Sailor Moon Harmony
Episode 4-Fair Game
"Look Orion, I don't see why I have to do this" Skyler
whined. "Shouldn't we be looking for enemies or something?"
Orion landed on her shoulder, one claw digging in a little
bit, as if to be a warning. The other one had a baseball.
"What's the point of facing an enemy if you don't have a
chance of winning?"
"But- I use feathers, not baseballs!"
Skyler looked to the cardboard box set up in the backfield.
Orion had dragged it out this afternoon, insisting she work on
her attacks. Something about attacking a cardboard box-
"We're working on your accuracy" Orion told her. "It doesn't
matter what you use right now-"
"Hey Skyler!"
Skyler turned to see Karen standing in the road. She was
holding a newspaper in one hand, a pair of rollerblades in
the other. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Are you
practicing for the carnival?"
Skyler handed the baseball she was holding to Orion and ran to
Karen, leaving him to plummet to the ground with the balls. He
squawked as he got up, ruffling his feathers at Skyler.
"That bird doesn't look to happy with you" Karen commented.
"Aw, he's probably mad at me because I won't play baseball with
him-" Skyler gave Orion a look- (better get out of here before
she gets a closer look at you-)
Orion got the message. He took off towards the cornfields.
Skyler watched him leave, then turned to Karen again. "What
carnival?"
"There's this huge traveling carnival on the way here! It
was in the newspaper this morning. They're going to set it
up on the old McGillar farm."
The McGillar farm was an old abandoned property on the far
edges of Galesburg. Of course, there were always those ghost
stories about the place, but the place was far too quiet. There
weren't even loose pieces in the wind clanking around. It kinda
took the spooky element out of the place. At least to Skyler.
Some people thought that the silence was even worse than hearing
something.
"When's it start?"
"Well, actually they're supposed to set up today, and everything's
going to be open tomorrow! Are you going?"
"Yeah!" she squealed excitedly. "When does something like this
come around Galesburg?"
"You wanna go down there now!"
Skyler was about to reply, but she saw Orion perched on her
roof out of the corner of her eye. She was a little annoyed,
but she knew her responsibilities as a Sailor Scout were more
important. "Umm, no. I got homework to do-"
Karen's eyes were questioning, but she took Skyler's word. "OK,
see ya later-"
As she left, Orion came sailing over and landed by the road.
"A carnival- Skyler, this doesn't seem right. Don't you think
Aledo would be more likely to be the place for this, where
they could get more visitors?"
Aledo was the closest city, quite a bit bigger than Galesburg.
Skyler could tell Orion had been studying the local geography.
"Yeah, but see- things like this don't come around that often
here. They'll get more of the percentage of the people-
basically that means EVERYONE'S going to be there, not like
a city where people see this kinda thing all the time or
something better."
"Yes, you're going to be there too" Orion replied with a
mischievous glint in his eye.
"Well, I'm glad you agree" Skyler beamed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next school day came and went, and Skyler raced home
as fast as her wheels would carry her. She didn't even trip
once, she was too focused. She barely had the patience to get
her skates off and put some shoes on when she arrived home.
"MOM! We ready?!" she hollered. "Letsgoletsgoletsgo!"
"Skyler-" her mother turned a smile to her from the kitchen.
"You can go on ahead by yourself. It's your chore money."
"All right!"
In less than a minute, her house was out of sight. She
sailed through the town, past happy groups heading in the
same direction she was. She didn't have to worry too much
about cars in the streets because most people could easily
just walk to the McGillar place.
She arrived at the front gate, where two ticket booths had
been set up. Much to her surprise, she saw Devin leaning on
the fence, as if he were waiting for something. She hopped out
of her blades and into the sandals. "Hey!"
Devin's stunning blue eyes turned to her direction. They
always gave her such a shock. No matter what light they were
in, they always seemed so bright. Despite this, Skyler could
never call him by his nickname, Blue. "I knew you'd be here!"
he laughed.
"You waiting for someone?"
"Nah, just waiting for the school crowd to go through- hey,
some people in my class were telling me this place is haunted
or something."
Skyler shrugged. "They say that about almost every old
abandoned property here ^_^() Well, I'm going in."
"Wait for me!"
Through the gates, they could no longer see what was once the
McGillar property. Bright colors streamed everywhere around
them, on the metal beams of traveling rides, around the stands
where several different scents drifted out to the grounds- hot
dogs, burgers, corn, even funnel cakes. The ground seemed it
had been sweeped lightly, and sprinkled with shreds of plastic-
like hay. And there was the music, totally shaking the normal
stillness out of the old barn and keeping everything in it's
rhythm. The whole place seemed awfully large for what used to
be the property, but the two didn't really take notice.
"Well, I AM kinda hungry-" Devin made off for one of the food
stands.
He came back with arms full- two burgers, a few hotdogs, two
ears of roasted corn, and a styrofoam cup of cola. "How hungry
are you?!" Skyler exclaimed.
He took the burger he had in his mouth out. "I'm a growing boy"
he grinned. "Here, I got you something-"
He handed her one of the corn ears.
"Um, thanx ^_^()" she replied.
"Want a burger, too?"
"No, I don't like meat that much-"
In the time it took Skyler to finish her corn, the food Devin
carried was gone. Skyler didn't say anything, though.
"Hi you guys!"
Karen caught up with them, the questioning look on her face
again. Then a sly smile replaced it. "So Skyler, who's your
boyfriend?"
Skyler's cheeks reddened a bit, but she managed to keep a
calm tone. "This is my FRIEND, Devin."
"Call me Blue" he told her, cheerfully extending a hand.
Karen shook it hesitantly. "Wow- your eyes--"
"That's why they call me Blue."
"Well peoples, what are we waiting for? Let's get in some
rides!"
As they walked to the closest one, a small girl brushed past
Skyler. "Excuse me-" she whispered.
Something about the voice made Skyler stop. She turned, but
couldn't find who it was.
Then she caught sight of Orion. He was standing on the ground
by a house of mirrors. Skyler glanced back at her two friends.
"Hold on, I forgot something-"
Orion was just as surprised to see her coming up to him as she
was to see him in the first place. "What's up? Something
suspicious?"
"No" he answered. "Hey, I can have some fun once in a while,
too. This place is great! If you walk up to the people sitting
in those chairs by the picnic area, they throw food at you!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The night went on, the carnival lights blazing with a light
never seen by most of Galesburg. Closing time was coming soon-
The group walked to the exits, laughing and chattering among
the crowd around them. Skyler said goodbye to her friends, and
wandered back in to see if Orion had left.
Nope, he was still by the mirror house, watching the people
leave. Skyler ran up to him. "Hey, the place is closing. We
have to go. We can come back tomorrow-"
"No" he said sharply. "We're staying."
"What?! Orion, there won't be anyone here for food."
"That's not what I mean. Something strange is happening. I
ran into the carnival's owner, and he seemed to be very out
of it. You need to hide."
Skyler managed to squeeze under the back fence of the property
and into the corn. They waited for quite some time, and Skyler
was drifting off to sleep. Good thing today was Friday-
"Sky! Orion barked. "Follow that girl."
A girl was walking along the path. Skyler recognized her
immediately. It was that "Sailor Scout" they had seen in the
last Harmony encounter. They crept out, making sure they were
close enough to the stands to hide in case she turned. She
went into a tent, that they had seen a little acrobatic show
in earlier that day.
"Everyone's gone" the "Scout" announced, flipping her hair
behind her shoulders.
"Good work, Rayne" another girl commented, standing up. This one
was tall, with short pink hair and clever pink hair. She wore a
navy blue leather jacket, with white insulator sticking out the
ends, heavy-looking cargo pants, and black hiking boots. "All
right, Inpherno, you got the next part covered?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure Enygma" a rather sour-looking woman stepped
out from some of the tent flaps. She had incredibly bright red
hair, sticking out down to her waist in two stiff spikes. She
wore a simple red shirt and pants, and a trench coat. "Just
hope Typhune and Quayke are doing their jobs."
"HEY! I'm fine" a tiny voice shouted.
It was that little acrobat, the one that had taken Mr. Charen's
Harmony. She stood on a bleacher, her arms crossed and her light
blue eyes focused on Inpherno. "Typhune doesn't mess up" she added
proudly.
"Okay, that's great" Inpherno grumbled. "But where's Quayke?"
"Right here" a soft voice responded.
Another woman stepped in, her long green robe waving a bit as she
walked to the group. Her purple hair was bound in a ponytail, but
the ends stood out like long sticks. She had a headband as well,
with a beautiful flower attached. Her gentle emerald eyes were
alert, but Skyler was struck by the sorrow in them, in her whole
expression. A deep, inconsolable sadness seemed to hold her and
everything around her in an invisible shade of blue. Skyler felt
sorry for her, and she didn't even know who she was, besides that
her name was Quayke.
"All right, everyone clear on what we're doing? Tommorow, I'm
going to be the announcer for the fireworks. Inpherno, you've
got them set up?"
"Yep. Gonna be the 4th of July in September."
"The rest of us, after the lights go out, we got Harmonies to
find."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The crowd's murmurs flooded through the darkness. They reached
Sailor Aquila's ears, but she couldn't tell one conversation from
the other from her position on top of the mirror house. She glanced
around nervously. "Orion, if all these people get their Harmonies
stolen, how are we going to be able to take them all?"
"That won't happen" he replied sharply. "So far, the enemy's run
away when you show up. That means they aren't prepared for a fight.
Hopefully you won't have to take anything on, but at most you should
only have to face one or two."
A sudden burst of color lit up the sky. All attention turned there,
with gasps of surprise and delight. Aquila, too, was smiling. "Kewl!"
Minutes later, through the explosions and crackling, Aquila heard a
loud scream. It was from a man.
There was Rayne, a Harmony in hand. Aquila stood up and spread her
sandal wings. That still felt a little strange to her, but there
was no time to think about it. She glided over to the scene.
"HEY! Look, lady, it's nice you brought a little carnival out here,
but for most people this isn't a good time! In the name of freedom,
I am Sailor Aquila, here to bring harmony back to the world!"
Rayne looked up, with an annoyed expression. "What? You again? Go
away-"
"No way."
Out of nowhere, a huge flying object came right at Aquila. She
didn't have time to duck out of the way, it smacked right into her
and she smashed into the house of mirrors. Several screams filled
the air now as the crowd realized what was going on.
Aquila started up at the creature in front of her- a huge brown
bat, with huge white teeth. She rolled out of the way as the teeth
clamped onto a mirror where she had just been.
"Aquila!" she heard Orion yell. "Fire now!"
"Huh? But I can't see-" Skyler was facing the opposite direction
of the bat.
"The mirrors reflect your feathers, remember?"
Her eyes brightened. "Oh yeah! RAZOR FEATHER FLURRY!"
She aimed her hand at an angled mirror and fired. The feather
turned, and she heard the bat screeching behind her. In a few
seconds, it was back into a Harmony with Orion's help.
Aquila turned to the place where Rayne had been, but there were
no traces of her or any of those other people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skyler, Devin, and Karen all stood on the opposite side of
the road, watching the vacant lot of the McGillar place. "I
can't believe they packed up so fast-" Karen breathed. "You
think they'll come back?"
"Maybe" Skyler sighed. "But no more fireworks."
Episode 4-Fair Game
"Look Orion, I don't see why I have to do this" Skyler
whined. "Shouldn't we be looking for enemies or something?"
Orion landed on her shoulder, one claw digging in a little
bit, as if to be a warning. The other one had a baseball.
"What's the point of facing an enemy if you don't have a
chance of winning?"
"But- I use feathers, not baseballs!"
Skyler looked to the cardboard box set up in the backfield.
Orion had dragged it out this afternoon, insisting she work on
her attacks. Something about attacking a cardboard box-
"We're working on your accuracy" Orion told her. "It doesn't
matter what you use right now-"
"Hey Skyler!"
Skyler turned to see Karen standing in the road. She was
holding a newspaper in one hand, a pair of rollerblades in
the other. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Are you
practicing for the carnival?"
Skyler handed the baseball she was holding to Orion and ran to
Karen, leaving him to plummet to the ground with the balls. He
squawked as he got up, ruffling his feathers at Skyler.
"That bird doesn't look to happy with you" Karen commented.
"Aw, he's probably mad at me because I won't play baseball with
him-" Skyler gave Orion a look- (better get out of here before
she gets a closer look at you-)
Orion got the message. He took off towards the cornfields.
Skyler watched him leave, then turned to Karen again. "What
carnival?"
"There's this huge traveling carnival on the way here! It
was in the newspaper this morning. They're going to set it
up on the old McGillar farm."
The McGillar farm was an old abandoned property on the far
edges of Galesburg. Of course, there were always those ghost
stories about the place, but the place was far too quiet. There
weren't even loose pieces in the wind clanking around. It kinda
took the spooky element out of the place. At least to Skyler.
Some people thought that the silence was even worse than hearing
something.
"When's it start?"
"Well, actually they're supposed to set up today, and everything's
going to be open tomorrow! Are you going?"
"Yeah!" she squealed excitedly. "When does something like this
come around Galesburg?"
"You wanna go down there now!"
Skyler was about to reply, but she saw Orion perched on her
roof out of the corner of her eye. She was a little annoyed,
but she knew her responsibilities as a Sailor Scout were more
important. "Umm, no. I got homework to do-"
Karen's eyes were questioning, but she took Skyler's word. "OK,
see ya later-"
As she left, Orion came sailing over and landed by the road.
"A carnival- Skyler, this doesn't seem right. Don't you think
Aledo would be more likely to be the place for this, where
they could get more visitors?"
Aledo was the closest city, quite a bit bigger than Galesburg.
Skyler could tell Orion had been studying the local geography.
"Yeah, but see- things like this don't come around that often
here. They'll get more of the percentage of the people-
basically that means EVERYONE'S going to be there, not like
a city where people see this kinda thing all the time or
something better."
"Yes, you're going to be there too" Orion replied with a
mischievous glint in his eye.
"Well, I'm glad you agree" Skyler beamed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next school day came and went, and Skyler raced home
as fast as her wheels would carry her. She didn't even trip
once, she was too focused. She barely had the patience to get
her skates off and put some shoes on when she arrived home.
"MOM! We ready?!" she hollered. "Letsgoletsgoletsgo!"
"Skyler-" her mother turned a smile to her from the kitchen.
"You can go on ahead by yourself. It's your chore money."
"All right!"
In less than a minute, her house was out of sight. She
sailed through the town, past happy groups heading in the
same direction she was. She didn't have to worry too much
about cars in the streets because most people could easily
just walk to the McGillar place.
She arrived at the front gate, where two ticket booths had
been set up. Much to her surprise, she saw Devin leaning on
the fence, as if he were waiting for something. She hopped out
of her blades and into the sandals. "Hey!"
Devin's stunning blue eyes turned to her direction. They
always gave her such a shock. No matter what light they were
in, they always seemed so bright. Despite this, Skyler could
never call him by his nickname, Blue. "I knew you'd be here!"
he laughed.
"You waiting for someone?"
"Nah, just waiting for the school crowd to go through- hey,
some people in my class were telling me this place is haunted
or something."
Skyler shrugged. "They say that about almost every old
abandoned property here ^_^() Well, I'm going in."
"Wait for me!"
Through the gates, they could no longer see what was once the
McGillar property. Bright colors streamed everywhere around
them, on the metal beams of traveling rides, around the stands
where several different scents drifted out to the grounds- hot
dogs, burgers, corn, even funnel cakes. The ground seemed it
had been sweeped lightly, and sprinkled with shreds of plastic-
like hay. And there was the music, totally shaking the normal
stillness out of the old barn and keeping everything in it's
rhythm. The whole place seemed awfully large for what used to
be the property, but the two didn't really take notice.
"Well, I AM kinda hungry-" Devin made off for one of the food
stands.
He came back with arms full- two burgers, a few hotdogs, two
ears of roasted corn, and a styrofoam cup of cola. "How hungry
are you?!" Skyler exclaimed.
He took the burger he had in his mouth out. "I'm a growing boy"
he grinned. "Here, I got you something-"
He handed her one of the corn ears.
"Um, thanx ^_^()" she replied.
"Want a burger, too?"
"No, I don't like meat that much-"
In the time it took Skyler to finish her corn, the food Devin
carried was gone. Skyler didn't say anything, though.
"Hi you guys!"
Karen caught up with them, the questioning look on her face
again. Then a sly smile replaced it. "So Skyler, who's your
boyfriend?"
Skyler's cheeks reddened a bit, but she managed to keep a
calm tone. "This is my FRIEND, Devin."
"Call me Blue" he told her, cheerfully extending a hand.
Karen shook it hesitantly. "Wow- your eyes--"
"That's why they call me Blue."
"Well peoples, what are we waiting for? Let's get in some
rides!"
As they walked to the closest one, a small girl brushed past
Skyler. "Excuse me-" she whispered.
Something about the voice made Skyler stop. She turned, but
couldn't find who it was.
Then she caught sight of Orion. He was standing on the ground
by a house of mirrors. Skyler glanced back at her two friends.
"Hold on, I forgot something-"
Orion was just as surprised to see her coming up to him as she
was to see him in the first place. "What's up? Something
suspicious?"
"No" he answered. "Hey, I can have some fun once in a while,
too. This place is great! If you walk up to the people sitting
in those chairs by the picnic area, they throw food at you!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The night went on, the carnival lights blazing with a light
never seen by most of Galesburg. Closing time was coming soon-
The group walked to the exits, laughing and chattering among
the crowd around them. Skyler said goodbye to her friends, and
wandered back in to see if Orion had left.
Nope, he was still by the mirror house, watching the people
leave. Skyler ran up to him. "Hey, the place is closing. We
have to go. We can come back tomorrow-"
"No" he said sharply. "We're staying."
"What?! Orion, there won't be anyone here for food."
"That's not what I mean. Something strange is happening. I
ran into the carnival's owner, and he seemed to be very out
of it. You need to hide."
Skyler managed to squeeze under the back fence of the property
and into the corn. They waited for quite some time, and Skyler
was drifting off to sleep. Good thing today was Friday-
"Sky! Orion barked. "Follow that girl."
A girl was walking along the path. Skyler recognized her
immediately. It was that "Sailor Scout" they had seen in the
last Harmony encounter. They crept out, making sure they were
close enough to the stands to hide in case she turned. She
went into a tent, that they had seen a little acrobatic show
in earlier that day.
"Everyone's gone" the "Scout" announced, flipping her hair
behind her shoulders.
"Good work, Rayne" another girl commented, standing up. This one
was tall, with short pink hair and clever pink hair. She wore a
navy blue leather jacket, with white insulator sticking out the
ends, heavy-looking cargo pants, and black hiking boots. "All
right, Inpherno, you got the next part covered?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure Enygma" a rather sour-looking woman stepped
out from some of the tent flaps. She had incredibly bright red
hair, sticking out down to her waist in two stiff spikes. She
wore a simple red shirt and pants, and a trench coat. "Just
hope Typhune and Quayke are doing their jobs."
"HEY! I'm fine" a tiny voice shouted.
It was that little acrobat, the one that had taken Mr. Charen's
Harmony. She stood on a bleacher, her arms crossed and her light
blue eyes focused on Inpherno. "Typhune doesn't mess up" she added
proudly.
"Okay, that's great" Inpherno grumbled. "But where's Quayke?"
"Right here" a soft voice responded.
Another woman stepped in, her long green robe waving a bit as she
walked to the group. Her purple hair was bound in a ponytail, but
the ends stood out like long sticks. She had a headband as well,
with a beautiful flower attached. Her gentle emerald eyes were
alert, but Skyler was struck by the sorrow in them, in her whole
expression. A deep, inconsolable sadness seemed to hold her and
everything around her in an invisible shade of blue. Skyler felt
sorry for her, and she didn't even know who she was, besides that
her name was Quayke.
"All right, everyone clear on what we're doing? Tommorow, I'm
going to be the announcer for the fireworks. Inpherno, you've
got them set up?"
"Yep. Gonna be the 4th of July in September."
"The rest of us, after the lights go out, we got Harmonies to
find."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The crowd's murmurs flooded through the darkness. They reached
Sailor Aquila's ears, but she couldn't tell one conversation from
the other from her position on top of the mirror house. She glanced
around nervously. "Orion, if all these people get their Harmonies
stolen, how are we going to be able to take them all?"
"That won't happen" he replied sharply. "So far, the enemy's run
away when you show up. That means they aren't prepared for a fight.
Hopefully you won't have to take anything on, but at most you should
only have to face one or two."
A sudden burst of color lit up the sky. All attention turned there,
with gasps of surprise and delight. Aquila, too, was smiling. "Kewl!"
Minutes later, through the explosions and crackling, Aquila heard a
loud scream. It was from a man.
There was Rayne, a Harmony in hand. Aquila stood up and spread her
sandal wings. That still felt a little strange to her, but there
was no time to think about it. She glided over to the scene.
"HEY! Look, lady, it's nice you brought a little carnival out here,
but for most people this isn't a good time! In the name of freedom,
I am Sailor Aquila, here to bring harmony back to the world!"
Rayne looked up, with an annoyed expression. "What? You again? Go
away-"
"No way."
Out of nowhere, a huge flying object came right at Aquila. She
didn't have time to duck out of the way, it smacked right into her
and she smashed into the house of mirrors. Several screams filled
the air now as the crowd realized what was going on.
Aquila started up at the creature in front of her- a huge brown
bat, with huge white teeth. She rolled out of the way as the teeth
clamped onto a mirror where she had just been.
"Aquila!" she heard Orion yell. "Fire now!"
"Huh? But I can't see-" Skyler was facing the opposite direction
of the bat.
"The mirrors reflect your feathers, remember?"
Her eyes brightened. "Oh yeah! RAZOR FEATHER FLURRY!"
She aimed her hand at an angled mirror and fired. The feather
turned, and she heard the bat screeching behind her. In a few
seconds, it was back into a Harmony with Orion's help.
Aquila turned to the place where Rayne had been, but there were
no traces of her or any of those other people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skyler, Devin, and Karen all stood on the opposite side of
the road, watching the vacant lot of the McGillar place. "I
can't believe they packed up so fast-" Karen breathed. "You
think they'll come back?"
"Maybe" Skyler sighed. "But no more fireworks."