Written by BHart
April 30, 2008

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Act LXXXV
Peculiar Desertion

Maxie's group arrived near the entrance to Castle Oztroja. They went through the brass doors on the first floor, leading them to the second floor.

Maxie disbanded from the rest of them and took off. Omatase yelled for him, running after him. They searched for him, but he was gone.

"Maxie, where are you?" yelled Omatase. No matter how many times he yelled, there was never a response.

"What was that all about?" asked Kousagi.

"I don't know. He's done this kind of thing before. Just runs off without any explanation," answered Omatase.

"How odd; someone like that is given the great responsibility of knowing the whereabouts of a sailor senshi?" commented Tokamo.

"How are we gonna find the next sailor senshi now?" asked Rie.

"Don't worry. There are contingency plans for this sort of thing. I took a back up copy of his plans while in Jeuno. Given his past track record, I felt it was a good idea," explained Omatase.

Omatase was reading the plans. After knowing what to do, he led the others through the castle.

There was a hidden alternate path leading upwards on the 3rd floor. The hidden path was revealed after Omatase cast a "walk through walls" spell. The path led them to a large brass door. "The only way to open this door is to get the 4th password, which is on the other side of the door," explained Omatase.

"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" asked Rie.

"I'll take care of it," offered Utaroh. She knelt down, pounding her fists through the ground, causing the stone floor to crumble. She controlled the stone the floor was made of, making a tunnel underneath the door. She formed a stone hand out of the floor on the other side of the door.

"What exactly am I looking for?" asked Utaroh, feeling around on the ground with the stone hand.

"A thin slab of metal. That's where the password is written."

She searched around for it. "I think I found it." She pulled the password through the ground and underneath the door.

"That's it."

On the fourth floor, they were confronted by a Yagudo Zealot, Yagudo Flagellant, Yagudo Abbot and Yagudo Assassin. The Yagudos used their feather storm technique.

Sailor Titan stomped her foot on the ground, causing a large trail of giant rocks to move across the ground towards the Yagudos. The giant rocks shielded them from the Yagudo's poison feathers and struck them down.

Other Yagudos arrived. Omatase cast blizzaga II on them, while running towards some brass doors. He and his group went through the brass doors, stopping in front of the trap door there.

Omatase read password #4 and then stepped on the trap door with the others. Instead of falling down to a lower level, they were taken up, through a hole in the ceiling.

The Yagudo were too slow to catch up. They fell through the trap door to a lower area.

The fifth floor was nothing more than a small room with an open window. They climbed out the window and onto the roof. There was a spire on top having circuitry running through it.

"We need to channel energy through this spire to activate the energy stream. But it will only work with light energy," explained Omatase. Omatase cast Banishga on the spire, but it wasn't enough light energy to charge it. Kousagi helped out by using light based energy from her body.

The third and final energy stream was activated.

Omatase pulled out some light crystals. "We need to travel on the energy streams. They will lead us to someone who can take us to the next sailor senshi. The only way we can travel on the energy stream is through light tubes. These five light crystals, along with other ingredients can be used to synthesize the light tubes. I'll show you how to make them."

They heard some Yagudos on the lower floor trying to reach them. "Yagudo aren't known for their flying abilities. We'll finish making these before they reach us," assured Omatase.

They put the light tubes around themselves per Omatase's instruction.

They floated to the top of the spire and onto the energy stream, traveling. They moved quickly across the stream and arrived at the spot where the three streams met, at a western island south of the Lumoria region.

It was a barren island, mainly consisting of rock and sand.

A giant shadow loomed over them. They turned around, seeing a female hume dragoon standing behind them with a giant dragon.

"Lady Dragon Guardian, it is good to see you again," greeted Omatase.

"Likewise; there should be enough room for everyone on my dragon, but it will be a tight squeeze."

"We're going for a ride on that thing?" asked Vasteel.

"It will take us to the broken castle in the sky; where the next sailor senshi awaits," explained Lady Dragon Guardian.

"I don't like heights at all," said Utaroh.

"If you really don't want to go, you can stay here and wait for us," said Omatase.

Omatase, Kousagi, Tokamo, Rie, Vasteel and Lady Dragon Guardian mounted the dragon. It took them up into the clouds.

"A broken castle hidden in the clouds; so that's why it's always moving, to always be covered by clouds," realized Rie.

"It's higher up in the sky than any of the routes the airships take, and it's always surrounded by many clouds," explained Lady Dragon Guardian.

As they rose higher into the atmosphere, they could see some castle debris floating amongst the clouds. They dismounted on a large, stone platform.

"Will you be waiting here?" asked Vasteel.

"No, the sailor senshi up here can get you get back to the ground," answered Lady Dragon Guardian.

There were floating pieces of stone everywhere, with nowhere to walk. Off in the distance was a crumbled castle. "How do we get over there? These floating pieces of stone are too far apart to jump across," asked Rie.

Omatase cast a float 2 spell on everyone. "We'll be able to walk on the air now. Let's go."

The wind gradually increased in speed. They reached a broken drawbridge, leading to the entrance of the broken castle. "What happened to this place?" asked Rie.

"It's an ancient ruin castle. Who knows how long it's been around," said Kousagi.

There were many broken conveyor belts and vases lying inside. "Looks like it was an industrial place," thought Tokamo.

The gusting winds howled throughout the castle.

There was a small opening blocked by a lot of rubble. "We sure could use Sailor Titan to move this debris out of the way," said Omatase. They barely squeezed through the hole, leading into a spacious room without any ceiling.

When they reached the center of the room, a Great Roc flew down. It took them by surprise, knocking them across the room. "Where the hell did that thing come from?" asked Vasteel.

"It's got a nest way up there on top of the wall," pointed out Omatase.

It swooped down at them again, this time grabbing Rie in its talons. It dropped her off in the nest, with hungry baby rocs.

"I can handle these little ones." She caught the nest on fire along with the chicks, and jumped out on top of the parent roc.

The roc lost its balance from Rie falling onto it, and crashed into one of the walls. Omatase cast ice spells on it. It flew off into the sky after recovering.

Omatase cast gravity 2 on it, pulling it downwards and restricting its movement. They continued attacking it.

It caught Tokamo in its grasp, flying off as fast as it could.

"I hope she'll be okay," worried Omatase.

The roc flew away from the castle, while Sailor Io was doing all she could to get away. The roc was very weak and losing altitude.

Lady Dragon Guardian flew up towards the roc with her dragon. The dragon attacked the roc, tearing a large hole in one of its wings. Lady Dragon Guardian caught Sailor Io after the roc had dropped her. She took her safely down to the island where Utaroh was waiting.

"Thank you. How did you know I was in trouble?"

"My dragon has keen senses. Good luck." Lady Dragon Guardian flew off the island.

Omatase was in a room with spiraling winds blowing him and everyone else around the room. "I'm going to barf if this keeps up," said Kousagi.

"When it tosses us around to the east side of the wall again, grab on to the small ledge over there, then pull yourselves into the small tunnel above it," instructed Omatase.

The tunnel led them into a long hallway with strong, gusting winds. They were pushed back every time they tried to proceed. They lost their breath temporarily on many occasions. "It's too strong," said Rie.

"That switch at the end of the hall should turn off the strong winds, but there's no way to get over there," said Omatase.

"Let me see if I can hit it with my dagger," said Vasteel.

"No, don't!" warned Omatase.

It was too late.

The dagger went down the hall, but the strong winds sent it right back at them. "Watch out!" The dagger barely missed hitting Rie.

Someone from the end of the hall hit the switch, stopping the winds. "Rie? Kousagi?"

They ran towards the person at the end of the hall. "Sailor Miranda?"

"Yep, it's me." Sailor Miranda was a very feminine looking girl with long, golden brown hair. She had a sky blue and beige colored sailor outfit.

In the room behind them was a cozy looking place, with many wind crystals lying around. "What's with all the wind crystals?" asked Vasteel.

"This is what keeps this ruined castle afloat. I'm lucky I heard your voices with all that loud, gusty wind blowing."

"Let's get out of this place and find out what happened to Tokamo," suggested Omatase.

"How are we going to get down from here?" asked Vasteel.

"I can help with that," said Sailor Miranda.

They exited the castle, standing amongst the floating debris. She instructed everyone to form a chain by holding each other's hands.

"Okay, here we go," said Sailor Miranda. She jumped off, falling downwards, bringing the rest with her. She caught some air turbulence and rode on it with her feet, as if she were skiing. Everyone else was scared, but realized she had control and was leading them down to land.

..to be continued..