CHAPTER 1

It was a very peaceful night at around midnight. Or at least it started out that way. A young teenage girl fourteen years of age, almost fifteen, lay snug in her bed fast asleep. Her name was Serena and her pet cat, Luna was also sleeping, curled up on top of the covers at the foot of the bed. But they were suddenly woken up by a very bright light accompanied by a horrible crashing sound. Serena screamed and sat up in bed, "Yeeeeoooow! What's happening?"

Her parents and little brother Sammy were also shocked out of their slumber, as also were practically everybody in the entire vicinity. As her mother came running as fast as she could to make sure she was all right, Dad was doing the same thing for her brother Sammy. Without stopping to knock or call out Mum burst through the bedroom door and ran to embrace Serena.
"Oh Serena! Are you all right?" She hugged her daughter feeling very much scared herself while Serena sobbed.
"Mum! Mum! I don't know what's going on!" While Mum sat there holding her terrified girl tightly to herself lights lit up in all the houses and voices yelled out in consternation and dismay. The cat Luna jumped up on the windowsill and stared out into the night. A glowing light shone in the far distance very small but clear as it seemed to blink before disappearing. What could it mean?

In the middle of a huge deserted car park area there was an enormous gaping crater. In it sat something that resembled a twisted, green-leaved tree with several intertwined branches on the top and a similar root system on the bottom. Even as people were pouring forth out of their homes to go over and look at it, the tree shimmered and vanished without a trace. While many other people were glancing down from the windows and balconies of their apartments in the tallest high-rise tenement towers, in one such apartment an elderly couple were about to meet a tragic demise. While their backs were turned, the mysterious tree reappeared inside their main living room and four pairs of bright green hands approached them as their attention was diverted to the scene below. The creatures who had their green-skinned hands outstretched ran up from behind and with a terrible shove the old man was pushed tumbling over the balcony by two pairs of hands and his wife by the other two. They screamed as they fell head over heels and to the horror of the crowd gathered below, they landed with a crash. Their dead bodies lay twisted next to each other. Their faces frozen in the terrified expressions as they fell to their deaths. The police were called and they immediately investigated. However when they identified the apartment the couple had been living in, upon entry they found no evidence of foul play. No green-skinned creatures were to be found, let alone a weird tree. It was concluded that it must have been an accident, somehow the two old people had to have lost their balance as they leaned over the rail attempting to make out what had happened. As for what did happen the police and everybody else were baffled. It was a most perplexing mystery and nobody could offer any explanation.

However after the two bodies had been removed to deliver to the morgue and the police directed the crowd to disperse and go to their homes, inside that now empty apartment activity was quietly happening. The tree had now been stored away inside the bedroom and a group of twenty weird beings with green skin, pointed ears and various coloured hair were all gathered in the living room. About half of them were male and half female and a couple were addressing the rest obviously as the appointed leaders of the clan. The male had light blue hair and was carrying an unusually designed flute of some sort. His female companion had light pink hair and she snuggled up next to him as he spoke, "This is perfect everybody. This planet will serve our needs. Now that we've done away with the earthlings who lived in here this will become our hideout. Anne and I will disguise ourselves as a brother and sister and enroll in the local High School. We will also quickly make applications to move in to this apartment. With our creepy hypnosis nobody will ever wonder why we're not paying any rent money."
Then his girlfriend Anne spoke in turn, "Peter you will disguise yourself as our father and you Jenny our mother. Remember you both must appear slightly older than us to complete our cover as an innocent family of these people."
"That will be no problem for our powers Anne," Peter promised and Jenny agreed.
Anne's boyfriend went on to say, "As for the rest of you, you will all hide out in that other room with the tree unless we send you out on missions to collect energy from the earthlings. We need to keep the tree firmly under our control and to do that we will need plenty and plenty of energy. When we have enough we will be able to harness the tree's own power reserves and we will proclaim ourselves the new ruling authority over this planet and make a big name for ourselves."
"You can depend upon all of us Alan. We will serve you and Anne as our king and queen when our conquest is complete."
"And we shall serve under you as dukes and duchesses to help you put the earth people under your thumbs."
The rest of them gave this solemn promise and Alan and Anne smiled with malicious twinkles in their eyes.
"Thank you. Anne and I know we can rely on you of course."

And so in the next few days these strange aliens had made all their necessary arrangements regarding the apartment and Alan and Anne joined the High School in their human disguises. On the morning of their first day Miss Haruna officially introduced them to everybody on the stage of the main announcement area. "Boys and girls, it is my pleasure to welcome these two new students who have just transferred to our school. Alan Granger in Grade 10 and his sister Anne in Grade 9. I hope you will all make them feel at home."
The students all promised Miss Haruna they would be very nice and friendly to them and Alan and Anne bowed their heads smiling. Serena and Molly were both deeply admiring Alan.
"Isn't he handsome Molly?"
Molly agreed, "Yeah Serena. His hair is so dreamy. But then so's the rest of him."
Melvin was a little jealous because he and Molly had been going steady ever since the incident during the Wacky World Wrestlers Show at Dreamland Amusement Park last year while he had briefly assumed the identity of Tuxedo Melvin. But at the same time he did kind of like them and hoped that they might share similar interests in snails and bugs. Molly's heart really did belong to Melvin though. Sure she did think Alan looked kind of cute but Melvin was her number one and she tried to reassure him when she heard him pout. "Dreamy is he? What about me Molly?"
"Oh Melvin. It's nothing really. Sure I think he's handsome, but he'd never ever replace you in my life seriously. That's the heartfelt truth."
Melvin softened upon hearing this and embraced Molly, but Serena, who was as single as could be, remained looking at Alan with a ga-ga face until Miss Haruna announced that everybody depart for their morning classes.

Later during lunch break Anne found herself surrounded by a gang of curious students including Molly, Melvin and Serena. The official story that Alan and Anne had been telling everybody was that they had immigrated from France with their parents, Pierre, now known as Peter, and Jenny. Melvin was fascinated.
"So you are French by nationality? Did you ever hook up with a computer club and join the Internet?"
Anne looked at him and said, "No."
He was a little disappointed, but all the same he had hopes that he'd be able to spark her interest sometime.
Molly said, "Could you say something in French please?"
Serena added, "Yeah. French is one of my favourite languages."
Alan, Anne, Peter and Jenny all spoke with perfectly mastered French accents when they talked to humans in their disguises. They had it down pat though they didn't really know the language itself. But Anne smiled slyly and narrowed her eyes and began to speak in her own alien language with a superb French accent, "Za-boo zoo ya fa bleeoh."
Everybody was stunned. Molly stammered, "Th-that's some unusual French."
Serena had been just about to ask Anne what it meant when they were all distracted by the sound of beautiful flute music. It was coming from Alan. He had appeared and begun to play on his extraordinarily designed flute and all the girls including Serena and Molly flocked over to listen to him.
If only they had known what Anne's words translated actually meant: "You stupid humans will all be our slaves one day."
The boys all stared with open mouths and wide eyes as the girls were all drawn to Alan as he gently blew on his instrument and Melvin was beginning to feel protectively jealous again. "Hey Molly. Don't get too carried away with his looks and talents." But she didn't even hear him as she basked in the melody with her friends.
Suddenly Alan stopped playing as his eyes rested upon Serena in particular. "My goodness," he thought to himself, "What a lovely creature she is in appearance. For an earth girl that is." Of course Anne was his only true love. But still he had never seen any other creature as beautiful anywhere in their many travels throughout the galaxy. He simply needed to speak to her and as he approached her, Serena gasped in amazed wonder and delight. Molly couldn't believe it when Alan bowed to Serena and said, "Pardon me. You are the most attractive girl I have ever laid eyes upon. What's your name?"
Serena was almost struck dumb as she stammered, "S-s-serena." She began to blush and compliment Alan on his charms as well as his musical talent when Anne suddenly ran over in a huff. "Alan," she spoke in a gruff voice making him blush with nervous embarrassment. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Oh. Er. Nothing Anne. Nothing at all." With that Alan quickly turned and walked away. While all eyes were turned on Anne she frowned harshly and turned as well walking in the opposite direction. Everybody, let alone Serena, were feeling completely baffled as to what had just happened.

Later as Alan and Anne were walking back to their secret base after school she berated him for his actions. "What did you think you were doing talking so sweetly to that human girl Alan?"
Alan hung his head in shame as they were walking and quietly talking together. "I'm sorry Anne. I guess it was pretty stupid of me. I don't know what came over me."
"Well make sure it doesn't happen again Alan. I know we are supposed to be brother and sister in our cover but that doesn't give you the right to behave like that. Especially since these humans are all so vastly inferior to us. It's not only a personal insult to me, but you are also degrading yourself by our standards."
"You're right of course Anne. I am ashamed of myself." Alan hung his head even further and added, "Please let's not tell Peter or any of the others. I promise I'll put this behind me and do the right thing by you and all of us combined."
Anne smiled and replied, "In that case I forgive you Alan. And it will be our secret."
The two of them had been very cautious to argue in very low whispers to each other and keep a close watch out that nobody was eavesdropping upon them. When they reached the apartment tower they took the elevator to their hideout where they joined Peter, Jenny and the rest in the room where they had concealed the tree. Tonight it was time for them to begin seeking out human energy to pour into the tree.

Alan addressed everybody as they gathered around the tree. "We must begin and not delay. Even now the tree is attempting to break free of the hold we have upon it. I can feel its psychic aura as it struggles. So we need to make our move. Are you all with us?"
They all raised their fists in the air and cried out affirmatively together so Alan reached into a drawer inside the dressing table by the bed on which the tree was placed. When he drew his hand out he held what looked like a bunch of over-sized playing cards with silver backs. Spreading them open he held them out to Anne. "You have the honour of choosing the Cardian that we will use for our first night Anne. With your choice you will preserve our future triumph."
Anne laughed and said, "Okay." With her pointer finger she reached out and gently touched a card at random. It floated up into the air and Alan played a tune on his flute. It appeared to grow to average human size and the picture of a monstrous creature, part flower, part humanoid, appeared on it. Then suddenly the creature on the card came to life. Everybody cheered as Alan removed the flute from his lips and cried, "Vampeal. I command you to go out with Fred tonight and obey him as you gather energy from the creatures that cross your path. As you absorb the energy it will be transferred to the tree here and our power will grow all the stronger."
Vampeal bowed and said, "I hear and I will obey."
The alien named Fred stepped forward and said, "I am ready to aid our cause. Come with me Vampeal." As he led the Cardian out into the night jumping over the balcony and floating down together, Alan, Anne and their comrades all chortled and rubbed their hands together with glee.

So while Luna and Artemis were out wandering the streets that night they heard a woman's voice screaming in fright from around a nearby corner. Alerted they promptly ran to investigate and were just in time to see the creature called Vampeal, clutching the terrified lady's neck and shoulders in her flower petal hands. Fred was standing nearby giving commands. "That's it Vampeal. Suck out her energy then find another victim."
"Vampeal!" The Cardian called out her own name as she let the woman slump to the ground before she ran off with Fred close behind. Horrified Artemis and Luna ran up to the woman who was barely alive and half unconscious. "Oh no! What will we do Artemis?"
Artemis was very worried. "If only we could awaken the Sailor Scouts' memories somehow Luna. This is dreadful."

Indeed this new threat was even more serious than the forces of Queen Beryl had ever been. Though most of the victims lived and were delivered to the hospital upon discovery, occasionally the drainage of a victim's life energy was so severe that he or she completely expired. Back at their hideout the aliens observed the transfer of the energy telepathically sent to them as they directed it into the tree. But if a victim had not survived they could tell because the tree would shake and jerk its branches. As if it was stung with intense sorrow or pain and the heartless invaders all laughed as they realized what they had done. They had no remorse whatsoever. After how they had murdered that old man and his wife in cold blood they did not have any shame at all. If a few humans had to die to ensure they kept the tree under their power so what?

But then things took a significant turn of events that brought into play forces the invaders could never have foreseen. Just as Fred was directing Vampeal to attack another innocent bystander the scream alerted Serena's young friend Molly. She opened her window to see what was going on. She had just been talking to Serena on the phone and she had it in her hand while she looked out. "Hold on Serena. Somebody's," she started to say then gasped as Fred pointed to her directing the Cardian's attention.
He shouted, "Up there Vampeal! Another one! Get her too!"
Molly screamed into the phone as Vampeal rose into the air and grabbed her making her drop the receiver.
"Molly! What's wrong?" Serena's voice came out of the discarded appliance while Molly felt her life force slowly being drained out of her by the Cardian's cold touch. Fred meanwhile had levitated himself to the window and laughed maniacally.

Luna and Artemis had run back home to Serena and Mina respectively to try to see if there was any way to convince them of their true identities. But it seemed pretty much hopeless. They knew that none of the girls had any memory of the past events of their regular everyday lives, let alone about being Sailor Scouts since the fateful battle they had fought against the evil Queen Beryl. If they tried to talk to any of them it would only serve to freak them out and people would think they were beginning to lose their minds as well as their memories if they started gibbering about hearing cats speak.

At that very moment Luna was inside Serena's bedroom while she'd been talking to Molly on the phone. She looked up aghast as Serena became distressed speaking urgently. "Molly! Can you hear me? Please answer!"
But the next minute Serena gasped in fright, dropped her own receiver and fell back upon her bed in a terrified half-faint as the spirit of Nephlite materialized before her to warn her of Molly's danger. "Sailor Moon. Please come at once." He had started to say and Luna afraid of what could happen if Serena screamed out alerting her family jumped up in front of her and spoke out loud to get Nephlite's attention.
"Nephlite. Serena has lost her memory. She doesn't know who you are or anything about being Sailor Moon."
Upon hearing Luna say this one good thing at least immediately happened. Serena gasped, "Now my cat is TALKING! Of course. A talking cat must mean that this is all part of a weird dream I'm having. That creepy apparition cannot hurt me because it isn't real." This calmed her down somewhat anyway.
Nephlite frowned. "Is this really true?"
Luna bowed her head. "I'm afraid it is so."
Nephlite said, "But Molly is in danger. Her life force is slowly being drained away. She could die."
Luna began to sob, "If only we had the Crescent Moon Wand with the Silver Imperium Crystal. But it was also lost during the fight against Queen Beryl."
Nephlite was all ears upon hearing this. "Sailor Moon's crystal was lost?"
Before Luna could reply he went on with urgency, "Then there's only one thing to do. I can sense that Sailor Moon's own parents have appeared to her as ghosts themselves. I must call them forth through mutual spirit channeling and combine our psychic energy to restore her memories."
Luna's heart give a sudden leap of hope as Nephlite's spirit shut his eyes and concentrated hard summoning Queen Serenity and King Lune-Eclipsus from their dimension of eternal rest.
As her parents' ghosts began to materialize in the room, Serena gave a rather nervous giggle. "Wow. This dream is getting weirder all the time."
But they responded at once, "We know why we have been summoned forth and we will help you Nephlite."
It was Lune-Eclipsus who had spoken and he and Serenity both combined their psychic energies with Nephlite and before Serena could say anything else in the next fifteen seconds all her vital memories came flooding back to her. She remembered first meeting Luna, then Amy, Raye etc. All the battles they had fought together. Jedite and Titus. Nephlite. The contest Zoicite had fought with them for possession of the Rainbow Crystals. Her dear Tuxedo Mask who was also Darien in his everyday identity. Originally meeting the ghosts of her dead parents and learning the whole truth about who she was and who her friends were. Finally all the last battles including the big show down with Queen Beryl herself when everything had gone blank.

She snapped to attention. "I remember everything now. My dear mother and father. Thank you so very much. You too Nephlite."
Nephlite spoke up, "No time for chit-chat Sailor Moon. Molly's in danger."
"We must go now Serena dear," said Serenity.
"But go and do your duty," said Lune-Eclipsus before he and Serenity vanished.
"Transform Serena," Luna urged.
"MOON PRISM POWER!" Sailor Moon transformed as she jumped off the bed.

As for Molly she was now tied up with vines extending from Vampeal's hands. Fred was standing next to Vampeal. "It won't be long now," he laughed.
But just then Luna came flying through the window and hissing angrily landed upon Vampeal's arm biting and scratching making her release Molly. As she fell backwards onto her bed severely weakened, the Cardian threw Luna aside with a violent wave of her arm. Fred turned and gasped to see Sailor Moon standing in the window sill.
"Now look here. I'm Sailor Moon and I'm the Champion of Justice on this planet. I don't know who you are or where you've come from but I won't let you terrorize people and drain away their life forces. I challenge you to send that big weed of yours outside to fight me."
Fred was very angry. "You won't interfere with our plans. Vampeal! Destroy her!"
Sailor Moon quickly jumped backwards off the ledge and down to the street below as Vampeal shot out at her with Fred behind.
Nephlite appeared over Molly and looked down with tender concern into her face. She looked back up and struggled to speak, reaching her hands towards his face. "N-nephlite. I feel s-s-so weak. But I'm h-happy to see you again."
"Take it easy Molly. Sailor Moon will take care of the monster who attacked you. Then she'll see you get medical help."
Molly smiled in wonderment at his words. "Sailor Moon is b-b-back! R-r-r-really?"
Meanwhile Luna, who had hit the wall when she was thrown and momentarily stunned, had risen to her feet, regained her bearings and exited out the window to see how Sailor Moon was faring.

At the moment she had unfortunately underestimated the speed and agility of Vampeal. After desperately twisting, dodging and running to avoid the vines which lashed out at her relentlessly, she had finally been lassoed around the ankle and fell to the ground. She could feel the energy being sucked out of her almost immediately and she groaned piteously. Fred was rubbing his hands and laughing with a wicked glint in his eyes. But Luna knew what she needed to do and running up from behind she leaped up onto the Cardian's back and proceeded to bite and claw once again. Vampeal released Sailor Moon before too much energy had been removed from her and she jumped up off the sidewalk.
Luna jumped out of the way while Vampeal shook herself in rage and pain and cried out, "Attack now Sailor Moon!"
Sailor Moon did not waste time and while Fred was distracted she threw her tiara proclaiming with huge expression, "MOON TIARA MAGIC!"
The spinning frisbee flew straight at Vampeal with destructive force and even as Fred turned at the sound of her shout, he was caught in the crossfire standing in such close proximity to the Cardian. He was disintegrated before he could even make any sound at all and the Cardian vanished, revealing the small card with Vampeal's picture on one side. As it fell and stuck upright in the pavement the picture sizzled, smoked and turned entirely black.

While Sailor Moon was looking at the strange card voices addressed her from above making her and Luna look up together. "So you've killed our comrade Fred. But we will eventually destroy you and avenge him."
"Huh?" Sailor Moon looked up to see Alan and Anne floating in the air above them. They were standing back to back and from the transparent glow it was clear they were only a holographic projection. Alan continued to speak, "We didn't expect to find somebody like you on our planet."
Sailor Moon was incensed. "What do you mean your planet? You have no right to come here to terrorize or even kill. You monsters."
Anne grinned and answered her, "We can do anything we want to. You won't be able to stop us."
Alan continued, "The humans will be our slaves and we will kill anybody who tries to oppose us."
"That especially includes you," Anne spoke with a venomous voice and pointed at Sailor Moon.
"We will leave you for now but when we strike next we will be ready to destroy you. Consider yourself warned," finished Alan. Then he and Anne disappeared.

When they were gone Sailor Moon alerted Molly's mother, Mrs. Baker, to her daughter's condition. She was surprised to see Sailor Moon again and also very, very thankful to realize that Molly may have died had it not been for the return of Sailor Moon. Nephlite said goodbye to Molly just before the door flew open and Mrs. Baker ran in to check on her daughter while Sailor Moon called for an ambulance on the phone. They came and took Molly away and the ambulance workers were also amazed to see Sailor Moon in person before their eyes. After this Sailor Moon was the talk of the town. Some people could hardly believe she had really come back but in the light of the terrible events of that night they were all deeply glad and hoped that she would destroy whatever strange new threat had come to earth before everybody was dead from losing all their precious energy. People also wondered whether the other four Sailor Scouts would also return to fight with Sailor Moon again.

But the battle was going to be tougher than even Sailor Moon could imagine with or without her old friends. Because while she and Luna had been checking on Molly the aliens had retrieved the card from where it lay in the pavement. Although not even Luna knew it the Cardians were really indestructible by nature. They could appear to be destroyed but there was a special process by which they could be restored. Alan, Anne and their allies placed the Cardian inside a darkened room dipped in a liquid container resembling the process of developing photographs. They had converted the built-in bedroom wardrobe for this purpose and after twenty-four hours Vampeal would be restored as good as new, ready to potentially be used again. Then they all sat around to discuss their next move in the light of the sudden appearance of this strange female warrior and the death of Fred. Things were only going to get hotter as they went along.