Double Shipwreck
“Mina...” Rei groaned as a hand went up to cover her face, elbows resting on the railing. “Why? Kami-sama why? There was a reason I told you not to go into my room...”
“Rei-chan?” When the Senshi of Fire did not respond, the Princess placed a hand on her shoulder, questioning, “Do you know what happened?”
After a long string of mumbling curses under her breath, Rei straightened and looked back at the Zephyr. “Mina-chan found the box of ammunition I stocked in my room before I left. It's not heavy artillery, but it can cause a lot of damage at point blank range.”
“Why...” Setsuna came up on Rei's other side. “And why is it that you believe Minako-san is the one responsible for it?”
“She's the captain of the ship for the rest of this week. Only she can issue a command like that. That, and she's the only one who would be stupid enough to try it.”
Ami pondered aloud, “Just out of curiosity, besides the obvious, is there a hidden reason for why Minako-san might have made a bad decision?”
“That goes without saying. Mars Crystal Power!”
In a flash of red light, Rei was replaced by Sailor Mars. Nervously, the Princess whimpered, “Rei-chan? Just what are you planning on doing?”
“Making sure Mina knows what happens when she attacks the ship I'm on. Mars...”
Realizing what Rei was planning, Setsuna objected, “Mars! Wait- don't! That's a wooden ship-!”
But Mars ignored her as she pulled back the string of her flaming bow. “...Flame Sniper!”
Arrow released, they could only watch as the arrow caught the speck that was Mina, and tacked her to the burning cabin wall by the hem of her shirt. Squealing with surprise, frustration, and a tint of fear, Mina tossed and turned and struggled to get out of the fire's wrath, even as Makoto came around the corner and doused the fire with one giant bucket of water.
But fire, especially that borne from Mars, is rather stubborn, even when against it's natural foe, water. Thus so, even after backing mostly out of the water's line of offense, it regained its territory, quickly spreading in its quest for the conquest of oxygen.
Mercury, computer analyzer covering her eyes, quickly assessed the situation and set about an attempt to rectify it. “Mercury... Aqua Rhapsody!”
Whilst a good majority of the patrons' attention was on the horizontal torrent of water crashing from one ship to the other, Mercury breathlessly explained, “I hope that wasn't too late. If that fire ignites the remainder of the gun-”
A nuclear bomb could not have been set off quicker than the resulting explosion that obliterated both ships in one blast. Of course, given the fact that nuclear weapons had yet to be formed, such a comparison would be hard to prove. Suffice to say, the explosion looked like an infantile Godzilla's plate of cauliflower, wilted and smoking from his bad breath.
The Princess, despite being the ditz that she most commonly portrayed, managed to do some split-second decision making, whipping out the Crystal and preserving both sets of crew members. As they were keeping float by holding onto various forms of debris, Neptune used her influence to convince the waves to carry them to the closest piece of land, while Uranus manipulated the winds to blow the smoke and bad air away from them, lest they die of pollution rather than drowning or an accident before their time was up.
Separated from her peers as the wooden planks had collapsed from underneath, Mars hastily looked around for a familiar face. For the sake of calling, she shouted, “Princess! Mina! Where are you!”
A few moments later, she heard more than saw a clutter of bubbles on the surface of the water, before the Princess' head bobbed up. Seeing as how she had nothing to hold onto, Mars swam over to her and proffered the other end of the railing she was gripping. She took it gratefully, before looking around to see what she could find of the others.
For having sunk so close to each other, Mars found it rather startling how far apart they all were. Certainly, she could see the outline of pinpricks that was the rest of the crew, and the soaked fukus that revealed the locations of the Senshi, but they were still only that- pinpricks. Regardless, she and the Princess managed to drift onto a deserted beach, and voluntarily climbed to higher ground in an attempt to prevent the current from taking them back out to sea. Looking around once more, Mars confirmed what her mind told her she should have known based on instinct: they were alone on a deserted beach.
Meanwhile, approximately a five kilometer radius from any other survivors, a zonked out Venus, and a body-bearing Pluto succeeded in collapsing on the bank. Further along the perimeter of the same island, Jupiter and Mercury emerged from the waters. Safely tucked in between the midpoint of the area between Jupiter/Mercury and Princess/Mars, was the duo of Uranus and Neptune.
I'd end there, but that'd be cruel, and an utter waste of a chapter, now wouldn't it? Instead, be patient whilst I rotate the pairings, ne? Don't worry, it will still be Minako/Rei and Usagi/Mamoru... for the most part. ;) ---
A$# & °;o;° (Ash/Pyro and Meatball-head/Crybaby/Gluttonous Pig)
“Ugh... I think I could have lived without a near point blank explosion of that size.” Mars wrung out the majority of water in her hair, which had come out of its braid in the tussle of water and wind, while she inquired, “Princess? Are you all right?”
To which a low wail colored the response. Turning with an annoyed glare, Mars was about to berate the Princess for being a crybaby- out of instinct and habit- before she really caught sight of her companion. She nearly choked in an attempt to hold in her laughter, which still broke out after a few seconds.
The white dress that now clung to her like a second skin had taken on a ragged flare, as if it had snared sharp thorns or rocks underneath the water. The moon-shaped earrings seemed to have been nearly ripped from her ears in the current, leaving two bare, red ears. Her eyes were screwed up in that way when she was needlessly whiny, but still felt some sort of negative emotion ranging from sad, to bad, to mad (though the latter was very rare in and of itself). The most comical feature of all, however, had to be the hair. A large patch of red seaweed had settled on the crown of her head, with the long snakes of blond hair wrapping around it. Even with a pair of soggy spherical ornaments, the scene upon the Princess' head looked very much indeed like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.
Once the laughter subsided, Mars crawled over and carefully untangled hair from seaweed, and set about squeezing the excess amount out of her Princess' hair. At the absence of teasing, the Princess blinked hard on her tears, and looked up to watch Mars' deft movements. After a few moments, a notion occurred to her that she felt was worthy of mention.
“Rei...?”
“Hmm?”
“Aren't you going to detransform?”
As Mars undid the Princess' “meatballs,” she shook her head softly. “Nah, see- my hair's still drying. I'll light up a little bonfire later to help it along, but for now, I want to make sure it's dry enough to not effect my normal outfit before I lose the already wet uniform. You... I don't know... maybe we'll go find some large leaves to cover you while your dress dries. You'll catch a cold at this rate, you know.”
“Are you... don't you worry about how the others are?”
“I think I would have noticed a significant change in your expressions if anything bad happened to any of them. I can sense it too- they're all fine. Waterlogged, maybe, but fine.”
After waiting another few minutes for the silence to settle, the Princess interrupted it again. “Why are you being so nice to me? You aren't normally like this...”
“Mmm... I don't know, really. I just don't feel like it, I suppose. But really, I'm serious about you getting a cold if you stay in wet clothes for long. Just-” Mars paused as she finished putting up the second sphere of hair. “There. All right, come on, meatball head, let's go find you some suitable 'garments'. Who knows? We might even find another living soul here.”
“...Soul? Like as in 'ghost'?”
At the tension that suddenly grew from the Princess' grasp, Mars laughed lightly and shook her head. “Soul as in still intact with a living body. Like the other Senshi?”
As they traipsed into the somewhat dense forestry that always seems to accompany a previously uninhabited island, Mars lit a small flame in the palm of her hand, allowing it to warm both of their bodies and clothes. Apparently unable to let the silence prevail, as well as a growing desire to make use of her companion's currently gentle nature, no matter how short it would be, the Princess asked, “So is it true? Are you really in love with Mina-chan?”
The flame wavered momentarily as a blush came unbidden to Mars' cheeks. Taking a deep, calming breath, she responded, “Yes. And it's a mutual feeling.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me.”
“No, I mean how do you know? Like how you feel?”
There was a short pause mid-step as Mars contemplated the question, but soon answered, “I don't know... it's the Senshi of Love... with her... you just know. There's no 'how' to it.”
“Mmm...” The Princess hummed as she rocked back and forth on her heels, leaving her with a strange gait to her walk. Eventually, she whispered, “I'm happy for you.”
At that, Mars blinked in surprise. Upon further digestion of the words, she sighed. “Thank you... I suppose. From you, I wouldn't expect much of anything else, but you wouldn't happen to know why Setsuna is... uncertain about it, do you?”
Mentally, the Princess nodded, portrayed outwardly by a small tilt of her head. “Of course I do. Isn't it obvious? Mina-chan is the leader of the Senshi- er... well, from what Mother told me, she's technically only the leader of the Inner Senshi, but the Outers will probably listen to her... if we're all together. Anyways... besides the whole girl-girl thing, I think it's mostly because having a relationship might- in the words of Luna- 'deflect your duty of protecting the Princess in favor of protecting the Senshi you love'.” At that, the Princess sighed and shrugged. “If you know me, you know if you can find love, I'll back you all the way, especially considering we're in this for the long haul. I don't want you to spend all that time just looking after me- especially considering I have Mamo-chan, but... you know, traditionalists will always be traditionalists. Now if you could get the others to 'follow in your footsteps', you might win the case based on a majority ruling of the Senshi...”
“If the leader was the first of the 'revolution', wouldn't that be biased then? Of course she'd judge in her own favor.”
The Princess chuckled nervously. “I suppose that means they'd pick someone else as judge hmm? Bah, you're either all for it, or completely against it- if you aren't either, than you're probably too indecisive to make a decision.”
“Maybe...” Mars let out a soft laugh. “Maybe we can propose a new Senshi law to be passed for Mina's birthday... or mine come to think of it.”
“Sure, if we can get back by then. Rei-chan... just how are we supposed to get back home without either of our ships?”
Rei looked over at her Princess as her Fire whined for a burst of more energy. “I doubt you'll like the prospects, Princess.”
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