Written by BHart
December 8, 2008

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Act XCII
The Antique Travelers

Sailor Titan, Magellan and Marina were walking around the isolated rooms, trying to figure out where they were and find a way out. They vaguely remembered being with their friends, then blacking out, and ending up where they were now.

Something broke through the ceiling of Sailor Titan's room, causing rubble to fall. She moved out of the way, only having some of it fall on her anyway.

When the dust from the rubble cleared, she looked up, seeing a hole in the ceiling. Someone was standing a few feet in front of her. It was a sailor senshi. "Who are you?"

"I'll be the one that kills you. I am Sailor Thebe." She was a muscular woman, wearing a bow around her neck, a sash over her breasts and a loin cloth. She was tan skinned with black hair.

Sailor Magellan noticed many mirrors hanging across the walls. "How peculiar."

She looked into one of the mirrors, admiring her beauty. She briefly caught a glimpse of another beautiful woman staring back at her in the mirror. She was startled, jumping back. "Who's there?"

She heard laughter and turned around.

One of the mirrors shattered. She ducked, shielding herself with her arms. Some of the glass shards stuck in her which she was pulling out.

Someone was standing a few feet in front of her. She was a beautiful, blond haired, blue eyed woman wearing an elegant gown and jewelry on her ears, neck and wrists. "When they told me how beautiful you were, I had to see for myself. I can honestly say, I'm disappointed."

"Who are you?"

"I am Sailor Helene. Lucky for you, I'll be the last person you see. My beauty will be forever burned in your memory."

Sailor Marina noticed she was tracking water across the floor. "Where did that come from? There's nothing wet in here."

A splash of water soaked her from behind. She turned around, seeing a pool of water where part of the floor used to be.

She saw a woman with fins on her arms and legs, standing in the water. Her breasts were barely covered by fishes. A golden ship's rudder rested against her shoulders. She was nude everywhere else. "We'll see who is best in the water. Your grave will be made here," threatened Sailor Tethys.

The five groups reunited in Xarcabard once they retrieved their items. Oona, Vlaad, Parne, Erewan and Suhya led the way to Castle Zvahl Bailey.

Three people approached them on their way. One of them was a middle-aged, red headed woman, the other, a dark haired, middle-aged man, and the third was a young man in his late teens.

"Excuse me, but are you headed towards the castle?" asked the woman.

Vlaad turned around replying, "Yes."

"What luck! We were on our way there too, but there's a shadow dragon blocking the path," explained the woman.

"We'll take care of it," assured Vlaad.

"Do you mind if we follow you? It's dangerous out here for commoners, like us," asked the woman.

"Um, sure, I guess. Who are you people, anyway?" asked Vlaad.

"Excuse my manners. I am Micki, this is Johnny and my son, James Malcolm Aubrey Edward de Vere Beauclerk."

"That's quite a mouthful," said Suhya, stepping into the conversation.

Micki laughed replying, "We just call him Lord Vere of Hanworth for short."

Vlaad and Suhya gave Micki a strange look. "We'll just call him James," said Suhya.

"You may follow us if you wish. The castle up ahead is a deathtrap; especially for commoners. Why do you three want to go there?" asked Suhya.

"We're antique dealers. We buy old and rare antiques for our shop," explained Micki.

"You must really like antiques if you're coming all the way out here to find one," remarked Vlaad.

"We're always after one of-a-kind objects," replied Micki.

Sailor Titan and Thebe were throwing punches at each other. They tore up the room with their fighting. They were bleeding and bruised.

"Quite foolish of you to kidnap us; you know the other sailor senshi will come for us."

"How do you know we haven't already captured them?" replied Sailor Thebe.

Sailor Titan rammed her up against the wall, causing it to crumble a little. "I'll kill you and rescue them."

One of Sailor Thebe's fists turned into a big globe, made of solid stone. She uppercut Sailor Titan, slamming her against the wall behind them. Sailor Thebe ran over to her, stomping on her with her Amazon feet. She grabbed Sailor Titan by the collar.

Sailor Titan conjured up some sand and pebbles, blasting them in her face.

She dropped Sailor Titan, being busy getting the sand out of her eyes and mouth. Sailor Titan lied on the ground, trying to muster enough strength to get up.

Sailor Marina was swimming away from Sailor Tethys. The room turned into a large swimming pool.

Sailor Tethys' legs turned into the lower part of a boat. She rammed Sailor Marina up against the side of the pool.

Sailor Marina dived into the water, making a trail with her blood.

Sailor Tethys turned around, waiting for her to resurface. Her legs turned back to normal.

Sailor Marina jumped out of the water, freezing the pool with her icy powers. Sailor Tethys was stuck in the pool.

Sailor Marina clasped her hands together, with her index fingers pointing at Sailor Tethys. A strong, concentrated stream of water shot out of her fingers. The aqua stream broke off Sailor Tethys' rudders on her shoulders.

Sailor Tethys broke out of the ice. She threw frozen ice blocks at her. Sailor Marina was struck by some of the ice blocks. She crouched down to avoid being hit by any more.

Sailor Tethys broke off a large ice block from the pool, hurling it at her.

Large gushes of water came out from Sailor Marina's hands, pushing the large block of ice back at Sailor Tethys. The block of ice slid across the floor, smashing Sailor Tethys against the wall, temporarily trapping her, while Sailor Marina tended to her wounds.

Sailor Helene was holding a chain of pearls, wrapped around the ankles of Sailor Magellan, who was lying on the floor.

Sailor Magellan's skin lubricated itself, making her ankles slip right through the pearl chain. She grabbed the end of the chain, yanking it. The chain came apart, with many pearls rolling on the floor.

Sailor Helene's arms detached themselves from her body, appearing by Sailor Magellan and strangling her.

She couldn't pull the arms away from her neck. Sailor Magellan's eyes flashed, with different colored hearts inside them. Her infatuated stare made Sailor Helene's De Milo hands crumble.

Sailor Helene's arms returned to her.

Sailor Magellan tossed some ovary bombs at her, blasting the two of them away from each other.

They reached the entrance to Castle Zvahl Baileys. Suhya turned around, warning Micki, Johnny and James of the dangers inside. "It would be safer for you three to wait outside. We can't guarantee your safety inside."

"We understand, but we need to find that antique," insisted Johnny.

"What exactly is it you're looking for?" asked Vlaad.

"We're not entirely sure," answered Micki.

"You don't know what it is?" asked Suhya, confused.

"We have a manifest which lists a bunch of antiques we need to retrieve. There's only one more left to find. It said something about a large, blunt, heavy weapon of some sort," explained Johnny.

"There are tons of things lying about this castle, it's very dark inside and it's very big. You've got your work cut out for you," said Suhya.

Vlaad, Suhya, Erewan, Oona and Parne each had torches to light the way. "Stick close together," instructed Erewan.

The light of the torches made some monsters in the distance visible. "What are those?" asked James, shaking.

"Those are demons. This place is full of them. Just keep quiet and they won't notice us," answered Parne.

"It's too bad Jack isn't here, he liked studying demonology," commented Johnny.

"Who's Jack?" asked Oona.

"Just a friend of ours who used to work with us; he's retired now. He'll be glad to hear when we find the last item in the manifest," answered Johnny.

"Where is it you work?" asked Parne.

"A place called Curious Goods. We've been in the business for 21 years. Feel free to come by anytime," said Micki, getting in her sales pitch. She handed Suhya a business card.

She just looked at Micki strangely, continuing onward.

There was an unlit torch on the wall in one of the rooms. They left the torch alone, walking to the right of it.

There was an alternate route to enter Castle Zvahl Keep by moving a few stones out of place on the wall. They made their way around Zvahl Keep.

Four demons came at them from each direction.

The antique dealers were terrified, hiding behind the others. They were surrounded by Baron Vapula, Barnoet Romwe, Count Bifrons and Viscount Morax.

They split up into four groups to fight the demons.

They fought the demons back into the corners from whence they came.

A demonic flow of energy entered the room, surrounding them. It was gradually getting harder for them to fight off the demons.

A dark, purple ball of energy was above them, creating a negative field around them. The demons' strength increased. They were losing to the demons.

James pulled out a gun from his pocket in a desperate attempt to help. He fired some rounds at the demons, missing them by a long shot.

"Lord Vere of Hanworth! What are you doing with that? Give it to me," yelled Micki.

"No, I need to help them." James raised the gun in the air, trying to keep it away from his mother, firing a round in the air. A bullet struck the ball of energy, shattering it, removing the field of darkness around them.

"Did you take this from the shop? You're too young to be using something like this," scolded Johnny.

"I'm sorry; I just thought we might need it."

"We'll talk about this later. You're lucky you didn't hit anyone with this thing," said Micki.

After killing the demons, Suhya said, "Next time you're going to fire something like that, warn us first."

"He's going to be grounded when we get home."

"But, mom!"

"Don't push me right now, Lord Vere of Hanworth. Apologize to these nice people."

"Don't bother. Just keep an eye on your kid from now on," said Vlaad. They headed towards the throne room.

..to be continued..