"Sailor Teleport?" Makoto repeated skeptically. She and the others stood in the lush decor of the palace palace throne room. Usagi, as was her wont, had taken the room's only available seat. She lay draped ungainly across the throne while in the corner of the room Ami rummaged through a pair of supply packs.
"Yep. That would be the quickest way to get you there, wouldn't it?"
"Well, of course it would, Usagi-chan, but how will the rest of you get back if Mako-chan and I are supposed to stay there?" Ami questioned, approaching everybody with what looked like a transparent toothpaste tube filled with chocolate pudding.
"Oh, I think I'll figure something out," Usagi replied, raising her hand with a flourish and revealing the glittering presence of the Silver Crystal held loosely within it. Makoto exchanged a look with Ami, and shrugged.
"It saves us some time, and I hate planes anyway."
Ami smiled understandingly, "Mako-chan, hold out your hands."
Makoto did so without hesitation, holding little concern over something Ami would do. The latter squeezed out a measure of what turned out to both look and feel like chocolate pudding into her cupped hands, before putting a similar measure on her own open palm. Makoto looked on quizzically. Ami rubbed her hands together and started spreading the substance up and down her arms, taking the excess and slathering it onto her lower legs, face, and neck. In front of everybody, the fair-skinned Ami was turning a deep, tanned brown. Makoto shook her head, realizing she was staring, and started to do the same to herself.
"From a distance, we may even pass as native. Closer, our facial features and speech will give us away as foreigners, but hopefully people will assume we've been there a while. It's supposed to last until we apply a counter-agent on our return."
"Good thinking," Minako nodded approvingly, and gave the spent tube a speculative look, "Say, where did you get that, anyway? That sure would be an easy way to get a tan."
"Talk with the Millennium Kingdom military, Minako-chan. they're the only ones producing it right now."
"Ah... it's expensive, then?"
"Quite."
"I see...."
Makoto chuckled at Minako's crestfallen expression, then looked over her arms and legs for any spots she might have missed. She felt somebody come close to her front as she craned her neck around to see the back of her legs, and snapped back forward to find Ami bare inches away, standing up on tiptoes. Ami's face rose, coming up to her neck,
"Everything looks fine up here, Mako-chan," she said satisfactorily, peering around at Makoto's neck and face, "How did I do?"
Ami twisted her head up and around so Makoto could inspect her similarly.
"L-looks great," Makoto stammered. Ami smiled happily. Covering the nervous effect Ami's unexpected approach had on her, Makoto picked up their packs and put them near the center of their group to be taken with them. While doing so, she glanced at Sailor Mars resting against the back of the throne, arms crossed. The Sailor Teleport plan explained why she'd shown up transformed, and the others followed suit. Taking a steadying breath when she was done, Sailor Jupiter almost wished she hadn't had to transform. The feeling that accompanied it was rather welcome, and she wouldn't relish having to give it up the moment she first stepped onto foreign--and potentially hostile--soil. A nudge on her arm shook her from her momentary reverie, and her eyes found Sailor Mercury stepping up beside her and taking her hand. Jupiter smiled, and looked to the other side to take the hand of Venus and form the circle. Jupiter almost immediately felt Sailor Moon open the channel between them, allowing their power to mingle and spread out into the air around them. The sensation of insubstantiality came swiftly after; first the lesser stuff of her hair and clothing thinned from reality until they were floating around her, lighter than air. The rest of her body followed more and more rapidly; her feet left the ground. In a rush, she felt a momentary shock of nonexistence, and then was back and solid with startling suddenness. Under her boots the ground shifted treacherously and a bright light assaulted her vision. Blinking, her eyes adjusted and she saw the other senshi around her, squinting and looking around in similar states. Sailor Venus had fallen to the ground. Jupiter extended a hand and helped her back to her feet.
They were on a beach. It was a short beach, perhaps only a hundred paces wide at most, and thinning off to a mere twenty meters at many spots. After that it looked hilly, and coated in vibrant green plant life. The air was oppressively still and silent but for the slow, rhythmic murmur of the waves over the sand. It was difficult to believe there were any living creatures but the plants for miles around, but Sailor Jupiter knew well enough not to put any faith in that misleading impression. It was far too easy to become relaxed in these sorts of peaceful surroundings. A quiet, not entirely happy laugh gently broke through that peace to her left.
"Sailor Mercury?" Jupiter asked, concerned.
"I was just thinking, when is the last time we came to the beach together?"
"It's been a while," Sailor Mars answered softly, nodding.
"Hey, stop it right now!" Sailor Moon yelled, glowering at the lot of them. They looked back at her, surprised at the outburst. "Quit telling me not to worry and then behaving like this! At least say something like, 'we'll have to do this for real when we're done' or something!"
"Now, now, Sailor Moon," Venus said placatingly, "You can't blame everybody for being a little worried. You are right, though. Can we be a little more cheerful, guys?"
Sailor Mercury nodded, but distractedly. Her hand rose and activated her visor. For a moment her eyes were distant, focusing on information only she could see. She drew a map and marker out of her pack, and made a hasty mark. Then she met Jupiter's gaze, and the two nodded. In a moment, Ami and Makoto stood in the sand with loose, practical, comfortable khaki's in place of the fuku they had worn a moment ago. Oddly enough, with all her friends by her side, Makoto didn't feel worried in the slightest, as she thought she might after leaving the stolid identity of Sailor Jupiter behind. To make herself useful and take her mind off of what was coming next, she picked her pack up off of the sand and slung it over her back, arranging the weight comfortably across both shoulders, and retrieved Ami's pack for her.
"So, Sailor Venus, you were absolutely positive when you told me that these two were playing nice now?" she heard Mars asking airily when she was walking back.
"Hey, don't talk about us like we're not even here," Makoto objected.
"Last I checked, Sailor Mars," Minako nodded, ignoring Makoto's protest.
"I'm glad," Sailor Moon said, thankfully looking at the pair being discussed as she said so. The serenity in her voice as she spoke while laying her hand over her heart told Makoto just how relieved their leader was to hear that. Following that exchange, though, the senshi only stood around awkwardly with their heels sinking into the sand. Sailor Mars coughed meaningfully, and Makoto took the initiative.
"ER, well, I guess we'll be seeing you later," Makoto said, trying to be cheerful about it. It was easy to talk about this being a necessary, even simple, excursion. But standing together on this deserted shore far from home brought the situation to a hard reality. The jungle loomed behind them, feeling more ominous than it had any reason to. Makoto and Ami drew closer together and linked hands without sharing so much as a glance.
"Right, I suppose so. Er, why don't we all go to the beach back home sometime, when this is all done?" Sailor Mars suggested, also trying to make her voice sound light.
"That sounds nice," Ami agreed, but the atmosphere between them all remained noticeably strained.
"But right now we all have places to go and people to see, eh?" Sailor Venus chimed in, as though they were leaving to go shopping and run errands.
"Sure do. Thanks for the lift, Usagi-chan," Makoto said, warming to her customary bravado. She felt Ami give her hand a squeeze and knew that one person here, at least, could see through her like still water. Sailor Moon held up her Silver Crystal with a reluctant expression on her face. Makoto smiled slowly, and gently broke contact with Ami to move beside their leader and give her a hearty clap on the shoulder.
"Now you should probably be getting back to the palace. The Queen can't just randomly disappear halfway across the world for too long. Eh, Sailor Mars?"
Mars flashed her an expression of gratitude, and nodded, "That's right. She needs to be getting back, and you two need to be getting on your way. The sooner you start out, the sooner you can be back."
Makoto pulled back, then coughed slightly as Sailor Moon stopped her with an arm-pinning embrace. Makoto rolled her eyes and gestured Ami over with a jerk of her head, so that when Sailor Moon was finished with her, their leader could give Ami the same treatment. While they finished up, Makoto warmly clasped hands with Mars and Venus, as did Ami after. Then the two who would remain stood off while the three senshi made a smaller circle. Sailor Moon held the Silver Crystal out in front of her with a serious expression on her face, and when she let go it remained floating in the air between them. Makoto watched as they joined hands and started to teleport again, a few signs of strain evident in Sailor Moon's features this time as she tapped a little deeper into herself and the others, and made up for the rest with the Crystal. There was a light, they rose into the air, and there was a flash with a kick-up of sand that made Ami and Makoto shield their eyes. When they looked again, their friends were gone.
Ami and Makoto stood there for a long moment, staring out at a vast ocean that now seemed far emptier than it had before. They started off across the sand, and it didn't take long for them to fully appreciate the change in climate. Even the short trip to the shade of the jungle canopy had the sun beating down on them like a hammer, and then even the shade provided no protection from air thick with sticky, humid warmth. As Makoto cycled air that felt almost viscous in and out of her lungs, she breathed a quiet word of thanks for the handy resistance to natural elements that the senshi enjoyed; this would not be a very fun trip without that.
They traveled abreast of one another, though Ami led the way. Their position and direction had been marked while she had access to satellite information from her visor, and now they only had to head in the right direction with the sun as an infallible compass.
"So what is our plan, anyway?" Makoto asked eventually, after they had been walking for some time.
"We're going to walk to one of the cities and see about renting a vehicle, then drive inland by the main roads. We came in here," she held up the map for Makoto to see, "So I'm taking us to Rio De Janeiro," the point Ami referred to was a short distance to the west. It would probably take them the rest of the day to get there, by Makoto's reckoning—she did know something about reading a map.
"We'll take the main roads to Cuiabá, and see what we can dig up there, then we'll make our way north to Manaus and see what we hear there. It's not much of a plan, and we'll have to keep an ear to the ground wherever we are, but that's really the best we can do."
"Sounds good enough to me," Makoto said, adjusting her shoulder-strap restlessly as she walked, "I especially like the idea of getting a vehicle."
"What did you think we were going to do, hike a few hundred miles inland?" Ami chided gently.
"I hadn't really thought about it," Makoto admitted.
They reserved more of their breath for hiking for the next few hours. The area just around the coast was hilly, and made for rough going. Though Makoto was in excellent shape, it was still enough to have her huffing and sweating, and the occasional concerned glance to Ami found her in no better condition, but no worse as well. She must have kept up swimming along with her studies.
Finally they came to a main road, a blessed break in the anxiety-inducing uniformity of the environment. After brief consideration, they decided it would be better to travel on the side of the road, remaining hidden under the foliage. That was better than traveling on a blacktop in this weather in any case, and helped to prevent potentially unfriendly eyes from spying them. Better safe than sorry in assuming how wide the enemy's eyes and ears might be spread.
It turned out that there wasn't much cause to be concerned in this instance, as they didn't see signs of any other person on the road all the way to their destination. Even having grown up in one of the larger, busier cities in the world—-and having lived in the largest, busiest for the past few years--Makoto still found Rio De Janeiro to be a fantastic sight as they neared and finally entered it. The rolling, lively hills that shaped and surrounded the city and the crisp scent of the sea detectable even underneath the other smells of a large city gave it a distinct identity apart from the "big city" atmosphere she had come to expect. They weren't there on vacation, however, thought Makoto with a slight pang of regret, and the greater part of the city seemed nothing more than a blur as Ami talked her way to finding a vehicle rental agency. Makoto felt distinctly out of place as she just stood to the rear and wished that she knew what was being said. After some of what looked to be fairly intense discussion, they left with a decidedly appropriate-feeling Jeep. It looked worn, but Ami assured her it would go where they wanted it too. Makoto felt another twinge of inadequacy as she was faced with the fact that she had never learned to drive, but Ami was quite capable in this regard. When Makoto expressed some surprise at this, the other would only modestly comment that it had seemed like a good idea to learn while she'd been studying abroad.
This provided a diversion for the pair as they used the last few hours of the day to get started driving to Cuiabá, in that Makoto decided to learn how to drive. This made it so that they covered a tad less ground than they might have otherwise.
Clunk!
"A little easier, Mako-chan, don't be so nervous. I'm not grading you," Ami said kindly. Makoto's cheeks colored. The vehicle was standard shift, so this was necessitating a great deal of such clunking at the inevitable amount of stalling out that Makoto induced.
Makoto tried again, easing off the clutch and trying to feel it "bite" as Ami told her it would. The problem was, this wasn't the newest vehicle, and she was sure it quivered and jumped about more than most modern vehicles. It was hard to differentiate any of these particular feelings.
Clunk!
Makoto clenched her teeth as the jeep lurched yet again, shaking them both.
"It's fine, Mako-chan. Here, back into neutral, try again."
She sighed, pushing in the clutch and resetting the stick--she was getting good at this part, anyway. Taking a deep breath, she turned on the engine and started letting off of the clutch with painstaking care.
"Hold on, Mako-chan," Ami interrupted her. Makoto froze, and Ami leaned over, putting a hand on each of her knees. This, Makoto couldn't help but think, was highly unfair. She tried to pay attention to what Ami was trying to tell her.
"Okay, now just do what you're doing. I'll try to help you tell when everything is happening."
Makoto nodded shortly, and continued where she'd left off.
"My, you're a little shaky," Ami noted, not unkindly. Makoto rolled her eyes to the expansive blue sky overhead. She set her shoulders, though, and steeled her muscles to the sort of fine control she was supposed to have been honing for years. She raised her foot slowly, and when it was near halfway up Ami gripped her clutch knee without warning, holding it in place. In the same moment, she pushed her other knee down, signaling her to give the engine gas. Thanks to those signals, she thought she could even feel that "bite". To her pleased surprise, Makoto felt the car roll forward.
Clu-cu-cu-clok!
Then it lurched and shuddered and stalled.
"Almost there. Try again?"
"Do we really have time for this?" Makoto pointed out, flushed with both embarrassment and frustration with herself.
"I don't think time really matters in this, Mako-chan. If you want to think about the mission, it might be necessary for you to be able to drive at some point."
Makoto shrugged as though she didn't care any which way, but felt pleased. She wasn't quite ready to give up yet. Or ever, to think of it.
After that, she really did get the hang of the transmission quickly, knowing better what feeling to watch out for. Ami made sure it was second-nature to her before they stopped, though, taking her through upshifting and downshifting and stopping and reversing and so many stalls that Makoto thought she was going to be motion sick. As orange started to bleed into the sky and the bright disk of the sun was enveloped by the horizon, Makoto found herself confidently cruising down the road as though she'd been behind the wheel for years. It probably helped that there wasn't much in the way of traffic on the road or obstacles to maneuver around, but she thought that Ami was a damn good teacher. There was the slim probability that she herself was a decent student, but Makoto—usually among the most confident and self-assured of them--doubted this somehow.
She aimed a smile at the girl she was thinking so well of, and noted a sleepily content expression on the other's face.
"Hey, Ami-chan. As long as I can move this thing around now, you think we can save some time by driving in shifts?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes, that would be nice. I didn't think I would be this tired already."
"Go ahead and catch a few winks. We just need to stay on this road for a while, right? I think I can handle that."
"Probably so. Wake me in a few hours so I can check our position, though, just to be safe."
"You got it."
Ami nodded off easily, lulled by the background noise and motion of the engine. Makoto was still fresh enough to the road that she gave it much of her attention, so it came as a surprise when she felt a thump on her shoulder. Ami had slipped over without any other support and lay on a shoulder that shifted with every move of the steering wheel . Smiling warmly, Makoto got used to using her left hand to steer, thinking that this frustrating lesson had been good for more than learning how to drive.