NEW BEGINNINGS
I do not own any of the main characters in this story except for Gilded Rose. They are owned by someone in Japan. However, with the exception of Serena Campbell and Amy Anderson, I do own the Americanized names of the characters, as well as many of the supporting characters and villians. To make things easy, we'll just say that anything that has appeared in the manga or anime version of Sailor Moon is owned by someone in Japan, most likely Toei or Naoko Takeuchi.
Sunday, 7 September, 1986 Rae Lincoln's house 7:45 a.m.
"You ready?" Jake asked.
"In a minute," Rae said. Sure enough, a minute later, she came down the stairs. She was wearing a light blue dress and flat-heeled sandals. "I'm ready," she said.
"Let's go," Jake said. He was wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt, paisley tie, and black dress shoes.
They got into Jake's car, and drove to Amerige Road Baptist Church. Jake had been going to this church practically his entire life, his father having gone to that church since it opened in 1953. In fact, Jake's grandfather was one of the church's founders, as well as the first minister.
After the service, Jake and rae greeted some of the other members, and went to where the high school age bible study was held. Rae found the people in the class to be extremely friendly and open to newcomers. She'd definitely made up her mind that she'd be back. Especially since several of the people in her bible study class were going to be her classmates beginning the next day when she started classes at Malvern.
Later that afternoon, Jake's house
Jake was nervous. He, his dad, and his dad's new girlfriend were going out to dinner that evening. He's rebounded quickly, Jake thought to himself. Connie only left a month ago, and he's already seeing someone else. It had been a month since Connie, Jake's stepmother, moved out of the house and filed for divorce. Not that Jake hadn't seen it coming. He did notice the arguments becoming more frequent, and his dad spending more nights on the living room couch than in bed. But still, he was more than a little surprised when he woke up and found her brother loading her and Scott's personal belongings in a U-Haul truck. And again, later that particular afternoon when his dad was served with divorce papers. She didn't want anything, she just wanted to take what belonged to her and leave. For now, it was just the Slater men. Jake, Brandon, and their father.
About a week after Connie left, Derek, Jake's dad, began dating again. He apparently had one date with this woman, and they hit it off. That night, she was finally going to come to the house.
"So when am I finally going to meet this woman?" Jake asked.
"I believe you've already met her," Mitch answered.
"How did I meet her?" Jake asked.
"You went out with her daughter," Mitch said.
"No way," Jake said. "You and Dr. Anderson?"
"Yeah," Mitch said. "I'm seeing Amy's mom."
"Cool," Jake said.
Five minutes later, Rae's house
Jake climbed the trellice to the veranda, and noticed the door to Rae's bedroom was opened, so he tapped on the door to let her know that he was there, then went in. Rae was sitting on the bed. "What's up?" she asked.
"Not much," Jake answered. "But I did find out who the mystery woman my dad's seeing is."
"Who is it?" Rae asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Amy's mom," he answered.
"No way," she replied. "Your dad's dating the mother of your dearly departed ex-girlfriend?"
"I couldn't believe it myself at first," he said. "But," he added, "like father, like son. Of course, in this case, you could also say like mother, like daughter."
Ninety minutes later, Jake's house
Jake was in his room, having just gotten out of the shower. He put Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy by the Who on his stereo, and cued up Pictures of Lily. He began singing along as he got dressed. He put on a white polo shirt, blue jeans, and Dr. Marten boots. He then put a small stud earring in the hole in his left ear. He threw on a denim jacket, and as if he timed it, he finished just as My Generation ended. When he got downstairs, Dr. Anderson was sitting on the living room couch. "Oh hi, Dr. Anderson," Jake said.
Please," Dr. Anderson said. "Please call me Pam."
"Okay Pam," Jake said.
Meanwhile, Serena Campbell's bedroom
Serena was sitting on the bed, painting her toenails when Elizabeth Minako came into the room. "Oh hi," Serena said. "I'm glad you're here, saves me the trouble of calling you. I just talked to Rae, and you won't believe what she just told me."
"Does it have anything to do with Amy's mom and Jake's dad?" Elizabeth asked.
"You ruined my surprise," Serena said, with a tone of mock disappointment in her voice. "How did you know about that, Betts?"
"Jerry saw them together the other night," Elizabeth said.
"From what Rae told me," Serena said, "Jake only found out about it a couple of hours ago."
Meanwhile, Noah's Arcade
Alan Bradley had let Artemis in, and went in the back to get a saucer of milk. Artemis climbed onto the Sailor V machine, and touched his paw to the screen. "Voice conformation, please," the machine said.
"I love tuna fish and fieldmouse pudding," Artemis said.
"Identity confirmed," the machine said. "We may again have need of the Sailor Soldiers in the near future."
"That may pose a problem," Artemis said. "Sailor Mercury, as you may or may not know, was killed in battle, which wouldn't be an unsurmountable problem, if they hadn't lost their powers."
"An unfortunate set of circumstances," the machine said. "However, in this case, a new enemy will mean new powers."
"You don't mean what I think you mean?" Artemis asked.
"All will be revealed in due time," the machine said.
Later that evening, Jake's house
Derek, Jake, Pam, and Rae had just returned from dinner at Cattle Baron's Steakhouse. Pam had went home, and Derek left to pick up Brandon from his mother's. Jake walked Rae to her house, and stole a quick kiss at the front door. "I'll see you tomorrow at school," Jake said as he left.
"Yeah," Rae said. "See you tomorrow."
The next morning, Malvern High school
Jerry Mauser pulled into the student parking lot, Judas Priest's British Steel blaring from his speakers He took the space to the left of Jake's car and cut the engine. He and Elizabeth got out of the car, and went to get their class schedules for the new semester. After they got their schedules, they went to meet up with their friends. They met up with Serena, Jake, and Rae, and discussed their classes, where they were met by Susan Makoto and a very conservative young man approached the group. "Hey everyone," Susan said.
"Hey Susan," Serena said.
"Aloha," Jake said.
"Good Morning," Rae said.
"Hey, who's your friend?" Elizabeth asked.
"This is John Warner," Susan said. "He's one of the few friends I had back at Bastanchury. John, this is Serena Campbell, Rae Lincoln, Elizabeth Minako, and Jerry Mauser, and you already know Jake."
"Hi everyone," John said.
The group continued discussing their schedules. "I have a question," Elizabeth said. "When did Dr. Tomoe transfer from the science department to English? I have him third period."
"He didn't," Jake said. "Actually, that's Miss Knight's married name. She and Dr. Tomoe got married over the summer."
"And how would you know this?" Serena asked.
"He takes his daughter to Joe's for dinner once a week," Jake said. "One week, Miss Knight came with them, and they told me they were getting married."
"Oh, I see," Serena said.
The first bell rang. "Well," Jake said, "We'd better be getting to class. It's incerdibly bad form to be late the first day of school." Looking at rae and John, he continued "Especially if it's the first day here."
Later that afternoon
Since Jerry had football practice, Jake drove Elizabeth home. "How come you're not giving Rae a ride home?" Elizabeth asked.
"She's got her own car," Jake said. "She wanted to drive herself." He put a cassette of My Aim is True by Elvis Costello in the cassette player. "You like Elvis Costello?" he asked.
"Sure," Elizabeth said. "It's a change from what Jerry plays. Heavy metal, with the volume cranked up one notch past "wake up the dead". When he's driving, his truck seems like the place where eardrums go to die. I love him dearly, but I also enjoy having a sense of hearing."
Susan's house
Susan, Serena, and John are in the kitchen, baking blueberry muffins. "So John," Serena asked. "How do you like Malvern?"
"Well, the people here are a lot friendlier than at Bastanchury," he said. "And the campus is a lot nicer looking. I think I'm going to like it here."
EPILOG
The next afternoon, Noah's Arcade
Luna snuck in through the open door. She climbed on the Sailor V machine, and touched the screen with her paw. "Voice conformation, please," the machine said.
"I love tuna fish and fieldmouse pudding," Luna said.
"Voice confirmed," The machine said.
"What's your report?" Luna asked.
"It's as we feared," the machine said. "It looks like the Sailor Soldiers will be needed once again."
"There's a couple of problems," Luna said.
"Artemis informed us of the demise of Sailor Mercury, as well as the other Soldiers losing their powers," the machine replied. "Fortunately, we have prepared for both the death of one of the Soldiers, as well as their losing their powers."
TO BE CONTINUED
COMING SOON:
What is this mysterious threat that Luna and Artemis have been warned about? And how will the team fight this new threat with Amy dead and their powers gone? Find out soon, in
AMERICAN SENSHI-THE SAILOR CENTURIONS