A Teaser From a Long Way Out...

[Bob Schroeck]

"*Someone* better show up," Yoshi grumbled.  He pulled his
trenchcoat tighter around himself and turned out of the wind to
light another cigarette.  He froze when he found himself staring
into a chest -- a *male* chest, he noted unhappily -- encased in
grey leather.  Displayed prominently upon that leather were the
stylized romaji letters "LT" in a shieldlike shape.

"Someone has."  The amused tenor tones originated just above his
eye level, and Yoshi looked up to see a familiar helmet and black
goggles.  

*That's the UN emblem!* he realized as his gaze swept across a
patch of sky-blue amid the marbled grey plastic of the helmet.
"Um," he said, stepping back a pace or so.

"Hi," greeted the grey-clad apparition.  "Shall we sit?"

Yoshi nodded, and the two made their way to the nearest bench
without a word.  The reporter dropped heavily, shaking the bench
for a moment.  He pulled out his minirecorder, making an obvious
show of placing it on the bench between them.  Turning it on, he
launched into the interview.  "You're one of the Sailor Senshi."

The helmet shook.  "Not technically.  Not in the way that you
mean.  I'm more of a... mentor and trainer, I suppose you'd say.
A little adult supervision, although they really don't need it."

"Okay.  So, what's your name?"

There was a hint of a grin within the helmet.  "It's not in my
best interest to tell you my civilian identity.  My codename,
however, is 'Looney Toons'."

Yoshi snorted.  "Right.  And who gave you that codename?"

A shake of the head again.  "You've never heard of the
organization I work with."

"You've got a UN emblem on your helmet.  Does that mean this
mysterious organization is a UN branch?"

A chuckle.  "If you were to ask them, they'd deny we existed."

Yoshi felt his right eyebrow creep up toward his hairline.
"*That* secret?  Why break cover and talk to me, then?"

The figure in grey settled himself down at the other end of the
bench.  "Couple of reasons.  One, we're on our own here -- no
official support, no acknowledgment."

Yoshi nodded, understanding.  "Maximum deniability."  He'd seen
it before in other situations.

"Two, sooner or later we're going to need press contacts.  At the
moment, the mission is technically sub rosa, but you never know
when you'll have to go full public.  Having a mutually respectful
and helpful relationship with a trustworthy member of the Fourth
Estate when that day comes will be of inestimable worth."  Yoshi
opened his mouth but "Looney Toons" cut him off.  "And before you
ask the inevitable 'how do you know I'm trustworthy'...  I've
done a thorough background check on you.  If we play fair with
you, we can trust you."

Yoshi grimaced.  "Thanks.  I think.  Does that mean you'll answer
my questions, then?"

"If you agree to this, yes.  To a point.  We're all running more
or less deep cover for now, and we need to protect that.  But if
it doesn't threaten our cover, I'll answer it."  He chuckled
softly.  "I don't guarantee that you'll believe me, but I will
promise I that won't lie.  I'll tell you when you reach an area I
won't go into, but I won't feed you outright disinformation."

"How do you know I won't warp or sensationalize what you tell
me?" Yoshi probed.

Another soft chuckle.  "If there were any chance you'd do such a
thing, we wouldn't be talking now."

Yoshi thought about that, then nodded.  "Fair enough.  It's a
deal."

"Cool."

"Can I pitch you a first question, then?"

The helmet bobbed in a nod.  "Fire away."

"Okay.  Why teenaged girls?"

There was a rustle of thick but flexible leather as "Looney
Toons" shrugged. "Because they're the ones who have the power.
They weren't manufactured by some mortal agency, they were born
that way.  And there are destiny and fate issues tied up in it,
too."

"Destiny and fate?"

The helmet bobbed again.  "It's a long story I'll share with you
at another time, but the TV Guide capsule version goes like this:
Before the dawn of recorded history, the solar system was home to
a magic-based interplanetary civilization, ruled from the Moon."

"The *moon*?"

"Looney Toons" shrugged.  "Don't ask me.  I'm just telling you
what we've figured out from the few bits of information we've
managed to scrape together.  Apparently the level of magic use
was high enough to make it -- and a bunch of other moons and
planets around the system -- habitable.  Comfortable, even."

"But... magic?"

The other man murmured something softly -- in English, Yoshi
thought -- and then held out his hand.  Yoshi nearly swallowed
his cigarette when a ball of light formed over it.  "Yes, magic,"
"Looney Toons" said.  "It's very real, and it's still around,
even though not many people use it -- or *can* use it -- any
more."

"But..." Yoshi stammered.

The helmet dipped toward him.  "Later you can have all the
demonstrations of magic you want.  Right now, though..."  He
murmured something else and the ball vanished.  "Back to the
topic at hand.

"Earth was the only independent planet in the system, but when
the prince of Earth fell for the princess of the Moon, that
looked likely to change."  He tilted his head thoughtfully.  "The
'Tsukihime' legends are probably a distorted ancestral memory of
this," he added.  "Anyway, somebody -- we don't know whom at this
late date, although it was almost certainly someone who didn't
like the idea of Earth losing its independence -- ended up
summoning and unleashing a demonic horde against the Moon and the
other planets.  Long story short, the horde did too good a job,
and knocked out the underpinnings that supported all that magic,
pretty much killing everybody in the solar system except for
those on Earth, before the Queen -- who was apparently one hell
of a spellcaster -- banished most of the horde and its human
leaders into a nearby pocket dimension.  With their controllers
gone, the remaining demons turned on the Earth folk, killed most
of *them* and triggered the collapse of *their* civilization as
well, then died off slowly over the millennia while humanity
basically recreated itself from scratch.  This time with
technology alone as magic was left with a bad rep.

"The problem facing us now is that, well, the Queen did a hasty
hack job of a spell to banish her enemies.  It wasn't permanent,
and she knew it.  So, with her final act, she gathered up the
souls of her daughter and the royal guard, who had all died in
the conflict, and sent them into the future to be reincarnated at
about the time she expected her containment would break down and
wear off."

"And those are the Sailor Senshi," Yoshi guessed.  "And the youma
are the banished demons, back again."

"Pin-pon.  She also sent a couple of advisers forward the long
way to train the girls and tell them what to do.  However, like
any last-ditch desperation strategy, it had holes in it you could
drive a Mack truck through.  Murphy stepped in and had his merry
way -- the girls were born too close in time to the containment
breakdown, and are only now just re-awakening to their powers.  
And the advisers showed up with severe memory loss.  They
remembered the big picture, but not all the details."  Within his
helmet "Looney Toons" grimaced.  "We've spent the last few months
or so piecing together what we can.  We're still missing a lot of
little things, but we've got enough to work with now."

"So where do you fit in?  Are you one of the advisers?"

He laughed.  "Oh, no, not at all!  I was an independent operator.
I stumbled across Sailor Moon her first night on the job.  She
actually did quite well for someone with absolutely no experience
whatsoever, but she really needed a coach to watch over her until
she felt confident enough to work solo.  So I offered."  He
chuckled ruefully.  "Then it got complicated."

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.