Sailor Stardust—A Sailor Moon Fan Fiction
Hoshino Ren walked quietly through the park. A group of boys walked by and laughed, making Ren pull at her short silver hair self consciously. Her father worked for a large cellular phone company in the major city of Tokyo, and sent her to attend a prestigious private academy. She wore the regular uniform: dark skirt, white collared blouse with short sleeves, large bow on the chest and on the side of her head. The grey knee high socks disappeared into black, flat shoes with a strap buckle.
Ren stopped walking as she heard a shriek of laughter. A group of six girls and one guy sat in a circle near the playground area. The smallest girl had pink hair done up in a way that made her look like a rabbit, while another had long blond ponytails topped in meatball-like buns. A blue haired girl sat with a book in her lap, a dark haired girl was yelling good-naturedly at the blond; another blond with a large bow in her hair was laughing, and a brown haired girl with a pony tail was serving sandwiches from a bento box. The man with them had an arm thrown over the meatball head's shoulders. They smiled at each other, their love evident.
Ren sighed. The seven of them looked so carefree, unaware of the trouble that threatened the universe. If they had been a bit more serious in their mannerisms, Ren could have taken them for the legendary Inner Senshi. But surely in their normal forms, the Inner Senshi would still be serious?
Ren sighed again. Her search for the legendary warriors of Crystal Tokyo had been so far in vain. No one that she had encountered in all of her years as a Sailor had come as close to resembling the other warriors as those six—the man looked so much like King Endymion, it was scary.
But as Sailor Stardust, she was a lone warrior. She never mingled with the other Sailors. Where others had groups of three partners or more, she was charged by Sailor Galaxia—the hope of humankind—to roam the galaxy alone, fighting anything beyond the reaches of the planet Pluto.
A scream rang out from the building to her right. Ren ran into the nearest deserted area, not noticing that the other seven people she had been watching had also disappeared at the loud shriek.
Ren took out a black pen topped with a dusty silver winged ball. She held it out in front of her, letting it extend to the floor. "Cosmic Star Power!" her words echoed in the silence of her surroundings.
With a firm hand on her staff, her transformation began. White leotard with grey flared sleeve tops, black sailor collar with two white stripes at the edges, white gloves traveled up her elbow to end in grey ringlets—with black accents at her wrists, black skirt with a black bow with long ties coming off of it. Her black boots reached above her knees to end in an upside-down V with grey rings at her ankles. Her tiara was a grey band with a white star in the center, and her earring were grey stars. Her grey-blue eyes completed her muted costume.
The only color in her ensemble was her staff, which had some gold curving around the ends of the rod and around the orb in a crescent moon formation—a subtle tribute to her Queen Serenity.
Ren, now Sailor Stardust, ran out back into the street in time to catch a warlock from a neighboring galaxy—she knew a few neighboring galaxies, and thus the people in them—being held in one position by Sailors Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto. The other Sailors had yet to show up, and Stardust had worked with those particular three before. She jumped into the fray, bringing her staff to bear down on the warlock.
"Foolish you are to try and stop me!" the warlock laughed at the four of them. "I am Gaylen, Warlock of the Fifth Degree! You cannot hope to defeat me!"
"We don't need to defeat you!" Stardust countered an attack, blasting him with a short burst of dust from her staff.
As a Sailor of the stars and the dust that they created, Stardust could summon and store said sut inside of her staff head. But she could only store so much, and then she couldn't summon more for at least five more minutes after using the last of the stores. She mainly had to count on her Blinding Light—the power that allowed her to summon a light as bright as any star—and her Dead Space—freezing her foe inside the spaces of his mind, rendering his physical body powerless—but even they weren't enough. Her physical abilities only took her so far, and she couldn't work well with others.
"Uranus World Shaking!" Sailor Uranus released her power.
The ground shook beneath them, and the warlock was blasted into a building. As soon as the upper part of his body peeled away from the building, Neptune stepped up:
"Neptune Deep Submerge!"
Pluto stepped in as soon as Neptune's power hit the warlock:
"Pluto Deadly Scream!"
The scouts looked to Stardust, and she held her staff in front of her. She stood on one leg, the other tucked up beneath her. She lifted her staff, her head following it.
"Stardust Dead Space!"
The warlock had just regained his feet, and he looked relatively natural when Stardust's power hit him. His physical body froze, but his eyes looked at Sailor Stardust with severe hatred. My brethren will find you, Sailor Scout! His voice echoed through her skull, followed by a searing pain through her brow like a metal band that was squeezing her slowly.
"Uranus, Neptune, Pluto!" Sailor Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mini Moon, and Tuxedo Mask came running to meet them.
"Well, it's about time you got here!" Uranus said, annoyed. "We've got him in a good position, just finish him off."
"Right!" Sailor Moon brandished her wand.
The Moon Scepter twirled as Sailor Moon prepared to bring the warlock to justice.
"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"
The warlock's eyes bulged as the golden light of Sailor Moon's power enveloped him, releasing his essence and sending his physical body into the ether.
"Well, you could have saved us a little bit of time there, Sailor Moon," Pluto joked, hugging Sailor Mini Moon at the same time. "It's good to see you again, Small Lady."
"Who's this?" Mars looked at Stardust.
In all of the commotion, Stardust had forgotten to make herself scarce when the Inner Senshi had arrived. She usually got out of a battle before the other scouts made their appearance. She folded her arms loosely over her abdomen; her staff had shrunk to a good size, and this she held in her left hand, fist clenched.
"I am Sailor Stardust," she introduced herself. "I am the Guardian of the Empty Space. The Keeper of the In Between. In short, I keep order in the starry space between your planets and celestial kingdoms."
"You're a Sailor Scout?" Mercury asked, incredulous. "I've never heard of you before, any offense."
"I am charged by Sailor Galaxia to scout alone," Stardust answered with a heavy tone—saddened at her own words. "I am not allowed to work with the other Sailor Scouts."
"But you worked with us just now," Neptune said.
"Yes, and perhaps it was a mistake to get caught up in the battles of the other Senshi—but I cannot simply sit in space during the Earth nights anymore."
"You can join our team!" Mini Moon suggested with a smile. "We're always open to making new friends."
"We'd be happy to have you on the team," Sailor Moon nodded, extending her hand.
Stardust stared at her fellow warrior's outstretched hand. Did she dare take that hand? If she did, she may be going against everything that Galaxia had charged her with. If she took Sailor Moon's hand, would she be released from her duties as a scout? Stardust didn't want to find out. She smiled kindly at Sailor Moon.
"Thank you for the offer, Sailor Moon," she said. "But I have a sacred duty. One that must be performed alone."
"But you said yourself," Venus stepped forward, "that you didn't want to just guard the space anymore."
"That may be so, but my personal whims are of no consequence to my mistress' task."
"Just during the day, then?" Jupiter suggested.
Their offer was awfully tempting, and Stardust bit her lip. Uranus and Neptune came to stand on either side of her.
"She already has a part-time team," Uranus told the other Senshi. "She already works with us most of the time anyway."
Jupiter looked between Neptune and Uranus while Mini Moon looked to Pluto. The Scout of Time nodded in consent with her teammates. Stardust couldn't help but smile a little at the thought of having a team of her own. But this smile quickly disappeared. Her mistress must never know—though she probably already did. While Galaxia was a gentle mistress, if she found out that Stardust had joined with the other scouts, it could get a little ugly. Stardust was charged with a solo mission, and that would require most of her time.
"Well, then," Mars clapped Stardust on the shoulder. "Welcome to the team, Sailor Stardust!"
"Yes," Sailor Moon smiled. "Welcome."