Typical Header Stuff: Even though most of these give you about as much coverage as a g-string on a stripper, I'm going to play it safe and include it anyway... Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya, DiC, and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Also Certain characters mentioned in the prologue are the copyrighted property of John De Chance. Any characters that are not copyrighted by other people are my own creation, and therefore copyrighted by myself... which means that if for some REALLY weird reason you decided you wanted to use them, (and why would you decide that?!?!?!?) you need to write me for permission. Comments, Criticisms, and flames welcome... Starrngr@aol.com However, due to a large amount of spam I have received in the past, I have blocked off mail from some domains. Sorry if your one of them. And don't expect me to reply to mail that's nothing but Flames! See the Character Bio for information on key people to this Fic.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Wanderer: Wandering Moon: Episode 9: Breaking Point? Deep in the recesses of the human brain, monsters lurk. Not those of flesh and bone, such as are often seen of late in the Juuban district of Tokyo, but personal demons. In some ways these are even more deadly than those fought and defeated by Sailor Moon. In Patricia Haruna's case the demons were born of a sense of betrayal. So many men in her life has turned out to be bad for her, and now it was happening again. They now paraded before here eyes, all the men who dumped her, each becoming a monster who tried to kill her. She tried to run, but they pursued her. The streets of Tokyo surrounded her, but seemed strange, warped in some way. The ground become uneven under her feet, slowing her, allowing the monsters pursuing her to grow closer. Desperately looking around her, she spied an open door, and stumbled through it. She slammed it closed and locked it a heartbeat before the creatures reached her. Looking up, she saw that she was in the front room of her apartment. Then her attention turned in horror to the door, as the monsters began battering at it. Though the door appeared to be standing firm, she backed away from it in fear. She took three steps when she suddenly bumped into something, or rather someone. She spun around to see Micheal Thunders standing behind her. "Thank goodness your here!" she blurted, throwing her arms around him. "There are these awful THINGS chasing me!" "Hush," he consoled her. "Your safe now. I will keep you safe from them." Suddenly, his voce deepened and took on an evil overtone. "You belong to me now." Startled, Patricia pushed herself away from Micheal, only to have him grab her by the arms with an inhumanly strong grip as an evil laugh began deep in his throat. Helpless, Patricia watched in horror as Micheal began to change before her eyes, first taking on the form of Star Ranger, then that form mutating into a monstrous parody of itself. She felt the hands holding her arms become cold and metallic, then grow claws which dug painfully into her skin. His body sprouted horns and scales, while his face became first the boxy head unit of Star Ranger, but then developed a mouth full of razor sharp metallic fangs. She struggled harder to escape, but was held firm by those inhuman hands as that monstrous head moved down to her throat...... * * * * * * * * Micheal lifted the wet washcloth from Patricia's forehead and re-dampened it when suddenly Patricia screamed and sat up, eyes open. The Shoji to the outside slid open and five worried school girls looked in, unnoticed. Micheal instinctively tried to take her into his arms and comfort her, but she pulled away from him. "What's wrong? Are you OK??" Inquired a very confused and worried Micheal as Patricia got to her feet, her eyes flashing with anger. "Stay away from me, you MONSTER!!!" Patricia replied, backing away from him, her voice starting low, but increasing in both pitch and volume, causing the scouts to duck back out of view. "Bwhaaa?!?!? What are you talking about?" Micheal stammered. "YOU!!" She shouted, backing up and through the open shoji. "I saw you turn into one of those... those... those... _THINGS_ and chase the sailor scouts!!" Noting the change in flooring, she looked down and saw her shoes and purse. "You've got it all wrong, Patricia!" Protested Micheal as she stepped into her shoes. "You don't understand!" "I don't want to understand!! Just stay away from me!!" Patricia shouted in relpy as she grabbed her purse before fleeing the shrine grounds. "Boy, THAT went well," he noted to himself as the scouts entered the room now that Patricia was gone. "Don't worry Thunders-Kun," Mina chirped cheerfully. "After all, its only darkest just before it goes totally blank." At this, Micheal winced and sank back down into the chair he had been using while keeping an eye on Patricia. Serena, Raye and Lita sweat-dropped at the malapropism, with only Amy seemingly unaffected. "I don't think there is really anything to worry about, Sensei," Amy declared. "She is probably just frightened by what happened to her. I'm sure once she calms down she will be much easier to talk to." "Psychology, now, huh?" Micheal moaned, pulling the wet washcloth out of its bowl and wringing it out. "Is there anything you ARN'T taking advanced studies in, Ms. Mizuno?" "Yes. Boys." She replied in a matter of fact tone, causing Micheal to groan and place the wet washcloth on HIS head. "This isn't solving the problem at hand," snorted Raye. "We still have at least one enemy running around out there who we know little or nothing about. You said you know what is going on here, but you never got to that part of the explanation before we were interrupted." "Right." Sighed Micheal. "Apparently, there are two allied forces at work here. The first I mentioned briefly. He was known as the Tinkerer where I came from. A sociopathic genius bent on world domination. He was apparently brought here by the same blast that threw me elsewhere in the multiverse. My friends and I from back then were the only ones who had been able to stop him. He is the one who created that 'hole' you saw mister sanity fall into last night. He is also the one who designed those spyders you've had so much trouble dealing with." "But how is he able to control youma?" asked a puzzled Lita. "_HE_ doesn't, near as I can tell. That wasn't him you saw either. Apparently, after he arrived here he was able to construct a similar device to the one that sent him here. He used it to recruit a henchman from one of your enemies in the past to help him." "THAT"S who it is!!" declared Artemis suddenly. "When Beryl first attacked the earth, she had five generals. The first one to lead the attack was Cabelite, but he was removed when the attack stalled. He simply vanished, and we assumed Beryl had him executed for incompetence." "Well, now we know." Micheal pointed out. "Tinkerer brought him here. And it looks like their first move has been to try and eliminate the one group that could stop them." * * * * * * * * Cabelite stormed into Tinkerer's lab, his face reflecting the blinding anger within. "You LIED, You worthless cripple!!!" he roared at the top of his lungs, feral eyes seeking for Tinkerer. "Your plan failed and cost Irreplaceable youma!" Rage boiled in his veins, and only one thought consumed him, taking revenge on the one person he could... Tinkerer. Something glittered in the corner of his vision, but before he could see what it was, something inhumanly strong slammed against his head, Reeling in shock and pain, Cabelite turned to face the threat, only to be lifted from his feet as easily as a child lifts a rag doll. His vision cleared, and he looked down into the face of Tinkerer, effortlessly holding Cabelite by the front of his uniform with the metal framed arm Cabelite had always assumed was effectively useless. "So you failed again, Cabelite. The plan was sound, so if it failed its because of YOUR poor excuse for leadership." Tinkerer sneered back. "I saved you from certain death because I thought you might be useful to me. Don't make me change my mind." Cabelite's response was automatic. His right hand slipped behind his back and his dark whip began forming in it. Then there was the noise of heavy footsteps behind him and another inhumanly strong hand grasped the hand holding his dark whip. "Don't, Master," came a voice from behind him, a grating metallic tone like that of a hinge in desperate need of oil. At the same moment, Tinkerer released Cabelite and the negaverse general suddenly found himself suspended from his arm and spun around, with only his catlike flexibility saving him from a dislocated shoulder. The surprise of this broke Cabelite's concentration and the whip dissolved into nothingness as he looked up at the results of the Super Youma project. No low ranking youma was particularly good looking, but the results of Tinkerer's experiments turned even Cabelite's stomach. "It is a success, then?" Cabelite gasped, clearly not thinking coherently at the moment. The youma now stood over 8 feet tall, Cabelite noted abstractly from the fact that the youma's arm reached straight out from its shoulder and held Cabelite's wrist, yet the negaverse general's feet did not touch the ground. At one point the youma had possessed a basic human symmetry, but now stood twisted and crooked, the arm that now held him longer than the other and a misshapen hump on its back. Strange, asymmetrical lumps were present under putrid green scar tissue, and small metal points broke through the taunt gray green scaly skin in strange places. The hand that held Cabelite had the same sort of metal framing that Tinkerer wore, looking as if it had exploded out from under the youma's skin. One side of the youma's face was covered in a blank metal plate, a red glowing lens where an eye would be, and an occasional drop of emerald green ichor would form along the base of the faceplate before rolling down the protruding canine like jaw and drop onto its chest leaving a long green streak. "No. Your just hallucinating that your being held by your arm." Sneered Tinkerer sarcastically. "You can put him down now, Glitch, and that will be all for now." Glitch stood immobile for a long moment, then slowly nodded his head while making a harsh metallic sound muck like a piece of sheet metal being torn. Cabelite was gently lowered to the floor and the monstrous Glitch shambled away into the shadows. Cabelite straightened his uniform, ignoring the shooting pains from his shoulder so as not to show any further weakness. "He isn't really what I had expected," the general observed in a calculatedly neutral tone as the two walked back over to Tinkerer's large workstation. "I will confess that Glitch has not yet lived up to my expectations either," replied Tinkerer as he settled into his chair. "Sadly, he does not react quickly to the unexpected. Clearly, he will need supervision while in the field, so to speak. However, in normal situations, even in combat against our enemies, he will be an unstoppable force. He just needs to be pointed in the correct direction." "Why did you change his name, though? Morjida was a perfectly serviceable name, and it will cause confusion amongst my troops to hear him addressed differently, " Cabelite demanded. "It was in honor of the many problems he presented me in creating him, " replied Tinkerer, turning towards the large bank of monitor screens. "By the time I was finished, it stuck, and he answered to it. I doubt he even remembers that he had another name now." "Very well. I suppose it doesn't matter what he is called as long as his missions are successful. How soon can we convert the rest of my troops?" "Never, I'm afraid." "WHAT??" Raged Cabelite. "You all but promised me an Army of these super youma!" "That was before I knew what I know now. Of the remaining youma, there are 6 who match the profile for successful conversion. Even then, as many as half of them will not survive the process." "BAH. I would have been better off casting my fate to Beryl's tender mercies. Once she made a declaration, it was never changed. What good will a handful of these creatures do?" "Use your brain, if you ever had one in that dark hole on your shoulders. Each of these Youma will be as effective as a hundred if used correctly. Its a matter of quality, not quantity." lectured Tinkerer. "Very well then.", Cabelite conceded. "How long until you can complete your work?" "A week. No more. And then we will be able to sweep our opponents from the board." "Grand claims. Yet I seem to find that the distance between your claims and your realties grows larger with each passing day," Cabelite observed in disgust, turning his back on Tinkerer in contempt. "And lying low for a week will reduce our reserves of energy to nothing." "That is because your assumptions are faulty. Our forces are less than half of what we had at the start of this campaign. By suspending our operations we can last for two weeks or more and still have enough energy for at least one major attack with an acceptable safety margin," Tinker countered. "Perhaps, but we also entered this campaign with expectations of an easy victory, one which has so far eluded us." "That is because you have constantly under estimated our enemies. Every time you have faced them on what became their terms, and you wonder why you were defeated?" Tinkerer snorted. "Many of those plans that failed were yours. Don't talk to me of MY incompetence!!" "Believe what you will. I believe that continuing as you have before will only lead to defeat. You are playing to the enemies strengths, not their weaknesses. We need to change the rules of this game to something more in our favor." "And the new Youma will not do that?" Cabelite asked, a deadly undertone to his voice. "They should, but I prefer to deal in certainties. We must draw them into what Tsung Tsu called 'Deadly Terrain', force them to fight us on OUR terms, not theirs." "And how do you propose to do THAT, Cripple?" "We force them to come to us, trap them, and destroy them." * * * * * * * * * "Well, at least now we know where we stand," Declared Artemis. "Regardless of where these two came from, they've made Beryl's agenda their own, namely to take over the planet. They still need to be stopped, and it looks like we are the only ones who can." "I do suppose your right, but there is still one thing that worries me," conceded Luna. "Thunders-kun has mentioned an assistant that we've never met. Since it looks like the only way to defeat these people is to work together, shouldn't he be laying all his cards on the table? He also has never mentioned just HOW he jumps between these various places." Micheal sighed. '_THIS_ is going to be _SO_ much fun to explain.' Seven sets of eyes looked at him with expectation. "I would invite him to join us, but he really couldn't get in the room. In fact, Serena, Amy, and Lita have already met him. And all of you should have at least heard about him anyway, since I now assume both Luna and Darien have told you about what they saw in my apartment. FRED is the one who knows how to run the portal generator that will get me home eventually." "FRED is your computer?" Amy asked in confirmation, a distant look in her eyes. "Not exactly. He IS a computer, but he just uses the one in my apartment as a remote terminal to access various computer networks." Micheal gave Serena a knowing look. "He also figured out who Sailor Moon was long before I did, but I didn't believe him. He figured it out the morning we gave Serena a ride to school." "But there was no one in the car but US!" protested a very confused Serena. "Yes and No, Ms. Tsukino. He was there, you just didn't know it." "Your car!" Gasped Lita. "Fred is mounted in that big black monster car Thunders-sensei always drives!" "Like that Night warrior person they made that anime about?" asked Mina. "You mean Knight Rider", corrected Serena. Micheal shuddered at that statement, readily recognizing the reference. It the show seemed to be a common one between the two cultures, but Micheal had always thought of it as schlock. "I wouldn't say that, myself. There are quite a few major differences in design between the two. Besides, the show is fictional and FRED is real. He even has feelings, in his own way." "If FRED can move you between dimensions, why are you still here?" wondered Amy, her eyes suddenly focused again, looking as if she already knew the answer but wanted to confirm it. "Because Tinkerer changed the past, its created some sort of dimensional instability. The machine still exists, and is operational. It has skewed the sensors so badly FRED can't compute jump co-ordinates until we find that machine and shut it down. And even if I could leave, I wouldn't. Not until I make sure Tinkerer is no longer a danger." "Well then, how to we handle this problem?" asked Luna. "We have to figure out a way to track him down," Micheal sighed. "Until then, all we can do is wait and hope we will be able to counter his next move." ------------ To be concluded... FINALLY!!! Coming by the end of the year: Episode 10: Loose Ends, and the Epilogue. What will happen between Patricia and Micheal? And will they figure out how to handle a Souped up Youma when they face it?