The Magician Meets Sailor Moon (Part 2)

The Magician Meets Sailor Moon

Part 2: The Performance and the Approaching Danger

The next morning, at a quaint two-story house on a different side of town, a teenage girl with blue eyes and very long blond ponytails lay on her bed. Her hair was so long she had to bundle part of the ponytails into what looked like two giant meatballs.
She was very worried because someone close to her failed to come home the night before. "Luna," she said as she began to cry, "where are you?"
Down on the first floor, three people were eating breakfast in the kitchen when the only woman in the room heard a knock at the front door. "You two keep eating," the woman said. "I'll answer that."
The woman had brown hair and brown eyes, surely the motherly figure of this family. She had a take-charge attitude when people in the home did not do what they were told.
She came to the door and answered it. Standing in front of her was another teenage girl with blue eyes and long blond hair. She had a large red bow in her hair and was wearing a light green blouse and white khaki pants. "Mrs. Tsukino?" she asked.
"Oh, hello, Mina. What can I do for you this morning?"
"Is Serena up yet?"
"Yes, but she's very upset. Luna didn't come home last night, and she's been so concerned."
"Well, my cat Artemis didn't return last night, either, but someone found both cats safe and sound. The person placed an ad in the paper."
"Maybe that will cheer her up. Go on and see her."
Mina quickly ran upstairs and into Serena's room.
Serena looked at her and said, "I know why you're here, and it's not going to cheer me up. I miss Luna's constant nagging."
"Serena, you don't understand. Luna and Artemis are safe somewhere. Someone placed an ad in the paper."
The sad young woman took the paper from her friend and read the circled classified. "Found: Two unusual-looking tabby cats, one dark-grey and one white, with strange markings on their foreheads. No tags, but they did look worried about being separated from owners. If these two cats belong to you, please come to Pioko Park and look for a train."
"Get dressed, Serena. We're going to get Luna and Artemis back."
An hour later, Serena and Mina came to Pioko Park and found the train they seeked. They were surprised to notice the train was only the first two cars and had white and grey on top with blue on the bottom, as well as a red horizontal line, a yellow circle, and a big black "M" in the middle of the circle.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Serena asked curiously.
"The ad did say look for the train, and that's the only one around here."
They came up to the door and knocked.
Meanwhile, Ace and the others enjoyed another of Angie's morning culinary delights when Angel appeared in the room.
"There are two young ladies knocking at the door."
Angie quickly said, "They may be the owners of the two cats. Let's get to the living room and find out."
All went to the living room, and Ace snapped his fingers, activating the video screen.
When the two cats saw the two girls on the screen, they both meowed crazily.
Mona concluded, "They must be the owners of these two special cats."
Ace went to the door and answered it. "Hello, can I help you?"
Serena and Mina both went into perpetual shock at the sight of the gentleman at the door.
"Oh, my God!" Mina exclaimed in whisper.
"I don't believe it!" Serena said excitedly. "Ace Cooper, the Magician, here!?"
"I assume you're both the owners of the two lost cats?" he asked.
Trying to gain composure, they both said, "Yes, Mr. Cooper."
"Well, come in. I think they're waiting for you."
The two blondes entered the home of the greatest magician in the world and were amazed at what they saw: the library, the video screen, the statues, the works.
When they heard two familiar meows, they knew they had found their feline friends.
The dark-grey cat jumped into Serena's arms. "Luna!" she said happily. "Oh, I was so worried about you."
"Artemis!" Mina shouted as the white cat pounced on her. "I'm so glad you're all right."
Ashley noted, "So, their names are Luna and Artemis?"
Serena looked at her and replied, "Yes, my cat is Luna and her cat is Artemis. Oh, I'm Serena Tsukino, and this is my friend Minako Aino, but you can call her Mina."
Ace then introduced himself and his friends.
When Zina came along, Serena and Mina were a little nervous.
"Don't worry," said Ace. "She's not going to hurt you. Zina's our mascot and fellow stage performer."
After a sigh of relief, Serena then asked, "What happened to them?"
Angie came up and answered, "Ashley and I saw them being chased by a bunch of crazed alley cats, so we decided to help them."
"Thank you for keeping them safe," Mina said in relief. "They're both important to us, so we were so worried when they didn't come home last night."
"Just one thing," said Mona. "What's with the crescent moon markings on their foreheads?"
Serena quickly answered, "They both have those birthmarks because they were born to an unusual cross between a tabby and a Siamese cat."
"How interesting. I'm glad you got your cats back."
"How much do we owe, Mr. Cooper?"
Ace put his arms forward and happily said, "No, Serena. You and Mina don't owe us anything. Just seeing the two cats back with their owners is enough for us, but I have a question for both of you. Are you doing anything tonight?"
"As a matter of fact," said Mina, "no. We're wide open tonight. Why?"
Using his sleight-of-hand, Ace made two cards appear. "These are two real tickets to my show tonight at the Yokohama Convention Center. I hope you'll both be there." He then gave each ticket to Serena and Mina.
Serena looked at him and said, "This is nice, Mr. Cooper, but there are four other friends of ours who would love to be there as much as we would."
"In that case," said Angie as she put her right hand out and made the two tickets glow, "what starts as two now becomes six."
To their amazement, Serena and Mina saw two more tickets appear in each hand which originally had one ticket.
"Oh, wow!" Serena exclaimed. "Are these for real?"
"Yes, they are," Ace replied. "Go down to the convention center and verify them yourself if you like."
"We will, thank you." Mina then looked at her watch. "We have to go, since we both have things to do today, but it was nice to meet all of you."
"It was, like, a pleasure for us, too," said Cosmo happily. "Guess we'll see you tonight."
They all waved good-bye to each other, and Serena and Mina took a quick walk to the convention center ticket office to confirm the authenticity of the tickets.
On the way, when they were away from the park, Luna thanked Serena for not revealing about the crescent moon on the foreheads on both herself and Artemis. "Serena, I'll be honest. I thought you would give us away, but you certainly came up with a good excuse about the moon markings."
"Don't worry, Luna. If there's one thing I can do, I can come up with good excuses."
"Too bad they don't work at school as often," the grey cat joked.
Serena snapped at her cat. "Knock it off, Luna! I'm doing the best I can."
"Boy-crazed Serena?" Mina questioned. "You've gotta be kidding!"
"Mina, who's side are you on, anyway? And besides, don't you have the same problem?"
"Never mind about that. Let's check if these tickets are real. If they are, the rest of the gang's gonna be in shock!"

At a nearby temple, a young woman with long black hair and wearing a special robe was hard at work sweeping the leaves off the ground when she suddenly felt something in her mind. "What's going on? Why am I sensing evil all of a sudden? I better go to the flame and find out."
She went to a special room where a large controlled fire burned brightly from the pot. She sat on her knees and closed her eyes to concentrate. "Fire of Mars, what evil threatens the people of Earth now?"
Within the flame, she could see something very strange: a woman with black hair, red eyes, and blue skin. She wore a long white dress, black high-heeled shoes, and a necklace with a skull as the charm. "I don't know what's going on, but something evil is approaching. I may have to notify Serena and the others about it."
Just then, the girl's grandfather, a very short bald-headed man wearing a similar robe entered. "Oh, I'm sorry, Raye. You've got a telephone call. I think it's Serena."
"Thanks, Grandpa." She suddenly wondered if her friend already knew about the evil. "That meatball-head? Not likely."
She took the phone and quickly learned there would be a fast-paced meeting at her temple between herself, Serena, and four other friends.
At lunch time, Serena, Mina, Luna, Artemis, and three other friends showed up at her temple.
One girl had bluish-green hair, blue eyes, and a fun smile. She wore a pink short-sleeve t-shirt with blue jeans.
Another girl who came was the girl Cosmo had bumped into the day before. With the rose earrings this day, she wore a flowered blouse with beige khaki pants.
The last person was a fairly tall gentleman with deep blue eyes and black hair. No, it was not Ace Cooper, but instead a much younger man wearing a blue tank top shirt and tan-colored shorts.
"Hey, gang!" Raye said happily to her friends. "What's going on?"
Mina could not contain herself. "Raye, have you ever heard of Ace Cooper, the Magician?"
"Yeah. He's the coolest magician in the world with his unusual form of magic. Why do you ask?"
Mina showed Raye the tickets and said, "You will not believe this one. The Magician himself invited us to be at his show at the Yokohama Convention Center tonight!"
"Are you serious?"
"Very. Serena and I checked the tickets out, and they're real! Just think, we'll be there along with the Prime Minister."
"That's right. The Prime Minister will be there for Mr. Cooper's performance tonight, and we can all go?"
"Yup," said the young man. "Serena can't wait to go, and I can't either. I've always wanted to see some serious magic."
Serena took hold of his arm and said, "Darien, don't we make enough magic between ourselves?"
Darien blushed in embarrassment. "Come on, Serena. You know what I mean."
The young lady with the bluish-green hair said, "Even though I'm a student of logic, seeing magic be done has been a curiosity of mine for a long time. Of course, I've been able to do that myself a lot with all of you."
The young lady with the green eyes and brown hair said, "We all have, Amy, but now's our chance to see some major-league magic done by a real master magician!"
Mina looked at the green-eyed girl. "No kidding, Lita. This is going to be so cool, seeing him perform on stage tonight. I have to get myself ready for the show."
Artemis knew he and Luna would not make it to the show. "They won't allow cats there. In fact, the only cat that will be allowed there period will be Zina, the black panther."
"Don't remind me of her, Artemis," said a disgusted Luna. "She already gave me enough with the licking and licking. I don't want to see her again."
"Wait a minute," said a surprised Raye. "You mean you two were with the Magician last night?"
"Yes. We got a chance to spend the night in his home, the Magic Express. Two friends of his came to our rescue, and one of those two is truly extraordinary." Luna went on to explain about the ordeal and how Angie used her powers to save her and Artemis.
"Unbelievable. I know Angie Jacobs is training under Ace Cooper, and she's already becoming good herself. I can't wait to be there tonight."
Soon afterward, the friends parted to prepare for the special performance at the Convention Center that evening.
Meanwhile, at the Magic, Ace and Angie were hard at work finalizing their grand finale trick for their performance.
Communicating by thought helped them to concentrate even better in making sure nothing went wrong with the trick.
"I hope we can do this, Ace," Angie thought to her friend. "It's taken us a long time to get this trick ready."
"I know, but we've been practicing this for a while now, and I think we've got this fireball levitation trick down to a 'T.' Now, lower yourself slowly, and try to land softly."
Feeling the magic in her heart, Angie carefully returned to the floor, and Ace soon followed suit. Opening her eyes, she said, "Does that seem okay to you?"
"It sure does," Ace said happily. "We're all set for tonight. Now, let's have some dinner, and we'll all have to leave promptly at 6:00. Mona, you, Zina, and I will all take the Racer while Cosmo and Ashley take the Bike. Okay with you?"
"Sure is. Let's get to dinner now so we can be ready for what may be the biggest performance of our lives."

That evening, at the Yokohama Convention Center, Serena and her friends sat in the fourth row, just about perfect positioning to see the greatest magician in the world on stage doing some very clever tricks.
Amy took notice to the Prime Minister's presence in the balcony. "He's taking this show very seriously," she noted to Raye.
"Yes. He's obviously been interested in Mr. Cooper's workings for a long time." She then noticed the black hair on the Magician. "Hmm. My vision said the evil force has black hair, but it's on a woman. I wonder if, by chance, he may be helping this new evil I've been thinking about."
Later, it was Angie's turn for her solo part of the show. Ace looked into the audience and said, "Tonight, my training magician will do her own levitation trick, but she can't do over 100 pounds yet." After the audience laughed at the joke, Ace turned the stage over to Angie.
"For this trick," she stated, "I'm going to need a volunteer from the audience. I've been eyeing all of you very closely, and I think I would like to choose the young lady in the fourth row with the bluish-green hair. She's wearing a sky-blue dress, if someone can put the spotlight on her."
When the spotlight came to the person Angie described, her friends around her became very excited.
"Amy," shouted Serena, "it's you! You're the volunteer!"
The girl gasped in shock. "Me? I'm going to be in on the trick?"
Lita gave her a light shove and whispered, "Get going, Amy! This is your big break, well, kind of."
Amy quickly got out of her seat and joined Angie on the stage.
The younger magician said, "Please tell me your name."
"My name is Amy Mizuno."
"A pleasure to meet you, Amy." She shook her hand. "Now, I'm going to levitate you into the air, but you won't even know it."
"Really?"
"That's right. I'm going to put you into a trance, and you'll have no idea I'm doing this."
"Are you sure it's okay?" Amy asked with a little fear.
"Don't worry. You'll be just fine." With that, Angie put her hand in front of Amy. Lowering the hand caused Amy to look like she fell asleep. Of course, she had been placed into a hypnotic trance.
Ace then came back onto the stage to give the audience an important message. "I want to ask you for complete silence while Angie does this trick. It's taken her a long time for her to master this, and it won't help if there's too much noise."
Raye leaned over to Serena and whispered, "Think you can keep quiet for this part?"
"Don't worry, Raye. This is one time I'm gonna keep my mouth shut. I'm not about to ruin a magician's trick with the noise I usually make."
Angie closed her eyes and took deep breaths while the magical power in her heart became stronger. Putting her arms out to the sides, she concentrated on levitating Amy.
Slowly but surely, Amy began to tilt backwards, but her feet were coming off the ground.
In the audience, Raye could sense something, but it was not evil. "I don't see how, but I can feel a special connection between both Ace Cooper and Angie Jacobs. I only wish I knew what it was."
Angie felt her power flowing through her hands as Amy continued getting higher and higher. "Remember, concentrate and focus," she thought to herself. "Keep focused on Amy, and I know I can do it."
Amy's friends were simply amazed by what Angie was doing with her.
In less than a minute, Amy was back on the ground, and the audience roared in applause.
Angie took a bow from the audience and said, "Give a round of applause for Miss Amy Mizuno." She then turned to the young lady and shook her hand. "Thank you very much, Amy."
"You're welcome." She simply smiled and went back to her seat.
Later, as Ace and Angie performed their grand finale, Amy felt something in her hair. She took the thing, which turned out to be a small piece of paper. She quickly opened the note, which read:
Amy, I know you're friends with two other girls named Serena and Mina. Ace and I met them this morning when they came to claim their cats. When I saw them near you, I decided to pick you out. If you like, you and your friends can come backstage after the show. Thanks, Angie.
Amy quickly showed the note to her friends, and all quickly agreed to go backstage after the show.
When the show ended, Serena and her friends went backstage to say hello to their new friends.
Serena led the introductions. "This is Makoto Kino, but you can call her Lita; Raye Hino; and Mamoru Chiba, but Darien is what he goes by."
Ace then introduced himself and the others. "Cosmo isn't here at the moment, but he should be after he's done with the final sound check."
Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the primary apprentice joined everyone in the dressing room.
Almost instantaneously, he recognized someone. "The girl I bumped into at the arcade yesterday?"
Lita turned to look at him. "Oh, my God! It's you again."
Ace was a little surprised. "Hmm, it seems you two have already met."
"Uh, yeah," answered a blushing Cosmo. "I was trying to get to a video game when I bumped her by mistake." He went up to her and said, "We haven't been formally introduced. I'm Cosmo."
Lita shook hands with the blue-eyed redhead. "Hi, I'm Makoto Kino, but it'll be easier if you just call me Lita."
"Of course, Lita. Um, listen, I may be rushing things, but we're only gonna be here for a week. Would you mind if I took you out to dinner tomorrow night? I mean, Ace won't be performing again until a couple of nights after, and--um, well . . ."
Lita's eyes locked into Cosmo's like a laser beam. "Sure, you pick the restaurant, and we'll do it."
As the pair switched telephone numbers, oohs and aahs sounded from all the other people in the room.
Serena reacted like she could not stand seeing this. "Oh, brother, which boyfriend does he remind her of this time?"
"Looks to me like they're already starting on the right note," stated Raye contentedly. "It's almost like those two were made for each other."
"Yeah," agreed Darien, "just like Serena and me."
Ashley then spoke. "I'm looking forward to meeting Miss Haruna tomorrow at breakfast."
Serena was very surprised. "You mean Miss Patricia Haruna? She's my teacher!"
"You're one of her students at Crossroads Junior High?"
"Yes. Right now we're in the middle of the first week of our three-week break."
Ashley and Serena went on to discuss about the differing school systems and the experiment to be done at Ashley's school in Mason City. Serena also told the teacher about how Miss Haruna always took teaching so seriously. Ashley then noted the fact she taught first grade while Miss Haruna was an eighth-grade teacher.
As time was getting late, Serena noticed her watch. "Oh, no. If I'm not home in 10 minutes, I'll be grounded for sure. What am I going to do?"
Ace stood up and said, "Miss Tsukino, if you need to get home quickly, I'll take you in my car, the Magic Racer. Would that be all right with you?"
"Mr. Cooper, I don't know what to say, except thank you."
"Hey, before we part ways for this evening," said Mona, "I want to take a picture of all of us to remember this night of gathering friends." She set the camera and joined in the photo of all 12 new friends to one another.

At the Tsukino home, a little boy with sandy-colored hair and blue eyes noticed the clock on the wall. "Uh-oh," he said with a snicker. "It looks like Serena's going to be in trouble again. She's already 15 minutes late."
The father figure, wearing glasses, agreed with his son. "I told her to be home on time, but she's running late again as usual. When is she ever going to learn?"
"If she even thinks about showing her face at the door, I'll--" the mother started to say when she heard a doorbell.
Upon answering it, she noticed her daughter's long ponytails. "Serena, I warned you about being late, I--" She stopped when she noticed a tall gentleman standing next to her. "Oh, my goodness. Ace Cooper, here, at our house?"
Serena introduced her mother to the Magician.
Ace then stated, "Mrs. Tsukino, I'm afraid it's my fault your daughter was late coming home from my show tonight. Angie and I invited her and her friends to come backstage after the show, and we lost track of time. I'm really sorry."
"That's all right," said Mrs. Tsukino. "Knowing she came home safely with you is quite all right with us. Sorry for the sudden yelling, Serena."
"No problem, Mom. You're used to it so much, this could have been the most outrageous excuse if it weren't true."
Sammy suddenly came to the door. "Ace Cooper, here? Cool! Can I have your autograph?"
"Of course. What's your name?"
"Sammy."
With a little sleight-of-hand, he made a photo of himself appear, and the picture had his signature to Sammy already done. "Here you go."
Sammy took it in awe. "Wow, thanks, Mr. Cooper, and by the way, great show tonight."
"Thank you. I best be going now. I need to get back to the Magic Express before my friends get worried."
"Of course, Mr. Cooper," said Mr. Tsukino, "and thanks again for bringing Serena home."
"My pleasure. So long." He then took off in his Magic Racer to rejoin his friends back at his home.
Sammy started asking all kinds of questions to Serena about being there to see the Magician.
Serena turned to her younger brother and said, "I'll tell you about it in the morning. Right now, I just want to get to bed."
When she got to her room, Luna sat patiently. "Well, I see you had a great time this evening."
"You bet, Luna. Ace Cooper is a really friendly person, and he let us come backstage after the show. Speaking of the show, did you see it?"
"I sure did. Mr. Cooper and Angela did a fantastic performance. Those two are highly talented magicians, but I had no idea Angela was just starting out."
"That surprised me a little, too. She looks like a master out there, but I guess she takes her time learning the skill." Serena then looked out the window and said, "I have my own magic, being Sailor Moon and all, but not even Sailor Moon could do Ace Cooper's brand of magic."
"That's true. It's obviously taken him years to develop his magical skills, which is why he was able to do some rather difficult tricks with such ease." Luna noticed the clock and said, "Let's get some shut-eye, shall we?"
"You got it, Luna." Serena then changed into her pajamas and immediately went to sleep.

Thousands of miles in space, a small meteor made its way towards the earth. Scientists were surprised to learn it was hard enough to easily pass through Earth's atmosphere, but they decided to let it crash on Earth because it would end up about 15 miles north of Mount Fuji. The impact would not cause any earthquakes, and they thought nothing of it.
Then, in the middle of the night, the meteor hit the impact point with no trouble.
However, the small meteor grew rapidly into what looked like a giant base, which was able to camoflage itself into a part of Mount Fuji.
On the inside, in an isolated room, a woman with red eyes, black hair, and blue skin walked around the room in intense thought. Her long white dress flowing about, she tangled with the skull necklace around her throat. "So, this is Earth," she said curiously. "This is just the place I need to be to begin my conquest of the universe. Nerezza, come here at once!"
Into the room came a beautiful woman with short black hair and darkly brown eyes. She wore a half-top and revealing skirt in blue along with a black cape. "You summoned me, your majesty?"
"Yes. I want to begin the conquest of Earth as soon as possible, but I will need lots of energy for the task. Our resources were very depleted on this trip, and it will take time for us to adjust to this planet's strange atmosphere. It may be as late as tomorrow evening before we can venture out into this world. Since you are my second-in-command, you will scout the area alone tomorrow evening, or sooner if you adjust quickly enough. I want to know if this planet is suitable for conquest."
"I shall obey, your majesty. I will be ready as soon as possible." Nerezza then walked out of the room.

The strange woman looked outside the window and determinedly said, "People of Earth, beware. For at last, the Dark Princess has arrived to conquer your world!" She let out a laugh of pure terror, as she was about to make her impact on the people of the peaceful planet of Earth.