Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Mercury 2.0 ❯ FORMAT ( Chapter 3 )

The sensation was not unlike tumbling from a great height, but when it came to an end, Sailor Mercury found herself once more upright and standing. Next to her was the program Mercury, and she recovered faster then her human friend.

Moving swiftly, Mercury pulled her Rod primitive out from its leg mounts and swung into a defensive stance facing a horde of purple hued programs arrayed around the outside of the platform she was on. A fight was hopeless, unless the strange warrior that claimed her name with the addition of a Sailor prefix could deliver yet another miracle.

Ami was shaken out of her stupor by the actions of the warrior program next to her, and looked around to see their new location. It was a large room with many stacked data caches and a few doorways leading out to other areas. Then she took note of the many guards bringing rifle like constructs to bear on the duo. The odds were too great, and even if Mercury was willing to battle on, Sailor Mercury could not bring herself to face so many at once.

Slowly the blue haired warrior raised her hands above her head.


Mercury 2.0
A TRON/Sailor Moon story
By Seth
Part 3: FORMAT

Note: Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and licensed by DiC in the U.S. while TRON is owned by the Disney Corporation. I claim ownership of neither, but use them in this humble tale for the enjoyment of the readers and fans. Signed sealed and delivered, I’m yours.


Ami had to fight to keep her hands from shaking as the guards trained their weapons on her and Mercury. She hoped that her gesture of surrender would be enough to placate the angry looking group.

Next to her, the warrior program Mercury considered her options. The blue program next to her, who claimed to be a Mercury variant designated Sailor seemed to pack considerable firepower, but the force arrayed against them was too great for them to handle alone. She allowed her Rod to return to storage and mentally accessed her subprograms in desperation. Drawing on an old favorite of her one time partner, Jet One, she pulled a pulsing green sphere from storage and tossed it lightly into the center of the massed guards.

“Get down,” she called to her comrade and pulled the other female down by the skirt. The explosion of the Viral Ball primitive dispatched two of the purple programs and knocked several more off their feet as Mercury jumped up and redrew her Rod, cracking it over the head of the nearest guard program.

Sailor Mercury, even though she was surprised by the apparent grenade attack, managed to shake off the confusion and land a magically enhanced kick to another guard grabbing its weapon and bashing another program in the face with the construct. She spun on one booted heel and threw the weapon, knocking off the aim of another guard who was gunning for her.

Ami fought desperately, but found herself wincing ever time one of the attackers disappeared in a digital flash. For years she had fought monsters and aliens alongside the other Sailor Senshi, but here in this digital realm she found herself locked in a battle that felt more like war then any conflict she had ever been in.

Spinning in place she once more called on her magic and released a cloud of fog to cover her movements. Dashing back to Mercury’s side she found that the blue warrior had also captured one of the enemy weapons, but she was actually using the rifle like construct.

“We need to fall back and find cover,” Ami called to her.

Mercury nodded in agreement, and the two females began working their way through the cloud towards one of the doors in the side of the room. Sailor Mercury led them out, avoiding the bulk of the remaining guards by using her magic to see clearly through the fog. Once outside the room, they found themselves in a corridor that stretched far in both directions. Mercury took off at a jog, Ami hot on her heels.

They passed many side corridors, but unless another group could be heard coming they stayed on the main path. They finally reached an aperture that seemed to head outside and stealthily approached. Two guards stood watch outside the portal, and the two blue warriors quietly took them out and moved onto the platform just outside the digital building.

Looking slowly around they saw the neon sky was not still. A further exploration led to the discovery that the building was in fact a moving transport riding a beam of energy over sharply angled mountains far below.

“I see that you have found that escape is pointless,” a voice said from behind them. They turned back towards the transports entrance and saw a tall and very heavily armored purple colored program flanked by four more guards. He moved forward slightly and raised a warning hand.

“I know of your reputation as a warrior, Mercury,” he said, indicating the program, “and I assure you that my routines are far superior to yours. As for you,” he tilted his head towards Sailor Mercury, “I was privileged to see your power in action back on the ENCOM portable server thanks to the uplink from one of my troops there. I do not know who you are, conscript, but your coding is quite unique. I’m almost glad I was able to retrieve you instead of the user that was there.”

Ami stood tall and proud, drawing from the strength that had served her through countless battles and called out, “What you have taken is not just data, but the hard work of those who created it. In the name of Mercury, I will punish you.”

“How quaint,” the imposing program chuckled, “but I doubt invoking the name of a glorified gamebot will help you now.”

Ami looked down at said gamebot who knelt beside her, her hands lightly gripping the rods attached at her thighs. Their advisory saw the move and pulled out a triangular weapon similar to the ones Ami saw before, but it quickly changed to form a long staff with a comet like tip. In a flash the tip separated from the rest of the weapon and shot towards the two blue women.

Mercury reacted quickly, leaping into a shoulder block that knocked Sailor Mercury over, and then continued to roll away from the point of impact as quickly as she could, almost dragging the surprised magical girl with her.

The projectile detonated in the space the two had just vacated, and the result was extreme. An explosion of energy was quickly countered by the creation of a swirling distortion in the air that seemed to hungrily devour the air around it.

“A Prankster Bit,” shouted Mercury over the noise. “That lunatic could delete us all if he’s not careful!”

The other guard programs seemed to share this opinion and carefully moved to put additional distance between themselves and the crackling vortex. This gave Ami the opportunity she needed as they were more spread and unable to cover each other as well. She reached back and pulled her disk from where it had shifted when she had transformed. It came easily off her back, and with a careful look she threw it low.

The blue disk shot away from her and skipped against the ground, ricocheting back up to slam into the chest of the Prankster Bit wielding attacker. He was knocked off balance for a moment, but that was all Sailor Mercury needed as she spun to her feet and launched a spell at two of the distracted guards.

“Shine Aqua Illusion!”

The jet of charged water impacted with one purple program, slamming him into the transports outer wall before moving on to his fellow who was pushed over the edge of the platform and plummeted out of sight.

Mercury was not inactive as her companion unleashed her unusual attack. Pulling her Rods loose, she snapped them together once more and triggered the command that changed them into the Diffusion weapon. She charged the other two guards, blasting one in the head and slamming into the other at a run, tackling him to the ground.

Ami had by this time ended her spell and caught her returning disk, only to be blasted in the side by another Prankster attack before she could get the disk around to block or deflect the explosion.

The blue haired girl screamed as she felt her arm tearing away, her eyes wide in horror as it seemed to be dragged, bit by bit into the deadly anomaly. As a reflex honed from facing supernatural attacks in the past, she pumped as much of her power as she could into a last ditch effort to defend herself. With a blinding burst of energy, the vortex winked out of existence, and spent, Sailor Mercury collapsed to her knees.

The two remaining functional programs looked at the warrior, mouths agape as her arm reformed out of nothingness, and the white and blue armor faded away, leaving Ami Mizuno in her simple tight blue bodysuit and light armor, her circuitry glowing very faintly.

“The User,” mumbled the confused purple program as his weapon reverted back to its primitive rife function.

Mercury’s reaction was simply to call out, “Ami One!”

She was about to dash to the fallen User, but a short blast at her feet from the Mesh rifle stopped her in her tracks. The heavily armed program moved over to the unconscious form and knelt, keeping his weapon trained on Mercury as he reached out to check on the downed form.

Pulling his hand back he almost laughed, “Amazing. Even a User should have been completely destroyed by a direct hit like that, but somehow she continues to function.” Turning to Mercury he smoothly asked, “I don’t suppose you have any idea how?”

Mercury only glared back in silence as more guard programs came out of the transport’s entryway, weapons trained on her. She continued her silence even as the troopers led her to a holding cell. They also carried the still inert form of Ami and placed her in a cell as well, directly across form the still silent Mercury.

The leader then spoke to the warrior again, “My User was very interested in this strange new power that has been brought into our world. You would do well by your friend to tell me what you know, or she will suffer greatly as we try to discover this strange new coding.”

The trapped gamebot only frowned, and with a smirk her captor continued, “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Your loyalty to your User is exemplary, but futile. In the end, all that was ENCOM will fade and a new order will rise from the ashes.”

Finally Mercury spoke, “What’s your tag, vaporware?”

“Why do you want to know?”

Mercury smirked, “So I can etch it on Ami One’s disk after it rips out your core routines.”

The purple program barked a laugh, “I may keep you in a buffer after all. You’re good for a few laughs. My designation is Nemesis, and after my User is done with the fallen one over there, there won’t be enough left of her to put in a trash file.” He turned away and walked out of the detention area, his mocking laughter ringing in Mercury’s ears as she seethed in anger.

It was some time later then Ami started to come too, and her head pounded from the aftereffects. The first thing she took in was that she was still alive, and this surprised her to no end. After that she forced her eyes slowly open and took in her surroundings.

The light outlined black walls and faint blue glow from her own person gave her all the information she needed to deduce that the events that had occurred up till now were no dream, and she was still in the world inside the computer.

She took stock of her physical condition next, and found her body aching from exhaustion. This was no shock considering what she had put herself through, but the fact that she had reverted back to her normal form left her slightly bothered, and she wondered how much of her secret identity remained.

Slowly she sat up, fighting down the nausea that came with it and took a better look at her surroundings.

“Ami One,” came a soft voice, and Ami turned to look out at the speaker. She found herself in a small room with only three walls, and across a corridor was an identical room with Mercury sitting on an identical bench. The blue woman looked in good condition, but had a wide eyed worried expression on her face.

He digital friend continued, “Are you all right?”

Carefully, Ami answered, “I’m drained, and shook pretty badly, but I think I’m all right. What happened after I blacked out?”

Mercury thought for a moment, and slowly responded, “When you…Sailor Mercury was hit she, you…began to de-rez. There was a blast of…raw power and the Prankster Bit was destroyed. Then you seemed to…defragment, and change into Ami One.” Mercury took a breath, unsure of her own retelling, “What are you? Are you really a User, or something else?”

Ami considered this, and not on just what to tell the awe struck program. Whatever she told the digital Mercury she would have to explain in terms that the program could understand. After all, magic wouldn’t be enough of an explanation to a being who had difficulty with emotional concepts.

“Out there, in the world of the Users, there are things that come from even other worlds as well. They aren’t Users, like us, but they are as strong, and sometimes stronger then a normal User.” She paused for a moment. “Think of these creatures like a virus in the User world, and a long time ago a powerful User called Queen Serenity created defenders, like you are. These ordinary Users became Sailor Senshi, and had the power to stop the viruses.”

“And you are one of these Sailor Senshi Users?”

Ami considered this again, and slowly nodded, “I have the power to transform…reformat into Sailor Mercury, warrior of water and wisdom. But we keep our powers hidden so we can live normal lives.”

“But why stay hidden?”

Ami laughed, “The world isn’t ready to deal with us. We hold enough power to do great harm, and there are Users who would want that power for themselves. So we protect the world in secret, and keep people as safe as we can.”

Mercury nodded, “It’s just like Jet said. Our world isn’t really ready for Users, and yours isn’t ready to know about us. There is a wall of secrets between every world.”

Ami shrugged and lapsed into silence. Looking around, she observed that while the room looked to be open, the glowing edges of the entrance were slightly more intense then the rest of the walls. Shaking off the last of her discomfort, Ami stood and walked to within a few steps of the edge of the room.

“There’s something blocking the way out, isn’t there,” she stated simply.

Mercury nodded, “A force field. It’s strong enough to deflect disk attacks, and a refection in this confined a space could be dangerous. We’re trapped her until Nemesis decided what to do with us.”

Ami shivered, “Nemesis?”

“Our host’s identity.”

Ami stiffly nodded, and moved back to sit on the bench in her cell. Once again a name that was probably reasonable in here was digging into her own life. Nemesis was also the home world of a group of adversaries she had faced before, and some of those battles had been less then pleasant.

“Too many coincidences,” she muttered to herself. Taking a cleansing breath, Ami reached behind herself and gave the mental command to withdraw her Mercury computer. She guessed that since her visor had survived the transition to this world, then the palmtop computer that aided her in the past so much must as well. But no matter how many times she flicked her wrist and gave the command the device refused to drop into her hand. She tried to feel the connection to the ancient piece of equipment, but the tug she felt from her transformation wand was the only thing she could sense.

This caused her a brief moment of panic. As the warrior of wisdom she had often stated that information was power. And in that regard she had always took a secret pride in being the best informed of the Sailor Senshi. Mars had her spiritual power, Jupiter had physical strength, Venus seemed to never run out of energy and Moon…she was Moon and that was all she needed.

But it had always been Mercury who had deduced the enemy’s weakness, or figured out how to save a life, because she was the best informed. Now her best tool for gathering data was gone.

Ami quietly collected herself and remembered that it wasn’t the tools that made the Senshi. She still had her wits, her senses, and her formidable mind. She remembered that while the visor she used in battle was a magically created crystal, the Mercury Computer was a real item that had been given to her in her mortal form. It was magic to be sure, but it was based on wires and chips, just like everything else in here.

“It can’t exist inside its own world,” she reasoned to herself. Sighing, she leaned back against the wall of her cell and considered her options. According to Mercury, their captor was returning, and she was sure that if Mercury had seen her de-transform, then the other program had as well. And there was no telling what he would make of her ability.

“Mercury,” she called out, “how much would it take to overload one of these fields?”

The blue warrior looked back to her companion and saw a smile appear on the girl’s face as she reached out and with a flick caused a small construct shaped like a tiny blue rod to appear.

She answered cautiously, “Quite a bit actually. I’ve never been able to get past one. Why?”

Ami gave her a reassuring smile, “Because I think it’s time Sailor Mercury returned, don’t you?”

With that, Ami held up her transformation wand and shouted out, “Mercury Crystal Power…MAKE UP!”

As her shout echoed around the small cell, she felt a numb panic creep into her mind. There was no flash of light, no whirlpool of water sweeping away the student, Ami Mizuno and bringing forth the warrior, Sailor Mercury. The wand just sat in her hand, inert.

Forcing the panic down, Ami took a closer look at the wand. Its circuit patterns were dark, and the crystal that held her symbol was still and opaque. Squeezing the magical item in her hand, she held it up and tried once more, but to no avail.

Slumping back down against the wall, Ami collected herself. The magic that had been a part of her since she was fourteen had failed, but that wasn’t all she was. Usagi had reminded them again and again that it was the heart, not the magic, that gave them power.

Then again, Ami’s heart wasn’t likely to smash its way through a computer generated force field.

“Are you all right?”

The concern in Mercury’s voice shook her out of her downward spiral and reminded Ami that she wasn’t alone here. She stood back up and looked at her companion through the invisible barriers that separated them.

“I may be,” Ami answered, “but losing my magic is a little like losing an arm. I’ve used it for so long that I’m having a little trouble coping.”

Mercury nodded, “Maybe, but were it not for your magic you would have really lost an arm. Could it be that you need to recharge in order to power up again?”

“Not likely in here,” Ami answered. “I draw power from my planet, the world Mercury, and through the Silver Crystal. Nether of them exist here.”

Mercury saw the edge of panic still in the User’s eyes and decided to distract the girl, “There’s a whole world named after us?”

Ami sensed the amazement, and concern in her counterpart’s voice, and focused on the academic problem. She told her partner of the Greeks and the messenger god Mercury. She spoke of the ancient astronomers who looked beyond the confines of their world. She even touched on the Silver Millennium, and how they had tied a group of girls to the awesome energies that were created in nature.

Ami found herself calming. The sharing of information was something she enjoyed, and Mercury’s look of wonder at the stories of the gods was an interesting sight indeed.

The older looking blue program had even dubbed the gods Super Users so that she could relate to them in her understanding of the world around her. She held Users in such high regard that the concept of beings beyond the understanding of the digital gods was hard for her to grasp.

That made Ami pause again. In here she was considered a god, and she had seen enough of the awe and reverence that Users received when she had brought that one program back from the brink of…

Ami bolted upright once more, staring at her own hands for a long time.

I brought him back from death, she thought to herself. I used my power to heal him, and I still have that kind of power. I just have no idea how far in goes.

“I see you are functional once more,” said a new voice, and Ami looked up from her hands to see the large purple guard that she had fought before.

“Nemesis, I presume,” she said flatly.

He held up his weapon and smiled darkly, “My User is very interested in meeting you. The idea of your power intrigues him so. If you can give him access to this power, then he will be a god in your world as well as ours, and then there will be nothing stopping us.”

Ami shock her head, “Others have tried to gain this power, and all have failed. Nether your or my world is ready for the depth it holds, and only those who cast off corruptions like greed can use it.”

Nemesis barked out a long, contempt laden laugh, “Such tripe. Everything in the universe is obtainable, and concepts like purity and corruption are tools of weak minded fools who are too afraid to seize the power for themselves. Now then, you have an appointment with our inquisition chamber. I do hope you resist the probe.”

The implication made Ami shiver, but his next action started Ami calculating again. Keeping his weapon trained on her, Nemesis reached to one side of the door and lowered the force field, motioning her to move out.

Digging into her memory, she recalled how Makoto, warrior of lightning, had taught her a few simple moves to protect her personal space on the bus or subway. Being attractive teenage girls had more then a few drawbacks, and more then once one of the disguised Senshi needed to dispense some justice to some creepy guy who let his hands wander onto their person.

Ami stepped slowly out of the cell, standing in front of the imposing warrior, and brought her foot down on top of his.

Hard.

For once she actually wished she had the high heels that Sailor Mars was cursed with.

She quickly followed with a hard fist to the gut, then jabbed both her captor’s eyes with her thumbs. A swift kick to the groin, whether or not a program would be affected by such things she didn’t care, and Makoto’s teachings were complete. Nemesis was on the floor, and Ami was panting for air as the adrenaline rushed into her system. She walked shakily over to the panel controlling Mercury’s cell and touched the switch, releasing her friend.

“Most unexpected,” was Mercury’s calm answer to Ami’s excited state as she strode out and took Nemesis’ weapon.

“Yeah,” Ami said, trying to collect herself, “but it works on Loop Line gropers and evil guards alike. We need to get out of here.”

The blue warrior woman nodded and looked down at the injured program that had been so menacing earlier. She brought her weapon to bear on him and Ami saw what was to come. For a moment she wanted to voice an objection, to stop what was about to happen.

She realized that Mercury was only doing what she was programmed to do, and whether it was by her hand or Nemesis’ creator, the purple program wouldn’t see another day.

Ami looked away as a burst of light signaled that the weapon had done what it was created for.

“Let’s go,” Mercury said as she walked past Ami and up the ramp back into the depths of the transport.

Ami only spared a quick glance at the space once occupied by her captor and spoke a silent plea, “Usagi, please get me out of here.”

///Meanwhile in the Real World///

Jet had not given up, it just wasn’t in his nature. Under the watchful eyes of Ami’s friends he had connected his terminal to the internet, and Ma3a was once more diving into the sea of data, attempting to back track the intruder programs that had started this disaster.

“Cola?”

Jet looked back and saw that Usagi was offering a can to him, and her arms were burdened with a plethora of snack foods.

“Thanks,” he said, taking the can. “How are you two holding up?”

Makoto rubbed her knuckles from where she bruised them punching the vending machine outside after it had tried to steal her money, “I really don’t think these things like us.”

The young American smiled at the two girls and managed to chuckle out, “I know how you feel. Sometimes these things get a little too much personality, and I don’t just mean the programs. There was this damn water fountain back at ENCOM HQ that had it out for me and I…”

“Jet,” came a sudden call out of the speakers.”

Turning back to the screen he answered, “What is it, Ma3a?”

“The backdoor was older then we thought. It comes from before I was encoded into the system. Even before your father started working in the Laser Division. It looks like it was set up before Ed Dillinger was removed as CEO.”

“Wow,” Jet managed, “That’s almost twenty years ago. What is it?”

“Something called SARK.BACKUP.EXE”

///END OF SEGMENT///