All disclaimers apply. Neither Sailor Moon nor Bubblegum Crisis belong to me, I'm just borrowing some of the characters for a while. The events in this part take place before Bubblegum Crisis, but they are referred to in some of the BGC OAV's. Send comments to heronblue@hotmail.com. Thanks! ~~Distant Sailor "World Shaking: A Sailor Moon/Bubblegum Crisis crossover" Part III: MegaTokyo, 2030. The rock she threw shattered one of the AD Police car?s windows, but it didn?t make her feel much better. ?It was an accident,? they?d said. ?A motorcycle accident.? ?Akira was a damn better cyclist than anyone on your sorry little force! It was no accident! There was a Boomer! I saw it!? ?I?m sorry, miss, but the case is closed.? And then she was out on the street again, ?escorted? by those two burly policemen. Priss didn?t go quietly. Red eyed flashing, she?d exhausted her fairly comprehensive vocabulary of profanity. She threw another rock. This time the car alarm went off, and she took off running for her bike. If any of the damn AD Police had been doing their jobs, she would have gotten a speeding ticket. But they were all inside shining the boots of Genom?s lousy corporate executives. ?I?ll kill them,? she whispered. ?I?ll kill them all. All the Boomers and the bastards who created those monsters in the first place.? Her voice rose to a shout. ?I?ll kill them!? ?Shut up!? A woman yelled from a third floor apartment nearby. The young biker gave her the finger and gunned the red motorcycle, running three red lights and leaving the entire district behind before she gave herself a chance to think. She got screaming drunk that night, of course. A fake ID and some makeup could get a seventeen year old anything she wanted these days. After the bouncer tossed her out of the Hot Legs club, Priss wandered the street, cursing the invisible moon and the Genom tower. Huddled in the leather jacket that had been Akira?s, she sat down against a graffitti?d brick wall to escape a sudden rainstorm. She didn?t even remember closing her eyes. When Priss opened her eyes, someone was sitting beside her. Someone familiar and comforting. She blinked, her vision blurry from the alcohol. She had to be dreaming. But despite the cold rain and the hard sidewalk, it was a good dream. The tall blond figure sat beside her, silent, comforting. One arm was around her. ?Akira?? She spoke softly. ?I?m so sorry.? The figure just leaned in a little closer to her. ?I tried to tell them.? Priss?s words were slurred, but understandable. ?The police are just fucking useless. I want to kill Quincy and Genom and every Boomer that ever lived...? Tears washed away in the rain, but they were there. ?I swear to you I?ll fight back. I?ll kill all the Boomers myself if I have to, I swear! Oh Akira.? She snuggled into the half-embrace. ?I miss you so much.? He just held her for a moment, before pulling her to her feet. He looked down at her, with impossibly sad eyes. Eyes. Green eyes. Akira?s eyes were brown. ?Shit!? She screamed, shoving the stranger away. ?Get the hell away from me!? Probably just another bum trying to score on a Friday night. ?Get away!? She kicked him hard in the stomach. The man twisted away from her badly aimed blow. ?Priss,? he said. ?Priss. Don?t. Remember me? It?s Haruka.? She stopped just short of a hard punch to his-- no, her-- face. The fury drained away from her as rain dripped from her coat. ?Nani?? Through blurred eyes, she looked the woman over. Vague memories surfaced. A month living with the tall blonde racer and her girlfriend and those strange others... so long ago. Five years was a lifetime in MegaTokyo. She?d been a little girl then. Well, she certainly wasn?t little now. ?What the hell do you want?? Haruka just looked at her. ?To help. What happened to you?? She reached out to touch Priss?s shoulder. The other woman snarled and pulled away. ?Get away from me.? She raised a fist to lash out at her almost-assailant. ?I wouldn?t.? Haruka?s voice was dangerously low. ?If you fight me, I will win. I?ve been doing this since before you were born.? The alcohol blur in her mind caused her to brush the words off as more banter, and that same buzz in her brain drained away any caution Priss might ordinarily have had. A moment later, she regretted her decision as she was flipped over on her back onto the wet asphalt. Haruka loomed over her, her face almost made unrecognizable from anger. ?Baka. I come to see if you?re all right and you try to beat me. Don?t even try.? The scorn in her voice cut through the pain in the younger woman?s head. A good kick later, and Haruka joined her on the ground. All the anger was wiped off her face in one glorious moment of openmouthed shock. Then she jumped up to her feet, pulling Priss up by the collar and twisting her arms. ?Ow!? ?Are you going to be reasonable now?? ?Let me go!? The tall woman didn?t. Rain poured down, and from a few feet away their battle of wills appeared to just be another drunken brawl. Priss finally broke eye contact, and looked away, her voice calmer. Some vague, buried voice of rationality had gotten through and told her that Haruka was _not_ the sort of person she could hope to piss off and get away unscathed. ?Let me go.? The metal-hard green eyes softened a bit as she put her down. Priss bolted. Haruka grabbed her from behind, pulling her over to a nearby bench and sitting her down, hard. ?You go away like this and you?ll just get arrested.? ?What the hell do you care?!? More than you think, those eyes told her. But Priss didn?t want to see any kind of compassion, not right now, not when Akira... Before she knew it, she was leaning into the older woman?s shoulder, crying helplessly. More than a little bemused, Haruka just held her there, silently. The rain grew harder, but neither of them noticed. Finally she spoke, wearily. ?What happened to you? Priss just sobbed for a moment, and whispered. ?They killed him.? ?Who killed who?? She could barely get the words out. ?Boomers. Killed my boyfriend. Akira.? The woman just looked at her, biting her lip. She obviously didn?t know what to say. ?Priss-chan, I?m so sorry... hey, is that your bike over there?? If she hadn?t been so drunk, Priss might have smiled at that. So very Haruka, from what she remembered. Better with machines than she was with people. Somewhat like Priss herself. ?Yes.? ?Nice piece of work, there. Fast?? ?Not fast enough.? Now she did smile, through the tears. ?Not fast enough to become the wind and leave the world behind.? ?Yeah.? It could have been her own subconscious speaking, and it took Priss a moment to realize that the voice wasn?t her own. ?How did you...?? The green-eyed woman just smiled a little. ?I told you we?d meet again.? Something about her knowing tone threw the younger girl back into a rage. ?Well, where the hell were you when Akira got killed? Why didn?t you help then? Why do you have to turn up when I?ve got nothing left to even give a damn about?? She stood up, slowly this time. ?You made me think you were him! How _could_ you?!? ?I?m sorry.? Priss wasn?t finished yet. ?Just go back to wherever you came from. Go back to your fast cars and your ever-loving girlfriend, you damned rezu. This is life and I?m living it and I don?t have any place in your perfect little world. Just leave me alone!? She screamed. ?I can take care of myself.? She turned to walk away. ?Priss-chan?? The voice made her turn back, just once. ?What?? Haruka?s voice was hard, and it rang even in the rainy night. ?If it?s Genom and the Boomers and this whole godforsaken city that?s done this to you, killed the little girl I knew... fight them. Fight them back and if you have to go down, go down screaming. I know you can. Kill the bastards, Priss.? Then the shadowy figure of Haruka turned and left, leaving Priss to wonder again if she was dreaming or not. Certainly Haruka?s words could have been from her own heart. As she headed for her bike, a single phrase hung in the night air, so faint it might have been her drunken imagination. ?You?re not alone, Priss.? Michiru was practicing violin when her hollow-eyed partner stormed through the door. The ocean senshi put down her bow and helped Haruka out of her dripping coat. ?What happened?? The only response she got was an inarticulate grunt. Haruka wouldn?t meet her eyes. ?Fight. With a drunk. Nothing, really.? She sighed. ?You come home from fights just wanting more, so don?t try to tell me some weak story like that.? ?Michiru, drop it.? The tone was cold, as detached as possible. Which only worried her all the more. ?I know it?s bad out there, and it?s only getting worse.? Taking her lover?s hand, she led them over to the couch. Haruka sat down automatically, her eyes still empty of anything. She didn?t even seem to notice when Michiru sat down beside her. She certainly didn?t see the compassion and fear in the other?s blue eyes. Putting her arms around the taller senshi, she leaned on her shoulder. ?Were you hurt?? In response, Haruka just pushed her away and moved to the other side of the couch. ?I told you to drop it.? Anger flashed in her eyes as Michiru stood up to face her. ?Fine then. You stay here. I?m going to bed, because it?s nearly dawn. And if you want to shut me out of whatever?s going on, then you?re just going to have to live with getting shut out yourself.? The plan was to turn around and walk out of the room, but one look at Haruka?s disheveled figure stopped her. ?Michiru.? She sat down again. ?Tell me. Please. You know I hate to see you like this. You can play tough guy with anyone else, but _not_ me. Not after all this time.? ?Nothing happened.? Her voice was as dead as her eyes. Michiru stood up and was out of the room in a few moments. Shaking from anger and frustration, she went into their bedroom and got dressed for bed. She was about to turn the light out when a small voice from the doorway whispered. ?Don?t leave me alone.? ?Haruka?? Still rain-soaked and dirty, she came into the room. ?Too many people are alone tonight. I-- we-- shouldn?t have to be.? Disregarding the white nightgown she wore, Michiru hugged her partner fiercely. ?I just hate seeing you upset like this. Cold upset. Not raging around and breaking furniture. Just quietly angry, like someone cut your feet out from under you. I hate to see you this way.? Haruka turned out the light. ?You don?t have to see me at all.? A deep sigh in the darkness. Finally, she spoke again. ?Gomen, Michiru. It?s just... something I wasn?t expecting.? ?Nani?? She steered the other woman over to the bed and sat her down. ?What happened? Ugh, you?ll get the covers all dirty and wet.? But that didn?t really matter. ?Hmm?? Haruka acted like she hadn?t noticed at all. Her eyes were still full of pain. ?We?ve got a mission, Michi. And we?re sitting around doing nothing. Playing pranks to keep cute little red-haired boys in the police academy. While out there,? she gestured out the window, ?people are dying.? ?I know. But this... this isn?t our kind of evil to fight. The enemies out there are people, and people?s machines. They aren?t aliens or daemons or anything that the Sailor Senshi were created to defend the world against.? ?We?re people too. Human, for all that we?ve been given these powers. Have you forgotten that?? Michiru turned away, stung. ?Of course I haven?t. But...? She stopped, not knowing what to say. Really, there was nothing left to say. ?We haven?t been proper Sailor Senshi in years. Right now we?re just Haruka and Michiru. Who?ve turned their backs on the same world we vowed to protect five years ago. MegaTokyo has come so far, the buildings are standing again and people walk the streets and live and laugh and cry. But there are still sirens in the air. There are still firefights and deaths of innocent people and monsters roaming the shadows.? She put her head in her hands, those soldiers hands that still didn?t know how to rebuild what they could destroy. ?And it doesn?t matter whether the monsters are magical or mechanical. People are dying.? The two clung to each other for a few moments in the rainy night, trying to draw some comfort from the familiarity of the other?s arms. But a police siren shattered the darkness, and Michiru found that she was near tears as well. ?What happened, love? What did you see?? ?It?s what I haven?t been seeing.? Was her reply. ?For so long now, we haven?t seen what?s really happening. The city is rotting. From the inside out. The buildings may be standing, but they?re empty, and the people live in fear of mechanical monsters that are built by a man who?s never known the meaning of fear or despair or poverty or anything! Nobody stops Genom! Nobody even seems to try.? Finally she looked into Michiru?s eyes. ?I saw Priss. Priss Asagiri.? The blue eyes widened. ?The girl...?? ?Yes. Only she?s not a girl anymore. She?s seventeen. That?s how old we were when we fought Galaxia. We weren?t children there. We got that hope and optimism and simplicity of childhood stolen right out from under us. And so has she. Little Red Eyes is a fighter now, but she?s not full of spirit as much as hate these days.? ?The poor child...? she sighed. ?The poor world. She?s not the only one like that, is she? I wonder if there are any children in this entire city.? ?Things have gotten so dark,? Haruka said. ?The city, the whole world seems to almost be collapsing. It?s not an earthquake this time. A few people have the power and they run the buildings and escape into space. They use everyone else as cannon fodder for their petty intercorperate wars. And the Boomers...? ?...are more terrifying even then the monsters we used to face.? Their eyes locked. Sometimes, after all these years, they seemed to share one mind, one soul. ?You?re right, Haruka. We... we have to do more. Take some action. Patrol the streets even, like the AD Police should be. Anything.? ?I love you.? She kissed Michiru on the forehead, just before sitting up and blinking away tears again. ?You didn?t see Priss. She was so close to broken, so close to despair. When I found her she didn?t seem to care whether she was alive or dead. She fought me, wouldn?t let me near her.? The other woman just sighed. ?You did what you could.? ?I?m so angry with the people who would do this to her! Genom, for killing her boyfriend... everything.? Haruka looked down, slightly embarrassed. ?I told her to fight back. I might have just sent her to her death.? ?People choose their own lives and deaths. Believe that. I?m sure you did as much as anyone could possibly have done just then.? Michiru pulled the scruffy blonde head down into her lap and just hugged her for a few minutes. Haruka?s arms slipped up and around her shoulders. She sat up and kissed the green-haired girl passionately. ?I love you.? ?We?re going to be senshi again. No more hiding or sitting and whining about how the princess is missing. We?re outer senshi! We were never dependant on the others, Michi. The world?s gone dark, and it?s full of monsters. Some are human, some only look human. It?s time for a few soldiers and a little justice. We can?t build buildings or kingdoms or warm people?s hearts the way Usagi would if she were here, but we can fight. And we will fight. Right now, justice needs people to fight for it. And that?s what we?re good at.? ?And that?s what we?ll do. Tomorrow.? Michiru pulled her closer. They kissed again, and a hand ran through Haruka?s hair. ?Fighting?s not all you?re good at, love...? The conversation degenerated from that point. A few months later, in a very different part of the city than the senshi?s darkened apartment, Priss sat alone in a crowded music club. In her mind she was composing lyrics to a song she?d written the night before. It was certainly a better song than the sappy drivel that the band nearby played... A hand tapped her shoulder. Turning, Priss saw a young blue-haired woman wearing a business suit. ?May I sit down?? ?Suit yourself.? After a few moments of silence, the woman turned to her. ?You?re Priscilla Asagiri?? She glared, suspicious. ?Hai.? ?I?ve got a proposition to make. Please, hear me out.? The woman?s voice was carefully modulated, calm to the core. ?My name is Sylia Stingray...? "Touch magic, pass it on" -- Jane Yolen >From the broken heart of the city to the wild sacred silence of the places tangled in mystery, where wind and water and earth will meet, you'll find me seeking, questing, searching for meaning in the madness. _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]