Yomiko Ra-chan: Aka 'The Paper'

[Bean Bandit]

Nenene raised her eyebrows, looking to the other two women. "That sounds right to me...That IS what you said, right?"

[Carthrat]

"Yeah, that's right," replies Carthrat. "Let's give it a ring."

[Bean Bandit]

Nenene nodded, and pulled out her cell phone, and tossed it to Ritsuko. "Right. There ya go." She replied.

[Bean Bandit]

Ritsuko dialed the number, and after a moment, a soft, but decidely perky sounding female voice answered. "Moshi Moshi?"

"Uh, is this Minako Aino?" Ritsuko replied hesitantly.

The girl's voice fell into a strange speech pattern, completely at odds with the light, feminine voice. "Yeah, you've got her..."

"Oh, good," replies the Ritsuko. "Are you.. well.. not where you should be, in a manner of speaking?"

Almost audibly blinking at the question, she asks, "Uh, if you're a narc trying to get me, I'm on my way to school! Hell, it hasn't even started yet..."

"Oh. That's not what I meant," replies the Ritsuko. "Does the word 'Soulriders' mean anything to you?"

"Yeah, I know it... Who are you, and what the hell do you want?"

"So touchy," she observed. "I'm Carthrat. Who the hell are you?"

Ryder suddenly was happy... Extremely happy... VERY INCREDIBLY HAPPY... as she said, "RAT-BASTARD!!! Thank God!"

"Hah! 'Thank God', indeed.." replies Carthrat, chuckling.

"Hey, out of all of us, there are worse people that could find me first... like Kwok... and Kwok... and did I mention Kwok?" Ryder replied as she smiled to Artemis, mentioning to him, with her hand over the reciever, "It's one of the others..."

"I don't think anyone else got a list of names to search for, though," replies Carthrat, flatly. "By the way.. have you had a shower yet?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I took a shower... it was... interesting..." Ryder replied, a bit of a blush forming at that last part.

"Interesting? It was.. educational," replies Carthrat, blushing a little herself.

"Yeah... definately..." Ryder added, still thinking about why it took her a while to finish.

"But, uh, that's not what I'm supposed to be talking about. Nonono. Ok. Ok. First, are you in one piece? Had any weird shit happen to you so far?"

"Oh, yeah... forgot to mention... If you haven't guessed by now, my name is," Ryder said before taking a deep breath, "I am known as Valetinez Alkalenela Zeehock Sushira Boherez Gombigomela Blue Stradavari Tralentrent Pierre Andre Charttenhemos E'Vonnivitchi Baldos George Doitzel Kaizer The Third... And you've already called me, haven't you Rodent-chan?"

"I'll call you Ryder for short," replies Carthrat, flatly.

"Aww... How'd you guess it was me?" Ryder replied with a hint of disappointment in her voice...

"Because nobody else speaks like that," replies Carthrat, nodding to herself. "Except maybe Kwok."

"Don't you dare compare me to him..." Ryder warned, before remembering Rat's question, "Well, besides a missing piece that I miss so much, I'm in one piece. And, I've had a couple of twisted nightmares, fell over about 20 times trying to learn to walk in heels, and have to go back to high school... other than that, it's been peachy keen."

"High school? You ain't going to school! We've got stuff to do!" exclaims Carthrat.

"I know that very much, but if I don't go, then the other Senshi will find me out, and I don't want that to happen yet..." Ryder replied, annoyance in her voice...

"Call in sick," replies Carthrat, flatly.

"Har har, that would bring Usagi over to try and make me feel better..." Ryder replied, equally flatly...

"I don't know. Make something up. Or you could just come clean with them. Though they'll probably try and exorcise you or something. Anyway, that doesn't matter just now. You seen anything called 'Steel Angels' or something?"

"No, I haven't... why?"

"Well, someone we know is from that series. Except, I don't know, she's in stasis or asleep or something, in a temple on the outskirts of Juuban.And, y'see, if Chaos or wheover gets to her first, I think she can be turned against us. Now, Remy is the one who told me this. He also told me who you were, along with a few other people."

"But I think it's absolutely crucial that we get to this person before anyone else does."

"It is important... we can't lose anyone to Chaos... Except Kwok."

"Ryder," snaps Carthrat, "Don't joke about that."

"I know, I know... Don't give me the Lunar Inquisition, alright?" Ryder replied, her serious tone and look returning...

"Right. Anyway, the first thing we have to do is *find this temple*."

"All I know is that it's on the outskirts of Tokyo, around the Juuban area."

"Look.. oh, yeah. I'm Ritsuko from.. Those Who Hunt Elves, that's it. Ra-chan is with me; she landed Yomiko Readman. The other people I know of are Sakura Kinamoto, and Tsuruko Aoyama. We're going to try contacting them, and then try and find some place to meet."

"You CAN use my place I suppose... My... Uh, Minako's parents are out of town on work related business, so we could meet here if you can find it."

"Well, you're the one who lives there. I'll get the address off you when we're ready to move."

"Look, after I've contacted as many people as I can, I'll try and get us all to Juuban so we can search for this temple place."

"Alright, that sounds like a plan O'Fearless Leader... In the meantime, I've got to try and keep myself from being found out today. I'd rather have some proof of my identity when Luna finds out..."

"Sure you'll have proof. Us. And don't you have some cat of your own?"

"Of course I do," Ryder replied as she started to pet Artemis, "But, do you honestly think she'll believe him? You watched the series, you know how much faith Luna has in Artemis..."

"Well. Actually. I didn't watch the series," replies Carthrat, flatly.

Ryder quickly whispered, "No offense..." to her cat before replying, "Oh great... well, feel lucky you've got someone who doesn't need to prance around in a CFM outfit to get her powers."

"You do have a point," replies Carthrat. "But any moron can use a gun. Only you can do what you do."

"And of all of them, I had to get stuck with the one I liked the least... Why couldn't I have been Ami or something. Then I wouldn't have to act brainless..."

"On the other hand, if we need to seduce someone, you've got all the equipment necessary."

"Har Har Rat... Go Fuck Off And Die..."

"I'll be doing that. I'll phone you again when we've got our plans sorted out...Oh, yeah. You wouldn't know anything about what's happening yourself, would you? Remy contacted me, I guess something else could've contacted you.. or something."

"Nothing contacted me... I've been in the dark, except for the post-armageddon nightmare..."
"Ok. Any questions, queries, or doubtful points?"

"I think it was my own self-esteem getting in my way... Or, maybe it was a wake-up call..."

Carthrat blinks. "Um.. nightmares? Self-esteem?"

"Sorry... just rambling a bit... No, I don't think there's anything else... Besides, of course, who's phone this is..."

"Oh! I forgot to mention. I'm with Nenene Sumiregewa, in Yomiko Readmans apartment. It's Nenene's mobile. Heaven knows how much of a bill I've put on it." She hesitated. "Here, I'll give you her number."

Ritsuko hesitated a moment, then read off a string of numbers to Minako.

Ryder smiled and replied, putting her pen back into her bag, "Good... Now, if I had actually seen RoD, that would mean something..."

"Well, no time to worry about the specifics. Try and get out of school."

"I'll be seeing you later. Hopefully."

"Yeah... I'll try and cook up something, but, it'll be hard..."

"Well. Stay safe, and all."

*Click*

Ryder closed her cell phone, and sighed...

[Bean Bandit]

Nenene eyed Ritsuko, beginning to smirk as the younger woman handed the phone back, having deduced at least one interesting point from the half of the conversation she heard. "What exactly WERE you doing in the shower, chibikko?"

The phone suddenly rang, saving Ritsuko from the necessity of a reply. Nenene answered, then blinked, and handed it to Ritsuko. "It's for you..."

[Bean Bandit]

"What? Forget something?" Ritsuko asked.

"Of course I forgot something you idiot, I wouldn't be wasting her minutes if I didn't..." Ryder-Minako answered.

"Haw haw."

"Yeah... it's all coming down this weekend, at the Tokyo Dome. It looked to me like it was something like ULTRA... Oh God, please tell me you've read ULTRA."

"Not only havn't I read it, I've never heard of it."

"OK... think... you're going to hate this... WWF with Anime"

"I somehow doubt we'll be restricted to wrestling," notes Carthrat.

"Of course... but, that's the style I think it's going in... And it's going to be TELEVISED."

"Er.. right," replies Carthrat. "Televised, you say? Well.. all we need to do is win, right?"

"After that, it doesn't matter."

"Yeah... But, now you know... Tokyo Dome, this weekend... And, we're probably going to be facing other characters we know too." Upon further rememberance, she added, "This was BS... Chaos made the commercial, and then decided to have f'n AMELIA beating me... I'm going to maul him just for that..."

"Amelia? Y'know, when you think about it, she's not all that different to a sailor senshi.."

"Except that we're alot better... the CFM suit does more than make us look like we're dying for attention. I tried it this morning... you get a nice little strength and speed boost, and there's a rush you get when..." Ryder stopped her bullet-train of thought, and added, "Rat, when you see me, make sure to slap me, OK?"

"Huh. Ok."

"I guess I lucked out. Ritsuko doesn't have any weird baggage or odd destiny traits or any of that junk."

"Check that, I'm going to slap you for bragging..."

"Whatever. Anything else you forgot?"

"Thankfully, no... I'm late, and you've probably have already figured out other people, right?"

"Er, we're working on it."

"Riiiiiiiight.... Tell Ra-chan that I'm asking her to keep you in line..."

Carthrat's voice drops to a whisper. "Between you and me, I've had just about enough of that sort of treatment."

Ryder giggled and replied, "It's all cool man... Out of everyone, I don't know who I'm scared most of, Luna or Chaos..."

"Heh. Well, be seeing you."

"Yeah..."
*click!*

[Carthrat]

Carthrat shakes her head, handing the phone back to Nenene.

"That's some truly odd stuff," she says, shaking her head.

[Bean Bandit]

"How so, exactly?" Nenene replied, raising an eyebrow.

[Carthrat]

"Apparently, the 'challenge' is taking place at Tokyo Dome this weekend," replies Carthrat. "And Ryder reckons it's going to be televised.

Oh, yeah. Minako is indeed one of us. Ryder Hakubi. Don't know much about him.

But. This weekend, he says. What day is it?"

[Bean Bandit]

"It's Monday." Nenene replied, blinking and removing her hairband to run a hand through her hair. "So that's good. You have time to figure out where this 'Steel Angel' is..."

[Carthrat]

"Yeah. And we need to do that as quickly as possible," observes Carthrat. "We know Ryder has a house in Juuban, and she told me that her parents have left on a business trip, so we should meet her there.

That aside, let's look up the last one. Sakura, it was."

[Bean Bandit]

"Already found." Nenene nodded to her computer. "Though, Kinomoto has several names listed, but none of them happen to be 'Sakura'..."

[Carthrat]

"That's right, she's like twelve or something," replies Carthrat, thinking. "Ra-chan, you have any idea where she lives? Or who her parents are, even?"

[Bean Bandit]

Nenene frowned. "Ahem..." She interjected. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but...there seems to be some urgency here, right?"

[Carthrat]

"Absolutely," replies Carthrat. "I planned to get moving once I was done here."