Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Mercury Mask ❯ June Bug ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Mercury Mask
Episode IV
"June Bug"

Scene I
"Why do I have to get sick when I don't have to go to school?" Serena asked herself while she was lying in bed early that morning. "Especially at the beginning of summer vacation."
There was a knock on the door and Serena's mom, Ikuko, entered. "How are you feeling sweetie?" she asked softly.
"My stomach still hurts," Serena replied.
"It's probably just a flu bug, but at least you're not missing school."
'Missing school is what I'd rather be doing instead of spending my summer vacation being sick.' Serena thought.
Scene II
The next day Amanda sighed as she worked on something at the table in her room. Bits of glass were falling onto the table. Amanda was carving a small statue of a man and a woman dancing, the woman had long pigtails and a crown on her head. "I miss them, Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion. Darien's a nice replacement, but I still miss my mom." Amanda set the tiny sculpture down and picked up another piece of glass, "What should I do with this one?" Amanda giggled, "I'll make a sculpture of Sailor Moon and give it to Serena as a peace offering, she still is pretty mad about Darien spending so much time with me."
Amanda then heard the phone ring and someone pick it up. Amanda turned on her laptop, which was sitting next to her to listen to the conversation. Raye had answered the phone, "Poor Serena, I hope we don't have anymore attacks by the NegaVerse, we can't fight without her."
Lita was on the other line, "I know, it seems weird that she got appendicitis so quickly though, she was fine the day before yesterday."
"Guess that means we won't be able to get any training done on our time off, huh?" Raye said.
"Luna said we should still train over our summer break, just Serena will have to skip it for a while."
"She's lucky in that case,"
"I get to get out of training for a few days too, I've got that weird flu bug that's going around, everybody is calling it the "June Bug""
"I've heard about it, isn't it like you get a cough, and a stomachache and that's all?"
"Yup, I've got to go, bye!"
"Bye, Lita."
Amanda closed her laptop; "Poor Serena, I'll quickly finish this and wrap it for her as a get well gift."
Scene III
"Our next suspect is this girl, she's weak and won't put up much of a fight," Dainel said to Malina.
"Good thing we don't get those awful human viruses,"
"Yes," Dainel looked back down at the picture of Lita sitting on her bed talking on the phone.
Scene IV
Later that afternoon Amanda was walking down a long hospital hallway looking for the room the woman at the front desk had told her. In her arms was a nicely wrapped box. "Room 402, here it is." Amanda knocked on the door, when she received no answer she let herself in. "Miss Serena? Are you awake?" she said quietly. She saw Serena was asleep and decided to leave her gift on the table beside the bed. As she opened the door she bumped into Darien, who was there with Ikuko. "Hello Darien, Mrs. Tsukino."
"Hi Amanda, What are you doing here?" Darien asked, he was only curious because Serena didn't exactly like Amanda, she thought Amanda was after her boyfriend.
Amanda pointed to the gift on the table, "I made Serena a get well gift, and it's sort of a peace offering too."
"Oh," Darien replied.
"That was sweet of you, are you one of Serena's friends?" Ikuko asked.
"Serena doesn't like me to much, but she'll get over it sooner or later. She's kind of holding a grudge against me. If you'll excuse me, I should be going before Miss Hino wonders where I am."
"See you later, Amanda," Darien said, then turned to say something to her so Ikuko couldn't hear, "Maybe."
"Oh, okay, I get it, bye." Amanda knew Darien meant in her dream world, and knowing Serena was sick she knew Darien probably wouldn't meet her, but she wished he would, she wanted to tell him about the future.
That night after Serena had just woken up Darien was sitting next to her bed talking to her. Serena finally noticed the box on the table, "Darien what's' that?"
"A gift," Darien paused, "from Amanda."
Serena sat up with a somewhat mixed expression on her face, one of hurt and one of anger, "She even had the nerve." Serena mumbled. Darien handed her the box and Serena opened the card attached to it, which had a picture of Sailor Moon on the front, and read it out loud, "A great get well from Sailor Moon and your friend and rival, Amanda." Next to the word "rival" was a smiley face meaning she was kidding. Serena opened the box and pulled out the gift. It was a sculpture of Sailor Moon holding a rose on a rather large base. Serena spotted the wind up crank on the side and wound it up. The Sailor Moon twirled around and around to the tune of "Moonlight Destiny".
"Wow, Amanda said she made it, but I didn't think she could do that." Darien said as he watched the figurine spin.
Serena looked like she was going to cry, 'I kind of regret being mean to her' Serena thought about how many times she had puled Darien away from Amanda, 'It's not like it's the first time some other girl has gone after Darien though.' she thought.
"Serena I should get going, it's getting late," Darien kissed Serena and left the room.
"But she is after Darien, I know it, and I won't let her have him!" Serena said to herself.
Scene V
"I'm glad you didn't get that awful "June Bug" Hotaru, otherwise I wouldn't have anybody to go shopping with!" Amanda said to Hotaru as they walked down a busy street.
"Yeah, I was going to get something for Serena, I know she likes SailorV, do you think I should get her a manga?" Hotaru replied.
"Well, I don't really know what kinds of things Serena likes, she doesn't really talk to me unless she's telling me to keep away from Darien," Amanda said regretfully, "But I got her a gift anyway."
Amanda and Hotaru walked into a small toy store and began looking around. Amanda spotted the Sailor Moon toys and walked over to see what they had. She picked up a small stuffed Tuxedo Mask doll to admire it. Then she held it up by the arms and showed it to Hotaru, "Isn't this just the cutest thing Hotaru? I have to get one!"
"It is cute," Hotaru picked up one of the stuffed Sailor Saturn toys and examined it, 'None of them really look like the real thing.' she thought.
"Oh, Hotaru that one looks a lot like you, you should buy it," Amanda said.
"I only have enough money with me to get Serena something, and buy lunch,"
"I'll buy it for you then, I haven't gotten a chance to treat one of my friends to anything yet," Amanda was smiling at Hotaru trying to get her to let her buy it for her.
"Okay," Hotaru said giving in.
A few minutes later while Amanda and Hotaru were walking down the sidewalk the five guys came up behind them. Antonio set his hands down on Hotaru's shoulders and Darien put his arms around Amanda's waist and lifted her up off the ground. Both of them were so startled that they screamed.
"Put me down Darien!" Amanda yelled, she hadn't looked to see who it was but she only Darien would do that. Darien set her back down on the ground and she turned around to face him, "Not funny! You scared me half to death!"
"Yeah, not funny!" Hotaru said.
"Chill out, we were just trying to liven up our day." Greg said.
"Well, its lively enough now," Amanda retorted.
"You two want to get lunch with us?" Ken asked.
"It's on us," Darien said.
"Sure," the two girls replied.
The seven of them sat at a large table eating pizza. Amanda looked thoughtful; she had barely touched her pizza.
"Aren't you hungry?" Chad asked her.
Amanda snapped out of the trance she was in and took a bite of her pizza, "Of course, I was just wondering why you guys aren't hanging out with your girlfriends, it's Friday and you guys are on vacation. Not to mention you two," she pointed at Ken and Darien.
"Why us?" Ken asked.
"Well, duh, Mina got that weirdo "June Bug", and Serena had appendicitis,"
"Serena came home from the hospital and I'd rather talk to her on the phone than face the wrath of her dad," Darien said.
"Lita told me not to worry and that she has a lot of cleaning to do so not to bother her," Antonio replied.
"Aren't you nice Darien, your girlfriend's sick and you don't want to see her?" Greg said
"You don't know what her dad is like. I step through the door and I get the third degree, at least Amy's mom is nice and--" Ken kicked him knowing he was going to say something about the Sailor Scouts and nodded toward Amanda. 'I forgot they don't know Amanda's Sailor Mariner.' he thought.
Amanda got devious look on her face and leaned into the middle of the table, "I wanna tell you guys something, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, especially not the girls, Amara, or Michelle."
All six of them leaned closer to the middle of the table. "Remember it's a complete and total secret," Amanda leaned in even closer and said slowly, "I'm Sailor Mariner."
"What?!" the five that didn't know said as they practically jumped out of their seats.
Darien's head was still next to Amanda; he mimicked her tone of voice, "I thought you weren't going to tell anyone."
Amanda and Darien sat back down in their seats along with the others. "Yup, that's right, I'm Sailor Mariner." Amanda studied the looks on their faces and burst out laughing; "You should look in a mirror! Your faces look completely white!"
Antonio noticed Darien had absolutely no reaction to what she had said, "You knew?"
"I'm trying to figure out why she's telling you guys," it wasn't really an answer, but Darien said it anyway.
"Isn't it obvious? They can help me, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask, since you're all here," Amanda said.
"How could we help you?" Greg asked.
"Wait, maybe she's from another planet and her planet needs our help, you have been kind of spacey lately," Chad said trying to be funny.
Amanda took it somewhat seriously, "I'm as much from another planet as any of you. And I'm supposed to test the girls, as well as test myself. I have to get the girls to trust me, without them knowing I'm Sailor Mariner. But they need the test of judgement, they have to learn to trust me in a time of total crisis; enough to transform in front of me. That's where you five come in, if you trust me that much then you can sort of push the girls to that point."
"You want us, to get the girls t trust you?" Antonio asked.
Amanda looked down at her lap and didn't say anything for a moment. When she did she sounded hurt, "I know it seems hopeless now, but if we give them time; Serena a lot of time, just maybe, maybe it'll work out." Amanda paused as the expression on her face brightened, "I know this seems like a weird time to ask about this, but I'm supposed to train while I'm here, and I'm talking about Scout training. So, I was sort of wondering if I could train with you guys?"
Darien tried not to laugh, "You want to train - with us?"
"What you think I'm not good enough? Or are you afraid that I can fight you and win?" Amanda said protectively.
Darien looked embarrassed and nobody said anything until Hotaru brought up a point, "If you guys train at the shrine won't Raye get suspicious?"
"We'll tell her-that we needed someone to even our numbers, so it's one on one and Amanda knows how to sword fight. You do know how to use a sword, don't you?" Chad suggested.
"If I didn't would I be asking? And yes, my skills are somewhat exceptional," Amanda said trying to be modest.
"Okay, we have a session tomorrow at one o'clock," Greg said.
Hotaru scratched her head, "I don't get it, how am I supposed to help you?"
Amanda hesitated for a moment then answered her, "Amara. I think Michelle would trust me enough knowing that Trista trusts me, but Amara is skeptical, and she probably thinks of me the same way that Serena does, more of a nuisance in the way of destiny."
"Oh, okay, but that isn't the reason you became friends with me, is it?" Hotaru asked worriedly.
"Of course not! You'd be just as cool even if I didn't need your help," Amanda said reassuringly. Hotaru smiled at the comment.
Scene VI
Amanda sat down on her bed and picked up Luna-P. She pressed its little pink nose and its eyes lit up. "Luna-P what is this necklace for?" Amanda held up the necklace with the key and charms on it.
"The key is the Crystal Time Key. The larger charm on it is actually holds the power of a sword it, and if I'm not mistaken I believe it is also a key."
"A sword?" Amanda looked confused.
"To use the sword all you have to do is concentrate your power and call upon its power."
"That's cool, I'll have to use it tomorrow at training. Luna-P, when can I come home?"
"Not yet, it's not safe, your mother will probably get you personally when she thinks it's safe here."
"But, why isn't it safe?"
"You're too much like Serenity and Rini, always as curious as a kitten." Luna-P's voice was going out through static, and then Luna-P turned off.
Amanda sighed and lied back on her bed, tears were coming down her face, "Curious as a kitten huh?" Amanda pulled her diary from underneath her pillow.
Diary Entry VI
Date: Friday, 20 June, 1997 True Date: 20 June, 2972
Dear Diary,
I don't know why, but for once I'm actually jealous of Serena, I wish I could kiss a boy like Serena kisses Darien. I guess that's all I wanted to write. I just had to get that off my mind. It's making me think about home, and J.J..
Yours truly,
Amanda
Amanda read what she had wrote, a tear had splashed onto her writing and made some of the ink dissolve off the paper, Amanda tried to wipe the tear off but only made it worse. Instead of "I wish I could kiss a boy like Serena kisses Darien", it read: "I wish I could kiss Darien." Though Amanda didn't really take notice.
Scene VII
"Child's play," Amanda said as she watched Chad and Greg whack together two wooden swords, "We at least use real swords in training."
"You keep saying "we", who are you talking about?" Darien asked.
"I'm a Sailor Scout in training, but I prefer the knight training rather than the Scout training. So, I'm referring to the other knights who are in training," she answered. Amanda unlatched the necklace from around her neck and said, "I have something I want to show you guys."
The five of them stopped what they were doing and watched her hold up the necklace, 'Okay, focus my power, concentrate, call upon its power' she thought. "Great gods of Mercury, your power is the key. Surrender the sword given to me!" As she held the necklace in front of her a sword appeared; the blade almost appeared clear, and the handle had an intricate design carved into it.
"Cool!" Chad said, "Where'd you get that?"
"I don't know, I think my mom sort of gave it to me."
"Amanda, we don't usually use real swords in training." Darien said.
"Figures, they only did that in the Silver Millenium," Amanda said more to herself than anyone else. "Actually, I want one fight-with you Greg."
"Uh-uh, I'm not fighting some little kid," Greg protested.
"Ah, come on, I haven't gotten to show you guys that I can actually do something besides save your butts!"
Meanwhile, at the top of the hill, where the shrine rested, Artemis, Lita, Mina and Raye were watching the five guys and Amanda.
"That's so not fair! They never let us train with them, how come she gets to?" Lita said jealously.
"Lita, I think they're trying to act out the expression, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."
"Mina you managed to say it right!" Artemis was shocked.
"Yeah, well, practiced makes you better," Mina replied.
All three of them sighed as Artemis said, "That's "practice makes perfect" Mina."
"Artemis, why don't you go see what they're talking about and why Amanda's down there," Raye suggested.
"Oh, all right, but I'm not Serena don't expect me to spy on them," he replied.
Artemis ran down the hill to where they were sitting. Amanda was the first to notice the white fur ball. "Oh, how cute!" Amanda picked him up of the ground and hugged him; "You're Artemis, aren't you? I've seen you snooping around the temple. You think I'm some whacko monster don't you?"
Artemis had the strangest look on his face, 'What is she talking about, does she know about the Sailor Scouts?"
Darien picked Artemis up and sweat dropped, "You know Artemis, I like you and all, but our conversation doesn't need cats that go sailing if you get the picture."
From the top of the hill, the guys heard three girls scream. "Time for action," Antonio said, "Venus Planet Power!"
"Mars Planet Power!"
"Mercury Planet Power!"
"Jupiter Planet Power!"
"Merc-" Amanda started to say but Darien, now Tuxedo Mask, put his hand over her mouth.
"Artemis, watch Amanda for a minute," he said as he set him down. The four knights and Tuxedo Mask ran up to the top of the hill.
"You can talk now Artemis, I don't mind," Amanda said as she watched the five running.
"How do you--? I mean, Why did they--? What were you going--?" Artemis had a problem finishing any of his sentences.
"A long story; they trust me; and I was going to wish them luck and nothing else. And I know you can talk because Diana is one of my best buds, but that'll just be a secret between us two curious kittens, right?" Amanda winked at him.
"Yeah, I guess," Artemis replied.
At the top of the hill, Raye and Mina were tied to two separate trees and Lita was being restrained by a ninja-like youma. Dainel had her heart song globe in his hand; "Damn, it's not the one, it doesn't turn into anything."
"It better not! That's my girlfriend's, whatever it is, and I'm not gonna let you take it!" Jupiter Knight yelled. Ken ran towards Dainel and hit his hand with his sword, a real one I assure you. Mercury Knight dove for the crystal globe and barely caught it. Ken had Dainel cornered while Antonio and Chad worked on getting Mina and Raye untied. Greg had taken the globe over to Lita not knowing what to do with it.
"Put it near her heart Greg," Amanda said when she appeared next to the scene holding Artemis underneath his front legs. She walked over to him and took the globe and held it near her heart. By this time everyone was watching as the globe reentered Lita's body.
"This is boring, I'm out of here," Dainel said, then disappeared.
The youma dropped Lita and she fell to the ground, obviously unconscious. Ken ran over to her to see if she was all right. "I think she just fainted," Amanda said, "It's probably because of her being sick, because Amy didn't faint." Nobody had paid any attention to what she said about Lita being sick.
Antonio and Chad had gotten the girls untied, so Antonio asked, "What are we supposed to do with that thing?" he pointed to the youma.
"Uh oh, I'm outta here," the youma said, then disappeared the same way Dainel had.
When Lita came to a few minutes later, she found herself with her head in Ken's lap and the others sitting around them. Mina was holding Artemis in her lap while Raye and she stared intently at Amanda.
Ken smiled into Lita's big green eyes, "How are you feeling?" he asked her.
"What happened? The last thing I remember is that weird Dainel guy!" she said.
"I don't know," Raye said in an angry tone of voice, "Maybe we should ask Amanda. She seems to more about this than any of us."
"You had your heart song taken but the Sailor Knights got it back," Amanda said.
"And exactly how do you know what a "heart song" is?" Mina inquired.
Amanda had to think of a quick lie, "Darien told me, uh huh, Darien told me."
"And you know who the Sailor Knights are how?" Raye asked.
"She knows that they're--?!" Lita said shocked.
Amanda put her arms around Darien and said, "The Sailor Knights are my friends, why? I mean, how do you know them?"
Darien knew Amanda was trying to pretend she didn't know the girls were the Sailor Scouts and she was doing a good job of it.
"Well we," Mina started.
"Three out of five of them are our boyfriends, don't you think we'd know?" Lita said.
"Yeah," Raye and Mina agreed.
"That's cool," Amanda said.
Scene VIII
Amanda's dream...
"Well this should work out just fine, don't you think Darien?" Amanda asked while she was sitting on a rock dangling her feet in the small river of her dream world.
"I think you've got the right idea, but you know it is sort of hard to tell when I don't know much about you." Darien was hinting that she should tell him more about herself.
"You're just dying for me to tell you about where I'm really from, aren't you?"
"I guess, but it is up to you," he said.
"Do you want the short version or the long one?"
"Short, I guess,"
"Okay, In the future you're King Endymion of the Earth and Serena is Neo-Queen Serenity, the Sailor Knights and Sailor Scouts are the rulers of their own respectable planets. You have a daughter named Rini, who is at the moment incredibly stubborn and she won't go back home. This in turn would mean that most likely the other rulers of the planets have children too. All of them do, I, having the power of Mercury, am obviously the Princess of Mercury."
"So, Rini is here?"
"How did you know that?"
"Hotaru asked me about her, she's Ms. Haruna's student teacher right?"
"Yes, I swear that she doesn't trust me even half as far as she could throw me!"
"I should get going," Darien said, "I've got other things to think about then, not to mention Serena."
"Okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow or something."
Amanda's dream faded away but she was glad Darien knew about her and the future.
Scene IX
"Amanda! You got something in the mail. Come and get it." Raye yelled.
Amanda ran out of her bedroom to receive letter in hope that it would be a letter from her mother. But in fact it was not. "Who is it from?" she asked.
"It has Serena's address on it, it's either from her," Raye got a mischievous look on her face, "or it's a love letter from Sammy!"
Amanda took the letter from Raye and opened it up. It wasn't even a letter at all; it was a card, a thank you card. Inside the card read: Amanda, Thank you for the nice gift. You didn't have to get me anything, and I never expected anything from you. But thank you anyway. And if you really want to be my rival you should grow up a little. Serena.
Amanda took the last comment as a rude remark, but knew Serena still thought of her as her rival.