"Ha ha," Mi-chan said wryly.
"Whooaa!" Jasper fell on top of Mi-chan. "Gomen."
"Get the hell off of me!"
It took great effort on Tenshi's part not to laugh at them. Instead, she scanned the area with a flashlight. They were in some cavern. It wasn't likely Neko was here and not responding to them, but the possibility existed that she had gotten injured in the fall.
Finding nothing, she pointed the beam towards a tunnel that lead out of the cavern they were in. "Check that out." Somewhere down the passage was some source of light.
Mi-chan didn't hesitate. "Let's go then," she said jumping to her feet.
The passageway led to a beautiful crystal-filled cavern. Light from the rising sun fell through a good-sized hole in the ceiling, filling the room with a brilliant radiance as it reflected off several crystals. The pool below them that took up a majority of the cavern's area danced with rainbows created by the crystals.
"Kirei," breathed Tenshi.
"Deadly," Jasper corrected her.
They turned to him. He picked a normal limestone rock up off of the ledge they were on and tossed it down into the water. It dissolved immediately.
"We had lots of these near my instructor's house on my home planet. See the crystals all around, they erode into the water and cause it to become acidic. Think acid rain, but much stronger."
"Eryx's star hydrologist�," Mi-chan muttered.
"Get off his case, Mi-chan. That's not helping Koneko," Tenshi scolded her. "She must have gotten through somehow, because she's not here."
"She probably just pranced across those crystals there," Mi-chan said, pointing to a series of crystals that could be used moderately easily as high stepping stones. They led to another ledge on the other side of the cavern, which conveniently offered them another passage to exit the cavern.
"She pranced?" Jasper raised his eyebrows.
"Neko-chan? If she didn't know about the state of the water? And upon seeing this room?"
Tenshi had to admit Neko would be enchanted with the room, and she did tend to dance around when she got excited. She probably would have pranced. "I suppose we should 'prance' across too, then." She didn't bother receiving concurrence from the others before running to the first one and jumping onto it.
"Tenshi-san, be careful!" Jasper cried.
"It's good. Sturdy. Come on!"
She jumped from crystal to crystal until she reached the other side, turning to help Mi-chan off the last step. Mi-chan didn't bother to show her the same courtesy of waiting as Tenshi gave Jasper a hand off too. She ran through the opening in the rock wall without them.
Tenshi and Jasper made their way quickly through the tunnel, almost plowing right through her when they reached the end.
There, in the huge cave they stood at the entrance to, was a dragon.
And behind its tail, unconscious, was Neko.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"How the hell did she get there?" Mi-chan asked irritably, taking out her henshin stick. This was a monster, and she was going to treat it like one. She didn't care that it wasn't assailing Earth or the Moon Kingdom. It had hurt Neko, and she was going to kill it.
Sure, it was a little bigger than the yoma she was used to. And the blue scales that covered it were not a good sign. They meant it was going to be impossible to hit it with anything but power attacks. But she could handle this. It wasn't too horribly big considering how big she had always imagined a dragon to be. And she was sure she could count on Tenshi to help.
"Electra Planet Power: Make Up!"
Now transformed into her silver and green Sailor Senshi fuku, she surveyed the scene. Tenshi, who had just transformed into Night Angel, and Jasper did as well. She was looking for opportunities to attack, but Jasper found something else.
"Night Angel, Sailor Electra, look!" He pointed. Up in the pile of rocks that lay behind the royal blue dragon was something like a nest that held a bunch of what could only be dragon eggs. And in with those eggs was a bright blue stone. "That must be what Neko-chan was trying to get."
"Okay, Night Angel, you get Neko-chan and then help me take care of this dragon, er dragoness." She supposed if the dragon was protecting her eggs, it was probably a girl.
She glared at Jasper, "I suppose you're not going to be much help, so just stand here and wait for Night Angel to drop off my sister, okay?" Honestly, at least Jian-wa would've been more useful in a battle. "If you let anything happen to her, I will personally make sure that the rest of your short life will be a living hell." Feeling better having threatened him, she departed to do battle with the monster.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Electra was great at running interference with the dragoness. Night Angel wondered how often the twins got to use their art of distraction for one of them to get around somebody they didn't want to see or something they didn't want to do. As Electra ticked off the dragoness, Night Angel suddenly found himself with a free path to get to Neko. The dragoness had flicked her tail in another direction as Electra attacked her. Night Angel ran towards Neko, only having to dodge that tail once. The dragoness was more or less ignoring him, and he was grateful for it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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