Sailor Moon remembered how strong the octopus nega-monsters were, so she held out her scepter right off and cried out, "Moon Princess Halation!" With a grunt of effort she swept the energy beam through the store, slaying every octopus creature the beam caught. Most of them had contracted into little balls of light and popped out of existence by the time Mars and Venus appeared at the front entrance of the store, out of breath.
"Fire Soul!"
"Crescent Beam!"
The two Scouts defeated the last few octopus creatures. Venus flipped her hair over her shoulder in an unconscious motion. "Those creature were a million times easier to defeat than the last few we've run into!" she exclaimed. Mars nodded and looked for Sailor Moon, but she was searching the store.
"Jupiter? Jupiter?" She dashed between rows of clothing racks, looking back and forth. Mars and Venus exchanged looks and went over to help her look. Sailor Moon exclaimed with worry and dropped to her knees.
"Over here!" she cried. Mars and Venus sprinted over to her side, and found her cradling Jupiter's head in her lap. She looked up with tears in her eyes. "She won't wake up. I don't know what happened..." She closed her eyes and a tear traced a shining track down her cheek. "I was too late."
With comforting murmurs Mars and Venus tried to calm Sailor Moon down.
"Hello? Hello-o-o..." a faint, uncertain call originated from the front of the store. Venus stood up and called out, "Mercury! Hurry! Over here!" Mercury scrambled over to where the Scouts were huddled together.
"My God!" she gasped with shock. "What happened?"
Sailor Moon looked up and shook her head. "I don't know. When I burst into the store she was still standing, but after Mars, Venus, and I got rid of the octopus creatures she was down here like this. I didn't even get to talk to her!" Sailor Moon wailed.
Mars shook her vigorously. "Stop that!" she scolded. "Crying won't do Jupiter any good right now. We've got to find out what happened to her and find a way to help her."
Mercury pulled down her visor and brought out her computer. She looked up at the Scout's faces. "Tell me everything you can. I need information to work with."
"Well," Sailor Moon began shakily, "I heard some explosions after she went in to investigate. I called all of you and then transformed. When I burst into the store, there were a ton of the octopus creatures all around. I used my tiara to get them off Jupiter, and then I got out my scepter and used the `Moon Princess Halation' right off. I remembered how difficult they were to defeat last time, so I decided it was my only choice. Mars and Venus got here in time to stop the nega-monsters I hadn't already gotten rid of, and then I found Jupiter lying here." She looked up at Mercury's intent face. "She was up when I walked in. I don't understand what happened."
"Mercury, the octopi were much easier to defeat this time. We had a tough fight with one not that long ago, and now we got rid of about ten. Something's changed, and I think it's important we find out what," Venus said with a concerned tone of voice.
"From what I can see, whatever's wrong with Jupiter is similar to what happened with Artemis and Luna. Her energy's being drained somehow." Mercury looked up. "I'm going to collect some data here, so I can examine it later, but someone's bound to come here soon and investigate the fight. We have to leave soon." She wandered off around the store and left the other girls to figure out some way of moving Jupiter.
Mars looked at the others. "Venus, I think you and I are strongest-we'll carry Jupiter between us." She eyed Sailor Moon's tear-stained face with sympathy.
Sailor Moon jerked her head up. "I want to help too. It's my fault she's-" She looked about ready to break down and sob.
Venus bent over and pulled Sailor Moon to her feet. "Pull yourself together. We don't have time for this. We have other concerns. While Mars and I pick up Jupiter, you try to think of what we're going to do next. You are our leader, after all." Venus hoped that harshness would shock Sailor Moon into leadership, since kindness hadn't worked. Without looking at Sailor Moon she motioned Mars over to Jupiter's prone form and they heaved her up. Mercury wandered back towards them.
"Ready?" She focused her eyes on the other Scouts. "Good, I got all the reading I need. We should go."
"Where?" Venus looked pointedly at Sailor Moon.
"Um, Mars, is the temple empty this time of night?"
Mars nodded. "Yes, and Grandpa should be asleep by now."
"I think we should go there and get Artemis and Luna. We can decided what to do next there. We'll have a little while to think thins over."
Mars looked with approval at Venus and Mercury before saying, "That sounds like a great idea, Sailor Moon." With a final, "Let's go," the girls slowly made their way to their destination with their burden.
*****
"What is going on, Cerulean? I am hearing some very disappointing reports." She turned menacing eyes on her nervous offspring. "I see that a certain amount of arrogance is lacking in your stature today. I want to know what's happened. Now," Cerulean flinched at the flat tone her voice took on.
"It seems that the Sailor Scouts discovered one of our energy collecting projects in the universe above. They-ah-they shut it down." He cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"Well what about the survivors you rescued. How many lived?"
"None. They were defeated very quickly, according to our most accurate reports."
"I do not have unlimited resources, you fool! The whole reason we are conducting this campaign is because our energy resources here are nearly exhausted, and soon I will no longer be able to hide our precarious position from the other denizens of the Negaverse. Tell our remaining facilities to very circumspect. Drain energy slowly, and tell them to draw no attention to themselves." The Mistress thoughtfully tapped her forefinger on her chin. Cerulean tried to back out of the audience chamber before she noticed him. She pinned him down with an angry glare. "I have not forgotten your insolence or your failure, but I will give you another chance. I suggest you watch everything more carefully, and become personally involved. Your forces will have a better chance of defeating the Scouts if you are available to help them do battle." She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "You may go now. Do not fail me again."
*****
"She's still in her Sailor armor," Mina said with worry. "We can't let anyone see her like this!"
"We'll have to hide her somehow. I don't know what to do." Serena shook her head. "And where are Luna and Artemis? I called them hours ago!"
"It's barely been five minutes Serena." Rei thought for a second. "I pretty much run my house. Grandpa's too busy with the temple to bother much with it. I think I can keep her there for a while, but we have to do something other than hide her."
Amy nodded. "I'm no doctor," she started
"Yet," Mina mumbled and rolled her eyes.
"But she's going to need an IV soon, or she'll die of dehydration."
"We can't bring her to a hospital like this!" Rei protested.
Serena was sitting next to Jupiter and quietly smoothing her bangs with her fingers. "Can't you get her back to just plain Lita, Amy?"
"I've never had to do it before, but I will most definitely try. When Luna and Artemis get here, maybe they can help."
A slight gust of wind blew through the room. "Help with what?" Luna asked.
"Luna!" Serena cried happily. "I'm so glad to see you. Jupiter's unconscious, and we can't get her out of her uniform. Can you help?"
Artemis trotted over to Jupiter and left Luna to deal with a nearly hysterical Serena. "What happened, Serena?" Luna asked.
"Lita went into the store alone-do you know about the store?" Serena asked suddenly.
Luna nodded impatiently. "Mina told Artemis. I must say, Serena, you should have informed me. It's dangerous when you leave me out of the loop. What I want to know is, why didn't you tell us you were about to launch the attack?"
"I, uh didn't think of it in time." Serena's face reddened with embarrassment.
"What's done is done," Luna sighed. "Continue with your story."
"Well, she was in the store, and suddenly I saw her attack. I don't know what set her off, but I figured I'd better get in there, so I called the other girls and transformed. Jupiter was fine when I got in. I threw my tiara to give her a little breathing space and then I used the Moon Princess Halation to get rid of them. Mars and Venus got rid of the last few and then I found Jupiter like this." Her hand fluttered in Jupiter's general direction.
"Amy," Artemis turned from his futile attempts to rouse Jupiter, "have you been able to determine anything?"
She looked up. "Aside from the fact that she was completely unconscious right from the beginning, her symptoms seem remarkably similar to what happened to you and Luna. It appears that her energy is being drained at a much higher rate than your was, however." Amy glanced at Jupiter. "She's in much greater danger. We don't have much time."
Rei spoke up, "We need to get her to a hospital. They can help her hold on for a little while, at least, but we can't bring her there when she's still in her armor."
"How can we explain what happened when we bring her to a hospital?" Mina asked. "And what will we tell the doctors about her lack of a guardian? They're going to force us to stay in the mental illness department there if we tell them the truth about how she got hurt, and who knows what will happen if they find out she's living alone!"
"We can just say she collapsed. I doubt any hospital's medical equipment will refute that. I don't know what to tell the staff about guardianship, though." Rei shrugged. "Can you get her out of her armor, Luna?"
"Artemis is better with that sort of thing," she responded.
Artemis padded over to Amy. "I'll tell you what to do," he said to her. She looked at him and nodded. Then she looked at everyoneelse. "I think we can tell them my mom is watching out for her. She's usually good about stuff like that, and she already knows something of Lita's problems. Don't worry about that angle." Then she looked back down at Artemis and they settled down for an extensive whispering session.
Serena had been amazingly silent. Luna was worried something was wrong-she hadn't had a major guilt and sobbing session yet. She walked up to her and sat on her lap.
"Serena? What are you thinking?" Serena looked at her.
"You know how nega-creatures always want to get a hold of my Silver Crystal, because it possesses great energy?" Luna nodded. "Can I use it to help Jupiter?" She closed her eyes and pounded a clenched fist on one knee in an uncharacteristic expression of frustration. "I want to do something! I got her in this mess, I want to fix it!" A lone tear slipped down her face. She'd pretty much cried herself out already. Luna stood up and licked away the tear.
"I'm proud of you, Serena. It's important to try to fix what went wrong, not just bewail a tragedy." Serena opened moisture brightened eyes and gazed steadily at the inky black cat.
"I've done my share of complaining today," she said a little sheepishly.
"Tears aren't wrong, just don't let them stop you." Luna's obvious satisfaction at a sign-any sign-of Serena's maturity made her end her sentence with a rumbling purr. "About using the Silver Crystal-it may work, but it's only a delaying tactic, not a solution. We'll have Amy monitor Jupiter and if she reaches a critical energy level, we may have to use your idea. It should be a last ditch effort, though. You'll need you energy for upcoming fights, since it's obvious the enemy hasn't given up, yet." Serena hugged Luna tightly.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"Got it!" Amy shouted in triumph. Serena jumped and looked over at Jupiter as she shimmered into near invisibility and her casual clothes appeared back on her.
"Lita!" Mina ran up to her and shook her, but there was no response. She looked up. "Do we bring her to the hospital ourselves or call for an ambulance?"
"An ambulance would be faster," Artemis pointed out.
Amy spoke up, "I'll go with her. If the paramedics ask awkward questions, I'd most likely be able to answer them believably."
Serena ran up to Amy. "I want to go too-I want to see what happens, and I want to be there if she wakes up."
Mina looked around. "I think we all want to go-but I don't think they'll allow the cats. Sorry guys."
The cats exchanged looks. "It's no different than what we expected." Luna sighed. "Rei, why don't you go in the house and call for an ambulance?"
Rei set off and the concerned girls sat around Lita and waited.
*****
Amy strode back to the waiting room where the girls were dispersed around a small table. She sat down. "The doctors don't know what's wrong, which is understandable. They're thinking exhaustion is the cause of her collapse, which is close enough. If she doesn't wake soon they'll put in an IV. We can't visit her until they know what's wrong, or at least think she's stabilized. They haven't given me any problems about a guardian-Lita looks old enough that they haven't worried about it yet. I can play a dumb kid for a while, and I suggest all of you do too for as long as possible. If worse comes to worse just use my mother's name, but I don't want to do that if it's not necessary." Her eyes had dark circles underneath them. She sighed and rested her head face down on her folded arms. She stayed there for a minute, seeming to gather strength. The other girls looked at each other silently. It seemed that just about everything that could be said had already been beaten to death. Amy lifted her head back up and pulled out her minicomputer. She began typing intently.
Curiosity won control over Serena. "What are you doing?"
"I'm examining the energy data I collected at the store. I need to do something." She tossed her head with irritation. "This is all I can do that's useful." She kept typing.
Mina suddenly pushed her chair back from the table. "I'm going to get a soda," she announced. "Anyone else want one?" Rei and Serena looked up at her. Amy continued typing, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings.
Rei nodded with obvious relief. "That sounds like a great idea!" she said enthusiastically. She half got up as she fished around in her pocket for spare change. "There you are," she proclaimed with satisfaction when she found enough and put it Mina's hand. Serena smiled as a thought occurred to her.
"Do you think the cafeteria is open? I'm awfully hungry."
"No," Mina shook her head, and her long blonde hair swayed from side to side. "It closed hours ago. It's after eleven by now, Serena. Do you want me to get you a soda too?"
Serena nodded. "Yeah. Here," she dropped some change into Mina's palm as well. "Some sort of cola, please."
"Okay." Mina set off in search of a vending machine. The silence became oppressive once again.
A tall man in hospital scrubs wandered into the waiting room and scanned it, looking for someone. He spotted Amy and made his way over to the table. Serena spotted him and elbowed Amy. Amy looked at Serena with slight annoyance, then saw that her attention was riveted on someone else. With a start she turned to face whoever was coming toward them. When she saw who it was she stood up.
"Doctor!" she said. "Has something happened to Lita?"
The doctor stopped in front of the table and looked at the three girls. "You all brought Lita here?" Serena and Rei stood up and nodded. Mina rounded the corner with three cans of pop in her arms. When she saw the doctor talking to the three girls she ran up to them.
"What's going on?" she gasped out, worried.
"We don't know what's wrong with your friend yet. We won't get test results until tomorrow. She seems to be stable, so you can all go in and see her, but after that I think you should all go home. You all look exhausted. Can any of you give a phone number to call if anything drastic happens?" The girls stole glances at each other, then Amy spoke up. "Here," she fished out a scrap of paper and wrote her home number on it. "you can reach me here. What room is Lita in?"
The doctor pointed and the girls ran off to see Lita.
*****
"Serena! You're going to be late for school! Get going, young lady!" Serena's mom burst into her room, and refused to let Serena drop back off to sleep.
"Aw Mom," she complained, "I was out late-just another fifteen minutes." With a groan she tunneled back under the covers.
Her mother reached down and yanked all the blankets and sheets off the bed. With a grim look on her face she pointed to the kitchen. Serena got up and with a grumble stumbled in the direction her mother pointed. She sat down at the table and shoved a few spoonfuls of the breakfast her mom had made into her mouth. Her dad was eating as well, but Sammy was already done.
"Why in the world were you out so late? You didn't get home until after midnight!" her mother scolded as she came back into the kitchen. "I was awake half the night, waiting to hear you come home."
"Midnight!" Serena's father looked up at her with a disapproving look on his face. "A girl you age should never be out that late. Especially on a school night! If I had known you were going to be that late, I would have stayed awake too!" He started to get worked up. "Were you with anybody else?"
Serena had closed her eyes while she was being scolded. She nodded silently in answer to her father's question.
"Who?" her father asked suspiciously.
"Lita, Amy, Rei, and Mina."
"Oh." Her father went back to eating, reassured that she hadn't been with Darien.
Her mother, however, wasn't yet satisfied. "What were you doing, Serena? You haven't answered me yet."
"We went to check out this cool new store that opened. We stayed there for a long time, until it closed, and then we started back. On our way, Lita collapsed. We called an ambulance, and brought her to the hospital, but they didn't know last night what had happened to her. They said they wouldn't get any test results until today, so they sent the rest of us home."
Her mother saw the distress on her face and instinctively knelt next to her and gave her a hug. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. You've had a difficult week. Both your pet and Lita have gotten seriously ill. I'm sure this has been difficult for you, but you can't miss school today. Tell you what, come home right after school and we'll buy a get well present for Lita, and go to the hospital to see how she's doing." She gave Serena a small shake. "Okay?"
"Sure Mom." Serena smiled weakly and got up. "I better go get dressed," she mumbled, and went into her room.
*****
"I'm home, Mom!"
"How did school go?"
"Uh-okay," Serena had been feeling pangs of guilt and worry all day, and hadn't been able to concentrate that well. She hadn't even been able to finish her own lunch. Without Lita there to mooch fresh cooked food off from, things just hadn't felt right.
"I see. Well, get ready, and we'll go get something nice for Lita." Serena dashed into her room and changed, then ran right out again, with Luna on her heels. "Ready? All right, then, off we go."
They bought her a beautiful card and a small bouquet of flowers. "She'll love these," Serena said.
When they arrived at the hospital Amy, Mina and Rei were already by Lita's bedside. They looked up as Serena and her mom entered. The electronic beeping of monitoring equipment echoed throughout the silent room. Her mom took in the sober mood and smiled. "I'll just leave you girls alone. Serena, all I ask is that you get home at a decent hour tonight." She turned with a wave and left.
"Wow, that's nice of her," Mina said with a smile.
Serena looked at all of them. "How is she?"
Amy frowned, "They won't tell us much, but I don't think they know what's going on yet. We're going to have solve this problem ourselves." She leaned over and patted Lita's hand. "We have to go somewhere else to discuss this. We'll need Luna and Artemis too."
"Luna's waiting outside the front entrance to the hospital."
Mina spoke up, "And Artemis is waiting at Rei's temple. I figured we'd want to meet there after we paid Lita a visit."
Amy shrugged. "Let's go, then."
*****
"We're all here, now. Why don't you tell us what you've discovered, Amy?" Luna was still perched on Serena's shoulder.
"I examined that data I collected last night. Those octopus creatures were very weak. About three times weaker than the first few we met up with." She scanned everyone's face. "I think the reason that the Mistress is attacking humans is similar to the reason Ann and Alan attacked-they are in desperate need of energy. I would guess that if the monsters are still around, then the Mistress and her family won't be weakened much themselves, yet, but they have to be desperate. They would probably let their foot soldiers die before they allowed themselves to be drained."
"Well, can't we do the same thing we did to help Ann and Alan, then?" Serena asked.
"I don't see a spare Doom Tree around, do you? Honestly, Serena!" Rei tossed her head.
"And," Mina spoke up, "these aliens don't seem as if they'd want to go back to the Doom Tree even if it was here. They were very contemptuous of Ann and Alan's dependence on the tree."
"But this is very good news," Artemis said. "If the aliens are weakening, then we can defeat them, and break their hold on Lita like you broke their hold on Luna and I."
"We can't take our time doing it, though," Amy spoke up, "I examined Lita again this morning. She's not going to last much longer."
Serena gasped, then looked over at Luna. "Luna, remember what I asked you about-do you think I should do it?"
Luna looked at Amy without answering, "How long do you estimate Lita has?"
Amy thought for a second, "I would say she'll be safe for two more days."
Luna nodded. "Not yet, Serena. We want you to be as strong as possible. In two days, if we have no other options, we'll do it."
"Do what?" Mina asked, curious.
Serena opened her mouth to answer but Luna jumped in. "Don't worry about it yet. If we have to go through with it, we will, but for all practical purposes let's assume that we only have two days."
"Then what's our next step?"
"If what I've guessed is true, then the Mistress is not going stop searching for energy. Either she's already got another place where she can drain energy, or she's going to set one up soon. I suggest we canvas the area and look for people who feel weak or tired."
"Why not just wait for news of people passing out-then we could find the common denominator between them and that would be where the Mistress' base is," Mina shrugged.
"I don't think they're going to be draining that much energy from anybody-after your last successful attack they're going to go to great lengths to avoid detection until they build up enough energy to defeat you," Artemis spoke up, "We have to find them now-before they are confident enough to give irrefutable evidence of their presence."
Amy nodded. "We should concentrate our efforts on finding suspect stores. Stores where what the person buys is in direct contact with them, such as clothing or jewelry stores."
Serena bounced up and down in her chair. "I think I'm going to like this assignment!" she said brightly.
"Just make sure you pay attention to what's going on, and not what's on sale," Rei drawled sarcastically. Serena turned her head and pretended she hadn't heard anything.
Luna looked up suddenly as if a new idea had occurred to her. "Amy, you said you were able to trace the signal that transferred my energy and Artemis' to the Negaverse to its origin, right?" At Amy's nod she continued, "Can you do the same with Lita?"
"I don't know. I'll visit her again and try." She shook her head. "I must be more exhausted than I thought. I should have thought of that myself."
Artemis looked at all the girls. "You all know what to do? Good. We don't have any time to waste. You'd better get going."
*****
The tall nurse checked Lita's chart and smiled with pleasure. "Now, which one should I get rid of next? I don't want to weaken them too much, or I can't use them to cause trouble for my family. Hmmmm. Oh! I have a delicious idea!"
*****
Amy typed as quickly as she could at her computer. There was so much to do, and time was slipping through her fingers at a furious rate. Since the there was a much larger amount of energy being transferred from Lita to whatever was draining her, it was much easier to find the signal. Yet, for some reason, the origin kept moving-almost as if some person who was walking around in this universe was the origin. She shook her head and called the other girls on their communicators. "Hey, guys? Where are you?"
"We're all at a phone booth, looking up clothing and jewelry stores in the area," Mina responded for all of them.
"I've traced the source of the signal again-it was relatively easy to find because the strength of the signal is much higher this time. The problem is, the source keeps moving. It's as if the signal is directed at a person walking around town instead of going through an immobile gateway to the Negaverse."
"You mean a single person is doing this?"
"I don't know, but the data makes it look that way."
"Amy?" Artemis' face appeared next to Mina. "Why don't you come to this phone booth, and we'll talk about it."
"Okay," Amy nodded, then a thought occurred to her. "Guys? I've just thought of something. Remember that the Negaverse somehow used my image to send a counterfeit message? Be careful. I guess the best check is that if the other person won't respond to questions, don't trust the message."
Artemis nodded approvingly. "That's a good point, Amy. We'll wait for you here."
"Be right there!" she responded, and closed her compact. She saved all the information she'd collected on a disk, and slipped it in her pocket. "I'm going to meet up with Serena and everyone else downtown, Mom!" she called out as she left.
She walked quickly through the empty streets, her head down. Suddenly she bumped into someone. "Oh! I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going!" she exclaimed as she looked up.
"That's quite all right. I knew exactly where I was going," Amy gasped as she recognized the person's voice. A wide, expectant grin was on the person's face. "Well, aren't' you going to say `hi,' to an old friend, Amy?" With that, she grabbed Amy's arm in a tight grip. "I need your help on something."
"On what, Erin?" Amy kept her voice calm and even.
"I think I'm going to make you send another false message. It worked so well last time. I'll just drop in on my old family, use their equipment, and leave again. I must say, Lita is a remarkable source of energy." With a shimmer she reverted to her true form.
"It won't work, Sable. We have a new security procedure, and I can't fake it when I'm drugged up." She took a small amount of pleasure in the wince of surprise that crossed Sables face at her words.
Sable's smirk recovered quickly, however, and her smile widened. "Oh, well," she sighed, "then I guess I'm reduced to simply doing this-"
She slapped her palm onto Amy's forehead, and a rushing wall of black velvet seemed to engulf her.