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Kraken at the Riverbank – Enemies Revealed

"This is just not acceptable," the man said to the two individuals standing below his podium.

"I'm trying, Garon," answered the woman.  Her long purple hair blew in a non-existent wind, matching her twin brother's shorter version beside her.

Garon growled.  "Trying is not acceptable.  You must find that silver starseed.  If we want the Earth, we have to get rid of that guardian.  And I thought you took care of that other starseed that was about to activate."

"I did!" the woman screeched.

"No, you did not, Ame," Garon mumbled, barely audible.  "She defeated that woman you had a spirit posses, and then another one of our scouts.  She is and will continue to get in my way."

Ame fumed.  "I found the starseed I was sure belonged to the guardian, and I sent a spirit to take care of it.  How was I to know that there were two warriors on this planet?  We only know of the silver starseed, and that other warrior does not posses it.  I have no clue who she is!" she ended with a shriek.  Her brother stared at her.

"If you don't mind, Garon sir," the man said, "let Ame take care of looking for the silver starseed.  I will get rid of this other warrior.  The spirits I control are stronger, and I don't have the talent for sensing special starseeds that Ame does.  I promise you that before the week is out, I will take care of this other warrior."

Garon grinned.  It was a horrifying grin, even to his subordinates.  Each tooth was pointed, and they fit together like a shark's.  His negative energy turned the entire air in the hideout dark.  It showed through his body.  His eyes had turned blank, pupiless, his skin grey, and his hair a navy blue.  He became more powerful with each starseed he consumed, and he felt he would be able to take on a galaxy guardian when he got a hold of the silver starseed of the Sol System.

"Make sure it is done, Thyst.  I want the Earth, and I want that starseed.  Now."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although Bree hated to admit it, Halloween was coming up in a couple of weeks.  It was her least favourite holiday after she turned eleven.  And as an adult, although a few people used to holiday to express their creativity, or help a charity or two, most used it as an excuse to get as drunk as possible and pull some immature pranks.  Those of the female variety seemed to use the holiday to dress as sexually provocative as possible, with the excuse that it was just a costume and they weren't really like that.  Bree would have no part in it.

Since saving that girl, she'd been on the lookout for negative energy.  She felt it everywhere, but not in the amount that the monster had emitted.  It was distracting and she was falling incredible behind on her reading for classes.  And what was she supposed to tell her professors?  Yes, I'm a sailor warrior who has to protect Earth from some nasties.  I have magical powers and all, so can I be excused from some of my assignments?  Somehow, she thought it just wasn't going to happen.

For October, it was warm, so she packed up a few books.  Her plan was to read as much as she could this weekend away from the university and her apartment, in high traffic areas.  Simple multitasking.  Sense Sailor Mene's starseed and catch up on homework all at the same time.  Secretly Bree hoped she would get the whole day to read.  She was pretty sure she blew her one midterm already, and she wanted to at least pass the other four.  Her mission was not conclusive to her academic goals.

The jog down to the river was pretty uneventful.  Not surprising since it was about nine o'clock in the morning.  The sun has only been up for a little while.  It was Saturday, and the majority of this part of the city was recovering from hangovers.  Bree winced, imagining try to fight monsters hung-over.  Her Gale Force attack would whistle in her ears for hours after.

Her favourite picnic table in Riverbank Park was unoccupied, so she dropped her bag down and drew out her art history textbook.  She wasn't expecting an energetic blip in her senses until well past noon.  Clearing fifty pages of Renaissance art, she looked up to stretch her neck.  A flash of light underneath the nearest bridge caught her eye.  At first she dismissed it as a piece of jewelry or something similar that had washed ashore.  But then it moved.  Bree squinted, and she could make out a girl-shape.  Slowly a figure appeared, though what made Bree approach it was the long silvery blonde hair.  There couldn't be another spirit in the city with Mene's hair.

"Any particular reason you're appearing under one of the most populated bridges in the city?" Bree asked the ancient warrior.  The butterfly warmed in Bree's pocket, the charm's usual reaction to Mene.

"I'm out because I can be out," Mene answered.  Her stare turned icy.  "Why haven't you found my host yet?  Why aren't you out looking now?!"

Bree sighed.  "Because I still have a life outside of being Sailor Zephyrus.  I have tests I have to study for, and in a way, I am looking.  This park becomes really busy during the weekend, and I plan on studying here all weekend."

"So you figured out how to sense energies then?  I knew you would have a talent for that.  Most powerful warriors do."  Mene seemed to relax.  Bree thought she was safe, but then the Mene shot off at her again.  "Then why aren't you out, as Sailor Zephyrus, hunting my energy!?!"

Exasperated, Bree dropped her head.  "Well, if I fail everything, I'll have lots of time to look for you and fight the monsters that seem to be looking for something too.  Shit!  I didn't ask to be a sailor warrior, but nevertheless, I'm fucking dedicated to finding you when I could just let the world go to ruin.  Though then failing wouldn't be a problem."  Bree had been wondering how long it would take her temper to finally snap under the pressure.

Mene looked troubled for a minute.  "What are you studying?  Fighting techniques?"

It suddenly occurred to Bree that Sailor Mene hadn't been around for a while and probably wasn't familiar with this time period or the concept of university.  This world was probably more than a bit foreign to her, which led Bree to question when had Mene been around last?

"I'm in university, studying history," Bree tried to explain.  Mene still looked at her with a quizzical expression.  Shrugging, Bree didn't know what else to say.  "Let's just say that I have other things to do that are just as important as my mission as Zephyrus."

For a second, Mene looked pained, but she let repose settle over her.  "Are you studying any useful military history?  You need to be able to fight."

Bree nodded.  "I know.  I'm working on training.  But I study all sorts of world histories."

Sailor Mene nodded then began to fade quickly.  She tried to say something, but disappeared quickly.  Bree's life would be so much easier if Mene could just tell her who hosted her starseed.  She was getting tired of this sudden disappearance of the spirit.

It was a little past noon when Bree felt the negative force.  It was incredibly strong, but she had no clue where it was coming from.  The park was vastly populated, and people were out on the river, despite it being October (thus, cold) and the river restrictions on boats after August.  The force was strong, but she couldn't pinpoint it.

People scrambling from the walking path alerted her to the location.  Tentacles were crawling up from the river.  With a slippery heave, the kraken hefted itself onto the riverbank, impossible for a regular sea creature.  Bree wasn't even going to bother that this river was nowhere near the sea because she immediately knew the thing was responsible for the negative force she felt.

Ducking under the shadow of the bridge, she pulled her charm from her pocket and cried, "West Wind Metamorphosis!"

Sailor Zephyrus emerged from the bridge fighting. "Razor Rain!" she attacked, glad people had the sense to clear the riverbank.  The attack hit the hide of the kraken, causing it to ooze.  Zephyrus staggered.  A thick miasma covered the riverbank, seeping from the oozing wounds.  So maybe I shouldn't cut it, Zephyrus thought to herself.  That left few options.  In previous battles, she hadn't really physically attacked.  Maybe now was the time to test her true strength as Sailor Zephyrus.

She jumped, higher than she ever could as plain old Bree, and aimed her kick towards what biology told her should be a soft eye.  She watched the big eye watch her come down to earth.  As she made contact, Zephyrus realized why her boots had heels.  The eye gave under her heel, her foot making contact with the bone.  She jumped again, and landed a few feet from the dented monster.  The eye was oozing far more than the little cuts covering the body.  It was getting harder and harder for Zephyrus's lungs to find oxygen in the thickening miasma.

"Oh, I'm a dumb one, aren't I," she muttered.  She raised both her hands.  "Gale Force!"  With a powerful wind gusting from both her palms, she did a quick spin, diffusing the miasma down the riverbank.

She studied the dented kraken again.  Its cone shaped head had lost its shape from her attack, and it was slowly making its way back to the river.  She wasn't going to let it get back to its own element, with a possibility of taking her with it.  Miasma or not, the force of wind was not going to win this battle for her.

"Razor Rain!" she shouted, and aimed at the other soft eye.  Hundreds of darts hit the eye at once, and the cone shaped head exploded.  The destroyed body and tentacles made a soft hiss, and then dissolved into a thick miasma.  Instinctly, Sailor Zephyrus muttered, "Gale Force," and began to dissipate the purple gas to less concentrated quantities.

Once most of the gas was gone, she relaxed.

"Congratulations on beating my monster, little soldier," a dark voice seethed from behind her.  Zephyrus turned around so fast she almost sent herself flying down the riverbank.  Standing in the middle of the park, a patch of darkness on the bright day, was a dark skinned man with chin length purple hair.  It wasn't his dark clothes that frightened Zephyrus, but the deep violet aura around him.  It was one thing that she could feel his negative energy like a bath of worms, but to see evil like that was an entirely different experience.

"What do you want!?" Zephyrus demanded.  Was he the one responsible for the other monster attacks?

The dark man chuckled.  "Let's call it a test.  Yes, my kraken test.  You passed rather well.  I didn't expect to have to deal with you personally, but maybe I'll just have to find stronger monsters."  Unknowingly, they both looked to the dead ground where the kraken had died.  "Good thing he wasn't a favourite pet, or I might just have to kill you now, just for shining so bright."

Zephyrus paled.  She immediately thought of the words Ally had said to her before she had become Sailor Zephyrus.  "Your starseed shines too bright.  It hurts us."  Maybe this man was responsible for Ally's fate, for her possession.

"I can see why he wants you out of the way now," the man said.  "He wants you gone quickly, but I think I want to play a little first."  With a shimmer of the air, the man disappeared.

Puzzled and disoriented, she looked up to see the crowd gathered on the riverbank.

"Aw shit!" she cursed, and sprinted to the dark culvert on the other side of the bridge to transform back into regular old Bree.  "Not attention I need."

Hours later, Bree unlocked her apartment door to find her roommates glued to the TV.  Steph made a "come-'ere" motion with her hand and pointed to the screen.  The news was on, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was on.

"This skirted girl was seen by many witnesses attacking a giant squid that appeared out of the river, and then consulting with a purple-haired punk.  A few onlookers were able to take pictures."  Several bad, blurred out pictures appeared on the screen.  "If any one has other information on this blonde woman, please contact the police or other officials immediately."  The report then switched to something else less interesting, because Steph and Grace turned to look at her.

"Weren't you down by the river today," Grace inquired unobtrusively.  Bree simply nodded.

"Yeah, but I missed all the action.  I decided I wanted Indian for lunch, and came back to everyone talking about it."

Steph studied Bree, then smiled.  "It's a good thing you're hairstyle is pretty common, or else people could suspect you of being that funny dressed woman."

Bree was about to make some remark about did it look like she had magical powers, but thought the better of it.  It had only been a couple of weeks since she had been released from the hospital.  Instead, she merely muttered, "Uhuh," and went to collapse on her bed.

Description
Kraken at the Riverbank – Enemies Revealed

"This is just not acceptable," the man said to the two individuals standing below his podium.

"I'm trying, Garon," answered the woman.  Her long purple hair blew in a non-existent wind, matching her twin brother's shorter version beside her.

Garon growled.  "Trying is not acceptable.  You must find that silver starseed.  If we want the Earth, we have to get rid of that guardian.  And I thought you took care of that other starseed that was about to activate."

"I did!" the woman screeched.

"No, you did not, Ame," Garon mumbled, barely audible.  "She defeated that woman you had a spirit posses, and then another one of our scouts.  She is and will continue to get in my way."

Ame fumed.  "I found the starseed I was sure belonged to the guardian, and I sent a spirit to take care of it.  How was I to know that there were two warriors on this planet?  We only know of the silver starseed, and that other warrior does not posses it.  I have no clue who she is!" she ended with a shriek.  Her brother stared at her.

"If you don't mind, Garon sir," the man said, "let Ame take care of looking for the silver starseed.  I will get rid of this other warrior.  The spirits I control are stronger, and I don't have the talent for sensing special starseeds that Ame does.  I promise you that before the week is out, I will take care of this other warrior."

Garon grinned.  It was a horrifying grin, even to his subordinates.  Each tooth was pointed, and they fit together like a shark's.  His negative energy turned the entire air in the hideout dark.  It showed through his body.  His eyes had turned blank, pupiless, his skin grey, and his hair a navy blue.  He became more powerful with each starseed he consumed, and he felt he would be able to take on a galaxy guardian when he got a hold of the silver starseed of the Sol System.

"Make sure it is done, Thyst.  I want the Earth, and I want that starseed.  Now."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although Bree hated to admit it, Halloween was coming up in a couple of weeks.  It was her least favourite holiday after she turned eleven.  And as an adult, although a few people used to holiday to express their creativity, or help a charity or two, most used it as an excuse to get as drunk as possible and pull some immature pranks.  Those of the female variety seemed to use the holiday to dress as sexually provocative as possible, with the excuse that it was just a costume and they weren't really like that.  Bree would have no part in it.

Since saving that girl, she'd been on the lookout for negative energy.  She felt it everywhere, but not in the amount that the monster had emitted.  It was distracting and she was falling incredible behind on her reading for classes.  And what was she supposed to tell her professors?  Yes, I'm a sailor warrior who has to protect Earth from some nasties.  I have magical powers and all, so can I be excused from some of my assignments?  Somehow, she thought it just wasn't going to happen.

For October, it was warm, so she packed up a few books.  Her plan was to read as much as she could this weekend away from the university and her apartment, in high traffic areas.  Simple multitasking.  Sense Sailor Mene's starseed and catch up on homework all at the same time.  Secretly Bree hoped she would get the whole day to read.  She was pretty sure she blew her one midterm already, and she wanted to at least pass the other four.  Her mission was not conclusive to her academic goals.

The jog down to the river was pretty uneventful.  Not surprising since it was about nine o'clock in the morning.  The sun has only been up for a little while.  It was Saturday, and the majority of this part of the city was recovering from hangovers.  Bree winced, imagining try to fight monsters hung-over.  Her Gale Force attack would whistle in her ears for hours after.

Her favourite picnic table in Riverbank Park was unoccupied, so she dropped her bag down and drew out her art history textbook.  She wasn't expecting an energetic blip in her senses until well past noon.  Clearing fifty pages of Renaissance art, she looked up to stretch her neck.  A flash of light underneath the nearest bridge caught her eye.  At first she dismissed it as a piece of jewelry or something similar that had washed ashore.  But then it moved.  Bree squinted, and she could make out a girl-shape.  Slowly a figure appeared, though what made Bree approach it was the long silvery blonde hair.  There couldn't be another spirit in the city with Mene's hair.

"Any particular reason you're appearing under one of the most populated bridges in the city?" Bree asked the ancient warrior.  The butterfly warmed in Bree's pocket, the charm's usual reaction to Mene.

"I'm out because I can be out," Mene answered.  Her stare turned icy.  "Why haven't you found my host yet?  Why aren't you out looking now?!"

Bree sighed.  "Because I still have a life outside of being Sailor Zephyrus.  I have tests I have to study for, and in a way, I am looking.  This park becomes really busy during the weekend, and I plan on studying here all weekend."

"So you figured out how to sense energies then?  I knew you would have a talent for that.  Most powerful warriors do."  Mene seemed to relax.  Bree thought she was safe, but then the Mene shot off at her again.  "Then why aren't you out, as Sailor Zephyrus, hunting my energy!?!"

Exasperated, Bree dropped her head.  "Well, if I fail everything, I'll have lots of time to look for you and fight the monsters that seem to be looking for something too.  Shit!  I didn't ask to be a sailor warrior, but nevertheless, I'm fucking dedicated to finding you when I could just let the world go to ruin.  Though then failing wouldn't be a problem."  Bree had been wondering how long it would take her temper to finally snap under the pressure.

Mene looked troubled for a minute.  "What are you studying?  Fighting techniques?"

It suddenly occurred to Bree that Sailor Mene hadn't been around for a while and probably wasn't familiar with this time period or the concept of university.  This world was probably more than a bit foreign to her, which led Bree to question when had Mene been around last?

"I'm in university, studying history," Bree tried to explain.  Mene still looked at her with a quizzical expression.  Shrugging, Bree didn't know what else to say.  "Let's just say that I have other things to do that are just as important as my mission as Zephyrus."

For a second, Mene looked pained, but she let repose settle over her.  "Are you studying any useful military history?  You need to be able to fight."

Bree nodded.  "I know.  I'm working on training.  But I study all sorts of world histories."

Sailor Mene nodded then began to fade quickly.  She tried to say something, but disappeared quickly.  Bree's life would be so much easier if Mene could just tell her who hosted her starseed.  She was getting tired of this sudden disappearance of the spirit.

It was a little past noon when Bree felt the negative force.  It was incredibly strong, but she had no clue where it was coming from.  The park was vastly populated, and people were out on the river, despite it being October (thus, cold) and the river restrictions on boats after August.  The force was strong, but she couldn't pinpoint it.

People scrambling from the walking path alerted her to the location.  Tentacles were crawling up from the river.  With a slippery heave, the kraken hefted itself onto the riverbank, impossible for a regular sea creature.  Bree wasn't even going to bother that this river was nowhere near the sea because she immediately knew the thing was responsible for the negative force she felt.

Ducking under the shadow of the bridge, she pulled her charm from her pocket and cried, "West Wind Metamorphosis!"

Sailor Zephyrus emerged from the bridge fighting. "Razor Rain!" she attacked, glad people had the sense to clear the riverbank.  The attack hit the hide of the kraken, causing it to ooze.  Zephyrus staggered.  A thick miasma covered the riverbank, seeping from the oozing wounds.  So maybe I shouldn't cut it, Zephyrus thought to herself.  That left few options.  In previous battles, she hadn't really physically attacked.  Maybe now was the time to test her true strength as Sailor Zephyrus.

She jumped, higher than she ever could as plain old Bree, and aimed her kick towards what biology told her should be a soft eye.  She watched the big eye watch her come down to earth.  As she made contact, Zephyrus realized why her boots had heels.  The eye gave under her heel, her foot making contact with the bone.  She jumped again, and landed a few feet from the dented monster.  The eye was oozing far more than the little cuts covering the body.  It was getting harder and harder for Zephyrus's lungs to find oxygen in the thickening miasma.

"Oh, I'm a dumb one, aren't I," she muttered.  She raised both her hands.  "Gale Force!"  With a powerful wind gusting from both her palms, she did a quick spin, diffusing the miasma down the riverbank.

She studied the dented kraken again.  Its cone shaped head had lost its shape from her attack, and it was slowly making its way back to the river.  She wasn't going to let it get back to its own element, with a possibility of taking her with it.  Miasma or not, the force of wind was not going to win this battle for her.

"Razor Rain!" she shouted, and aimed at the other soft eye.  Hundreds of darts hit the eye at once, and the cone shaped head exploded.  The destroyed body and tentacles made a soft hiss, and then dissolved into a thick miasma.  Instinctly, Sailor Zephyrus muttered, "Gale Force," and began to dissipate the purple gas to less concentrated quantities.

Once most of the gas was gone, she relaxed.

"Congratulations on beating my monster, little soldier," a dark voice seethed from behind her.  Zephyrus turned around so fast she almost sent herself flying down the riverbank.  Standing in the middle of the park, a patch of darkness on the bright day, was a dark skinned man with chin length purple hair.  It wasn't his dark clothes that frightened Zephyrus, but the deep violet aura around him.  It was one thing that she could feel his negative energy like a bath of worms, but to see evil like that was an entirely different experience.

"What do you want!?" Zephyrus demanded.  Was he the one responsible for the other monster attacks?

The dark man chuckled.  "Let's call it a test.  Yes, my kraken test.  You passed rather well.  I didn't expect to have to deal with you personally, but maybe I'll just have to find stronger monsters."  Unknowingly, they both looked to the dead ground where the kraken had died.  "Good thing he wasn't a favourite pet, or I might just have to kill you now, just for shining so bright."

Zephyrus paled.  She immediately thought of the words Ally had said to her before she had become Sailor Zephyrus.  "Your starseed shines too bright.  It hurts us."  Maybe this man was responsible for Ally's fate, for her possession.

"I can see why he wants you out of the way now," the man said.  "He wants you gone quickly, but I think I want to play a little first."  With a shimmer of the air, the man disappeared.

Puzzled and disoriented, she looked up to see the crowd gathered on the riverbank.

"Aw shit!" she cursed, and sprinted to the dark culvert on the other side of the bridge to transform back into regular old Bree.  "Not attention I need."

Hours later, Bree unlocked her apartment door to find her roommates glued to the TV.  Steph made a "come-'ere" motion with her hand and pointed to the screen.  The news was on, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was on.

"This skirted girl was seen by many witnesses attacking a giant squid that appeared out of the river, and then consulting with a purple-haired punk.  A few onlookers were able to take pictures."  Several bad, blurred out pictures appeared on the screen.  "If any one has other information on this blonde woman, please contact the police or other officials immediately."  The report then switched to something else less interesting, because Steph and Grace turned to look at her.

"Weren't you down by the river today," Grace inquired unobtrusively.  Bree simply nodded.

"Yeah, but I missed all the action.  I decided I wanted Indian for lunch, and came back to everyone talking about it."

Steph studied Bree, then smiled.  "It's a good thing you're hairstyle is pretty common, or else people could suspect you of being that funny dressed woman."

Bree was about to make some remark about did it look like she had magical powers, but thought the better of it.  It had only been a couple of weeks since she had been released from the hospital.  Instead, she merely muttered, "Uhuh," and went to collapse on her bed.