Lita shrugged. "Because Pluto sent us?"
Amy looked up from her mini-computer. "First, define 'here.'" The others looked confused. "We don't," Amy said patiently, "know where we are."
"It seems peaceful enough." Nothing seemed to faze Lita. "Green grass, trees, blue sky. A couple of kids walking along the road."
"Whoa! Where?" Raye swung about, raising her arms.
"Guys! Talk first, shoot later! Please?" As she spoke, Amy activated her visor. "Hmm," she muttered to herself as she studied the approaching pair. "Energy signatures emblematic of high technology." She made a few notes in her mini-computer. "Fascinating."
Serena, meanwhile, had followed the white-and-black ball of fluff. Her teammates had yet to notice she was out of sight.
"Okay," Raye snapped. "I'll talk to them. Stay here, okay?"
"Hey! Yo!" Lita waved her arm vigorously. "They see us," she said happily. Raye glared. "What?" Lita said.
In another moment the kids had approached. The boy looked about fourteen and was short, with wild black hair under a baseball cap. The girl had flaming red hair and was taller than he was. Both wore packs.
"Ah...ah..." The boy looked from one Sailor Scout to another. His hand went to his head. "Hey, are you the gym leaders from Paradox?" he blurted out.
"What's a gym leader?" Raye wanted to know. "Do they wear these?" She indicated her costume.
The boy looked again at the abbreviated sailor suits that were the Sailor Scout uniform. He flushed. "Well," he started to say, "Actually, you look like..."
The girl hit him before he could say it. Then she stepped up to take Raye's hand. "I'm Misty," she grinned. Her outfit was yellow t-shirt and cut-offs. "That's Ash."
"I'm a Pokemon Trainer!" Ash declared. "I'm going to be the best in the world!"
"Pokemon?" the Scouts wanted to know.
"They live in the forest," Ash explained.
"And in the water!" Misty added sharply.
"We capture them, and train them to fight each other," both finished.
"Ooh, yick!" Serena had come back out of the woods. She seemed to be petting something. "Why is it always fighting?"
"I have six Pokemon collected already," Ash declared proudly.
"Foo. I've got one, too." Serena held up the little ball of fluff. It opened big blue eyes, blinked once, and settled back into a purring white-and-black furball.
Ash whipped a calculator-like device out from somewhere. Amy's eyes lit up as it beeped and booped. "A Fuzzby," Ash snorted. "The most useless Pokemon in the index."
"Is not!" Serena argued. "It's cute! Aren't you, Fuzzby?" She purred at the furball in her arms. "As cute as can be, Fuzzby."
"No-one," Ash declared, "would use a Fuzzby in a challenge match."
"Right." Serena took the insult personally. "I challenge you!" She let the furball down from her arms. It took a few wandering steps across the green grass. "I choose...Fuzzby!"
"How did she learn the lingo so fast?" Misty said behind her hand.
Ash was not good about resisting a challenge. Any challenge. He glared. Then he turned his cap about. He pulled a small red-and-white ball out of a pocket. "I accept the challenge!" he said. "I choose...Charmander!"
He threw the small ball violently. It rolled to a stop, split open. Violet light came out and a strange creature appeared. It was vaguely lizard-like, upright, cute, and it's tail seemed to be on fire.
Misty looked shocked. "You'd...flame that poor little thing?"
"Charmander..." Ash ordered, "Fla..."
Misty knocked him down and sat on him. "Don't you dare hurt Fuzzby!" she said. Then she glared at Charmander.
"See," Serena said proudly. "We won." She picked up her new pet. Both purred loudly.
"So who are you guys, anyway?" Ash was back on his feet, none the worse for wear.
"We are the Sailor Scouts," Raye declared. She took her pose. "I am Sailor Mars, champion of love and justice!"
"I am Sailor Mercury, and I fight for freedom and for good grades!"
"Sailor Jupiter here!"
"And I am Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, we will right wrongs and triumph over evil!"
The two kids just stared. "Is that where Team Rocket got their bad habits?" Misty said at last.
"Sailor Venus is on vacation," Serena added. "So, are you kids here all by yourselves?"
"Kids?" Ash bristled.
"Yeah, what kind of a society lets a fourteen-year old go camping on his own?" Amy wanted to know.
"I'm ten," Ash said.
"So am I," Misty added.
"Ten, huh?" Raye took a good look at the girl. "I think someone's overdue for a little talk..."
"I don't know," Lita was a few steps behind the conversation, "I've been on my own for years. Of course, I lied about my age. I'm big for my age," she added unnecessarily.
"I'll say," Serena muttered. She wasn't talking about her friend's height. "I still think I should have played Snow White!"*
"Well, I don't like you getting all bossy on us, just because you are already in college."
The Sailors shook their heads.
"High school seniors?" Ash tried again.
They shook their heads again. "I'm fifteen," Lita said at last. "Serena's fourteen."
"Someone say something about being big for their age?" Misty muttered.
"Uh, oh." Ash struck his head.
"What?"
"I just remembered -- Brock is just behind us. And you know how he is," he said significantly.
Misty gave the long-legged Scouts a look. "You said it. You guys want to hide in the bushes, or you want to get it over with all at once?"
"Let's just keep walking," Ash said. "He'll catch up with us in Paradox."
The Sailor Scouts shrugged, and fell in. "So why were you asking about gym leaders?" Raye asked.
"I'm going to the gym at Paradox to challenge them. If I win, I get the next badge."
"So what do they get out of it? Do they get a badge if they beat you?" Raye wondered.
"No." Ash was annoyed.
"Then where do they get the badge from?"
"The Pokemon Center."
"So why don't two gyms get together and promise to lose to each other? They'd both get the badge. What's it good for, anyhow?"
"Without the diamond badge I'm only allowed to keep six Pokemon," Ash tried to explain.
"Where do the other ones go? Do you set them free? You don't kill them, do you?"
"Oh, please!" Serena was shocked. She cradled her Pokemon protectively. "Tell me you don't kill them!"
"They get zapped back to my teacher," he said angrily.
"So how'd HE get the job? Do you need a different kind of badge before you can become a teacher and get all the Pokemon of all the guys who didn't have enough Pokemon to beat the gym leaders who would have given them the badges to let them keep the Pokemon?" Raye shook her head. "Who made up the rules for this thing, anyway?"
"And who designed the genetic constructs?" Amy wanted to know. "I've been studying your index" -- in fact, she'd downloaded at least half of it into her own mini-computer -- "and it seems obvious Pokemon are not natural beings. They have little or no ecology. Few of them seem to have sex or any obvious way of breeding, yet the population spectrum clearly shows new ones are being born."
"Yeah, well..."
"And isn't it a little unnatural that all have high intelligence yet few seem capable of language -- at least, of communicating with human beings? I mean, that just throws Leaky and Johansen out the window."
"I don't want to talk about it any more!" Ash yelled.
"Some host you are!" Misty yelled back at him.
"Don't get sore at me! I didn't ask for them to show up!"
"Well, it just shows how selfish you are. And when are you going to replace my bike, anyway?"
"It was an accident! I was trying to save Pikachu! Aw, why do I bother talking to you!"
"Do they fight, or what?" Lita murmured to Raye.
"They must really like each other," Raye whispered back.
Lita chuckled. "The way they've been fighting, I'll bet they'll be sharing a sleeping bag soon!"
"What did you say?" Ash broke off his argument and turned towards them.
"Nothing," Raye said sharply. Then she added, "Besides, you're too young to understand."
"Okay, okay!" Ash threw up his hands. "Enough!" He jammed his cap low over his eyes and stalked off.
"He's got a short fuse, or what?" Raye asked.
Lita snickered. "We got a pot here calling a kettle black."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Raye snapped back.
ack!! writer meltdown! i can't go on -- can't type the word "cute" one more time -- this is bringing out the worst in me...!
*Otaku joke