Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Tsuki
Chapter One: The End of the World
The girl stood at the steps of her school. A cheeky sixteen year old currently enrolled in the tenth grade of Winthrop High, a old building with all the updated technology of the twentieth century, maybe as close to the twenty-first century, she stood waiting patiently on the steps. The school long since vacated, it'd been an hour that the girl had been waiting.
She could wait. After all, there was supposed to be a surprise in store for her.
She was a petite girl, just at five feet with small curves. She was perky as the best description but she was cheeky in personality. With wavy, thick, bleached blonde hair that fell down in tresses down over her shoulders and half down her back, her blue eyes sparkled as she went down the steps in bounding jumps of two at a time.
A old Chevrolet pulled up, the honk protesting as the older man peered down with a narrowed gaze. The glasses slipped halfway off his nose as he snorted, coughed, and shoved the rim back over his nostrils. "Lenny! Hey ya, girl, getcha moving now!"
"Coming!" She came with a quick step, still bounding as she flung her shoulder bag into the back of the car the moment she opened the passenger door. The car was a two-door, flaking dull red paint that once could have been crimson but looked mostly like Tuscan red. The passenger door was actually another off color of red, an almost too bright versus the rest of the car. Someone had been stupid enough to leave it open so that when a car slammed past it, it was literally ripped off its hinges. Thankfully, it wasn't Lenny but her older brother, Sam who did the deed and was punished for it.
"Hey Dad!" She grinned widely at him as he nodded and jerked the stick into drive. The car continued its protesting as it rolled into the street. "So?" She asked pointedly.
"Well, ya ma and myself had been talking about now that Sam was outta the house, it was some quiet. So we got to thinking.." He paused as he flicked the car's signal to the right, changing lanes with a slight roar and thrust forward. He turned it off and continued as if he never stopped talking. "Every time ya have a birthday, holiday really, you ask for the same thing…"
"I'm getting a dog?" She asked eagerly. "Oh Daddy!" She squealed.
He tried to look serious but a small grin tugged at his lips. "Well, we went to the animal shelter and brought home a slightly older pup. Ain't newborn, around two years the people estimated but it seemed to be the right pick."
"What does it look like?" Lenny beamed at her father.
"You'll see," and that was the last he would discuss about the 'surprise'.
It only took twenty minutes to head to their one story home. A three bedroom with a combined living and dining room, next to a kitchen, and only one bathroom, it was adequate enough for their family.
Lenny struggled with her belt and the instant the car stopped fully, she flung out as she ran up the brick path. "Mom!"
"Lenora, in the back!" Her mother's laughing voice came through the house. Running through the kitchen, she skidded to a stop at the sight of the playing dog. It pranced around her mother, barking. It was the whitest blonde retriever she had ever seen. The hair was long and looked silky, and the expressive brown eyes showed great intelligence.
"She's beautiful!" Lenny came out as the dog turned and began to wag her tail wildly, a slight dopey smile on its face.
"This is Artemis," her mother told her. "That's what the people at the shelter named her."
"Why?" Lenny blinked.
"There's a marking on it's forehead, see?" She pointed at the forehead. It looked even more paler than the rest of the hair and almost hairless there in the shape of a almost perfect crescent moon. At a distance, it merely looked like a bald spot but up close, it seemed like something else that Lenny couldn't begin to describe.
"I like the name Artemis," Lenny mused. "Can we keep it?"
"It's your dog, baby, you name it what you like," Her mother said with grinning shrug.
"Let'see how she responds." Lenny moved away to the farthest corner of the small backyard. "Come here, Artemis! Come here, girl!"
Faithfully, she galloped and did a flying leap on the girl who shrieked as the dog licked with a ferocity. Lenny burst out laughing. "Easy, easy!"
It didn't take all that long for the dog to accommodate herself to the family and living. She was always near Lenny. It had been at least three weeks when something most bizarre happened.
"Mom, I'm taking Artemis for a walk!" Lenny waited for a response.
"This late?" Came the disembodied tone somewhere in the home.
"I have Artemis!" She called back and waited.
"Don't take too long a walk!" Came her mother's voice, now from a slightly different direction.
"Mom must be rearranging again," She quipped to Artemis. She clipped the ice blue leash to the similar colored collar. "Let's go to adventure!" She said encouragingly. "And uh… try to not to do what you did last night, okay? That's what the backyard is for, privacy, not making messes on the neighbor's yard."
As she was led down the street with the energetic retriever, she glanced up at the moon with a small smile. It was a beautiful shade of silver light falling in waves from the full moon.
She felt a tug and suddenly, she was running until she was struggling to stop the dog from ripping her shoulder from its socket. "Stop! Stop! Artemis! HEEL!"
Artemis skidded into a vacant parking lot, Lenny's eyes flitting side to side nervously. It wasn't far from home but it was a rather isolated place. She devotedly hoped that Artemis was a protective type who knew to lunge at bad guys.
She slipped again as Artemis jerked suddenly. Falling to her knees, partially skidding, she cried out in pain as she looked up at the dog's eyes.
Eyes that seemed almost different. That were more bright, alert, glowing…
Actually, Lenny dimly noted, that it was the crescent moon glowing. "Oh, dear God…"
"Hello, Lenora," the dog spoke gently. "My name is Artemis. I'm here for you."
"I'm sorry, what?" Lenny asked stupidly. "And it's Lenny, not.." She balked. "What am I doing? Talking to a DOG?"
"I'm not entirely a dog, as you can see," Artemis said quietly. It was eerily different from her silly, general personality. As if that had been nothing but an façade. "The world is in trouble and if we do not step in to save it, it will be all destroyed."
"What? I can't do anything about that! And we're doing something anyways, about global warming and stuff."
"This has nothing to do with that, it's more…" Artemis was at a loss for words. "Well, it's about the past repeating itself, really."
"So… you're here for me?" Lenny asked finally, thinking it was a safe question.
"Lenny.. Lenora Sterling, you are the Moon Princess, Princess Amaterasu."
It took a moment. "That sounds Asian."
"Well, Japanese," Artemis corrected her. "She is, or you were, a daughter of the White Moon, born to protect the earth with the Ginzuishou."
"Ginzuishou?" Lenny tried her tongue around the name and utterly failed. "What's its English name?"
"Silver Crystal. Anything else?"
"What is it?"
"A stone of great power. It can destroy worlds."
"Why would I want to have that? If the world is in danger, then logically, that could be the problem."
"No, the problem is a person, that I'm certain of."
"Great! We better head on back and I'll just pretend none of this happened."
"Hey!" Artemis bared teeth in frustration. The crescent moon shimmered as the tail flicked and out fell a necklace.
"Did that just come out of your a…"
"NO!" Artemis glared fiercely. "Just. Pick. It. UP."
It was a red jewel with a yellow crescent moon hugging the bottom edge to taper out at the edges the farther up it went. Attached to a thick black strand that seemed unbreakable, the clasp was a ringed version. She placed it on gingerly, her fingers touching the jewel that hung at her throat. "It's not that stylish," Lenny muttered.
"Repeat after me," Artemis sounded like she was having trouble talking. "Tsuki Power, Make Up!"
"Tsuki…Power.." It was a rush of light swirling into her head as stars popped in her vision. She felt the air fizz and pop as her voice rose slightly. "Make Up!" The world turned upside down before righting itself.
"What happened?" She asked dizzily before her eyes move downward. She wore a white, sleeveless top that was partially seamed into the knife-pleated blue skirt. The top was edged as if there was a hoodie but rather a collar existed with a wide part just at her collarbone's center. The collar was blue and rounded around the back. It was attached to the sides of a jeweled design of a eight pointed goldenrod star with a golden yellow crescent moon emblazed on its center. The star was under laid with a flat, round red disc, with a set of four white beads that went to attach to the collar. From its attached point, fell a red strand tie. Her wrist length gloves were plain and crimson red. Her waist had a interlaced red string, with a shoelace bow at its front center. The blue skirt had a single white stripe just above the edge. Her legs were covered in high-up white stockings, the top a fancy band of intricately woven lace. It disappeared into red Mary Janes with a single strap across the top of her foot, with a goldenrod belt buckle on the outsides of the feet. The heels were slightly higher than most usually Mary Janes.
What was most startling was that her hair was put up in flatten orbs of twisted hair at the highest point of the sides of her head, with the rest fall in waves. She wore yellow crescent moon earrings and also a white headband with a oval red gem outlined in goldenrod attached on the left side of the band.
She jumped at the sight she was in. "What am I wearing!?"
"An updated version of a warrior outfit?" Artemis attempted to shrug but it was hard for a dog to do so. "It's what will hide your identity."
"The same hair and same eyes," Lenny snorted. "Oh yea, this will hide my identity! What am I supposed to do in this garment?"
"Protect and fight! At least, until all of you have been gathered."
"There's more of us? This? What the hell, man?"
Artemis snorted. "You are a Princess. You have four others who are your guardians. We have to find them before disaster strikes."
"How will I know when disaster strikes?" Lenny high whispered.
The tail flicked again and out came a small electronic. It took a moment to realize what it was.
"A PAGER? Get real!"
"Press the button on the side."
She dutifully did so and the top half popped off to reveal a tiny computer.
"It's voice activated. It'll also beep to tell you when trouble is. Once it tells you, ask it to tell you where to go."
"Talking to my pager?" Lenny glanced down. "Listen, I'm not all that popular to begin with, being low middle class but this would place me in the do-not-approach category as school. I'm trying to be seen as human, not a freak."
"You are not a freak," Artemis said devotedly.
"I'm standing here in a funky outfit, having a conversation with a dog that is talking back. Any more you need to understand?"
There was a momentary staring contest. "Please, just go with it." Artemis said carefully. "I won't talk in front of your family, I'll be the happy little dog everyone wants me to be."
"Don't tell me you're unhappy with the treats."
"Are you kidding? They're delicious!" The tail wagged enthusiastically. "But I'm getting off the mark. So, when that beeps, you find out where the danger is."
"And what if I'm at school."
"Well, sometimes it can be an inconvenience…"
"Yea, sure. Hey, yea, Principal Blinken, I missed third period and beyond cause I had to go save the day. You know, superhero stuff."
"You'll get by," Artemis stood up. "Shall we go?"
"How the Hell do I get outta this?"
Artemis raised an eyebrow. Lenny noted the lack of hair, actually, that symbolized the eyebrow. "You're missing the eyebrows for that move."
"Take a deep breath and release slowly. You should just naturally turn back."
Lenny did so and cracked an eye open. The outfit had faded off to reveal her natural clothes. She clipped the pager to the right side of her pants, against the pocket. "All right, Artemis. Lead the way."
And she was dragged off as Artemis resumed her cheerful, if idiotic façade back home. Lenny wasn't too sure if she was going to keep a straight face or be able to tell if the playful view was the truth or the dead seriousness. Especially when Artemis barked when the doorbell rang on the television.