All it would take is for them to twig the truth, and oblivion would follow quickly after. Which meant, of course, that the best thing to do was to take it carefully. Baby steps, baby steps. Earn their trust to earn their lust.
"Welcome, ladies!" Libra said, making sure to give them a nice, big, polite bow. "It is a pleasure to meet you all, even if it is merely a dream."
"Yeah, sure," said Rei Hino, one of the more worrisome of the group. She had supernatural senses before becoming Sailor Mars, didn't she? "The arcade isn't making me think you're taking this all too seriously - Usagi! Stop playing and pay attention!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Usagi, ostensibly the leader, tittered. "So, why is this an arcade? I thought this was some sort of dream construct. Couldn't you make it look like anything?"
"Excellent question!" Libra clapped, just once. "It seems to me that it would hardly be fair to simply give you powers and point you at the enemy. These games are designed to assist you in learning how to use them effectively."
"Seems like you're getting ahead of yourself a bit," Makoto said. "We've not even agreed if we trust you yet." The tall girl leaned over and scowled at Libra, and let's just say that even though she was very pretty and stacked this was the kind of image that a lust demon didn't deal with tremendously well at the best of times. Never mind when she was backed up by four friends, at least one of whom was far stronger than she was in terms of raw magical power. "And nor have we accepted any power boosts yet. I don't wanna have to strip down in public again."
"Yes, my apologies," Libra said, quite honestly. "I am truly sorry for that. It was a bit of a stopgap measure, an emergency answer that should only ever be used in future as a last resort. I am quite sorry." Yep. Sorry that you hadn't yet become enough of a pervert to just accept the nudity and roll with it. Give it a little time, though... "These new techniques are far less sexualised, so you shouldn't have to worry about anyone else getting a glimpse at your fit, curvaceous form."
"W-Well, that's alright then," Makoto sniffed, while behind her Usagi and Minako laughed a little at her discomfort. "So long as you're not going to make us do anything like that again."
"Preparation is a kind of magic by itself," Libra said. "Why don't you put your pretty heads together and discuss among yourselves for a little while? I still need to fine tune a few of these games to make sure they'll prepare you properly..."
And off Libra slinked, though of course maintaining mastery of the dreamscape they were in right now meant that location didn't mean a damn thing. The entire conversation was right there waiting to be heard! There was something kind of strangely sweet about their suspicion, when all Libra was doing was trying to help them. Yes, help them... Both in stopping the monsters and awakening their sex drives to full potential!
"Libra seems quite genuine," Ami whispered, casting a worried glance in Libra's direction. Libra waved back, gave them a big, friendly smile and then set about working on one of the cabinets. "What he... She? It? Said about the new enemy fits what we've seen so far -"
"It could be a setup," Rei interrupted. "A new enemy, then we get the kind of powers we need to beat them. Can we really trust this guy? Might be working with them to set us up."
"That doesn't quite fit," Ami whispered. "The truth is, I set up the Mercury computer before going to sleep. It's doing a comparative analysis on the effects Libra is having on us."
... Shit. Shit, shit, shit! No, no, wait. Stay calm. Of course they'd do something like that. Just to be on the safe side. So long as everything you offer is on the up and up, Ami wouldn't be able to notice anything especially out of the ordinary. You're doing the slow burn. By the time she or any of them especially notice anything strange, it'll be too late.
"Mwahahahaha!"
"Huh? Something funny over there?"
"Oh, nothing!" Libra called back, keeping its head down. "Just remembering an old stupid joke. It wouldn't make sense in your cultural context, come to think of it... Hehe...It was an apricot all along..."
The girls ducked down again. "Alright, so he's a little peculiar," Ami admitted. "But the computer should wake me up if it detects anything in common with the kind of magic being used against us. I've also set up a few other precautions just in case!"
"Wow, Ami! You're so smart!"
"W-Well, it wasn't anything, really. I just thought we should be careful..."
"I'm all for it!" Minako said. "Let's give these powers a once over, then see what we make of them. If Libra really is up to something, we need to figure out what it is anyway... And we can't do that unless we lure it out! So let's get to it!"
Oh, girls. You really did have no idea, did you? Libra could feel it. That completely wicked smile. Which of them would break first? The boy-crazy tough chick? The boy-crazy airheads? The priestess, or perhaps the shy genius? Ah, the potential. Ah, the possibility!
"Alright!" Usagi said from behind Libra. "We'll give these powers a try, one at a time, just to see what we think of them."
<hr>
Ami was up first. It seemed appropriate. The reasoning made sense, sort of. She'd been the first to appear in the dream world and she had been the one to suggest the idea of games, sort of.
The ceremony for receiving the powerup was simple enough. Libra handed over a crystalline-alike of her transformation pen. Everyone stepped back. She held it up, said the phrase "Mercury Power Make Up!" and became Sailor Mercury in a familiar rush of power. Nothing felt different, but... Well, she'd have to wait and see, wouldn't she?
"What now?" she asked in a slight whisper.
"Now?" Libra smiled. "Your allergies have been cured for one thing. Just a little freebie is all! Now, your powers are based on water and ice, which doesn't seem fair for someone as hot as you." Ami blushed. Ooh, Libra really did not understand boundaries around things like that, did he? "Anyway! The main thing you were able to do was summon some kind of mist before, which is strategically useful but hardly a devastating finishing move."
"Quit stalling and get to the point," Makoto sighed. Next to her, Rei nudged Usagi, who was falling asleep. Inside a dream. Best not to get quite that recursive, probably.
"Alright, alright!" Libra cooed. "Ami, rather Sailor Mercury, please sit at the booth. All will be made clear."
There wasn't much else for it. Just like the rest of the dream, everything was made of crystal that didn't feel like crystal. The seat felt comfortable, but looked like a sculpture. The controls should have been stiff and crackly, but the joystick and buttons worked exactly like normal. Dream logic. All she could do was watch the computer screen come to life, where an 8-bit representation of herself walked across from the left side of the screen, while a trio of nasty-looking monsters approached from the right -
And then she was in the game. Everything around her changed, transformed completely. She was standing in a construction site where everything was pixelated. Everything but her and the trio in front of her. Green, slug-like monsters with tentacles spewing out of their mouths like tongues and from their back like limbs. Not quite Lovecraftian horrors, but that's only because she could properly perceive all of their dimensions. They were still rather horrific.
What was actually Lovecraftian about the experience was turning to the right, and seeing a giant version of herself staring back like a god down on his creation. Dream logic. Still not something to dwell on, thanks!
"Press A to perform Mercury Bubble Blast."
She felt her other, bigger self press the A button, and then she was going through the motions. Feeling the power welling up, and doing something that was both an extraordinary demonstration of magic and not especially damaging. An incredibly dense and blinding fog surrounded the area, engulfing the monsters completely.
Except that a tentacle still managed to shoot through the mist and grabbed hold of her arm, wrapping around it and trying to drag her in. Mercury felt her face turn pale. Even though this was a simulation, it still felt real! Dream logic. Okay! So this was the point where she'd learn her new attack. Right?
"Press B to perform Mercury Hydro Passion."
The B button was pressed... And the feeling of power within her this time was somewhat different. Images flew by her mind. Knowledge. Her passion was always knowledge. Understanding. Learning. Reading. Figuring out the patterns, seeing where it all made sense, how everything interconnected like pieces of a jigsaw where part of the puzzle was finding the pieces in the first place, realising there might be a gap and what shape it might take -
And it felt glorious.
With next to no trouble at all, Ami yanked the tentacle-wrapped arm and put it down onto her hip. Confident. Her other hand calmly extracted the tentacle and she walked off around the mist with an uncharacteristic cocky swagger to her hips. Powerful. Without looking she could feel them in the mist, and casually dodged out of the way of the incoming tentacles. Sexy. She lifted her hands into the air and wet her lips while the wind billowed up around her, making it feel as though all the knowledge of the universe was surrounding her, waiting for her to find it and rescue it from obscurity.
"Mercury Hydro Passion," she whispered, and the mist behind her turned into a field of death. All the water rushed directly around the slugs. If there had been anyone else in there as well, Mercury felt certain she would be able to keep the water from harming them. It condensed around them. Froze solid. And then, just as soon as she had completed the spell -
All of the strength left her body, and Sailor Mercury couldn't even stand anymore. A trio of new monsters entered the construction site... Then the simulation ended, and she was back in the crystal arcade, breathing like she'd run a marathon. Not that she knew what that felt like, but it was rather how she imagined that must feel.
"That's the weakness of your new attack," Libra solemnly observed. "It is physically and mentally exhausting. The second you stop using it, you'll become a sleepy idiot for about twice the time you have the spell active. But while it is active, you'll be able to completely manipulate the water you have already created, and your already prodigious intelligence will skyrocket to even greater heights."
"How do you feel?" Usagi asked, concerned as always, and the first of them to get to her.
"Feels like I woke up from a dream," Mercury whispered. Then smiled as she thought through what she'd just said. "Anything else I should know?"
Libra coughed and twiddled its thumbs. "You can recharge instantly if you need to. Like if there are reinforcements, as in that scenario? But I wasn't able to figure out any other way but to do the clothes transformation thing again. Sorry. I'll keep looking for an alternative, but it's not gonna be easy."
- Montage of the others getting their power boosts.
- The next morning, Ami looks over the readings.
- Soldier makes their move.
- Libra reflects on what it is really doing.
- Something else
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