SEARCH FOR THE MOON PRINCESS
Chapter Three: Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
"Ooh!" Serena cried. "You're dead meat this time, Sammy!" She stamped, her pigtails flying. "Sometimes I don't believe you're my brother!"
"I think that all the time," her younger brother said impudently.
"That's it, all right." Serena was furious. "You're not my real brother! You're not even a human being! Fairies must have came and swapped babies on us!"
"Look who's talking!" Sammy snorted. "What an airhead! You must have been left by fairies; no human being could sleep like you do. Or eat like you!"
"Oooh!" Serena was speechless. "Oooh!" She grabbed for a broom. Sammy ducked out the door.
"Sometimes...!" Serena got out at last. She put the broom down, slumped against the wall. "Sometimes..." She sighed deeply.
Wouldn't it be kind of neat if I was a changeling? I mean, I like my family and all. But what if I was really...oh...a princess of some far off land, raised as an ordinary person...?
She sighed again. "Oh, wouldn't that be just so romantic?"
"Greg," Amy said. "We have to talk."
He had been walking her home, and he hadn't been saying much. Now Amy faced him squarely. "I know you don't want to talk about this, Greg. But I need to know what is going on."
Greg sighed and shrugged; the same response he had made before. But there was a slope to his shoulders this time. Amy let him find a seat on a park bench, and waited. "I've seen you before," he said.
There was another long pause. Amy waited patiently.
"I have these visions, you see. They come true. I guess they do, I mean. Some of the things I saw in my visions happened later. Happened just the way I saw them."
Amy made a sound of encouragement.
"I've seen you. It's odd. Sometimes you know me, sometimes you don't. Sometimes I see you in this strange uniform."
"Uniform?" Amy echoed.
Greg waved his hand loosely. "Gloves, I think, a skirt the same blue as your eyes."
Amy blushed. "Why, thank you."
"No!" Greg said. "We can't be friends. Amy, there are monsters!"
"Monsters?"
"I've seen them. I've seen, Amy, I know..."
"Greg?" Amy knelt in front of him and took his hands in hers. She looked up into his face; the suffering was all too clear there. "You've seen...yourself?" she said softly, guessing.
Greg nodded. "The monsters kill me." Then he looked up, catching her eyes with his. "And if you are with me, Amy, they'll kill you too!"
"Oh, Greg!" Amy gripped his hands tighter. "I won't let them!"
Behind a trash basket a short distance away the strange black cat watched the two on the bench. "The boy is right," the cat said to itself. "Oh, I wish it wasn't so. But they are humans -- no match for Negaverse warriors."
"I found out something about them," Amy said. "I have this disk I made, you see. If I analyze it I may be able to figure out what they are doing, and how to stop them."
"Don't do it!" the cat pleaded softly.
"No, Amy," Greg said as an echo of their unseen observer. "Don't, don't get involved."
"I am involved." Amy stood. "I'll be careful."
"She had better be careful," the cat said to the darkness around it. "I am very afraid she won't be careful enough."
It was lunch time at Juuban Junior High. "Hey Amy!" Serena found her at her usual spot. "I'd like you to meet my friend Molly."
"Pleased to meet 'cha," the new girl said, in a strong Osaka accent. Amy stood and bowed.
"We're going to the jewelry store Molly's mom runs, after school." Serena threw herself down on the bench and tore into her lunch. "They're having a big sale!" she said around mouthfuls of rice dumpling. "You want to come with us?"
"Sure!" Amy said, starting into her own lunch.
Molly was a sweet girl, and Amy found herself quickly warming to her. After school was out they rode the subway together to the jewelry store.
There was a huge crowd outside. There was noise, perhaps too much noise. Amy felt a little tingle of awareness, a sensation that something was definitely not right.
The shop was bedlam inside. Boxes littered the floor, people shouted and fought over the bargains they were finding. Mrs. Baker was in the middle of the mob, shoving purchases into people's hands. A mousy assistant scurried back and forth trying to keep up.
"Ooh. Wow," Serena gasped, admiring a large pendant. "Is this real?"
"It's real zirconium," Molly said distractedly. "And those are real garnets around it." She pushed into the crowd towards her mother.
"Here, try this; I'm sure it will look lovely on you!" Mrs. Baker was pushing a ring at a young woman.
"But I don't..." she objected.
"You certainly do," she said without missing a beat.
"I don't make so much in my job...ah..."
"You can afford this."
"I'm still not sure."
"Okay, then half that."
"I'll take it, I'll take it!"
The assistant wrapped the boxed ring with a few deft moves and pushed it into the young woman's hand. "Now who's next?" Mrs. Baker cried.
"Is your mom always like this?" Serena muttered at Molly.
"And you, young lady. Ah, I have just the thing. A lovely pair of earrings. Going very cheap!"
"Mom!" Molly cried. "It's me! Your daughter!"
"Of course you are. I have something even better for you." Mrs. Baker snapped her fingers and her assistant produced a box, popping it open to reveal a large brooch speckled in green gems.
Serena's eyes grew huge. Molly reached slowly for the brooch. Amy was looking up, though -- looking up to see the look of evil triumph glowing in Mrs. Baker's eyes. She lunged and knocked the box aside before Molly's fingers could brush it. The brooch spun out and emerald dust shattered on the floor.
The mousy assistant stared at the ruined brooch. "How dare you!" he said, his face working. "HOW DARE YOU!" he shrieked.
And he began to grow.
"Vor millions uf years," what had been the assistant thundered in a powerful voice, "heat und pressure haf labored to produce these gemstones from rock und earth. The tools of the very skilled labored to release their beauty. Chust as Gem-Cutter vill release your souls vrom their ugly shells!"
He was huge. He was a monster. One eye was dominated by a giant gleaming jeweler's loupe. In his right hand a silver hammer glittered as he crouched, ready to attack.
"Serena, Molly, get out of here!" Amy yelled, pushing at them.
Gem-Cutter roared. A skitter of tiny chisels left his hand and buzzed through the air. "Try und do this in the back uf a Mercedes!" Gem-Cutter laughed.
Molly cried out as one hit her. "Uh, oh," Serena said. A chisel shattered floor in front of her. "Waah!" she yelled. She fell backwards and crashed into a girl with long black hair.
"Watch it!" yelled the girl.
Amy ducked behind a display cabinet. It shattered, glass splinters flying about her. She scrambled up and ran, trying to duck under another hail of chisels.
"Look out, Amy!" Serena screamed.
Amy saw the shadow at the same moment and turned. Gem-Cutter was moving at her with superhuman speed and the silver hammer was upraised over her. He laughed thunderously. "How many facets shall I give you?" The silver hammer blurred down at her head.
And a red rose stuck stem-first into the floor between them. Gem-Cutter's hammer spun out of his hand.
A man in a white mask and a tuxedo stood on one of the display cabinets. "Vas ist?" Gem-Cutter frowned.
The newcomer had dark curly hair under his silk top hat and an opera cape that fluttered behind him. He spoke in a strong, clear voice. "Gemstones are fragile and beautiful things," he said. "But they are also hard and cold. The real jewels here are these young lives, and I can not let you threaten them!"
"Oooh! What a dreamboat!"
"I saw him first!" yelled the girl with the black hair.
"Keep your head down, Serena!" Amy yelled crossly. Some people, she thought, shouldn't be let out of the house!
"Vun can not make der omelet without breaking eggs. Und vun can not create lasting beauty without sweat...and blood!" Gem-Cutter sent a swirl of his tiny chisels towards the young man.
His cane whirled, quick as a baton, knocking the glittering things out of the air. "Come on, Serena!" Amy urged.
"Molly's hurt!"
"I can't...I can't leave my mom!" Molly wailed.
"Amy, she's bleeding!" Suddenly Serena's panic left her. She whipped off her jacket, ripped off a sleeve, and wrapped it about Molly's bleeding arm. Then she draped the remains of the jacket over her friend's shoulders. She seemed as surprised by her actions as the others were.
"Thanks, Serena," Molly said in her slow soft accent. "Oh. I think I'm gonna keel ovah!"
She did. Then they carried her out of the shop.
The fight was not going well. Tuxedo Mask was only barely holding his own. There were too many gem-cutting tools flying at him; he was hard put to block or dodge them all. At least the shop had cleared.
The girls are out of danger now, he thought. It's time for me to break away. He feinted with his cape, dove from a display cabinet and rolled towards the door.
Only to find Gem-Cutter standing before him. "Zo. Now you try und retreat!"
"A warrior retreats only to attack!" Tuxedo Mask retorted. He moved on Gem-Cutter with a flurry of cane-work.
Gem-Cutter's loupe glowed red, then a lance of light tore from it. Tuxedo Mask barely dove clear in time. A ruby laser, he thought wryly; what else? It was beginning to look like he wasn't going to make it.
"Oh, no!" It was the girl with the blue hair again. She had crept back inside.
Tuxedo Mask bit back a rude word. Gem-Cutter turned to favor the girl with a darkly promising look before swinging towards him again.
"The light, over the counter...!" the girl cried.
Tuxedo looked where she was pointing; where an ornate lighting fixture hung over a glittering display of gems. Gem-Cutter's loupe was already glowing, about to launch its ruby lance at Tuxedo Mask, when a single rose left the young man's hand.
The heavy brass light fell dead center on the counter, crushing the displays to colorful powder below it. "No!" Gem-Cutter cried. "Noooo!" He gave a terrible sob and collapsed to his knees before the ruined gems.
The girl ducked from view. Tuxedo Mask slipped out the door and leapt for a handy roof himself. He was badly winded and a number of small cuts were stinging him. I feel bad about that, he thought as he left the site. Attacking something he loved like that. But then, he did the same to me...
Next -- trouble at the shrine, Department Six, Darien is confused and Serena gets a cat! Be there and I'll show you!