26Disclaimer: All characters of the series "Sailor Moon", except for Sailor Storm, Thunderstorm, the Sailor Elements, the Five Storms, and all other Original Characters, are under copyright protection of Naoko Takeuchi.
Warning: This second half of this chapter will contain situations of a more mature nature. It will not be anything graphic or even citrus-related, but it is more of a horror and angst stand-point. I can assure you that this is not the direction I will be taking the rest of this story on, but I felt this was needed to get the story back on its feet again.
Sailor Storm: The Lost Element
Ch. 17: Death Reaper
Ten minutes had passed since the youma attack was thwarted by Sailor Storm. By that time, the Sailor Senshi had managed to return to their hotel room before they were spotted by anyone. They all turned back into their normal selves before they started going over what had recently happened.
"Amy, did you managed to find out anything about the Negaverse," Lita asked.
"Not much, other than the facts that they have enough power to afford sending out three youma at once, and that it appears that Neflyte is still leading the invasion force. Other than that, I haven't been able to get more detailed information since the battles ended so quickly," Amy said.
"That's a fact. We didn't even fire off one shot," Amara quickly said.
"That might have been for the best, Amara. We don't really know how strong these youma are here. For all we know, they're so strong that only Sailor Storm and Sailor Saturn can defeat them."
"I'm sorry, but I just don't like that Sailor Storm too well."
"You'll grow to like him, like I did," Lita said.
"I shouldn't have lashed out at him like that," Ray said somewhat quietly.
"Ray, it's okay. We all make mistakes. That's life for us," Lita said to her.
"I hope you're right, Lita."
Suddenly, Amy's computer was going off like crazy. Amy checked it to see why when a small dark purple portal was forming in the center of the room. By the time everyone had reacted by grabbing their transformation wands, Zeus had stepped out of the portal before it closed after him. At this point, the Senshi didn't think that they could handle any more surprises today.
"I'm sorry for the barging in on you like this, but it was the quickest way to get here after Kyle had dropped me off," Zeus said to the group.
"Aren't you the cat that was on Sailor Storm's shoulder moments ago," Amara asked.
"Yes, I am. You see, unlike Luna and Artemis here, I have been trained to use both Lunarian and Negaversal power to provide much better protection and support to Sailor Storm. In case you were wondering, I have complete control over my power to where it does not affect my judgment or my personality."
Amara said nothing, but she acknowledged her understanding silently.
"Look; the reason I am here is that I came to tell you that we really do need your help."
"Why? Is there something wrong that we haven't seen," Serena asked.
"Yes, there is. It's about Kyle. I'm not sure what's happening to him, but his behavior has gotten stranger in the several months we have been back. I think it may have to do with a certain attack Neflyte had inflicted on him the day after we had arrived."
"What happened to him," Amy asked.
"Neflyte cursed him to where he would not be able to see anything but a painfully blinding light any and every time the sun is above the horizon. It affects both of his Sailor Storm forms, hence the reason why he has to where those sunglasses during the day, which now doubles as a scanning and targeting visor for him to use in both forms. Fortunately, the curse doesn't affect him at night, or whenever he is not transformed."
"That does match my findings about Storm's condition," Amy said.
"However, what I had found out too late was the curse was also infecting his mental and emotional responses. They were slow and subtle to the point that not even Kyle knew it was happening to him. And then that fateful night occurred," Zeus said, closing his eyes during the last sentence.
"What happened," Lita asked.
"His cousin was killed by Neflyte, right in front of Kyle," Zeus grimly said.
Everyone, with the exception of Trista, had gasped while all of the Inner Senshi and Hotaru were on the verge of tears.
"Something inside him snapped. By the time I got there, Neflyte had retreated, and Kyle was a broken shell of himself. I had to fight him to repair the damage done to his psyche. For a while, I thought I had succeeded in fixing the damage and preventing it from happening again, but two months ago, Kyle had moved out of his parent's house in the middle of the night. He didn't say where he had gone, and I'm not able to track him after he drops me off. I'm worried about him."
"Do you think we may have a better chance of tracking him down," Trista asked.
"I hope so, because now he's no longer the only person roaming the city at night."
"You're talking about Tuxedo Mask, right," Serena asked.
"No, I'm talking about this," Zeus said just before he used his Lunarian power to remotely turn on the television in the room, automatically tuned to the news.
"…another attack this morning that was averted by Sailor Storm. This makes the thirteenth attack this month alone. Officials are getting restless about these attacks, but a drop message from Sailor Storm mentions that this situation will end very soon. He has managed to do a superior job so far, so there should be little doubt that he will get the job done. Our other top story is about the so-called 'Dark Slayer' we keep getting reports about. We have received word that she had claimed four more victims last night. All of the victims were convicted rapists and murderers, including one man who is believed to be on our Most Wanted list. However, the Jacksonville City Police Department has not yet been able to identify any of the bodies due to the extreme nature these men were killed. There are still no reports on the Dark Slayer's whereabouts, or any rumors on who she is," the news reporter had explained before the TV was turned off again.
"Dark Slayer," Mina asked.
"I don't think we should get on this person's bad side," Amara said.
"Momma, what's a rapist," Hotaru asked Michelle.
"I'll explain it to you when you're ready, Hotaru," Michelle said.
At this time, Trista blinked out of existence to check on the Time Gates.
"What could possibly drive a person to kill like that," Mina asked.
"A person who believes in their heart that they have nothing else to live for," Lita answered.
All of the other Inners looked at her with confusion on their faces, while Amara and Michelle kept a more neutral look on their faces.
"I have lost the things in this world I loved the most sooner than anyone else in this room. I know Hotaru has lost and sacrificed as much as I have, but she now has two loving parents looking out for her. I, on the other hand, can't get my family back, and that has forced me to grow up faster than I wanted to. Hell, growing up like that is what caused me to have all of those fights years ago. After my parents were killed, I found myself looking up different kinds of bad people from petty thieves to murderers to Yakuza. So I know a few things about these creeps."
After Lita had finished, Trista appeared back in the spot she was standing in before.
"I wasn't able to track down the girl's movements, let alone get an ID on her," Trista said with a little frustration.
"What? How," Amara asked.
"She must have an aura around her that is causing interference. I don't know what kind of power we are dealing with here, but I'm sure that Amy's computer can get a fix on it, as well as identify the signature should we come across it. In the meantime, I believe our best course of action is to scout out the city for Kyle. It would be best if we were all transformed. That way, we can cover more ground and be alert should a situation occur."
"How big is this city," Serena asked.
"More than half of the wards of Tokyo combined," Trista answered.
"More than half," Amara asked shocked at Trista's answer.
"Jacksonville happens to be the fifth largest city in the United States by area. It has a land area of seven-hundred fifty-seven point-seven square miles, while Tokyo's total land area is eight-hundred forty-four point-four square miles," Amy explained after reviewing her computer's data.
All of the Senshi, minus Amy and Trista, suddenly felt too weak to be standing.
"That'll take us forever to look for him, even transformed," Lita muttered.
"We still have to try. It might be better if we were to split up into groups," Serena said after managing to recover.
"Have you really become a meatball head, Serena? Amy is the only one with a computer here," Ray exclaimed.
"That's true, Ray. But you're forgetting about us," Zeus said, pointing out himself, Luna, and Artemis.
"We can also sense out powers and unusual signatures similar to Amy's computer, although we cannot identify them. However, we will achieve better results if we split up like Serena says, instead of sticking together as one group trying to hunt a needle in a city-wide haystack," Luna explained.
"It will still take us all day, and maybe even tomorrow, to narrow down his location," Amy mentioned.
"Then there is no time to waste, girls," Trista said in a commanding tone.
"Right," all of the other Senshi acknowledged.
Everyone of the Senshi had begun their transformations at the same time, while the cats waited patiently to begin their search.
"Okay, everyone. Our group detectors are going to be Sailor Mercury, Zeus, Luna, and Artemis. Sailor Moon and I will go with Sailor Mercury, and you will cover the northeast section of the city. Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars will go with Zeus, heading northwest. Sailor Saturn and Sailor Neptune will go with Luna, covering the southeast section. Sailor Venus and Sailor Uranus will go with Artemis, and you will take the southwest section of the city. We will all move from the center of the city out. Is everyone okay with their assignments," Pluto said, briefing the Senshi.
Everyone agreed with their assignments.
"Zeus, do you think that Kyle may be hiding in a highly populated area," Pluto asked.
"I doubt it this time. If he were, I would have been able to narrow down our search to a neighborhood. I think he's hiding in a wide closed-off area of land, probably close to some power lines. Unfortunately, the city, despite its amount of development, still has more than a few pockets of un-developed land, the northwest having the most of them," Zeus explained.
"Well, then we have our work cut out for us. I'll contact Darien, and have him patrol the metropolitan area in case Kyle manages to get past us. Let's go," Pluto ordered.
"One other thing: Sailor Storm's female uniform has been changed to be similar to the male uniform at Kyle's request. It may be different to what you are used to seeing, but the concept of the female uniform is still the same," Zeus added as a last minute note, to which all of the Senshi nodded in understanding.
After checking to be sure no one was looking, the Sailor Senshi split into their respective groups and had proceeded to their designated sections of the city after they had made their rendezvous point on the roof of their hotel. By the time they had all split off from each other, it was just past noon.
Hours had gone by with absolutely no luck from any of the groups. They were all about halfway finished with their patrols while Tuxedo Mask had already patrolled the metropolitan area twice. He decided to make a third patrol after dropping down to the streets to grab a deli sandwich. He noted that some of the city's alleyways still have some dark-minded people in them. He did drop into one such group, but he more than easily walked out without a scratch, while the three thugs were lying in the alley, wishing they had a different kind of career. The sun had then completely set, even though it was now completely cloudy. It was at this time when Sailor Mercury's computer had picked up an unusual signal. It only lasted for a second before it had disappeared, but it was enough for her to know how to target it and identify it now should the signal appear again. Zeus had thought he felt the air suddenly freeze around him for only a second before the feeling went away. He asked Sailor Jupiter and Mars if they had just felt something similar, to which they did. He was about to continue his search when he heard a man scream behind them almost two thousand feet away. All three of them immediately headed straight for the disturbance, while Zeus opened up his senses to find that cold feeling again. Unfortunately, the source of the disturbance was a man who injured himself with an arc welder while in his garage. It would be a hard-learned lesson for him to know that he should always wear protective gloves whenever he is welding. Zeus and the Senshi were about to continue their search again when they received a call from Tuxedo Mask who was contacting everyone, telling them that he felt a sudden and unusual cold shiver for a moment. He mentioned that he tried looking around for anything unusual, but he did not see anything either. Zeus asked the other groups if they had experienced anything similar to that feeling. When the other three groups had said that they did not experience such a feeling, Zeus theorized that it may be the Slayer because he had never felt the air around him drop when Sailor Storm was around. He then ordered everyone to converge on downtown to locate the Dark Slayer, hoping to defuse this situation before they continue looking for Kyle.
Zeus, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Jupiter were the first ones to meet up with Tuxedo Mask, with Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Pluto arriving soon after. Before the rest could arrive, the sound of a gunshot rang through their ears. Mercury immediately started searching for the location of the sound when a second shot was fired, coming from the east near the sports complex. They wasted no time to rush to the location, pushing all of their magical power into their speed, while Pluto contacted the rest of the Senshi about what was going on. Hopefully, this would not be another false alarm.
It was already cloudy and dark when a lady receptionist for the Jacksonville football stadium was finally getting off work. She had been used to the late hours that even though the situation still somewhat scared her, she believed that she was safe with the lowered crime rate around the entire city that she had her guard lowered. Her situation could have been slightly better if it were not for the fact that the lights in the parking lot were all out. She was no more than ten feet away from her car when she was grabbed from behind. She let out a scream, but it was cut abruptly when she was thrown into her car, knocking the wind out of her. The upper half of her body was pushed down onto the hood while she felt the barrel of a gun pressed into the back of her head. She was crying, praying that this was not happening to her, when she felt fingers searching for the waistband of her pants. At that moment, the air suddenly became downright freezing when her attacker was suddenly no longer behind her. She quickly checked around her to see that her attacker was no longer around her before she scrambled to her car, fished out her keys with shaky hands, and started the car. She put the car in gear and slammed on the gas like her life depended on getting out of that parking lot.
The attacker was suddenly fifty feet away from the lady's car and lying in the parking lot, feeling like a bus had just hit him. He was beginning to get up when he saw what had hit him, making him freeze in fear. The girl he was facing normally would not be so imposing, but the dark purplish glow around her body and in her eyes made her appear like a demon, especially with her aura giving off the appearance of wings sprouting from her back, as well as the girl holding a six-foot tall scythe with a three-and-a-half-foot long blade. The handle had the appearance of a backbone without the bony ridges, including the slight double curve, with an eight-inch long, slightly wider and solid column at the bottom. The "bones" were made of a dark silver metal while the central shaft visible in the spaces was colored purple and was faintly glowing. The top of the handle sported the face of a human skull on both sides of the blade, with the eye sockets reformed into a permanent angry sinister look, the teeth sharpened to resemble stakes, and the lower jaw completely missing. The skulls served as the blade's base, attaching it to the handle. The blade itself was twelve inches wide at the base, widening to eighteen inches due to a six-inch long gut-hook on the top of blade three inches away from the base, and constantly tapering off from there to a dagger point at the end. A set of grooves ran diagonally on the side of the blade from the base to six inches from the point. The blade also had an eight-inch long spike jutting out the other side of the handle. The addition of such a weapon being wielded by a well-curved five-foot nine-inch tall girl made the attacker completely empty his bowels.
"You are found guilty of attempting to sexually assault an innocent woman. Such a crime can never go unpunished. Therefore, I sentence you to eternal damnation in the depths of Hell. Your sentence will be carried out immediately," the Slayer said in an eerie demonic voice.
When the girl started approaching him, he brought his gun up and attempted to aim at her. He was panicking when he started firing, but none of the shots actually hit the girl due to the man shaking so much. He fired his tenth shot when the girl suddenly lunged forward, her scythe at a ready arc. The man screamed out his lungs before he was ran through. The force behind the swing was enough for the scythe to cleave right through the man's body. The girl held her position for a few seconds, tears streaming from her still glowing eyes, before she stood up in a relaxed state and held her scythe at her side. It was at that moment when someone had yelled behind her.
Sailor Moon and the others had just reached the sports complex from the west when they saw a car driving wildly from parking lot onto the road. They stopped at the approximate spot where the lady's car was parked and looked towards the stadium. What they saw was the moment the Slayer had attacked the assaulter, cleaving him in half, forever etching that sight into their memory. However, the group was a little more used to such things as they quickly rushed to the girl, hoping to get her attention before she ran off. Sailor Moon stopped about fifteen feet away and yelled out.
"Hold it right there, Dark Slayer," Moon yelled as the others stopped beside her.
The Slayer immediately turned around and went into an attack-ready position, her scythe behind her ready to be swung. The group was initially surprised by the action, ready to attack. Finally, the clouds were clearing up as a full moon had shown through, illuminating the dark parking lot. When the light from the moon allowed the Senshi to see more clearly, their surprise slowly turned into recognition, shock, and fear, their stances relaxing, as they realized exactly who the Dark Slayer really is.
"Oh my God," Pluto spoke, which would have surprised the other Senshi if they were not so similarly shocked themselves.
They all happened to recognize who the girl was due to the very familiar sailor uniform, parts of it in non-exposing tatters, matching the description Zeus had earlier gave, despite all of the denials in their heads.
"Kyle," Jupiter muttered, confirming that the Dark Slayer was in fact Sailor Storm.
A/N: First off, I would like to apologize those who have been reading this story since my last real chapter update. I'm afraid that the only excuse I have is that my priorities have changed. I am extremely proud that I have finally managed to finish this chapter, but it should have been finished and released months ago. I have also been an unfortunate victim of being unemployed in today's economy. In any case, I can't promise that I can return to a normal schedule, but I did wish to show that I am still here, and I am still wanting to finish this story myself. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to review this chapter or PM me, and I'll do the best I can to answer them. One more thing I need to mention is that the next chapter will be as dark as this one, but it will explain why Sailor Storm is acting this way.