(AN: Just a short note to warn folks, I'm going with the original version of the Four Kings, meaning all four of them are male, and there will be some homosexual themes going on there. You have been warned.)

It had been almost a week since the Scouts had tangled with the two Youkai, and already Artemis' new training regimen was starting to tire them out. Minako had groaned pitifully, asking for a break after he'd had them doing laps, only to have her adviser look her in the eye and ask her in a saccharine voice if she thought the Youkai would lay down and let themselves be destroyed if she batted her eyelashes at them. Makoto was doing better than the others due to her training in the martial arts, but even she was starting to feel the burn. The cat had even scouted out several locations for them to practice their powers in secret, to gain a better grasp of what they could and could not do with their magic, and improve their control of their current abilities.

Rei had been staring intently into the Sacred Flame for a few hours every night, but so far all she'd seen was the same image. A pack of wild dogs baying for blood as they attacked vague dark shadows even as their numbers blurred; making it impossible to count how many there actually were, while fleeting great shapes hung in the background, just out of sight. She felt no malevolence from them, either the dogs or the shapes, but the dark shadows were immeasurably evil. And in the end the visions always culminated in the same way, a pair of eyes; wild, calculating, and yet somehow reassuring; looking at her. She couldn't see the face of whoever they belonged too, merely the eyes, and the flames did nothing to reveal their color to her. She'd questioned her grandfather about it, but the old man had no answers except "I believe that it will be reveled in good time Rei. You must have patience."

Artemis on the other hand, had smiled like she'd just handed him the keys to a dairy. "I'd say that might be a good sign that those boys from earlier were on our side then," the cat had said, before turning his attention back to planning out the next training session with Ami over their communicators. Luna had merely huffed and returned to perusing the local news channels for any sort of story on these boys, whom the media had dubbed the "Dogs of War" due to their weapons and the canine theme that both sported. Apparently some tourist with more bravery than intelligence had hidden and caught a few pictures with their camera. Rei sighed as she shifted to keep her legs from falling asleep, thinking about what her friends were doing right now as she closed her eyes to relax them after staring into the flames for so long.

Minako and Usagi were out doing patrols in their civilian clothes (at least that was what Rei hoped they were doing, though odds were that they'd turned it into a shopping trip by now), Makoto was resting at home after nearly working herself to exhaustion, and Ami...

Ami Mizuno was running for her life. She'd been forced to take a shortcut through a slightly rougher part of the district to get home from the library, due to a traffic accident that had blocked her normal route. Unfortunately, while the Sailor Scouts had done a bang-up job of cleaning up the youma population, they hadn't done much to negate the numbers of hoodlums and punks that populated the back alleys. If anything, the fear of a youma attack had made their lives easier, because people were that much easier to scare into submission. Which in turn, had led to an upswing in the gang numbers, which led right to her current predicament.

"Come on honey, we're not gonna hurt ya!"

"Yeah babe, we just wanna talk a little!"

"You look smart, and we need someone to help us with our anatomy homework!"

Ami shivered at that last lewd comment, even as the three boys that were chasing her cackled. She turned another corner, hoping to get away, only to crash into someone that was only slightly taller than she was. The teen let out a harsh woosh of breath even as he caught Ami by her shoulders to steady her, somehow managing to keep his balance. Gentle green eyes contemplated the rather cute package that had just practically shoved itself into his arms.

"Hey there, what's the rush?" Ami was too preoccupied with looking over her shoulder in fear to take note of the boy's features, her face paling as one of her pursuers gave a loud whoop. Now the eyes narrowed as gentle hands quickly maneuvered Ami around him so she was facing down the expanse of the alley. "I see. Get going, I'll stall them."

Ami, in a rare fit of panicked fear, took off without a second glance at the boy who had promised to help her, intent on making to her and her mother's apartment in record time. The eyes studied her fleeting form for a moment, a look halfway between recognition and simple male appreciation of a fine female form lighting them, before a lewd comment hardened them from a gentle leaf green to dark emerald. He turned, hands disappearing into wide sleeves, coming out full of paper-covered spheres. Fingers snapped, a small ring of dull flint on either thumb scrapping against a rough sandpaper ring on his pointer fingers, causing sparks to flare. Elfin features curled into a wicked smile as the first thug rounded the corner, just in time to see some kid in a red hoodie throw a handful of hissing globes at his feet, right before his world exploded in clouds of choking smoke and blistering heat. His two buddies skidded to a stop as they caught up with their leader, who was now curled in a ball, smoke rising from his clothes as he pawed at his eyes. Looking around, they couldn't spot the girl they'd been chasing, nor whomever had done this to their boss.

In the shadows of the fire escape above them, a ghostly set of chuckles hung in the air for a moment, before dancing away on the wind.

Several blocks away, in a bunker underneath a junkyard...

"So what's the explanation behind this? You guys whip it up with your magical beast powers or something?" Daniel was currently looking around a snug little concrete room that appeared to be in excellent condition. It was part of a suite of rooms that extended under the junkyard, including a fairly large space that looked like it might have been a garage in the past. Fenrir shot his charge an odd look.

"Hardly, this was a shelter that the rather far-sighted (or paranoid, take your pick) master of the house that used to stand on the lot above us constructed during the end of World War Two. Luckily the utility companies never needed to go through this space laying cables or pipes, and the subway doesn't run through or beneath here either, though it came very close. So it's not on any of the current maps the city possess of underground facilities."

"Which means it's a perfect place for us to set up in as a training facility and base of operations."

"Precisely," Ramses cut in, dusting off his pants as he and Anubis entered the room. "With a few minute modifications we should be able to convert this space to our needs quite nicely."

"What about power and running water? I don't exactly have the bank lying around to pay for the bills this place will generate when put into constant use."

"Whoever last used this bunker was quite a cunning individual, they apparently tied into the city's main power and water lines in a very discrete manner. There are even jacks set up for telephone lines. No tv though. And due to the setup the taxpayers are paying our utility bills for us."

"We'll call it a payment for services rendered as protectors of the peace," Anubis put in, scratching himself behind the ear as he sat on his haunches, "And believe me, when the excrement really hits the fan you'll be thinking they owe you quite a bit more. The Youkai are going to be getting both more powerful, and more intelligent as our own forces build themselves up. The big question is..."

"Whether they're going to match our learning curve, or overpower it," Daniel finished grimly. Anubis nodded. Ramses spoke up again.

"There is a bit of good news though. I've been going through the media archives in my spare time, and it looks like one or two of those Four Kings have already been taken out of the picture. It may be minor if everything you said about those fallen Lords is true, but it's still an advantage."

"And how the hell did you get access to the archives, from what I hear that kind of stuff is hard to get into."

"I managed to use some contacts of my father's in the news industry." Daniel raised one eyebrow as he looked over at his fellow Youkai fighter.

"By the way, what does your dad do anyway? I mean you already know about me and my mom's situation." Ramses nodded.

"Fair is fair. My father is the head of the promotions department for a Japanese branch of an extensive textile company that is based out of Egypt. After my mother died he needed to get away from all the memories associated with our home, so he asked for a transfer. He buried himself in his work and doesn't really surface very often, though he tries to keep informed of what's going on in my life. And here we are. On a side note, I learned Japanese fairly easily when we got here, a trait that I was informed was a carry-over from my latent powers as an Elemental Lord. Apparently we have the "Gift of Tongues"."

"Meaning... what?"

"Since our duties required us to traverse vast reaches of the planet and enter countries that we might not be familiar with, all of the Lords are able to quickly master any local language to an extent that enables us to carry out our duties in that place."

"Well I grew up speaking Japanese just as much as English, so I didn't notice a difference. Just the usual cold shoulder for being a gaijin, even if I am half Japanese." Ramses shrugged as he pulled out a small notebook and began to mark things down that they'd need for their base.

"It's the nature of the beast my friend. And speaking of beasts," he snapped the notebook closed and headed for the smaller of the two exits, which was concealed under the hood of half of a gutted out old truck, "have you seen what the papers have started calling us?"

Daniel grunted as he shoved the hood up, taking a quick look around to make sure he was unobserved before hopping out. "Yeah, the Dogs of War. Funny huh, that they'd stumble on part of our armor's activation phrase simply trying to give us a sensational name." Anubis followed close after him, shaking a bit of dust from his short coat.

"Personally I'm more worried about what they're saying beyond the headlines. There's a fierce debate about whether we should be captured and tried for violating the laws against carrying weapons and endangering public safety followed by a swift sentencing and jail time; a hands-off policy similar to what seems to be employed by the police when it comes to the Sailor Scouts, or if we should be offered official support, since the report on our battlefield they put together apparently points to us being much less inclined to collateral damage then the Scouts are."

"Now that is worrying. I don't like the idea of getting politicians and the police involved in this mess. It's bad enough that civilians get caught in the crossfire, but when you have well, and not-so-well, meaning official parties trying to stick their oar in too..." Fenrir shook himself, wincing at the thought of the potential messes. He blinked as he emerged into the sunlight behind the other three, before sitting down. "Well, right now all we can do is train, prep the base, and keep to the shadows. And we're going to have to stagger patrols, until we get another Lord or two there's just too few of us to risk on patrolling every night."

Daniel looked at his Adviser. "So randomized patrol routes and times, I get that, but what about if we need to contact each other in case of a threat in the area when we're not patrolling?" Fenrir gave a doggish grin.

"I was wondering when that was going to come up. Anubis, I believe the Lords are in need of their communicators." Anubis nodded, going over to stand facing Fenrir. For a moment, there was absolute stillness, and then... They began to howl. Daniel felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as Fenrir sang the song of the hunters of the North, the sound that had come to represent all that was wild and free and untamed to most of North America. Then Anubis joined in, his tone lighter, yips and cackles that seemed to tease Fenrir for being so serious, while holding a barely veiled deadly edge to them. As the two finished their duet, a small rift opened in the air between them, two small glinting objects falling out.

"These gems," Anubis panted, "use the mystical energies in your bracers to transmit sound and images. Merely place them on your bracers to install them." Daniel picked up the sapphire, which was about a quarter of the size of his pinky nail, and looked at the bracer on his arm. A close inspection revealed that the wolf's eye socket was empty, and seemed to be the right size. Rhamses' was a piece of obsidian three times the size as Daniel's sapphire, that easily fit into the center of the design of his own bracer, which was bronze with a large depiction of the Eye of Osiris. There was a small flash of light as the gems merged with the bracers, and once it cleared it looked like they'd been set by professional jewelers.

Daniel tapped his a few times, before frowning and shaking his arm up and down. "Activate already!" he growled at the gem. The wolf's eye seemed to twinkle a little, as if laughing at its master reborn. The effect was enhanced by the chuckles that his little performance were getting from his audience. "Alright guys, you've had your yuks. Care to explain how these rocks work?"

Fenrir shook his head. "So impatient... Daniel, how did you get the armor to revert to bracer form in the first place?" Daniel looked at him for a moment, before a look of comprehension lit up his face.

"I willed it. So these things are controlled mentally?"

"That's right. To use them, simply focus on the gem and issue mental commands, such as "transmit" if you want to send a message to everyone, "transmit to" followed by the name, either in or out of uniform, of the person you wish to speak with, "receive transmission', "record", "play recording" and "mute" are all fairly self-explanatory. I'm sure that given time you'll find functions that I've forgotten about, but those are the main ones."

"So let's test 'em out." Daniel looked at the gem. 'Transmit to Jackal,' he thought. A moment later the gem glowed blue, and projected a five by five inch screen of energy into the air above it. At the same time, Ramses looked at his own bracer.

"It's vibrating. Feels kinda weird."

"Makes sense though, wouldn't want to alert a potential enemy that you're there because of your arm ringing." Ramses nodded at his compatriot's logic.

"Indeed." He raised the bracer to about chest level and concentrated on it for a moment. A second later he had a viewscreen with similar dimensions to Daniel's hovering in a bit from his face. He raised one brow as he looked at Daniel through the screen. "Impressive." Daniel's grin was infectious.

"I think my inner geek just died of happiness."

Fenrir chuckled a little, before adding, "We'll be able to contact you through the gems as well, but only for emergencies and it's a one-way line. All the Advisers are able to put out a specialized sound-wave that any of the gems can pick up, but it's only good for short messages, no more than a phrase or single sentence."

"Why is it only one-way communication?"

"We're not physically capable of hearing the sound, or translating it properly into a message. Our inherent abilities can only do so much. There was technology that would allow us to use them at will for two-way communication, but I haven't seen anything that comes close to being advanced enough to take its place yet."

Daniel shrugged. "Well, at least this beats my idea of trying to scrounge some long-distance two-way radios."

A few days later found the two boys patrolling the entertainment and shopping district. Both boys stalked through the crowds in their "civvies", with Anubis and Fenrir acting point. The dogs had overheard someone gushing about how a fortune teller's booth that had just opened up was "too good to be true" while out on recon. They'd agreed, especially when Fenrir had done some sniffing around the hospital on a hunch and found a rather chatty janitor on a smoke break who'd shared his opinion about "all them poor outta-town folks who've been showing up in comas". A little more investigating of the shop itself had had the hackles on Anubis rising from what he'd described as "an insidious presence, like a wraith of poisonous fog, though not all that powerful". The boys had been occupied with refurbishing their operation center while this was going on with training thrown in where they could manage it, but the dogs had kept them in the loop the entire time, while also noting that there seemed to be a slight increase in Sailor Scout sightings.

'Nothing out of the ordinary so far,' Ramses thought to himself as he and Anubis completed another circuit of their quadrant (he'd started picking up more and more military terms as he trained with Daniel), 'Just the usual groups of girls looking for love charms and idiots looking to impress said girls with their "manly" attitudes.' And failing miserably he noted, as he watched a blond with waist-length hair maneuver out from between a couple of thugs. Then one of them lashed out, grabbing her by the arm. "And the rules just changed," he growled under his breath. He strode over just in time to watch the blond firecracker slap the thug across the face, only to be tossed into the grasp of his crony as he clutched his cheek.

"You little bitch! I'll teach you some manners!" He swung back, but found his wrist locked in a painful grip when he tried to swing forward.

"I think the one who needs the lesson would be you, friend," Ramses said coolly, tippling the sunglasses he was wearing down his nose just enough to give the hoodlum the full effect of his glare. Beside him, Anubis bared very white, very sharp teeth at the other thug. "Let her go, now." Ramses ordered. The thug snorted, shifting so the girl was between him and the dog.

"Or what?" There was a sudden crack, and the teen's eyes rolled up into his head as he let go of the blond, slumping to the ground in a boneless heap.

"Or I do that," Daniel said brightly, rubbing his knuckles where he'd bruised them on the other teen's thick skull. Fenrir began to menace the immobilized thug from one side, as Anubis slunk to and fro in front of him, teeth bared, hackles up, and eyes nearly feral. A quick jerk had the jerk off balance, and Ramses shoved him over to his unconscious friend, clamping down on a smirk as the older teen stumbled to avoid Anubis' snapping jaws. "I'd take your friend and go reflect on how important manners are when dealing with a lady." His congenial tone was laced with steel, and the thug followed the veiled order, hoisting his friend up by his armpits, and dragging him away. Looking around, Daniel realized that they'd drawn a small crowd of rubber-neckers.

"Nothing to see here folks, just a discussion on manners that got a little heated! Move along please, have a nice day, thank you!"

As his friend played distraction, Ramses saw to the near-victim. "Are you alright miss..." The blond seemed to snap out of a daze, before smiling brightly.

"Oh, I'm Minako, Minako Aino."

Ramses nodded. "I'm Ramses, and my friend there playing traffic cop is Daniel." He had a very nice voice, low and a little mysterious almost, she giggled internally, and the reflective sunglasses added to that aspect. She realized after a second that he'd taken her hand in an effort to steady her, and couldn't help but notice that it felt very nice to have his large, rough hand engulfing her own smaller hand in warmth. And then her nice little hormonal daze was shattered by Usagi's rather... piercing voice.

"MINAKO!" Usagi ran up next to her friend, nearly flattening the black dog before it managed to skip back out of the way, ears down, but not growling or baring his teeth. Usagi leaned against what she thought was a wall for a second, trying to catch her breath, before an amused cough brought her attention to the "wall"; which was in fact, Daniel's rather solid chest. She flushed bright red and leapt back, then began bowing continuously. "Eeep! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm soooooo sorry!"

Daniel merely smiled widely. "Well, I guess when that ad said I'd get rock-hard abs, it wasn't exaggerating."

"Hey Minako, who're your friends?" This came from a tall, rather leggy brunette with some rather impressive... attributes. She was accompanied by a shorter girl with waist-length black hair, who was giving the two boys suspicious looks.

"Mina, are these two guys bothering you?"

Minako smiled. "No Rei, actually they just helped me with a couple of jerks who wouldn't take no for an answer." The other girl, Rei, looked mollified by the answer, though not entirely trusting. Daniel gave her an appraising once-over.

"Rei huh?" Her gaze locked onto him like a laser-sight.

"Yeah, what about it?" she snapped. He held out his hands in a calming gesture.

"Nothing, I was just gonna say that you were appropriately named, you've certainly got plenty of spirit." Rei actually blushed for a moment at the offhand compliment, before regaining control of herself. The other girl started laughing.

"What's so funny Makoto?"

"It's just that he said you were "spirited", and you're training as a miko!"

One of Daniel's eyebrows shot up. "A priestess huh. guess I spoke truer than I knew." For a second he had a flash of deja-vu, but a shake of the head had it dissipating back into the ether. Rei seemed to be a little detached herself; but when she seemed about to speak, the high, terrified scream of a girl hit their ears. It was coming from the direction of the fortune shop.

"That's Naru!" Usagi exclaimed. Daniel and Ramses exchanged glances. No time to find a place to transform; they'd have to play this one by ear. They took off at a dead run, Daniel snatching up a heavy cane from a sidewalk vendor, tossing a random large bill down as he passed., shouting "Keep the change!" over his shoulder.

The two boys burst into the shop to find a brown-haired girl who'd been knocked to the ground and was now in the grip of what seemed to be uncontrollable terror. Her attacker was a fortune-teller themed youma, with crystal balls serving as breasts, and a short dress that seemed to be made of swathes of silk decorated with tarot cards and astrological symbols, while the body itself appeared to be made out of some sort of dark gemstone. Daniel took in its appearance with a glance, even as he interposed himself between the monster and its intended victim. "Back off ugly, this one doesn't feel like getting her palm eaten after you read it!" He brandished the can like a sword, his stance coiled and ready for action. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a bespectacled boy slumped against the counter. "Ramses, get them the hell out of here! I'll hold this bitch off."

The youma appeared to take offense at being called first ugly, and then a bitch. "Crystal beam!" she shrieked. Twin blasts of light erupted from its chest, and the only thing that Daniel could think was 'I've heard of flashing, but this is fucking ridiculous!', right before they impacted, sending him flying; trailing curses that would have made a drunken sailor blush. After the past bit of training with Ramses, Anubis and Fenrir, he'd gotten rather good at timing his impact point, and now he closed his eyes and began to count down in his head till the real pain hit. 'And a three, and a two...'

"OMPH!"

His thought process halted. 'Waitta minute, "omph"? Where's the pain?' He cracked one eye open to find himself in the grip of a rather incensed looking Sailor Mars. "Well, my day's suddenly looking up, how about yours?" he cracked. In response she dropped him to the ground like a sack of hammers. "Ow! So much for being a warrior for love," he muttered as he looked down at the ground, rubbing his head.

"You idiot, do you have any idea what that thing is capable of?!"

"You mean besides the general energy-sucking nastyness that's par for the course with these things? I found out the hard way that she likes to flash people. And it wasn't in a good way either." He turned his head just in time to see a cloud of razor edged tarot cards coming at him, and by extension Sailor Mars. "Oh goody, she decided she wants to follow me home. MOVE!" Instead of hightailing it, she took a stance and began to chant some sort of mantra (or was it a sutra?) under her breath, before releasing a blast of flames along with the shout of "FIRE SOUL!" A moment later and the cards were ash on the wind. Daniel palmed his face.

"Right, fire elemental attacks make paper weapons pretty much useless, forgot about that." She crossed her arms and glared at him. "Hey, what's with the look, I was just trying to help somebody!"

"Well you should leave it to the people who know what they're doing." Daniel's eyes narrowed as he got in Mars' face. Behind him the monster prepared to attack again, but was interrupted by Ramses smashing a case of good luck charms over its head from behind, following it up with a bludgeoning from the cane that Daniel had dropped during his impromptu flight. it tried to retaliate, only to receive a jump-kick to the face from Venus, who'd gotten to the scene directly after Mars. Trying to get back its bearings, the youma found itself on the wrong end of a spare crystal ball to the face courtesy of Ramses, who followed it up with a leg sweep, before backing away and gathering the unconcious boy up into a single-man fireman's carry.

"Listen, just because someone doesn't have powers like you doesn't mean they aren't perfectly capable of helping out!" The two were so focused on their argument that they didn't even notice the other three Scouts arrival and attacking the monster, while Ramses had managed to get the boy out of the store, the girl, Neru, hot on his heels. Mars was poking him in the chest as she berated him for taking stupid risks, while he countered by looming and crossing his arms, shooting down her arguments about "leaving it to the professionals" with heated retorts along the lines of "and how many amateurs have ended up saving lives when the professionals were stuck in traffic?". Neither one of them even noticed the explosion that the monster's destruction kicked up after Sailor Moon used her tiara after the other three had worn it down. Daniel was winding up his loudest rant yet when Ramses tapped him on the shoulder. "WHAT!?" he spun to face his friend. Ramses jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the scorch mark on the pavement.

"Monster's gone, Mars has to leave before the reporters get here. I'm sure you two will be able to find some time to play later." Daniel's face heated as he realized exactly how involved the argument with Mars had gotten, though his complexion hid it. Unfortunately for Mars, she was more than a little lighter, so her flush of embarrassment was much more easily seen. Daniel scratched the back of his head, and gave a sheepish grin.

"Well, I feel stupid now." Ramses raised one eyebrow.

"As opposed to the rest of the when you feel... what?"

Daniel looked hurt. "Now that was mean. Don't you girls think that he was-" he turned to find that the Scouts had vanished. "Right then." He turned back to see that Ramses was giving him a Look. "What?"

"You got distracted. Not only you, but her as well." His teammate's voice was flat, accusatory. "What would have happened if I hadn't been here?"

"I would have been forced to step in," Fenrir snapped as he slunk up to the two. They'd made their way away from the scene at a casual saunter, before ducking down a sidestreet that was deserted, allowing the advisers to speak with them. "I doubt it would have gotten as far as you seem to think Jackal, but you do raise a good point." The wolf turned his amber gaze on Daniel. "It's imperative that you maintain awareness of your surroundings at all times, even when confronted by something, or someone that can get under your skin like Mars just did. We will count what happened today as a lesson, but don't think that you're getting off with a simple scolding. We're going to be adding situational awareness to your training now. Sensory deprivation, both single senses and multiple senses, obstacle courses-" he lunged suddenly, knocking Daniel on his ass, "and unexpected attacks, until you're sufficiently broken of this particular bad habit."

Daniel rubbed his sore posterior. "This is gonna suuuuuck," he moaned to himself.

Ramses had to hide a smirk. "It's your own fault you know, if you hadn't gotten so caught up in arguing about something so petty with her in the first place."

Daniel growled low in the back of his throat. "I know, it's just there's something that's just-"

"Just so infuriating about him!" Rei was ranting to the other girls at the shrine. Ami was nodding absently as she pecked away at her mini-comp, while Makoto was prepping some snacks she'd left at the shrine just for occasions like this. Usagi and Minako were merely letting the girl vent, though Minako had a thoughtful look on her face. She giggled suddenly.

"What?!" Rei snapped, spinning to face the Senshi of Love.

"Oh, I just thought of something funny. I think you might actually like that Daniel guy!"

"You're crazy!" But Usagi was nodding in agreement.

"It's like those kids who pull each others hair and stuff because they like each other and don't know how to tell the other person!" she clapped her hands, smiling brightly.

"No it's not!" Rei stamped her foot. Usagi and Minako just gave her looks. "It's not! Ami help me out here!"

"Sure Rei, I agree completely." Yeah, there wasn't going to be much help from that corner right now.

"Well what about that Ramses guy Minako? You seemed to be pretty into him!" Rule number one in an uncomfortable discussion, if you can't get out on your own, turn it back on the person who started it. Minako blushed a little.

"Well he's cute, he's foreign, and he and his friend did help me out." She sighed. "I just wish I could have gotten his number or something!"

"Yeah, but what are the odds of us running into them again anyway?" Usagi asked.

"In a ward of this size, they're rather small I'm afraid," Ami piped up, having finished whatever she'd been doing and tuning back into the conversation.

If only they knew...

"INCOMPETENTS!" Beryl raged at Zoisite and Kunzite. The two Kings bowed their heads, letting their Queen's rage wash over them, awaiting their punishment for failure. Beryl managed to get a grip on her temper, and simply seethed at her two remaining Kings. "Tell me, how is it that not only did your latest creation fail to gather a single drop of energy, but it was held off by two mere boys?!" A rough laugh had her attention turning to a shadowed corner. "Have you something to say, Adamantite?"

A large man, burly and a little unkempt, with a scruffy black beard and curly black hair stepped into the dim light. He was dressed in a mishmash of armor, Greek greaves and bracers, Samurai-style shingled shoulder armor, an English Knight style breastplate complete with pauldrons, and a Roman armored kilt and sandals. He held a Corinthian helmet under one arm, and idly scratched his face with his free hand.

"Not really your Majesty, merely thinking that you shouldn't have set little boys on a man's task in the first place." Beryl's eyes narrowed.

"We've discussed this before, General, your youkai aren't suited to this task, they were made primarily to keep Earth's forces at bay while the youma drained the rest of the Solar System of energy." Adamantite shrugged, shifting his helmet in the crook of his arm.

"Be that as it may, your Majesty, with your permission I'd like to take control of the mission in Japan, with Zoisite under me. With my youkai running amok, perhaps a few more of his youma would fall through the gaps in the Scout's nets. I merely need to find insertion points that will make it more difficult to track their origins and movements." Beryl considered the proposal, tapping one long nail against her crystal ball while the two Kings kept their heads bowed and their lips sealed, even as they trembled in rage at the condescending tone the Fallen Lord took when talking of their failures. Beryl nodded.

"Very well. Zoisite!" The young King's head shot up.

"Your Majesty?"

"I am relieving you of your duties as head of our European Operations. Plasmatite will be taking them over." The "King" ground his teeth, but said nothing, only nodding, as Beryl continued. "You will instead be working directly under Adamantite. You will obey him as if he spoke with my voice, is that clear?" Inside, Zoisite raged, and that rage was plain to see in his eyes. But from the edge of his vision he could see Kunzite shaking his head slightly, and so he bit his tongue and followed his lover's silent advice, rising and bowing at the waist.

"It shall be as you command. your Majesty." Adamantite chuckled softly, ignoring the growls from Zoisite and Kunzite, before addressing Beryl.

"Right then. Well, your Majesty, I shall inform Plasmatite that you wish to see him about his new duties. And you," he addressed Zoisite, "Meet me in war-room theta for some proper planning at 1400 hours." With a low bow to Beryl he turned on his heel and left the throne room.

Zoisite snarled as he destroyed a pillar, muttering curses under his breath all the while. "Who does that blowhard think he is? I'm one of the Four Heavenly Kings, not some unruly page!"

"I would calm myself, if I were you Zoisite." The redhead jerked around, glaring at his lover.

"And what is there to be calm about Kunzite? These fools have taken our places as the Queen's most valued servants! If we don't do something then we'll end up like Jedite, locked away in crystal while Adamantite and Plasmatite take all the spoils for themselves!"

As Zoiscite continued to rant to his lover on how bad things had gotten since the Fallen Lords had shown up, neither noticed a tall figure in a lab-coat listening in the hall. The figure adjusted its pince-nez, and smiled crookedly as the lenses flashed in the dim light.

"Ah, so that's what happened to my old associate. I had wondered. Now, how to make the best use of this information, that is the question, yessss." Muttering under his breath, the figure faded into the shadows.

Rei sighed to herself as she swept the steps of the shrine. It had been a rather uneventful day so far, and she'd seized on it to make up for some of the work in the shrine she'd been having to let go due to various Sailor Scout issues. Ever since Yuichiro's(1) family had called him in to take his place in their company after his father suffered an accident she'd been tasked with his old share of the chores as well as her own, but she hadn't been able to manage nearly as well as she would have without all the extra training and other Scout issues going on. She didn't know how her grandfather had missed all the signs pointing to her double life, but for once she thanked Kami for his senility. Speaking of her grandfather, she could hear his voice coming up the walkway, and from the sound of it, he was giving a tour of the shrine to someone.

"As you can see, these statues are nearly four hundred years old, and still they stand as proudly as they did when they were first erected." As Rei wandered over to take a look at the newest gawker, a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Yeah, quality work stands out. My father had a bit of a woodworking hobby whenever he was home before he died; mostly small crafts, simple toys and things like that. He showed me some stuff my great grandfather made when he was teaching my father. You could tell by looking at them he'd put a lot of heart into making them. The medium may be different, but the care still shines through." Daniel was looking intently at a small stone kitsune statue, running one hand over the finely carved stone. Rei's grandfather was standing next to him, nodding and looking pleased that at least one youth today still respected the value of putting a lot of hard work into something. He caught sight of Rei.

"Ah! Daniel-san, please allow me to introduce my granddaughter, Rei."

Daniel suddenly shot up from where he'd been crouched, back straight as an arrow. 'There's no way,' he thought to himself, before turning and seeing the girl from yesterday. 'Okay, maybe there is.' He tilted his head to the side, taking her appearance in. "Huh, when you told me you were a miko-in-training yesterday, I just couldn't picture it in my mind. Now I see it, and I've got to say, the look suits you." Rei colored a little.

'How is it that this guy can grate on my nerves worse tha nUsagi when I'm Mars, but he can charm me like this when I'm just Rei?!' she demanded of herself. Her grandfather peered intently at her, then back as Daniel.

"You two know each other?" Daniel looked completely at ease, even as a corner of his mouth twitched in a small smile.

"We met yesterday actually sir; after I and a friend of mine helped a friend of hers, Minako I think, out with a situation involving a couple of hormone-driven neanderthals." He chuckled. "Then she charged up and practically attacked us because she thought we were the ones who'd been giving her friend trouble."

Grandpa Hino nodded sagely. "Indeed, my Rei has always had something of a fiery nature, coupled with a fierce protective streak." Rei colored further, and finally found her voice.

"Grandpa!" A harsh caw cut off whatever else Rei was going to say, as in a flash of ebony wings her pet ravens appeared, perching themselves on her shoulders and staring at Daniel. The boy stared back for a moment, before tilting his head to the side.

"Let me guess, Hugin and Munin?" The two birds set up a raucous cawing at that, beating their wings a bit and rocking back and forth on Rei's shoulders. To Rei, who knew their moods intimately, it was the equivalent of a fit of gut busting laughter for a human. Daniel stepped back a bit, taken off guard by the rather odd reaction of the two avians. "Odd birds, aren't they?"

"They're my pets, and I think they're perfectly nice," Rei snapped. Daniel held out his hands in a calming gesture.

"Never said they weren't. Odd is actually a lot better than normal in my opinion. Lot more fun anyway." Neither one noticed the way Grandpa Hino was eying them, nor would they have seen the speculative gleam in his eye had they even remembered his presence. Then the old man spoke up.

"Well Rei, do you think you could continue this tour for me? I have a bit of paperwork that needs to be taken care of." Rei wanted to protest, oh how she wanted to say no! But she refused to look childish in front of this boy, so she nodded dutifully.

"Alright grandpa." The old man cackled a little.

"Excellent, excellent! Well, it was a pleasure meeting you young man." Daniel nodded his head.

"Likewise sir." With that the old priest wsa gone, leaving the two teens to their own devices. A beat passed, then Rei's ravens took wing, circling the two one before heading off. Daniel shuffled his feet for a moment, he never had been too good with girls in a one-on-one setting.

"Sooooo... you live here with your granddad?"

Rei nodded sharply. "Yes. We're the caretakers of the family shrine."

"If it's not too sensitive a topic... what about your folks?" Rei froze for a moment, before looking away.

"My mother's dead." Her voice was flat.

"I'm sorry; I know what that kind of loss can be like." She spun to look at him, mouth opening to shout that he didn't have a clue, but froze at his next sentence. "My father died in combat a little under a year ago; routine patrol in a bad area that went south." He didn't sound bitter about it for some reason. "He ended up taking a rearguard action to cover the rest of his company. And when they'd made it to the extraction point, he noticed that they'd lost on of the new guys in the unit. Everybody else told him that the kid was already dead, but he went back anyway." He gave a misty-eyed smile. "The Sarge told me he staggered back ten minutes later leaking blood like a sieve, the new kid slung over his shoulder. He managed to walk all the way to the APC with him, and once he set the kid down he looked Sarge straight in the eye, said "tell my boy you never leave a man behind," and collapsed. He died before they could even try to stabilize him." Rei bowed her head.

"You father sounds like he was a very good man." Daniel wiped at his eyes with the back of his sleeve, while wondering, 'Why the hell did I tell a practical stranger all that?'

"Yeah. I hope that when I go out, I can see him on the other side and he'll say, "hey kid, you did good." After my dad died my mom decided that it was time to come back home. My grandparents left her some property, and my dad's investments are more than enough to live off of for a time while she tries to find a decent job to supplement them." Rei was a bit conflicted. On one hand, this boy had shared something incredibly personal in what she assumed was an attempt to help get her off the subject of her mother's death. On the other, was there any reason that she should return in kind about her situation as a whole? After a quick second of thinking, she made her decision.

"I wish my own father was as good a parent as yours was. After my mother died he dumped me here with my mother's father and left to further his political career. He only comes back when it helps his image." Daniel winced at the venom in her voice when she spoke of her father, then scowled

"What kind of ass deserts his own kid like that?!" He paused. "Well, at least your grandfather seems to love you." Rei nodded.

"Yes, he does, but sometimes he's just so annoying. He acts more like a little kid than Usagi's brother Shingo sometimes! And when he's not doing that or shrine duties, he's leering at the girls that come through here!" Rei started on a rant on her favorite pet peeve aside from Usagi in general, her grandfather's failures as a responsible adult. Eventually Daniel couldn't help himself and laughed out loud.

"He sounds like the type of crotchety old man that I'd like to grow up to be," he chuckled. Rei stared at him.

"You're serious." Daniel smiled, and Rei had to admit it was a nice smile.

"Well, within reason of course. And only so long as my wife would let me get away with it." Daniel slapped himself mentally. 'Wife?! Where the HELL did that come from?!' he caught sight of his watch, and blanched, it was almost ten minutes past the time he was supposed to be meeting with Fenrir for his first round of sensory training! "Crap, I'm gonna have to take a rain-check on the rest of that tour; a friend of mine needs my help with some stuff. I'll catch you later, okay Rei?" Rei nodded.

"Alright then. There's schedules for when the shrine's open out front, you can grab one on your way out."

"Coolness. See you later then Rei." With that he took off down the stairs, taking them two at a time easily by stretching out his long legs. As Rei watched him go, she couldn't help but think, 'Maybe he's not so bad.'

"Well, he was certainly a nice young man."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" Rei jumped nearly four feet into the air before coming down to see her grandfather standing sedately beside her. "Grandpa, don't do that!" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What happened to the paperwork?"

The old man discretely tucked his manga farther up into his sleeve as he smiled serenely at his granddaughter. "I finished it already. It has been the better part of an hour after all." Rei stared at him for a moment, not having realized exactly how much time had passed. "But as I was saying, he was a very nice young man indeed. Had a good eye too, saw the quality in the shrine, the care put into it. I'd dare say he'll be back again to have another look." his eyes twinkled merrily as he smiled like he knew a secret Rei did not. Rei however, merely shrugged.

"He did say he was coming back to finish that tour Grandpa. I guess we might see him after that, but I doubt it, once most people come through here once they don't really bother coming back again." Her grandfather smiled that knowing smile again.

"We'll see Rei; we'll see."

Naru backed up against a wall nervously, as Umino tried to shield her, arms outstretched. In front of them was a gang of three older teens, brandishing a knife, a pipe, and a chain. "Why do these things always happen to me?" she whimpered. And the night had been going so well too! After Umino's stunt trying to save her from yet another monster attack, and him receiving several lumps for it, she'd finally agreed to go on a date with him. To her surprise he'd taken her to a very nice sit-down restaurant, and ordered her favorite food for her! After that they'd gone to a movie that she'd picked out, where he had surprised her again by removing his glasses for the movie, saying something about not needing them for such a big picture, and the change his face seemed to go through once he removed the thick lenses was so devastating that she'd spent more time sneaking peeks at his face than watching the screen; and she'd actually felt a pang of disappointment when he'd put them back on as the credits rolled. After the movie he'd insisted on escorting her back to her home, and she'd been considering giving him a peck on the cheek when the three in front of them had accosted the two teens, driving them off the sidewalk and into a side street.

"Okay boy, you two give up your cash and you can walk away." Umino trembled a little, but didn't move from his protective stance.

"I'm sorry guys, but I don't have any money right now. Would you take an IOU?"

The one with the knife, who appeared to be the leader, leered at Naru from over Umino's shoulder. "Well if you can't pay in cash, I suppose we'll have to find some other payment." As he reached for Naru, the punk heard some scuffling behind him, followed by a pair of meaty thuds. Turning around, he managed to get a glimpse of a pair of hands balled together right before the vicious underhanded swing knocked him off his feet and out of the waking world. Rich brown eyes regarded the two teens for a moment, before their rescuer laid a hand on Umino's shoulder and giving a satisfied nod and a quick squeeze. Letting go and bending down, he removed the punk's wallet from his pocket, rifled through it for a moment and removed a wad of cash. Shuffling it with a professional air, he cut it into two halves, and held out one half to Umino.

"W-why are you giving me this?" Umino hadn't moved from his protective position, staring at the stranger who'd helped him and Naru. A gruff voice answered him.

"'Call it your cut. I would have had a hell of a time getting them if they hadn't been focused on putting you down to get to your girlfriend there." Numbly, Umino accepted the cash, as the stranger pocketed his own "share", and sauntered off, whistling a jaunty tune. He kicked the punk who'd had the chain in the ribs as he passed, stepped on the one with the pipe's groin, and was gone. Umino shared a look with Naru, and then the two took off, hand in hand. They stayed that way all the way to Naru's home, where Umino's gallantry was rewarded with a chaste peck on the cheek and a shy "goodnight"; leaving the bespectacled boy stunned on the porch for a second, before he launched into an ecstatic happy dance, which mainly seemed to consist of "The Robot". Across the street, the mysterious rescuer chuckled, having followed the two to make sure they arrived at their destination unmolested. Straightening his leather jacket, he gave a brief whistle, which was answered by the padding of feet and a short yip, before turning and disappearing into the shadows, leaving Umino to celebrate in relative solitude.

(1) Yuichiro is Chad, the surfer dude in the English dub, just for those who didn't know.