The Mystical Warriors, Part 5

***Lightning Strikes***

Lita, Serena, and Ami sat in class on Friday afternoon, listening to Ms. Haruna ramble off

the class announcements. They couldn't wait until she finished the announcements so they

could leave. ". . . and we need someone to volunteer to do the baking for our class fair.

Any volunteers?" Lita's ears perked up at that statement. Immediately, she shot her hand

up, eager to do anything that involved working in the kitchen, and said, "I'll do it, Ms.

Haruna. I'd be glad to, in fact."

"Thank you for volunteering Lita. I know that with you culinary skills, the class fair will

be wonderful." Lita smiled and settled down to listen to the rest of the announcements, but

not really listening because she was already planning what she was going to bake during the

weekend for Sunday's class fair.

***

Lita arrived home with her arms full off grocery bags that were full of supplies to bake her

heart out this weekend. She set down the groceries on the counter and began unloading the

bags. Sighing, she pulled out her cooking supplies, her measuring cups and spoons, her

cooking bowls, and other utensils and began to cook.

***

By Sunday morning, Lita had made four regular cakes, a cheesecake, 10 batches of cookies, 6

batches of brownies, and about 5 containers of other various goodies for the fair. She took

a look around her kitchen of all the food that she had to carry to school and decided that

she couldn't do it alone, that she needed the help of her friends. Walking over to the

phone, she picked it up and dialed Serena's number. "Hello?" came the reply.

"Hey Serena. I need you help."

"Sure, what is it?" Serena asked.

"I need you to help me carry all the food I made to school for the fair tonight. Can you do

that?"

"Sure, anything else you need?"

"Yeah, can you call Raye and Ami to help as well? I'll call Mina and enlist her help."

"Sure, no problem Lita. I'll call the others and we'll be over there faster then you can

say 'Jupiter Power'. Okay?"

"Okay, see you soon. Bye."

"Bye Lita," Serena said before Lita hung up the phone. She sighed again and sat down on her

couch to wait for her friends.

***

It took three trips, but eventually, the 5 girls got all the food to the school. "Ok,

that's the last of it, thank God," Lita said.

"Do you need any help setting up the food?" Ami asked.

"No, I don't. Besides, if I eventually do need help, the I can ask any of the other people

around here to help set it up." The group looked around the courtyard at the other 20

people that were scattered around, setting up various booths. "You guys can go. I'll be

fine."

"You sure?" Mina asked.

"I'm positive. You guys go and I'll see you all later tonight at the fair."

"Ok," they all said in unison. "Bye Lita!" they said as they walked off.

"Bye guys!" Lita yelled back. She turned around and started to set up the food. She opened

a container full of peanut butter cookies and sniffed the contents, letting the aroma of

baked good infiltrate her senses. She absolutely loved the smell of baked goods. It

reminded her of happy times when her mother was alive and was able to bake for her daughter,

her little sunshine. Lita's eyes watered at the thought of her mother. Even now, 6 years

later, she still missed her deeply. Time hadn't been enough to heal that wound. But, Lita

kept the memory of her mother alive by cooking, baking in particular. Lita's mother loved

to bake and passed on the passion to Lita. To Lita, baking was more than making food; it

was a way of keeping her mother alive in her heart. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Lita

quickly went back to work. Lita was setting up for about 10 minutes when she heard a thump

near by. Lita turned her head to peer around suspiciously, but seeing nothing, turned back

to setting up her food. Hearing it again, she turned around and scanned the area.

Suddenly, a youma appeared, which looked like a cross between a small tyrannosaurus and a

human. It was about 20 feet tall and must have weighed as much as an elephant.

Lita's eyes widened and the people around her screamed, running off in fear. Lita assumed a

fighting stance and said, "Come on big guy, come to Mama!" The youma turned to look at her

with a calculating gaze, almost as if it were sizing her up, before it charged her. She

barely had enough time to recognize that it was coming for her before she jumped out of the

way. Landing on her two feet, she called out "JUPITER POWER!" Seconds later, she stood

there as Sailor Jupiter.

Concentrating her power, she called out, "JUPITER THUNDER CRASH!" and a ball of lightening

surrounded the youma, hurting it, but not stopping it. In fact, if it did anything, her

attack just made it even madder. It started going on a rampage and destroyed every booth in

sight. Lita was praying that it wouldn't destroy the table that had her food on it.

When it charged for that very table, she cried out, "NO!" The youma stopped mid-rampage and

looked straight at Lita. It seemed to almost notice that this table full of food was

special to her. It smiled at her viciously and hit the table, cracking the table in half

and sending her food flying everywhere.

The blow to the table seemed to send a pang of pain through her body and her eyes filled up

with tears at the sight of all her hard work splayed all over the ground. All of her

memories of her mother came flooding back. Her mother had taught her how to make everything

that the youma just destroyed. Baking was Lita's way of paying homage to her mother and the

youma had just ruined it. Her fists clenched and she screamed out of anger. "Ooh, I'll get

you for that you stupid monster! I'll teach you to mess with lightning!" Lita began to

glow brightly, a strong, green light radiating from her body. The light continued to build

up until it exploded. In the midst of the explosion, Lita called out, "Power of Lightning!"



Moments later, she stood in her sub-armor, which was like the others' except she had green

where the others had color and she had a silver lightning bolt across her chest and a green

headband across her forehead. "Now you're going to get it!" she yelled at the youma. "I

call upon the armor of Lightning! Armor of Lightning, TO ARMS!" Suddenly, the wind started

to blow around her, putting her hair into a bun at the top of her head, and bolts of

lightning and energy swirled around her, creating armor on her arms, legs, and torso. As

with the others, lightning and energy gathered in front of her face and created a helmet

like Raye and Ami's. She grabbed the helmet and put it on.

Then, a bolt of lightning shot straight down in front of her, creating a sword facing up,

with a lightning bolt on the hilt. Grabbing the hilt, she assumed the fighting stance

naturally, as if she had been fighting with a sword her entire life. Her armor was like

everyone else's except hers was green, her symbol on her chest-plate and helmet was a sliver

lightning bolt, and she had a sheath for her sword on her back in case she needed to fight

without the sword.

The youma charged her suddenly and Lita moved slightly out of the way, the tip of her sword

grazing along the belly of creature, drawing blood. This enraged the creature even more and

it charged again and the same thing happened. This pattern repeated a few more times until

the youma couldn't keep up anymore. Lita decided that it had been enough and that it was

time to get rid of the youma. She held the sword by the hilt with both hands in front of

her face, eyes closed, the flat of the blade parallel to her face with lightning gathering

at the tip while calling out "LIGHTNING SWORD!" Then she turned the sword so the flat of

the blade was perpendicular to her face and she opened her eyes. She then flipped the sword

over and called out "STRIKE!" while impaling the ground.

Lightning came out of the hilt and went straight up into the air, creating a bolt of

lightning in the shape of a sword, which flew to the youma and impaled it, surrounding the

youma in a ball of lightning, vaporizing it quickly. Lita watched the area in front of her,

feeling herself power down. She never felt as energized as she did than the moments after

the fight. She felt so alive and this time, it was different, special even, because she was

experiencing the feeling with a new power. Behind her, she heard a whistle and turned

around to see Ami, Raye, Serena, and Mina looking at her in awe. She looked at the group

and herself and thought that Mina looked odd being the only one in a Sailor Scout outfit.

"How long have you guys been standing there?" Lita asked.

"Long enough to see you use your attack," Serena said in awe.

"Yeah, that was awesome," Mina said.

"So, you're the armor of Lightning?" Ami asked.

"Just like Raye's the armor of the Phoenix," Lita said.

"I wonder what my armor will be?" Mina said thoughtfully. She smiled and shrugged. "Oh

well, I guess we'll see. I can't be too far behind you guys. I'd say in about another two

weeks. That's about how long it was between each of you guys and getting your armor. So,

hopefully, I'll be getting my soon."

"Yes," Serena said, "And I'm sure your power will be awesome too."

"Thanks Serena." She stopped talking and looked around and said, "Seesh, that youma really

made a mess out of things- oh my God Lita! Your table and food! My god, I'm sorry."

Lita's expression turned somber as her mind drifted to all of the food that she made,

spilled all over the ground, half of it destroyed, and she found that she wasn't really mad

anymore. If the youma hadn't ruined her food and made her mad, Lita probably would have

never gotten her armor.

"It's ok. I'm not really mad, but the thing that got me was that youma knew that table was

special and purposely destroyed it. That's what made me mad and triggered my armor, I

guess. But what's been done has been done and cannot be undone, I suppose. So, I'll deal."

"It's great that you're taking this so maturely, but are you sure you're ok?" Serena asked.

"I'm sure," Lita said, detransforming back into her regular clothes. The others soon

followed suit. "Besides, at least mine wasn't the only one destroyed. Looks like all of

them were." Looking around regretfully, she shook her head and said, "Well, let's go. No

use hanging around here and I don't want to stay to clean it up. Other people will clean it

up." That remark got a few scattered agreements. "Hey," Serena said, "Let's go to the

arcade and hang there for a while. There's nothing else to do. How 'bout that?"

"Sure," the rest said in agreement and walked off in the direction of the arcade.