"Ghost Story" A Tale of Sailor Moon Expanded Approximately a thousand years lay between the founding of Crystal Tokyo and the Black Moon war. In that time, the Senshi took part many adventures, and inspired others to do the same. This is tale from that era, the World of Crystal Tokyo. By: Matthew Campbell E-mail me at Chapter 1: Raiders of the lost artifact Let me tell you a story. I'll warn you from the beginning, I'm not the central player in this story, nor am I anyone of great importance or power. Still, even though this is another person's tale, I was there to see it happen. Decades have come and gone since these events occurred, but the memories are still fresh within my mind. You see, I'm in my dotage now, and it can only be a matter of time before I shuffle off this mortal coil. A month, a year, a decade, does it really matter exactly how long I have left? What is important is doing this while I still can, sharing the adventure of my long-lost youth. I suppose it began on a ship. We were heading out from the Australian coastline, moving fairly quickly. On a passenger vessel, I'm sure I would have been seated back in the coach section. After all, I was just a lowly research assistant being shipped out to meet with my employer for the first time. This being a supply ship, we passengers were considered a mere nuisance and shoved together on a few badly patched seats in an empty hold. I was trying once again to read over some papers I had brought along. Though not strictly within my field, they had been written by my new employer, and I judged it prudent to have a familiarity with some of his work. Still, the subtle swaying of the ship had distracted my attention from reading yet again, and I was on the point of simply giving up, when I noticed something rather startling. The woman two seats in front of me was Sailor Mercury. Like about 90% of the schoolgirls in the world, I had virtually worshipped the Senshi when I was younger. Posters of them decorated my walls, I read everything I could get my hands on, and I used to pray every night that I would get magical powers so that I could go out and be a lesser senshi. You know- the usual. Of course it never happened, the powers part I mean. That didn't stop me from learning as much about them as any fan- girl could. So just because Mercury was out of uniform, wore dark glasses, and had a headscarf covering that distinctive bluish hair, that didn't keep me from recognizing her. If she'd been using disguise magic I could never have done it, but I suppose she didn't want to bother. Certainly no one else had seen through her little deception, or she would have been on the bridge, being feted as a VIP. Given the choice between being mobbed by admirers and the cargo hold, she had obviously chosen the hold. The real mystery was what she was doing there. The Pacifica colony had been established in 2186, over 30 years ago. Nothing new there. Why would one of the most famous people in the world be traveling incognito to an undersea colony? I wanted more than anything to go forward and ask her for both an autograph and an explanation. Problem was, she obviously didn't want to be bothered. Frustrated, I turned to the man sitting beside me, hoping to distract myself with a conversation. "So, taking us a while to get there, isn't it?" I won't say that starting that conversation was a mistake exactly. If I had said nothing at all, probably things would have happened pretty much the same way. Still, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that attracting that man's attention was a very bad idea . "Oh no, my dear girl, not at all. Why we've been moving quite quickly indeed. You young people have no patience, none at all." He had a white beard and balding head, and was slightly paunchy. Dark brown eyes and a shiny, bulbous nose combined with the rest to make him look like a jolly grandfather. If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have run out of the room screaming at the top of my lungs. Instead, I was instantly charmed. "So you think we'll arrive at Pacifica soon? I think I must have tried to read these articles at least four times." The conversation was serving quite well to keep my mind off of Mercury. I was only using about 80% of my brain speculating about the Senshi. "Oh indeed yes, child. We should be arriving momentarily. I can feel the engines beginning to slow, can't you? By the way dear, what is your name?" "Wylah Koeing. Yes, you're right about the engines." Smiling at him, I replaced the papers in my carry-on bag. "So what's your name?" His eyes twinkled with what I thought was good cheer as he replied. "Ender. Please call me Ender." Fairly soon the crew arrived to herd us to the submersible that would carry us down to Pacifica. The sub was launching from a lock beneath the water line of the ship, so we basically walked out of one windowless room, down the corridor, and into another. Our descent was swift, and within minutes, the twenty or so of us who had traveled there were passing through the locks and into Pacifica proper. The entire time, I had kept my eyes on Mercury, continually talking myself out of approaching her. She headed immediately to a map hung on the wall, looked at it briefly, and strolled off down the corridors at a leisurely pace. There was no one to greet me, so I waited till she had left and then consulted the same map. Pacifica's layout was well-organized, and it only took me a moment to find the room where I had been told Dr. Spectre would be staying. I hurried off, so as to report in as quickly as possible. I went quickly down the corridors until I saw something that stopped me in my tracks. Mercury was up ahead. She had been traveling much more slowly than I, taking care to examine the colony as she went. There was no real reason I couldn't have simply walked past her, but somehow I felt too embarrassed to try. Instead, I ducked around the corner and waited a decent interval until I was sure she'd moved on. Frustrated at having to stand around waiting, I rushed off even more quickly than before. About one minute later, I caught up with Mercury again. The sensible thing to do at this point would, of course, have been to have calmly kept going. I decided to hide behind the corner again. After pausing a minute, I went on my way, and it happened a third time. I hid yet again but told myself that if I caught up with Mercury a fourth time I'd just give up and stop this silly business of trying to avoid her. The only problem was, when I did catch her, this time she was waiting for me. As I passed through a narrow archway, I found Mercury standing in the shadows, her arms crossed and a suspicious look on her face. She asked me, "Excuse me, but why are you following me?" "Sailor Mercury I wasn't following you it's just that I was just trying to get to Dr. Spectre and I didn't want to be late and I keep running into you and I was so embarrassed I kept hiding and please don't be mad at me." I would have continued babbling on, but I'd expended all the air in my lungs and had to stop to catch my breath. She frowned slightly. "You know who I am?" "When I was a little girl I had pictures of all you Senshi up on my wall and I read everything I could about you and I've seen pictures of you in both forms but I really wasn't following you really it's just an accident I keep-" Mercury gently put a hand over my lips to silence my runaway mouth. She then pulled it quickly away, as if surprised by her own actions. "I think I understand. You said you were going to see Dr. Spectre. Was that Dr. Martin Spectre?" Afraid to let myself start speaking again, I merely nodded in reply. "Well that explains part of it. I'm going to the same place. But why did you keep hiding every time you saw me?" "I just if I passed you I didn't think I could stop myself from talking to you and I could see you wanted to be left alone and-" This time I was the one who put a hand over my own mouth to keep myself from continuing. I was mortified to see Mercury trying (and failing) to stifle a laugh. "I'm sorry. You just remind me so much of some friends of mine." She paused a moment to think. "Since we're going to the same place, maybe we should walk together." I enthusiastically shook my head in the affirmative. Pacifica held about 20,000 people in those days, and walking from place to place was beginning to get a little tricky. Of course, the fact that it was built in three dimensions helped keep everything closer together, but it was obvious that the motorized walkways I could see being installed here and there were desperately needed. It seemed like most of the population was resorting to bicycles, which made navigating the corridors somewhat hazardous for us pedestrians. As it was, it took us over half an hour to reach the guest apartments which were our destination. This was a working colony and the whole idea of casual visitors was something of a recent add-on. Mercury kept up a constant thread of conversation as we walked, but I couldn't tell you what she said. I was so thrilled to be meeting one of my childhood heroes, my concentration was completely shot. It was all I could manage to keep from running into walls. Finally, we arrived at the correct apartment number, and Mercury gave a firm knock on the door. A faint shout echoed from within. "Enter!" My Senshi companion opened the door and slipped quickly inside, but I stood for a moment in the doorway. It was from there that I got my first view of the room's occupant. He was lying stretched out on a couch, apparently having been writing on some sort of computer notepad. His hair was mostly grey with a few remaining streaks of black and was beginning to thin considerably. It retained its original thickness only near the back of his head and streamed down from there into a long ponytail. I had difficulty estimating his height while he was lying down like that, but pegged it (correctly) as being somewhere around six foot. I'd been reading up on him so I knew he was 57, but his face retained a certain youthful cast that seemed to place him only in his mid-forties. Other than that, he looked perfectly ordinary, if slightly pale, with grey eyes that quietly blended with the rest of his features. At that moment, his expression was one of utter astonishment. "Might I ask what you're doing here?" He ignored me completely, being fully focused on Mercury. She had been studying him with the same attention to detail I had and seemed to like what she saw, since there was a slight smile on her face. "Same thing you are, I believe." "Ah, something fascinating enough to lure you out of Crystal Tokyo. A rare occurrence indeed." He turned his gaze towards me. "Is this one of your research assistants?" Now Mercury's small smile turned into a good-natured grin. "Actually I believe she's one of *your* research assistants." Feeling this was the time to introduce myself, I moved forward. "Wylah Koeing. I hope you've been expecting me and let me just say what an honor it's going to be working for you Dr. Spectre I really admire some of your work." Cutting myself off, I managed to stop my speech before running short of breath. He responded by quickly rising and walking over to me. Shaking my hand, he commented, "Please, just call me Marty. Would you mind just sitting over here for a moment while I talk with my- with Sailor Mercury?" Without waiting for an answer, he guided me to the couch and then pulled Mercury over to the other side of the room. Their voices lowered, and I couldn't make out what they were saying. Now, I had been more than a little uncertain about coming to work for Marty. True, he was semi-famous in academic circles for the sheer variety of the subjects he had researched. However, some people accused him of being more reporter than scientist, always racing off to the next experiment or discovery before investigating the full implications of what he'd been working on previously. This wasn't entirely fair as he would often drop something only temporarily, coming back to it later and linking it to knowledge he'd gained in the interim. Still, I had my doubts about how much he would teach me in my chosen field of mana theory. Theoretically, it was his field too, but Marty had always been a dabbler in many different areas. It all came down to the fact that I needed money and he paid extremely well. What I was seeing was beginning to change my opinion. Being semi-famous was one thing, but he apparently knew one of the legendary Senshi rather well. That had me impressed, and started me considering my new job in a much more positive light. The conversation between Marty and Mercury didn't take more than thirty seconds. After finishing, they walked back over to the couch. Mercury had a puzzled and slightly hurt expression on her face. Marty seemed to notice and commented to her. "Please don't take my request as a personal affront. You know I don't feel that way. It's simply that for professional reasons, I prefer to keep certain things to myself." I wondered at his manner of speaking (The man acutally used the phrase 'personal affont'.) , but didn't say anything. Subsequent experience taught me that he always talked in that stilted, correct manner, but I've never been able to find out why. I guess some things will always remain a mystery. Mercury sat beside me on the couch, while Marty pulled up a chair so that he could sit facing us. "Wylah, correct?" I nodded. "Well Wylah, I suppose I should acquaint you with the purpose of our presence here in Pacifica." "Yeah I was wondering when you told me to come here what you were doing here I mean I know you wrote that book about this place but what are you doing back and then when I saw Sailor Mercury I couldn't figure out what would get her to leave Crystal Tokyo for here not that Pacifica isn't a nice place but I'm sure Tokyo is nicer." During my statement Marty had begun to clutch his forehead with the palm of his hand. Mercury was trying yet again to stifle a laugh. Marty opened his mouth to start to speak, then closed it as if he'd changed his mind about what he wanted to say. After a moment's thought he began again. "Yes. Well as you noted Wylah, I have been to Pacifica before. A week ago, my contacts here sent me a message saying that something of an unusual nature had been discovered on the ocean floor during one of their mapping expeditions. I sent a message to.... to Mercury here, because I believed the information would be of interest to her. As you might have deduced from my surprise, I never dreamed she would come in person." Mercury interrupted, "You should have. I'm not some sort of shut-in, you know. When a discovery like this is made, I want the chance to examine it first hand." Marty smirked. "Oh really. Perhaps you could refresh my memory. Exactly how long has it been since the last time you went outside Crystal Tokyo's borders?" Mercury turned red and muttered something about being busy and long-distance communication being perfectly adequate for most things. I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, but what's this 'discovery' you keep talking about?' A grateful Mercury jumped at the chance to change the subject. "It is believed to be an artifact of one of the ancient civilizations. Perhaps the Silver Millennium, perhaps from before that. What has got everyone so excited is that it appears to be able to convert conventional energy such as heat, light, kinetic energy, and electricity directly into mana." I'm not a genius, but she didn't have to spell out the implications for me. In the last couple of centuries, we've learned a great deal about how magic works, what its applications are. The problem is that we still understand almost nothing about what mana actually is. No one has been able to make it fit into conventional scientific theories of how the universe works, except in the most limited of ways. Mages can construct magitech devices, but that's only on the practical level. No one has ever been able to come up with any sort of Grand Unified Theory that can encompass mana in a scientific sense. We know that mana is generated by living things and planetary bodies, but the why and how have escaped the greatest of minds, minds like that of Sailor Mercury. I immediately knew that this artifact could be the bridging device connecting the magic and science. If it really converted energy directly to mana, without running it through any sort of living being first, then it could provide the clues to understanding magic the same way we understand gravitation or radiation. That's something no known previous human civilization ever accomplished, to our knowledge. It could give us the keys to the universe. This all flashed through my head in an instant. What I actually did was jump up and yell, "My God! Can we go see it now?" Marty smiled. "I see you realize the potential importance. I had planned to allow you time to rest, but since you're so excited, there's no reason we can't go have a look immediately. If that's acceptable to you, Mercury?" She graciously gave her assent, and the two of us left our luggage on the floor of his room. We would go pick up the keys to our rooms (we'd paid in advance) later. Marty confidently led us through the colony, skirting the edge of the heavy industrial section, until we arrived at the research laboratories. There were two guards at the room where the artifact was being stored, but they seemed to know Marty by sight and waved all three of us through. Inside, a man in his sixties gave us an enthusiastic greeting. "Spectre! What are you doing back here so soon, and who are these lovely young ladies?" "These 'young ladies' are my new research assistants. This is Ms. Koeing and this is, um, Ms. Mizuno. They wanted to see the 'globe', so I decided to bring them over here for a quick viewing. Ladies, this is Dr. Hood." "Say Marty, I thought you were only hiring one assistant. What gives?" "Sudden change of plans." While this exchange was going on, I was examining the artifact laid out on a table in the center of the room. It was a perfect sphere made out of some sort of silvery metal that seemed to alternately shine then dim in the light of the room. The sphere was about two feet in diameter and clamped on the sides to keep it from rolling off the table. Dr. Hood noticed my scrutiny. "Incredible, isn't it? We only discovered it because of the mana it emitted when our sonar waves hit it. Took three days to dig it out of the rock it was imbedded in. Seems we needn't have worried though, nothing we've tried has so much as scratched it." Mercury asked. "Did you discover any other artifacts or non-natural remains in the area around this... 'globe'?" Hood replied. "No, and we've been searching the area ever since it was first discovered. If nothing's been found by now, there's probably nothing there." Mercury asked some technical questions, and both Marty and Hood tried to answer her. I followed the conversation as best as I could, but it soon got over my head, so I contented myself my taking another look at the globe. After a moment, Dr. Hood walked over to join me, leaving the other two to their discussion. "Does he really expect me to believe she's a research assistant?" Startled, I turned to Hood and saw the slightly annoyed expression on his face. "Then you know?" "Know that that's Sailor Mercury standing over there? Well, the fact that a supposed research assistant knows more than I do about mana theory is a major clue. Besides, Marty isn't as good at covering up his background as he thinks he is." I didn't know that that last comment meant and filed it away for future reference. "You're glad to have her here, right, after all Mercury is one of the smartest people in history and if anyone can crack this thing she can and besides isn't it great that Sailor Mercury herself came down here to help with the research?" He gave me the same incredulous look I'd received several times that day and I resolved to slow down my speech and stop getting so excited. Shaking off his astonishment, he answered me. "From a purely scientific standpoint, I'm glad to have her here. On a personal level, I can't help but feel that Crystal Tokyo is butting in yet again." "Huh?" I didn't understand what he could be talking about. Hood grimaced. "I'm not denying that Serenity saved the world when she pushed back the Great Darkness. She and the senshi have done a lot of good since then too. The historians say that acts of violence and well, 'evil', have gone down in number across the world in the last two centuries. It just seems like there's nothing the rest of us can do to prevent being outshined. Take this colony for example. Do you know why my government had it built?" I shook my head to indicate I didn't. With a saddened expression, he puffed up his cheeks, then released the air in a sudden exhalation. "Like just about ever other people in the world, us Australians felt outclassed by those 'demigods' up in Crystal Tokyo. The whole idea of an underwater colony was to go somewhere the Tokyo crowd wasn't going, to do something where we wouldn't be competing with them. Something where we could be the best. Fortunately, Pacifica has proven itself a success, and I predict we're going to be expanding out to other colonies. Mind you, there are still a few technological barriers we have to overcome. Pacifica has needed far too much support over the years. But that's not the point. Now that we've finally made an important discovery, one of the Senshi shows up. How are the rest of us supposed to compete with a genius who's had centuries to learn? The really hideous thing is that it isn't intentional on her part. I'm sure Mercury is here in the genuine spirit of scientific inquiry. The result's going to be the same, though. Once again, Crystal Tokyo does it better." I ventured. "You don't seem angry at Dr. Spectre for bringing her here." He winked at me. "Given his background, I can hardly blame him for calling her. Besides, Marty saved this colony. Before you were born, we were on the verge of having our funding cut and abandoning this place. He spent a year here and wrote a book that got us enough popular support to continue past those lean years. We owe him." With that he walked back over to the other two and reentered the discussion. After a few minutes, they agreed to stop and wait until the next day, so we headed out the door and back to Marty's room. Just outside the lab where they were keeping the artifact, I noticed a familiar face. I detoured over to greet him while Marty and Mercury continued down the corridor, engaged in some sort of esoteric discussion. "Mister Ender. What are you doing here?" It was the old man I'd met on the bus. "Oh my dear, there are so many interesting things around her. Yes, there's much I need to see." He chuckled in a friendly manner. Curious as to what he was doing outside the labs, I tried to ask without giving too much away. "Oh, are you here for the uh, 'special project' as well?" He seemed to find this enormously amusing. "The little discovery that's been made? Yes, you might say I'm here for the artifact. Yes, you might just say that." Seeing my guides were receding off into the distance, I made a hasty departure. "Good-bye. I've got to be going. Maybe we'll work together!" After I caught up with them, the three of us headed back to the apartments. Mercury and I retrieved our luggage and checked into our rooms. Mine was fairly spartan, but I didn't care. I just collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep. That meant I was rather annoyed when a pounding on the door awakened me in the middle of the night. I opened the door to see Marty's smiling face. He looked annoyingly awake, considering my watch was telling me it was after 2 AM. "Wylah, get dressed and come with- well I suppose getting dressed won't be a problem. Just come with us then." I'd been so tired from the trip that I'd fallen asleep in my clothes. Quickly pulling on my shoes, I hopped out the door. Standing beside my employer was Mercury, and she didn't look happy. "Do you really want to bring her into this?" Marty shot a glance my way, then answered her. "Wylah is supposed to be learning something as well as serving as my assistant. I want her to observe whatever it is we're going to observe." Looking back, I believe he also wanted the opportunity to test me a little. He was sure Mercury could handle any danger, so he felt free to subject me to a little stress to see how I conducted myself. To me Marty explained, "Mercury's minicomputer picked up unusual readings from the room where the artifact is kept. She woke me so that we could investigate." He smiled. "Though I believe if she felt confident in her ability to navigate the corridors quickly, she would have gone alone. Speaking of which, perhaps we should be on our way." He led us down the corridors at a trot, taking a more direct route than we had used before. When I caught the smell coming from one of the refining areas, I could see why he had chosen to avoid the area on our first trip. We arrived at the lab area in fairly short order. Stretched out on the ground were the two guards we'd seen earlier. Mercury immediately moved to insure that they were still alive. One she'd verified that they were merely unconscious, the three of us approached the door cautiously. It was shut, though strange noises were coming from the other side and we could see lights emanating from the bottom of the door. Marty gave me a 'stay here' wave, but in a fit of foolish bravery I decided to follow them in. Mercury kicked in the door, splintering it easily with senshi strength. As she ran inside, Marty and I were right behind her. Standing in the center of the room was Ender, making some sort of mystic passes over the globe. It was obvious he was casting some sort of spell. Ender looked up in surprise as we entered the room. "Ah, visitors. How positively delightful. Unfortunately I'm going to have to kill you, but be assured your deaths will make an old man happy." He caught sight of me behind the other two. "Dear, dear child. As you can see, I did come for the artifact. You mustn't feel too badly. I was planning to come by and drink your life in any case. I have a feeling it will be especially sweet." To my horror, I felt a sudden weakness and collapsed to the floor. He was draining our life-force! Dark spots were beginning to form before my eyes when I caught a flash of blue light from the corner of my vision. The drain suddenly stopped and I was able to summon the energy to look up. Sailor Mercury had transformed into her senshi form. Ender was staring at her with a terrifying expression of loathing on his face. He rasped "So, one of you." Mercury's voice rang out. "I will give you one and only one chance to surrender, and that only because you didn't kill those guards." Marty edged to the side, trying to get out of the line of fire in case a battle erupted. Without taking his eyes off Mercury, Ender responded. "Ho-ho. Powerful as I am, I can't fight one of the Senshi, dear. Fortunately I don't have to." He released a bolt of dark power, not towards Mercury but rather towards Marty. My employer screamed as the death energy tore into him and fell to his knees. Mercury paused briefly to hurl one of her lesser attacks at Ender before diving to protect Marty. Ender managed to partially block the attack with a shield, but cried out in agony as frost covered one side of his body. Nevertheless, he managed to stumble over to the table containing the artifact and wrap his arm about it. Both Ender and the globe disappeared in a flash of light. Mercury looked up from the still figure cradled in her arms. "Call a medical team. Now!" I rushed outside, looking desperately for a phone. After a frantic search, I managed to locate one and dial the emergency number. The operator sent out a signal as I incoherently spilled my story, ensuring a team of paramedics would get there quickly. I was then switched to the colony's head of security, who promised to make sure Ender couldn't escape. Going back inside the lab, I hesitantly approached Mercury. "Will he be alright?" She sighed. "I think so. Our attacker didn't have much time to gather his energies. That was just a generic pain-inducing blast. I want to get him to a hospital though, just to be sure." She seemed to become more focused and I felt a shiver of awe. This was Sailor Mercury in her full power and she was staring at me! "He seemed to know you. Have you seen him before?" "He was on the ship that carried us here and he said his name was Ender and he seemed so nice and I didn't know he was so horrible he drained my energy and it felt like I was dying and I was so scared and then he hurt Dr. Spectre....." I literally choked up, completely unable to say any more. She tried to comfort me. "Shhh. It's going to be okay. He's not going to be coming back anytime soon." That was when the paramedic and security teams rushed in. They froze up for a moment at the sight of Mercury in her Sailor fuku. Somehow I had forgotten to mention her when telling my story to the dispatcher. Waving her hands the Senshi yelled. "Don't just stand there!" They moved forward and loaded Marty up onto a stretcher, while the security police huddled around Mercury and she told them our story. I was a little out of it and all I remember is being eventually led back to my room and falling asleep. The next morning I was again awakened by a knock at the door. Memories of the previous night came rushing back and I hurried to the door. Dr. Hood was waiting on the other side. "How are you feeling, Ms. Koeing?" "I'm fine. Is Dr. Spectre okay?" I ran my fingers through my hair and noted absentmindedly that I was pretty grubby, having gone to sleep in my clothes yet again. "They let him out of the hospital an hour ago. Follow me and I'll take you to him." I started to step outside, but he pushed me back. "Hold it. There's no hurry, so why don't you get cleaned up first." He obviously wasn't going to budge, so I went back inside, took a shower, and put on some clean clothes. When I finished, Hood was still waiting, working on a notebook computer. Taking me by the arm, he led me down the corridors and to the security office. Stepping inside, I found Dr. Spectre and Mercury deep in conversation. Marty waved me over to join them. "We checked the passenger manifest and by process of elimination were able to identify the necromancer. He was registered as John Smith and he paid for the ticket in cash." Mercury looked resigned as she said this, seemingly not having expected anything more. "Wait, how do you know he's a necromancer?" I wasn't really up on criminal sorcerers. Marty jumped in. "The fact that he attempted an energy drain upon us strongly points to it, though indeed that is not proof in itself that he uses death magic." Mercury smoothly took over. "Also, we ran the name you gave us, 'Ender', against the international lists of wanted criminals. This man has been responsible for a lot of deaths. Rather arrogant of him to give you his real name like that." Marty scowled. "His kind have no respect for life and no respect or fear of anything else either." I had a bad feeling. "From the way you're talking, I assume he wasn't caught." They looked at each other and Mercury fielded the question. "No. Ender apparently had an escape craft waiting and teleported directly to it. We managed to track him to , but we lost him from there. Don't worry, I have some.... contacts with the Hunters. I think I can arrange for some of them to get on his trail as well as the local authorities." She saw the Pacifica's mayor standing a few feet away, patiently awaiting a chance to speak with the her. "Excuse me, I have to go do some diplomatic work. Marty, I'll be back in a moment. It's been a long time, and I don't want to leave before we have a chance to talk." "Indeed, I would enjoy the opportunity." As Mercury left, Marty turned to me. "Wylah, I apologize. I should never have brought you into a situation like that. I was a bit too overconfident of Ami's ability to handle the situation." "Ami? You mean Sailor Mercury?" "Ah, yes I meant Mercury. I suppose I heard too many stories from my father about her, growing up. My mother was something of an American nationalist, and she tried hard to make sure I knew the senshi are as fallible as anyone else, but I'm afraid I still ended up with an exaggerated opinion of their abilities." I couldn't allow him to take all the blame onto himself. "No, I was the one who decided to follow you into the lab. You tried to tell me to stay back." "Nevertheless I shouldn't have awakened you in the first place. In any case, it seems there is nothing left for us to study here. I'm afraid I must ask you to repack your things." He wasn't giving anything away, so I had to come straight out and ask. "Where are we going?" "South America." He held up his hand to stop me from saying anything. "Don't worry, it is not my intention to attempt to apprehend Ender. However, I have a few contacts with the underworld there, and when he attempts to sell the artifact, I can attempt to purchase it back. As much as I hate allowing him to profit from his crime, this is too valuable to science to lose." "Don't you think the Hunters will catch him?" He glanced over at Mercury. "I think our friend puts too much faith in their abilities. What, in the end, can they do that the Brazilian police cannot? I'm sure that if the local police do manage to locate Ender the Hunters will aid in his capture, but he's been on the run for decades already." There was still something I didn't understand. "How do you know he's going to sell it? Why wouldn't he just keep it for himself?" Marty chuckled. "Keep it? To what purpose? This sphere is only valuable for what it can tell us about the nature of mana. I can't imagine any practical applications of the knowledge without decades of study. Perhaps two hundred years ago, a mana generator would have been a treasure beyond price, but now? Our preliminary tests revealed clear limits on the device. Beyond a certain point it ceases to absorb energy and starts to reflect the excess. No, I simply can't imagine what he would want with it." He shrugged and continued, "Even if we are unable to locate the artifact, there are several recent products of the Jungle I wish to study. I promise you the trip will not be a waste of our time. Oh, and please don't tell Mercury about this. I wouldn't want her to worry." I nodded my assent absentmindedly. So we were going to South America. This wasn't your typical job. End Chapter One.