Tuxedo Kamen smiled grimly, black hair falling into his mask covered eyes as he tossed a rose, shattering a mercenary's face plate. Swiftly he followed up, hammering the armored figure with his cane until he dropped. "How are we doing?" Sailor Moon called as she scythed out a energy bolt, dissolving armored suits to rose petals and revealing stunned half naked men and women. Her blonde hair glittered, staff gleaming as the senshi scanned the battlefield. The headquarters of Bioware was in flames, mercenaries and AD Police forces battling it out in the streets. The police were badly outgunned but fought on valiantly even as the mercs cut them down... until the Senshi arrived, of course. Now the tide was turning, slowly but surely. "We seem to be doing pretty well," Sailor Mars answered her, the raven haired woman leaping up smoothly into the air. She cried out and gestured, "Mars Flame Sniper!" then cut the legs out from under a mercenary battlesuit. Sailor Saturn struck gracefully with her polearm, tearing through the enemy. "I just wish I knew where Sailor Venus disappeared to," she murmured, spinning her weapon to cut down several of the incoming missiles. "Dead Scream," Sailor Pluto murmured, a sphere of destructive energy sweeping from the end of the black haired woman's time staff to tear a mercenary transport apart. "We'll find out soon enough," she said. Working in two groups the Sailor Senshi were demolishing the mercs, the outers on one side, the inners on the other as they converged on the center of the mercenary force, supporting the battered AD Police officers. From the side a voice loudly declared, "May I have your attention please!" Everyone turned to see a group of figures being herded out of the damaged Bioware building. Several of the heads of the company were being pushed out reluctantly by the human forms of Luna and Artemis along with Sailor Venus. "Surrender," she called to the mercs, "you can't save these men, anyway." One of the mercs raised his combat rifle, almost looking like he was going to surrender.... then he dropped it into firing position, spraying them with firepower. Before Venus could react the executives were cut down in a splash of red, only their superhuman reflexes saving her, Luna and Artemis from possibly suffering the same fate. "No!" the sandy haired Sailor Uranus yelled in fury. With a few words she sent her Worldshaking attack to cut the assassin down, then the Senshi tore into the enemy with a new drive. In only a few moments it was finally over, the armored enemy subdued. "They killed their own employers," Mercury murmured, barely feeling Mars' comforting hand on her arm, "what are we dealing with?" "Lets find out," Sailor Nepture nodded to Uranus. Smoothly Uranus stalked over to one of the captured mercs, casually ripping him out of his armor in a startling show of strength. "You just saw what I did to your armor," she purred, eyes narrowed, "Do you want to see what I can do to you? Talk!" The black haired young man looked up at her in terror, his brown eyes wide in fear. "I didn't..." he started, then blurted out, "Kimura told me this would be a crowd suppression job, not something like this!" "Kimura?" Neptune asked coldly. "He was our rep at Nergal... I don't know who he reported to, though," he offered quickly. "Supposedly there's something under Megatokyo, they have to have control of the city to get at it!" He stammered, adding, "That's all I know." "You ever want a job at the AD Police just ask," one female officer noted with a shy smile as they hauled the mercs off, "you got the intimidation down." "Thanks," Uranus gave her a charming smile, enjoying seeing the girl blush. "Come on, love," Neptune said with a sigh, firmly grabbing Uranus by the arm and then dragging her away. "But I was just..." Uranus started. "I know exactly what you were doing," Neptune gave her a dangerous look, "and you're going to pay for it later." "If you two are done playing?" Sailor Jupiter asked them with a sigh, "I think we've got bigger problems to deal with." Tuxedo Kamen smiled slightly, "I think we can all guess what they're after?" "The old NERV facilities beneath Megatokyo," Sailor Moon agreed promptly, "there might be technology left there after General Misato Katsuragi sealed it up in the 2020s." "So who is this Nergal?" Venus asked, the blonde raising an eyebrow questioningly. "A engineering company, mostly," Mercury replied her promptly, "but they have their fingers in a lot of pies... ship construction, biotech, human resources and exotic energy sources." "Then let's go pay Nergal a visit," Sailor Saturn offered calmly, her violet eyes carrying a dangerous twinkle in them. "No," Sailor Moon surprised them by saying, "we need to pass the information on to the AD Police headquarters, first. If we don't coordinate all our activities, we could just end up getting into each others way." "Natsuna said she was going to AD Police headquarters," Venus said approvingly as she drew out a cellphone and dialed, "she can...." "What's wrong?" Jupiter asked as Venus dialed another number, her expression oddly blank. "Natsuna isn't answering," Venus said grimly, "and the AD Police emergency number is down." Before anyone could say anything she was gone, bouncing up to the rooftops then racing towards AD Police headquarters. "You don't think...?" Mars asked as the group raced to try to catch up to Venus, the streets below them either strangely empty or filled with the rubble of combat. "I hope not," Tuxedo Kamen answered grimly. As they neared headquarters the sounds of combat grew louder, as did the bitter scent of smoke. Scattered around the building wrecked mercenary armors were crumpled, but the front of the building was ruined, bodies of officers laying in the wreckage. They raced inside then up a nearby stairway to where the sounds of combat continued. The halls of the upper levels were filled with smoke, bodies of mercs and police officers scattered around. They ran until they reached the battle, mercs fighting to break through a last defense of the building.... The mercs didn't know what hit them. The senshi were like a band of furies, tearing into the mercenaries with a passion different from the last battle. The bodies of AD Police officers haunted them as they attacked, calling for justice, and the senshi were determined to deliver it. Once the last enemy armor was reduced to rubble they ran to the surviving officers, Venus in the lead. "What happened?" Sailor Venus demanded even as her eyes searched the faces of the frighteningly small group of survivors. "They must have been watching us," the young man said bitterly, "they jammed communications then hit us after we deployed troops to make arrests." "Where is Chief McNicol?" Sailor Moon asked, despite what her instincts were telling her happened to him. "Dead," another woman spoke up grimly, "he and the last of the K suits attempted to hold off the mercs several levels below." Venus couldn't hold herself back, "Has anyone seen a older, redheaded civilian? I'm almost certain she was here when this attack started...." "If it's who I think it is," he said tentatively, blonde hair falling into his eyes, "she picked up a rifle and was helping with the defense below." Venus turned and was gone, racing back down stairs to where they had passed several fallen AD Police armors. She hesitated, then began to dig through the wreckage to gently lay the fallen officers aside, looking for a certain familiar face. Leon McNicol looked peaceful when she found his body, the grown haired officer trying to shield someone with his body.... "Natsuna," Venus breathed out. With shaking hands Venus felt desperately for a pulse, but she knew it was a waste of time. Someone with these bullet wounds, the blood lost around her... there was nothing that they could do. Unaware that the other senshi had come Venus simply held Natsuna close to her and cried.
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