Moon Over My Justice

(Part One)

by Sean Taylor


"Guys?" Impulse watched the red blip on the early warning radar grow
larger, from a pin point to a golf ball. "Hmm, guys?"

At the table Robin was teaching Secret how to play chess. Superboy stood
in the corner showing off (again!) while Arrowette and Wonder Girl
looked on. None of them even heard him call out.

Why didn't they ever take him seriously? Well, okay, he thought, why
didn't they at least take him seriously SOMETIMES? Sure, technically he
was only two years old, but Superboy wasn't much older than that, and he
got treated with a little respect. And the girls really seemed to go for
him.

Impulse shook the mental image of Carol fawning all over Kon's leather
jacket from his head.

"Guy's, I'm serious."

"Get a load of this," Kon said. "Mister broken synoptic here is
pretending to be serious."

"But I amÖ"

"It's synapse, Kid, not synoptic," Robin said, and started to come over
to the screen. "What's happening, Bart?"

"Well, this red thing -- whatever it is -- is getting bigger and
bigger." He turned, looking Robin straight in the eyes. "That can't be
good, right?"

Robin nodded. In a flash, the rest of the team joined them at the
screen.

"Any idea what it is?" Arrowette asked Robin, nudging Bart out of the
way.

"Yeah," said Wonder Girl. "Have you run a scan thing on it yet? How bad
is it?"

"And how soon do we get to go teach it not to mess with Young Justice?"
said Kon. They all turned and stared at him. "What?"

Bart zipped up next to Robin.
"Sowhatisit?Howcloseisit?Doweknowhowtofightit?Isit friendlyorabadguy?"

"Slow down, Bart. You know I can't understand a word you say when you
speak that fast."

Slow down, Bart. Don't touch that, Bart. Stop and think, Bart. They were
all as bad as Max.But unlike Max, they couldn't keep up with him. A half
a second later, he had a wonderful idea. Why not show them how important
he was by figuring out this mystery before they even had a chance to map
out the location of the blip? He'd show them. Besides, he'd fought blips
bigger than that in the Seeds of Doom's Giant City video game. He'd even
taken down the Kid Joker and helped Flash tackle Cobra. And neither
Robin or Superboy had been in the Titans. He shrugged smugly. Right. No
problem. He'd be back before they even realized he was gone.

*****

The Nega-droid had to go. And not just because of her played out fashion
sense and bad hair. The half mermaid, half cyberpunk runway model
creature had turned all the fish in the Crystal Tokyo cannery into
monsters and had hurt several people and sent many to the hospital.
Yeah, she had to go. The hard way.

"Moon Scepter Activation!" Sailor Moon pushed one of her two long blonde
ponytails out of the way, then stepped back and aimed the light from her
scepter squarely at the chest of the dark crystal demon who had knocked
Tuxedo Mask unconscious. The light found it's target and, within
seconds, the fashion freak dissolved into a fine black dust.

"Not bad, Sailor Moon," came the voice of Sailor Mercury. "She was
tougher than the last few Emerald has sent."

"Yeah. I wasn't sure we could handle her." Sailor Jupiter pushed herself
off the pavement to a half stance. "She pounded us pretty good."

"Believe in yourselves, Scouts." Tuxedo Mask's voice was weak and heavy.
"You will find a way to defeat Emerald once and for all."

"I know we will, Darien. Are you okay?" Sailor Moon ran to him, knelt
down, and lifted his head to her lap. "You're going to be okay, aren't
you?"

"Quit worrying over him, Serina. Doesn't he always get better?" Sailor
Mars stepped forward, and Sailor Moon could feel Rae's shadow fall over
her. "Don't be such a baby about it."

"But we're destined to be together, Rae. You're just jealous because you
don't have anyone to --"

Her remark was cut short by a flash of green light that sent all the
scouts careening backwards. When the smoke and light dissipated, they
could see the Nega-Moon villainess known as Emerald standing over the
once-again unconscious body of Tuxedo Mask.

Ooooohhhh, Sailor Moon thought, how dare that woman get near my Darien.
She looks like she's ought to be working the streets, not helping out
the Nega-Moon. The day I let a fashion victim like her touch my Tuxedo
Mask is the day I turn in my moon scepter and stop eating cakes and
sweets. She struggled to rise to her feet, feeling like her body had
grown heavier.

"What do you think, Sailor Slouches?" Emerald cackled, brushing her
green bangs aside with the back of a well-manicured hand. "It's a
hand-held model of that loser Rubeus' gravity ray. Don't even think
about getting up this time."

"You are the bane of love and justice everywhere." As hard as she tried,
Sailor Moon found she couldn't get up. "And even if I have to do it
lying down, I will punish you on behalf of the moon." She fought to
raise her scepter but found the effort too much. Her arms were frozen to
the ground by the increased gravity.

"Shut up, little girl. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll take the mystery
man here and be on my way. Next time you see him, he'll be working for
me. Hope you like your men tall, dark and sinister, Sailors." A portal
opened up behind Emerald. From the look on her face, it seemed that it
was a surprise to her too. "What?! This isn't my --"

The portal grew and swallowed up Emerald and Tuxedo Mask.

"Darien!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" With Emerald gone, Sailor Moon found that her
increased gravity was gone as well. "Come on, Scouts, we have to save
Tuxedo Mask!"

"But we don't know anything about that portal, Serina."

"I don't care, Mercury. I'm going if I have to go by myself."

"But we don't --" Mercury started to say again, just as she too was
consumed by the growing portal.

"Mercury!!!!!!!" cried Sailor Venus, then, "Venus Love Chain Encircle!"
The golden chain shot like lightning toward the portal and disappeared
inside, dragging Venus with it.

"Ven --" the rest of the scouts started to say but the portal consumed
them all before they could finish the cry.

*****

The first thing Impulse saw then he found the spot the blip had
indicated was a massive circle of black light. It was black as pitch but
still some form of light. Like anti-light or something Justice-League
weird, he guessed. The perfect kind of thing to prove his worth against.


Without another thought he raced toward it and got the surprise of his
life when he hit it hard and it actually pushed him back, sending him
spinning back into the brush.

"What's is made out of?" he wondered out loud, "Industrial-strenght
gelatin?"

Before he could take another shot at it, a lady with green hair and a
guy who looked like he was dressed for a school formal fell out of the
circle of black. The guy appeared to be out-cold.

The woman, however, didn't. She said something Bart couldn't understand
and a blade-like, black rock appeared out of nowhere. She took the rock
and shoved it deep into the guy's chest as if his chest weren't solid
anymore. Instantly the guy awoke and stood up, then bowed before the
green lady.

In a flash Bart was there. "Are you guy's okay? I mean, at first I
thought maybe you were a bad guy the way you shoved the rock in his
chest, but he sure seems better now. Any idea what this thing is?"

The woman looked at Bart with a long stare. "I don't believe I've seen
you before, boy." She let her eyes trace him, then turned to the guy in
the tux. "Why do I always have to get the kids? Tuxedo Mask, destroy
him!"

"In the name of milady Emerald, I must destroy you." Tux guy suddenly
held a rose in her hand and was poised and ready to throw it.

Impulse laughed. "With a flower? You're kidding, right? What's next, a
geranium gun?"

"You mock me?! How dare you!"

Impulse darted back and forth, tapping his foot loudly. "You don't know
that plant lady from Gotham do you?"

Tux guy threw the rose and Impulse dodged it easily.

"You're fast. I'll grant you that. But I will destroy you to please the
wishes of milady Emerald."

The lady in green smiled and stepped a few steps away. "I just love
blind obedience in a man. It's so becoming, don't you think?"

Bart looked the situation over. Apparently the tux guy worked for the
green-haired lady. And for some reason they both wanted to take him out
of the picture. And apparently they had caused the blip on the screen
and they were using the portal to teleport in and try to take over ...
to take over ... well, to take over whatever city it was he was near.

"Why don't you go ahead and give up now?" he said. "It's pretty obvious
that Rose Boy isn't going to do a lot against somebody with super
speed."

"Then he will die trying. Right, Tuxedo Mask?"

"Gladly, Lady Emerald."

Tuxedo Mask?! Tuxedo Mask?! His villain name was Tuxedo Mask? What did
that have to do with throwing roses? Bart raced to him and with a single
punch knocked him unconscious.

Wow! he thought. That was easier than normal. He stopped and stood over
the guy's unconscious form. The guy looked young, just a few years older
than himself. He hoped he didn't hurt him too much. Ever since Max had
been shot thanks to Bart's brashness, he was trying to think things
through a little more and keep people from getting hurt.

"Okay, lady. You're prom date is out cold again. Are you sure you don't
want to give up now?"

Before she could answer, the lady vanished. Just disappeared -- without
the puff of smoke he'd heard about.

"Wha --" he started to say, but was interrupted when five girls fell out
of the black circle and hit the ground a few feet away from him. As they
stood up, Bart noticed that they all wore similar outfits. With really
short skirts. And that the one in the front had a really goofy
hairstyle, like two meatballs on her head.

The meatball-headed girl glanced over the scene, saw him standing over
the unconcious, overdressed guy, and yelled someting about the moon,
then zapped him with a burst of light. It hit him like a truck and sent
him rolling backwards.

When he shook the pain from his head and chest, he noticed that all five
of them were standing over him, the meatball-headed, blonde one in
front. She pointed her magic wand thing at his chest again.

"I don't know who you are, but if you've hurt Tuxedo Mask, you're gonna
be sorry," she said. "I'm Sailor Moon, and on behalf of the moon, I will
punish you."

They all looked at him like he was the last piece of turkey at
Thanksgiving. They all started talking at once, muttering something
about the moon and the planets and they kept their gaze fixed on him. He
tried to run, but found he couldn't. He legs didn't seem to want to
listen to his mind.

They were going to hit him again, he was sure, but all he could think
was that Superboy would really love this. He had a thing for getting
trounced by cute girls in short skirts. Yeah, he would have liked this a
lot. An awful lot.


To be continued ...

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