Ch.1
Black Moon Ascending
By Mad Melvin
The afternoon sun streamed through the doors of Crown's arcade, bathing
Andrew in it's blinding light as he sat in the manager's booth. Andrew was
getting quite annoyed by the light and had just started to walk over to
pull the shades on the entrance doors when the shadow of a customer fell
across his face, momentarily blinding him. The next thing he knew, someone
collapsed into his arms, forcing him to stumble backwards into the booth.
Andrew quickly regained his footing and finally saw who had just collapsed;
Serena was slumped against his chest, her arms hung limply at her sides.
Andrew quickly scooped Serena up into his arms and carried her into the
manager's office. He laid her on the couch and took a moment to asses her
condition and find out what had happened. The only thing he could find was
a small puncture wound on her left side just below her armpit. The wound
was already swollen and red lines were quickly spreading outward from the
center. Andrew was only into his prep classes for medical school, but he
easily recognized the signs of a reaction to some venom.
After he had gotten Serena stabilized, he immediately called Dr. Mizuno and
alerted her to the situation. As he awaited the arrival of Ami's mother,
he tried to get Serena to tell him what had happened. Though her mind was
slipping quickly into darkness, she was still able to tell Andrew a few
words. Serena managed to mumble the words, "Scorpion Twins..beat'em good!"
After that she slipped into unconsciousness, leaving Andrew to ponder her
last words. Dr. Mizuno arrived quickly from the hospital and started
working on Serena, after checking for more serious injuries; she injected
her with a strong anti-venom serum and helped Andrew make her more
comfortable. Serena lay in the back office under Dr. Mizuno's watchful
eyes while Andrew went about the business of keeping the arcade running
until closing time. After the arcade had closed, the two of them carried
Serena out to the car and took her back to the Tsukino house where they
were met by the other Senshi who had rushed over right after they heard of
Serena's injury. They soon had Serena tucked into bed with someone
watching over her while the rest of the team assembled in the dinning room
to discuss the incident. Molly was the last of the Guardians to arrive at
Serena's house; she had been down in Yokohama when her pager alerted her to
the crisis.
Finally all the Senshi (except Pluto) were at the Tsukino house along with
the 4 members of their elite guardians: Andrew, Molly, Shingo and Dr.
Mizuno. The Guardians had been created after each had discovered the
secret identities of the Senshi. They had then formed them into a team to
assist with intelligence gathering and to watch their backs in times of
crisis. While Andrew and Molly held allegiance to the entire team, Shingo
had dedicated himself to be Ami's personal guardian. Shingo knew that he
could never win Ami's heart for himself, so he chose to serve her until the
very end. For his love and friendship, Ami had given him the official
title of "Minos, Silver knight of Mercury!" After being named "Silver
knight of Mercury", Shingo started strutting around, quit proud of his new
position in the order.
Andrew was the first to speak to the gathered forces of the new Silver
Millennium, "apparently Serena ran into the Twin Scorpions earlier today,
but from what she told me, it sounds like we have finally defeated them at
last!" Everyone was relieved to hear this news; the Twin Scorpions had
been giving them all trouble for the past few months. At least now it
seemed that they had been sent back to their own dimension and they would
cause no more trouble for Tokyo. Dr. Mizuno then rose to inform the team
of Serena's condition; " Serena received a severe puncture in her side from
one of the Scorpions Stingers." Darien quickly jumped in; " is she going
to be okay, can you treat her wounds? " "Fortunately, with the samples you
had gathered from previous battles, I was able to create an anti-venom in
case anyone got stung." " I'm happy to report that Serena will recover in
time, but it will take quit some time for her strength to return." " For
the moment she is unconscious but she should come out of it after the venom
is purged from her system."
Mina sat beside Serena's bed gently wiping her feverish brow with a damp
cloth. " Why didn't you call one of use to help, you meatball head?" Mina
asked, hoping that she would get some response, but her question was only
answered with silence. Mina looked at Serena's gentle face, the golden
bangs of her hair stuck to her reddish forehead. " My queen, you must grow
stronger than this, you will need greater strength in the future." " Never
fight alone when you can get one of us to help, you are just too important
to our future." Mina raised the damp cloth to her own face, wiping away
the tears which now flowed freely down her cheeks.
~*~
Serena's head was spinning in circles; she could not tell if she was
sleeping or awake. Her head finally cleared and she sat up in her bed, the
silk drapes that hung from the frame of her bed, blocked her sight of the
bedroom. Serena pushed the drapes aside and stepped into the room that had
been her home for more than 300 years. Serena walked out onto her balcony
and looked out across the desolate ruins of the Moon Kingdom, the emptiness
of the site never failed to cause a tear to run down her face. Her eyes
then looked up above the horizon and focused on the earth, it's brown and
lifeless surface looked back mockingly at her. " Oh Endymion-Sama, how I
miss you my love, can you ever forgive me for destroying your beloved
world?"
The memories of those last terrible moments of the silver millennium
flooding into her mind. Queen Metalia had just killed Prince Endymion and
Queen Serenity was about to use the Silver Crystal to seal her away once
again. Princess Serenity, in her grief and rage took hold of the ancient
sword of poison stone and in one last fit of madness thrust it upwards
towards the form of the Queen. The princess invoked the ancient Gods of
destruction for the power to destroy her enemies and her prayers were
answered with an enormous blast of energy. The power that she invoked did
more than destroy Queen Metalia; it also killed her mother Queen Serenity
and lay waste to the Moon Kingdom. But that was not all, as she watched in
horror; the energy wave headed out into space and finally engulfed the
earth itself. The beautiful blue jewel that she had spent endless days
watching in fascination, now burned in crimson flame until nothing was left
alive on it's charred surface. Now all that could be seen was a blackened
shell of a world that reflected only death and silence.
"Now I am the Queen of a dead moon and a dead world, even my loyal friends
who survived the destruction abandoned me, condemning me to eternal
imprisonment in a lifeless system." "They took all my power and fled this
star system, leaving me alone to suffer my fate." Serena walked back into
her room, (the only thing left untouched on the moon), poured herself a
drink and sat down in front of her mirror, loosing herself in it's timeless
depths.
Black Moon Ascending
By Mad Melvin
The afternoon sun streamed through the doors of Crown's arcade, bathing
Andrew in it's blinding light as he sat in the manager's booth. Andrew was
getting quite annoyed by the light and had just started to walk over to
pull the shades on the entrance doors when the shadow of a customer fell
across his face, momentarily blinding him. The next thing he knew, someone
collapsed into his arms, forcing him to stumble backwards into the booth.
Andrew quickly regained his footing and finally saw who had just collapsed;
Serena was slumped against his chest, her arms hung limply at her sides.
Andrew quickly scooped Serena up into his arms and carried her into the
manager's office. He laid her on the couch and took a moment to asses her
condition and find out what had happened. The only thing he could find was
a small puncture wound on her left side just below her armpit. The wound
was already swollen and red lines were quickly spreading outward from the
center. Andrew was only into his prep classes for medical school, but he
easily recognized the signs of a reaction to some venom.
After he had gotten Serena stabilized, he immediately called Dr. Mizuno and
alerted her to the situation. As he awaited the arrival of Ami's mother,
he tried to get Serena to tell him what had happened. Though her mind was
slipping quickly into darkness, she was still able to tell Andrew a few
words. Serena managed to mumble the words, "Scorpion Twins..beat'em good!"
After that she slipped into unconsciousness, leaving Andrew to ponder her
last words. Dr. Mizuno arrived quickly from the hospital and started
working on Serena, after checking for more serious injuries; she injected
her with a strong anti-venom serum and helped Andrew make her more
comfortable. Serena lay in the back office under Dr. Mizuno's watchful
eyes while Andrew went about the business of keeping the arcade running
until closing time. After the arcade had closed, the two of them carried
Serena out to the car and took her back to the Tsukino house where they
were met by the other Senshi who had rushed over right after they heard of
Serena's injury. They soon had Serena tucked into bed with someone
watching over her while the rest of the team assembled in the dinning room
to discuss the incident. Molly was the last of the Guardians to arrive at
Serena's house; she had been down in Yokohama when her pager alerted her to
the crisis.
Finally all the Senshi (except Pluto) were at the Tsukino house along with
the 4 members of their elite guardians: Andrew, Molly, Shingo and Dr.
Mizuno. The Guardians had been created after each had discovered the
secret identities of the Senshi. They had then formed them into a team to
assist with intelligence gathering and to watch their backs in times of
crisis. While Andrew and Molly held allegiance to the entire team, Shingo
had dedicated himself to be Ami's personal guardian. Shingo knew that he
could never win Ami's heart for himself, so he chose to serve her until the
very end. For his love and friendship, Ami had given him the official
title of "Minos, Silver knight of Mercury!" After being named "Silver
knight of Mercury", Shingo started strutting around, quit proud of his new
position in the order.
Andrew was the first to speak to the gathered forces of the new Silver
Millennium, "apparently Serena ran into the Twin Scorpions earlier today,
but from what she told me, it sounds like we have finally defeated them at
last!" Everyone was relieved to hear this news; the Twin Scorpions had
been giving them all trouble for the past few months. At least now it
seemed that they had been sent back to their own dimension and they would
cause no more trouble for Tokyo. Dr. Mizuno then rose to inform the team
of Serena's condition; " Serena received a severe puncture in her side from
one of the Scorpions Stingers." Darien quickly jumped in; " is she going
to be okay, can you treat her wounds? " "Fortunately, with the samples you
had gathered from previous battles, I was able to create an anti-venom in
case anyone got stung." " I'm happy to report that Serena will recover in
time, but it will take quit some time for her strength to return." " For
the moment she is unconscious but she should come out of it after the venom
is purged from her system."
Mina sat beside Serena's bed gently wiping her feverish brow with a damp
cloth. " Why didn't you call one of use to help, you meatball head?" Mina
asked, hoping that she would get some response, but her question was only
answered with silence. Mina looked at Serena's gentle face, the golden
bangs of her hair stuck to her reddish forehead. " My queen, you must grow
stronger than this, you will need greater strength in the future." " Never
fight alone when you can get one of us to help, you are just too important
to our future." Mina raised the damp cloth to her own face, wiping away
the tears which now flowed freely down her cheeks.
~*~
Serena's head was spinning in circles; she could not tell if she was
sleeping or awake. Her head finally cleared and she sat up in her bed, the
silk drapes that hung from the frame of her bed, blocked her sight of the
bedroom. Serena pushed the drapes aside and stepped into the room that had
been her home for more than 300 years. Serena walked out onto her balcony
and looked out across the desolate ruins of the Moon Kingdom, the emptiness
of the site never failed to cause a tear to run down her face. Her eyes
then looked up above the horizon and focused on the earth, it's brown and
lifeless surface looked back mockingly at her. " Oh Endymion-Sama, how I
miss you my love, can you ever forgive me for destroying your beloved
world?"
The memories of those last terrible moments of the silver millennium
flooding into her mind. Queen Metalia had just killed Prince Endymion and
Queen Serenity was about to use the Silver Crystal to seal her away once
again. Princess Serenity, in her grief and rage took hold of the ancient
sword of poison stone and in one last fit of madness thrust it upwards
towards the form of the Queen. The princess invoked the ancient Gods of
destruction for the power to destroy her enemies and her prayers were
answered with an enormous blast of energy. The power that she invoked did
more than destroy Queen Metalia; it also killed her mother Queen Serenity
and lay waste to the Moon Kingdom. But that was not all, as she watched in
horror; the energy wave headed out into space and finally engulfed the
earth itself. The beautiful blue jewel that she had spent endless days
watching in fascination, now burned in crimson flame until nothing was left
alive on it's charred surface. Now all that could be seen was a blackened
shell of a world that reflected only death and silence.
"Now I am the Queen of a dead moon and a dead world, even my loyal friends
who survived the destruction abandoned me, condemning me to eternal
imprisonment in a lifeless system." "They took all my power and fled this
star system, leaving me alone to suffer my fate." Serena walked back into
her room, (the only thing left untouched on the moon), poured herself a
drink and sat down in front of her mirror, loosing herself in it's timeless
depths.