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Rei trudged through the forest, Usagi hot on her heels.  "I still
think I can do a flip!" Usagi protested.

"If you keep on bothering me about it *I'm* gonna flip," Rei
muttered.

"You underestimate me," Usagi sniffed, hefting her staff.

Rei stopped and turned.  "Look, I wasn't --"  She paused to look up
and around her.

"What?" Usagi inquired.

Rei's eyes narrowed.  "All right grandfather!  I know you're here,
come out!"

A plume of smoke and a sparkling effect produced a small man before
them.  "Good to see the warrior princess hasn't lost her edge," the
man observed.

"I always thought the god of war was taller," Usagi mused.

"Watch it," he retorted.  Lightning from his palm incinerated a
nearby tree.

"Did you just come here to give us a light show?" Rei asked,
patience wearing thinner at the god's appearance.

"You should have more respect for your elders!  You know you
wouldn't be where you are today if it weren't for me," the old man
grumped.  "And as a matter of fact I came to give you some friendly
advice - turn back before you reach the next village.  The goddess
of love is up to her old tricks."

"What does Minako have to do with anything?" Rei quizzed.

"Hey, I've said all that I came to."  And with another sparkling
effect he was gone.

"Hmmmm.  He's trying to keep us from the next village... so should
we check it out?" Usagi wondered, blinking.

Rei adjusted her shakram and shook her head.  "Reverse psychology. 
He wants us to investigate the next village - which is enough
reason for us to double back to our last stop."  She set back out
in the opposite direction.

Usagi followed, blinking uncertainly as she tried to work out the
logic.  But it hadn't been more than a couple of minutes when the
sound of humming reached their ears.  Rei froze, recognizing the
song: 'Endymion the Mighty'.  "Oh, not HIM..." she moaned.

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Usagi walked into the library and immediately spotted Luna, in
human form, busily flipping through books.  Shaking her head, she
bypassed her watcher to come up behind her friend working on the
computer at the table.  "Anything new?"

Ami blinked and looked up.  "Usagi!  New?  No... at least, no
information on any witches.  Not that I've found.  Or that Luna's
found either, for that matter.  Or did you just mean new in
general?"

Usagi shrugged.  "I meant whatever, but prophesies of doom always
seem to be our first topic of conversation.  Are we sure this one's
even on the level?"

"The books were very specific," Luna muttered, approaching them
with another book in hand.  "Five witches will rise up and join
with the current evil forces in town.  We just don't know where or
when or how."

"Sounds very specific," Usagi observed.

Luna made a face.  "Well it's more specific than some of the other
things we've discovered."

"I'll give you that," Usagi admitted.  "But look, if this doom
isn't terribly imminent, does that mean I don't need to patrol
tonight?  I haven't seen much of Mamoru lately."

"Usagi, you know your duty," Luna reminded.  Usagi sighed.

"Well, maybe they could patrol together?" Ami ventured.  "Mamoru
being a vampire and all, could scare the others off..."

"Hey, there's an idea," Seiya observed, catching Ami's last comment
as he entered the library.  "But wait, doesn't slaying vampires
mean you have to be paying attention to what's going on around you? 
That Mamoru guy is too distracting if you ask me."

"More vampires?  I thought the current problem was a cavern of
witches," Minako mused, following Seiya in.

"Coven of witches," Ami corrected.

"Witches, vampires, slaying, it's all part of our business, like it
or not," Usagi grumbled.

Luna shook her head.  "I wish you'd take this a little more
seriously."

"Oh!" Ami suddenly exclaimed, tapping at the keyboard.  "Okay, I've
found some new information..."

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"Hey, Ami, come take a look at this!" Rei declared, gazing intently
at some photos spread out over her desk.  Ami closed the door
behind her with an inaudible sigh and walked over to see what her
partner was looking at.  Apparently fuzzy blurs.

"So what is it this time, Rei, UFO sightings?  Rare disease? 
Improper selection of film speeds?"

"Bizarre weather patterns," Rei said, jabbing out a finger towards
one of the pictures.  "This storm pattern appeared above a small
Canadian town for no apparent reason at all, only registered on
these radar scans for a few minutes before abruptly disappearing."

Ami looked over the pictures again.  "The weather networks show
clearer shots than this," she observed.

"It only registered locally, plus there was electrical
interference.  But what's more, it seems to have occurred several
times over the last month.  And this is the first concrete evidence
of the phenonemon we've had."

"Rei, even barring the poor quality scans, unusual weather is not
that uncommon.  In 1976 a freak storm appeared over a small Indiana
town due to aberrant windspeeds."

"There was no wind during at least two of the occurrences," Rei
refuted.  "There was also an unusual high intensity for storms that
only lasted for a few minutes.  Ami, I think this could be another
X-File.  But if you don't want to investigate..."

"No, no - I'm game," Ami assented.  Their cases usually proved
interesting after all.  And someone had to keep Rei in check; her
partner had this obsession with the paranormal.  Though Ami
supposed it was understandable, since Rei believed her younger
sister Usagi had been 'abducted' at an early age.

"I was also thinking of running it past the Kou Gunmen first," Rei
added.

Ami rolled her eyes at the mention of those weird three informants
Rei liked to go to for advice.  "Well, can you put a hold on it?"
she inquired.  "The reason I came here was because Mamoru's waiting
to see us in his office.  He has some questions about our last
report."

Rei nodded, pushing herself away from her desk.  "Maybe he'll give
us the go-ahead on this project while he's at it," she proposed. 
Of course, sometimes it was hard to tell just WHAT side the
assistant director was on....