Senshi and the Skeletal Scalliwags

Tokyo Harbor, despite the weather, has been covered with a strange fog rolling in off the water at night. The usually packed storefronts are nearly deserted for the past day or two, an ominous feeling in the air.

During one of her study 'breaks' (i.e. slacking) Usagi Tsukino caught the news report.

One late-night patrol later as Sailor Moon, and she's standing on the edge of one of the buildings overlooking the harbor. Soon enough, the other girls are getting phonecalls.

"This weather is weird! And everythign feels really creepy!" She reports to her friends. It's the 'senshi business' number.

Moon then turns as something big moves across the water. Her eyes go wide, and then she lets out a terrified shriek into the phone.

A rotting, wooden pirate ship straight out of the carribean rolls into the harbor. A big skeleton captain at the helm, he points a rotting arm and rusty cutlass at the girl standing upon the roof.

"Yarrrrr me hearties! Let's get some rum and energy! FIRE!"

Cannons filled with evil black magic are fired, hurtling the glowing purple cannonballs right at Sailor Moon.

"GHOOOOST PIRATES!" Comes Moon as she trips more than dodges the shots, landing into a nearby alleyway as the building she was standing on is punched full of holes. Matchlock pistols are fired by some of the (literal) skeleton crew, with Moon crawling around on the ground, yelping and generally panicking!

"MARS POWER! MAKE UP!"

Ghost Pirates. Was Usagi serious?

Rings of fire blaze around Rei Hino, replacing her clothes with her henshin, one article after another, as each ring of fire tightens around her.

Of course she was serious. She said it on the senshi business line. She /better/ be serious or Rei will chastise her!

The tiara forms, red star earrings appearing on her earlobes, and the finishing touches of the henshin are made. Sailor Mars is on the way.

The red skirted senshi in high heels jumps from one rooftop to the other, running along the rooftop to build up speed, and then jumping at the edge to the next. She heard a scream for Sailor Moon, and that's never a good sign. Mars doesn't notice her ally at first, but her black-irised eyes spot the ghost pirate ship firing cannons upon the shore.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

When she looks down at the ground, seeing Moon panicking, Sailor Mars shouts, "Get up and fight, Sailor Moon! We don't have time to mess around!"

"Sailor Moon!"

Sailor Jupiter's arrival on the scene is heralded by the sudden blizzard of flower petals that gusts directly into the pirates' skeletal faces, hopefully throwing them into confusion and disrupting the aim of those old-fashioned guns. In whatever opening this provides, Mako leaps down from above, landing in a crouch next to Sailor Moon long enough to grab her around the waist and hoist her bodily upwards. "Don't worry," she says, flashing a quick and encouraging grin, "we've got your back!"

In the next moment she gathers her strength and leaps, carrying Sailor Moon with her out of the pirates' immediate line of fire to a somewhat safer vantage point where she can set her friend and teammate back onto her feet.

Mercury Power! Make-Up!

Water swirls around Ami and she spins right into it, her entire henshin done in one fell swoop.

Ami thought it was ludicrous as well. Chased after by skeletons? Usagi's imagination was starting to run away with her, or she was sleepwalking. She sounded quite serious though, and Ami changes into Sailor Mercury to run and help her.

The Blue Skirted Senshi was right behind Rei when she saw Sailor moon in trouble....and Sailor Jupiter immediately rescues her. "Thank you, Sailor Jupiter." She says fondly, before she says three words to give them a better vantage for the moment.

Mercury Aqua Mist!

This puts up the fairly cold fog so the skeletons can't see them. Hasn't worked lately though.

Rei arrives, and the fiery priestess manages to shove some courage into her! She's getting up, just as a barrage of wind and petals meets more of those cannonballs, knocking them aisde...and into another building. She's trembling in Jupiter's arms, and then they're on the rooftop. Her breathing is heavy, she's scared, but that encouraging smile and Rei's words soon have her standing again.

"Mars-chan! Jupiter-chan! O...okay! Let's do this!" Comes the girl as she wipes away her tears. Then a familiar, extra-cold fog settling in the area sends chills of relief down Moon's spine.

"Mercury-chan! What do we do?"

For once, the fog seems to be /working/. Cannons fire, ruining shops and leaving rents in the roads. Those shots are highly inaccurate given the fog! But its not like they run out of ammo. Sailor Moon claps hands around her mouth as one wizzes by.

The pirates too are starting to disembark! There's only about four of them, armed with matchlocks and swords. They spread out to search for the senshi as the Captain barks orders on the ship.

When one comes close to the building, Moon gulps, and gives an 'I got this' look to the others.

And then leaps down at the Pirate! And by leaps, meaning gives a skip and then tumbles bodily upon the thing. Thankfully she has the wits to protect her body, and become a Sailor Moon Cannonball!

Crunch. Moon lays there, swirly-eyed, in a pile of bones. Oddly effective.

Mars watches Moon's cannonball attack through the fog that only Mercury's allies can see through, and facepalms. It worked, she tells herself. It worked and she's trying her best so she can't criticize it. "Good job... Moon-chan!" she says reluctantly.

The canonfire continues, though less accurate. The four skeletons are coming after them, and they'll have to be taken care of, but Mars wants to see if she can't do something about that pirate ship.

She spreads her arms wide, infernal blaze rising from her hands and spreading over her arms. The fire rises and so does Mars's long black hair, slowly lifting behind her as if picked up by an invisible wind. "FIRE SOUL!"

A large column of flame roars up from atop the building she's on, forms a large fireball in the sky, and flings itself at the pirate ship.

Unfortunately one of the skeletons notices her attacking the ship, or at least hears her loud yelling through the fog, and grabs her shoulder from behind. "Let me go, you creep!" she shouts, as the sword rises and is about to fall on her.

She looks like she's about to turn around and punch a fool. At least she has the advantage that the other skeletons can't see her.

Minako Aino/Sailor V and her white kitty sneak into the scene from an alleyway, the direction of the fight they seek out made obvious by cannons and explosions.

V's tardiness is entirely the result of an argument between her and Artemis concerning the veracity of whether 'ghost pirates' exist. Judging by the kitty's countenance full of haughtiness and grins, he had won.

Minako is really grumpy right now. She doesn't let it show, though. Instead, she dashes out into the open in full fuku-regalia and waves her arms around to indicate that she has arrived.

"Sailor Moon! It looks like you're doing fine, even if you............ broke some bones!"

Even when Mars launches her attack, Mercury is making it a point to scan these underfed antagonists....especially the ship and the skeletons. "Well there's not much holding them together." She says as she taps her computer. "I'm willing to guess that the whole group is held together by the captain." She then shrugs as Rei gets caught, and she only uses one hand for her Mercury aqua jet attack. She's still scanning after all.

Looking down at the results of Sailor Moon's cannonball plunge, Sailor Jupiter can't help but smile, equal parts amused and impressed. Not the most graceful of landings, but it definitely did the job. "Nice one!" she calls down, raising a hand in an approving salute.

In the next moment, the latest arrival's waving arms catch her attention through the mist, and Jupiter's eyebrows lift in surprise. "Huh? Sailor V...?"

Mercury's words bring her focus quickly back to the matter at hand, however - and in any case, they can hardly argue with the helping hand. "Got it!" she calls over, and fro her current vantage she fixes her sights on the captain where he's issuing orders from the deck of the ship. "In that case... Ha!"

With a shout, Jupiter leaps from her roofside perch, hurtling herself on a downward trajectory aimed for as close to the pirate ship as she can manage. If she can follow Sailor Moon's example and come down onto the head of one of the ghostly crewmen, so much the better, but she's heading for the ship and the captain.

Moon, recovering, gives Mars a big grin! "I really can do thi..AHHHH"

Cue an errant cannonball, and her too-loud words drawing another skelton! She's forced to dodge wild strikes of a sword, ducking just in time for the blade to get lodged in a lightpole!

Mars' attack flies true, slamming into the ship! The big, wooden thing catches on fire in the sails! Soon, the crew is scrambling to put it out and some of that cannonfire ceases!

Wham! Mars' fist hits her skeletal opponent in the gord, and sends its head flying off! It lets go, staggering, and then is blinding groping around for its skull! The skeleton's partner grabs that head, and throws it at Mars!

The final skeleton is there to meet Sailor V, rushing up to her, and swiping at fog as well as trying to give her a horrible haircut!

"Yarrr! Give me all of that brilliant energy lass! An' some o' yer foreign booze too!" Demands the skeleton.

"I'll trade yer!" He then throws skeleton booze at Minako. It explodes like a tiny grenade!

The Captain is hard at work, grabbing a musket and firing randomly. It takes several shots, but a few go for Mercury!

Her scanning shows the majority of its power being concentrated on the Captain. She might also note a rather large amount of what might be black powder in the lowest deck!

"We need to get to the Captain then, everyone!"

Jupiter's leap takes her from piling to piling, the aethletic senshi making it up with one final leap up to the deck! Pirates stare in amazement, and then the Captain knocks one overboard.

"Stop starin' ye lilly-livered scallywags! GEt 'er boys!"

Cutlasses and boney fists fly for Jupiter! The Captain cowers behind his crew! Sailor Moon ducks her own assailtant, and shoves him down, before taking off her tiara!

"Mooon...Tiara....ACTION!"

A long throw, and several of those skeletons assaulting Jupiter are blown away by the power of the moon, leaving Jupiter an opening to get at the Captain! The skeletal leader raises his rapier and swipes at Jupiter with a wave of dark energy!

"I...Don't believe it." Mercury manages to chuckle out as she gets those readings. "Well....time to take a risk." She says to herself. "MARS! JUPITER! AIM YOUR FIRE AND ELECTRICAL ATTACKS FOR THE SHIP! TRUST ME!"

Just as she calls that out....she gets the heck off the roof. Anyone yelling that much is likely going to get a cannonball in the face, and Mercury isn't standing around to find out. So...Off the roof she goes!

Shabou Spray!

She calls out and fires a few bubbles towards Sailor V's aggressor, which explode with concussive force at the skeleton, trying to destroy it.

She's also making sure not to get any water based attacks towards the ship....for she has a plan, and Mars and Jupitar are instrumental in it. She just hopes they get off the ship when they realize what they're doing.

Mars's attacker is decked by a flaming fist. She isn't quite as strong as Makoto in that field, but the magic helps. The counter attack comes as a second skeleton comes after her. The skull is thrown at her, and she kicks it in mid-air, launching the skull back at the thrower.

The first skeleton, groping around for its skull, gets her attention next. With a quck shove, she tries pushing it off the rooftop.

Mercury tells her to attack the ship with flames. Well, it seemed like a good idea, and the sails are certainly on fire from her first attack. "Got it!"

Mars approaches through the fog, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as she makes her way towards the ship. Fighting the two skeletons held her back a bit, but she launches several fist-sized bright fireballs at the ship's hull when she runs past it. She's strafing the ship as she fires upon it.

Minako Aino/Sailor V complains about foreigners associating her with booze as she squeals and jumps about. She's seems more worried about being covered in weird unknown booze (she assumes it's rum) than the explosions.

"I don't have any foreign booze. Or domestic booze!" she claims, jumping away past Mercury's bubbles and leaving a few glittering laser blasts from her finger as a parting gift for her skeletal friend.

She turns her attention to the deck of the ship. "Yeah! Burn it up! Pirate ships should be sunk!" she shouts, absolutely in agreement with Mercury and anything encouraging destruction of property.

Sailor Jupiter springs back from the ghost captain's rapier as it sweeps outward; crossing her arms in front of her as a shield, she braces herself as the wave of dark energy burns over her and pushes her back. In its wake, she rallies, lunges into motion--

Only to stop short, boots skidding on the deck, at Mercury's shout. "--What? Not the captain?"

SUDDEN BACKPEDALING because if she keeps standing there in surprise he's going to SKEWER HER and that would be painful and embarrassing. Go for the ship, Mercury says.

Well, if the lady says so...

Electrical energy crackles to life around both hands, crawling down her arms as Sailor Jupiter raises her fist and summons up all of her strength, a flood of power that starts in a solid stance and rushes up her spine from her hips into her shoulders. "Haaaa--!"

With a ringing, inarticulate shout, she brings her electrified fist down full-force onto the planks of the deck.

Sailor V and Sailor Mercury work together well, and the skeletons assaulting Minako are first bubbled, and then blasted to pieces with lasers! His skull, forelorn, mutters.

"And I were only one day away from retirement with me dark energy booty! Yarrrr!"

One skeleton gets a three-story goodbye from Mars, shattering into bits upon pavement. Then there's a skull counter-flung at the other skeleton! Wham! Down it goes.

"Go Mars-chan! You should become a baseball player!" Encourages Moon!

Then fire races for the ship! The mast, by now, has caught aflame and falls into the sea. Pirates scramble, soon many on fire, leaving Jupiter a hellish dueling ground against the Captain! But the fireball to the side of the ship eats into the wood of the lower decks, and an ominous sound slowly begins to grow.

Then Jupiter skids back, and aims her fist towards the deck! She slams down with that electric charge, cutting through wood like so much butter in a massive hole!

Jupiter's first warning to bail might be the look of utter /horror/ on the Captain's skeletal face. The second is his yell.

"ABANDON SHIP ME HEARTIES!" Then he's running for the pier. Can the goodly Captain make it!?

"Sailor Jupiter, jump off!" Yells Moon, for once quick on the uptake.

It's right then that the ship explodes in a glorious dark-red ball of evil dark energy gunpowder, leaving a massive fireball in the sky that will leave headlines.

Can he make it? Can the Captain make it??

Apparently not! A white-gloved hand holding a cane shoots up from the grate leading belowdecks and extends it in front of the Captain's pounding feet at the exact moment he's passing, and the Captain goes sailing through the air, well short of the end of the ship!

Just as Jupiter's fist is coming down on the hardwood planks of the deck, the grate bursts upward and a black shape hurtles up and out and over the side, literally like a giant bat out of hell. Perhaps... a Chibat. In fact, entirely possibly...

[|B)

...a Chibatman.

Mercury smirks a little bit as the ship suddenly goes nuclear under the assault of Mars and Jupiter. Mercury simply giggles and takes a semi-airy tone.

"Oopsie! Did we just hit your powder reserves? Does that mean you can't fire anymore cannonballs at the shore? What a shame. You, sir, are fired."

Mercury then giggles a bit more when she notices a dark figure leaping off of the ship, and trip the captain. But when the captain hits the deck from the dark figure's cane, Mercury opens the fog enough to wave at the captain and says the corniest line in her entire life.

"You are the weakest link. Goodbye!"

*BOOM*

WHO IS THAT MASKED BAT?

That's the question on Mars's mind as she sees Tuxedo Kamen appear and topple the SkeleCaptain over.

The ship is sinking, and Mars holds her fire. She doesn't want to hit her friends with friendly fire. Yet that doesn't change the fact that she's really fired up right now!

Once her friends are clear, she focuses her attention on the captain himself, sending a huge fireball his way. She times it to hit right after Mercury's line, as if to punctuate it.

Minako Aino/Sailor V takes up the role of the laziest opportunist, sniping down skeletons as they enter her line of sight.

"I don't get it," she responds to Mercury. "Like, he's a chain link? Like the fence?" she asks.

Unlike Mars, V has no such compulsion with friendly fire, putting shots down right past her friends. Unlike explodey fireballs, her attacks have no unfortunate explosions that might singe friends. But her beams are right on target every time. Even around Tuxedo Kamen (even if it seems like she might be giving him slightly less leeway).

As for Sailor Jupiter, well... she needs no more encouragement than Sailor Moon's shout. She is *bailing.* With no more attention to spare for the Captain (not that she needs to with Tuxedo Kamen appearing out of nowhere to cut short the specter's escape), she bolts across the blazing deck to vault the nearest railing, throwing herself into a headling dive into the bay below.

She splashes down into the water mere moments before the ship explodes.

A deft cane sends the poor Captain tripping and tumbling onto his boney face and beard. The parrow atop his shoulder wobbles about drunkenly, before it steals the last of the Captain's booze, and flies away. The parrot gives a silent, birdy nod to the retreating chibatman in avian solidarity.

It's around right then that a giant fireball slams down upon him as the whole thing goes up in flames at Mercury's words.

Sailor V's sniping takes out the last of the skeletons, as the entire mess slowly dissolves into ambiant dark energy.

Moon, worried as she watches Jupiter leap out into the water, holds up her disguise pen.

One moment later, she's standing there in a...cowgirl outfit, complete with duster, cowprint leggings, and a hat? She has a rope on her, and she tosses the lasso into the water, trying to rope in Jupiter 'helpfully'.

She also might catch an errant Tuxedo Kamen.

"Is everyone alright!?" Her voice, notably, has a southern twang to it right now.

"We're a lot better off than those skeletons." Mercury says with a smirk. "They didn't have a snowballs chance in a blast furnace."

The puns...they burn. Much like the ship.

Mercury then smiles to Sailor Moon as she attempts to fish Jupiter out of the water. "Are you all right Sailor Mars?" She says as she starts to put her computer away, but then gets an...odd thought....and turns back to the wreckage to scan it....posthumorously.

Mars notices that Makoto and Tuxedo Kamen are in the water. Moon has an idea to get them out. Mars is still off-balanced by some of Sailor Moon's tactical choices but in the end she doesn't argue with results.

"I'm fine, Mercury-chan," she says, before jumping down to ground level. Mars rushes up to Moon and holds onto the rope, helping her haul her catch back onto the deck.

Minako Aino/Sailor V complains about not getting answers to her chain link fence questions, but eventually joins everybody near the water line.

"Ewww, you fell in harbor water. You're gonna smell," she says with a pout, smelling like a drunk herself. "I'll be right back and get you guys something to clean off with!"

She dashes off and returns just as quickly, collecting towels as promised using the recently blown-out walls and windows nearby to borrow some supplies for her waterlogged friends.

As the ship and its ghosts dissipate into wisps of darkness, Sailor Jupiter surfaces, shaking sodden hair out of her eyes. The rope lasso that lands in the water not far in front of her is a surprise - to say nothing of the cowgirl on the other end of it - but after a moment spent blinking briny water out of her eyes, she grins and grabs hold, using the lifeline to tow herself back toward and onto dry land.

As she goes, she's looking around, searching for any sign of Tuxedo Kamen in the water. He'd surely have gotten off the ship in time, but if he needs a helping hand...

Last of all, there's a tug on that rope; they seem to have hooked quite a big one!

Quite heavy; could Tuxedo Mask have turned to lead? After a bit of hauling, a shape arises from the depths, greeish-tinged white glove first. Then Tuxedo Kamen, hair plastered to his head and mask still in place. He looks very solemn. As soon as he's in reach, he hauls a padlocked wooden chest up out of the water and overhands it onto the dock, where it crashes heavily and breaks a little bit.

Weight lifted, the older boy tugs lightly on the edge of the dock and springs out of the water, landing with a huge splatter of bay water.

"Sailor Senshi," he says, starting to wring out his cape and dripping a lot, "There was a lot of magic in there; I couldn't tell if that was cursed pirate gold or the Ginzuishou. Sayonara!"

That said, the drowned scarecrow in the cape drippingly leaps away into the dark night and shadows.

In the distance, there are receding rooftop squelches.

Minako Aino offers towels in exchange for treasures. Treasures, which she hugs SO HARD.