Chapter 6 - The Break-up
"What I am about to tell you guys," Mina spoke, "Is something that only our team and a few of our friends know.
My name is Minako Aino, or Mina. I was only 13 when my guardian Artemis told me I was the super heroine Sailor Venus. I fought under the alias of Sailor V for over a year in Japan and England as well. I did work with the police force over there. Amy was with Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Scouts during this time. When I finally joined them, I left the alias Sailor V behind.
I've think you've seen enough from the news and those mangas about the five years we spent protecting the Earth from the Negaverse. I don't think America heard too much about when we fought Shadow Galactica, but that was the last war we fought.
After that, we all got a much deserved break. We finished High School. Every once in a while, we'd go out as the Scouts just to keep the city safe or some kind of publicity stunt. Once in a while, some rouge from the Negaverse would appear, but really nothing happened. It got pretty boring for me to be honest with you.
Luna and Artemis clued us in on a rumor about a plot to kill Sailor Moon. Amy and her went to Seattle, Washington for a while just until we could figure out what the hell was going on. I'll spare the details of what happened over there, needless to say, Amy learned something pretty startling about herself."
Mina looked to Amy, who smiled innocently.
"Anyway," Mina continued, "Long story short, we all went out to Seattle and stayed there for a little while before Luna said it was okay to come back. Well, Luna is usually right about a lot of things, but not this time.
We had only been back for a couple of days. We, as the Sailor Scouts, appeared at a comic-con. I hate comic-cons, but they offered to give some money to charity. So we performed some songs, signed autographs, the usual crap. But then we got attacked. A wall blew open while we were taking pictures, and a couple of youma came right for Sailor Moon. I'll tell you, they were determined. Youma have tried to kill her before, but it's usually just because Sailor Moon gets in their way. This was different. We took out the monsters and got the hell out of there, but it was a close call.
Luna suggested we not appear as the Sailor Scouts for a while, but that didn't stop anything."
Mina sighed.
"Kind of hard to just stop being a Sailor Scout."
She hesitated before Amy took up the story:
"One afternoon, we were all at the Game Center attempting to preoccupy our minds. There was a treacherous looking man crowding around us."
"We tend to get a lot of strange guys hovering over us," Mina interjected.
Sirico nodded his head, "Bastards!" Dante looked at him as if he was a hypocrite.
"Serena was," Amy corrected herself, "I mean Sailor Moon-"
"It's all right Amy," Mina interrupted, "We're already telling them everything."
Amy gathered her thoughts, "Well Serena is her alto-ego. She was playing video games, when the man pulled out a gun. I instantly grabbed her and pulled her away just as the bullet destroyed the arcade-game. I pinned her to the ground to protect her."
"He cocks the trigger and is about to hit Amy," Mina continued the story, "That's when Lita, Sailor Jupiter, pinned HIM to the ground. She got him pretty easy. Obviously he wasn't from the Negaverse.
Everyone left in a panic but we gathered around this low-life. Serena was pretty shaken-"
"Not nearly as shaken as me," Amy interjected with a tear coming to her eye.
"Lita held the guy up," Mina said. "Raye marched right up to this guy and hit him hard in the face. You wouldn't believe the temper on this girl. Part of what turns me on about her when she... anyway-"
Sirico and Dante's eyes widened.
"Raye looked right at him and shouted, 'What the hell is wrong with you? You attack innocent girls?' The guy was silent. That is until Sailor Jupiter sent a few hundred volts of electricity through his body. He moaned in pain before Raye yelled at him again, 'Talk!' The guy, now with a large cut on his face looked up at her: 'I'm here to kill Sailor Moon.'
Lita held the guy tighter and looked to Raye in surprise. 'What are you talking about?' Raye asked him playing stupid.
There was no lie in this man's eye, ' Don't act so innocent, every independent contractor in the city knows Usagi Tsukino is Sailor Moon.' That's what she was called back in Japan.
I walked right up to Raye, held her waist and played along, 'You got the wrong girl bud. Usagi is a whiney lazy cowardly cry-baby with a bad diet.'
'Hey!' Serena shouted at us.
'Listen,' the guy said, 'There are a lot of people looking for your princess.'
Lita tightened her grip of him. He struggled slightly while Lita interrogated him, 'Who are you working for anyway?'
'I don't work for one person,' he said, 'I'm an independent bounty-hunter. In fact, I've got nothing against any of you. You girls do your job, I do mine. Unfortunately, I guess you guys made a lot of enemies. As of right now, there's a 100 million dollar price on Sailor Moon's head. It could be more!'
Amy held Serena in fear. I held onto Raye's hand.
'Everybody is looking for her. And hey, when I heard the number, I jumped at the opportunity. Word somehow got around that Tsukino was Sailor Moon and that you all hung around with her. Wasn't hard to find you!'
Lita's jaw dropped while she was holding onto the assassin. I looked at Raye, and in her eyes, I could see she was afraid for her friend. Amy even more so. She refused to let her lover go. And Serena... I don't know what she was thinking.
'Who exactly,' Raye said, 'Is offering this money?'
'I don't know,' the man said, 'All I can tell you is that with a bounty this big, the assassination attempts are not going to stop. Right now, everybody independent contractor in the country is looking for Sailor Moon. It's not going to be long before most hitmen find out it's you. Not even an army is going to be able to stop you.'
I slapped the man's face in anger, 'We've protected our princess before and we can do it again!'
'Sailor Venus,' I was shocked the guy knew who I was, 'Never underestimate the power of greed!'
That was enough after that. The police came and took him away."
Tears were coming down Amy's eyes. Small sounds of whimpering as she revisited the story of her marked girlfriend. Mina held her hand. The blue-hair regained her composure. The two sergeants caught their breaths from this intense story.
"So the minute Luna heard about this," Mina said, "She said 'Pack your things, we're going to New York City, the opposite side of the world.' And well-" Mina shrugged her shoulders, "Here we are." Amy leaned her head onto Mina's shoulder.
Sirico nodded his head and sighed. He put his hands up, "So you appeared as Sailor V, because Sailor Venus is tied to Sailor Moon."
"Exactly!" Mina nodded her head.
"But," Dante interjected, "Why appear at all? I mean don't get me wrong, we're glad you did, but wouldn't you risk your princess' life doing so?"
"That's what they said," Mina agreed. "But I couldn't stop being a Sailor Scout. Putting that life behind was no option for me."
"Nor was it for me," Amy interjected. "I love Sailor Moon so much, but this is such a conflict for me."
Sirico turned his head in curiosity, "Are you and Sailor Moon... together?"
Amy's eyes vacillated, "Yes," she finally said, "Serena and I are lovers... or were..." Amy's head dropped.
"Were?" Dante mimicked.
"We kinda had a fight," Mina explained, "When the others found out about the chase. That night I decided I wasn't going to give up the life of a Scout. And Amy said she'd stick with me. When we told Luna and the girls about it, Luna said the two of us couldn't stay with them if that was the case."
Sirico's eyes widened, "They threw you out?"
"Not threw out," The blonde explained, "We all decided it would be best for Sailor Moon's safety if Sailor V was kept separate from the exiled Sailor Scouts. I understood and left."
"And so did I," Amy said.
Amy replayed the scene in her head: an early morning at the kitchen table as Mina said her goodbyes.
"Please Mina," Serena whined holding onto her blonde friend's hands, "I don't want you to go!"
"Serena," Mina leaned in to talk to her, "I'm sure we can still find some time to hang out every once in a while." She turned to her white cat, "Right Artemis?"
"Hmm," Artemis pondered, "I suppose a few weeks down the road after things have settled down."
"And Sailor V will look after you!" Mina smiled.
"I guess," Serena added, "This is really the end of the Sailor Scouts."
"Nonsense," Luna said, "The Sailor Scouts will live on. We'll all meet again sooner or later."
Mina got up to look at Raye who stood staring out the window. Mina inched her way over the tiled floor to touch her girlfriend's shoulder. Raye shrugged it off. "Are you really gonna be this way Raye? After all we've been through?"
Raye was silent for a few minutes before cold words came out without turning around: "Good luck Sailor V."
Mina didn't even respond. She just turned around and grabbed her bag.
Luna looked at Amy who sat down staring at the salt-shaker, "Amy," The bluenette raised her head to look at the cat. "Are you sure you want to go with Mina?"
Amy had already made up her mind, but she played out every scenario like a chess game in her head one last time. She looked at Serena, whose sad eyes struck her own. Then she looked at Mina, whose eyes of determination and adventure made her choice easier.
She stood up, "Yes. I'm gonna go."
"You realize being a super-hero," Lita chimed in, "Is going to affect your studies at college."
"Well," Amy said moving towards Mina, "I've been balancing the two for years."
Serena almost lost it. "No," She whined, "Not you Amy! You're my girlfriend and I love you!"
Amy looked to Mina and then walked over to Serena. Amy pulled the crybaby's hand, "Come with me." Serena followed her friend into the bedroom.
Mina picked up her bag, "I'm gonna go get a cab."
"I'll walk with you," Lita got up, "Raye you coming?"
Without turning around, Raye nodded her head 'no'. Lita and Mina walked out the door.
Inside Serena and Amy's room, Amy sat her girlfriend down on the bed. Serena sniffed as tears continued to come down her eyes. Amy could not help but bring a small tear to her eye as she looked into the blue eyes of her princess, her lover. Amy kissed the odango-head. Serena immediately pinned the brainiac to the bed, like she was trying to keep her from leaving.
Amy laughed, "Serena," she pushed back slightly, "I'm not going to Andromeda. I'm sure once things settle down, things will go back to the way they were."
"Promise me," Serena said while hovering ontop of her girlfriend, "We'll meet up soon."
"I can promise that," Amy said. Serena quickly lifted up Amy's shirt to reveal her beautiful body.
"Oh Amy," Serena said as the passion of the moment grew more and more intense, "Amy!"
"Amy!"
"AMY!"
Amy's daydream was interrupted as Mina shook her friend's hand. Amy looked right at her blonde friend. Mina smiled, "What's with you? You're not the daydreaming type."
Amy apologized.
"So it's just you two now," Dante got everything strait. "So where do we come in?"
Mina regained her composure. "You two are pretty much the only other people we know in New York City, much less the only crime-fighters. I guess you could say we wanna join forces?"
Sirico smiled, "That is awesome!" He looked to Dante in a goofy way, "We're gonna be working with the Sailor Scouts!"
Dante looked at Sirico as if he was an idiot, "Did your mother drop you on the head when you were young?"
A look of annoyance came over Sirico's face.
"Seems to me," Dante said looking back over towards the girls, "Like you may have an alterer motive for being here. I mean I assume you two can work just fine by yourselves. What's the catch?"
Mina finally mentioned the one thing that stood in their way, "Money."
"Ah!" Dante smiled and looked to his partner, "Everyone has a motive."
"No no," Amy said, "You misunderstand. If we're working as Sailor Scouts 24/7 and are unable to get other jobs, I certainly can't with my school schedule, we won't have a way to pay our rent. The rents in Manhattan are quite exorbitant!"
"Maybe we could be," Mina jumped in, "Honorary police officers or something."
Dante raised his eyebrows, "You want to join the NYPD? Your realize how long it takes to become a police officer? Training?"
The girls laughed, "There is nothing we could learn from police training," Mina said, "We don't already know."
"Well besides that," Sirico finally started talking serious, "This is a tough job. Not just outside, but here in the office as well."
Another officer barged in their office. He had a bunch of donuts in his arm and one half-eaten in his hand, "Hey guys, they just put out some donuts in the conference room!"
"You're not supposed to come in here," Dante said, "We're with people!"
"All right," the officer snorted, "But you better hurry, they're going fast." He quickly disappeared.
Mina and Amy turned their attention back to the officers. Dante put his head on his forehead.
"All right all right," Sirico said with his hands up, "We are short-staffed and do need some help going after this heroin operation."
"I'll tell you what," Dante added, "I'll talk to the commissioner about deputizing both of you. The money's not that great, but if you help us bust the Sollozzo Gang, we'll give you each a share of any money we find."
"Money you find?" Amy interrupted.
"Not bribes," Sirico said, "Just the money that they got selling drugs."
"But," Amy interrupted, "Isn't that dishonest?"
Sirico and Dante laughed aloud. "Such a sweet kid," Sirico said.
"Look as long as the money we make LEGALLY," Mina said, "Can help us pay for our rent, we're here for you. Just keep our identities secret."
Dante and Sirico looked to each other. Dante wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to Mina, "Meet us at this address tomorrow. We'll talk more then."
"We'll be there," Mina said as she got up. She took Amy's hand and the two went out the door.
Sirico sat back taking in what had just happened, "You know," He said to his partner, "I have a slight feeling that those two may be lesbians?"
Dante slowly turned his head to Sirico trying to remember how he ever ended up working with this man.