SAILOR MOON HARMONY
EPISODE 8-TRUE IN BLUE
"Our enemy is after an object, or should I say, objects
of power- items capable of controlling the world itself.
They are known as the Melody Crystals. Each of the five
dominate one of the Old Elements- fire, air, water, earth
and life. They have been hidden- concealed inside five
living beings somewhere in this universe. Since the enemy
has been attacking here, it is in reason that one or more
of the crystals is inside someone on this planet,
possibly in this town. This is why they have been
extracting Harmonies- the essence of a person's sound."
Orion paced around the carpet as he explained, in the
lowest tone her could manage without garbling his words.
He could see both girls clearly with the way his eyes
were set. Skyler watched from her bed, her swaying feet
curled over her back, her eyes blending chrome with a
vague shade of intrigue. Jillian, seated on a flimsy
metal chair by Skyler's desk, had a bit more serious
expression, pretty much what he expected from her.
"Who are our enemies?" Jillian questioned.
"Not sure yet. I am currently doing research with another
source. Someone with similar experience as a guardian
of the Sailor Scouts. There's not much I can do as of yet,
but we'll find something soon enough. All we have are
names."
Orion could see Skyler's attention wandering. She was
actually thinking of something relavent, though- her
mind was on the past fight, the one where she was
rescued from the flames in her house by that
concentrated water blast. The thing that didn't make
sense in her mind was that even if the fire was gone, the
smoke could have easily suffocated her. Orion wasn't there
to bail her out that time. Someone else had to have been
there. But she wouldn't know now, that day had been
erased from everyone else's memory. Despite the fact
that she couldn't do anything to find out more, she
couldn't let go of the incident.
"Skyler, anything you want to add?" Orion queried with
an eagle smirk.
"Yeah, actually. Orion, exactly who is Sailor Moon?"
"Sailor-- Moon-?"
Skyler could see she had caught him off-guard with the
question.
"She's on our side. Don't worry about her, if she visits
it will be helpful to us."
"I figured that" she grumbled in response.
"It's good you could stay here tonight, Jillian. We
needed to talk about these things."
"Yeah, but not all night" Skyler burst out. "It's dark
out now- weekends are supposed to be used to enjoy time
off from school."
"Yeah, we don't expect you to understand, considering
you don't have school" Jillian added in a teasing
manner. "Hey Sky, brought you something you might like-"
She pulled a video case from her backpack. Skyler's
eyes couldn't have been more lively at the sight of
it. "You got TOP GUN?!" she squealed, bouncing off the
bed and onto the floor with a light boom. "That is the
coolest awesomest movie EVER! We have to go watch it!"
Orion cocked his head, one crystal saffron eye locked
on the cover picture. "Tom Cruise--? He looks kinda
like Devin-"
Jillian and Skyler burst into giggles. "DEVIN GYRODE?!"
"Maybe if he were 15 years older, taller- but they
do have the same kind of hair" Jillian observed.
Skyler raced down the stairs, Jillian right on her
tail. Orion wanted to follow, but didn't- someone
could catch him and throw him out- or even worse, make
the connection between the girls and the Scouts because
of him. He flapped to the windo and came around to the
bottom floor, peering in the window.
"Ooh, Top Gun" Skyler's father remarked as he passed by,
switching off the lights. "They played that movie at
our airport for weeks when we got a VCR up there."
"Goodnight, Mr. Avis" Jillian called as he left.
Skyler positioned her sleeping bag on the floor, right
where she could feel like she was into the movie but
not in Jillian's way. Her eyes gleamed practically
through the whole movie. There were quite a few things
she didn't understand and that Jillian was hesitant to
explain, but when the fighter jets thundered through the
television sky, she was completely mesmerized, a smile
of pure delight brighteing her steel-colored eyes. Those
sharp-winged planes, sailing through the air, the engines
roaring like a hurricane through the clouds, the speed and
absolute freedom of a falcon freefalling into the wind-
she wanted to be there.
She wanted wings of her own.
She barely noticed herself drifting. She was weightless,
lifting on a pillowy breeze up to a brightening midnight-
blue sky, littered with gentle, fading stars. A horizon
was appearing, a dreamy landscape below her, full of ridges
and natural columns of an ideal shade of bronze. Everything
came into a clear view now, so sharp, so lucid, so-
infinite.
A tiny, twinkling flash of light drew her attention to the
horizon again. Golden light shimmered down the edge,
pouring into the immense valley and instantly staining the
dark blue of the lower atmosphere with the deepest crimson,
the most breathtaking violet she had ever seen or never even
thought to imagine. She felt herself melting into a stunned
silence, drifting down to a cliff's edge to watch this
fantastic play of color.
And though she had never been to anyplace remotely like this,
she knew she had seen it before.
"Soara-"
Skyler's lungs suddenly expanded and flooded with oxygen,
making her realize she had literally had her breath taken
away. The whisper had come from behind her. She whirled
around.
There, behind her, was the strangest-looking building she
had ever seen. Some kind of shrine or- a castle. That was
it. She didn't know how she knew, but she was certain of
it. She only wished she could make out the hazy details
behind that intensely illuminated front door.
"SOARA!"
The holler boomed through the canyons, a million echoes
rising from each pillar. That voice was so incredibly
powerful that Skyler lost her breath again.
Then she remembered. The dream. Why had the setting changed?
Light overtook her, pulling her away from the sunrise in
its warm grasp.
"Someday, you will understand-"
She could see a bit of the figure now. Long strands of
hair, thin bangs, lightly shading narrow, all-knowing
eyes. But the light claimed her again-
It was sunlight, reflecting off the full-length mirror in
the dining room. She sat up. Jillian had fallen asleep in
a strangely balanced position, and Orion was nowhere in sight.
Skyler got up and went to the kitchen.
It looked to be another unusually warm morning. September was
supposed to be the time when everything was cooling off. It
was as if they had skipped a month on the calendar. Turbo
raced around the yard, sending the chickens scurrying before
her father came chasing after him. Skyler giggled, loud enough
to stir Jillian from her sleep.
"Hey" she called, her voice muffled with lingering sleep. "What's
going on?"
"Aw, nothing-" Skyler came back into the family room.
"Know what? Me and Sara are going to that new waterpark in Aledo.
You want to go?"
"What new waterpark?"
The girls went up to Jillian's room to help her gather her things.
Orion was perched on the sill. His feathers were somewhat scruffed
up, his glassy eyes glinting with annoyance. "What is it?"
"The dog" Orion growled.
Now Skyler burst out laughing. Orion turned away, the feathers
bristling. "Enough. What are you two doing today?"
"Wellllll- I was asking Skyler if she wanted to come to Aledo's
new waterpark today."
Skyler stared at Jillian, who returned an expectant look. She didn't
want to disappoint Jillian, but in all honesty, she didn't want to go.
It was just something about all that rushing water-
Jillian could sense this. She could see indecision easily, possibly
a little fear in Skyler's expression. But she wasn't going to give up
that easy this time. "C'mon, Sky. I brought you Top Gun" she added
with a widening grin.
"Actually, I think you'd better go with Jillian" Orion advised.
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, I've been hearing people say that someone just disappeared
there."
Skyler's eyes widened a bit, but Jillian didn't seem the least bit
surprised. "Sorry to say, Orion, but in cities things like that
happen a lot."
Orion sighed and shook his head. It appeared that he had already taken
this into account. "Well, consider this. Why would they open a waterpark
at the end of the summer instead of the beginning? If they had just
finished it, I'd assume they'd wait for next summer."
"You know, you're right" Skyler said, perking up instantly. "I would
have thought that, too-"
"So, there is reasonable enough evidence for us to investigate."
"Yeah."
Skyler's smile was a little too unenthusiastic for the other two. But
they took the meaning of her words to their advantage. "Great" Jillian
beamed. "We'll come pick you up at noon, 'K? See ya then!"
~*~*~*~*~
Quite a few eyes were drawn to the rose-haired teenager walking by the
lap-swimming pool. Her swimsuit, a simple lavender one-piece, was
nothing really to stare at. Neither were the smoothed-out sunglasses
shielding her eyes. She approached a girl, apparently one of her friends,
who was also wearing sunglasses despite being in the shade.
"Rayne" Enygma muttered, pulling off the glasses. "What are you doing
out in the open like this?"
"Hey, you don't expect me to just sit back behind the ticket booths, do
you? I wanna play with the water a little bit. C'mon, that wave pool's
tamer than a paper clip." Rayne tossed her hair back, shimmering a
strong azure with the water it had collected.
"Nothing suspicious" Enygma warned. "You'll tip off these people. Or worse
yet, the Sailor Scouts."
"They're all in that tiny place where you and Quayke think the Earth
Melody is. Speaking of which, why are we searching here if you know
where one is?"
"That's just one. It would be natural that the water Melody carrier would
be attracted to water, and this is one of the biggest waterparks around.
Just wait until it's the right time, then you can act."
Enygma sauntered away, trying to appear as tranquil as the day. Rayne
scowled a bit as she left. She had to stay here, all this time, by herself?
It wasn't fair to leav her with such a huge operation.
'What are you complaining about?!' she scolded herself. 'You're always
saying there's never a challenge for you-'
On the opposite side, a large brown van pulled up, and a group of girls
all crowded out to the concrete, among them Jillian and Skyler. Skyler
squinted in surprise. "It got hot-" she groaned, groping through her
bag for some sunglasses.
"The water'll chill you out pretty good" Jillian assured her as the
group stepped up in the ticket line. "Wait till we get to the waterslides-"
Skyler glanced over at the twisting slide pipes up a hill border of the
park. The churning water, glistening under the burning sun, did reach
her as extremely inviting.
Then she caught sight of a soaring silhouette, just meters above the slide.
She closed a fist and hoped it was what she thought. "Orion, you there?"
To her relief, the shadow perched at the top, and Orion's response came
back loud and clear. "Yep, I'm watching you."
"Hey, Sky!"
The yell had come from close by. Skyler couldn't locate it through the
crowds, but Jillian must have because she started waving. "Hey Blue!"
"Devin's here?" Skyler queried, scanning the pool edge.
She caught sight of him jogging towards them. It didn't seem like he
had gotten into the water yet, his Bears t-shirt was pretty dry and
dusty. He had a hat today, probably a good thing for him.
"Why are you following us?" Skyler demanded playfully.
"I'm always here first" Devin pointed out. "I was in line for the go-
karts, but they stopped to gas up so I came back here. You wanna race
me?"
An opportunity to get away from the water. Skyler was silently forever
grateful to him that moment. "Yeah! It might not be fair, though" she
added with a grin. "After all, I've already had a taste of racing."
"Please" Devin laughed as they walked off. "You have no idea what you're
up against-"
"Skyler! Take your wristband ticket thingy!"
~*~*~*~*~
"They don't let you take food into the park" Skyler said in disbelief.
"Well, I guess it makes sense."
Fortunetely for all the hungry park visitors, there was a park nearby
with picnic tables. The group set up for lunch, while Devin had stayed
back to do a little swimming. He claimed he needed a little more warm-up
before he could really be a challenge to Skyler on the go-karts. However,
Jillian had surprised both of them the first race by speeding around the
outside and lapping everyone at least once.
Sara and the others went off to get the cooler, leaving Jillian and
Skyler by themselves at the table. There was a minute of silence.
"I'm gonna get you" Skyler said at last, turning an eye back to the
go-kart track.
"Face it, Sky. You may be able to beat Tom Cruise back there-"
The thought was interrupted by a sudden burst of giggles from the two
girls. "You just had to say that-"
After a few minutes, Jillian's expression turned a little bit more
serious. Her intuitive green eyes boared into Skyler's, searching for
something she couldn't understand. "We haven't been in the water yet
today" she said softly.
"Well, um-" Skyler turned away nervously. "I just don't like water
that much-"
"Has it always been that way?"
The question had never occured to Skyler before. Now that she thought
about it, she had always spent hours at the local pool in the previous
summers. She relayed this to Jillian, who's expression took on some
concern.
"You said your brother drowned, right?"
"We don't know for sure. They say-- they say he might be-"
Her voice cracked beyond her control. Jillian closed her eyes, somewhat
regretful that she had upset her friend, but glad that they were getting
somewhere. "If you want my opinion, I think you're associating that
incident with swimming. And if you want my advice, I think you should
conquer that fear right away so you don't have to deal with it."
Skyler rested her head on one hand. Jillian was trying to help, that was
all. And since her dad was a psychiatrist, she would probably know a little
bit about these things.
"All right" she agreed, almost in a whimper.
Jillian decided to change the subject before things got too emotional for
Skyler. "Hey, where are those guys? I thought they-"
"Shh-" Skyler's eyes went from somber to vigilant.
They immediately noticed something out of place. No echoing screams from
kids ending their waterslide ride, no chatter of the sunbathers near the
fence, no scratchy calls of lifeguard megaphones. A silence only broken
by the wind and an occasionally audible strain of running water. The girls
rose up and dashed to the front gate.
No one was there.
"I think the Scouts better take a look-"
The girls ran around the fence corner.
"UNICORN STAR POWER!"
"EAGLE STAR POWER!"
Rayne's eyes were drawn to peculiar flashes of light, tendrils of blue and
pink reaching up from the ground. But before she could investigate, they
had disappeared, and two figures stood at the foot of the wavepool where
she was watching.
"Hey you! On the generator!"
"Hey, this was a nice day to swim, but I don't think that's what you brought
people here for. So were shutting down this operation! In the name of freedom,
I am Sailor Aquila!"
"In the name of unity, I am Sailor Monoceros!"
"Sailor Scouts, here to bring harmony back to the world!"
"Perfect timing" Rayne growled. "As usual. Well, at least I'm not outnumbered. Tydal-"
A huge, glowing lizard leapt up from behind the fence around the generator. Rayne
smiled slightly. "OK, I'm ready for you. Let's see what happens in a fair fight."
Sailor Aquila started off, leaping into the air and hovering with her sandal
wings. "RAZOR FEATHER FLURRY!"
Both targets dodged away, springing off in different directions, although Rayne
herself just barely missed the feathers.
"COSMIC SOUL MELODY!"
The energy blast almost caught Rayne the other way. She turned and dove into the deep
end of the wave pool.
"Hey!" Aquila yelled, then turned her attention to the lizard.
It stood on the water, staring down at Rayne with it's huge, glazed eyes.
Suddenly a water tornado shot up, right at Aquila, knocking her out of the sky. She
couldn't catch any air with the short wings, and plummeted into the deep end.
"Aquila! Hey, Aquila, you all right?"
Monoceros lost track of her as the wavepool started to churn, kicking up waves
that she knew weren't normal for the park. She backed away from the edge-
-right into a set of laser restraints.
"Hey!" she hollered, turning her head.
Typhune giggled as she flipped in front of Sailor Monoceros. "Haha, you can't
move" she teased in a singsong voice. "Neither can the birdie down there-"
Aquila, she could see, was trying hard to get to the surface, but the massive
waves made a whirlpool that only let her swim in a circle. "Orion" Monoceros
called. "Orion?! Where are you? We need backup!"
A fuzzy voice came through, unintelligible yelling. Monceros glared at Typhune,
then at Rayne. "Some fair fight-"
"Whatever" Rayne tossed her hair. "Exterminators don't fight fair."
"No, but I can fix that" an unfamiliar voice proclaimed.
The two Eclipzes glance up. On the top of a water slide nearby-
A boy stood. He seemed about the Scouts' age, maybe a little bit older,
wearing a blue, water-shaped outfit. He had spiky, brilliant blue hair,
and in one semi-gloved hand, he held a tri-bladed boomerang.
"OK" Rayne seemed more startled by this new arrival than annoyed. "So who
are you?"
"You don't need to know."
In the blink of an eye he had hurled the boomerang towards Rayne. She barely
managed to duck out of the way, but the boomerang kept going and slashed open
the restraints on Monoceros. She turned towards the wild wavepool.
"There's another Scout in there!" she shouted to boy. "Can you swim?"
"I've got a better idea!" he replied.
He touched the pool with one finger. In an instant, it was as if the pool
was shut off. Aquila surfaced, gasping for breath as she dragged herself
over to the shallow end.
Typhune stomped her feet. "That's not fair!" she cried.
"Quit whining, let's just go!" Rayne yelled, as a beam of light came down and
took her up.
The lizard panicked, it's leaders leaving without giving in instructions.
Monoceros walked over to it. "COSMIC SOUL MELODY!"
A blue water harmony remained. Near the generator, they found a lifeguard,
who the boy told them to give it back to.
"Who are you?" Aquila questioned as the boy turned to leave.
"Don't I get a thank you?" he whimpered, his shaded eyes turning puppydog-like.
Aquila giggled. "Yeah, thanx."
"Really. Jerks" Monoceros muttered. "I woulda showed them if they hadn't decided
to odd the odds."
"You can call me Delphi Blade" he called from his position from the waterslide.
He jumped down and ran off.
"Delphi Blade?" the girls repeated in unison.
Finally, Orion caught up, just in time to see Delphi Blade disappear. "Huh? Who
was that? You didn't let the enemy get away, did you?"
"No. But I don't think that's the last we'll see of him."
EPISODE 8-TRUE IN BLUE
"Our enemy is after an object, or should I say, objects
of power- items capable of controlling the world itself.
They are known as the Melody Crystals. Each of the five
dominate one of the Old Elements- fire, air, water, earth
and life. They have been hidden- concealed inside five
living beings somewhere in this universe. Since the enemy
has been attacking here, it is in reason that one or more
of the crystals is inside someone on this planet,
possibly in this town. This is why they have been
extracting Harmonies- the essence of a person's sound."
Orion paced around the carpet as he explained, in the
lowest tone her could manage without garbling his words.
He could see both girls clearly with the way his eyes
were set. Skyler watched from her bed, her swaying feet
curled over her back, her eyes blending chrome with a
vague shade of intrigue. Jillian, seated on a flimsy
metal chair by Skyler's desk, had a bit more serious
expression, pretty much what he expected from her.
"Who are our enemies?" Jillian questioned.
"Not sure yet. I am currently doing research with another
source. Someone with similar experience as a guardian
of the Sailor Scouts. There's not much I can do as of yet,
but we'll find something soon enough. All we have are
names."
Orion could see Skyler's attention wandering. She was
actually thinking of something relavent, though- her
mind was on the past fight, the one where she was
rescued from the flames in her house by that
concentrated water blast. The thing that didn't make
sense in her mind was that even if the fire was gone, the
smoke could have easily suffocated her. Orion wasn't there
to bail her out that time. Someone else had to have been
there. But she wouldn't know now, that day had been
erased from everyone else's memory. Despite the fact
that she couldn't do anything to find out more, she
couldn't let go of the incident.
"Skyler, anything you want to add?" Orion queried with
an eagle smirk.
"Yeah, actually. Orion, exactly who is Sailor Moon?"
"Sailor-- Moon-?"
Skyler could see she had caught him off-guard with the
question.
"She's on our side. Don't worry about her, if she visits
it will be helpful to us."
"I figured that" she grumbled in response.
"It's good you could stay here tonight, Jillian. We
needed to talk about these things."
"Yeah, but not all night" Skyler burst out. "It's dark
out now- weekends are supposed to be used to enjoy time
off from school."
"Yeah, we don't expect you to understand, considering
you don't have school" Jillian added in a teasing
manner. "Hey Sky, brought you something you might like-"
She pulled a video case from her backpack. Skyler's
eyes couldn't have been more lively at the sight of
it. "You got TOP GUN?!" she squealed, bouncing off the
bed and onto the floor with a light boom. "That is the
coolest awesomest movie EVER! We have to go watch it!"
Orion cocked his head, one crystal saffron eye locked
on the cover picture. "Tom Cruise--? He looks kinda
like Devin-"
Jillian and Skyler burst into giggles. "DEVIN GYRODE?!"
"Maybe if he were 15 years older, taller- but they
do have the same kind of hair" Jillian observed.
Skyler raced down the stairs, Jillian right on her
tail. Orion wanted to follow, but didn't- someone
could catch him and throw him out- or even worse, make
the connection between the girls and the Scouts because
of him. He flapped to the windo and came around to the
bottom floor, peering in the window.
"Ooh, Top Gun" Skyler's father remarked as he passed by,
switching off the lights. "They played that movie at
our airport for weeks when we got a VCR up there."
"Goodnight, Mr. Avis" Jillian called as he left.
Skyler positioned her sleeping bag on the floor, right
where she could feel like she was into the movie but
not in Jillian's way. Her eyes gleamed practically
through the whole movie. There were quite a few things
she didn't understand and that Jillian was hesitant to
explain, but when the fighter jets thundered through the
television sky, she was completely mesmerized, a smile
of pure delight brighteing her steel-colored eyes. Those
sharp-winged planes, sailing through the air, the engines
roaring like a hurricane through the clouds, the speed and
absolute freedom of a falcon freefalling into the wind-
she wanted to be there.
She wanted wings of her own.
She barely noticed herself drifting. She was weightless,
lifting on a pillowy breeze up to a brightening midnight-
blue sky, littered with gentle, fading stars. A horizon
was appearing, a dreamy landscape below her, full of ridges
and natural columns of an ideal shade of bronze. Everything
came into a clear view now, so sharp, so lucid, so-
infinite.
A tiny, twinkling flash of light drew her attention to the
horizon again. Golden light shimmered down the edge,
pouring into the immense valley and instantly staining the
dark blue of the lower atmosphere with the deepest crimson,
the most breathtaking violet she had ever seen or never even
thought to imagine. She felt herself melting into a stunned
silence, drifting down to a cliff's edge to watch this
fantastic play of color.
And though she had never been to anyplace remotely like this,
she knew she had seen it before.
"Soara-"
Skyler's lungs suddenly expanded and flooded with oxygen,
making her realize she had literally had her breath taken
away. The whisper had come from behind her. She whirled
around.
There, behind her, was the strangest-looking building she
had ever seen. Some kind of shrine or- a castle. That was
it. She didn't know how she knew, but she was certain of
it. She only wished she could make out the hazy details
behind that intensely illuminated front door.
"SOARA!"
The holler boomed through the canyons, a million echoes
rising from each pillar. That voice was so incredibly
powerful that Skyler lost her breath again.
Then she remembered. The dream. Why had the setting changed?
Light overtook her, pulling her away from the sunrise in
its warm grasp.
"Someday, you will understand-"
She could see a bit of the figure now. Long strands of
hair, thin bangs, lightly shading narrow, all-knowing
eyes. But the light claimed her again-
It was sunlight, reflecting off the full-length mirror in
the dining room. She sat up. Jillian had fallen asleep in
a strangely balanced position, and Orion was nowhere in sight.
Skyler got up and went to the kitchen.
It looked to be another unusually warm morning. September was
supposed to be the time when everything was cooling off. It
was as if they had skipped a month on the calendar. Turbo
raced around the yard, sending the chickens scurrying before
her father came chasing after him. Skyler giggled, loud enough
to stir Jillian from her sleep.
"Hey" she called, her voice muffled with lingering sleep. "What's
going on?"
"Aw, nothing-" Skyler came back into the family room.
"Know what? Me and Sara are going to that new waterpark in Aledo.
You want to go?"
"What new waterpark?"
The girls went up to Jillian's room to help her gather her things.
Orion was perched on the sill. His feathers were somewhat scruffed
up, his glassy eyes glinting with annoyance. "What is it?"
"The dog" Orion growled.
Now Skyler burst out laughing. Orion turned away, the feathers
bristling. "Enough. What are you two doing today?"
"Wellllll- I was asking Skyler if she wanted to come to Aledo's
new waterpark today."
Skyler stared at Jillian, who returned an expectant look. She didn't
want to disappoint Jillian, but in all honesty, she didn't want to go.
It was just something about all that rushing water-
Jillian could sense this. She could see indecision easily, possibly
a little fear in Skyler's expression. But she wasn't going to give up
that easy this time. "C'mon, Sky. I brought you Top Gun" she added
with a widening grin.
"Actually, I think you'd better go with Jillian" Orion advised.
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, I've been hearing people say that someone just disappeared
there."
Skyler's eyes widened a bit, but Jillian didn't seem the least bit
surprised. "Sorry to say, Orion, but in cities things like that
happen a lot."
Orion sighed and shook his head. It appeared that he had already taken
this into account. "Well, consider this. Why would they open a waterpark
at the end of the summer instead of the beginning? If they had just
finished it, I'd assume they'd wait for next summer."
"You know, you're right" Skyler said, perking up instantly. "I would
have thought that, too-"
"So, there is reasonable enough evidence for us to investigate."
"Yeah."
Skyler's smile was a little too unenthusiastic for the other two. But
they took the meaning of her words to their advantage. "Great" Jillian
beamed. "We'll come pick you up at noon, 'K? See ya then!"
~*~*~*~*~
Quite a few eyes were drawn to the rose-haired teenager walking by the
lap-swimming pool. Her swimsuit, a simple lavender one-piece, was
nothing really to stare at. Neither were the smoothed-out sunglasses
shielding her eyes. She approached a girl, apparently one of her friends,
who was also wearing sunglasses despite being in the shade.
"Rayne" Enygma muttered, pulling off the glasses. "What are you doing
out in the open like this?"
"Hey, you don't expect me to just sit back behind the ticket booths, do
you? I wanna play with the water a little bit. C'mon, that wave pool's
tamer than a paper clip." Rayne tossed her hair back, shimmering a
strong azure with the water it had collected.
"Nothing suspicious" Enygma warned. "You'll tip off these people. Or worse
yet, the Sailor Scouts."
"They're all in that tiny place where you and Quayke think the Earth
Melody is. Speaking of which, why are we searching here if you know
where one is?"
"That's just one. It would be natural that the water Melody carrier would
be attracted to water, and this is one of the biggest waterparks around.
Just wait until it's the right time, then you can act."
Enygma sauntered away, trying to appear as tranquil as the day. Rayne
scowled a bit as she left. She had to stay here, all this time, by herself?
It wasn't fair to leav her with such a huge operation.
'What are you complaining about?!' she scolded herself. 'You're always
saying there's never a challenge for you-'
On the opposite side, a large brown van pulled up, and a group of girls
all crowded out to the concrete, among them Jillian and Skyler. Skyler
squinted in surprise. "It got hot-" she groaned, groping through her
bag for some sunglasses.
"The water'll chill you out pretty good" Jillian assured her as the
group stepped up in the ticket line. "Wait till we get to the waterslides-"
Skyler glanced over at the twisting slide pipes up a hill border of the
park. The churning water, glistening under the burning sun, did reach
her as extremely inviting.
Then she caught sight of a soaring silhouette, just meters above the slide.
She closed a fist and hoped it was what she thought. "Orion, you there?"
To her relief, the shadow perched at the top, and Orion's response came
back loud and clear. "Yep, I'm watching you."
"Hey, Sky!"
The yell had come from close by. Skyler couldn't locate it through the
crowds, but Jillian must have because she started waving. "Hey Blue!"
"Devin's here?" Skyler queried, scanning the pool edge.
She caught sight of him jogging towards them. It didn't seem like he
had gotten into the water yet, his Bears t-shirt was pretty dry and
dusty. He had a hat today, probably a good thing for him.
"Why are you following us?" Skyler demanded playfully.
"I'm always here first" Devin pointed out. "I was in line for the go-
karts, but they stopped to gas up so I came back here. You wanna race
me?"
An opportunity to get away from the water. Skyler was silently forever
grateful to him that moment. "Yeah! It might not be fair, though" she
added with a grin. "After all, I've already had a taste of racing."
"Please" Devin laughed as they walked off. "You have no idea what you're
up against-"
"Skyler! Take your wristband ticket thingy!"
~*~*~*~*~
"They don't let you take food into the park" Skyler said in disbelief.
"Well, I guess it makes sense."
Fortunetely for all the hungry park visitors, there was a park nearby
with picnic tables. The group set up for lunch, while Devin had stayed
back to do a little swimming. He claimed he needed a little more warm-up
before he could really be a challenge to Skyler on the go-karts. However,
Jillian had surprised both of them the first race by speeding around the
outside and lapping everyone at least once.
Sara and the others went off to get the cooler, leaving Jillian and
Skyler by themselves at the table. There was a minute of silence.
"I'm gonna get you" Skyler said at last, turning an eye back to the
go-kart track.
"Face it, Sky. You may be able to beat Tom Cruise back there-"
The thought was interrupted by a sudden burst of giggles from the two
girls. "You just had to say that-"
After a few minutes, Jillian's expression turned a little bit more
serious. Her intuitive green eyes boared into Skyler's, searching for
something she couldn't understand. "We haven't been in the water yet
today" she said softly.
"Well, um-" Skyler turned away nervously. "I just don't like water
that much-"
"Has it always been that way?"
The question had never occured to Skyler before. Now that she thought
about it, she had always spent hours at the local pool in the previous
summers. She relayed this to Jillian, who's expression took on some
concern.
"You said your brother drowned, right?"
"We don't know for sure. They say-- they say he might be-"
Her voice cracked beyond her control. Jillian closed her eyes, somewhat
regretful that she had upset her friend, but glad that they were getting
somewhere. "If you want my opinion, I think you're associating that
incident with swimming. And if you want my advice, I think you should
conquer that fear right away so you don't have to deal with it."
Skyler rested her head on one hand. Jillian was trying to help, that was
all. And since her dad was a psychiatrist, she would probably know a little
bit about these things.
"All right" she agreed, almost in a whimper.
Jillian decided to change the subject before things got too emotional for
Skyler. "Hey, where are those guys? I thought they-"
"Shh-" Skyler's eyes went from somber to vigilant.
They immediately noticed something out of place. No echoing screams from
kids ending their waterslide ride, no chatter of the sunbathers near the
fence, no scratchy calls of lifeguard megaphones. A silence only broken
by the wind and an occasionally audible strain of running water. The girls
rose up and dashed to the front gate.
No one was there.
"I think the Scouts better take a look-"
The girls ran around the fence corner.
"UNICORN STAR POWER!"
"EAGLE STAR POWER!"
Rayne's eyes were drawn to peculiar flashes of light, tendrils of blue and
pink reaching up from the ground. But before she could investigate, they
had disappeared, and two figures stood at the foot of the wavepool where
she was watching.
"Hey you! On the generator!"
"Hey, this was a nice day to swim, but I don't think that's what you brought
people here for. So were shutting down this operation! In the name of freedom,
I am Sailor Aquila!"
"In the name of unity, I am Sailor Monoceros!"
"Sailor Scouts, here to bring harmony back to the world!"
"Perfect timing" Rayne growled. "As usual. Well, at least I'm not outnumbered. Tydal-"
A huge, glowing lizard leapt up from behind the fence around the generator. Rayne
smiled slightly. "OK, I'm ready for you. Let's see what happens in a fair fight."
Sailor Aquila started off, leaping into the air and hovering with her sandal
wings. "RAZOR FEATHER FLURRY!"
Both targets dodged away, springing off in different directions, although Rayne
herself just barely missed the feathers.
"COSMIC SOUL MELODY!"
The energy blast almost caught Rayne the other way. She turned and dove into the deep
end of the wave pool.
"Hey!" Aquila yelled, then turned her attention to the lizard.
It stood on the water, staring down at Rayne with it's huge, glazed eyes.
Suddenly a water tornado shot up, right at Aquila, knocking her out of the sky. She
couldn't catch any air with the short wings, and plummeted into the deep end.
"Aquila! Hey, Aquila, you all right?"
Monoceros lost track of her as the wavepool started to churn, kicking up waves
that she knew weren't normal for the park. She backed away from the edge-
-right into a set of laser restraints.
"Hey!" she hollered, turning her head.
Typhune giggled as she flipped in front of Sailor Monoceros. "Haha, you can't
move" she teased in a singsong voice. "Neither can the birdie down there-"
Aquila, she could see, was trying hard to get to the surface, but the massive
waves made a whirlpool that only let her swim in a circle. "Orion" Monoceros
called. "Orion?! Where are you? We need backup!"
A fuzzy voice came through, unintelligible yelling. Monceros glared at Typhune,
then at Rayne. "Some fair fight-"
"Whatever" Rayne tossed her hair. "Exterminators don't fight fair."
"No, but I can fix that" an unfamiliar voice proclaimed.
The two Eclipzes glance up. On the top of a water slide nearby-
A boy stood. He seemed about the Scouts' age, maybe a little bit older,
wearing a blue, water-shaped outfit. He had spiky, brilliant blue hair,
and in one semi-gloved hand, he held a tri-bladed boomerang.
"OK" Rayne seemed more startled by this new arrival than annoyed. "So who
are you?"
"You don't need to know."
In the blink of an eye he had hurled the boomerang towards Rayne. She barely
managed to duck out of the way, but the boomerang kept going and slashed open
the restraints on Monoceros. She turned towards the wild wavepool.
"There's another Scout in there!" she shouted to boy. "Can you swim?"
"I've got a better idea!" he replied.
He touched the pool with one finger. In an instant, it was as if the pool
was shut off. Aquila surfaced, gasping for breath as she dragged herself
over to the shallow end.
Typhune stomped her feet. "That's not fair!" she cried.
"Quit whining, let's just go!" Rayne yelled, as a beam of light came down and
took her up.
The lizard panicked, it's leaders leaving without giving in instructions.
Monoceros walked over to it. "COSMIC SOUL MELODY!"
A blue water harmony remained. Near the generator, they found a lifeguard,
who the boy told them to give it back to.
"Who are you?" Aquila questioned as the boy turned to leave.
"Don't I get a thank you?" he whimpered, his shaded eyes turning puppydog-like.
Aquila giggled. "Yeah, thanx."
"Really. Jerks" Monoceros muttered. "I woulda showed them if they hadn't decided
to odd the odds."
"You can call me Delphi Blade" he called from his position from the waterslide.
He jumped down and ran off.
"Delphi Blade?" the girls repeated in unison.
Finally, Orion caught up, just in time to see Delphi Blade disappear. "Huh? Who
was that? You didn't let the enemy get away, did you?"
"No. But I don't think that's the last we'll see of him."