Arturus X. R. Sailor Moon: Marathon Part Two The alien drew closer and closer, walking at a cautious but threatening pace. The bud at the end of the stick it was brandishing glew faster and brighter, until it reached a peak. Then the alien swung the stick down, like it was striking air. The energy from the swipe hung in midair, then gathered itself into a sphere at hurled itself in the Senshi's direction. "What is that?!" cried Mercury. "Who cares?" cried an exasperated Mars. "Get down!" As the Senshi ducked, the ball of energy collided with the wall, leaving a small shock wave. "All right," said Sailor Mars, "That tears it! MARS FIRE...IGNITE!" The alien's armor was specifically designed to withstand extreme temperatures, so the fire was simply abosrbed. "Oh no, it didn't work!" said Mars. "Let me try," said Jupiter, stepping to the front of the group. "JUPITER THUNDER...CRASH!" The alien's armor was also specifically designed to withstand electric shocks, so the same thing happened to Jupiter's lightning. "Oh man, nothing's working...Wait! Look over there!" shouted Mercury, pointing to a glass window. Behind the window was a small receptacle containing a pistol. Sailor Moon being the closest to it, broke the glass with the small hammer hanging nearby. She picked up the gun, and aimed it at the approaching alien. The other Senshi were watching the alien, waiting for him to drop to the floor in a heap, but nothing happened. Turning around, they saw Sailor Moon trembling, crying, not able to fire the gun. "Sailor Moon," Venus shouted. "Fire the gun!" "I can't! I'm...I'm afraid..." "Dammit Sailor Moon," shouted Mars, "Shoot it!" "No...shut up! Shut up!" "SHOOT IT!" "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" "GODDAMMIT WE'RE GONNA FUCKING DIE IF YOU DON'T FUCKING SHOOT THAT DAMN GUN!" "SHUT UP" "SHOOT IT!!!-" The report of the gun silenced all of the other sounds in the corridor they were in. The alien laid in a heap. A lucky shot had pierced the central cortex of its brain, and the bullet now logded in the back of its skull. A minimal amount of blood seeped from the wound, which made the situation much eerier that it already was. Sailor Moon crumpled herself in a little ball and rocked back and forth, the fact that she had used a gun to kill a living being overriding all thoughts. It didn't occur to her that that alien was going to kill her and her friends too. "Sailor Moon, I-" said Mars, approaching Sailor Moon cautiously. "SHUT UP! GET AWAY FROM ME!" The other four senshi walked away in a huddle. "What do we do now?" "I don't know. Heck, do we even know where we are?" "This is hopeless. Where do we start?" Suddenly, Sailor Moon looked up, tears still in her eyes. "Hey...where's Mamoru?" Mamoru awoke in shadows. Everything around him was dark, although he could see fairly well. His hand in front of his face was but an outline, as were the people crowded around him. That's funny, he thought. I didn't remember them being here before. Wait a second, why am I still alive? I should be dead, if I remember correctly. Who are these people? The "people" he was pondering had fairly broad shoulders and somewhat round heads. He couldn't see their faces due to the darkness. He couldn't detect any arms, or appendages of that sort. He felt himself being drawn into the darkness, becoming one with it, and then he was asleep again. The four Senshi were huddled together, with the two cats following closely behind, wandering the corridors of the alien enviornment. To them, everything seemed so new, so...metallic. It was like they had traveled to a more advanced civilization, or even forward in their own time. Venus spotted some sort of monitor on the far wall. The four Senshi approached it. The monitor, probably having some sort of motion sensor, sprung to life and displayed the following message: Marathon Terminal #356-12 V1.2 Emergency Evacuation Message Follows--- After a few moments, another message appeared. Today at 0820 hours, the Marathon came under a surprise attack from unknown hostile forces. The Marathon has sustained serious damage. At 0830 hours, alien forces boarded the Marathon. The current situaiton is dire. All personnel are required to arm themselves and fight for their lives. Concerning the three AI's onboard the Marathon, Tycho has been destroyed, and Durandal has suffered a breach. Leela remains operational, but any efforts to reach her have failed. After a few moments, the message replayed in French, German, and Japanese. "Well," said Artemis, "We're a long way from home." General Tfear sat in his briefing room, reviewing the plans for the invasion. So far, they hadn't needed to make any changes to the original plan, which was to capture the Marathon and enslave its approximately 30,000 inhabitants, and at the same time make sure there would be no resistance from Earth. That would be accomplished by sending the star around which the nine planets orbitted into nova, except that the nova would occur 400 years before the present time. The Jjaro Time Travel Unit had proved unreliable in the past, but this time everything seemed to be fine. Just then, Tfear's assistant bursted through the door. "General Tfear! We have a problem." "Hmmh? Of what sort?" "Here, look at these readings." Tfear took a few seconds scanning through them, then looked up at his assistant. The assistant caught the meaning of the glance and explained. "As you can see, half of the star has gone nova as it should, that is the half facing us. But the other half...it's as if the universe has forgotten its own rules, everyone here's-" "That's enough. I know exactly what's happening here. That son a bitch Durandal and his damn cronies. He was right. How long do we have?" "I can take measures to delay the reaction by 336 hours, or two weeks." "Good." Tfear sent his assistant away, and then looked out the window at the star below him. Not the star itself, but its former promise. What had once become the greatest blessing the Phfor had ever known, was now their worst nightmare. Part three coming soon. Arturus X. R. Please comment on this fanfic (arturusxr@earthlink.net.) P.S. Thanks to everyone who wrote in telling me Motoki was Andrew's Japanese name. I'm glad to know somebody's reading this :-).