Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else. Yup. This episode is kind of long. You were forewarned. That's all I can say for now... so, enjoy!
Star Buds
Episode One: Stars Rising
A sea of green suddenly filled the air above the biology building of Jujo High School. It crashed against something and rapidly dissipated. Five figures could be seen moving about, dodging what could be described as 'blue fireballs'.
Meanwhile, the students, who gazed up at the battle taking place at the top of their beloved structure, began to disperse and run frantically about. They couldn't understand what was happening. This phenomenal scene was both exhilarating and terrifying. Some didn't know whether to flee for their lives or witness one of the most awesome events of their time. Still, teachers ushered the students to get away from the campus as fast as they could. The principal had actually issued a 'red alert sub-zero'—it was probably just a string of important sounding words slewed together to sound urgent. (Principal Jujo was like that.) However, the 'red alert sub-zero' did one thing at least—it alerted the police force, which curiously had not yet got to the scene.
Back on the rooftop of the biology building, five young girls circled a seemingly harmless blue star pendant.
"What the hell happened?" yelled a fierce looking girl with bushy black hair tied into two pigtails, each held together with red beaded hair tiers.
Something was different about these five girls. They were not wearing Jujo High uniforms. In fact, they were wearing an altered senshi fuku suit. Each wore a different style.
The busy-haired one, also known as Double Star Bud Virgo, had a purple and gray color scheme and had a spear in her hand. She almost looked like a tribal woman if not for her purple bow that added a splash of softness to her rough appearance.
Holding her bow and arrow at the ready, Star Bud Sagittarius eyed the blue pendant. She sensed some strange vibes emanating from it.
"I do not think we are done with her yet—Everyone! Be on the alert!" she said calmly to the other four.
Lowering her sword, Star Bud Aquarius walked toward the necklace. Star Bud Leo followed behind her. They looked curiously at the pendant for a few seconds.
"Well, it doesn't look so bad. It almost matches my outfit! Whaddya think Leo?"
Leo prodded it with the end of her mirror staff, "Hey you might be right—although I believe it goes much better with my eyes—"
"What?!" Single Star Bud Virgo incredulously cried, "That thing isn't some sort of toy or jewelry or fashion accessory for you to play with! We must destroy it or we're gonna die! Don't you agree Sagittarius?"
Sagittarius nodded in agreement. However, Aquarius and Leo, not heeding Single Virgo's warning, took turns poking the blue star pendant.
"Alright!" Double Virgo yelled, "Get your sissy asterisks outta here so I can crack open some sissy pendant!"
She grabbed the two jewelry-obsessed Star Buds by the collar and threw them aside, nearly off the roof.
"Doom on you!" they screamed as they crossed their arms and grumbled in anger.
"Pftt—The gruesome twosome... always good for a laugh," she said and then raised the point of her spear over the pendant, poised to strike down, "Now, time for some smashy-smashy!"
Before she could thrust her spear down, a dim light emerged from the center of the star.
"Ver! Look out!" Single Virgo yelled as she tackled Double Virgo far enough from the pendant to protect her from what happened next.
The dim light from the star grew stronger and the light became brighter as it shot out like a laser beam.
"Wowzers! I could've had my head blown off! Thanks shorty," Double Virgo said as she scratched her head.
"Well, while it would've been scientifically interesting to actually witness your head being burnt away layer by layer by the laser blast, I decided against it," Single Virgo replied with a smile.
"Thanks so much little runt, remind me NOT to decide against scientifically pounding your brain in!"
Sagittarius, Aquarius, and Leo formed a wall between the two girls on the ground and the "active" blue pendant.
"Ok, light-spazzing pendant is a big no-no in my fashion book," Aquarius said as she gripped her sword tighter.
"Truth in those words my sista," Leo confirmed.
Sagittarius notched an arrow to her bow and pulled it back. She took a deep breath and as she did so, the arrow lit up in fire.
"She is coming back. Do not stare directly in the light of her eyes or any light she exudes as a matter of fact," Sagittarius informed them.
"Are you sure about this?" Aquarius asked.
"Are you sure about this?" Maddy asked.
"Of course I'm sure! This is what happens when you're a new student!" Ms. Haruna said energetically.
She was one of the teachers at the high school. It was her job to welcome the new students.
"Well, you see, we throw you a welcoming party," she said as she threw confetti in the air.
The five new students and Ms. Haruna were in her office, which overlooked the quad—the central meeting place for assemblies and special announcements. It also had a balcony that was great for everyone to see and be heard.
Annie raised her hand, "A party?! You call public humiliation a party?!"
Vivicka, the 'short one', meekly nodded and said, "I actually have to agree with Annie on this one. Plus, I'm afraid of heights..."
"You girls are new students! Ordinarily, I wouldn't do this, but you just transferred from the prestigious Mukashi No Tenshi High School! That school itself deserves a party... Anyway, since you came from such a prominent background, I had to find a way to thrust you into the societal wheels of high school—Fast! This is the only way I see it and it's good publicity."
The five girls were speechless. They wanted to believe it was just a horrible dream.
"No offense Ms. Haruna," Angela began, "But we do not want to be subject to this kind of public display—"
"In other words: Hell no!" Veronica shouted and slammed her fist on the desk.
Angela gasped at the irreverence of Veronica's statement. Vivicka laughed geekily.
"Got that totally wrong Ver, heh heh," Vivicka muttered.
"What the hell did you say? You want some of this?" Veronica said as she held up her fist and waved it in front of Vivicka's face.
Vivicka shouted back as they started to get into a heated argument. Meanwhile, Maddy and Annie realized they hadn't checked themselves in front of the mirror all morning before they left the house.
"Hey Mad, got a mirror?" Annie whispered.
She shook her head but noticed the floor was quite shiny. She pointed down and smirked.
"Good thinking," Annie said to Maddy as they both shrunk to the floor on their knees.
Angela gave them an alarmed look but they didn't notice her. Ms. Haruna didn't notice either; in fact, she didn't seem to notice much of anything that was happening in her office.
Finally, Angela spoke, "Ms. Haruna, pardon me, but do not you think we should get to class now? I should like to begin my studies as soon as possible."
"Why of course my dear!" Ms. Haruna responded, "Sofia! Get in here! Bring your camera too!!! SOFIA!"
The door slid open and revealed a girl arrogantly standing upright with an old-fashioned notepad. Behind her stood a girl with a camera. She seemed excited for some reason.
The girl with the notepad stepped in and looked around. First, she glanced at the feuding girls who had their fists waving in the air. Then her eyes moved to the couple of the girls who were pointing at their reflections on the tile flooring. Finally, her gaze rested on the only normal girl in the room—Angela.
Sofia extended her hand to her, "Greetings! My name is Sofia Lancaster. I'm the chief editor and owner of the school newspaper."
Angela smiled, thinking she finally met a levelheaded person in this kooky place, "Hullo, my name is Angela Kawairashii. I am very glad to meet you."
"Charming name," Sofia said as she motioned for Josie Camarin, her photographer, to enter the room.
Annie and Maddy jumped up and went straight to Josie.
"Wow! Are you a professional photographer?" Maddy asked excitedly.
Annie added, "Can I see some of your work?"
"What?!" Josie cried out, "Nobody has ever asked me that—Well, here you go!"
She took out a huge portfolio.
"I usually don't have this but I thought I'd just bring it out today," she said as she took out some magazine covers, "Here are some students that I had to photograph for the newspaper."
Apparently, Veronica and Vivicka stopped quarreling because Vivicka popped up between Maddy and Annie.
"Wha??" Viv exclaimed as she pointed at the swimmer in the picture, "Who is she?"
"That's Julia Masmen, master swimmer at Jujo High," Josie answered proudly.
"Whoa... she reminds me of Roswell," Vivicka said.
"Oh, you mean Roswell, New Mexico? Did you know it changed to Neo Mexico?" Josie said and began to chatter on and on.
"Right..." Vivicka replied as she rolled her eyes.
As Sofia jotted down notes, Ms. Haruna was preparing the stage lights and microphone on the balcony. Josie busied herself with cleaning her camera lenses.
"Hey Ange, I usually like all this attention but this is just way out of my league. I mean look," Annie said as she pointed at Ms. Haruna who was setting the firecrackers down, "She's practically holding a New Year's party out there!"
Angela never looked puzzled but this was something she never imagined would happen at a place dubbed "the genius school of super talents". Not a moment too soon, Veronica slipped their schedule disks off the desk.
"Yoink!" Veronica said as she showed them their class schedules.
"Lets get the hell out of here!" Vivicka said in a high-pitched voice due to all of the excitement.
As they crept pass the journalist and photographer and stepped out the door, Veronica punched Vivicka on the head.
"What was that for?" Vivicka said as she rubbed her head, which began to sprout a red, swollen bump.
"Only I git to say hell! You hearin' me, you little hell monkey?" Veronica said angrily but ended up in a hearty laugh, "HAH! Hell monkey—gotta remember that one!"
For some reason, Vivicka laughed too even though her head hurt. She was always laughing at the most oddest times...
Maddy and Annie had to drag the two laughing girls down the hall as they followed Angela's orders.
"Here are your schedules. Vivicka, you are going into the first year class. Veronica, you are in the second year. The rest of us are in the third year," Angela distributed the disks, "Get to class and please do not draw attention to yourselves. Remember that we are here to gather and retrieve information on the Earth."
She looked at Vivicka, "And even if classes are too easy for you, just try to fit in."
The others nodded.
Angela, Annie, and Maddy took the corridor to the right. Veronica took the opposite corridor and Vivicka went straight down the hall.
As the short girl walked, she couldn't help but notice that the walls were huge glass windows where you could see the green foliage and the large trees that decorated the gardens of the school grounds.
"Gulp Did I mention to anyone that I'm afraid of heights?" she thought, "No matter, just keep walking, just keep walking..."
On the other side of the glass windows, a small, blue fuzzy light swirled and moved about, following the girl down the hall.
Suddenly, in the air, more lights flashed and they turned out to be firecrackers. Ms. Haruna's voice could be faintly heard. As the light of the crackers faded out, the small, blue light journeyed on...
Veronica trudged into class and saw her nemesis—the teacher. He took one look at Veronica through his ancient glasses and sighed. Here was another 'burnt out light bulb', with the bird nest hair to prove it.
"Hiya," Veronica greeted the teacher with a slight bow.
He immediately saw the disrespectfulness of the gesture but quickly dismissed it. Besides, he had the whole year to critique and punish the youngster.
"Class, this is Veronica... Kaze," he said as he motioned for the class to greet the new student.
The class mumbled what could be called a greeting. Veronica shrugged and did a small salute.
"Tell us something about yourself."
"Well, I was the number one fighter in my district last year and I sure as hell'll be the best in this district!" she boasted.
"Amusing..." the teacher said disinterestedly, "Take a seat next to..."
There was a bunch of rough, shady guys in the corner.
"Next to Rand. You'll make friends with them, they also like to um... hit people."
Interestingly enough, she had to sit in the midst of the rowdy boys. Veronica couldn't care less. She could knock them out in under five seconds flat. She laughed at the mental image.
Class went by slowly as the teacher droned on and on about this and that. Veronica had learned to dodge the crumbled pieces of papers that flew by here. It was the only thing keeping her awake.
As the teacher began his literature lecture, Veronica noticed something unusual outside. A blue, fuzzy light was hanging around outside the window of a nearby classroom. It hovered there for a few moments, and then began to rock back and forth, gathering momentum.
Veronica's eyes widened.
The blue light paused for a mere second. It swung one last time and crashed through the window. A figure jumped out the window as shattered glass flew in every direction.
"Oh sh--!" Veronica yelled as she stood up and raced out the door.
The teacher was about to take out his "pain stick", something of a stick that caused pain, but refrained when all his students rushed to the window to see the shattered and broken glass of the classroom across from them.
"Something's wrong," Maddy said, looking around at the empty desks surrounding her.
Annie, who sat behind her, asked worriedly, "Ma-chan? What's up? Sensing something weird?"
She looked directly at the front row of desks and pointed, "The balance is off. Angela's not sitting in the front like she usually does!"
Annie dramatically gasped at her comment and jokingly replied, "Well, with all the freak geniuses at this school, all the front desks were taken up already. That's why nobody's sitting back here with us 'normal' kids."
Maddy nodded in agreement, "Gotcha. So, I'll be going to sleep now if you don't mind. Keep a lookout."
Annie smiled and started to write a note for Maddy when she woke up since she was so bored.
As she tapped the pen against her desk, she stared to daydream about their years on Earth. They were on the planet to research, but what had they found out? Nothing of much importance except the fashion industry. Angela was always talking about the scientific discoveries and evolutionary patterns of this and that. Veronica discovered her kickboxing idol Kenzoku and Vivicka, well, she discovered she was a little nerd.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Maddy's head fell back and startled Annie.
"Yo Mad! Best wake up!" Annie whispered as the teacher began eyeing the two. Maddy woke up with a start. Her eyes widened as she turned to Annie, "Ok, serious vibes this time. Don't you feel it?"
Annie started to feel the tingling vibe sensation, "What do we do? What do we do? Lets get Ange and get outta here!"
Maddy looked over at Angela, who was intently listening to the lecture.
Angela felt Maddy's stare and turned to look at her two friends. She now began to sense the vibes. No longer engrossed in the interesting theories of the Earthlings, her mind raced as she tried to choose the best options for them to take.
Vivicka got to her class, finally. However, all feelings of relief fizzled away when she saw who her teacher was.
"Vivicka Kaminari! Come on down!" Ms. Haruna shouted.
She slowly stepped toward her teacher.
"Ms. Haruna, nice to meet you—again," Vivicka said as she bowed deeply.
Ms. Haruna turned off the lights and suddenly an intense spotlight hit Vivicka. All eyes were on her.
"Gulp H-hiya... I transferred here from Mukashi No Tenshi..." Vivicka began, "Did I mention I hate the spotlight? Do I really have to do—"
In the corner of her eye, she noticed something. It was a small blue light outside the window. It hovered there quietly.
Ms. Haruna waited for Vivicka to say more but all was silent. Finally, she turned the lights back on and put her hands on Vivicka's shoulders.
"Ok, ok, you can sit down now," Ms. Haruna said as she took out her fan and began to 'wave' Vivicka into her seat.
Vivicka smiled weakly and took a seat next to the window.
"What a weird teacher," Vivicka though, "but cool! This is going to be an interesting year."
Ms. Haruna began her lesson, which included laser lights, acrobats, and elephants for some reason. As much as Vivicka wanted to enjoy this showcase, her eyes wondered to the little blue light that still hovered outside.
"Usually Veronica sees these things. Why am I seeing it?!" Vivicka thought.
The blue light began to move forward and backward in a rocking motion. It was readying itself for something.
"It's gonna come in! I wonder if it can go through glass..."
As she pondered this, the blue light made a small pause. All thoughts were broken, however, when the little blue light crashed through the window.
"No time to think!" Vivicka cried out as she jumped up to grab the light.
As she soared through the air with her hand outstretched, she reached like she never reached before. She was so close to it and as her fingers closed in around it—she gasped in horror.
"Ahhh!"
Her hand went completely through the light and before she could catch her balance, she jumped right at the window, shattering it to pieces.
"Ver!!!" Vivicka yelled out, the only thing she could think of at the moment.
Angela, Maddy, and Annie got to the classroom door once Vivicka flew out the window.
"Vivicka! She's outside!" Ms. Haruna said hysterically.
The three girls were about to move across the room when the blue light began to shine brighter and grow bigger. Slowly, it began to take shape. It transformed into a woman with burgundy hair and a blue star pendant.
Angela quickly looked away to shield her eyes from the light.
"What's going on here? Someone jumped to their death before I could get to them?" she said, "I call that smart."
Annie and Maddy couldn't move for some reason. They kept staring at the woman's hypnotic blue eyes.
Angela kept her head down and nudged the two while whispering, "We need to save Vivicka."
They didn't respond. In fact, the whole classroom wasn't responding to anything. There was no scream of panic or terror, which was extremely odd.
Picking up on the fact that nobody was moving except for the strange lady who was examining each student, Angela began to edge out of the classroom.
"These kids get worse and worse," the stranger said as she touched a student's head, "Why does the master force us to do such trivial tasks?"
She flicked the forehead of a student whose mouth was wide open. Suddenly, she heard a noise, a rustling and turned to see nothing out of the ordinary.
"Probably the wind... Anyway, these humanoids are only good for one thing—sucking the life out of 'em!" she laughed as she raised her hands and light began to stream from it.
The light hit each person and engulfed them.
Angela escaped the room as it began to light up. As she left, she heard a faint laughter.
"In all my years of Earth research, I know that is not normal," she thought to herself.
She had only one choice now. She had to save everyone or die trying, but first, she hit the 'Fire Alarm' to alert everyone to evacuate the premises.
The hallways began to light up in red. Little lights began to pop up, pointing students and teachers to the fire escapes.
Principal Jujo stood up from his seat. He looked at the digital blueprint of the school. Nowhere did it indicate a fire or any type of hazardous situation. However, he squinted at a small opening at a spot where there wasn't supposed to be an opening.
"What in the—Why is there a fire alarm for a false fire and no alarm for a school break-in?" he exclaimed, "I've got to fix these things..."
He pressed the intercom button, "Attention students and faculty! There has been a break-in and some killer-psychopath is probably on the loose in our school, but don't worry, there's no fire! The fire alarm was false! Hehehe... good news... anyways, I'll be contacting the police."
After his comment, a stampede of people could be heard trying to get out of the building.
Veronica ran down the hall, passed the countless classrooms, and headed toward Vivicka's class.
"Why'd she jump out the window? And why aren't there any alarms going off? And why did Vivcka do that?!"
She was about to take the left at the corridor that would lead her straight to Vivicka's classroom but stopped suddenly.
"Wait, I have this... idea? Wait, they said not to transform in public, but I've gotta save Viv... she's probably splattered on the ground by now!"
Without another thought, she raised her hand in the air. A light surrounded her as she transformed into Double Star Bud Virgo.
"Who cares if people see me, I'm gonna rescue my little cousin."
As she ran down the hall, lights began to go off. DSBVirgo stopped as soon as the alarm sounded.
"Finally! Somebody's got some sense," she angrily said.
Getting to Vivicka's classroom, Principal Jujo's message about contacting the police was hard. DSBVirgo ignored the odd message and burst into the room where she fond the stunned students, the lady surrounded by blue light, and Star Bud Sagittarius with her flame arrow notched to her bow.
"Do not move," Sagittarius said to the stranger, "First, tell us who and what you are. Then free these students."
The alarm kept sounding. The strange woman narrowed her eyes at the newcomer Double Virgo. She raised her fist to the ceiling and blue lights shot out everywhere. The whole school building was engulfed in blue light. Sagittarius jumped in front of Double Virgo and a wall of flame blazed out in front of them as the blue light tried to touch them. The school and all who were in it where frozen.
Double Virgo stepped away from Sagittarius and looked around. She saw Maddy and Annie paralyzed and then saw the shattered glass.
"Vivicka!" she yelled. Her eyes blazed in rage as she eyed the woman, "You! I'm gonna gut you good!"
A spear materialized in her hands as she made ready to charge the stranger.
"Cackling Mwahahaha... Put your stick down," she said to Double Virgo and turned to Sagittarius, "As for you, my name is Levita of the Sinistars and no, I do not wish to free these pitiful sacks of energy."
She smirked at this.
Sagittarius brought the strong back, ready to shoot her arrow, "Levita of the Sinistars, do not make me shoot you. Unfreeze these students and leave peacefully."
Outside the door, crowds of people were stopped in their places. They were statues with frantic expressions etched on their faces.
"Ah! I can't stand it!" DSBVirgo yelled, "Levita, say goodbye!"
Levita lowered her hands and pulled the light streams from the students closer to her.
"Lets see what you've got little birdie," she said.
Double Virgo's spear glowed as a swirl of wind encircled her. She twirled the spear masterfully, never looking away from Levita. In a blur of motion, she charged at Levita with her spear thrusting in five different directions at once.
Levita felt a surge of sharp wind blast at her as multiple spears began to bombard her. She was taken completely by surprise. She staggered back as her light streams dimmed for a moment.
Sagittarius took this opportunity to snap Maddy and Annie from their trance.
"Maddy! Annie!" she said as she shook them one by one, "We need you!"
Meanwhile, Double Virgo yelled out alarmingly loud, "Round-house kick, Kenzoku-style!"
She landed a piercing kick to Levita's chest, which caused Levita to fly backwards, hit the wall, and fall to the ground. The light streams disappeared but all the students were still frozen.
Levita grasped her blue star pendant as she seethingly looked at Double Virgo. She struggled to get up after having the wind knocked out of her.
Double Virgo was about to deliver the crushing blow to Levita's head with the bunt of her spear when she heard a scream from the window.
Sagittarius abandoned trying to unfreeze Annie and Maddy and ran to the window. Vivicka was suspended in midair.
"Double Star, watch over Levita as I try to get Viv—" before she could finish her order, Double Virgo followed her to the window.
"I've gotta save her Ange! Vivicka! Grab my spear," she said as she put her spear out the window.
Levita, jumping at the opportunity to escape, struggled to stand up and held tightly to her pendant.
"Damn you," she hissed as a blue light surrounded her and she disappeared.
"Ver! Why is this happening? Isn't this aerodynamically impossible? Angela! Help!" Vivicka cried out as she stiffly tried to grab Double Virgo's spear.
Sagittarius, angered at Levita's escape, decided to focus on Vivicka now.
"Do not worry Viv, we will get you back up," Sagittarius replied, "Double Star, it is too far for her to reach. We need help quickly. I think Levita's spell or whatever it was, is going to wear off soon."
"Angela, what do we do?" she said in frustration.
Vivicka had a terrible fear of heights and she could feel her limbs starting to get defrosted. That was definitely a bad sign. She looked down as a fire squad tried to get through the crowd of students.
"Help!" she screamed again and again.
"Hold tight Viv! We're thinking—Well, Angela's thinking of something!" Double Virgo screamed back at the girl in midair.
Sagittarius took her bow and unstrung it.
"This isn't a time to restring your bow!" Double Virgo said incredulously as she kept the spear outside the window.
Without saying a word, Sagittarius took the spear from Double Virgo's hands and tied the string to the end of it.
Double Virgo's eyes brightened as she realized what Sagittarius was doing, but her eyes darkened when she realized something else, "Wait a sec, that string adds an extra few feet to the spear, but it ain't gonna hold her Ange. Vivicka doesn't weigh a balloon, y'know!"
Sagittarius smiled as she lowered the spear and the attached string down to Vivicka.
"Relax; if this string can hold an arrow of fire, I think it can hold Viv," Sagittarius said as the string touched Vivicka's hand, "Besides, I ran countless tests on my bow and arrow. This string is practically unbreakable."
"I trust you Angela!" Vivica yelled in response to her explanation, "Just get me back up so I can beat up that blue light thingy!"
"Grab the damn string!" Double Virgo kept reiterating.
Vivicka began to feel the panic rising in her throat. She got the feeling back in her neck and she happened to look down. The fall would be unrecoverable. Slowly, she was getting the feeling back into her whole body.
The string was right next to her hand. All she needed to do was grab it and hold onto it for dear life.
Suddenly, her hands closed in around it and she was happy—but for a moment. Gravity started to work up again.
"Ahhh!" she shrieked as she raised her other hand to grab the string as well.
"Pull!" Sagittarius ordered Double Virgo.
The two Star Buds struggled to get the spear, string, and the girl up through the window.
"Careful, the window might scrape her," Sagittarius said.
"Let go Ange," Double Virgo said, "I've got an idea."
Reluctantly, she released her grip on the spear and stepped back. The spear lowered for a moment but Double Virgo, with muscles tensing up, managed to get the spear back up.
"Hold on tight Viv; I call this the 'fisherman swing'," she said as she took a few steps back.
"What is it called the fisherman—" Vivicka was about to ask when suddenly, she was flying through the window and fell right on a pair of girls next to Sagittarius.
Sagittarius nodded, "Impressive. I did not think you could do it, but obviously, I was mistaken."
Double Virgo smiled and did a 'muscle man' pose, "Years of training can't be wrong!"
Vivicka slowly got up and stretched, "Oof... I see why it's called 'fisherman swing'. Good thing there were these cushions to break my fall."
"Hey you little squirt! We may have broken your fall," Annie said as she stood up.
"But you broke every bone in our body!" Maddy said as she used Annie to help her up.
"It's not my fault Veronica threw me on you guys. Go blame her!"
Double Virgo tossed the bowstring back to Sagittarius and then pointed her spear at Vivicka, "Hey short, I just saved your life! The least you could do is thank me."
Ms. Haruna jumped up, "Get away from Vivicka!"
She threw herself between Double Virgo's spear and Vivicka. It was apparent that she just got out of her trance and the first thing she saw was the Star Bud threatening her student.
Double Virgo was caught by surprise and lowered her spear, "Calm down lady. I rescued he from the freak chick."
Vivicka stepped from behind Ms. Haruna and said, "Correction, you helped rescue me. Angela was the brain behind it right?"
Ms. Haruna looked around. Her students were coming to again but the people outside were still frozen.
"Okay... What's going on? Who are you people and why do I feel like I'm in some science fiction movie?" Ms. Haruan said exasperatedly.
"Actually," Vivicka piped up, "That girl with the spear is Ver—"
Maddy, Annie and Sagittarius covered her mouth before she could say Veronica's name.
"She is Virgo, Double Star Bud Virgo," Sagittarius said with her hand extended out to Ms. Haruna, "And you may call me Star Bud Sagittarius. Now, we should be going. We should not hinder your lesson plans. Please, do go on."
Before Ms. Haruna could respond, the two Star Buds dashed out of the room as the crowd of people slowly became mobile again.
"Star Buds?" Ms. Haruna shouted, "What the... We're still in class?!"
Vivicka tiptoed to her seat and Maddy and Annie waved goodbye to the little girl who had a near-death experience.
"Great first day," Vivicka said aloud as the bewildered students around her finally snapped out of the freezing spell.
Sofia Lancaster was making her way to the lower classes to interview one of the new students when the school alarm rang.
Moments later, people poured out of the classrooms and Sofia was now in the midst of a river of human bodies.
Suddenly, she felt cold and immobile. Seconds passed away and she began blinking again. She felt stiff and by the looks of it, everyone else felt that way too.
People began to run again, like nothing happened. Sofia, being the reporter she was, decided otherwise. Something was amiss whether she understood it or not.
As she was about to walk into the classroom she was originally assigned to, a girl wearing an interesting costume bumped right into her. Out of the door came a second one; this one held a spear though.
"Sorry," the girl muttered as she hurriedly ran down the hall with the rush of people.
The girl with a spear followed after her but managed to give Sofia a menacing glare before she left.
Sofia dug into her purse, fidgeting around in a panic. She finally got out her camera and tried to take a snapshot of them. It was too late though. Too many heads and too many bodies blocked her way.
"Fiddlesticks!" she growled.
Ms. Haruna's voice penetrated her train of thought.
"Star Buds?" she said in bewilderment, "What the... We're still in class?!"
Sofia whispered to herself, "Star Buds... those were Star Buds, huh? Time to investigate this!"
She walked into the classroom. The students looked a bit dazed.
"Ms. Haruna, could you please tell me who just ran out that door?"
Ms. Haruna turned to her, "S-Star Buds? That's what they said."
"Could you at least tell me what happened around here before the alarm rang?"
She thought for a minute, "Well, it's a bit fuzzy... Oh, this blue fuzzy light came in and Vivicka jumped out."
Ms. Haruna pointed out the shattered window. Sofia gazed at the glass and broken pieces of material on the ground.
"And how did she get back up?" she interrogated.
At this, Vivicka said, "I climbed up!"
She couldn't risk Sofia asking any more questions about Star Buds. Thus, she thought to divert the attention from to her heroic act. Everyone looked incredulously at her. Some of them clapped in admiration.
Sofia, looking unconvinced, walked up to Vivicka, "So the, you must have seen these 'Star Buds' and what they did to the class."
Vivicka racked her brains, "Well, you see, I was outside the whole time, hanging on for dear life! There was a blue flash and then I don't know what happened. I was too scared to think of anything."
"So," Sofia said, turning sharply to Ms. Haruna, "you communicated with them?"
"When I woke up, I saw this girl pointing a spear at Vivicka," she responded, "saying she rescued her."
Sofia's eyebrows raised, "Pointing a spear at her and claiming she rescued her? A lie probably."
Vivicka stood up suddenly, "It's not a lie!"
"But you said you climbed up from the window yourself."
"But I-I... did say that," with a sigh, Vivicka sat down.
Sofia walked towards Ms. Haruna's desk, "Basically, you're saying that a blue light came in and the next moment you see a girl holding up a spear to one of your students."
Ms. Haruna reluctantly nodded, "I suppose you can say that..."
Sofia smiled and said, "Well, I'll have to keep my eye on these Star Buds for now on. They might be dangerous."
Vivicka gasped. She was about to say something, but thought otherwise because she might get herself in more trouble. This Sofia had a reporter's nose, and therefore, she could smell out a lie or a discrepancy in a flash.
Sofia Lancaster said goodbye to them and walked out of the classroom.
"I got myself a story!" Sofia said as she stepped into the hall, "I can see it now: 'Star Buds- A New Threat' by Sofia Lancaster, award-winning journalist!"
She walked down the all, writing notes on her notepad. Little did she know, however, that two girls heard her boastful proclamation. Around the corner of the hall, Maddy and Annie squatted on the ground.
"Maddy! Did you hear that?"
"Shh!!" Maddy said, "I heard her already. Lets just get home so we can tell Angela."
Annie nodded energetically, "Yeah, she'll know what to do... I just can't believe we have a reporter on our case."
"Well, if we play our cards right, we might not have to deal with her," Maddy replied.
The two ran down the hall, heading home even though school was still in session.
Veronica looked up at the huge mansion in front of her. It was in a pretty good neighborhood, although it was filled with elderly, cranky people. For most of the years she was on Earth, before she and Vivicka met the other three Star Buds, they lived and slept on the streets or a stranger's backyard. They got all their possessions from the alleyways and trash bins. Their source of income came from Veronica's pick pocketing skills and Vivicka's acting abilities, mainly crying.
Veronica scratched her head, "I wish we lived here."
Vivicka slapped Veronica's back, "Bird nest head! Wake up! We do live here! Get yer brains together."
"I'll pummel you good if you hit me again," she growled back, "Besides, aren't you surprised that we actually sleep in that monster of a house?"
Vivicka shrugged, "I always thought we'd sleep in a big house again, just like we did at home on Virgo."
Smiling, Veronica patted Vivicka's head, "Y'know, you're right—for once. It sucks we can't go back home now that you mention it. I wonder what happened at home. They haven't contacted us for a whole year."
There was a contemplative silence following her statement. They stood there, staring at the mansion rooftop that touched the sky, the sky they so yearned to go back to.
"Umm... Ver..." Vivicka said anxiously, "Do you think something bad happened an Virgo and the rest of the planets?"
Veronica didn't reply for a while. She knew that could be a definite possibility but she didn't want to scare Vivicka. She was a smart little girl, but a little girl, nonetheless, who could get frightened fairly easily.
"N-no, of course not!" Veronica said she walked towards the door, "We probably can't get the right satellite frequency to contact them after our communicators got damaged in that fire."
Vivicka nodded slowly, "Yeah, you might be right—for once. C'mon, lets go get some grub!"
Maddy was laying on the ground watching the holo-tv projected onto the ceiling. Annie sat on one of the bar stools in the kitchen.
"I can't believe that sneak!" Annie growled as she swiveled around to rest her elbow on the kitchen counter.
"Cool it An-chan," Maddy said as she switched the channels on the TV, "All we have to do is avoid her and not transform anymore."
Annie thought for a moment, "Well, whatever, I just want a normal life and not worry about all these secrets."
At that moment, Veronica and Vivicka came in the house with Angela following them.
"So, food anyone?" Vivicka asked as she plopped down on the ground next to Maddy, "I've had a stunning day and I'm starving."
Veronica jumped catlike onto the couch and looked down at the two on the ground, "You guys are so lazy. Go tell Angela yerself!"
Looking back over at Annie and then at Maddy again, she added, "And why were you guys home so early? If they get to ditch school, I getta ditch too!"
Angela put her books down on the kitchen counter and sighed. She had a long day and she just wanted to make food for her 'family'.
"Alright. Explain why you guys did not go to school and Veronica, do not treat the couch like a gymnasium set," Angela responded as she punched some number into the food replicator (à la Star Trek) in the kitchen.
Vivicka got up from the ground and ran to Angela to help her out, "Don't forget that nobody's gonna get to ditch school!"
Angela nodded in agreement and smiled at her little protégé.
Slowly sitting up, Maddy started to explain, "Well, y'see Ange, me and Annie left Viv's class when we overheard this psychopath proclaiming us, yes sweet old us, as the next threat to humanity!"
Annie swung around in her chair, "That's right! So, we were so mad that we ran home to figure out what to do and of course, dropped by the mega mall..."
Veronica howled in laughter at the last part of the Annie's comment.
Leaving on the counter, chomping on some carrots, Vivicka said, "By psychopath, do you mean Sofia Lancaster? And by us, do you mean Star Buds? 'Cause I think I know what you're talking about..."
"It seems you know more about this than you are willing to tell," Angela said as she began cutting the vegetables.
Vivicka swallowed her carrot and recounted her mental struggle with the perceptive Sofia the reporter.
"So, basically, you lied to the gal and now she thinks we're the bad guys," Veronica said as she jumped over the couch and sat down next to Annie on one of the swivel chairs, "Good one, Viv! I certainly don't think we'll have trouble at school anymore."
Angela stopped chopping, "Viv, all you have to do now is avoid Sofia while we try to make up a different story. However, we need to address the other problem."
Maddy turned off the holo-tv and joined them in the kitchen, "Yeah, talk about problem! This white color scheme for the house just doesn't work! We're living in a laboratory!"
The four girls looked at her in both astonishment and bewilderment.
"What? What'd I say?"
Veronica put a hand on Maddy's shoulder and said, "Well now, I'm usually the slow one around here abut we've actually got a bigger problem than a buncha colors. Do ya remember Viv's death experience?"
Maddy uttered, "Oh yeah..."
As Angela put a pot on the stove, she said contemplatively, "We need to figure out who and what these Sinistars are. There might be more than one of those people roaming around and I think they might come back to Jujo High."
"Yeah, so we need to stop them when they do come back!" Annie replied, "And prove ourselves as heroes on the process."
Maddy, Vivicka, and Veronica happily agreed with her. They thought the idea was great but to their surprise, Angela didn't.
"That is not part of our mission. All we are doing here on Earth is gathering information. The furthest we are going with these Sinistars is compiling information on them," she said as she poured the vegetables in the pot, "Then, we will send our monthly report back to SBC to be processed."
Maddy gasped, "Angela! I can't believe what you're saying! If Levita comes back, I'm not just gonna sit around and take notes while Ms. Blue-blast-a-lot goes around blasting-a-lot"
"Me neither," Annie said, "And we all know those reports aren't going anywhere! Face it, for a whole year we haven't had contact with Star Bud Central. How do we know our research is getting back home? While we're here, let's just do something productive."
Vivicka slowly agreed, "Annie said something smart for once. I want to stop this Sinistar group. I don't want people to get hurt. We have this power, so why not just use it for good? We can research and fight, even if our research isn't going anywhere which I still believe it does."
Springing up from her seat, Veronica added, "I wanna fight these things! Our mission is to study Earth, so we might as well save them so we have something to study! Whoa... that made damn well good sense!"
Angela was quiet for a while as the four pairs of eyes stared at her and waited for her answer. She wiped her hands on her apron and took out some seasoning.
"Well," she said, "if we are going to face these Sinistars, we need to find out what we're up against. Go wash up for dinner and then we will research these abnormal beings, but this does not mean we give up on our original mission."
The four girls grinned as they followed orders.
That day, Vivicka snuck into the school and stealthily crept into the classroom. She did it so flawlessly that Ms. Haruna didn't even notice her.
"So, Kaminari Vivicka is absent today? Wouldn't blame the poor child, she almost died falling out that window," as she said this, she pointed at the broken window, "and miraculously pulled herself back up!"
She pressed a button on her desk and an 'applause' sign dropped down from the ceiling. The students nervously clapped as Ms. Haruna, literally, gave a round of applause.
Vivicka blushed and sank down in her seat.
"Wait!" she thought, "I can't miss a day of school! It'll go on my permanent record!"
She stood straight up and waved her hands to get her eccentric teacher's attention, "Ms. Haruna!!! I'm here! I'm not absent!"
The 'applause' sign floated back up and Ms. Haruna grew silent. She walked up to Vivicka and examined her from head to foot.
"You don't look traumatized," she said as she knocked on Vivicka's head, "but you do look frazzled. How about you go to Sofia's office?
"She's a doctor too?" Vivicka blurted out.
Ms. Haruna gave a hearty laugh, "No, no my chirpy little student! You look well enough for an interview! Sofia wants an interview with you! Oh how exciting!"
Vivicka looked around at her classmates. They were vigorously studying their books and didn't look like they cared about the conversation.
Vivicka shrugged as she replied, "Eh, it's a 'new student interview'. Nothing much, I'll just sit down now and she could look at my file for information."
She'd never disobeyed a teacher before. This feeling of power and rebelliousness was overwhelming. She couldn't breathe.
Ms. Haruna smiled, "No, no my chippity little student! She's not doing those interviews anymore. She's working on a story all about you and your encounter with death! Oh, I'm so proud of you! For some reason, she really wants you to tell about your meeting with a Star Bud at spear point..."
She babbled on and on but Vivicka stopped listening a long time ago. She felt the blood rushing to her ears. The rebel spirit was awakening in her and she couldn't breathe right.
"... So cows drink milk!" Ms. Haruna finished with loud laughter.
Before Vivicka could utter a word, she fainted and hit the ground.
"Oh dear," Ms. Haruna whispered.
The classmates paused in their studies, noting the welcome silence, and then resumed their reading.
Looking through file after file, Sofia had finally located the new students' records. All she had to do now was extract information from these pages and create small articles on each person. It was an extremely efficient method, albeit very impersonal, but she needed all the time she could get.
Sofia was about to interview a girl who claimed to have escaped death by crawling back through a window she had jumped out of. From Sofia's pictures, it was an impossible story. The glass was so jagged that it would have punctured anything that touched it. She only had one conclusion: the Star Buds were involved in it.
How did she know? She encountered them before and knew they were involved with that fire.
That fire.
Suddenly, Josie kicked the door open and shouted, "S-Sofia! Your interviewee collapsed! Something about hyperventilating and lack of breath!"
"Guess I'll just have to get straight down to the source. Get me the Kaminari address."
As Annie and Maddy packed their books away, Angela walked up to them.
"Remember, we are going to research after school."
Maddy looked at Annie and nudged her with her elbow. They eyed each other for a moment and seemingly, Annie surrendered to Maddy's demand.
"Listen Ange," Annie began slowly, "We need to go to the Mega Mall for a moment—just a nanosecond, that's all."
Maddy nodded, "We'll come straight home after we get a few things, uh, plus we caught some strange vibes coming from that place."
Annie was about to protest but realized what Maddy was saying, "Oh yeah, big vibes! Vibes so big that it's-it's mega! Hence..."
"The Mega mall!" Maddy concluded as she patted Annie's shoulder.
"Lets get outta here; I think she's on to us," Annie whispered as Angela gave them disproving looks.
"Fine, but remember that we have work to do and that there are more important things than shopping," Angela finally said.
The two gave her quick hugs and left for the mall. Angela smiled, "I never could figure out how those two made it through Star Bud training. Maybe it was their persistence."
Annie and Maddy grabbed a hover-taxi to get to their destination, the mall of all malls, the Mega Mall. As they got out of the taxi, they gazed up at the gigantic building. It stood like a gold tower with four spires at each corner of the top. It was built around an ice rink and sported the world's first 'sky park' resting at the top of the mall.
"It's like a dream," Maddy said.
"A beautiful, real dream," Annie added.
"C'mon, we've got lots of research to do."
"Let's get it on! I've got Ange's credit cards!"
"And we've got lots of time to spare!"
They embarked on their wondrous journey to find the perfect outfit.
Meanwhile... 2 hours later...
"Angela!" Vivicka cried, "My eyes hurt! We're looking at the screen flashing too much!"
Veronica was sprawled on the living room floor looking at a map indicating different energy wavelengths, "Mine eyes! Too many swirlies!"
"Where's Mad and An-chan?" Vivicka cried out again, "They're supposed to help us! Now I have to look at three flashing screens at once! Ahhh!"
Angela took a sip of her coffee and took off her VR goggles (à la Sailor Mercury), "Sorry Viv, but they said they were going to the mall and back. I should have known better..."
Veronica rolled around to get stretched out, "Hah! The twosome gruesome wouldn't git outta there even if you lured them all the money in the world! Pfftt... shopaholics..."
"Well, lets just keep working. They can have the night shift," Angela reassured them as she put her goggles back on.
"Excellent," the two girls said in unison.
And so, the three girls continued to research until five minutes later, Veronica turned on the holo-tv to watch some toons.
Sofia was heading towards the mansion when she saw a blue light zooming towards a gold skyscraper.
"T-taxi!" she yelled, "Take me to the Mega Mall instead!"
With that command, the hover-taxi switched lanes and headed for the mall.
"That light... It must be the Star Buds."
A black robed figure stood in the darkness. His skeleton-like fingers rested on a black marble table. He was looking at something in the air, as if watching an invisible object.
"My Sinistar Levita will bring them to me. This is our time for retribution."
A smaller, black robed figure emerged from the shadows.
"Brother, revenge is sweet," she whispered, "But don't bite your tongue by chewing too fast."
She moved toward a gray lined square standing in the air. She waved her black sleeve over the shape and it became a window overlooking a grayish green forest with a swerving yellow hiking trail embedded in it. She turned her attention to the lake deep within the trees. It was an odd lake. It was rimmed with red.
"Red," she quietly said.
"Yes, red like the fires that changed our lives forever, sister," he said as he came up behind her and looked out the glass square, "Forever... Our revenge will finally commence."
Maddy waited outside the changing room door. In the two hours they were there, they had already charged up two credit cards each and had about twenty-five bags stored in their storage lockers.
Annie finally came out. She was wearing a blue headband and a matching blue dress with white boots.
"Whaddya think?" she said as she posed in front of the mirror.
Maddy leaned back in the chair, "Angela is gonna be so mad. We should go home right now."
"No, I meant what do you think about my outfit?"
"OH, that. It's absolutely fabulous on you but—"
CRASH!
Maddy ran out the store and there, falling from above, was a woman wearing a blue star pendant. Annie followed after Maddy, still wearing the store's clothes, which set off the store's alarm.
"Look An-chan! That must be Levita!"
Annie frowned and dragged Maddy to the nearby bathroom as people began to rush out the mall. Once they got into the bathroom, Annie dropped Maddy. She raised her hand in the air and Maddy did the same, after getting off the ground.
"Leo Power!" Annie cried.
"Aquarius Power!" Maddy shouted.
They were bathed in a white light and were transformed into Star Buds. They readied their weapons. Aquarius held her two short swords and Leo held her mirror staff.
"Alright," Aquarius said, "I'll kick the door open and you charge her."
Leo was about to get ready when she noticed a woman behind her who wasn't moving, "Uh, Mad, look at these people. They are total statues."
Aquarius poked the lady's head, "You're right. How come we weren't affected?"
Leo thought for a moment. However, before she could form and idea, Levita's voice could be heard outside.
"Where are you?" she yelled, "Come out or else I'll kill one of your humans!"
Aquarius turned to Leo, "We have to get out there!"
Leo nodded and readied her mirror spear.
"One, two," Aquarius took a deep breath, "three!"
She kicked the door open and Leo charged out with her mirror. Levita, who was standing a few paces away, turned her eyes toward Leo. They flashed once as Leo prepared her attack.
"Somehow my Master knew you were going to be here," she said icily.
"H-Hey! What's happening?" Leo said while she tried to move her legs.
Unfortunately, they weren't moving. In fact, they were frozen.
"Aquarius! Help me!"
"Sorry, Leo. I'm stuck too!"
Leo turned around and saw that Aquarius was in the same predicament. Struggling, she glared at Levita.
"Let us go! We're warning you!" Leo yelled.
Levita threw her head back and laughed, "Warning me? Aren't you jumping ahead of yourself? Oh wait, you can't even move. Mwahahaha... Alright, enough of this silly talk, call on the rest of your pipsqueak squad so I can take you to the Master."
"Never, you hag! Let us free so we can teach you a lesson!" Aquarius replied, "And as for your master, tell him that we don't do live appearances on request!"
Levita walked to a frozen civilian man who looked like he was about to run.
"Foolish girl," she said as she touched the man's face, "You should do what I say or I'll take these lives one by one until you break—besides, it wasn't a request."
Leo gasped, "You wouldn't dare!"
Slashing the ice at her feet with her swords, Aquarius furiously cursed at the uselessness of her actions.
"Just let them all go! It's us you want, right?" Aquarius pleaded, "Just take us to your leader!"
Levita smiled as she leaned on the man's shoulders, "Now we're getting somewhere. Tell your buddies to come out and we'll have a deal."
Leo was filled with rage. She lifted up her mirror, "Reflection Beam!"
Light filled the mirror and shot a beam right at Levita.
"Leo, no!" Aquarius yelled.
Levita took a step behind the frozen man. Suddenly, the beam swerved and blasted down a trash can instead.
"That was close," Leo said, "I'm all out of ideas."
From the looks of it, Levita was more shocked than relieved that she didn't get hit by Leo's beam.
"That's right," she thought, "They must have elemental powers. I better get going before the other one attacks, or worse, more arrive."
Levita stepped away from the man and playfully grinned, "I see you now realize the consequences of your actions. Now, you will come with me. If you try anything, I will kill this lovely statue of a human being."
Aquarius and Leo were skeptical. They wondered why she wanted to leave without the others.
"Psst... Leo," Aquarius whispered, "This could work for us."
"Right," Leo replied.
"We'll come with you," Aquarius said aloud.
"I knew you would see it my way," Levita said as the ice disappeared from the Star Buds.
The taxi stopped at the Mega Mall. Sofia paid the fee and dashed into the plaza outside the mall. Once again, she felt the odd sensation that something wasn't right. The police and media were surrounding the building. Even more interesting, ice was surrounding it too.
"Excuse me!" she called to a policeman who was scanning the ice, "What's going on?"
"Sorry miss, but the mall is closed. Please go home; it's dangerous here," he said as he tried to usher her away.
Sofia finally agreed to leave but stopped by a news station van across the street. She slipped into the open back and looked around.
"Ah, found it!"
She grabbed a news crew jacket and zipped it on. To disguise herself even more, she put on a hat, "This should do it."
Sofia crept out the van in her new clothes and tipped the cap over her eyes. Slowly making her way to the Mega Mall again, she noted the underground cave they were working on.
"I'm part of the Anonymous News Crew," she said gruffly to the worker who was standing in front of the cave, "I need to check out what's going on down there."
He eyed her suspiciously for a while but finally agreed when his supervisor called him over to the conference table.
"Fine, ten minutes," he said, "We're getting back to work after we finalize the machine plans."
Sofia sighed in relief and descended into the dark tunnel. No one seemed to be around which wasn't odd because the digging was usually done by a contraption of some sort.
"Hello?" she said.
Nobody answered.
She continued on as it became colder and colder. The path sloped upwards as she walked. She knew she was penetrating into the mall because icicles were forming on the top of the tunnel and it was getting harder to walk without slipping.
"What?" she exclaimed as she got to a wall of ice with a square chiseled in the middle. The square wasn't big enough for a full sized man to fit in it, but it was big enough for a teenage girl.
"Perfect!"
She carefully made her way into the hole. It was a good thing she was wearing the news crew jacket because it was progressively feeling like she was heading towards the North Pole.
"Keep it going Sofia," she told herself as she saw a faint light at the end. As she slowly crawled to the small opening, a shout rang out and she felt a soft vibration.
"Something's going on over there!"
Crawling faster, she pushed herself out of the hole that seemed like it was getting smaller. Huddling on the ground to get her warmth back, she glanced around. There were people everywhere, frozen people.
"This is not normal," she said as she unzipped the jacket to get her camera from her shirt pocket. Zipping back up, she took pictures of the unmoving shoppers, the ice on the ground, and the unnaturalness of the place.
"What is going on..."
She paused in her picture taking when she heard some voices. Creeping quickly under a bench next to a bathroom, she readied her camera. To her surprise, she saw two girls in weird fuku suits and one woman with a blue star pendant.
"Star Buds!"
"I knew you would see it my way," the burgundy haired woman said.
"Take us to this 'Master'," the green haired one commanded, who held two swords.
Loyally, the woman, who seemed to be the servant, waved her hand in the air and amazingly, a black hole appeared. Furiously snapping away, Sofia couldn't fathom what this could mean.
The Star Bud stepped into the newly formed 'black-hole' while the burgundy haired lady paused before stepping in. She touched her star pendant and then leapt into the rift in the air. Sofia took all the pictures she could get before all the ice disappeared and people began to run around again. She got up from her hiding place and dashed out the mall holding the camera tightly in her hands.
"I've gotta find that Vivicka. She has the answers... all five of them do."
Veronica sipped on her lemonade as she watched the holo-tv. Vivicka sat next to her and chomped on some chips. Flipping through the pages of a book, Angela sat on the couch opposite of them.
"Ok, those boneheads are really, really late!" Veronica said as she grabbed a chip, "They're gonna get pummeled by my fists as soon as they git home—"
She stopped her ranting when the cartoon she was watching switched over to a picture of a gold tower with ice surrounding its base.
"What the hell?"
Angela's head shot up and looked at the holo-tv, "Veronica, do not change the channel! That is the Mega Mall!"
Veronica looked at Angela in bewilderment. Vivicka sighed in frustration, "Don't you understand? That's where Maddy and Annie are!"
Choking on her chip, Veronica managed to rattle out, "I get it now..."
Angela stood up and paced back and forth. It was clear she was worried.
"This is breaking news at the Mega Mall," the reporter said, "In the middle of fall, we have a sudden icy situation. For some reason, ice has begun to formulate around the building, encasing it in solid ice.
Sources cannot confirm if this was caused by a malfunction of the air conditioning system or if it was just a freak accident. However, we can confirm that one of the upper windows has been broken and shattered. We still cannot say if it pertains to the situation or if it was coincidental..."
"That has to be Levita," Angela said as she sat down and tapped her fingers on the table, "but what are Maddy and Annie doing? I hope they can hold on for a bit longer."
Veronica jumped up and onto the table, "Lets go down there and beat up that ice lady!"
Vivicka and Angela looked up at Veronica and shook their heads in earnest.
"Ver, before we go butt-kicking, I think we should have a plan first," Vivicka said.
"I agree. We should not leap into this without having a strategy," Angela added.
Just then, on the TV screen, the Mega Mall began to defrost and the doors became flooded with people running out of the building. The reporter tried to stop one of the fleeing customers but failed and the camera crew got lost in the crowd of people.
"Did you see Mad or An-chan?" Vivicka said as she squinted at the screen.
All three looked at the screen and searched for a green haired head or a red haired one.
"Any luck?" asked Angela.
"Nope," the two responded.
"That is awkward. Why would this happen? It does not make sense!"
"Angela! We've gotta go down there and find them," Vivicka yelled.
Veronica jabbed the air, "Can't wait to kick around that blue freak again..."
Picking up the phone, Angela tried calling the two missing girls. There was no answer. In fact, the phone couldn't even pick up their signals.
"No answer?" Vivicka asked.
Angela nodded and grabbed her coat from the closet. She wanted to get down to the mall and find out if Maddy and Annie were there or if they had mysteriously disappeared. Veronica and Vivicka followed Angela and were eager to do some fighting.
As they were about to leave, a knock came at the door. Angela paused. The other two did so as well.
"That must be them," Angela said in relief.
"Those dumbheads made us get ready for no reason!" Veronica angrily said as she threw her coat on the couch.
Opening the door, Angela started to scold but stopped suddenly when she pleasantly said, "Welcome! Pardon me, but we must get going."
Vivicka and Veornica both toppled over in outrage. Why was Angela being so nice?
Instead of the missing 'persons', they were greeted by an unwelcome guest. Her long blonde hair swayed slightly as she walked passed Angela and into the house.
"Hey you! Didn't you hear Ange?" Veronica growled.
Vivicka stepped closer to her cousin, "Yeah, git out!"
Angela laughed in embarrassment as she closed the door.
"Sorry abot the intrusion but I really need to talk to—"
Before Sofia could finish, Veronica stood up in front of Vivicka. She glared at the reporter, "Viv doesn't hafta talk to you!"
"I didn't finsh," Sofia said calmly, looking at Angela, "I need to talk to all of you. I've got some questions that you can clear up."
Angela looked at the time. They needed to find Maddy and Annie. Chances were, if they waited too long, the two would have probably met an untimely end.
"I am sorry Ms. Lancaster but we do not have time for this."
"Please Angela, it's about the fire at Mukashi no Tenshi!" Sofia blurted out.
The four were silent.
"S-sit down," Angela said as she took off her coat.
The ground of the cave was surprisingly very smooth and seemed to be made of a marble-like material. Despite the flaming torches on the rocky black walls, there was still a chill in the air.
Footsteps echoed in the darkness. Chains rattled noisily as it dragged across the floor.
"Pick up your chains, ladies!" Levita commanded, "We don't want these floors getting scratched."
Aquarius and Leo who followed behind Levita, couldn't help but drag the chains across the ground. Their hands were chained together and so were their legs. The weight of the metal was too much for them to carry without dragging. Plus, they got a kick out of annoying their captor.
"Mad, I don't like this," Leo whispered.
"I don't like it either. In all our years on Earth, I've never imagined that this could happen!" Aquarius responded, "We've gotta get outta here or at least contract Ange and the others."
Leo shook her chains as she sensed Levita getting more irritated at the two girls.
"Don't worry, we're Star Buds remember? We can get out of anything. That's why they let us go to Earth," reassured Leo.
"Well, that true, but I got a feeling that we're not in Kansas, or Earth, anymore."
"Kansas?"
"It's from an old Earth movie."
They walked on until Levita stopped at a dead end. She touched her star pendant and the wall before them turned into a small dungeon.
"Not exactly what I call a four star hotel," Aquarius said as she tried to detangle her chains from Leo's.
Levita smirked at her comment. She pushed the two into the newly formed dungeon. She stepped back from the cave as she touched her pendant again. Black bars formed and blocked any way out for the Star Buds.
Gasping, Leo crawled to the bars and held onto them. Shaking them to try to pry them open, she felt faint. The bars glowed in a black aura. Leo fell to the marble ground.
"Mwahahaha!" Levita laughed, "Entertaining, but I've got to go meet Master Sinistogi and talk about my reward. Don't get too drained in there!"
She disappeared in a flash of blue light. Aquarius knelt down next to Leo and moved her away from the bars. It was too dim to see if Leo's eyes were open.
"Leo!" she said as she gently slapped Leo's cheeks, "Wake up!"
Leo slowly began to breath again as she struggled to get up from the ground.
"Mad! What... I... Those bars are seriously nasty business..." she said as she tried to catch her breath.
Aquarius smiled, "At least we've learned not to touch 'em. Good going."
Leo painfully got up and used the walls of the dungeon to keep her up. Aquarius stood up too and tried to lighten Leo's burden by holding Leo's chains.
"So, what do you think Ange is gonna say when she finds out we're not at the mall?"
Leo laughed weakly, "She'd probably ground us or something. No music for me and no TV for you."
Aquarius held the chains in her hands and tried desperately to figure a way out. Leo leaned against the wall as she straightened up her bow.
"Stupid chains," she said, "I could fix my hair if I could reach higher."
"It looks fine."
"Well, if we're stuck here, I might as well do something..." Leo replied.
Aquarius looked down at the chains in her hands. Suddenly, she dropped them. Leo almost hit the ground.
"Hey! You could have told me you were tired!" she said.
"Sorry An-chan, but look! We're chained up, but our hands are still free! We could use our weapons!" Aquarius exclaimed.
"Oh yeah!"
Materializing form the air, two short swords appeared in Aquarius's hands and a mirror staff appeared in Leo's hand.
"Good, now I can lean on this instead of the cold wall with that annoying flushing sound!" Leo said as she hugged her staff.
Aquarius smiled again, "Awesome! Now we just cut these chains open!"
With that, she gathered up all her strength and began slashing at Leo's chains.
"Careful there," Leo said as Aquarius got the chains off of her.
"Hey, I got the job done though. Now look for an escape while I get these suckers off me."
Leo tottered around the small cave but couldn't find one crack in the walls.
"Done!" Aquarius proclaimed, "Who'd have thought these swords would come in handy?"
Leo rested back on the same wall she leaned on beforehand.
"Couldn't find anything," Leo said dejectedly.
Aquarius tried cutting the rock with her swords but it couldn't even make a scratch. She sat down in frustration. Leo closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall.
"I'm just gonna relax right here."
They were both tired and irritated with all that was going on. The darkness was weighing down on them even more than the chains ever did.
"If there was even a slight chance of hope or sign of escape... I might feel a little better..." Aquarius said aloud, "I mean, what would Angela the brain do?
Leo opened her eyes and put her ear closer to the wall, "Be quiet!"
Aquarius replied, "Yeah, she would huh? I think if I just sit here and actually think and be quite I'd get an idea. That' how Ange does it, doesn't she? Be quiet... good one An-chan."
"Listen," Leo said excitedly.
"Listen?" Aquarius said puzzled, "Oh, you mean listen to my inner thoughts? Of course I do that."
"No, I mean listen!" Leo shouted, "Come here and listen to what's on the other side of this rock!"
Aquarius got up and put her head against the wall. She heard sounds of something rushing downwards. It was the flushing sound Leo mentioned earlier.
"It's water!" she exclaimed. "Water!"
Leo got off the wall and turned to Aquarius, "Mad! Do your thing and get us out of here!"
Aquarius stepped back from the wall and put her swords down.
"Leo," she said as she sat cross-legged on the ground, "This may take a while. I'm going to try to tap into the water and try to get a glimpse of what's outside."
Leo nodded, "I understand."
Aquarius touched the wall and closed her eyes...
A faint blue-green glow engulfed her...
She felt the water rushing down... It was a waterfall... there was more water... a red rimmed lake...
"Master," Levita said as she bowed, "I have them detained in the dungeon."
The dark room was different from the cave she was in earlier. It still had marble black flooring but it also had a marble table and one wall had a square window. A small figure stood by it.
"You have done excellent Levita," the figure at the end of the table said, "Are they all there and ready?"
Levita was afraid he was going to ask that.
"Master Sinistogi," she began, "I could only grab two... I doubt that I could have taken all five of them on."
Sinistogi moved around the table to the window. Levita couldn't see his face. It was always covered.
"You doubt?" he said in anger, "I have given you powers that could destroy hundreds of Sailor Senshi and you doubt you could have given me just five of them?"
Levita looked down and falter in her speech, "M-master, they are strong... I tried my best and isn't that all I could do? I-I have given you what you asked for. What about your end of the deal?"
The smaller figure answer this time, "Brother, you did say to capture them but did not specify how many. Give Levita her earnings and let her leave. Something tells me she's captured more than we can handle..."
Sinistogi looked down at his sister and then at Levita, "Capture me one more and I'll give you what you want. It's just one more favor, dear Levita."
Levita bit her lip from saying any scathing remarks. Instead, she looked up again and bowed.
"I will do as you wish Master," she said and bowing to the smaller figure, "My thanks to you, my lady."
Levita touched her blue pendant and vanished.
"That wasn't nice brother."
He gazed out the small window with his sister and simply said, "We need them."
After a short pause, he added, "We'll deal with the two Sailor Senshi after you have recovered from your 'sight dreaming'."
She nodded. Her gray eyes turned to the red-rimmed lake. She saw that something was different about these Senshi. Her sight dreaming was usually clear. She could see anyone's future. However, these Sailor Senshi were clouded and shrouded in fog.
"The revenge we've so longed for... What those Senshi did to us... They will burn in my hell ten times over..."
The window slowly closed as the darkness blocked out all light.
Sitting at the table, Angela sipped some tea as Sofia took out some files from her bag.
"It says here that you all transferred from Mukashi no Tenshi," Sofia said as she opened five folders and placed them on the table.
Veronica picked up her file, "Wow, my picture sucks."
Vivicka asked gingerly, "What's this got to do about the fire?"
Angela put her cup down, "And what does this have to do about us besides the fact htat we were former Mukashi students?"
Sofia coughed nervously, "You see, as you know, the school fire that happened on year ago was officially reported as a wire malfunction. But, from recent circumstances, I have reason to believe that the report is wrong."
Angela remained calm but Vivicka and Veronica looked at eatch other in alarm.
"Whatever do you mean?" Angela asked, "I have read the official report. Everything was there."
Sofia shook her head, "Everything was there except for those Star Buds!"
"What?" Vivicka and Veronica shouted in unison.
"Whatever do you mean?" Angela asked again, while she kept her composure.
"You see, I've always been suspicious of that fire report because I actually saw those Star Buds at Mukashi no Tenshi High. Now that I saw them again at Jujo, I absolutely can't believe the report," Sofia explained and she turned to Vivicka, "That's why I need you to tell me exactly what happened that day you fell out the window."
Veronica angrily shouted, "She doesn't have tot ell you anything and for those 'Star Buds', how do we know you actually saw them at Mukashi? You didn't even go there!"
Sofia sighed, "I didn't want to do this, but since I need your help, look at this."
She took out a black and white photograph. The other three leaned in closer to look at it. Angela, for once, showed surprise.
"That's the science room of MT," Vivicka uttered, "and it's on fire."
"I was covering a story on Mukashi's science department that day," Sofia said, "But look, Vivicka, don't these silhouettes look familiar? Like Star Buds?"
She pointed, amid the black and white flames, to a circle of three silhouettes each holding a weapon. One held a staff with a flat, circular head, one held two swords, and the other held a bow.
"I've seen all of these Star buds twice!" Sofia said, "And I've also just seen the one with the spear! Who knows how many Star Buds there are!"
This puzzled Angela. She ran into Sofia the other day, as did Veronica. However, Sofia had never seen Maddy and Annie in Star Bud form again.
"Unless..." she whispered to herself.
Vivicka and Veronica looked at Angela worriedly. They couldn't let Sofia find out any more about them.
Sofia realized they were quiet.
"If you don't believe me, look at this. I just finish developing it," she said as she pulled out pictures of the Mega Mall in ice.
Angela picked them up and looked through them. There was the Mega Mall encased in ice just like the TV report. She kept looking and paused suddenly. She almost dropped the photos when she saw Aquarius and Leo standing in front of a portal.
Veronica and Vivicka jumped behind Angela to view the picture. They almost said something if Angela hadn't stood up so abruptly.
"What?" Sofia asked.
"Let me look at both of these photos under magnification to verify if these are the same people," Angela said as she grabbed the photo of the Mukashi no Tenshi fire.
"S-sure," Sofia said.
Angela went to the other room and quickly made reprints of the photos. She went back into the living room and handed the original pictures back to Sofia.
"Ms. Lancaster, they are interesting photos but you cannot chase a story that is quite near impossible," Angela said as she put her coat on, "I would like to help, but we're late for an appointment."
Veroinca and Vivicka began to put their coat on too.
"Hold on," Sofia said as she stood up, "You can help. I mean, you guys show up from Mukashi no Tenshi and the Star Buds show up too! Plus, Vivicka's probably met them! They probably saved her life that day!"
Vivicka ran to the door, "For the last time, I saved myself. Now, we really hafta go."
She opened the door for Sofia to leave.
Sofia gathered her things and walked out the door. Before she left, she turned around and said, "If you refuse to help me, then I'll be forced to continue on my story blaming the Star Buds for the break-in at Jujo High and the Mega Mall."
"What?" Veronica exclaimed.
"That's right. All evidence points to them. They probably caused that fire a year ago too," she faltered when she said this. Sofia paused and tried to continue talking but couldn't. She walked away and called for a hover-taxi.
The three looked at each other.
"What was that all about?" Vivicka asked, "I'm scared of that creepy girl."
Veronica stepped outside, "And I thought Jujo High was going to be an ordinary school for geniuses. I guess not."
Angela ushered Vivicka out and locked the door.
"We must investigate her later," Anglea said urgently, "I have a feeling something else beside the Star Buds is involved with the fire. For now though, we have to find Annie and Maddy."
"How?" Vivicka said as she wrapped a green scarf around her neck.
"With this," Angela said.
She pulled out a silver cylinder. It was about the size of a pen but had a diameter of ten centimeters.
"Isn't that the healing rod?" Vivicka pointed out.
"My dear, this is more than a healing rod," she replied.
Veronica shrugged, "Whatever, so where're we going so I can call a taxi."
Angela held the rod in her hand, "To the Mega Mall to take our two friends back home."
Leo began to regain her strength and she examined the black bars in front of the cave. She had nothing better to do. Her partner was busy surveying the outside of the cave by following the water current. All Leo had to do was wait around.
"C'mon Mad, just find some way to escape from this hell hole," Leo thought as she tapped the bar with her staff.
Surprisingly, the black aura didn't appear and she didn't fall down.
"Odd..."
"Annie!" Aquarius said as she took a sharp intake of air.
She opened her eyes and picked up her swords.
"We can totally get of here," she said as she stood up, "From what I saw, there's a waterfall just opposite this wall. If we blast it away, we can follow the waterfall down to this stream that leads to a... red lake."
Leo moved to sit down next to Aquarius, "Huh?"
"Yeah, a red lake, well only the sides of it. But, I think we'll be okay. It's not poisonous or anything."
"Fine, I'll trust your water senses. The other thing though—How do we blast our way out if that wall's unbreakable?"
"That, Star Bud Leo," Aquarius said as she stood up, "is where you are wrong. We're going to blast our way in."
Leo looked up at her friend, "You're pure crazy. Maybe you should just rest before you start talking again."
Aquarius laughed and put a hand on Leo's shoulder, "I'll explain it all for ya. Just trust me."
The hover-taxi stopped at the Mega Mall as the police cars moved out of the complex. Angela, Veronica, and Vivicka left the taxi and ran up to the sidewalk before being stopped by a police officer.
"Great," Veronica whispered, "The only police man in sight for miles and he happens to catch us."
"Excuse me ladies," he said, "But the mall's been closed and I need you to go back home right now."
Vivicka began to panic, "What do we do now? I don't wanna go to jail!"
Angela looked around. Veronica's observation was correct. There was nobody in sight despite the police vehicles and machinery.
"I am truly sorry officer," Angela replied.
"No problem, just doing my job."
"No, I meant I am sorry about this," Angela gestured to Veronica, "Jog his memory."
Veronica smiled, "Not a problem."
The man was puzzled and was about to ask what Angela meant when Veronica sent a powerful punch right at his face. He fell to the floor, knocked out.
"Angela!" Vivicka exclaimed, "You actually sanctioned this? I can't believe you! Awesome!"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, my dear," Angela responded, "But only with my permission, mind you."
Veronica stepped over the policeman, "We should have more desperate times so I could pound some more officers."
"Oh, I highly doubt it," Angela said.
The three walked toward the doors of the mall. It was, of course, closed. Angela examined the locks while Veronica and Vivicka peered into the windows.
It was dark in the building and the remnants of the ice were nowhere to be found. Vivicka sat down next to the door and struck a thinking pose.
"What are you doing?" Veronica demanded.
She looked up at her cousin, "Just thinking... what if we do get in there? How are we gonna open that portal thingy? And what if we do? How do we know the other side is gonna be safe? What if it's a trap? What then?"
Veronica raised her eyebrows, "You think too much."
Angela pulled the door open and walked in. Vivicka stood up and followed her in, as did Veronica.
"Ok," Veronica said, "How'd we get in?"
Angela had out her healing rod, "Simple. I adjusted the healing rod's modifications to override the security system."
"Oh! And you got the rod to unlock the door! Very classy Ange, I gotta hand it to ya."
Angela chuckled, "Well, for that, I actually used this."
She pulled out a straightened paperclip.
Amazed, Veronica stopped walking. As she passed Veronica, Vivicka nudged her and whispered, "Desperate times, Ver, desperate times."
Veronica's astonishment faded away as she slowly smiled, "Cool."
She ran to catch up with the others who were near some potted plants. Angela had her healing rod out and she was flashing it around.
"What are you doing?" Vivicka asked as she followed Angela.
Angela stopped and showed Vivicka the rod. She held it at both ends and pulled it apart, extending it. The parts that had just extended had small buttons on it. She pressed one and a holographic screen projected from the rod.
"Whoa," Vivicka said, "I didn't know it could do that."
"It could do many things, dear."
Angela began to move her finger around on the screen and it looked like she was configuring it. Suddenly, the layout of the mall appeared and it was colored oddly.
"You see these colors? They show energy activity," Angela pointed out, "Where it is brightest, that is where the most energy has been used. Plus, it has the percentage of energy if we scan over the area."
Vivicka nodded, "Oh! This is like a heat sensor, but instead of looking for heat, you're looking for energy. I get it; we're gonna find the point of most energy because it takes tons of energy to open up a hole in the air!"
"Exactly. Good job, Viv."
Veronica popped up behind them, "That healing rod can do anything! I want one!"
"Actually, not most healing rods can do this. It is a specially modified rod from SBC," Angela said as she scanned the bathroom door.
Veronica looked at the holographic image, "Ange, why is it all black in this area?"
"That means it has no energy activity."
"Oh... find anything yet?"
"Not really. All energy signs are normal down here."
Angela walked away from the bathroom and sat down on a bench. She took out the reprints of Sofia's pictures. Examining the photo, she tried to figure out the background.
Meanwhile, Veronica and Vivicka looked around at the stores.
"Can you believe someone can hangout in this place for more than ten minutes?" Veronica said, "It's so boring! There's only clothes and more clothes and—a Kenzoku store?!"
Vivicka was looking at some video games when she turned around and saw Veronica leaning, face first, against the glass window of the Kenzoku store.
"Ver! Don't do that! You're getting your face print on the glass!"
"Relax Viv, I just wanna see the inside of the store," Veronica said as she stepped back and stared at the objects on display, "Look! That's Kenzoku's signature belt! And his signature headband!"
Sighing, Vivicka sat down on the ground and waited for Angela to finish her surveillance.
"Veronica! Vivicka!"
"That's Angela calling! Thankfully..." Vivicka said under her breath.
She had to drag Veronica away from the store to get to Angela.
"What's up?" Vivicka said while huffing and puffing.
"I think this is the place," Angela replied.
"Here?" Veronica asked, "We've been at this spot before!"
"Actually, I did not scan it before because it came up black on the map," she said, "But, after analyzing the photos, I decided to scan the area and the energy readings were skyrocketing!"
Vivicka frowned, "Okay, we're here, now what?"
"Now this," Angela said as she pushed in more buttons on the healing rod.
The end of the rod lit up and a surge of electricity shot out from it. Oddly, it began to swirl in the air like a whirlpool out of water.
"Angela!" Vivicka shouted, "It's working!"
Slowly, a rift in the air formed. It grew bigger and bigger until it looked like the portal in the photo.
"Git in!" Veronica yelled, "Before that thing closes for good!"
As she was about to jump into the warp, Angela called for her to halt. She placed herself between the rift and the two young girls.
"We should transform," Angela said, "We do not know what is on the other side."
"Lets do it!" Vivicka shouted as she put her hand in the air.
Aquarius stood with her two swords pointing at the wall. Leo stood next to her, staff raised high in the air.
"Okay, on three," Aquarius said, "I'll get enough water power from the outside to break the wall and you get ready to deflect whatever water blasts at us."
"Three?" Leo asked, "Alright, but don't make the water so powerful that I can't protect us."
Aquarius looked at Leo, then at the wall, "I can control the water at a certain point; just hope that we don't get to the other point."
Leo gripped her staff tighter, "By all means, start the countdown!"
"Three!"
Aquarius closed her eyes and concentrated on the water. Her swords glowed softly. She envisioned the waterfall redirecting its course to the rocky wall. Suddenly, something clicked in her. She could feel the water now; she could control it.
"Incoming!" she yelled.
Leo looked at her in surprise, "What ever happened to one and two?"
Before she could finish her comments, the cave rumbled and the wall began to crack. A surge of water shot right through. A mix of rocks and water came at them.
"Leo!" Aquarius managed to say.
Leo snapped out of her shock and held the mirror staff at the water.
"Mirror Barrier!"
The mirror glowed and as the light brightened, it grew and engulfed the two Star Buds. The rushing water hit the barrier and broke against it. The water kept coming, however,
Leo yelled out as she kept the mirror staff standing straight in the air, "How long is this gonna last?"
The water kept coming and bigger rocks came flying at them. Aquarius opened her eyes and tried to keep her swords up but the pressure of the water was too heavy for her.
Leo saw the swords slowly falling, "Mad! Keep concentrating! We're gonna die if you don't!"
Aquarius glared at the water surrounding them. She struggled to lift the swords.
"Maddy!"
At the sound of Leo's voice, Aquarius brought the swords up over her head. With a great cry, she slashed the swords down. The rumbling stopped and the water crashed to the ground, no longer flowing inward.
Leo lowered her staff and helped Aquarius stay on her feet.
"Once again," she said, "whatever happened to one and two?"
Aquarius smiled weakly, "You said countdown, so I did."
Their brief victory was clouded by another obstacle. The waterfall became another wall before them.
Leo came to the ledge of the hole they made and looked down, "Uh, are you sure we could make it?"
Aquarius responded, "Well, it's either that... or her."
Leo turned around and saw Levita open the bars of the cave with the flick of her hand.
"Let's just stick with Plan A," she said.
"Which one's that?" Aquarius asked.
"Jump!"
With that, both jumped into the waterfall and plummeted down into the red-rimmed lake. Levita walked to the ledge where Leo had stood moments before. She looked down at the two figures, freefalling into the lake.
"Fools," she said under her breath.
Meanwhile, Leo and Aquarius splashed into the torrents and foam at the end of the waterfall.
"Leo!" Aquarius shouted as she came up for air and was pushed back down again from the force of the waterfall.
With all her strength, she swam away from the torrents. Finally, she got away from the waterfall. She treaded water as she looked around for Leo.
"An-chan! An-chan! Where are you?"
There was no sign of her anywhere. Aquarius continued to shout until her voice was hoarse.
"Damn it Annie! Where are you?" she whispered to herself.
A voice from above caught her attention.
"Fools!" Levita yelled as she put her hands into the waterfall, "Master won't like this, so I'm going to put you on ice for a while."
Gradually, the water began to freeze as it fell down. Aquarius started to swim away in alarm.
"If I don't find land soon, that ice'll turn me into land," she thought as she continued to powerfully stroke her arms and kick her legs in the water.
The waterfall was now completely frozen and the base of it was turning to ice as well. The ice seemed to fan out from there.
"No matter how far you swim, the ice will get you," Levita said as she took her hands out of the ice that was once rushing water.
Somehow, she penetrated the wall of ice in front of her and reappeared, levitating on the other side. She slowly descended, softly landing at the edge of the forming ice. Levita grinned as she knelt down and placed her hands in the water. She made a small circular motion in it.
Aquarius stopped swimming as ice surrounded her, leaving her floating in a small circular section of water in the middle of the ice.
"Alright lady, you had your fun, just end it!" Aquarius said to Levita.
Levita stood up and brushed off her hands.
"As you wish," she replied as she aimed her palm at Aquarius.
With a flash of blue light, an ice shard appeared. With a smile, she simply uttered, "Nice knowing you, kid."
The shard flew straight at Aquarius. She closed her eyes and waited for the blow. She felt something whizzing past her, but couldn't tell what it was. Although, she knew it was anything but the deadly icicle. Aquarius, startled, opened her eyes to see a fire arrow penetrating the shard and melting it.
Another fire arrow flew in front of Levita and into the icy ground. The ice melted from the extreme heat. Levita backed away as she looked around for the culprit.
"Who are you?" she shrieked, "Come out! Show yourself!"
Aquarius took advantage of the distraction to climb out of the water and onto the ice. She knew whose fire arrows they were; it could only belong to one person.
She gingerly began to run in the direction the arrow came from. Catching her attention, Levita glared at Aquarius.
"More friends of yours?" she said, "Good, the Master did want all five of you and now he'll get it."
Aquarius began to dash across the ice while Levita slowly followed her. Another fire arrow flew in the air and landed near Levita. The ice melted and the woman's foot cracked through the surface.
"Curse these arrows!" she yelled as she tried to climb out of the hole that formed around her.
Aquarius stopped and shouted out, "Sagittarius! Where are you?"
Sagittarius's familiar voice answered her back, "Keep running! We are straight ahead!"
Aquarius kept running and eventually she came to a pink line in the ice. The other side was land! Fresh green grass!
She leapt over the colored ice and landed on the welcome land, something she was greatly thankful for. Her legs, however, were fatigued from swimming and the cold water. Giving away to the numbness, she fell to the ground. Her head was down when four shadows approached her.
"What took you so long Mad?"
Aquarius looked up to find her four companions: Leo, Sagittarius, Single Virgo, and Double Virgo.
"An-chan! I thought you drowned!" she said as she sprang up to hug Leo.
"Calm down, calm down," Leo said as she tried to keep her balance, "I thought I drowned too but I ended up on land and met these three. You must've swam the opposite way!"
Aquarius let go of Leo and looked at the others, "And how in the world did you guys get here?"
"Ange, here, thought of an awesome scheme to get your butts outta danger," Double Virgo said.
"I will explain later!" Sagittarius said as she looked over Aquarius's shoulder, "It looks like Levita has recovered!"
They turned to the ice lake and sure enough, a furious Levita was heading toward them.
"What do we do? What do we do? We're gonna die!" Single Virgo babbled.
Double Virgo punched her cousin's head, "Cool it Viv, Ange'll just open that wormhole again. Right, Ange?"
Sagittarius had her healing rod out and was already punching in numbers.
"I must recalibrate these numbers to configure with this new setting," she replied, "I just need time."
"In other words," Aquarius said, "We hold off ice woman."
Leo held out her hand and her staff appeared, "Lets go for it!"
Double Virgo and Leo headed off with Aquarius and Single Virgo behind them.
"Hey lady!" Double Virgo yelled, "Take this!"
She pointed her spear at Levita who was at the edge of the frozen lake. A gust of wind shot out and went straight at her.
"I think I got her," Double Virgo said triumphantly.
The wind died down and Levita was still there. She smiled as she lifted her star pendant.
"I won't fall for that again. Here, take this instead!"
The star lit up and glowed. First, it was blue then turned a brilliant, bright white.
"I will enjoy this!" she cried.
As the four braced for impact, they noticed a black spectre form behind Levita. It was formless at first then it solidified into a figure in a black robe.
"Levita. Stop," the low voice said.
Levita's anger was quelled for a moment. There was a flicker of horror on her face, but it soon dissolved into rage again. The glow of the star slowly extinguished as the black figure came closer to her.
"Eh? What's going on?" Leo asked.
"Is that thing helping us?" Double Virgo exclaimed.
The figure spoke again in its low voice, "Levita, you may leave now. I will destroy them myself."
"He definitely isn't helping us," Single Virgo said as she grabbed onto Double Virgo's arm, "and he definitely doesn't want us around."
The robed figure turned to the four Star Buds. Levita, on the other hand, growled in annoyance and disappeared in a blaze of blue light. The figure held out its robed arms to the Star Buds.
"Sailor Senshi! I have waited for this day... I have been looking for you ever since that fire!"
They were silent. Confusion pretty much overwhelmed any feelings of fear that the Star Buds had. This figure was threatening them for apparently no reason except for the 'fire'.
"Um... Ange?" Leo said, "Could you speed things along? This Halloween reject is getting on my nerves and I really wanna listen to this new album I bought today."
Sagittarius was still fidgeting with the controls of the healing rod, "I almost have it, just hold on a bit longer."
"You heard her gang," Aquarius said as she stepped forward next to Leo, "Lets just blast its head off."
The figure laughed, "Ah, the legendary bantering of the Senshi! I thought it was just a myth."
The four exclaimed at the same time, "What?!"
"Okay, this crumb lord's got a problem in his brain. What the heck is he talking about?" Double Virgo angrily said.
"Time to end this," he said as a black energy sphere appeared between his hands.
The clouds began to darken and searing white lightning flashed from the sky. The lightning crackled and hissed. More and more lightning erupted from the sky as the black energy sphere grew larger and larger.
The frozen lake began to shatter and break apart. The ice caps splashed and hit one another as the lightning crashed down on the lake. Waves of water came up and down as the ground shook with tremendous force.
"Okie, once again, what the hell is he talking about?" Double Virgo shouted over the crackling of the thunder.
"This is excellent!" Sagittarius said as she joined the others.
They all looked at her and pointed at he robed figure and his gargantuan energy sphere.
Sagittarius nodded, "Point taken. I should have explained myself. This whole energy surge can accelerate the opening of the portal. We just need a few more seconds for it to open."
"A few more seconds? From what I see, we won't need to open it because we won't be around to hop into it!" Double Virgo replied.
"Whoa there!" Aquarius said, "We can obviously defend ourselves!"
Leo held out her staff, "Agreed!"
"Somebody do something!" Single Virgo yelled suddenly, "It's coming for us!"
The land continued to quake beneath their feet. The energy sphere was launched from the black figure's hands and shot straight at them.
"Barriers up!" Sagittarius shouted, "Fire Barrier!"
A red glow appeared around her as she stood facing the incoming blast.
"Good thinking Ange. Thunder Barrier!" Single Virgo shouted as she glowed in a green aura.
"Wind Barrier!" Double Virgo said as her light purple barrier appeared.
"Water Barrier!" Aquarius shouted.
Leo looked over at Aquarius, "Wow, for the second time today, Mirror Barrier!"
Aquarius glowed in an aquamarine haze while Leo glowed in an orange haze.
The dark sphere shot at the five glowing figures. For a moment, the barriers fused together to create a white blaze. The darkness and the light contacted. The impact created a chasm between the lake's edge and the land. Water began to spill into the opening as the land began to crumble. The Star Buds felt the strength of the sphere as it tried to break its way into their barrier.
The sky was clear and the lake was calm again, partly because, in fact, there was no more lake. The crack in the earth swallowed all the water. All that was left of the lake was a deteriorating crater with a faint red outline.
Single Virgo slowly opened her eyes and looked around, "Guys? I think it's over. What just happened?"
"That was easier than I thought," Double Virgo said aloud, "And yeah, what did happen?"
"I just saw a bright white light and I was thinking that we all were gonna die!" Leo said in disbelief.
Aquarius grinned, "We're just strong, that's all."
The robed figure roared in anguish, "What is the meaning of this? That blast would've annihilated tens of thousands of Senshi!"
Suddenly, the wind began to pick up again and the ground shook.
"Great, another damn attack," Double Virgo muttered.
"It is the portal!" Sagittarius exclaimed, "Hurry!"
The portal opened up behind them. The swirling wormhole grew.
"All in favor of not sticking around with that thing, jump in!" Leo yelled as they dashed to the portal and entered it.
The figure glided toward it but was too late. The portal was closing in and became too small for it to enter. It closed at an alarmingly fast rate.
"Those Senshi..." he said.
Another robed figure appeared beside him, "Brother, they seem... more like stars..."
Leo jumped out first, then came Aquarius followed by Single Virgo, Sagittarius, and lastly, Double Virgo. The portal closed abruptly.
"Remind me not to step in one of those things again," Aquarius said.
Double Virgo whipped out her spear, "Do you guys know where we are?"
Single Virgo suddenly became alarmed, "Uh-oh... We better get outta here before—"
It was too late. Leo and Aquarius realized that they were alone in the mall and everything was at their feet.
"Lets go for it!" Leo cried out as Aquarius grabbed a shopping bag, seemingly out of thin air.
Sagittarius plopped down on the bench. Single Virgo did so as well.
"Hey Ange, how in the world did our barriers fend off that super powerful attack?" she asked as Leo and Aquarius dashed away from the furious Double Virgo.
Sagittarius pondered a while as she remembered the barriers turning white. Finally, she replied, "As for as I can tell, I think we combined powers some how."
Single Virgo's jaw almost dropped and her eyes widened, "You can't be serious! We've never done that before! I don't even think that's possible!"
The older Star Bud smiled at her, "I suppose... Well, lets go home for now."
Meanwhile, Double Virgo acquired the awful task of dragging the two shop-crazed girls out of the stores and out the door...
Darkness surrounded her. She couldn't see. Her sight was taken from her. Somehow, she felt this before...
"Veronica!" Vivicka yelled in her ear, "Wake up! We're gonna be late for school!"
Veronica opened her eyes. The light from the window blinded her for a moment. Her sight slowly came back to her.
"C'mon! Let's go! I don't want to be late!"
Veronica, in her near-sightless state, somehow managed to punch Vivicka right in the head, "Shut up! I got it, you little look-a-like!"
Sulking, Vivicka walked out of the room while rubbing her head. Veronica smiled at her accuracy. She got up and stretched. Seconds later, she heard Vivicka's voice calling out to Angela.
"That tattletale brat!" Veronica muttered.
She brushed her teeth, got dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen where Maddy, Annie, Angela, and Vivicka sat the dining table, finishing their breakfasts.
"Do we hafta to go to school?" Veronica complained, "We got a ball of energy thrown at us last night! Can't we just sleep?"
Angela chuckled and cheerfully said, "Of course we can sleep, after school that is. Today is Friday after all and we have the whole weekend to rest!"
Veronica trained in the gym every single day and had no idea how Angela had so much energy to do all these things. Finally, Veronica acquiesced, "Fine! But if we run into anymore robe-wearing-energy–orb-throwing-mutants, I get to hit it first! I'm aching to do some hurtin'... heh heh..."
Annie looked at the time, "As much as we would love to hear you rant about your violent requests, we should get going."
"Fine!" Veronica said as the other four took their things and left the house.
"Hey, I didn't eat nothing yet!"
Vivicka popped her head back into the house, "That's what you get for waking up late!"
A toaster flew by, narrowly missing her head, followed by Veronica yelling, "Shut up!"
Vivicka paused to look up at the Jujo High building. She continued walking to catch up with the other four. They were almost at the doors of the school when Sofia greeted them from behind.
"Hi again," Sofia said, "I just need to talk to Vivicka for a bit."
Veronica angrily snapped, "You again! Can't you take a hint and lever her alone?"
Angela intervened before Veronica could go on, "Sofia, Vivicka had a long day yesterday, what with all the first day assignments for school. Please, giver her more time."
Sofia's pleasant disposition gave way to a cold temperament, "Listen here, I need her interview and I'll do anything for it! I just need a source, meaning Vivicka, and I can prove those Star Buds were the cause of all of this! Now move aside and—"
"What are you talking about? No way!" Annie said as she ushered Vivicka to the door.
"She is not going to say anything to a pushy overachiever like you," Maddy added, "Lose the attitude, please."
Sofia shook her head, "I don't know what you're hiding but I can assure you that no matter what, my story on the Star Buds will be printed and sold, with or without Vivicka's assistance."
She turned and was about to walk away when Vivicka pushed past Maddy and Annie and stopped her, "Wait."
She paused.
"I'll tell you everything. I'll tell you."
Annie and Veronica were about to pounce on Vivicka but Angela stepped up first.
"Vivicka," she said, "Is this what you want to do?"
She nodded confidently.
"I trust your judgment. We all do," Angela said.
Veronica entered the building and slammed the door. Annie and Maddy waited for Angela and then went to their class.
Sofia took out her recorder, "Alright. Let's step into my office, shall we?"
In the depths of the caves, cold blue eyes stared out of an opening of the rocky wall.
"Master... You lied... What good are your promises now...I must go back there... to claim what is mine...my freedom..."
Veronica didn't feel like going to class. Instead, she sat on top of the main building and looked out at the rest of the campus. Across from the main building was the biology building. In between them, there was the quad, the trees, and interesting looking bridge made to look like it was made of air.
She found some rocks and threw them off the side of the building. As she threw the last one down, she saw something in the distance.
"Oh cripes! Not again!"
She watched the blue light come closer to the biology building.
"Show time for the Star Buds..."
Vivicka sat in the comfortable black leather chair. She was feeling anything but comfortable at the moment.
"And that concludes our interview. Thank you Ms. Kaminari. You have certainly shed new light on my story. As a word of warning, lay low a few days after the article is printed."
Vivicka nodded, "T-Thank you, Ms. Lancaster."
She got off of the seat and as she walked out, looked across to the other building. She saw a familiar blue light landing on top of it.
"Oh no..." she said as she ran down the hall.
Annie lifted the test tube over the fire, "Who could have known that 20th century science was so easy?"
Maddy had her book open to a picture of a paramecium.
"Annie, why are you heating water?"
"Shh! I wanna look like I'm doing work."
"We're studying cell life. Heating plain water won't get you anywhere."
"Oh stop being an Angela, Mad. I'm tired from all that shopping yesterday."
Angela walked up to their lab table, "Annie, I am impressed that you are further studying the curriculum! What inspired you so?"
Annie smiled and continued to heat the test tube.
"Hey Ange, do you think Vivicka's alright?" Maddy asked, "I mean, she's gonna tell her the whole truth. Everything!"
Angela sat down, "You see Maddy, an old poet once wrote, 'The truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind'. I think Vivicka will be fine."
The room shook suddenly. Students looked up at the ceiling.
Maddy looked up and then back at Angela, "Are you sure about this?"
"Are you sure about this?" Aquarius asked.
"Sure as ever," Sagittarius replied.
The alarm kept ringing as the five Star Buds circled the pendant at a distance. The pendant stopped glowing for a moment and then a light beam shot out from it to the sky. It dissipated and Levita appeared again with the pendant around her neck.
"Your cheap tricks won't work again," she said.
"You should have stayed down Levita," Aquarius shouted.
"Yeah, that pendant looks better on me!" Leo said as she prepared her mirror beam attack.
Levita slowly moved to look at each Star Bud surrounding her. They had their weapons aimed at her. Here, they were the key to her freedom. She had only need to grasp it. She was so close...
"Master Sinistogi underestimated you Sailor Senshi," she hissed, "I won't."
"Sure," Double Virgo replied.
Whoosh
Sagittarius's arrow hit Levita's pendant. The arrow blazed brightly for a moment, then feel to the ground in ashes. Levita fell to the ground next. Her blue pendant turned a translucent gray. She clutched at it as if it were her heart.
Sagittarius walked up to the bent figure, "Give this message to your Master: We are not Sailor Senshi. We are Star Buds and if any one of you come back again, we will not hold back."
Leo and Aquarius were startled. They had never heard Sagittarius speak so harshly. The Virgos looked at her and she had her arrow pointed right between Levita's eyes.
"It was a weak threat, but c'mon, it's Angela," Double Virgo commented.
Single Virgo nodded profusely.
Levita glared at them and disappeared in a flash of blue light. The Star Buds stood on top of the building and looked down at the students and the police who had just arrived.
"So, Viv, you told her eh?" Double Virgo asked.
"Yup," she replied, "I told her everything. Actually, I told her the truth. I told her that the Star Buds saved my life back when I was stuck outside the window. You see, I told her the truth, not the whole truth."
Aquarius, Leo, and Double Virgo were apparently impressed with their youngest team member's thinking because they took turns continually patting her head.
"You knew didn't you?" Aquarius asked Sagittarius, who was examining the spot where Levita had been.
"Of course. I knew our little Vivicka had common sense."
"Hah! So did I!" Leo exclaimed.
Double Virgo punched Leo's shoulder, "No you didn't! Liar!"
The two argued as Aquarius, feeling extremely happy, yelled out, "We're Star Buds and don't you forget it!"
End: Episode One
Note: There was one little line that I borrowed from "Princess Bride". I know it's just one line, but I'd feel bad if I didn't add a disclaimer for it. Thus, disclaimer: there is one line in this story that belongs to "Princess Bride".