I was lost in the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert
You can remember your name
Cause their ain’t no one there to cause you no pain
(Horse with No Name America – 1970s)
I thrashed and kicked, screaming my protestations as the hideous creature ripped off my clothing. I couldn’t move. Something had stung or bitten us. Then I saw the obsidian wasps, licking blood off puncture-wounds of the semi-conscious girl on a slab of granite nearby.
Jake was still unconscious on the floor, thank the Kamis he was still breathing, the stinger from the wasps protruding from his neck, his P-90 out of reach. I had to help him but how.
On an adjacent slab another young woman was convulsing, green luminous slime oozing from her parted lips as a dark shadow swept over her sweat soaked body. I couldn’t look.
Trapped, unable to move a muscle, I knew I had to be strong.
The scene began to change, flickering like the shutter of an old-fashioned camera lens. Obviously, I was dreaming or perhaps experiencing a vision.
---
I shuddered, at some point during the last ten minutes or so, I’d passed out on the couch. The guests were dancing and Jake was sitting beside me smiling, holding a wet towel to my forehead.
“You must have had one hell of a nightmare Usagi, you were crying out about monsters and trying to help somebody, you even called out for me, I was really worried about you. You’ll be okay, here. Drink this.”
“T-thanks Jake, I am so glad you’re safe…,” he gave me an odd look and I smiled and apologized. “The heat, the alcohol, I am obviously not good at holding my liquor, sorry.”
Thank the Kamis, it was a dream, no less inspired by the battle with that thing that took over Captain Luciana, that I knew was real. I sighed and drank more chilled water from the glass Jake held to my lips.
Stacy and the others were standing in a semi-circle and I smiled with relief.
Dark Kingdom Base outside Bagdad
“Lord Nephrite, be careful, those things might explode if you’re careless,” I said, waving my staff over the congealing mess of tissue clinging to the inside of the Cruise Missile’s payload chamber. The reddish-black glow was familiar, but on this occasion, it bothered me not.
I was particularly careful to point out to the Dark General the crystal detonation device the organic entity surrounded, one of twenty-five weapons launched in a war on hold by the United States of America and its allies had undergone a most deadly transformation.
The shield had netted us a fascinating catch. The humans of this epoch had to their credit, advanced in some respects but in others were no better than their counterparts within the Elysian Protectorate on Terra ruled by Endymion and his guardians in the Silver Millennium.
“Silence Tetis, I know what I am doing. You’re not helping, if you really wish to be of assistance to me and the team, just do your job.”
“Insolence!” I hissed, but let it go. Nephrite would be a useful agent, and the truth was, I liked his backchat, he had courage and if I used him wisely I could get a stronghold on this world and lure Metalia’s little skank into my trap and take all, I the true Queen of this Dark Kingdom in waiting would have my way in the end.
The explosive warheads replaced by a new organic-crystalline drone that would propagate once it found a host, thereby spreading through the population of Bagdad, was my idea and one I’d kept to myself at least in terms of its true nature from my colleagues. What they did not know, would not cause them harm.
Essentially, the biosynthetic gel - the reconstructed DNA belonging to an Incarnadine traitor, Metalia would soon open the gate for my own dominion.
I had modified both her DNA, that of the youma and the humans, a nice little matchup I must say. I have my orders but there was no limit on what I could do with this world once my primary objective as achieved.
I remember it so well; it still is fresh in my mind, for not long after we woke from the stasis void where Serenity placed us, I set things in motion. I was the first to open my eyes on the 21st century on Terra, now known as Earth and this was my time, not hers.
I had taken the sample whilst she was regenerating in her ovoid chamber, the Egg of Darkness as we mere minions have come to call it. Metalia projects her consciousness into the servile Beryl and this creature’s afterbirth, or if that crude euphemism displeases you, sludge, her unstable proto-matter, forms her shadow warriors.
I was once a princess of my region of my home galaxy, a long story for another time, Metalia had abducted me as a child and made me what I was, half youma and half Incarnadine humanoid female; charming woman, ne? She called me, "daughter of darkness" a more apt description I could not find although I was more a shade of grey with my own agenda.
She will keep, that I assure you.
The drones are perfect for the job; I figured this was the best way to achieve my goals, by infecting the insurgency. I shall make the Middle East our beachhead for the new Dark Kingdom invasion force.
“We must begin our attack in small bursts, coinciding it within an allied volley as to point the finger at them, and not have anyone who might feel there is a third party involved be any the wiser, follow me?”
He looked at me with something like impatience and contempt. I groaned and shook my head, glad he couldn't see my expression, as it was not visible in my current form.
The fallen Shitennou, a joke, a parody of his former self, a puppet, blinded by the pecking order and its promises mere breadcrumbs from that whore’s table began using his astrological and stellar cartography to plot trajectory for the attack.
Lord Kunzite would be a problem but I felt I could win him over; he was smart enough to jump camps when the balance of power was shifting, and he was no fool.
“As you wish, Tetis,” he spat, almost choking on his words.
Yet, I could use this man. Nephrite would not be led to the slaughter if I had anything to do with it, no way Jose. Lord Jadeite would be the last to be killed by Metalia’s little slut, Beryl. I would spare the serving members of the Shitennou and after Metalia was, no more they would be working for me.
Bagdad International Compound
“So, you little skank, you pretender, think you can fool me and all these good people? No? Oh, ladies and gentlemen, I am no party girl in costume; I am the real thing…, fess up Moon!”
I had little time to react, but as it turned out, there was no need. I saw the garnet light flooding the chamber and the audience, the women screaming, the men staring, frozen as they rushed for the door to escape or get their weapons, the whole thing so surreal was reminiscent of the Madam Tussauds wax museum.
“Dead Scream!”
The power of the temporal senshi was something I’d not seen before, although it was likely at some previous point in space-time I knew how devastating it could be, it was definitely that.
I transformed. My tiara glowed as it flew out of my hands and struck Luciana in the stomach. She lay there convulsing before something awful began to happen and with a cold shudder, I backed away.
Something was trying to get out of her body, and with the speed of a lightning bolt, the thing was eating her from the inside out, I screamed. The monster looked like something from nightmare, insectoid, reptilian with a touch of youma.
Tanana would never taunt me again. She definitely wasn’t herself today. The body was that of a woman, but all black and slimy like wet gemstone with razor-sharp teeth and claws.
“Moon Tiara Action!”
I’d only succeeded in annoying the youma hybrid.
I ran for the open space in the atrium where fewer people stood, suspended in their last moments of conscious action amid knocked over semi-tropical plants and soil covering the floor.
I drew the monster outside, goading it so Pluto’s attack could hit home. I realized it had wings, and now I was feeling a little panic setting in, and bit my lip. The gratitude I felt in that moment for the black clad senshi of time was like adrenalin pumping through my veins.
Pluto's attack knocked the thing off its feet. Landing heavily on the ground, I began to feel a little better.
“Take that butt-head!” I shouted, powering up my tiara once more.
“Ginzuishou, we meet at last. I am your death, your shadow. Prepare to be destroyed!”
She began to drool; I made a face and threw my tiara, the creature adroitly moving out of its path.
“Yuck,” I said in disgust.
“Little girl, I should have taken you as a snack, maybe I’ll get to play with my food yet!”
“You’re disgusting. Give it your best shot you dark douchebag!”
“You’re more insufferable now than you were when I was a human, Tsukino!”
“Oh yeah? Then…, suffer loser!”
I hit home, wounding it. Jumping to its feet, red eyes darkening the hybrid youma launched another assault.
The battle continued until a blast of dark light struck me in the chest. I was on my knees unable to breathe properly.
Then with a little help from the Ginzuishou, I summoned forth a new weapon, a scepter, after seeing my mother, Queen Serenity appear from within the crystalline heart of the Ginzuishou.
I was overwhelmed. Mother told me to trust my power that resides in my heart.
“Thank you mother, I love you!”
Usagi Tsukino was not who I really was, though, that wasn't right either. I am, ‘me’ absolutely but I am more than I seem. With the veil pulled away from my eyes by my mother of the Silver Millennium, my path was unfurling and I knew there was more to come.
Let’s face it; it is not every day you learn you have two moms. Everything was clear to me now, I was Princess Serenity reincarnated, but how could this be? Memory is a great leveler, and I was poleaxed, all this would explain Serenity’s appearance, my new power and the Ginzuishou flaring to life as if it were watching over me and acted for me when I couldn’t do so myself, like at the restaurant. I didn’t have complete mastery over the Ginzuishou yet, but I had no doubt that this would happen at the right time.
“And I you, my little Bunny; now call upon your power my child, I am so proud of you.”
I blasted the abomination and it was burning, black smoke filling the forecourt.
“I can’t see a thing!”
“Careful Sailor Moon, It may not be dead yet.”
“Pluto, thank the Kamis you’re here! Oh crud, what do we do, the creature regenerated herself but how is that even possible?”
“She is not quite youma or human, she’s something else as well. I’ve never seen the like. Hang on, Sailor Moon.”
I thought about my friends: Rei, Makoto, Minako, Ami and yeah, even that baka and of course Luna, it helped as I could both see and hear them inside my mind, it was so cool.
“Sailor Moon, you’re doing it, you’re tapping into all our power. I won’t waste time asking how you did this, but girlfriend, that is one cool move,” I heard Mars say, she was standing outside the Sakura Jinja with Tuxedo Kamen and the cats bathed in silvery-blue light.
Then I saw the others appear, looking dazed and a little awestruck. I knew on instinct what to do.
“Guys…, say, Planet Power Surge!”
Pluto added her magic to the mix and I noticed four other figures appearing in silhouette behind her. I then focused on the task of saving our butts.
“Planet Power Attack!”
The rainbow orb formed over the creature’s head and dropped like the crystal ball in America’s Central Park on New Year’s and the woman now monster began to burn, dark fluid oozing from every point on her mutated body.
I shut my eyes, covered my ears, but nothing prepared me for the sound of that pitiful freak, she sounded like a hundred overlapping killer dinosaurs or birds of prey as she died where she stood.
---
“You all right, Usagi?” a girl with long emerald hair said, who helped me to my feet, she was in a pair of shorts and short-sleeved shirt, military issue her thigh-high boots the only hint of her senshi outfit.
“You look pretty cool, Pluto, yeah, I’m fine and you?”
“Best I could do on short notice and thank you for the compliment. I’m A little tired after almost exhausting my reserves but otherwise okay. Call me Setsuna. I’m sticking around. Something has disrupted the Time-Line and I need to know what and why. Can you move? You are still having those muscle spasms?”
“I need a little help. I need a drink, something stronger than fruit punch I think.” I said, amazed to find people still frozen in time as we hobbled, or rather as I hobbled upon the arm of my new friend and fellow warrior inside out of the blazing sun.
“I’ll fix that, I am sending them back a few moments before your former superior and Dark Kingdom minion, Captain Luciana blew the proverbial whistle on you but she will remain in real time, as ash on the desert floor. So chill, your identity is secure.”
We sat on the sofa catching our breaths staring at the assembly.
“They look a little spooky, but like pretty statues in a way,” I said, feeling the alcohol relax my stiff limbs.
I finished my first glass, and then my second, of vodka and orange that Setsuna made much stronger than I expected.
“Wow, that’s powerful stuff, Setsuna-chan.”
“Yes, you needed that,” she giggled, sipping her own beverage as if it were lemonade. I almost coughed my guts out, but felt the fear and tension ebbing away as my eyelids grew heavy. “Usagi, I need to bring at least one of the girls to Bagdad. We need backup, Ami is a student doctor, and we need her expertise here. The human-youma hybrid, or whatever it was, its friends will attack. I am sure it isn’t the only one of its kind.”
“You sure about that?”
“No, but I don’t wish to risk your safety Princess, and we need Intel, so leave it to me. Now to wake up the guests. About that, carry on as before, they won’t remember a thing.”
“Thanks Setsuna.”
“You’re most welcome Usagi, it’s not every day I get to help in a direct fight, expect to see more of me doing just that. Oh, and by the way, you did great kid,” she stood up swaying a little, seemed the Goddess of Time wasn’t as adept in holding her drink as she had led me to believe. I laughed as Setsuna pulled a face as she patted my odango and I lay down on the couch and closed my eyes.
“Thanks!”
Boot Camp
I woke from an odd dream where Rei and Mamoru were fighting over a delicious open sandwich filled with goodies. I attempted to snatch it off the plate whilst that baka and pyro were distracted.
I opened my eyes to see a familiar face. She sat on the chair beside my bed; pack slung over her shoulder and digital netbook open on her lap. Kira was busy typing something, looking up at me now and then, I yawned.
“Up and at them, Usagi, Kira said, giggling at my expression. “I got the news, Luciana is missing, the base is in lock-down, and they suspect a terrorist cell is responsible. Major Linton has taken over her position and is heading up a paramilitary unit to find her and those responsible for her abduction. Now woman, out of bed!”
I wasn’t going to tell her there was no point looking for Luciana, so I kept quiet and took a deep breath.
“Do I have to, really?”
“Yes, you’ve not heard the news yet?”
“Heard what?” I yawned, swinging my legs out of bed, my skin hot from slumber.
“The US and its allies have launched a massive missile attack on military targets in Bagdad, the war is on all the networks, and girl we’re covering it. Go take a shower and I’ll meet you in the forecourt. Major Simmons is heading for the front line; he’s been promoted. yup, he deserves the promotion too!”
“Wow, all right, let’s move it then,” I said as the other girls in my dorm rushed to the shower block and I followed on their heels.
---
We were in a hummer, moving in a convoy of vehicles a jets flew sorties overhead and explosions far louder than anything I’d experienced at camp were now commonplace.
The craters in the roads, the houses and buildings in the villages and the mess on the outskirts of the capital were shocking, too many people hurt and so many dead, it was awful.
Most of the missile attacks occurred during the warm Bagdad evenings; this was day three.
We’d filmed and interviewed soldiers on the front line and talked to the citizens in the hot-zone, they were understandably scared as the relentless volleys of cruise missiles bombarding the capital were powerful weapons capable of killing large numbers and destroying city buildings.
Talking to medical staff at the makeshift hospitals in the safe zones, I was shocked to hear that reports of monsters attacking people and eating them were spreading through the city.
Lowlands twenty-five miles west of Bagdad
“You got to see this Usagi!” Kira said her face pale.
“What is it?”
“Not sure, but we have to suit up in hazmat gear, come, the camera guys have set up!”
Scurrying out of the mess tent, muffin stuffed into my mouth, yeah I know; some things never change. We grabbed our gear, ran to the waiting jeep, and climbed in. Kira nodded and the sergeant put the four-wheel drive into high gear and we were on our way.
---
“We have no idea what we’re dealing with here, they’re in strait jackets, and heavily sedated.”
“What on Earth are they doctor Mizuno?” Kira asked, but I stepped back, shaking like a leaf.
“No, not those things, here of all places,” I whispered, these were not totally mutated into the same creature Pluto and I took out back at the compound, but they were changing and I feared the medication would only stall the inevitable. Ami smiled and told me she’d talk to me later, Setsuna was working as a field nurse and I felt a degree of comfort meeting up with my friends.
“Later Ami,” I said and waved as Kira called me over to a foldout table where photographs were being sorted for our latest article.
---
“The Special Ops uncovered this place, we’re not allowed to go in yet, there are worse things inside that bunker and its huge and filled with people that have been experimented on, some are okay but traumatized. If it’s not a disease, it’s not anything human.”
“Youma mutants, they’re monsters!” Images of the disturbing dream or vision I’d had after defeating Luciana’s mutated form came back to me; this place was the subject of the dream or vision.
“Youma? I read of the attacks by demon aliens in Tokyo, but nobody takes that seriously in the US. We thought it a manga or anime classic live action jaunt, you know, like Orson Well’s radio play, War of the Worlds. You’re saying these things are real?”
“Yes, they are very real Kira, trust me I’ve seen them in action.”
She looked at me with surprise and something approaching skepticism but she tried to hide it, I understood and couldn’t blame her for doubting me.
If the Middle East was the foothold position for a Dark Kingdom invasion, I would need to call in extra help, but first I’d need to talk to Setsuna about that.
The elite special ops people were now in control and both Kira and I were escorted outside the compound as we didn’t have the necessary clearance to be there but Ami did, I had to hand it to Setsuna she could work miracles in situations like this.
TBC
