked Darien.

"Yes," said Artemis. "We've done some research, and we found that Sorinya has a powerful, hypnotic sonic wave… much stronger and very different than the attack from the youma that tried to do away with Greg in the pool… well, we'll call this the hypnotic wave to differentiate between the two… anyway, Sorinya uses this hypnotic wave to reprogram people's minds to think whatever she wants them to think. Apparently, they were aiming at all of us."

"And she was, for the most part, successful," said Greg.

"How can we reverse the process and put them back the way they were?" asked Darien.

"There are not a lot of options," responded Artemis.

"We've concluded that my Luna mind meld is too weak for what Sorinya has done," said Luna. "Serena's Spiral Moon Rod won't work, and Amy's Shabon Rod won't do the trick, either."

"Are we stuck, then?" asked Greg.

"For the time being," said Artemis.

"What I don't get, guys," said Darien, "is that she hit everyone with the sonic wave…"

"Hypnotic wave," Artemis said.

"Right," Darien continued, "but I wasn't affected, and you, Greg, weren't affected either. What do you think may have caused that?"

There was silence. None of them knew the answer.

Then Greg said, "Guys, you mind if I transformed, here, right now? Just to see if we can spot something on me that might have deflected the hypnotic wave attack. Then when you're done with me, we can check Tuxedo guy over here."

Darien, Luna and Artemis agreed.

Greg reached into his pocket, removed his dagger, and said in a calm voice, "MERCURY KNIGHT POWER."

Mercury Knight stood in his introductory pose, and then straightened up. "All right," he said, putting his large sword back in its sheath. "Is there anything that looks out of the ordinary?"

"Um… I… Your uniform looks like it normally does," said Darien.

Mercury Knight turned around so they could look at his back.

"Oh boy," said Artemis, "we're going to have to take guesses here."

Mercury Knight lifted each of his polished shoes and looked under them. "Uh, no, nothing here… nothing there…"

He took off the blue diagonal sash that covered his uniform, containing a large logo of Mercury's planetary symbol, plus several medals. "Uh… no…"

He took off his uniform jacket, which contained other medals and bars on the front. He inspected the front, the sleeves, and the inside. "Looks normal."

He took out his sword, looked at the shiny blade and at the handle, and placed it back into its sheath. "Nope."

He looked down at his solid black pants, then up to his bright white shirt and blue tie… all the way up to feeling the two gold stars that he had on either collar, which signified that he was an admiral of some kind. He smiled to himself, thinking, I remember earning these stars... it didn't take long to get them…

He looked at the Darien and the two cats. "Well, do you think there's anything worth mentioning?"

"How about the ring on your left hand," Darien suggested.

"Ring on my left hand?" said a puzzled Mercury Knight.

Mercury Knight looked on his left hand… and, indeed, saw a ring on his ring finger. The ring had his planet's symbol in gold and was surrounded with several small blue sapphire stones.

"Good grief," he exclaimed, "I never knew I had this!"

"Do you remember where you got it from," asked Artemis.

"Well," responded Mercury Knight, "I'd have to think about it for a bit… seems then that this ring pops up only when I transform…"

Mercury Knight thought about it… and then started to remember something from his past.

"Wait," he said as his memory was coming back. "We… we had a hypnotic wave attack back on Mercury once… the planet Mercury…Yes… it wasn't the Negaverse, but some other dark force that had tried to take over all of the inner planets. It was called… uh… it was called… ah, I can't remember their name, but they attempted to use mind control over a broad range of people. They were… apparently starting from the inside and working their way out. So lo and behold, we were first… <sigh> Anyway, once they started using mind control on the far side of Mercury, I was called to the royal palace on Earth by the Prince… you, Darien… to receive what you called a gift. You… brought me into a room… and you opened this box… it was a bright, white… or was it a red… no, it was definitely a white box. You opened it, and inside there were eight rings, four women's size and four men's size… two for Mercury, two for Venus, Mars and Jupiter. You told me that these rings… had two things that were very symbolic…"

"They had the power to combat the hypnotic wave attack…" Darien started to say, "… and they were the most important symbols of love, friendship and teamwork that the knights could give to their princesses, and vice versa. They wouldn't be needed unless it was absolutely necessary, when it came to one situation or the other."

"You got it!" said Mercury Knight. "I took that ring, placed it on my finger and went back to Mercury. I raised the ring high in the air at the enemy, and the force from the ring created a large wall of energy that absorbed and then deflected the Sonic Wave attack, from around the entire planet. Once they saw that, they became as scared as chickens, and ran for their lives, never to be seen again. After that attack, though, most of the ring's power drained away. There's enough power left in there now… there is now and there always will be… to protect myself."

"Your ring was the most powerful," said Darien, "because you represented Mercury, and your planet was just about the first in line for any attack."

"And I was the only one that took a ring," said Greg. "The remaining seven stayed in that box… who knows where they are now?"

When he said this, a strong gust of wind started to blow all around the house. Mercury Knight grabbed a hold of himself, while Darien got off of the floor to hold Luna and Artemis tightly.

The scenery around the four of them changed from Greg's den to a misty, foggy darkness.

"What's going on here?" asked Mercury Knight.

"I don't know," responded Darien. "Maybe Sorinya has come to get us?"

"I won't let that happen." Mercury Knight, minus sash and suit, drew his sword and stood in his attack position, waiting to see who was causing this melee.

In the distance, the four were able to see a bright, white light… with a tall, dark shadow standing within it. The shadow appeared to have long hair and a stick of some kind.

"IS THAT YOU, SORINYA?" yelled Mercury Knight. "Whoever you are, I demand that you come into the light. For Love and Justice, I am the Knight sworn to defend love and intelligence. I AM MERCURY KNIGHT, and don't you forget about that! So just come on over before I go over there and…"

Mercury Knight stopped talking when he could get a closer look at the figure that was slowly approaching him.

She was wearing a short black skirt, black boots, a dark red bow… and a tiara. Her green hair was long and flowing, with a bun in the back.

She looked as if she was a Sailor Scout…

"…Trista?? … PLUTO??"

"You are correct, Greg… Mercury Knight."

Mercury Knight lowered his sword back into its sheath, then walked up to embrace a smiling Sailor Pluto.

"It's been a long time, Trista. How is everything?"

"Oh, Greg, it's pretty ordinary," she responded. She looked over Mercury Knight's shoulder. "Luna, Artemis, Darien."

The three all nodded their heads to return the hello.

"What brings you here?"

"Well, I don't have much time… being the keeper of time, and all… but I bring you greetings from the future, from King Endymion and Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom…"

Mercury Knight turned his head and looked at Darien. "That's you, isn't it?"

Sailor Pluto continued, "yes, and from your future self, King Gregory of Mercury."

Mercury Knight's eyes went wide open. "KING of Mercury, eh?" He paused. "Good grief, wonder who the queen is… uh… anyway, what do they say?"

"I have been looking at what's been happening here," said Sailor Pluto, "and the hypnotic wave has come back to wreak havoc on you and the other sailor scouts. So I explained the situation to your future selves, and they would like you to have something that will be of great benefit to you at this point in time."

With that, Sailor Pluto handed Mercury Knight a white box with large decorations on the top. "I wonder if this is…" he started to say as he opened the box. Inside the box were the seven remaining rings from the past.

"These are the Scout Rings," said Sailor Pluto.

"AH, that's what they're called, Scout Rings, I remember that now," said Mercury Knight.

"These are the most powerful rings that can be given to the scouts and to the knights, as you have already demonstrated wearing your ring. They will combat the hypnotic wave attack, and when both partners from each planet wear their ring, a true bond of love and friendship will be evident… one that can never be broken by an evil force, not even by the Negaforce. Endymion, Serenity and King Gregory send these rings to you with their blessings."

"Thank you, Sailor Pluto… Thank you very much. All I have to figure out now is how Darien wasn't affected by all of this."

"Darien wasn't affected," Sailor Pluto said, "because the symbolism that he carries as a barrier to the hypnotic wave is the rose that he uses as Tuxedo Mask. The rose is another very special gift that can symbolize love and friendship. Its significance is the same as that of the rings."

"Thank you," said Darien. "Won't you stay and help us?"

"I wish I could," responded Sailor Pluto, putting her free hand on Mercury Knight's shoulder, "but I have a job to do as the keeper of time and space, and so I must leave you now."

"Sailor Pluto, please don't leave," Mercury Knight said.

"I am sorry, Greg. Use these rings wisely against the attack of the Sonic Wave. We know that you will do well."

Sailor Pluto stepped back to the bright light.

"Farewell, everyone…"

With that, Sailor Pluto and the bright light disappeared, and the foursome was returned to Greg's house.

"Well, that explains everything," said Artemis. "We now know what the rings are for."

"Yep," said Mercury Knight, staring down at the rings. "Now, the question is, how do we get these rings to them…"

End of Chapter 13

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, with a cameo appearance from our good friend, Trista Meiou, AKA Sailor Pluto.

So, NOW WHAT?

Are there arguments still going on between the scouts and the knights?

Are the arguments still one on one, for example Raye vs. Chad? Or are the arguments one person against everybody else?

As far as Greg, Darien, and the two cats are concerned, how WILL they get those Scout Rings to the others?

You'll see what happens in Chapter 14 of The Saga of Mercury!

The Saga of Mercury Chapter 13 - The Scout Rings 9