A quick author's note: the version of this story is missing musical cues included in other versions. If you'd like to read a version with the musical cues, let me know and I'll link you.
A mint-haired girl was doing her homework in a hospital room.
Madeline Scerra scribbled the work to difficult math problems on a sheet of scratch paper, green eyes periodically looking up at the girl in the hospital bed in front of her. The orange-haired girl appeared to be asleep, though the reality was not so simple or peaceful. She had been comatose for a stretch of days now, and while her friends watched her for any sign of activity at all, it seemed they would get no such good news.
Her concentration was jarred by the sound of the door opening. A girl with short purple hair and red eyes entered. "No change, huh?" She plopped into the seat next to Madeline and peered at her work. "How can you do homework at a time like this? I can't focus on anything."
Madeline shook her head. "Nothing. And… there's still life going on outside of this hospital room, Diane. It hurts, but it's true."
"How can you be so cold about it?" Diane's voice was heavy with offense. "When you put it like that, I wish that time outside would stop till Ally wakes up."
"That…" The words that could be a long time lingered on the tip of Madeline's tongue, but she swallowed them. "Never mind. Have you heard from Mia?"
"Nice topic change," Diane said. "But yeah, Mia said she'd be coming soon." She stood up and walked over to Ally's bed, where a chart at the foot gave her full name as Allison Richter. "Sometimes, it's hard for me to believe everything that has happened. Even now, I find myself asking, 'how did we get here? What did we do for things to end like this?'"
"'How did we get here…'" Madeline echoed the words, mulling the question over. "We've been through a lot."
"Yeah." Diane's voice trailed off, and there was a period of silence where both girls simply stared at their fallen friend.
How did we get here?
How did we…
Allison Richter's routines were simple to follow. She woke up, performed her morning maintenance, ate breakfast, went to school, went home, did homework (not always in one sitting, and not always without messing around), went to bed, then repeated the cycle. There were always minute variations and weekends, but during the week that was life for her.
Something small but different was starting to alter that routine slightly. A stray cat had begun lurking outside of Allison's house, cream colored with a brown muzzle and blue eyes. Allison hadn't paid it much heed, but it struck her as a little odd. She had never seen the cat before, and it didn't seem to be wearing a collar or any means of identification. There were also no lost cat posters; perhaps it had been abandoned?
On her way home from school today, Allison made a mental note to ask her parents if they could do anything for the cat. Right now, she was walking home, not paying much attention to her surroundings, mostly preoccupied with thoughts of the feline trespasser and how she was going to survive the big project coming up next week.
Something slimy curled around her leg, and a tug sent her spilling to the ground with a yelp.
The something was a black, inky tentacle of some sort, connected to an alley that Allison thought was only taken up by dumpsters. The tentacle was pulling, and it was becoming increasing apparent that she wasn't strong enough to stay in place. As hard as she fought and pulled back, she was slowly being tugged into the alley. Then, the tug become much quicker as the source redoubled its efforts, sending her sliding into the alley in a way that was going to leave some nasty scrapes.
What Allison saw there made her freeze in terror and disbelief. The source of the tentacle wrapped around her leg was a veritable massive ball of tentacles and teeth, snarling and dripping something foul and black. Unable to help herself, she screamed and tried to pull back, but she couldn't budge. The thing's tentacles were beginning to part around a certain section of its body to reveal what must have been a mouth, given the presence of a floppy tongue, teeth, and slick drool.
That just made Allison scream all over again. Not only was something she had never seen before going to eat her, but it was going to be disgusting and hurt like hell too. She tried to dig in her pockets for her cell phone, but another tentacle shot out and restrained her arms. She was trapped, going to be gobbled up without a trace or opportunity to explain that something had happened.
Just when she thought it was curtains for her, a beam of light shot out from somewhere to the side, severing the tentacles from the creature and making what was wrapped around her crumble to ash.
She did not expect what scampered out from where the beam had shot out of. The cream and brown cat from around her house ran up to her, a strange item in her mouth: a golden, rectangular object with a red gem star on it and a bent prong to the side. The cat dropped the item in front of her and, if Allison believed her senses, apparently started talking.
"Quick! Take this, and say, 'Arcturus Power, Make-Up!'" The cat's voice, if it was indeed the cat's voice, was smooth and feminine, a pleasant mezzo-soprano.
Allison knew she didn't have time to question the situation. She grabbed the brooch and repeated after the cat:
"Arcturus Power, Make-Up!"
A flash of light came out of the cat's trinket, and Allison was enveloped in a golden light. Red, orange, and white ribbons formed around her body, and when the lightshow was done, the ribbons had coalesced into an outfit the likes of which Allison had never seen before. A white bodice, a triple-tiered red-orange-white skirt, orange and red chest and butt bows, something on her forehead and neck... the transformation was nothing to sneeze at.
With the transformation, Allison felt some strange information flooding her mind. It was both foreign and familiar, clearly not a part of her normal mental landscape, and yet somehow it felt right at home in her mind. Part of the information that entered her mind was the knowledge that she could do something about the hideous beast that would have had her for a snack mere moments ago. She clenched her fists and raised one over her head, bringing it down as she called out a phrase:
"Hammer of the Forge!"
A giant, red-hot hammer came down on the beast, making it unleash a dreadful cry. More tentacles shot out to bind her, but she found she was able to dodge them with ease. In fact, she grabbed one and gave it a yank, pulling the monster closer to her. With a war cry, she jumped to a height she had no idea she was capable of and stomped on the creature with one heeled boot. When she came down on it with the other boot, it crumbled into a heap of dust, leaving her to stand triumphantly on its ashes.
The moment of triumph was brief as reality sank in once more, causing Allison to crumple to her knees in monster dust. "What the hell… just happened?" she said through heavy breaths.
The cat plodded up to her, her tail twisting in the air. "Well done! You dusted that youma with aplomb."
"What?" Allison was still convinced the cat talking was some bizarre heat-of-the-moment delusion.
The cat sighed. "Don't worry. You'll understand it all in time. For now, would you please come with me?"
"Um… well, you did just save me from a godawful hellbeast. Lead the way, I guess."
"Will do. And welcome to the world of senshi, Sailor Arcturus."