1 year ago.

Minako Aino was sitting in her room. She was preparing to start on what she thought would be a simple homework assignment. Her English teacher had set her a task to compare the English version of a local television program with the original. Most of her friends were going to be doing anime, like One Piece or Kill La Kill. But Minako (Mina to everyone but her mother) had more class than that. She planned to compare an instalment of Super Sentai to its Power Rangers equivalent. She had spent the last few nights watching the Sentai version. Tonight, she would watch the American version and then write about the differences.

Halfway through the second of two episodes (Why couldn't they just keep it as a movie?, thought Minako), there was a banging on the window. Mina paused it before the battle and went to open the window. As soon as she did, a white cat jumped into the room. He (and Mina knew he was a he for… obvious reasons) had a crescent moon on his forehead.

"Whoa there, kitty. You're a feisty one, aren't you?", Mina asked, not expecting a reply.

But she got one anyway. "I'd prefer it if you refrain from addressing me as "kitty", human!"

The blonde was taken aback. "You can talk. How is that possible? Scientifically speaking, a cat's vocal chords are incapable of speech."

"An earth cat, maybe. But I am a lunarian, an advanced civilisation wiped out many years ago.", the cat said smugly. "My name is Artemis. What's yours?"

"Minako. Minako Aino. But my friends call me Mina." Then the blonde had a moment of realisation. "Did you come here specifically for me?"

"Yes.", Artemis confirmed. "I've been watching you for months, checking to see if you were the one I've been looking for."

Mina was intrigued by this statement. "And what have you determined? And what exactly are you looking for?"

"I don't think I have time to explain, considering that you seemed to be in the middle of something. So I'll just transmit the information from my memory into yours."

He looked her directly in the eye. Artemis fired a beam from his forehead at Mina's. She could see it all. She was once a princess, heir to the throne of the planet Venus. This was itself part of an empire governed from the Moon. She was chosen to join the honour guard known as the Senshi at a young age. Queen Serenity had her personally chosen as a body double for her daughter Serena, should an assassin or insurgent try to kill her. When Earth moved to join the empire, she met and subsequently fell in love with the lord Kunzite. Then when a dark force attacked and destroyed the empire, she watched as the man she loved turned on her and ran through her heart with the Legendary Blade.

Mina jerked back in shock. "Oh god, that was a painful experience, especially the second time. But how did I end up living here, as a (she paused, to think of an appropriate word) commoner?"

Artemis became dejected. "With her last breath, Queen Serenity used the Silver Crystal to seal away the dark forces and to send your entire generation, her daughter and her Prince included, to a new life on Earth. You were to be reborn around the time the dark force would likely awaken, as happened a while ago. I was sent to Earth in stasis with my partner Luna to find the Princess and the Sailors of the inner planets."

"And you've found me just now.", Mina concluded. "What about the others?"

"Luna was in charge of searching them out, but so far, she's not reported any success." Then Artemis remembered why he had come to awaken her. "With the Dark Kingdom once more active on Earth, they will set up operations to gather energy for their leader, Queen Metaria. The world needs someone to defend it from their evil machinations. That is why you must awaken your powers and defeat them for good. Any questions?"

"Yes. Is this going to be like an American superhero, or a Japanese one?"

Artemis face palmed. "Since I'm not very knowledgeable in telling the difference, I'll just say that you get elemental themed magical powers."

"You mean like Pokémon?", the blonde inquired.

"No, it's more like Bakugan.", the cat replied. Then he summoned a small ballpoint pen from out of thin air. "When there's danger , just yell "Venus Power!", and you'll be transformed. Take it for a spin."

She did. After the transformation there was a knock on the door. "Minako, turn that TV down. I'm trying to work in here."

Upon looking at her Sailor Venus attire, Mina was disappointed "Don't I get a mask?"

"The suit has a magical charm that blurs your face to prevent easy recognition." Artemis saw that she wasn't convinced by this. "But if you want, you can customise it with whatever you want before you go out in the field."

"That's good to know." Having finished up with that for the night with Artemis, she resumed watching the DVD for her assignment. "Galaxy Red!" "Galaxy Blue!"…

"What exactly is this?", the cat enquired.

"It's an action series from America, based on a Japanese show. I have to watch it for my homework and make comparisons with the original.

"Red Ranger, rescue ready!"

2 weeks ago.

Mina had been at this for some time now. As Artemis had suggested, she had added a mask to her uniform before making her debut. She had also become known to the public as Sailor V, due to a mishearing at her first appearance in public. She had battled evil pop stars, demonic dogs and corrupt corporate executives, all working for the Dark Kingdom. Most of her idealism that had drawn her to Artemis' attention had become jaded. While girls and pre-teens saw her as a role model, the adult populace saw her as a menace and the police had put up an arrest warrant against her for vigilantism.

Now, she was investigating a jewellery shop at the mall. Artemis' contact Luna had reported something strange at this location. Mina saw a silhouetted figure land on the roof and enter through the skylight. She looked through the window and was horrified by what she saw. The shopkeeper turned into a Youma and slashed the figure across the face. Then it dissolved into smoke and sifted through the door heading to the north. Sailor V knew she had to follow and destroy it. But first she decided to tend to the injured person.

She went inside the shop and went over to the unconscious person. It was a man, wearing a formal dinner suit, a top hat, a cloak and a domino mask, like hers, on,y in white instead of red. The attack had left scratches on his right cheek. The he came too. "What happened? What was that thing?", he asked.

"That was a Youma, the servants of an agency known as the Dark Kingdom. She scratched you in the cheek, probably because she thought you were here to destroy her.", Sailor V replied. "Now I'll ask you a question. What were you doing here."

The man took a breath, and then answered. "I came here to look for a jewel. A crystal, silver coloured. I heard that it had healing capabilities and thought it could help me with… (the man paused, thinking of something that wouldn't give away his identity) my own problems."

Venus knew what the man was talking about. "The Dark Kingdom are after the same thing as you are. But their intentions for it aren't as noble. They intend to use it to inflict a worse kind of pain than what they did to you."

With that, Mina ran out of the shop, just in time to see a blast of light in the distance. She saw a puff of black smoke drift up into the air. She recognised it as the death of a Youma. She knew that someone or something had destroyed it, but what?

1 week ago.

Mina was sat in the hospital. She had come here to leave a gift for Takamoto Konishii, who had been injured in a race. But even a public place offered little respite from talking to Artemis.

"Are you sure? Another Senshi has been awakened?", she whispered to him. He had told her about Luna awakening Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter.

"Yes, but something's not right.", the cat whispered back. "The Mercury Pen hasn't been removed from the sub space dimension it was stored in, yet apparently she had it with her. And Luna said that Mercury destroyed the Youma that Mars was fighting, but I remember that Mercury didn't have a basic offensive attack."

"You think she's a fake?", Mina asked.

"No, she's definitely the real deal. I had her scanned. I think-"

But before he could continue, there was a crash. Mina saw a metal man break out of Takamoto's room. Mina realised who it was when a man dressed in a Dark Kingdom uniform walked out of the hole it left. She watched as a blue-haired Sailor that she didn't recognise appeared to fight the thing that was Takamoto. And then as it did something to a nurse before making a getaway. Mina tried to give chase, but the Youma turned into a motorcycle Transformers-style, with the Dark agent riding on the back. With one threat beyond her reach, Mina decided to stop the other.

But before she could, she saw a blonde haired girl in a tracksuit run out the door and behind the building. Curious, Mina decided to follow her. She saw as the girl pulled out a pen and cried out.

"Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!"

Mina watched as the girl became another Senshi that she didn't recognise, probably Sailor Uranus. She then turned on her communicator and talked to Artemis. "Why didn't you tell me there were more Scouts than just Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter?"

"In all honesty, it was out of my jurisdiction.", the cat replied. "There were four others at the time of the fall, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Pluto survived the destruction due to being on another mission. While the other three's pens were entrusted to another agent, the same one who provided us with the sub space pocket. As such, I can't be aware if they get awakened."

As they were talking , Uranus leaped away and entered the hospital. Mina ran to catch up to her, getting there just in time to see the two Senshi win the fight and walk off together. She reported this to Artemis, adding "I think those two must know each other."

Today.

Mina walked out of the house, having changed back into her yellow ball gown. She hated having to do that to her allies, but they had to know the truth. She decided to check in with Artemis "The mission was a bust. It wasn't the Crystal after all. But i did expose Mercury as an agent."

"And how did they take it?", Artemis' voice on the other end responded.

"Mars was willing to believe it, due to being suspicious for a while now. Jupiter on the other hand, is in denial."

"That's understandable. Makoto is someone who has few friends, which makes her less willing to accept that whatever relationship they had was a lie."

"About that," Mina asked "is it possible to break the brainwashing?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. We just have to get the real transformation pen to her and break the fake one.", Artemis said back.

"But how will we find her to do that?"

"I believe I can help with that." Mina jerked up, shocked to hear another voice. Turning in the direction she heard it coming from, she only saw a strange motorcycle…

To Be Continued

I apologise for the abrupt one-shot but I needed to do something I've wanted to do for a while, namely add a bit of subtle foreshadowing for future plot elements.

I'm also starting a competition to help decide another future plot element. To win, you have to guess what episode of Power Rangers Minako was watching. Submit that and your idea in the form of a review. The first 5 correct entries will be in the running. Good luck.