Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 33: Treasonable Conduct

Chapter 33: Treasonable Conduct

La Fin de Toute

(formerly Galactica Palace)

38th Floor, Approaching Sector Mu

Alph's trail wasn't difficult to follow. It was if a tornado had ripped through the Sunakiis; piles of sand were everywhere, dotted with intermittent scraps of the little monsters' canvas-like skin... very small scraps.

Four Operation Batman comrades and one pint-sized asylum-seeker gingerly made their way through the carnage, the majority of them making an effort to step over as many piles as they could. Erika Kurumi, Cure Marine, had reassured them repeatedly that the Sunakiis really were no more than animated sandbags, and that the sand inside their bodies—formerly inside their bodies—was exactly what it appeared to be. "It's plain, ordinary sand," she said from her position ahead of the others. "There's no need to be all twitchy about it. I dunno how exactly the Desert Apostles brought them to life, but we found out for ourselves when we raided their base to rescue Tsubomi's grandma. There's nothing else inside those bags, just sand."

"I still don't want to touch it. It was walking around a few minutes ago," said Kirara Amanogawa, Cure Twinkle, with a grimace of distaste. "You can if you want to, Marine."

"Um," said Sailor Iron Mouse, bringing up the rear of the group. It was the farthest position from Alph, so she intended to stay there unless someone objected. "H-how exactly did you find out wh-what was inside them...?" The way she shook indicated that she dreaded the answer.

Unable to resist the opportunity, Marine flashed the false Senshi the widest, evilest smile she could. "Oh, me and Sunshine split a couple of them open, emptied them out, and wore their skins to disguise ourselves while we snuck around," she said, all casual. After a burst of inspiration, she rolled back her eyes, wriggled her fingers for emphasis, and took on a low-pitched approximation of a horror movie voice for the clincher. "They neeeever noticed a thiiiiing..."

Iron Mouse squealed and seized hold of her tail for comfort. "Y-y-y-you people are barbarians!"

"Marine," said Rei Hino, Sailor Mars, second from the back. "Don't taunt the prisoner."

"What, do you really think she'll attack us? She's way outnumbered."

"No," said Mars. Her brow furrowed. "It's just... tacky."

"Aww."

"Y-you're all so mean!" Iron Mouse sniffled in abject misery and ran her tail through her fingers. "I'm h-helping you, r-risking my neck... I even t-told you about the M-Merry-Go-Round and where to f-find it! Wh-what did I ever do to anybody to deserve this?!"

Ahead of her, Mars thought she saw the ghost of a laugh flit across Neptune's face, but it might have been a trick of the light.

"Oh, hey, there she is! Alph-san!" Marine went running ahead, waving so fast that her arm resembled a metronome turned on much too high. "Alph-san!"

The wolf familiar stood covered head to tail in a fine dusting of sand among the pathetic remains of the last platoon of Sunakiis as she checked a holo-readout. "Glad you all made it," she said, not looking up. "I actually have good news: I've picked up Chibi-Moon and Sakura's locator signals again. They're only a few floors above where Black and Fortune are, we can pick them up on our way." After a pause, she shifted to wolf form and shook herself vigorously, sending a cloud of tiny grains flying from her coat. "Ah, that's better," she said, switching to telepathic speech.

"You really went to town on them," said Marine, a little awed and a little scared. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Are you kidding?" Alph flashed a fanged grin... an action which was far more intimidating in this form. "I feel great. We oughta see about importing some of those things for the TSAB training facilities back on Midchilda when this is all over. Come on," she said, beckoning the others with a flick of her tail as they drew near. "Let's hurry, before we lose their signal again." Without waiting for a response, she bounded down the corridor...