The Sailor Senshi were having a difficult time. This new enemy was some kind of cybernetic clone, according to Mercury's analysis; according to that same analysis, it was also quite powerful. The analysis seemed to be proving correct. It had already sent them all sprawling in the first two minutes, and even Tuxedo Kamen and the Outer Senshi couldn't seem to help much. The cyborg raised its massive rifle again and fired at the Outer Senshi. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune managed to escape the blast, but Sailor Saturn wasn't so lucky. "SATURN!" She had been clipped in shoulder as she tried to dodge. "Ahh!" She stumbled. They all faced the cyborg. Saturn would have to wait for now. "TORNADO SLASH!" *********************************************************************** Based on stuff that's not mine *********************************************************************** Written by Cyclone *********************************************************************** W H I R L W I N D P R O D U C T I O N S *********************************************************************** presents *********************************************************************** T H E L U N A R K N I G H T S *********************************************************************** Author's Notes: Not really much to say here. Just enjoy the 'fic and tell me what you think. *********************************************************************** Episode One--Forgotten Memories "TORNADO SLASH!" Their eyes shot upward to see a young man dressed in white, red- trimmed armor with blue pants, red boots, and a red gem embedded in his forehead (if it helps, it matches Sailor Moon's color scheme). He held a sword with which he had just slashed the clone. His slash was enhanced by a tight funnel of wind, and the clone fell back, a deep gash in its chest. "Yo! Big ugly! I'm here to kick your ass back to hell where it belongs!" They blinked. It sounded nothing like any of their speeches. He leaped to the sky. While in midair, he brought his sword up and began to spin it. As he yelled, "CYCLONE BARRAGE!" a hail of miniature tornados flew from his spinning sword. They split up, each hitting the cyborg from a different angle, from the front, from the sides, and even from behind. The cyborg roared, sparks flying and systems shrieking, as it was torn apart by the biting blasts of air. Their rescuer stepped back, turned, and leaped away into the night. Sailor Moon was the first to find her voice, "Who... who was that, Luna?" The moon cat simply shook her head, "I don't know, Sailor Moon. I don't know." Sailor Mercury kept looking in the direction the young man had gone, a distracted look on her face as she thought, *There's something about him...* She shook her head and turned to Sailor Moon. "I'm sorry. What was that?" A concerned look crossed Sailor Moon's face. She then asked, "Are you okay, Mercury?" "Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" "Well, you seemed a little out of it a moment ago. Anyways, try an' find out who that was, 'kay?" "Of course." That night... Ami Mizuno slept fitfully. Confusing dreams invaded her thoughts as she tossed and turned. She could only catch faint snatches of various images: herself, the Moon Kingdom, and the man who had saved them earlier. Another image flashed by just before she jerked awake. It was of a group consisting of the man that saved them and three other young men, each dressed in similar garb. She glanced at her alarm clock. It read 2:46 AM. She groaned and rolled over, trying once more to sleep; she couldn't afford to have lack of sleep mess up her calculus test tomor-... this afternoon. She also had to check up on Hotaru. The wound wasn't fatal, but with her still-fragile health they weren't taking any chances. This time, she slept a dreamless sleep. Elsewhere... Ryouga Hibiki suddenly sat up. The dreams were back, more vivid than ever. Before, he simply ignored them. This time, however, it seemed too real for him to dismiss it so easily. Despite the vividness of the dreams, he was no closer to figuring them out. Something about moons, planets, and sailors... He shook his head to clear it. He had to kill Ranma and win Akane first. _Then_ he could start worrying about weird dreams. Later... "Cousin? What cousin?" Nabiki lazily glanced at her younger sister, "Akane, you don't remember Rei? The cousin you _always_ got in a fight with _every_ time we visited?" Akane held her chin, trying hard to remember. After a few long moments, she snapped her fingers. Nabiki grinned, "Remember now?" She nodded and frowned, "Why are we going to visit _now_ of all times? I mean, with the situation here, wouldn't it be better to wait until this mess with Ranma has all cleared up?" "That's just it, Akane. Ranma's life is _never_ going to get any easier. Kasumi thinks what we need is a break from the weirdness around here. Frankly, I couldn't agree more." "Hmm, you do have a point..." Akane looked up. "We're not dragging Ranma with us, are we?" Nabiki shrugged, "I don't think so." She turned and left. Two days later... "Rannnmaaa..." Akane growled warningly after he left her behind on the way to school. She glared at him, but much of her anger faded as she saw how distracted he looked. Meanwhile, Ranma was thinking about his recent arguments with Akane. Lately, he hadn't been putting his heart into it. It seemed so... pointless to him now. He thought back to why he fought with her so hard. At first, the reason was simple really, he didn't want the stupid engagement, so he had chosen to take out his anger on the most convenient target: Akane, who embodied the unwanted engagement. It had soon changed, though. His initial anger at his father and Mr. Tendo had faded within a few weeks, yet he still continued to aggravate her whenever an opportunity presented itself. But now, something was missing. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but for some reason, he felt like he didn't really _care_ anymore. "Ranma! Prepare to DIE!" He jerked his head up, "What? Huh?" Something large and heavy crashed into him, sending him flying off the fence and onto the riverbank. Ryouga landed next to him and swung his umbrella, barely missing Ranma and crashing it into the side of the reinforced concrete bridge. Ranma cursed himself under his breath for leaving himself so wide open. He leaped over the river and landed in a peculiar defensive stance. "I don't have time for this, Ryouga. I have no desire to be late for school." "Shut up, Ranma!" Ryouga noticed something odd in both Ranma's manner of speech and his stance. They were both different from usual, but they were also oddly familiar somehow... He shook his head. This was no time to get distracted. He flicked his umbrella open and sent it spinning like a top across the water. To Ryouga's surprise, Ranma held his ground and lashed out with his foot, knocking the clumsy weapon out of it's gracefully unorthodox flight path. Ranma suddenly dashed across the water and lashed out with his foot again, barely catching Ryouga across the chest, but with enough force to knock him off his feet and send him flying. Ryouga grunted as he landed. He was winded, but far from hurt. He got up and glared at Ranma, who had regained the unrecognizable-but- still-somehow-familiar stance. "SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!" Ranma's right hand began to glow with ki. He intercepted the depression blast and disrupted it, the heavy ki dispersing. Ryouga's jaw dropped as he stared. He muttered to himself, "How... how... how'd he do that?" "Ranma!" Both martial artists looked up to the bridge. Akane was leaning on the fence, "C'mon, Ranma! We need to get to school soon or we'll be late!" "I understand, Akane," he turned to Ryouga. "If we could possibly finish this later?" "Ahh... yeah... sure." Ryouga was still confused about the oddities of the fight. Before he could blink, Ranma and Akane had already run off on their way to school. Akane glanced at Ranma as they ran the last stretch. She didn't want to mention it, but this seemed to be the first time he had fought by the river without getting wet. "Halt, Saotome! I, Tatewaki Kunou, White Lightning of Furinkan High, shall defeat you this da-ummmmphfff!" Both Ranma and Akane trampled the kendoist underfoot without even breaking stride. Little did any of them know, trouble was nearing. At lunch... Akane noticed Ranma looked a little distant as they ate. He didn't even complain about the lunch she had cooked. *Not that there's anything wrong with my cooking!* she added fiercely. CRASH! The cafeteria wall caved in to reveal a large, four-armed creature with black, reptilian skin and red eyes. Most were somewhat surprised, as they were expecting either (a) Shampoo or (b) Ryouga. Ranma bolted to his feet and yelled, "Everyone! Get down!" He was halfway to the creature when he launched his first attack, "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" The monster let out an ear-splitting roar as it was struck by the blast. The dust cleared and the monster took a few steps toward Ranma and extended both of its left arms and said, in a deep, resonating voice, "You will pay, human," as it launched a pair of energy blasts at the young martial artist. Ranma dodged and glanced around. *Too many people here. They could get hurt. Better take this outside.* "Yo! Big ugly! This way!" He slid a window open and hopped out into the courtyard. The monster growled and blasted through another wall to follow Ranma. Ranma ducked under another blast and closed the distance between them. "KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" He unleashed a devastating flurry of blows into the creature's approximation of a gut. It laughed and simply batted him away. Ranma shook his head and got to his feet. *Okay. No close-in fighting.* He taunted the demon some more, "C'mon! Izzat the best you can do?" "RRAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!" Ranma backed away. *Okay, maybe I _did_ go a bit too far that time...* He then proceeded to lead the monster on a merry chase to the park, away from bystanders. Suddenly, the monster seemed distracted. He leaped to a safe distance and glanced where the monster was looking. What appeared to be an inhumanly large and muscular man with a lot of cybernetics was fighting a bunch of girls in abbreviated sailor outfits. The cyborg turned and faced the demonic creature and his eyes suddenly burned with hatred as he yelled out something indecipherable: "Rak tyu cahn rykk sohn, Branaugh!" He raised some kind of rifle and fired at the demon. When the smoke cleared, Ranma heard the demon's rumbling voice from the crater. It said, "Mann vist hirl rhok tahrin, Lathian!" and charged up a huge amount of energy between all four of its arms and released it, sending the massive energy blast into the cyborg. "What is going on?" He spun to see the sailor-suited girls behind him. *Damn! I must be slipping.* "I wish I knew," he replied. He paused and took a closer look at each of them. "You're the Sailor Senshi, right?" They nodded. "Then what are you doin' in Nerima?" They blinked, and the blue-haired one answered, "We were fighting that cyborg for quite a while. The fight took us out of Juuban and brought us here. What were you doing here with that... creature?" "I was fightin' it; it attacked my school. I couldn't seem ta hurt it, so I led it here to keep everyone safe while I figured somethin' out." They seemed about to say something when they heard a roar. They all turned and saw the cyborg blasting away at the demon. The demon growled, "Thar tuk kin ya, Lathian." The cyborg replied again in the strange language and spat on the demon. His eyes widened as the demon glowed bright green. The cyborg stepped back, but the demon suddenly erupted in a massive pillar of green light, vaporizing the cyborg in the process. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!!!!!" Ranma gaped at the massive destruction before him. It was beyond anything he had ever imagined. Even Ryouga's Full Shishi Houkou Dan paled in comparison to this incredible display of power. "Whoa..." he turned around again and found himself looking at thin air. The Sailor Senshi were gone. "Huh," he muttered. "I wonder what all that was about." He looked up again as a breeze passed, and he frowned, "Something's going to happen. Something bad. I can _feel_ it." *********************************************************************** Ryouga Voiceover: What's this?! A fight? Why isn't Ranma helping those girls fight that demon?? I'll bet he ran like the coward he is. I guess I'll have to take matters into my own hands. Well, wish me luck in the next episode of The Lunar Knights, "Escalation." *********************************************************************** Author's Postscript: There. Finally finished part one. Now, if I can just figure out how to balance school with all these _other_ 'fics I'm working on... This is Cyclone, signing off.