Quick note to just clear up a few facts to a couple of readers: A Brand New Destiny is NOT, in any way, going to be a Serena/Darien romance fic! (makes a face at that thought, and taps foot) I want to know, where and how is it that some people are getting that idea from, only after reading the current four chapters that don't even show who she may or may not wind up with yet? At least they didn't the last time I checked. Thank you.
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A Brand New Destiny
Chapter 4: School Days
Started By: Sailor Star Moon
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"...that's another thing about those Earth senshi, Hera." Serena said as she soaked in the large bathtub in her apartment room.
For the last half hour, Serena sat in the full sized bathtub that took up nearly the entire bathroom, with her back leaning against smooth hard surface of the tub as she looked up at the bathroom ceiling, before letting out a sigh, as her long blonde hair floated in the water.
The tub was filled with bath suds that were almost overflowing from the top of the tub, but at the moment she didn't care, as she scrubbed herself with a washcloth.
"The bloody nerve of those Earth senshi, Hera." Serena complained to her feline companion, a touch of annoyance in her voice as she spoke. "They are nothing but a bunch of ingrates. I saved their sorry lives from being cut short, and instead of being grateful, they treat me like I'm one of those freaks they were fighting against tonight." She said as she let the hand holding the washcloth drop beneath the water.
"Serena-chan. It couldn't have been as bad as you are making it out to be." Hera said as she tried to calm down the irritated teenager. "You said so yourself that most of them weren't that bad as far as you could tell." She added in placating tones.
"That's because only two of the first four senshi were actually nice to me. That Pyromaniac, Sailor Mars is the one that really gets me mad, what with her snobby attitude." She snapped, missing seeing Hera wince at her tone.
"Everything was going just fine. I would have just left without getting into a fight, and I think the first group of senshi I met would have, but then all of a sudden these two other senshi, calling themselves Sailors Neptune and Uranus," she said, spitting out the two names as if just saying them left a bad taste in her mouth, "appeared out of nowhere and start attacking me when I didn't even do anything against them that deserve that kind of treatment!"
"Did they give a reason for the attack? Or did they simply attack you without giving one?" Hera asked, after a moment, a thoughtful look on her features, as she sat on the edge of the bathtub as she watched her friend complain about the night's events, her tail twitching in the air as the other girl fumed.
"Oh, they gave a reason all right," Serena said in a sarcastic tone, "Despite the fact that I'm a senshi like them, it's only because they think I don't originally come from this part of the galaxy, that I rank up in the same category as those monsters they fight. I'd just love to see the look on their faces if they ever found out that I do originally come from Earth. It'd probably take their attitudes down a couple of notches." She said gloomily, her anger slowly dying down to a simmer, as she stared down at her reflection in the water. "Acting like they're all better than anyone who wasn't born on this planet. The way they acted, you'd think that they personally owned Earth themselves, instead of the people that live here."
"Well it is their planet, too. If Earth has Sailor Senshi protecting in, then they must have a princess that they have to protect from danger, just like you and the other Starlight's do for Princess Kakyuu," Hera said as her tail swished from side to side, as she stopped for a moment to wash her left paw with her tongue. "Besides it's not like they know that you actually do come from this planet."
"That's besides the point, Hera! If they do, I wonder why doesn't she have a tighter rein on them. Especially those Outer senshi." Serena exclaimed with a sharp huff, blowing out a mushroom cloud, as she started scrubbing her left hand. "They look like they're completely out of control. If I hadn't released the Flash attack to blind them long enough to get out of there, somebody would have gotten hurt in the end."
"Still," Hera said thoughtfully, for a moment before continuing on, "I don't like the way they handled things tonight with you, but all they were doing was what any Sailor Senshi would do against what they think as a threat to their planet, Serena." She said, looking sympathetic a bit, "You know that as well as anyone."
Serena slowly sunk into the warm waters of the bathtub, at Hera's words, as she glared up at her feline companion. "You're supposed to be agreeing with me Hera. Not agreeing with what those jerks were doing."
"Why do you keep scrubbing your left hand like that for?" Hera asked, deciding that it was time to change the subject, or else she had a feeling that if the conversation continued on the path it was on now, they'd never hear the end of it. "That's the third time you scrubbed that particular hand, Serena. It can't get any cleaner than it already is, you know."
"What are you...?" Serena started, as she sat up straighter in the tub, surprised by Hera's question as she glanced down at the hand in question, and realized immediately that she had indeed washed it more than once already, and blushed, before it was quickly replaced with a glare, after she realizing that it was also the one that Tuxedo Mask had grabbed earlier. Dropping the hand towel back into the tub, as she let out a groan. "I didn't notice."
"Did something else happen tonight besides the Outer Senshi attacking you, Sere?" Hera asked, as she cocked her head to one side in contemplation, as she watched her friends' reaction to what she had been doing.
"Nothing else happened, Hera." Serena said quickly. A little too quickly to Hera's keen ears. "Except…" she added after a few moments, sounding distracted as she glanced down once more at her hand.
"Except what?" Hera demanded as she walked across the edge of the tub until she was almost right next to Serena's face, and being extra careful not to loose her footing on the slippery edge, as her tail swished from side to side as she waited for Serena's response.
"When I left, I got chased by some weirdo guy calling himself Tuxedo Mask. He hadn't been at the fight earlier, so I guess he must have just been arriving and had seen me run off." She said as she looked up at the ceiling, using her arms to pillow the back of her head. "I wasn't expecting to be followed so soon, so I was reckless, and ran right into him. He said that he was those Earth Senshi's protector or something, and the jerk tried to get me to go back the way we came so that we could talk, as he put it, but I wasn't in the mood. Then he had the nerve to grab my arm, to try and stop me from leaving." She stated with a loud growl.
"So, how badly did you hurt this one?" Hera asked in a bored voice, as she let out a sigh under her breath. 'She'll never learn to control her temper at this rate…' Hera thought silently to herself as she waited patiently for Serena's answer.
"Don't worry, Hera. I didn't hurt him, much. But that only happened on reflex, because he surprised me when I ran into him and he tried to restrain me by grabbing my wrists, to prevent me from leaving," Serena said as a slight grin spread across her face at the memory of that event, before turning serious once more. "I only knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying to the ground. The only part of him that got hurt was probably his ego."
"Serena…" Hera began in a patronizing tone.
"PLEASE don't get into one of your lectures. You are starting to sound like your mother, Hera." Serena calmly said in an annoyed tone, while grinning all the while, cutting into whatever Hera was about to say. "I've had a long night, and I'm not in the mood right now."
"Hey, take that back," Hera protested in an indignant voice, as she glowered at Serena for a few moments as her chest puffed up at the reference to her mother, her collar moving up a bit on her neck, "I do not sound the least like my mom." She complained, stopping to think for a moment, before getting an almost human like sheepish expression on her features. "Do I?" she asked.
"Yep. The way you just said my name in that tone after I told you about what happened between Tuxedo Mask and myself, you reminded me of Rune." Serena said in a teasing tone as her eyes lit up mischievously. "If I didn't know better I almost thought that you really were Rune just now."
"Ah jeez," Hera moaned as she laid down on the tub edge and covered her head with her paws, forgetting about where she was "Just the one thing I didn't ever want to hear… ACK!" she exclaimed in surprise as she found that her actions caused her to start to tip over to one side of the tub. The side covered filled with the bath water. As she scrambled to try and regain a better grip on the edge was lost, as her paws lost their grip on the slippery tile...
SPLASH!
Hera's unhappy cry rang out throughout the bathroom, as she splashed helplessly in the bathtub as Serena tried to get a good grip on the cat, while trying hard to smother her laughter.
Three minutes later
"This just isn't my day. First I wind up being sent off on the wrong airplane by accident, now this!" a soaked and bedraggled Hera whined, as she shook off the access water clinging to her body, her collar resting on the nearby bathroom counter, was now sitting on the toilet seat, as Serena, now clad in a bathrobe with her hair wrapped in a towel, knelt besides the wet cat, and started rubbing a towel through Hera's fur to help her dry off. "I hate it when my fur gets wet!"
"Hera, you should have been more careful," Serena said as she scowled at the cat, as she wrapped a towel around Hera's body, as she picked Hera up into her arms to walk out of the bathroom. "And don't complain so much. It's not as bad as your making it out to be."
"I was being careful, until you distracted me, causing me to slip into the bathtub, I still think you did that on purpose just to see if I fell in," Hera snapped, as she held her head up, to glare at Serena with an accusing look in her eyes. "Ow! Don't rub so hard!"
"Oh sure put the blame for your mistake on me," Serena said, a note of hurt in her voice. But as Hera looked up at Serena's face, she could see the smile that had spread over Serena's face. "You know, if you're going to complain, you can do this yourself, if you'd only change into your human form, Hera." Serena said as she let Hera back on the ground as she tossed the wet towel into a nearby clothes hamper. "It would have taken a lot less time rinsing off of all those suds, and you would have only had to worry about drying the hair on top of your head."
"Well, I'm too tired to waste the energy needed to make the change," Hera began, as she started to shake off the access water from her still damp fur, only to be interrupted by a loud knocking on the bathroom door.
"Who is it!" Serena shouted out as she turned towards the door.
"Serena, Hera." Sammy's muffled voice called through the thick bathroom doors, "Seiya and Taiki are back with dinner. So the two of you better hurry up in there if you want to eat while it's still hot."
"We'll be out in a couple of minutes, Sammy," Serena said cheerfully as she turned away from the door. "You guys just don't eat everything before we get there alright?" she called out. After hearing Sammy's answering laughter, Serena turned away from the door, a small on her lips, as she turned back to Hera, then stopped as she notices the serious look Hera was giving her. "What's up, and what's with giving me that look!"
"Serena are you sure you want to go back home to Kinmoku in three months?" Hera asked as she watched Serena's back as the other girl toweled herself off. "Kakyuu-san did say that we could stay on Earth as long as we wanted if that's what you wanted to do."
"Hera, How many times are you guys going to ask me that before we go home in three months?" Serena demanded a not of exasperation in her voice, as she shot the brown striped cat an annoyed look, as she reached towards the counter for the collar and snaps it back into place around Hera's neck. "I already told you guys once, the last time you brought this subject up," Serena said as she quickly rewrapped the towel around her body, and turned back around.
"I made up my mind a long time ago, that nothing was going to make me live on Earth permanently." She said sadly as she glanced out a nearby window into the Tokyo's darkening night sky, taking the moment to stare up at the moon, before she turned to bend down and pick up Hera from the tiled floor, gently stroking the cats soft fur.
"But..." Hera started.
"Look, I may have originally been born here, but I haven't considered Earth to be my home planet in the entire twelve years since I left it behind. And staying here for the past year and a half hasn't changed my opinion about moving back to live here permanently."
"Earth's a nice planet for coming for visits or maybe a getaway for when we're not needed back on Kinmoku," Serena stated as she glanced at Hera, meeting the cats eyes with sadness, "But it's not a planet that I want to live on permanently," She said firmly.
"But, I still don't think you've really given Earth a chance, Serena.." Hera said, only to be cut off once more by Serena.
"Hera, I can't. In my heart, Kinmoku and all of its neighboring planets has become my true home, and I have a life up there, and a family. And I have too many responsibilities and duties as a Starlight to just give it all up now." She said cheerfully as she fondly reached down to stroke Hera on the head, and ruffled her fur, before setting her back on the floor.
"You and the others have become the family that Sammy and I lost, and I wouldn't give it up for anything else in the universe. Now come on. Let's go before the food gets cold."
Five minutes later, Serena was dressed and walked into the living room of the apartment. Once she was out of the bathroom and back in her bedroom, she had hurriedly thrown on a pair of blue sweatpants, a blue- green Pokémon 2000 t-shirt with the words "The Power of One" printed on the front, along with a picture of Lugia and the other Legendary birds underneath the writing, printed on the front, and was rubbing a towel through her damp hair.
Hera walked ahead of her, tail swishing from side to side, as she headed straight towards the small dining table, where the delicious aromas of food came from.
"Seiya, Taiki, what did you guys get for dinner this time? It better not be anything with" Hera complained after jumping up onto a nearby chair, then onto the table to look at the neatly wrapped take out boxes scattered on the table, not paying attention to what was going on.
"Don't worry Hera, we got you something special to eat tonight, that we think you'll love," Taiki said from over on the couch where he sat with the others as they ate their dinners, while sitting in front of the TV set. "It's in the container with your initial on it."
"Thanks!" Hera said happily as she searched through the boxes until she finally found the container in question. Latching her claws onto the lid of the box, she pulled it open with her claws, to reveal several slices of steamed fish.
"Hey guys, I'm sorry for taking so long to come out of the bathroom, but…" Serena began, as she pulled out two clean paper plates, then dropping Hera's fish onto one plate, only to stop as she glanced around the room, she immediately realized that something was wrong from the dark look that Seiya was giving off, along with the same expressions the others had as they all watched the TV.
"Guys what's going on? What's with the sour looks?" Serena asked as she turned her attention towards the TV set to find out what had everyone's attention, as her eyes widened in surprise.
"How long has that been on!" she demanded as her face started to turn a lovely shade of red.
"They just started it two minutes ago." Sammy said as he used his fork to scoop up some food from his plate.
As her eyes her eyes rested on the TV, which was turned on, and she immediately realized the cause. A news station was broadcasting a replay of the Sailor Senshi's battle against Raven and the Torok's. The newscaster on the screen was talking about the battle, as the video footage showed the Inner Senshi loosing badly against the monsters, as each of the senshi shot attacks at the monsters only to have their attacks seemingly leaving no affect on their enemies.
"...escapades in the park tonight involving the Sailor Senshi and the bird monsters that they've been fighting recently. But unlike all of the previous battles against the creatures that the people of Tokyo have come to know as Toroks, which have been terrorizing the city for the past two weeks, have seemingly grown stronger than before in tonight's confrontation with the Sailor Senshi;" the newscaster stated as he glanced down at the papers in his hands for a moment before continuing on.
"The Sailor Senshi seemed to be on the loosing end of the battle this time. Against all odds, it seemed that when it looked like things were about ready to take a turn for the worst for the senshi, when the sudden appearance of a brand new sailor senshi calling herself Sailor Star Dreamer arrived to save the day." The newscaster stated, as the screen split into two to show a side view screen on the wall of the news studio, just as the video footage went on to show Sailor Star Dreamer's appear in the middle of the fight, as she faced off against Raven and the Torok's.
As they watched, the TV screen showed a live broadcast replay of Sailor Star Dreamer dodging each of the Torok's attacks as they came at her for a few moments, before she finally stopped a good distance away from the battle to release her attack.
"Star Solar Scream!"
Star Dreamer's voice could be clearly heard as she released her attack could be heard echoing over the airwaves as the video feedback showed the blinding light caused by the attack heading for towards the monsters, moments before the images being shown became distorted, then completely into static, before being turned off.
A few moments later the newscaster came back on, with a serious, yet at the same time, slightly annoyed look on his features as he spoke to the camera.
"As all of you have just witnessed, the reporters on hand during the battle experienced technical difficulties caused by Sailor Star Dreamer's attack, as the feedback from the attack caused an electrical overload, leaving our video camera's permanently offline during the end of the fight."
A few snickers spread through the room at this bit of news, as Serena let out a groan, muttering something about "Stupid news reporters and their need for a story..."
"Nice going sis," Sammy said between laughs. "I just bet those guys were really happy about that."
"Quiet Sammy," Serena snapped as she turned her attention back to the TV, as the newscaster continued on. As she watched, her eyes widened as she realized what might be coming next unless she did something quick, and immediately started looking around for the remote control.
"...though the good news is, the word from eyewitnesses to the battle says that Sailor Star Dreamer was able to defeat the Torok's and their leader with one single blow. But it would seem that once the battle was over, our local Sailor Senshi, who Star Dreamer had saved, confronted Star Dreamer, and that it would also seem to have ended on unfriendly terms from both sides. Eyewitnesses also accounted to the fact that Star Dreamer was attacked unprovoked by Sailors Neptune and Uranus who arrived on the scene minutes later..."
CLICK!
"HEY!" the boys shouted as the television screen suddenly turned black, and they all turned as one in search of the culprit.
Only to see Serena standing on the left side of the couch, TV remote in her left hand and still pointed at the television set, for a few moments before she slowly lowered her hand and dropped the controller onto the couch.
"That's enough of that." Serena said with a slight huff, as she turned back towards the dining table to get her food.
"Serena, what did you do that for!" Sammy protested as he rested his eyes on his sister.
"You guys don't need to watch the news to find out what happened tonight, when you can just ask me." Serena said firmly, as she picked up her plate of food along with Hera's plate, carrying both to the others with Hera not that far behind.
Setting down Hera's plate on the floor, Serena then took a seat on the couch in between Seiya and Yaten, "Besides there's not much to tell, since that news report already showed everything that happened tonight."
"Then why not tell us what happened in the confrontation between these Sailor Neptune and Uranus characters?" Seiya said, a touch of anger in his voice as he stared at Serena with concerned eyes.
"Exactly what happened tonight against the Earth Sailor Senshi, Serena?" Taiki asked.
"It's just like that reporter said," Serena said with a shrug of her shoulders, "The attack was unprovoked. I got into an argument with the first four Earth senshi that were already there, after I had saved their lives, and I was getting ready to leave, when Neptune and Uranus suddenly showed up out of nowhere, and start shooting their attacks at me for no reason," she said as she made a face, before continuing, "except for the fact that I'm don't belong here on this planet. It didn't even matter to those two that I was a sailor senshi like them, or the fact that I saved the lives of their teammates." She said before turning to her plate of food, and starts eating. "Even that Sailor Mars wasn't as bad compared to Uranus and Neptune. At least she didn't go straight for the 'attack first and ask questions later' routine, unlike the other two."
The room remained silent as the others as they went over what Serena had just told them, for a few minutes.
"This could lead up to some problems," Taiki finally said, breaking the silence. "From what we saw from that newscast, the Sailor Senshi of Earth may need all the help they can get against their enemies. But if we're going to be getting this kind of reception from the local senshi of this planet..."
"We'll probably have to watch our backs, especially when the Outer Senshi are around, at least until they decide to start trusting us," Seiya cut in, finishing Taiki's unfinished sentence, as he glanced around at everyone in the room.
"So? What's your point?" Serena asked in an annoyed voice, as she dug into her food, and waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "From their actions tonight, they made it quite plain to me that they neither won't or need our help in this, so let them be. And let them see for themselves how far they'll get without help."
"Serena, don't be like that." Seiya said as he glanced at the blond girl next to him, giving her a concerned look.
"You said so yourself before, that not all of them were that bad, from what you could tell," Yaten added in, as he leaned back in the cushions of the couch and stretched, before folding his arms behind his head to use as a pillow. "Besides, I think they could really use all the help they can get under these circumstances."
"I said that only two out the first four I met tonight were nice and civil to me," Serena said with a huff, before spooning some more food into her mouth, chewing for a few moments before swallowing and continues. "The fourth one had been knocked out cold earlier in the fight, while the one in red, Sailor Mars, was a major pain in the--"
"Now, now, no need for name calling Serena," Taiki said, quickly cutting in before things got nasty.
"Yeah Serena. I think your taking this a little too personally," Sammy said as he narrowed his eyes at his sister, "The four of you should help the Earth Senshi protect Earth from these guys. Please?" he pleaded, giving Serena a sad puppy dog eyed look.
"I don't know..." Serena started then gave in when Sammy started to look more miserable, "All right, all right, Sammy." She said quickly before taking a pose, with one arm behind her back, and saluted with her other hand. "I'll help out. But I swear, if Neptune and Uranus take one more shot at me with their attacks, I'm going to..."
"Anyways," Taiki said, deciding that now might be a good time as any to change the subject, "Seiya and I got us all signed up to start going to the local schools. And we'll be starting tomorrow morning. So.." Taiki said cheerfully, as he stood up and stretched, before walking over to a large pile of packages that had been hooked up to some chairs, and he neatly dropped each into Serena and the other's laps.
"What are these?" Yaten asked as he held up his package by the strings that kept it tied up.
"It seems that here in Japan, it is required that all attending students wear school uniforms, with no exceptions you guys." Taiki said bluntly, and winced at the outburst that he knew was sure to come.
He didn't have to wait very long.
"Our what!"
Elsewhere in Tokyo
Darien stood on the balcony outside his apartment, looking up at the stars as they twinkled in the sky, surrounding the full moon, as he thought over that night's earlier event, as he pictured Sailor Star Dreamer's face in his mind. As the memory came to him, he couldn't help but think back to Star Dreamer's sapphire blue eyes that seemed to be able to look right into his very soul, with their intenseness.
"I'm Sailor Star Dreamer..." her voice echoed through his mind repeatedly, as she told him her name.
'Just who is Sailor Star Dreamer? And where did she come from?' Darien wondered silently to himself as he looked down towards the streets below. 'I wonder exactly who's side is she really on, anyways? Why do I feel like I should know who she is already, when I've never seen her before tonight...'
After a few minutes, he glanced down at his hand, and rubbed it for a full minute as he thought back to the strange sensation he had felt when he had touched hands with Star Dreamer. 'And what was with that shock I felt when we touched hands?'
"Hey Darien, aren't you coming to bed yet?" a familiar, yet sleepy voice called out from inside Darien's bedroom. "Man, it's already getting late, and we all have to be up bright and early tomorrow if we want to get to work on time, Dare."
"Yeah Darien," another voice chimed in, in a bored voice, "Plus the fact that we have to meet up with the girls at Raye's shrine after they get out from school tomorrow."
Turning his head slightly to look in the direction that the voice was coming from, Darien saw that it was it was all four of his current roommates gathered in the archway of his bedroom door, frowning at him with displeased expressions on their faces.
Malachite, standing in the doorway of his bedroom, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants, as his long white hair flowed loosely down his back as he let out a loud yawn. Next to him stood Zoisite, Nephrite and Jadeite.
"Malachite, how many times do I have to tell you and the other guys not to call me that? I'm not a prince anymore." Darien demanded as he scowled at Malachite, before turning back around to stare back at the night sky. "And, besides I'm not tired yet. After what happened tonight, I've been doing a lot of thinking."
"You must realize by now, that no matter who you may be now, you'll always be the prince that we all swore to protect centuries ago in our eyes, Darien," Malachite said with a slow chuckle, as he watched the dark haired younger man in silence, as he turned back to look at the others as they stood off in different corners of the room, "right guys?"
"I haven't seen you this way in a long while, Darien, not since your back in the Silver Millennium anyway. So I'm guessing that whatever it is that your thinking about," Nephrite asked as he stepped fully into the room, and moved to sit down on the bed, as he stared at Darien's back, "Been thinking about that new Senshi? What was her name again? Sailor Star Streamer?"
"It was 'Star Dreamer'!" Darien snapped, turning back to face Malachite. Suddenly feeling a need to stick up for the unknown senshi, then immediately looked apologetic as he gave Malachite a sheepish grin, "Sorry about that, Malachite. I don't know what it is, but I feel that there was something familiar about her. Like I should know her from somewhere, but that's impossible."
"If I didn't know better, I'd think that this new Senshi has caught our princes' attention in more ways than he's letting on." Zoisite said as he walked up towards Darien to get a better look at the other mans face, "Don't tell me that you've suddenly developed a certain thing for this new senshi?"
"Don't be crazy, Zoisite, of course not. I don't even know who she is. Let alone the fact we don't even know whose side she really is on." Darien exclaimed as he frowned at the blond man before him, before reaching out to gently push him out of the way. "Besides she's not who I was thinking about."
"Now you're starting to sound like Alex and Michelle, with their antisocial attitudes towards outsiders, to the group, Darien." Zoisite scolded as he frowned at the young prince.
"Those two, still don't trust the four of us even after everything we've all gone through together, because of our past association with the Negaverse." Malachite said disapprovingly.
"Yeah, and the Outers only tolerate us most of the time is because we're your guardians and protectors, Darien, plus the fact that we're the boyfriends of the Inner Senshi," Nephlite said, shaking his head ruefully at the memory, "though I think Michelle is beginning to warm up to us. It's Alex that is the problem."
"Speaking of which, I just got off the phone with Michelle," Nephlite said, as a slight smirk spread across his features, as he clicked off his cell phone. "She says that Alex has been having a fit about that broadcast on TV over what happened at the park."
"I just bet she is, after the way they put her and Michelle down on live TV," Zoisite said with a smirk. "I think that they went too far this time though. Attacking Star Dreamer as if she was one of our enemies, even though her Sailor Senshi status should have been more than enough proof to those two that she must have been one of the good guys,"
"Especially after she saved the Inner Senshi tonight." Jedite said as he crossed his arms across his chest, and leaned against one of the walls, "If it wasn't for Star Dreamer, we probably would have four less sailor senshi to count to help fight this new enemy."
"Yeah, I agree. I say alien or not, if this Sailor Star Dreamer is as powerful as everyone is making her out to be, then we're really going to need all the help we can get in the fight ahead." Malachite said as he crossed his arms across his chest, as he glanced at the other men in the room.
"Not to get off the subject or anything, Darien, but just who were you thinking about?" Zoisite asked as he sidled in next to the younger man, taking a seat on the bed, "You never have that look on your face even when your around other girls."
Darien sighed as he finally gave in, deciding that he wasn't going to be left alone until he finally did tell them something.
"Alright already! I'll tell you." Darien exclaimed as he held up his hands to ward them off, grinning all the while, "Before I met up with you guys at the Arcade, I literally ran into this blond girl on the street," he said as a thoughtful look appeared on his features, "She said that she was new in town, and I was getting ready to show her around town when I heard about the attack in the park on TV, So I left her behind with Andrew to go get you guys so we could get to the park."
"Does this mystery girl have a name?" Nephlite asked, his interest now piqued by this news.
"She said her name was Serena Tsukino." Darien said, as he got a thoughtful look on his face, "You guys know something? I only met her today, but I can't help but think that there was something familiar about her, that I can't place. Like I should have known her already," he said as he glanced around at the others, noticed that they were all looking at him with the same expressions on all of them, "What?"
"Tsukino..." Malachite said thoughtfully, not really paying attention to Darien's question, "There's something familiar about that last name..."
The other three generals nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry about it you guys, it's probably nothing," Darien said with a chuckle as he crossed his arms across his chest as he walked over to his bed and sat down, pushing backwards until his back rested against the headboard of the bed, pulling his legs up to rest his chin on top of them as he brooded.
After a few moments of silence, a thought came to him, "Hey, have any of you heard back from Patrick lately? It's been awhile since I heard anything from him, since he left months ago."
"Oh yeah I completely forgot!" Zoisite exclaimed, snapping his fingers, "I received an e-mail from him earlier today while the rest of you were out," Zoisite said as he looked around the room at the others, taking note of the disapproving looks he was receiving, especially from Malachite, and shrugged it off, as he pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket. "What? With all the excitement that happened earlier, it completely slipped my mind."
"What did the e-mail say, Zoisite?" Darien asked impatiently as he let out an exasperated sigh, turning his attention back to Zoisite. "What's he been up to lately?"
"Well the letter said that he was now attending some seminar in Australia, and probably won't be back in Tokyo until maybe the end of the week." Zoisite said, as he glanced down at the e-mail for a moment, before looking back up at the others, "And, that he needs to speak to all of us about something important."
"Hmph, I wonder what's bringing him back to Japan after all this time." Malachite said, his features hardening in angry lines spreading across his face. "He shouldn't have left the way he did, especially now that we all need him."
"Oh, come on Malachite," Jedite said as he frowned at the white haired man, before shaking his head. "Don't tell me that you still are angry that Patrick left are you? It's not like it's his fault that our problems started after he was gone."
"Don't give me that, Jedite!" Malachite snapped angrily, as he slumped down into a nearby chair, with a dark look on his features, "He shouldn't have left at all to begin with. Especially since we still haven't found the Moon Princess yet."
"Well he's coming back now, so he can help us out when he gets here." Darien stated firmly, as he looked over at the four Generals, just before a loud yawn passed his lips, "Look it's getting late, we can discuss this another time. So let's go to sleep, all right?"
"Fine," Malachite said as he headed for the bedroom door, followed by the other generals. "Night Dare."
Across town, Amy was just arriving home from the battle, trudging down the hall of her apartment building to her apartment, as she felt the aches and pains from that night's battle cursing through her body.
'I'm so tired, and my entire body feels so stiff. I can't believe how badly things went tonight. It's a good thing I finished my homework early today,' Amy complained silently to herself as she finally came upon her apartment door.
Leaning against the wall next to the door, Amy reached into her coat pockets for her keys for a few moments before finally fishing them out, finds the right key and sticks it into the lock, 'All I want to do right now is get something to eat then get some sleep in my nice soft bed.'
"I'm home!" Amy called as she stepped into the apartment that she shared with her mother. "Mom are you home?" she asked wearily as she looked around, flicking on the hallway lights, she made her way to the hallway closet to put away her coat. "Luna?"
"She's not back from the hospital yet, Amy. Remember, she told you this morning that she might be working late again on the graveyard shift in the O.R.," A female voice called out from somewhere, as the sound of padded feet came across the carpeted floor, as a small furry body rubbed against Amy's ankles for a moment. "Welcome home. How did tonight's battle against the Torok's go?"
"Hi Luna. Oh yeah. I had a lot on my mind tonight, that I completely forgot that she told me," Amy said in a cheerful voice as she reached down to pick up the black cat, giving her a small hug before setting her back on the floor. "Things didn't go very well tonight. This new batch of Torok's were much stronger than they were in previous battles," as she walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. After a moment, she reached inside and pulled out a small plastic wrapped bowl.
"Why? What happened tonight?" Luna demanded as she sat down to watch Amy, quickly noting how Amy seemed to be taking extra care not to move too quickly as she moved around the room. "And are you alright?"
"The Inners were getting our butts trounced on by the Torok's, that's what was happening, Luna. And we all have the bruises to prove it too," Amy said moodily, as she started peeling off the plastic that covered the bowl, as she walked over to the microwave oven, and dropped the bowl inside, as she set the timer, before plopping down onto a nearby chair. "Tonight's fight was worse than any other we've gone up against."
"But you're alright now, so I guess that the Outer senshi and the Generals must have arrived in time to give you girls a hand." Luna stated matter of factly as she leaped up onto the adjoining chair next to Amy.
"Not exactly," Amy said as she leaned her head back against the chair tiredly, "they didn't arrive until after the fight was over. We were saved by a brand new Sailor Senshi, calling herself Sailor Star Dreamer..."
"What do you mean a new Sailor Senshi!" Luna exclaimed cutting into what Amy was about to say, her ears perking up at this bit of news as she looked at Amy with curious eyes, and then shook her head in denial.
"She's not from this galaxy, that's as much as we can be ascertain of, Luna," Amy said in an insistent voice, as she glanced over at the lunarian cat, with a thoughtful look. "There reason to deny, that there could be other planets out there, that no one knows about yet. And if so, there may also be Sailor Senshi protecting those planets also."
"There aren't any other planetary Senshi, Amy. Artemis and I would have known if there were others. Are you certain she wasn't just some human pretending to be a Sailor Senshi?" Luna insisted as she shook her head firmly.
"No. Sailor Star Dreamer's show of powers tonight proves that theory wrong. She managed to finish off the Torok's in one single attack," Amy said as she eyed the lunar cat beside her warily, watching the myriad of expressions cross Luna's feline features.
"Now that I think of it, it couldn't be as impossible as that," Luna finally said after a few moments of silence, as she started to pace across the linoleum floor. "From what I can remember, back in the Silver Millennium, Queen Serenity didn't have much contact with any of the other planets that were located outside of this solar system, except for Planet Mau. So the possibility of there being more interplanetary senshi out there couldn't be impossible..."
"We don't think she came from this part of the galaxy, Luna. Another thing was that her fuku wasn't designed the same as ours, and it was all black." Amy said as she glanced down at Luna for a moment, "And she said that she was part of group called Starlight's." she added just as the bell on the microwave went off, and she stood back up to go get her meal. "But before we could get anymore information from her, Neptune and Uranus arrived that very moment, and ruined everything by attacking her."
"I take it that things didn't go well after that?" Luna asked in a wry tone, as her ears flattened against her head, 'Not again!' Luna thought vehemently to herself as she already pictured the outcome of the fight. At the moment even though she too had her own suspicions over the appearance of this new Sailor Senshi, she still wasn't pleased at the actions the two older girls must have taken. 'Those two are never going to learn. They probably wouldn't be this way if the princess was here with us now to keep them in line...'
"Correct, Luna. Though it didn't end as badly as you might think," Amy said as she shook her head in exasperation, as she sighed, "Star Dreamer used some sort of a flash attack that temporarily blinded all of us, and made her escape before any of us could fully recover. The others have scheduled a Senshi meeting tomorrow after school so we can discuss what happened tonight." She said as she headed towards her room. "Now if you will excuse me, I want to eat, then go straight to bed, since I'm going to have a long day tomorrow."
"Things wouldn't be this bad if we could only find the Moon Princess," Luna said wistfully, as she let out a sigh, as she glanced out a nearby window at the full moon, as Amy left the kitchen.
'Queen Serenity, it's been two years since all of the sailor senshi have been awakened, and still we have not found the princess,' Luna thought silently to herself, to the long dead queen of the moon.
'I wish that there was something that there was some kind of sign that will lead us to her.' She said with a sigh, as she looked back at Amy's semi closed bedroom door, where she could see the light shining through. "And, I just wish that you were still here to lead us." She added, as she turned to she followed Amy to her bedroom.
Fey Kingdom, Avalon
After Empress Titania had called an end to the assembly, Raven walked down the halls of the palace away from the throne room as he made his way back to his chambers, deep in thought over that night's events.
'I can't believe how badly things went tonight. ' He thought angrily as the memories of what happened hit him. Even after the healing session from Star, his skin was still sensitive to the slightest movement in some areas.
'Even those blasted Outer Senshi never came that close to actually hurting me, unlike that Sailor Star Dreamer did.' He said as a grimace appeared on his features at the memory of the pain he had felt, before disappearing completely. 'I have to find a way to finish her off, and regain favor with Empress Titania.' He thought with finality as he felt a chill go through his body at the thought of the penalty he'd be given if he failed again the next time Titania sent him out on a mission. 'Star Dreamer most definitely has to go.'
"Dinari for your thoughts, Raven?" Star asked as she came up from behind Raven, and wrapped her arms around Raven's waist, hugging him to her own body.
Raven sighed exasperatedly as he turned around in Star's embrace to hold her closer to his own body; a low growl of annoyance escaped his lips, as his eyes narrowed in anger.
"I'm angry about what happened tonight, Star. Things were going according to plans, and then that Sailor Star Dreamer brat had to come and ruin everything, by saving those wretched Inner Senshi at the last minute." He stated as he pulled out of Star's grip, to move over towards a nearby chair to sit down. 'If I can only find out where she came from and who she really is, then I will be able to get rid of her permanently.' He thought moodily to himself.
"It looks like you'll have to wait awhile until we see how Puck and Frostbite do on their mission," Star said, as she nodded her head in agreement to Raven's words, though looking a bit skeptical, Star walked over to Raven and took a seat in the chair next to his, "but look on the bright side. They can't do any worse than you did against this new sailor senshi."
"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence," Raven said sarcastically under his breath as he got a hooded look on his features, as he glared over at Star.
"Wait, that's not what I meant," Star exclaimed quickly, realizing her mistake, Star tried to fix things. "Actually, what I meant was, that with the two of them working together in going after the senshi as a team, maybe the odds would be better..."
"Don't bother, Star, I know exactly what you meant, but I'm not mad much." Raven cut in as he glanced up and met Star's gaze with a grin. "I'm just kidding. Besides now that I have some free time coming to me for awhile, I can think of a few more interesting things I could do with it," He said as he reached over and pulled Star out of her chair and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her in place, and started to pull her in for a kiss.
Before their lips could meet, Star immediately put a stop to it, by bringing her hand up in between them, and resting them against his chest as she gave Raven a gentle push away. But because the small action was unexpected, Raven barely managed to catch himself in time from falling out of the chair.
"What was that for!" Raven demanded, as his features turned stormy at the rejection.
"Sorry Raven, but not tonight." She said simply as she stood up and straightened her clothes. "After you and the others left the throne room, Titania informed me and a few others, that she wants us to attend to the Hex Sisters, and help them prepare for what's coming. Orders are orders. So I'll be seeing you later on tonight." She said as she placed a slight kiss on Raven's lips before pulling away from him.
Raven's only response was a really long string of curses as he stood up, then stopped as a shooting pain hit him from his left side, causing him to almost stagger from the pain, as his right hand gripped his injured side.
"Breath Raven," Star said quietly as she patted him on the back as a way to try and help him out. "It's not as bad as your trying to make it out to be."
"The Hex Sisters! You've got to be kidding me!" Raven finally gasped out, as he gritted his teeth in pain, as he glanced up at Star for a moment, a dark scowl appearing on his features, "They'll keep you away all night, with their work."
"I know, but orders are orders, Raven. You know that," Star said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "Besides," Star added slyly, as she secretly smiled at Raven's obvious pain, as she reached out and gripped his arm, and led him to his bed, "You still have a lot of healing to do before I get back." She said as she pushed him back down onto the bed. "Now try and get some sleep."
"I just knew you were still mad at me after what I did this morning," Raven muttered under his breath as he let his body slide down onto the mattress, "or else you would have completely healed me this time, Star." He said as his eyes slowly started to drift close.
"I'm not mad, Raven. I did heal you enough so that you didn't collapse in front of Empress Titania, didn't I?" She asked as she eyed Raven, a moment as she pulled the blankets up on top of him. "I'll see you later tonight or tomorrow, Raven." She said as she walked towards the door, stopping only for a moment to wave her hand in front of a nearby glowing circular wall panel, and the lights in the room dimmed, bathing the room in darkness for the night, before continuing on her way out the door.
At that same moment Puck, who had been listening in on Raven and Star's conversation, sat in his chambers staring through a scrying mirror that gave him a full view of Raven's chambers, as he watched the couple as they to settle down for the night, a mischievous smile on his features as he the lights in the room were turned off.
"They're at it again, aren't they?" Frostbite's voice said as she appeared next to Puck in a swirl of mist and cold, and peered past Puck into the now darkened room being shown in the mirror. "I can't see why you seem to enjoy spying on them so much, Puck."
"Not that it's any of your business, but what better way to see what my brother could be planning next than to spy on him in secret, Frostbite? I still can't believe that my dear brother lost a battle to a one mere human in black leather." Puck said canceled out the image, before he turned to face the ice woman. "What can I do for you tonight?" he said as he crossed his arms over his bare chest.
"I only came to discuss with you our plans for tomorrow. Titania expects us to give her results immediately now that she gave us Raven's job." Frostbite said as she took a seat in a nearby chair turning to face Puck as he eyed her with a wary look. Smiling, Frostbite pulled her legs up into the chair, to rest her chin on the top, as she returned his stare with a confident one.
"I for one think I could handle this job by myself with out your interference, Frostbite." Puck snapped as he glared at Frostbite. "You would only mess up everything if you come along, like always."
"What you really mean is that with me along you won't be able to fool around like you usually do." She said as a light chuckle escaped her lips, "You didn't earn your reputation as being the 'Prankster' by being idle all the time. And that is what has always gotten you into a lot of trouble half the time in the past," Frostbite said with a snort as she blew out a breath of cold air at Puck. "Why else do you think her highness assigned me to partner up with you?"
"I would have thought that she partnered us up, in order for me to keep you out of trouble," Puck said in a sarcastic, cocky tone, as he let out a loud 'hmph' and turned his head away, completely ignoring her comment, for the moment. "You have an even worse reputation than me, oh mighty Ice Princess. Now get on with what you wanted to discuss with me or else, you can get out now."
"Whatever. But I want you to look at me when I'm talking to you, Puck," Frostbite said indifferently, waited a few moments for him to turn his head back around, before she reached out one hand towards Puck's face, gripping his chin in her hand, and forces him to turn his head back around to look at her.
"What do you have in mind?" Puck asked as he folded his hands onto his lap, staring intently at the ice maiden, "whatever it is, it better be worth my time, Frostbite."
"Oh, I assure you, my dear Puck," Frostbite said as a somewhat malicious grin appeared on her features, "I believe that my plan for tomorrow will please everyone, and finally bring an end to those moronic sailor senshi once and for all. And if that Sailor Star Dreamer interferes again, the way she did tonight with Raven," a slow frown appeared at the thought, "she won't live to see another day."
"I see that your new school uniform fits perfectly, Sere," Taiki said teasingly as he gazed at the blue green girls school uniform approvingly, as the blond girl stepped back into the front room after awhile.
"Ewww... You guys have got to tell me that you've got to be KIDDING ME!" Serena cried out in disdain, as she stepped out of her bedroom, after trying on her new school uniform, though not without a lot of argument, with the others.
Seiya and Taiki were the only ones still in the main room of the apartment, while Yaten and Sammy had already gone off to their own bedrooms to get some sleep. Hera had followed Serena into her bedroom to watch Serena get into her school uniform to give her own comments on the uniform, only to finally give into her tiredness, and fell asleep herself on one of the pillows in front of the headboard of the bed.
"Nobody wears uniforms to a public school." Serena complained as she looked down in disdain at her outfit. "And it's not my style or color either..." she said as she reached down to tug on the hem of her skirt.
"Believe me Serena, when I say that that's exactly what I said when they showed us the uniforms we have to wear," Seiya said sympathetically, in between chuckles as he saw the look on Serena's face.
"But all the schools in Japan, have a strict school uniform rule." Taiki added in as he only shook his head in sympathy. "You're just lucky that we were allowed to get them."
Serena let out an unladylike humph as she walked over to the couch and let her body hit the cushions with a plop as she crossed her arms across her chess. "I would sooner stay out of school than wear this stupid outfit to it," She snapped angrily.
"Look at the bright side Serena," Seiya said as he walked over to Serena and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "your school uniform doesn't look that bad." He said with a slight grin.
"That's easy for you to say, Seiya." Serena said in a pertinent tone, as she crossed her arms over her chest, moving closer into the embrace, as she eyed Seiya's school uniform, "At least you guys get to still wear pants in your school uniforms."
"Can't be helped, Serena." Taiki said, shaking his head. "Rules are rules. I think that they would actually send a student back home to change if they came to school without their uniforms on." He said moved towards Serena, and bent over her to lightly kiss her forehead, before turning back around to walk away, and heads towards the adjoining doors, "I'm going to go get some sleep, since we're going to need to wake up early in the morning in order to get to school on time. The two of you should do the same." He called over his shoulder, as he slipped through the door, shutting it behind him, leaving Serena and Seiya to themselves.
"Shoot. This bites big time," Serena muttered, momentarily giving up on the argument, as she let out a loud yawn, involuntarily covering her mouth with her left hand, as she closed her eyes for a moment, and leaned against the cushions, and leaned in further into Seiya's embrace, wincing a bit in pain from some of her remaining unhealed wounds.
"Tired?" Seiya asked quietly, his own voice sounding tired, as he bent over to look directly into Serena's face, before removing his arms from around her shoulders and walks around the couch to sit down next to her.
"Yeah. Who wouldn't be, after experiencing the kind of day I've had?" Serena replied sleepily as another yawn passed her lips, as she gazed over at Seiya with half closed eyes, as a small smile spread over her lips. "First that long plane trip out here to Tokyo, and now tonight's battle park." She whined as she laid down on the couch with her head resting on Seiya's lap, as she closed her eyes, and rested her left hand over them. "I'm dead tired now."
"Yeah I know," Seiya replied as he looked away from her for a moment, as he became thoughtful, "Not even the couple of hours of sleep I took earlier was enough to get rid of the jetlag I'm still feeling," he said as he glanced back down at Serena.
"And now we have to go to school in the morning, to boot. I was really looking forward for some time off in between concerts." Serena said with a low groan, as she rested her hand on her forehead, shielding her eyes from the overhead lights, before slowly meeting Seiya's gaze. "Shoot I don't think I'm going to survive what's likely to happen at school."
"Come on, Serena. Schools not that bad." Seiya chided softly as he reached out to rest his, "You'll probably be making a lot of friends at the high school we're going to be attending tomorrow."
"Yeah right, friends." Serena said with a snort, as she slowly sat up, to stretch for a moment as looked at him from over her shoulder, giving Seiya a slight grin, "It'll probably end up being the same thing as always. If any of the girls at that school talk to me at all, it'll probably be to ask me what you three are like, or if you have any girlfriends or something like that." She said with a slight, false sounding indignant huff.
"You should hear some of the things the boys we meet up with, ask us about you. Your just as popular with the male population of Earth as we are with the female population." Seiya said with a slight smirk, his features hardening at some the memories. "The others and I had to put more than one boy in their place when their questions got out of line."
"I didn't ask you to do any of that, but thanks anyways Seiya." Serena said, as she playfully swatted Seiya in the shoulder, "None of the girls I meet ever really get to know me. All they see is the lead vocalist of the hottest music group the world has seen, and the sister to three of the hunkiest guys to ever be born."
"Hunky, huh?" Seiya asked, arching an eyebrow as Serena's started to blush, but decided to bring it back up later on. "Don't remind me," Seiya said with a half groan as he dramatically draped his hand over his eyes, as a fake pained look crossed his features, "The others and I have girl fans fawning over us everywhere we go, wanting to either get our autographs, personal souvenirs..."
"And I just bet that you've been counting off the days before we finally go back home, and you can become a full time girl again," Serena said teasingly, as she gazed up at Seiya with curious eyes, before a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Though, I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference, since you've always been too much of a tomboy back home, Sei-chan."
"And just who are you calling a tomboy?" Seiya said, raising his hand away from his eyes a bit, as he looked at Serena, knowing exactly what game she was trying to play. "You were way worse than me back home."
"True," Serena acknowledged with a small nod, before grinning once more, "But, at least my name wasn't secretly cursed out under the breaths of every nanny, beautician, and lady's maid who were unfortunate enough to be assigned to watching over you, and tending to your needs," Serena countered back with a slight grin.
"Hmph, very funny. I wasn't that bad and you know it, Sere." Seiya said in false indignation, as a slight pout appeared on his lips.
"Just you keep believing that, Seiya." Serena said, as she stretched out on the couch, putting her feet up onto the armrest, as she made her head more comfortable on Seiya's lap, as another yawn past her lips, and half closed her eyes.
"But your wrong about one thing, Serena," Seiya said softly as he gazed down at Serena for a moment.
"And what's that?" Serena asked as she opened her eyes to look up, and met his dark blue eyes.
"I'm not exactly counting off the days until I can become a full time girl again," Seiya admitted, "I've discovered that there are special advantages to being a guy most of the time. It has to be the tomboy side of me."
"Advantages like what?" Serena asked as she sat up and turned her attention fully towards him.
"I don't think I should tell you now," Seiya said, smiling gently, Seiya bent his body forward until his forehead was touching hers as he stared into her eyes, as he reached up with one hand to lightly touch her cheek, "Maybe I'll tell you later, if your good."
"Seiya..." Serena said as she looked deeper into his eyes for a moment. Just then, just as their lips were about to touch, their ears suddenly picked up the barely recognizable sound of somebody loudly clearing their throat to get their attention interrupted them.
Jumping apart, both teens stood up, as their faces flaming red as they realized exactly how close they had been, and what they had almost done.
"Serena? Seiya?" asked a familiar voice from behind them. "What are you guys doing?"
As one, they turned to look in the direction that the sound had come from, in search of the culprits, and see Sammy dressed in his pajamas, with Hera resting in his arms, as they both stared at Serena and Seiya with wide eyes.
"Nothing. We were just about ready to go to bed," Serena said as she glanced at Seiya and see's that he was slowly nodding his head in agreement to what she'd just said, before turning back to the others "What are you guys still doing up?" Serena demanded.
"Geez, no need to bite my head off, Serena," Sammy snapped back, "I wanted to come get a glass of water to drink, and I met up with Hera on my way out of your room," Sammy said, yawning a bit as he put Hera back down onto the floor, "I'm going to get my and go back to bed. You guys can continue making out if you want."
"WE'RE NOT MAKING OUT!" both teens roared simultaneously after Sammy's retreating figure, before their blushes deepened as they glanced at each other uncertainly for a moment before turning away.
"Didn't seem that way to me when we came in," Hera piped in from her spot on the floor as she looked up at Serena and Seiya.
Serena only glared at Hera for a few moments, until the star cat finally looked away, then she let out a sigh. "Alright Hera, spill it. What were you awake? I thought you had fallen asleep earlier."
"I woke up obviously," Hera said in a terse tone, as she frowned up at Serena and Seiya, moving her gaze between both teens, "I woke up only to find you not in our room, so I came out to look for you, the two of you do realize how late it's getting?"
"Now that you found me, let's go back to bed," Serena said after glancing at a nearby wall clock, and realizes that it indeed was getting late. "Come on," Bending down, to pick up Hera, cradling the tiger striped cat in her arms. Standing back up, she met Seiya's gaze, as the boy watched her. "Goodnight Seiya. I'll see you guys first thing in the morning, okay?" Serena asked stopping outside her bedroom door, as she took a moment to glance back.
"Yeah, well goodnight you two," Seiya said as he heads towards the connecting doors, "and pleasant dreams."
"Not a word Hera, not one word," Serena exclaimed a few minutes later as she walked back into her bedroom, stripping off her school uniform and draping it over a nearby chair, and quickly put on her a large t-shirt that went almost all the way down to her knees.
"What's going on between you and Seiya lately, Serena?" Hera demanded, completely ignoring, as she jumped onto the bed to watch Serena getting undressed.
"Nothing's going on," Serena protested as she gave Hera a dark look, her face still slightly flushed in embarrassment, as she plopped down on her soft bed, face first onto her pillow.
"Don't give me that," Hera snapped walked up the head of the bed until she stood next to Serena's head, as she batted Serena on the back of her head with a paw to get her attention, as a tail swished through the air agitatedly, "The two of you have been acting strangely over the last three months."
"We haven't been acting any different than usual," Serena protested halfheartedly as she slowly turned her head around on her pillow to look at Hera for a moment, with a tired look.
"You like Seiya, don't you?" Hera asked quietly as she looked Serena in the eyes, not missing the flinch she saw in her eyes.
"Of course I like him." Serena said defensively, as she sat up on the bed, using her elbows to prop herself up as she scowled at the tiger striped brown cat, "he's my best friend and..."
"Serena, you must know exactly what I meant," Hera said, cutting into Serena's tirade. "I've been watching the both of you for awhile ever since I first noticed it."
Remaining silent for a few minutes, Serena didn't answer right away, before letting out a loud sigh again, "I don't know how to answer that Hera. I've known Seiya since we were small kids, and he- she's my best friend." She said, then sighed as she got a far away look on her face.
"I'm starting to think that friendship of yours has started to change in the last few months," Hera insisted as she laid down next to Serena's head, as her violet eyes scanned the blond's face.
"Nothings changing," Serena insisted as she glared in Hera's direction, before twisting around on the bed, so that she was now facing the other way.
"But... OOF!" Hera started only to be cut off as a large pillow came flying at her, almost knocking her off the bed, if she hadn't managed to grab onto the sheets with her claws to stop her fall. It took her a moment to crawl out from under the pillow to glare at Serena. "Serena!"
"Hera, just drop it will you?" Serena exclaimed as she sat up and returned the glare, "I'm tired, and I don't want to talk about it right now, ok?"
"If you don't want to talk about it now, then fine." Hera said as she exclaimed irritably, "but if you happen to want to talk about it sometime," as she turned away from Serena and made her way to the foot of the bed, and laid down on the left side of Serena's legs, and instantly fell asleep a few seconds later.
'I wish that I could tell you, Hera,' Serena thought to herself, as she stared at Hera's sleeping form, 'I don't know what I feel for Seiya anymore myself these days.'
'Do I care for him more than just a friend?' as she turned around on the bed to rest her head on her folded hands, as she stared at the ceiling for a few moments in silence, before turning over and switching off the lights, and went to sleep.
Morning, Juban High School
It was a quiet morning at Juban High, as the students piled into their classrooms to start the day.
In one particular classroom, no one paid attention as four battered girls practically limped into the room, as the four made their way to their seats.
Amy, Mina, Lita and Raye all sat in the middle rows of the classroom, having been lucky enough to get seats together before everything was taken up at the beginning of the school term.
"Hey, Mina, how are you doing today?" Lita asked, in a low whisper as she sank into her seat, turning her head to glance at the blond girl next to her. "You took the worst of it last night."
"I'm fine," Mina said sleepily as she spread her arms out across the desk, and rested her head on them, taking a moment to give Lita a 'V' sign with her left hand, before letting it fall back to the desktop, "Every part of my body still hurts, and I could barely sleep last night because of it, but it's not something I can't handle." She said before giving her friends a sheepish grin. "Besides, Malachite gave a jar of his special healing salve."
"That's good to hear, Mina. I was worried about you last night, since you refused to go to the hospital," Amy scolded as she turned away to pull out a schoolbook. "Though, you really should have stayed home today to help yourself heal."
"I would have preferred to stay home today, but my mom wouldn't hear of it, since I wasn't even sick, and I couldn't tell her the real reason why I didn't want to go, you know." Mina said as she gave her friend a rueful look, before shaking her head and laid it back down on the desk. "She would have asked me a lot of impossible questions that I couldn't answer."
The four friends were still worn out and slightly bruised from the battle from the night before, and weren't really in the mood to listen to another long day of classes.
Just then, the teacher entered the room, a few seconds before the final bell rang, and quickly made her way to her desk. Once seated, she pulled open the top drawer and pulled out the role call sheet, stopping momentarily to glance up to scan the classroom, before smiling.
"Good morning everyone. I hope that all of you have had a restful night, and are prepared to work hard today on your studies." Ms. Haruna said cheerfully as she looked around.
"Yes Ms. Haruna," everyone said.
"That's good to hear," Ms. Haruna said as she quickly pulled out a pen, and turned her attention towards the role book, "If anyone is missing today, can someone inform me."
"Amy Mizuno..."
"Here."
"Molly Baker..."
"Here."
"Melvin Danvers..."
"Present."
"Travis..."
Just then, as Ms. Haruna was taking the roll, a loud knock came at the classroom door, interrupting the class. Putting down the roll book and standing up, she walked over to the door, and pulled it open, and sees Mr. Warren, the school principal standing outside.
"Ms. Haruna, may I speak to you for a moment?" Mr. Warren asked as he motioned for her to follow him outside.
Nodding in agreement, Ms. Haruna paused briefly to turn back around to face the class, "This shouldn't take long everyone, but I want all of you to take out your books to page 105, and go over what we did yesterday, because I'll have questions when I return."
Groans filled the classroom at her words.
As Ms Haruna and the principal stepped outside into the hallway, the class had a brief moment to see four figures standing outside the doorway, though it was hard to fully see who it was, before the door closed behind the two adults.
"It looks like there may be some knew students today," Raye said as she eyed the door for a few moments, as the muffled sound of voices speaking could be heard from the hallway. "I wonder who they may be, and why they are enrolling into this school so late into the year?"
"I hope that whoever they are that they're cute boys." Lita said dreamily as she sat back in her seat.
"I'd just be glad if they were both cute and nice," Mina said sleepily as she yawned, glancing once at the closed door before turning her head away.
"Don't get your hopes up, Lita." Raye said, though she also had the same hopeful expression on her face. "For all we know whoever the new students are, they could be ugly, or they could all be girls."
Amy only quietly flipped through the pages of her textbook for a few moments as the others talked, before finally speaking up. "Let's not go overboard, girls. Since the four of us already have boyfriends."
"Yeah, we know, Amy." Lita said sarcastically; as she glanced at the blue haired senshi, before turning her gaze back to the still closed door. "Though it wouldn't hurt if we looked."
"I just wish that Ms. Haruna would just get on with it already!" Mina whined in a low whisper, as she rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, "If there really are some new students coming in today, I can't wait to see what they look like."
A few minutes went past before the door reopened, and Ms. Haruna with a sour look on her face, as she stood next to the open door, holding it open as four figures stepped inside.
"Class. It would seem that we have four special guests who will be joining our classroom as of today," Ms. Haruna said in a formal tone, as she glanced around the class, "And I believe that most of you may have already heard of them. So I would all of you to please give a warm welcome to Serena Kou, Seiya Kou, Yaten Kou and Taiki Kou."
Gasps of surprise filled the classroom, as the room immediately became quiet at the announcement, as everybody's eyes immediately riveted towards the four figures who had followed their teacher back into the room, as all four finally stopped inside the front of the room, and turned to face the class.
Within moments, the classroom is filled with the sound of cheers and whistles coming from all of the students of Juban High, as they saw the new students.
Serena was dressed in a navy blue girls school uniform, with black shoes and white socks that went up to her knees showing pearl white skin. Her hair hung loosely in twin ponytails that went down her back (no meatballs), silver star shaped earrings glinting in the faint light of the auditorium, as she stared out into the room, gauging the reaction that she was getting from most of the male half of the classroom with a look of annoyance on her features.
Next up were Seiya, Taiki and Yaten dressed in their boy's school uniforms, their long hair tied back in their usual ponytails that went down their backs.
As the group waited for everything to quiet down, it took a good five minutes before the classroom was finally quiet once more, and even then there were still loud whispers going around the room, as everyone stared at the front of the class at the four.
"It can't be," Mina said, as she stared at the newcomers in awe, as she stared intently at the male members of the music group, as hearts and stars appeared in her eyes. "Guys, am I seeing things? Or am I really seeing the Three Lights and a Star in front of me?"
"You're not seeing things, Mina." Lita said as she stared intently at the group, as a soft sigh escaped her lips. "I take it back. Seeing Seiya, Taiki and Yaten this close up and in person, is way much better than I thought."
As she looked across the room at the students, Serena glanced at the others, catching their eyes, and giving them a meaningful look.
"Good morning everyone. It is very nice to meet all of you." Serena said cheerfully as she as she gazed out into the crowd, as she stood back up.
Meanwhile, while the entire classroom was ogling the group, Ms. Haruna turned towards the four teens, giving them a welcoming smile.
"Since this is your first day of class, I'll be lenient with the four of you, and I won't mark you as being tardy. But please try and be on time from now on, understood? I won't tolerate anymore tardy's or else you will immediately get detention." She said as her expression turned serious, as she gave the four teens stern looks.
"It won't happen again, Ms. Haruna," Taiki said calmly as he glanced at the older woman for a moment. The others all nodded their heads in silent agreement to their brother's words.
"Yeah, teach," Seiya said playfully as he gave Ms. Haruna his most winning smile, and earned himself a light jab in the side from Serena's elbow, as he glanced at the older woman for a moment, "Being late to class won't become a habit."
"Well then, now that's settled, and you will address me as Ms. Haruna, not 'teach' or any other name you can think of, Seiya," Haruna order as she gave Seiya a dark look, before turning her attention towards the others. "Now why don't the four of you tell us something about yourselves?"
"Not interested," Seiya said, a bored look settling on his face as he turned to look at the class.
"Ditto," Yaten said.
"Why bother?" Serena asked as she stared at Ms. Haruna, with "when everyone in this entire school probably already knows everything about us already?" she asked, her bored tone making she just said should have been the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yes, I agree," Taiki said, "It'd be a waste of time, I'd think."
"Oh," Haruna said in confusion, not sure how to take that bit of news, before finally deciding to get on with the matter at hand. "Now, let's find the four of you some seats," Ms. Haruna said as she glanced around the room, then smiled as she spotted four empty desks near the back.
At that same moment, everyone in the classroom were also looking around to see where if there were any empty seats close to their own, before looks of disappointment spread through both the male and female population of the classroom.
"Let's make this easy for you," Ms. Haruna said, as she glanced "Will the following four girls who's names that I call please raise their hands?" she asked as she started calling out names, and placing the four teens into the appropriate seats.
"Seiya, I want you to sit in the seat next to Lita; Taiki, I want you to take the seat in front of Amy; Serena, you get the seat in between of Raye and Mina; and Yaten, I want you to take the seat in back of Mina."
As one, each of the girls eagerly raised their hands in the air, while waving them frantically at the same time, as their names were called, while at the same time trying to ignore the jealous and angry looks they were all getting from the rest of their classmates, as the group made their way towards them, and took their seats.
Once everyone was seated, Ms. Haruna quickly finished up on the role call, adding Seiya's and the others names to the bottom of the list on the roll sheet, Ms Haruna finally turned her attention towards the chalkboard, and started class.
About half way through after class had begun, Mina decided to take advantage of her teachers' distraction, and slowly twisted around in her seat to look at Serena, who was looking through her history book as Ms. Haruna droned on.
"Hi. I'm Mina," Mina said cheerfully in a low whisper, taking a moment to glance up to the front of the room to make sure Ms. Haruna hadn't heard her, before turning back around to give Serena a friendly smile, then blushed as a sudden thought came to her. "Oh yeah, I guess you already know that since miss Haruna had you sit right next to me."
'Great. It begins already. And in the middle of class, too.' Serena thought morosely to herself as she glanced up at the other blonde girl in front of her, eyeing her warily for a moment before speaking up, keeping her voice in a similar low whisper. "Hi, Mina. So what's up?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to say hi, and welcome you to Juban High School." Mina said, the smile not giving an inch, even though she could sense that Serena seemed to be a little wary of her, but wasn't about to admit defeat so easily. "If you want, I'd be willing to show you and your brothers around school later on."
Serena sat up a bit straighter as she stared at Mina, searching the other girls face to see if there was any sign of a hidden motive behind her words, but didn't see anything but sincerity in Mina's gaze.
"Miss Kou, Miss Aino, is there something the two of you wish to share with the rest of the class?" Ms Haruna's annoyed voice called from the front of the room.
As both girls turned to look at the teacher, they see that Ms Haruna was staring directly at the two of them, with an annoyed look on her features. Glancing around the room, they also see that everyone's attention was now directly on them also.
"No Ms. Haruna," Mina said, as she looked away in embarrassment. "But..."
"Well then," Ms Haruna didn't look like she believed Serena's explanation for a minute, as she glared at Mina's lowered head. "In that case, since the two of you think that what you are talking about is more important than today's lesson, then the both of you can just as well go stand outside in the hall and continue your discussion, so you won't interrupt the rest of who are trying to study in peace."
"But..." Serena began, only to wince as Haruna sharply cut off whatever she was going to say.
"I don't want to here it! Outside, Now!" Ms Haruna ordered in an angry voice.
"Great, I'm in trouble on my first day of school, and it's not even my fault," Serena muttered under her breath as she leaned against the wall outside her classroom, as she clutched a bucket of water in both hands.
"Look, I'm really sorry about this," Mina said, as she stood a few feet away from her, holding onto her own bucket of water, as she shot apologetic glances at Serena, "I was really trying to make sure she didn't notice that I was talking to you in class and..."
"Look, how many times are you going to apologize, Aino-san? No offense really, but it's starting to get a bit old," Serena asked as she looked over at the other blonde girl, before letting out a sigh, and turned her head away to look down the other side of the hallway, as she slowly slid down to sit on the cold floor, both buckets of water at her side, "I'm not upset over it."
"Oh..." Mina said quietly as she shot Serena one last glance before turning her attention away from the other girl.
The two remained silent for a couple of minutes staring at nothing as they held onto the buckets, as they waited for the bell to ring, when Serena finally broke the silence with a loud sigh, as she turned back to face Mina, giving the other blonde girl an apologetic look.
"Look, Aino-san, I'm sorry about snapping at you like that, it's just that I had a bad night last night that still has me a bit uptight I guess," Serena said as she smiled at Mina for a moment.
"No it's okay, I guess, things happen," Mina said cheerfully as she returned the smile, "But please don't call me by my last name. Just call me Mina if you want to."
"Sure, if you'll call me Serena," Serena said as she stood back up, and gave Mina a sheepish look "So I was wondering, if the tour of the school is still an option? My brothers and I probably could use all the help we need, if we want to make it to our next classes in time."
"Sure, like I said before in class, I'm sure my friends would be more than glad to help me show you guys around later, if you were interested that is," she said, stopping to think a moment as she stared at Serena in silence, before letting go of the bucket and wiped her damp hand on the skirt of her uniform before holding out a hand towards Serena. "Do you want to be friends?"
Serena stared in silence at the offered hand, trying to think about whether or not she should refuse, but something deep down inside of her stopped her from making the first choice, as she reached forward with her free hand and clasped Mina's hand in her own and shook it.
"Sure, I could use all the friends I could make here," Serena said giving Mina a genuine friendly smile just as the final bell rang.
After first period, the rest of the day seemed to go by quickly, as the four teens made their way through campus easily with the help of Mina and her friends, and was approached more than once almost by all of the boys in school.
During P.E., Serena sat with the girls as they did their mid- afternoon warm-ups on the open field as they got ready to run some laps, while the boys were busy playing a game of touch football, with Seiya playing on the same team.
"Go, go Seiya! Go. You can win!"
Hearing the cheers, Turning her attention to the sidelines, Serena spots a group of cheerleaders standing on bleachers, who had stopped their afternoon practice, to ogle and cheer on Seiya, as he raced across the field with the football under one arm.
'Great, already one of Seiya's fan clubs have caught up with him,' Serena thought morosely to herself, slowly shaking her head, as she plopped down onto the grass to watch the game.
Some of the girls were cheering as they watched as Seiya ran across the field holding the football in his hands, as he zipped and dodged the other players as they tried to tackle him to the ground.
As she watched the game, she also noticed that a couple of boys who weren't playing in the game were looking in her direction, and were pointing and whispering as they stared directly at her for a few minutes before one broke free from the rest and made his way towards her.
He was tall, with short goldenbrown hair that barely went past his ears, dark, violet eyes that almost looked black, as he grinned at Serena as he took a seat in front of her, so that she would be looking right at him.
"Hi, Serena," the boy said in a confident voice as he took a seat next to her, sitting really close to her. "My name is Mason Carter. And I was wondering if you would like to go out with me."
Serena eyed him over for a moment, looking him up and down, before coming to a decision, "Sorry Mason, but I'm not interested." She said before pointedly turning her attention back to the game in time to see Seiya score another point.
"But why not!" Mason exclaimed, his confident look dropping for few seconds before coming back in full force as he decided to put on the charm, "Come on, I won't take no for an answer."
"Well it looks like your going to have to, Mason" Serena stated firmly as she glared at him through narrowed eyes. "Get lost."
'What's with her? No girls ever said no to me before,' He thought angrily to himself, frowning a bit. "I can show you a good time. I've read all about you in that music magazine last month, and I know what you seem to enjoy the most."
"Oh?" Serena asked as she raised an eyebrow at that statement, as her mouth twitched into a mischievous smile, "Then if you know so much about me from the magazine, then you must know my five major turn on and offs."
"Sure I do," Mason said confidently as he sat back on his heels to thinks for a moment, "The five things that you like that turn you on are: cats; chocolate chip ice cream; cute boys;" the last one said with a sexy grin, before continuing, "swimming; and comic books. This is exactly what I was telling you about. We are so much alike, we like the same things, that I think..."
"Hold on," Serena said cutting into Mason's dialogue, "Do you remember what turns me off?" Serena asked in a false sweet sounding voice, not bothering to answer his question.
"I think your five major turn offs were: Bullies, centipedes, and..." his voice trailed off as he realized what was about to come next as he stopped talking long enough to glance at Serena, giving her a suspicious look.
"'And'?" Serena prompted persistently, as she gave him an innocent look. "And what was my last turn off?"
"...and pushy boys who think too highly of themselves and don't know when to quit." Mason said after a moment, as his look became sour.
"Bingo!" Serena said, giving Mason a thumbs up, "You got it right on the first try. Now leave me alone."
"Why you... I'm nothing like that," Mason exclaimed as he stood up, and glared down at Serena, calming down for a moment and walked around her to rest his hand on her shoulder, missing the dark look she shot at his hand, "You really don't know what you'd be missing if you turn me down without giving me a chance. If you'd give me a chance, I can prove it to yo-OW!" he said only to be cut off as he suddenly cried out, as pain shot up through his hands, as Serena started to bend one of his fingers backwards, "Let go!"
"Let's get one thing straight. One, don't touch me unless I say you can," Serena practically snarled as she glared at Mason, as she finally released his fingers from her grip, as the boy the stumbled back nurse his injured hand, "Second, I already said I'm not interested, and you are definitely not getting on my good side right now by pushing it. Go find some other girl to bother with your advances."
"Fine, but you are going to regret this," Taking a moment to return Serena's glare, Mason turned on his heel and marches back over to his friends who were laughing after witnessing the whole thing.
"Promises, promises," Serena said dismissively as she turned back to face her class just as the P.E. teacher was arriving.
Serena was walking down the halls of the school, with her lunch bag clutched tightly to her hands, as she heads for the exit, to look for a nice, cool shady tree to sit under as she waited for the others to catch up with her.
"Hey, Serena! Wait up!" a cheerful, unfamiliar voice called out, startling Serena and causing her to stop in midstep just as she was about to push open the doors leading outside.
"Huh?" Serena wondered to herself, hand still resting on the doorframe, as she turned in the direction that the voice came from, and spots Mina and the others coming down the hall towards her, their own lunches clutched in their hands. "Oh hey guys what's up?"
"We wanted to ask if you wanted to join us for lunch?" Lita said as they finally caught with Serena, and the five girls walked placidly together through the halls.
"Sure, I'd love too, but I wanted to wait for the guys to catch up with me," Serena said as she glanced over her shoulder, in search of the others, "They were almost to the front of the lunch line when I left the cafeteria a few minutes ago."
"I'll stay here and wait for them if you want, Serena," Amy offered as she stopped just outside the double doors, "and bring them over once they arrive."
"Well, ok, I guess," Serena said uncertainly as she glanced back at the other girl, "If you really don't mind?" seeing Amy shake her head in denial, Serena nodded her head. "They shouldn't be long in coming. The last time I saw them, they were almost to the front of the lunch line."
"Ok, I'll see you guys in a little bit." Amy said as she watched the others leave the doors and make their way down the steps.
"Hey I heard about what happened between you and Mason during P.E. today," Mina said as she reached Serena and latched onto her arm in a friendly gesture. "I wish I could have been there to see it. That jerk had it coming for a long time. Ever since he enrolled into this school he's been trying to pick up half the girls on campus."
"How long has he been here in this school?" Serena asked curiously as she followed the others outside.
"He's joined the school about a month ago, him along with the rest of his family," Mina said helpfully. "He has two sisters and a brother attending this school also."
"There's more of them? Just great," Serena said in a disapproving tone, "Are all of them like Mason, or is he the only one gifted with that charming personality of his?" she said sarcastically.
"All of them of almost just as bad as he is, but some of them are okay are guess." Lita said as she turned away, to glance around before her eyes settled on a nearby tree across the yard. "Hey guys. Look at who's there already."
Seated under the oak tree, was a familiar aqua haired girl reading a book while taking bites out of her sandwhich, while up in the tree the group could almost make out the figure of a sandy haired boy lounging out on one of the branches.
"Alex and Michelle." Rei said with a slight groan, earning herself a confused look from Serena.
"Well look at who's here, Michelle," a familiar voice called out, in an bored voice, "Who would have thought we would have met up with you again so soon, kitten."
As one, Serena and the other girls turned around to look at the speakers, seeing at once that it was Alex and Michelle, dressed in their school uniforms.
Alex was dressed in a navy blue boys uniform, and was sitting in one of the branches of the tree that the group had been heading towards, with her arms resting behind her head, pillowing her head from the rough surface of the tree.
Sitting at the foot of the tree was Michelle, dressed in her girls' school uniform, glancing every now and then at a book that rested in her lap, as she took bites out her sandwich. Hearing Alex's words, the aquamarine haired girl glanced up, and saw the other girls coming, as she gave Serena a warm welcoming smile.
"Why hi, Alex, Michelle. The two of you go to this school too?" Serena asked casually, as a slight frown appeared on her face, as she looked towards the other two girls, before it disappeared completely. "And what's with this 'kitten' jazz?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips as she scowled up at Alex from the bottom of the tree.
"That's what you reminded me of, the first time we met yesterday," Alex said sincerely, as she grinned down at Serena from her perch, "You certainly have the claws for it from what I hear."
"Why you..." Serena began only to be cut off as Michelle cut in.
"Alex, be nice." Michelle chided as she glanced up at her companion with a disapproving look, before turning her attention back to the others as they made themselves comfortable around the tree.
"Shoot," Raye said under her breath as she spots the two older girls already at their favorite lunchtime hang out spot.
The Inner senshi all took only a moment to give the two older girls dirty looks before, as they took seats around the tree, turning their backs, and facing Serena with questions.
"You already know Alex and Michelle?" Mina demanded, keeping her voice in a low whisper, as she looked up at the two older girls for a moment "Where and when did you meet up with them?"
"Yeah, I only met them briefly yesterday, when my brothers and I were just arriving in Tokyo at the airport yesterday afternoon." Serena said with a slight indifferent shrug as she looked around at the other girls.
"Her younger brother literally ran into us just as Alex and I had exited the airport terminal to go wait outside for Darien and Nathan," Michelle cut in, giving her companion a warning glance, putting away her book as she stood up and dusted off her skirt, "Our meeting was cut short when their ride finally arrived outside the airport"
"You have a younger brother!" Mina exclaimed as her eyes widened in surprise. "What's his name, and how old is he, and how come I don't remember hearing about him in any of the magazines."
"His name is Sammy, he's twelve," Serena said as she glanced at Mina for a moment, as she stopped to take a bite out of her lunch, "and the reason that nobody's heard much about him, is because we're trying to keep him out of the spotlight during our music career."
"So what's there to do in Tokyo? Any interesting places you guys think I should go visit? In between school and concerts that is." She asked with a slight grin.
"Well there's the National Library downtown, that has great selection in literary books from around the world," Amy said, after taking a seat next to Serena, as she reached into her backpack and pulled out a large library book, "I spend most of my time there when I need a quiet place to study."
"No way, Amy! The library is where you like to spend all the time," Mina exclaimed, as she cut in as she pushed her way in between Serena and Amy, so that she could sit in between the two. "If your looking for something fun to do, Serena, you have to go to the Crown Arcade. Everyone goes there after school. Or to the local Karaoke bar, that's two blocks down."
"I think I've heard of the Crown Arcade," Serena said as she thought for a moment, before she finally remembered where she had seen the name from. "Oh, yeah! I almost went there last night when I was sightseeing, but something came up, so I never got the chance to go inside." She said as she turned towards Mina, "Is it really as great as your making out to be?"
"Sure, Serena. Crown Arcade has lots of different types of video games, and stuff and they serve the best food there too." Lita said, answering before Mina could say anything.
"And their ice cream sundae's are to die for." Michelle supplied as joined into the conversation. "You should really go to the Crown and try one when you have the time, Serena."
"That sounds good to me," Seiya's voice said from behind the group. "Maybe we ought to try it sometime, you guys."
As the girls turned in the direction that Seiya's voice was coming in, they see him and the others making their ways towards their tree, looking a little worse for wear, as they were being trailed from behind by a large group of girls with star struck looks in their eyes, begging for autograph's.
When Serena saw what was happening, she immediately stood up and advanced on the girls.
"All right, ladies. That's enough of that. Can't my brothers enjoy a quiet lunch without all of you hounding them all day?" she demanded as she crossed her arms over her chance to glare at the girls. "Now beat it all of you."
"How come those girls get to stay around, if we've got to leave?" one of the girls demanded as she pointed directly at Mina and the other girls, "they don't deserve to be around you guys as much as we do."
"Well that's where your wrong," Serena said with a slight smirk as she stared directly at the girl who had spoken, "unlike you guys, I'm letting them stay, because they," she said, jerking a thumb in the senshi's direction, as she pulled out a pair of sunglasses out of thin air and put them on, and glared at the other girls from behind them, as she crossed her arms across her chest, "are my friends, and their the only girls in this school who haven't hounded my brothers the first time they saw them. Plus the fact that I'm their sister, and unless my brothers say otherwise, that they want you girls here, I have full say about it, got it? Now beat it!"
After a lot of glaring and dark looks directed at Serena, as the group of girls faced off with her, they finally backed down, and headed off, muttering and grumbling as they shot nasty looks back at her before they disappeared.
"Geez, those girls are a nuisance," Yaten complained as he took a seat under the shade, as he grinned over at Serena as she returned to her seat, "Thanks Sere."
"Anytime you guys," Serena said smugly as she took her lunch back up into her hands, and resumes eating.
"Why'd you do that for?" Lita asked curiously after she turned her gaze away from the retreating girls, and looked at Serena, "Don't you think that was a little rude, Serena?"
Serena made a muffled sound, and shrugged her shoulders at that, as she swallowed the mouthful of food, "Maybe, but not really, Lita. The guys and I have had to deal with this sort of stuff ever since we started our singing career, so we worked out a system. I'll handle the girls who get out of hand around them..."
"And we'll handle the boys who try to get out of hand around Serena," Seiya cut in, as he opened up his lunchbox, and dug in. "This way we don't have to worry about being practically mauled by our adoring fans, if we're not careful," then he noticed the dark glares that he was now getting from the current girls present, and quickly amended "No offense girls. I don't mind the attention I get, but a lot of the other girls we've had to deal with, are almost impossible to deal with, without someone getting their feelings hurt first."
"Not to mention that I have to deal with guys like that Mason Carter guy nearly on a daily basis," Serena added pertinently, as she finished her lunch and folded up the paper bag. "All of them always seem to have one thing on their mind only when they see me."
"Oh, come on, it couldn't be that bad," Raye said, though her tone sounded uncertain as she stared at the other girl curiously.
"Yeah, I'd die to live the kind of life you guys lead," Mina chimed in cheerfully, as she gained a dreamy look on her features, stars appearing immediately in her eyes, "All the places you've been to, the sight's you must've seen, eating exotic foods. I've always dreamed of one day becoming an idol myself."
"Not to mention meeting ultra cute boys to boot," Lita cut in as she also gained a dreamy expression, 'Especially the cute guys,' she thought, before turning her attention back to the others, "That's the kind of life I would just love to have."
"It's not as glamorous as your making it out to be, minna" Michelle cut in as she glanced at the group, "Like Serena and the others said, there are the ups and downs to being popular." "Yeah, take Michelle and myself, for example," Alex cut in, as she leaped off of her perch on the tree branch and landed on her feet, dusting off her uniform after landing, "We have to deal with practically the same thing they do because of our careers. Though I don't mind the attention that much."
"Their always trying to ask me out on dates, and those who I do decide to go out with are either nice to me during the entire date," Serena said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "or some are a bunch of complete jerks, who want to try and impress their friends by going out with a celebrity." She said just as the bell signaling the end of lunch rang.
After school
Seiya walked through the halls of school, on his way back from the school gymnasium, tired and worn out from a grueling two hours of trying out for Juban High's Americanized style Football team, and was now ready to call it a day, when he spots Serena wondering around outside looking for something.
"Hey, Serena! Wait up!" Seiya shouted as he rushed after Serena, slowing down once he sees her stop to wait for him. "What's the big rush, Sere?" he asked as he finally came alongside her.
"I'm going to be late for the school Judo Club I signed up with earlier, Seiya." Serena said without breaking stride, though she did slow down a bit, "It took me forever to get directions to where they are holding it on campus, and I was told that it should be around here somewhere." She said as she glanced at the numbers listed on doors, as they walked together, "So tell me. How did Football tryouts go?"
"Great." Seiya said enthusiastically as he grinned at her, "I think Coach Stevens might actually allow me to join the team. Do you mind if I stick around to see how you do in the club? I don't have anything else planned. And how was aerobics tryouts?"
"I don't know, yet. The coach said that she'll let me know in a couple of days." Serena said with a slight shrug, as she turned towards him, and started walking backwards with her arms crossed behind her back. "And sure you can come along too if that's what you want to do," Serena said as she glanced down the halls before her eyes finally stopped on one door, and broke out into a grin, as she grabbed Seiya's hand, and starts pulling him along "There it is. Come on, I've only got a couple of minutes before it starts."
"Serena wait up will you?" Seiya protested as he was half dragged along behind Serena, as he tried to tug his arm free of her grip, "You don't have to pull me along behind you, you know."
Just as she reached the door, Serena finally let Seiya's wrist go, giving him an apologetic smile before turning once more to face the double doors that led into the practice room, and pushed them open, allowing the two teens to get their first glimpse of the room.
The room, which had once been a normal classroom, had been turned into a miniature dojo, with place mats lining the floors, a few practice dummies standing up along the walls, and two punching bags in the center of the room.
Standing off to the side of the room, a small class of students dressed in gi's standing on placemats were following their instructors orders as they followed in the procedures given to them.
Glancing up from his class, the teacher see's Seiya and Serena as they make their way towards them from across the room, and he motions to two of his students to take over for him, and leaves the group to approach the two teens.
The teacher was a man who looked to be in his mid-late twenties, though he was still well built. Dressed in a red gi, his long reddishf- brown hair, and was tied into a ponytail.
"Good afternoon. I'm Maxwell Stanton," he said in greeting, as he eyed the two newcomers with open eyes, "You must be new to school, because I don't remember having seen the two of you around campus before. What can I do for the two of you?"
"Hai, My name is Serena Kou, and this is my brother Seiya." Serena said politely as she bowed towards Maxwell, with her hands folded in front of her body, "This is our first day of school, and I'm here to see about joining your club. I heard about this club from around school."
"Hmmm... That's good to hear, I'll be more than happy to welcome anybody who wants to join up," Maxwell said as he nodded in agreement to Serena. "And what about you, young man?" Maxwell asked as he turned towards Seiya, eyeing the younger man. "Are you here to join the Judo club also?"
"Nothing for me, Mr. Stanton," Seiya said as he backed off, raising his hands defensively, "I'm just here to watch."
"No harm in watching, I always say," Maxwell said as he turned his attention back to Serena, eyeing her for a moment, before motioning towards an open door, "You can go into that room, and have your pick of any of the practice gi's to put on while you're here. And you can take it home with you if you want to. We've got plenty to go around."
"Thanks. I'll see you in a couple of minutes, Seiya." Serena exclaimed as she rushed towards the door and disappeared through it.
Shaking his head, Seiya reluctantly looked around for a place to sit down that was out of the way of the students, when he heard familiar voices calling his name.
"Hey, Seiya!"
Turning his attention in the direction that the voices were coming from, he spots Lita and Alex making their way towards him, both dressed in gi's. Lita's gi was a light greenish color, while Alex's was a dull yellow-brown color.
"Hey what are the two of you doing here?" Seiya asked as the two girls approached, "Don't tell me you attend this club too?"
"Actually we help founded this club with Stanton's help," Lita said sheepishly as she took a seat next to Seiya. "What are you doing here, Seiya-kun?"
"Don't tell me that you're into this stuff also." Alex said as she took a seat next on the other side of him.
"Not exactly," Seiya said with a slight shrug of his shoulders, "footballs more my thing these days," he added as he turned his attention back towards the changing rooms for a moment, before turning his attention back towards the two girls, "I'm here to wait for Serena."
"Serena?" Lita said, a note of surprise in her voice. "She's thinking of joining the club?"
"She wouldn't last ten minutes in here with the rest of us." Alex said with a look of concern crossing her features, as an sudden overwhelming feeling of protectiveness came over her at the thought of Serena fighting.
"What makes you say that," Seiya demanded as he glanced at Alex, eyes narrowing.
"She looks too frail and weak to handle it." Alex said, as she crossed her arms across her chest, "No offense, Seiya. But, someone like your sister shouldn't be practicing martial arts, when she could be--" she began only to stop, as a confused look appeared. 'Why am so worried about Serena for? I barely even know her yet--'
"'When I could be--' what, Alex?" Serena's voice called over.
Surprised at the sound of Serena's voice, the trio's gaze turned in the direction that they had heard Serena's voice coming from, they see her standing against a nearby wall next to the doorway, dressed in a pure white gi, with black slippers on her feet, long blond hair tied back into a braid, with her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at them. And from the expression on her face, it was obvious to all of them that she had heard every single word that had been spoken.
"Nothing, Serena. I was just thinking out loud," Alex said quickly, 'How long was she standing over there?' she wondered silently to herself, as she stared after the other blond girl as she made her way towards them. "What's this I hear about you joining the club, kitten? You don't look the type to dirty their hands in this kind of thing."
"Now you did it," Seiya muttered under his breath as he frowned at Alex.
Alex looked towards Seiya giving him an confused look, trying to figure out what he meant by that statement, but she realized that the answer was soon coming as Serena approached them.
"It's exactly what Seiya told you Alex, I'm planning on joining this club if they'll allow me to that is," Serena said with a shrug, glaring at Alex for a moment as she tightened the belt on her gi, marching right up to Alex, giving the taller girl an angry glare, as she poked Alex hard with one finger. "Let's get something straight Alex Tenou. I'm not some pushover little girl who hurts easily, and needs to be protected. I can handle myself perfectly well." She said then turned away, "I figure that this way I can get some practice in. If you guys will excuse me, I need to go talk to Mr. Stanton so I can find out what he wants me to do."
After a few minutes of talking with Stanton the two finally came to the front of the class, with Serena standing to the left of Stanton, keeping her arms crossed behind her back in a relaxed posture, while Alex and Lita stayed seated on the floor next to Seiya.
"Class, it would look like we will be welcoming a new member to our club," Maxfield said as he looked over the faces of everyone in the class. "But as all of you know, she'll have to pass a combat test before she'll be allowed to join." Looking over the class, his gaze finally settled on one of the male students, and he beckoned to him with his hands. "Mason, can you please stand up and come over here?"
Mason was a tall young man, around the age of 18, blue eyes, and black hair that barely went past his shoulders. Once he was up and on his feet, he walked over to Serena and Maxfield until he was standing right in front of them.
"Serena, I would like you to face off with Mason," Maxfield said as he met and held Serena's gaze, "If you win this match you will have proven yourself worthy of joining this club. Do you understand?"
"Hey Serena!" Alex called just before the match began.
"What!" Serena said.
"I'll tell you what," Alex said confidentially, as she watched Serena slowly turn her attention "If you win against Mason, kitten, I'll treat you to an ice cream sundae at the Crown Arcade later." Alex said with a small smirk on her features.
Turning back to look at Alex, Serena gave the other girl a bright smile. "You better mean that, Alex, because it's a deal."
The fight didn't even last two minutes.
'This shouldn't take long at all to beat her. She doesn't look that tough at all.' Mason thought smugly as he charged at Serena, he launched into a flying kick, aiming for her stomach planning to knock the wind out of her, only to wind up kicking nothing but air.
Before he could react to her sudden disappearance, a sudden well placed kick to his back sent him sprawling to the ground face first. Springing back to his feet, Mason spun around to see Serena standing a couple of feet away, in a fighting stance, with legs spread apart and hands ready to strike, as a small grin spread across her lips.
"Ready to give up?" Serena asked tauntingly as she glared at Mason.
"Not on your life," Mason snapped as, with a low growl of anger, he began charged once again. Mason launched an full out attack of punches and kicks at Serena, only to have them all blocked and counterattacked. Lashing out with his leg to try and trip her up, she only flipped over, landing on her hands and flipping back over and away from Mason, as she lashed out with her left leg.
"Your sisters very good," Maxwell said as he watched the fight from his spot next to Seiya. "I've never seen that type of fighting style before."
"She's a lot better than good. She can beat both our brothers and me hands down. And I think she's been waiting all day to do work off some steam," Seiya said with a smirk, not taking his eyes off of the fight even once. "Mason's just lucky Serena's holding back right now, or else he'd really be in trouble if she ever decided to go full out."
"You call that holding back!" Maxwell exclaimed as his eyes widened to almost the size of saucers, as he watched in disbelief, as he stared first at Seiya, then back at the fight going on, just as Serena landed a punch to Mason's stomach that sent the boy flying a feet off of the mat, to land on the cushioned floor, but didn't rise again.
The chosen referee to the match walked over to Mason's unconscious form, to check him out, then shook his head as he stood up and stared pointedly at Serena, before announcing. "Match, goes to Serena Kou."
A loud cheer rang throughout the room, as most of the girls crowded around Serena to give their congratulations to her.
"Whoa, I can't believe that you were able to actually beat Mason," One girl exclaimed as she stared at Serena.
"Yeah, he's like the next to last best fighter in our club next to Alex, Lita and Mr. Stanton, and not even Mason's been able to beat them in combat."
"Nice going Serena," Seiya said as he made his way through the crowd, which parted quickly to make room for him when they saw who he was, until he was finally standing next to Serena, "though I think you overdid it a bit."
"You know me and food, Seiya," Serena said sheepishly, as she grinned at Seiya, their eyes meeting for a moment, "I'd do anything for food, even for sweets."
"I have to congratulate you, Ms Kou," Maxfield said as he made his way to the front of the room, and stood in front of Serena and the others, "That was amazing," looking her over for a moment, before finally shrugging his shoulders, and held out his hand towards her. "Welcome to the club."
Awhile Later, Crown Arcade
"Someone remind me to never make another food bet with Serena again," Alex groaned, after checking her wallet to make sure she had enough money on her to pay for everything, as she and the others watched Serena gobble down her fourth chocolate chip and vanilla ice cream sundae in only half an hour. "Where does she put all of it?" she muttered under her breath.
Michelle sat next to Alex as she ate her sundae in peace, keeping her full attention on her ice cream, was the only one close enough to Alex to hear her exact words, and she giggled, gaining herself a dark look from Alex.
Lita sat across from them, in between Yaten and Taiki, flirting with them both excessively, as she tried to get them into a conversation, while at the same time was busy stirring what left in her bowl of ice cream, and licking off the spoon.
Almost immediately after they were out of the dojo, Serena had called on Alex's sundae debt to her, and after searching the school for Taiki and Yaten, they had all headed for the Arcade.
Seiya was busy savoring a strawberry sundae smothered in caramel sauce and chopped nuts; Taiki was busy eating from a medium sized bowl filled with rainbow sherbet.
"I hope we're not tying you up for anything that you might have had planned to do today, Alex." Serena said as she glanced up from her sundae, as she nodded towards Michelle and Lita, "You and Michelle must have had something planned today. Maybe practicing for a concert or something else important?"
"Are you sure about that?" Serena asked as she eyed the three.
"No, it's okay, really Serena," Michelle said, as she smiled at Serena, "Actually, we were going to meet up with some friends here anyway."
"Yeah," Lita said as she looked over at Serena. "I didn't have much planned for today, Serena. Except that I'm supposed to meet up with Mina and the others here soon." She said, just as Andrew decided to come over to talk.
Andrew was dressed in a pair of white pants and green shirt, wearing an apron around his waist as he used the apron to dry his hands on.
"Hello ladies," Andrew said as he stopped beside their table. "Who are your new friends?" he asked as he looked around the table at the new faces, before his eyes settled on Serena, as recognition settled in, "Hey, it's you. Serena, right? I was wondering where did you go last night?" Andrew asked, concern evident his voice "You disappeared so suddenly Serena."
"Oh, hi Andrew," Serena said pleasantly, after staring at his face for a moment before finally remembering who he was as she smiled up at Andrew from her seat, "Sorry about disappearing like that yesterday, but I remembered that I had to get somewhere soon, so I left without really saying goodbye."
"That's all right," Andrew said, returning her smile with one of his own, as a small blush crept up to his cheeks at her comment, "I guess I shouldn't have been paying more attention."
"Sere, you know this guy?" Seiya asked as his eyes remained firmly on Andrew, who looked uncomfortable from under the scrutiny he was now receiving from Seiya, Taiki and Yaten.
"Andrew, how do you know Serena?" Lita asked as she eyed Andrew curiously, at the same time that Seiya had voiced his question.
"Yeah," Serena said, resting a hand on Seiya's shoulder in a warning gesture, then shook her head at him when he turned his attention towards her before removing her hand. "We met each other across the street last night. Andrew, these guys here are my brothers, Seiya, Taiki and Yaten."
"Nice to meet you," Andrew said after a moment as he glanced at the three boys in the booth, before turning his attention towards Lita to answer her question.
"Darien introduced us yesterday, out on the street outside the electronics shop, while on their way here," Andrew said, as he looked at Serena, before the expression on his face sobered up. "I was on my way back to work when I heard about the monster attack in the park being broadcast on one the display windows, when they came across me."
"Darien!" Seiya, Taiki and Yaten chorused as they stared at Serena, once hearing this little bit of information, while Serena tried to wave off their possible incoming questions, as a slight blush crept up her cheeks.
"Now, who's this Darien character?" Yaten asked as he looked at the others around the table, "and how did you meet up with him, Sere?"
"We sort of literally ran into each other on the streets last night, while I was out sightseeing," Serena said as a slight blush crept up to her cheeks, "he offered to show me around town, when we ran into Andrew at the electronics store, and heard about the attack in town. Then he ran off somewhere."
Andrew stuck around for ten more minutes to talk with the group before he finally went back to work as more students started piling into the arcade, either heading straight for the arcade games or the front counter to place their food orders.
Just then Mina and Amy came into the arcade. Mina was dressed in a white cotton blouse with blue slacks and tennis shoes, and had Artemis draped over one shoulder. Amy was dressed in a yellow sundress, with white sandals on her feet, and was carrying Luna securely in her arms.
"We're here!" Mina cried out excitedly as she and the others made their way towards the booth, as she looked directly at the others in the group. "Hi guys, how's it going?"
"Meow." Artemis said in greeting as he tried to look like an ordinary cat towards the four strangers.
"Hi Mina," Serena said as she glanced over. "Cute cats." She said as she looked at the two cat's, instantly noticing the strange golden crescent moon marks on their foreheads, before reaching out under the table to kick at Yaten to get their attention.
"Yo." Yaten said, giving Serena a dirty look for the kick, as he reached down to rub his bruised leg, before noticing that her gaze wasn't on him, and followed her gaze to Luna and Artemis and see's the marks.
"Hiya," Seiya said cheerfully as he pushed away what was left in his bowl of ice cream.
"Mina you guys are late," Michelle said reproachfully. "What happened this time?"
"Amy's computer class ran late again today," Mina said with a shrug, before turning her attention back to the others, "Oh, yeah this is my cat. His name is Artemis."
"And this is Luna," Amy said.
"Great names for them, we have a female cat back at our apartment building, named Hera." Serena said as she eyed Artemis intensely for a moment, making the both cat's sweat a bit, before holding out her hands towards Luna, "May I pet her?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. Luna's not exactly friendly around other people," Amy said quickly, trying to think of a way.
"Don't worry about it, I have a special way with animals." Serena said as she reached out a hesitant hand towards Luna, and lightly petted Luna's head, earning a deep rumbling purr from the cat, much to the surprise to Amy and the others.
"That's a first," Alex muttered as she watched Serena cozy up to Luna.
"See what I mean?" Serena said cheerfully, before turning her attention towards Artemis who was watching everything skeptically, "as she reached out towards Artemis, "And how does this handsome guy, remain so cute?" she asked putting on the charm, as she petted Artemis.
"Meow..." Artemis said as he preened at the compliments Serena had given him, and really put on a show of being a perfect gentleman, by letting Serena fuss over him, gently bumping the top of his head against her hand, and purred loud enough to wake the dead.
'Show off,' Luna thought silently to herself as she watched the humiliating display her companion was doing, though she seemed to be enjoying herself under the administrative hands of Yaten as he stroked and petted her in all the right places.
"You know, those are really strange looking marks on your cat's foreheads," Yaten commented as he looked directly at Luna's forehead, before returning his gaze back to the girls, as he gently traced a finger over the crescent moon mark on Luna's forehead, "I've never this type of mark on a cat before."
"They've always had them." Lita said quickly, as she gave the group a sheepish grin, "there's nothing unusual about the marks at all."
"I didn't say there was something unusual about it," Yaten said with an impish smile, as he set Luna back down onto the floor, much to Luna's displeasure.
"You said that you had a cat also?" Amy said, deciding to change the subject, "What kind is it?"
"You could call Hera almost a tabby type of cat," Serena said with a slight shrug. "She has brown fur, with black stripes over different parts of her body, a long fluffy tail, and violet eyes."
"Violet eyes?" Alex exclaimed, as she eyed Serena and the others warily, for a moment. "What kind of cat has violet eyes?"
"Hera's a special breed of cat," Seiya said, as he glanced down at his wrist watch a moment later, before standing up, "Guys we've got to be going. Sammy's probably back at the apartment by now, and his ice cream's melting, plus the fact we're scheduled to go to the recording studio in an hour." He said before turning around to look at the girls again, "And thanks again for the ice cream treat, Alex." He added, with a slight smile.
The others immediately stood up, and pushed back their chairs as they moved away from the table, and headed after the Seiya, with Serena being the last out.
"Yeah thanks again Alex, we really should do this again sometimes," Serena said as she hurried after, after the others.
"See you guys at school tomorrow," Mina called after them as the glass doors swung shut behind the group, before turning her attention back towards the others, just as Luna spoke up.
"There's was something about that girl," Luna murmured softly to herself, as she looked out the restaurant window to watch Sernea and her brothers walking down the street, talking to each other, until they were completely out of sight.
"What was that Luna? Is something wrong?" Amy asked as she took a seat in front of Luna, staring at her.
"When that girl reached out and touched me, I could sense something strange coming from her," Luna said as she turned her attention back towards the others at the table, as her eyes fastened on Artemis "Artemis you must have felt it too."
"Yeah, I felt it too," Artemis said, as he stretched out from his spot on the floor, "it felt like some kind of energy was radiating off of her when she touched me."
"Don't tell me that you guys think that Serena and her brothers might be new enemies," Mina exclaimed, sounding completely appalled, then noticed all the strange looks directed her way, by other customers, and realized how exactly loud she had been and lowered her voice back into a whisper. "Their nice."
"Yeah, Luna," Lita said disdainfully as she frowned at the black cat, "You always say that about everyone you meet, and look how wrong you always turn out to be."
"For once, I have to agree with Mina and Lita," Alex said as she glowered at the two cats, "Those four have their moments at times, but I like them too."
"I am not that bad!" Luna protested angrily through gritted teeth at Lita's words, as she glared at the brunette, then quickly glanced around the arcade to make sure no one else had heard her before continuing, "So I made a few mistakes in the past two years, so sue me." She finished with a loud indignant 'hmph', before becoming serious again, "besides this time I'm sure about it. You even heard Artemis say that he felt it too."
"No, you don't understand." Luna protested as she glanced around at the girls surrounding her, "There was something almost, familiar about the energy I felt from Serena." not that kind of energy," she said firmly.
"Do you think that Serena might be a sailor senshi like the rest of us, Luna?" Mina asked after a few moments, "If she is, that be so cool!"
"She just might be. She could be a new senshi, or a new enemy that we haven't faced yet," Luna said, her tone sounding slightly annoyed, as she thought for a moment, before turning her attention towards Artemis for his advice, "What do you think Artemis? Do you think that it could be possible that Serena might be a sailor senshi?"
"Well if she's a new sailor Senshi, she could be either Sailor Moon, or Sailor Earth, since those are the only two sailors we haven't found yet," Artemis said cheerfully as he stretched out, before moving his legs until they were resting underneath his body, "Though I think she might be more along the lines of being Sailor Moon."
"Well if she is one of us, then she would be a great help to the team, if her martial arts abilities anything to go on," Lita said. "She was really kicking butt today at school in the Judo club."
'I just wonder why we haven't found her until now,' Luna thought silently to herself, as she glanced once more out the window in the direction the foursome had disappeared in.
"Well then, we might as well get going ourselves, if we don't want to be late for the meeting at Raye's shrine," Michelle said as she stood up, pushing her chair away from the table.
"We'll take my car, it's just around the corner," Alex said, looking up from inspecting the bill, a large sweat drop rolling down the back of her head as she read the price, before she pulled out a couple of bills and tossed it onto the table, and followed Michelle and the others out of the arcade.
Just as the group stepped out of the arcade, their communicators started beeping. Quickly glancing around at the crowded street, they hurried towards Alex's sports car and piled in.
Pulling out her communicator, Lita switched it on, to see Sailor Mar's haggard and agitated face on the view screen. "What is it Sailor Mars? Is Raven back, and causing trouble again?"
"Yes, but it's not Raven this time. It's two different people causing trouble this time, and they are just as powerful as Raven was." Mars said as she looked away for a moment, to watch the fight. "it looks like we've got some new enemies this time it's in the town square." Mars said, "Darien and the guys are here too, but we need help! How long before the rest of you can get here!" she demanded.
"Here, give me that communicator," Before Lita could answer, Alex reached between the front car seats to pluck Lita's communicator out of her hands, so that she could speak to Mars, "Calm down Mars, we'll get there in no time at all. You guys just try and hold out as long as you can." She said impatiently as she clicked off the communicator before Mars could reply, and hands it back to Lita.
"Alex! You didn't have to..." Lita began only to be cut off.
"We'll discuss it later, Lita. You guys better have your seatbelts on," she said as she started the engine, and pulled out, driving at a fast speed, as both Michelle and the other girls hurried to put their seatbelts on, while at the same time try and hold onto Luna and Artemis.
Meanwhile, Elsewhere
Serena, Seiya, Taiki and Yaten rode up the elevator to their apartment in silence as they thought back to that days events as they waited for the elevator to stop. Finally Serena was the first to break the silence.
"So what do you guys think of those cats Mina and Amy had?" Serena asked as she folded her hands in front of her body, still clutching the carton of ice cream in her hands. "Do you guys think that they are from Hera's home planet, Taiki?"
"I don't know Serena," Taiki said as he looked over at Serena, "For all we could know, those two cats could be just a couple of normal earth cats."
"Yeah, but still, those marks on their foreheads are almost a dead give away, I'd think," Serena said as she looked away to stare out the elevator windows to look down at the streets, "And normal Earth cats don't have eyes like theirs. There was just something too..." stopping to think of a word.
"Too human? Too intelligent?" Seiya's said helpfully, catching Serena's attention as she and the others turned their attention directly at him. "What? I noticed it too, you guys. Even during that short length of time, both Luna and Artemis reminded me too much of Hera. Especially when she's trying to pretend to be a normal cat."
"Not to mention how Artemis immediately started cozying up to you when you called him both handsome and cute, Serena," Taiki said with a slight chuckle at the memory, "if that's not a sign that those two aren't your average cats, then I don't know what else is."
"And their aura's were off. Which means, if they are from Mau, then I wonder what are they doing this far out in the Milky Way galaxy?" Seiya said, as he stared off for a moment, "No one's ever traveled this far out before in years."
"They could be guardian cats, just like Hera is for us," Taiki said as his eyes narrowed in concentration, "There's no other way to explain it."
Just then, the elevator finally came to a stop on their floor.
"Let's talk about this later tonight," Serena said as she stepped out onto the carpeted floor, and turned back around to face the others as they stepped out of the elevator, as they made their way to the apartment doors, "I want to do some more sightseeing today, once I change. Let's all head into my apartment first."
Once they were all in front of Serena's door, she pulled out her room card key and slid it through the panel on the door, and turned the knob, and they went inside.
Immediately upon entering the apartment, they spot Sammy sitting on the couch watching anime on TV. Next to him sat a teenage girl, with long dark brown hair pulled back with a blue bandana, dressed in a t- shirt and tight blue jeans. At the sound of the front door opening the girl was the only one to look up, and sees the others enter the room.
"Hey guys, what took you so long to get back home?" she asked as she stood up to greet them. "I thought school was over hours ago."
"Hi Hera," Serena said with a slight smile, as she saw her friend, but then frowned a bit when she realized that Hera was human at the moment, "How come you're in your human form now?" she asked.
"We got hungry, so I changed into my human body, and cooked up something for us to eat while we waited for you guys to get home," Hera said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "It's still cooking even now."
"We were a little detained after school," Seiya said as he wrapped an arm around Serena's shoulders, "Serena here managed to win an ice cream bet with of the girls at school, and we were all treated to it."
"And you didn't come back home so we could come get some ice cream too?" Sammy demanded, finally paying attention to what the others were saying at the first mention of ice cream, as he turned down the volume on the TV set.
"Chill Sammy," Yaten said as he made his way to the couch, and plopped down onto the cushions and kicked off his shoes. "We brought you both back some ice cream so you wouldn't be left out."
Hera rushed over to grab the bag out of Taiki's hands, and pulled the bag open to reach inside to lift up the lid of both of the containers to peek inside at their contents. "Mocho Chocolate Chip! And Rainbow Sherbet," she exclaimed happily as she turned back towards the others with a grin plastered on her face. "Thanks you guys. We can have this for dessert after dinner tonight."
"Hey, guys look at the TV," Yaten called out, as he made his way towards the couch. Reaching over, he picked up the remote control and turned the volume back up, as the others turned to watch the screen, to see a news report message showing on the screen.
"We interrupt this scheduled program to bring you late breaking news. This is Hiroshi Ryouji bringing you terrifying news. Earlier today, in downtown Tokyo, the Town Square was attacked by a group of ice monsters of unknown origins. The Sailor Senshi and the Generals are fighting the monsters even as we speak, but things are not looking very good for our local heroes. We're going live now to the scene of the battle..."
The screen changes to show another reporter looking worriedly over his shoulder at the ensuing battle every few seconds, as it looked like he was trying to look as unnoticeable as possible as he kept his back pinned to a wall, before his attention finally snapped back to the camera before him, after being told that they were on the air.
"Thanks Hiroshi. This is Yamato Hibiki reporting you from the Town Square, and I'm telling you at viewers out there that it's become a madhouse down here. Behind me you can see the frozen forms of these monsters victims scattered around the square."
Camera zooms in to the battle taking place to show frozen statues of people everywhere.
"The attack began early this afternoon, freezing everything that moved before they could escape. And it would seem that these new monsters are being led by two powerful beings calling themselves Puck and Frostbite. The Sailor Senshi and their allies are holding them back as long as they can, but things don't look good for... What? What is it?"
The sound of somebody yelling in the background from behind the camera caused Yamato to spin around in fear at what was approaching, and the camera zoomed in on a blue haired teenage girl in dressed all in blue turning around to look in their direction, and started moving purposely towards them.
"Oh, no it's Frostbite!" Yamato's voice cried out in alarm as he and the camera man started to back away as far as they could.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" Frostbite's voice rang out as she grinned evilly at the cowering reporters, "A couple of nosey newshounds. Well, then let me help you out. I have a message for a certain Sailor Senshi out there calling herself Sailor Star Dreamer. Last night you seriously harmed one of our colleagues, and we're here for a little payback. If we don't see you soon, I'll turn my Icejin loose onto this entire city, and have them turn it into a frozen wasteland, and it's citizens into ice statues like them." She announced as she raised her hands up in front of her and points them directly at the reporters, as her open palms began to glow a dark blue color. "This report is now over!"
What soon followed was the sound of screams of fear and pain ringing as the camera followed the blue light as it surrounded the group, before the picture was lost completely, and the screen switches back to the new station, as they tried to bring the picture back up and get back into contact with the Yamato and his news crew with no luck.
"Yamato, are you still there? Can you still hear me, Yamato!" Hiroshi called out through the microphone headpiece at his ear, as he tried to get an answer from the reporter only to receive nothing but static. After a few seconds of nothing but silence on the other end, he finally gave up and turned back around to face the camera with a gloomy expression as he spoke, "All of you heard it here folks. Star Dreamer if you are out there listening to this broadcast, the Sailor Senshi and Tokyo needs your help once more. Please help us!"
"Damn it," Serena snapped as she glared at the TV set, as she snatched up the remote control and switched it off, and turned to face the others, and sees the matching expressions on their faces.
"I think they would have started this attack even if you hadn't made your appearance as Sailor Star Dreamer last night, Serena," Taiki said reassuringly as he walked over towards her.
"Well from the way Frostbite put it," Serena said, her face turning red, "it's almost sounds like she's trying to put the blame for their attack today solely on me so that I get in trouble around here."
"I think the only reason they've made this ultimatum is because you alone hurt that Raven character last night." Seiya said, anger filling his eyes at the thought of what was going on. "And made that announcement to lure you out."
"Look, are we going to continue yakking about this, or are we going out there to help them?" Yaten demanded as he pulled out his henshin headset, and put it on. "If we're going to start making appearances as the Sailor Starlights in this city, we do have a reputation to keep, right?"
"Right!" Serena and Taiki chorused.
"Of course we're going," Seiya said, grinning a bit as he pulled out his own headset. "And here I thought that our last couple of months on Earth were going to be boring." He said sarcastically as he grinned a bit, making as he and the others made their way towards the front door, "I want to meet up with the senshi of this planet, and personally have a little talk with Uranus and Neptune."
"Hey wait up you guys, I want to come to," Hera exclaimed as she stood up and started to go after the others.
"Stay here, Hera, we might not need your help tonight," Serena said stopping near the door, with one hand resting on the frame, as she half turned around to look at the remaining two in the room.
"Why not!" Hera demanded as she rested her hands on her hips and frowned at Serena.
"One thing is your cooking." Serena said as she stared back at Hera for a moment, meeting the other girls violet eyed gaze head on, before turning her gaze towards Sammy, giving him a teasing grin, "Second, somebody's got to watch Sammy to make sure he stays out of trouble and out of the ice cream until we all get back."
"Hey, I don't need a babysitter! Especially not with Hera in charge..." Sammy cried out indignantly as he glared at his sister, just as Hera whacked him over the head with her hand. "OW! What did you do that for, Hera!"
"Your not a bed of roses either, brat." Hera snapped as she glared down at the younger boy, and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Fine, don't call it babysitting then," Serena called back just as the door was about to close behind her, "You can just keep Hera company until we get back, Sammy. It shouldn't take too long anyways." She called back as the door shut behind with a loud click before either one could reply.
Meanwhile, back at the battle scene
The Icejin were made completely of ice, with long sharp claws for hands and feet, long, sharp spikes stuck out of their arms and backs, two curved horns perched on their forheads, as their glowing red and gold eyes glared menacingly at their opponents, letting out loud earsplitting wailing laughter as they attacked with both physical and ice attacks, against the Sailor Senshi.
The Sailor Senshi and the generals were doing badly against Puck and Frostbites forces, as their combined attacks took out most of the ice monsters, only to watch helplessly as more immediately replace the ones that were destroyed, as their own numbers began to dwindle down. With the late arrival of Sailors Neptune, Uranus, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus, the odds in the battle had risen into their favor.
"Damn!" Uranus cursed as she launched another attack towards another Icejin and watched as it was instantly vaporized, "These things are harder to beat than the Torok's. Mercury, hasn't your computer found a way to beat them yet!" she demanded as she turned her attention towards the blue haired senshi.
"It's still searching for any sign of a weakness in the Icejin, so it may still take awhile," Mercury said, as she glanced up at the other Sailor Senshi.
"Is there anything that you can tell us that could help?" a battered Sailor Mars demanded in a hopeful voice, as she glanced at Sailor Mercury for her answer.
"All the Mercury computer can tell me is that the power source that's keeping the Icejin going is that the power is coming from both Puck and Frostbite." Mercury said, becoming thoughtful for a moment as she accessed the situation, before speaking once more, "Frostbite's attacks are based solely on ice and other water based elements, so my guess is that Puck must be supplying Frostbite with the necessary power she needs to keep producing the Icejin. So maybe if we take out one of them, this battle could be over sooner."
"Easier said than done, Mercury," Mars snapped as she glanced back towards the battle, "There's no one close enough to get an attack in at them, and with the way the Icejin keep attacking, we may still not get the chance to attack."
Mercury only silently shook her head in response as she glanced once more at the computer screen to look at the new readouts showing up on the screen.
"What we need is help," Mercury said softly as she glanced around at the others, taking in the injured state of some of her companions, including the generals. "If only we had a way to contact Star Dreamer, maybe we could talk her into coming back and-"
"We don't need the help of an outsider!" Uranus snapped as she glared daggers at Mercury, causing the other girl to involuntarily flinch under the older girls gaze. "We shouldn't put our full trust into her. We don't know anything about her, not to mention the fact she's not even from this galaxy."
"Back off Uranus," Jupiter cut in as she glanced back at the others, after launching an attack at the oncoming Icejin, "No matter how much you Outers may be against Dreamer being here on Earth," she started eyes narrowing in anger, "if it wasn't for Star Dreamer, the rest of us probably would have been dead by the time you guys arrived at the battle yesterday. She didn't have to come help us, but she did. As far as I'm concerned she's okay in my book."
"Ladies, look," Tuxedo Mask interrupted as he made his way towards the girls, the generals behind him, "Unless you girls have forgotten already, we don't have the time for all of you to start arguing about this later, if we have a later, that is."
Just then one of the Icejin broke through the line of attacks being sent out, and charged the group of heroes, wailing maniacally, as it got ready to launch an attack of it's own, planning to take out a few of the senshi itself before it could be destroyed like it's comrades when...
"STAR SOLAR SCREAM!"
A blast of energy came out of nowhere striking the Icejin head, on, completely vaporizing it before it even reached the group, causing everyone to relax, before looking around for the source of the attack's origin.
'So she decided to come help us again after all,' Uranus thought silently to herself as she glanced around the area, until her eyes finally spot Star Dreamer, as she appeared out of the shadows of a nearby alley.
"Hold it right there!" Star Dreamer shouted out, once everyone there had finally noticed her presence. "I won't stand for the cruelties and injustice being done here tonight, and I'm here to stop it."
"Well look who's here, Puck," Frostbite said with a slight smirk on her lips, as she faced Sailor Star Dreamer, "So the mysterious new Sailor senshi has finally decided to make her appearance before us. I almost thought that you would have chickened out."
"Starlight's don't 'chicken out'," Star Dreamer said sarcastically, as her eyes narrowed in anger at the elemental, "I didn't appreciate that announcement you made on TV to me. Exactly what are the two of you doing here?" Star Dreamer demanded as she glared at the two villains with distaste evident in her voice.
"So you did see my little announcement on the news," Frostbite said, sounding pleased, as she touched down a few feet away from Dreamer, "Your showing yourself now, saves us the trouble of having to hunt you down and killing you ourselves," she said with a confident.
"We're here for some payback for what you did to Raven last night, Star Dreamer," Puck said, as he landed on the ground, and sneers at her, "No one messes with one of our own and lives."
"Then why didn't Raven come here himself?" Star Dreamer asked, as she placed her hands on her hips, to scowl at the them, "Why isn't he trying to avenge himself, instead of sending you guys in his place?"
"Because he's in hot water with our queen right now thanks to you, and is confined to our realm for the time being," Frostbite said with scowl on her features, "so she gave us his job. We thought that we should kill two birds with one stone, and get rid of all of the senshi at once."
"I think you Fey people have nothing better to do than cause trouble and harm to innocent bystanders, like those reporters you attacked, just to make a point" Dreamer exclaimed, glaring at the duo.
"We've heard a lot about you from our comrade Raven," Puck said as he eyed her up and down, before giving her a dismissive look, and moved back to Frostbite's side, "You're the first one of these girls to actually do damage to one of our kind, and I'm quite impressed."
"Thank you. It comes with the job," Star Dreamer said as she gave the duo a mock bow, as she stood back up, expression not changing, "Now then are you guys going to leave peacefully or do you want to leave the same way that Raven did last night?"
"Don't make us laugh," Frostbite snapped as her ice blue eyes turned even more frosty as they settled on Star Dreamer in anger, "Unlike that weakling Raven, the two of us have nothing to worry about the likes of you." She said contemptuously as she snapped her fingers as over twenty or more Icejin appeared 10 feet away from where Star Dreamer stood. "Icejin, get her!"
Immediately the group of monsters charged straight at Star Dreamer, ready for battle, as Star Dreamer simply stood there and waited for the attack to come, not making any move to avoid it.
All of the senshi and generals could do was watch in shock as the Icejin almost reached Star Dreamer and still she didn't do anything to protect herself from the incoming assault, but were too busy with their own opponents to do anything to help.
"Star Dreamer get the hell out of the way!" Mars shouted out a warning as she and the others watched as the other girl didn't make any move to either stop or avoid the oncoming attack.
Then, to everyone's complete surprise, as the air around them was broken by the sound of three unfamiliar voices shouting out their attacks, as the Icejin were suddenly engulfed in blinding light.
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!"
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!"
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!"
As the light cleared, everyone's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they saw that nearly all of the Icejin had been completely vaporized by the unknown attacks, and as they witnessed three new figures dressed in black leather leap down from a nearby rooftop to land next to Star Dreamer. Everyone's eyes widened even further as they realized that the three newcomers were dressed exactly like Star Dreamer.
"Cutting it in a little close aren't we, Dreamer?" the senshi with black hair commented as she gave Star Dreamer a reprimanding look.
"Yeah, what were you trying to pull?" the one with silver hair demanded as she put her hands on her hips.
Dreamer only shrugged her shoulders, looking a bit sheepish as she answered, "I knew you guys would have done something to stop them before they reached me, so I let them come."
"What the heck!" Frostbite exclaimed in surprise as three attacks of energy came out of nowhere and struck one of the groups of ice monsters, completely wiping them out in one blast.
"No way," Puck muttered under his breath as he looked at the four leather clad girls before him in disbelief.
Glancing back at Star Dreamer, she see's that the leather clad senshi was smiling slightly, as three figures dressed similarly as Star Dreamer were now standing side by side with Dreamer. "How... Who the hell are you three!"
"Four of them!" the sailor senshi and generals said out loud as they stared at the four newcomers, in shock and disbelief.
"Now, what made you so sure I would have come here by myself tonight?" Star Dreamer said smugly, as she looked at her companions. "I'd say that introductions needed."
"Right," the other Starlights chorused.
"Penetrating the Darkness at night... The air of freedom breaks through... We are the four sacred shooting stars of the new millennium. We are..."
"Sailor Star Dreamer!"
"Sailor Star Fighter!"
"Sailor Star Healer!"
"Sailor Star Maker!"
"Sailor Starlight's, Stage on!"
Author's Notes:
Hey everyone. I hope that you all like the newest chapter to A Brand New Destiny. Tell me what you think.
Sorry everyone for taking so long to update A Brand New Destiny. I've been busy with both real life, and I've had a major case of Writer's Block for the last couple of months, because I couldn't decide to how Chapter 4 would go.
The main reason that I had writers block is because I also have a chapter 5 of BNEWD almost ready to come out soon too and I was working on that before I did Chapter 4. Chapter 5 would have been chapter 4 only if I had ended Chapter 3 differently than I did. Which then left me with a mega case of writers block for what to put for the new Chapter 4...
But I've made up for the long waits now haven't I, with an even longer chapter? Even I was surprised at how long it got during all this time. v
Anyways... Now I can finally get back to work on my other stories, though I might work on chapter 5 in too. What do you all think of the long awaited chapter 4 of A Brand New Destiny? Do you guys love it? Hate it? What?
January 11, 2002 - Just a mini update. sighs I finally noticed all of these mistakes, where some of the paragraphs were never finished and so on, that I made when I first wrote this chapter 3 months ago, and just now got around to fixing them on Friday night. I just hope that I managed to get them all now.
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Date Started: March 10, 2001
Date Finished: October 3, 2001
Date Updated: January 12, 2002