Ken gazed up at the gigantic structure that somehow not only managed to hold the biggest martial arts competition in the world, but also the largest anime convention in the world.  His slight architectual sense was fascinated by the truly monolithic building.

His other senses, however, were busy dealing with the constant sensory assault that is Sodom.

"See, Ken-san?! It's gonna be great! They're gonna have no less than THIRTY, that's right, I said THIRTY, catgirls prowling the show floor, and private screenings of the lost Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes, and a 'Beat The Hell Out of a Funimation Executive', and 'Beginning Japanese for Dummies'...."

"That'd be right up your alley," Ken cracked.

"Ken-san, I'm insulted. I'm WAY past Beginning Japanese. Anyway, then there's a lookalike contest, and a one-man production of Fist Of The North Star starring Gallagher..."

"Look," Ken wheeled around to face his companion. "I'm glad we've gotten to where we need to go. In fact, I'm frickin' ecstatic. But as far as I'm concerned, if I don't see you again, it'll be too soon."

Sodom looked genuinely hurt under his mask. "But Ken-san..."

"I'll be the first to admit, you were a lot of help and without you, I'd probably have been killed somewhere along the line. But now it's time for us to finish what we came here to do, go home, and maybe tell the grandkids about it someday after we've had a bit too much to drink."

Sodom looked at his companion. Was this really how it was all going to turn out? He could have sworn there was some bonding between them. He considered Ken his best friend. It felt as though a dagger had been plunged into his heart, then was magically replaced by a corkscrew that twisted it as acid was thrown in his eyes while he was being rotated over an open flame.

"Um...sayanora, Ken-san...Ken-san?"

Ken had already started down the sidewalk.

HELLOOOOOSHI!!!  ^_^ It was a happy hour!  Lady luck don't fail you now.  Ha HA!   By the power of the Goddess Althena, you'll take care of this!!!

And do you know why?

Because iiiiiiiiit's OTAKON!!!!!      :D

The happiest convention of Japanime loving Otakus this side of the states!  Shiny lights and crowds abounded everywhere!  Giant television sets in the air!  People in anime costumes from around the WORLD!!!!!  Noise noise NOISE and talking and such and there are people dressed as big puffy animals, S&M dominitrixes who spread the word of fear, and one hundred and one varieties of sailor scout.  LISTEN TO THE MUSIC!  Your ticket to anime happiness of purity and love and romance, but act now, don't delay!!!  Or the vampires will take the sailors away!

"JUNI-CHAN?!?!?!?!?!"  WHAT was happening to Vampire Hunter J!?!?   @_@  For Juni, the greatest vampire hunter since the great Avelle had fallen down the waterfall to the land down under where evil evil beings are the masters.  But Juni was cosplaying as something not so Yuffie when Serina wanted her to be anime Final Fantasy's Yuffie because Yuffie had the mad ninja skills and now Serina didn't even know WHAT she was wearing right now!  All she knew was that it was metallic one piece and definately complicated jewelry embroidery, with the amulet emerald gems on the side of each leg and right below the chest.  It made her look like a pretty princess.  A pretty... semi-S&Mish princess but... but the endowment!  THE ENDOWMEEEEEEEEEENT!!!!!!  >_<  "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

"OW!!!  My ears!"  Juni could quickly covered her ears, but she could not hide THE TRUTH!!!!  TELL HER NOW, SERINA!!!!  It is your sailor scout duty as a sailor senshi fan!!!!  For today you wear the sailor suit and skirt of pure love and joy and must SPREAD THE WORD!!!

You brushed your long fluffy pink hair, to get it out of the way.  It was time to see things eye to eye!  "Why do you wear that evil evil evil thing that lacks the mad ninja skills muchly when you can have finally fantastic number seven clothes instead of mean mean jail-bait innuendo chest-enhancing armour!?"

"This looks cooler?"  Juni was replying matter of factly.  Aw... she didn't understand, huh?  Silly Juni:P

It was no matter, because Juni was the vampire hunter!!!!  And Serina and Marzche were going to help, too!  No one takes away Sailor Moon if these dolls of Shadaloo had anything to say about it!!!  But first.... iiiiiiiiit's OTAKON!!!!!      :D

Marzche was your partner!!  Bestest friend in the world!!  Agent of March and surviving even more than one assault from the evilness that is most muchos mias factos vampires of the laaaaaand, Marzche had experience!  And she would wear the sailor suit of SUPER SAILOR SAI YAI YAI YAI POWER!!!!  Though Marzche wanted hers to be a neutral grey formal Japanese uniform.  It makes her shine in the crowd where everyone wheres spazztastic and grey formal Japanese uniform clashes muchly with her dyed short blue long duo straight bangs anime hair. ^^;;  Ah well, tis ANIME so tis s'all good, yep yep!  ^^

"Marzche-sama, this convention is so sugoi!!!"  Said to her partner Marzche, Serina did!

But Juni was blinking again.  "Why are you talking like that?!?"

Silly Juni!  *giggle*  "Ju-Chan no kawaii!"

"Um.... I understood that."  Juni is stiiiill confused!  She didn't understand the benefits that came with lobsters, even if it was evil.  Japanese was one of them if the aide to the vampire was nice enough to give it.  "HOW did I understand that?"

It took a while, but Serina was finally able to find Ju-chan's pet tabby kitty cat outside too.  What was it doing?  Bird chasing, Cuddles was!  Fortunately, Serina was able to catch her and save the birds!

"Silly Cuddles.  Cats and birds should get along instead of fighting, then everyone can be happy.  ^^"  Serina said to Cuddles!  That was a while back but Juni was happy to have her kitty cat!  Because the birds were flying away and it was break time today.  The crowds were going back and forth, but WHY WEREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING?!?  You could be spending this time watching anime screenplays!  Or maybe take a lookie at the cosplay!  Or karaoke!  Or... eeep!!!  Where to begin!?  Time to start the show!

sk8tbrdmstr::  Buy EverAnime CDs.  You'll be doing some good.  SonMay is also very good.

Type type type.  Marzche's lap top was quite handy at times.  No wonder why she always brought it everywhere with her.  Juni happily typed some replies into the chat box.

EverAnime CDs, huh?  Weren't those pirated copies or something?  Neat!  I'll make sure to pick up a bunch.  We need to support our budding CD makers instead of those cruel extortionists.  Anyway, Otakon has been lots of fun so far, though this whole Sailor Moon thing going on right now is wierd.  All these people want to meet them but... they're just cartoon characters!

The reply came up on the screen.

sk8tbrdmstr: Yah, I met Akane Tendo in RL.  I don't just watch anime, I live it.  Uh... that sounds wrong.

Hooboy.  Another otaku.  Juni sighed to herself.  She figured she probably wouldn't hold it against her online chat friend later, but right now, she was kinda just getting sick of all the crazed anime fanatics in general.  Better cut this one off now and wait until she was in a better mood.  The blonde quickly typed in her farewell.

Heh, it sounds wierd.  But that sounds cool, though.  Well, I have to get going.  I'll talk to you, later!  ^^

sk8tbrdmstr:  l8ter!

That over with, time to start looking around and enjoy the con some more.  CG workstation?  Hmm... it looked interesting enough.  This might be fun.  Juni figured she needed something to keep her occupied while she waited for the big announcement that she came to Otakon for in the first place, anyway.  The noise of various otakus and music still going on all around her quickly faded to the background as she sat down at the table, placed Cuddles on the table, petted her a little, then started by drawing a picture as the cat took a nap.  She wasn't the best artist (actually had practically zip experience with drawing in general), but this was just for fun anyway and it'd be cool to see how much a CG coloring job could touch up an ugly drawing for the foundation.  Of course, even amateurs needed their concentration.  Which, apparently, was something Juni wasn't going to get since a certain short red-haired friend of hers, also dressed in the same costume, decided to start bugging her again.

Avelle crossed her arms and smiled mockfully.  "Oh Juni darling, don't you think this is just a little out of place for a vampire hunter or vampires to be?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Avelle."  The young blonde agent didn't even glance back at the other red-haired one.  "But I'm still not listening to you, you know."

"Avelle... is such an outdated name."  Closing her eyes, the other girl put her hand over her mouth and laughed a little, before opening them again.  "You act as if I'm a completely separate person from you.  Why don't you call me... Junivelle?  Since you don't seem to call yourself that, even though others do."

Juni normally didn't like to get angry, but her imaginary friend's constant blatant poking was really starting to irk the poor girl.  It was beginning to borderline on harassment!  Weren't imaginary friends supposed to go away when you stopped... well, imagining about them?  Unless this wasn't an imaginary friend at all...

Juni cringed but didn't bother to turn to look at the other girl and continued drawing as she shouted, "Shut up, Avelle!  You ARE a completely separate person!  After what you did to Bremare..."

"YOU did to Bremare, dear."

Harassment indeed.

"I wouldn't have said that to Bremare!  Shut up right now, dammit, Avelle!"  Juni really wished that she could thwack that evil evil girl right now, but you really can't beat up your imaginary friends.  Or ghosts of disgruntled traitor agents coming back to haunt you, which Juni was starting to think Avelle more and more was and not just an imaginary friend, because already she tried imagining Avelle just falling down a waterfall again and dying forever but it obviously wasn't happening.  Luckily for her, her shouts at nothingness weren't heard by anyone else due to being drowned out by the noise of the convention.

"This mission would have been better suited for our hunting group."  Ghost o' Avelle remarked.  She was wrong though.  It wasn't Juni's hunting group.  It was just Avelle's.  And that's why she wasn't taking it along for this particular job.  "Heck, saving a bunch of anime heroines who were supposedly kidnapped by a vampire seems rather ridiculous, anyway.  Have you been listening to Serina?  You probably have much bigger fish to fry than vampires that have nothing to do but make underage sailor harems.  Like vampires that have nothing to do but make underage harems, vampiricize once great leaders who started kingdoms for greatness, then abandon them to rot while others like us are left to pick up the pieces."

"Okay, Avelle, at first you were annoying but now you're just not making sense."  The pen hit the paper a little more as Juni began to do some retracing of the drawing.  Juni then darkly added a comment, using a formal prefix just to mock the red haired agent.  "I think you're a real jerk, Miss Avelle."

"Juuuuu-chan!!!!"  Serina's shout quickly interupted the two girls' conversation and Juni hastily covered up the drawing to hide it from view.  "That mean mean round police guy Edi E said that pets weren't allowed so we have to hide poor poor Cuddles somewhere.  Is that okay?"

Apparently Cuddles already figured out what was going on, because when Juni looked over to see where the kitty cat was, she found Cuddles to be hiding in Serina's hair as some sorta wierd cat head bauble that mewed.

"Oooooo,"  Serina stared inquisitively at the picture Juni was covering.  "What are you drawing?"

"Huh?  Oh, the drawing.  Um... it's a secret."

"Teehee!  Marzche and I drew something too, but it's not a secret!"  With that, Serina happily displayed to Juni a picture of bunny rabbits playing around in an open flower field with a bunch of birds and a unicorn.  "Secrets aren't so bad since most people don't seem to pay much attention to them anyway so I think that it's nice to be open about these things."

"Wow, that's actually a pretty good picture."  Juni remarked.  "The unicorn you drew looks great!"

"Huh?  Oh, silly Juni!"  Beaming, the fluffy-pink haired girl happily exclaimed, "Marzche drew the pretty unicorn!"

Marzche drew that?  Juni never did think of Marzche actually... well, doing anything besides play minesweeper all day and chew bubble gum.  She glanced over at the background where Marzche was calmly putting away bubble gum from a popped bubble as the large rotund police officer, Edi E, began blowing one of his own.  A... really reeeaaally big one of his own.  To the point where even the normally expressionless Marzche was showing some surprise in her eyes as she stared at it.

"Marzche-sama!!!!  We should get a going!!!"  Serina grabbed Marzche by the arm.  "They're showing the screenings of Chikara Kachi, and we should see it all before they make their big announcement about the sailor senshi!  Don't worry about the big bang!!!  There are other things to do!  Mistress Silvermoon wouldn't worry about Bubblegum Police when the actual anime is better, neh?"

Juni took some more time off from her drawing to take note of Serina once more.  "Chikara Kachi?  With Ki and Marget?  Aren't those two in that anime the lovers Desire always ranted about?"

"But but Desire is wrooooong!!!!"  Serina protested.  "Ki and Marget are the bestest cousins who are close to each other and when it is taken in the east the original interpretation was wrong wrong wrong but the transition to the west made it right so things were great!"

Eh?  Juni decided not to even bother trying to understand that.

"Um... okay."

The blue-haired girl Marzche glanced at Edi E, then finally sighed and came to a decision.  "Yea... okay, right.  Let's go."

With that, Serina happily dragged her away to see the anime screens, though Juni saw Marzche cast a glare back at Edi E with her eyes narrowed as the police officer simply continued blowing his bubble gum bubble.

Ah well, Avelle was gone so now Juni could get back to concentrating on her drawing.

Ken stared at the bag as though it stared back at him. He reared back his left leg, and felt the whoosh of air as it passed over the rapidly accelerating appendage, then felt his foot smack into the bag, almost knocking it off his hinges. Ken liked to kick things. It made him feel powerful.

But something nagged at him. His conscience. Figures, he thought.

"Fighting tournament?!  Here?  Hmm... well, I suppose it beats watching the translated version of Chikara Kachi that Serina probably would have made me watch."

That girl's loud voice in the background wasn't doing much good for his concentration either.

"What do you mean I'm too loud?!?  Why is everyone staring at me like that?"

Not much good at all.

"This costume?  Huh?  What?  Um... because it's cool?  How many times do I keep having to say this?"

And it was just Ken's luck on what she happened to decide to do.

"Okay, I'll just stay here and watch everyone for a while.  The announcement doesn't start for a bit anyway."

With that, he found himself being watched specifically by some really young short-haired blonde girl wearing some sort of crazy otaku costume upon which his wife would kill him if she caught him hanging out with a girl wearing something like that.  And she noticed that he noticed her, too.

"Oh, don't mind me!"  The girl beamed.  "Hey, is that Shotokan style?  Fenrir always told me about how some Shotokan guy named Ryu managed to keep his focus so well and she wish that everyone else could make an attempt to train as much as he did.  Never could understand the 'do it for the sake of the fight' mentality myself, though.  It doesn't sound like much fun."

Ken gaped. Never before had anyone so perfectly summed up his feelings about his rival. Could it be...

Somewhere in California, Eliza Masters once again focused her latent psychic energies.  This time, further down.

Ken immediately fell to his knees, gasping for air. When the girl asked him if he was all right, he was barely able to squeak out a "Just fine, thanks".

"Oops!  I'm sorry!  I didn't think that mentioning Ryu would make you train so hard that you'd... um... hyperventilate or something."  The girl remarked as she helped him up.  "Hey, you're here for the tournament, right?  They said it was a really big martial arts competition, but I didn't see Ryu Hoshii on the roster.  Um... you wouldn't happen to be a really really good fighter, would you?"

Ken smirked. Obviously, this kid had no idea who she was talking to.

"Some would say I can hold my own."

"Hold your own?  Wow, neat!"  She must have been remarkably easy to please, since she was beaming again.  Or maybe not, since the girl's fast shift to a more anxious look showed that her admiration apparently came with some strings attached.  "Um... you wouldn't happen to like, be looking for... what was the word?  Valuable opponents, would you?  I mean, worthy.  Yea, that's the word.  Cause I sorta went and accidentally ditched all my fighter friends before getting here and I really need help like... beating up someone."

Mweh?

The girl quickly added, "Oh, or I could pay you, of course!  Though... if you'd do it for free, free is good.  Um... yea."

Ken couldn't believe what he was hearing. Here was some girl who just came up to him out of nowhere to ask him to beat someone up...for FREE, no less! He was about to ask just where she got off, but just then, his conscience acted up again.

"Don't you feel just AWFUL about what you did to Sodom?"

He then decided that yes, some charity work would make that little voice shut up.

The girl apparently took note of his decision from the look of his face or something, since she decided to strike at that moment even though Ken didn't say anything yet.

"It's for a really really good cause!"  Crazy jeweled costume aside, apparently an ability of female otakus was to give the pleading puppy eyed look that the anime girls they watched so often gave.  "There's an anime show that has its stakes on this fight due to some... um, really wierd bet between the producers and when you win the fight, you'll be famous!  Or at least appear on television.  And everyone will say 'Hey look!  There's that guy so good at fighting that he can beat up a mean nasty... um... fang-toothed guy and such!"

What was she talking about?

The girl quickly clarified some more.  "I mean, since, I heard lots of people say that there wasn't much prestige or whatnot in this tournament without Ryu, with the only conselation prize being the lesser amount of prestige they'd get if they beat Ryu's rival or something.  And you have better things to do than try to beat up Ryu's rival, right?"

Ken was momentarily taken aback by the girl's comment. She really didn't know who she was talking to, did she?

"Fanged guy?" he asked.

The girl was taken aback by his comment.  You could almost hear a cricket chirp.  Or could if it weren't for all the other kicks and punches going on from the other fighters in the room who didn't take the time to stop and stare at the two.  Or maybe they were just staring at the girl.  Good thing none of them had any cameras because somehow, someway, Ken just knew that if any pictures were taken of him and her, Eliza would get her hands on them.

"Okay, I'll admit it."  The girl conceded.  "We're going to go after a vampire!  A really powerful vampire which only a really trained fighter has any hopes of surviving against who's so powerful that he or she even managed to defeat all of the inner sailor senshi of Sailor Moon fame in a climactic battle of good vs evil!"

Okay, that explained a lot.  She didn't just not know who she was talking to, she was downright insane.  Ken was highly considering calling the mental ward when one more addendum from the girl caught his attention.

"Oh, and the pay would probably be about five hundred thousand dollars, since I'll give you my share, though it'll probably vary a bit depending on exactly what type of vampire turned out to be the one we're after.  That should be a good estimate though."

NOW you could of heard a cricket chirp.  Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to have all their eyes on Ken and to see his reaction.  Still no cameras, at least, though.

Ken, still in shock from the impressive sum, blinked.

His shock still not receding, he blinked again.

He then blinked one more time for the hell of it.

"Sure, I could help you out." Ken knew that would stifle his conscience for a while AND net him half a million dollars. It was a win-win situation. Exactly the sort he liked.

"Wow, really?!"  Smiling, the girl put her hands together, before quickly deciding to give her introduction with a salute, oddly enough.  "Oh yea!  I'm Juni, sir!  Nice to meet you.  Um... what was your name again?"

"Ken Masters."

The girl looked at him oddly. NOW she knows who she's talking to, Ken grinned.

"Eh, sorry, it doesn't ring a bell, but thank you again!"

Eagerly grabbing his hand, she proceeded to happily drag him out of the room, much to the dissappointed looks of all the other fighters in the room, saddened that THEY wouldn't get the half a million.

How hard could it be to defeat some wierd guy  in a vampire costume with a set of fake canines anyway?

"Marzche-sama!!!  Not here!  This is the wrooong one!!!"

Marzche was going to see the subbed version!  Stop her, Serina!  The subbed version wasn't cleaned up as much as the dubbed version!  And the words out loud are in the language you can't understand very well!  Though Marzche can understand it just niftily, of course.  And you're trying!  Of course, you have your translator that Marzche made for you, but you wouldn't want to understand the language at this moment anyway, since the subbed version wasn't cleaned up as much as the dubbed version!  It curses.  Not good.

And now Marzche is looking at you again.  She doesn't look too happy.  Okay, maybe you shouldn't push her too much.  Marzche is your bestest friend in the world!  She should see what she likes, even if you don't enjoy it that much.

"Okay!!  We'll go see Chikara Kachi UnAmericanized!"  It was Marzche's turn anyway.  You both watched the dubbed version last time.  Worth a shot, though, since she might have been in the mood for the cleaner type.  Oh well^^  Marzche likes the UnAmericanized Japanese version and one shouldn't think about only one's self, because only thinking about one's self is selfish and whatnot.  Besides, she made that filter device just for you so you would be able to see the version you like, too!  Or at least as close as it gets.  Time to put on the blood filter glasses!  Since the dubs which had the English language spoken out loud weren't filled with queasy queasy blood unlike the subs which required the English words to be spelled out in text.  Not that you need text to help you keep up with what's going on of course.  Strange how so many other people do.  Silly people.  ^^  Ju-Chan and the rest of the marionettes got to see enough of that in real life, anyway!

Sat down in the chair with Marzche next to you, and the popcorn is good!  Wow... the screen was so big!  It was like a movie!  Which... it sorta was.  Anime expanded to the biggest bestest screen!  An otaku's dream come true!

Munch munch.  Yep!  Popcorn is good!  Don't forget to let Marzche have some too.  Sharing is fun for everyone!  And look!  It's time to start the show!

Lights off!  Quiet down!  Episode 25, was it?  Hee, you know it by heart so you should know what's going on!   And... AAAAAAH!!!  FIGHT SCENE!!! >_<  YOU FORGOT TO PUT ON YOUR FILTER DEVICE, SERINA!!! >_<  The blood's flooooowing!!!  And you can't just magically tune it out through sheer will like Ju-Chan can!  PUT IT ON!!!!!

Plop!

Glasses on!  Hey!  All the blood is now just sweat!  Though... they sure sweat a lot, huh?  Ouch!  That looked like it hurt!  Eeep!!!!  UH OH!  Watch out, Mr. Bad Guy!!!  Marget is using her mighty Evil Elimination power on you!

"BEHOLD, VILLAIN MAN!  MY MIGHTY FUCK FUCK POWER SHALL DESTROY YOU!"

FUCK FUCK?!?!?!!?  AAAAAAAH!!! SERINAAAAAA!!!!  YOU FORGOT TO TURN ON YOUR CURSE WORD FILTER!!!  ><  Quick!!!  Filter on!!!

"NOOOOOOO!!!!   Drat, I am no match for Marget's all mighty Evil Elimination power!!!!"

Hooray!!!  You won't have to put up with the words you don't like thanks to Marzche's nifty gadget!  So now you can both enjoy Chikara Kachi together, even though you both tend to have slightly different preferences regarding it!  Get him, Marget!!  RUN MR. VILLAIN!  Before you end up sweating out like all your poor now eternally unconscious henchmen!!!!

"Marget!  You did it!!!"

Aw... Ki and Marget are hugging!!!

Oooo, wonder what Marzche thinks!  "Marzche-sama!  I think it's really WAFFy how close those two are and they're just have such a nice family relationship and it's really neat!!"

"Maybe.  I guess the whole lovers thing is okay."  Oh yea!  That's right, Marzche looks at the unfiltered version!  Oh no... lovers is soooo... well, cousins was better.  Family is nice!

"You mean *WE* did it, Ki!!  Now let's go monkey dance each other!"

Monkey dance?!?  Eh eh eh?  Need to ask Marzche to update this filter, you do, Serina!!!  Monkey dance just sounded wierd.  PSI YAI YAI!!!  Oi.... you'll never get used to unfiltered Ki and Marget, will you?  Maybe lovers wouldn't be so bad if you weren't so used to them being cousins, but two and two together is just lover cousins and that is so wrong on so many levels that it just is really freeeaaaky.

Anime's over!  It was fun!  Next time, Marzche and you can see the dubbed version!  But now, you two have an announcement to catch!  The announcement which shall let you save the sailor senshi!!!

"Marzche-sama!  We should get goooing!  The sailor senshi need help due to falling to the ultimate lobotomatrix of evil vampiricism leeching from the creativity of poor mortal minds and we're going to be finally doing something today!"

"But.... episode 26..."

EPISODE 26!!!  AH!!!  How could you forget?!?  That's one of the bestest episodes!!!  It's the one where Ki discovers her true calling but avoids vampiricism herself then summons the mighty friend of CHEER which causes everything to be right again!!!  And you need to catch the announcement but then you and Marzche will miss it!!! ><

Poor Marzche... having to miss EPISODE 26 just because YOU want to save the sailor senshi!  Oh, what will you do, Serina!?  This is your chance!  Your chance to finally do something and make things great!  And Marzche could join in too, then she'd be doing something, and finally something would be accomplished, but... EPISODE 26!!!

.....YEA!   That's it!!!!  You and Marzche should be doing something and make the GREAT SACRIFICE and *sniff* miss EPISODE 26!!!  Sigh.  But you need to tell Marzche too, because she has a right to know what's going on!

"Maaarzche-sama!  I have the bestest idea!  We can save the sailor senshi and maybe fix what's wrong not just for them and the otakus of the world, but as a blow to all vampires in general!!!  Mistress Silvermoon could finally begin to do something and the vampires will go NOOOOO and we can do everything!!!  Because at the announcement we'll get the knowledge and knowledge is power and for once the power won't be ignored, and now YOU'LL bring back Sailor Moon!!"

"The... return of Mistress Silvermoon?"  Marzche looked like she was considering it but she was a bit confused.  Hmm...

"Where babies lie and flowers bloom!"  Shout out loud, Serina did!  "Safe from the evil vampires that constantly make fun of them then leave them for lobster stew!  Come on, Marzche!  We should get going, soon!"

"Ha... yea, sure!"  Ooooo, now Marzche knows what's going on!  This might just be a first step but someday, things will be great, won't they?  You'll both try your best and that's what counts!

To the announcement!!!!

Sodom stared at the small child in the orange gi.

"Goku doesn't wear his hair like that."

"But it was the best my mommy could do..."

"LOOK, MARZCHE-SAMA!!!!  It's SonSon the monkey girl talking with that samurai gaijin over there!"

Doh!  How was Sodom supposed to teach someone how a true Goku would have his hair done if high-pitched fellow cosplayers always interupted him?

"Wonder what character he's supposed to be..."  The other girl accompanying the hyper one slowly glanced up at the large man.  "Um...."

"I'm not SonSon!  I'm a guy!  I'm Goku!"  The kid whined.

"Aw, teehee!  It's okay, SonSon!!"  The hyperactive one with the fluffy pink hair patted the kid on the head.  "We all have our secret identities!  Today, I am the all great Sailor Saterina!  With Sailor Marz and Sailor Juniper!  Um... whereever she went."

"Serina and Marzche."  Her blue haired companion added.

"I just think your SonSon costume is the bestest ever because it looks so cute and it has a ridiculously cute tail and it oooooooo, who's that?"  Quickly diverting her attention to Sodom, Serina glanced at his jersey and then at his mask.  "Um... Super Samurai Gaijin Man?  No wait, he wore a different mask and that series got cancelled.  Poor poor Super Samurai Gaijin Man..."

Sodom raised an eyebrow. How could anyone know about Super Samurai Gaijin Man, one of the most obscure anime series ever? This girl must obviously know her stuff.  Sodom felt butterflies in his stomach as he looked at her fluffy pink hair.

"H-h-h-hi...I'm Soda...err, Sodom."  He flushed red.  Under the mask.

"Hiya Sodom!!!  I'm Serina!"  The girl happily shook his hand.  "With the happiest name of one of the Sailor senshi themselves even though I don't think my parents intended it that way when they gave it to me since it's wierd but maybe parents know the future though you seem like a really nice guy and I'm not sure if the parents meant you to have the meaning of your name too."

"It's sacrilicious."  Marzche remarked, before looking off to the side.  "Hmm.  The announcement will probably be happening soon."

"The annooouncement!!!!!  But the coooosplays!!!!"  Quickly looking around, Serina pondered what to do for a moment before a light bulb appeared above her head.  "Ah, I know!!!!  Super Samurai Sodom actually knows about Super Samurai Gaijin Man!  I bet he's the next true Samurai Gaijin!!!  With swords of power and death to his foes, he swipes and and slashes with the speed and power which only a sneaker wearing ninja could hope to counter!"

Marzche shrugged.  "Maybe."

"We should be nice to the man who's parents gave him a name of power even if it's a scary power which tends to just be very very wierd to lots of people all the time."  With that, she turned to Sodom.  "Miiister Sooodom!  We're going to a special announcement!  We're going to see the sailor senshi in person and help them out and bring joy to the anime world all over and then everything will be great!  And you're invited!  But we'll have to leave little SonSon behind because I'm not sure if s/he's ready yet to go on an adventure."

"I'm not a girl!  Erm, guy!  Erm..."  The child stared blankly at Serina.  "Um... did you just call me s/he?"

Sodom, barely able to keep up with the pink-haired girl, dumbly nodded, then turned to the Goku cosplayer.

"Um...anyway, that was a warning. You're better off as a Trunks anyway."

It was then that Sodom saw him.  Coming through the crowd.  Did he see the Samurai Gaijin man?  Well, that was probably a stupid question since Sodom tended to tower significantly above most of the other cosplayers.  And he was coming his way too!  And with another girl leading him along.  Wasn't Ken-san married?

"Well, yea, they'll be announcing what's going on soon and after that, I'll just pick up on a few leads and... oh, here they are!"  Juni crossed her arms.  "Serina, Marzche, where were you two?  The announcement is starting.  But I found this nice man to help us!  His name's Ken, and he's a Pokemon Master!   Erm... Shotokan Master, I mean.  Ack!  These otakus are really getting to me."

"Juni-Chan!!!"  Serina beamed.  "We found a true samurai gaijin who heeds the call of the sailor scout and will get to meet one of the bestest celebrities!!!"

All Sodom found himself meeting was Ken again.

"Hello." Sodom said, coldly.

"Oh, nice to see you again." Ken said in an equally frosty manner.

"Enjoying yourself?" Sodom grumbled.

"I was." Ken replied.

"Oh, keep to it then." Sodom snipped.

"I will, thank you." Ken said in a state of reserved anger.

The two nodded and walked away, but were quickly stopped by the two dolls that had recruited them.

"Eeeep!  Sir Masters!  Where are you going?!"  Surprisingly strong for such a young looking girl, Juni tugged at Ken's arm trying to restrain him from leaving so quickly.  All Serina had to do was run in front of Sodom, though.

"Aaaaaaaaw!!!!!"  Instead of looking dissappointed or sad, she looked worried, instead.  "Poor BishouKen and Sodom Samurai Man seem like there was a matter of intense resistable argument between them!  But Samurai men and Bishoukens should get along because if they don't then they don't get along then everythings sad and bad and that's really bad and sad."

All the others stared at Serina.

"What?" the group said collectively.

Seemingly not paying attention and dabbling with her laptop, the third girl Marzche simply commented, "I think the announcement's starting."

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!  THE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!"  Serina's shout, which was shouted with her microphone on for no apparent reason, quickly resulted in Juni, Ken, and Sodom as well as a dozen or so other otakus standing around to get knocked to the ground.  "SUPER SHADALOO SAILOR SENSHI TO THE RESCUE!!!!"

With that, Marzche and Serina quickly both yanked Sodom from the ground and dashed off, leaving a really confused Juni and Ken behind.

"Um.... so."  The blonde girl began.  "I guess... we should get following them?  Or maybe not?  I guess I could try to do this myself, though I can't figure out what the heck I'd use the five hundred thousand on."

Ken already had spent his share long before she had said anything.

"You two know each other well, huh?"  Ken was not very amused by the girl's continued prodding when he obviously didn't want to talk about it.  "Wow, sometimes I get into fights with my own partner, but they usually don't last long.  Um... this one looks pretty bad though.  Let me guess... one day he accidentally stepped on your pet bug then when you demanded that he say sorry, he responded that it was just a stupid bug and that made you mad for him thinking of your pet bug as just a bug or something?"

Ken stared at her with all the comprehension of a cow with a short attention span.

"Uh?" he said.

"Aw... don't worry about it!  I'm sure he didn't mean to be so mean."  At least she was speaking English again.  "Why, just you wait.  Right now you and him are really mad at each other, but eventually you'll both get over it just in time for him to be there for you when you need him the most!  Just like on television!"

Ken blinked again. He found he was doing a lot of that lately.

"Just out of curiosity, what planet are you from?"

"According to Serina, Jupiter, whatever that means."  She only got wierder.  "But it doesn't matter what planet I'm frooom.  It's what planet I'm working for!  And I'm working towards a great ideal planet where everyone gets along and is strong and powerful, as well as forever united through a strong bond of law!  So you should go back to your friend, talk to him, and have everything worked out!  And if it doesn't get worked out, execute him or something."

The idea seemed to intrigue Ken. If there was one thing the world didn't really need, it was another otaku.

"Listen, can you just show me where this vampire is so I can bust its undead face and get back to what I was doing?"

"Ooooh!!!  The vampire!  Well, I wasnn't going to be the one to show you where he is."  The blonde girl beamed yet again.  Otakus sure were cheerful people.  "There's supposed to be an announcement of where they were last spotted.  An announcement which is probably over by now, unless the sailor senshi girl giving it was too busy being sexually harassed by crazed echis to give it."

Lucky for Ken, when they arrived at the main convention area to catch up with Juni's friends, that Sailor Senshi WAS.  Well, except she was protected by the various bouncers around her.  Ken wasn't sure which of the Sailor Scouts from that anime she was, but he didn't care, either.

"USE YOUR HEARTS FIRE SWEET CANDY LOVE SCEPTOR TIARA MAKEUP KIT BLAST, SAILOR PLUTO!!!!!!"

Ken recognized the voice of one of Juni's crazy friends rise above the rest of the crowd.  And he saw Sodom in the distance where the shout came from, too.  That sailor scout apparently decided to use a different attack to ward off the nuts.

"Aqua melting tsunami Slave Grand Pulsar!!!"

The attack... um... blasted them away with a melted aqual tsunami slave grand pulsar or something.

"WE LOVE YOU, SAILOR PLUTO!!!" The beaten away otakus screamed.

Brushing herself off and not taking note of the fact that her being upstage and really short sailor skirt gave many an otaku a fanservice look at her, Sailor Pluto moved up to the podium to give the convention a speech as they cheered her on!

The crowd became quiet, and the lights dimmed, then the microphone screeched for a bit before all was silent.  Then, she spoke.

"Sailor Moon is being cancelled because some kidnapper captured all the Sailor Senshi in the hotel next door and the police aren't doing anything about it.  Now leave me alone!"

With that, she angrily stomped off stage.

Cheers erupted from the throng of otakus. Ken coughed.

"So, we go to the hotel next door, find the room, and save the saucer-eyed girls, then get my big fat reward. Am I right, or am I missing something?"

"NO!"  Juni snapped, much to Ken's surprise.  "We go to a grand castle in Transylvania, fight our way through an army of fearsome monsters including the Grim Reaper himself, then finally track down the vampire and defeat him before the sun fully sets just in time!!!!!"

"Juuuu-chaaaan!!!!"  Serina found them again.  At least she didn't drag Sodom with her, instead opting to leave him behind with Marzche for a moment.  "We need to get going to the hotel!  They're booked for only a short time I think and if we don't save the sailor senshi it'll be too late and a really big riot is going to occur once everyone here realizes what Sailor Pluto just said and that wouldn't be very good, nope nope."

"Castle, Serina.  It's a caaaaastle."  The blonde replied rather sulkingly.  "I refuse to acknowledge that we're doing a grand vampire hunt against an all powerful vampire to save some of the most popular actors in the world in some run down hotel!"

"Um... okay!  But they're really not actors since instead they were cheated out of their roles by mean mean evil nasty vampir..."

"I already know that!"

"You do?  WOW!!!!  Ju-chan is the bestest vampire hunter to already know that..."

"Nevermind!"  Juni quickly diverted her attention back towards Ken.  "Um... okay, we can get going.  Though... um, I think Serina's bringing your friend along too for some reason."

Ken groaned. The thought of these spandex-clad loonies and that big dumb poser all going with him didn't thrill him one bit. He could have just as easily done it himself. After all, he HAD once saved Eliza from a vampire when they were vacationing in Transylvania...of course, the hotel manager was very upset when he found Ken attempting to drive a stake through his heart, and they were promptly thrown out of the place. Ken swore he could have seen fangs on the man. And just HOW did he keep his whites so white? There was something definitely unnatural about him, though he grudgingly later admitted (under psychoanalysis) that it wasn't anything of a vampirical nature. He still felt pretty confident that he could waltz in, kick the vamp in the jaw a few times, then waltz back out with the senshawho-a-whatevers before their little Fellowship of the Senshi even finished its first planning session. He was that good.

And so, somehow making the trip without even giving so much as a look to that big goon or Sodom giving one in return, he found himself in front of the door to what would be his ticket to a large cash reward.

"Wow, Desire's Soul-o-meter's really going beserk."  Juni had to try hard to keep from dropping the shaking thing.  "I thought vampires were supposed to not have any souls at all.  Are you SURE this is the right room?"

"Heehee!  Silly Ju-Chaaan!"  Ken had to admit, Juni's friend had an even more annoying voice and was wierder than she was.  "This particular vampire uses sparkling souls that sparkle because she enjoys the biggest aspect of the soul mate overly abusing perhaps even to those that aren't of the right amount of years and such and such!"

In other words, that vampire was probably in there.  Time to make a move!  A quick kick of the door, and they were in!

To be confronted by a girl who's outfit was even more insane than the girls' that he was currently with, whom also happened to be surrounded by more sailor scouts who were attending to various things you'd expect a maid to do as she read a magazine about family values.

"FOR SAILOR MOON, SAMURAI GAIJIN MAN!!!!"

Ken noticed his compatriot get pushed in behind him, but he still didn't see any vampires.

Sodom stumbled into the room, and glanced around. He was immediately struck dumb by the Senshi in their French maid outfits, and failed to notice the end table until shortly before it collided with his skull.