from the creator of tales of the dreamworld

            sycophant city

                            & the nocturnal tour



     His silence was disturbed. An incoming call. He reached over
with one hand and tapped on the larger rectangular screen at the
front corner of his desk. Darkness. And then it jumped to light and
life. A young man's anxious face stared at the shadowed visage of
his superior.
     "I'm sorry to disrupt your meditations, Sir," the lieutenant
apologized, saluting smartly.
     Cobalt eyes fixated on the youth. "That is quite all right,"
he said. His voice was rich and hypnotic. "You know enough to
contact me only when it is an emergency."
     The lieutenant nodded, glancing at someplace off-screen. His
gaze quickly returned to looking at his superior. "One hour ago
there was an unfortunate incident involving Eleven-oh-one."
     "Explain."
     "She escaped."



                      what if you woke up as a stranger

                        in an even stranger world?


     The daimon's laughter rolled off the walls as he strolled over
to greet the four women who were dismounting the Cyclopaths.
"Haruka! Michiru!" he said warmly. His smile revealed the razor
sharp fangs in his mouth. "How are my two lovely angels today?"
     "We've been better, admittedly," Michiru replied.
     The daimon grinned, running his tongue along the edges of his
fangs. "That's the most optimistic view about Crystal Tokyo I've
ever heard. Ne?"
     "You're not THAT happy to see us, are you?" Haruka inquired,
unzipping her jacket.


                          what if your best friends

                         were your worst enemies?


     Hotaru slowly rose to stand, and abruptly froze as she saw
someone else who was ignoring the chaos that had erupted within the
dance club.
     A woman wearing a white sailor fuku.
     "Nimble little bitch, aren't you?" Sailor Mercury remarked
with a disapproving scowl.



                         what if you discovered that

                         you were not even yourself?


     The bartender continued to stare at her with wide, nearly
unbelieving eyes. She began to move around the bar, and whispered
a single word. A name.
     "Rei...."
     Something about what this young bartender said sent a cold
chill of familiarity down her body. This was different from the
chill she felt when the instinct to run overpowered her.
     Rei.
     Was that her name?
     She turned, moved to go away and disappear into the bursts of
smoke and dancing patrons, but the young bartender firmly grabbed
hold of her wrist. Held her at bay. She tried to struggle and
quickly realized it would do her no good.
     This girl had a strong grip.
     "Don't you recognize me?" the young woman asked, looking even
more confused now than before. "Rei, it's me: Hotaru."



                            question your past


     Sailor Venus floated in the middle of the glass chamber, her
back slightly arched and her knees pulled up against her chest. In
a fetal position she slept, her blue eyes closed and her golden
blonde hair drifting beautifully in the liquid compound. She was
naked, breathing in the fluid directly to her lungs.
     Thin black cables which had already risen up from the grating
at the base of the chamber wove a tangled web around her, drifting
as leisurely as she did inside the liquid. They looped, stretched,
graciously curved around her form to give her ample room to float.
Yet each cable was inevitably bound with her, fused at the skin
where metallic nodes worked their own version of magic. Her legs
and arms, her chest and back, found at least one node burrowed into
her body.
     Yet she slept, and remained unaware.
     For she trusted the man who had led her here.



                             defy the present


     Hotaru's eyes were trembling once more, and she sucked in a
breath as guilt set in. "S-Setsuna...."
     "You never knew," Setsuna answered evenly, walking around the
couch and sitting in front of a clear spot on her desk. She pushed
down on one of her wrists with her thumb. The fair, smooth skin
covering her body suddenly was sucked back, revealing the complex
series of cybernetic implants and heavy battle armour covering her
body.
     "And I wasn't about to tell you," she added.



                           fight for the future


     Her face still stained with tears that had now abated, Michiru
lifted her eyes from Haruka's shirt and stared at 1101. "I have to
know that this isn't a trap...or some kind of cruel joke. If she's
Rei, I want to know how that's possible. If she's not, I want to
know why."
     "Then you know what you have to do," Haruka said quietly into
her lover's ear.






                                   1101


                                  rated r






                     the future's end comes 13-dec-00