As soon as Serena appeared in the doorway of the partition, Rei shot up from her seat. The two friends embraced and tears began rolling down their cheeks.
“Oh, Rei. I was so scared.”
“I was too.” Rei said, “I was too.” Rei led Serena to her seat. The blonde girl sat down and Amy, overcome, threw her arms around Serena’s shoulders. Mina reached up and took one of Serena’s hands, giving it a squeeze. Lita, too far away to do anything, managed a smile from her trembling mouth. Serena returned it.
“Okay,” Amy sniffled, “we have to work on some sort of plan.”
“Yes, Rod, I do know.” Burke retorted, “I just saved a teenage girl’s life and bought us some time before anyone dies.” He picked up a telephone receiver. “Now you call our Ambassador to France and see just what the hell you can do about this!”
“Excuse me, sirs.” a strange voice called. From the shadows stepped a man wearing a cape and top hat.
“Oh, my god.” Burke stared, amazed.
“Who in the bloody hell are you?” the SAS director didn’t recognize the man.
“I am Tuxedo Mask.”
White cocked his head. “That’s right. You’re friends with that Sailor Moon.” Tuxedo Mask nodded. “Well how the hell did you get here so damn fast?”
“I have my ways.” the masked man said.
“So can you help us?” Burke asked, hopeful.
“Not directly, no.” he shook his head, “But I can report to you something of value. You see, the Sailor Scouts are on that plane.”
“How’d they get there?” White was bewildered. But as Tuxedo Mask opened his mouth to explain, White held his hands up, “Let me guess. ‘They have their ways,’ right.” the only response was a nod.
“I’m sure that the Scouts are in the middle of planning something.”
“We’ve got to tell my men.” Burke said, “We could use this.”
“Fine,” White agreed, “But we can’t let the press know. The terrorists will get a hold of it and use it against us.”
“Not much that we can use.” the short-haired girl said, “I’ve noted that the terrorists spend most of their time in the port aisle of the airplane.”
“The what?” Serena asked.
“That means left.” Rei explained. She had a seat on that aisle.
“We need some type of weapon...”
“I can make a pepper bomb easy.” Rei offered, “That is, if they let me go back to the galley to get some stuff.”
“Okay.” Amy typed on her tiny keyboard, “That just might do the trick. Finally, their leader is up in the cockpit. If I can get a voice print of one of the others, I might be able to coax him down.”
“The operative word here is ‘opportunity,’ guys.” Mina said, “If they give us one, we take it. So Rei, you get that stuff. Amy you get that voiceprint. Everyone be ready for something.”
“Right.” they all said in unison.
“It was just reported to us that the Sailor Scouts are secreted on board the plane. And they’re probably planning something.” Burke told them, “We have to give them enough time to pull off their plans. I also want this fact figured into any back-up rescue plan that comes to me.” Everyone gave some sign they intended to obey, then returned to work.
Only one person didn’t return completely to his work. He sneaked away to make a call.
The terrorist they had decided to label Number Three looked up from his pacing. He smiled, not too warmly, at her and asked “do you need something?”
“Yeah, can I go to one of the galleys and get some stuff? We’re kinda hungry here.”
“What would you like?”
“I don’t know what they have.” Rei tried to act embarrassed, “Can I just go look?” The terrorist thought it over, then nodded. “Thanks,” Rei chirped and allowed him to usher her to one of the galleys. Rei went inside.
“Hmmmm, cookies!” she grabbed a sack of chocolate chip from one of the shelves. Rei looked around some more. “Hey, they have meat for sandwiches!” and she took some. She also snatched some salt and finely ground pepper. “Tabasco sauce.”
“Tabasco sauce?” Three asked, vexed.
“You don’t like spicy food?” Rei looked at him innocently, “You poor, deprived man.” Finally, Rei took a coffee filter. When asked why, she simply said, “I like playing with them.” Three escorted her back to her seat.
“You got cookies.” Serena said, trying to act brightened.
“Here, Amy.” Rei handed the shorter girl the bread and sandwich meat.
“My favorite.” Amy’s smile didn’t appear forced, but Rei knew otherwise. As the four other girls started putting the real food to use, Rei spread the coffee filter in front of her and began her work. She unscrewed the cap to the peppershaker and began spreading the pepper around. Next, she poured some of the Tabasco on for a more devastating effect. Then, she folded the filter into a ball-shape. She needed one more thing.
“Mina.”
“Yeah?” the pretty blonde looked up.
“Gimme your hair bow.”
“What? No!”
“Just give it to her!” Serena growled. Obligingly, Mina untied the big red bow, loosening her hair, and handed it to Rei.
“Thanks.” Rei said, tying it around her newly-made pepper bomb to hold it together. There, finished. Now she needed a chance to use it.
“Once again, an Air France 747 bound for Paris has been hijacked. So far no one had been killed. The terrorists are demanding the release of Carlos Sanchez, better known under his operating name, the Jackal.” A piece of paper was slid across the desk, and the reporter picked it up. He looked over it, then returned his eyes to the camera. “We now have reports that the Sailor Scouts are on board the aircraft...”
“Oh, no.” Luna whispered to herself, hanging her head.
Amy, seizing the opportunity, pulled up the recording program on her computer.
“Go back there and look.” Two ordered Three through the aft partition. Three went aftward. Soon a tone played, indicating the loudspeaker had been turned on.
“Attention, Sailor Scouts,” the voice of their leader addressed them from overhead, “We have just chosen a passenger. If you do not show yourself in exactly sixty seconds...this poor person will be shot. Sixty seconds later...we will shoot another. If you do not want a plane full of dead people, you will show yourselves now. You have sixty seconds...mark.”
Rei looked over at Serena, who nodded. With that, the black-haired girl shot up from her seat and tossed her little package. Her aim was true, and Number Two shrieked in pain as a cloud of pepper mixed with a splash of red sauce obscured his face. It found it’s way into his eyes, and it burned as if someone had jabbed him with a dozen molten needles. In pain and surprise, he loosened the grip on his weapon.
Rei pounced and snatched the MP10, and in a liquid motion perfected in many years of martial arts training, she pivoted on the ball of her foot, dropped the ring-shaped sight over Number Three’s belly, and pulled the trigger.
To the unfortunate terrorist, it would feel like a devilishly hard punch, as if someone had hit him just below the sternum with spiked gloves. It was followed by warm wetness and he dropped his own gun and fell to the floor. The shot was enough to disable, but was not fatal.
Rei, meanwhile, had no time to admire her handiwork. In another fluid move, she turned back around and jabbed the butt of her gun into Two’s face, right at the point were his nose and forehead met. The blow broke his nose and knocked him cold.
Serena, Amy, Mina, and Lita were already piling out of their seats.
“Did’ja get it?” Rei asked Amy.
“Yep.” Amy replied, “I’ll just type in a phrase and the computer’ll say it in Number Two’s voice.
“Great.” Rei said, tossing her MP10 to Mina. She walked over to the little girl. “Are you okay?” The little girl sniffled, but nodded. The girl’s parents collected her, and Rei turned back to the other four.
“Okay, we’re ready to go.” Amy said. She had picked up the other machine pistol, “What we’ll do is: I’ll hide under the stairs and play our little sound byte. When he comes down, I’ll trip him, Serena will grab his gun, and Lita will knock him out.”
“Good plan.” Rei agreed, “I’ll stay behind and tie up these two.”
Five steps from the bottom, his right foot refused to obey him. He flailed, and fell forward. The girl he had threatened a few hours before stepped from behind a corner and snatched the sub-machine-gun loose from his grip. Another girl, this one tall with brown hair, reached out and took him by the neck. Suddenly the carpet came rushing up to punched him in the face.
“The terrorists have been taken care of,” she reported. Bewildered but relieved, the flight engineer nodded, and Amy left.
“Sailor Scouts? Us?” Serena laughed. They continued to their seat, not answering the question. About the same time as the passengers started clapping for them, the Scouts exchanged teary embraces. It was over.
David Burke and his team had flown down as soon as they heard the pilot’s chosen landing zone and arrived about the same time as the Air France plane. They were told who the heroes were immediately and given descriptions. Five girls, one with thigh-length black hair, another with bottom-length blonde hair adorned with a red hairbow, a tall brunette with a ponytail, a short girl with dark blue hair, and a blonde with a hairstyle resembling meatballs. After a lot of searching, they finally found them.
“Excuse me! I’m David Burke with the British Hostage Rescue Service. I heard about your actions on the airplane. Good work.”
They all thanked him, all too worn out to smile.
Well, uh, if you’ll follow me,” he gestured, “we need to take you five in to debrief you. Y’know, get a full report.”
The short one with blue hair looked into his eyes. It was obvious she was tired. “Look, Mr. Burke, we just spent the last ten and a half hours with guns pointed at us. We’re tired, and we really don’t want to be bothered. Even now I bet the press is being directed this way to ask us a gazillion questions.”
“An interview later, then?”
“Maybe,” the black-haired one said, “After we get some sleep.”
“Very well then.” Burke nodded. He understood, “Would you like a police escort to your hotel?”
“Hey, as long as we don’t have to wait around for a taxi.” The one with the red hair bow shrugged.
“Very well then. I’ll get it arranged.”
“Thank you.”