Enter Pegasus
"Hurry up Charisse! We're going to be late!" Malia called up the stairs to her oldest sister. Her other older sister finished helping her tie up her red hair into a high ponytail. Malia turned to her and signed, 'Thanks. We better get going. We might be late for school. Charisse is coming.'
Tacita, the middle sister, had wavy, indigo colored hair that reached down to her ankles. It was for Tacita's benefit that everyone in the family knew how to sign. She had been deaf since birth. Smiling, she signed back, 'You're welcome. Charisse really takes forever to get ready in the morning, and, honestly, I don't see much difference from when she goes into the bathroom to when she comes out.'
Malia laughed merrily.
"You don't have to wait any more," Charisse announced playfully from the top of the stairs. She dramatically flipped her blond hair back over her shoulders and strutted down towards them.
"What? Thinking of picking up a part time job in modeling?" Malia teased as she descended.
Charisse grinned and answered coyly, "Maybe. I hear it pays well." She signed along with her speaking, bringing Tacita back into the conversation again. Although Tacita could read lips well, that did little good when people spoke facing away from her.
The three sisters collected their backpacks and hurried out the door, Charisse locking it behind them.
Their father's job had taken the family all over the country, never letting them settle in one place for more than two or three years. At first, this was hard on the three girls, but through it, they grew inseparably close and took each new move with a smile. Only just two months before they had moved from Seattle to their new home in Anchorage. Now that September rolled around again, it was time for their first day at their new school, Elk Valley School.
Thankfully, Elk Valley was within walking distance of their new home and housed grades six through twelve. This meant that, for the first time, all three sisters could attend the same school; Malia in seventh grade, Tacita in ninth, and Charisse in eleventh.
It was a beautiful autumn morning. A chill hung in the air but the sun shone distantly above. When they reached the school, the halls were packed with other students that they didn't recognize. Armed with their class schedules, the three sisters waved and went their separate ways, in search of their classrooms.
Tacita paused for a moment and watched her sisters disappear into the crowds. She glanced down at her schedule to see the information about her first class again for reassurance, even though she had already memorized it. First period, she recalled, English, room 112, Mrs. Lindell... Elk Valley was a huge school, but Tacita found her first class without any problems.
Tacita took a seat in the front right corner so she could read both the teacher's and the other student's lips more easily. This was always her strategy: to find a front corner to sit in. As she waited for class to begin, Tacita pulled out a folder and a notebook. Flipping open the new notebook, she picked up a pencil and began to doodle on the first page as she watched the other students file into the classroom and take their seats.
Soon, the bell rang. Of course, Tacita couldn't hear it, but she sensed the sudden vibration that rose above everything else in her chest. The sudden stiffness in all the other students supported her conclusion.
Mrs. Lindell, a petite blue-haired woman, rose from her desk, placed her reading glasses on the end of her nose, and picked up a clipboard. She glanced down at it. "Welcome back to Elk Valley for another year, everyone. I hope you all had great summers. My name is Mrs. Lindell and I will be your English teacher for the year," she declared quieting the class down further than the bell had, "Now, I'm going to take attendance and record where you are sitting, so that I can get to know your names better. So say 'here' and raise your hand so I can find you." She began reading names off her list starting at the top alphabetically.
Eventually, she got to the T's. "Tacita Trey," She called, but no answer came. Tacita raised her hand obediently, but Mrs. Lindell didn't look up when she didn't hear an answer. "Absent, on the first day?" she murmured. Seeing those words on Mrs. Lindell's lips, Tacita stretched her hand higher into the air, almost rising out of her seat. A few people around her giggled. Just as her teacher started back to the list, a girl sitting two seats down from Tacita, who had already been identified as Ashley Higgens, spoke up, "Excuse me, Mrs. Lindell, but Tacita Trey is here, she just isn't saying anything."
The petite woman looked up over her reading glasses and stared at Tacita. "Please say 'here' next time. It makes things a lot easier for me."
Tacita put her hand down slowly and bit her lip nervously.
"Is something wrong?" Mrs. Lindell asked, tilting her head to the side.
Tacita picked up her pencil again and scrawled across the top of the page in her notebook: 'I am deaf. I cannot speak.' Then she rotated the pad around to face Mrs. Lindell.
"That wasn't in any files I received..." She sighed, now understanding, "Then I suppose you can sign?"
Tacita nodded.
Smiling, Mrs. Lindell began to sign: 'Then you are lucky to be in my class. I know sign language. I am an ASL interpreter at my church. In this class, I will do my best to sign along as I speak for you.'
'Thank you so much! I would really appreciate it,' Tacita replied.
Mrs. Lindell glared at the class to quiet them down again. "Now we have that straitened out." She began signing along as she spoke. "Tacita Trey here is deaf, so I will be signing along as I talk, so that she can understand better. So, moving on…" She began reading names off the list once again. Once she finished, she called for attention and began to explain their first assignment. "To start the school year off, I would like to see what each of you can do in your writing. I am sure many of you know that there is a total solar eclipse today. That eclipse will happen during this period. And, although this isn't a science class of any sort, I have brought pinhole sheets so it is safe for all of you to watch it. After we watch it, you will each write about it. You may write anything from a poem to a horror novel, all based on the eclipse, but you only have this class period to work on it. The eclipse will start in about…" She looked at her watch. "Six minutes. So you can all socialize until then."
As everyone else chattered, Tacita turned her attention back to her notebook and resumed doodling. She was so absorbed in her work that she did not notice when her teacher approached. Mrs. Lindell gingerly tapped Tacita on the shoulder, who looked up expectantly.
'What are you drawing?' She signed, trying to start up a conversation.
'Hopip, a pokemon,' she answered, then seeing her teacher's perplexed expression she added, 'It is from a Japanese TV show.'
'I see.'
'Thank you so much for signing along with your talking, I'm sure it well help me get a better grade in this class,' Tacita signed after she closed her notebook.
'You say that like you have never had an aide to help you understand in classes before,' Mrs. Lindell observed.
'I had one when we lived in Huston for third and fourth grade and then for seventh grade in Portland, but we move around so often, so it's hard for some schools to find an aide for me,' Tacita explained.
'Have any arrangements been made to help you here?'
'Not yet, I don't think,' Tacita replied. 'My sisters said that they will help me, but they aren't in the same grade, so they can't help at school.'
'I see,' Mrs. Lindell replied nodding, 'I will see what I can do to get that process moving.'
'Thank you so much.'
'Well, the eclipse is about to start, you might want to take down a few notes.' Her teacher passed her a small rectangle of black paper with a tiny hole punched in it. 'Look through the hole,' she told Tacita, then she moved on to pass out the papers to the rest of the class.
As Tacita walked to the window on the opposite side of the classroom, Ashley Higgens strode up to her. "Hi Tacita. My name's Ashley. You're new to this school right?"
Tacita nodded. Ashley didn't move her lips very much when she spoke, so it was difficult to decipher what she said. She opened her notebook and wrote the words: 'Could you move your mouth more when you talk? It's hard to understand you.' Then she passed the notebook to Ashley.
"Okay," She answered, making an effort to help Tacita understand her, "Have you ever seen an eclipse before? I have. They're really cool." Tacita shook her head and took her notebook back just as the eclipse began. The class fell silent. They watched as the shadow of the moon swallowed the sun and plunged the world into darkness. Although no one noticed it, a single, hideous looking circus tent drifted down from, seemingly from the moon itself. The students watched the shadow move over the sun and daylight return. As promised, they spent the remainder of the class period writing about what they had just seen.
The rest of the day went mostly the same, though none of her other teachers knew sign language. She made a point of telling each of them before class started from second period on. For most of the day, Tacita was reduced to her notebook and lip reading, but that was nothing Tacita wasn't used to.
At lunch Tacita sat with Ashley and her friends. Tacita was both surprised and thankful for Ashley's friendliness. Almost never did anyone feel comfortable approaching her, figuring that they wouldn't be able to converse anyway. Although Ashley and her friends only made a few efforts to include her in their lunch time chatter, Tacita was perfectly happy just to have friends to sit with already on the first day of school.
At the end of the day she met with her sisters among the mass of students rushing for their buses outside the school, and they walked home together. Malia found her first, and then they spotted Charisse's curly blond hair bobbing through the crowd not far off.
"Hey gals!" she said brightly when she saw them, "How was your first day?"
"Not bad, I guess," Malia answered with a shrug, but she was smiling even still.
'I saw the eclipse,' Tacita offered.
"Me too!" Mahalia exclaimed, suddenly excited.
"Yeah, I did too," Charisse added.
Both Charisse and Malia instinctively signed while they talked. It was a long-practiced habit for them. The three chattered as they walked the few blocks back to their home, exchanging stories from the day.
"…It doesn't help that I'm short to begin with. I'm younger by almost everyone in my classes by at least a year," Malia complained lightly. She had a summer birthday and was, after all, only four feet and eleven inches
tall. On top of that, she had been pushed ahead a year.
"That's never held you back before," Charisse chided.
"I guess you're right," Malia admitted, "But I'd like to look like I belong here, at least."
'Appearances shouldn't mean everything,' Tacita put in. 'Show them how smart and nice you are.'
"Although how you look does help," Charisse said as she twisted a lock of hair around her finger, "you know."
"What?" Malia shot her a suspicious look, "Are you trying to get someone to ask you out already?"
"I never said that," she retorted, flashing a smile, "but there's nothing wrong with that either." She paused, then added, "You know, Tacita, it's about time for you to find a boyfriend." Glancing beside her to see her sister's response, she discovered that Tacita was no longer with them. "Where's Tacita?" she murmured absently and pivoted around.
Tacita stood pensively on the covered bridge over a small brook that they had just crossed, gazing down into the little gorge. Her two sisters hurried back to join her at the railing. Not asking Tacita why she lingered, they watched the water flow peacefully by with her. Suddenly, Charisse and Malia heard something moving through the brush on the slope near the brook.
"What's that?" Charisse asked urgently, pointing towards the noise.
"A bear?" Malia asked nervously.
Tacita squinted at the bushes as well. 'No, too small,' she disagreed.
Just then, a figure stumbled weakly out into the open, tripped, and fell face first into the mud on the river bank. His hair and his clothes were pure white, styled in a way that looked absolutely foreign. The air around him seemed to glow.
"Is he okay?" Charisse asked, hushed.
"Come on! Let's go help him!" Malia shouted as she ran to the end of the bridge and scampered down the slope. Tacita and Charisse hurried after her.
With a yelp, Malia lost her footing and tumbled down the bank, skidding to a stop not far from the man. Getting a better look at him, she jumped up in surprise.
'Are you okay, Malia?' Tacita asked when she reached her.
"He has a golden horn attached to his head!" She gasped quietly.
Both of her sisters were equally stunned, but it was finally Tacita that approached the stranger. She knelt and rolled him over on his back. Despite his white hair, he looked fairly young, and he had a red tear-shaped jewel on his forehead. His eyes flickered open. Tacita, not thinking that he might not understand, signed to him: 'Are you all right? Who are you? Why do you have that gold horn on your head?'
His eyes flickered frantically around him and then he relaxed. "That aura!," smiling weakly, he exclaimed, "It's the first three of you! I knew I'd find you before it was too late."
"But who are you? What do you know about us?" Malia demanded.
He gazed long in silence at the three of them. "The three of you are sisters? This makes things a lot less complicated…" He heaved a difficult breath and sat up at last, Tacita supporting him. "My name is Helios. I don't have much time to explain, but I will try to tell you all you need to know before they come for me… Here…" He held out his hand and three small simmering spheres
appeared floating in the air above his palm. "These are your transformation spheres. Take them."
Without any protest, each girl reached out and took one; Tacita took the teal one, Malia took the red one, and Charisse took the pink sphere. "They will give you the powers you need to fight off the evil that is coming. You are Sailor Solders sworn to protect Earth, and your enemies are from the Dead Moon. They chased me here and they can't be far behind now. There are four more Sailor Soldiers that might be able to help you as well."
Helios glanced frantically around them, and continued, "They want the power of the Golden Crystal and of dreams so that they can take over this world. And also, they must never find the Secret Keeper. Your silence may make them think that you are the Keeper, so please learn to speak if you can't already. It will keep you safer." There were more footsteps in the brush behind them. Helios added hurriedly, "With your transformation spheres, only you three can stop them. Now you must run! They are coming! Get out of here while you can!" He shooed them off with his hands but was too weak to get up and run any farther on his own.
Charisse grabbed both of her sister's hands and tugged them back up the bank onto the slope. "Shouldn't we help him too?" Malia hissed. Charisse shook her head and put a finger to her lips. Silently, the three girls peered through the cracks between the boards on the decorative railing.
Not a moment later, three women dressed in skimpy outfits pushed their way out of the brush, completely unscathed. "There he is!" one of them exclaimed as they surrounded Helios. He stood up shakily, but his amber colored eyes were hard and defiant.
"This is the end of the road for you," another sneered, "You thought you could run forever?"
A sly smile crossed Helios' lips and he closed his eyes. Suddenly, a ghostly white pegasus materialized out of him and soared up into the air. In the blink of an eye, it was gone. The moment the pegasus appeared, Helios collapsed limply back to the ground.
"Damn!" one of the strange looking women cursed. "We lost his soul. But at least we have his body." She kicked his body in frustration.
Back up on the bridge, Malia whispered, "We have to stop them. How do we use these transformation sphere things? He said that they would give us the power to stop them."
Tacita signed silently in response, 'He called us Sailor Soldiers. I saw that before when I was reading a comic called "Sailor Moon." In that comic, they hold up their transformation pens and yell something like "Sailor something Power, Makeup!" and then they transform and get super powers. If these are magic like that, I'm sure we'll know what to say.'
"So this is right out of one of your animes?" Charisse asked skeptically.
'Manga,' Tacita corrected.
"Well, it's worth a shot," Malia shrugged.
Tacita held her own sphere out in front of her and it started to float off her hands. Smiling excitedly, she signed, 'Cocytus Terran Power, Makeup!' Gaining confidence in the idea, her two sisters chorused in.
"Phlegethon Terran Power, Makeup!"
"Hemera Terran Power, Makeup!"
A flash of colors enveloped the sisters. In a matter of seconds the girls had transformed into the Sailor Soldiers Helios had spoken of. The girl that had been Malia was now Sailor Phlegethon. She now wore something that did look like it fell right out of a comic book. Her pleated miniskirt, sailor collar, and bands that topped off her long while gloves were all teal in color. Large light yellow bows were placed over her chest and at the back of her skirt. Adding a little flare to the outfit was a fiery red crystal brooch pinned to the front bow and golden tiara with a similar red jewel gracing her forehead. In her hand, she bore a square-shafted, red iron staff that looped around at the top at the tie of a teal ribbon. It was taller than she was and a formidable weapon. With it in her hand, Malia—no, Sailor Phlegethon felt strong.
Charisse became Sailor Hemera. Her outfit was much like her younger sisters, only the skirt, glove bands, and collar were a sunny yellow color. Her bows were fuchsia while her jewelry was salmon pink.
In Tacita's place stood Sailor Cocytus. Her skirt, collar, and glove bands were misty blue. Her bows were a pale violet, and her jewelry was all teal. She had two shoulder rings and one white stripe on her collar. Looking down at her new outfit, she couldn't help by smile. I look just like Sailor Moon, only different colors! Suddenly, it hit her and she cringed. What is all this? She couldn't describe the sensations that ran through her ears. 'It's filling my head!' she complained.
Sailor Hemera replied quietly and signed along, "What? What is filling your head?"
Slowly, it dawned on her. 'I must be hearing,' she signed, 'I like these new powers. I hear and understand, even though I have never heard before.'
Both of her sisters' eyes grew wide. "You can?!" Sailor Hemera stammered.
Cocytus nodded.
"Then that means you can speak, right?" Phlegethon guessed.
The thought struck the middle sister hard. She could, and she would. "I think so… I really can!" Her words were clumsy, yet her voice was sweet.
"This is great! Well, let's go show those three a thing or two!" Phlegethon said excitedly and headed towards the railing.
"Wait!" Hemera called to her red-haired sister, "We don't know what we're doing. Our sister here knows more about this than we do. What do we need to do to fight?"
"You just need to say the name of your attack and it will happen. I bet we'll know how to do it just like we knew how to transform," Sailor Cocytus speculated.
With that, they strode to the rail. "Stop right there and leave Helios alone!" Sailor Cocytus shouted, pointing down at the three women.
The three women were stunned by the sudden appearance.
"Who are you?" the woman with long silvery hair demanded. She wore a navy tube top and matching long navy slit skirt. Like her companions, she seemed totally unashamed to expose so much skin even at that time in the autumn.
"Um," Sailor Phlegethon stammered. Suddenly, a though struck her and she answered defiantly, "We're the Sailor Soldiers of this Earth: Sailor Phlegethon!" Her sisters followed her lead.
"Sailor Cocytus!"
"And Sailor Hemera!"
"Zirconia didn't say anything about Sailors getting in our way," the tallest of the three women scoffed. She had long golden blond hair tied up in a high ponytail. She wore a short tight-fitting orange dress with a deep v-ed neck and sheer pants and sleeves underneath it.
"No matter," the last woman shrugged, "We'll just destroy them anyway and bring him back to Zirconia, just as ordered." Her boyishly short hair was pale pink. In contrast to her two companions, she wore only a violet tank top and dark magenta leggings.
"Oh no you won't," Sailor Hemera retorted, "And who do you think you are, attacking this helpless man?"
The blond woman laughed heartily. "We're the Amazoness Trio of the Dead Moon Circus," she said proudly, "And I'm LionEye."
"OrcaEye," the woman in blue added, "It's a pleasure."
"I'm OspreyEye," the last woman introduced herself. "But what do you three twerps want anyway?"
"We should be the ones asking that question!" Phlegethon yelled back at the Amazoness, "What do you want with Helios?"
"Ha! That's not for us to know," LionEye laughed, "We're just following orders. And even if we did know, we wouldn't tell the likes of you." As she spoke, OspreyEye seized Helios' body and snapped her fingers. A round portal appeared behind her framed by swirling white feathers.
"Not so fast!" Hemera yelled and leaped from the bridge down into the gorge. "Hemera Beautiful Love Conviction!" Salmon pink ribbons of energy soared from her open hands and struck Osprey Eye in the back.
The pink-haired woman whirled around angrily. "Brat! That hurt!"
Phlegethon landed next to her older sister. "So you'd like another one would you?" She raised her staff to attack: "Phlegethon Volcanic Ground Split!" She struck the ground and a glowing red crack shot through the ground, heading right for Osprey Eye's feet.
An instant before the red-hot lava spurted from the ground, OspreyEye sprung up with Helios in her arms, flipping backwards into her portal and disappearing.
"Helios! No!" Cocytus shouted after him. She leaped into action, "Cocytus Sky Shower Shatter!"
Sky blue shards of energy rained down on the two remaining women. They shrieked, shielding their faces. "Cut it out, will you?" LionEye yelled. She snapped her fingers and another round portal appeared behind her, this one framed in fire. With one last glare she flipped back into it and disappeared.
OrcaEye cringed, finding herself alone before the three Sailors. "Before I leave," she said as she snapped her fingers, summoning a portal of her own, surrounded in tendrils of water, "I'll give you gift." She snickered. "Water!" she yelled, torrents of it spouting out of her hands. It swept the three Sailors off their feet and away downstream. With one last laugh, she disappeared into her portal.
The three girls struggled to stand up, dripping with mud and water.
"I kinda wish that this was a dream. Those people are tough. But on the other hand I don't. I could grow to like this excitement," Phlegethon said, wringing out a handful of her skirt.
"You're right," Cocytus agreed, "It feels natural. I like it. Especially the hearing part." She grinned.
"I just love hearing your voice," Hemera hugged her sister. "You've got to learn to speak when you can't hear also. Remember what Helios said?"
"Yes," Sailor Cocytus nodded.
"Let's get home," Sailor Hemera suggested. She closed her eyes, willing her transformation to fade away, and it did. A moment later, she wore only the clothes that she had put on that morning, still soaking wet.
Her two sisters followed suit and the three scrambled up the bank together, walking the last half of a block to their home.