Summary: The rescue of Lun@; strange interventions.
Definition: "Deus Ex Machina" ("DAY es MHAK-ee-nah"): A sudden savior in a previously unsolvable problem
Definition: "Yume no Fukushu": Japanese; "Dream of Revenge".
Website: The Scribs: Home of the Insane Fanfiction Writer Cassima
"I don't think you realize that you're not in control here!"
--Captain Janeway, "Scientific Method", Star Trek, Voyager
"Powers light and Powers dark, Sentient beings, all--hark. I wish a boon, I have a quest. Send me a guide: your very best. Powers light and Powers dark, Sentient beings all--hark. I wish a boon, I have a quest. Send me a guide: your very best. Powers light and Powers dark..."
Very casually, Sailor Moon leaned close to Mr. Giles. Whispering, so as not to interrupt the chant, she asked, "How many times does she have to say this?"
Giles blinked and looked up from the large, musty book he'd been following. "Well, until it works," he replied, a bit startled by the question.
Jenny Calendar continued to murmur at the candle as the flame danced on the wind. It stood alone on the asphalt in a circle painted with white powder of some sort and a clear liquid Sailor Moon was fairly certain wasn't water. She nodded at Giles' answer, as if it had been obvious to her, too, and once again stood back to calmly watch.
She wished she was going, too. By all rights, she should be going; she was the leader, and the most powerful. Anything they could blow up, she could blow up bigger and noisier. Haruka had taken her aside afterwards, however, and given her a severe, reverent look followed by a similar lecture. "Princess, I won't lead you into the lion's den. Not for this stranger. No matter what she knows, she's not worth your life. Stay put." Usagi may not have agreed with her net worth, but she knew when to obey.
She turned to look at Mercury. She looked calm; indeed, her mini-headset had sprouted from behind her ear and attached itself firmly to her head, and her visor was already out. Her fingers moved gracefully and soundlessly over the key pad of her little computer; Sailor Moon still had trouble believing that a device that looked like a slightly oversized flip-open pocket calculator was actually capable of solving multi-variable equations and processing data at a speed that would give a computer engineer wet dreams. That Ami sometimes worked ahead of the little gadget blew Sailor Moon's mind. Right now, the girl was tracing the energy patterns that were flowing, trying to determine where the creature was most likely to come from, and setting up her visor to scan their route there and leave a "trail of breadcrumbs", so to speak, to assure their way back. Sailor Moon had been interested in the process at first, until she heard the words "multi-dimensional variants", and then she just smiled cluelessly. Whatever was going to happen, it was sure to be good, and mathematically correct. Or whatever.
Miss Calendar's chanting suddenly broke off, and she looked up at the circle. The candle lay on its side, tip still smoking slightly, and was rolling slowly to a stop. In the middle of the circle, there was a man.
He wasn't tall, not in the least bit, but he wasn't as short as Yaten, either--around 5-foot-four, perhaps. He wore a surprising volume of ornate, deep grey robes; in the wind, they rustled mysteriously, but never left the circle drawn on the pathement. His dress was almost too heavy for his frame, and his delicate features only served to further estrange his appearance. His face, though beautiful, was hard and tanned a light red-brown; next to his straight, long silver hair, the earthy tone of his skin was shocking. He stood there impressively, a bit detatched and cold as he surveyed the senshi team.
"I am here now," his harsh voice grated out. In the light of the setting sun, he looked like a sorcerer. "Speak quickly. I am already bored with the lot of you."
"We want a path," Jenny said quickly, rising to her feet. She was his height, but somehow seemed smaller. Less imposing. "We need to find a friend of ours."
"You waste my time," he grumbled, still impassive. "What do I care for your missing friends? I have problems of my own."
"We're looking for a vortex to lead us to the Ancients," Mercury spoke up suddenly. She paused, and Sailor Moon realized she was being cued over the headset. "They found their Queen and nested her somewhere outside of reality."
This seemed to give the spirit pause, and he turned his hazel gaze to the senshi of ice. "And why should I care about your friend, when I now have the Ancients to contend with?"
"She knows how to stop them," Buffy's Watcher said, evidently needing no cues.
The spirit continued to be unimpressed. "Then she surely knows how to free herself." He began to fade from the circle, sending the group a pitying look. "This was hardly worth my time."
"Her name is Diabolique," Giles called.
He stopped fading and blinked. "Di...abo...lique?"
Sailor Moon stepped forward in a pleading gesture. "Please help us. If it's entertainment you want, I can play cards with you."
Everyone stared at her in disbelief. "Sailor Moon..." someone groaned.
The spirit's lip twitched briefly towards a smile. "No, your group is amusing enough without petty card tricks. I will do this--for your Diabolique." He turned to Jenny, scorn in his face. "Erase the line, mortal."
She didn't.
He sighed. "Don't be foolish, little one! If I wished to destroy you, you'd all be dead by now. You're standing within easy reach."
Everyone took two giant steps back.
He rolled his eyes. "If you do not wish my assistance..."
Reaching out with her foot, Ms. Calendar scuffed the circle with the toe of her shoe, and broke it.
He stepped out and surveyed the group before opening his arms wide and opening a glowing blue tunnel. "I will allow you to redeem yourselves. This way, children."
The agreed-upon team followed him, not the least bit hesitant. As the end closed, the spirit heard Sailor Moon yell, "thank you!"
Mars blinked in confusion as the portal slid shut. "Redeem ourselves? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm worried about the White One." Tanzinite swirled his drink around in his glass with a rather serious expression on his face.
"Don't worry, Tan," his brother said comfortingly. "The Queen grows in power daily. Soon He'll be more than strong enough to defend us and get revenge."
"I suppose you'd know." Quartz sighed and examined the edge of the blade she had been sharpening. "Liam, how *is* our Queen doing? Is our alliance with the vampires doing any good? When can we expect to know the identity of the White One?"
"The vampire, Spike, and his lady are working on it," the youngest one reported gloomily, "but progress is slow. Evidently, the child is resilient against all resources."
"If she's not talking, she's not worth feeding." Quartz brought the blade back down, still unsatisfied. "If the vampire's too weak to slit her throat, I will."
"He still hopes she will speak to him. He has been using pysical torture, but I have the impression he's about to try psychological."
Tanzinite sighed again, setting his drink down on the table. "Her mental defenses are crumbling, but there's some sort of seal on her--at least 2 different kinds."
"But you can't tell for sure?" Quartz asked, looking up from her sword to frown with dissapproval.
"There's something disorienting about her," the psychic replied, massaging an aching temple. "The runes help to block it out, but I've been walking around with the worst headache ever since she came. She traded something big for power a while ago, and it's withstanding the test of time. As near as I can tell, she could be a rabbit underneath all the enchantment."
"Lucky rabbit foot," Quartz whispered, caressing her nearby axe with a grin.
"That's morbid, Quartz," Tanzinite told her.
She shrugged, but went back to sharpening her weapons.
"Jade, you've been awfully quiet over at your desk."
The dark-skinned woman looked up at the speaker. "I think you're all being overly optimistic. Even with the power we're gleening from that first woman we captured, we're going to have to lay a trap for the White One. We want her to come to us. As I see it, to do that, we're going to need a hostage. The only hostage we have is the one we're letting Spike disassemble, so we either need another hostage or we need to stop the physical torture. Possibly even the mental. Give her a small respite, and let her heal. Let her think she's safe, and then..." She shrugged, and looked down to the open book on her desk. "But, that's just my opinion."
"We're all going by opinion," Liam said comfortingly. "Personally, I think we should just kill her now. She's not going to talk, and all we're doing in letting her stay is indulging in the vampires' sadistic tendancies."
"I'd like to indulge in a few of my own sadistic tendancies," Quartz said wickedly. Pulling the curved scimitar from the sheath on her back, she swung it around, cutting the air.
"Oh, that's very attractive," her brother told her.
"Well, Tan, just 'cause I'm not a weak--"
"Quartz!" Liam exclaimed.
"Weak?!" squeaked Tanzinite.
"Tan, stop antagonizing her," Jade scolded, looking up from her tome with a sigh.
The two siblings looked at their feet. "Sorry," they muttered in tandem.
"That's better," Jade said grumpily, back in her book.
Liam cleared his throat. "Back to the previous subject, Quartz--I'm inclined to agree with you. I'd like you to see if you can get anything out of her. Maybe the vampires just haven't been asking correctly."
Quartz used her blade to neatly slice one of her own hairs. "Mission accepted."
Tanzanite turned a pale shade of green and raised one large hand to his mouth. "This is one adventure I think I'll pass on," he decided, images of the bloody, beaten girl circling in his mind.
At the sight of Quartz's bloodthirsty look, Liam frowned. "Keep all of her limbs attached, please. Bones intact. You probably shouldn't even bring the axe."
"Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright," the Girl in Chains sang lightly in moderately accented English.
New Girl winced. "Ugh. Your singing voice's 'bout as good as mine. You're giving me a headache." She leaned limply against the wall. "'Sides, it's not Christmas. That's not a good tune for this situation... you need... oh..." she hummed a few bars of classic blues harmonica. "Ain't got no home," she croaked, off-key already. "Ain't got no man. My dog has left me with a book on Sam-I-Am..."
"Please stop there." She lifted her hand carefully, for the chains hung heavily on her wrists, and carefully pushed a strand of her own oily, unwashed hair away from her dirt-encrusted eyes. "That's not a song, that's a plea for death."
"I was just getting to that part," New Girl muttered.
She sighed. "You can't let them get you down. They haven't come yet today, so there's a pleasant--"
The door crashed open with a bang, interrupting their discussion. A woman with curly green-blonde hair tumbling to her shoulders strode in with a large axe that meant business. Following her quietly was a young man with a cautiously neutral expression on his Asian features. He leaned against a wall outside the bars while the woman plowed right through the door.
"Hello, kids," she said in a husky alto. "I'm here to find out some information, starting with the identities of the Sailor Senshi." She swung her large axe as if it weighed a mere pound or two. "I don't expect you'll make it easy for me, but I'm looking foward to it. So," she whirled on Lun@, who was looking a little terror-stricken against the wall, "let's start."
"Oh, let's not," Lun@ replied, feeling her bravado shatter at this new turn of events.
"This is the deal, Sport," she continued, watching the tip of her axe cut through the air dangerously. "The White One killed our First Queen, and she has to pay. You tell me who Sailor Moon is, and I'll give you a quick, painless death." The axe suddenly stopped moving, and her cold blue eyes met Lun@'s with a hard severity. "So talk."
"I'm not afraid to die," Lun@ said in a shaking voice.
Suddenly, she whipped her axe around and stuck it into the floor next to the Girl in Chains' leg, slicing off a good three inches of her hair. "How about her? She's innocent. You gonna let her die?"
Lun@'s breath caught in her throat. "I won't..."
She lifted the axe from the ground where the blade had buried itself. "After I destroy her, we go through the same process with you."
Lun@ bit her lip to hold back a sob. "I can't..."
The blade came down again, cutting off another four from the long ponytail. "She's running out of hair, you know."
"Stop it!" Lun@ yelled, struggling to sit up.
She lifted her axe. "Who is Sailor Moon?"
"Usa--" was as far as she got before the girl in chains threw their water bowl at her, hitting her square in the nose. Letting out a cry of pain, she fell forward, holding her nose and muttering something through her loud tears.
"Don't you dare," the girl in chains hissed. "Don't you even dare."
She just lay there, curled into a ball and rocking back and forth, sobbing.
The woman stood, hefting her axe, and walked back out of the cage, an amused look on her face. "I'll be back tomorrow, and we'll hold this conversation again. Eventually, your friend will be dead, and then I will start taking souveneirs with me whenever I leave. Small body parts, hair, skin. Then I will take your ears, first the left, and then the right, and then I will take your eyes in reverse order, until I tire of this whole process. But, with or without your help, I will find her, and then I will kill her." She turned and left. The man against the wall stepped away from it and cast them a blank look before following the tortorer out of there and shutting the door behind him. The only sound in the prison-turned-warehouse was the sound of Lun@'s hoarse, soggy sobs.
The girl in chains stared at the opposite wall, angry. Angry at Lun@ for almost telling, angry at their captors, angry at her helplessness to stop it, angry at fate, angry at Sailor Moon for not saving them, just--angry.
Finally, Lun@ ran out of tears, and she turned her head from her it's spot on the ground to look at the girl in chains.
"I want you to kill me," she said hoarsely.
The girl in chains nodded, but continued to stare at the wall in front of her.
"I mean it," she said, thinking perhaps she sounded hesitant, or less than adamant. "You promised."
"I will." The voice suddenly sounded surprisingly mannish.
She blinked, and looked at the girl in chains; at her black leather bikini-style top with dirtied, faded, lavendar trim. "Today?" She winced mentally as her voice cracked. Weak!
"In a bit."
They continued to stare at the bars of their prison, a quiet, eerie calm decending upon them.
The space between dimensions wasn't empty at all; it was filled with surreal blurrings of color and mist. The atmosphere was very dark, but at the same time, almost blinding; Neptune gripped Uranus' hand very tightly and hoped Mercury could see well enough to properly track the route.
Not that she doubted Mercury's abilities. On the contrary, she had a well-developed respect and trust in the young genius' skills with that little computer. Obviously, Uranus shared that respect, or Mercury would be far from here, safe back in their own dimension. Unfortunately, the blue haired girl was the only one who could track their path accurately enough to bring them home. Though Mercury's powers were weak at best, it seemed Nature had given her enough intelligence to more than make up for it.
She focused her eyes on their guide, his grey robes the only comfortable resting place for the eyes with the horrible vertigo of the transit and their own blindingly white senshi uniforms. He remained calm, almost slightly amused throughout the journey. His dark robes swished lightly under the flow of the energy currents, and his footsteps were calm and sure. There was something vaguely familiar about the way he held himself--something reminiscent of the Silver Millenium, perhaps, though Neptune couldn't be sure. In the dregs of her mind, an old memory surfaced, and she made a connection. His arrogance reminded her of Endymion. Not Endymion as he was today, but as she had met him so many years ago, before he and Selenity had met. He had been so sure of himself, and so amused by the incompetancy of the rest of the universe.
Of course, maybe their guide had a reason to be so cocky; he was, after all, some sort of magical creature that supposedly answered their summons out of some inane sense of boredom. Maybe the sailor senshi's "petty mortal problems" did amuse him because of their comperative simplicity.
Well, Neptune was glad that they were amusing someone with their problems, because she felt anything but amused. This enemy was very real, very frightening, and very unfamiliar. The senshi, with their combined magical and scientific resources, knew very little about their opponent, and, no matter how tough Lun@ liked to pretend she was, the information in her mind could get Usagi in trouble, and no one--not even Death herself--messed with their Princess.
No one.
"There is a breach in the field approximately 23 meters to our left," Mercury's voice cut through the silence.
Their guide chuckled a bit. "Very astute, Mercury. And, yes, that is where we're headed. Your mind never fails to amaze me."
She looked up, and her face was still hard and calm, as it had been since she returned to Rei's temple after hearing of Taiki's death. "Scully said you were in the Moon Kingdom." She dropped it almost casually into the air as they neared the exit.
He stiffened minutely, and Neptune knew that she and Mercury had been the only ones to notice. "I may have dropped by, once or twice. Here you are, children, and so if you'll excuse me, I have real work to do." He faded away into the blinding mist and out of sight, but the senshi stopped watching and entered the space pocket.
Their feet touched the ground at the end of a stone hallway, and they all paused to allow their eyes to adjust to the light.
Mercury was in her full glory with technology. Her visor was already out and scanning, and she transferred the results to her computer, doing something. "Scully, can you hear me? We're in the Fortress." She paused, and gave Uranus a thumbs-up. "We're back in contact," she said. "And I'm picking up a signal heading left."
"Good," Uranus said shortly. "Neptune, you and I will take front. Pluto, you're in the middle. Saturn, take rear guard and protect Mercury. Let's move out."
"Damn it, I hate waiting!" Xander exploded, pacing again in front of the temple. "And I don't know why Buffy has to stay here. She's the vampire slayer; she should be the one slaying the vampires!"
"Xander, chill." Cordelia refilled her glass of lemonade from the pitcher on the porch and reclined regally on the steps. "If someone else wants to do the killing, who are we to complain?"
"The Slayer, that's who!" Willow exclaimed, slamming her fist down on the support beam. As everyone turned to look at her, she bit her lip and stammered, "Well, I mean, obviously Buffy is the Slayer, not all of us, 'cause that would just be weird... shutting up now."
Giles coughed and moved on to the next subject. "But, I think we should consider our strategy. After we get Lun@ back--how are we going to defeat the vampires? We only have two weeks left before our plane returns to Sunnydale. We need to eradicate the nest here before then."
Jenny sat up slightly from her seat, and the blanket covering her slipped down a little. Still exhausted from the earlier spell, her eyes were a bit glazed, and her skin still a tad pale. Clearing her throat, she began to speak. "I know none of you want to hear this, but we need to prepare for the possibility that Lun@ will not return."
"What?"
"Time in the space pocket may move independently of here. She could be dead. Or dying."
"She's an angel," Oz said, confused. "She's not a mortal."
"Yes," said a new voice. "Yes, she is."
They turned suddenly to see a small grey dog sitting on the ground. "Lun@?" Xander asked, taking a step forward. "You escaped!"
"I'm not Lun@," the dog said, sounding insulted, and, indeed, the voice was distinctly masculine. "My name is Simon. Ambassador Simon."
Giles slowly picked the head set up from where he had left it and spoke very slowly and calmly into the mike. "Agent Scully, we have a talking dog here."
Her voice came into his ear piece quite clearly. "Lun@?"
"No," he replied, as everyone around him began to furiously query the dog. "He says his name is Ambassador Simon."
"Of where?" Scully asked. Then, "Oh, Sirus..."
All of the sudden, there was some commotion from the other end of the line. Giles could hear Mulder faintly say, "Shit, Scully! Somebody get a kleenex!"
"I'm sorry," he heard Scully murmur, "I was just a little dizzy for a minute."
"Scully-san," came Seiya's distant voice, "here. You need to take care of yourself."
"Agent Scully, are you alright?" Giles asked.
"I'm fine, everyone," she said, a bit annoyed, to both the people with her and Giles. "Mr. Giles, I'm sorry, but I have to remain in contact with--Mulder, stop it! I'm fine! Quit hovering!"
Giles swallowed a smile. It really wasn't amusing; she was very sick. "I understand. I'll keep in contact."
"Goodbye, Mr. Giles."
"Goodbye, Agent Scully."
As he removed the headset, he turned his thoughts back to the Ambassador. He really looked very similar to Lun@'s dog-form. "Are you from Sirus?" he asked loudly over the din of questions.
The dog gave what looked like might be a doggie smile. "So the Soothsayer is here, hm? He seems, however, to be a bit out of date. Please, give him my regards."
"Ambassador Simon," he said, "is there something we can help you with?"
The dog turned his head to the Watcher and blinked languidly. "When she returns, tell her to stop mixing magic."
Giles blinked. "Who?"
"Whatever she's calling herself now--Diabolique? She has to stop doing magic she doesn't have."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Giles asked.
"Oh, she'll know," Simon said, and turned around.
"Hey, you can't just walk away!" Xander demanded angrily.
But the dog was gone.
"Well, evidently you can, but you shouldn't!" the teenager grumped, throwing himself back down on the steps. "How d'ya like that? They think that just because they're talking dogs, they can boss us around."
No one else deigned to comment.
"Space Sword Blaster!" With a clean sweep of her talisman, Uranus neatly cleaved the blundering guard in two. "Damn, these guys are good!"
"We don't have time to destroy their army," Pluto said, gracefully whipping her Time Staff around to take out another of the guards.
"Shabon Spray," Mercury called, and the entire hallway filled with cold fog. "Everyone, this way!" With the help of her visor, she could just barely make out enough of the hallway to see.
"We're running short on time," Pluto said as they plowed through the passageways. "The portal can only stay open for a few hours, and we have no way to open another from here."
Uranus shoved her way to the front, but kept the blue-haired senshi of ice second in line. "Mercury--now where?"
"Down the stairs!" she yelped as her arm was suddenly tugged in that direction. "About 120 meters!"
"Saturn, block the doorway for now--I don't want any interruptions," Uranus hollered as she raced down the steps into what looked to be a gigantic warehouse. "What the hell?"
"Silence Wall!" Saturn called, and a shield shot up to cover the doorway. "It won't hold forever."
"It doesn't have to," Mercury said, "she's down here."
"It better not," Pluto muttered. "We only have forty-five minutes until the portal closes and we're stuck in this God-forsaken place." She stood on the steps with her Time Staff glowing slightly.
"Lun@!" Neptune called at the edge of the cage. She could see a still form, and there was a horrible stench of urine, vomit, and blood filling the air. "Lun@, is that you?" She shook the door handle. "It's locked."
Holding out two fingers, Mercury muttered something under her breath. Ice crawled over the lock, and it groaned faintly.
Stepping back, Uranus gave the door a good, strong kick, and the iron splintered. "They need better locks."
Neptune made a polite noise of agreement as she swung the door open; she wasn't really amused, but was too lady-like to grunt. "Lun@?" she asked hesitantly.
But her eyes were blank.
"She has a pulse," she noted, "and she's breathing, but..."
"Nobody's home," Uranus finished, face twisted into an unrecognizable expression.
"He-llo!?" Lun@ turned around again, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "Does anybody work here?"
But the library remained conspicuously empty. It wasn't as though there were hiding places, either; the shelves were all built into the walls, with ladders to reach up to the top, and a winding staircase to lead to second level. It was rather cramped, actually, with the desk in the middle of the floor at the bottom of the tall room, and a bit of claustrophobia may have hit her if she hadn't felt quite so annoyed. Where was that Yume no Fukushu? He certainly wasn't here, which was where he was supposed to be--where she had travelled, just to be in his stupid company.
"I don't have all day, you know," she said to the air. "I gotta go die so they can send me to hell or whatever already."
There was no answer from the mysterious spirit that was supposed to inhabit the room.
"I just came to say goodbye," she continued. "Look, I'll leave a note, okay? Just in case anyone cares?"
"Suicide is a sin, Diabolique," a calm voice filtered to her ears.
She started; that wasn't the voice she had been expecting. "Yeah, well, it'll be murder, so it's all good." Her voice took an awed tone as she turned to see the angel standing on the balcony above. "You came."
"Would you waste this gift of life you have been given? Live, child." He looked down kindly, and her breath caught in her throat.
"I have to," she whispered hoarsely. "To save everyone. I can't say something I'll regret. I have to protect the ones I love." She turned away, suddenly shamed to meet his eyes. "Looks like you guys wasted a new life."
He was behind her, suddenly, his hand on her shoulder, and she felt herself turning before she consciously registered the command to her body. "It wasn't our gift." Her brow furrowed at this, and he brushed an errant strand of hair back. "It was a gift from the past, and I'd hardly say it is wasted."
Diabolique couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said simply. "Please tell Kalguna--the Yume no Fukushu--I wish him--I... just tell him 'goodbye' for me, please." She gazed at his kindly features almost reverantly, and took a step back. "I-I have to go. Before I change my mind. Before it's too..."
"Shh," he hushed. "Little Diabolique, you're finding your way home, but the journey is dangerous." He pulled her close and murmured into her ear, "trust your heart. There is much riding on this."
She clenched her eyes closed tighter, and when she opened them--
She was back in the cell.
"She's awake!" Mercury said suddenly. "Lun@, Lun@, can you hear me?"
"Mercury?" she whispered, a confused look on her face. With a look of calm skepticism, she let her eyes slide shut.
"Lun@!" she repeated, a bit more harshly, and the girl opened her eyes again as Neptune and Uranus crowded around to get a look. "It's me. We came to get you out. How do you feel?"
She blinked, slow to register reality. "But I'm going to die."
"Not here, you're not," Uranus told her. "Can you stand?"
"Stand?" She sat up slowly, every movement painful. "Yeah, I can do that." She allowed herself to be pulled to her wobbly feet by Neptune, but the Senshi of the sea didn't let go once she was standing. Which was probably a wise idea.
A rattle of chains stopped them all in their tracks, and Uranus fell immediately into a fighting stance in front of Neptune and Lun@. They all looked to the wall--and suddenly realized there was a second person hiding in the shadows.
And then they realized who she was.
"Sailor Star Maker?" Uranus asked increduously.
"Taiki," Ami said numbly. Her fingers were suddenly clumsy and slack, and her mini-supercomputer fell from her hand and clattered on the floor.
"Mercury," she whispered back, looking just as frozen.
"We don't have time," Pluto interrupted from the stairs. "We have to get moving!"
Uranus pulled herself together first, and drew her talisman. "Space Sword Blaster!" she cried, and sliced through the chains. "Come on, we can have this little reunion later. Mercury--" she paused to look at the blue-haired girl, who was suddenly fumbling to pick up her computer. "Mercury, get us out of here."
"Right," she said, snapping back into focus. "Plotting course--there are a lot of life signs down the most direct route, but I have an alternate path we can go down that's fairly barren, and only a bit--"
"Sounds good. Saturn take down the wall. Let's head out." Supporting Star Maker, Uranus moved her team out.
Cassima's mailbox is always open.
