SAILOR SCOUTS IN GOTHAM (part 5)

***************************************

Shadows.  Smoke and noise.  A darkened alleyway beating with the ardent pulse
of a frenzied city.  Someone's crooked curtains casting a triangle of light
upon the rotten concrete ground.  Two pairs of footsteps pounded through the
patch, kicking up pebbles and dust.  Above them, the sky lay heavy and
luminous, yellow light accenting the grey clouds.  The Batsignal sprawled fat
across the sky.

Elsewhere, someone else rushed earnestly down the street, long hair flying and
catching golden sparks in its purple web.  From another direction, a slight
girl wove her way through an obstinate crowd, not letting anyone slow her
down.  On a rooftop, two cats scampered as fast as their paws would take them.
And at a busy intersection near Gotham Square, a girl took a running leap and
vaulted over the traffic jam to land on the other side.  Finally, five serious
Sailors gazed at each other, standing in a loose circle on a rooftop.

Luna paced in the center.  "Listen up, girls,"  she said slowly and seriously.
"The Joker has hijacked a new public address system that broadcasts sound
throughout Gotham Square.  Somehow, he's going to use that system to attack
the whole town.  Now I don't know exactly how, but you can bet the Negaverse
has made him stronger.  So you girls have GOT to be on your guard.  We have to
stop him."

"We're going to have our work cut out for us on this one," Sailor Mercury said
with a purposeful stare.  "The Joker is not just someone who's been put under
Zoycite's spell.  He's dangerous anyhow.  And we don't know how he operates."

"That's right, ladies," said a deep voice from above them.  There was a chilly
fluttering of wings.  "Which is why you're going to listen to me."

The Sailor Scouts looked up.  A deep blue cape shot down towards them, much
darker than the reddish Gotham night's smog.  Wearing the cape, the most huge
and terrifying of figures, black and solid and ominous.  Sailor Moon
stuttered, "Batman!" as his freefall came to a stop, and he stood powerfully
in the center of their circle.

The two cats scampered behind their mistresses, and looked out from behind red
boots and orange shoes.  Batman turned in a slow circle, staring at each girl
for a long and terrifying moment.  The ends of his cape flickered in the
chilly breeze.  No one dared speak a word to him.

When he was ready to speak, he did.  "The Joker wants me.  He doesn't care
about you.  So I'm going after him.  You five will try to stop his plan from
working.  Disconnect the P.A. system.  And look after the citizens.  Don't go
after Joker."  The low, brusque voice stopped as abruptly as it had started.
The Sailors still stood, awed and silent.

It was Sailor Venus who first got the courage to speak.  "So... you're
allowing us to help?" she said, in a strangely bold voice.  Her eyes looked
deep into the fiery slits of the Batman's mask.  

"It's not as if he's got much of a choice," said a lighter voice from behind
them.  Venus wheeled around, took in a sharp breath, and then lit up like a
Christmas tree.  "We've been watching you,"  Robin continued as he leapt down
from his perch.  He landed next to a thrilled Sailor Venus.  "And we've been
checking up on you too.  Looks like the Sailor Scouts are the real deal after
all."

"We sure are!"  affirmed Sailor Moon insistently.

"Sailor Moon," said Robin, walking towards her.  "We hear you stopped a bank
robbery a few weeks back.  Saved some window washers from falling too.  Not
bad work."  Across the circle, Sailor Mars started to giggle.  Robin looked
curiously around at her, and then at Sailor Moon, who had developed a very
nasty scowl.  Mars attempted to restrain herself.  Robin asked, "Care to
share, Sailor Mars?"

"Oh... sorry..." Mars replied, trying to swallow her smiles.  "It's just
that..."  Sailor Moon scowled, and Mars shrank, but the silly face only made
her laugh all the harder.  "...Well, it wasn't even her."  

Robin raised an eyebrow, and looked doubtfully at his senior partner

Sailor Mars smiled coyly at the cape-clad crusader. "It's truue though!  It
was that sleaze queen Zoycite.  Can you believe it?  A cross-dressing
Nega-general was a better Sailor Moon than she was.  Now if you're looking for
someone to fight evil..." she went on as Sailor Moon's face slowly reddened in
anger. The Dark Knight stared down at the raven-haired kid who was now batting
her eyelashes like crazy and giving him the sweetest of smiles.  "If you're
looking for a real fighter, I'm your girl.  Don't you think?"   

Robin's cackle interrupted her flirtatious story.  "Hahahahahahahahahaha!   A
cross dressing general from the planet Nega?  Sounds fishy to me.  Tell me
another one.  No, wait, I've got it.  A cross dressing Amazon with a FISH on
his stomach!  Now that's a fish story..."  His chuckles were like music to
Sailor Moon.  She silently thanked him and hoped that the Dynamic Duo didn't
know the truth.

	"Now come on," Batman continued, motioning slightly to Robin.  "We
have to go." A moment later, the sculpted ends of his cape were all the Scouts
could see of the Dark Knight, as he plunged over the roof's edge. 

	Robin ran rapidly after his partner, waving briefly at the five girls.
"You stay out of trouble, got it?" 

	"Oooh, we will!" enthused Sailor Venus suddenly.  "You bet, Traffic
Light Knight?" 

	Robin stopped dead in his tracks "...Whuuut?" the other girls groaned
and looked away embarrassedly.

	Venus, now a unique shade of pink, sidled up to her "Knight"
affectionately.  "Um,  Traffic Light Knight?" she said in a voice dripping
with sweetness.  "Could you... maybe... give me a li'l kiss for good luck?"
The enamored Scout ended her sentence with a disarming smile.

	"Well..."  Robin felt very weird, but he also didn't mind hanging out
with five lovely teenage girls.  He shrugged.  "Couldn't hurt, I guess!"  The
four spectators and two felines gaped as Robin brought his head down towards
Venus'.  Three endless seconds as he moved closer... closer... (Venus's head
swam)... closer...

	And then his lips brushed her cheek, and time snapped back into focus.
Robin barely had time to straighten up as he was accosted by four squealing
girls, each demanding their own good-luck kiss.  The clamor on the building
was ridiculous. Finally Luna shouted, "EnOUGH!  We've got to get a move on!"

	The superhero separated himself from his fan club and took a step
back.  "I really DO have to go," he said apologetically.  Five faces fell with
a disgruntled groan.  Robin reached for his grapnel.

	"Waiiiiit a minute!" Sailor Moon snapped suddenly, giving a determined
little grimace.  "I'M the leader, and I-I-I deserve a kiss for good luck!  If
you kiss me, it'll be good luck for ALL of us."  She threw a look back at
Sailor Mars.  "And it'll save the rest of you the trouble."

	Mars turned her back.  "You can have him.  I've got higher ambitions."
She posed decisively on the rooftop.  "I'm going after Batman!!!"

	Jupiter cracked a smile at the scene.  "Yeah.  Right.  I'd like to see
that."

	Sailor Mars wheeled and opened her mouth, but Robin interrupted.  "I'm
sure you'll do fine."  His grapnel caught on a distant crevice, and in a flash
the caped hero was off the building.  As he swung away, Robin turned back for
a half a moment, saluted, and shouted, "Catch ya later, Meatball Head."

	Her eyes pie plates and her mouth wide open, Sailor Moon ran towards
the roof's edge.  But Robin was already gone.

**

"Ladies and geee-yEN-tle-men!!!"

The voice resounded off a thousand rooftops.  The glass panels of a skyscraper
vibrated slightly.

"Live, from this bee-you-ti-ful city of Gotham, coming at you direct from the
flashing lights (and flashing perverts) in glamorous Gotham Square..."

Even for the Square, with its religious zealots, and Rolex hawkers, this was
loud.  A few people came to their apartment windows curiously.  Tourists and
theatregoers looked behind them and up at the huge TV screen that towered over
the district.

"It's the loudest, lewdest..."  There was a slight pause.  People went along
their way, chalking the voice up to some unseen street show.  That is, until
the amps shrieked.

Gotham Square vibrated with the force.  "Heyyyyyyyy!" screamed the disembodied
voice, as if hurt.  "I go to ALL this trouble and you're not even listening?
I'm CRUSHED!  I'm SHATTERED!"  A sly chuckle.  "And you know what they say...
turnabout is fair play!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..."

Glass on nearby office buildings began to quake quicker and quicker, as the
loud hysterics continued.  A potted plant fell off a twentieth story balcony,
cracking over a young mother's head.  Her baby played with the soil that fell
into his stroller.  A seven-foot-tall wooden barricade toppled over, the huge
"X" in "TIX*TIX*TIX" landing squarely on a car.  Slowly, the city began to
fall apart.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"  Railings on balconies came unglued.  Car
windows shattered.  People lost their balance and fell to the ground.
Families huddled together in stone doorways.  A gargoyle rumbled ominously on
a cathedral wall, his sharp beak threatening to take a nose dive.  Through it
all, that hideous laughter, bouncing off a thousand billboards and shrieking
through the city's night.

And then, it stopped.

The voice paused, a few fading chuckles wobbling through the air.  The city
was intensely quiet.  Even the stony-faced cab drivers had poked their heads
out the window to see what would happen next.

The mysterious speaker cleared his throat.  "Ahem, much better.  Much better.
All right... and NOW, for the first time ever... the loudest, lewdest,
crudest, rudest, sadist broadcast ever to HIT the Gotham scene..."  At the
word HIT, a glass window fell from its frame and shattered dangerously on the
pavement.  "...Ladies and gentleman... it's
the Joker show!!"

Spotlights flipped on and circled the sky maniacally.  Other spotlights, from
the top of the tall centre tower, shed their light on the frozen spectators
and the unmoving streets of Gotham Square.  Circus music trumpeted through the
speakers.  One searchlight, bearing the shape of the Batsignal with a huge
line through it, hit a cloud, disappeared, reappeared in another part of the
sky, turned off and on again several times, always in a different places.  

As the light show progressed, the Joker's voice returned.  "And here's your
host, on W-N-U-T, the man who puts the FUN in dysFUNctional... yours truly,
theee Joker!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you," he said to himself as canned
applause echoed behind him.  "You know the funniest thing happened to me while
I was breaking out of the asylum the other day...  there was this guy, just
kind of floating there!  No kidding folks, I mean he was floating... Called
himself Mister Homicide I think.  Or Mister Suicide.  The weirdest thing
though, he didn't even want to kill anybody, he said he was a lab mouse trying
to take over the world, I think  Pinkycide?  I don't remember.  Anyway, yeesh!
Taking over the world!  Who'd WANT to?  And they call ME crazy!
Hahahahahahahahaha!"

The dreaded shrieks erupted through the street, causing a hundred more windows
and balconies and stones to fall.  A panicked wail rose up from the street.

"Whoo!  Anyhow, well, confidentially, the guy was a NUT," Joker continued in a
teasingly condescending voice, "but he taught me how to throw my voice.  Well,
not like that Ventriloquist fellow.  But now, when I laugh, the whole world
laughs with me! Hahahahaha!"  And just as he said, the whole square vibrated
in reaction, sending a million more pieces of debris crashing down onto the
people below.  "Or, at least, they sure hear me, don't you?  Well, you guys
are being a great audience, because unless I miss my guess, he's down there
right now collecting energy from you.  Oh, did I MISS that part?  He's
collecting energy?  Joker, he said to me.  Yes? I said?  I want you to go out
and wreak a little havoc, he said.  Oh, Noooo sir! I protested.  I just want
to entertain!  To make people smile.  To loosen UP this Godforsaken town!  And
he said, that's JUST what I want you to do...  hunh?"  His voice wavered, as
if hearing something strange.  "Oops, just a moment folks, technical
difficulties..."  The amps made a choked noise, then it let up.  "...Aw.  It
doesn't matter.  So.  Anyway.  This Pinkycide fellow said, "I'm just going to
collect energy for the Nickle-verse or something... Nega? Nega-worse..."

"The Negaverse," announced a triumphant girl's voice, through the same
speaker.  Her tones resonated more pleasantly through the area, and people
looked up in surprise.  "And you're NOT going to win!"  At that moment, that
one searchlight turned off and on again in a different direction.  But its
beam of light bent, fragmented, because five silhouettes stood in its way.

"Uh, is this thing on?" the girl in the center looked confusedly at the
microphone she was holding.  Another silhouette gave her a thumbs-up signal.
The searchlight switched off and more spotlights turned toward the team.  In
an instant, the Sailor Scouts were the main attraction.

"I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice!  And I may make a lot of noise
myself, but nothing like this!  And I'd definitely never do it for the evil
forces of the Negaverse.  Be prepared, Joker,  because the Sailor Scouts are
here!"

A ball of fire shot up.  "I'm Sailor Mars, and I know how to warm up a crowd!"

A crash of thunder crackled the speakers.  "I'm Sailor Jupiter, and when I'm
around, the applause is thunderous!"

Bubbles sprayed forth, covering a billboard in mist.  "I'm Sailor Mercury, and
everyone says I'm too cool!"

A beam shaped like two crescent moons hit the cloud right next to the
shattered searchlight's ray.  "I'm Sailor Venus, and I know how to steal the
spotlight!"

The five warriors spoke in unison.  "We're the Sailor Scouts, and we'll punish
you!"

The Joker said, "Mmmmm..." in a confused, wavering way, and then spat, "Wait a
minute, YOU'RE not Batman!"

"Smart guy," Sailor Jupiter quipped into Sailor Moon's microphone.  The
innocents, made hopeful by the heroines' appearance, chuckled a little.

"ForGET it then," the Joker fumed angrily.  "I only tangle with Batsy.  Not
small-time schoolgirls with Mercury bubbleheads.  Shoo!"

"Actually," Sailor Venus grinned, "Mercury has the bubbles, but Sailor Moon's
the bubblehead."

"Am NOT!" Sailor Moon whined.  "Well, maybe a LITTLE, but..."  Another laugh
came from the street.

"STOPit!"  the Joker finally screeched.  "They're supposed to laugh at ME!!
Not YOUUUU!"  Buildings rumbled and debris fell.  The Sailor Scouts scattered,
leaping from their positions to stem the damage.  

"Jupiter Thunder, Crash!" resounded, as a huge lightning bolt reduced a
falling gargoyle to sand.  A wooden balcony was consumed by a bright fireball
before it could hit the ground.  Sailor Venus cut open a car with her Crescent
Beam and grabbed up the two small children inside it, leaping to safety with
them.  Sailor Moon vaporized a falling windowpane with her tiara.  The Joker's
protests and screeches couldn't cause the damage fast enough, as the five
resilient Scouts protected the innocent.  Finally, Mercury grabbed the
microphone.

"That's all for you!" she shouted, and with a touch of her hand, activated a
shimmery blue visor.  After a moment of examining the mass of equipment, she
plugged her computer into it all and punched a key.  With a huge shriek, the
amps cut off the Joker's "Wha--?" in mid-cry, and sat benignly buzzing once
more.

"Ha!"  cried Sailor Moon, jumping towards Mercury.  "That's that!"

"Not quite," muttered Sailor Jupiter, looking up towards the tower...

**

"--a - a- a-t??" 

The rest of the Joker's scream went unheard by the people of Gotham City, but
high atop Gotham Square Tower, his henchmen were sure getting an earful.  The
Joker whirled and grabbed the nearest stooge.  "Find out what's going on!
What did that Sailor twerp do?  NOW!"  He threw him backwards, and the thug
ran out the door hurriedly.

A fellow wearing a pair of headphones looked ardently at the computer.  "It
seems that girl patched into our frequency, with the aid of a microcomputer,
and managed to redir--"

"I don't CARE about that, man!"  the Joker raged.  "Save the technobabble and
get me my VOICE back, or I'll shatter this studio just as easily as I did that
whole city!"  The headphone man turned back to his control panel urgently.

The Joker paced. He wrung his hands and pulled at his hair.  "Sailor Scouts,
Shmailure Scouts, blah, blah, blah," he ranted.  "Stealing my show.  Don't
they know?  NOBODY steals my show!  And nobody talks that way to me!  Only
BATMAN gets to talk that way to me!!  Batman's the only one who's allowed!"

"In that case," said a dark voice, "I will, thank you."  

A pair of eyes glowed in the darkness.

The Joker turned and stared, then cracked yet another evil grin.  "BATsy!
Darling!  So kind of you to.. *finally*... show up.  I hope your Boy Wonder
and Bat-Girlfriend are doing something about those anNOYING  pests down there.
Really, they came and ruined a classic scheme, and I was JUST telling Rocco
and Henshaw over here," he rambled, waving at two burly henchmen.  "I was JUST
telling them that nobody gets to spoil my fun like you.  Definitely not those
silly seagoing scoundrels!"

"Actually," Batman said, walking into the light carefully, "I invited them to
help."  

"Whaat?"  The Joker looked shocked.  "And here I thought you had a better
sense of rivalry than that!  You don't bring outsiders in.  This is our fight!
So, speaking of fight, now that I've had my chance to say hello..."  He stood,
hands on an office chair with wheels. "...Time to say goodbye!"

The chair went flying towards Batman, who grabbed it and picked it up.   The
Joker flew out the door, a ripple of laughter escaping his lips.
"...Yahahaha!"  At this sound, a TV screen above the control panel smashed an
inch from Batman's feet.  The floor shook a little.

Rocco and Henshaw leapt for Batman, and each got thrown sideways.  They
stumbled to their feet and made simultaneous grabs for him, and despite
frantic attacks with the chair, Batman couldn't shake loose.  He struggled.
Another musclebound thug came up from behind, baseball bat in hand, and raised
it dangerously over Batman's head.  He swung the bat down, but it flew in an
erratic arc-- and the thug followed it!  He crashed to the floor painfully.
Rocco and Henshaw looked around, and there stood Robin, foot extended to the
side.  "Whoooops," he said apologetically to the figure on the ground.  "Did I
trip you?"

Like a lightning bolt, the Batman was out the door.  He threw himself over
banisters, dropping from floor to floor like a night shadow.  Lower in the
tall stairwell, the Joker's feet pounded rhythmically down the steps.  He
giggled gleefully as he fled, and with each cackle the building trembled and
Batman clung to the column's unsteady frame.

The Joker exploded out of the building, grinning in triumph.  "Tough luck,
Batsy!" he called out, turning his head.  "But now it's time to bring the
house down!  Yee hee hee hee hee..."  With a huge rumble, Gotham Square Tower
started to collapse.

Stones crumbled to pebbles, and the building fell in on itself.  The people
still lingering in the street watched in awe as the centre pinnacle of Gotham
Square seemed to melt, like a volcano disintegrating brick by brick in a cloud
of red-brown dust.  The Batman was nowhere to be seen.

The Joker jogged backwards, enjoying the show and applauding merrily.  As the
dust clouds settled, he finally turned around in mid-step, and found himself
face to face with an outstretched hand.

"Way to go," said Sailor Jupiter flatly, as the clown blinked at her hand and
then up at her.  "You just put on quite a show."

With one purple-suited arm, the Joker pushed Jupiter aside.  "Don't have time
for amateurs!" he muttered.  But as he got set to hightail it out of there,
Sailor Mars appeared just inches away.

"Too bad you're not the star of this act," she said, scowling.  The Joker
wasted no time in pushing her away as well, but right behind Mars was a
frowning Sailor Venus.

She chimed in.  "The great Joker, just a sideshow.  Killing Batman, just a
stunt."  This statement stung Joker's ego, and he plunged head-on towards
Venus.  But she moved away just in time.

Next in line was Sailor Mercury.  The Joker whimpered.  "What is this, bowling
for Sailors?"  Mercury shook her head.

"The newspapers tomorrow will have banner headlines, but they won't say
anything about the Joker.  He'll be stuck in a sidebar on page twelve," she
said seriously, and moved to the side just as the others had.

"Face it," declared Sailor Moon from her triumphant position: in the centre of
an arc of Sailors blocking the Joker's path.  "You're just a stooge for the
Negaverse.  Kind of a letdown, huh?"

The Joker let out a long breath of frustration.  But his showman smile
returned.  "Ladies, ladies," he said courteously, removing his top hat and
making a deep bow.  "Once again, you underestimate me!  But here's a little
souvenir for your trouble."  He reached into his hat.  "One Joker-bomb, hold
the mayo, coming right up!"

The Scouts readied themselves.

But the TNT and grinning plastic face did not appear when the Joker pulled his
gloved hand out of the hat.  Instead, to his and everyone's surprise, his
fingers had closed around a stretch of straw-colored hair!  The Joker made a
face and pulled harder.  He gave a confused whimper, as the hair revealed
itself as a ponytail... which came attached to a full head of hair... which
popped out of the had with a burst of cherry blossoms.  It was Zoycite!

He floated out of the top hat, which fell from the Joker's hand and thudded to
the ground.  The funnyman was dumbfounded.  His jaw dropped to the floor and
his eyes bugged out quite comically.  After a few moments of slack-jawed
staring, the Joker came to his senses and promptly burst out in a flailing,
diva-sized temper tantrum.  "Bah-- bah-- bleaugh!  What in Bartholomew
Cubbins' name are you doing inside my HAT, man?  Don't you know that's the way
you get LICE?  In my hat?  How dare you?..."  The Scouts, meanwhile, just
shifted into battle positions.

"Sorry," Zoycite sneered, and burst into his trademark giggle.  "But the
Sailor Scouts have a point.  I've been keeping my eye on you, Joker, and I
know you're a glory hog."  The Joker muttered something under his breath.
"You seem like the type who stirs up more trouble than you're worth, so I'll
remind you: You're working for the Negaverse now, and believe me--"  Zoycite
paused and lowered his eyes slightly-- "you DON'T want to anger Queen Beryl."
	
"Then you picked the wrong man for the job," said a deep voice from behind
them.  Sailor Moon smiled broadly.  Sailor Mars dropped her battle stance like
a hot potato and waved happily.

"Look, I don't know who you are or why you're doing this to the people of
Gotham City," said Batman, his dark figure looming huge and fierce atop a pile
of rubble.  "But the Joker won't stand for anything less than a starring role.
And as for me," he continued, scowling deeper and locking his eyes with
Zoycite's, "I won't stand for ANY of it."

Seeing Zoycite and Batman's staring contest intensify, the Joker took
advantage of the moment to tiptoe away from the circle and escape.  That is,
until a pair of black spheres on a whirling string locked around his ankles.
It was his "Oof!" as his chin hit the ground that alerted Sailor Moon, and she
looked around with a grateful smile at a flickering yellow cape and a
green-gloved thumbs-up. 

Zoycite just looked at Batman, his brown eyes probing the hero's ominous
scowl.  It wasn't enough to scare the general, but it was enough to freeze
him.  Especially so because Zoycite was still feeling vulnerable from
unwittingly reminding himself that this Gotham adventure was his last chance.

Comfort came to Zoycite in the form of a gray cloaked figure that materialized
a few feet above him.  Its sudden presence caused Batman to step backwards,
and all the Sailors to gasp.  Malachite floated down to join his beloved.

"It doesn't matter anymore," he said in a voice like cold steel.  "We have all
the energy we need, especially after the Joker's broadcast.  The whole city is
just reeking with dark energy now."  He put a hand to Zoycite's chin and
raised his face up to meet his own gaze.  "All we need to do now is collect
it."

"Don't let them, Sailor Moon," urged a familiar feline voice from behind the
Sailor Scouts.  "If the Negaverse takes all this energy, they'll be a thousand
times more powerful.  We've got to stop them."

"I know, Luna," Sailor Moon answered in a low voice.  By the time she looked
up, the evil couple were already floating up towards the sky, ready to drain
the energy from the entire town!  Sailor Jupiter tried to jump at them, and
Venus took an ardent step forward, shaking her fist.  Mars frowned, and
Mercury stood, intently pensive.  All four whirled when Sailor Moon suddenly
cried out, "I've got it!"

Everyone looked surprised.  Mars said skeptically, "You do?"

"Sure!"  Sailor Moon leapt toward the podium where they had stood earlier,
behind the giant spotlight.  The other Scouts followed her as she jumped
around, grabbing the microphone and finding loads of unattached cable.
"Sailor Mercury, crank these speakers up to full volume.  We're going to bring
this whole city back to normal!"  

Sailor Mercury got to work, and the others handed her equipment and stood
ready.  The sky was slowly turning blood red, and up in the sky hovered two
people and a gigantic ball of energy, slowly growing as greenish energy waves
floated up from the city.  Luna shouted, "Hurry!"  The Batman suddenly bolted
into a nearby building.  

"Put a move on it!"  said Artemis.  "They're draining more and more energy
every minute!"   But Sailor Moon was ready.  She stood proudly in the center
of the podium, near a microphone held by Sailor Venus.  Mercury's computer was
patched into the sound system, and she sat with her VR visor on, staring
intensely at the screen.  Sailor Mars and Jupiter kept a wary eye out for
trouble on the streets or in the skies.

Then, with a flutter of wings, Batman reappeared.  He had set up several
pieces of equipment around Sailor Moon, microphones and transmitters.  Sailor
Moon paused, waiting for the condescending phrase of warning the Batman was
sure to give.  Instead, he simply said, "Anyone watching TV or listening to
the radio right now is going to hear your voice.  Do it."  His trust flowed
through Sailor Moon like new strength.  She nodded.

"Moon... Healing... Activation!"

As the energy radiated from Sailor Moon's crescent wand to the microphone, and
her voice reverberated through the enchanted speakers, the moondust trail
expanded into huge balls of light, exploding out of the speakers and pouring
out of windows in spectacular torrents.  The figures in the sky winced and
rippled, then flickered out like two gray candles.  The golden light
overpowered all the tainted green energy, and explosions lit up the sky where
they met.  In a shimmering snowstorm, the stolen power floated back down to
earth, and the blinding light dimmed and faded.   More powerful than any
clamorous noise, a hush rose up over Gotham City.  The silence hung still and
silver in the air.

"Oh, draaat!"

It took the Joker's plaintive wail to bring his foes' gazes back down to
Earth.  He looked up at them all from his sorry spot on the ground, a ruby red
pout on his lips.  "Humph!" he sniffed haughtily.  "I just shall not stand for
such shoddy treatment.  Imagine, the nerve!  I'm not going to let you
seafaring super-simps steal my headlines.  I may be heading home to jolly old
Arkham, but I won't let you five take me there!"

Batman turned to face his rival, and opened his arm just enough that the bluer
lining of his cape caught a speck of dying light.  "That can be arranged," he
said.  Silver handcuffs glittered in his hand.

The Joker crawled miserably over.  "Never thought I'd be glad to see the
Batcuffs.  Whoaboy..."

**

"Do we really have to leave so soooon?" whined Serena as she set her
overstuffed backpack down on the airplane floor.  A Sailor V doll and a Gotham
Knights baseball cap fell out, as well as several Batman trading cards.

"You know we do," said a voice from inside Mina's carryon (who just wouldn't
settle for the luggage compartment this time!)  "This was just a fluke.
Negaverse bases all its attacks in Tokyo, and... uh... Central Control says
we've got to go back and protect the people there."  Luna shared a snicker
with Artemis as they heard the girls quiet at the mention of their
'authoritative source.'  Little did they know the cats were winging it, and
that Artemis' source of information was a late night romp to a cyber-cafe.  

"I'm actually excited to come home," smiled Ami.  "I can't imagine how much
studying I'll have to catch up on."  Serena glared, and Ami quickly added,
"Er, I've also brought some presents for little Jenny Anderson, the girl I
babysit."

"She's gotta miss you," said Mina, smiling.  "Half the time I call her sister,
you pick up with your sweet little 'Anderson residence!' I'm starting to think
you're part of the family."

"Ami Anderson," mused Ami.  "What a strange name that would be."

As the plane readied for takeoff, the girls chatted and giggled.  A brunette
stewardess came by and stood in the aisle next to them, demonstrating safety
equipment and being completely ignored.  Finally, the airplane rose into the
sky, taking the Sailor Scouts far away from Gotham City.  Rei had a misty
moment.  "I never got the chance to be alone with him," she said, forlornly
looking out the window.

"Hey, we saved the city," Mina shrugged.   "That's important, I guess.  Even
if we never get to see them again."  The stewardess came by with drinks,
moving slowly down the aisle.  Clouds brushed the plane's window, sprinkling
moisture like tears on the glass.   The wing's flaps shifted, and Gotham City
became a very small dot far behind them.

The moment was broken when Serena suddenly shouted "Ooop!  My ears popped!"
Chaos ensued, and the brunette stewardess smiled slightly.  She brushed a
renegade strand of hair to the side, and looked at her watch as she entered
the secluded alcove between sections of the plane.

"Father... those girls who demonstrated the healing power... I believe I have
located them.  They may serve your purpose after all.  They have just left
Gotham City, and I believe they were with my beloved... the detective...."

					END