Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon "Digital Moon" (Part Two) written by Mike Koos --------------------------- [OP: Moonlight Densetsu] The story so far: People all over Tokyo are disappearing, and it's suspected that a shareware role-playing game that places the player in the role of the Sailor Senshi may be the cause. Playing the game, Naru is transported from the safety of her house to the terrifying reality of the game's worlds, where she realizes she is going to have to fight in order to survive. Fortunately, she finds help in a strange young rogue who calls herself, Liana. The Sailor Senshi, with the aid of a copy of the game Naru had given to Usagi, try to recreate the circumstances that make people disappear... and succeed. Now, Mamoru, Chibi-Usa, Artemis and Luna - faced with a blank computer screen, wonder what they should do... --------------------------- Chibi-Usa stared dazedly at the darkened computer monitor, almost unable to get a word out. "Mi-minna...... Usagi......" A solitary tear made its way down her cheek. Mamoru raised his head to look at her and put an arm around the girl to comfort her. He put an inquiring glance to Artemis and Luna, but they had nothing to offer. * * * * * Usagi awoke in an undignified position on the dirt road. "It's about time you woke up," Rei frowned at her. "Why is it always so hard to wake you up?" "You're no light sleeper yourself," Usagi shook the dust from her blouse. "Where are we, anyway?" "I don't know. Everyone else is out looking around. They left *me* here to keep an eye on you." Usagi wondered if Rei was simply being sarcastic or honestly upset that she'd had to watch over Usagi. Rei had practiced her act around Usagi for quite some time and had become very good at hiding her true feelings. "Gee, thanks. Remind me to pay you back for the favor." Rei only turned her face away. "We're inside the game world," Usagi decided she would try to break the charged silence that usually resulted between her and Rei. Inside it they were, though it didn't look as Usagi expected it to. The landscape itself didn't suggest any place they knew of, yet at the same time it looked oddly familiar, like they belonged there... A bird nesting in the tree above them cheerfully trilled its own rendition of one of the game's BGM pieces. "Yeah. It took you this long to figure it out?" "I... no! I was only... ah, forget it. Any sign of Naru-chan?" Rei looked as if she had no idea what Usagi was talking about. "We won't know that until the others get back." "How long have they been gone?" Usagi asked, standing beside Rei, who paid no attention to her. "About ten minutes." "How long have we been here?" "Fifteen minutes. But you've been asleep for *twenty.*" For a moment Usagi glowered at Rei for the cheap shot. "Rei no ijiwaru..." she muttered sourly, as Rei turned her back. That did it. "*What* did you say?" Usagi stuck out her tongue. "Biiiiiiiiiiii---..." "Oh, grow up," Rei retorted. "I don't have time for this! Mou...," she cursed softly to herself, "I should've gone with the others and let you sleep here." "And let the monsters get me? How could you-" Rei grimaced; it looked as if Usagi was going to start crying again. Suddenly, Rei noticed something that made her Senshi instincts kick in. "Shut up! Look! They're coming for us, NOW!" One look told Usagi that Rei was correct. Ami, Minako and Mako were running toward them, but they were also bringing a pack of monsters close on their heels. Mako was bringing up the rear; Usagi assumed she had tried to stand and fight for a few seconds. Mako had, in fact, until Minako forcefully tried to pull her away. It seemed as though Usagi were about to jump out of her skin upon seeing the monsters. Hiding behind Rei, she looked for a quick escape route. There weren't any, naturally. "What are we going to do?" she yelled into the wind. "The only thing we *can* do!" Minako yelled back. What the girls did next might have brought surprise to a normal person. To the monsters, it meant absolutely nothing. "Mercury Star Power--" "Venus Star Power--" "Jupiter Star Power--" "Mars Star Power--" "Moon Cosmic Power--" All five joined voices in unison. "MAKE... UP!!" The Sailor Senshi stood in a circle, facing outward toward the monsters advancing upon them. They steeled themselves and waited for the attack to begin. It didn't. Instead, the monsters stood perfectly still, watching them. The sky began to turn overcast. "I don't recall rain in today's forecast," Sailor Venus quipped uneasily. Mars stared intently at the sky. She'd definitely felt the presence of something evil, but the next line wasn't hers... "So, the Sailor Senshi have fallen into my trap. I have been expecting you. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming sooner or later." Sailor Moon snapped her head up. "Who are you?" The voice remained unnervingly calm. "That, my dear Sailor Senshi, is something you will never know. The ultimate blow to the Sailor Senshi: to be defeated by an enemy they never even knew, like a storm coming out of nowhere to wash away everything before it!" This was something Sailor Moon wasn't going to stand for; speeches were *her* department. "Kidnapping innocent people and trapping them here in this world... A video game should bring only fun, not terror and evil! We cannot allow your evil plans to continue... In the name of the moon, we shall punish you!" The voice laughed. "You'll have to FIND me, first!" To the monsters, it commanded: "Dispose of them!" Sailor Mercury took the cue. "Shabon...... SPRAY!!" The entire battleground disappeared under a layer of fine mist. Next came Sailor Mars' chance. A handful of monsters disintegrated under the care of her Burning Mandara. "This is too easy," she remarked, lining up another monster in her sights. "Shh! Don't say that! Someone might hear you!" Sailor Moon whispered urgently back. Rei was right; these monsters were just as easy to beat in person than from behind the helm of a computer keyboard. Why? "Whoever the source of that voice was, she's toying with us," Mercury read into Sailor Moon's thoughts. "She *knows* we're the Sailor Senshi, and yet..." "She keeps sending weak monsters to fight us!" Jupiter concluded. "This is all just one big game to her." "You might say that. She knows she has us trapped in her world now; it may not even make a difference whether we are alive or not." "I'd prefer to be *alive*, thank you," Sailor Venus replied in between Venus Love-Me Chain attacks. "Yeah! Don't say stuff like that!" There was a note of desperation to Usagi's voice. Why couldn't Mamo-chan be here...? Or, at least a musician to play better background music for the battle. The current music sounded like a mix between pop music and a rap song gone horribly wrong. Not only that, it tended to distract the Sailor Senshi from the fight. They forced themselves to concentrate harder and tune out the music. They didn't have to for too long. For their Senshi powers turned the tide of battle severely in their favor. With it came a change in background music. Now, the music reminded everyone of a suspiciously all-too-familiar triumphant fanfare. "You mean we can tell by the music whether we're winning or losing!?" Sailor Mars was tempted to cover her ears. "That's the way it looked when Ami was playing," Jupiter replied. Who knew they would have to listen to this blasted music while going through the RPG's battles in 'real life,' too? Sailor Mars watched her teammate for a brief moment. Mako almost seemed at home in this world... actually *enjoying* this, Mars thought. She knew exactly what to do. Calling upon the powers of Jupiter, Mako brought the house down upon each and every monster on the battlefield at once. All were destroyed. A few even disintegrated right out from within their armor. Mako wiped her brow. "*That's* how you do it." The others looked at her nervously. A strange uplifting feeling came over them: they were advancing several levels in game experience. Four or five, from the feel of it. "Okay!" Sailor Moon appeared unshaken. "Let's go find Naru-chan!" Mars, Venus and Mercury nodded their consent. "Hold on," Mako told them. "Remember where we are? We're in a role-playing game. That - whoever or *whatever* she was -'s world. We might be able to win a few battles on our own, but we'll probably have more luck if we play along." "Are you sure?" Ami put the question to her. "Battles in video game RPG's usually happen on a random basis, right? I don't think we'll be able to carry on like this through all that. Besides, who's to say that *someone* hasn't upped the chances of us getting attacked?" Mercury started. She'd forgotten completely about the nature of the game they had been thrown into. Mako had a point, of course - even the Sailor Senshi had limits. "What do you suggest we do, then?" To their surprise, Mako knelt down and started poking through the items the monsters left behind. "Grab anything you think is useful. Especially anything that looks like gold or money. We might even be able to use the armor and weapons... or we can always sell them at a shop for more money. I just hope none of it's cursed..." She pulled a flask of a clear sky-blue liquid out of an abandoned leather pouch. "And be on the lookout for medicine and other things, too." "Like what?" "I don't know," came their friend's response. She grinned. "You're the one who's played this game, Ami, not me." "......Mako-chan?" Sailor Mercury asked after a moment's pause. The others were still rummaging through the remnants of the battle. Preoccupied at first with a dagger, Mako lifted her head. "Hm?" "Tell me - how did you come to know so much about role-playing games? I would have expected Usagi-chan to know more about a game before the rest of us..." Sailor Jupiter's face flushed red. Mako wondered for a second whether she should tell her story. "Well..." She let her voice grow distant. "A while back-" Mako cleared her throat and started anew. "A long time ago, I got dumped by a guy. I was so upset that I went down to the local arcade and just lost myself in one of the RPG's." The image brought a momentary smirk to her face. "I don't even remember how much money I spent that day." "Ever since then, if I've needed to forget something or wanted to lose myself, I'd play an RPG." Ami recalled what little else Mako had said about her past, and wondered how many times Mako had had to 'lose herself' in a game. Another voice came to them from the sky. This time, however, it was a familiar one. "...Usako?" Sailor Moon haltingly pulled herself up. "......Mamo-chan?" There was nothing for a moment, and then, "We can talk to them!? Chibi-Usa! We can talk to them!" Sailor Moon turned to Sailor Mercury, who activated her visor. "Apparently, the gateways aren't completely closed whenever a person is pulled through to this world. The dimensional fabric between this world and ours appears to be destabilizing at a slow yet noticeable rate. That's why we can communicate with Mamoru and Chibi-Usa." "Don't forget about us," Artemis' voice drifted down to them. Mamoru's voice took on a note of urgency. "We finally managed to get the computer running again. That might have something to do with it, too. Is it safe enough for us to join you?" Ami thought about it. "Can you see us on the computer monitor?" she asked, cutting Usagi's "Yes!!" short. "...An overhead view, yes." "Perhaps it would be best if you keep an eye on us from there. Warn us in advance if there's anything coming our way." "What about me?" Chibi-Usa's voice cut in. "I want to help!" Sailor Jupiter turned her head up toward the sky. "It's too dangerous for anyone to join us right now." "Yeah! Besides, Mamoru might need your help!" Minako had unwittingly cut off another of Usagi's attempts to get a word in. "......Okay," Chibi-Usa replied slowly. "I don't like this, though." "We don't, either." Usagi sighed. * * * * * Naru and Liana walked out of the shop with an entirely new set of armor, weaponry and outlook on traveling the countryside alone. "I still say this stuff's a little too tight," Liana grumbled, trying to adjust the leather straps underneath the shoulder plates of her armor. Naru's smile compressed. "Don't complain. You picked it out and I paid for it. That's all I had money left for after all the things you chose for me." Regardless of what Liana thought, the pair still looked a sight better than when they had checked out of the Inn earlier. "Next shop," decided Liana, "I'm doing all the buying." The sincerity in her partner's voice brought a comment to Naru's mind. "You sure you don't mean *stealing*?" "What!? No, I *do not*! I'm *not* a thief! Have I not told you that already?" "Then why do you keep getting upset every time someone thinks you are? Anyway, I always thought a rogue *was* a thief." "Perhaps you would get upset as well if everyone always accused you of being a thief." Liana left the latter remark unanswered. The expression on Naru's face softened. "I don't think you have to worry about any of that from me. So tell me, what are we supposed to do now? Where're we supposed to go?" Liana's eyes fixed on Naru for a brief second, studying her. She pulled a worn map from within her thin armor and unfolded it while they walked past the edge of town. They had neglected to stop and buy cure-all potions or herbs while they had the chance - but Liana assured Naru that the small stockpile they had between them was enough, and to save her gold for even more important things. "See this road?" the young rogue's finger traced a route for Naru. "It is the road we are on. I believe we follow it until we reach the forest... here, and then head northeast to the Temple of Alliene." The Temple of Alliene? Exactly how far had Naru come in the game? She recalled reading about the Temple - yet that was light-years from the point where Naru's characters reached experience level thirteen. So long ago... "What do we do at the Temple?" "I'm not sure. We're supposed to look for the Amulet of Ondyre. The legends say you will need its power to free our world from evil." Now why did it sound to Naru that she had heard those very words before? "What's the name of this world?" she asked, putting the thought out of her mind. Liana answered in the same semi-serious tone. "Ondyre." "I should've known." Liana nodded in agreement. Evidently, she should have remembered she was back in the open land, too. Her traveling companion's reflexes faster than hers, Naru discovered Liana meeting the would-be pouncer in mid-air before she knew it. Naru struggled to draw her long sword while Liana traded blows with the thing. The two were closer to completing their arc and landing now. Muttering under her breath to herself, "It's just a game. It's just a *game*," Naru ran through several possibilities in her mind - racing, equally as fast as her thoroughbred pulse - only one scenario of which didn't end in both members of her small party getting killed. Still, if it was 'just a game...' Another part of Naru's mind retorted, The monster and Liana touched down in a severe roll over each other, tumbling through the dry weeds closer and closer to the river that almost ran impolitely parallel to the nearby road. If it hadn't been for the attack, Naru reflected, she would never have seen it. Liana could feel the warm breath and sheer strength of the creature and tried to maneuver it so that it couldn't come out of the roll on top. Where, her mind cried, was Naru? What on Ondyre was she doing to help? Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw Naru straining to keep up with them as they continued to roll, each desperately trying to stay on top. Had she not been desperately trying to shove a few hundred pounds of monster into position, the young woman might have noticed that Naru was trying to look intimidating exactly the wrong way: by swinging her sword about in wild, ineffectual slashes. Liana finally did catch a glimpse. "Would you please NOT do that!?" That took Naru by surprise. She stopped dead in her tracks, lowering her sword to her side. Unfortunately, stopping to yell also forced Liana to let her guard down. The monster - dull enough to recognize this in her expression - flung her to the dirt and pinned her. Liana felt the impact ripple through her rattling armor, yelping out more in shock than pain. "Liana!!" Naru got the hint and picked up running again. The monster had its full attention upon Liana... maybe it hadn't had breakfast or something, Naru didn't know. She would be able to get in a few good blows before it turned its attention to her, giving the other girl a chance to attack. Naru's mind started to form another sarcastic rebuke, but she willed it out of her mind. Her heart already pounding hard and loud enough for her to sense it inside her ears, she gripped the hilt of her sword with both hands tighter than necessary and leapt in for the kill. She brought the cutting edge of the blade down quickly as she could onto the monster's unguarded back. It bounced off the armor there with the sickening thud of a low-budget 'B' movie. Annoyed by the distraction, the monster reached a paw into her frame of recovery to backhand her halfway across the field. Still, the moment gave Liana her chance. She brought both her feet up into the pit of the monster's gut and kicked upward with all the strength she could muster. Naru later admitted that Liana's move had been rather strong; it took the monster a good ten or fifteen feet of sky to realize its altitude had been changed. At least none of the combatants realized how much of an angle Liana had put on her kick, not until the monster drifted in midair toward the river. Naru saw her chance. She closed her eyes and concentrated on a magic spell she'd picked up on without even reading a spellbook or anything. Even if she found the ancient writings bound into her own little spellbook as if they had always been there. A decidedly heavy block of solid ice formed around the monster's feet, forcing it down into the water in an embarrassing splash. Once the water settled, Naru and Liana rushed to peer in - Naru stumbling on the way. Sure enough, it hadn't taken the monster long to break free of its enchantment and swim back to the surface, ready to try that pouncing thing again. Only this time, Naru blasted it with one of her patent-pending fireballs. She had found how to increase their power and range compared to when she first stepped into this game... the fireball that caught the monster roughly about the size of a medicine ball. Perhaps it was Naru's imagination, or a trick of the light, but she could have sworn she saw the monster break out in a nervous sweat right before the fireball hit, scattering it to the winds. Ironically, there were no winds to be felt, so the char-broiled remains of the monster simply fluttered down into the indifferent river. "Ashes to ashes," Naru said, recalling a phrase she had once heard. "What?" asked Liana. Naru let the issue drop. "Oh, nothing." "Let me guess," her partner slowly turned to her, gesturing to Naru's sword. "You don't really know how to use that sword, do you?" Naru blushed in embarrassment. "No. I... I don't." "Then why would you buy it? I think you might be better off with something along the lines of a staff. Most magic-casters use staffs, not swords." "Gee, and here I thought I was here to make a difference," Naru muttered under her breath. "One more thing... before we go around calling everything that attacks us a 'monster,' what *was* that thing?" Liana shrugged. "How should I know? *You* are supposed to be the educated one." Naru Osaka, who had once thought of herself as a girl to whom weird things always happened, threw up her hands in a sigh of defeat. * * * * * "Keep going - I think I see the exit up ahead." Mamoru polished off another bitter cup of coffee while trying to help guide the Sailor Senshi through their latest game challenge. He let out the exasperated sigh he'd saved up for moments like this. He'd long since forgotten to keep track of time in his world; in the game three days had already passed. The Senshi had found a small town to, as Mako advised, sell off all the extra gear they kept from battles and buy the most powerful weapons and armor they could. Though, contrary to Usagi's earlier daydream, Rei decided she felt more comfortable with a staff rather than a sword. It made little difference... especially when none of the girls were accustomed to fighting with swords, staffs and shields. Usagi had had a terrible time adjusting to wearing the heavy armor picked out for her. "You're nothing but a big target," Rei told her. "You might as well be a well-protected big target." They had puzzled their way through several game challenges. Mako, Ami and Mamoru saw to that. Between Makoto's knowledge of role-playing video games, Ami's storehouse of knowledge and the love of her life watching over them like a god might, Usagi felt this was a game they wouldn't lose. So why did she have a feeling that disaster hid over the horizon? Too much listening to Luna, maybe. No, she knew exactly why. The only way any of them were going to return the kidnapped gamers to their proper world and leave the game was to find the one who believed herself in control and deal with her. In the 'real world,' Mamoru pulled down a couple of the window blinds' dusty slats to hazard a guess as to the time. Evening was beginning to set, autumn hues watercolored across the sky. Across the room from him Chibi-Usa slept peacefully on the battered old couch that once belonged to his parents, before that fateful accident. The couch that once saw Mamoru's blood the morning before Zoisite and Kunzite tricked him into giving up the jewels of the nijizuishou in his possession. The day he and Usagi each discovered who the other really was. An awakening. Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon. Mamoru Chiba, Tuxedo Kamen. Princess Serenity and Endymion. And much more... Chibi-Usa stirred on the couch. "Usagi... Sailor Moon...... minna...," she murmured desperately. "Chibi-Usa-chan..." Luna watched over the sleeping child, despairing over the fact that there was hardly anything she could do. *Usagi*. Sailor Moon's plaintive cry came from the computer speaker. "Mamo-chan? Are you still there?" He'd nearly forgotten he was supposed to help them out of the maze. The maze within a haunted forest. Before he reached his chair Usagi screamed again. The speaker failed to do her voice justice. He leapt into the chair. "Usako!?" "Oh, lighten up, you big *baby*! It's just a bush!" It was Rei, overreacting over Usagi's overreacting. "Oh, yeah? What about that tree you tried to burn down back there?" Usagi demanded. "So I couldn't see it with all this fog around. At least I don't run and cower every time we hear a little noise!" "Please, stop arguing, you two!" Sailor Mercury said quickly, automatically placing herself between Rei and Usagi. Ever since Rei had been returned to the Senshi Ami found herself playing mediator for the occasional argument. "This is accomplishing nothing!" Mako saw that the party was no longer alone. A group of undead creatures advanced on them. "It might attract attention," she corrected in a near-whisper. "Now you've done it!" Sailor Venus readied her weapon. "You've gone and waken up the undead!" Usagi made a mental note to remind herself to tell Minako exactly what she thought of that concept. "What? What's going on?" disembodied Mamoru's voice cut through the air. He looked at the world through the eyes of a small computer monitor, an overhead view in pixels. The forest was so dense the treetops obscured Mamoru's view of the party - and the thick fog made matters much worse. When the Senshi were completely out of sight, a flashing square popped up to show their screen position. A pointless feature, really, since the game always kept the party in the exact middle of the screen. Another way to see the party was to wait for them to be attacked. For 'random occurrences,' these happened often. Occasionally all it took was a single step off an established path for a monster to jump out at you as if you had stepped on a land mine. Even so, most of the monsters proved themselves pushovers and the Senshi found themselves at experience level fourteen in no time. Usagi tore her eyes from the ghouls to shoot a glance up at the canopy of trees. They and their attackers were directly under the tree cover; Mamoru probably couldn't see them. Maybe it was just as well - the ghouls and skeletons scared the ability to run and hide right out of her. Rei's evil spirit-ridding techniques also worked little here. The only thing the monsters - and the game - seemed to know was brute force and magic against the same, one on one. Fight or retreat. "You'll have to understand most RPG's don't come with an option for fancy evasive maneuvers," Mako had told everyone earlier, taking a cue from Ami and someone she recalled from television. "Any imagination these monsters have comes from the programmers, not the monsters." But more and more their enemies began to show a high level of ingenuity. Sailor Jupiter took it all into account... wondered if she had been wrong to assume everything that happened to them came as a result of a computer program. Had she but known the truth... What none of the gamers knew was that the world of Ondyre was one hundred percent real. Or, at least, that's what the inhabitants thought. It was a separate dimension from the one the gamers came from, the RPG acting as a portal. But it wasn't a true portal... it affected everyone passing through it. They too saw the world and interacted with it as the RPG did. It colored the responses of the people living here as well as those of the monsters and the gamers 'playing the game.' Only it was not a game. Some people found themselves fighting for their very lives, as Naru had. Some had hidden in the deepest hole they could find, waiting for the nightmare to end. Others had tried to, but were brought out by parties of their own. The monsters continued circling around their prey, eyeing the girls not unlike a desert predator looking forward to its first meal in a long time. Sailor Moon had a mental image of that old Warner Bros. cartoon character - what was his name, again? Something 'coyote' or other... drooling, licking his chops. Sailor Mars had had enough. "Since when do we let creeps like these stop us? What these guys need is a little *fire*..." So saying, she set the undead creatures aflame. That did the trick - the bad guys practically went *poof*! Far overhead Mamoru saw the party's experience point counters rise rapidly. A little more, come on... there, experience level fifteen! And still rising - maybe, just maybe... level sixteen! Ah, but then his computer screen decided it was time to start fading out again. What!? Why was the screen fading? There it was, happening to him once more. Chibi-Usa peered over his shoulder. "I thought we fixed that?" He hadn't even heard her wake up. "Something's gone wrong. Usako? Usako!" he cried. "Something's-" The screen turned completely black. *Usako*... A bright magenta box popped up on-screen. It said, "Sorry!" in blinking white letters. "This *unregistered* shareware version of The Quests of Ondyre only allows adventures up to experience level 15. If you would like to explore more of the world of Ondyre, send your registration along with the provided form to..." Mamoru clicked the monitor off. In all the excitement, he'd forgotten about the game's shareware limitations. Not that he had known what they were in the first place. "We've lost touch with them again. Maybe this time, for good." "Don't say things like that!" Chibi-Usa didn't know Mamoru to be one to give up so easily. "There has to be another way..." For a second, Mamoru met the silent gazes of Luna and Artemis. "There just might be... Come on! We're leaving!" He rushed to the door. "Where are we going?" Artemis ran after him. Mamoru gave him a curious tight-lipped look. "To see a man about a game." * * * * * "......Usako? Usako! Something's-" Silence. Sailor Moon called Mamoru's name. Once, twice, three times, four. No answer came. "Something must have gone wrong!" Sailor Mercury said, watching the sky. She had no idea what she was hoping to see. Sailor Venus scowled. "You think?" she muttered under her breath. "We've got to keep going!" Rei thought to rally everyone. "All we can do is hope Mamoru-san can re-establish contact somehow later on. We weren't expecting to be able to talk to him when we were first brought here, were we?" "That's right! We have to keep going! For the sake of all the gamers who were brought here..." stated Minako. "...And Naru-chan," Sailor Moon reminded her. "...And Naru-chan." "Excuse me," a new voice said. "Did I hear you correctly? You intend to confront the evil presence that plagues our lands?" Sailor Moon turned a cautious head left, right, left, right. "Who said that?" Ami pointed into the clearing barely ahead of them. "I believe he did." "Who are you?" Minako switched her attention to the boy. He was a wanderer, hair almost as fair as hers if not for the dirt clinging to each strand. Probably an orphan, from his ragged appearance, she surmised. He looked as if he hadn't eaten or taken a bath in days. That, and his pale white skin suggested he had not seen the sun in a considerably long while. The boy's next words confirmed part of that theory. "I call myself Corwyn. Perhaps you know a way out of this forest? I have been lost here for quite a long time." Lost? Usagi didn't doubt it at all. Not in these woods. "We stand in an enchanted forest. If you stand still in one place too long, or if the spirits decide to have fun with or torment you-" "Take your pick," Rei muttered. "Indeed... If so, the paths will not hesitate to change around you." Corwyn took a hard look at the surrounding landscape. "As it does now." Sailor Moon shook off the urge to give in to fear. Without Mamoru to point out the proper way from above how would they find their way out of this scary place? She had had just about enough battles with evil spirits and undead creatures for one day. One week, she told herself. One *month*. Happening to glance to her right, she caught a glimpse of Rei keeping an eye on her. So, too, was Corwyn. "You are strangers to our land as well, are you not? I have never seen clothing like yours. The armor and weapons are familiar. Who are you?" "We are the Sailor Senshi." Ami did away with the contraction for added impact. "I'm Sailor Mercury, this is Sailor Moon-" "The *Sailor Senshi*? Here?" Corwyn breathed, though Ami doubted he knew the full meaning of the word *senshi*. "Then you are the ones foreseen in our legends! The ones who truly are destined to help us free the world of evil!" Sailor Jupiter's jaw dropped. "You're kidding, right?" To her this stuff was lifted directly from a few of the form RPG's she'd played a long time ago. Yeah, you're the one. Destined from birth to lead the fight against evil. Okay, sure. Etcetera, etcetera... None of which held a candle to her destiny as a Sailor Senshi. "Why would I mislead you?" "Never mind." Mako pursed her lips. "Hey, I don't mean to be rude or anything," Sailor Moon's voice was subdued, "but couldn't we continue this discussion OUTSIDE this creepy place?" "There's only one way I can think of:" Venus hesitated. "The Sailor Teleport." Of course, the Sailor Teleport! But would it be able to teleport Corwyn as well? "It worked when we teleported Chibi-Usa off Rubeus' ship," said Rei. No one bothered to remind her that Chibi-Usa was a Senshi, too. "Okay, minna, gather around. Corwyn, stand in the middle of our circle. We're going to try something." Usagi suddenly realized she had no idea where they were supposed to teleport to. Corwyn answered her question. The evil presence was holed up somewhere in the Temple of Alliene. "Then that," Rei said firmly, "is where we must go." The Senshi linked hands to form a circle with Corwyn in the center. Calling upon their respective powers, they activated the Teleport. * * * * * At that very moment Naru was staring up in wonder at the Temple's ceilings. Like the walls, the ceilings appeared to be made up of smooth steel plates roughly about twelve feet by twelve feet. The floors, on the other hand, were corrugated plates of the same thin material. Which *wasn't* steel, now that she had a closer look at it. Liana agreed, except the young rogue hadn't an idea what the material was. "I know, I know," Naru waved Liana's reply away. "You're a rogue, not an architect." "A what?" Liana asked. Naru frowned. "Never mind. Let's see if we can figure out where we're supposed to be going." She moved toward the mouth of the corridor. If it weren't for the miserable lighting in this place, she would have felt a whole lot better. At least they could often see the monsters coming and bolt well in advance, if the monsters hadn't seen them first. Everything reminded Naru of a game or two she'd seen back home - one of those first-person, three-dimensional corridor games she never paid much attention to. "Why not consult the map?" Liana drew a piece of weathered paper from her pocket. What? Naru turned abruptly. "You have a map!?" "I... bought it while we were in town," Liana shrugged sheepishly, already tracing their path. Beside her, Naru looked at the map. "You stole it, didn't you? I'll bet it belonged to that guy in the armor shop." Liana kept quiet. After all, what could she say, other than the guy got what he deserved? And Naru wouldn't like that at all. Naru tried to decipher the map. Wait a minute - this map was complete. Indeed, every corner was mapped down to the tiniest of passages. "I thought no one ever made it out of this place alive! How in the world can this map be accurate?" "It is a *magic* map." Liana protested. Oh. That was supposed to make it better? Practically everything on Ondyre - maybe even the world itself - was magic. So saying that anything was magic made very little difference to Naru. "Are you absolutely SURE we can trust it?" "Absolutely; I would trust my life to it, as I did to you." Naru had forgotten Liana held her apparent magical nature in high regard. Either that, or purely blind faith. Well, so be it. If Naru was going to go completely down the tubes, she might as well go as far as possible. "See if the place where the Amulet is kept is marked on the map and get us the most direct route," Naru concluded. "Of course it is marked!" Liana clarified. "Why would it not be? It is a magic map." "Yeah, you said that already. Humor me, okay?" Around the next corner more monsters waited. * * * * * Five Sailor Senshi and one young man rematerialized in the entryway to the Temple of Alliene. Usagi tried to discern the end of one of the endlessly dark corridors with her eyes. "This is where that evil lady is holed up?" Corwyn frowned. "From what I have seen, she is definitely not a Lady." Oops. Her mistake. "Er - so what's she supposed to be?" "None know for sure. I heard she may be a shape-changer who tries to assume the form of what you fear the most." Evidently there was a lot less variety in fear here than present-day Earth. Usagi wondered if she might have a lot less to worry about had she grown up in the world of Ondyre. Maybe then she'd come close to fitting Luna's qualifications for an ideal Senshi... but then, this world was only an illusion. A game, right? "Well, minna? Do we go in?" Usagi asked. A pair of screams drifted from the Temple's halls. "Naru-chan!" realized a shocked Usagi. "And another person," Sailor Mercury thought to add. "She must have been advised to come here and defeat the evil...whatever it is in order to return home." "Then what are we standing around here for?" Impatiently, Sailor Mars ran through the temple's open doors. The others followed. Corwyn decided on a reluctant shrug. These five who acted almost as one were going to take a bit of getting used to. The Senshi attempted to sneak through the Temple straightways. "It's so *dark* in here!" Sailor Moon whined. "Isn't there anything we can do?" Corwyn pulled out a torch. "I've got a torch-" "Save it," Mercury interrupted him, activating her computer visor. she instructed it. Who needed magical maps when technology worked as well? Or were they the same thing? Even Ami had no way of knowing - as far as the Sailor Senshi were concerned - where technology ended and 'magic' began. The walls and corridors painted onto the visor's thin transparency in sharp straight lines for paths and ninety-degree angles where those paths met each other. Six humanoid profiles, shifting through the warm end of the color spectrum, appeared to show their present location. Two other humanoids appeared to be engaged in a fight several halls away - Naru and whoever had joined forces with her. "Do you expect us to find our way through these halls in *complete darkness*?" spluttered Corwyn. "A torch or light may attract monsters to our position. By resorting to infrared scans we can find our way there without light." Infrared scans? "Assuming there are no traps along the way." Mercury pointed to her visor. "I can see those with my visor, too. We won't need to worry about them." Corwyn gave her a strange look she could see through the darkness. "You have an answer to everything, don't you?" "No," Ami turned to go. "I don't." "Does this mean you know where they are?" Mars asked. "Yes." "That's good enough for me," Usagi announced. "Mercury, lead the way." Sailor Jupiter made an effort to match her stride to Mercury's. "Y'know, in a few circles, using that visor in here could be considered *cheating*." Ami blushed for an instant. "Who's going to know?" An eternity ago, a younger Makoto Kino stood in the pouring rain outside her favorite local arcade. She stared through dulled eyes at her drenched reflection in the large window. One hour earlier she had met her boyfriend at their spot - the gazebo in the park - only to hear him mouth the words she never wanted to hear: "I think it would be better if we were just friends." He'd left her then, on the verge of tears, standing in the rain. Shinozaki-kun appeared to save the day, bringing an umbrella for keeping away both the rain and her tears. Somehow, someway, Shinozaki always managed to show up when she needed a dose of comfort or a guardian angel. He walked her home and saw her to her door, try as he might to cheer her up in that curiously personable charm of his. But instead of drying off inside, Mako had waited patiently by her door for Shinozaki-kun to leave before starting off again on her own. She wandered miserably and aimlessly down who knew how many streets... cold from the downpour, hot from the anger she bit back. The mood of the cloudy skies matched the mood in her mind and heart. It suited her just fine. Anyone who recognized her on the street figured they had better stay well out of her way. She unintentionally wound up at the arcade after a while, staring into the window. Okay, so she *had* intended to come here sooner or later, but she hadn't set out with an idea of ending up anywhere. How Shinozaki-kun would worry if he saw her now. The thought of Shinozaki throwing a fit over her, soaking wet as she was, turned up the corners of her mouth. Mako entered the arcade. "Oh, Kino-san, good-" the attendant greeted her. "My goodness, you're soaked! Let me see if there's a towel around here you can use to dry off. It wouldn't do to have you electrocute yourself on a game now, would it?" She found that despite how miserable she felt, or thought she needed to feel - or the attendant's partly sick attempt at humor - all she managed was fumbling a plain 'thanks.' Towel in hand, she dropped her change into the machine. How life would be like if she were a part of this adventure. How life would be like if these characters were her friends... * * * * * The programmer's house looked like any other in its lineup along the darkened streets, nestled securely into its own little nook in the middle of the street. An innocent bystander would have a hard time finding anything wrong with the house, unless he or she were going to discount chipped paint, a not-so-manicured lawn and windows in dire need of a cleaning. Sailor Chibi-Moon blinked at the normality of the picture. "I don't get it. It looks like any other house around here." "Doesn't it?" Tuxedo Kamen smiled briefly, walking toward the front door. Chibi-Moon wondered for a second what he'd meant by that. "Hey!" she called. "Wait for us!" She scrambled to catch up with him, as did Luna and Artemis. She knew what was wrong. There were two police cars parked alongside the curb - more around the corner, for all she knew - yet they were both simply abandoned. Dark and quiet. As if their owners had gone inside the house... but never come out. It gave her a cold shiver even the two cats could feel. Tuxedo Kamen jiggled the doorknob. The door, in response, swung open. "I don't like this," Artemis announced. "Nor I," Luna agreed. "It's like a pre-fabricated trap." "Trap or not, that programmer might be the only chance we have of getting Usa - no, Sailor Moon and everyone else back. So it's a chance we'll have to take." Tuxedo Kamen put a foot around the lower edge of the door. But what if the programmer himself was a demon or monster of some sort just waiting for one of them to stick their foot inside? "It's more likely that the guy's been used by that... demon we overheard when Usako and the others were transported into the game." Then, with a grin, he added, "I don't know of that many demon programmers." The child grumped. "There's always a first..." Nothing interesting happened, so Mamoru decided to edge his head into the doorway to take a peek at the room. And to jerk it back even faster to avoid being creamed by the mass of sticky transparent netting shot at him. he told himself. "I *knew* something was gonna be waiting for us," spat Chibi-Moon. "It wouldn't be fun if there weren't." Tuxedo Kamen forced a small laugh. He stepped back a few paces. The next thing his three companions knew, he was charging full-tilt into the house. Tuxedo Kamen dropped into a tuck-and-roll to avoid the demon's web blasts, frustrating it. As he came to a stop he aimed his walking stick at the demon and extended its length, catching the demon square in its would-be gut. The demon reeling, Tuxedo Kamen stood and took his first real look at their opponent. She was very much a terrifying sight, in appearance bearing little resemblance to the spider-youma of Nephrite's that fought Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars at a bridal contest. This demon, too, had a body more like a spider's rather than a Human - what foul thing might be produced were there ever crossbreedings between humans and spiders - but her body was the black of Evil itself and seem to blend in with the shadows. A quote popped into Tuxedo Kamen's mind. He could see her bared fangs now, dripping with saliva - or venom, as it were - and Mamoru didn't want to think of what happened should the liquid merely come in contact with his skin. Sure enough, drops of it fell to the carpet, instantly burning holes he gathered to be about an inch wide. he tried to return her stare. Close to the computer station on the far wall was a humanoid trapped within a cocoon of the demon's super-sticky silk. Whatever it was started flailing, having realized an event was taking place. The programmer, no doubt. The demon crew still needed him. Anyone else could be terminated without a second thought. Tuxedo Kamen noticed Sailor Chibi-Moon gaping in initial fear at the sight of the demon. So did the demon. "*Run*!" shouted Mamoru, horrified. He didn't want to lose his future daughter in the present. "It's too much for you to handle!" The spider turned her spinnerets on Chibi-Moon, yelling a deafening battle cry; a wad of gooey webbing went *splat!* against a Sailor V silk-screen. Another impacted the wall inches above the cats' heads. Chibi-Moon had launched into the air, performing a forward flip for the sake of argument and came down with her Moon Rod at the ready... "PINK... SUGAR... HEART...... *ATTACK*!!" Nothing happened. Sailor Chibi-Moon and the spider nervously looked at the Moon Rod. The spider was the first to recover, bracing her spinnerets for another barrage of web-strand. Then, the Attack came. Chibi-Moon blindsided the demon, giving Tuxedo Kamen an opening to finish the spider off with a special attack if he so chose. He did so choose. The four breathed a hasty sigh of relief after the demon spider dissolved into a final, forlorn wail. Tuxedo Kamen noted all the web goo draped across the walls and ceiling, the demon's attempt to make herself feel right at home. "It'll be a while before this place gets back to normal." Artemis agreed. "That's for sure." The cocoon on the wall flailed uselessly again, louder this time. One quick upward slash of Tuxedo Kamen's walking stick had the man free. He immediately collapsed out of the wrappings onto all fours, seeing if it was possible to put his breath back where it belonged. "Thank... you," he tried weakly to place the blur before him. "You have no idea how long they've kept me here, made me adapt that game to their purposes...... I don't think I've eaten in at least a week." Chibi-Usa marveled at his condition. Maybe he hadn't eaten or whatever for a week, sure. He sure didn't look it. "I've trained myself to live for weeks on nothing but coffee and cup ramen," Hirokazu, the programmer proudly answered Chibi-Usa's question. His eyes were beginning to readjust, giving him an opportunity to take in the sight of a young Senshi. "Hey! You're one of the Sailor Senshi, aren't you?" His eyes went excitedly wide. "I never believed I'd meet any of you in person-" "Later," Tuxedo Kamen interposed. "A lot of people are trapped within that game of yours. The rest of the Sailor Senshi have gone in to try and rescue them. We were able to help them along until we ran into your shareware limitations." There seemed to be an edge to Mamoru's voice he hadn't intended to let show. "We need your help." Hirokazu slowly glanced from Sailor Chibi-Moon, to the cats, to Tuxedo Kamen. That done, he righted the desk chair and within seconds was tapping judiciously at the keyboard in front of him. "All right," he cracked his knuckles loudly. "Let's see where we stand. Let's see what we can do." * * * * * The Amulet of Ondyre glittered enticingly bright under the only true light in the Temple. Innocently sitting there, almost daring Naru and Liana to reach out and take it for their own. Liana's face developed a glow much like that of the Amulet. "There's the Amulet! Let's go get it!" Having just come from another tiring battle, Naru's senses were terribly alert. What was it about this room that reminded her, um, of that movie featuring an archaeologist with a battered old fedora, a bullwhip and an unusually round large boulder for a trap? She grasped Liana's arm. "Wait! It could be a trap!" "That might be a welcome change from monster attacks," Liana snickered, feeling a little silly. "I'd rather get rid of the attacks and traps altogether." Liana didn't blame her for feeling that way. "So how do we know if this is a trap? I see no magical auras containing it." Naru grimaced. "You can sense magical auras, too? Is there anything *else* - any other talents you haven't told me about?" "I will only tell you about them when they are needed. Sort of adds a measure of surprise and excitement to our adventure, don't you think?" "Liana...!" Naru mentally protested. Ondyre was a great place to visit, as long as one didn't mind the five-second intervals in between fighting hordes of monsters that would have made the Dark Kingdom jealous. Wait... the Dark Kingdom? An image of Nephrite appeared before her in her mind's eye. She withdrew temporarily and decided to let the memory of Nephrite give her strength, not take it away. There were some battles that needed to be fought over and over, to remind one of his or her reason to fight in the first place. Naru reached a hand out for the Amulet, could almost see her reflection in its golden luster... "Naru-chan!" That voice again! Like Usagi's, it had haunted her every minute of her exile to Ondyre. She heard Liana's voice. "*Who are you?*" It wasn't a dream! Naru spun about on one foot...... "Sailor Moon!?" And the Sailor Senshi, too. "Corwyn? What are you doing here? Who are these people?" Liana demanded of the boy. Corwyn shrugged. "A pleasure to see you again, I suppose. I am proud to have the honor to introduce to you the legendary Sailor Senshi." "These are the all-powerful warriors of legend?" Liana sized the Senshi up as though she were a jungle predator circling her prey. "The Sailor Senshi, the ones who would come to save our world?" Corwyn nodded. The Sailor Senshi stood still with foolish looks on their faces. "Wait a second!" Naru felt her temper rising. "If the Sailor Senshi are the all-powerful warriors of legend who'll come to save this world..." She took a single step toward her traveling companion. "...why did you say that saving the world was written in the legends as MY destiny?" This news stunned Corwyn and the Senshi. "Why have I not heard of these legends, Liana?" Everyone in the room was confronting her now. Liana saw she was backing away from the Amulet's pedestal. It was time to come clean. "Okay. I was hoping you wouldn't find out about it. I... sort of stretched the truth a little." "You *lied*," Corwyn corrected her. "I *lied*. I had read about the Amulet in the legends and figured I could get someone to pay a lot of money for it." Naru's brows furrowed. "That's where I came in." "When I saw you come into Traldone, I figured you were the one to help me get the Amulet." Despite her anger Naru's curiosity got the better of her. "But you knew my name..." "I read your name on the inn's registry." Naru decided to take a long glare at Liana, and then the Amulet. "How *could* you, Liana? After I believed everything you told me..." "I trusted you." She turned her back on her one-time traveling companion, tears welling up in her eyelids. "I must have been so naive to trust you..." "Uh, Naru! Wait!" Liana walked toward her. "I... I admit that is what I thought of you at first." There was a genuinely anxious expression to her face. Naru wouldn't even look at her. "But that changed. I abandoned that plan. We've fought together. Laughed together. You defended me in front of that shopkeeper." Liana lowered her head to one side. "We became... friends. I think." "No!!" Naru exploded. "Not this time!" She ran back to the pedestal. The Amulet waited for her to take it... "I'm not going to let you get your hands on the Amulet. I'm gonna give it to someone who can *really* use it!" "Naru-chan!" "Naru!" Naru saw an eerie blue glow before her. It had to be the Amulet, so close to her fingertips. The glow filled the room. It wasn't the Amulet! "Such a touching drama," a familiar voice dribbled like maple syrup. "We really *must* charge admission. It's a pity I don't have popcorn to enjoy this with." "Why don't you show yourself!?" Sailor Jupiter demanded. "As you wish." The blue glow - and the voice - was alive, drawing in breathlike wisps to coalesce around Naru, becoming solid. An arm formed around Naru's throat. Realizing what was happening, she strained to renew her grab for the Amulet. "Got to... have to......!" The fog wouldn't let her, tightening its grip on her throat so that she had to fight for breath instead. A woman who was yet not a woman solidified from the fog, Naru, still struggling for the Amulet and air casually wrapped in her embrace. The whole scene reminded Usagi of a picture of a child holding a teddy bear in one arm and sucking on the thumb of the other hand. "I'm sorry. I can't let you have that amulet," the woman spoke her first corporeal words. "You see, it belongs to me, and I'd prefer not to give it up at this exact point in time." Several things she could have said passed through Naru's mind like leaves drifting past her on the surface of a lazy river. All she could manage, however, was a strangled gasp. Mako grit her teeth. "Are you afraid to face us? It seems like you're always hiding behind something." Usagi nervously put up a hand to try to quiet Mako. "Mako-chan!" she hissed urgently. "Yeah!" Minako added. "Quit hiding behind that girl and come on!" It was Ami's turn to worry. "Minako-chan!" "What do you take me for, an unthinking video game monster?" the woman laughed. "I am Chelise, the Queen of the video game realm, and I'm much more stronger and powerful than the likes of you." To prove this, she lobbed an energy pulse into the midst of the circle of Senshi. They scatter to avoid the blast. "Trying to copy my moves, eh?" Sailor Jupiter forcefully shot back to her feet. "Take this! SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!!" Mako knew if she tried the direct approach, she might end up catching Naru in the crossfire. So she needed to try a different approach. Her Sparkling Wide Pressure projectile concentrated on the stone column directly beside Chelise. The column crumbled, threatening to collapse upon Chelise, who stood underneath. Unconcerned, she raised her free hand out in front of her and force-blasted the damaged column away without an afterthought. For an encore she turned ninety degrees and blasted Sailor Jupiter. Mako caught the brunt of the blast square in her stomach, tossing her unceremoniously into an ornamentally chiseled wall at the rear of the hall. She unconvincingly pulled herself up, using what was left of the wall as a guide and wincing at the obvious loss of hit points. No one ever accused Makoto Kino of not being able to take a punch. Or return in kind. Though right about now, she didn't feel like spouting another cliched comeback like, "Oh, yeah? Take this!" or "That the best you can do?" She powered up for another Sparkling Wide Pressure assault. Sailor Venus beat her to the yell. "Venus... Love-Me... Chain!" Her Chain whipped around Chelise, circling the long way, for a strike at Chelise's unprotected head from behind. Chelise grabbed the chain instead and watched with bemusement as it disintegrated in her hand. Naru's face was slowly turning a shade of purple or blue - whichever it was, Usagi didn't want to know. She readied the Heart Moon Rod. Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter put up a crossfire of Sparkling Wide Pressure and Burning Mandara shots, hoping now that their aim was true. When the dust and smoke cleared Chelise relaxed her shield over Naru. Oh, the girl wasn't to be harmed. Not *yet*, anyway. The Senshi attacks truly hadn't hurt one bit. Why should they? she thought. "DARK SCYTHE!!" A sickle-shaped wave of energy, so single-minded terrifying that even the air fled from it, sliced forth toward each of the five Senshi, Liana and Corwyn, at once. Seven warriors were thrown violently into the rear wall. Ironically, Mako found she'd fallen against the same wall Chelise had originally blasted her into. Naru, still struggling against Chelise's death-lock on her throat, managed to croak two words: "......Sailor ......Moon..." "I hate it when they do that," Minako threw in resignedly. Sailor Mercury was the first to stand. "Shabon............ SPRAY!" Mist swirled outward from Sailor Mercury as a living entity might, blanketing the hall. Under its precious cover, the seven warriors regrouped. "What can we do?" Usagi asked. "She's too powerful for us!" "Too powerful for the Sailor Senshi?" Corwyn frowned. "No one is too powerful for the Sailor Senshi to defeat." "Cut it out, would you? We've got to save Naru!" insisted Liana, who wasn't about to let a warm, casual conversation begin. "If we strike now, while we are hidden by this fog, we can defeat that she-demon!" Corwyn carefully studied the bold intent in Liana's eyes. "You do think of her as a friend, don't you?" "Is it not obvious?" Liana's impatience shone through. Any second now Ami's mist would fade away and Chelise would attack renewed. "Everything you heard me say to Naru was true. Don't judge me before you know all the facts." Sailor Mercury decided to change the subject. "We need to come up with a different plan of attack. Straight, simple attacks obviously aren't working." "Oh, girls..." Chelise's voice grated condescendingly, "You might as well get on with it. I can wait here as long as you can, but I don't think your friend here can." * * * * * *What can we do? She's too powerful for us!* "Isn't there a backdoor code or something you can use to pull everyone out of the game?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, worried. Usako's voice gave him very good reason to worry. So did the Hit Point displays on Hirokazu's monitor. "No." Hirokazu's eyes never left the screen. Mamoru and Chibi-Usa had seen similar behavior before from Ami, so this was nothing new. "She - *Chelise* - watched me closely while I programmed the game. She seemed to know a lot about computer programming... if I didn't know any better, I'll bet she could've programmed the whole thing herself." He paused. "I honestly don't know what she needed me for." The programmer's eyes rolled back to look at whatever it was his mind was thinking of. "The only codes I put in were the usual debug codes, a couple cheat codes I thought I'd use for a little fun..." Hirokazu nearly fell out of his chair. "That's it!" His hands flew back to the keyboard. "What?" asked Chibi-Moon hopefully. "I don't have a code to teleport everyone out of the game - teleporting people across time and space is beyond my expertise in programming... I think I made the lowest grade in the class on that test over temporal studies..." "Get on with it!" Chibi-Moon snapped. "Uh. Well. As I said, I may not have a code to pull everyone out. But I *can* use one of my cheat codes to boost everyone's levels to maximum." "Everyone?" Mamoru raised an eyebrow. "Including the Sailor Senshi?" "I sure hope so." * * * * * A sudden change was taking place. All across the world of Ondyre, no matter where an adventurer out of his or her home element fought, stood or hid, the effect was either exhilarating or frightening, depending on one's state of mind. Naturally, those in the midst of battles thought it was a godsend. More so since most of those affected had been alone, completely and utterly, since their 'kidnapping.' For the relative few who joined forces, they had become ultimately unstoppable. And what of the still fewer out of all those who had even become friends or - quite a dangerous risk for adventurers in Ondyre - more than friends? Only one had experienced betrayal. Naru, too, felt the sensation of rising power. Now, in a surprising burst of strength, she broke free of Chelise's choke hold. The Amulet was hers, and for the first time, she actually held it in her hands. "*What?!?*" Chelise stormed. Determined not to lose her trump card she shot after Naru. "Naru-chan's free!" Minako shouted. "Let's get that demon!" Liana noted the sudden change in the behavior of Naru and the Senshi, but said nothing, or knew what to make of it. "Good idea." She drew her sword. Corwyn readied his sword while the Senshi powered up for what they hoped would be their final assault. Chelise, attempting to dive for cover behind Naru, stopped herself cold in midair. An egg-shaped bubble of cream-colored energy surrounded Naru, who exhaustedly almost welcomed it. Chelise backed away. A look of fear shattered her firm look of stern determination. The Senshi found themselves backing away as well. Usagi was frantic. "What's happening to Naru-chan?" "It must be the Amulet!" Liana strained to be heard over the increasing din, shielding her unprotected eyes from the expanding glow. "I think she is receiving power from it!" Usagi's lips formed a thin line. She noticed Chelise was more interested in Naru than anything else. Usagi gripped the Heart Moon Rod tightly in her left hand. "MOON... SPIRAL..." That was the exact time Naru chose to break free of the egg in a bright, blooming flower of light. But she was no longer the same person she had been. The Amulet saw to that. Naru wore a white bodysuit accented by a midnight blue skirt, laced high-heel boots and collar, gloves trimmed by piping of the same color, a bluish-green jewel-brooch set in the middle of an orange bow upon her chest - matching the bow she'd tied in her hair a lifetime ago - and likewise, a strikingly similar jewel forming the center of a golden tiara. She had become a Sailor Senshi! "Naru..." was the lone word heard in a room full of people who at once had nothing better to say. Naru's staff had reformed itself - into a long, slender silver tuning fork of a staff, a jewel orb resting in the inside curve of the fork and a number of smaller red jewels adorning the metal's smooth surface, a pattern for anyone who cared to see it. Chelise planted herself in front of Naru the Senshi. "Who *ARE* you, anyway?" Naru set the butt of her staff on the ground. She opened her eyes slowly. "I am the defender of this world. The defender of its spirit, and the spirit of all those who live upon it, Sailor Ondyre." the Senshi pondered. Liana and Corwyn's faces had changed to expressions of hopefulness. Sailor Ondyre leveled the business end of her staff at Chelise and fixed the demoness with a stare Chelise felt down to her backbone. "You are the one responsible for corrupting the interdimensional balance between our worlds. You endanger the lives," Sailor Ondyre narrowed her eyes, "of everyone for your amusement. I'm here to put a stop to that." "You are, huh?" Chelise retorted reflexively. She puffed herself indignantly up to full height. "I don't think-" Naru's eyes flashed. "No longer!" Energy writhed forth from the inside curve of her staff. "SONIC... MAELSTROM!!" The Maelstrom brought forth the howling fury of an existence-bending whirlpool underneath Chelise. Naru bravely stood her ground although she had no idea what the Sonic Maelstrom was. She willed it to put an end to the evil that corrupted the land like a dark fog that never lifted. Chelise understood too well what the Maelstrom *meant*; anything that yanked her atoms apart in clusters and, in layman's terms, *flushed* the resulting pieces down a whirlpool drain into non-existence couldn't be all that good... She screamed as the last remaining parts of her corporeal form swirled into the whirlpool and met their end. Her scream followed. Naru likened the experience to a warped version of flushing an unfortunate late goldfish in the toilet. Chelise had been vanquished. All of existence wavered in and out of reality for a second. When it returned to solidness the evil presence in the air was gone. Presumably following the path of its evil master, Rei mused. She turned back to Sailor Ondyre in time to see her collapse. Liana was the closest to Naru. "Naru!!" she rushed to Naru's side. Naru's body decided to vanish into thin air instead. "Naru?" She shifted helplessly to the approaching Senshi. They, too, vanished. That left her and Corwyn alone in the hall. "What on Ondyre happened?" Corwyn studied everything he could see. His footsteps were echoed tenfold throughout the empty hall. "I think we have won. Everyone must have returned to where they belong." "I almost wish they hadn't. Not until I got the chance to straighten things out with Naru." Liana's head drooped. "I did not want her to leave while she was still angry at me." Corwyn looked at the kneeling rogue in a new light. "Naru struck me as the kind of person who would understand." Liana frowned. "Don't give me that! You always were terrible at cheering people up." "What else can I say?" shrugged Corwyn. "I never met her." He turned, intending to make his leave of the hall. "Are you coming, sister?" Liana started to rise. A glint of light off something metallic attracted her attention. "Give me a moment, brother. I - I want to say goodbye to Naru." Corwyn's eyes softened. "Very well. I will wait for you outside." He nodded solemnly, leaving the hall. Following the glint, Liana heaved aside a fragment of the stone column Mako and Chelise had destroyed. The Amulet of Ondyre lay quietly upon the debris left behind, its jeweled face curiously clean. She quickly scooped it into her palms. To think, this Amulet had been the cause of a great deal of trouble. Liana began her journey with the sole intent of duping someone into going to the trouble of getting the Amulet of Ondyre for her so that she could sell it at what she thought was a good price. That 'dupe' had been Naru Osaka, and although Liana had come to regard Naru as a friend her original plans ruined that friendship. "You ARE a bit of an innocent, aren't you?" "Not anymore," Naru Osaka put up a lopsided grin to match Liana's. Liana sighed, stowing the Amulet inside her cloak, close to her heart. One day, Naru would return to Ondyre, and Sailor Ondyre with her. When that day came, Liana would be there to give her the Amulet. This, she vowed. * * * * * "I don't believe it, I'm gonna be late again!" Usagi whimpered urgently to herself. Why couldn't her mother or Luna ever wake her up early? They both knew she *never* started the morning early if she could help it... "Usagi!" a familiar voice rang out. "Wait up!" Usagi turned, nearly losing her small bento sack in the process. There stood Naru, exactly the way Usagi remembered her, dressed once again in her school uniform and a green bow half-buried in her auburn hair. "Naru-chan," Usagi froze. "C'mon, we'd better hurry or we'll both be late!" Naru took Usagi's arm, dragging her along. "I want to have some time before the bell to tell you all about a really strange dream I had last night!" A dream? Naru thought it had all been a dream? Usagi opened her mouth to tell Naru she'd had the same dream. She stopped. How could she tell Naru? She wasn't even sure herself. And trying to talk about it with Naru would probably just end with her sticking her foot in her mouth. Usagi hadn't been with Naru in the 'dream,' *Sailor Moon* had. "Slow down!" insisted Usagi at last. "I'm not in THAT big of a hurry to get to school!" (end) -------------------------------- This story is dedicated to my sister, Tara - who looks somewhat like Makoto and acts somewhat like Usagi, and is a Sailor Moon fan in her own right. CREDITS: Writer: Mike Koos Pre-readers (in alphabetical order): Johnny Dentino David Wills Special Thanks to (in no particular order): David Wills Drew Hurlstone Ed Little John Boomgarn Tom Williams Tom Kinnen Dave Boland ...and a special note of thanks to all RPG/adventure game creators and players out there, including the Dev Team; whose Nethack has given me another reason to stare at the "@" symbol for hours on end. ^_^ Sincere apologies to everyone who is a part of the Sailor Moon series in Japan, manga or anime, especially Takeuchi Naoko. And another round of apologies for everyone who may have had a reference here. :) Author's Notes: Well, that's the end of this story, although it did get a little out of hand during the end and longer than I'd expected. I'll count on everyone I know to remind me never to work on more than one thing at once, especially when other things keep coming up... For those curious, Bubblegum Splash! 9 is partially completed. Maybe now that I don't have seventeen different projects to work on we can actually get some work done on it. ^_^ Some of you sharper-eyed Sailor Moon fans will probably notice that I've placed the time frame of this story somewhere within Sailor Moon S. That's mostly because I haven't completely adjusted to Super S yet... ^_^ Please, if you'd like to say something about this story or Bubblegum Splash!, don't hesitate to write. (Note new e-mail address) Parts 1 and 2 of Sailor Moon: Digital Moon are available for FTP from the rec.arts.anime.creative archive site, ftp.cs.ubc.ca, and my WWW pages (address below). Or, email me and I'll try to mail you a copy. * Mike ('Kino Makoto') Koos: makoto@cal.net * http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto * * "I can do nothing to stop you. Your background music is too strong * for me." - Sam Johnson, Whose Line is it Anyway?