Skysaber's Choice 

Part Six 

by Jared Ornstead 
  
=====

    Mina's parents sat at their dinner table, enjoying a relaxing meal. 
    Jared leaned against the outside door and wheezed. "Ouch. That took 
alot out of me." 
    Artemis was standing atop Mina's shoulder. The young girl now wore 
a jacket and proper outside clothes for the weather, and the cat curled 
close as he commented. "I'll bet. Altering memories like that has *got* 
to be draining!" 
    Jared shook his head. "No, that's the easy part. I could've done 
more than I did, a little more than three and a half hours each. 
Luckily I didn't need to. I just replaced my breaking in their wall 
with my showing up at the door, Mina coming downstairs, and them giving 
her permission to go out on a date." 
    "A Date!?!" Mina's eyes sparkled with flashy motes. 
    The redhead was slightly shocked at how well she took it. His 
defense of 'It was all I could think of' died in his throat. He 
motioned towards her house. "Well, you *are* missing a meal." 
    Zip! 
    Jared looked down to find Mina glomped onto his arm. "No, that's 
alright. So, you want to take me out to dinner? I guess I could do 
that." 
    She tried to be coy. 
    It didn't work very well. 
    It was delightful, though. He decided she could use some cheering 
up. Jared found himself blushing, but went with the moment anyway. He 
shrugged nonchalantly, beginning to walk down the street. "Sure. There 
has to be a restaurant around here that charges five hundred dollars a 
plate. But first we'd have to get you an evening gown. Fortunately 
there's a seamstress in one of those fashion boutiques that could get 
you fitted for a new one and have it ready by tonight. I'd have to 
replace my suit, of course, but that's something that I can do easily. 
Then we can catch a play or a movie or something, your choice." 
    Her eyes were glowing. 
    "Now's not the time to be joking. What about those allies you 
mentioned?" Artemis broke in. 
    "Who was joking?" Jared responded. "Extremes can be fun! I've got 
the cash, why not? But okay, if you insist. We'll go check on them and 
then order takeout or something." 
    Mina shot hate-filled glares to her cat, making little red daggers 
in the air. 
    Artemis sweated. ~Man! This guy was dangerous! He'd have to do 
something soon before Mina became totally devoted to him and forgot to 
remember the Moon Kingdom at all!~ 
    "Ever been on a motorcycle before?" Jared asked, going over to the 
vehicle. 
    “Tourbike, rocket, hog or musclebike?” Mina happily responded. 
    “Well, a knockoff of the Yamaha Rapier was what I had on hand. But 
if you’ve a different preference...” The youth began. 
    "Wait up a moment!" Artemis bounded after. "What did you mean about 
that thing you did to Mina's parents taking alot out of you?" 
    Jared paused. ~A decent question. Yes, it deserved an answer.~ He 
sighed, dropping his head. "I don't like mucking about with minds, 
Artemis. Without your memory what are you? You can change a whole 
person just by altering what they remember. I don't feel qualms about 
dropping a few hints of remorse into bad guys, or details in a new 
policy 'recalled' to get a stuffy bureaucrat to do his job. But to take 
away someone's memory of something when that person is ostensibly my 
ally... There's the standard excuse of 'They're safer not knowing', but 
I find moral and correct procedure is to be honest in all my dealings, 
and feeding someone a fake memory just seems like lying." 
    The young man shrugged, raising his head and sprouting a grin. 
"Besides, they resisted it so powerfully I don't even know if the new 
memory is going to hold. For now it's convenient if it will, but I'm 
not going to shed any tears if it won't." 

    They arrived at the shrine to find Michelle had passed out trying 
to move Rae back inside. While the two ravens flittered about them 
watchfully, Jared checked both girls carefully for wounds, fed Michelle 
a healing potion just in case, and then gently carried the proto-sailor 
Neptune, and then Rae, back inside. 
    "How did you know about this place? Is this where these girls 
live?" Mina asked, hanging onto the doorframe to gaze on his 
hunkmeister-ness. 
    Jared knelt beside the bed and tilted a potion into the mouths of 
each sleeping maid. "I don't know where Michelle lives, but I left word 
with the people sorting this out where her parents could find her once 
they heard. This shrine belongs to Rae's family. Her grandfather is the 
head priest here. There," he stood up. "Neither one will require food 
or water for another seven days. So even if we don't stop in to care 
for them often enough they'll still get better." 
    Mina just stood staring at him with little hearts in her eyes. 
    "Why are you taking such a personal interest in them?" Artemis 
asked. 
    The redhead waved, presenting both prone girls. "Artemis, Sailor 
Venus, these are your allies and extra Scouts: Mars and Neptune. They 
don't know who they are yet, but I do." 
    Mina's glaze cleared from over her eyes and she stood recovering 
herself, now focusing her attention in on the girls she'd previously 
ignored. Then her smile lit up the room. "You mean... MORE help!! Oh, 
Jared, you *shouldn't* have!!!!" 
    *Glomp!* 
    "Uh. Well, we needed the allies, really." 
    "..." 
    "Um..." A quick disentangle. "Hey, look..." He caught her face, 
beaming at him and lost the ability to speak. 
    Jared started backing out of the room, away from her. "Uh... How 
about we get you home?" 
    Mina shook her head, golden hair flying. "Our date first." She 
insisted. 
    Artemis looked at the badly drained girls, then at the redhead 
hanging out with his charge, and bounded off after. 

    "So what do you want to do together besides dinner?" Mina asked, 
hugging Jared's arm as they walked along toward some restaurants and 
one of the more active shopping districts. 
    "Several things, for one since I've found those two other Sailor 
Scouts, they'll need protection. We've got to talk about arrangements 
for that." 
    "About that." Artemis chirped up from behind, trotting along near 
their ankles. "How do you know who they are?" 
    The redhead smirked. "I've got full information profiles. Ooops, 
sorry. That's a line for when I get by... err, well, for when... Um, 
never mind. Different universe. Let's just leave it that I know all the 
Scouts by sight, even in their civilian forms." 
    Artemis did not comment, just looked more and more suspicious. 
    "Hold on a second." Jared stopped and sized up a building they'd 
been walking past. "This is important. Now where do I...?" A spark came 
to his eye and he grabbed Mina's hand and pulled her inside the lobby. 
Looking around, he nodded to himself. 
    The redhead turned to his female companion. "Mina, do you feel 
that?" 
    Casting her senses about, the girl nodded. "The Negaverse! There's 
so much background of it anymore that it gets hard to tell, but this is 
close!" 
    He pointed to a classroom on the board that served as directory for 
the building. "There's where we'll find it, I'm fairly certain." 
    "Right!" Mina ducked into a ladies room to change. Jared dashed for 
the men's. 
    "Hold on a minute!" Artemis jumped to stop them as both youths 
turned to climb the steps a moment later. "How do you know all these 
things, Jared? Mina, we ought to at least get an explanation for why he 
knows exactly where to go. You recognized this building, didn't you? 
You know what's going on." 
    The youth, now in Pheonix mode, could only nod his head. Tell the 
cat this was a TV series? They'd only think he was lying. "Yes." He 
jumped clear over the cat and began running up the steps. 
    "Hey! Wait for me!" Sailor V raced to follow him. 
    "Hang on! Wait up!!" Artemis rushed after the two. 
    They came to the head of the stair in time to see the last of some 
incredibly sick looking, drained students dragging themselves into a 
classroom. 
    "That looks like the place, alright." Mina nodded. 
    "Wait!" The cat caught up with them. "How do we know this isn't a 
trap?" 
    "Of *course* it's a trap, Artemis." The Pheonix Mage reproved. 
"Standard youma setup: Drain humans through an activity they normally 
spend energy on, in this case study. Have a youma gathering part of 
that to power itself and funnel the rest into the Negaverse. When the 
trap gets sprung is when heroes like us go in there to shut it down. 
That's when the youma reveals itself and we have to fight it to win." 
    Sailor Venus was blinking up at him. "Wow. You've been doing this a 
long time, haven't you? You got all the facts right. I say we go in. 
Between the two of us we ought to handle it pretty well, and this is a 
cram school. They oughtn't to be draining students who are trying to 
study." 
    "So we're agreed." The Pheonix mage leapt down the corridor and 
demolished the door to the room with a flying leap kick. Behind him, 
Artemis almost sank his teeth into Mina, demanding an emergency 
conference. 
    "Can... can I help you?" An emaciated, blue-haired girl struggled 
and stood up from her desk amidst a field of Negaverse-drained, 
zombie-like students as the boy crashed the door down. 
    The Pheonix' eyes scanned quickly and caught sight of the supposed 
teacher of this class. Detect Shapechanger on top of a running Detect 
Evil and it was obvious what it was, even if he hadn't known from the 
series. 
    "I am the White Pheonix." He pointed a finger at the teacher youma. 
"And I have come to destroy that youma." 
    Crowded Classroom = Smallest Spells only. 
    "Magic Missile." 
    A brief machine-gun style blast of glowing projectiles rocketed 
from his finger toward the teacher, impacting her chest without ill 
effect. The badly-drained Amy was astonished to say the least, but was 
even more amazed when the teacher she'd been studying under for weeks 
transformed into a youma. 
    The youma laughed, facing the Pheonix Mage. "This is a cram school. 
We want answers. What's 355x268?" 
    "95140, and your point being?" 
    Energy rushed from the pearl clad youth in a wave, crippling him in 
an instant. ~IDIOT! She's a teacher youma! By answering you admit to 
being a student. Student + Teacher = You're in her power!~ 
    As the youth fell to his knees in agony the youma laughed. "Hahaha, 
you're a good student. Such delicious energy! I'm giving you two 
choices. One, you surrender now. Or, two, you surrender later." 
    He struggled to raise his head an inch. "I... drop... out..." 
    The hero gasped as the energy flow stopped from him. Systems status 
check: Life energy in turbulence, spell points drained, no spells 
available to be cast without a new energy supply. 
    ~Prepare to be mauled, imprisoned, enslaved, or worse.~ 
    "Venus Power: Meteor Beam Shower!" 
    The Negaverse demon got struck in the chest and illuminated, which 
didn't stop it laughing maniacally. "Ha! Is THAT the best you can do? 
I've been gathering energy for the Negaverse for over a *month!* I am 
now one of the strongest of Beryl's youma!" 
    "Not strong enough..." The Pheonix Mage mumbled. "I coulda taken 
that easy. You're a wimp." 
    Mina stared at him while the youma got angry. "Oh, so the student 
needs a little discipline, does he? DIE!!!" Thousands of glowing 
mathematical symbols appeared in the air and sped toward him. The mage 
merely held up an arm and the entire barrage fizzled away. 
    He stood up again, feeling better. "That's the first time one of 
you has thrown an attack at *me* rather than the area I was in or at my 
spell defenses." He replied cockily, then flashed the blue leather 
bracers he wore. "I was almost wondering when I'd get a chance to use 
these. Ray of Enfeeblement!" 
    A ruby beam shot from his finger and illuminated the youma. 
    Mina was staring at him again. "What *are* those things??" 
    "Storm Bracers, magic items of my own design. One of their powers 
is to absorb direct spell energy and let me use that to power my own 
magic. It has limits, though, and from the power of that last blast I 
know I can't stop another." 
    The youma still was reeling from the last blow. Unlike any creature 
he'd ever hit with that strength-draining beam, energy was actually 
diffusing off of the demon rather than just rendering it feeble. 
    Venus dropped another meteor beam shower on it, scorching it 
slightly. 
    The flame haired mage grinned. "Looks like I've found a magical 
attack that can actually *do* something! Let's try another: Internal 
Fire!" He clenched a fist at his foe. 
    Flames gouted from the mouth, nose and eyes of the youma as it 
burned apart from inside. It screamed in agony, but in the midst of 
falling threw a dunce cap at the Pheonix Mage, point first. "That's it! 
You FAIL!!!" 
    Senses read the incoming as an object, not pure spell energy. ie, 
not something he could stop by absorbtion even if his bracer wasn’t 
already full. The Pheonix Mage tried dodging the incoming magical 
object, but it homed in on him, phased through his attempt to parry it 
and sank deeply into his chest, going right through the armor. The 
youth fell to his knees even as the youma dissolved into motes of black 
dust. 
    Students collapsed in an untidy mass of drained and wasted bodies 
now that the control over them had been broken. 
    "JARED!!!" Sailor Venus grabbed him and pulled the offending spike 
out of his chest. It'd punched through his breast plate easily, and the 
hole it left was large and ragged. Instantly, Venus was pulling out the 
scepter he'd failed to reclaim from her. “Scepter, I want you to heal 
Jared again." 
    There was the sizzling chime and the globe of light appeared, but 
the hole only closed a tiny bit. 
    "That's alright." Jared wheezed, purposefully reverting to non-hero 
mode in case he left consciousness. "The Crystal Unicorn Scepter you 
hold wasn't intended to heal injuries.. *cough*.. so much as remove 
curses, poison, disease, and things of that nature. The real strength 
of the scepter is that it can heal crowds of people all at once. What 
it can do for real wounds is somewhat limited, only about as much as it 
takes to kill an ordinary person. And people like you and I take far 
more damage than anyone remotely ordinary. There's not much it can do 
for us when we're bad off. At least not often, maybe once a week. But I 
believe you used that aspect earlier when restoring lost limbs to that 
crowd." 
    Unless her powers had changed it more than he thought, but then it 
would have healed him, or succeeded when she'd tried. 
    Jared sighed, blood drooling from the side of his mouth. "That's 
okay, though. Injuries are what the armband is for..." 
    He saw Amy limping up, and closed his eyes. "Amy Anderson. I am the 
Pheonix Mage, also known as Jared.. *cough* .. and this is Sailor V. 
Amy Anderson, you are Sailor Mercury, and we need your help to fight 
the Negaverse..." 
    He lost consciousness. 

    "This guy gives me the spooks." Artemis spoke from standing on the 
youth's heavily bandaged and now slumbering chest. 
    "Shhh! My folks are coming!" Mina hissed. 
    Mr and Mrs Lovejoy entered the hospital room where Mina was staying 
by the bedside of her hero. "Mina!" 
    Grasp. Hug. 
    Mina's mother spoke into her daughter's hair. "Where have you 
been?? We've been so upset when you called us from the hospital! So 
many things have happened today! We wanted to tell you but you didn't 
come home from your date!" 
    Mina spoke from within the squeeze. "I was here at the hospital 
watching over Jared, mom. Look, this is Amy Anderson. Her mother is the 
doctor that did the surgery that saved him." 
    "I'm pleased to meet you." Amy bowed at the waist without getting 
up. "Please forgive me if I don't stand. I'm afraid I've been a little 
weak this past month, even my grades have suffered." 
    Instant release of daughter to greet daughter's friend. The 
appraisal met with approval. It was nice to have her daughter picking 
up a social life again, the mother had worried so after they'd left 
England. "Oh, don't mind, dear. No doubt one of the epidemics going 
around Japan. You'll get over it soon. That's what we wanted to talk to 
you about, Mina-chan." 
    "Oh?" Golden hair swung as a gaze oriented on a mother. 
    Said mother bobbed a *very* happy grin. "Yes! Do you remember that 
tape this young boy was carrying! Well, it turns out that it was only a 
documentary! He's *really* a superspy with technological powers here to 
defend us against evil! He has a laser sword that he calls a Nerd Toy, 
and a laser pistol! He'll be able to help that *other* new hero that's 
appeared earlier this week!" 
    "What are you talking about, mom?" Mina worried. 
    Her father spoke up, straightening his glasses so he could tell his 
daughter face to face. "You remember we watched that tape? This boy is 
Skysaber, the international superspy adventurer!" 
    Mina waved that thought away. "Aw, C'mon dad! That was just a 
movie!! Can't ya get it together? He *said* he's an actor!" 
    Amy giggled from her seat. "It must have been a very convincing 
film." 
    Mina's parents shared a glance. 
    Could they tell that girl about the secret? About calling the boy's 
secret alert code and having him answer within minutes? Doing just what 
they needed, too, taking Mina out for a day. She was obviously back to 
her chipper self, though on that thought Mina's mom made a note to talk 
to her daughter later and find out if anything like *that* had 
happened. 
    There was also the curious matter of how he'd gotten injured. 
Helping fight evil, perhaps? 
    "Well," the father said. "I've never seen or heard anything about 
this, and it was so well done. Besides, there were other things I 
couldn't explain about it just being a movie. Why you were in it, for 
example." 
    Mina's face went pale. "*I* was in that film?" 
    Her mother nodded. "Yes, as your mother I ought to know your voice, 
and it was your face we saw cartooned there. It was you, as near as we 
could tell. I *think* I even recall seeing your friend Amy in it as 
well. Can you explain that?" 
    Neither Mina nor Amy had any response to that, too stunned to move. 
    The white Cat between them blinked, then frowned. 
    Mr Lovejoy sat on the side of the bed, addressing the girls 
further. "And do you know what else? *Another* spotting of that Pheonix 
hero occurred today!" The man and his wife proceeded to tell the two 
youngsters, in detail somewhat fuzzed by rumor and speculation, what 
apparently was the common account of what had happened in the fight at 
the cram school, put together by police after the fact. 
    Mina's mom told her that they'd tried to let her know, but she'd 
been off with her date and they had no way to reach her. 
    "Oh! I know something about that." Amy chirped in helpfully. "I was 
in class today going to that same school. The Pheonix mage came and 
showed us there was a demon acting as our teacher, and destroyed it." 
    Amy blinked at Mina's frantic attempts to shush her. 
    The parent doubled in excitement. "Oh! We've got to go tell our 
friends!" They chorused, then vanished like a flash of light. 
    "Thanks alot." Mina sagged. "Do you know how hard it is to fight 
monsters and avoid suspicion that you're doing it?" 
    Amy cocked her head. "But why should what I said have anything to 
do with it?" 
    Mina met her eyes. "Because you're the first person to be awake and 
remember seeing him after his fight with that demon over where he saved 
those guys who'd been kidnapped. Everybody will want to know about it, 
and what he did, and so it'll be hard to avoid attention for a while!" 
    Amy drooped her head. "Oh, I'm sorry." 
    "Don't be too hard on her, Mina. This monster hunting is new to 
her." Artemis spoke comfortingly where he was curled up on the comatose 
boy's bandaged chest. 
    Amy shot him a grateful smile, then looked concerned. "About that, 
I don't mean to pry, but what you're doing sounds awfully dangerous. 
We're sitting next to proof of that right now." Neither had to point to 
the injured boy to know what brought him there. "Are you sure I want to 
get involved in it?" 
    Mina just bowed her head, but Artemis answered. "You don't have 
much choice. If you are Sailor Mercury then you are one of the people 
the Negaverse will make a special effort at hunting down and destroying 
when they..." 
    "That's enough, Artemis." Mina cut her cat off. She raised her face 
to stare at her soon to be friend. "I'm sorry, he gets carried away. 
Look, this isn't something that's alot of fun to do, but you can't 
imagine how many people are counting on us. Sure, I've had to risk my 
life, but I've saved so many people. It's alot harder alone, I can't 
express how much it helps to have others along." Her eyes glimmered and 
she gave the slumbering boy a glance. "Since he arrived that night 
we've hit the Negaverse alot harder than I've ever done when it was 
just me by myself, and every time we hurt the bad guys we save a ton of 
people. You remember how bad it was when the Defense Force attacked 
that harbor fortress?" 
    A grim nod from Amy, her mom had had to help out during the 
aftermath and had let some stories slip. 
    Mina forged on. "And can you picture what it would be like if the 
Negaverse was in control? Things would’ve been getting that way 
already, I couldn't stop them anymore. Then Jared came along and we've 
been able to really stop their attacks again. I don't *know* what 
another Sailor Scout could or couldn't do to that, but I'm willing to 
bet that the more of us there are working together, the safer we'll all 
be... *and* our families." 
    Amy began nodding in newfound agreement. "Okay, what do I do?" 
    The sometimes Sailor V glanced to her cat companion. "Artemis?" 
    "Right, Mina!" The little cat rose to its feet, poised and then 
jumped, turning a flip in midair. A small brooch with the symbol for 
Mercury on the cover fell out of midair at the apex of the flip and the 
cat caught it and landed with it in his mouth, placing it on the covers 
of the bed. 
    "Here, this will be your brooch to transform into Sailor Mercury. 
We used to use pens, but Mina discovered they're just too easy to lose, 
especially in the heat of battle." 
    Amy picked it up. "Okay, what do I do?" 
    Mina shrugged. "Just lift it above your head and say whatever comes 
to mind." 
    Amy complied. "Mercury Power!" and a ribbon of water wrapped around 
her suddenly empty outlined form, transforming into a Sailor suit. 
Hundreds of snowflakes settled on her arms and legs, forming boots and 
gloves, then her jewelry, sailor tiara and earrings, appeared with 
flashes of light. 
    "You really ARE Sailor Mercury!!" Artemis cried out in wonder. 
    "Hey! I feel better than I have since I started that extra credit 
computer course at that school you saved me from." Mercury's smile 
faded to a frown. "But what is that strange feeling that I'm getting? 
Something is not right here." 
    Mina perked up, her attention caught. "It's probably the Negaverse! 
Those trash, they probably found we were in this hospital somehow!" 
    "What do I do?" Mercury inquired. 
    "Hang on a second. Artemis, turn your back while I transform, okay? 
Venus Power!!" 
    No talking took place as Venus' flashy transformation took place, 
then the two Scouts were both listening to their other senses. "You're 
right, that *is* the Negaverse feeling. They're doing something in this 
area! Maybe they know Jared is injured here?" 
    There came a groan from the bed. "And why am I not regenerating 
*this* time?" The youth asked. 
    Mercury bent over the prone redhead. "I'm sorry. My mother had to 
sew you up, and they didn't want to risk infection coming from germs of 
the surfaces of your jewelry. I'm afraid they took your armband and 
other things off." 
    The youth sat up, holding both hands to his chest. "I wish people 
would stop doing that. Um, and why are you two in Sailor costume? Am I 
that ill?" 
    "Nope, it's just that we think the Negaverse is near." Mercury 
reported in a friendly manner. 
    "Alright, I'll help." Jared replied, then had pause. "Uh, oh. This 
is trouble." 
    "What's the matter?" Sailor V asked of him, bending back to look 
from where she'd been peeking out the window. 
    The youth on the bed was concerned. "Something's up, I'm all out of 
spell energy. Hang on a minute." He sat up and concentrated. Suddenly 
there rained down around him a collection of trinkets; armbands, 
jewelry, bracers, belt and so on. 
    "Didn't you just say you couldn't cast magic?" Mercury inquired. 
    "Sure, but this was something permanent I put into these when I 
created them." The young mage replied, in his distraction revealing 
some things he really didn't want other people to know. "I put a mark 
on each of these that I can locate them, even get a clear idea of who 
has them if they're stolen. But more importantly, I can call them all 
to me unless they're in someone else's possession or in a specially 
warded place. Very handy, I never lose things. But right now I needed 
some of these to figure out what was up." 
    Sliding the ruby armband on again, he sighed in relief, then 
clasped on a necklace. "Ah, that's better." 
    "Are you going to say, now that you know what the problem is?" 
Artemis asked, sitting at the foot of the bed. 
    The redhead nodded, laying a short wand against the inside of his 
left forearm and wrapping a bracer on over it, concealing and hiding 
it. "Yah. That dunce cap thing might have done more than just kill me." 
    "I'm afraid that I don't understand." Mercury supplied, slightly 
confused. 
    Jared scooted to a more comfortable position and began to explain, 
while still strapping on his possessions. "Well, I'll try and... hang 
on a minute..." He took out a hand mirror and checked his reflection 
for a moment. Mercury noted that his mirror was about six inches across 
and set in what looked like a silver frame. A pheonix had been inset in 
the back through a mosaic of blue gemstones and it was really quite 
pretty. 
    The youth put down the mirror. "Okay, short form. And this is 
conjecture, but I'm a..." He trailed off, dropping his head. ~What was 
I about to say? That I was an expert? Sure, my *character* is, but I'm 
beginning to lose all sense of having been a separate person at all!~ 
    The redhead shook himself. "Sorry. You guys cast magic about the 
same way as I walk; you apply the desire and your body follows through 
on it. All of the magic of being a Sailor Scout was either worked into 
you long ago, or contained in the items you use to transform and keyed 
to certain specific people; namely you. The magic that makes you Sailor 
Scouts is a vast network of effects, and when you trigger an attack or 
ability you are just focusing power through a part of that permanent 
web." 
    He looked at his companions, inwardly wincing. "I'm something of an 
expert on magical theory. Anyway, I come from a much more primitive 
setup. We're about a step up from waving bird feathers in the air and 
calling down rain, not a high step up either." Jared shook his head and 
let his feet down off of the bed, adjusting his belt around his person 
and beginning to strap pouches to it. "But primitive though that may 
be, we are advanced and vigorous primitives. Rather than build vast 
networks of self sustaining magic, we cast spells that are largely 
simple one-shots, temporary things at best by comparison. But self 
terminating spells tend to improve faster merely by means of trial and 
error than powerful, long term, permanent ones, which are too expensive 
in terms of resource and energy to be done that way." 
    The redhead slid down from off of the bed and delicately began to 
stretch out. "One other thing spurring us on is that for most of our 
lives our survival is at stake. Our world is overrun with monsters, 
trolls, demons, etc., and while not quite as powerful as Beryl or her 
minions, those of us who fail to improve are toast. That motivation 
goes a long way. We've had mages try just about every trick you could 
think of, and enough of them succeeded that as a whole we've learned 
how to do quite a bit." 
    What he was telling them was really just standard for a D&D 
adventuring world, where civilization had a small toehold and the rest 
of the world teemed with lost riches and nasty critters. The average 
lifespan of a neophyte adventurer was astonishingly short. 
    For some reason Jared began brushing out his hair, checking his 
mirror again. "Not that all of that knowledge is available, mind you. 
Spells can be hard to come by and research is expensive. Most of us 
rely primarily on the purchase or find of spells that were developed by 
others." 
    "Why didn't you share? Weren't your lives in danger?" Mercury 
cocked her head at the youth. "It seems it would make sense to 
cooperate." 
    The redhead replied with a grin. "Oh, I agree. But how much more 
advanced would your science be if all companies shared their secrets 
and cooperated? Sadly, there are many who think only of profit, and 
even more sadly, those who would use that knowledge for evil. So spells 
don't get widely circulated, not unless a mage sells them or dies and 
his spellbook gets discovered by another. More frequently we trade, for 
example I could train you how I do something like, oh, I dunno... 
Analyze Device to intuitively understand the purposes and function of a 
mechanical object, if you would, in turn, teach me something of equal 
power." 
    Jared sighed, stamping his feet to get the boots settled properly, 
then glanced around. "But, of course, the slow and steady building of 
your style gets to a point where it builds a higher structure, just 
because fast and dirty is less stable. So while I can do more *types* 
of things than you do, I cannot do *what* you do and do it as well. Or 
that's my theory, I'm waiting to be proved wrong." 
    "So do you have a spellbook?" Artemis stepped forward and queried. 
    Reluctantly, Jared nodded. 
    "Wow!" Amy chirped up. "I would like to see it." 
    Jared glanced between his companions. Amy had obviously beaten 
Artemis to the same request by a bare second, and Mina was looking 
interested too. The youth studied floor tiles. "Amy... that kind of 
request... If I didn't trust you it would be considered an insult, and 
as it stands it's tantamount to asking me to marry you. It would be 
hard for bearing kids together to feel more intimate than studying 
another mage's spellbook. You could easily kill me with that in-depth 
knowledge of my secrets, even without intending to. If an incautious 
word got to the wrong ear at the wrong time about what I can and cannot 
do it could easily spell the end of me." 
    Mercury turned pale. "Oh." 
    Artemis took a step forward. "Nevertheless, I feel that we..." 
    Jared shot him a hard look. "You even *try* suggesting what I think 
you're about to and you're kitty litter. If my actions haven't proven 
whose side I'm on then that book isn't going to convince you, and I 
don't trust that Beryl wouldn't wring you dry if she got the idea in 
her head that by doing so she could gain a secret that might get me." 
    Venus cleared her throat. "Jared, it's not right for to be holding 
secrets from each other." She said, speaking into her hand. 
    He looked at her helplessly. Could she have any idea what she was 
asking? 
    ...if something didn't interrupt conveniently he was going to die. 
Right then, right there. 
    ...nothing did. 
    Something chaotic stirred from within him. Jared stood up, slipping 
on the last of his impressive collection of gear, and nodded to all 
assembled. "Goodbye." He raised a hand, tapping energy stored in his 
bracer to cast a spell. 
    "World Gate." 
    A swirling, man-sized disk of bluish energy rose up into being over 
the hospital floor, standing upright like an entrance way. Jared also 
shimmered and fell amidst a cascade of equipment, all of his items 
falling loose as he hit the floor as a small, white bunny rabbit, 
looking quite astonished. 
    The rabbit swiftly reverted to being Jared, who grabbed a sheet to 
cover himself and cast another spell, bringing all of his equipment up 
from the floor to garb him again. Unfortunately, this also caused a 
small, black cloud to form around the mage's head. Inside it, Jared 
could be heard to cough. 
    Mercury caught a whiff of it, it smelled something like sulfur and 
garlic, and something worse. 
    Jared remained, stunned, until the world gate had closed and the 
small, black cloud had dissipated. He blinked in astonishment, then 
held out his hand and called forth a soft globe of blue light. 
    Standing ten feet away and on the other side of the room, Mercury's 
clothes disintegrated, leaving her naked but for jewelry. The others 
only looked when they heard Mercury's shriek. The mage pointed a finger 
and said "Fabricate", and the girl was decently clad in her uniform 
again, but both Mage and Mercury began blinking furiously. 
    "Oh my! This was not what I was expecting at all!" 
    "Nope, it would appear that you screwed up." 
    Mina and Artemis looked rapidly between the two. That had been 
Jared's voice from Jared's body, but had also been falsetto and sounded 
a bit like Mercury. While the response from Mercury had Jared's 
intonation and been a little mannish. 
    "No, we've not switched minds or bodies." Mercury answered, still 
sounding alot like Jared. "Just personalities, and then just 
temporarily... I hope. Look, we'd better get out of here before the 
noise brings one of the nurses or my mom." 
    The Pheonix Mage blinked in rapidfire staccato. "Oh. I guess that 
would be best. We ought to go, shouldn't we? It would hardly do to get 
caught in a situation like this, in our hero guises. I don't think we 
could easily explain it." 
    Mina's head hurt from turning back and forth between the two of 
them. 
    The doorknob could be heard to be turning. 
    Mercury, with a personality for action, ran at super fast speed, 
tackling Jared and bursting with him out through the floor length 
window. Venus remained to see the stunned nurse come in on her and see 
the broken out glass window and empty bed. 
    The confused but plucky Sailor tossed her a weak victory sign. "Oh, 
I was just here helping to heal the sick, but the Negaverse just 
attacked. Gotta fight it! See ya!" And she leapt from the window too. 
    Mercury and the Pheonix Mage were both falling rather fast toward 
the ground. Jared's face screwed up, helplessly awaiting impact. 
Mercury suddenly realized that she didn't have any means of slowing 
their fall. But then the Mage twisted around in the air and landed with 
her in his arms, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. 
    Jared quickly set Mercury down, and looked demurely embarrassed. 
"Oh, I'm sorry. I had forgotten all about that. I have an item that 
reduces injury from falls. Lucky for us it was automatic." 
    Mercury snorted. "No...." 
    Both blinked. 
    Jared shook his head , closing his eyes and putting his palms over 
them. "I am so glad that was temporary." 
    "You're telling me!?" Mercury agreed. 
    They looked up to hear the scream of Venus falling. Seeing little 
other option, the mage pointed to her and said "Feather Fall", suddenly 
arresting Venus' plight as she began to bob and drift downwards with 
the speed of a floating feather. 
    The mage appeared honestly surprised when nothing bad happened. 
    "What's wrong? Why are you looking so relieved?" Mercury asked, 
concerned. 
    The mage sighed deeply. "I was worried something weird was going to 
happen like one of you falling in love with me, or..." 
    He saw a pulse of magic out of the corner of his eye, and looked at 
it just in time to see little sparkles of magic fading from around the 
intellectual Sailor. 
    "Um..." 
    Mercury clasped her hands at him adoringly. "Oh, it was so *brave* 
of you! To save me and Sailor V like that! And earlier when you rescued 
me from that youma! It must have taken alot out of you. We should go to 
my house where you can rest!" 
    The mage began backing off. 
    Glomp! 
    "Hey!" Sailor V shouted, having landed. She came running towards 
them. "He's mine! I saw him first!" 
    Jared closed his eyes and prayed for the Negaverse to attack. 
    On second thought, there was a hospital full of people who were 
just looking out of their windows. Best to find someplace to have their 
little, domestic squabble without news crews arriving any second. 
    He tried casting a teleport. The only reaction he received was a 
400 lb block of dirt from the place he'd been *intending* to go dropped 
at his feet and Mercury's hair growing an additional three feet in 
length. 
    "Do you like girls who grow their hair long, Jay-chan?" Mercury 
asked of him sweetly. 
    "Yes, I find long hair quite attractive." He tried, figuring that 
complimented both of them and could he *please* untangle himself so 
that he could run away? His *feet* still worked, he was pretty sure. 
    "Well, if it isn't the little Sailor Brat and her boyfriend." 
    Never was Jared so grateful to have a dark general appear than at 
that moment. 
    That was when it occured to him that he was in no condition to 
fight.