Mamoru and Kelly were leaving the lecture hall at noon on a suprisingly warm Friday. Kelly had a look of apprehension in her eyes. 'Professor Blout must be in real pain with that leg, to be so mean in class today!' Kelly groaned. Mamoru thought about the class they both just left. Blout was holding a cane that morning during the lecture and was favoring one leg over the other as he paced. He was more angry at the students questions than usual, and at the end announced a test on all the materials covered so far and the next section on Monday. 'I think it was obvious to everyone there, but he is the professor. If he wants to add another test to the sylabus before finals, it's his choice.' 'But that means our weekend is shot studing for that pop test!' 'Professor Blout was shot in the foot?' Mamoru asked. 'No, not shot "bang-bang". Shot as in wasted. No time to see Keith!' An idea sprang to Mamoru's head 'How does this sound; we'll meet at the coffeehouse to study and you can see Keith as much as you want!' Kelly gave a small smile "But it's not the same" she thought... ________________________________________ | Tuxedo America | | Chapter 10: Three Shots in the Dark | | | | Started by ColdFury | | This part by Steven Hykes | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bloutite reached his office and limped to his desk. He saw on the top of his in box a yellow envelope with a black circle with an X inside it. It could only mean one thing. "An update concerning HER." He shuddered as he opened the envelope. Tankara report from the field early this morning. Only survivor of the four youma sent out to collect energy. Other three decapatated by a normal girl weilding a large gun. Girl ran off when her ammunition ran out. Last seen heading for the university. Tankara going to stealth mode and persuing. Bloutite didn't like the looks of things. Time was running out for his good graces with HER, and Espenite was muscling in on his territiory. This last attack wasn't one he ordered or orchestrated. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so he looked though the Youma 101 gradebook and noted the best student in what was left of the class. "This time I won't fail, I'll attend to it personally." he thought as he took four Aleve for his foot. --------------------------------------------------- Sarah ran down the street, her gun in its holster and a rabbit tucked in her arms. The gun was only slightly visible under her black jacket, but running with it out would cause more distress to the passers-by than a scared looking girl running through the busy streets. Possibly even get someone to call the police on her. "Not that it'll do me any &#@$*&% good. I'm out of oracons and making more is such a bitch." She shook of the flashback to when the last three bullets were created, and kept moving forward. Every so often the rabbit would protest a bit in her arms and Sarah would change her direction. Onlookers seemed to think the rabbit was guiding the human somewhere... --------------------------------------------------- Keith was, as usual, minding the after lunch crowd at the coffeeshop. It was quiet, only four customers in the building, and all of them were content for the moment. Keith took to cleaning the counters, and thinking about the last few months. "This is insane. youma are out in droves, Tuxedo Mask is slicing them to ribbons, and he's getting all the credit for the kills! Even old enemies of his are showing up, and I'm now his back-up. Solaris and Nightshade, we were the two against the world. Now he's the big boy on the block!" Keith looked frustrated as he put a lot of elbow grease into cleaning up a dried coffee stain on a table. "What am I thinking, He's a pro. Kelly and me would be dead by now if not for him! But I don't trust him completely; he's way to secretive about what he knows. And who is he when he's not Tuxedo Mask? If we knew that, then I'd know where to stand with him." Keith looked at the clock. Only an hour more before Kelly's bio-lab lets out and then he can see her... ---------------------------------------------------- Sally was walking around campus with Apollo jumping around energetically and wagging his tail. Sally was not amused. 'Why is it always the coffeeshop? I hate coffee, and the prices there on food is always expensive.' Apollo jumped into her arms and proceeded to whisper into her ear 'Lass, I want yea to know everything, really I do. But giving it to yea all at once will only leave your head all addled.' Sally shook her head and kept walking with the dog in her arms. "What's with him recently? He told me about the American Scouts, but some of it didn't quite make sense. Now he's being secretive and sending out messages in odd voices, and not telling me what I want to know. I am Eclipse of the American Scouts, but what is my role in the Scouts? It's still unclear." She sighed audibly at her inward conclusion. ---------------------------------------------------- Kelly entered the coffeehouse and hugged Keith. 'Bad news love, I've got a MAJOR Bio test to study for and Mamoru said he'd help study with me here. Can I have a raincheck on our date tonight?' Keith looked saddened for a moment but looking into Kelly's eyes he smiled again. 'I guess so, and I can always use the overtime here. Just make sure you're only studing Biology and not him.' Kelly looked at Keith and feigned disgust. 'You are such a guy!' She teased. They both knew that they only had eyes for each other. Kelly took a seat at the booth and pulled out her Bio book. "When is Mamoru getting here?" she asked herself. "It's not like him to be late like this." ----------------------------------------------------- Sally was making her way towards the coffeehouse with Apollo trotting beside her when she saw a young girl running towards her wearing almost all black and a 49ers shirt and holding a rabbit on top of that. It seemed almost to odd to look at when the girl yelled at Sally 'Get the #&!! out of my way!' Sally tried to move out of the way when Apollo moved around her legs and tripped her. Soon afterward the girl fell over her and the rabbit went flying into a nearby bush. As she was de-entangling herself from the other girl, Sally felt a surge of dark power nearby and getting closer. Sarah got to her knees and grabbed Sally by her shirt. 'You've got to get to safety, there's a you... I mean a monster comming this way!' 'A youma?' Sally finished Sarah's half-word. Apollo had mentioned it once to her and she wasn't quite sure of the usage. 'You know what a youma is?' Sarah stared intently at Sally. 'Yes, I do' Sally bluffed in the face of sheer attitude. 'Well do something about it!' Sarah said as she took Sally by the arm and led her off the sidewalk and behind the thick bushes where Athena landed. Athena was stunned by the fall, but the two girls had something else on their minds. 'You mean you want me to...?' Sally tested Sarah. Sarah nodded in agreement as she pulled out her gun. ECLIPSE COSMIC ENERGY!! METEORITE COSMIC ENERGY!! Sally spun around and formed her black and white outfit. Sarah's transformation went a little differently. Her energy came not from a pen but from the middle of her belly. She looked in pain as her black clothes turned into brown skintight shortsleeve shirt with dust grey biker gloves. Her torn jeans became a grey spandex shorts, with her stomach exposed to show her pierced bellybutton. Brown high top shoes finished off the transformation. After that rips appeared along the gloves, bottom, and lower top. Meteorite collapsed to her knees after the sequence was complete and she was breathing heavily as if she had finished a race. Eclipse steadied her just as a half-tank youma appeared out of thin air near them. ------------------------------------------------- Mamoru felt the youma as he was headed to the coffeeshop and shifted to Tuxedo Mask and went running towards the dark energy. ------------------------------------------------- 'Tankara will crush you both for your insolence!' the youma bellowed at the two American Scouts. Meteorite was just getting to her feet when Eclipse took the retort. 'You have been chasing this young girl thinking she was an easy target... uh... but that is not the case?' The end of that was in doubt as Meteorite was still tring not to fall down again. 'But now I shall... um... hurt you severly for your... uh... misjudgement!' BLINDING ECLIPSE OF DARKNESS!! Eclipse's attack hit Tankara sqaure in the jaw and he was dragged back about a foot in the assault. 'Is that the best you can do, little lady? Take this! FIRE ONE!' A dark energy blast fired from Tankara's cannon and hit Eclipse. It surrounded her and began to drain her energy. -------------------------------------------------- Kelly and Keith felt the battle start and wordlessly they turned into Solaris and Nightshade and proceded towards the battle. -------------------------------------------------- Meteorite knew what she had to do. This other scout did her job well, keep the youma distracted unitl she could get her bearings. She took her gun and opened her other hand palm up. She braced for something and yelled: METEORITE BARRAGE!! Her already torn costume tore apart and Sarah's clothing re-appeared. the energy ribbons wrapped up into little balls and fell on her palm in the form of crystal bullets, or oracons. Sarah felt the second surge of pain as it occured, but her shooting instinct took over. She loaded the three oracons into the gun and fired two at the youma. Tankara took one shot in the shoulder and dodged the other one. 'Only one left 49er, and my armor will take the second one just as easily as the first. FIRE TWO!' The second shot from Tankara would have hit Sarah had a rose not deflected the shot. Tuxedo Mask stood on a brach of a nearby tree. 'This assault on the fair citizens of this country has gone on long enough. To reduce life to a mere fire fight cheapens everyone's life! I am Tuxedo Mask and I shall not forgive you!' Sarah's response to the speech was almost a knee-jerk reaction 'Who the $#%& are you?' Tuxedo Mask didn't understand what $#%& meant and so was almost caught off guard by Tankara's 'FIRE THREE!' Tuxedo Mask jumped out of the way and readied a second rose. Tankara aimed at where Tuxedo Mask would land and yelled 'FIRE FOUR!' NIGHT DARKNESS RAY!! Nightshade's slime attack plugged up the cannon and the fourth shot lay bulging inside the cannon. 'Good work, Nightshade.' Tuxedo Mask spoke as a look of concern crossed Tankara's face. SOLAR FLARE!! Solaris' attack burnt Tankara's face and made the bulge on the cannon even bigger. Sarah took her chance and shot her last oracon at the cannon. The explosion of heat, slime, and dark energy seperated Tankara from his armored tank. Tuxedo Mask needed no prompting and took his out cane. 'CHARGING CANE SLASH!!' he yelled as he crossed the youma. Tankara screamed 'NNOOOOoooo...!' as he and his tank crumbled to dust. Eclipse and Sarah collapsed from the strain their bodies took in the battle. Eclipse was still concious, but Sarah had passed out. 'What are we going to do with her?' Solaris asked Nightshade while pointing to Sarah. Eclipsed retorted 'I will take care of her. Everyone else go away unless you want to stay for the twenty questions.' Tuxedo Mask left because he was late to meet Kelly. Solaris left because she was still waiting to meet Mamoru. Nightshade left because nobody was minding the coffeeshop in his absence. Eclipse, now alone, reverted to Sally and woke up Sarah. 'Are you ok?' Sarah looked at her and simply said 'I could use a strong cup of coffee.' ------------------------------------------ As Sarah and Sally made their way to the coffeehouse, They both realized that Apollo and Athena were nowhere to be found after the battle. Calling out to them got no response. They did get around to the formal introductions, or as formal as Sarah would get. So Eclipse knew Meteorite, and likewise Sally knew Sarah; at least as aquaintances. After calling off the search for the wayward mentors, the two girls made their way into the coffeehouse and got a booth. Little did either of them know that three pairs of eyes kept looking at Sarah, the human helper of the youma battle. None of the three knew it was Meteorite and little did Sarah or Sally know that all four American Scouts and Tuxedo Mask were all in the same coffeehouse. ------------------------------------------- Author's Notes: The symbol for Earth in astrology is a circle with a + sign inside, So I figured the enemy would adopt a circle with an X inside it. Once again I take a thread and run with it! Sarah is the last of the 'Outcast' Scouts and now it's getting to the point where the Scouts need to reveal their mundane identies to each other. I didn't advance the Apollo thread, since I wasn't sure what to do with it yet. Maybe on my next go-around. I would like to thank Phoebe for giving me the chance to write this part, and to my little brother Random for getting me into FanFiction. -Goodnight and God Bless.