Written by BHart
March 31, 2009

Act XCVIII
The Sailor Prototype

Vlaad's group was exploring the castle. They heard someone laughing. Someone was inside another room nearby. All the exits to the room were sealed off by metal bars made of Promathian chains. They couldn't get through them.

Omatase, Erewan and Parne were on the other side of the bars, being separated from the others.

"How'd you get over there?" asked Oona.

"We warped ourselves over here just before the room was sealed off. Whoever locked you guys in there is already gone," said Erewan.

The power of the Promathian chains prevented them from letting the others out. "It's no use, I don't know what else we can do," said Omatase.

"Don't worry about us, we'll find a way out. Just be careful, and stick together," ordered Vlaad. Omatase, Erewan and Parne left.

Elsewhere, in a secure area inside the castle, the council of princesses was convening. They were in an ornate room decorated with crystal statues of themselves, placed on pillars. There was a large map on a wall showing a picture of many worlds with many blue channels connecting to each one.

There were seven members of the council in the room. They were Sailors Desdemona, Portia, Cordelia, Ophelia, Lysithea, Umbriel, and Larissa. Desdemona and Cordelia were brunette, Portia was blonde, Ophelia had orange colored hair, Lysithea had a deep ocean blue hair color, Umbriel had grayish colored hair, and Larissa had snow white hair. Their eye colors matched their hair colors, as well as the moon princess gowns they were wearing.

They reverted back to their sailor senshi forms, which were the same color as their princess dresses. "I wish we could sustain our moon princess forms permanently," whined Cordelia.

"It won't be long until we'll be able to do just that," assured Portia.

The eighth and final remaining member of the council walked in the room. The senshi had jet black, medium-length hair, beady eyes and a monochrome sailor senshi fuku.

"Where have you been, Ariel?" asked Ophelia.

"I've been having fun with our unwelcomed guests."

"We're going to give our guests a little present," informed Portia.

"Oh goody, what is it?"

Pieces of each crystal statue broke off, gathering in the center of the room, forming a crystal automaton. It was a crystalline sailor senshi. Its skin was reflective and hard, like a diamond.

"This should ensure us some satisfying entertainment," said Sailor Lysithea.

The sailor prototype was ordered to find and destroy the senshi intruders. Sailor Ariel left, following after it.

"Where are you going?" asked Sailor Ophelia.

"I'm not going to miss out on the fun," replied Ariel, leaving.

Kousagi's group wandered into the basement area, coming to a dead end. There were prison cells everywhere, with decayed bones inside.

"What is this place? It's creepy," said Tokamo.

"When the council of princesses first came to fruition, they killed anyone that opposed them, sending a message. Maybe this is where they kept the dead bodies of those people," thought Chirimu.

"Let's go, there's nothing here," ordered Kousagi.

While heading back upstairs, the old stairs of rotting wood collapsed, causing them to fall a few feet.

Anestus, having power over corpses, used her power to make the bones of the dead come together; forming a sturdy ladder for them to climb.

They were surprise attacked by a dozen soldiers, a commander and a general upon reaching the main level.

"There aren't very many of them, this should be easy," said Sailor Miranda.

"Don't underestimate the commander and general," warned Sailor Io.

"Let's take 'em out before they call for reinforcements," ordered Sailor Parallel Moon.

Vlaad's group found stairs leading up to an attic. They decided to investigate. Suhya flipped a light switch. It appeared to be a living quarters of some sort. There were doors leading into a bedroom and kitchen area. There was a white cabinet in the room with plates and other kinds of dishes in it.

"Is there a way out?" asked Maybel.

"Haven't seen one yet," replied Rykel.

"What the hell is this?" They walked over to where Mittens was.

A strange red and yellow liquid was oozing out from the cabinet. "What is it?" asked Oona.

"Who knows; let's just find a way out of here," said Vlaad.

They heard some doors opening and closing repeatedly. "Who's doing that?" wondered Vlaad.

They walked in the main room. The doors were opening and closing by themselves. The doors to the cabinet swung open. Dishes were flying everywhere, breaking against the wall. They shielded themselves from the flying chinaware.

They tried heading back the way they came, but the exit was sealed off. They heard someone snapping their fingers 3 times. They looked around to see where the sound came from.

Suhya was hanging from a nail in the wall, with a cord around her neck. Mittens got her down.

"Who did that to you?" asked Maybel.

"I don't know, I blacked out for a few seconds and found myself hung on that nail."

"This place is too dangerous, we're leaving now," ordered Vlaad.

The sailor senshi finished off the Traliz soldiers, but the commander and general teleported more soldiers in the room.

"Damn them!" Sailor Ares' blood boiled. She projected a hot stream of fire at the commander, burning her alive. The general managed to hide behind the soldiers.

"There are too many, we have to retreat," said Kousagi.

Sailor Triton had two long, blue-green colored chains with hooks on the ends. She threw each one into a pillar on either side of the room and pulled on them. The others helped her pull on them, bringing them down. The structural integrity of the room was compromised, making the ceiling and the walls collapse, trapping the soldiers in the room with a big pile of debris. "That should take care of them." said Sailor Miranda.

A dark shadow floated in the hallway, heading towards Vlaad's group. The dark mist took the form of an old man with a sunken face. The temperature in the room dropped dramatically. A black, howling, freezing wind entered the room, draining their life.

The poltergeist was immune to Rykel's dark based attacks.

Maybel ordered everyone to huddle close together while she put a warding circle around them. The poltergeist tried garroting them with bowline knots with the name "Herman Hendricksen" written on them, but the warding circle protected them.

The poltergeist got angry, trying to break through the warding circle.

"This thing is strong. We've got to do something before it kills us," said Mittens.

Vlaad used his flash ability to blind the enemy, but it was ineffective. Vlaad was shocked. "That's the first time that hasn't worked."

Oona cast holy on it, weakening it a bit. It was scared off, retreating into another room.

"We can't go back the way we came, it's sealed off," reminded Mittens.

"We'll need to step outside of the circle to find another way out of here; but don't wander too far from the circle," instructed Suhya.

"I think we've walked by here before."

"Are you sure?"

"This place is one big maze." The sailor senshi were struggling to find their way through the castle.

Sailor Prototype ran by them, elbowing Sailor Miranda in the ribs as she passed by.

"Ow." She crouched down, holding her gut.

Sailor Triton confronted her. She thrust a spear at her a few times, but it didn't even crack Sailor Prototype's crystal body.

Sailor Prototype grabbed the spear with Sailor Triton holding on to it. She threw the spear and Sailor Triton over her back.

Sailor Parallel Moon attacked it with a holy based light. Sailor Prototype's body acted like a prism. The light entering her body was split up into a rainbow of colors, shooting out everywhere in the room.

Sailor Prototype's arms came off, forming a wall around them.

Omatase, Erewan and Parne entered from the other end of the room.

Erewan stunned Sailor Prototype.

Omatase cast Flareaga. The nuclear explosion shattered Sailor Prototype to pieces. The shattered crystal pieces reassembled themselves, reforming her body.

Parne cast Lowing on her, having a virus effect, by gradually lowering her health.

She retreated as quickly as she could. The wall around them disappeared and Sailor Prototype got her arms back.

They rushed over to the sailor senshi. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, thanks to all of you," responded Sailor Ares.

"What was that?" asked Sailor Miranda.

"Who knows? Have you found any routes that don't go around in circles?" asked Sailor Charon.

"Not really; but we've walked around enough to know where not to go," replied Erewan.

"You hurt our little toy." Sailor Ariel appeared, standing in the doorway at the other end of the room. "I'm Sailor Ariel."

"Is that a guy or a girl?" whispered Omatase.

"I don't know," replied Parne.

Sailor Ariel overheard them. "Hey! Shut the hell up!" yelled Ariel.

It was not possible to determine Sailor Ariel's gender based on appearance, voice or mannerisms.

"So, you've come to get your ass kicked, I take it?" said Omatase.

"We can handle you," added Erewan.

A hole appeared in the ground; Omatase, Erewan and Parne fell through it. The hole suddenly disappeared.

"What did you do to them? Where did they go?" asked Sailor Triton. Sailor Ariel was already gone.

Mittens was inside the warding circle watching something on a video linkshell. She was laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Maybel.

"These SMA episodes are hilarious."

Suhya and Vlaad found a way out. They broke a hole through the ceiling, leading outside.

"Let's get out of here before that poltergeist thing comes back," suggested Oona.

"It will probably be a while until it fully recovers." Rykel had a sense of detecting levels of darkness in places and beings.

They were on top of a roof. They were towards the back of the castle, on-looking the vast sea in front of them. "Where exactly are we?" asked Oona.

They walked towards the ocean, to get a better logistical view of the castle.

"Hey, look down there." Mittens pointed to a gravesite about 60 feet below them.

Maybel used a variation of her Third eye ability to get a closer look at the inscriptions on the tombstones. They were the graves of the sailor senshi that used to be a part of the council long ago, but that had died in the battle between Sailors Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Nabu, Nergal, Sin, Ishtar and Marduk to name a few.

Some of the names on the graves were: Sailors Pasiphae, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Leda, Elara, Amalthea, Metis, Adrastea, Atlas, Pandora, Pan, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Dione, Phoebe, Hyperion, Rhea, Janus, Puck, Caliban, Titania, Oberon, Sycorax, Setebos, Cressida, Thalassa, Despina, Naiad, Galatea, Thalassa, Nereid, and Proteus among many others.

"Enough of this sight show, let's get moving," ordered Vlaad.

..to be continued..