Sidestory:
Miss Fortunate
By Greg, Sugar-chan, and Tami
Zach Albright loved the beach more than any other place on Earth. He loved the water, the sand ... the oily, scantily-clad girls. But he certainly hated it now as he jogged breathlessly in a line with the other guys. This was the summer that he finally got to the one job that he had always wanted: being a lifeguard. He figured he would get his certificate and be on patrol within the week.
He had forgotten about the actual training part.
His instructor was a soulless tower of a man, with crimson skin and a hairless body. Zach thought that in the past the man probably loved the beach as much as he did, but he certainly didn't now. He wondered if maybe years of soaking up UV radiation had shriveled his sense of decency. The instructor barked out orders and exercises with all the apathy of rapid dog. They had been jogging for what seemed like hours and Zach felt like his smoky gray lungs were going to burst in a shower of tar. Cigarettes were obviously not a lifeguard's friend.
"Enough!" the instructor screamed, stopping each one of his trainees dead. A symphony of pants and curses rose up quietly from the group. Zach hunched over, gulping down air, and his gaze strayed to his left. As if he didn't have enough to worry about, Wade Salter stood a few feet away from him, gasping. Every fiber in his body wanted to transform and inflict as much pain as he could into the blue-haired youth. But surrounded by people and with Phaeton resting comfortably in his bag a few yards away, he dared not. He contented himself in merely glaring at the boy with an icy stare.
The icy stare was returned in full as Wade leaned over, resting his hands on his knees momentarily to suck in grateful lungfuls of air as the other unfortunate trainees muttered curses in the direction of the nazi-esque instructor. He didn't mind the pain, not as much as the others; he'd been masochistic lately.
-I don' need this.-
He gave a bitter sigh, straightening up, one hand reflexively combing through his spikes. He was taking the course because he'd signed up, before graduation, because it was something he'd liked doing; he should have checked to see if Albright was going to do it as well. Now Zach was there, a constant sick reminder of the fact that he was Romanus - and the fact that he was a -freelance- Romanus now, not wanting to be attached to the other girls... girl.
With a slight explosion of air, Wade took his gaze off the spiky-haired blonde and moved his hands down to rub at his calf muscles. If Zach wanted a fight, he'd have to be the one to approach. Livvy, thank the Lord, was off sulking at home and wouldn't have time to tell him to do his duty.
"Shrug it off, wusses!" the instructor roared, bringing everyone to a painful standing position. "The next part of our show is a guard exercise. Each of you will be paired up; one of you will go a hundred feet into the water, and the other will take his rescue can, swim out to his partner, and pull him to shore. The two with the quickest time will be excused from the next lap we run after this."
Zach's eyes lit up. No more running? That was good. Very, very good.The instructor quickly began to sort out the group into pairs, and then into the victims and rescuers.
"You and you. You and you. And ... you and blue-hair over there," he announced sternly, pointing to Zach lastly. The blonde's heart sank and then leapt into his throat. Fate was funny like that sometimes. Wade was in charge of saving him from a watery demise for a change. Zach couldn't help but let out a low, disgusted snicker. The pairs got together, and he slowly trudged toward the taller boy.
"Listen," Zach said quietly. "Bottom line: I need this job. I understand we're supposed to be killing each-other and everything, but do you think it's possible that just for today, we leave senshi business off the beach?"
Wade stared at Zach as if he was some strange new type of sea creature, and blinked mildly, shaking his head and letting out a mild snort of his own. "You think I'm gonna leave you out there t'drown, Albright?" One blue eyebrow raised in what might have been amusement, but the navy-blue eyes were as frigid as the deepest parts of the lake. "Not the most subtle way t'get rid of you, really."
His arms dropped from their position, crossed across his chest, and he slumped slightly. He could not keep up the animosity; it was simply too exhausting, and he needed his strength, not his anger. "'Sides, I need this damn thing as well. So why don' you get out there an' look like you're drownin', and I can enjoy the sight?"
Zach scoffed. "Asshole," he muttered, strolling away towards the water. He couldn't remember hating anyone as much as he did Wade. But their words just now had a subtle understanding that he couldn't ignore. It was a relationship based on hatred, as deep-rooted as it can get. But both of them sounded almost ... tired of it.
He shook the thoughts off, and dove underneath a wave. He rose to surface, and squeezed his nose. He was far away enough. Now all that was left was to wait for his Neptune Knight in shining armor to save him.
Wade lined up with all the other would-be saviours on the beach as the instructor barked out orders; the tall blue-haired boy wasn't really listening. His eyes were focused on his personal savee, blonde head bobbing in the waves. No real point in worrying about how fast he had to swim; he was pretty sure he could outpace the others, as long as Zach wasn't in the running.
The obnoxious whistle blew, the boys stampeded forward, and he dived...
Natural water. No chlorine. This was a relief. Wade cut through it cleanly, his long-limbed strokes taking him easily ahead of the others, kicking bubbles as he moved ahead to Zach. If Livia had been there, she would have immediately applauded the idea of drowning him. However, that was damn unfair and Albright didn't deserve that, not at all, out of his element...
He stopped once he reached his 'victim', blue eyes staring into usually-baleful green as he gave something that constituted a smile. Wade straightened up, treading water.
"Your lift's here, -milady-, y'know?"
Zach feigned a look of disgust. "You're so not Pam Anderson!" he said with shock. He grabbed the rescue, and leveled himself onto it. "Alright, Salty ... mush!"
"-Salty-?" Wade rolled his eyes theatrically, something he'd learnt off Lissie, and began to swim forwards again, mindful of Zach as his victim. "An' I'm not gonna wear a bikini just so I can be more like her."
"Then God has truly smiled upon us this day," the blonde said with relief. He watched as Wade swam, and wondered if he could somehow drown the teen and make it look like an accident. The thought surprised and revolted him. He kicked his feet a bit to add some speed, and realized that they were going to be the first on shore. What do you know, Zach thought as the two got their footing on semi-dry sand. A Graikos and a Romanus accomplished something together.
"Well done, Salter. Excellent," the drill instructor mused, scribbling something down on his pad. "You guys are excused. Get outta here." Zach giggled in delight, and began to walk towards the spot where he'd left his stuff. He paused and turned to Wade. Every cell in his body screamed against it, but Zach forced his way through it.
"Not too shabby, Salty."
Cleopatra Infeliz sighed, leaning back into the sand. Watching a bunch of wanna-be lifeguards swimming out into the ocean wasn't nearly as fun as watching them exhaust themselves with various exercises.
For once the rather poor nineteen year old was actually wearing something other than her ratty four or five year old clothing. Somehow, she'd scraped together enough money to buy a bathing suit-- a bright, almost neon yellow one. She didn't really know why she was hanging around at the beach, only that since her Da told her to go out and stop bugging him, she'd gone out.
In any case, she mused, relaxing in the sand, and staring up at the sky, at least she'd gotten away from the city for awhile. How could anyone stand to live in such a place for extended periods of time?
Zach's attention was ripped away from Wade when he noticed the dark-skinned girl lying all by her lonesome on the sand. His hormones immediately went into overdrive. And as luck would have it, his backpack lay not six feet from her chosen spot.
"Umm ... I'll be right back ... I have to ... do ... stuff ..." the blond said in an enchanted voice. He strolled over to his bag, and grabbed a . That's when a serpentine head poked out.
"Is there any particular reason why you are fraternizing with the enemy," Phaeton asked darkly, crawling slowly from behind the skateboard nearby. His charge of course heard nothing he had said, his eyes once again focused on the beautiful specimen in front of him. The iguana made his way around the bag, and decided to take a look at what had infatuated the boy so. The brunette lay still, the sun beating down on her body. A familiar sensation ran through him. "By Prometheus ... " he said quietly. "...she is a Graikos."
Zach's snapped back to non-pornographic reality. "Her? She's one of us?"
"Yes ... I believe she is the one called Crius."
"Well hot damn! This'll give me a chance to talk to her!" Zach said with glee. Before the iguana could form another sentence, the boy had scooped him onto his shoulder and began his trek towards her. He stood over her, and grinned.
"Hey. How YOU doin'?" That was his best, and he hoped it was enough.
For a moment Cleopatra seriously considered kicking whoever it was standing over her and blocking her sun. She probably would have gone through with it, too, if not for Micheal's voice repeating the warnings he'd given her before she'd set out for the day. She really didn't want to know if he'd actually go through with any of them.
So she slit her eyes open to see a teenager with blonde hair staring down at her. With a lizard on his shoulder. She blinked at it, then turned her attention back to the guy.
"You got a reason for standing over me?"
Zach smirked. How he LOVED when they played hard to get. "Not really ... you just looked a little lonely to me is all," he said nonchalantly. He plopped down on the sand next to her, as Phaeton crawled slowly down his arm and back onto the sand. "So what's your name?"
"Cleopatra. What do you want?" She got the feeling that this particular moron wasn't going to leave her alone. Which was what she would prefer-- Cleo liked being alone.
"Well actually," Zach said, a little embarrassed as he scooted over a little closer to her. "My lizard wants to meet you." As the "you" left his mouth, he knew that out of the things he could have said,that probably was the absolute worst.
"Your lizard wants to meet to me. That's a new one," Cleopatra stared at the obviously insane blonde for a moment, then sunk back into her nice, comfortable, sandy bed. She closed her eyes, knitting her fingers behind her head, "The sun must have fried your brain."
"You're quite right, miss," the iguana whispering casually. "Along with drinking salt water and smoking marijuana." Zach shot his guardian an innocent look, which he missed. He did not, however, miss the girl's reaction.
Cleopatra sat bolt up, turning to stare at the iguana. That voice had not been the blonde moron, and there was no one else around her.
"Wha... oh great!" she finally grumbled, irritably pulling her ponytail over her shoulder-- it wouldn't do to yank her hair out like that again, "Now the sun has fried my brain. That lizard did not just talk."
"I certainly did. And your brain is just fine as far as I can tell. Now let's get down to it," Phaeton said, crawling over to the space in front of her feet. "You are different than other people, Cleopatra. I think you know that. You've known in your heart that there's something deep within you that you cannot understand..."
"Hey Morpheus, how 'bout you cut to the chase," Zach said, rolling his eyes. "Make with the wakey-wakey." The iguana shot his tongue in the blonde's general direction.
"You are Sailor Crius," he continued. "The senshi of misfortune, and you belong to the Graikos."
"This is some twisted day dream," Cleopatra mumbled, then looked at the iguana again, "The misfortune bit sounds like me, though... Okay, I'll bite. Explain this to me. Sailor Crius?"
She paused for a second, then amended her statement, "Without the long boring speech."
Phaeton gazed up at her with reptillian eyes, and the strange pattern on his back began to glow softly. He concentrated hard. There could be no mistakes. Awakening a senshi took effort and power. He was soon rewarded. The golden ribbon that tied Cleo's hair began to pulse with light.
"All will be explained soon. Zach ... let us go home. I trust your backyard will yield some privacy. Cleopatra has a bit of transforming to do," he said slowly, crawling back in the direction of the blonde's bag. Zach zipped it up halfway, and gathered his things. He stood over the dark-skinned girl once again.
"You ready?" he asked, sounding a bit impatient.
Cleopatra stared at the blonde for a few moments, then flipped herself onto her feet. Snatching up her faded blue jacket-- she'd been using it as a pillow-- she threw it on over her bathing suit.
"Yeah, I'm ready," a sickly sweet smile crossed her lips, "but if this is some sort of deranged trick, I can and will hurt you."
"The iguana talks and she's still suspicious ... tough one, eh?" Zach said with a grin. He grabbed his bag, and after making sure Phaeton was secure in his hideaway, he gestured toward dryland, and lead the way back to his house.
He glanced once more behind him, but didn't see his blue-haired rival on the shore. Must have scampered off, he thought rather arrogantly. Next time then, Looney 'Tune ... next time.
"You would be, with my life," the dark skinned girl muttered, crossing her arms and padding along somewhat behind and to the left of this boy. Damn, she didn't normally trust people so soon after meeting them... what was wrong with her today?
Oh right, she sighed, shaking her head, you've got a warning from Da not to get in trouble, and a lizard was talking to you. This is just some messed up freaky dream. Her fingers lifted to the ribbon in her hair. Well, at least it wasn't a tattered wreck anymore.
The two made their way back to Zach's house in relative silence. He lead her through a wooden fence which opened in a spacious yard, with various vegetables and flowers growing at the borders.
He turned to Cleo. "My aunt and uncle are away for a few days. So we don't have to worry about being bothered," he explained with a small, devious grin. He plopped his bookbag on the ground, and heard a slight groan. He gasped and laughed a bit, shooting his guardian an apologetic shrug as he let him out.
"Never again, Zachary. Never again," Phaeton said, slithering out dazily. He focused his attention on the dark-skinned girl. "Now my dear ... to business. It's quite simple, really. Your ribbon is the key to your transformation. You need only to call out the mantra. My charge will now demonstrate. Zachary?"
"Huh?" the blonde said, snapping his attention from Cleo's breasts to the iguana.
"Transform, you neanderthal!"
"Oh ... sure. Hyperion Titan Power ... Suit-UP!" he called, the golden sigil flashing to life on his forehead. His body was immersed in energy, and when it subsided, he stood proudly, ruby armor glinting the daylight. He turned his empty eyes toward Cleo.
"Pretty simple. See? Now I'm a superhero!" he said proudly, flexing a bit.
"A superhero...?" Cleopatra stared for a few minutes, before first rubbing her eyes, then touching her forehead, "Okay, so I'm either going nuts, or you just got a set of armor in the middle of a light show."
Her mind went back to Phaeton's words. Fingers tangled in her hair as she pulled the mass of brown over her shoulder to look down at her newly clean, shiney, and definately not about to fall about ribbon. Orange eyes landed on said lizard, "And this thing makes me end up like him?" a tip of her head in the armor clad one's direction.
"Yes. You simply have to call out "Crius Urdkilthai Power Make-Up," the iguana explained, his serpentine eyes piercing hers.
"Looking like armor-boy, verus wearing a bathing suit..." Cleopatra shook her head, "whatever. Might as well do this, and get this weird dream over with... Crius Urdkilthai Power, Make-Up!"
She while she'd anticipated looking stupid after calling that out, what she got was much different. To start off, she nearly jumped out of her skin when her hair ribbon flared with light, and began tying itself into a bow.
The light from the ribbon began to spread to her clothing, fairly swiftly, burning it away, while leaving her in a short-sleeved, black ankle length dress trimmed with gold, and slit up to the hips, and beneath the dress was a pair of black biking shorts. A pair of flatfoot black boots and black evening gloves finished off the "look".
As soon as the boots were formed, the light swirled back up her form, decorating the boots and gloves in gold trimmed silver pentagon-shaped plates of armor. This light swirled, forming a silver sash wrapped around her waist, followed by a gold armored vest that cut off just above it. The light began to fade as it snapped around her neck to form a gold choker similar to the ribbon in her hair.
After standing there, blinking for several long moments, Crius looked down at herself. She felt funny-- her hair swung over her shoulder, and she nearly fell over. Her hair, which was normally a mess of knots and split ends, not to mention not the cleanest in the world due to certain monetary circumstances, was exactly opposite to normal.
Not to mention she was wearing a dress. Crius hadn't owned a dress since she was seven. Seven! Putting a gloved hand to her forehead, the newly awakened senshi turned her attention back to Hyperion and Phaeton, "...what the hell is going on...?"
"You have become whole," Phaeton said quietly, with a slight tone of awe. "You are Sailor Crius."
"Not mention hot," Hyperion said under his breath.
She ignored Hyperion in favor of trying to figure out Phaeton's statement. It was true that she'd hadn't felt quite like... well, like whatever this feeling was... since ever, but... Whole? What do you mean, whole?"
"I imagine you're feeling somewhat ... complete now. You are the newest addition to the the Graikos Senshi. It is our duty to eliminate the threat of Romanus. There is a war, Crius. A war that has carried across time. Across life and death. And you must fight."
"A war?" Crius hiked an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "How come I've never heard of it? And why 'must' I fight, anyways? You got along before without me, didn't you?" she sighed, "C'mon, lizard, you're not doing a good job of explaining this. Either tell me what you mean in english, or tell me how to get out of this outfit so I can go home."
Hyperion chuckled, and put his arm around the newly awakened Crius. "Don't even bother, girl. He just recited the standard guardian speech. Not exactly the most specific of stories. You learn as you go. Best advice I can give is to trust your gut. When there's trouble around, you'll know it. You transform, throw down, and try not to die." His tone was plain and straight-forward. A tone of acceptance.
She scowled at Hyperion, "Remove your arm. Now." before turning back to contemplate everything she'd learned. So she was some sort of warrior that had to fight in some unknown war? Sounded far-fetched.
But it also sounded like a challenge.
Cleopatra Infeliz never turned down a challenge. Why would this new "Sailor Crius" turn one down? "That just sounds like so much fun," she shook her head, "So why do I have to wear this get-up if I'm fighting in some war. Won't it make me stick out?"
"Oh c'moooon ..." Hyperion said, throwing his hands up. "What would Batman be without giant, pointy ears?! The get-ups are to strike fear in the criminal faction!" He spun around once, and flashed her a grin that only the most hardcore of comic book geeks can achieve.
After a moment of silence, and contemplating just exactly what she'd say to Hyperion after his bout of weirdness, Crius sighed and shook her head. She never had understood comic book fans.
So instead, she turned to Phaeton, "Are they all as strange as blondie, here?" without waiting for an answer, she continued, "Anyways, do I get some sort of weapon? It's kinda hard to fight without a weapon."
Phaeton smirked as best as an iguana could. "You are a weapon, Crius. You are the Senshi of Misfortune, and you bring it quite well as I recall. Try this." He slithered toward her, and snapped his tail towards the direction of a tall, spindly tree at the edge of his charge's yard.
"Concentrate, and direct your energies towards that tree. When you begin to feel the power course through you, shout out 'Crius Blades'," he explained carefully.
Crius nodded, a bit hesitantly, before shaking it off and doing as she'd been told. After a moment's concentration, she found herself moving without conscious command. The armor on the backs of her hands began to glow, and she could feel herself calling out the name of her attack as she thrust her hands forwards, "Crius Blades!"
From each glove came ten small pentagrams of energy, the same size as the armor plates on the backs of her gloves. She gave a low whistle when she looked at the tree she'd been aiming at. It looked like she'd cut it up with twenty hunting knives.
Hyperion let out an impressed whistle, walking over to the tree and fingering the deep gashes in the trunk. Phaeton merely made a low satisfied growl.
"Now you see the power at your disposal," the iguana said softly.
"That was..." Crius trailed off as she struggled with the understanding that she'd just shot energy from her hands, and they'd pretty much destroyed a tree, "... right, I did that. Uh... so, I can create an evening dress to fight in, and slice up a tree; anything else I should know before going home and trying to explain this to Da?"
"If you desire to return to your previous state," Phaeton began. "Simply concentrate on what you were before." Hyperion ripped his attention from the newly shorn tree, and closed his eyes. In a shimmer of golden light, he returned to his tee shirt and board shorts, and flashed a grin at Crius.
"However," Phaeton continued. "I must insist that you keep your new identity a secret."
Crius nodded, closing her eyes, and a frown crossing her features as she concentrated on returning to her normal form. When she opened them again, she found herself back in her jacket and bathing suit. With that out of the way, she turned back to the iguana.
"You mean I can't tell Da?" Well, she understood that. Michael would freak if he ever found out his 'Tra was fighting out in the streets, "It makes sense, but it's damn hard to keep a secret from him."
"You get used to it," Zach said as he walked over, a faint trail of golden energy melting off behind him as he transformed back. "And it would suck to have some Romanus bastard running up and hurting your family to get at you." Phaeton let out a small, agreed hiss.
Cleo tilted her head in agreement, "That's true. Look, is there anything else I have to know? 'Cause I'd like to go home now." And think about all this, she didn't say.
"I guess just one more thing," Zach said, his mind quickly flashing to a seething Neptune Knight. "Watch your ass." He led her out to the street once again, and they quickly exchanged numbers.
"If you ever need me, just give a call ... I have a feeling you and I have some ass-kicking potential together," the blonde said with a smirk.