Chapter 5: Reenie Learns About Her Opponents I keep turning up like a bad penny, don't I?!? ^_^ Yes, it's me, Chibi-Mamoru Darien Chiba. This story and its plot, the planet Pollianus, the Pollianians Gravitus La Phoenix, Selraina Despicability Vitaliter, and Sandigeo Grekari Rockheart, and the idea of the Adaptation Sceptre are the only things that are truly mine. Everything else belongs to Takeuchi Naoko-sama. God (Kami-sama) bless her for creating the world of Sailor Moon. Read slowly; this is a REALLY short chapter!!! ***************************************************************************** It was also the start of a brand-new day on Pollianus. After hearing their explanation, Gravitus had told Selraina and Sandigeo to stay away from each other and I explained myself last night. When I woke up, Selraina and Gravitus were gone. I found Sandigeo working on the Adaptation Sceptre's designs, leaving me alone to have to amuse myself. "I'm bored!!" I whine. "Did Gravitus and Selraina say where they were going, Sandigeo?" "They're going to go get some groceries," Sandigeo tells me. "They'll be back soon, Reenie." "I'm bored!!" I whine again. "Reenie, there's plenty of housework to be done around here," Sandigeo says, not looking up from his work, "and if you don't leave me alone, I'll assign some of it to you. Go away; you're being a pest!!" Although this is not the first time I have been scolded, Sandigeo's angry words hurt my feelings and I begin crying although I don't want to. I rush downstairs and flop myself on the couch where I had slept. I long for when I can lay my head in my mom's (or my dad's) lap while they comfort me or cuddle me affectionately . . . ********************************************************** ********************************************************** "Reenie . . .," a mysterious voice calls to me. I jolt awake and look around to find nothing but a void surrounding me. Sailors Mars and Pluto appear in front of me. "Puu!!!" I cry out as I run towards Sailor Pluto who scoops me up and hugs me tightly to her chest. "Reenie, thank God you're all right!!" Sailor Pluto weeps as she kisses me on the head. "Your parents are falling apart back home." "Reenie, where were you?" Sailor Mars asks. "The planet I was on is called Pollianus," I reply. Sailor Mars looks shocked at the name at first but then paces back and forth repeating the name to herself over and over. "Puu, please tell my mommy and daddy that I'm okay." Sailor Pluto agrees and takes me to Charon, the sole moon of Pluto. "Why are we here, Puu?" "I have been watching the training of your opponents and there are some things that they are being taught that I feel I should warn you about, Reenie," Sailor Pluto explains, setting me down. Sailor Pluto then leaves the room and comes back with a chair and a slide projector. "What, no popcorn?" I ask Sailor Pluto. "Number one, you won't be here that long; number two, you don't need the extra calories," Sailor Pluto tells me as she slams the chair down. "Number three, this is not a movie theatre. Now park it." I sit down in the chair and Sailor Pluto sets up the projector grumbling about how much of a smart-aleck I am. She then extinguishes the lights and says, "Okay, now here is Hermione Mizuno. As Ensign Mercury, she is as cold as her icy and watery powers are. In addition to her mother's powers, she can call on various types of cold weather and use refraction to confuse her enemies." "Refraction?" I ask Sailor Pluto. "What's that?" "Remember that summer when your parents were trying to work and you kept getting underfoot and I came by and saved you from being spanked?" Sailor Pluto asks me. I nod. "Daddy was really mad at me," I remark. "So was your mother," Sailor Pluto adds. "Anyway, we were playing in my yard and a beam of sunlight hit one of the water streams and made a rainbow. That's refraction, Reenie. Hermione can split herself just like that water split that sunlight beam and make it very difficult for you to keep track of her during the fight. She does so with frightening accuracy." "Wow!!!" I exclaim. Sailor Pluto advances to the next slide. "That's Cara!!" "Yes, that is Cara Aino," Sailor Pluto agrees with me. "She thinks she's all that and a bag of chips, too. Things to watch out for with Cara is that as Ensign Venus, she can hypnotize you and use your high opinion of her as a weapon. Her attacks have more to do with love than her mother's do and her laser beam is concentrated by gamma radiation, making it very powerful." "Isn't Sailor Venus tied to the element of metal?" I ask Sailor Pluto who replies in the affirmative. "Well, magnetism should work well against her and Ensign Mercury to a lesser degree. Water is a polar substance." "Yes, it should, but you have to have the power of magnetism to do that, Reenie," Sailor Pluto says, "and, sad to say, you don't." Sailor Pluto then advances the slide and shows me a picture of Ariadne Hino. "Okay, here is Ariadne Hino, also known as Ensign Mars. Like Ensign Venus, she can hypnotize you, but instead of wearing down your resistance like Ensign Venus does, she can put her will directly in your head. Ensign Mars can also use her fiery powers to generate illusions in addition to attacking enemies like her mother does and is telekinetic." "Yikes!!" I yelp as I hide. "I don't want to fight in the tournament!!!" Sailor Pluto comes over and escorts me back to my seat. "Puu, I'm scared," I whisper in a small voice. "I know you are, Reenie," Sailor Pluto says softly, "but I have faith that you can win this tournament. As long as you do your best, I'm always behind you, Reenie, win or lose. You must NEVER give into fear or you'll mess up." Sailor Pluto then advances the slide and shows me a picture of Clotilda Kino. "Remember her?" "That's Clotilda Kino," I tell Sailor Pluto, shuddering because her powers involve thunder and lightning. "Yes, that is Clotilda Kino," Sailor Pluto replies. "She is very skilled in the martial arts like her mother but lacks the aggressive nature to use them although she fights with the ferocity of 500 angry tigers if attacked. Moreover, as Ensign Jupiter, she can launch lightning in balls which she either throws or rolls along the ground and has a very fast ground laser in addition to her mother's powers. And these attacks *will* result in thunder, so you're going to be in trouble if you haven't conquered your fear of thunder and lightning by now, Reenie." I gulp and Sailor Pluto advances to the next slide. "Cleopatra Tomoe," I say of the slide. "Cleopatra may be frightened of the great power she wields, but she's not to be underestimated, Reenie," Sailor Pluto says. "Her ability to become intangible for fifteen minutes as Ensign Saturn will make dispatching her very difficult and to make matters worse, she can attack while intangible." "How will I know when to attack her and when to back off?" I ask Sailor Pluto. "If you can see through Ensign Saturn, your attacks will go through her without causing any damage, Reenie," Sailor Pluto replies. "The last three members of your future court, Cecelia Ten'oh, Irvette Kai'oh, and my daughter Claribel Mei'ou, will try to overwhelm you with brute strength. Griffith MacGrinrun has been training them to launch their main attacks, the World Shaking, the Deep Submerge, and the Dead Scream, many times in succession without stopping to rest and saying the command over and over again." "How far can they go?" I ask Sailor Pluto. "They all can do up to groups of seven, Reenie," Sailor Pluto replies. "I'm afraid there is no upper limit on how many groups they can launch at a time, though." "Puu . . .," I whine apprehensively as I shift uncomfortably in my chair at the thought of having to deal with thousands of World Shakings, Deep Submerges, and Dead Screams flying at me. I then look down and find myself sitting in a nasty yellow liquid. Sailor Pluto yanks me from the chair and carries me to a bathroom where she undresses me and washes me off. "I'm so sorry, Puu," I shakily and tearfully apologize as Sailor Pluto dries me off. "Stop crying, Reenie," Sailor Pluto says softly as she pats the towel making certain that there's no moisture in my cracks and crevices. "This happens; it's nothing to be ashamed of. Anyway as I was saying, Ensigns Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto can all launch their respective attacks in groups of up to seven and there's no upper limit to how many groups they can launch." Sailor Pluto sighs because she doesn't have any clean clothes my size I can wear. "I'm freezing!!" I complain. Sailor Pluto vanishes and then comes back with a swim suit. "Here, Reenie, put this on," Sailor Pluto says as she drops the swim suit at my feet. "I've kept this since I was your age. It should fit you." I look at Sailor Pluto and she turns her back. Now clad in the swimsuit which turns out to be a bikini, I put my dress back on. "Okay, I'm covered up," I tell Sailor Pluto. "Are they really going to be allowed to assail me like that?" "No," Sailor Pluto replies. "I talked with Alex and Michelle and the three of us agreed that the highest we would allow our daughters to go would be quadruple ten." "WHAT!?!?!" I ask in shock. "You're going to let them launch forty of their main attacks per turn?!!?" "Yes, Reenie," was Sailor Pluto's calm reply. "You can't do that, Sailor Pluto!!!" I protest. "Just what are you going to do to stop me?" Sailor Pluto asks me defiantly, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. "I'll sic my mommy and daddy on you, you slimy blackhearted hateful old hag!!!!" I shout at Sailor Pluto who whips around and demands that I apologize. "I think it's time you left, Reenie," Sailor Pluto says as she takes me back to Pollianus. "You can't do that, Sailor Pluto!!!" I shout as I watch Sailors Pluto and Mars disappear. "Come back here!!!" I cry over and over again . . . ********************************************************** ********************************************************** "Reenie, wake up!!" a voice shouts as its owner shakes me. "Mommy?" I mumble absently. "No, it's me, Selraina!!" the voice laughs. I wake up and find Selraina, Gravitus, and Sandigeo standing over me. "Where am I?" I ask. "You're in the living room of the Vitaliter vacation cabin," Gravitus tells me. "You were having a nightmare, Reenie," Sandigeo tosses in. "But don't worry. You're safe and sound here." Sandigeo then lifts me off the couch, but when he puts his arm under my bottom to support me, he yelps and nearly drops me!! "Reenie, did you have an accident while you were napping?" "I'm sorry," I whimper in a small voice, crying softly as Sandigeo puts me down. "Please don't be angry with me." "Sandigeo, have mercy on the poor child!!" Gravitus scolds. "Can't you see that she feels bad enough as it is?" "I don't know who's worse," Selraina remarks impatiently as she turns to her boyfriend, "you, Sandigeo Grekari Rockheart, for asking Reenie if she had an accident," Selraina then turns to Gravitus, "or you, Dad, for yelling at Sandigeo trying to defend Reenie. You two don't seem to realize that although you may not actually mean your anger for Reenie, you are frightening her nonetheless. Why don't you two make dinner while I take Reenie upstairs and get her cleaned up?" Selraina doesn't wait for their answer; she takes me by the hand and leads me upstairs to a bathroom and tells me to stay put. A moment later, she comes back with cologne, herbal shampoo, herbal soap, a scrub brush, and a new clean shirt, romper, and panties. After placing the clothes in the adjacent room, Selraina then runs the water. While the water is running, Selraina carefully undoes my hair studying how my cone-shaped buns are constructed and then undresses me. After she makes certain it's the right temperature, I get in and get wet. Selraina uses the herbal shampoo to wash my hair and then combs through it with a fine-toothed comb. After Selraina rinses me thoroughly, she then lathers up the scrub brush with the herbal soap and scrubs me all over. At one point, Selraina asks me to stand up so she can scrub in the area where the sun don't shine. "You want me to do what?!?" I ask Selraina. "Nothing doing!!!" Angered, Selraina lays me down, pulls one leg away, and continues scrubbing me very roughly. "Selraina, stop it!!" I yell. "You're violating me and you're being too rough!!" Selraina doesn't stop. She then flips me over and continues scrubbing me just as roughly as before. Selraina finishes scrubbing me down, rinses me off, and towel dries me making sure to get all the moisture in every nook and cranny on my body. She then directs me into the adjacent room where she had placed the clothes she wanted me to wear. I refuse Selraina's offer to help me dress myself and I get dressed. Selraina then puts my hair back in my familiar odango atama style with the cone-shaped buns. After dinner, Gravitus tells Sandigeo that he is to sleep on the downstairs couch and that Selraina and I are to sleep in the same room. I shudder when he says this. After everyone goes to bed, I go tell Gravitus about what Selraina had done when she was bathing me. Gravitus wakes Selraina up early the next morning and orders her to join him for a stroll during which he talks to her about respecting boundaries. THE END Wow, this is the shortest chapter I have ever written and one of the fastest!!! So what do you think? Do you think that Reenie has a chance against the members of her future court despite the powers that Sailor Pluto said that they had? Why do you feel the way you do? What would *you* do if you were Reenie and why? Email address: CMDChiba@hotmail.com Please put the title of this story in the subject line of your letter. Doing so will enable me to get back to you faster.