So far, things were looking as they should be. Sailor Mars appeared to be sufficiently motivated, staring him down without any noticeable hesitation. Meanwhile, the girl genius Mercury elected to take swift action to discover the 'explosives' that were scattered throughout the unfinished edifice. He couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces once they started to realize his plan!

Schwarzpferd laughed dryly while he assumed a loose, relaxed posture. It was now impossible to ignore Mars's presence, and it was likely they would be trading blows very soon. But that wasn't enough; he needed to convince Moon of a more immediate danger.

"What about them, Sailor Moon? You are all assuming I took those SAT officers hostage when I have made no such claim. I haven't taken anyone hostage."

Sailor Mars:

Sailor Mercury:

Sailor Moon:

Sailor Splash:

Sailor Moon couldn't hide her confusion and distress. Whatever game Schwarzpferd arranged for them to play, the blonde felt as though she couldn't manage any of the rules or make any moves. It was worse than being in gym class and missing a kick for football; the danger was different—greater. At least she wasn't alone; her friends stood with her. She didn't even have to look at them to feel their support, and that support was exactly what she needed right now.

"You showed them, injured, as part of the broadcast demanding we come out here," she replied. "Did you let them go? Are they okay?"

All had looked like they needed at least some degree of medical attention, and his claim had been they were "punched in the face"—unless that was slang for something else? She couldn't focus elsewhere just yet. She needed to know that the SAT officers were safe. They weren't equipped to deal with things like this masked troublemaker. She was here to protect all the people like that.

"Please," she begged. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Sailor Moon didn't know if he'd even care, but she wanted to believe that he would.

The more she analyzed the explosives, the more confused she felt. They weren't what she would call "simple", but they seemed haphazard. This was not an effective way to collapse a building—why would someone have chosen to do things in this way? It would have take more time and effort to wire the construction site up this way. This had to mean something else.

And then she saw the new warning:

Code:

WARNING: MULTIPLE SMALL EXPLOSIVE DEVICES IN CLOSE PROXIMITY, SEE DIAGRAM!

The readout indicated a shape and distance that corresponded too well with the horse-masked man.

Sailor Mercury updated her analysis to determine the most effective way for her team to disarm the devices. Would any of her abilities, or those of her fellow sailor soldiers, be useful here?

Mars' grip on her ofuda tightened as her senses were assaulted by the dark aura standing before her. She dismissed the negative emotions that accompanied it and focused on its intensity. There was a clear difference from their first encounter with this man. She doubted she could defeat him without consequence, at least not while they were in his territory.

«But how could he attain how much power in such a short time? Did he took energy from the officers? Or was he hiding it the whole time?»she thought.

She risked a quick glance towards Sailor Moon. From the beginning, the man seemed to target the princess directly with her taunts and manipulations. It wouldn't be the first time an enemy tried to use her to further their plans and obtain more power, and nos and then they had succeeded because no one was aware of their intentions. Determined to not let such a thing happen again, the red clad soldier focused her abilities on revealing the nature and goals of Schwarzpferd

*Yay new banner*

Splash was about to speak again but Moon, Mercury and also Mars spoke and Splash was very worried about what Moon was saying. If Schwarzpferd was telling the truth about some people being hurt earlier before she got there she wanted to put a stop to this man as soon as she could or rather they could since she didn't think she could take him out alone without herself or anyone getting hurt. Without moving her head much she tried to look around at their surroundings to maybe spot something hopefully out of the ordinary that could clue her in on where they could start doing something instead of all the stalling that seemed to be happening.

She was still thinking about those officers? Schwarzfperd didn't know whether to laugh or to break his facade. That encounter had not been in his planning; he had simply hoped to attract the senshi (and later the police) to this specific construction site. A certain somebody had ratted out his location to emergency services, expecting bloodshed to occur. Schwarzpferd's video was made in such a way to thumb his nose at the clueless civil government and the sinister force that was manipulating the recent urban chaos for its own benefit.

The gas-masked goon shot a brief glance over to Sailor Moon, then established eye contact with Sailor Mars. "Yeah, but that's the least of your problems.."

Sailor Mars:

One second later, Schwarzpferd ripped a small white cylinder off of his bandolier and pulled a pin. With a swift underhand toss, he sent the device tumbling towards Sailor Mars!

Her mind still hadn't fully processed what Schwarzfperd was saying, but she felt more and more certain that the officers were okay. Sailor Moon still harbored a few worries about the fact that he didn't seem to care whether those poor men and women were harmed or freed, but she had always been trusting. She took him at his word. He said that the officers from the video were okay and Mercury's scan didn't pick up signs of them, so she hoped that they were fine. That seemed to be all she could do right now.

And then he threw something, the motion quick and aggressive, the object sailing through the air in what seemed like slow motion.

"No, Mars!" she screamed.

Splash watched Schwarzfperd speak about something being the least of their problems then he tossed something towards Sailor Mars who he was speaking heavily with before. She immediately heard Moon's screams and attempted to act as fast as she could. 'Oh god let there be water here... aqua gods guide it here' she thought as she put her hands out trying her hardest to bring enough water to them so she could possibly create a shield (Which she had never done before) but since her friends were in danger, Splash put all her effort into it... 'Come on!! please work' She thought again.

Sailor Mars

Tracking the trajectory of the bouncing canister with her eyes, the spirited senshi in high heels kicked the unknown weapon directly at Schwarzpferd's masked face. Though the masked man protected his face a bit too well, Sailor Mars was nonetheless pleased with returning the munition to their aggressor.

"You should know better than to get burned by your own bomb!"

---

Schwarzpferd

Rather than move away from the bomb, the vandal merely raised his left hand. All five digits were splayed beneath the glove, gradually retracting as if their owner was counting down to some expected outcome. Five fingers became four, then three, and soon to a mere pair.

"You are correct."

The white canister, barely a meter away from Schwarzpferd, suddenly emitted a loud *pop* rather than exploding outright. Thick, white smoke billowed forth from the spent grenade, spreading out in all directions.

Gas!:

Her dread became relief as Sailor Mars reacted swiftly, kicking the thing back at the man. She didn't have a moment to cheer. Just as quickly, relief became panic when Schwarzpferd didn't duck or run—but instead, revealed that he hadn't been planning on blowing them up.

Sailor Moon wasn't accustomed to tear gas and she had inhaled deeply, a gasp as she watched what unfolded around her. She felt the heaviness in her chest almost immediately, barely noticing the burning in her eyes as she panicked. Then she did notice it. The blonde coughed, doubling over, her head reeling with the strange sensation.

She wanted to call out to her friends, to check if they were okay, but she could barely breath, let alone talk to them. What were they supposed to do?!

Sailor Splash failed to find any water around them and watched at Mars kicked the can back at Schwarzpferd which Splash would have smiled for a moment then she saw Sailor Moon coughing and feeling the effects and now Splash was as well. She began to cough and choke on the gas trying to look at the others but her eyes hurt as well. She tried to think about what she could do but it hurt too much to think. She then tried looking towards Schwarzpferd but that was blurry as well. She needed to help her friends, but she too was in need of help.

Studious, quiet Ami Mizuno was not someone typically found in the crowd for a riot or protest, and the enemies that they fought as the Sailor Team didn't typically opt for tactics not utilizing energy or magic. Perhaps this was the sort of thing the girls ought to have expected from an enemy such as Schwarzpferd, but they still acted and reacted based on past experiences with foes operating under different agendas. It wouldn't have been surprising at all to learn that she had never personally encountered this type of weaponized aerosol.

But it also wouldn't have seemed surprising that she knew something about it, which she most certain did.

Sailor Mercury didn't feel the symptoms as quickly as the others—her googles, despite their interesting technological and magical makeup, provided some degree of protection from the fumes. That didn't stop her from inhaling the particles, however—but in the act of doing so, her quick mind noting the way her lungs felt suddenly crushed and her throat thick with irritation, she understood what the horse-masked fiend had done.

She snapped her Mini Supercomputer shut in an instant, the thing disappearing the moment it was no longer needed, and she resisted the coughing and stinging eyes long enough to summon her abilities to herself. Whatever they could do to get the compounds away from themselves would provide some relief. She had to help if she could, particularly before the tear gas was absorbed more fully by anyone currently suffering.

"Sabão Spray!" she cried out, choking slightly, but able to channel her powers.

If this succeeded, she prayed it would wash away the irritants, the mist flushing eyes and brushing compounds from their uniforms and skin, and hopefully modify the contaminants to prevent them from staying airborne any longer.

Quote :

Tear gas neutralized!

The cooling vapors conjured by Sailor Mercury binds to the CS gas particles, rendering them heavier than air. Due to her intervention, the senshi will begin to feel immediate relief.

They might find themselves wanting a cool shower after the battle.

The riot control gas utilized by Schwarzpferd was an indiscriminate weapon; it would not magically select its targets, but instead attack everyone who was exposed. Having once felt the effects of the allegedly non-lethal irritant, the senshi's tormentor had deliberately overdressed to keep the stinging fumes at bay. Schwarzpferd's preparedness quickly became apparent with each metallic rasp of the gas mask's filter.

He wasn't concerned too much with Mercury's invocation, seeing that the mists were not centered directly upon him. In fact, their cooling presence was rather pleasant compared to wearing so much clothing in the punishing summer month of July!

"All of that from a single grenade," the villain crowed from mere meters away. "Would you like another?"

Splash wanted to do something to help out but Mercury was just like what Splash read about: Two steps ahead. Mercury's Sabao spray cleared up the issues from the tear gas grenade. Splash then heard from Schwarzpferd again if they wanted another one and before anyone answered Splash yelled, "OF COURSE NOT YOU JERK!! YOU CAN HAVE THIS THOUGH... Deep-End Torrent!" Splash raised her arms pointing them right at Schwarzpferd and shot off her attack. It would be like the water coming right out of a fire hydrant when its opened. "See if you can handle the pressure, Schwarzpferd!" Splash looked on to see how the others were doing then she would look back to check on her attack to see if she got him good or not.

What would she do without the quick-thinking girl genius Ami-chan? Sailor Moon blinked, recovering her breath, as the blue-haired girl cleared away the stinging, burning gas. She glanced up and over at her friend, thankfulness shining in her cerulean eyes. Her throat ached, the fiery sensation not fully abated, but it no longer pained her to breathe. She had Mercury to thank for that.

Schwarzpferd's taunt and Sailor Splash's retaliation played out before Sailor Moon had really recovered. She stood there, the slick handle of the Kaleidomoon Scope in her hand... but she kept thinking about the interactions she'd had with the strange masked man. There were no hostages. She didn't want to... she didn't want to hurt him. She didn't want to hurt anyone.

But she didn't understand how to fix this.

With the tear gas neutralized and Schwarzpferd hopefully occupied, Mercury flipped open her Mini Supercomputer and tried to run a more detailed analysis on the charges identified earlier. Without detonators, they posed little threat unless someone actually set them off... so what was he planning? Was that something their masked opponent kept on his person, preparing to use, or was he counting on an attack from one of the sailor soldiers, most probably the firepower of Sailor Mars?

Sailor Mercury frowned slightly, typing furiously on the small keyboard while still keeping an eye on the man. She wasn't about to trust that he wouldn't try another trick, but she was hoping to gather a bit more information.

Schwarzpfed braced himself for impact as the surge of water slammed into his crossed forearms, momentarily knocking the villain off of his feet. Did this mean the senshi were finally going to take a bit more action to stop the apparent threat that he presented? Sailor Moon seemed the least willing to make a move against him, but she probably knew her own strength better than anyone else. Unfortunately for both parties, Schwarzpferd had to force Moon's hand if she was to appreciate his message.

The fiendish troublemaker performed a swift kip up, vaulting from his water-soaked prone stance back onto his booted feet. "That's not too bad at all. How about I start calling you Sailor Wave Pool?" Palming another suspicious object from his gear, Schwarzpferd threw what appeared to be a second grenade towards Sailor Splash's own feet!

Mini Supercomputer analysis:

"Sailor Splash! Get out of the way!" Sailor Moon's voice rose above the din, panicked and horrified. She ran forward, trying to push the newcomer out of the way of the grenade. It didn't matter that she didn't know this rainbow-haired girl the way that she knew and cherished her teammates and friends. She couldn't bear the thought of anyone getting hurt in this messed-up situation. If her sympathy extended to the man in the horse head mask, it certainly extended to the water-powered sailor soldier fighting against him.

She vaguely understood that there was something wrong with the grenade, but in her fear she didn't really listen. Perhaps she could have noticed the thud, or the lack of a pin-pull, but those things meant very little to a girl who could not be considered a fan of armed conflict. All she could see or think of was someone in danger, someone who needed to be saved.

As usual, in the moment she thought little of the danger she put herself in.

Sailor Mercury didn't have time to say anything before Sailor Moon reacted, the blonde always so quick to jump in and save someone—even though the blue-haired girl could almost hear the exasperated sighs of her teammates racing in to rescue their friend once more. The analysis on her computer confused her, adding another strange layer to the situation they found themselves in. No detonators. Piles of ammunition and explosives, but nothing to set them off with. Was that why they had been led here? She glanced at Sailor Mars, wondering if their opponent hoped to put her friend's firepower to use with disastrous consequences. And what of the signals being broadcast? This was a puzzle, and while Mercury enjoyed solving problems, doing so in this type of situation was less than ideal.

"Sailor Moon, wait!" she called out, too slow to stop the girl. "It's a fake!" She could tell even without her visor, her sharp blue eyes picking up on the right cues to identify the dummy grenade.

"You wanted us, not the police," she asked, turning back towards the man. Her stance was defensive, but still prepared in case he chose to strike. "Why? Why show us this?"

Although Mercury hoped for an answer, she expected another riddle. Didn't he understand the purpose of the sailor soldiers? They didn't fight crime, they fought evil. Not the evil that lurked in the hearts of man—evil that threatened to invade and subjugate the universe, not because of greed or other human concerns, but for the sheer love of destruction. She hadn't yet seen signs of that here, even with his theatrical getup. What good could they possibly do?

Splash saw her attack hit directly and she was happy about it until Schwarzpfed insulted her name and her intelligence. "There are words I wanna call you but it would make me the bad guy."

During her anger, Splash didn't notice something thrown her way until she was propelled forward, falling on her rear. She was able to hear Sailor Moon's voice then looked down seeing something and tried to jump up and get Sailor moon out of the way.

"It's a fake!" Splash heard as she was in the process of protecting Sailor Moon in return. Splash then walked over by the fake, picking it up and listened to Mercury prodding him with questions. She wanted so badly to throw that fake back like a fastball in baseball. However, she waited for more hopeful answers.

"I go around 'wasting' public emergency resources, and you think a few words are going to make you the villain?" Schwarzpferd raised his fingers to make the air quotations gesture, laughing at the end of his sentence. He began to withdraw a few feet from the sailor soldiers, stopping only when his back was in contact with a dangling rope.

But he wasn't quite done talking yet. It was hard to get under the skin of all the senshi, but he'd keep trying until the overall purpose of this semi-public spectacle could be revealed. Pointing a gloved finger towards the cool and analytical senshi, Schwarzpferd replied to her verbal challenge when she demanded an explanation.

"Sailor Mercury, I brought you here to remind you that the police are mostly useless in the face of all the threats you've fought. They will come in to clean up after we're finished here, but that's okay. It's the only thing I can trust them to do!"

He was walking backwards, and she knew that this likely meant it was trying to establish an escape route. She'd seen this routine before. Visor on and active, Mercury tried to re-run her analysis of the construction site, looking for possible paths that Schwarzpferd might take. She took a step forward, but not too many. It seemed likely that they'd wind up chasing him at some point, and she wasn't sure she could really capture him here. This was a place he had set up and that he knew well. The other sailor soldier with them seemed rather new, at least she was someone they hadn't worked with before, and Sailor Mercury wasn't sure how much she could count on the other girl at this point.

His crack about the police only added to her confusion. They had never expected the police to be involved in their affairs. In fact, Mercury couldn't remember coordinating with law enforcement since Minako's time as Sailor V. How could the police—regular civilians—be expected to handle a threat that defied most of what they knew and believed about the world around them? Sailor Moon and her friends took care of the Dark Kingdom and other entities that followed because they were the only ones who could.

Although this man didn't seem to be quite the same as the forces they had fought before. His acts were more criminal than evil. She tried to fit the pieces together, but she still didn't understand his intentions.

"I go around 'wasting' public emergency resources, and you think a few words are going to make you the villain?"


Schwarzpferd had a point, that being that he must have figured out in the shortest of times that Sailor Splash was one of those super nice girls and it was true, Stephanie was one of those types of girl who would try her darndest not to curse at anyone.

"You know Schwarzpferd...your right. Calling you a name or curse word would be pointless but I have my thoughts. Hey Mercury, I don't know about you but I have a feeling he is stalling for something...what? I have no current clue but it's just a thought."

Sailor Splash glanced back at Sailor Moon to see how the famous leader of the Senshi was doing, and by just the look on Moon's face, Splash could tell this whole thing was troubling her and who really would doubt that. Splash wanted to do her best to help calm Sailor Moon down but she didn't know how in the current situation.

All of these riddles and questions were making her head hurt. Sailor Moon felt like she was in school, in Ms. Haruna's class, being forced to take a test she hadn't studied for. (Not that she ever managed to do much in the ways of studying for exams, despite Ami's well-intentioned attempts.) Whatever this strange man in the horse mask was doing, she just didn't understand it. She felt the weight of her sceptre in her hand, but the thought of trying to attack him again, even to purify him... it made her feel numb and scared. It was different when the enemy stood around and talked, setting up some kind of strange fake place where people weren't really being held hostage and explosives may not be capable of detonating.

What was he trying to do? Usually she felt secure in her position as champion of justice... but this felt wrong.

Tuxedo Mask watched this scene from afar. The sailor soldiers were all gathered and confronting the man called Schwarzpferd. From where Tuxedo Mask stood, he could hear everything. He was taunting the girls, pushing their buttons, making them tick, but why? To what end? He certainly had something up his sleeve. He wasn't the only one thinking this though, he heard Sailor Splash call to Mercury that that Schwarzferd must be stalling. 

Tuxedo Mask prepared for whatever was going to come. This man was going to do something. So maybe it would be time for Tuxedo Mask to make his entrance.

Schwarzpferd could laugh and put forward the impression of a delinquent who was having a grand old time at the expense of the taxpayer and the emergency services who devoted their careers towards civil defense. Buried deep beneath that mocking horse mask and stolen police equipment, however, he was angry. Why were these vaunted sailor soldiers so hesitant to engage with him? Wasn't their concern for the common good going to outweigh the significant risks he was taking to deliver a message?

Schwarzpferd was okay with fighting them, and possibly getting hurt. That was a simple fact of life, and life was painful. They would be fine in the long term, but there would be no value in merely telling them what was going on. That sense of personal investment was not yet there. He would have to keep attacking their emotions until they fought back.

"While these last few weeks have been fun, you're facing a problem that the police can't solve on their own. It all starts here."

At that moment, Schwarzpferd brought up the rifle-like weapon that he had carried to his shoulder, finger resting just above the trigger as the masked man pointed in the senshi's direction.

Tuxedo Mask listened to Schwarzpferd mock the police and the senshi. It was always known that the police could not handle the problems the senshi faced by themselves. The senshi were the protectors of the world, Tuxedo Mask included, only they could fight the monsters from other dimensions and planets. This man was unlike anyone they had fought before, that made him unpredictable, even more dangerous.

What else was going on here? What pieces of the bigger picture were they missing? Tuxedo Mask decided he would once again take his place by the side of the senshi. Once he'd made the decision to fight with them against Schwarzpferd, he would need to make his entrance. 

Looking up he saw a giant weapon pointed towards the senshi. Now was his time to strike and make his entrance. In true Tuxedo Mask style, he aimed and threw a thorny red rose at Schwarzpferd and jumped into the scene. "You know, it's not polite to point weapons at ladies. Maybe I can teach you some manners."

The rose struck Schwarzpferd by surprise, slicing into the arm holding the rifled weapon. That sent the large-bore tube clattering to the ground, thankfully without having tripped the trigger. Having a military fire support weapon go off unexpectedly would be an explosive error sure to result in needless injuries.

Schwarzpferd took a moment to study his arm, flexing the fingers individually. Satisfied that the injury was merely superficial, the firebrand stared towards Tuxedo Mask, then smiled inwardly and spread his arms as if to welcome the sailor senshi's ally to his private venue. "You're welcome to try, friend! Allow me to offer congratulations for stopping me from pointing a single weapon towards your adorable allies. Can you stop another ten from being pointed at them?"

Schwarzpferd paused to laugh, then discarded his mockingly friendly tone for cold seriousness. "What about fifty, or a hundred?"

Tuxedo Mask wasn't surprised that the rose hit Schwarzpferd's arm and stopped him from pulling the trigger on his gun. Unfortunately that was not going to be enough to stop the man. His wound wasn't serious at all and that meant he could do whatever he wanted. When Schwarzpferd started talking again, Tuxedo Mask started to see what he had been waiting to do, what he was stalling for. He was going to attack with as many weapons as he possibly could. This was going to be very bad. 

Not caring if their enemy could hear him, Tuxedo Mask yelled to the senshi. "Who has a shield that we can use for protection? We are definitely going to need one or a way to block oncoming attacks and keep people safe." He wasn't sure what they could do. Yes they have power, but could they defeat one man with, who knows how many weapons at his disposal?

"Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon exclaimed as the familiar figure in black leaped in front of her, his red-lined cape billowing dramatically with his entrance. Somehow, she felt that sense of relief wash over her, the same one she always felt when her beloved arrived. Whatever fears and uncertainty existed to paralyze her from action, there was something about his presence that provided gentle reassurance. She hadn't even readied her wand when Schwarzpferd pointed the weapon towards her, blue eyes simply widening as she stared towards the muzzle of the terrible thing. If he had actually fired, could she have gotten out of the way in time?

Her head still swam with the threats she didn't understand, and she certainly didn't have a shield, even if she wished she could have complied with Tuxedo Mask's request. Still, she felt emboldened by his arrival. Sailor Moon extended her hand to the side, adjusting her grip on the Kaleidomoon Scope, and took a deep breath.

"Moon Gorgeous Meditation!" she called, once again attempting to use her purification abilities on this man. It hadn't worked when she attempted it earlier in the nightclub, but she was willing to try again. She had to. She was a champion of justice.