Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Star Scouts ❯ Study Sessions and Suspicions ( Chapter 5 )

(Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. The original characters all belong to Naoko Takeuchi. The Star Scouts, Rhea, Luna Belle, Ariel and other made-up characters belong to me.)

AN: Read and Review

--------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------

Serena, Lita, Amy, Raye, and Mina stared at huge estate through the gate, stunned.

"Are you sure this is where Hannah lives?" Raye asked.

Serena nodded and pushed the button on the intercom on the stone wall beside the Iron Gate.

"Hiya! It's me. Could you open the gate?" She said loudly.

The gate swung open and the girls walked onto the grass, the gates locking securely behind them. They walked up to the oak front doors, which was a very long walk indeed, and knocked on them. The door opened to reveal a very exasperated Misty. The blue-haired girl smiled and let them in as the sounds of an argument reached their ears.

"I TOOK THE TRASH OUT LAST WEEK IT'S YOUR TURN THIS WEEK!"

"IS NOT!"

"IS TOO!

"IS NOT!"

"IS TOO!!"

Hannah's voice could be heard trying desperately to stop the arguing.

"Come on you two, please! We're having guests over today, and you're really not making a good impression!"

Two voices yelled in unison "SO WHAT?!"

And then the arguing started up again, but Hannah shouted "Cut it out or you two have to do the laundry for three weeks!"

The fighting ceased instantly. Hannah appeared in the doorway to another room, smiling wearily.

"Lilly and Kate at it again?" Kaze asked as she came down the staircase. Hannah nodded and looked at Serena and the group.

"Hi, sorry you had to hear that annoying argument. Anyway, Misty'll show you where the den is. Make yourselves at home and the rest of us'll join you in a minute." Hannah said. They nodded and followed Misty to the living room.

*****

Hannah walked up the stairs, into a hallway and stopped mid-way, facing an apparently blank wall. She pressed her hand onto the surface. A red light flashed over it and a computerized voice said "Name?"

"Princess Hannah Lita Elara Nike Kino of Jupiter." Hannah stated in a monotone.

The solid wall dispersed and she stepped inside. This room was lit by a pale blue light and was filled with computers, monitors, control panels, etc. Hannah walked over to the main control panel with a holo-screen and pressed several buttons. She pulled up a file and studied it intently.

Kaze pressed her hand on the wall and said quietly "Princess Kaze Michelle Amphitrite Tenoh of Uranus and Neptune."

The wall vanished again and Kaze walked into the control room. She looked at the file Hannah was studying. This particular file was on the Sailor Scouts, each of whom had their own record. Hannah was presently scanning the record on Sailor Saturn, for the thirtieth time in two weeks. Kaze was just as puzzled as her Princess as to why there hadn't been any sign of the Soldier of Saturn. The Uranian/Neptunian put her hand on Hannah's shoulder and said "Come on, we should get going."

The Jovian sighed, closed the file and followed Kaze out of the room.

*******

A fifteen year old girl flew through the remains of her once beautiful crystalline city. Her eyes stopped on something on the ground, rain soaking her clothes. Landing hurriedly, she flashed over to the object and stared in horror and disbelief, eyes haunted. The object was the body of a twelve year old girl with brown blond hair. The girl was dead. The brown-haired girl clenched her fists so tightly that her nails cut into her skin, drawing blood. Angry tears ran unbidden down her face, mingling with the rain, as she dropped to her knees and slammed a fist on the crystalline ground beside her. Cracks appeared in the ground from the impact. Six other girls landed beside her. One with aqua hair, one with blue hair, one with long blackish-green hair, one with shoulder length purplish black hair, one with raven hair, and one with blond hair. Then...

"Raye! Earth to Raye!"

Raye jerked, surprised. Lita, Amy, Mina, Lilly, Kate, and Misty were watching her curiously.

"You okay Raye?" A voice asked from behind them.

Raye turned around and her violet eyes locked onto the same green eyes the girl in her dream had had. Hannah and Kaze stood in the doorway, puzzled. Raye replied to Hannah's question "I'm fine, just had a weird dream."

Hannah nodded uncertainly and turned to the group at large.

"So you guys want some snacks or something?" She asked.

Serena woke up at once and nodded eagerly. Hannah and Kaze sweatdropped and went to get snacks.

As they past the front door, someone knocked.

"I'll get it." Hannah said, and seeing the look on Kaze's face continued "How dangerous can opening a door be Kaze? Go ahead and get the snacks."

Kaze nodded and left. Hannah opened the door and found herself facing Amara and Michelle.

"Hi Hannah! We promised Serena and the others that we'd grace them with our presence at their study group. So here we are." Amara explained. Hannah stepped aside to let them in and closed the door behind them.

"Kaze is in the kitchen." Hannah said vaguely as she led them into living room.

"Amara, Michelle, you made it!" Serena squealed. Amara and Michelle sat down on a couch. The young aqua-haired woman watched Hannah closely as she left the room again.

"Doesn't something feel different about her?" Michelle mused quietly, after making sure that Kate, Misty and Lilly had gone back to studying. Amara nodded.

"Do you think it's possible that they're…?" Amara trailed off, glancing at her partner. Michelle shrugged.

***

In the kitchen Hannah and Kaze were conversing quietly

"Where're Rhea, Luna Belle, and Ariel?" Kaze asked, pulling several cups out of a cabinet.

"Trying to communicate with Kate's sister, Luna, Diana or Artemis or any of the guardian kittens back in Crystal Tokyo, at least what's left of it." Hannah sighed; she absently took out several large plates and a tray.

Kaze grimaced and tried to change the subject.

"Remember, during our stay in the Silver Millennium, that Venusian man who wanted to marry you?" Kaze asked, smiling slightly as she filled the cups with tea.

Hannah snorted and replied "How could I forget? He was the only one arrogant enough to try to come between me and James. His name was Lord Michael, if I recall correctly."

Kaze stifled a giggle and continued "And he tried to kiss you in front of the inner and outer princesses."

The Jovian princess recollected the memory fondly as she laid warm cookies on the plates. Kaze went on with the story.

"Next thing anybody knows, you've punched him in the jaw, sending him to the ground. Princess Uranus cracked up at the sight."

Hannah grinned and, as she picked up the tray full of cookies, said "He was lucky James wasn't there. He would've killed him."

Sighing dreamily, Hannah spaced out as she thought about her boyfriend. After three minutes of this, Kaze snapped her fingers in front of her face.

"Neptune to Hannah. Come in Hannah." Kaze said. Nothing happened.

Smiling slyly Kaze chirped, in a sing-song voice, "Hannah and James sittin in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love then-"

Hannah blinked and scowled at Kaze, a pink flush creeping up her neck.

"Kaze!"

The aforementioned aqua-haired teenager blinked innocently and said "What? Thinking about marrying James so soon, or maybe you're already planning to-"

"KAZE!"

Hannah turned from pink to scarlet in a split second, glaring at her murderously. Kaze laughed nervously and picked up the tray of teacups.

"I'm sorry Hannah, but I couldn't resist, heh heh."

******

Two hours later:

It had started raining hard outside. Hannah stared out the window, watching the rain, remembering the rainy days on Jupiter. Usually she would have been cooking, swimming indoors, painting, practicing violin or piano, or taking care of her little sister and the younger mini scouts. Her little sister, Leda, was eight, two years younger than Small Lady and would eventually be Sailor Mini Jupiter, part of Small Lady's team of scouts.

Hannah's thoughts turned absently onto the two of her Star Scouts who had to stay in Crystal Tokyo. Marie Tomoe aka Sailor Amethyst, Bianca Tenoh aka Sailor Tanazite and Anna Meioh aka Sailor Garnet.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard bells and soft paw steps. Hannah looked up and saw Ariel and Rhea trot into the room. Hannah looked around the room at the others. Presently Mina, Lilly, Misty, Kaze, Lita, and Kate were researching Tanaka Kakuei and taking for their reports. Serena and Amy were doing math, with Amara and Michelle's help. Amara and Michelle had finished their college work. And Raye was doing social studies.

Hannah looked down at the book in front of her. Calculus. She realized that she must have finished because the piece of paper had all of the problems on it, solved. Hannah stood up, excused herself vaguely and hurried out of the room. She sat on the stairs with the Guardian Kittens.

"So what's up?" She asked.

"Everybody's family is fine as are our parents and sisters. Nobody else has been killed." Rhea reported.

Hannah sighed in relief, closing her eyes.

"Good."

Rhea licked her paw and said "And you might be seeing James sooner than you think."

At this her eyes snapped open, staring at Rhea.

"Really? When? Is he coming here?" Hannah asked anxiously.

"Can't tell you." Rhea replied.

"Rhea!" She whined.

"It's going to have to be a surprise." Ariel said.

"You're so mean!" Hannah sulked.

The cats ignored her and went up the stairs, probably going to take a cat nap.

Hannah stayed there for a moment. Lightning cracked outside and Hannah jumped, surprised. She looked outside, frowning.

"It's getting nasty out there." she mused as she headed back into the living room. Her communicator beeped and she slipped back over to the stairs. Hannah thought she heard the sound of more beeping communicators, but dismissed it instantly, summing it up to be the rest of the Star Scouts.

"Emerald here." she said quietly.

There was a moment of static, and then Luna Belle's voice came through.

"There's an attack at the park. Twenty or thirty youma at the most. Do you think you can get here?" The kitten asked.

"Be there in a minute. Emerald out." She said quickly.

"I've got to go get something." She called, rushing to the door. To her dismay, Amara, Michelle, Raye and Mina came to accompany her.

"Us too." Mina said. With an inward groan, she led them out into the pounding rain.

*****

Hannah managed to get away from the others and transformed into Sailor Emerald. She finally reached the park. Luna Belle had been right. There were thirty youma destroying everything.

"Ah…forget the stupid speech and pose." she growled as a youma spotted her. It resembled some kind of giant scorpion, with five long tentacles that each had a sharp stinger on the tip.

"Uh, not good." Emerald jumped over it and into a tree. She held out her hand, palm opened and a small green glow appeared in the center of her hand. It grew to the size of a basketball.

Emerald narrowed her eyes and settled on a youma, one that looked like a giant demented……..energizer bunny?

A sweatdrop appeared on the side of her head. `They must be getting really desperate.' she thought.

Emerald shook her head and fired the energy ball at the `energizer bunny'. It burst into flames and vanished.

"That was ridiculously easy." She muttered.

Something slashed her shoulder, knocking her out of the tree and right into the midst of the youma. A searing pain tore through her right shoulder. She regained her senses long enough to roll out of the way of the scorpion's stinger. Jumping to her feet, she sized up the situation.

Unexpectedly, a giant ball of what looked like water crashed into five of the youma, destroying them. Sailor Emerald looked around and spotted Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Mars and Venus.

Grimacing, she turned away and proceeded to destroy ten more youma with a succession of lightning blasts, ignoring the increasing pain in her shoulder.

Someone touched her arm lightly and said "Let us take care of the rest."

Emerald looked at the person who had spoken. Sailor Neptune. She scowled and protested "I'm fine, I can do it myself."

But there was no changing Neptune's mind. Emerald reluctantly stopped fighting, and turned to leave. If she couldn't fight, then she would go home.

"Who are you?" Neptune's voice asked.

Emerald stopped and looked at her, sizing her up. Then she replied.

"You'll know soon enough."

With that said, she vanished into the rain.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Reference:

Amphitrite: She is from Greek mythology. She was one of the Nereides and the Queen of Sea Goddesses, also the wife of Poseidon.

Nike: Goddess of Victory.

Elara: One of Jupiter's moons.

Tanaka Kakuei: He was one of the most famous politicians in Japan. His name is recorded in Japanese history textbooks because of his great achievements as well as the large stain which will be recorded forever.

In 1947, he was elected to the Diet from Niigata and in 1972, he became the prime minister. He made an effort to normalize diplomatic relations with the Peoples's Republic of China and planed to build railroads and national roads all over Japan. He was very popular among many people, so his speech and action always attracted the attention of people.

But, in 1976, the fact that he accepted a bribe was detected and he was given a suspended sentence. This event shocked many people. After that, he retired from political life, but he still had a great influence until his death.