Chapter 85

Aries of the Dark Kingdom, whatever that was, charged for me, wisps of flame trailing off his charging form from air friction as he blurred forward like a comet. I was forced to use the Resenkyaku of Master Tung Fu Rue to leap out of the way, the momentum of the violent thousand legs technique carrying me up into the air as Aries streaked by underneath me to smash into a parked Bepsi Delivery Truck, utterly destroying the truck and spilling gallons of the Japanese Soda all over the pavement.

I landed behind Aries and launched into a Sengokushoha of the Ansatsuken, the rushing punch allowing me to slip past the twisted metal axle from the Bepsi Delivery Truck that Aries flung at me as well as avoid the flaming breath he exhaled my way. My fist slammed into Aries' ribs, only managing to stagger him slightly in comparison to how my blows practically sent him sprawling away earlier. I was forced to dodge away from the meaty fist sent my way as Aries countered with a Haymaker that I just barely slipped, coming back in with a Tailwhip Combo of the Great Kung Lao, the Chi-Powered Punch and Kick Combination launching Aries up into the air around five feet and allowing me to fire off a Lightning Bolt Spell into him with a mystic gesture and incantation.

The crack of lightning seared into Aries and sizzled his Demonic Flesh, causing him to jerk in place in mid-air for a moment before landing heavily on the pavement. Aries stumbled to his feet, but I knocked him down again by launching into the Jyasen of Master Gen, the rolling, kicking, assault, slamming into Aries' Knees and cracking Demonic Bones, toppling the Demon back to the pavement where he landed with a pained grunt and a thudding noise. I popped back to my feet just in time to leap away from another blast of fire breath.

Aries limped back to his feet and I noticed that my last sequence of attacks must have done quite a number on him because he was actually limping. No longer cocksure or aggressive, Aries was now trying to play things cautiously, his eyes shifting right and left as if looking for another victim to drain, however, Kensou and Athena had managed to clear the street of any bystanders nicely and it was just Aries and I out here on the street for the time being.

"Where are you looking? My associates have already cleared the area of any bystanders. There's no one left for you to absorb the energies of. Unless you'd care to try me? Please try me, I dare you." I grinned at Aries in Japanese.

"Damn it! it wasn't supposed to be this way! You'll regret getting in the way of the Dark Kingdom!" Snarled Aries.

"You keep using that name, Dark Kingdom. I've never heard of that particular Hell Dimension before, and trust me, I've heard of a lot of them. What is the Dark Kingdom?" I questioned.

"It is where we were banished all those millennia ago! The People of the Kingdom were just jealous, their Silver Millenium couldn't handle our retaining worship of the Old Gods!" Spat Aries.

"Old Gods? You mean the Old Ones?" I queried.

"I mean Yamath! Master of Demons and King of Chaos! Our Queen was his High Priestess!" Roared Aries.

That was a name I knew of. Yamath was one of the various Old Ones worshipped in Lemuria shortly before the Thurian Cataclysm wiped Antediluvian Earth clean of Old One Spawn and their Cultists. If I recalled correctly, Lemuria, unlike Atlantis, had been taken over gradually from the inside, instead of invaded by Demons from without, though both had to be swallowed up by the waves in order to free Antediluvian Earth of the plots to unseal the Deeper Well, where the Old Ones had been imprisoned. Yamath was often depicted with skin black as ash, eyes alight with green balefire, and four, clawed, three-fingered, hands at the ends of four, powerful, arms.

Most importantly, Yamath had managed to manifest an Avatar that resided as King in the City of Patanga on Lemuria that the Cataclysm couldn't kill. It took mystically sealing the Avatar in the Sun to actually kill it. I guess the nuclear processes of an active main-sequence Star were enough to deal with something like that. It would probably take more than a couple of nukes to do the same these days.

"Well, it sounds like you lot shouldn't be encouraged then." I intoned deciding to finish this now before the worship of another Old One could spread. Modern Earth didn't even have a quarter of the mystical resources that Antediluvian Earth did when it came to things like this, after all.

I began to charge a Denjin Hadouken of the Ansatsuken Style, gathering the energy into my hands and changing the energy of the Chikara no Hadou into my cupped palms and charging the attack. Lightning began to spark and crackle within the palms of my hands as the blue glow of sheer power coalesced. Aries' eyes widened at the power on display as my charging attack neared its crescendo. He tried to run, only to find himself once more rooted to the spot via my Megakinesis.

"What are you?" Asked Aries.

"All you need to know is that I am your doom! Take this, Denjin! Hadouken!" I shouted, thrusting my arms out and firing the beam.

The torrent of blue energy, crackling with yellow lightning bolts, slammed into Aries scorching the Goat Demon and flensing his flesh from his bones. The Goat Demon, weakened from the extended battle, practically dissolved in the light as he was struck by the power of the Chikara no Hadou. When the flash of power dissipated, all that was left of Aries was a blackened scorch mark on the ground, a pile of ash, and a pair of scorched goat horns. I took the Horns and shoved them into the expanded pocket of my coat, before conjuring a gust of wind I learned from Penny Halliwell to scatter the Demonic Ashes in such a way that Aries couldn't be resurrected.

"And that, as they say, is that." I huffed.

"All right you! How dare you menace innocent shoppers! In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!" Came an Exclamation from a nearby rooftop.

I looked up and saw something completely incongruous with my image of a Champion against the Antediluvian Horrors of Pre-Cataclysmic Earth. Three teenage girls in Sailor Fuku that seemed completely over-embellished, though they brimmed with Mystical Energy. Each seemed different than the others, and not just from the way they were color-coordinated either, though that was also a thing.

One was a Girl with long, black, hair who seemed to be touched by the Kami. My mystic radar pinged with a distinct sense of flame off her, which seemed to go with her snarky attitude and red color coordination on her Sailor Fuku. Somehow I got the impression that the majority of her power came not from the Kami of Japan, however, but from the Planet Mars. It seemed that without that power, she'd only ever be a middling Mystic Talent.

The next didn't even have that much native power. She was about the same height and build as the Mars-Powered Girl, but she carried herself with less confidence. While her hair was the same dark shade as the Mars-Powered Girl, it had a distinct blueish tinge to it. I got a sense of Water from her, which seemed to mesh with her calmer personality and blue color coordination of her hair and Fuku, though she seemed entirely powered by the energies of the Planet Mercury.

Lastly was the one who spoke. She was clearly some sort of leader of this trio of magical girls, and her power was all her own, without much in the way of external energies. She was slightly chubbier than the other two, with long blonde hair tied up in two tails that cascaded down to her left and right. Her Fuku was white with dark blue and red, whereas the others were predominantly blue or red with white, but not all three. I could tell her power was entirely internal, though it seemed to also have links to the power of the Moon, it wasn't dependent on it in the least. She also clearly had the most power of the three girls.

"What are you talking about? I handled the Demon." I frowned.

"What? But you said that there was a Youma here, Ami?" Blinked the Leader.

"There were, but now there aren't." Responded the Mercury-Powered Girl, Ami, while looking at some sort of handheld scanner.

"Jeez, if Dumpling Head over here hadn't insisted on finishing checkout first, we would've probably been able to get here in time." Snarked the Mars-Powered Girl.

"Hey, it's not my fault that those shoes were on sale like that! If I hadn't finished checking out, someone else could have gotten them!" Protested the Leader.

"I understand that, but you really shouldn't make a habit of delaying responses to crises like that, you know." Sighed Ami.

This was absurd, teenage girls with no sense of urgency shouldn't be leading a response effort to Demonic Incursions. Time to weigh in here and do the thing that Senpai do when their Kohai need a kick in the ass to get on the right track. We are in Japan, after all, it'd be rude of me to pass on this.

"You know, you really ought to listen to that advice. Take it from me, I've been doing this a few years now and I can tell you, if I hadn't been here, that would have gone really bad for the folks on the street." I pointed out.

"Oh? And just who are you supposed to be then?" Questioned the Mars-Powered Girl.

"Name's Ulysses. I doubt you've heard of me, though. Not unless your Kami talks to Lord Raiden on the regular?" I queried.

"Not regularly, no. I'll be checking in on that, though. Count on it." Huffed the Mars-Powered Girl.

"How do you know that Rei works at a temple, anyway?" Asked Ami.

"It's burned into her Aura for anyone with even a moderately powerful Third Eye to see." I shrugged, fishing in my jacket for a packet of Red Apple Cigarettes and a lighter.

"So you're a mystic?" Questioned the Leader.

"Mystic, Psychic, and Chi Adept all in one package, actually." I nodded.

"Plus a Champion of Lord Raiden, apparently." Huffed the Mars-Powered Girl, Rei.

"Not just Lord Raiden. Ask your Kami if you want more info. The thing is, you've gotten my name and general info, but haven't introduced yourselves. That's pretty rude of you. I thought you Japanese folks were all about being polite?" I frowned.

"Oh, right, introductions! I am the Guardian of the Moon, the Pretty Soldier of the Silver Millenium, Sailor Moon!" Exclaimed the Leader, striking a pose that looked utterly baffling.

"Huh, you look ridiculous, you realize that right?" I drawled, popping a Cigarette into my mouth and lighting it up.

I took a deep drag and breathed out, before there was a blur of movement and Ami was in front of me, snatching the cigarette out of my hand and stubbing it out on the pavement. She was still smaller than me even in heels, though the glare she turned on me was no less intense.

"Cigarettes will give you cancer." She insisted.

"Not the way I do it. You realize that when Magic and Chi is in play, that sort of thing doesn't always apply, right?" I grumbled.

"Even so, best not to get into bad habits like that." Sniffed Ami.

Looking over at the other two, who had descended the rooftop after Ami's dash to literally slap the cigarette out of my hand, I cocked a questioning eyebrow and made a gesture at Ami.

"She always like this?" I questioned.

"She wants to be a doctor." Shrugged Rei.

"Fantastic." I groused. I didn't reach for another cigarette, though. There was no sense in provoking the teenage girls with more power than sense. Not unless I wanted to start the fight up again.

"Anyway, we should go. The Youma's clearly been handled." Sighed Ami.

"Yeah, plus that means more time to shop!" Grinned the Leader, Sailor Moon.

"I have been looking at the new Portable CD Player that Mishima Industries is putting out." Admitted Rei.

"Sure. Have fun." I nodded, giving a jaunty wave.

The trio of girls leaped away, heading for a distant rooftop, likely to change out of those ridiculous uniforms. As they did so, Athena and Kensou returned ready for a fight but finding none. My two teammates were brought up short out of their mad dashes back to the crosswalk.

"I took care of it. The thing's dead." I nodded.

"Good. I sensed some really bad vibes off that guy." Huffed Athena.

"As if the absorbing of that Woman's energy wasn't a dead giveaway of that." Snorted Kensou.

"It's worse than that. These guys are the remnants of Lemuria, they'd been stuck in a hell dimension called the Dark Kingdom for millennia. I guess they just got loose. They're worshippers of the Old One Yamath." I sighed.

"Oh? Tell me more. I thought all the stuff from that long ago was settled?" Questioned Athena.

"It gets worse." I admitted.

"How worse can you get than that?" Queried Kensou.

"Apparently, the people tasked with stopping them are a bunch of bickering teenage girls who are even younger than me and don't seem serious at all about their responsibilities." I answered.

"That's not good." Frowned Kensou.

"Yeah, it seems like there's two Apocalypses brewing in Tokyo this summer." Added Athena.

"We ought to focus on the one we came here for first." I insisted.

"How do you figure?" Asked Kensou.

"The fact that I've never heard of this Dark Kingdom before today suggests that they're not very close to unsealing themselves from the Hell Dimension they're stuck in. Meanwhile, we know the Yamata-no-Orochi is waking up." I pointed out.

"I guess that's true. I don't like it, though." Frowned Athena.

"Neither do I, but you've gotta have priorities when it comes to Apocalypses." I shrugged.

"Triage more like." Smirked Kensou.

"That too. Come on, let's get our bags out of the wreck of the cab and see if we can't catch a train to the Starside. I think there should be a station somewhere close by." I nodded.

We did so, gathering up our bags out of the trunk of the wrecked taxi we'd previously been taking when all this had blown up, and made our way down the street toward what I was fairly sure was a nearby train station. As we did, my mystic radar pinged once as we passed an alleyway. I looked to the right to see a small, black, cat with a crescent-moon-shaped mark on her forehead. That was no mere cat, and I winked at it as we passed by. The cat, startled, let out an oddly human-like exclamation of surprise and fell off the trash can she'd been sitting on. Then we were past the alleyway and headed for the train station.

As it turned out, we had to go through a couple of extra hoops to convert some USD into Japanese Yen at the station in order to buy tickets, but soon we were riding the train to the Starside Hotel in Roppongi. We checked in about an hour and a half later than we'd planned thanks to all the fuss. Athena and Kensou just wanted to chill in the room, but I was starving, so I headed for the Hotel Restaurant.

While there, I would wind up running into some of our competition for the Tournament. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, sorry about the slow pace of chapters to start the month off, but I caught the flu from one of my younger cousins on Thanksgiving Weekend and have been trying to recuperate since.

Here we see the end of the fight with Aries and the meeting with the Sailor Senshi. Mokoto hasn't quite been revealed as Sailor Jupiter yet, but she's close. In the Anime, Jadeite getting replaced happened in episode thirteen, while Makoto being Sailor Jupiter happened in Episode Twenty-Five. This chapter takes place somewhere between episodes nineteen and twenty in the episode count.

I have also altered the backstory of Sailor Moon significantly to fit in with the crossover. The Silver Millenium was part of Antediluvian Earth, and while the Sailor Senshi get their powers from the planets, they aren't from there. Instead, only the Moon hosted life during the Antediluvian Earth Period and exercised significant influence over parts of the East of Antediluvian Earth, like Lemuria and Mu. Meanwhile, the Dark Kingdom was the survivors of Lemuria, much of which had been taken over from within by Old One Cultists. The Fall of the Silver Millenium roughly coincides with the Thurian Cataclysm in terms of this fic. I have a whole interlude planned to tell you guys more details, though so this is all you'll get from me for now.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes things like the Dark Kingdom and Sailor Senshi from Sailor Moon, the techniques of the Ansatsuken and Master Gen from Street Fighter, the Techniques of the Great Kung Lao from Mortal Kombat, the Old Ones such as Yamath along with Thuria, Lemuria, and such are from Conan the Barbarian, while the Deeper Well is from Buffy. Meanwhile, Penny Halliwell is from Charmed while the Lightning Bolt Spell and Megakinesis Psychic Power are from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Red Apple Cigarettes are from the works of Quentin Tarantino, while Bepsi is from several Anime including Shaman King and Lupin the Third. Mishima Industries is part of the Mishima Zaibatsu from Tekken. Finally, the Starside Hotel is from Akagi. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

The next chapter will involve meeting some of the other Tournament Contestants.

Stay tuned. . .