As you all know, Sailor Moon and related characters don't belong to me. I'm just a poor fan. OPERATION END THIS STORY LINE By Cloretta Bailey Baileyct@ionet.net Episode 6: Fight On Two Fronts Here's the buzz sailor fans: Tuxedo Mask and the scouts are in the fight of their lives. Sailor Moon has taken the Silver Imperial Crystal into the future to save Queen Serena. Will she succeed? Will she return to the 20th century in time to save her friends? Read on and find out Sailor Moon landed on the edge of a large pit. She promptly fell in tumbling head over heals as she went. Landing with a clunk, she lay on the ground stunned; her eyes spinning in zombie circles. She tried to climb out of the pit, but the dirt was too fine. She slid back down. Sailor Moon wished she still had her wings. They had vanished when she first transformed at her house and had not returned. So she continued to struggle. "Help!" No one came to her aid. The only answer she received was a rhythmic thunder in the distance. * * * * * * By the time Tuxedo Mask ran to the front entrance of the hospital, he had already produced twenty roses. He immediately flung them at the first droids he saw. He gazed around. Drat! Rubeus was no where to be seen. The scouts were right behind Tuxedo Mask. Mercury glanced around. "I thought we were promised fewer extras" "We'll have to put it in our contract." Mars flamed a couple of droids. A third blasted her into a cherry tree near the hospital entrance. Jupiter shocked a large green droid with her thunderclap but it did no damage. She tried again and again. The droid only laughed as it flung a minivan at her. She leaped out of the way but the van crashed into the hospital entrance narrowly missing Mars. Venus tied up as many droids as she could, but her love chains didn't last long enough to put them out of permanent commission. Mercury had the most luck. She stood in between two droids and froze them just enough to make them angry. Each turned on her and blasted, but she jumped out of the way. Each blast disfigured the other droid. The planetary warriors decided to try Mercury's strategy. The reporters were running around trying to get the story while avoiding the blasts. There were too many blasts. The reporters kept getting hit. Some were knocked unconscious. Others fought back. Nancy Bargis searched for a place to hide. Many other people joined in the fight. Some were visiting hospital patients. Others came from throughout the city to help the warriors. The entire battle was a free-for-all. Soon, the parking lot resembled a junk yard. Scattered bits of vehicles were everywhere. * * * * * * After struggling for what seemed like an hour, Sailor Moon finally found her way out of the ditch. The pit was a hole in what had once been a mansion. Now it was nothing more than a skeleton of its former self. "Hello! Is anyone here?" No one answered. The thunder continued. Sailor Moon looked up through a hole in the ceiling. The sky was clear. So what was causing that horrible noise? Sailor Moon hated thunder. She wished she had brought someone with her. Even her little brother would have been better than being alone. Another crash of thunder reverberated in the distance. She screamed and ran in the opposite direction toward a door. She planned to hide in a closet. She pulled the door open. It and part of the wall crashed to the floor. The door way led outside though the architect never intended it for that purpose. The tattered remains of clothes in the rubble told Sailor Moon she had indeed found a closet. Sailor Moon walked through the closet into the yard. She stared in horrified wonder. The entire neighborhood was a disaster. Buildings, like the one she had just left, were little more than rubble. The few intact remains were evidence of the beauty that had once been there. Some of the remains had edges that sharpened to a point, like stalagmites. The city had once been defined by those stalagmite-like turrets. They gave the city a crystalline quality. "Of course, Crystal Tokyo!" At least, Sailor Moon knew she was in the right place. She hoped she had arrived in time to save Queen Serena. A crash, different from the thunder that continued in the distance, reverberated through the neighborhood. Sailor Moon jumped and hid behind the split trunk of a dead tree. After a moment, she peeked out. A nearby building had collapsed. She started to come out of hiding but heard someone round the debris. She crouched lower. "Told you it would only take me one shot," boasted a droid to his companion. "It was a wimpy building." The second droid pointed toward the house Sailor Moon had come from. "Try that one." Just as the first droid blasted the mansion, ten commandos charged forth from another house across the street. They blasted the droids with freezing rays. The droids, caught off guard, were immobilized. "Hurry, get their morphers before they thaw out." A couple of the commandos searched the droids. One commando pulled a negacrystal off the first droid and handed it to his leader. The other droid was searched but no morpher was found. Curious, Sailor Moon walked out from her hiding place. "Where did you get those wicked cool blasters?" A commando turned and fired at her. She dove for cover. The ray went over her head and turned the tree trunk into a popcicle. "Hay, watch it. I'm on your side." The commando leader walked up to her. "What are you doing here?" Something about him seamed familiar to Sailor Moon. "Do I know you?" "I am Captain Melvin Umino of the Royal Rangers. Who are you?" "Melvin? No way. What happened to your zombie circles?" Before he could make any comment, the droids thawed and blasted the commandos nearest them. Other commandos blasted back, but the droids were prepared this time. They advanced on their enemies. One of the droids shot at Melvin and Sailor Moon. They dove for cover. The captain rolled and blasted it in the chest. The droid blasted back knocking Sailor Moon on her rump. "That's it. I have had it. You droids are ruining my life. For that, I will punish you. Moon Scepter Elimination." Both droids turned to dust. In the dust where the second droid had stood, lay a negacrystal. It turned black. Melvin retrieved the crystal. "Useless," he said disgusted. The captain turned to Sailor Moon. "How did you do that?" Sailor Moon grinned. "Have scepter; will eliminate." Melvin looked at Sailor Moon quizzically. "Where did you get that scepter? If we had more of them, the enemy couldn't stop us." "I would like to know why she looks like our queen," one of the other rangers said. Melvin and the others stared at Sailor Moon. "Explain." "Um. . . we are, sort of, the same person." "Not possible. Could be a trick. Eliminate your own droids to gain our trust, then annihilate us from the inside." Sailor Moon folded her arms in front of her chest. "You people are most distrustful. I got this treatment from the king and queen." She made a fist and held it in front of her face. "Well, you better not get in my way. I promised Renie I would save her mother." "When could you have met the royal family? The king and princess are safely inside the palace and no one gets beyond the forcefield." "I met the king and queen in a yellow void and Renie is in the 20th century with my friends." "Who are you?" "Sailor Moon." The rangers had heard stories of the sailor scouts' exploits. The nobility had descended from those famous female warriors. The rangers didn't believe she was their queen's famous ancestor and said so. Their captain silenced them. Melvin gazed at Sailor Moon. "The general can clear up this matter. Come with us." The rangers guided Sailor Moon around the remains of the mansion in which she had arrived. She didn't want to go that direction. That way lay the persistent thunder. "Can we go that way?" She pointed in the opposite direction. "I hate thunder." The commandos looked at each other and shook their heads. One of them asked Melvin if he thought she was really Sailor Moon. "The royal family and nobility have powers we do not understand," the captain answered. "Time travel may be possible." "You actually believe her?" "No, but we need that scepter. She will be less trouble to us if she doesn't know she is our prisoner." Sailor Moon heard none of this for when she rounded the corner of the bombed-out hulk, she gasped. A massive castle was in the distance. She assumed it was the palace. It had the same stalagmite-like turrets as the rest of the city. Except it was the only building that remained in tact. The palace was under siege and the rangers didn't seem surprised by that. The thunder Sailor Moon had heard ever since she arrived was actually blasts coming from numerous spaceships. They had a similar crystalline design to the palace except they were black. They gave Sailor Moon a sense of foreboding. Though the spaceships continued to blast away at the palace, not one blast hit its mark. The palace was protected by a forcefield. A forcefield of blue, green, yellow and red. Commercial Break The battle in the 20th century had been going on for four hours now and little had changed. The large green droid was still after Jupiter. Jupiter ran around the parking lot as he threw vehicle parts at her. She would pause long enough to give the droid a target then dashed away just as he threw. The vehicle parts hit the droids behind Jupiter instead. At last count, he had killed six droids and maimed ten others. But Jupiter was tiring. She ran by Venus. The blond rapped up the green droid like a mummy. Both girls pulled on the love chain and sent it spinning like a top. It crashed into two other droids killing them instantly. But he was not harmed. He chased both girls. Jupiter tripped. She was too exhausted to get up. The green droid laughed as it dropped a Toyota down on her. The Toyota paused in mid air then flew back into the droid's face. Jupiter looked up. Joe ran by and pulled her to her feet. "Let's get this jolly green giant." Jupiter's eyes became hearts. "Hi!" A few yards away, a droid blasted Mars over a Suzuki. At least it used to be a Suzuki. She lay in a heap stunned. Bluebirds twittered around her head. Mercury dodged a droid in a hospital gown and throwing dirty bedpans. She ran to Mars and waved her arms till the birds dispersed. "Wrong animation style." Nancy Bargis crawled out from her hiding place. "Is it safe yet?" A bedpan smacked into her face and fell to the ground. The reporter spit out the contents in her mouth, saw it and turned green. Mercury froze the droid and looked at Nancy. She shuddered and looked away. "That's disgusting." Mars held her nose. "That stinks." Mercury glanced at Nancy then back to Mars. "That is Biff Tannin in 'Back To The Future'." * * * * * * The royal rangers guided Sailor Moon through bombed-out buildings in zigzag patterns keeping watch for more droid patrols and stray blasts from the enemy ships. They encountered no one. The city with the largest population in the world was deserted. It spooked Sailor Moon. "Where are all the people?" "Most fell victim to the Negamoon attack. Others have joined resistance groups around the world." "They attacked the entire world?" "Of course," Melvin said. "If I were the enemy, I wouldn't stop with Crystal Tokyo." Sailor Moon shrugged. "They always did before." When they reached their headquarters near the palace, Sailor Moon looked above her. The black ships were more frightening from that angle. The stalactite shaped hull of the one directly overhead seemed to be aimed at her skull. She swallowed hard and decided not to look up again. Melvin asked to see the general and was informed he was with the graces. Melvin groaned. "All of them together. AT ONCE!" Sailor Moon, who was standing next to him, wondered what the graces were. Sounded like a new religious sect to her. She followed Melvin as he walked toward five men. She saw them from behind. All five men had brown hair though sporting different shades and lengths. Four of them were wearing capes blowing in the wind. The colors of those capes caught Sailor Moon's attention. One man with short dark-brown hair was wearing a blue cape. Another with reddish-brown hair wore an orange cape. The one wearing a red cape had shoulder length hair, and the fourth man was wearing a cape of deep green. The men didn't seem to notice her arrival. They were discussing strategies. "Don't let the graces and general's attitudes get you down," Melvin whispered. "They haven't spoken with their wives since this invasion began." "Why not? The wives kick them out of bed?" "The General's wife was one of the first victims of the invasion force." Melvin had a sad expression but shook it off. He looked up at the palace. "The Graces' wives are safely inside the palace, as is obvious." Sailor Moon wondered what was so obvious about it. She started to ask when the five men turned around. "Greetings, Sailor Moon," said the man in the blue cape. Her eyes became dots. She recognized him. It was Greg and he wore epaulets at his shoulders. They were shaped like the sign of Mercury. Sailor Moon looked at the other men. She knew them too. Ken was wearing the orange cape fastened onto his shirt with Venus epaulets. Game Machine Joe was wearing the green cape with Jupiter epaulets. The last man, in the red cape and Mars epaulets, was Chad (And Raye said they were JUST friends). Though the shock at seeing these men was great, she was even more surprised by the fifth man. He walked forward and took her hand. "General Nephlite Stanton of Crystal Tokyo's Defense Force." "You're dead. I saw you die. There was green blood all over the park. We all cried. It was real sad, but you're dead." She turned to Melvin. "You are taking orders from a dead guy. You do know that don't you?" She turned back to the general who was as good looking as ever. "You keep well." All the men stared at her. A sweat drop appeared by Nephlite's head. "Right. . ." He took a deep breath. "Now that you are here, Sailor Moon, we can save our queen." "You were expecting me?. . .A dead guy was expecting me. . . Oookay." "His Grace, the Duke of Mercury foresaw your arrival." "The Duke of What?" Sailor Moon got a big grin of her face. "Ooohh." "That and we were informed by the communications officer inside the palace," Ken said. "Our writer also put it in the script," Chad added. "You mean she really is Sailor Moon?" Melvin asked. His jaw dropped open. Sailor Moon closed it for him. "Duuhh! This is my show. You were smarter when you had zombie circles." She walked up to the graces. She wanted details especially from Chad and Joe. When had they gotten together with Raye and Leta? It didn't matter to her that the Mars and Jupiter from this century weren't the one's she knew. "Captain," the general said. "Have any of your rangers returned with a morpher?" Melvin handed Nephlite the morpher his commando raid had captured. "We may have a chance at a surprise attack, General. Sailor Moon destroyed the droid patrol before they could warn the enemy we have it." "How?" The captain quickly recounted how Sailor Moon dusted the droids. "She made it look easy." Nephlite smiled. "Excellent." He thought of his wife. She, like all the others, was unconscious. Nephlite had promised her unconscious body he would defeat the enemy and save her. He hadn't broken a promise to her yet; he wasn't starting now. His Molly was depending on him. He walked over to Sailor Moon and began to explain the plan to save the queen. The graces, especially the Duke of Mars, smiled their extreme gratitude. Her rapid fire questions about their love lives made them more homesick. They knew the queen was being held inside one of the enemy spaceships. Sailor Moon looked up and swallowed again. A special forces' team commanded by the general and the graces where planning to morph aboard the ships. While the commandos keep the droids busy with their Mercury Lasers (So, that's what those cool blasters are), the g races and the general would search for the queen and free her. So far they only had one morpher. The General was certain they would need to attack all the ships simultaneously. Otherwise, the enemy could move the queen and they might never find her. "If Sailor Moon could eliminate more droids, then we could get more morphers," Melvin suggested. "The enemy will get suspicious if too many of their droids suddenly disappear," General Stanton replied. "We would lose our chance at a surprise attack. But it's the only way. Captain, send another raiding party out immediately. Sailor Moon will accompany you." Sailor Moon looked down at her feet. 'I'm taking orders from a dead guy,' she thought. Go figure. "Before you go, would you mind answering a question for me?" Greg asked. "History states that many people saw you transform but their descriptions of you were different. How was that possible?" Sailor Moon grinned. She pulled out her Luna pen from a pocket that wasn't there before. "I have disguise power." She turned and started to walk away. "Wait!" The general grabbed her. "How does that work? Could it make you invisible?" Sailor Moon shrugged. "I guess so." She held the pen above her head. "Disguise Power. Make me invisible." Nothing happened. "Oh no. It must have gone the way of my tiara." "Are you sure you did it right?" "Exactly how is it supposed to work?" Ken asked "Just the way I did it. Then the disguise goes away when I become Sailor Moon." You are Sailor Moon." "Oh . . . Right. Maybe it doesn't work on Sailor Moon. I guess I should try it as plain Serena?" "Please do," the Duke of Jupiter said with feigned patience. Sailor Moon lost her transformation and tried again to use the Luna pen. As she did so, the six men near her talked amongst themselves. "She looks the same to me." "It's obvious who she is." "How come people in the 20th century didn't recognize her?" "They must have been real stupid." "Or blind." "Or both." "Now she looks different." "I don't see her at all." "Exactly." "I'm right here." The general felt around with his hands where she had been a moment before. He grabbed a meatball on her head. "She's still there." He got a huge grin on his face. "We'll only need one morpher for now." Commercial Break The emergency entrance of the hospital was just as bad as the front entrance. Droids were everywhere. The Moon family was trapped. They had tried repeatedly to get away from the hospital, but the droids were in their way. Each time they got past one droid, they encountered another. It didn't help that they had a screaming baby on their hands. At that moment, the Moon family was cornered next to an ambulance. Evan started fighting a droid but was beaten up. Sammy tried to help him but was treated likewise. Finally, the Luna ball and Renie started to help in their defense. That was the biggest mistake of all. It drew Rubeus' attention. He stood before them. "Hand over the baby and the crystal and I will let you live." "You hurt my daughter, you primordial ooze. For that I will punish you," Evan said. "In the name of the Moon," Sammy finished. Evan and Sammy dog-piled him. Ann hid inside the ambulance and watched helplessly as her husband and son were trounced. She dare not leave the baby. Renie ran off toward the other end of the hospital dodging the droid attacks as she went. Rubeus easily pushed the guys away. He turned toward Ann and the baby. A rose speared his foot. Tuxedo Mask stood on top of the ambulance. "You are going down." He leaped onto Rubeus. The first scout Renie saw when she reached the front entrance was Venus. The blond was bandaging Ken's arm with her hair bow. She was blasted from behind by an orange droid. Venus retaliated by encircling it. She and Ken sent it spinning into the large green droid. The orange droid disintegrated. "You know, I'm beginning to like that jolly green giant. He has killed about twenty droids so far." Renie ran up to her. "Rubeus has Serena's family cornered at the emergency entrance." Venus ran off toward the other end of the hospital. She stood guard around the ambulance till the other three scouts arrived. Jupiter placed Renie inside the ambulance with Ann and baby Crystal. Then the four scouts created a forcefield around it. * * * * * * Serena stood aboard an enemy spaceship with no defense. Thankfully, she was invisible. The droids didn't seem to have any censers. They hadn't detected her presence on any of the ships she had been on. She was following Nephlite's orders. He told her to steal as many morphers as possible while she searched for the queen. Apparently, a morpher would only transport one person at a time. And they wanted as many warriors as possible when they attacked the ship that held their queen. Thus far, Serena had collected twenty-seven morphers. At first she had been nervous, but now it seemed like a game. Even if a droid did notice that something had removed his negacrystal, he couldn't find the culprit. But it wasn't a game for long. A cloaked figure with glowing eyes was aboard the seventh ship. The giant jawa, as Serena dubbed him, did seem to sense something. He blew a gust of air toward Serena. It blew up her hospital gown and slammed her into the wall. The jawa heard her. "Get that intruder," he ordered in his menacing voice. He then disappeared in a beam of light. Serena ran through a nearby doorway trying to avoid the droids. Inside that room, she saw the queen standing inside a large crystal case. Queen Serena was as she appeared in the yellow void. Long white gown, red heart-shaped crown and wings. Serena considered trying to free the queen herself, but a droid entered the room. She panicked and morphed back to headquarters with her news. The assault forces were ready for the attack. Sailor Moon went with them. The battle was a short one. As soon as they arrived on board, Sailor Moon pulled out her scepter and eliminated all the droids . "You idiot," the General fumed. "Now who is going to fly this ship?" "Doesn't it have an autopilot?" Greg ran over to the controls. "You better hurry. There are too many buttons to choose from." The general ordered the solders to evacuate the ship. Sailor Moon ran into the room that held the queen. The general and graces followed. They blasted the orb with Mercury Lasers. Nothing happened. "Does anyone know how to break the glass?" "How about your scepter?" Chad asked. "It only works on live subjects." "Somebody better think of something. We're crashing!" The Duke of Jupiter gazed at his encased queen. Joe then telekineticly ripped the glass case apart. The queen fell to the floor. They rushed to her. "Great. She won't wake up." "She can't morph while she's unconscious." "Now, what do we do?" Suddenly, Greg slapped his head. "I'm so stupid sometimes. Joe, land this ship." "Okay." He started concentrating. The ship slowed its descent. But he didn't have the time required to slow down enough for a soft landing. They crashed into a bombed-out building a hundred yards from the headquarters. "Now, how are we supposed to wake the queen?" Ken asked. "Maybe we should take her inside the palace first," Sailor Moon suggested. "We can't get in until the forcefield is down and that won't happen until the queen destroys the ships attacking the palace." "Oh. . . then maybe I should go get her," Sailor Moon said. "She's right here," Chad said. "I mean mentally." "Just how are you supposed to do that?" the general asked. "She's in a yellow void with her king. I've been there." "Well, then get back there and wake her up," Nephlite ordered. * * * * * * The droids in the hospital parking lot were having fun. Though many people, among them Greg, Grandpa and Chad, had arrived to join the fight and aid the scouts, the droids had no real competition. Tuxedo Mask was fighting Rubeus and the scouts were creating a forcefield. Some of the droids where throwing their attacks at the scouts trying to penetrate the forcefield. Others were attacking anyone nearby. Joe was the closest thing to a threat, but he was busy. Someone had to prevent the jolly green giant from dropping cars on the reporters' heads. Commercial Break Back inside the yellow void, Sailor Moon wondered around until she eventually found the king and queen. Queen Serena was lying on the yellow ground with her head in the king's lap. Sailor Moon knelt down beside them. The queen lifted her head. "Ouch! Get off my hair." "Sorry, didn't see it." "More intruders," the king grumbled. "I was here before." The king glared at her. Sailor Moon tried again. "I'm Serena from the 20th century. I came to tell you it's safe to return to the land of the living." "How do we know you are telling the truth?" Sailor Moon looked exasperated. She opened the Crystal Star Locket pinned to her bow. "See, here is my Silver Imperial Crystal. The queen's crystal is in a meatball on her head." "Meatball?" "Okay, bubble." Sailor Moon shuddered. "I can't believe you let him call you Bubble Head. Ugh, and I used to think meatball was bad." She turned to the king. "The queen will have to come with me." "She's too weak to stand." "She'll have to try." "Darling," Queen Serena said. "Let go of me mentally and I can wake up." The king looked at Sailor Moon skeptically. "If you hurt her, I will know." Sailor Moon threw up her hands in disgust. "I'm glad this isn't my century. You people are so suspicious. King Darien bent over and kissed his queen. "See you later Bubble Head." He vanished. Sailor Moon cringed. "Bubble Head. . .Yeesh!" After a few moments, Sailor Moon opened her eyes and looked into the faces of the graces. They watched their queen. She opened her eyes. They bowed down. "Welcome back, your majesty." Sailor Moon grinned. Unlimited fawning. Cool. Maybe the 30th century wasn't so bad after all. Floating Mirrors in Blue Space The giant jawa didn't like the condition of the spaceship. Specifically, that the orb had been shattered and Princess Serena was missing. And where was that failure Rubeus? The Wiseman gazed at a mirror. The fight at the hospital manifested itself in the glass. He watched for a few minutes then vanished in a beam of light To Be Continued Commercial Break When traveling around in a place you have never been, it helps to have a map and a compass. You are less likely to get lost and waist valuable time. Time is precious and can never be regained even if you do have a time key. SAILOR MOON SAYS Eye wink and giggle.