Title: Sailor Moon: Marathon Part 4 Name: Arturus X. R. I'm back from the road trip. That's all I have to say. Oh, and this fanfic contains adult language and graphic violence. If that offends you, or your parents don't like it, don't read it. The Senshi followed the glowing red line visible only to them and found what appeared to be the teleporter. It looked like an elevator, and it even had buttons next to the door, with descriptions of the locations to which they led. Ami scanned the buttons, then pressed the one marked "Weapons Cache." Suddenly, the door opened to reveal a short hallway with another door at the end. "Hunh," remarked Usagi. "That was fast." They walked to the end of the hallway, and opened the door. A spacious room with various cabinets fell open. Each cabinet was marked with various weapons. An intriguing one read: "SPNKR-X17 SSM Launcher (Lazyboy)" "Interesting choice for an acronym," said Rei. She opened the door, and found the receptacle was empty. The five girls found that in the entire room, there were only four pistols, with accompanying ammunition. Coupled with Ami's pistol, each Senshi now had a firearm. However, it was apparent that the fight against the aliens had become a very serious matter if all these weapons were needed. That thought was still with them when they re-entered the teleporter. "Hmmh," asked Ami, to herself. "What do we do now?" Leela's voice came over a speaker in the teleportation compartment. "The crew is under attack in the engineering area. It would probably be a good idea if you helped them out, they might be able to tell you ab..abo...ab*$#@(*)($&#........" Leela's voice faded out. "Leela?! What happened?" cried Usagi. "Leela can't help you anymore," said a different, much more ominous tone. "Who are you?" asked Makoto. "The people here call me Durandal. But I don't think you deserve to call me by name. You...you can call me trouble." After a pause, he continued: "I have something to show you, especially you with the pigtails. Press the button for the Comms Room, I'll show you more." Usagi nudged Ami aside, and pushed the button marked "Comms Room". Inside were hundreds of monitors, but they were all blank. In an instant, the blank picture was replaced with an image of a unconscious Mamoru. "You...what have you done with him?" cried Usagi. "Nothing...yet," replied a calm Durandal. "I want you to do a little job for me. If you do this job, I probably will let Mamoru go." "Probably?" interrupted Makoto. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Oh, I think you know what it means. What I want you to do is to find this man." Mamoru's picture was replaced by the face of a man with brown hair, and in his late 40's. "His name is Bernard Strauss." "Why do you want us to find him?" asked Artemis. "Hmmh, a cat that talks. How cute," replied Durandal in a snide fashion. "I don't really think you deserve to know why. Maybe if you play my games, I'll let you know. Don't contact me when you find him, I'll contact you." Durandal terminated the connection, then thought, *The trap is sprung, and the cheese stands alone.* Tfear kept a had been keeping a little countdown going. It now read: 13 days 9 hours 1 minute 43 seconds. He spent most of his time just staring at the monitor, watching the time fall. *Who knows,* he thought, *Maybe our readings are wrong, and our conquest will be logged into the seven battles every schoolchild will remember.* But his hope was the hope of a doomed soul. He spent some time reviewing records of human behavior. Of all the things that seemed alien to him, the one that stood out the most was one of their qualities: the ability to care for one another. The Phfor were slavers, they had little or no emotional capacity; in this respect, Tfear was lucky. He had capacity, but lacked desire to use it. One of the most intriguing aspects of this emotion the humans called "love," was the love between males and females of about the same age. It was not just a mating ritual, as it was in the Phfor, and all of the other races the Phfor had enslaved, but the desire to care for each other, to protect each other, and cherish each other. Tfear had no such foibles; in that respect, the was a monster on the battlefield, a killing machine, without qualm or remorse. He remebered one human couple, clinging to each other, and murmuring sweet nothings to each other, right before a Drinniol crushed them both. It was so epiphanic. Meanwhile, Tycho had been watching him. He knew exacty what Tfear had been thinking. However, his thoughts were different. His programmers had been human, and in that, he had been given human emotions. He didn't really know what it was like to feel love, but with only two other people he could really talk to, it wasn't all that easy. Especially when he and Durandal had a fight. Then he only had Leela to talk to. At times, she could get on your nerves, with her lack of wit and tact, but Tycho really thought that she understood how important it was for him to have someone to talk to. But that was all in the past now. *What is done is done,* he thought, *and Leela, I now consider you nothing more than someone in the way. What you did for me before, I thank you for that, but I have no compunction over what I did. I'm sure if Durandal were in my place, he'd feel the same way. Perhaps it would have been better if you'd have joined us, Leela, but you've made your decisions, and I've made mine. It stands at that.* Durandal hadn't given much imformation on how to find said Mr. Strauss. He had mentioned, that the girls would enjoy finding him. He had remarked, "There will be more aliens to kill on the way. Doesn't that make you happy? No need to thank me." If anything, it had been a bloodbath. The lightly armed Phfor dropped where they stood. However, after various skirmishes, all was quiet. They had moved along at a slow pace, Minako taking the rear and making sure they weren't being followed. "Everything clear?" asked Rei? "Yes," they replied in unison. "How about you, Venus?...Venus??" There was no sign of Sailor Venus. backtracking, they found her on her kness, clasping her stomach and trying to breathe. In a few seconds, she was back to normal. "Venus?...What happened?" "I don't know, I couldn't breathe for a second, but now I'm ok..." "You think it could have been that hit you took back there before we met Leela?" "Probably, but I hope it's temporary. I don't wanna die here..." "Snap out of it, Minako! You're not gonna die here, that's for sure! We're gonna make sure you come out of this just fine. Right, girls?" "Right!" they all said. "Now, let's find this Mr. Strauss. Hopefully, he can tell us what's going on." And the five girls walked on, stronger than ever, putting their trust, and their lives, in each other's hands. Mamoru awoke once again, this time to the sounds of chaos. Lights of red and blue were flashing everywhere, and horrendously loud metallic noises and explosions were all over the place. Mamoru had to crouch down and cover his ears to block out the noise. In the corner of his eye, he could see a being, not a human, with grey skin and green armor, fighting another being, this other one definitely not human, with a round head, broad shoulders, and a long, wide cloak. He could not see any arms or legs, but it was moving, so he realized it must be hovering. Then, something even more remarkable happened. He couldn't believe his eyes, but when the alien swung its staff at the other cloaked one, it passed right through it, and the cloaked alien seemed to flicker and disappear in a hiss of static before re-appearing. Then, it opened its cloak, and a big, yellow light pierced the body of the grey alien and turned it to mush. Mamoru threw up before passing out once again. The girls were walking down a long, narrow hallway, after they noticed a door at the end. Their electronic helmets told them that the word "Strauss." They eagerly sped down the rest of the hallway, opened the door, and to their dismay, found a sentence scrawled in red pigment that looked like blood on the wall: GHERITT WAS HERE Brownie points to anyone who recognizes where "the trap is set, and the cheese stands alone" comes from. Thought for the Day: I swear Pikachu is a serial killer. E-mail: arturusxr@earthlink.net.