Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, the anime is property of Naoko Takeuchi, but I do own The Skull Empire and anything to do with it as well as the plot of this fan fic, I also do not own any Japanese TV channels.

Before I continue I'd like to add this, the Skull Bots, well some of them are based of the Mavericks from the Megaman X games series while the Giga Emeralds are based of the Chaos Emeralds from the Sonic the Hedgehog game series, Decoe and Bocoe are based of the robots of the same name from the Sonic X anime series.

---()---

It is a typical day for the crew who work at the construction yard. It is a bright and sunny day, a plus in the crew’s opinion. It is almost time for a break. A break would be welcomed; however, work is also just as important. Whistling a tune, a worker is inside a JCB Digger and is busy at working away at the ground’s surface when he hits somewhere.

Curious, he sticks his head out from behind the glass and takes a closer look, while keeping his hands firmly on the controls. Knowing that something is in the way, he tries to clear the dirt a little further for a closer inspection. Upon seeing a glimmer of bright green, he decides to tap it with his machine. However, upon contact, the Digger starts vibrating violently and he loses control. It goes berserk and promptly starts to destroy existing construction. Panicking, he abandons the controls and makes a leap for it, not wanting to injure himself, which at the moment seemed quite possible.

As he hit the floor outside, the Digger moves of its own accord for a while before shivering to a halt. The worker is looking at his co-workers, questioningly and in confusion. The looks on his co-workers faces reflect his own.

---

Episode 5: Giga Emerald, Envy.

---

---Elsewhere--

A nice afternoon is best spent studying after all! Unfortunately, none of the other girls agree with Ami’s philosophy. The six of them, Rini included were at Darien’s apartment studying. Or, at least, they were trying to. Somewhat bored with studying, Rini and Serena engage into yet another minor skirmish over their favourite thing, ahem, person in the whole world – Darien.

“Let go of him, he’s mine!” Rini whines, whilst pulling Darien towards herself.

“No, he isn’t! He’s mine. And so, I get to hug him, not you!” Serena contradicts and tugs Darien’s arm towards herself.

“Nuh-uh! Mine! Mine!” Rini yells, pulling Darien’s arm back towards herself.

“Oh, grow up, the both of you. Unlike you, some of us are actually trying to study!” Raye scolds after seeing Rini and Serena at it again.

“But Raye… she’s the one who started it!” Serena moans.

Raye rolls her eyes and the others join her in exasperated sighs. What were they to do? This happens all the time, it was best to let the two of them resolve their own issues. Their concentration disrupted, and it was clear that they were not going to regain it, seeing as the same old “Rini vs. Serena” argument over Darien was still not going to be ended any time soon, Mina did the one thing that any sane person does in such a peculiar situation. Turn on the TV and block out the voices of the two girls arguing behind her.

“Oh, bleh, news. There’s never anything interesting on that channel.”

Mina promptly flicks over to the next channel, only to be greeted with another news report, of the exact same topic as the previous. Not giving up that easily, she flicks to another channel. And again, and again. Soon, she gets flustered and turns the TV off and throws the remote in some distant corner. Hearing the sound of the remote impacting on the floor, Amy looks over to see Mina hugging her knees and pouting.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing interesting to watch on TV except news reports. Every channel shows the exact same thing. And I can’t concentrate over the two of them-“ Mina gestures towards Rini and Serena, still in their tussle, “yelling their heads off.”

“News? On every channel? That’s odd.”

“Yeah, it is.” Lita pipes up.

“It might be quite important if it’s appearing on every channel.”

Walking over to the distant corner where the poor remote was flung, she turns on the TV again. As scenes of a construction site come into view with many a news reporter asking a crew worker what had happened earlier, the four girls sat in front of the TV absorbing the news and listening to the shocked recount of the worker. Rini and Serena had however, progressed to pulling at Darien’s arms in some sort of tug-of-war. Darien’s expression was of one that said, “Somebody please shoot me”.

“Oi, Serena, you have to take a look at this!”

“Darien is mine, you little fungus!”

Lita sweatdrops, clearly, this was not the reply she was hoping for. After a few more seconds of the duo trying to pull poor Darien’s arms off, Serena and Rini look towards the TV.

“The Police Department have found the gem responsible, but as to what it is, they have no clue.” The news reporter on the TV begins.

“It appears to be some sort of gem. However ordinary it may appear, it emits some sort of electrical waves that has the ability to demagnetise machinery.

“It is believed that the television set that you are currently watching is or will be affected by this.

“The noise that you are seeing on the screen is also due to interference of the broadcast from the gem’s energy.

“This is the appearance of the troublesome gem.” The news reporter announces, holding a picture of a bright green emerald.

---Meanwhile, at the Skull Empire Citadel---

“No radiation has been detected around the area of the site.” The news reporter continues. “But just what made this bright green gem affect the machine?”

Praetor Nagash watches the report while smirking to himself.

“Scientists are currently working hard to discover what it is. Erika Asagiri for TV Asahi.” As the reporter finished her report, Nagash presses a button on his console to return the screen to its menu.

“Well well well, if it isn’t a Giga Emerald… so those ‘Guardians’ thought they could keep them from me,” he muses to himself before turning his chair to face Decoe and Bocoe, “My cards.”

“Here as ordered,” Decoe announces, bringing the tray with the cards towards Nagash.

“Which one will you choose?” asks Bocoe.

“Which will it be…” the evil warlord mutters to himself as he takes the deck of cards and flicks through them between his hands making viewing every one simple and smirks.

Thumbing through them, he slowly loses his smirk and frowns as he cannot decide which one to use. “Which shall I use today? This shall decide it.”

Getting up from his chair, he walks over to the computer console and uses the same process that he used to select Missile Wrist to choose the new Skull Bot. Taking the card the machine offered, he declares:

“Storm Eagle, the perfect choice.”

---Minutes later in another part of the Citadel---

Nagash walks towards the Skull Mobile but before he hopped in, he turns to see a pair of eyes glowing in the dark.

“I am ready as always, my Lord.” The figure states, simply.

The figure steps out from the shadows to reveal a humanoid eagle with great wings; a crooked beak to match with its piercing eyes; a turbine in place of a left arm and its feet are those of an eagle.

“Excellent.” Nagash decides, before climbing into the Skull Mobile and activates all the controls.

As the hangar bay door opens, a gust of wind blows throughout it as both Nagash and Storm Eagle fly out. Once away from the Citadel, Nagash begins to contemplate.

“Once I have the Giga Emerald, executing my next plan will be in order and then those Sailor Soldiers will not stand a chance.” he smirks before laughing aloud.

---Much later, Elsewhere---

Being the curious object that it is, the Giga Emerald has not been moved very far from the construction site that it was found. A large crowd has built up around the site since the news report and many people are looking on in curiosity. It has not been moved to a safer place because it would affect man-made security systems and so, is still available for viewing by the public.

Meanwhile, the news crew are still reporting live to the people watching at home as scientists onsite have been unearthing more and more about the particular properties of this gem and a few have taken small scrapings as sample to take back to the lab to analyse it further. The transformed Sailor Soldiers are watching this scene from afar, on the rooftop of a nearby scraper. Tuxedo Mask and Luna and Artemis, the two guardian cats are also with them.

“I don’t see why we have to even be here, Luna,” Sailor Moon complains. “What’s so important about this gem anyway? It’s brightgreen, not black, or really dark. It’s not like it’s a gem belonging to some evil creeps or something!”

“You are here because it is your duty. The news reporter spoke of strange things happening around the gem and we should find out what it is. To see whether it is merely ‘harmless’, that is, it is quite natural and it is possible by nature to make these things, if rare in number or ‘dangerous’. That is, to say that the presence and nature of such a gem can create disasters and chaos, to put it simply.” Luna rebukes.

“And you know, this ‘gem’, it reminds me of something. Something from long ago. I can’t remember if it is actually dangerous or something in passing. I just don’t remember, and Luna probably, doesn’t either.” Artemis adds.

“That’s what you always say.” The Sailor Soldiers choruses, annoyed.

“Why are your memories so patchy, anyway? Whenever something important happens, you guys always say it rings a bell but you can’t quite place it.” Mars fumes.

“It was Queen Serenity’s decision to do so. No doubt she knew best, as we’ve told you before.” Luna repeats, from memory.

“Whatever.” Raye interjects, very much annoyed.

Nagash and Storm Eagle, meanwhile, have also arrived at the scene. They are both hovering/flying in the air, just high enough so that the crowd below do not notice them, but also just low enough so that the Sailor Soldiers do not notice them below. And to Nagash and Storm Eagle, the Sailor Soldiers on top of the skyscraper are just mere specks. Looking down, Nagash gazes at the Giga Emerald, currently in the hands of a faceless scientist.

“Such a beautiful and powerful gem, and most worthy of my cause. Taking it away from the insignificant humans below will be very easy. Almost like taking candy from an infant.”

Before he made his move, however, he senses that something is amiss, not quite the perfect situation he had surmised earlier. Looking towards his left, he sees several figures on the rooftop of a nearby building, piquing his interest.

“Hmm… who are they?” he asks, to nobody in particular. Pressing the side of his mask to magnify the view, he sees the Sailor Soldiers and Tuxedo Mask at 150 magnification.

“Them, again? When will they give up?” Nagash growls, he slamming his fists down on the console, never having quickly regained his composure, he orders: “Storm Eagle, blow them away.”

“Affirmative, my Lord.” Storm Eagle acknowledges as he changes his course.

‘With them out of my way, I can now begin Stage Two of my foolproof plan,’ Nagash thinks.

Storm Eagle, being the obedient Skull Bot, flies up towards the roof of the said building and towards the distant figures, which get closer and closer by the second. The ‘older’ Sailor Soldiers are still complaining about why they have to do this, as Mini-Moon notices something below, flying towards them.

“Aw, look, it’s a big birdie!”

“What?” The Soldiers exclaim, puzzled.

“Kyaaaaaa!” Mini-Moon cries, as she notices that the bird is not just a ‘birdie’. Scrambling back, she falls down on her rear end.

“That’s no bird, watch out, Mini-Moon!”

Having reached his destination, Storm Eagle breaks his flight abruptly, sending gales of wind in every which direction. He perches on the edge of the roof, in plain view of the Sailor Soldiers and their allies, and directly before the shocked Mini-Moon.

“I’m not a ‘birdie’. Nor any bird. I am… the Storm Eagle,” he states in a monotone. “For this insult, and for the Praetor, I will annihilate you.”

Crossing his arms, he flaps his great winds and creates even greater gusts of wind to blow the Sailor Soldiers away. Screaming as they lose their footing, all of them try desperately to cling onto something, preferably a solid something. Sensing his allies’ distress, Tuxedo Mask decides to try something. Bracing himself and using momentum to direct himself, he breaks free from the windy stranglehold and propels himself towards Storm Eagle, and in a ready stance for attack. Sensing a potential threat, Storm Eagle raises his left turbine arm and brings forth a small-scale tornado and releases it in Tuxedo Mask’s direction. Being in mid-air and therefore with no way to change his direction, Tuxedo Mask, takes the hit and is blown off the roof.

“No, Tuxedo Mask!” Sailor Moon cries in distress.

“We have to do something!” Jupiter says, her voice rising above the gales.

“But what? We can’t hold on forever!” Mars says.

“Huh? The wind dropped?” Venus pipes up, confused.

True, after the potential Tuxedo Mask threat, Storm Eagle decided that he would stop playing around and get serious. Folding back his wings, he lets the winds calm. As he sees the Sailor Soldiers starting to steady on their feet once more, he flies high sharply, away from the Soldiers’ reach, for a moment. Then again, he flies down sharply, towards the Sailor Soldiers.

“He’s coming this way!” Venus frets.

“He’s going too fast, I can’t get sufficient data on him to analyse his weak points! And with his speed, I can’t guarantee that you will all be able to cover me while I whittle at it!” Mercury cries.

“Then, we’ll just have to work together.” Mars declares. “Sailor Moon, Mercury, together with me, please!”

“STARDUST STREAM HIT!”

Seeing a stream of fire and ice, Eagle Storm releases several eggs in mid-flight. These soon hatch into metal pigeon-like creatures. The stardust stream takes out quite a few, but not all of them. The remaining fly down hard, ready for assault.

“What are those things?” Jupiter queries.

“I… I don’t know. I’ll try to analyse them, but I’m not sure I can. From our previous battles, I have compiled quite a database, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough.” Mercury identifies.

“It took the three of us (Mercury, Mars, Moon) to destroy half of it or so… but there’s still more coming!” Sailor Moon panics.

“Jupiter, how about the two of us?” Venus decides.

Glancing at each other, they nod. “CRESCENT THUNDER!”

“Yes! We did it! No more of those bird projectiles!” Jupiter cheers.

Storm Eagle surveys the scene from above, not very happy. Diving once more, he seeks to knock the Soldiers off the roof, if possible and necessary. As the wreckage of the metal pigeon-like missile creatures fall onto the rooftop, Mercury, curious, picks up the remains of one. Even though it is quite unsafe to do so at the moment, she takes ‘cover’, if one could call it that, in a corner and starts to analyse the inner workings of this piece of technology.

“Wow… I’ve never seen anything like this. Such intricacy and complexity… this is a work of art. Yet, it’s being used for war…” she muses to herself.

“Sailor Mini-Moon, watch out!” The other Soldiers warn.

“Wha?” Mini-Moon wonders, before turning around to be again greeted with the sight of Storm Eagle, up close. However, this time, she is not quite so lucky. The sheer velocity generated from Storm Eagle blows her off the roof.

“Sailor Mini-Moon!” Sailor Moon shrieks. Running to the edge of the roof, she hops over it and prepares to abseil-like down the side of the scraper.

“What are you doing?” Mars demands.

“I’m going after Sailor Mini-Moon. She may be hurt!”

“But-but-”

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about that freaky bird, OK? Good luck!” And with that, she scales down.

“Thanks.” Mars responds, softly.

---

Taking advantage of the distract Storm Eagle caused; Nagash floats down to the construction site to collect his prize – the first of seven Giga Emeralds. As the people below notice Nagash overhead, they scatter and run in fear for their lives. The scientists currently holding the emerald also run away in fear, but not before dropping the bright green gem into the soft dirt.

“I see my reputation precedes me.” Nagash smirks, thoroughly amused at how easy this was going to be.

Seeing the emerald in the soft dirt, he picks it up gently and frees it from all the grit, causing it to shine brightly. Holding it up to the few remaining wisps of light, for it was nearly sunset by this point, he admires its gentle glow.

“Simply beautiful, and perfect.”

---

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Mini-Moon screams as she falls from the rooftop. ‘Don’t think of the ground; don’t think of the ground; don’t think of the ground!’ Closing her eyes, she chants in her head softly, like a mantra, to reassure herself.

And… all of a sudden, she stops falling and lands in a familiar warmth. She opens her eyes, in confusion. Looking up, she notes the familiar touch, the familiar outfit… and the familiar mask and top hat. Her eyes water in gratitude.

“Tuxedo Mask! You saved me!” She hugs him tight.

“Got here just in time, didn’t I?” Tuxedo Mask smiles, and Mini-Moon smiles back.

From her current position, it’s clear that somebody has caught Mini-Moon and she is safe from harm. Sailor Moon’s heart swells in relief. Even before she hits the ground, she runs towards her future daughter.

“Thank goodness, you’re all right, Mini-Moon! We’re lucky that someone caught you before you fel—” She cuts off suddenly, noticing for the first time who Sailor Mini-Moon’s saviour is. “Oh my God! Tuxedo Mask! You’re ok, after all? And you saved Sailor Mini-Moon too!” She says in a rush, before pausing to take a breath. “I LOVE YOU!” And she too, runs towards him to give him a hug.

“Shouldn’t we be going after the emerald? It’s clear that Nagash wants it, no doubt for his evil purposes, and therefore, we should get it from him before he can escape with it.” Tuxedo Mask suggests.

“Already on it!” Mini-Moon hops out of his arms and runs towards Nagash’s direction.

“And we should follow her, just in case, right, Tuxedo Mask?’

”Right.”

---

“And it’s all mine.” Nagash smirks.

But before he can stow it away however, small hands coming out of nowhere snatch the emerald away from his own hands.

“What the—!” He curses.

Some distance away, Sailor Mini-Moon holds the bright green gem in her own hands.

“Wow… the gem’s so pretty. Just like green fire. And now it’s all mine!” She giggles. And in the next instant, it disappears from her grasp. “HEY!”

“Yours, did you say?” Nagash smirks evilly in Mini-Moon’s direction (she’s pouting). Taunting her further, he throws it up into the air a little and catches it before throwing it into the air again. “I think not, this Giga Emerald belongs to me, just like the other six of its kind. Not to some puny human like you.”

“Puny, am I?” Sailor Mini-Moon pouts even further. “I’ll show you.”

And with that, she aims a –

“PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK!”

– in Nagash’s direction as he is climbing back up into the Skull Mobile.

“You call that an attack? Pathetic!” He taunts, ready to fly away back to the Citadel. However, during his taunts, he did not notice that Mini-Moon was nowhere to be seen after her attack and had climbed up onto the Skull Mobile just after he did.

“Give that back! It’s not yours!”

“Make me.”

“It’s mine! MINE!”

“Whose?”

Nagash begins to ascend the Skull Mobile, making Mini-Moon slip and having to grab the spike at the bottom. Seconds later she is lifted off the ground and slowly getting higher and higher, all the while still demanding that Nagash give her back her ‘pretty gem’.

---

“What! More of those pigeon creatures!” Sailor Mars puffs, a little exhausted.

“Soldiers, I’ve finished analysing the remains of the first lot of pigeon-creatures. They are similar to homing missiles, if you haven’t noticed already. During my analysis, I discovered how the homing signal works. It’s part electrical, part something else – I’ll have to discover what later. Some sort of unidentified metal, I think. Nevertheless, the signal emitted and source is on a similar but not identical wavelength. If we were to somehow disrupt this, we would be able to re-program, if you like, this frequency, we would be able to redirect his attacks back at him!” Mercury says, excitedly.

“Great, but how do we do that?”

“I don’t know what the metal is, but I have certified that it is a metal of some sort. And metal means free electrons. This means that we can use electricity to disrupt the cells and furthermore, we can also cause them to short-circuit slightly.”

“Wouldn’t we need an exact amount of electricity or something?”

“Yes, we would. I’m so happy – you guys were actually studying during that time!”

“Oh, be quiet, you.”

“I’ve already figured out how much electricity is needed, give or take a few thousand volts…”

“A few thousand!”

“It’s the best variable I could come up with, working with the unknowns, and it’s the best chance we have at defeating this thing!”

“Let’s do this, Mercury. How much electricity do you need?” Lita butts in.

“Give or take a few thousand volts, I’ll lessen the odds hopefully, if I throw in water. Ready, Jupiter?”

“Ready.”

“SHABON THUNDER!”

“I think it’s working!” Venus claims.

The last onslaught of metal pigeons start to short-circuit a little and crackling energy can be seen on the outside. As the pigeons show no sign of changing velocity, Mercury panics.

“Oh no… I was wrong…”

“Wait…”

But just before they connect with the Sailor Soldiers (and cats), they swerve suddenly and change their course. Return to Sender. Back to their source. Upon connecting with Storm Eagle, they explode and the burnt frame of the once proud Storm Eagle falls off the side of the skyscraper before imploding, fortunately, out of anybody’s vicinity.

“We did it!”

“You were right, Mercury!” Venus cheers.

“Thank goodness…”

---

Nagash is sitting in the Skull Mobile with one hand on a control stick of the main console and in the other, he holds the green glowing Emerald, in a clenched so he could concentrate on flying the one-man craft. He did not notice the future heir of Crystal Tokyo slowly climbing up the side of the craft.

“Oh, it’s you. Don’t you ever cease? Can’t you accept the fact that you’ve already lost the Emerald to me, runt?”

Severely annoyed and strained at this point, Nagash rocks the Skull Mobile violently in an attempt to knock Mini-Moon off of it. Unfortunately for him, after rocking the craft from side to side for a while, it helped Mini-Moon to climb onto a wing. His eyes almost glowing red, he waves the arm, with the gem, trying to physically knock Mini-Moon off instead. Sensing his intent, Mini-Moon hurriedly grabs something else more solid, hopefully, so she wouldn’t have to fall down (again). The closest thing she could grab a hold of however, was Nagash’s pride and joy – his long, platinum blonde hair.

“You little runt! Let go of my hair!”

“Give me that gem, and I will!”

“Let. Go!”

During the Nagash’s struggle of trying to get Sailor Mini Moon to remove her tight grip off his long platinum blonde hair, the evil warlord failed to notice that he had accidentally passed the Giga Emerald into Mini-Moon’s hands while pushing her off his hair.

“No waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” Sailor Mini Moon shrieks in surprise as she lets go and freefalls towards the ground.

“My most notable feature just stretched, but I’m just fine.” Nagash grumbles to himself as he massages the area of his scalp belonging to the hair that was grabbed. Running his hand through his hair, he notices that his hands were empty, “AH, my Emerald!”

---

“Falling out of the sky again, are we?”

“Ah-hah…no, actually. Look what I got!” Mini-Moon giggles as she once again lands in Tuxedo Mask’s arms, and thrusts the bright green, glowing Giga Emerald in his face.

“Congratulations. Come on, the others are waiting. But first, let’s hide.”

Placing Sailor Mini-Moon on her feet once more, the two run into an alley and hide from Nagash, who has flown down in the meantime in pursuit of the green gem.

“Shhh!” Tuxedo Mask shushes Mini-Moon.

“Hmm…” Nagash ponders as he looks towards the alleyway that the father and daughter team are currently hiding in. Checking it thoroughly from his vantage point, and his search coming up fruitless, he turns and leaves for the Citadel, very much disappointed.

---Early Evening, Darien’s Apartment---

“Lookie here!” Rini states, proudly, as she holds up the bright green gem, its fire glowing. Giggling, she holds it higher, but then the soft fire within turns into a small tempest surrounding her.

“Rini!” Serena exclaims, panicking. The others join her in anxiety.

“It’s OK, I’m not hurt. But… Darien, I think it broke your TV.”

The battle, having finished, the Sailor Soldiers are back to their regular selves and are congregating at Darien’s apartment, as they were, before this whole fiasco started. From their viewpoint, the green fire had enveloped Rini before snaking out and blasting the TV set.

“I’m sorry. I…it won’t do it again.”

“’It’?” The others ask her, very much puzzled.

“I meant the gem. I didn’t want to blow the TV up, but it told me it didn’t like the TV, so it blew it up.” Rini clarifies.

“So, what you’re saying is, that all those electrical faults – it doesn’t like the machinery, so it just destroyed them in some way?” Lita asks, mystified.

“Uh-huh.” Rini nods.

“A talking gem… that’s beyond weird.” Mina comments.

“I wonder why Nagash wanted it so badly?” Amy wonders.

“No clue. However, that freaky blonde guy say that my pretty gem was a Giga Emerald and there are six more others like it. He didn’t say much more than that.” Rini shrugs, indifferent.

“So, Luna, Artemis. Any of this making more sense?” Serena asks the two cats.

“No, I can’t remember any like this at all… however, if there’s six more like it, and this one on its own was this much problem, I think it’s safe to say that these are ‘dangerous’, not ‘harmless’, as we had earlier thought.” Luna responds.

“I agree. I think I’d also hazard to say that if Nagash was allowed to get his hands on this, or any of the other six, we won’t be able to stop him. Amy, you should analyse this as much as you can. If possible, I’d like to you, in conjunction with Luna and myself, to create a device of some sort to track these things down, so that we can protect them from Nagash.” Artemis suggests.

“Yes, I agree wholeheartedly.” Amy agrees.

“Let’s get to work then. Onwards ho!” Serena calls out, with an arm in the air as encouragement.

---()---

Please review me your thoughts on this latest chapter, while that happens I'll get the next chapter up.