The vortex surrounding a silver-haired woman was bright and blue. Rays of light spun around each other, escaping and jumping into another swirl like frogs between lily pads. The bans of light bounced off cerulean eyes, highlighting the silver specks swimming in them. In her current form of Sailor Cosmos, Serenity was adorned in white and silver. Her familiar sailor suit hugged her curves and fluttered around her as she made her way through the path of stars.
Silver, iridescent hair twisted into two identical spheres at the top of her head as two rivers of platinum trailed behind her. Bangs parted in the middle to nestle a golden upturned moon, a stalwart symbol to her past and future. No matter where she went and whichever form she took, she always stood out. Her beauty was undeniable, even to species who had no knowledge of human standards. Her shine could never be hidden.
The maiden neither felt warm or cold in this space pocket between universes. She wondered if whether her senses had become accustomed to traveling in the vortex or whether the space truly had no concept of heat. Her journey as a multiverse traveler felt long, but compared to some of the other travelers she had met in other worlds, her time was like a drop falling into a lake.
While others had some if not all control over their space-time powers, Serenity still had a long way to go. Recently, she had met a man who, along with the ability to regenerate, had a magical spaceship that could take him anywhere in time and space. He simply had to input the coordinates and time frame into a machine he reverently called the T.A.R.D.I.S. and voila, there they were on the Planet Crepturion a billion years before the earth even began forming. She tried to study the machine in order to apply it to her own powers, but it was difficult for her to form a connection. She left her new friend, the Doctor, with more questions than answers.
If she could learn to control where she would land in her universe jumps, she could finally go home. That was the one thing she had desired most, regardless of any and all treasures she would find in any universe. The most priceless treasure was to return to her family and friends' arms and be embraced by their comforting warmth.
A pull centered in her heart dragged her from her thoughts. The crystal upon her chest pulsed, radiating power. It was the source of her energy, her life force, yet in all her adventures, she still couldn't comprehend how it worked. It seemed to have a mind of its own. She smiled wistfully, at least she had some sort of companion on her journey. The pulses were getting stronger and she could pick out a patch of light in the vortex that was brighter than the rest. Looks like the Silver Imperium Crystal found their next destination.
One moment, bright light filled the recesses of her vision, the next, she was completely enwrapped in darkness. Putting her palm to her face to make sure her eyes were indeed open, she realized that it was her senses that had not adjusted to the jump. Space traveling did that to a person. You never know where you're going to end up and what predicament you just poofed into. Hopefully, she was still on Earth this time around. Or at least a planet with a similar gravity. She remembered a time when she had landed on a planet that's grass was blue and its water green, and unfortunately for her, had a gravity that was twice as strong her Earth's. Her limbs were screaming for weeks after the stint on that planet.
As her senses slowly returned to her, the first thing she noticed were the sirens. It was surprising that she couldn't have heard them before, because they were deafening. It seemed to come from all directions. She gulped. Sirens were a universal sign for trouble and boy was she in for it. Next the smell of smoke wafted into her nose. It wasn't strong, so that meant the fire wasn't close to her. When she finally looked upwards to be met with rectangles blocking most of the night sky, she finally deduced that she was in an alleyway. Alleys meant human civilization and civilization meant that she stood on her home planet! She was most surely on Earth! Or at least some alternate universe version of it anyhow.
Regardless, it seemed that the environment she landed in was in chaos. Large, white wings sprouted from her back and she shot upwards to get a better vantage point of her surroundings. What she had thought were the rays of the setting sun turned out to be the light of a blaze engulfing half the city. Flames licked the skirt of the horizon and the city crumbled beneath its own weight. She gasped in horror, wishing that the screams rippling through the night sky wouldn't be etched in her mind. But she's been wrong before.
The only thing that could possibly settle this conflagration would be rain. Face set in hard resolution, she summoned her staff from her subspace pocket. Serenity held her faithful weapon above her and pointed upwards to the sky. Storm clouds swirled around her, growing heavy with water. When she deemed the clouds massive enough, she spread them in all directions to cover the area. Within moments, the rain clouds dumped gallons of water on the multiple infernos in the city. People everywhere were confused by the sudden rainstorm, the weather forecaster most of all.
Whether it was a mistake or a miracle, it didn't matter to the people of the once burning city. Serenity's ears could pick up joyful shouts aimed at the heavens above them. The rain left as quickly as it came. With the silver-haired soldier's undisciplined control of her magic, she couldn't sustain long periods of power usage.
It was only recently where she had discovered she could control other elements. She had traveled to the world where a powerful being known as the Avatar existed to bring harmony to the four elements. He was able to bend air, water, earth, and fire to his will. When she had journeyed with him, her latent powers seemed to climb to the surface. Left and right, flames, water beams, and gusts of air bursted from her fingertips as the earth quivered beneath her footsteps. Serenity genuinely thought that her power only resided in the moonlight's domain.
Since the Avatar and his friends were quite an open-minded and kind group, she had revealed to them of her origins and powers. Good thing she had told them the truth as originally they had thought that another Avatar had appeared, shaking the already precarious balance of the world. Through training with the Avatar for a short period of time, Serenity surmised that she gained these elemental powers from her fellow Sailor Scouts. Her heart had twisted with nostalgia at the memories of her comrades and the battles they fought together. No wonder the powers felt so familiar, even though she never used them before. Even the rain clouds she created today were a glorified version of Mercury's Aqua Mist. No matter how painful it was to be separated from her loyal Sailor Scouts, it was comforting to know that in one way or another, they were still protecting her.
A little out of breath, she drifted down to the streets. That had taken more out of her than she originally thought. A massive exertion of power after just completing a space jump was exhausting even for Serenity. She still had a long way to go before mastering her newfound elemental powers. She willed her wings to break apart into shards of light in order to conserve her energy.
The pavement was wet from the sudden burst of rain and the recesses of the short storm filtered into the city's drainage system. As her breath settled, she began to think about her next course of actions. Should she fly to the areas of disaster and assist anybody who were still in danger? Or should she wait and assess the environment she was in before charging blind into unknown territory? Honestly with her track record, even if she did decide to wait around, trouble would come running to her.
And it did.
Trouble took the form of a black-skinned monster with plate-sized eyes, a shark-like jaw, and exposed brain matter. Below the neckline was the body of an engorged bodybuilder with grotesque muscles rippled across its surface. This one definitely went overboard with the protein powder. As it turned the corner and dashed at breakneck speeds towards Serenity, she briefly wondered if she had unknowingly traveled into the world of a child's worst nightmare. The silver-haired beauty was a muscle spasm away from enacting the latter of her fight-or-flight response, but her quick eyes discerned that the monster changed its course. Instead of bounding towards its previous target, it refocused on one that was much closer. A group of five had just emerged from an alleyway two blocks where she had first appeared in.
"Oh Quiznark!" On a galaxy far, far away, that translated to "oh shit."
Not wasting a moment to hesitate, she dashed towards the bird-brained monster. "Venus Love-Me Chain!" her voice pierced through the night sky and tore the creature's attention away from its intended victims. A golden chain shot out of her palm and whipped around the monster several times, effectively encaging its arms to its sides and immobilizing it. Serenity used the momentum from her sprint to fling the monster over her head and a half a block over. The platinum blonde briefly turned her neck to observe the group she had just saved from being monster meat. She was very glad to see them: actual people. For a moment there, she thought that her Silver Crystal sent her to a world with hyper-steroid bird men. She wouldn't put it past the mysterious orb; it had sent her to worse places.
There was a man in a Native American garb holding a rope tied around an unconscious black-haired bandaged man sitting on the ground. If she hadn't known any better, she would have guess that these adult men were playing a game of Cowboys and Indians. The rest of the group seemed to be mere children or at the very most, teenagers. Of course Serenity shouldn't be speaking as she was still considered a teen in Earth years. But with all her time traveling and universe hopping, who was keeping track of the days? She certainly wasn't. There was one freckled boy in a green jumpsuit piggy backing the Native American-dressed man and another much taller glasses-wearing male in a suit of armor.
The one who had caught her eye the most was a boy with his hair color split into two: one side red and the other white. Their eyes met for a split second before the ear-splitting roar of the creature stole Serenity's attention again.
The ebony beast had broke through her Venus Love Me Chain as if it were made of paper. With its attention solely on Serenity, it charged like a bull. A series of curses from different languages flooded the silver-haired beauty's mind. Most of her powerful attacks were long ranged. They had always been successful as she always had her fellow Sailor Soldiers covering her blind spots and weakening the monsters so that she could easily finish them off. For now, her best plan was to increase the distance between her and the beast long enough so she could charge up her scepter. Her eyes flitted back to the group near the alley. How was she supposed to battle the creature while still protecting them? Even though she had the power of five people, she still only had the body of one.
No. Now was not the time for self-doubt. There was only one truth to this situation: she had to protect those people, no matter what. Fueled by her new resolution, she backflipped a few times, landing two dozen feet ahead of the bird-brain and successfully luring it away from the speechless group. The monster was fast and Serenity's heart slammed against her ribcage as its large form closed in on her. Okay. If she couldn't charge up any of her typical long range attacks, she would have to settle for the elemental hand-to-hand combat she studied under the tutelage of the Avatar and friends. She had only trained for a couple of months with the entourage, but through all her previous journeys, Serenity was becoming a fast learner. Part of the reason was that it was much easier to adapt by accepting the flow of things.
Landing on her feet with a yard separating the dreadful monster, she stomped her left foot forward as if the ground were a drum. A foot-thick barrier of cement shot up, effectively halting the creature in its pursuit. Its face made a sickening sound at it hit the wall head on. The wall of cement fell down like a pile of sand, returning to its original flattened shape. Wasting no time, she summoned fire to set her hands and feet ablaze. Pivoting on her front foot, she drew her back leg up to swing a round kick down on her enemy's neck. Her firepower had given her an extra boost, increasing the momentum and power of the kick. Her pride in such an excellent execution quickly left her when the impact of the kick didn't even make an indent on the monster's skin. Her attack would have sent a normal human flying across the street but against the monstrosity, it was like kicking a giant, albeit muscular Pillsbury Dough Boy.
She attempted a couple more fire-powered punches like this but to no avail. The monster seemed to also be sobering up as it shook its head out of the wall-induced concussion it just had. She sweatdropped, a tide of fear replacing the adrenaline rush she had seconds earlier. Serenity was at her ends of her rope now, and there was nothing short of a miracle to get her out of this.
Preparing for its onset of attack, the monster drew in a deep breath and puffed itself out, like a human trying to scare a bear away. Except it was the beast who was the bear and she, the little cornered rabbit. A chain of synapses fired off in her brain once she realized that the creature just drew in a breath of air. Serenity had one more element up her sleeve and it was all around her.
The sailor suited soldier moved her arms in front of her as if she were stirring liquid in a giant pot. The air around them danced in tandem to the motion of her arms and began to circle around the shark-toothed monster. Serenity made the air twist around the mutant creature and form a dome. As her arms rotated faster and faster, so did the air around the entrapped creature. Soon, the air zooming around the monster moved so fast that it was stealing the air inside it. The breath was literally ripped out of his lungs. This torture was akin to drowning on land. If the monster had been quick enough, he could have easily broken through the air dome with his brute strength alone, but Serenity had the element of surprise.
The behemoth collapse on the ground with a heavy thump. On her part, Serenity fell to her hands and knees, breathing deeply and praying that the creature would not get up anytime soon. She doubted that her last attempt killed it as it was sturdier than most of the things she'd seen on her travels. When her breathing slowed to the point where she wasn't huffing and puffing anymore, she looked towards the speechless group of males. Great. Maybe enormous freakish beasts were a thing, but not magical superpowers? Had she expose herself this early into the journey? This had to be a new record for her. Ten minutes after exiting the safety of the space vortex.
Surprisingly, the half-white, half-red boy called out to her across the street. "Is he still alive?" He? Her eyes almost fell out of her skull. Wait...was this thing human?! That's impossible! Immediately after thinking that, Serenity wanted to hit herself in the head. After all of her travels, impossible should be wiped from her vocabulary.
Before she could respond, a pterodactyl-like screech sounded from the corner. Her heart dropped. She was at her last drop in her power reserve. She probably couldn't even light a candle at this rate. Like a falcon, a creature similar to the one Serenity had just narrowly defeated swooped down to the street and wrapped its claws around the exhausted platinum blonde. With the silver-haired damsel in tow, it flew towards the direction of the group, passing directly above them.
Unbeknownst to her, the tied up black-haired man she had seen earlier awoke, quickly unraveling himself from his bondage, and successfully taking down the monster in a fell swoop. She was about to thank the man but the looks of horror on the group in front of her stopped her. Serenity was about to ask what was going on until she felt it. She didn't need to be in this man's field of vision to feel his blood-curdling intensity. A chill ran up the paralyzed woman as the full pressure of the man settled on her. It was if he had called for an ocean of blood to flood their vicinity at this exact second. No one around him had the guts to lift a finger in the wake of his intense bloodthirst.
This was too much. Her powers faded away and her Sailor Cosmos transformation came undone despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to run away. Serenity could do nothing as the hands of unconsciousness wrapped around her mind, blocking any and all sensation.