Chapter 2 Another One Rides The Bus It was another non-youma day (so far) for Usagi. A nice day, she thought, walking home from school; it had only the usual annoying brother, class lessons, tests, and so on... well, it was an okay day, anyway. Spotting Ami at a bus stop, she greeted her. "Hi, Ami", she said. "Going to cram school again?" "How did you guess?" answered Ami. "Oh, because you do it every day. Just as long as you don't go to one run by the forces of evil. Heh heh heh." Ami laughed a bit, politely, but stopped just too soon for her to have really thought it funny. Oh well, thought Usagi. There would always be more jokes. Besides, it didn't matter; she was just glad to have a friend to make jokes with. "Hey, Usagi!" Someone was yelling at her. She turned to answer and saw Naru-chan and a friend of hers. "You'd better not get on that bus", warned Naru. "There's a story going around about a bus of people disappearing near the Hikawa Shrine. That's where we're walking... want to come along?" "Sure, Naru! But that's strange, busses don't do that. Unless it's a youma...." "Usagi", replied Naru, "just because I met a few before doesn't mean that... hey, what happened to Luna? She looks like... almost like an annoyed human being." "Odd", said Usagi. "All I said is that it might be a youma." The cat grew visibly tenser. "Youma youma youma! Hee!" said Usagi. Luna rolled her eyes and then gave up. "Bye bye, Ami. I'll see you around... maybe we'll buy some good luck charms." "Could you please get me one too?" replied the genius girl. "Of course. Are you sure you don't want to come?" "I'm sorry, I have to go to cram school." "Well, good luck in your studies." "Isn't that what the charm's for?" wondered Naru. * * * * * "Hi, cuties!" said a little old man. "Welcome to the Hikawa Shrine." "That's all right", responded Usagi, who knew what being called a cutie by a little old man usually meant. "We're just here to look for some good luck charms...." "Would you consider working here?" replied the old man, leering a bit at Usagi. "I don't think so..." She whispered to Luna "See if that man's a youma. Please?" "Stop that, grandfather!" yelled a girl of about Usagi's age. She had black hair and seemed to be a shrine maiden. "I've heard stories about you. You can't do that. Sorry, girls. I'm Hino Rei and this is my grandfather." Then Rei suddenly stopped and looked all around herself. "There's an evil force somewhere!" she exclaimed. "Akuryou taisan!" She pushed an ofuda onto Usagi's forehead. Usagi was tired and hungry, and the blow to the head was enough to push her into unconsciousness whether there were any evil forces--or anything else--inside it or not. * * * * * "Wake up!" yelled Rei. What now? Oh... right. Hey, how dare she do that? "I'm awake! What's the big idea?" "I'm sorry, I just felt some evil energy in the area. But something happened. It's hard for me to sense evil any more... everything I predict or do doesn't work any more." The girl could sense evil energy? Usagi thought that was Luna's job. "All right, Luna, did you find anything?" she whispered to the cat. "Yes, the old man's a youma. I think the girl Rei might be the princess. And there's something else outside." "Ooh, that guy's cute", said Naru. "The blonde guy over there." She pointed over to a tall man, apparently some kind of assistant at the shrine. "Wow", said Usagi. "He really is... wait. I've seen him before! That's Jadeite. He was at Midnight Zero. You've seen him before, haven't you, Luna?" "Why are you talking to a cat?" wondered Rei. "I was just talking to myself. Rei, why don't you use your evil sensing ability on that cute guy and your grandfather? Please?" Maybe if she could stop the enemy in advance there would be no need for Sailor Moon. Rei looked at Usagi's face and saw sincerity. The girl was silly, weak, and she talked to her pet, but just for a moment she had acted like she really knew something. Rei nodded and walked to the fire, sitting down to gaze deeply into its flames. "What do you see?" said Usagi, but Rei didn't respond. Usagi walked a bit closer to her and asked the same thing, but Rei stayed silent. She leaned over to whisper into Rei's ear, when suddenly Rei shouted "I've got it!" Usagi fell over, clutching her ears. "It was him. How could we have been so stupid? There's something very evil about the man that my grandfather just hired on. Usagi looked back at her cat. "See?" she said. "I was right, Luna." Rei tapped Usagi on the shoulder. "Ahem" she said, and then yelled loud enough to make Usagi fall over yet another time. "You're talking to a cat!" "I was just... wait a minute. You said your name is Hino Rei. How do you write that? Can I see one of your business cards?" "Do lots of your classmates have business cards?" "Well, no, but how do you write that name?" "You're not making ANY sense! What does my name have to do with your cat?" "Forget the cat. Is it 'hi' as in that? She pointed to the fire. "It's 'hi' as in 'Hikawa'. Is that good enough?" "Yes it is", said Usagi. "Got to go, I'm real sorry but I'll see you later and all that. Maybe we'll meet again, bye, Rei." She picked up Luna, got up, and sped out the door like only a teenager who practiced running every time that she was late for school could. * * * * * "Usagi!" yelled Luna. "Luna!" yelled Usagi. "Stop yelling!" "Usagi, one thing she was right about was about not making sense." "I think she's Sailor Mars. She has the right name and she's exactly the right age. Can you get me a transformation pen so we can go check?" "They don't come out of vending machines", replied Luna. "And if I just gave her a pen and she wasn't Sailor Mars, what would you do about your secret identity? You'd have revealed it." "Well, that always could happen whenever you give someone a magic pen, Luna. Please... I promise I'll do my homework whenever I'm told to, even by you, if I get that pen..." "With an offer like that I may consider..." Usagi finished the interrupted sentence. "... at least for the next week or so." Luna frowned as Usagi cajoled her. "Come on, Luna, if we don't get Sailor Mars, people might get hurt. While you're at it, can I have that other powerup you told me about?" Luna was rather surprised that Usagi remembered it, but lacking a good reason not to give it to Usagi (indeed, not even remembering why she didn't give it to Usagi before) she leapt into the air, as if curling around an imaginary arm about to pick her up, and then landed on the ground. Out of the nothingness fell two of what looked like plastic toys. "Here you are", said Luna. "The moon stick and Mars' transformation pen." "Cool! Can I have the rest of them?" Usagi was obviously on a roll here. The exasperated Luna repeated the procedure once more, producing one more transformation pen. "Here's Jupiter's. It's the only other one I have." Usagi picked up all three devices. "By the way what does my new one do?" she asked. "It lets you transform youmas that were people, back into people." "I thought that's what Moon Tiara Stardust was for. Why do I need two special attacks that do exactly the same thing?" Luna seemed about to answer, but suddenly lowered her voice to a whisper, tugging at Usagi's sleeve. "Usagi, we're being watched. There's someone over there." Usagi turned to look and just caught a glimpse of black hair, Hino Rei sneaking back into the shrine. * * * * * As soon as Rei was out of sight, Usagi followed, bringing along Luna whether she wanted to come or not. When Usagi pulled at the shrine door to enter, it didn't budge. Then she noticed the message taped to the door: "Back in 15 minutes." She caught the attention of a nearby man and asked "Excuse me, do you know why Rei is locking everyone ooooo....." finally trailing off when she realized she was face to face with Jadeite. There was only one next step, of course: run like heck. Fleeing the shrine, Usagi passed a girl in robes, without even thinking about it. By the time she reached the street, that figure had registered on her mind as being the shrine maiden Rei that she had spoken to before, and she screeched to a halt on the pavement. Turning to walk back, she saw the girl right there, watching her. "So you were talking to your cat, dumpling head", said Rei. "I guess it's okay to tell you", said Usagi. "This is Luna... she's supposed to be a helper and a friend and make Sailor Moon's job easier. I think you're one of us...." She reached into her pocket for the pen and handed it to Rei. "Take it and shout 'Mercury Power, Make Up!" except you should replace the 'Mercury' with 'Mars'." Rei took it and yelled the appropriate phrase. It worked. * * * * * "It's nice to meet you, Sailor Mars", said Usagi. "I hope your real grandfather's still okay... we found Naru's mother in the basement when it happened to her." "Yeah. I looked in the fire to do a reading. I saw him change into a monster in the future, but...." "But?" "But it didn't happen now, it happened in a few months, and as soon as I looked at it it faded away. As if just finding out about that vision meant preventing it from coming true. There's something not right, dumpling head." "I don't know! I'm still new to this. Anyway we have to get Ami-chan so we can all fight Jadeite at the same time. I need to get her before she gets on a magic youma bus. I have to transform now. I really don't wanna, but I know I don't have a choice. Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" She spun, covered in sparkles, and before Rei's eyes changed into Sailor Moon. Rei began to laugh. "Hey, what's so funny?" said Sailor Moon. "It's just... the whole spinning thing... and you don't trip... and then you look like you're taking a shower in confetti..." "Hey, you look the same!" "Well, I don't spin as much, Sailor Moon. Now, where's Sailor Mercury?" "I don't know, but I can call her on my... uh, Luna, what's this moon phone called?" Luna said something in meows. "On my moon phone thing that Luna won't name for me." "You didn't need to run then, Sailor Moon, if she was going to come here." "Ah, well, er... okay. I just get scared sometimes, Sailor Mars, with all the evil around. Nobody's died yet but they could. Me or you or Mom and Dad...." "All right", admitted Mars, "you do make a *little* sense. Anyway" she asked, changing the subject, "do I get one of those pagers too?" * * * * * "So now we wait around outside the shrine for Ami-chan", said Sailor Moon as they walked to the curb. "It's a good thing she didn't get on one of those busses." "Are you *really* sure we should wait around in costume?" wondered Rei. "It shouldn't matter. Besides, this way we don't get stuck not being able to transform because someone might see us... and there's lots of people. Look!" Usagi indicated a small group of girls by the bus stop. They all had Hikawa Shrine charms. Rei looked. So did Luna. "Something feels bad! I think the enemy is involved somehow", said the cat. "I think we figured that out" muttered Sailor Mars. The group of girls began to grow into a crowd. Soon Ami would be here, thought Sailor Moon. If before then all those girls weren't kidnapped and used as energy sources to.... oh, wait!" The expression on her face got happier all of a sudden. "Did she just get an idea?" asked Rei. "She's been doing that recently. It's scary", responded the cat. "Attention all bus passengers!" yelled Sailor Moon. "I'm the great and powerful Sailor Moon! If you get on the next bus you'll have your energy drained by monsters! It's big and scary and I wouldn't want to get on a bus like that, so neither should you!" Now that was much better than just standing there and letting everyone ride to their doom, wasn't it? The crowd began to get agitated. "So you'd better go away!" yelled Sailor Moon. "What kind of speech is that?" asked one of the girls. "And how do we know you're really Sailor Moon anyway?" "I'm really Sailor Moon! And this is my sidekick Sailor Mars." Mars slapped her. "I really do have Sailor Moon powers so you should trust me and not get on this bus. Look, Moon Tiara Action!" She removed the tiara from her head and threw it. It travelled in a circle and she caught it again. The crowd grew more agitated. A few girls peeled away from the group and began to walk. "Wait!" yelled Sailor Moon. "You don't need to walk home. Just walk to the bus stop on the next block. If this one steals all the passengers right at the shrine it'll never get there, and you can catch a real bus." The girls looked at each other uncertainly and talked some more, but eventually did head down the street. * * * * * Sailor Moon turned on her cellular moon phone and called Ami. "Sailor Mercury, please come here... We need you and besides I'm scared of doing this with only me and Rei...." Maybe it was a little silly, but being scared was natural for a girl Usagi's age. "All right", responded Mercury's voice. "The album's probably sold out anyway." "What album, Sailor Mercury?" "Oh, never mind." A few minutes later, Ami came running up in costume, huffing and puffing. Scarcely had Sailor Moon greeted her than the bus appeared around the corner and approached the stop. "Here it comes!" exclaimed Sailor Moon. "It looks evil!" "It looks like a bus, dumpling head", noted Sailor Mars. "Anyway, we'd better get on." * * * * * They sat down and watched the scenery, for all of about three seconds. The bus vanished through a space warp, with the three Senshi on it. Usagi immediately stood up. "Stop right there!" she proclaimed. "Stop driving this bus!" The driver ignored her. "Stop right there! I know you're a youma because no real bus driver would ever go this far away from the right bus route! If you're a youma that means I can kill you and I will unless you take us all to where all the other people who disappeared on all the other busses went to!" In answer the bus driver stood up to face the Senshi and growled. The bus continued where it was going without being driven. He grew fangs and claws and a dark aura and extended his hands towards the Senshi. Energy began to flow from them to him, and Sailor Moon and the others suddenly found it difficult to stand or even move. Usagi didn't feel so good. What could she do? Oh, there was an idea... the driver must be a pretty stupid youma since all he did was growl. He didn't speak like that youma that tried to pretend it was Naru's mom. She suddenly pointed towards the front windshield and yelled "Watch out for that brick wall!" The youma turned. Sailor Moon made a gesture and she and her companions all threw their attacks at the youma, which luckily didn't notice the long attack phrases. The youma, hit by three attacks simultaneously, collapsed into dust and vanished. She triumphantly sat down in the driver's seat, only to ask her friends, "Do either of you know how to drive?" * * * * * "I think I know where the people are..." said Mercury. "My computer registers a lot of sleeping people a few minutes ahead. "A few minutes by driving or a few minutes by walking?" wondered Mars. "Hey, that's a good idea!" said Sailor Moon. "We can just get out and walk. There must be someone who can drive the bus back if Ami-chan just gives directions. "It's a few minutes by driving. Around three kilometers walking." "Oh. I guess we'd better go, then. Being Sailor Moon can be so hard sometimes. And I've never walked in a weird place like this before." She opened the door and stepped down, somewhat hesitantly, on the multicolored floor that passed for ground. It squished under her feet and she exclaimed "I don't want to do this! It's a long distance and it's such a creepy place here... I know." She held up her moon stick proudly and yelled "Moon power! Turn me into a bus tour guide! One who knows how to drive a bus!" "Does that work?" asked Sailor Mars as glowing ribbons covered Sailor Moon's form. "Sometimes", answered Luna. "Let's hope she gets lucky." Sailor Moon, now looking about age 18 and wearing a tour guide's uniform, sat down at the wheel and drove off, effortlessly. Luna let out a sigh of relief and Sailor Mercury intently stared through her visor, giving Usagi new directions every so often. Eventually, she came to the passengers, by now awake and very puzzled. Announcing "The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away!", Usagi opened the door to let them all on. Soon the bus was packed full of people, so Usagi drove them off. With Ami's expert guidance, they found the warp back to Juuban and reappeared in front of the Hikawa shrine. Usagi cranked the door open again and everyone left, then she exited herself. Immediately about thirty girls her age began to mob her--the girls that she had told to avoid the bus the first time. "You saved us! Sailor Moon!" Shouts of "Sai-laa-muu--n" could be heard. She smiled and signed an autograph, slowly walking through the crowd, then when she reached the edge dashed off, cat on her shoulder and pulling Mars and Mercury with one hand each. "Wheeeew..." she said. "That was a big crowd. But I'm famous now!" * * * * * "One thing left", said Sailor Moon. "That Jadeite guy", replied Sailor Mars. "And your fake grandfather." "He's really my grandfather! Something's just strange!" "Let's get back inside the shrine." "If you kill my grandfather, dumpling head, I'll never forgive you." "All right. I'll tie a rope around him or something." "You don't have a rope." "Oh, hmm." An idea occurred to Usagi. "Luna, how do I use this new magic item?" "Hold it up", replied the cat, "and shout 'Moon Healing Escalation'. That should eliminate all the evil energy from someone." "Does it work better than the Moon Tiara Stardust?" asked Sailor Moon. But before Luna could answer, Mars slapped Moon hard in the back, releasing a burp as well as making her fall over, nearly scraping her knees on the ground. Usagi was all ready to really chew out Rei for that, until a blast of energy flew past the place she had been standing just a minute ago. The Senshi turned to face the attacker. "Jadeite!" exclaimed Sailor Moon, recognizing him immediately. "That's not like even you, attacking us all from behind when we can't see you." "You've proven to be a remarkable annoyance", said Jadeite. "Something had to be done... grrr." Jadeite leapt backwards to avoid a red and green projectile that whizzed past his face. It landed and embedded itself into the soil... it was a single fragrant red rose. The unseen attacker stepped out into the open. Vastly overdressed, he still somehow managed to project an aura of mystery and competence. "Tuxedo-mask-sama!" said Sailor Moon. "Attacking from secret is a coward's way out, but the evils of the Dark Kingdom spawn many people of few manners", said Tuxedo Mask. Jadeite faced him, giving him time to finish his speech just so that he could sneer at it, and threw a ball of energy his way. Tuxedo Mask dodged. Jadeite gestured and another youma leapt out of hiding. Usagi watched the gesture and saw the monster, but even before it leapt all the way over to the Senshi, realized what had to be done. "Ignore it!" she shouted. "Get Jadeite!" The monster charged the Senshi; it looked like a puppet from some kind of fairy tale and it breathed a red smoke that made everyone dizzy and prone to hallucinating. But instead of immediately attacking it, the Senshi ran past it and grabbed at where they remembered Jadeite to be, just as he began to wave his hand again. Sailor Mars, the lucky one, fell on top of Jadeite and stopped his gesture, which was good, since it would otherwise have teleported him away from the fight. She might have appreciated how eerily similar it was to when she pushed down Sailor Moon, if she could see clearly. Meanwhile, Sailor Mercury took an attack from the youma on her arm and felt even dizzier than before; she looked down at it to see that it was turning to stone. Sailor Moon hoped that the new magic item she had gotten from Luna would work. She waved it with a flourish and shouted out her attack... "Moon healing escalation!" Waves of heartfelt magical goodness poured out and washed over the stunned Jadeite. Something changed in his eyes and he said "I'm sorry, Princess... we fell under Queen Beryl's spell of evil..." before collapsing. The youma ran off, but Usagi, too impatient to listen to a dying speech at the cost of more damage, especially to her friends, threw her tiara at it. The tiara hit and the youma died, collapsing into the second pile of dust that day. The stone on Ami's arm magically melted away. Jadeite flailed out, perhaps reaching for something to pull himself up, but before his hand touched anything he disappeared, croaking out "No... The Dark Kingdom... No, Beryl..." with transparent lips. "What's he talking about?" wondered Sailor Mars. "And how did he vanish?" "It must be this Queen Beryl person", said Sailor Mercury. She's probably watching all her soldiers using a viewscreen or a crystal ball or something like that. Beryl must be able to get them back, at least if they're weak." "Did we win?" asked Mars. "I hope we did!" said Sailor Moon. "And now we know that the enemy is looking for the princess too. I wonder if they worked for her once instead of Beryl... it sounded like he might have been good once. Anyway it was close, but we beat him." "I don't know", said Sailor Mars. "It all seemed much too easy." "It was easy because I had a good idea, Sailor Mars! There are four of us and only two of him even with his youma. He couldn't stop us all if we didn't just all fight the youma and let him go free." "But you shouldn't have been able to affect him", said Rei. "If your power was just enough to affect a youma, you shouldn't have been able to hurt Jadeite since he was obviously much stronger." "Oh, that's easy too, Rei! I just asked Luna for one of the magic items I wasn't supposed to have until later. It was a lot more powerful than the one I used to use on enchanted people! What a great idea of mine!" "You and your bright ideas", said Luna. "You didn't even know it was more powerful." "Hey, come on! You're only supposed to say that if the idea doesn't work. Now I have another idea." "If it has to do with killing my grandfather", said Mars, "I think I'm going to go home. On the other hand, if it has ice cream in it...." "It sort of has ice cream in it. That youma reminded me that they're opening this amusement park Dream Land and it has lots of fairy tale stuff like that youma. I want to go! You can all come along if you want." She turned to face where Tuxedo Mask stood and yelled "You can come too, Tuxedo Mask!" but the tophatted man had already disappeared into the city. "She'll probably find another youma there", muttered Luna. "Bet I won't", said Usagi.