In the large meeting room of Castle Dark, O'Chunkten returns, and he has some interesting news to tell.
"O'Chunkten," Count Dark began, "I see you have returned empty handed."
"Aye!" O'Chunkten shouted while waving his hands out in front of him, "It wasn't my fault, I swear, Count!"
"What happened then?" Count Dark asked, staring at O'Chunkten to make sure he wasn't making up excuses.
Mimi, who was disguised as a blonde supermodel she had seen on TV, leaned in and whispered in Dimentio's ear, "This should be good…"
"Well," O'Chunkten began, "Things were going according to plan. I got to the target, but it turned out to be a dud."
"And then?" Nastansia asked, adjusting her glasses.
"These girls in high heels and miniskirts showed up!" O'Chunkten shouted, now in disbelief himself on what he just said. Everyone in the room blinked a few times from the awkward silence.
Dimentio coughed, figuring he'd be the brave soul who spoke up, "Uhm…what?"
"Ya heard meh, lad!" O'Chunkten said, "They called themselves…uh…uhm…Sailor…Scouts? Yeah! Sailor Scouts!"
"O'Chunkten, are you being serious right now?" Mimi shook her head and sighed.
"I'm not kiddin' around! I think the leader of that group was like…uhm…Sailor…Moon! Yeah!" O'Chunkten nodded firmly.
"Sailor Scouts, huh?" Dark rubbed his chin, "Wait. Wasn't the Black Hawk more than enough to take them out?"
"The Black Hawk was doing great! It almost had them, then some rose throwin' weirdo came outta nowhere and then those girls won." O'Chunkten explained.
"I don't buy this at all," Mimi said, nodding her head firmly, "O'Chunkten should be punished for failure."
"Wait, Mimi," Count Dark said, "Perhaps O'Chunkten isn't lying…however. These girls and this rose thrower may be a bit of a problem…"
"I can create just the thing to deal with these pest before they become a problem," Nastansia suggested.
"Hm, good idea, Nastansia," Dark said, nodding, "I will have the next target for you by tomorrow, so for now, everyone should get some rest.
The next morning, in Usagi's home:
Usagi was fast asleep in her blue shirt and pajamas, snoring the minutes away. A black cat with a small crescent moon on her forehead hopped onto Usagi's bed, pushing Usagi lightly with her paw. "Usagi," the cat said, frowning a bit.
Usagi groaned, turning over, mumbling in her sleep, "Five more minutes, Luna…"Luna groaned herself, then jumped on top of Usagi, causing her to shoot awake. "WAAH!" Usagi then looked over at her clock, freaking out, "AAH! I'm gonna be late!" She quickly hopped out of bed, changing herself into her school uniform. A white shirt, a red ribbon that went over her chest with her Compact in the middle, a long blue skirt, white socks, and black shoes. She then grabbed her black case, and rushed at the door, frowning that she was unable to eat any breakfast, and she darted down the street, Luna following right beside her. "Why did you wake me up earlier!?"
Luna sighed, yelling up at Usagi, "I was trying to wake you up for an hour!"
"You should've tried harde!" Usagi picked up the pace, turning a corner; as she did, she met up with Minako and Artemis, who were also in as much of a hurry as she was. "Minako-chan, you're late too!?
"Yeah!" Minako replied, a sweatdrop appearing on her forehead, "Someone forgot to wake me up this morning!" Artemis was about to say something in reply to this, but he decided not to.
"Just don't forget the meeting after school about what happened!" Artemis yelled as he and Minako turned the corner.
"Waaah!" Usagi started to panic, realizing that there were only a few minutes left before she'd be considered late. She then started running as fast as she possibly could, making it into her classroom with about three minutes to spare. "I made it…" She panted in between words, then looked over at the crowd of students gathering around someone. "Huh…?"
"Usagi-chan!" Usagi's light brown haired friend, Naru said cheerfully, "Good morning! You made it on time!"
Usagi nodded, smiling at her achievement, "Yeah! Hey…Naru-chan…what's going on over there?" She pointed at the crowd of students gathering around a person.
"Oh, didn't you hear?" Naru started, "That's the new student!"
"New student?" Usagi tilted her head in confusion.
"Yeah! He's from Fre-fer…ah..uhmm…he's from this village that is responsible from creating the constellations in the night sky we see in the stars! Apparently he made one a few years ago and everyone's just been /dying/ to see it!"
"Have you seen it?"
"No, not yet, but, I will soon, I bet! Oh hey, Usagi-chan, would you like to go shopping later tonight? You can invite your other friends too, if you want."
Usagi nodded happily, "I'd love too!" Just then, the school bell rang and everyone sat down, and Usagi had to brace herself for a boring day at school. To make matters worse for her, she had forgotten about the test that she was about to take. She groaned and slumped into her seat.
After class was over, everyone received their test back and Usagi gripped her paper by the sides, grinning widely. "I…I got a 100!" She jumped for joy, hugging her paper tightly.
"Ahem…" A brown haired male with brown eyes coughed slightly, pointing his finger at her paper, "You might wanna move your hands…"
"Huh?" Usagi moved her hands, frowning at the real score she got, "I got a 10…"
"You know," the male started, "I don't think you're gonna get outta middle school with those kinda grades…" the male coughed slightly.
Usagi glared, huffing as she turned her head to look at this male, "Oh yeah?" She started, "And what did YOU get, huh?"
"Oi, well," the male started, "Not a perfect score, but, I did score high enough to where I know I'll be alright."
"Hmph," Usagi crossed her arms, then blinked, realizing that she's never seen this male before. "Uh…who are you?"
"Hm, oh? I guess I never did introduce myself. The name's Marcus." Marcus smiled, nodding, "You are?"
"Usagi Tsukino!" Usagi grinned, then blinked, "Wait…don't you have a last name?"
"I prefer not to use it," Marcus said.
"Wait!" Usagi just remembered something, "Don't you have that…star…thingy?"
Marcus chuckled slightly, "You mean my constellation?"
"Yeah!"
"Heh, hold on, I'll show it to ya. I just gotta find it…" Marcus started digging through his bookbag; as Marcus was doing that, Mako and Ami walked in the classroom.
"Usagi-chan, we have to get going," Ami said calmly.
"In a second! Marcus is about to show me something!" Usagi nodded a few times, staring at Marcus's bag.
"Who…?" Mako asked, tilting her head.
Marcus looked up from the sound of unfamiliar voices, waving slightly at Ami and Mako, "Uh, yeah, hi," he said before continuing to dig in his bookbag, pulling out a slip of paper a moment later, and held it out, "Here we are!" The girls then crowded around the picture, their eyes widening in awe as they looked at the constellation of a crescent moon.
"Whoa…!" Usagi was in amazement.
"You made this?" Ami asked, clearly impressed.
"That's right," Marcus nodded, smirking before folding the paper back up after a few minutes and stuck it back inside his bag.
"Wow…That's amazing," Mako said. She then shook her head, "Usagi-chan, we have to get going, remember?"
"Oh right! I'll see you around, Marcus!" She smiled and waved before exiting with Mako and Ami.
Marcus waved back slightly before sighing, "Good grief…I thought they'd never leave…I'm so gonna get yelled at for calling late…Nice girls though…"
After school, Usagi, Chibiusa, Mako, Ami, Rei, Minako, and Mamoru all met up at Hikawa Shrine once again, this time for a serious meeting, instead of a study session; Rei explained what happened to her to Luna and Artemis, in detail, so anyone might come up with an idea. After the story was finished, the two cats looked at each other.
"Pure Soul…?" Artemis said slowly, a puzzled look appearing on his face.
"What is a "Pure Soul" anyway?" Rei asked, crossing her arms.
"Well," Luna started, "As the name implies, it's a person's soul."
Rei's eyes widened, "Wait! So you're saying that creep took my soul!?"
Luna nodded slowly, "That's right…"
"But…why would that big ugly guy do that?" Chibiusa asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"That, I'm not sure…" Luna said, hanging her head slightly, "But, what I do know is, if a soul is removed from a person, they die." Everyone went into shock.
"Y-You mean I…" Rei froze, trailing off.
"They must be after a certain kind of soul then," Mamoru nodded firmly, leaning against the wall, "And whoever has what they're looking for, will surely die…"
"What are we going to do…?" Minako asked softly.
"We're going to do some research," Artemis replied, "Until then, you girls take it easy."
"WAAAAH!" Usagi suddenly shouted out, causing everyone to jump.
"What's wrong, Meatball head!?" Chibiusa asked quickly.
"I just remembered, Naru-chan invited us all for shopping in a little bit!" Usagi had clearly overreacted, and she was receiving some glares from everyone but Mamoru, who choose to avert his eyes from the current situation.
"…Well, I guess we were done here anyway…" Mako said; the idea of shopping sounding good in her head.
"Let's go then!" Minako hopped up, and ran out the Shrine quickly…before coming back a few seconds later, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head, "Uh…lead the way, Usagi-chan. Ahehe…"
The girls' meeting took up a majority of the afternoon, and it was starting to get dark. Luckily, Naru had suggested they wait a little bit before heading out. The streets were somewhat empty, the occasion person walking by every few minutes. Naru was walking down a sidewalk towards a clothing store that was near closing time. She sighed softly, not surprised that Usagi was running late. However, she was a bit surprised by the large hefty man slowly making his way over to her. "Can I help you?" Naru asked this stranger.
"Ah, yes you can, lass," O'Chunkten smirked slightly.
The girls were walking down the street, taking their time as they were engaged in amusing conversation. Usagi and Rei somehow managed to tick each other of, as usual, and quickly started arguing. The other girls sighed and looked ahead. Everything came to a sudden halt as they heard a loud scream of pain coming from not too far away.
"W-What was that?!" Minako asked. Shortly after she asked that the girls quickly ran towards the source of the scream, stopping dead in their tracks once they saw O'Chunkten sticking his hand into Naru's chest.
"N-Naru-chan!" Usagi covered her mouth as she shouted, she then opened up her Moon Comic Compact, using her finger to touch the bejeweled heart, causing it to glow, "Moon Cosmic Power…" the other girls quickly followed suit, holding their transformation pens in the air, shouting, "Make-Up!" simultaneously.
O'Chunkten just finished pulling out Naru's Pure Soul, only to frown once again once he found that it was a pink sphere, "Dammit…"
"Hold it right there!" Sailor Moon commanded.
O'Chunkten turned, letting the Pure Soul go back into Naru's body and he smirked, "Oh, it's you lasses again. I was wondering when you'd show up."
"He was waiting for us…?" Jupiter mumbled.
O'Chunkten snapped his fingers, a Black Bull with several tails appearing, "Black Bull, clean up this mess, alright?" O'Chunkten smirked, disappearing into thin air. The Black Bull immediately caught sight of Sailor Mars' red fuku and charged towards her.
Mars groaned, her mouth opening slightly and her eye was twitching, "This isn't my week…" She then traced her finger in a circle, flames appearing over where she traced and she held her hands out, "Burning Mandala!" Several rings of fire shot out towards the Black Bull, but to everyone's surprise, the Black Bull used its tails to catch the rings of fire. "M-My Burning Mandala!" Mars was in shock, and she froze in place.
"Watch out, Mars!" Jupiter tackled Mars to the ground as the Black Bull sent all the rings back, the rings whizzing over Mars and Jupiter's heads.
Venus extended an arm, resting her other hand on her arm as she pointed a finger out, "Crescent Beam!" A yellow beam shot out from Venus' finger towards the Black Bull, but the Black Bull deflected it with its tails, then jumped in the air, landing down which creating a shockwave that knocked the girls off their feet.
"Doesn't this thing have a weakness?!" ChibiMoon asked, attempting to get back on her feet.
"Hold on!" Mercury's goggles appeared, and she was about to scan the Black Bull, but before she could do so, the Black Bull wrapped all but one of its tails around the Sailor Scouts' necks, quickly adding pressuring.
"I-It's choking…us!" Sailor Moon could barely get a word out as she attempted to pry the tail from around her neck. Before this continued for much longer, a red rose struck the Black Bull on its forehead, causing the Black Bull's grip to loosen just a bit. The girls looked up at a street light, smiling.
"Tuxedo Mask!" ChibiMoon shouted happily.
Tuexdo Mask pulled out his black cane, then leaped down from the street light swinging his cane at the Black Bull; he was about to start another speech like the day before, but he missed as the Black Bull jumped back, the wrapped its last tail around him, starting to constrict all of the Scouts and Tuxedo Mask quickly. "W-What…!? S-Sailor Moon! You must…get out of here!"
"W-We can't….! It's too tight! I can't…breathe…" Sailor Moon's eyelids, along with everyone else's, started to close slowly as their hands slowly fell to their sides. Then, as if by some miracle, a blue streak of light whizzed past all of the Black Bull's tails, cutting them off and the group of seven fell to the ground, gasping for air.
"W-What was that?!" Mars looked around, then spotted a blue rose on the ground, "What the…?"
"Up there!" ChibiMoon pointed, a figure with a cape blowing in the wind standing on a telephone pole. The figure jumped down, and to everyone's surprise, this mysterious figure looked just like Tuxedo Mask, only the outfit was blue, and the hat was rounded and flat, with a yellow feather sticking out.
The masked man shook his head at the Black Bull, who was enraged at this point, "You know," the man started, "Usually I would be against things like seven against one, but in this case, I think it's a little unfair for you guys," he said towards the Scouts. "So, you can just sit back, and let the defender of justice, the Masked Crusader, take care of this!"
"Masked Crusader…?" Venus tilted her head, not having the slightest clue as to who this person was.
Masked Crusader stuck his cape out, making sure the redness on the inside was showing, "Come to me, bull, let us dance," The Black Bull immediately charged forward, but Masked Crusader quickly moved away, allowing the Black Bull to crash into the brick wall Crusader's cape was hiding. Crusader then turned to Sailor Moon, pointing at the dazed Bull, "I think now would be as good a time as any, ya know?"
Sailor Moon nodded slowly, still unsure of what just happened, but she pulled out her Moon Spiral Heart Rod, and began twirling around, "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!" She came to a sudden halt, holding the Rod up as a flurry of hearts shot out, striking the Black Bull, and turning it into a ball of light before disappearing. Sailor Moon turned to look at Masked Crusader, but he had vanished. "Who was that…?" She then shook her head and went over to Naru, checking to see if she was okay.
On the roof of a building nearby, Masked Crusader sighed lightly, taking off his mask. "Oi," Marcus said, rubbing his forehead, "Those girls were really unprepared for that…" Just then, the watch on his wrist started going off. "Hello?"
"How'd it go?" A voice said through the communicator.
"It went…well…for me, to say the least. Had to help Sailor Moon and her friends out of a jam…And a Pure Soul didn't show up either…" Marcus replied.
"I see…are they on our side?" The voice asked curiously.
"Depends on what you mean. I don't think they really know what's going on here." Marcus said.
"I see…"
"Instead of having me scout around, how about you come over here yourself. Things might be less complicated that way," Marcus nodded after he spoke.
"You're right. I'll tell the others and we'll be there as soon as we can. You've had a long day, go home, and get some rest."
"No need to tell me twice…I'll see you later." He put his mask back on and hopped from building to building."
On a building on the opposite side of where Marcus was, another figure was peering down at the sight, sighing, "That wasn't a Pure Soul either…Where could they be hiding…? It doesn't look like one is appearing tonight," He eyed the Sailor scouts, "I'll have to keep an eye on those Sailor Scouts…they seem to be around whenever a Pure Soul is seemingly located…"
