I have just recently realised that up until now I don't think I've ever
inserted a disclaimer. I now will.
I was not the man on the grassy knole.
I did not kidnap the Linberg baby.
I am not really here. This message does not really exist. You are having
a drug induced hallucination. What would your mother say if she knew
this? Tsk tsk tsk. Go to Rehab you fool.
Chapter 6
At eleven twenty the next afternoon, Juuban middle school was in the
middle of class. Students were studying, teachers were teaching, the
cleaning staff was cleaning. And the tall, dark, and sinister men were
converging in some haste.
Ami was happy. All her friends had gotten better and were all in their
respective places. She was sitting in class, eyes forward, notes being
taken in precise, meticulous handwriting. Same as usual.
For her part, Usagi was slightly confused. She had been forced to come
to school today, in spite of her wails and pleas that she was still too
sick. She was in the prime of health of course, but she had felt no need
to tell her parents that. Her magic powers of regeneration apparently
carried over, healing her wounds in normal form too. Still, now she had
to go to school. She hated that.
Makoto was allowing her mind to wander. The teacher was reviewing
material hat she understood fairly well, and now she was thinking back.
The stranger who had saved them from that evil man. He looked so much
like her old sempai.
An eraser impacted with her head.
Alright, so he looked nothing like her old sempai and was around
twenty. He still was good looking and she knew he was interested in her.
Another eraser impacted with her forehead, this one leaving a chalk
print.
Alright, so he might not have been interested in her at all. And the
only one of them he even looked at was Rei and that was probably an
inconsequential glance. But she could hope that-
"MAKOTO!"
"AH!" Makoto almost fell backwards out of her seat, catching herself
only at the last chance.
"Makoto, if you are not going to pay attention in class and ignore me
when I'm speaking to you, get out in the hall with buckets." Sensei was
obviously annoyed.
"Yes Sensei," Makoto sighed and did the instructed job.
The worst part of the bucket punishment was not the weight. One gets
used to it and if fairly strong, as Makoto was, that's ignorable. No,
the worst part was the reactions received from other people in the hall.
As the principal and vice principal stopped in front of her and began
to berate her, she groaned internally. She wished they'd just go away.
Little did she know they were unintentionally saving her life.
The doors opened and it stepped through. It's steps were measured and
placed with care as only a computer can do. The clothing it wore was
different than it's previous set, liberated from a tourist. As it moved
down the hall, armory relocated to a duffel bag under it's left arm, it
observed those also present.
A stream of binary flowed, detailing there were three individuals
standing in front of the door to the right. Two appeared to be
administrators and the third was of an indeterminable identity.
Photographic reconnaissance of her was blocked by the head of man before
her. It was not important though. A 99.7% match of Target 2 was in the
building and it continued to move forward.
To Makoto, the steps seemed to reverberate through out the hall. Her
eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of the man walking down the hall.
Different clothes, but he was the same. Huge girth and dark features,
expressionless face, slow, deadly stride. Makoto abruptly knew, she just
knew, that she was about to die. He was gonna kill her, kill them all,
kill them all, kill them-
The principal took a step forward and placed himself only a few inches
from her face and placed his hands on her shoulders. All of the sudden
she had turned completely white.
"Makoto, are you ok? Makoto?" The principal shook her gently.
All Makoto could think of was the figure directly in front of her. It
strode down the hall, never giving her a second glance. And then it was
gone. She slumped to the floor and sat, cold sweat on her skin, panting
heavily.
"You look like you need to visit the nurse. Why don't you go see her
now." The principal suggested. He considered himself a strict
disciplinarian but he was not heartless.
She looked at him for a sec, then breathed her thanks. Then she set a
land speed record as she raced off.
"My. She got better all of the sudden," The vice principal said.
"Apparently."
As Makoto Kino raced through the halls, she thought quickly. Why would
he be here? What reason did he have? He couldn't know who they were. The
magic disguise field would prevent that. It prevented anyone from
recognizing them.
Be that as it may, she realized, it was here now and she needed to get
the others out. Usagi's class was at gym right now so that meant Ami was
closest. She'd call her communicator and tell her to get away.
Sitting in the front row, Ami felt her bag buzz slightly. Concealing
her gesture behind apparently reaching for more paper, she touched her
communicator. She say she had a message.
"Yes, Miss Mizuno?" The teacher recognized her.
"May I be excused for a moment. I need to use the facilities." Ami had
already palmed the communicator and just needed to get out of the class
room.
"Certainly. Take the hall pass. Now, there are the Lorenz equations
and-" The teacher resumed her droning speech.
Rising she made her way to the door, stopping only to acquire the hall
pass from the teacher's desk. She paused for a moment as she was
leaving. She had not yet studied this part of the text book and hoped
this would not take long.
Moments later in an empty bathroom, she answered the call, "Yes?"
"Ami! It's that guy! He's here!" Makoto was panicking and barely
keeping her voice down. Her fear came across the communicator clearer
than her words.
"Calm down. Which guy?"
"The one who's trying to kill us!" Makoto glanced around her again. She
was in a different women's bathroom on the other side of the school. She
was still scared he would find her.
"I'll get my stuff and tell the teacher I'm sick. You get Usagi." Ami
replied, mind instantly kicking into overdrive.
:"Ok. Hurry!" And Makoto tuned out.
There was a rapping on the door. The teacher paused again, knowing that
Ami would simply enter if it was her. She walked over to the door and
opened it.
A dark haired foreigner filled the doorway. He was almost six and a
half feet tall, and looked like he was a body builder. He was dressed in
clean jeans and a "Tokyo Tower: Greatest Place on Earth!" T-shirt. He
held a duffel bag under one arm and appeared to barely notice the
weight.
"Excuse me. Is Ami Mizuno here?" He had the hint of a southern accent
but his voice lacked any inflection. For some reason, it reminded the
teacher of speaking to a machine.
"I'm sorry, she just stepped out." Well, as long as he was polite, she
figured she could ignore his idiosyncrasies.
"Will she be back?"
"In a few moments. Can I ask why you're looking for her?"
"I have to deliver a message."
Ami stepped out of the bathroom and hustled down the hallway. Her room
was right up ahead, around the corner. She hoped she wouldn't have any
problems leaving on such short notice.
As she rounded the corner and entered the home stretch, she idly let
one hand graze across the cinder blocks. She began walking down the
hall, each step seeming to ring like a bell. There was a gentleman
standing in the doorway of her class, apparently speaking to her
teacher.
"That should be her now." Mrs. Ishiwara said, hearing what were
probably her student's footsteps.
The tall gentleman had already turned and was looking down the hallway.
His eyes met Ami's.
Target 2: 99.7% Match
The match was within allowable perimeters. Perfect identification was
unachievable for some reason. Something was interfering. It didn't
matter though. 99.7% was close enough.
Initiate Alpha Mode
Ami made eye contact and her breath froze in her throat. It seemed like
her heart stopped beating and the barely audible echoes of her last step
abruptly seemed deafening. Then, slowly, as if in a dream, the man broke
eye contact and looked down at the bag he was holding.
Like someone abruptly released from a spell, Ami returned to normal
time. She spun and began to run. There were doors to the stairway only
twenty feet from her. If she could just make it, she could escape.
The man reached down and opened his bag with one hand. As the teacher
opened her mouth to ask a question, he withdrew gleaming piece of metal.
Recognition dawned in her eyes as she made the connection between the
stranger, the news footage she had seen two nights ago of the NDF
building, and the gun. She didn't know why, but she abruptly knew what
he was asking for Ami Mizuno about.
He drew it cleanly and aimed for back of her head. His weapon was
loaded with hollow point rounds and the detailed medical files in the
main banks registered that a successful hit there would be 99.8% likely
to be deadly.
"No!" The teach screamed and threw herself into the man. His first shot
went wild as she pushed his aim off. He swung his left arm then, the one
she was shoving, and carried her away with it. Her body impacted with a
load bearing column, and it snapped in half.
Upon hearing the shot behind her, threw herself to the floor. As she
was in mid-air, she looked forward and saw the doors in front of her
slam open. The other one stood there. The other man. And he had two guns
drawn, large handguns. Her last thought before she hit the floor was an
idle question, why would the barrels be isosceles triangles? And then
the bullets roared.
The agent jerked backwards as the projectiles hit. Its next shots went
wild and hit the roof as the powerful bullets tore up its front.
"Run Girl!" Cyanide screamed as he reentered his aim. He squeezed off
another round and felt the jerk as his arm was wrenched backwards. These
were powerful, but the recoil made them unusable for serious bursts.
She was on her feet, she didn't remember rising, and scurrying towards
him. He fired over her head and dimly her mind registered the pings of
metal on metal.
She stopped in the doorway to the stairs, eyes widening as she abruptly
froze. That man strode before her. He was dressed all in black, from the
boots to the trenchcoat. Dark glasses hid his eyes but she recognized
him. He was the one who had saved her earlier but what was he doing-
"MOVE!" He yelled and tackled her. A flurry of small ordinance fire
occurred, and the space she had just occupied was filled with bullets.
She lay on her back, the large man on top of her, and then her brain
began to work again. As he looked over his shoulder, she brought her
mind to focus. Time to take action. And this wasn't nearly as romantic
as she had thought this position would be.
They ran down the stairs, frantic in their haste. As they hit the
bottom, Cyanide kicked an emergency exit open and began to run towards
the street, Ami in tow. They were at the gate before she was able to
force him to stop for a moment.
"What about the others?" She asked.
"There are others at this school!?" Cyanide swore mentally.
"Yes. Makoto and Usagi."
"Fuck." Cyanide paused for a moment, thinking, before deciding that
bore repeating. "Fuck."
"Please. Don't say that." Ami really didn't like people using words
like that.
At this point students began to pour from the main building. They were
all in neat, organized lines and their teachers were leading them.
"Look, you get away, I'll go in after them." Cyanide turned to face the
building, eyes searching for attackers or Senshi.
"I can call them. We all have wireless communicators," Ami replied.
"Senshi with cell' phones. Fine you do that. Tell them to meet you at
the corner right there. I'm going to go get a car." And Cyanide dashed
off.
Five minutes later, Usagi, Ami, and Makoto were waiting at said corner.
Cyanide pulled up in a large black van. "Get in."
"I'm noticing a color trend." Ami said as she climbed in.
At that moment, the original tall dark and sinister man walked out of
the school. Photographic sensors recorded 99.7%, 99.2%, and 98.3%
matches for targets 1, 2, and 4 entering a black van. It responded in
the only way it consider. It shot lots of bullets.
"Fuck me in the goat ass!" Cyanide slammed his foot on the gas and
roared away. Makoto, half in, half out, screamed and held onto her two
friends. Bullets ripped through the sides of the car, entering and
exiting the fiberglass without concern for those in it. Miraculously,
neither the passengers or driver was hit.
Makoto finally pulled herself into the van and the door was shut.
Cyanide then began to attempt to drive at high speeds in midday Tokyo
traffic. He managed about eight km/hr.
Behind them, the agent walked out onto the street. It appropriated a
car and shortly was in pursuit.
"I could get out and walk faster than this!" Cyanide muttered as he
desperately maneuvered around the other cars on the road. "Are you three
powered up yet back there?"
"Moon Crystal Power Make Up!" Cyanide tuned the rest of the
transformation phrases. He hoped it wasn't too obvious from outside the
van what was going on.
The interesting thing about bullet wholes is that they don't go away.
While this isn't that interesting, admittedly, it is something often
forgot about. Thus one black van, driving down main street, looked like
there was a disco party inside as rays of light that covered the entire
rainbow emanated from within. Small streaks of red, gold, and blue mixed
with purple and green. Needless to say the transformations were not
unnoticed.
"Great. I'm getting a porn show from a bunch of thirteen year olds in
the back of my van." Cyanide was not as appreciative an audience as
could be hoped for.
Moon looked at Jupiter and Mercury. "We need the others."
"Right. I'll call them. We can all meet in here then decide what to
do." Mercury replied, retrieving her
"Try ducking! Ya morons!" Cyanide swerved to the left. The top of the
van abruptly gained more air-conditioning holes as bullets tracked
through it.
"AIE!" Seemed to be the general consensus from the back.
"Anyone back there know how to drive?"
"No."
"Sorry."
"I'm fourteen. Of course not."
"Time to learn! Someone get up here." Cyanide appeared to have his mood
moving quite steadily down. Right now it seemed to be in the "Ready to
kill something, anything" phase.
"We can run faster than this. Why don't we just leave the van?" Moon
asked from the back.
"Because I can't!"
To be continued.
Alright, I know people are reading this because when I asked for info on
Shadows on the Moon (good stuff) I got lots really quickly. I only get
C&Ced every other chapter though, except for DB Sommer. (Thanks DB) Can
I atleast get a "I no longer think you should be burned alive for having
written this piece of trash" or so? Please?
I'll C&C in return!
Prior chapters will be available at http://www.execulink.com/~stryker
where Strife is going to post them. Well, he will when I get off my lazy
butt and make them presentable. Thanks Strife.
Miashara