Continuing Tales

Fatal Exposure

A Sailor Moon Story
by Meara

Part 3 of 13

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Fatal Exposure

Mamoru was in his apartment's small kitchen when it hit him. The coffee pot in his hand fell to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces. The feelings overtook Mamoru with such ferocity that it drove him to his knees.

Fear, desperation and panic tore at his soul. The emotions were so strong, so vivid that Mamoru could almost hear Usagi's voice in his mind. There was a loud buzzing in his ears and for a moment he feared he would pass out.

Mamo-chan, help me!

Mamoru felt familiar warmth wash over him as he began to transform into Tuxedo Kamen. Then as suddenly as it had started it all stopped. The panic, the dizziness and his transformation were cut off abruptly.

"Usako…Oh God, no!" he prayed as he stumbled to his feet. Mamoru closed his eyes then reached for his beloved with all his heart and soul. There was no response, the bond between them terrifyingly still. Mamoru's eyes snapped open. Fear, this time his own, dug icy talons into his heart.

He grabbed for the telephone and started to dial Rei's number while trying to master the dread that wanted to take control of him. Whatever had happened to Usagi, he would need to be calm and collected. Mamoru had gotten very good at walling off his emotions over the years. He allowed an icy calm to take control of him as Rei answered.

"Call the others and tell them to get to your place as fast as possible," he said succinctly, "Something's happened to Usagi. She's in trouble and I can't find her."

Mamoru knew that the internal castle he shoved his feelings into would eventually come crashing down and then he'd be at the mercy of those emotions. When those feelings finally took hold of him, there would hell to pay. He could only pray that he could find his Usako before that happened.

Aino Minako was about to make her first trip to the capital of dreams, Hollywood, USA. She'd worked for years to finally get to this point. Although she had the script packed into her carry on bag, she didn't need it. Minako all ready had the five pages of dialogue that would she needed committed to memory.

She was going to audition for a part in a movie; a real, honest-to-goodness movie! It was an as yet unnamed project that was being directed by none other than Steven Spielberg. It took every ounce of discipline she'd acquired over the years not to jump up and down and squeal like a maniac. If life every got any better than at this moment, Minako couldn't think of how that was possible. She didn't even mind that the line in front of her wasn't moving all that fast. After all, she'd gotten to the airport four hours early just to be sure that she didn't miss her flight.

Minako was so wrapped up in her own joy that she almost missed the sound that came from her purse.

She startled and looked at her bag incredulously. From the pitch of the beeps, it wasn't the new cell phone she'd gotten yesterday. The latest, thinnest, coolest looking cell phone she was reasonably sure she could afford was little more than a prop since it hadn't been turned on yet. It could only be the communications device she carried as a Senshi.

Oddly enough, Minako paused before answering it. Pulling it slowly out of her purse, she simply stared at it while a nagging, little voice deep down inside told her that if she answered this call, Minako could kiss her dreams of stardom goodbye.

Almost in tears, she flipped the device open. "This had better be important!"

Rei's voice came to ears. "Something bad has happened to Usagi. She's gone missing and Mamoru can't find her. Is that important enough?"

"I'll be there as soon as I can," replied Minako. She flipped th device closed and picked up her luggage, heading for the doors to hail a cab. Before exiting the airport, Minako took last look toward the gate that led to the plane to LA.

Once again, duty came before her own dreams. As Minako hailed a cab her temper began to do a slow boil. Whoever had Usagi better have really good health insurance. He was going to need it, because Minako was very sure that once she found the person who as threatening not only her princess but Minako's dreams, there was going to be hell to pay.

Mizuno Ami's slender hand was writing so fast that it was beginning to cramp. For the first time in her life, she was taking a class that made her work, really work, for a good grade. The Physics professor was nicknamed, "The Red Vector" for his rather eccentric habit using only a red ink on the board in the lecture hall. His other quirk was the hard and fast rule of no recorders in class. If you wanted notes on his lecture you had to do it the old fashioned way, by hand. Ami had the uneasy feeling that if you took the time to sneeze you'd be hopelessly behind with this teacher.

He proudly told them that they were the best of the best and he expected their total attention at all times. If they weren't capable of that then get out. His lecture hall was no place for wimps. Otherthan the sound of pen on paper and the professor's voice, there was no noise.

Until, of course, the beeping from her backpack started.

If Ami had stripped naked and set her blue hair on fire, she couldn't drawn more attention or been more mortified. She dropped her pen and scrambled after the noisesome device. Ami bent over so far that she was almost falling out of the chair. She put the communicator to her ear as she hissed, "This is not a good time!"

"I'm sorry Ami-chan" came Rei's voice, "But it's an emergency. Usagi has disappeared. Mamoru-san is sure she's in terrible trouble. Please, get here as fast as you can."

"I'm on my way," said Ami as she snapped the device shut. Jamming it in her pack, she quietly gathered up her notebooks and prepared to slip away. The students she tiptoed past all gave her the same look, wondering if she'd lost her mind. Maybe she was insane to leave, but Ami knew she had no choice.

Her duty came before all else and Ami knew it. There was little chance that another of the students would be willing to share their notes with her. Competition at her level of academia was cut throat. She would now be hopelessly behind and could kiss a passing grade in this course good bye. Anger began its slow climb into her mind as she rushed for the temple.

Ami wasn't one to get this angry very often, but when she did, the object of her rage was in deep trouble. Her efficient intellect neatly transferred her anger to the person who had Usagi. Usagi-chan had better be all right, she thought. If some maniac had hurt her best friend, Sailor Mercury would vowed that there would by hell to pay.

Kino Makoto didn't even wait for the bus to the Hikawa Temple. After receiving the call from Rei she pleaded a family emergency (which was true enough considering how she felt about Usagi-chan and the others.) and left the restaurant. Makoto had been in the final stages of making a dessert called an "Apple Strudel". It had taken her all morning to get the filo dough thin enough, yet strong enough, to make the pastry's many layers. It was ruined now, she knew. The dough would fall and turn the confection into an apple flavored doorstop.

It was a little over a mile from the restaurant to Rei's and Makoto ran every step at top speed. She was desperately afraid for Usagi. Makoto couldn't deal with the thought of losing someone she loved again; not after her parent's untimely death. The truth be known, Makoto had never really gotten over the pain of that loss. Unable to handle the fear Makoto channeled it into a burning rage. When they found Usagi, there was going to be hell to pay. And Sailor Jupiter was going to deliver that bill personally.

Usagi floated in a midnight sea. Normally she didn't like the dark very much but it quite pleasant here. There were brief flashes that invaded her warm, soft world. There was the sensation of cold hands on her and brief glimpses of a figure in a white lab coat that provoked a stirring of anger. It was much better to ignore all of that and stay in this timeless place.

A voice kept invading her world, though, refusing to go away. A name was mentioned time and time again. "…the subject …."

Who would be calling her "the subject", she wondered? Her name was Usagi. Mamo-chan called her Usako, her Dad called her his princess and Rei called her baka once in a while, but no one had ever called her "the subject".

The voice was fading in more than it was fading out now. If she concentrated, she could make out a few words here and there. "…reaction to commonly used sedative is unexpected…alien physiology…sample into sterile suspension."

That it was much too bright was the first, semi-coherent thought Usagi had. She blinked and tried to bring her hand up to cover her eyes, but it felt as if her arms were made of lead. The arm finally flopped up and smacked her on the face. Although Usagi tried to move it, the limb lay there stubbornly.

"Owww…" she moaned in a slurred voice, "…that hurt." Her head was still buzzing. Usagi's tongue felt like it was two feet thick and coated with stale peanut butter. She stuck it out in disgust, "Yuck." Her eyes were half open now, but she couldn't seem to get her mind to make sense of what she saw. It was like seeing things through deep water.

A man (she was sure it was a man but how did she know that, Usagi wondered?) in a white lab coat lifted her arm away from her face. He held it for a moment before asking, "…can you hear me, girl?"

"No, no, no. Don't call me 'girl.' I'm Usagi," she mumbled, 'OOO-SAAH-GEE,' cause of my hair." That seemed very funny to her for once and she wanted to laugh, but found she couldn't. "I don't feel good. Can't breathe…"

Kashu put down the tape recorder he was holding and looked at the Tsukino girl's arm with growing apprehension. Large, purple and red blotches had appeared in it. A quick examination showed that the discoloration was creeping up her arm and onto her torso. Damn, he thought to himself, the alien witch was having an allergic reaction to the sedative! The hives were popping up on her neck now as the girl's unnaturally blue eyes rolled back into her head and she went limp.

"God damn it…" Kashu cursed as he scrambled for the black bag on the table in back of him. He couldn't let the Tsukino girl die, not yet anyway. He needed her for a while longer!

Forcing himself to be calm, Kashu withdrew a vial of epinephrine and quickly filled a syringe with the appropriate dose. After injecting it into her upper arm, Kashu threw the used syringe away and lifted Usagi's upper body in his arms.

"Come on, come on…" he slapped her face several times. "Come one, damn you, wake up and breathe!"

The girl's eyes half opened and she gave a shudder that ran through her body. Her head flopped from side to side as she wheezed, struggling for air. Usagi jerked again and her eyes widened for a moment…

…As she proceeded to vomit all over his now less than spotless, white lab coat. Kashu leapt back involuntarily and raised his arms away from his body in disgust. The young woman flopped back onto the steel examination table, still gasping and choking. As he removed the soiled lab coat, tossing it to one side, two frightening words filled his mind.

Anaphylactic shock.

The Tsukino woman was going into anaphylactic shock and he had a video camera recording it all. Her throat was swelling closed and her respiratory system began to collapse. If he couldn't stop it, she'd be dead in a few minutes. That thought brought three even more frightening words to mind, first degree murder. The idea of spending the rest of his life in prison was not an appealing one. Kashu began to sweat, his mind turning over furiously in a desperate attempt to find a way out of this dilemma.

Almost at once a double-pronged solution came to mind. With a glance at the gasping young woman on the table, he grabbed the small cassette recorder he'd been talking into a pushed the button that would erase the tape. Kashu yanked the small video camera off the tripod and headed for the door.

His car wasn't parked very far away. In it was a larger bag with a more extensive selection of drugs. There was also a five-liter can of gasoline in the trunk. If he couldn't save her, he could at least save himself. The building they were in was remote and old. When the University had closed it the word "fire trap" was used repeatedly. It should go up fairly quickly with the proper nudge. By the time anyone even noticed that the old building was on fire, the Tsukino girl's body would be ash and Kashu would be in the clear.

She was drowning. In her dream, Usagi's legs had turned to stone. They dragged her down into the cold, green, seawater. She wanted to reach for her henshin locket but her hands were also turning to stone and refused to obey her.

Metallia waited for her at the bottom of the ocean. Usagi could hear her laugh in triumph and the demon's darkness swept over her. The oily black fluid invaded her mouth and nose, choking her. Usagi's mind shrieked in fear, her lungs burning for air. The rush of adrenaline seemed to help and she fought to take a breath. To her surprise, Usagi could hear the voices of her friends over the sound of the ocean that roared in her ears.

The dream faded and Usagi cracked open her eyes. Rei was standing over her shouting at her to wake up. Why did the Senshi of Mars looked so frightened, Usagi wondered? Mina and Makoto were there also, distress on their faces. It was Mamoru's voice that grabbed her attention, though.

"Usako, listen to me!" Tuxedo Kamen was standing beside her. He had her hand in his own. "You have to transform, Usako! Do you hear me? You have to transform!" He placed her hand on the heart shaped locket on the front of her blouse. "Think the words if you can't say them!"

Usagi's mouth moved but no sound came from it. For a long moment nothing happened. Then the light came and filled her. The silver fire of the Ginzuishou erupted to life. Ami had her visor in place and watched as Usagi transformed into Eternal Sailor Moon. The petite Senshi of Mercury called out information to Tuxedo Kamen while she watched the small computer she held in her hand.

"It's working! Her white and histamine counts are starting to level off and neuro transmitter production is rising!"

When the light and warmth faded Usagi found to her great relief that she could breathe again. "What…what's happening?" Eternal Sailor Moon asked.

Mamoru smiled at her, "We were hoping you could tell us. When we got here, you were in anaphylaxis."

"In what?" repeated Usagi, completely mystified. Mamoru suddenly reached for the front of her fuku and pulling it down as far as he could, peered at her chest. "Mamo-chan, not now…"

Mina gave a nervous laugh at Usagi's tone. "Relax Usagi-chan, I don't think Tuxedo Kamen-sama has that in mind."

Ami was still staring at her through her visor. "Anaphylaxis means your throat was swelling shut due to an allergic reaction. In other words, you couldn't breath," she said. "How do you feel now?"

"Awful," replied Usagi succinctly. "Itchy, nauseous and awful."

Tuxedo Kamen shook his head unhappily, "The hives are popping up again. Whatever you're reacting to is still in your system. Let's go for the big gun, shall we?" He had fallen into "doctor" mode. It was the only way he could possibly remain calm through this. "Usako, do you think you could use the healing power of the Ginzuishou on yourself?"

Her throat was feeling odd again. All she really wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep. "I'm so tired. I don't know if I can, but I'll try."

Rei placed a gentle hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Let us help you, ne?" An ocher glow ran from the Senshi of Mars and suffused Sailor Moon.

Mina and Makoto did the same and closed their eyes. Ami came to join in the circle and let her love flow with the power of Mercury into her friend. Tuxedo Kamen faded away and Prince Endymion took his place.

Golden light played at his hands as he willed the golden crystal to assist his beloved. Rainbow light clothed Usagi as she called forth the great power of the Moon Kingdom. The light shifted and burst as she changed into her Princess form. The crescent moon sigil on her forehead shone brightly and the stone cradled between her cupped hands pulsed in time with it.

"Moon Healing – Escalation!"

Quicksilver fire, like living stardust, infused itself into first her hands then slowly up her arms. Serenity, last Princess of the Silver Millennium, closed her eyes and threw her head back as the searing purity of the light coursed through her body. She could feel the power of the Ginzuishou singing within her, burning the toxin from blood and bone alike. When Serenity opened her eyes again, the silver crystal no longer glowed as brightly.

She smiled at it and with a flip of her hands, the crystal reseated itself in her locket. One by one, the Senshi removed their power from her until only Endymion was left touching the Princess. She tenderly placed a warm hand on his cheek. He moaned softly as he brought his hands up to cover her smaller one.

"Serenity…" he whispered as he placed a kiss on her palm. "I thought I had lost you, my love."

"Never, Endymion, my beloved."

As Endymion gathered her in his arms, Serenity shifted to Eternal Sailor Moon, who in turned became Tsukino Usagi. With a sigh she leaned into Tuxedo Kamen, not wanting this moment to end.

"Usako" he finally asked, "What happened here? How did you get like this?"

Usagi explained to them all about the man who claimed to be part of the Human Genome Project and his "job offer". The last she remembered clearly was having a glass of soda. The rest of her perceptions were too fragmented to be of any use.

Mina had been walking through the room as she listened to her friend. As Usagi finished Venus shook her head. "I think I may have an idea what was supposed to happen here." She pointed to two large lights and an empty tripod. "These are commercial lights and that is an empty camera tripod. Whoever did this may have had a… movie… in mind and not the kind you'd take Chibi-Usa to see, either."

Mercury moved around the room with her computer scanning things as she went. The soiled lab coat and used syringe that still contained traces of epinephrine indicated that someone involved in this fiasco had medical training. As Minako finished speaking, Ami was quietly looking a cold box she'd found in the corner.

"I'm not so sure about that. What kind of filmmaker keeps a bio box with samples in it?"

Rei came over to where Ami was bending over, carefully looking at the box. Mars reached in and picked up a specimen jar. Her eyes flashed as did her hands. The plastic jar disappeared in a burst of fire.

"The kind I'm going to fry extra crispy if I ever get the chance! What say we wait for this pervert and give him a warm welcome?" The other jars vanished in a sheet of flame.

"Sorry," replied Minako, "but I think we scared him off when we arrived. It appears that he took what he could and ran."

Makoto snarled as she raised her hands over her head. "Then let's leave him a message he can't ignore." Whirling she shouted, "Supreme Thunder!" and sent an enormous jolt of electricity cascading through the lights. The bulbs burst and sparks arcing from one piece of equipment to the next until all that was left was row smoking, burned out hulks.

Sailor Jupiter had a satisfied smile on her face as she said, "Not exactly subtle, but I think it gets the point across. This operation is now out of business, permanently."

Kashu Hikaru turned off the small video camera he held. He'd heard voices in the lab when he'd returned. Not wanting to be caught, he'd slipped into an adjoining room and shut the door behind him. He stood on an old wooden chair with uneven legs that rocked back and forth.

His intention had been to listen at a ventilation grate and make sure the Tsukino girl couldn't identify him. When he realized it was the mysterious sailor Senshi, he grabbed the camera and started to film. As the machine whirred away, he mused that he'd never really believed in then until now. Kashu thought them nothing more than an urban legend; like alligators in the sewers.

Now he had the information that was going to make him the most influential man on the planet. He had hard, photographic proof that Tsukino Usagi was Sailor Moon. The rest of the Senshi were in the picture at one time or another, but their faces had been blurred for some reason. (Tuxedo Kamen's back had been stubbornly to the camera the whole time and the best picture Kashu could get was of his the back of his head.) Combine that with the blood work he still had back at his home and the possibilities made him dizzy with glee.

They urban myth known as "Sailor Moon" was an alien. Where the other Senshi aliens too? What was that thing that gave off the silver light – and her change into that other form! She looked like a princess, an extra-terrestrial princess, but obviously a being of great power. With that kind of power at his command there was very little he could not do.

As the Senshi left, Kashu was all ready amending his original plans. They had been small and not really worthy of him or of the exquisite creature he'd captured on film. More than anything he needed time to plan the best way to use this information to his benefit.

As he considered that, an unpleasant name came to mind. There was one other person on the planet that might take the credit and the power that was rightfully Kashu's, Chiba Mamoru.

Oh well, Kashu thought as he started to pour the gasoline from the can onto the floor, Chiba was just another bump in his road to power. The Kashu family was wealthy and had connections to all sorts of people.

Taking out a lighter he carelessly flicked it on and tossed it into the liquid. It ignited with a hungry whoosh as he left the room without a backwards glance. This, at least, was one problem solved. The "accidental" conflagration would neatly cover his tracks.

Kashu needed to arrange for convenient "accident" for Dr. Chiba. A fatal accident that would remove him from the picture permanently.

Fatal Exposure

A Sailor Moon Story
by Meara

Part 3 of 13

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