Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

Chapter 9-F

Most sentient beings have very odd habits.

Whether it be collecting mushrooms, fighting absurdly strange martial artists, blowing things up, or stating the obvious, nearly everyone has some obnoxious quirk about them.

There have been many questions as to whether this is a bad thing. There have been far more answers, ranging from, "No. Quirks are what make people unique," to, "Ya bleedin' daft, man?! OF COURSE IT'S A BAD THING!!!"

Attempts at removing said quirks from individuals have met with varied results.

Some have succeeded, while others just made it worse.

Such is the case with Neo-Queen Serenity.

Initially, kindheartedness and concern for others was merely an afterthought for her. Ever present, yes, but second place to either her whiney-ness, selfishness, clumsiness, or any of a dozen wonderfully endearing flaws.

However, several horrific experiences have heightened her concern for others, and as a result has become more kind than anyone could have ever imagined.

These experiences involved nearly constant battle with the forces of evil, seeing her friends and loved ones injured, slaughtered, consumed, or converted by the lieutenants and leaders of those dark forces, and finally having to give her life over and over again to repair all the damage that had been done…

One would think that she'd be used to it by now.

Well, allow me to put it this way… If one is constantly punched in the shoulder, do you build up an immunity to being hit… or do you just get sore?

If you are in battle for an extended period of time, and if that battle involves guns and bombs, do you eventually not care about the sound of them… or do you get shell-shocked?

If you get covered in sausage and repeatedly thrown into a pit of starving cats, do you not mind cats after a while… or do you become deathly afraid at the mere thought of them?

Finally, if you see your friends killed over and over again in varyingly grotesque manners, do you stop caring about seeing them hurt… or do you worry about them all the more?

"Are you certain that you are all right, Lita?" Neo-Queen Serenity asked in concern.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Sailor Jupiter replied with a reassuring smile.

"Is everyone else okay now?" Serenity queried the rest of the Senshi. They indicated the affirmative. "Good… I just hope that Ranma is all right…"

*CRASH!* A sailor-suited figure fell face-first into the magically reinforced concrete pavement, imbedding her head into it.

"RANMA!" Serenity shouted in shock, running towards her, quickly followed by her Senshi.

Ranma-chan struggled for a second, then managed to pull herself out of the walkway. She stood up dazedly. "That's right… It's thirty-two minutes past the hour, and here's the Buckinghams with 'Kind of a Drag'."

The redhead wobbled for a second, then fell flat on her back.

"Ranma! Are you all right?!" Serenity asked.

Ranma-chan groaned, her eyes closed tightly.

Serenity turned toward Mercury. "PLEASE tell me you still have the medical program installed in your computer."

The blue-haired Senshi nodded and touched her right earring. A transparent blue visor appeared in front of her eyes. She took out a small, blue laptop computer and began imputing commands. "Scanning…"

Ranma-chan opened her eyes, gritted her teeth, and stood. "I'm gonna get that old geezer…" she muttered under her breath. She began to leave, but Neo-Queen Serenity stopped her.

"Wait," she said, then turned to Mercury. "Is she injured badly?"

Mercury blinked, staring at the readings in front of her. "No… As a matter of fact, aside from a few unusual…" She trailed off, looking at the redhead in question. "Do you spend a significant amount of your time in lower Earth orbit or something?"

Ranma-chan laughed nervously. "Actually… I, uh…" She stopped as she heard more feminine screams in the background. "Okay, look, I gotta go finish this."

Serenity held her new Sailor Earth by the shoulder. "I can't let you go back."

The redhead blinked. "Er… Why not?"

"What I mean to say is… I can't let you go back… alone. The rest of the Senshi are going with you."

"Oh no, they're not," Sailor Pluto said calmly, appearing mysteriously behind Neo-Queen Serenity, who leapt up in surprise and landed in her arms.

There was a pause before anything was said.

"Sailor Pluto," Serenity began, "could you please put me down?"

Pluto nodded. "Yes… You're mindless, worry too much, and make a horrible queen."

*DA-DUM*THWISH!*

All noise, including the background screams halted in the wake of the soft sound of crickets chirping.

"You people have no sense of humor," Pluto said in monotone, placing Serenity on her feet. The screams resumed. "But in all seriousness, Ranma must face this ancient evil alone. No one must interfere, for this battle is hi… hers alone."

Serenity thought about it. "Is this a situation where before Ranma can truly become a Senshi, she has to face her worst, darkest enemy… or have I been rewatching too much Star Wars?"

"Yes," Pluto said with just the proper amount of ominous mysteriousness, doing a perfect imitation of a Vorlon. She turned to Ranma-chan. "Go."

The girl in the pink-highlighted sailor fuku hesitated. "Wait a sec, Setsuna… I wanted to ask you something…"

"Go… NOW!" Pluto emphasized this by rapping her time staff against the ground.

"Okay, later, then," Ranma-chan said uneasily, then rushed off, occasionally glancing back.

"Sailor Pluto," Jupiter began, "really, why can't we help her?"

*BLAM*BLAM*BLAAAAM!!!* Several explosions flared on the opposite side of Crystal Tokyo, illuminating the countryside as they tore through the terrain just outside of the city.

"That's why," Pluto replied. "The Black Moon is staging a major assault on Crystal Tokyo. If you act quickly, you have a chance at preventing any casualties." She handed Serenity the wand she had dropped earlier. "Their forces are considerable. You will need this."

The Queen paled. "Is it that bad?"

The keeper of time shrugged. "No, but it will be if you don't act now." She disappeared.

Serenity turned to her Senshi. "Well, you heard her."

"We're on it," Venus said, motioning for the other Sailors to get into position for teleportation.

Every hyper-powered human has some sort of energy source.

Some use planets, others use magical gems or empowered artifacts, while still others can draw upon their own internal energies.

Internal energies for humans consist mainly of two things: Chi and Ki. In order to determine whether you are using Chi or Ki, you must first find out what country your martial arts are based in.

If you need to have a Ki attack, make certain that you are studying a Japanese style. For some odd reason, Ki is only found in techniques based around that area.

If you must have Chi, then Chinese is the only way to go.

If you want Qi, though, the martial arts are slightly more obscure.

On the other hand, the terms could be interchangeable, if you really wanted them to be.

One needs only have a whole lot of it, whatever it is.

Unfortunately, your average human being is normally incapable of generating the sheer quantities of energy required to incinerate one's enemies.

Even slightly strange people have difficulties gathering their energy into a coherent form.

So, one must be an obnoxiously weird individual in order to use major Ki attacks.

These obnoxiously weird people often have a focus helps them collect and use their high level of Chi.

Some need to be extremely confident, to the point of thinking that their fiancée, who smashes bricks with barely an afterthought and routinely decimates hordes of male attackers, isn't much of a fighter.

Others need to be depressed beyond the point of absurdity.

A few can focus their energy through love or hatred… but one thing remains the same: It is, for the most part, a matter of harnessing the proper emotions.

Then again, there are a couple individuals who forego this sort of thing entirely and simply use women's underwear…

"Ah, my silky darlings," Happosai said to the items he had just liberated from their unseen captivity.

The beautiful young woman that the old man was currently attached to trembled in fear. "H-HELP!"

Happosai looked up into the girl's glistening blue eyes. "This is a nice place, you know… Glittering gowns, beautiful women… a wonderful selection of pa—" He broke off as he heard a loud humming behind him, combined with a now-familiar energy buildup…

"Mouko Takabisha!"

*BLAM!* A concentrated burst knocked the old man off the young woman.

A redheaded girl in a pink-highlighted sailor fuku ran into view. "You okay?" she asked the other girl.

The girl nodded. "Yes, I am now…" She paused. "You don't look like any of the normal Senshi… Who are you?"

"Ran—" the redhead began to say, then looked down at her outfit as she reconsidered her answer. "S-Sailor Earth, I guess…"

The girl smiled at her defender with large, tear-filled eyes. "Thank you, Sailor Earth!" she said gratefully before hurrying off.

"Aw," Ranma-chan said, blushing slightly. "It was nothing." At the back of her mind, she noted that in this 'Sailor Earth' business, she did get thanked a LOT more than usual…

As she began to think about how nice the situation had really been for the past while, she noted with some irritation that she hadn't had a chance to change back to a guy for well over a week… Of course, that'd have to wait until she figured out how to get out of the fuku… and THAT would have to wait until she got some time off from the 'Sailor Senshi' thing she had agreed to be a part of.

Besides, the fuku seemed to be indestructible. Despite several days of intense workouts, the recent ice cream splatterings, and the more or less constant battering, it was always down there, taunting her with its slightly cute, pink, pristine appearance; Despite everything, it remained perfectly intact, and had stayed annoyingly clean.

A practical upshot of this was that despite the harsh, sweaty exertion and days without a shower, bath, or even an untimely splash of water, she remained just as clean as her outfit.

With all the other surprises that had come with the fuku so far, it made her wonder what else there was…

"Happodaikarin!" Happosai shouted as he finished working his way out of the painfully-thorned rose garden he had been blasted into, tossing a fuse bomb at the other martial artist.

*KABLAM!* A spherical energy shield flared up around Ranma-chan, blocking the blast entirely.

"Whoa… If this goes on for much longer, I could get to like it," Ranma-chan whispered to herself in astonishment.

*GLOMP!* Happosai took advantage of the sailor-suited girl's distraction and jumped on her.

*WHAM!* In a quick move, Ranma-chan tore the old man off of her and imbedded him into a crystal wall. "Don't you ever get tired of that, old man?!"

*GLOMP!!!!* Happosai pulled himself out of the wall and fiercely latched back on. "NEVER!!!"

Ranma-chan grabbed the old man, intent on pulling him off again… but found that he was quite secure. "Hey! Get off!"

"Not this time, my dear Ranma-chan," the small thing replied, nuzzling ever closer and groping ever more vigorously.

Ranma-chan looked down at Happosai in disgust and held her hands in front of his face, beginning to glow with a yellow aura. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way!"

"I like it here!" the old man replied, smiling fanatically. He looked up fearlessly at the ball of ki beginning to form between Ranma-chan's hands.

"All right, then… MOUKO TAKABISHA!"

*BLAAAAAM!!!!* The blast exploded between the two combatants, throwing them apart.

*CRASH!* Ranma-chan flew upwards and backwards, smashing through the third floor wall of a Crystal Tokyan residential center.

*RUMBLE* Happosai tore through the street's concrete surface, digging deeply through several meters of hard-packed dirt.

Ranma-chan groaned and held her head as she sat up in the sapphire debris. "Ugh… Maybe that wasn't such a good idea…" She stood and winced as she felt the material of her fuku rub against her sore chest. "Ow…" She looked down and saw the scorched material of her sailor-suit slowly regenerate. "Yeah… That's what I thought…"

The original occupant of the apartment stood on the other side of the room, a puzzled expression on his face. He glanced at the gaping hole in the ten-inch-thick sapphire wall, then looked at the redheaded Senshi. "I'm almost afraid to ask…"

Ranma-chan took a deep breath, feeling the soreness subside. She looked at the man. "Do me a favor and don't. Long story, okay?"

The man shrugged. "I'll take your word for it, then… By the way, are you the new Sailor Earth that so much is being said about…?"

Ranma-chan slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Is it true that you're engaged to Sailor Pluto?!" the man asked earnestly.

The redheaded girl paused nervously. "Er, well, yeah, but—"

*GLOMP!* Happosai jumped through the hole in the wall, right onto Ranma-chan's chest. "Haha! Gotcha this time!"

*SMASH!* Ranma-chan brought her fist down on the old man's head, knocking him off of her and imbedding him into the floor.

The other man in the room held his hand to his head in realization. "No, wait… Don't tell me… Overzealous grandfather that doesn't approve of your marriage to another girl, right?"

Ranma-chan blinked, then looked at him, making sure to grind the heel of her boot into Happosai's head to keep him down. "Huh? This guy is NOT my grandfather." She paused. "I hope…" She looked at the man. "And whaddaya ya mean: Another girl?! I'm a—"

Happosai used the distraction to twist out of the impression and climb up the sailor-suited girl's legs, taking the opportunity to grope everything as he made his way back up to Ranma-chan's chest. "Oh, man, this is great stuff!"

Ranma-chan looked down at him in disgust. "You're sick, old man!"

"And how!" Happosai replied happily.

*WHAM!* Ranma-chan backhanded the little freak off onto the wall, where he absorbed the impact and jumped back at her.

*WHACK!* A quick roundhouse kick sent Happosai thudding back against the wall. He slid down onto a sofa, a slightly dazed expression on his face. He shook his head to clear the confusion and looked at the younger martial artist. "Stop that!"

Ranma-chan smirked. "What's the matter? Startin' to feel yer age, O Decrepit One?"

Happosai stood, glaring annoyedly at her, beginning to glow with a thick, blue aura. "Skirt Chaser Jam!"

Ranma-chan ducked as a massive ball of ki sped by her, flying out the hole in the wall. She looked at Happosai and laughed. "Oops, looks like you're losin' your eyesight now, too!"

*KABLAM!* The ball of ki circled back around and nailed her in the rear, driving her head through the ceiling. She flailed around in surprise.

Happosai took a moment to admire the view this provided. He rolled up his sleeves and prepared to—

"Wait," the other man in the room said.

"What?" Happosai asked, startled by the interruption.

"Couldn't you two go somewhere… safer to kill each other? I have some paperwork that I'd like to finish, if it's all the same to you…"

The old man thought it over and grinned. "Yeah, okay…" He yanked Ranma-chan out of the roof, threw her over her shoulder, and jumped out the window, laughing maniacally.

"Senshi today," the man said, slowly shaking his head. "Always getting in over their heads. Simply isn't proper."

~And, no more than a swallow's flight away…~

A platoon of Nemesian combat droids marched unchallenged through the streets of Crystal Tokyo.

Their fearsome, bishonen commander, an empowered human whom we shall call, for the sake of argument, Commander Fancy Pants, was, in true Nemesian Fashion, standing at the rear of his troops.

"The next person to call me Commander Fancy Pants dies," the commander announced cheerfully.

"We're all droids here, sir. Not people," one of the more talkative cannon fodder in the group said.

"Ah, yes, well, you know what I mean," Commander Fancy Pants replied. He pulled out a Portable Communications Device™ and activated it. "It's quiet here. Where are they?"

The PCD crackled, the sounds of horrific battle heard in the background. [PLAT### ##### ######R THIRTEEN!!! YOU ARE IN THE WRONG AREA! THE ###### ###### #NNEX OF THE CITY IS UNOCCUPIED! HOW THE #### DID YOU GET THERE ANYWAY?! GET OVER TO THE WEST QUADRANT AND ASSIST US IMMEDIA####] The PCD crackled again, then went silent.

"Oops," Commander Fancy Pants said indifferently, right before a rather large firecracker landed in his arms. "Oh dear, I appear to be about to die." He tossed the bomb to one of his inferiors. "Absorb the blast for me, will you?"

The droid obliged, stuffing the large firecracker down its readily expandable mouth.

*KABLAM!* After the explosion, it disintegrated into a pile of black dust and a dark-red gem with a black, upside-down crescent moon on it plopped down into the pile. The crescent moon vanished and the gem turned black.

"Ah, I love having cannon fodder to throw around," Fancy Pants continued as a very small old man with a red-headed girl in a sailor-suit slung over his shoulder jumped on top of his head, and, just as quickly, jumped off. "What was that?"

"LET GO, OLD MAN!" the girl shouted, struggling against the old man's grip.

"Heehehehehehe…" the shriveled old guy laughed.

After a minor struggle, the sailor-suited girl broke free of the small man's grasp and jumped away to stand on top of a two-story crystal building. She cupped her hands together and charged up an energy blast. "Mouko… Takabisha!"

*BLAM!!!* The blast shredded the ground beneath the old man as he jumped away, blowing a raspberry at the girl.

Commander Fancy Pants watched them fight, then smiled and clapped his hands together in joy. "Oh, goodie! Do you see what I see? It's one of them! Look, everyone! Miniskirt ahoy! I've always wanted to bring one home to cousin Thursday as a trophy, and it's just the right color! Now, as you remember, the only way to capture a Senshi's miniskirt is to destroy the Senshi herself! Now, let's go out there and snatch it!"

"Um, sir?" yet another cannon-fodder droid asked nervously.

Fancy Pants glared angrily at his minion. "WHAT IN THE DEPTHS OF YOUR IGNORANCE DO YOU WANT NOW!?"

The droid cowered noticeably. "Er… The Senshi… She doesn't seem to be after us; she seems rather occupied with that man."

Commander Fancy Pants straightened his fancy jacket, and rolled up his fancy sleeves. "Well, we'll just have to change that, then, won't we, utterly mindless minion?"

The droid stared. "Don't we have to get over to—"

*BLAM!* The Fancy Panted Platoon Leader obliterated the cannon fodder droid in a single shot. He looked at the rest of his troops, and addressed them in his annoyingly high-pitched voice, "Now, we won't have any more insubordination within the ranks, will we?"

"No, sir! Commander Fancy Pants, sir!" all the droids shouted in unison.

Commander Fancy Pants gasped and lifted his hand to his mouth in shock. "Oh dear… You've just done something wrong…" He straightened. "I'm afraid you'll all have to die now."

"But—" one of the droids spluttered.

"No buts," Fancy Pants replied, and systematically vaporized all forty-eight of his remaining troops. He looked around at the numerous piles of dust he had just created. "Oh, what a mess…" he said, and was promptly annihilated by a stray ki blast.

"Nice shot," Ranma-chan congratulated Happosai, looking at the newly formed pile of dust.

"Eh, it was nothing," Happosai replied, walking toward her nonchalantly. He casually glanced at a slightly torn, but slowly regenerating part of the front of Ranma-chan's sailor fuku. "Sweeto!"

*GLOMP!* And the battle continued…

~And now for something completely the same…~

"It's—" Sailor Saturn whispered to Uranus and Neptune.

The other two Outer Senshi hummed a relatively short theme, finishing off with, "Da-da da da dah daaa dah daa da dah!"

*SQUISH!* A giant foot, constructed from a combination of the powers of the three Outer Senshi, came down and smashed an entire company of droids, plus a commander or ten, before vanishing.

Eternal Sailor Mars glanced at them with a raised eyebrow. "What's the problem with you three!? We're in the middle of a battle here! It's no time to be joking around!"

Neptune shrugged. "However you look at it, it did work…"

Mars sighed, slowly shaking her head. Not able to dispute the effectiveness of the technique, she flew skyward, preparing a rather potent eternal-level area attack to send the enemy.

"Mars Fuel-Air Explosive!"

*KAAAABLAAAAAM!* A ball of fire slammed into the midst of the enemy, expanding outwards and flash-frying a square mile of droids that hadn't quite made it into the city yet.

Below, inside the city, the ruthless Nemesian forces, striking with the black, crackling energy of evil, clashed with the brave foot soldiers of Crystal Tokyo. Armed with magical armor, swords, and glowing with the white energies of goodness, the home guard fought back with the same ferocity as their enemies…

"TAKE THIS, BRAINWASHED FORMER-HUMAN!"

"LOOK WHO'S TALKIN', WISEGUY-SLAVE!"

The clang of metal against metal and of energy against shields echoed throughout the battleground as the two sides fought, exchanging blows and the occasional taunt.

Sailor Mercury, fighting under the guard of her soldiers, provided cover for Crystal Tokyo's forces, and occasionally made a precise strike to throw the enemy into disarray.

Commanding her side of the battle, with assistance in the field by Sailors Venus and Jupiter, was Neo-Queen Serenity. She could be quite apprehensive when her friends were in danger, but she knew how to handle battles. After the initial couple years of uncertainty and difficulty keeping from tripping over her own feet, she had become quite a warrior.

Now, as Queen, she was not supposed to fight in the thick of battle, except in the direst of situations. You can't have your ruler killed in an inconsequential battle… it simply isn't proper! So, she communicated what she thought was best to her Senshi and troops.

"Venus, I need the area sealed off! We can't let any more get through!"

[We're doing our best!]

"That's all I can ask."

In the fray, Sailor Venus was a blur. Not a second passed when she wasn't firing off a Crescent Beam, twirling her Love-Me Chain around, or giving an enemy a nasty Love and Beauty Shock. Nobody was getting past this human firewall.

Serenity turned her attention toward another part of the battle, and noticed something. "Jupiter… They have an EXTREMELY potent aerial attack wave moving in… They're far too fast for you to hit. Withdraw immediately!"

Jupiter's return signal came back somewhat scrambled from the amount of energy being thrown around near her. [###REME THUNDER! (BLAM!) What was that? I missed it.]

"I just need you and your backup out of there for now…"

[#### #et some! (ZZZT!) …Right! We'l# ######t of here ASAP.]

Jupiter's group quickly pulled back out of the area as a group of twenty enemy fighter craft moved in. They were serpentine structures, glossy black, and their thin, rippling wings gave them an appearance that was rather reminiscent of aquatic manta rays.

The assault craft made a quick sweep of the area Jupiter had been in with their devastating air-to-ground weapons before circling around to make an attack run on their pilots' most hated enemy: Neo-Queen Serenity.

The Queen took a deep breath. "Seraph Wing… deploy."

Ripples appeared in the air, which moved in a straight line across the sky. Lightning began to dance around each of the distortions until they finally coalesced into glistening, crystalline constructs. The fifteen craft flew in a delta formation, slicing through the Nemesian fighters' attack pattern, golden energy lancing from their weapon ports.

Six Nemesian fighters went down with the first strike, exploding in a burst of flame as they crashed into the city below. While the craft had been smashed into unrecognizable masses of metal, the buildings remained unscathed.

Five of the remaining fighters broke off from the main group and began dog fighting with the crystal fighters.

The twelve attacking assault craft dove toward Neo-Queen Serenity, firing their weapons…

*ZREOW!*ZREOW!* Four crystal spires erupted from the ground around the Queen, which projected a shield around her, absorbing the incoming dark missiles.

When the flying Nemesian craft came around for another strike, the spires fired dozens of white balls of energy, which tore into the fighters as they came within range, annihilating them in a matter of seconds.

Within the dogfight, the five Nemesian craft were clearly winning. Their superior firepower and maneuverability allowed them to strike down their targets with near impunity.

When they finished off the airborne crystals, the manta-shaped assault craft broke into opposite directions, making swift strafing runs through the streets of Crystal Tokyo, beginning to decimate the city's ground forces.

Eternal Sailor Mars took notice of this and flew to intercept them. "Burning Mandala!"

Rings of fire shredded the wings of four assault craft. They crashed to the ground, skidding to a halt as they plowed through the ranks of combat droids.

Mars turned toward the remaining fighter and prepared to fire off another blast. "Fire—"

*WHOOSH!* The fighter swept past her at a phenomenal rate, sending her spiraling towards the ground from the force of its wake.

As Mars took the time to prevent herself from becoming parking lot pizza, the fighter escaped into the city, its engines screaming, seemingly in triumph.

"Terrific," Mars muttered under her breath. She opened up communications with Neo-Queen Serenity. "A fighter just got through. Requesting permission to go after it."

There was a pause. [Permission… granted. Make sure it doesn't hurt anyone. I'll call for you if things get worse.]

"Right," Mars replied, flying off in pursuit of the invading aircraft.

From her defensive command position, Serenity observed the battle intensely, watching for anything more that could be done.

The ground battle was essentially a stalemate, even with the Senshi doing all they could to assist their soldiers.

An enraged yell rose from the rear of the Nemesian army. The apparent commander of the entire onslaught rose into the air above his forces, a sphere of swirling black energy surrounding him, making it nearly impossible to make out any definite features. As a matter of fact, the only way you'd be able to identify the figure as a 'he' would be his tone of voice, which could be heard over the sounds of battle.

"SERENITY!!!" the Nemesian leader bellowed in rage as he surged over the battle towards the Queen.

It's an interesting thing to note that most of the Nemesian leaders hated Neo-Queen Serenity… with a vengeance, in many cases. So, it was really no surprise that the leader, in this scenario, chose to make an attempt on her life.

*BLAM!*

It's also an interesting thing to note that the majority of Nemesian leaders stood no chance whatsoever against her.

The offworld forces, enraged at the loss of their leader, began an advance that broke through the line that had held them back until now.

The yells and screams of the wounded rang out as the tide of battle turned against the soldiers of Crystal Tokyo. Even the Senshi were forced back, their armies falling around them…

"Kikkausse enshubub legume," Sailor Uranus whispered in code to Sailor Neptune, who nodded and turned toward Sailor Saturn.

"It's time," Neptune said.

"All right," Saturn said, taking out a sheet of paper with bizarre writing on it. She ran forward, banishing her Silence Glaive and holding up a megaphone, beginning to speak in absolute gibberish to the rapidly advancing army. "Yen dis guarde nottin' then aupsaide th' yaudz con mis amigos y muy muy dificil en deinz wanzinzkai, 'Yeth I am, NOITH LAYDEI!!!; Por queno. Gerai Lweisse. Verika, Demion, Rankana, EXPLODTHEL!!! Eeeny meeny meiny moe!" At this, she stopped and flashed an overcute, maniacal smile at the Nemesian forces. "Yee… Yappothka!"

The oncoming army stopped. The droids and empowered humans whispered among themselves, bemused expressions on most of their faces, as did the withdrawing Crystal Tokyan soldiers.

Unable to comprehend the words, Crystal Tokyo's forces shrugged off the words and stood firm, their weapons ready, awaiting the moment that their enemies would continue their advance.

The members of the evil army of darkness continued to whisper amongst themselves…

Then, suddenly…

"BWAHA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!"

The army of Crystal Tokyo stared in utter confusion… Their enemies had begun to laugh… Not a maniacal 'We have won!' sort of laugh; It was the uncontrollable laugh of those who had heard the Funniest Joke in the Universe™… and got it.

"—HA HA HA HA— URK!"

Just as suddenly as the laugh had begun, it stopped.

*THUUUMP!!!* Like a giant wave, the entire Nemesian army fell dead, leaving all of Crystal Tokyo to gawk at the sight in shock, their mouths hanging open like those of freshly spawned salmon.

And then they cheered.

The Nemesian fighter pilot screamed in a mixture of rage, hatred, shock, and despair as she watched all the green dots disappear on her threat display; as she saw all of her comrades die in one horrifying instant.

She gritted her teeth as she watched the glistening city pass beneath her. Crystal Tokyo: the home of Neo-Queen Serenity, the one who had destroyed humanity.

Not only was Serenity responsible for the deaths of over six billion people and the near obliteration of the human race, she also had taken the few remaining survivors and subjected them to her, removing their free will with that… CRYSTAL of hers!

The sole purpose of this battle was to kill or capture the queen. It was the largest assault ever staged against Crystal Tokyo, and it had failed… miserably. The last hope for freeing mankind had been dashed to pieces.

The pilot breathed haltingly, tears flowing down her cheeks.

She was the last one of the entire group, and she alone had no chance of being able to accomplish the mission… And if it could not be done, then all was for naught.

The only thing she had left was… revenge.

The Nemesian pilot straightened in her seat.

Yes… Revenge.

She armed all of her remaining weapons, intent on destroying as much as she could before they got to her, starting with that girl in the sickeningly cute, pink-skirted sailor suit and her grandpa down there…

*CRASH!* After a semi-successful glomping attempt, Happosai was once again imbedded face-first into a hard, crystal wall.

"Ha! Gotcha again!" Ranma-chan shouted brazenly, proudly straightening the pink bows on her outfit.

Happosai pushed himself out of the wall, stumbling around dazedly for a moment as the fluid in his inner ear that dictated balance readjusted itself. "I'm beginning to sense a theme here…"

Ranma-chan snickered. "Took you THAT long to start seeing a pattern, huh? Starting to lose your mind?"

"Have some respect, boy!" Happosai snapped as his sense of balance finally returned to normal.

"You keep telling me that, old man, and I STILL haven't found ONE good reason to give you any."

Suddenly, Happosai gasped and pointed behind his opponent. "What in the world could THAT be?!"

Ranma-chan smirked. "I'm not fallin' for that one!"

*KABLAM!!!* A dark missile exploded against the redheaded girl's back, throwing her to the ground and knocking the wind out of her… Well, that and temporarily making a mess of her fuku… Not to mention her pride. "That… hurt."

Happosai calmly observed the situation. "Yup. Sure looks like it would…" He looked up at the hovering, serpentine object that had fired the missile, and went on to make a mental note to himself that there appeared to be a rather good-looking female pilot inside… "SWEETO!"

*CRASH!* The old man dove into the cockpit, easily smashing through the reinforced Plexiglas and latching himself onto the woman, who screamed in rage and hatred, tearing wildly at him.

The craft started tilting, wobbling, and spinning as the pilot lost control.

"Ah, my precious…" Happosai whispered, securely attached to his current victim, greatly enjoying the… texture she had.

The woman pounded frantically at the controls, inadvertently sending two more missiles at Ranma-chan.

"Uh oh," the sailor-suited martial artist said, ducking under the incoming explosives. She turned around and saw that the missiles had swung around to come back at her. She sidestepped them, and they continued to track her. "This is gonna get tedious…"

"Fire Soul!"

A burst of flame swept toward the aircraft.

In the cockpit, the pilot snatched at a lever on the side of her seat.

*Pop!*BLAAAAM!* The pilot ejected just as the oncoming fire caused the assault craft to explode.

*WHAM!* Ejecting at such a low altitude and thereby not allowing enough time for the parachute to deploy or even the seat to detach, the pilot, her seat, and Happosai thudded to the ground in the midst of the debris from the craft. The woman was rendered unconscious, and the pervert… seemed unaffected.

A winged girl in a red-highlighted sailor fuku flew onto the scene, surveying the area for other threats. She caught sight of Ranma-chan, who was still dodging a pair of tracking missiles.

"Sailor Earth?" the flying Senshi asked. There was no response. "Ranma?"

"Huh?" Ranma-chan asked, looking up at the one he recognized as Sailor Mars, pausing long enough for the dark missiles to lock on more fully.

*KA-BLAM-BLAM!*

"SAILOR EARTH!" Mars shouted in shock, diving toward her.

Ranma-chan lay on the ground, twitching, her hands held out in what is traditionally called the Takahashi gesture. Her fuku slowly regenerated from its damaged state.

As Mars reached the younger Senshi, she paused, raising an eyebrow. "You sure can soak up a lot of damage…"

"Yeah," Ranma-chan said, gritting her teeth as she slowly stood up. "Stuff like this happens all the time back home… You get used to it."

Mars stared. "Just where are you from, anyway? Anyone else, even one of us Senshi, would have been either killed or seriously injured from the blast you just took."

Ranma-chan shrugged. "Well, Setsuna tells me that—"

*GLOMP!* Happosai had apparently tired of the pilot, and went back onto his favorite target. "Ahh… This I can never get tired of."

"I'm not going to warn you again, old man," Ranma-chan said, having a moment of complete insanity and deciding to give him one last chance. "Get off."

"NO!" Happosai shouted vehemently, clinging tighter than ever.

The sailor-suited martial artist firmly grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and, slowly but surely, forced him off…

*WHACK!* And threw him against a wall.

"Still haven't destroyed that thing, have you?" Sailor Mars asked in the voice of a trained professional to a rank amateur.

Ranma-chan sighed exasperatedly and shook her head, all the while keeping an eye on his opponent and staying in a defensive stance. "Believe me, it's impossible. The guy's, like, a couple hundred years old… Well, probably over a thousand now, and no matter what, he keeps coming back! I've tried dozens of times! He's worse than—"

"Let me take care of it," Mars said. "Mars Flame Sniper!"

A flaming bow and arrow flared into existence, which Sailor Mars fired at the moderately stunned creature.

Happosai saw the flaming arrow come at him, and pulled out a bottle, the contents of which he chugged down in an instant. "Chinsui Meijin Fureaa!"

The old man belched out a HUGE burst of flame, which absorbed the arrow and sped towards Eternal Sailor Mars, engulfing her in a blaze of fire.

Ranma-chan gasped. "Mouko Takabisha!"

*KABLAM!* The attack hit Happosai directly, blasting him through the ground floor of a Crystal Tokyo skyscraper, which, weakened by the remnants of the ki blast, collapsed in on him.

Ranma-chan looked toward Sailor Mars, who was noticeably blackened. "Are you okay?!"

Mars coughed and nodded from her partial kneeling position. "I'll be all right." She looked at the collapsed building. "I'm glad we didn't start moving people into this section yet."

"Section?" Ranma-chan asked.

Mars stood. "Yes… You see, we recently expanded the city, and just finished checking the buildings for flaws. We had planned on opening it for general use by next week. Good thing we didn't, because if the building was wrecked that easily…" She paused, noting the stillness of the glistening wreckage. "I think we got it." She put a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "Come on, there's a battle on the west side of the city, and it's a big one. We can use all the help—"

Suddenly, Happosai burst upwards through the sapphire rubble and jumped at them, a lecherous grin on his face.

"Fire Soul!"

"Mouko Takabisha!"

Both blasts missed the old man as he somehow managed to dodge midair. His trajectory sent him onto the fire Senshi.

"What the… HEY!"

"Oh, baby!"

*THWACK!!!* Sailor Mars sent a vicious slap at the shriveled creature, stunning him and leaving a red, inflamed handprint on his left cheek. The raven-haired Senshi easily pulled him off and drop kicked him away.

Ranma-chan's eyes widened. "Hey, could you teach me that one?"

Mars glanced at her. "Maybe later." She turned back to the matter at hand. "Burning Mandala!"

Rings of fire sped towards Happosai, who had just recovered from his stunned state. He dodged the rings and leapt at Mars, knocking her down and tying her up with the bows from her own fuku.

"Heh heh heh…"

*WHAM!* A swift kick from Ranma-chan sent Happosai flying over one of the taller buildings. She turned to help Mars.

"No, don't worry about me. Go after him! Don't let that thing escape," the winged Senshi urged, struggling against the strong fabric of her ribbons.

Ranma-chan hesitated. "But—"

Mars scowled. "Now! I'll join you when I can."

The redhead held up her hands defensively. "Okay, I'm going!" She jumped over a building in the direction Happosai was sent.

"Nice girl," Mars noted to herself, "but she really needs to stop hesitating and just do it…" She continued trying to work her way out of her bonds without any success. "Okay, maybe I should've let her help me…"

*WHOOOSH!!!!* In the distance, a small, but very intense whirlwind appeared, grinding down the buildings around it. It died down in a couple of seconds.

*KABLAM!* An energy blast tore through another building.

Sailor Mars watched a couple more blasts shatter several other landmarks, and came to a conclusion. "She is definitely going to need some backup." She opened up communications with the Queen. "This is Mars… Can you spare anyone, Queen Serenity?"

[Mars? Yes, we can. The battle is over. How much do you need?]

"Well, I took out the fighter, but now our new Sailor Earth is having some problems fighting—"

[If Sailor Earth needs our help… We will all be there for her,] Serenity replied, almost a little too quickly. [We will arrive momentarily. Can you be there also?]

"I'll try, but I'm a little tied up at the moment, if you'll pardon the expression."

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

In one second, thousands of strikes pummeled Happosai, who was knocked back through a crystalline lamppost and into a thick, sapphire wall.

*RUMBLE*CRAAAAAAAASH!* The sonic boom from Ranma-chan's quickly-moving hands shattered windows for miles around.

"Ugh," Happosai groaned as he slipped out of the indentation he had just made. He snapped back to readiness when he hit the ground. "All right, so you've learned some pretty impressive things, boy… You made a big improvement since we last sparred… How?!"

Ranma-chan laughed out loud at him. "It's not me, old man. It's you! You're old, slow, shriveled, and ready to retire!"

"Oh, really?" Happosai asked. "Happodaikarin!"

The sailor-suited martial artist batted the firecracker away, which exploded harmlessly in the air. "Face it! You've lost your touch!"

Happosai glowered. "No, I haven't!" He threw a bigger bomb at Ranma-chan, who smacked it up into the air, where it also exploded without any damage done.

Ranma-chan smirked. "What's the matter? Gettin' senile, JIJI!?"

The ancient martial artist glared at the young girl. "We'll see about that." He began moon-walking, humming a quiet tune.

Happosai sang out a phrase.

o/ Hentai Happaa Nami! \o

Happosai jumped up into a 360-degree spin before landing and doing a Michael Jackson crotch grab. "Whoo!"

Ranma-chan raised an eyebrow, her arms folded in front of her. "That supposed to do something, old man? Besides gross me out, I mean?"

"Give it a couple seconds," Happosai said, waiting patiently.

At that moment, Neo-Queen Serenity materialized, quickly followed by six Senshi.

Mars flew in, landing by them.

"We're here to help you, Sailor Earth," Serenity said.

"Thanks," Ranma-chan said, "but I don't think he'll be that much more of a prob… lem…"

"HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!" Happosai cackled lecherously as he watched his latest attack come to fruition.

From the darkest nether regions of the universe, an evil force gathered.

Above the bright, glistening city of Crystal Tokyo, a purplish-black cloud of roiling perverted energies descended.

The cloud draped itself over the city, permeating every surface, darkening and damaging all that it touched.

The city dimmed in the sea of perversion, losing the happy glow it always had.

The wind blew against the Sailor Senshi and their Queen, pushing them back and crackling at them as the energies took their toll, grappling at them and draining them of their energy.

Sailor Mercury was rendered unconscious almost immediately as the cloud permeated her being. She fell to the ground, followed quickly by Venus and Jupiter. The wind pushed them against the wall of a building.

Mars, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus were still fighting it, but were rapidly weakening.

Neo-Queen Serenity stood, holding out her Crystal, a bubble surrounding her that barely managed to block out the energy that threatened to overwhelm her.

A perfect, unmoving sphere surrounded Ranma-chan. She looked around and saw dark, swirling tornadoes starting to shred their way through every part of the city. Lightning periodically flashed, crackling around the vortexes.

At the focus of these energies, controlling them, was Happosai. "Hehehehehe…"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, OLD MAN!" Ranma-chan shouted against the wind.

"Someone has to teach you to respect your elders, boy!"

Ranma-chan gritted her teeth. "Right… MOUKO TAKABISHA!!!"

The blast, as soon as it left the sphere surrounding the redhead, dissipated into the cloud.

Ranma-chan's jaw dropped. "Okay… HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!!!"

A whirlwind began to emerge around her, but one of the cloud's tornadoes rushed into the area she was standing, far overpowering her own. It smashed through her spherical shield.

The perverted energy grasped Ranma-chan, lifting her into the air by her skirt and tearing apart the ground beneath her.

Utilizing his control over all this, Happosai rose up, becoming level with Ranma-chan. After a quick leer, he dove forward… "Sweeto!"

*GLOMP!!!*

"Haven't you learned yet?" Ranma-chan asked, then gasped in surprise at how weak her voice sounded. "What… what's…"

Then she felt it… An energy drain, for lack of a better descriptive term. Well, that and an arm reaching down her fuku. "Grrrr…"

Unfortunately, her anger seemed only to aid the draining process.

Weakly, she looked over to the Queen and the Senshi, who were barely visible through the dark cloud. The Queen's protective bubble had almost collapsed, and all of the Senshi were down.

"Unnnnh," Ranma-chan groaned, attempting to call out, and failing miserably. Feeling quite defeated, she closed her eyes.

Nearly all of her energy was gone, which seemed odd, considering that Setsuna had told her that she was getting power from an entire planet, and not just any planet: She was drawing energy from Earth.

But the fact remained that she simply didn't feel like she was getting strength from anything but herself.

Therein lies the lesson, an ethereal voice called.

Ranma-chan would have blinked if she could. Huh?!?

There was a flash, and Ranma-chan found herself floating downward through an odd, transdimensional ether.

Her eyes still closed, she sailed through the tranquil sea of semi-nothingness, enjoying the reprieve from the painfully draining battle. She felt the comforting warmth of her fuku… her only link to any semblance of reality at that point.

After a short time, she regained some of the strength she lost in the fight and opened her eyes.

"Hmm… This is new," the redhead commented as she took notice of her surroundings, which soon shifted one-hundred-eighty degrees for some unknown reason.

Suddenly, she felt somewhat… freer than she did a moment ago. She looked down at herself, and discovered that she had just become subject to a natural phenomenon most commonly known as transdimensional nudity. "AAAAAH!!!"

She curled up into a near-fetal position in an attempt to cover herself.

This was drawn out for several minutes longer than necessary, giving her the time to contemplate the universe.

Why was this happening to her?

Why was she floating in limbo?

Why was she here?

Why did she keep using feminine pronouns for herself throughout this entire thought process?

Was she alive?

Was she dead?

Or was this that mythical place Americans call Wyoming?

If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody but the squirrels are around to hear it… does anyone care?

What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

"Forty-two?" Ranma-chan guessed, using the answer she had used all too often in school when she really didn't hear the question, sometimes actually getting it right.

There was an authoritative, but loving laugh in the distance. Excellent guess!

Ranma-chan glanced around and caught sight of the speaker: a tall, regal-looking white-blonde woman with a sort of 'odango' hairstyle that looked a lot like Neo-Queen Serenity. She was wearing a long, flowing white gown, and had two sets of gossamer wings on her back. There was also a golden crescent moon on her forehead.

"Hello, Ranma," the regal-looking woman said serenely.

Ranma-chan, still curled up in a fetal position, raised an eyebrow at the sight of her. "Uhhh… Hi. Who are you…?" She glanced around at all the odd hot-pink bubbles and multi-colored cloud formations, then back at herself. "And what's going on?"

The woman smiled slightly. "I will explain." She snapped her fingers.

There was a flash, and Ranma-chan found herself standing in a room with a Roman-style architectural design. She looked down and noticed that she was wearing a green dress that looked similar to what the gossamer-winged woman was wearing.

Ranma-chan looked up and noticed that the tall woman was standing in front of her, smiling pleasantly, with a hint of sadness in her expression.

"I'm so glad I am finally able to meet you," the woman said.

"Wha… what just happened? What was the deal with the weird stuff and the thing—floating around in that wacky place, nice lady?" Ranma-chan asked semi-incoherently, internally berating herself for OD'ing on Jerry Lewis for some odd new comedy martial arts a few weeks back. "Freunlayvin!"

She shook her head in a vain attempt to clear it, and continued trying to talk to the woman in front of her. "Why am I wearing this dress? Not that I'm complaining… It's better than nothing, but… Well, you said you'd explain this… Could you, please?"

The woman smiled comfortingly. "Of course. I am Queen Serenity, ruler of the former Moon Kingdom. You are wearing that dress because it is what Princess Terra, the girl whom you were forced to replace, wore during the Silver Millennium… The explanations could go on for hours, but in answer to your other question, you were brought here to receive… guidance, I suppose you could call it."

"Why?"

"Because you were in a state of crisis… You were moments away from destruction at the hands of—"

Ranma-chan drew back indignantly. "Hey, I could’a taken 'em!"

What does it take to get an ancient queen, whose basic principles involve kindness and tolerance, to smirk mockingly and laugh out loud in someone's face?

Something like that.

"Oh, of course! There you were, facing your greatest adversary and moments away from death, with no power worth speaking of, and you're telling me that you could have won! That's rich!"

"Hey!"

Serenity stopped laughing and resumed smiling. "I apologize. It's just that you remind me so much of Princess Terra… Well, she was much better at concealing her overconfidence, and at least she had a very good reason for it, but—"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

The Moon Queen held up her hands in a gesture of peace. "Again, I apologize. I am merely sorry to see that my other daughter did not make it this far… But back to your guidance."

Ranma-chan nodded, cracking her knuckles. "Yeah, let's do that. I got a pervert to kill."

Serenity chuckled at that, barely keeping herself from doubling over in laughter. "So much like Terra," she whispered to herself. She straightened. "In those last few moments, as you were questioning yourself as to why you didn't have any strength left, when you were supposed to be drawing from a planet, you came to a conclusion that no one else had ever reached."

"Uh, what was that?"

Serenity smiled more deeply. "You realized that you were not getting anything whatsoever from the planet Earth."

Ranma-chan raised an eyebrow. "Wait a sec… Setsuna said that…" She paused. "Um, what about my ki blasts? The Chestnut Fist? The Hiryuu Shoten Ha? Those were… really… suped-up, you know?"

"Your abilities were enhanced and increased as a result of the transformation, yes… But aside from the energy required for causing and maintaining the transformation, you haven't received a drop of Earth's power. It was truly a monumental leap of intuition you had when you perceived that. Until you, nobody had figured that out about the powers of a Senshi… Except perhaps Terra… and a few others, long before my time."

Ranma-chan blinked. "Uh, yeah, thanks… So what do I do about it?"

Serenity's eyes seemed to twinkle at her. "That is simple. Find Earth's connection to you, and draw upon it."

The scene began to fade.

"Wait! How… How do I do that?"

The Greco-Roman style room was gone, but Ranma-chan could still hear Serenity's voice. "Look inside yourself… Find Earth's connection to you…" There was a pause. "It's green and shiny. Don't worry, you can't miss it."

Ranma-chan awoke, unable to open her eyes due to the lack of strength to do so. "Ungh," she groaned, meaning to say, "Hey! Get off of me, old man!"

Then she remembered what she just learned from that weird, laughing chick. Okay, connection to Earth…

She probed around in the darkness, and didn't find anything.

INSIDE yourself, Ranma… an ethereal voice reminded.

Oh yeah… Ranma-chan realized, and tried a different approach: a sort of meditation, which was easy, considering how relaxed one typically becomes when you have nearly all of your energy sucked out.

So, in the next moment, she found himself floating in a metaphorical ether and staring straight at a shining, green sphere. Guess that's it… He glanced down at himself, seeing a male body and his typical red Chinese shirt and black pants. Hey, I guess that means I'm not really a girl! That's a relief… I was gettin' kinda worried there…

Ranma paused metaphysically and smiled. I take that back. I had nothing to worry about all along.

After all, anybody can be a guy. But it takes a real MAN to be a girl.

Or was that the other way around?

Ranma blinked twice in response to this train of thought, then shrugged at the complete and utter meaninglessness of it all.

He went back to the task at hand and grabbed the green sphere in front of him, acquiring the key to using Earth's true power.

Utilizing a magical, strength-sapping crystal to keep from being overwhelmed by a cloud of dark energy and seeing her friends fallen around her after an almost non-existent struggle, Neo-Queen Serenity was finding this scenario all too familiar… and it worried her a great deal.

She couldn't see most of the action, due to all the evil, swirling, perverted energy flying around, but she had last seen her new Sailor Earth locked in combat with the creature that had caused all this madness.

Something about this situation struck a chord with her. For one thing, she and all but one of her Senshi have been rendered unable to do anything, and for another, Sailor Earth has been left the only one capable of fighting the evil force that threatened to destroy them all.

The last time this had happened…

Serenity drew an uneasy breath. She sincerely hoped that history would not repeat itself.

She looked up in hopes of being able to catch a glimpse of how the fight was going…

There was a flash of lightning.

Serenity saw Ranma caught up in a dark tornado.

There was another flash.

The Queen saw that Ranma was not moving, despite the chaotic wind. The small, evil creature was firmly attached to the Senshi's chest.

Serenity frowned. Several things today had looked bad, and yet they hadn't turned out to be nearly as horrible as they first seemed.

Yet again, lightning illuminated the area.

Neo-Queen Serenity caught sight of the swirling, purple vortexes that were systematically tearing the city apart. She also saw the darkened state of her Senshi.

Then again, she considered, perhaps this was just going to be an altogether rotten day for them after all…

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a wispy, green thread of energy rising from the ground.

All over the Earth, green energy arose from the ground in wisps and ribbons, swirling together into coherent rivers which quickly covered the entire surface of the planet.

The rivers of energy condensed further and wound their way across the surface, rapidly moving toward Crystal Tokyo.

Serenity watched in awe as the energy gathered and twined around the redheaded girl, shafts of light slicing through the darkness that sought to overwhelm them all.

The little monster attached to Ranma looked around in confusion at the newly arrived force.

The energy continued to intensify around Ranma. As it did, it gave off a hum that grew ever more high-pitched.

A massive, blue vortex spun into existence above the city.

The energy infusing itself into the new Sailor Earth finally reached a threshold…

Ranma let out a triumphant yell as she awakened, a blinding, white aura forming around her, letting off a small shockwave that threw the monster off of her.

Serenity grimly noted that this was quite similar to what happened when Terra fought Metallia.

The aura around Ranma-chan intensified as she worked out how to use the immense amounts of energy she was drawing from the planet. She glanced up at the blue vortex she was planning on using, then locked her attention back at her adversary.

"Impressive, boy!" Happosai yelled, levitating some distance away from her. "But take a look at this!" He swung his arms around wildly, causing an even larger tornado to rip around the sailor-suited girl, accompanied by more concentrated lightning.

The slow destruction of Crystal Tokyo continued.

"This has to stop, old man!" Ranma-chan shouted, bringing her hands forward in preparation for focusing her energy. An appropriate name for the maneuver sprang to her mind…

"Chikyuu…"

Happosai paused as he saw the intensity of the attack that was being built up. "Wait… what are you doing, boy?"

"Doudou…"

Happosai paled at the ball of energy that was directed right at him. Judging from the size of it, there didn't seem to be much point in trying to block or dodge. "Oh no… WAIT, BOY! STOP!!!"

"Ryuujin-hou!!!"

*ZRRRR-BLAAAAAAAAM!!!!*

A blast of radiant energy spread across Crystal Tokyo, tendrils of white encircling the black clouds of evil, drawing it all into the vortex above the city, which regained its normal radiance.

On the north side, a small section exploded in a flash. The vortex gathered in the flying debris from the destruction below.

The thin vortex spiraled, vanishing into nothingness as it slowly faded into the starry night sky.

As the swirling, chaotic energies subsided, a silence settled over Crystal Tokyo.

Neo-Queen Serenity looked to the Senshi near her, happy that they appeared to more or less okay and regaining consciousness.

The Queen looked with some dismay at the ruins around her. In the distance, everything seemed to be more or less intact, but the new northern annex of the city was ruined. But as long as nobody was badly hurt… Which reminded her…

Where was Ranma?

Where was Sailor Earth?!

Serenity glanced around frantically, and caught sight of the redheaded girl, who was lying on her back amidst a pile of rubble, not moving.

The blonde queen gasped and rushed toward the new Senshi, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Not again…

Soon, Serenity was kneeling over Ranma.

Please, not again…

"Ranma…" Serenity whispered in despair. "Not you too…" She reached down to touch the young girl's face…

That was approximately when she noticed something…

Ranma was snoring.

"ZZZZZZZZ-PHEEEEEEEW! ZZZZZZZZ-PHEEEEEEEW!"

Quite vibrantly.

Continued in Part 9-G

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: January 7, 2006