The scouts hadn’t even made it all the way to the lab when a technician came running down the hallway in a panic. Mars tried to stop him but he resisted and managed to get away. It didn’t matter though; a wave of others came running down the hallway. Mars managed to snag one of the women.
“What’s going on? Why is everyone running away?”
The panicked woman didn’t seem like she wanted to talk but she also knew that Mars wasn’t going to let her go.
“The object… it… it… was a pod… cracked when… when it dropped…” the woman answered trying to talk between gasps of breath. “Something came out… started sucking life… barely made it out…”
“Is it running free in there?”
“No… we managed to lock it in the clean room before we escaped…”
Mars nodded. “Thanks,” she said as she let the panicked woman go. “Well what now?”
Mercury thought about it for a moment then took a deep breath. “Well we need to check it out for ourselves and someone needs to let the Queen know that we have a problem down here.”
“I’ll go,” Venus replied. “If it’s some sort of gas monster, my power will probably be the least effective against it.”
“Alright, but hurry back just in case,” Mars said.
With that Venus nodded and hurried off. The other scouts continued towards the lab. When they arrived they saw multiple bodies on the floor. Every one of them was a motionless, dried out husk.
“This is awful…” Natalie said, her voice hushed from the shock she felt at the sight of them. “How could anyone do something like this?”
“Unfortunately there’s a part of you that kind of gets used to this. We saw it more in the old days though, not so much now though,” Jupiter replied.
“I don’t know as you ever really get used to it,” Mercury said, her voice solemn and soft.
“I hope I don’t have to,” Natalie said as she knelt down beside one of the dried up scientists closing its eternally terrified eyes.
They had barely had proper time to look around when they heard something slam against the clean room glass. It sounded like a mallet. When they looked to see the source of the noise, they saw this hideous monster with tentacles coming from its back. In each one, there was a person clutched tightly, looking just as dead and hollow as the ones they had already seen. In turn, the monster slammed each body against the glass in an attempt to free itself. It was also saying something but they couldn’t hear a word. Mercury went over to a control panel and pressed a button.
“…I will have you all! Let me out of here!” the monster’s voice hissed.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Mercury said into the microphone.
“Fools! I am the great and powerful Nexia! I will consume you all and rule this world!”
“Not likely alien scum,” Jupiter said. Her voice was filled with contempt for the creature.
This made Nexia all the madder. With refueled anger the creature pounded harder and harder on the glass. Mercury knew the glass wasn’t going to hold too much longer. They had to figure out a plan. Mercury tapped away at the control panel and its attached computer trying to figure out what they were dealing with in more detail.
“From what I can tell, it seems like she uses the life forces of people to form herself and gain strength. As long as we can keep her from draining anyone else we might have a chance.”
“But that still leaves us with the trouble of destroying her without letting her out…” Mars replied.
Natalie felt horrible this entire time. It had been her fault that the capsule had cracked. If she had aimed right it never would have fallen. She had to do something to fix this.
“This is my fault. Please, let me try to fix it.”
“Charon…” Jupiter started but Natalie cut her off.
“No Jupiter, I need to do this.”
“But it’s not your fault. We need to work together…”
“No. I didn’t do what I needed to do before. I didn’t aim the portal right and the capsule fell and cracked. I’m not about to let you guys put your lives on the line to clean up my mistake.”
Mars stepped over to Natalie and stared at her. Then out of nowhere, Mars slapped Natalie across the face.
“Hey! What was that for?!” Natalie yelled.
Mars crossed her arms and looked at Natalie, her gaze stern and almost cold. “Someone had to smack some sense into you. I swear, you remind me of the Queen in her early days as a scout, always running in without thinking and getting herself in trouble. Look, we all make mistakes OK? It happens but we can’t just let you go in there half cocked and get yourself killed. We work as a team around here. We make mistakes together, we fix them… TOGETHER. Got it?”
Jupiter shook her head, chuckling a bit. “Way to lay down the law there Mars.” She then went over to Natalie and put her hand on Natalie’s shoulder. “Look, Mars is right. We always stick together, that’s how it is, and that’s how we were always able to protect everyone. Our power comes from our trust and friendship. I figured you’d have known that given that you said you read all about us.”
Natalie couldn’t help but to laugh. She should have known better. How long had she been watching the anime? How many times had she read the manga? More than she could count. Shaking it off Natalie looked at the other scouts. “OK, but I have an idea and if it is going to work it’ll need all of us.”
“No problem Charon. What did you have in mind?” asked Jupiter.
“Well we can’t let it out so I’m thinking maybe we can open the door…”
Mercury interrupted her. “I’m sorry but it seems that the door is jammed.”
“Of course it is,” Natalie said with a sigh. “Well then we’ll have to make one of our own.” Natalie held her staff, looking determined. “I’ll make a portal. I should be able to get this one to work better since it just has to be in this one spot.”
Mars looked at her a bit concerned. She was all for allowing her to practice her power to get a handle on it but this was a bit too important, too much on the line, if it went wrong again. Natalie saw the look on her face but it didn’t put a dent in Natalie’s resolve and determination. She could do this and she knew it.
“Once I have the portal open, you guys fire away at it, getting it as weak as possible so that we can contain it again. Maybe, if we get lucky we can even get the life energy back to some of the people too.”
As Natalie finished her explanation, Venus returned, Queen Serenity right behind her.
“If you can weaken it, I can certainly return the life to these people,” the Queen said.
Natalie turned and smiled at the Queen. She wanted nothing more than to help these people because she still felt guilty about all of this happening in the first place.
“Alright, are we ready to do this?” Jupiter asked.
They all nodded and took their positions. Natalie stood behind the others with the Queen. She had no sooner lifted her staff to open the portal than the glass in front of them broke. All this time the monster had still been beating away at the glass and had finally broken through. Natalie’s first instinct was to shield the Queen.
Mercury took the first shot. “Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!” she called out unleashing a blast at the monster. It knocked Nexia backwards but that wouldn’t hold it long.
“Mars Flame Sniper!” called out Mars as a blast of fire shot into the monster. Her attack wounded Nexia causing her to writhe in pain but it still hadn’t been enough. Nexia continued to come towards them.
“Such powerful energy! I will have it for myself! I am more powerful than you and shall have you and this world, no this entire system, all for myself!!”
“Let me give it a try. Venus Love and Beauty Shock!” called out Venus as she unleashed an intense wave of energy at Nexia knocking her back again. “Keep it up scouts! We have to weaken her!”
“My turn. Jupiter Oak Evolution!”
The scouts kept pounding away, launching attack after attack, each time knocking her back but not enough to do enough damage.
Natalie stayed with the Queen but she wanted to fight. How could she though? She didn’t have any offensive power that she knew of but she couldn’t just sit here either. The scouts were taking a beating, they couldn’t take much more. The more attacks they made, the angrier the monster became. Finally Nexis had had enough, her tentacles lashed out grabbing a hold of the tired inner scouts.
“Now annoying brats, your lives will be mine!” Nexia screamed as she started to squeeze the life from them.
“No!” Natalie yelled as she leapt forward and pointed her staff at the creature. Something was brewing deep within her and it felt like it could burst out of her at any second. “Charon Spatial Rift!” she called. A massive blast of energy came from the light within the lantern atop Natalie’s staff crashing into the monster. At first it didn’t appear as it had had any effect on the monster but after a moment Nexia blew apart. The pieces fell to the ground along with the other scouts.
Natalie just stood there, her eyes wide, her jaw agape. She couldn’t believe what had just happened, that she had just done this. Serenity placed her hand on Natalie’s shoulder. “Exactly what I’d expect from an outer scout. Good job Charon.” She then walked over to the remains of the monster and using her power, she extracted the last remaining life from the monster reducing it to dust. As she did, the life returned to the people in the lab. Slowly they all started to come back and wake up.
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