Unfinished Sympathy

Serenity came from a long line of Queens, both literally and figuratively. Born in 1990 to Moira Vanderbilt and Robert Queen, Serenity Vanderbilt Queen had had everything she ever wanted, but was the tycoon that her siblings were not. Before he had been presumed dead, her older brother, Oliver Queen was nothing more than a college drop-out without priorities and a tendency towards thinking with his genitals. Thea Queen, Serenity’s younger sister was unmotivated, unfocused and had a propensity towards testing boundaries. That left Serenity as the middle child, and with unbelievably high expectations from her family.
Serenity was not like her siblings. She was motivated, with focus, goals, and a stifling desire to succeed over all else. She excelled in all things, whether sports, academics, or anything else. There was nothing in which she was not the best. She was the best gymnast at her studio. She was an accomplished ballerina. Her soufflé had won awards. She’d won the science fair with her creation of a solar powered vehicle. Her horse-riding skills were nothing to scoff at and her father had taught her how to use a rifle at 12. In order to help her father execute deals, she had become fluent in 8 languages and proficient in 4 more. She went to Hotchkiss first, graduating as valedictorian and then going on to Yale where she graduated top of her class with a degree in Political Science. She’d joined Chi Omega and had become president as a sophomore, and then president of Panhellenic. She was the prize of her family, the one that should take over Queen Consolidated.
There was nothing about Serenity Queen that did not scream success. That was why her family was nothing short of horrified when they found out that she would be accepting a position for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a field agent.
“But why?” her mother cried, “You could do so much more!”
Serenity looked at her mother and grandparents, “Mina and I think this is the correct choice.”
“Mina!” her grandfather spat in outrage, “Wait until I tell her father.”
“Vanderbilts don’t do these things!” hollered her grandmother. “She gets this from her father.”
“I’ve made my decision,” Serenity said calmly. “All the decisions in my life have been taken from me. I would like to keep this one for myself.”
“Taken from you?” cried Moira, “We’ve given you every opportunity in the world!”
“Forced,” corrected Serenity, “And now that Ollie is back he can take over Queen Consolidated.”
Oliver looked at Serenity with a frown, “But-”
“Excellent. It’s settled. I’m leaving on the next flight to DC.”
Moira sighed, “Is there nothing that could stop you?”
“Nothing,” said Serenity, “I love you all but I need to leave.”
_
Serenity Queen was not just Serenity Queen. At 14, while at Hotchkiss she had learned that she had a destiny, one that was unavoidable. Along with a group of spunky girls, Serenity had become Sailor Moon, the soldier of Love and Justice. When S.H.I.E.L.D. had contacted her, she had taken the job under the guise of Sailor Cosmos, the ultimate good. Nick Fury had contacted her with an invitation to join a special team of the elite.
The Avengers.
_
“I thought Coulson was going to get in contact with Stark?” Agent Queen questioned as she strutted down the hall.
“He was. But we all know Stark is nothing against a pretty woman. So we’re sending you,” said Agent Sitwell.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t call me eye candy.”
“Er- sorry.”
“Consider it taken care of.”
_
“Hands up, Reindeer games.”
When Loki put his hands up, Iron Man nodded.
“Good choice.”
At that moment a blaze of white light with infusions of the rainbow shot from the sky leaving Sailor Cosmos in it’s place.
“Loki Odinson, you are under arrest by S.H.I.E.L.D. for murder, grand theft, and terrorism.”
Loki looked at Cosmos appraisingly and then allowed her to cuff him. She dragged him viciously onto the plane.
She took a seat next to the prisoner, who Captain America was watching carefully.
“You’ll have to excuse Coulson. He’s a big fan of yours.”
“I don’t believe we’ve been acquainted,” said the Cap, his cheeks slightly red as Sailor Cosmos stood, revealing her long, naked legs.
Loki snorted.
“Sailor Cosmos, Queen of the Stars.”
“Oh. I’m Captain America. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Sailor Cosmos smiled softly, “Likewise.” Then she turned to Natasha, “Romanoff, the rest of the team will be meeting us at the base”
_
She felt it before she heard it.
The princess was calling her. Her chest ached and she gasped for breath.
“Princess,” whispered Mina.
“Please, guardians. I need you. Hear my plea! Come to me!”
_
The first to arrive were Rei, Amy and Lita. The three had teleported in, just as they did in the old days. Amy used her computer to calculate a landing area.
“I say we land where we’ll take out some of these bastards,” Jupiter growled.
“Agreed,” Mars spoke.
“Alright. I’ve found a suitable spot. Ready? On the count of three…”
They crashed into the middle of a mob of Chitauri, taking out at least six of them with their collision. They were up in a hurry.
“Get out of here,” screamed a man in a blue suit, “You need to evacuate!”
Sailor Mars growled. “I don’t evacuate.”
She released a flaming arrow in her enemy’s direction. It flew into him and took him along as it swerved to hit as many opponents as it could before leaving them in a burnt pile.
Mercury froze her enemy, and Jupiter struck them down with lightening. They all finally acknowledged each other.
“Thor,” Jupiter said knowingly.
“Princess,” he replied.
“Are you from Asgard?” Barton asked cautiously. He had had enough of aliens, presently but even he could see how screwed the team was.
“No,” Sailor Mercury replied firmly, “We are the patron princesses of the solar system, sworn to protect Earth through its many ages.”
“How do you know Thor?” Natasha asked through narrow eyes.
Jupiter’s brow rose humorously, “It’s hard for me not to know Thor, since I was engaged to him for over a century.”
“It is nice to see you,” Thor said. “We could use your kind. Where are the rest?”
“They are coming. We will always come, when we are called.”
“And who called you?” asked Captain America.
The three stared at him full of emotion, “Our Princess.”
_
Uranus, Neptune and Saturn arrived by their own means of unusual travel, quickly meeting up with the growing group of defenders. Mars had joined Barton on sniper duty. Jupiter came along with Thor, as their powers were directly related. Mercury was on her way up Stark Tower, working with J.A.R.V.I.S. to figure out how to shut down the glowing blue cube.
Uranus, Neptune and Saturn worked with Captain America and the Black Widow to clear out the enemies on the ground. Saturn was busying herself by helping to kill strays with her glaive. Uranus was slicing through Chitauri as fast as she could and Neptune was drowning them in water.
It was then that they noticed Venus and Pluto drop in from a portal.
“I picked her up, on the way,” Pluto explained.
“I’ll situate myself on the roof and start to get rid of the ones coming in,” Venus stated, running for a high building.
Pluto followed her.
_
Her hearing picked up children, an entire bus of them. Looking down from the skyscraper she stood on, she noticed that whoever was below that was protecting those children was outnumber fifteen to one. Without a second thought, she put one heeled foot in front of the other and dropped over a hundred stories and landed nimbly on the ground, leaving a crater in her wake.
“You’ll not touch them, vermin,” she spat, hands at her hips and cape flying behind her.
“Get out of here, lady, you’ll only get hurt!” yelled a dark haired man with tactical gear and a firearm.
She paused for a quarter of a millisecond before jumping up, spinning round and whipping her scepter through the aliens around her.
She looked at him again through narrowed eyes and then rushed away towards Captain America.
_
Iron Man was hyper-aware of the several girls in very short skirts running around with mystical doodads of demise.
As he blew up some aliens, he heard a very loud noise. It was melodic. It was… A bell? It began to ring, and he watched as the sky separated in a beautiful golden line. A horse with a horn and feathery white wings emerged. But what caught his eye was the silver haired beauty on the horse. She was holding his reign, flying with him through the sky. On her back, two white wings unfolded themselves. In her hand was a scepter, not like the one that he had seen Loki wielding. Hers was silver, and pink.
What superhero uses pink?
_
Thor was not unhappy to see Princess Lita again. He had known she was alive, something he had found out the last time he had visited Earth. He had missed her for many years. It had been a thousand years since he had last seen her, far too long. For three hundred years he had mourned her death.
The princess had caught his eye at a ball held on the moon, where his father had planned to find him a worthy wife. He had met Lita without knowing that they were arranged to marry by their parents. They had been ready to marry before she died.
Fighting with her now woke things in his heart he had not presumed to feel in many years. He felt guilt, too, as the last woman he had spent his time with was Jane Foster, a beautiful astrophysicist that he had met a short while before he had returned to Asgard.
“You are to be King soon?” Jupiter called over the sound of electricity crackling around them.
“Yes. I will take my place soon. Odinfather is thinking he would like to spend more time with my mother.”
“I see. And how is Loki? Has he settled himself yet? I always thought he would do incredibly well in diplomatic affairs.”
The look on his face unnerved her.
“What’s wrong?”
“He is the cause of this, or did you not hear? He killed our father and took the throne, as he forced me into exile on this planet. He brought evil to them with the Tesseract. He unleashed this Hell on this planet.”
Jupiter looked at him wearily, “Your brother only wishes what you have, My Lord. He only wants to be you.”
“You need not call me that.”
“That is who you are,” Jupiter said, “You are a King among men. No matter. We should pay attention.”
_
Mars was a woman after his own heart. She was shooting arrows left and right, releasing fire energy everywhere. They had each other’s backs.
As he spiraled down the side of the building, she stepped off the side, gracefully falling the distance to the ledge and following him through a window. The fall would have killed any human. Although she was trustworthy, he still gave her a look that belayed suspicion.
She shrugged in response and continued, “It’s not doing any good,” she said angrily. “There are too many. For each we kill, a hundred more arrive. We need to shut that goddamn portal.” She pulled out something he couldn’t see.
“Mercury, what have you got? Can you shut it down?” Mercury and Agent Romanoff shared a look.
“The force field is impenetrable. We’ve tried everything.”
“Well try everything else!” barked Mars.
_
Pluto and Venus were doing a miraculous job of stopping the new Chitauri from coming through the portal. They were not getting all of them, but they were getting enough.
Venus used her Crescent V Smash to plow through the evil aliens.
Pluto was backing her up with her Planetary powers.
“They just keep coming. This is a nightmare.”
“We will win,” Pluto said, “Just as we always have, if for nothing but for the Princess.”
_
Sailor Moon was alone on a rooftop. She was using her scepter to defeat the enemy when she saw something curious. Iron Man shouted to them that he was bringing a nuke in and she backed up in fright. He would not make that journey. He could not. She heard it in his voice. Terror.
As he zoomed into the portal she faced to follow him, faster than she had ever flown before, just as he began to fall. She caught him, and made her way to the portal.
It was closing.
“Mother if you hear me,” she whispered, “Please allow me to bring this man home…”
And she did.
_
She gently carried Iron Man to where the rest of the Avengers and Sailor Scouts were frantically waiting.
“Will he be okay?” whispered Captain America.
“I can heal him,” Sailor Moon said. She put her hands to his chest and lights began to glow. His suit fixed its self, the light on his chest began to glow. His eyes opened.
“Please tell me somebody didn’t kiss me!” he said horrified, but then looked carefully at the Moon Princess, “Well. Except you. Wanna kiss again?”
She laughed as Jupiter and Uranus scowled. “I am sorry to inform you that I am quite uninterested.”
_
After they took custody of Loki the superhero group sat together in the shwarma place nearby. Hulk had turned back into Dr. Bruce Banner, and Captain America and Iron Man had removed their masks. The Sailors had not yet detransformed.
“I knew it,” Tony Stark said excitedly as he pointed to Serenity. “I knew there was something freakishly shiny and shit about you!”
Amara glared as the group walked back into Stark Tower.
“I’m a fan of your fast driving,” Rogers said to Amara as the group walked back to Stark Tower. The two were immediately engrossed in conversation.
“Dr. Mizuno, your recent work on string theory is absolutely astounding. And the fact that you hold eight doctorates. Good lord. Don’t you ever sleep?” Stark asked Amy.
She laughed, “I find myself a fan of your clean energy campaign. And Dr. Banner, it’s an honor to formally meet you. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the articles you published on gamma radiation. I find it all very fascinating.”
“You probably enjoyed it more than me,” he humorlessly joked.
“Don’t say that,” Serenity suddenly said from the windowless apartment.
Everyone went silent.
She turned towards Banner, “Don’t demean yourself like that. You are a beautiful person, no matter what happens when you turn into The Hulk. We cannot help the way we are. All we must do is to play the game with the cards we are given us. Without the bad things in life, there is no good to appreciate. You are beautiful, no matter who is control of your soul.”
Banner flinched.
“You have done this planet a just cause. You have saved those who would condemn you. You are selfless. You are no one to pity,” she said as she walked towards him.
“Aren’t you afraid of me?”
The scouts all shared a look, knowing what she would say.
She smiled, “Should I be?”
_
“Our work here is done then,” Thor said.
“Not quite,” smiled Setsuna. “I believe the Princess has one more job to do.”
Serenity blushed before heading towards the windowless wall of Stark Tower in front of her. She placed her hands on her chest and brought forth the Silver Crystal.
“What’s that thing?” Barton asked.
“Not another Tasseract, dear god,” Agent Romanov muttered.
“It’s the Silver Crystal,” Setsuna informed them. “Her Highness is about to do something spectacular. I would watch if I were you.”
They huddled by the window and watched diligently as the light surrounding the crystal got so strong it was blinding. Slowly, things around them began to shift back in place. Buildings were re-bricked. Monuments were reformed. Cars were repairing themselves. Humans who lay dying on the streets were suddenly healed.
“How is she doing that?” Stark whispered hoarsely as he watched his tower fix itself.
“She is extraordinary,” Amara said.
_