Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Knight for Neptune ❯ Chapter 5

Rating: PG

Notes/Foreword: I use one made-up character in the story, Taylor. Taylor's original appearance was in my first fanfic, "A Knight for Uranus." After that, he started making at least some appearances in most of my Sailor Moon stories. During Silver Millennium, Taylor was one of the guardians of Princess Uranus. They began to fall in love with each other, but the relationship was cut off when Taylor had to leave to protect Queen Serenity and Sailor Uranus was forbidden to leave her post. This was the last she saw of him until both of them were reborn in present time. Soon after meeting Haruka, Taylor recovered his memories and they fell in love once again. Taylor is carefree and easy-going when he's civilian (he usually lets Haruka have her way whenever she wants). As a fighter, he is highly determined and won't go down easy. His major purpose is to help Sailor Uranus upgrade, but this only works for short intervals, like when Super Sailor Moon used the grail to upgrade. He has brown hair, hazel eyes, and enjoys watching races (go figure,) reading, and fishing.

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A Knight for Neptune: Chapter 5
by Katrina Kadabra

"Nate! Hey, Nate! Nathan!"

Upon hearing his name called, Nathan shook himself back to reality. It seemed like Michiru wasn't the only one zoning out nowadays. Of course, Nathan had other reasons.

"What's with you?" the young man who had been calling him asked. "Sheesh, you're so out of it."

"I can't help it," Nathan replied. "All I can think about is asking Michiru to that dance. But every time I come near the girl, I panic. Heck, I've been downright avoiding her. I haven't even said a word to her since the other day."

His friend sighed. "Geez, you really are love-struck, aren't you?" Nathan reluctantly nodded.

"I can't help it. Have you ever seen someone as perfect, lovely, talented..."

"No," his friend admitted. "And neither have I seen someone so completely in love with a girl and yet so terrified to ask her to a simple dance."

"Michiru's the jewel of the student body," Nathan responded sadly. "What chance do I have with her?" With that, he turned to leave.

At the same moment, unbeknownst to either of the two boys, Michiru was standing nervously outside the audio visual room. It was well known Nathan always came out here when he was done editing for the afternoon. Michiru found herself nervously looking at her watch every two minutes, she didn't know why. There was no reason for her to be this anxious. She was just asking for a simple favor from a friend. Nothing more. There was no reason to get so excited. Just relax, she told herself. Just relax, and...

"Michiru!" Michiru almost jumped a mile when she heard Nathan call out her name, just coming out of the room and understandably surprised to see the girl he'd been dreaming about standing before him.

"W-what are you doing here?" he managed to stutter out. At first, Michiru felt her checks turning bright red, but then she quickly regained herself as she casually ran her hand through her signature aquamarine hair.

"Oh, hello Nathan! I'm so sorry... I didn't see you there."

"Great," Nathan thought to himself. Here he had gotten himself all excited over nothing. She had probably just come here by mistake or...

"Do you think I could talk to you for a minute?" Michiru asked shyly. Nathan snapped back to full attention. A minute? He'd give her a lifetime. Nathan nodded and the two of them stepped into the audio-visual room.

Inside, Michiru found herself surrounded by video screens, microphones, computers, and literally walls of video tapes. Nathan showed her to a chair, one of those swivel chairs you could spin yourself around in if ever you became bored, and then he himself took a seat across from her.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked. Michiru was playing nervously with her fingers.

"I don't know how to put this," she began. "But I'm in a bit a tight spot, you see, and well..." She took a deep breath. Say it now, Michiru, she told herself. Or else you'll never say it. "You know that dance Friday night? I was wondering if... you'd be willing to take me?"

At that, Nathan almost fell backwards out of his seat.

"You want me to take you?" he asked, agog.

"It's really short notice and very awkward I know," said Michiru apologetically. "But I have to go there to play a solo, and with no one to take me..." She rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry, it was rude of me to ask such a thing."

"No, no, it's okay," Nathan assured her. "Michiru, I'd be honored to take you to the dance."

"Really?" Michiru asked with a smile. "Oh thank you, Nathan. This means a lot." She gathered her belongings and headed for the door. "I have to be there early to set up for my performance, so I'll see you at six then?"

Nathan nodded, lost in pure bliss. "Right. See you."

The moment Michiru arrived home, for some strange reason, she felt rather light-headed with happiness. She had a date. And a cute one at that. All the guys were going to be so disappointed when she showed up at the dance, Nathan in her arms.

Michiru slapped herself. "What am I thinking?" she said. "Sheesh, he's only doing this as a favor after all, don't get so worked up."

"Talking to yourself?" said a voice behind her. Michiru jumped and turned around.

"Haruka!"

Haruka smiled. "You really like him, don't you?"

Michiru was about to reply, but she didn't quite have the time. For at that moment, both her and Haruka's communicators started beeping obnoxiously. Haruka pulled hers out of her pocket and flipped the lip open with a single flick of her wrist.

"Haruka here. What's up?" At first, all she heard in reply was some static, but then Sailor Mars' voice came through loud and clear.

"Haruka? We need you, Michiru, and Taylor down at the elementary school right now! Our enemy's attacked again! And they're a lot stronger than..." With that, her voice was cut off. Michiru and Haruka both looked at each other with deep concern but strong determination. Without exchanging words, they both knew what they had to do.

"Uranus Planet Power..."

"Neptune Planet Power..."

"Make-up!"

The two Sailor Soldiers ran like the wind towards the elementary school, Uranus flying like it was nothing to her, with Neptune at her heels. Neptune's breathing was hard and quick. Adjust your speed to meet hers, she kept telling herself. But Uranus was unusually fast today, and despite Neptune's self-encouragement, she continued to find herself lagging a few steps behind.

Finally, the two arrived at the elementary school where the inner senshi were already involved in quite a battle. From atop one building leapt a insect-like monster that shook the earth beneath its feet when it landed. Uranus recognized this lovely specimen as the creature that had attacked her and Taylor that morning when he first awakened as a Knight. The only difference this time was...

"Uranus! Neptune! Watch it!" Jupiter called out to her comrades. The two girls reacted instantly, jumping into the air another mantis-like creature flew just beneath their heels. As they landed, a third one crawled out from behind a tree.

"There's a hoard of them!" Neptune exclaimed, grabbing for her mirror. "Submarine reflection!"

A white light blared from the surface of Neptune's weapon, hitting the creature whose attack on her and Uranus had just gone awry directly in the face. The monster fell to the ground. At first Neptune smiled confidently at her accomplishment, but the glory was to be short-lived. The creature was stunned, but far from defeated, as it wearily got back to its feet. Neptune gasped in shock and Uranus cursed under her breath.

"Not even your strongest attack works? How are we supposed to beat them then?" she muttered angrily.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!" The familiar sound of Sailor Moon's most powerful attack hit the insect and it struggled to stand up and instantly turned it to dust. Seeing success, Mercury immediately called on her visor computer to analyze what had just happened.

"It seems..." she said, reading over all the figures as quickly and efficiently as she could. "That these monsters must be hit with two powerful attacks in immediate succession, one to break their defense, the second to finish them off."

"Well," said Mars, preparing her fiery Flame Sniper attack. "Let's not waste any more time."

The senshi jumped back into battle, each one struggling to hold her own, but still relying on her comrades to watch her back. Besides the two monsters that could be seen, three more were still lurking in the shadows, and they kept coming out and attacking when the senshi least suspected it.

"World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerge!"

Uranus and Neptune combined their attacks to form a force powerful enough to destroy another insect monster that Venus had just managed to knock down. Venus hurriedly got to her feet.

"Neptune, watch it!" she yelled. Neptune gasped and turned around to see another monster looming above her head, ready to strike in an instant.

"Uranus Planet Power!" A familiar voice rang through the air, and it was not Haruka's. A blast of blue light threw the beast that was about to attack Neptune to the ground. The silhouette of a man dressed in blue armor stood against the moon light.

"Taylor! You made it!" Uranus exclaimed. The knight jumped down and took a fighting stance. This was no time to celebrate; they still had a battle to win.

"Planet Uranus," he whispered. "Lend me your energy. As a knight of Uranus, I ask you to give me the power to protect my princess." At these words, Uranus' outfit began to morph, changing from a Super Sailor Soldier to that of an Eternal Sailor Soldier. The Space Sword glowed with power.

"All right," said Uranus, gripping her weapon. "Let's finish these punks."

"I could've protected myself," Neptune said quietly, but her comrade did not seem to hear.

After Uranus' upgrade, the battle went much faster. The other Sailor Senshi dealt the first needed blow to each of the remaining insects while Sailor Moon and Uranus finished the beasts with their attacks. When the last monster fell down dead, Uranus reverted back to her super form. The streets were a mess with the insect remains, not to mention the sections of sidewalk that had been ripped up by Uranus' World Shaking attack. The senshi all stood, exhausted but proud. Uranus knelt down, using her sword for support, while Neptune just sprawled herself out on the cement. Her body ached all over, with not so much as a drop of energy left in her veins.

Just then, to everyone's horror, a hideous laugh echoed through the air.

"Think you've won the war already, Sailor Senshi? I hope you're well-rested, because this was just the first battle!"