It’s a tough life being a security guard. The responsibility weighs on you. Knowing that it’s up to you to keep the wrong people from getting in, knowing what might happen if the wrong person does get in. Plays on the mind. Gets you thinking things. Like, what if they’re bigger than me? What if they’re carrying a weapon? Sure, there’s procedure in place and sure, backup isn’t far away. Trick is, it isn’t hard imagining a few seconds making all that much difference in the end. Which leads to a whole other trick that catches you completely off guard, which is what any half-decent trick should be doing by definition.
The real trick is saving yourself from the boredom. It dulls the mind. Sure, a whole bunch of people enter the building and leave the building, and you get to talk to pretty much all of them. Most of them are nice. Most of them are interesting. But you see, as much as the job relies on boredom, it can just as quickly turn <i>not</i> boring. Tends to be that when someone wants to start something, they start that fire with a flamethrower. Which means you gotta pay attention. Constantly. To every single person. Can’t drop your guard for a second, because your imagination is screaming at you the entire time of the myriad ways things could go wrong. But they never do. Never. Less than a percentage chance of something kicking off. So you’re spending most of your time sitting on you ass until something does kick off.
“Excuse me”, said a red-haired girl that he had immediately pegged in the ‘do not let in’ category. Obviously a fan of that stupid nonexistent love show looking to get a little action with the stars. She was dressed for it. Her blouse was conspicuously missing a few buttons at the top, letting her neckline (and the weird pendant she was wearing) be seen by any that wanted a peek and a skirt that showed off quite a bit of leg. “I was just wondering how much you would <b>love</b> to let me and my friend wander around the building.”
Another woman stepped out of nowhere. She was at least a little less obvious about it. Big sister, probably? The guard was about to toss them out. That would be the right thing to do in this situation. They were asking about a show that they didn’t broadcast, and had absolutely no reason to be in the building anyway. So yeah. Toss them on the streets.
“My pleasure,” he said, shifting awkwardly in his seat as a very bad attempt to hide the growing bulge in his trousers. Thank all the gods he didn’t have to stand up anytime soon. He waved the two of them in, felt his heart skip a beat and spent just a little longer than maybe he should have done staring at both of their butts as they strode inside. For some reason the sight was the hottest thing he’d seen in years. Well worth his job. Well worth ten jobs, just to burn the sight into his memory! He loved it!
<hr>
“That’s quite the powerful item you have there,” Morga observed. Naru fingered the pendant around her neck. “No wonder it reacted like that to the flower. Where did you find it? No, forget that. Just be careful with it. Magic is dangerous. You don’t know what kind of side effects that thing has.”
But Naru only half heard her. This was it. Somehow Usagi had used the pendant to become Sailor Moon and rescued her from mortal danger. Now it was her turn, and she even had an older mentor figure to help her out. If scatterbrained Usagi could do it, then there was no reason Naru couldn’t also do it. She was the sensible girl. Right? Right.
“Excuse me!” said a random worker. Tall. Handsome. Blonde. And cute. Very cute, in fact. “Are the two of you lost?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact we are,” Naru answered, spinning around to look the… rather handsome young man right in the eyes. “And I’m sure you would simply love to help us out. Wouldn’t you?”
The guy blushed and looked down at the ground. So adorable. Naru felt a brief urge to hug him, which she tried to ignore so that she could get on with what was important. Still, file that thought away for later on. “S-Sure,” he said. “Wh-What do you need?”
“Anything you can tell us about Midnight Zero,” Naru replied, deciding to play along with the obvious arousal their new assistant was feeling by cutely clasping her hands behind her back and batting her eyes at him. It seemed to have the desired effect, which made Naru feel kind of hot as well.
“Oh, that?” the guy sighed. “Wish I could help you. I <i>really</i> wish I could. But, that show doesn’t exist. We keep getting letters, but… We don’t broadcast anything like it.” He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. “It’s driving the producers nuts. They figure it’s gotta be an elaborate prank, maybe someone’s hijacked the signal or something.”
Naru deflated in disappointment. So much for that lead. Whoever was responsible for sending out those flowers was more careful than she expected. What was she supposed to do now? This whole hero thing was more difficult than she was expecting. If only there was something she could think of -
“What do you do with the letters?” Morga asked.
“Oh, the letters?” the man chuckled. “We pass them on to an assistant, who disposes of them for us.”
“Hehehe,” Morga chuckled. “I can’t tell if that’s brilliant or stupid. Use the locals to stymie investigation by plausible deniability. Pretty smart. But on the other hand, anyone that is a fan trying to get more information from the station is more likely to become suspicious.”
“Huh?” Naru wasn’t following this at all. “What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Morga shrugged. “They’ve (probably) hypnotised staff members and (definitely) hijacked one of their radio shows without them even noticing. I’d bet it’s the same assistant running the show, a new employee that nobody remembers interviewing.”
Ah! Now it made more sense. No wonder he didn’t know anything. Stupid. Naru should have thought of that sooner, but then Miss Morga did seem so much smarter than her in that sense. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this,” Naru whispered, really only for herself. “I guess I’m not really the superhero type, you know? If I ran into one of those monsters again, I don’t even know what I’d do.”
“Fear is a natural response,” the man said, suddenly reminding Naru that he was there at all. “When you humans are made to encounter something otherworldly, you don’t quite know how to handle it. So…”
“‘You humans’?” Morga repeated, her eyes narrowing. “You said… Ugh! I can’t quite see through it, but this is… Glamour! J-Jedite!”
“Very good, Morga,” the man, Jedite, said with a short bow. “I am disappointed to see that the rumours of your corruption have turned out to be true. How very tragic for you to fall in such a manner. You couldn’t even see through a basic identity-changing glamour, just like any other human.”
“Run!” Morga demanded, diving in between Jedite and Naru. “Find Sailor Moon, quickly! It’s one thing fighting a youma, but this person is -” She stopped and fell asleep in Jedite’s arms. He turned her over, revealing one of those energy-draining flowers stuck to her lapel.
Naru backed slowly down the corridor, her hands lightly fingering the pendant. “I’m sure you’d l-” But a hand clasped over her mouth, stopping dead what she’d been about to say. The next thing Naru knew, the pendant was ripped from around her neck by a woman with short red hair and a green business suit before she could even think anything.
“Excellent work, Flau,” Jedite said, extending his hand and taking the pendant. “I have… helped Morga to sleep, and now I shall enjoy helping her young friend learn the benefits of assisting the Dark Kingdom. As the young miss said, I do so <i>love</i> to help.”
- Usagi and Mamoru’s date continues, with him joining in her superheroic escapades as “mysterious masked Mamoru”.
- Usagi and Mamoru’s date is interrupted when one (or both) of them discover the mysterious goings on at a certain radio station.
- The pair stumble on an entirely different youma plot.
- Meanwhile, Luna has prematurely discovered another Sailor Scout.
- Jedite investigates the pendant, decides to use it to accelerate his plans.
- Something else
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