I don't own these characters (except for the ones that I create).  Naoko 
Takeuchi does, along with many large mega-million dollar companies.  If you see 
something in my stories that you like, please ask before you use it.
	Hi!  I'd just like to thank the guys who have test read everything that 
I've written, including this.  Thanks, guys!  But anyway...

Shadows From the Past
by: M. H. Torringjan

Part Four: The Cold Shoulder

	Mina awoke early the next morning to a sleeping Artemis at the foot of her 
bed.  She sat up and rubbed her eyes.  She petted the tired cat, who yawned and 
stood up.
	Mina was in her kitchen, waiting for breakfast, in five minutes.  She 
didn't have much time, because she had slept a little bit late.  She couldn't 
wait long enough, so she just grabbed a toaster pastry to eat on her way to 
school.  On her way to school, she came across Andrew, who was going for a 
morning stroll.
	"I want to know if we can trust you with our secret," Mina said to him 
after they had talked for a little while.
	"Hey, I've kept it this long.  I'm solid!  I would have no reason to tell 
anyone."  Mina was holding off on telling him about Michael until they were 
positive that they could trust him with everything. 
	"Well, I've got to get on to school now, so if you would excuse me..." 
Mina said.
	"Well, don't let me keep you.  I'm going to some classes that I've signed 
up for myself."
	"Really?  What are you going to study?"
	"Computers.  I'm hoping that my parents will give me a job at their 
computer shop.  They might not, considering how I handled their arcade."
	"Now, that wasn't your fault."
	"That's what I said, but they wouldn't believe me.  I told them that a 
monster and the Sailor Scouts had done it."
	"Well, we could go and show them..." Mina began.
	"No, thanks.  I don't want them angrier at me than they already are."
	"Why would they be angry at you?"
	"Because they'd think that it was my fault, too."  A silence ensued which 
lasted for a little while.  Mina glanced at Andrew from time to time, watching 
his expressions.
	"Well, I've got to be going on to school now," Mina said quickly.
	"As do I," Andrew said.  "Later!"  They parted their ways and headed off 
in the directions of their destinations.

	Halfway across town, Serena was just waking up.  Amazingly enough, her 
alarm clock wasn't going off.  She attributed that to going to sleep so early.  
Luna was awake as well, laying on the floor beside Serena's bed.  When Serena 
put her foot out of the bed, and it accidentally landed on Luna's tail, causing 
Luna to yell out in pain.
	"Oh, Luna, I'm sorry!  I didn't see you down there!  Are you all right?" 
Serena asked concernedly.
	"I'm fine, just my pride that's bruised a bit," Luna said.
	"Honey, who're you talking to?" Mrs. Tsukino said, sticking her head in 
the door.
	"I was just apologizing to Luna for stepping on her tail," Serena said 
nervously.
	"I thought I heard someone else, though..."
	"You're dreaming," Serena said.  "You must have been hearing things.  So, 
what's for breakfast this morning?"
	"You're actually planning on coming down for breakfast this morning?" 
Serena's mother asked, slightly amazed.
	"I went to bed early last night, so I'm going to get up early this 
morning.  Unless, of course, you have anything against that..."
	"No, of course not.  You come on down.  We're having waffles."
	"Oh, boy!"  Serena jumped out of bed and got dressed for school as soon as 
her mother had left.  She went downstairs and was actually able to sit down at 
the table for once.  She had about fifteen minutes before she had to leave and 
get to school on time.
	After she ate, she left the house at a leisurely pace, a rare occurrence 
for her.  She arrived with five minutes to socialize before class.  The first 
person who she talked to was Michael.
	"Hey, Michael!  You seen Mina this morning?" Serena asked playfully.
	"No.  I don't see her on my way to school.  I wish that I did, though.  
Now, Rigel wanted me to talk to you about something Scout related."
	"Not so loud!  Do you want the other kids to find out about that?" Serena 
scolded quietly.  "Now, what did he want?"
	"He wanted to find out if you could get me a communicator."
	"Sorry, but you're talking to the wrong person.  The communicators are 
Luna's and Amy's department.  They're too complicated for me."
	"Okay, then how about this?  Can we arrange a meeting this afternoon after 
school?  I need to find out some things about our current mission."
	"Okay.  I'll arrange that with the others at lunch."  Just then, the bell 
rang, and they were forced to sit down.  Michael took the seat behind Serena 
again, because Amy wasn't there still.  Serena was dreading the quiz that day in 
math.  Luckily, the quiz was the first thing that they took.  Serena was able to 
leech a couple of answers off of Michael before Ms. Haruna began to get 
suspicious.  She finished the test last in the class, and she thought that even 
Amy would have beat her out if she had been there.

	Rubeus looked through his mirror with attention to his next target.  It 
was the cat, Hercules.  It should be easy enough to take the cat.  It was fat 
and couldn't run very fast.  As an added bonus, the Scouts would be in school.  
They wouldn't be able to stop any attempt to kidnap this Carrier.  He summoned 
the Scouts to him.
	"Yes, my master?" Jupiter asked.
	"We await your command," Mercury said.
	"I want you to go and capture the carrier named Hercules.  It's an easy 
enough task, so don't botch it up."
	"We won't," Jupiter said, eager to please her master.  Mercury seemed 
equally as loyal, but inside, a battle raged between two opposing forces.  One 
of pure evil, one of good.  They fought for supremacy, and the evil side was 
winning at the moment.  Mercury had a headache from the things going on in her 
head.
	As the two walked past the prisoner room, a voice called out for Mercury.  
It was Greg, who had been misbehaving all day long and all last night.
	"Mercury!  You have to listen to me!  You're not evil!  You just don't 
know it yet!  He messed with your mind, and you're evil, but it shouldn't be 
that way.  You need to fight the evil!"  He received a shock from Jupiter, who 
was passing the room, and slumped down on the side of the chamber, unconscious.
	"That takes care of that little nuisance," Jupiter said as Mercury 
followed her out.  "Now, let's get on with our mission."
	"I want to know why we have to take orders from Rubeus," Mercury 
complained.  "We're the ones who are doing the work around here.  It's not like 
he gets off his lazy duff and gives us any help."
	"Mercury, we haven't done anything for him yet."
	"It's just the principle of the thing.  We had better get some sort of 
reward for our services, or I'll do something that I may regret to Rubeus."
	"Don't worry.  I know for a fact that if we get the rest of the Carriers, 
then we'll be set for a month or so."  The Scouts got to the teleporting room, 
where they would have to teleport out.  After all, they couldn't teleport by 
themselves.

	Luna woke up again about an hour after Serena had left.  "Well, it's back 
to the good old guard duty, I guess," she thought to herself as she ate some 
food.  She was able to slip out of the house unnoticed, as usual.  It was just 
getting too easy to get out these days.  She wondered where Hercules would be at 
that moment.
	She wasn't watching where she was walking, and she wandered into the bad 
part of town for her.  As she looked around to gather her bearings, she noticed 
the fences lined with dark forms.  She began to panic, and she ran down the 
street in no general direction.  She just wanted to get out of there.  She 
wanted to be home, of course, but she had to find Hercules.  The best way to get 
him to show himself was probably to get in trouble with those other cats.  She 
stopped running, and let the other cats gather behind her.
	Two cats stepped forward, one a Tabby, one a small Siamese, and they began 
to speak to her.  She hoped that her cat-ese was good enough to pass.
	"Meyow, merowww... mow-ow thrumm meow," the Siamese said.  Luna translated 
it as, "You are welcome in our heap of toenail clippings and yogurt."
	"Meow, Mew, Marow," Luna replied.  She hoped that she had just said, 
"Thank you, I'll try to behave."  By the response that she got, she didn't think 
that she had just said what she had meant.  The cats started meowing at her all 
at the same instant, and they began advancing on her.
	Just as the first wave was about to hit and roll over her, a fish's 
skeleton "thunked" into the ground in front of the lead cat.  Luna breathed a 
sigh of relief as she looked up and saw her savior on a nearby fence.  Hercules 
jumped from the fence and stood in the path of the other cats, just like he had 
done when they had first met.
	Hercules meyowed an insult that Luna wouldn't dare repeat to the cats, and 
they dispersed almost instantly.  Luna looked at the obese cat as it stood 
there, as if posing for glamour shots.  She couldn't believe the way that cat 
acted around her.  She wasn't sure if he knew that she had no interest in him 
except for a friend, if she was pressed for answers.
	"Hercules, I'm here to protect you for a while.  I just needed that to get 
your attention and bring you to me, so if you could kindly get us out of here," 
Luna said.  He led her out of the neighborhood, blushing the whole way.  Luna 
was still trying to figure out how cats could blush.
	As Luna led Hercules down the street, she caught sight of Amy and Lita 
walking towards them.

	"Lita!  Amy!" she called to them.  They looked a bit different than usual.  
Lita pointed at them and the pair rushed them.  Lita kicked Luna and tried to 
grab Hercules.  Hercules got away, and Luna followed him quickly.  When Luna 
turned around, Lita was in hot pursuit.  Amy was nowhere to be seen until she 
looked in front of them.  Coming out of the alleyway in front of them was Amy.  
Hercules showed no signs of slowing down as they headed for a collision course 
with Amy.  Suddenly, just before they reached Amy, Hercules jumped into a 
conveniently opened manhole, into the sewers.
	"Oh, no, not again!" Luna exclaimed as she followed Hercules into the 
manhole.  They found themselves in darkness when they landed, on their feet, of 
course.  It was a good thing that they were cats, and could see in darkness.  
Hercules led Luna down the pathway towards she knew not where.  Soon enough, 
they could hear voices behind them coming their way quickly.  They were in 
trouble, because they were headed down a dead end, and if they turned back, they 
would run into the crazed Scouts.

	"Where did those cats go?" Lita asked as Amy and she stared into the 
manhole.
	"In there," Amy responded as she tried to see where they had gone without 
actually going in.
	"Of course they went in there, you dolt!" Lita yelled at her inferior.  
"You think that I can't see that with my own eyes?  Let's get in there.  You 
first."
	"What do you mean, 'You first?'  You're going in first, fearless leader."
	"Look, we'll do this logically.  Who has the computer and visor that can 
give her infrared vision or let her see in the dark?"
	"Me, but..."
	"Well, then, IN!!!" Lita yelled, pushing Amy in the hole.  Amy fell in 
with a scream and landed soon thereafter with a thud and a pained exclamation.  
Lita jumped in and landed beside Amy, but just barely.
	"What did you do that for?!?!" Amy asked.  She grimaced in pain, rubbing 
her leg gingerly.
	"What's wrong with you?" Lita asked.
	"Broken leg, I think," Amy answered.
	"Oh, get up!  It's nothing!  Besides that, we can get Rubeus to fix it 
when we get back with that cat, unless you want me to take you out of the 
running for the rewards that we'll get when we return right now."
	"I can't walk by myself," Amy complained, on the verge of tears.  Her 
headache was getting worse by the second, and she could feel the bones grate 
against each other every time that she moved her leg.
	"All right!  I'll send you back, for Pete's sake!"  Lita reached into her 
subspace pocket and pulled her teleporter out.  She aimed it at Amy and turned 
it on.  Amy disappeared within a couple of seconds.  Lita turned down the sewer 
path in the direction that wasn't blocked off by a wall.  She held out her hand 
to let a ball of light appear in it, and she went down that way, careful not to 
slip into the water.
	After about a minute, she came to the dead end, where the two cats sat by 
the side, like lambs waiting for the slaughter.  She reached into her subspace 
pocket again and took out her transformation pen.
	"Jupiter Star Power!" she yelled, transforming herself into the new 
version of Jupiter, the evil version of Jupiter.  She stood in the outfit, 
staring at the cats, waiting to see if they would do anything.
	"Hercules, what do we do now?" Luna asked, frightened.  Hercules turned to 
the side of the water, and prepared to jump in.  "NO!  That's not exactly in the 
top ten things that I want to do in this life time.  Actually, it's not in the 
top one-hundred or even one-thousand things."  He seemed bent on it, and it 
looked like the only plausible solution, so Luna gave in.  She joined Hercules 
by the side, and the two cats jumped in as the ball of light that Jupiter had 
been holding flew towards them.
	Jupiter stared in the water for a moment.  "I could send a shock through 
the current, but that might kill them.  Looks like I'm gonna have to go in after 
them.  The things I do for this job..."  She jumped in the water and looked 
around to see which way the cats had gone.  The water was too murky to see 
through, though.
	She could feel the disturbances from the direction that they had headed, 
and began to go that way.  Wait, she thought to herself, That's towards the 
wall, isn't it?  Unless...  She swam towards the direction that the disturbances 
were coming from, and she found a pipe in the wall just large enough for her to 
fit in.  She went back up to the surface and got a full lung of air.  She took 
another shot at the pipe.  It wasn't a long pipe, thank goodness.
	She surfaced just in time to see the cats climb up onto the bank.  She 
followed in suit.  The cats started running down the sewer and came eventually 
to a manhole that would surface right near Serena's and Michael's school.  
Jupiter wasn't too far behind them, so they had to scramble up the ladder.  Luna 
pushed Hercules up the ladder for going too slow.  Jupiter followed them as 
quickly and comfortably as she could.

	It was lunch time, and Serena's class had been let out.  Serena and 
Michael sat down to eat, and they were confronted by Rigel in the bushes.  
Serena joined Michael to talk with Rigel.
	"Hi, Rigel, what's up?" Serena asked quietly.
	"Not much.  What's the verdict on the communicator?" Rigel asked.
	"Serena can't help us.  She's techno-illiterate.  We'll have to ask Luna," 
Michael answered before Serena could.
	"Ah, crap.  How about the meeting?" Rigel asked in annoyed tones.
	"I was about to call the others and set that up," Serena said.
	"During school hours?" Michael asked.
	"Why not?" Serena responded.
	"Well, someone could take a communicator away for going off during class, 
or someone could find out about the others," Rigel said.
	"Hmmm... You have a point there," Serena said.  "I'm a bit scatter-brained 
at times.  You'll have to excuse me."
	"No need to apologize," Michael said.  "We'll just call them up right 
after school's over."
	Serena sniffed the air.  "What's that smell?" she asked.
	Michael joined her in smelling the odor which had overtaken their 
conversation.  "I don't know," he said in response.
	Rigel joined the two others.  "It smells like a cat drenched with sewer 
water.  No, wait!  Two cats drenched in sewer water.  And the additional scent 
of Serena means that it must be Luna, unless I'm mixing scents."
	"Now, that's a set of sniffers!" Serena exclaimed, amazed.
	"You're tripping, Rigel!" Michael said.  "If Luna is a cat, she wouldn't 
get into sewer water unless her life depended on it, maybe not even then."
	"Well, it did," Luna said, stepping out of the hedge a little bit further 
down from Rigel, who was fighting to keep from laughing out loud.  "Now, if you 
two could come out here, Hercules and I need some help."
	"What sort of help?" Serena asked.  A muffled meow was heard behind the 
hedge.
	Luna went back through, followed closely by Michael and Rigel.  Serena 
stayed behind, not wanting to mess up her outfit.  Jupiter stood there, holding 
Hercules by the scruff of the neck, and holding his mouth shut so that no one 
could hear his pained yowls.  She pointed the teleporter at him and turned it 
on.  The fat cat disappeared in a moment, leaving Jupiter standing there, alone 
with Michael and Rigel.
	"So, do some pitiful humans want to mess with me?" Jupiter sneered.  She 
took a battle stance as the opponent took out his transformation stick.
	"Europa Star Power!" Michael yelled out after checking to see that no one 
would see him transform.  Within a few seconds, Serena was with him, ready to 
brave the attacks sent their way by the now-evil Jupiter.
	"Moon Crystal Power!" Serena yelled, transforming into Sailor Moon.  
Jupiter laughed as she threw her hands out in a wide arc.
	"Jupiter Super Shock, ZAP!"  A strong wave of electricity flew through the 
air towards the two Sailor Scouts.
	"What was that?" Europa asked as the wave of electricity rolled over them 
and threw them to the ground.
	"Darned if I know," Moon said woozily.  "Never had her do that before."
	"Rubeus taught it to me.  He'll defeat you pitiful Sailor Scouts with the 
Super Shadow Warrior!" Jupiter taunted.
	"Hey, you're a Sailor Scout, too!" Moon called out as she passed out.
	"She's a Sailor Scout?" Europa asked in amazement.  He seemed on the verge 
of going out as well.
	"Yeah!  Sailor Jupiter, or Lita in real life," Luna answered.  She turned 
to Rigel.  "Let's do the old healing power."
	"Good idea," Rigel said.  A crescent moon appeared on his forehead as he 
turned toward Luna.
	The crescent began to glow as Luna turned towards him, and hers did the 
same.  A beam shot from both of their foreheads and met in between the two.  
When they met, a flash of light shone briefly, and a healing power went through 
the two Scouts on the ground.  Moon woke up and was on her feet, along with 
Europa, and ready for another shot at the errant Scout.
	"Europa Earth..." Io said, preparing his attack.
	"No!" Moon said, stopping him.  "Do you have anything a bit... less harsh?  
She is one of us, after all."
	"Okay, how's this?  Europa Sandstorm, Blow!" Europa said, pointing a 
finger at Jupiter.  A wind blew up, pelting Jupiter with sand particles that 
stung as much as bee stings.  Jupiter eventually had to retreat, but it was just 
to regain her sight.  As she rubbed her eyes, Moon took her brooch off of her 
oversized bow.  The brooch opened, revealing the Imperium Silver Crystal.
	"Moon Crystal Healing, Activation!" she called out.  The crystal let loose 
with a power that purged Jupiter of any evil energy in her.  When the Crystal 
had finished its work, the brooch closed, and Moon replaced it on her bow.  
Jupiter had collapsed from the exertion and the strength that the healing 
process had taken from her.  When the Crystal stopped, it reverted her to 
normal, wearing her school uniform.  Sailors Moon and Europa reverted and went 
to check on Lita.
	"Lita, are you all right?" Serena asked concernedly.
	"I'm tired, Mommy, I want to sleep just five more minutes, please," Lita 
answered.
	"Has she digressed to a younger age?" Michael asked.
	"No, she's always like this in the morning.  Just give me a couple of 
seconds."  She leaned over to Lita's ear and whispered, "Lita!  It's Andrew!  He 
wants to talk to you about a date..." The instant that the words reached Lita's 
ears, she sat bolt upright.
	"Huh?  Where's Andrew?" Lita asked.  "Ooh, that was a dirty trick to play 
on someone.  I was just trying to get some sleep."  She looked around and 
noticed Michael, Rigel, and the soaked Luna.  "Serena, would you mind telling me 
what's going on here?"
	"Lita, meet Michael Cross.  Michael, meet Lita Kino.  He's a Sailor Scout 
like us.  Sailor Europa."
	"Who's the dog?" Lita asked.
	"I beg your pardon," Rigel said, "But I'm the guardian of Europa, named 
Rigel."
	"Oh, man!  A talking dog who's on our side.  This'll take some getting 
used to."
	"What do you mean?" Serena asked.
	"Well, after living so long with two cats, it'll be a change having to 
deal with a dog," Lita replied.
	"Nah, they're pretty much the same thing," Michael said.  "They're furry 
and they talk too much."  Rigel frowned at the assessment, but decided to let it 
pass for the time.
	"Now, what happened to you, Luna?" Lita asked, turning to the soaked, 
smelling cat.
	"You don't remember?" Luna asked.  Lita shook her head.  "You chased me 
and Hercules through the sewers, and we had to go for a dip to get here."
	"Well, that would explain the smell on you and me," Lita said, wrinkling 
her nose at a whiff of Luna and herself.
	"Lita, you go home for the rest of the day.  No one's expecting you at 
school, and you need a rest," Serena said.  Luna, Michael, and Rigel agreed with 
her.  Serena turned to Luna.  "And I'll need to give you a bath tonight."
	"I don't think that I'll disagree with you there," Luna said, for once not 
running for the hills when Serena mentioned the dreaded "B-word" in conjunction 
with her name.  The bell for classes to start up again went off, and Serena and 
Michael headed inside.
	Lita went off in the direction of her apartment building, hoping that no 
one she knew would find her.  Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed to pieces 
when she came across Andrew.  It was a good thing that she had Luna with her for 
moral support, or she would have keeled over dead right there and then.
	"My gosh, Lita!  What happened to you and Luna?  You look and smell like 
you were at the dump and it sank while you were there!" Andrew said.
	"To make a long story short, we had some dirty Sailor business to attend 
to in the sewer," Lita said
	"Well, you look like you went for a dip!" Andrew said.  He wasn't really 
helping Lita's self-esteem at the moment.
	"Actually, we did.  And I never plan on doing it again.  Now if you'll 
excuse me, Luna and I have to get cleaned off."  Lita and the wet cat went off 
again in the direction of Lita's apartment.  Lita was incredibly glad to be 
home again.  She needed some time to relax after what she had just been through.
	"Lita, what happened to Amy?" Luna asked.
	Lita thought for a minute, trying to remember what had happened.  After a 
few moments, she gasped in remembrance.  "I'm almost ashamed to say.  While I 
was under their influence, I pushed her down the manhole and broke her leg.  I 
hope that she's all right."
	"Yeah, the Negaverse'll do that to you.  You feeling better now?"  Luna 
asked, waiting for the bathtub to get filled.  She really wasn't going to clean
herself in this case.
	"Much.  Shall we?" Lita asked, indicating the way to the shower.  "You 
want to go first, or shall I?"
	"After you, by all means."
	Lita and Luna enjoyed getting cleaned off and sat around the house, 
sleeping for the rest of the day after drying off.

End of Part four

Coming soon: The Fires of Destiny

	Well, it's finished.  This part, at least.    If the Scouts seem to be 
acting strangely to you, think about it for a second.  Their brains have been 
wiped clean and they've been made evil.  I think that they're going to be acting 
strangely. As always, E-mail your comments to: jmh6187@uncwil.edu.