Tainted Cube: The One Called Sailor Moon

Here is the first installment. No earth shattering changes yet, but the seeds are being sown and the dice has been cast. Let us see how Usagi's desires get twisted around and perverted for whatever wins next week's poll.

She stood guard over a place where time held no lease. Her duty was bound here for eternities beyond eternities. Her loyalty fell higher than the headiest heights. Her responsibility held more weight than the whole of the sun.

And for just this one time she had failed. To say that it had occurred quickly would be a mistake, for speed is a function of time and in this place a second may as well be a millenium. It had happened, it was still happening, it was still going to happen. That was how she always caught them. Any single entity that attempted to pass into this universe from any other had to come through here, and in so passing could not pass her. Not in her domain. Time itself would help her. Time itself would warn her. Time itself was her ally, and a terrible, mighty ally it was!
Even so… it had passed her, and nothing she could do could prevent that simple fact. It was in the reality she was supposed to be guarding, and from that simple fact alone she could tell that it was powerful enough to ruin everything…

And clever enough to remain hidden until nobody could do anything to stop it.

<hr>
It was a dark room, deliberately dark and imposing and cruel with a single source of light illuminating the throne at the very back. That throne was occupied by a single female figure looming over that light source - a simple crystal sphere - who was chuckling to herself.

“To launch our attack in full strength, we need more energy!” she cackled. “The Earth is the best source, and -”

The crystal cracked.

She stared at it in mild shock, and peered closer. What was this? Impossible! It was almost as if a massive energy source had been momentarily detected, then vanished without trace! Could that have been -

That brief scan was enough to narrow the source down to a single area. More accurately, a prefecture in Japan. Yes… She would send her minions there to investigate! Find the source of that power, and she would have all the energy she could ever want or need!
<hr>

“No, it can’t be!” Usagi cried. “This is impossible! In spite of everything I did! All that hard work! For nothing! My life is over! Finished! Ruined!”

“Gee, relax a little, Usagi,” Naru said. “It’s just a single lousy test. It’s not the end of the world or anything.”

“It might as well be!” Usagi insisted. “Thirty? My mom is gonna go through me like a cold spoon through ice cream!”

“… You mean a hot knife through butter, surely.”

“Are you sure? I always thought - urgh! Never mind. I’m grounded for a month after this. Nothing else matters anymore. You hear me? Nothing! Not even that new Sailor V game that’s coming out next week!”

Naru sighed. She couldn’t stand to see her friend like this, beating herself up. She really had tried so hard on this test! Pushed herself to the limit of her ability, and it wasn’t any better than thirty. Poor girl needed a break, probably the last break she’d ever get after delivering that test score to her mother. And she knew exactly what would do the trick to get her to unwind.

“A trip to the mall should help!” Naru suggested.

Usagi rolled her eyes. “I can’t think of shopping like this! Not when my free time is at stake!”

“Come on, it’ll help you relax. And by the time you get back home she’ll have forgotten all about the test!” Right up until Usagi had to have her sign it to hand back to the teacher, but right now being honest wasn’t entirely likely to help her friend relax a little. “Besides which, Mom’s got a sale on. Maybe you’ll be able to afford something with the prices she’s slashed!”

“Hey, girls!” a pest named Umino intruded. “How’d you do on your tests? I only got a ninety-five! Can you believe it? My parents are gonna -”

“Curl up in the corner and puke over yourself, dweeb!” Usagi stormed away, leaving Umino and Naru behind. “Come on, Naru! Let’s head to the mall!”

“What did I say?” Umino wondered aloud as the two girls left him behind.

Seeing Usagi so irate was a bit of a new experience, Naru had to admit. Usually she was a bit more polite to the dork. Had this test gotten to her that much?

As if in answer, her blonde-haired friend spoke up. “Ugh, he’s such a creep. Why can’t he just leave us alone? How come he’s the sort we can’t get rid of instead of the more handsome guys, like tall, dark and mysterious over there?”

Naru turned around and immediately picked out the guy she must have meant. Just like she described, a rather tall boy with jet-black hair, a handsome face and the bluest eyes she ever did see. In summary: Yum. But boy hunting could wait. Right now she needed to make her friend feel better about herself.

“We’ll take a wander around the mall before heading off to Mom’s store, okay?” Naru suggested. “That’s bound to make you feel better!”

Suddenly, Usagi came to a dead stop and blinked at nothing. “Hey, wait… Now that I remember, I found this weird thing this morning, and - Hold on… Here it is! Look!”

Clutched within her best friend’s hand was… a clear cube, like something made of plastic or cloudy glass. Strange. What was that even supposed to be? Naru took a closer look, and realised that it wasn’t quite as clear as she had first believed. There was a tiny speck of colour in there, right in the middle, and she focused her attention on it. What was that? It almost looked like -

A monster towering over a city. A girl biting into a boy’s neck. A girl tapping another on the back of the head. Another boy holding a gun on what looked like royalty. A boy fleeing an army of mechanical toys. A girl in a bikini flying through the air. A boy being dragged through a corridor by the collar, gripped by a cheerful, energetic girl.

All of a sudden Naru felt dizzier than she could remember feeling, and stumbled back a few steps with spots in her vision. Trippy. Just a little.

“I was trying to figure out what this is,” Usagi explained. “And then I realised, if anyone might know something, your mom sure would!”

“Hmm, well. It’s not jewelry. I mean, there’s nowhere you can attach it to anything, no loop to allow you to wear it anywhere… But she could probably point you in the right direction, at the very least. Even if she can’t help, she’s got all this neat stuff. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, rhinestones…”

“Lead on, McSlurry!”

“Pretty sure the quote is ‘Lay on, McDuff,’ and it’s about Macbeth inviting him to fight to the death.”

“Huh? Really? Are you sure?”

And Usagi was surprised she failed the test. Girl didn’t need studying sessions or a tutor. She needed a miracle!
<hr>
A sale was probably not the right word for whatever was happening in this store today. Try “mob” or “swarm” or some synonym for either and you might be a little bit closer. Usagi had been here a few times before, which was inevitable, really. Naru’s mom worked here, and she did like looking at the jewelry even if she couldn’t afford even the cheapest on offer. Even so. Damn, that was a lot of people!

“My goodness!” Naru gaped. “Surely that many people in the store at once is breaking some sort of fire regulation! Mother, what is wrong with you today?”

“Huh? Something wrong with your mother?”

“Well, she’s been acting a little odd today for some reason,” Naru explained. “It’s sort of hard to put my finger on what it is, but -”

“That’s right, everyone!” a familiar voice bellowed out over the rather loud noise naturally and inevitably caused by a large enough group of people in a single place. “Ninety-five percent off! I’m practically giving it all away! Please try on everything you like; you can do it for free! No price! Certainly not your frantic mortal energy generated by boundless greed, which is definitely not being offered up to a dark, malevolent being far beyond your limited comprehension!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Usagi said. “She seems pretty normal to me.”

Moving through a crowd of people is rather a sporting event in itself. After all, though the movement may be slow it requires a surprising amount of strategy, planning ahead and dexterity to accomplish with any reasonable effectiveness. To this end Usagi and Naru were left struggling their way towards the front of the store among the mass of overeager shoppers, trying on goods, leaving with goods, or even in a few instances trying to sneak out of the shop without paying. They tended to earn a sharp kick in sensitive areas whenever Naru noticed such behaviour, but otherwise the journey towards the front was quite uneventful.

“Oh, hello, Naru, dear,” Naru’s mother greeted the two girls with the biggest smile Usagi remembered seeing. “And Usagi! It’s so good to see you again! Would you like to try on some of our diamonds? They’re energy-draining-rific!”

“That sounds great! But… Before we do that, there’s something we were hoping you might be able to take a look at,” Usagi said, rummaging in her bag for the mysterious cube. Oh! She’d just put it back in here! How could it get so deep in her bag so - aha! There it was! She plucked it out, held it on her open palm and offered it for Naru’s mother to take a better look at.

“Mom!” Naru shreaked. “You’re drooling on the carpet! And in front of my best friend!”

“Sorry, dear, I (so much energy) got distracted by (energy) something. Nothing to worry about, dear. Just give me the cube. Right now. Hand it over!”

The sight of Naru’s mother suddenly lunging forward like a wild, rabid beast was quite one thing. The wide-eyed expression, the mild foaming at the mouth, the way her fingernails seemed to almost double in size as she dove for the cube… That was all one nightmarish image, but what happened next was quite another entirely.

A bright light filled the room. Its source: The mysterious cube which was resting in the palm of Usagi’s hand right in front of her open eyes. For a moment she was disoriented, seeing nothing but spots of all colours dancing across her vision, but after a moment she was able to shake it off. No, it wasn’t what she saw that worried her so much as what she felt.

It was like the skin on her palm had sort of twisted. It didn’t hurt or anything, but… it had felt like the skin on her open palm had twisted up into a vaguely cubelike shape, then just as quickly flattened out. The almost insignificant weight that had been resting upon that palm had completely vanished and when her vision cleared she saw that the strange cube had also entirely gone. As if it was never there to begin with.

“Mom, are you alright?” Naru asked, helping her mother to her feet.

“I’m fine!” her mother snapped in response, clutching irritably at her head. “That was quite the nasty little prank the two of you just played! Now, where is that cube? You didn’t drop it, did you? Where is it, girl?”

<i>Danger. Leave.</i>

“I… Uh… I don’t know,” Usagi responded.

<i>Danger! Leave now! Return later!</i>

“It must be around here somewhere!” Naru’s mother screeched, sounding increasingly desperate with each syllable. “Has anyone seen it? A small cube, fits right in your palm! If you do, it’s not for sale! Return it to me, and I’ll give you anything you like completely free! The whole damn store if you want it! Just find me that cube!”

“I think you’d better leave,” Naru whispered. “Like I said. Mom’s behaviour has been really weird lately, and I haven’t the faintest idea why.”

“Oh, Beryl! I have failed you! Let me redeem myself with this comparatively meager offering!”

Usagi simply nodded, and silently made her way back through the obstacle course known as a mob full of people. Well, that was… weird. And she was sure she’d heard something in her head just now, too. Danger? What was that? Here? At Naru’s store? Hardly. The worst thing that could happen here was being trampled by these overeager shoppers. Which didn’t happen by the time she reached the streets, alone, with nothing to do but return home and -

“Aw, nuts! How am I going to explain this test score to mom?” Usagi whined. After staring at the offending sheet of paper for a solid minute, she did the only rational thing that could be done in the situation: It was crumpled up and casually tossed over her shoulder like the life-destroying, freedom-ruining garbage it was!

“Hey! Mind where you’re tossing your trash!” some boy yelled. “Thirty? Not bad for a rock. Or maybe a sloth?”

Oooh, of all the things Usagi needed right now, this was somewhere near the bottom of the list. Some stranger with a sense of humour? Grr! She spun around on her heel to give him a piece of her mind, and -

“Give me that!” she yelled at the (oddly familiar) handsome stranger while seizing back her accursed test paper. Whoever he was, the guy just smirked and strode off whistling to himself, leaving Usagi fuming and above all else definitely not staring at his cute little butt! “Ugh! The nerve of that jerk!” she said while stomping off down the street. “Still,” she mused, turning back to look back in the direction he’d gone, “I guess he was kinda cute.”

<hr>
That went well. Certainly better than expected. After all, Mom had just kicked her out of the house and told her to stay in the library until it closed. Sure, she was so hungry that she had started to hallucinate a talking cat but all in all it didn’t go nearly as horribly as her apparently overactive imagination had indicated.

“You aren’t hallucinating,” the hallucination said. “My name is Luna and I’ve been looking for you for a long time now!”

“Oh yeah?” Usagi said. She turned another page in the book. So many words and numbers! How did anyone remember all this? “How long have you been looking?”

“Longer than you can imagine. I wasn’t sure if it was you the first time we met, but now I am quite certain.”

“You don’t say,” Usagi replied. “Certain of what, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“That you are destined to become the Sailor Scout of the Moon!”

Usagi massaged her sore temples. Maybe if she ignored it, then the cat would leave? Sailor Scout of the Moon indeed! “And what exactly is a Sailor Scout of the Moon supposed to do?”

“Oh, not too much. It starts with realising this is for real, and then hurrying off to rescue your friend Naru, who happens to be in mortal danger and needs your help.”

Naru? In danger? “And what would I need to - Wait. Where did that locket come from? What is that?”

“For pity’s sake! There’s no time for these questions right now!” the cat insisted. “Hold the locket and say ‘Moon Prism Power’. If you don’t, something terrible will happen to your friend!”

Usagi rolled her eyes and picked up the locket. Yeah. Sure. Just like Sailor V. Must have fallen asleep right where she was studying. “Oh, alright. If it’ll make you go away… Moon Prism Power!”

The word ‘power’ echoed in her ears and time itself seemed to freeze in place. In that single instant Usagi had the most perfect awareness of her surroundings. She felt as though she could place every speck of dust, every molecule of air, every sound every bit of heat every smell every everything all around her for miles and miles in every direction. Her clothes felt like they were melting off her body in the oddest sensation that made her gasp in surprising pleasure.

Power.

She felt her uniform being replaced with something else. A leotard. A tiara. Long gloves and boots, and a skirt that was a bit shorter than anything else she had in her wardrobe. It felt right to wear this. It felt like she was wearing her own destiny.

Power.

The changes weren’t merely cosmetic or fashion oriented either. Something inside her was changing as well. Her study-induced headache was fading, fading, gone, replaced by a focus the likes of which she’d never felt before. Any and all traces of exhaustion were similarly erased. The muscles in her arms and legs felt odd in a good way, and there was something else on the edge of her perception lingering on inside the palm of her hand that said one simple thing.

Power. She was powerful. She was Sailor Moon. This was real. It was real, and it felt so good!

“I - I - Oh, wow! This is real! But… I wanted to play Sailor V games, not live them!”

“Mom, what are you doing? St-stop that!”

Wait a minute. That sounded like - Naru? She really was in danger?

“Look inside yourself, Sailor Moon,” the cat calling itself Luna said. “Then you will know what to do!”

In the very next moment Usagi was out of a nearby window and bounding along towards where she somehow knew her best friend was in trouble. She did not run. She moved like the wind over the rooftops in eager bounds with a smile on her face. Usagi Tsukino had never felt more free!

<hr>
Oftentimes one makes a mistake without realising they’ve done so right away. Oftentimes, it takes a considerable amount of time to realise exactly how horrible a mistake you have made. Oftentimes, one will look back upon a previous action that had seemed perfectly sensible at the time and wish and wish and <i>wish</i> that a different course of action had been taken.

Right about now Naru Osaka was wishing upon wishes that she had not snuck home that copy of Night of the Living Dead and secretly watched it five times. This may or may not have something to do with the way the various shoppers had grayish flesh, bloodshot eyes and a staggered gait. Then again, she had to consider the possibility that they might not tear her guts open like a pinata and feast on the treats inside. They might do something worse.

“Mother, what has gotten into you?! Stop this! Please! It’s me, Naru!”

“Foolish girl!” her mother cackled. “Soon you and your kind will be eradicated from this planet. Once Queen Beryl unleashes the Negaverse’s full power, you will be destroyed!”

Okay, that was neither reassuring nor particularly informative. In a calmer situation she might have considered asking who Queen Beryl was and what the Negaverse might be when it was home, but given the manic expression and throaty cackling Naru didn’t expect the questions to be answered any time soon.

“Help me!” she called. “Come on, please! I’m too cute and young to die like this!”

“Let her go.”

All the noise within the shop ground to a complete halt. Naru turned towards the door, and saw a figure. A single figure, a girl in some sort of modified sailor school uniform. She was standing there defiantly staring down the hordes of zombie creatures being controlled by Naru’s insane mother.

“I said! Let her go!” the girl said. She took another step forward, tall and proud like she knew that in this fight there would be no question who would come out victorious.

“Who the hell are you even supposed to be?” Naru’s mother asked.

“Well, my name’s - I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice! And I say, on behalf of the Moon, I shall right wrongs and triumph over evil! And that means you!”

“That’s super. My name is Morga, these are my zombie slaves and they’ll be tearing you apart in about thirty seconds. Get to it! Kyahahahaha!”

In the blink of an eye, Sailor Moon was surrounded and Naru felt that twinge of hope begin to die. No way could she hope to handle all of these zombies! She closed her eyes and waited for the end, but could not bring herself to watch it unfold. She was sure she heard Sailor Moon’s voice say a few things, but couldn’t quite make it out over the shuffling and moaning and groaning of the horde. Had to admit, though, the girl was lasting way longer than she should have given how thoroughly outnumbered she was.

And then suddenly there was silence. Naru allowed one eye to crack open and she saw that the room’s attention had been taken by another intruder - this one standing at a much higher point in the room. A masked figure wearing a tuxedo. Now, who was this guy supposed to be?

“I am Tuxedo Mask,” he said. Well, gee. Creative name. “Sailor Moon, look inside your heart and find the warrior within you. It is your destiny.”

With that, he left. Wait. He <i>left</i>? He wasn’t going to get his hands dirty and join in? Just a few flowery words and off he goes? What a cowardly jerk!

Still. Kinda cute. And tall. And mysterious.

“Moon Tiara Magic!”

Light filled her senses, zombies around her began to disintegrate, transforming back into the women they had been before whatever the hell had happened… And the next thing Naru knew, dawn had arrived and she was sitting in her bed, drenched in sweat.

“Was… was that real?” she asked herself. To no particular surprise she did not have any answer to give.

<hr>
This was Sailor Moon’s first triumphant appearance, but would not be her last by any means. Though she may not be aware of it herself, Usagi’s own thoughts and desires had a rather unusual effect upon a reality entirely not her own. The strange cube that she had somehow fused with had inadvertently offered her the power to make alterations to any one of seven other universes through her own absent desires and wishes.

But the question is, which desire or wish was to be played out upon another reality?

1.     Her desire for a boyfriend.
2.     Her desire to be more intelligent/better at tests.
3.     Her brief desire not to be Sailor Moon.
4.     Her desire to meet Sailor V.
5.     Something else