Story: Sailor Moon Rivals

Subject to change! Awaiting final edit. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to make them below.

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Emotional Leeches were a common enemy of the Cheer Champions. Where do they come from? Well. Try staring forward. Directly forward at a single point. They originate in the dimension directly perpendicular to your blind spot. Don't worry if that doesn't really make sense, but it is honestly and actually the best explanation anyone that actually knew the answer would be able to give. What do they want? To feed on the emotions of those capable of generating them.

The trouble was that this made them a little bit bipolar in certain respects, so far as our own perspectives go at any rate. You see, there were numerous kinds of Emotional Leeches: Joy, Sorrow, Anger, Curiosity and so on. The funny thing about them is that the rest of the emotional spectrum, well, they're actually pretty okay at handling it and, yes, they do occasionally feed on one another. The trouble is that they all have the same kinds of general abilities...

Which means it's ultimately more tactically viable to come to our world (or similar) and get a bit of feeding done there. Drain their favoured emotion as much as possible before they're noticed and kicked out, but you had better believe that they'd tend to fight to the very last until they left a fertile and plentiful place of nourishment.

So this particular pride leech, then. The immediate thought he had at seeing two scantily clad girls catching him in the act of feeding off the local's pride was, well, understandably to scarper. He didn't actually have the required pride to believe himself capable of taking on either one of them, and so he had departed. But then, as he hid and observed from a safe distance with his metaphorical tail between his legs, he had an idea.

"They don't trust each other..." he realised. Lack of pride prevented him from thinking this realisation brilliant, but his own humble self was able to come up with a pretty good plan. Well... Maybe it was a good plan? Or maybe not. Maybe it would be better if he just stayed here to hide; if he made himself noticeable he might make them realise that he was their common enemy and they should work together.

Besides which... It did rather seem as though the magical girl in the short skirt... Uh... Make that, the one wearing high heels was not immune to his ability to drain Pride. Which meant that she was not immune to the other effects he could manage.

Sailor Mars made the first move by throwing a stream of fire at the Cheer Champion, who easily backflipped to the ground, landing heavily on hands and knees. Where her knees hit dirt, a small red ring spread out, kicking up dust. She snapped to her feet, clapped her hands in front of herself and charged forward with the intention of striking Sailor Mars right in the chest with her passion-inducing gloves.

However, Sailor Mars wasn't standing around waiting to be hit. She whirled around the attack and slapped an ofuda directly onto Cheer Red's forehead, making the passionate cheerleader's eyes cross and her gait stumble.

"I see," Sailor Mars said, backing slightly away. "You are a close-range fighter, and those gloves have some sort of enchantment on them. Then I'll have to keep you at a distance! Mars Fire Ignite!"

A stream of flames shot out while Cheer Red shook the ofuda off. Seeing the flames coming in, she clapped her hands and charged forward directly into the flame rather than attempting to dodge out of the way as Mars had expected.

"Your flames might be hot," Red taunted, making a fist with her right hand. "But even fire is consumed by my raw passion!" Her fist shot forward and struck right into the flames, and then to Mars' absolute amazement the fire seemed to vanish as though it were water being sucked through a straw. She barely had time to roll aside before that red gloved fist flew right by her head, and Cheer punctuated this with a damned cocky clap that was starting to really get Rei annoyed.

"Is that all you got?" Red asked. "'Cause you ain't as hot as you seem to think you are."

"Maybe not," Mars replied, drawing out an ofuda. "But neither are you. Deimos! Phobos!"

"H-Hey! Where did these birds come from?!" Red demanded, trying to use her hands to get rid of them. Good luck with that. Those birds were far too quick and agile to be caught by those gloves, whatever effect they were supposed to accomplish. And wouldn't you know it? In the process they were keeping this youma completely distracted. Meaning that she now had the perfect opportunity to tackle this enemy to the ground, striking her firmly right in the stomach so that all the air was knocked clear out of her!

Sure enough, this seemed to let the wind right out of this youma's sails. While Mars stepped back Red dropped to her knees gasping for air, and Mars found herself in the unusual position of having an enemy completely at her mercy.

"Before I fry you," Mars said. "I'd like to know just one thing. Who sent you here to drain those emotions away? I'd at least like to know the name of the enemy we're going to be fighting soon."

"M-Me?!" Red gasped. "I- I'm not h-here to drain energy! Th-Thought you were... You were a leech construct guarding th-the trap!"

"A leech construct?" Mars asked. Well, that might be a bit of an odd question but it was rather the first to come to mind right now. "What is a leech construct?"

And then, without warning, a bright spectrum of colours suddenly appeared right on the edge of Mars' peripheral vision. She half turned towards it in surprise, and found herself staring at, well... What might be the best way to describe the cackling figure she beheld at that moment?

Imagine if someone were to take a peacock, and then dunk it into the Spring of Drowned Girl. Then gave her a stereotypically flaming gay fashion designer with an unlimited budget and asked the two of them to construct a wardrobe for her. We're talking the sort of thing that even the Sixth Doctor would look at and say, "No, too much colour variance!" while desperately shielding his eyes.

So, what exactly did this entail? Well, let's start with the least offensive and most fun part of this young woman. Her appearance, ignoring the tacky clothes. We're talking a rather slim figure that Mars found surprisingly familiar, as a matter of fact. Because in every way it was a mirror of her own. In point of fact, even the face seemed rather like to hers, save for the fact it looked quite a lot like she'd decided to wear a plastic beak (or something that looked like one) over her nose.

As to the clothing itself? Let's start with the upside-down cape, wrapped around the waist and somehow flowing upwards in a manner like a peacock's tail. Ever see one of those still images that seems to shift around and change if your perception so much as slightly alters as you look at it? The cape was like that, with bright blues and yellows and reds and pinks. Further, all along this copy's arms was a bright rainbow plumage of feathers that went from her wrists, all around her arm, missed her shoulders, resumed around the side of the chest and then barely covered each nipple. As for disguising her more private areas, it appeared as though the cape had been tied on in a strategic manner to cover those as well. Again, barely.

Red had managed to speak as much as she was able after Mars had knocked the breath out of her, so instead of speaking she simply raised a finger and pointed squarely at this bizarre sight.

"Ask a stupid question," Mars said, readying an ofuda.

"You know, I should really thank you, Sailor Mars," a voice said, and a man stepped out from behind a tree. The same man as before, except much smarter looking. He even had a mirror in his hand, and ran a comb through his shiny, gleaming hair. "You noticed that we were draining your pride and tried to fight against it, and in so doing generated even more pride within yourself. How terribly helpful. It allowed me to rapidly gain the reserves needed to construct this beautiful creature. What do you have to say, my pet?"

"Pretty!" the peacock-like woman cooed, rubbing her head with her feathered forearm. "Pretty!"

"Yes, of course you are," the man said. "And of course you, Sailor Mars, even went and hurt that accursed Cheer Champion for us. Now all that's left is to finish the two of you off."

"Hmph, big mistake," Mars warned. "Telling me how you are charging this creature means I'll stop fighting the drain -"

"Meaning you'll lose all trace of self confidence, allowing yourself to be defeated by my pretty little pet," the man shrugged. "Lose/lose, as they say. This is why us Pride Leeches are the most powerful and wonderful and will be the rightful ruler of our own dimension before long!"

In which case, the smart thing to do would be to put this thing down quickly before either of those things happened. If she understood the situation correctly then this thing would get more and more powerful over time - So she'd have to surrender to the draining process to keep it from getting too powerful, and hope that she at least lasted long enough for backup to arrive.

"Mars Fire Ignite!" she yelled, aiming directly at the preening pest. It threw its arms around its head, and this seemed to produce a shield sufficient to block the flames.

"Caw!" the peacock crowed. "Hideous copycat! You dare try to scorch my perfect form? Take this! Caaaaw!"

It hurled a series of feathers from its plumage at Mars, and she wasn't anywhere near stupid enough to remain wherever they landed. She might not know what they did - the answer, it turned out, was create a nasty-looking fire plume half as tall as herself - but she had no intention of finding out the hard way.

"Mars Fire Ignite!" she yelled again, this time striking the peacock right in her stupid-looking beaked face... And did absolutely nothing. "What?!" she yelled. "How is that possible?"

"Leech constructs are fifth-dimensional meta-class manifestations," Red said, dragging herself to her feet but still wheezing for air. "Energy and matter from this dimension won't hurt them at all. Honestly, didn't you even know that much? Amateur!"

It made Mars just a little bit annoyed that this cheeky little pest was berating her for something she couldn't possibly know about, but then again shouldn't she have noticed something like that before when she'd attacked? Come to think of it... Now that she was actually looking she could see there was something different about this creature. Sort of like a line around where it was? The effect was similar to a badly done green screen effect.

Assuming that her attacks would work just fine on something like that without analysing the situation at first had been pretty arrogant of her... As had assuming that this girl was an enemy. Maybe she should be a little less brash? Maybe she should be a little more cautious?

Or maybe her pride was being pulled right out of her. Mars initially instinctively fought against it, but relented: If this thing got too powerful because of her, how would that make her feel? Maybe a little touch of humility wouldn't be such a bad thing...

"What about him?" Mars asked. "Is he -"

"Caw! How dare you ignore me and my beautiful plumage!" the peacock yelled, flapping its arms and lifting up into the air as if to dive bomb them. Instead, its cape seemed to spread wide, wide open, and she similarly spread her arms right out and then - "See? Isn't it stunning?"

Stunning was the right word. Colours swirled in front of Mars' vision even when she closed her eyes. All she could see was a dazzling assault on her vision, spiralling and twisting and bright and contrasting and tacky. No shapes, no objects, no anything at all!

"Look out!" Red yelled, and something pushed Mars to the side. "Don't tell me you actually looked directly at her? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

Trying to get herself killed? Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing under these conditions. It would stop that enemy from draining her pride away and growing even stronger. Her attacks couldn't do anything. Her very presence here was a burden to the only person that seemed to have any handle on whatever was going on.

"Red Passion Gloves!" she heard. "Recharge!"

A hand lay upon her forehead, and suddenly Mars could see again. That Red girl. And her gloves. Definitely doing some sort of magic to her, somehow curing the dazzling effect?

"You go after him," she advised, giving Mars a thumbs up, "while I draw the construct's fire feathers."

"R-Right good idea," Mars humbly said, scurrying over towards the preening enemy, still staring at himself in a handheld mirror. Would this even work? Maybe... Maybe it would work. Or maybe not. All she could do for now was follow Red's lead. She couldn't trust herself while her pride was being sucked out of her, so...

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" the man asked, again running a comb through his hair. "You've had a rather bad day of it so far, haven't you? First you mistake an ally for an enemy, and then you learn that you are far more hindrance than use."

Mars lifted her fingers with a defiant huff, and took aim. However. The words that she'd said so many times before seemed to catch in her throat. Worse than this, her hands were shaking.

"Look over there," the man nodded. "Red Cheer is fighting bravely without having to worry about you." Indeed she was. Leaping effortlessly off the ground, plucking the feathers out of the sky before they could hit her and then rearranging them into the word "Cheer". However, the peacock spread its cape wide open, forcing Red to cover her eyes unless she blinded herself.

"With each passing moment I drain more of your pride," the man sighed. "My creature really is feeding upon it. Growing faster and stronger, and may even develop new abilities. Do you think she sent you over here to defeat me? No, my dear. She sent you over here so that I could kill you. Cutting off the source of her problems one way or the other. Should either end of the rope come untied, my pretty peacock shall cease to exist. She intends to create a fight between us that gives her, and only her, victory!"

"Is that so," Mars said. "In that case... You've said exactly the wrong thing! Robbing me of my self worth, and then stating why things would be better even if I fell in battle against you." Her hands stopped shaking. She took a deep breath. "Mars Fire Ignite!"

The flames that flew from her fingertips never felt hotter than they did at that moment. They flew out towards this creep like an arrow in the night, her aim true, her passion burning brighter than it ever had even if her pride had been all but extinguished.

And then the man smiled, turned his mirror just so, then caught the very tip of her attack, causing it to reflect... Not back upon Mars but rather directly towards the back of Red Cheer as she fought wholeheartedly against the peacock!

Except that at that very moment, Red reached back behind herself and caught the burst of fire in her right hand, while the other pointed directly at the peacock. A bright red flame shot clear from that fingertip, and it seemed to Mars as though there was even a glove right at the end of it.

"Passionate Red, Burning Touch!" the cheerleader yelled as the attack struck the peacock clear in the chest, and it caught flame only for the briefest moment before becoming little more than ash on the wind.

"How?!" the man yelled. "H-How is this possible?! That fire - How did she know how to catch it? How did she even know that would work? That doesn't make sense. It can't have happened!"

"As if I'd waste breath telling the walking dead," Mars declared, pride fully restored with the creature burned to ash. She lifted her fingers with no hesitation as the man seemed to shrink away and freeze in place. "Mars Fire Ignite!"

But what had happened just now? Dear reader. Let us step back just a few scant minutes, at the very instant Red Cheer used her gloves upon Sailor Mars to restore her passion and heal her eyesight. You see, these two magical girls had a special capacity for noticing supernatural or otherworldly things, what some might call a sixth sense. The "passion" from Red's glove directly interfaced with Mars' Sixth Sense, granting the two of them a sort of heightened awareness of the other's abilities.

"Ah!" Red thought. "This girl can channel fire by calling upon the power of the planet Mars. Therefore the fire is technically a celestial agent with spiritualistic undercurrents as opposed to natural fire being supernaturally generated..."

"Oh?" Mars had thought. "This girl can draw upon the power of passion to motivate others, or redirect passion from one place to another. She's been able to use that to absorb the fire through her gloves, and right now is using that same energy to heal my eyesight."

"But if she can do that -" both of them thought at the same moment, and by then Mars could see again.

"You go after him," Red advised, using Mars' body to hide the act of miming a mirror. Mars slightly nodded, and Red gave her a more obvious thumbs up. "while I draw the construct's fire feathers."

And from there, even though her pride was injured Mars was full of passion for the fight ahead. She wasn't certain it would work, yet Red seemed to think she could do it. Passion drove her on. Passion made her arrive perhaps a little earlier than expected, as Red wasn't in position to pull off the attack quite yet. Out of the corner of her eye, Mars could see that she wasn't in position.

So she stalled. She hesitated. It wasn't hard. Her real doubts about this plan made it easy. However. You know a villain is truly evil when they take the chance to taunt a helpless enemy into trying an attack they know or believe is futile. This gave her the time she needed, and all Sailor Mars needed to do then was launch the attack, making sure to yell loudly enough that Red would hear it and know to keep her guard up.

Which the red themed cheerleader certainly did! Her glove easily caught the incoming redirected fire burst, drained it of the passion fuelled into the attack and gave her a momentary long range attack that the enemy would be too proud to dodge from the mistaken belief it would not hurt them. Fire that had been intermingled with Red's passion! Burning hot fire that shot out and utterly destroyed the enemy, just as surely as Sailor Mars' flames destroyed the leech itself. For the leech itself was not the same manner of construct, and so could be affected by the fury of her fire.

Needless to say, the leech was gone a few seconds later and to those with the senses capable of noticing it, like these two young women, the overall aura of the temple improved by leaps and bounds. It was like a slight trace of something off had been removed from the air. Everything felt brighter. Cleaner. Nicer. All that was left now were two cute young girls wearing red skirts and body-hugging clothes that could easily be mistaken for fetish gear staring directly at one another.

"So," Red said. "I guess that's... Almost everything."

"Almost," Mars agreed. "There is just the small matter of that passion you hit me with."

"And the way absorbing your fire is making me feel all hot and bothered."

The two of them stayed silent for a moment. Neither one quite sure of what to say next, or at least not wanting to be the one that actually says it. Ultimately, Red Cheer ran her gloved hand along her neck and gave herself a little bit of a passion boost. Maybe a little too much of one, actually, as she dove forward in an attempt to pin Mars against a nearby wall that was neatly reversed so that she was the one being held there by her wrists instead.

"I'm straight," Mars said, then apparently decided it would be a good idea to demonstrate empirical evidence to the contrary by kissing Red right on the mouth. "This is just because of the way our magics are affecting one another. That is all."

"Right. Same here," Red said with the slightest affirmation. "But knowing all that's not actually going to stop us from having a class-one, biometry-induced physical altercation - By which I mean magically enhanced lesbian sex - Is it?"

"I don't understand it myself," Mars said, releasing Red from the wall. "Somehow that makes me feel like it's even likelier. Come on. Let's get this over with."

... Okay, kinda going to need to see this.
Back with Ami, who is a little bit shyer about her new attraction.
Meanwhile, Jupiter and Green square off.
Or Venus and Yellow fight it out!
Or perhaps Moon encounters Pink again.
Something else