A Growing Darkness: DarkStar Rising Jess Shelton AKA StromDakth or DarkStar ______________________________________________________________________ Sailor Moon, and all affiliated characters are owned be we all know who. Star Wars, and all affiliated characters are owned by Lucasfilms Ltd. The use of these characters is entirely for entertainment purposes. We thank them both, for creating these characters, and kindly ask them: Don't Sue Us! ______________________________________________________________________ Note: Story follows 'Sailor Scouts, and the Young Jedi Knights' Suggest reading 'For her Friends' trilogy, 'Identity Crisis', and 'SS and YJK' by Wolfbyte I am the same StromDakth mentioned at the end of 'Identity Crisis' I have been relatively uninterested with anime until a couple of months ago when my friend, Wolfbyte aka Solar, began writing his stories. I am an avid reader with an active imagination and was unable to resist the temptation to continue with his work. This story is primarily written by me but with aid from Solar/Wolfbyte so forgive me if this story is rather patchy and incomplete. This also mainly an introduction for my new character and so don't be surprised if it isn't very complex. _______________________________________________________________ Chapter 2: "Well, maybe there is something wrong with Amy's computer." Mina suggested. "Come on lets have a look around. Maybe its still here." The orange suited girl quickly bounded off down the beach. "Hey, wait up." yelled Lita chasing her blond friend. "We'll go this way." Serena said, pointing down the beach in the opposite direction. She and Amy were quickly off to begin their search leaving Jason and Raye alone. "They seem to have taken both the landward directions." Jason said. "I guess we get the sea." with a thought he began to slowly float upward and stooped about four feet above the ground. "Care for a flight?" he asked offering Raye his hand. "Are you kidding? You have trouble just floating yourself." "True, but I'll be sure I'm on bottom." "Like always." she laughed jabbing him in the ribs. Jason laughed with her. She reached up and took her husband's hand. With a single heave she was in his arms several feet above the ground. "Welcome aboard Jason Airways. We'll fly you to the stars," Jason said in his best impression of a steward. Raye giggled and clutched her arms around his neck. The two forms slowly lifted further into the night sky. Raye looked down at the ground, now thirty feet below them. "I think we are high enough." she looked at her husband's face, now beaded in sweat. Now they were fifty feet above the ground. "Come on. You can't keep us floating like this. Take us down." "Down?" Jason asked confused. "I never practiced going down. I'm not sure how to do it." "You're joking, right?" Raye asked, a hint of fear in her voice being that they were now seventy feet up. "I'm afraid not. Only one way down." "No, you wouldn't." She looked into his eyes "You would." 20 "Bombs away." he shouted as he stopped floating the two of them. All at once the two bodies were falling through the night sky to the ground far below. "Jason." Raye shouted. The ground was shooting up at her. Suddenly they lurched to a stop three feet above a bluff. After a moment hanging they dropped the last bit and landed on the soft ground with Raye laying on top of Jason. "We hoped you have enjoyed JASON the ride. One hundred feet of sheer terror." he joked. Raye mocked anger as she gently slapped her husband "Why you." She slapped at him again but he caught her hand and pulled her close. With a quick movement he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her. When they finished the kiss, Raye rolled of Jason's chest and laid beside him as the watched the waves crash against the shore. * * * * * Lita walked beside Mina as the traveled northward along the shore. Mina was scanning the inland area with her eyes while Lita was scanning out to sea. "The view is truly beautiful" Lita thought, but her mind was else where. She was thinking about Jason again. She knew he was Raye's by law, love, and destiny but she couldn't help it. He was a truly remarkable man. So loyal, so trusting, so caring, and pretty funny to boot. She always remembered back aboard the Imperium spacestation when she had admitted that she was in love with him. She had desperately hoped that he would respond in kind but she knew that was impossible. Now she hoped to meet someone who would be just as important to her as Jason was to Raye. "Penny for your thoughts?" Lita turned to Mina, who had asked the question. "I don't think they're worth that much." "I'd still like to hear them." When Lita wasn't immediately forthcoming Mina offered her opinion "I think this is about Jason." Lita was surprised at Mina's insight. "How did you know?" "You think we can't see that look of sorrow and longing in your eyes whenever you see Jason and Raye together." "I guess not. I know that he is Raye's but I still like him." "And there is nothing wrong with that but they are meant to be together and there is nothing you can do about it." "I know that to." "Hey, there are plenty of other guys left we haven't met. You're sure to find the perfect one out there somewhere." Lita smiled. "Yeah, I guess." Plenty of other guys but only one Jason. * * * * * Jason and Raye were awakened by a splash of water in their closely pressed faces. "What? Huh?" Jason looked up into the faces of his four friends. "Wake up, sleepy-head." Serena said, mockingly. Raye was looking around at the brightly lit beach. "What time?" she asked. She rubbed her eyes trying to brush the sleep out of them. "About eight." Amy replied. "We found you two here last night and decided to let you both sleep while we finished the search." "Find anything?" "No. It isn't here." Mina answered. "I also triple checked both my computer and the flight path of the crystal. Both were perfect." Amy threw up her arms in frustration. "It just vanished." It was then that Jason noticed Lita sitting at the edge of the bluff with her back to them. "Something wrong with her?" he asked indicating Lita with his chin. "She is getting kind of depressed." Mina said. She leaned down and whispered "You have a very big deal to do with it, too." He looked up at her, then turned to look at Lita again, and finally turned back. "We about finished here?" he asked. "I think so." Amy answered. "Then why don't you four head back." he indicated the ladies not including Lita. "Us? What are you two going to be doing?" Raye asked. "I think we need to talk." When Raye didn't immediately respond he added "Privately." She looked him over, not suspiciously but very lovingly. She leaned over and kissed him on the check. "I'll see you later at home, honey." "I'll see you later." He watched the four young girls walk off a short distance then use their scout teleport to return to the city. Jason stood up and wiped his clothes off. He then realized that he was still in his uniform. With a thought it was gone and his jeans and sweater had returned. He walked over and sat down next to Lita on the bluff. "Nice view. Want to talk about it?" "Not really." she muttered. She looked up at him and saw the worry in his eyes. "Yeah, I guess." She leaned back and breathed a heavy sigh. "I've been thinking about when we almost lost you before. We almost lost you back on the Imperium spacestation but you came back. Then you almost died at the jedi praxeum. I keep worrying that we'll all lose you." "You're worried about me." he said to himself. "Partly. It is also that" she sniffed back a tear before continuing "you are the most important man in my life and you are my best friend's husband. What does that say about me and my life?" "It means that you care about your friends deeply." he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. She smiled at him, a single tear trailing down her cheek. "Thank you. Come on, lets go join the others." Serena unlocked the door to her apartment and charged in looking for her phone. "I can't believe I forgot. I can't believe I forgot." she kept yelling as she ran around the apartment looking for the walk around. Amy and Mina stood outside the door trying not to get in the way of the human tornado. "What is she talking about? What did she forget?" Amy asked. "She had a date with Darien last night but now she's stood him up." "Oh my. And to her fiancee, too." Both just stood back and let her run her course. She finally found the phone and quickly typed Darien's phone number in. She waited and waited but finally slapped the phone back onto the counter on which she had found it. "He isn't answering. Is he ignoring me? Maybe he went on the date with someone else. Where could he be?" "Right here, maybe." a voice called from down the hall. The three girls jumped in surprise and Darien came walking down the hall in jeans and a shirt with a black cat curled up in his arms, accepting any pets offered. "Darien." Serena cried as she ran over and threw her arms around him. She squeezed him tightly and only let go when muffled cries came from between them. She stepped back and Luna immediately jumped away to safety before Serena hugged Darien again. "Ack. Where have you been all night, young lady?" Luna admonished. "You scared me to death when I woke up and you were gone. Especially with the room in this awful condition." "Yeah. I was pretty worried to." Darien put in. "When you didn't show up I came over and found your door standing wide open and Luna unconscious on the bed. Turns out she was just asleep but it still gave me quite a fright." "I'm sorry. Just after I called you Lita showed up and told us about the shuttle breaking up and how Amy had detected a Power crystal. We decided that we needed to go get it before anyone else might." "Wait." Luna meowed. When she had everyone's attention she asked "What other Power crystal?" * * * * * "Not again." Serena groaned. She grabbed a few more potato chips from the bag she was eating from then got up to grab a drink, cursing all the while at the tv station for putting news reports on between her Saturday morning cartoons. "Where do they get off?" she fumed, "If someone wants to see the news they'll turn it on." She threw open the fridge and grabbed a can of pop from it. With the top popped she walked back into the living room. "..ank Robbery was foiled early this morning by a mysterious man in black. We take you now to Gregory in the field." "Man in a black costume? Could they be talking about Jason?" Serena wondered. On the screen, Gregory popped up, mike in hand, in front of a bank in downtown Tokyo. The building behind him showed several black bullet holes pitted across the side and police were in the background caring off several unconscious men in ski masks. "Normally this bank is normally a place of business but today it was the scene of a horrific crime. Five men in black masks entered the bank threatening tellers and customers with several handguns. They grabbed the money and were in the process of leaving the building when they were met by an unknown individual." "Probably some cop passing by on his way for some donuts." Serena thought, grumpily. "We have here amateur footage of the fight thanks to a visiting English couple." The image changed to that of the same building with five men running out of it with large sacks of money. The image wasn't of a good quality due to the lack of light in the early morning footage. A large black orb formed in front of them and instantly disappeared leaving a large man standing in the criminals path. "What the?" Serena gasped. "That is no cop." The man on the screen jumped at the five men, catching two by their throats and bashing their heads together. "As we can see here, the man wasted no time in subduing two of the perpetrators." Without waiting for the two unconscious criminals to fall from his hands the black suited hero twirled flinging both bodies at one of his comrades pinning the man under at least 400 pounds of weight. "Where did this guy learn to fight?" Serena wondered. The two remaining criminals raised their handguns and began firing at where the man had been standing. "Here we can plainly see that the hero has simply vanished only to reappear right behind the two remaining criminals." As the narrator said, the hero appeared behind the two criminals and smashed a fist across one's jaw, rendering him unconscious. "The final criminal decides to try to escape using a hostage." "Why that no-good, son-of-a.., piece of, ohhh!" Serena cursed. The man in black stood in front of the final criminal for a moment, one hand behind his back. Serena watched as the hand behind his back began to glow. She couldn't see his face but she was almost sure he was saying something that was causing it. Finally the man in black's hand shot up and a blast of blacklighted energy shot out striking the gun and criminal. When the hero opened his hand to stop the blast Serena could see that there was nothing left anywhere that the blast had hit. "Defiantly NOT a cop." "And so the last criminal fell and the hero vanishes with out a trace." The blacksuited hero's head shot around and for a brief instant his face was visible. "Oh gods." Serena gasped. Then the hero was gone in ovid of pure darkness. Serena was out the door before the ovid had completly vanished. * * * * * Jason inhaled the aroma of cooking sausages. "Umm. They smell delicious, Lita." "Thanks." she said, not taking her eyes away from the batter she was whipping up. "Now, are you going to help or am I going to kick you out for getting in the way?" "I think I would prefer to stay and get in the way." He quickly teleported away to avoid the batter covered spoon flung in his direction. He reappeared right behind Raye, leaned over, and kissed her on the cheek. "Hi, Hothead." she responded. "Hi, Flamebrain." This time he ducked a flying pillow. "What is this? Do I look like a bulls-eye or something?" "So how's breakfast coming?" Mina asked. "Lita says it'll be done soon." "Sit down." Raye said, patting the seat on the couch next to her. Jason hurtled the couch landing gracefully with his arm around his wife. "Anything you say, Lovely Lady." "Jason, do you remember when we were on Yavin and you created the image of Raye from some flames?" Mina asked. "Yeah." "You said that you felt that she was in trouble after that, right?" Amy asked from beside Mina. "Yes, again." "I think you might have some potential at fire reading." Raye finished. "You were able to get a feeling for my situation through the fire so I thought that with some practice you could learn to bring up images of the future." "So, you want me to become a flamebrain. I'll have to think about it. Do you think it would annoy Serena to have two of us?" "Probably." Mina said. "I'll do it then." "Breakfast." Lita called. "Race you too the table." Jason disappeared in a flash of light and appeared on his chair just in time to catch a wad a batter in the face. "Blah." "Gotcha." Lita laughed. The others came running into the room. They all broke into excessive laughter at the site of Jason's dripping face. They were all doubled over laughing when Serena burst into the room. "Guys you've gotta see the..Hey, breakfast mind if I join you?" She then happened to glance at Jason's face and she to burst into laughter. "Hey," Jason said, "I maybe a batter-face, but at least I'm no meatball head." Serena stopped laughing. "I am NOT a MEATBALL HEAD!" Jason grabbed up a napkin and wiped off his face and threw the dripping mess at Lita. She ducked and the slimy mess splattered across Amy's face. "Hey, why you!" She grabbed a clump of the batter and flung it back at Jason catching Lita in the back of the head. She ran her fingers over the slimy tangle of goo in her hair. "Now I have to go wash." Now everyone was laughing. "I guess your hair has seen BATTER days." Serena slipped out between giggles. Most of the laughter turned to groans. "That was almost as bad as one of Jacen's." Jason commented. "Anyway, what were you saying Serena?" "I was asking if I could join you guys." "I mean before your stomach took over." Serena scowled at him and thought for a second. Suddenly it came back to her. "You guys need to see what was on the news." "Jason and I prefer not to watch tv." Raye commented putting one arm around her husband and wiping his face off with the other. "You might want to see this. They had footage of a bank robbery earlier today. Some guy in a black suit stopped it." "So?" Amy asked. "So, I think he's a Sailor Scout." 20 There was silence for a minute. Jason stood up and walked into the living room and turned on the tv. The others had come in by the time he had found a news station. "They're on another US policing action but I think the bank robbery will be on in a minute." The scouts waited anxiously for the report to come on. Finally "A Bank Robbery in downtown Tokyo was foiled today by a mysterious vigilante." Amy hit the record button for her new vcr, "At six fifteen today five men walked into Central Tokyo Bank and began to threaten the attendants. After taking the money the five men were confronted by this black suited man." A small back picture of the mysterious man popped up in the upper right corner. "After a short fight four of the robbers were unconscious with the last a casualty. The man in black vanished with out a trace. Here is some amateur footage of the incident." The scouts watched the footage the footage. The girls were all confused but not nearly as confused as Jason. "That's my fighting style." The girls all turned to him. "I taught that style of combat when I served my Queen." Then he smiled. "I've become a martial arts model." "Wait. Here's what I want you to see." Serena interrupted. They watched as the man charged his bolt and fired it. Then he turned and they all started. The report ended and Amy brought up the last image. The man was over six feet tall with a lean but muscular figure in a full length black suit with white additions. His hair was a sparkling silver that went halfway down his back and his skin was a stark white. His eyes had no iris and no pupil but were a pure black. Most striking was a small pure black cystal imbedded in his head. Jason stared at the ghostly visage. "Solar." He turned about looking for the speaker. "Who?" "What is it?" Raye asked. "Didn't any of you say my name?" The girls looked at eachother. "No." As he thought of it now it had been a males voice and since Darien wasn't here it couldn't have been anyone present. He looked at the face on the screen. "Who could it have been?" he thought. [Mirror] "What?" Jason asked. The crystal hadn't spoken since he had been in the Imperium. [Jason Mirror, Me Mirror] "Jason mirror? What does that mean?" Jason looked around and found the others staring at him. "He said it." he said pointing at the crystal. "What you guys watching?" a drenched Lita asked as she entered the room. She glanced at the screen. "Gods, who is that cute guy?" "We have no idea." Amy said. "Why? You think he looks like your old boyfriend?" Mina giggled. "No." she said in a hollow tone. All she could do was stare at the face on the screen. "Not at all." ____________________________________________________________________ Now, who thinks that we have some romance shaping up here? Lets see a show of hands. Come on, don't be shy. Ah, I thought you might agree with me. Of course, I am the author and have a little bit more knowledge about the story so my vote is biased. We also have another mysterious man in black, but what an odd sort of outfit and physical changes. Anyway, I shall now continue on the rest of the story and will have it finished very soon.