"Hockey Night in Tokyo"
			    By Lucas Bates
				Part 4
			    Copyright 1996

[Continued from Part 3]

-**-

The Scouts skated off the ice, and sat on the bench.  Luna and Artemis
had gotten some water for them, and they drank.

The Zamboni went over the ice.  Venus saw that one of the officials was
driving it.

They sat, discussing more strategy.  They were holding the 2-1 lead,
so their main objective was to prevent any more goals from being scored
against them, and also if possible to score more goals.

The second period faceoff came and went, with the Wolves taking the
puck.  With some excellent defense by Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, as
well as some good goaltending by Sailor Mercury, they didn't go anywhere.

Within the first ten minutes of the second period, Jupiter had scored
her first goal, bringing up the score to 3-1.

With nine minutes left to go in the period, one of the Wolves had put
his stick around Mars' leg, and yanked.  The referee sent him to the
penalty box for two minutes for hooking. Unfortunately, the Scouts could
do nothing with the Power Play.

When six minutes were left, Jupiter got into a fight with one of the
Wolves.  She cleaned his clock before the officials could separate them.
Luna commented to Artemis on the ref's fear of being ripped apart by
Jupiter, and that was why he waited to break it up.

Both teams played shorthanded for 5 minutes, while Jupiter sat in the
penalty box making faces at the Negaverse monster for losing the fight,
when the ref wasn't looking, of course.

The rest of the period went without incident, other than the goal
scored by the Wolves thirty seconds before both players were released
from the box.

The siren blared again.

The teams took to their own respective benches, and the Zamboni took
to the ice.

Luna and Artemis gave them a pep talk.  A lengthy one.

"We *have* to win!"  Artemis said.

"We know."  Sailor Mars murmured.

"Try to get them to do something that would give one of them a penalty."
Luna said.  "Try to taunt them."

"That's what I was doing in the penalty box."  Jupiter commented.  She
seemed to be developing a black eye.

"That's exactly what we want - now, put that knowledge to good use out
there!"

Sailor Moon sarcastically saluted Luna.  "Yes, sir!"

Luna rolled her eyes.

-**-

Malachite was pacing in front of his team.  "I thought you were the *best*
team!  Now, here we are, losing against those five girls!"  He sighed.
"If we're going to win now, drastic measures need to be taken.  Now, here's
what you're going to do."  He began explaining their new "strategy".

-**-

The siren blared yet again, and the two teams took to the ice, as did the
still-confused referees.

Sailor Venus got ready for the face-off.  She looked into the face (as ugly
as it was) of her counterpart, and said under her breath, "Your manager
bleaches his hair!"

That was all it took for him to lose his concentration.  A look of anger
crossed the monster's face, and he glared at her.

Obviously, she won the face-off.  The first few minutes flew by quickly,
with Sailor Jupiter getting a breakaway and scoring again on their
opponents.

That was when things turned nasty.  The other team began cheating ever so
slightly, ranging from tripping them, to picking the puck up and holding
it.

And strangely, the referees didn't do a single thing about it.  Sailor 
Venus asked Mars about it, and Raye merely said that Malachite hadn't
taken them over.  They were baffled.

It was the cheating which lead the Wolves to score against Mercury, by
picking the puck up and tossing it in while she was distracted.  

Now only ten minutes were left.  The Scouts began heckling the Negaverse
team even more, and even managed to get a power play out of it when Tuxedo
Mask managed to get one to lift his stick above his shoulders.  They killed
the penalty through their cheating.  Time and time again Sailor Venus had
tried to get them caught at it, but each time, the officials shot her down.

Sailor Moon was playing the defense fairly well, all things considered.
Unfortunately, she was the prime target for the cheating.  She landed on
her rear a lot during the course of the third period.

During one of the play stoppages, Venus called a little conference down
by their net.  Seven and a half minutes left.

"If this keeps going the way it is, we're going to lose for sure.  I can't
think of why they're getting away with cheating, but now we'll have to take
some drastic measures too."

"How about an all-out assault on their net?"  Everyone turned towards their
former ally.  It was one of the few times he had spoken during the game.

"That's a great idea!"  Venus said, coming up with an idea.  "When we get
control of the puck next, regroup down here.  Then, we'll form a line and
skate down to their end.  When Mercury hits her stick on the ice twice,
start skating.  Knock anyone out of your way.  Let's go!"

They faced off, and Venus began making faces at the Wolves' center.  Not
surprisingly, she took the face-off.

They regrouped down by the net.  Sailor Venus passed it to Mercury, who
passed it back.  Sailor Mercury rapped her stick on the ice two times, and 
the Sailor Scouts began skating to the other end.

-**-

Malachite was in the stands, watching.  The cheating wasn't working very
well, and now those blasted Sailor Scouts were skating head-on towards
the Wolves' net.  The illusions he was projecting at the referees weren't
going to work if he tried getting them to do any more.  And, if he took
control of the refs, Sailor Mars would sense it, and then they might take
some very drastic measures.  As long as Sailor Moon had the Silver Crystal,
they might be able to destroy his plan.

Being able to do nothing, he returned his attention to the game.

-**-

The line was going well.  A very unorthodox move, they had managed to remove
two of the players temporarily by knocking them out of the way.  In the end,
it failed, because the defensemen had formed a line of their own in front
of the net.

The Wolves now had control of the puck.  Cheating yet again, another goal
was scored on Sailor Mercury.  Four minutes left.

The score was now 4-3.  If they could just stop the Wolves from scoring
again rather than trying too hard to score a goal of their own, the game was
theirs, as well as the Crystal.

They played "Pass the Puck" for a while, just to kill some more time.  Then
one of the Wolves intercepted it.  He skated right towards Sailor Mercury,
and scored - honestly, for a change - on her.  The score: 4-4.  Time left:
Two minutes.

By now, everyone was nervous, and tired.  Sailor Venus instructed everyone
to distract the other team as much as possible.  The tactic didn't work
too well, because it provoked one of the monsters too much, and the thing
took it out on Tuxedo Mask.  The two got into a fight, and five minute
penalties were called.

One and a half minutes.

Things were getting desparate.  Sailor Moon, after seeing her dream guy
taken out, played with a new energy.  She skated around, bodychecking
players, trying to steal the puck.

Sailor Mars got control of the puck (it was passed to her by Sailor Moon),
and shot.  She missed.

One minute.

They played the passing game a little more, until Sailor Moon got the puck
again, and skated at the net.  One of the other players bodychecked her,
sending her to the ground.  This only made her play harder.

Thirty seconds.  Sailor Moon got the puck yet again (much to the surprise of
her teammates), and took another try at the Wolves' net.

Fifteen seconds.

She skated around, avoiding their opponents, and trying to get a clear shot.
She got close to the net, trying to find a spot wide enough, when she had
what can be referred to as a "Klutz Attack".  Her skate caught on the ice,
and down Sailor Moon went.  When she fell, her stick was pushed forward,
and the puck went in just as the siren blared, signaling the end of the
game.

When the Sailor Scouts realized what had happened, they all skated over to
their teammate.  Luna and Artemis also joined them.

She stood up, dazed.  "You won the game!"  Sailor Venus was screaming.

"I did?"  Sailor Moon obviously wasn't quite with it yet.

Then Malachite appeared in a puff of smoke.  "Well, it seems that you've
won after all."

When Sailor Venus saw him, she turned and glared.  "You cheated!  You made
a promise that you would not cheat and you broke it!" 

"I promised nothing.  I said I wouldn't dream of it, and I didn't dream of
it.  I thought of it."  He flashed an evil grin.  "Now, my faithful
servants, bring me that crystal!"

The Wolves began advancing on them.  Looking for Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Venus
saw him skating over.  The Sailor Scouts shed their hockey equipment,
and began defending themselves.

The Wolves had no tactics; they just started advancing blindly.  It was
going to be an easy fight.  Tuxedo Mask had engaged Malachite in a fight.

"MARS...FIRE...IGNITE!"  Sailor Mars shot forth a blast of fire, which
was aimed at the ice.  It did its job, and when the Wolves skated into it,
most fell.

"MERCURY...BUBBLES...BLAST!"  Those who hadn't fallen into the puddle
were now surrounded by bubbles, which kept them from moving.

"Sailor Moon, now!"  Sailor Jupiter prompted.

"Way ahead of you!"  She had already brought out the Crescent Moon Wand.

"MOON...HEALING...ACTIVATION!"  The hockey players were surrounded in a fine
mist, almost like powder, as Malachite's spells were destroyed.  The
players were lying there, unconscious.  Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars
helped pull some of them out of the water, while the rest of them went to
confront Malachite.

Tuxedo Mask and Malachite were still fighting.  Sailor Venus raised her
hand above her head.  "VENUS...CRESCENT...BEAM...SMASH!"  The beam hit
Malachite in the arms.  He stumbled back.

Sailor Mars and Jupiter rejoined the rest of them.  "You're going down,
Malachite."  Sailor Moon said, holding the wand in front of her.

He tried to send some bolts of energy their way, but were deflected when
Sailor Moon said "Cosmic Moon Power!"  When she began aiming the white
fire of the Silver Crystal at him, he opened a portal back to the Negaverse
and disappeared.

Sailor Moon returned the wand to its holding place.

Suddenly, she realized Tuxedo Mask wasn't there.  "Where'd he go?"

He was nowhere to be seen, evidently having returned to the Negaverse as
well.

Luna and Artemis walked over.  "Excellent job!"  Luna complimented them.

-**-

The game was going well.  Mina was cheering loudly, screaming her support
for the Leafs.

Amy had taken out a book, having lost interest in the game for a while.

Raye and Serena were busy sticking their tongues out at each other, having
gotten into a fight over a ref's call.

Lita sat back and enjoyed the game.

Luna and Artemis, sleeping in Serena and Mina's open bags, wore earplugs to
get some peace and quiet.

Everything was back to normal.

				*THE END*