Chapter 4: Powerup

Of course, it was only a few weeks later that the situation got bad enough that putting on the serafuku outfit was the only choice I had. I supposed it was inevitable that we were going to eventually bite off more than we could chew. 

Being a hero in Gotham, even a low tier one like me, means you get to know the big names and faces of the cape world. Penguin, Two-Face, The Riddler, Poison Ivy… They showed up enough in the news and comics that it was impossible not to recognize their gimmicks and their looks.

And there was no mistaking a look like Clayface’s.

The guy was a massive, muddy, amorphous bulk of thick sludge and easily one of the biggest hitters of the city. When Clayface wanted to destroy something, he did it, without hesitation. And considering he had the ability to shapeshift into other people, he was notoriously difficult to catch. By all accounts, facing him was a job for someone on Team Batman. Not a pair of college kids with delusions of grandeur.

But neither me or Carla had been willing to just stand down and watch Clayface terrorize the city when we stumbled on his rampage. We were tired and had just finished a long stretch of patrolling and were eager to get back to our dorms, but the moment we heard the screams and sounds of destruction, we rushed down the streets towards the chaos.

And there, standing in front of the broken remains of a jewelry storefront, had been Clayface. He had clearly used a parked sedan to break down the reinforced and barred window and had been poised to step in and help himself to the contents. He tossed the car aside as if it barely weighed anything and stomped into the store itself.

We were in over our heads. We should have left. Someone else could take care of this. But even if Batman or one of his crew were on their way… it didn’t change the fact that civilians were presently in danger as the clay monster was hurling cars around like toys. Right now. We couldn’t walk away from this.

So, we hatched a plan.

Carla’s powers were more than up to the task of keeping Clayface occupied. Carla truly had made progress with the use of her power. She stretched her arms out as if she would embrace the whole city in her arms. Glass flowed in from all directions, from windows and panes and the shards of the jewelry store window… she channeled it into covering the muddy mess of a man in a prison of glass, containing the muck-menace in a glassy sphere.

But Clayface had been using his power longer than Carla had. While Carla had been able to distract him, she wasn’t having much luck in completely containing him. Liquid mud would ooze out of the cocoon before it could close completely, forcing Carla to redouble her efforts to contain it. The liquid glass and mud just sort of slipped and slid all over one another as each tried to overtake the other.

The best I could manage in supporting her efforts was commandeering a nearby fire extinguisher and trying to slow down the gooey mass by chilling it with a blast of liquid carbon dioxide. For my efforts, I got a muddy fist to the face that the clay thug had managed to slip past Carla’s defenses. It wasn’t solid enough to do any serious damage, but it still knocked me on my ass. 

It was clear that I wasn’t going to be much help in this fight.

At least… not as Cross, at any rate.

Lying on my back near the alley and wiping the mud out of my eyes, I began to realize that there was no sign of Bat-backup anytime soon. And it didn’t take much guesswork to see that Carla was struggling with using her powers at this intensity and was rapidly running out of energy. She was breathing heavily and her legs were shaking. Time was running out.

And the moment that Clayface was free. We were going to be well and truly fucked.

So… lacking any other options, I crawled into the alley. Carla was too intent on keeping Clayface in check to notice my departure. All the other onlookers who had remained were locked onto the fight between the two of them.

Hidden from view, nestled next to a dumpster, I reached into the front of my shirt. The brooch felt comfortably warm in my palm. It was a golden disc with the four gemstones of the inner planets set into its edges. A blue sapphire for Mercury, a golden topaz for Venus, a red ruby for Mars and a green emerald for Jupiter. And in the center, a vibrantly pink diamond nestled into the emblem of the crescent moon. All of it hanging around my neck by a chain.

This is an emergency, I told myself. I have to do this. This has nothing to do with those weird feelings I may or may not be having. It’s just this once…

“Moon prism power, make up,” I whispered.

There was yet another flash and surge of energy that flowed through me. And after that brief moment of being in the center of that energy vortex, there I was again, my costume pristine and my body womanly.

I heard Carla cry out, and any other thoughts or concerns went out the window as I rushed to save her. I hadn’t gotten much of a chance to test these powers out and there wasn’t any time to experiment right now. I just had to hope and pray that I could wing it.

I stepped out onto the street again and saw Carla on her hands and knees, panting from exhaustion. The mass of glass had solidified and shattered onto the pavement as the mud within burst outward. The mess of clay began to reform into the hulking form of Clayface, a cold, wet chuckle rumbling through his throat.

The stumps which made up his feet made wet slapping noises as he stomped over the pavement. He was a massive, fifteen-foot-tall blob-person who barely had a coherent form. His eyes were slightly discolored, yellow orbs floating approximately where they should be on a “normal” human, but there was no trace of ears or nose and only the wide slit of a toothless grin for a mouth.

“Not bad,” he growled in a humorless voice as his “hand” formed into the drippy mass of a mallet-like lump. “Good try, girlie… but now you’re going to die.” He began to raise it over his head as he closed the distance.

Panic surged through me. Carla was in no state to defend herself. But what the hell could I do? Sure, I had powers in theory. I felt them flowing through my body now, but I had no idea how to properly call upon them. All I had was shaky news footage, the cartoons and the comics to draw upon.

So, what did Sailor Moon usually do in these situations?

I frowned. Well, she usually gave her big speech and introduction. And at the very least, it would get his attention and give me time to think.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” I shouted.

Clayface stopped, blinking in shock as a new player entered the game.

Carla looked up at me in awe. “Oh my god…” she mouthed. She recognized me as Sailor Moon but clearly not as her boyfriend.

“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?!” said Clayface, his murky eyes wide.

I grinned. Well, he did ask after all...

“THE BEAUTIFUL SAILOR WARRIOR OF LOVE AND JUSTICE!” I cried. I even did the goddamn pose, because why not go all the way in the face of a messy death? “AND IN THE NAME OF THE MOON, I WILL PUNISH YOU!” I pointed a finger of accusation at him.

Clayface openly laughed. “Jesus fucking Christ… shut up…” He stuck out an arm and shot out a glob of mud the size of a baby elephant, which flew at me as if it had been launched out of a cannon. 

I tried to leap out of the way, and succeeded beyond my wildest dreams as the leap carried me easily twenty feet away in an arc, as I landed in an elegant crouch. It felt like I was moving in lunar gravity now, which would explain how the Sailor Scouts always were able to move so gracefully.

Clayface certainly hadn’t been expecting that, but he recovered enough sense to uproot a streetlight, the metal squealing in protest as it was torn out of its moorings, and stabbed it at me like a sword.

I leaped over it again, and to my surprise, I was able to land on the streetlight itself, balancing effortlessly as if I were standing on perfectly flat ground.

There was a moment of shock from the monster, as he stood there in bewilderment, holding the streetlight out as if I were a bird resting upon a twig he was holding. I cocked my head to the side with a grin.

“Careful where you swing that,” I said, chuckling a little, “You might put someone’s lights out!”

Clayface roared in fury, whipping it around wildly to shake me off. I leaped off of the streetlight and the force of my jump carried me to an upper floor balcony of a nearby apartment. While I certainly had skill on my own, these powers had amplified my ability to the realm of grace.

“What the fuck are you?!” snapped Clayface in irritation.

“Uh… Sailor Moon? Defender of love and justice? Weren’t you listening to the introduction?” I said, a little more awkwardly. I really wasn’t prepared to have a full script of banter. None of my usual gimmicks applied anymore. 

He hurled the streetlight like a javelin at me, and while I had been able to leap out of the way again, the apartment behind me had been obliterated by the mass of metal crashing into it. Glass and concrete exploded behind me.

My stomach tightened. I didn’t hear any screams, thankfully, but if that apartment had been occupied, the residents would have died. I had to end this quickly or someone was going to get seriously hurt.

But what could I do? All I had to go on was what I saw on the show…

Well, there was one attack of Sailor Moon’s that I knew off the top of my head. Because it was literally resting on the top of my head. I leaped down from my perch.

As I gracefully landed next to the clay monster in a crouch, I reached for my forehead. There, on my brow, was the signature tiara underneath my hairline. I swallowed hard as I removed it and prayed that this would work.

“MOON TIARA MAGIC!” I shouted, gripping the metal crescent in my hand.

Some nerdy part of my brain pointed out that the Japanese usage of the attack was actually Moon Tiara Action but the magic crown still seemed to respond to my intent as it began to glow white hot and hum with energy.

Clayface raised an arm to bring it down on me, and I desperately tossed the tiara at him like a makeshift frisbee.

The crown launched itself from my hand faster than I could have imagined and as it made contact with his dripping “flesh”, it exploded in a burst of sparks. There was the distinct smell of charred, burnt mud and Clayface’s baked and cracked arm fell to the ground, shattering on the pavement.

“You fucking bitch!” roared what was left of him, raising his other arm. “I’ll fucking kill-“

He was cut off from his threat as the tiara broke all laws of physics and curved around back to my still outstretched hand, traveling through his chest, en-route.

His body exploded in a shower of scorched and shattered pottery. All of it rained down around us, and I stared in awe at the now-inactive tiara resting in my gloved hand, smoking faintly, but otherwise pristine. Nervously, I returned it back to my brow.

“Uuugh…”

I flinched in shock at the noise. It wasn’t a rumbling growl like Clayface’s normal voice and it certainly wasn’t at his normal height either. It was a small squeak. As I spotted the source of it, I saw only a small, action-figure-sized lump of clay still moving through the mess of baked, scorched mud that was spread all over the sidewalk and the streets. The little form only vaguely resembled the hulking behemoth that it had once been. The only remaining usable clay apparently left him only able to reform a body a few inches high.

Police sirens began to become audible in the distance and I scrambled to try to find something to capture the tiny Clayface in before he could escape into the sewers or something.

Carla, surprising me with her recovery, shaped a makeshift jar out of the surrounding shattered glass and encased the dazed and tiny Clayface, sealing it off.

“Here,” she said, looking at me in shock as she handed the villain to me. “Uh… you can take him to the police. You definitely did the hard work.” She frowned, looking around the area. “Um… Miss Moon? Have you seen my boyf- um, partner around? Tall, dark jacket, long scarf and wide-brim hat?”

“Uh…” I said, swallowing nervously, “Yes! He was injured and I healed him up. With Moon magic and everything. Concussion, I think. I just set him over there…” I pointed in a random direction. “He’ll be fine, I promise.”

It wasn’t the cleverest lie in the world, but she seemed to believe it easily enough.

She sighed in relief. “Oh thank god…” She fell silent, her eyes still boring into mine. “Uh… I don’t mean to be rude, but are you really Sailor Moon? I thought she was Japanese.”

“Uh…” I said, fiddling with my brooch self-consciously at the front of my chest. “The original Sailor Moon kind of recruited me to be her successor. Still sort of new on the job. Just moved into the area.”

“Oh, right… that makes sense...” she said, nodding. It was her turn to flounder and fluster for a moment before she finally stepped back.  “Well… thank you for saving us. I… I’m kind of a huge fan…” She visibly blushed under her mask.

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I found myself blushing too, unable to grasp how things had changed between us. A number of cop cars pulled into the area, saving us the trouble of continuing the conversation.

“You should go,” I said, nodding to her. “I’ll take care of this.” I had no idea what to say or do with the police, but I sure sounded confident as I said it.

“Right…” said Carla, “um… my name’s Crystalline… if you need my help again.”

I smiled, and was surprised to see her nearly melt as I did so. “I’ll remember that. Thank you for your hard work, Crystalline.”

She blushed red as a stoplight as she ran off, using her glass control to skate away.

“What the hell happened here?!” came a gruff, annoyed voice behind me.

I turned around. “Good evening, officers,” I said, bowing respectfully to the number of uniformed policemen and women who had scrambled out of the police cruisers behind me. “As you can see, I’ve put a lid on this case.” I held up the jar which the tiny Clayface was fruitlessly pounding on.

One of the officers stepped forward. She wasn’t dressed in her full uniform, but wore a leather jacket and tank top with her badge belted at the waistband of her jeans. She didn’t look terribly older than me, with tanned skin and dark, curly hair that framed her face. A face which was clearly not content with being handed the villain in a jar.

“I’m Detective Rene Montoya,” she barked, scowling at me, “And you are?”

I decided to not go through the full introduction speech of love and justice, given all of the cops with itchy trigger fingers around me. “I am Sailor Moon,” I said, nodding to her, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You new here? I’ve never heard of you.” She looked at the jarred villain, “But you clearly know how to handle yourself.”

“Uh… I just moved to Gotham,” I said, as earnestly as I could, “I was mostly active in Japan before this.”

"Active" meaning that I got my ass kicked, saved via deus ex machina, briefly transformed and freaked out before turning back. Not that she needs to know that.

She sighed as she took the jar from my outstretched hands, Clayface still squeaking furiously as he fruitlessly pounded on the glass.. “Well, here’s how things work here: You deal with the freaks, keep people breathing and keep this city in one piece. You play by the rules and we don't have to drag you in, moon girl. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, bowing politely.

She grumbled for a moment, pulling out her phone and checking something. “So… it’s S-A-I-L-O-R space M-O-O-N?”

“Yes ma’am,” I repeated.

“Hm…” she grunted, typing it in, “okay, we’ll add you to the list…” She held up a camera, “Say cheese.”

I held up the peace/victory sign and tried to look as heroic as I could. The flash still blinded me briefly, though.

 “We’ll take it from here,” she said, examining the picture on the digital camera as my vision cleared. “You can go.”

I snapped off a salute that was only partially sarcastic and bent my knees to jump as high as I could manage. The effort carried me soaring into the air and onto the roof of a nearby building. I landed in a crouch next to the humming air conditioning machine, blinking in shock at what I had just done. I nervously stepped a little closer to the edge of the roof and glanced down, only to realize that I’d leaped onto a four-storey building without breaking a sweat. I eyed the next roof and, after taking a deep breath, easily bounded to it. Without thinking I jumped to the next one. And the next one. And, just as casually as I would have played hopscotch, I was traversing the Gotham rooftops. 

Now that I wasn’t having to worry about the prospect of dying at the hands of a giant goo monster, I was able to take in the sheer thrill afforded by this ease of movement. I still felt that same power humming within me and suffusing my body. My fears melted away as I skipped through the air, feeling the faint winter chill against my skin and the moon illuminating my journey. Everything was so effortless, like a weight had been taken off of me for the first time. Feeling more confident, I was able to easily somersault through the air as I landed onto the next roof. Seeing a larger building loom above the next leap, I tried to leap against the side of it and angle another jump to an even higher building.

In short, I was going to see if this moon-gravity mode came with wall kicks. I leaped from the roof, impacted against the glass and-

Surprisingly… I stuck.

The gloves on my hands firmly affixed to the side of the building as if I had suction cups on them. My shoes, despite being heeled boots, affixed just as easily. I was able to remove one of my gloves without problem, but I opted not to try removing anything else, lest the magic wear off. I sighted the next jump, aimed at a large Wayne Industries office building. From this height, I should have been able to make it to the roof of the building, provided I could kick off this one properly.

I looked down at my feet and immediately regretted it. I knew that I was still operating under moon physics, but my brain was having a lot of difficulty accepting that as I looked down to the minuscule alley below. It was a long way down. My head spun for a moment as my throat tightened. I forced myself to look ahead.

I took a deep breath and tried to center myself. I could clearly see the ledge of the building and given the scale of my jumps, I was certain that I could reach it.

Well, reasonably certain at any rate.

I bent in my legs and arms and with all my might, forced myself away from the building, twisting in the air and now leaping towards the roof of the Wayne Industries building. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought I had misjudged, but my long limbs put me just in arms reach of the ledge. I snagged the edge of the roof with my hands and, by using my legs, I kicked off the side of the building, held onto the edge for dear life, and was able to flip over and land on my feet, in a crouch.

I looked around me, taking in my surroundings. For a start, there was the Gotham skyline, all around me, but for another, there was a maintenance roof access door covered in glass to match the windows of the rest of the building. The moon in the sky was casting down some remarkable light from this height, and it turned the glass into a mirror. I stepped forward and blinked in surprise as I was finally confronted with my new face for the first time.

Obviously, my features still had the same basic hallmarks that I always had. If anything, I looked like my own sister, if I actually had one. I was struck by how much I looked like the anime incarnation of Sailor Moon. My hair was a radiant golden blonde that seemed to catch the moonlight in its strands. My eyes, still their usual blue, shone as they widened in shock. I was surprised by how vibrant they looked as they now carried eyeliner and eyeshadow.

I pressed a finger to my lips, now a vivid reddish pink and glossy wet. They seemed so much fuller now. My cheeks too, as my chin and jawline were no longer as prominent as they once had been. 

I was… beautiful. I was incredible.

I was a woman.

I looked at the hair framing my face, now tied into the iconic pigtails and buns, with the twin ruby hairpins worked into the hair balls. I knew all too well from meeting the real Sailor Moon that the hair wasn’t nearly as long as the anime and manga portrayed it (as it was likely to get snagged and pulled otherwise) but it still reached my shoulders and rested over them. I gave one of the tails an experimental pull, and while I could feel a moment of resistance to reaffirm that it was attached to my head, it easily slipped out of my fingers as I pulled it. With any luck, the moon-grade hair care I now had would apply to any baddies who had ideas of hair-pulling too.

I tapped the tiara at the center of my forehead, the ruby in the center glittering. I was hesitant to fiddle with it too much after seeing what it did to Clayface. But from what I could tell, it looked like real gold and a real jewel.

Looking down, I still very much had all of the hallmarks of a sailor scout. The uniform of white gloves and white blouse, with red accents were all accounted for. The cloth was silky and breathable, but still kept away the chill of the night as it carried its own subtle warmth. Wearing a skirt and heeled boots was a new experience, but somehow, it still felt comfortable.

Looking behind myself, I even had that little red bow placed right above my ass. It matched the one tied below my cleavage. And as I looked down, right there below the choker around my neck, I found I very much did have cleavage now. 

Given that I was several stories up without anyone to object, I did take the time to grab my chest and found that I could feel the soft weight I now carried and the new sensations it brought. As I moved, I realized that my center of balance had changed, both due to my chest and footwear. I couldn’t understand why this all seemed to come so easily. My brain seemed to be adapted to the new shape, even if I wasn’t used to it consciously. I was moving easily and confidently, despite the changes.

Checking between my legs was a bridge too far no matter where I was, but as I pressed my thighs together, I did feel that something had definitely gone missing down there. Peeking under my skirt, I couldn’t help but notice that under my new flatness was covered by blue modesty shorts rather than a pair of panties shown in anime canon. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t going to be giving anyone a panty shot as I fought for Justice.

I don’t know how long I was captivated by the woman I had become, but at some point I forced myself to look away and instead took stock of the world around me. I was amazed at the view I was afforded. Gotham, for all its faults, was still amazingly beautiful at night. The skyline below showed a sea of glittering lights. The waxing moon cast its light from above, bathing me in its illumination. In spite of everything that had happened tonight, it had been worth everything to experience this.

I was suddenly shocked by the sensation of something buzzing in my pocket. Which was surprising, given that I didn’t actually have any, as far as I was aware. I patted myself down and localized the vibration to the bow behind me, and as I reached into its folds, I was surprised to find some kind of larger space nestled inside it. A sort of extra-dimensional pocket? 

My hands closed onto a familiar object, and I pulled out my still-vibrating phone. Carla’s name was on the caller ID. I winced as I realized that I had technically left her behind. I answered it.

“Hey,” said Carla, breathlessly. “You okay? I couldn’t find you after the fight… Sailor Moon said that you got a concussion?”

“Uh…” I tried to pitch my voice down a little, trying to resemble a more masculine voice profile. “Yeah… I headed home. To rest. I… uh… got hurt.”

“Are you okay? Your voice sounds weird…”

“Might be the phone,” I said, wincing, “banged up in the fight. Bad reception, maybe?” Apparently there was no hiding my voice, despite my efforts.

“Yeah…” said Carla, still sounding a little perplexed. “But, holy shit did you see her?! She was incredible! Beautiful! She just exploded the clay monster.”

“Clayface,” I corrected her, still trying to growl-ify my voice with mixed results, “He’s part of Batman’s regular rogues gallery.”

“I just… wow. I should have asked for her autograph…” she sighed. “You think she’s staying here in Gotham? I mean… we definitely need her here, but it’s not her kind of town, is it?”

I thought about that for a moment. “I think… that she just goes where she’s needed.”

“Yeah… you’re right,” said Carla, “I just… it feels like a dream, you know? Not only is she real, but she’s here. Living and breathing and here. It doesn’t feel real.”

I looked down at myself. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“Okay… we'll, I'm glad that you’re okay. Just try to take care of yourself, okay? We can’t assume that Sailor Moon is always going to be there to bail us out.”

“Right,” I said, repressing an ironic smirk. “I’ll see you after class tomorrow. I just need some rest now.”

“See you then.” The phone clicked with her hanging up.

I sighed and after a little effort, was able to return my phone to my extra dimensional pocket. 

Apparently anime hammerspace was more realistic than I thought. That was going to be handy to have.

I had no idea if I would continue to reserve this transformation for emergencies or just spend the rest of my career as Sailor Moon, but I knew that this moment had changed everything. I couldn’t deny it anymore. I had power now. I was a real hero now. Even if I was a woman, I still had the power to make real change in this world. Hell, I could even be eligible to join the Justice League like Kyle and Gary had. I could join real hero teams like Jared or Casey. Hell, I could even sell out like Riley did. 

I had so many new possibilities in front of me.

But I had no idea what to do or say about my newfound form that came with the powers. I didn’t know what it meant or how to explain it, especially to my girlfriend.

It was a new step forward for me, but the path just got a whole lot more winding and left me without a map.

I watched the Gotham skyline for answers for a few more minutes before heading back down to the ground floor to detransform and head back to my dorm room. I had done enough for today, and I had a lot to think about for the future.

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