"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Seven

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

The battle was a tough one, but thanks to a little distraction from Tuxedo Mask, a little added help from the mysterious Three Lights, and a little Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, the giant bumblebee that shot poisonous stingers was defeated. Where villains thought up these weird looking minions, they'd never know.

While Tuxedo Mask and the Starlights disappeared into the night, and the senshi congratulated one another, Venus counted on her fingers, mumbling the names of all the planets. "Okay, minus the Outer Senshi, Chibi-Usa, Chibi-Chibi, and Sailor Galaxia because they're not here, there's still ten of us, plus Tuxedo Mask... And yet, we still manage to barely escape with our tiaras intact. What's up with that?"

Mercury shrugged. "I guess we should just be grateful that the less powerful villains showed up first, when we were still learning our powers."

"Even so, if all seventeen of us, plus Tuxie, were fighting, I'd expect to be able to take care of any youma problem in nothing flat. Boom, boom, boom!" She illustrated with her Love-Me Chain. "Like that! But nooooooo..."

Phosphora had overheard the math and calculated the number of senshi. "Wait a minute, are you including the Sailor Starlights in this equation?"

"Well, yeah."

"You know them??"

"Oh, sure!" Venus's smile was almost broader than her face. "We met them last year. Taiki's the serious one, Seiya's the handsome one, and Yaten's the absolutely adorable one!"

Angel, hearing this description, glanced at Phosphora, whose battle aura, predictably, was gaining in strength by the second.

"You mean..." said Phosphora through tightly clenched teeth, "That the conceited jerk knew who we were the ENTIRE time and he didn't even SAY anything?!"

"Zara, chill!" said Angel. "They probably didn't know it was us the whole time, even if they knew the others. And besides, there's good news."

"What good news?"

"This means that 'the jerk' transforms into a woman."

Phosphora blinked, her mind processing this bit of information, and then she burst out in a gale of giggles. "Oh, that's TOO much! And doesn't he deserve it!"

While Phosphora laughed, the hairs on the back of Angel's neck stood up and she turned around, sure that someone had been watching them. But she didn't see anything. Shrugging it off as the paranoia that sometimes came as an occupational hazard for the Senshi of Danger, she joined the others as they were heading off to power-down and get a milkshake.

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Rapidly approaching the earth, Catastrophe sat upon his bejeweled thrown and watched the footage Xerkxak had taken for him while the Sailor Senshi had battled the token youma he'd sent. It hadn't been his intent to try and defeat or even weaken the Sailor Senshi with this attack. The purpose was to learn how they fight and what their weaknesses were.

With a slow smile, his grey gaze focused on the winged Senshi. He reached out with one clawed hand and traced the outline of her projected face. "Still so beautiful. She'll be even lovelier with tears streaming from those aqua depths."

Xerkxak appeared before his master, bowing low. "Shall I prepare the next youma, sire?"

"No."

The minion looked up, questioningly.

"No more attacks. I don't want them to know how close we are. Let them fall into a false sense of security, and then... We shall strike them, personally."

"Yes, master." Xerkxak had a feeling that there was more about the upcoming battle that was personal than his master let on.

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"Ouch!"

The Three Lights rolled their eyes as rehearsal came once again to a grinding halt. Celeste hung her head as Rei rubbed her sore foot.

"That WAS my foot!"

And Rei's wasn't the only foot Celeste had stepped on during this dance rehearsal for the upcoming concert. It was to be the first joint concert between the Three Lights and the Constellations, as Zara, Celeste, Minako, and Rei were to be called, so of course, it was very important and everyone was nervous, but everyone was beginning to suspect that this was more than just nerves for the golden-brown haired girl. Celeste just wasn't up to par, dance-wise, with the other girls.

"I can't help it," she said, softly. "I dance like a cow, I know it. But I can't do much to change that!"

Zara put an arm around her friend's shoulders. "You don't dance like a cow." She glared behind Celeste's back when some of the others gave somewhat incredulous looks. "You just need to concentrate."

"This is no good."

Zara turned her icy stare on Seiya. "Excuse me?"

Seiya gave a shrug. "If she's this bad during rehearsal, just think how she'll be during the performances. We can't take the chance that she'll get it together by then."

"Seiya..." Taiki hissed warningly.

The dark-haired singer turned to his friend and threw his arms into the air, exasperated. "Well, what do you propose we do, Taiki? We don't have time to send her to dance classes! We can't fire her, she has a contract and, thanks to the advertising, the public will expect her to be in the group. Any bright ideas?"

Zara planted her hands on her hips, frowning. "You know, you don't have to be such a jerk about it!"

Turning back around, Seiya matched Zara's position and glared right back at her. "And you, Miss high-and-mighty. You act like you own the place!"

"I do not! I'm protecting my friend, a concept obviously foreign to you, since all you care about is yourself!"

"I happen to care very much about this concert, thank you very much, and I'd also like to get out of rehearsal sometime before the end of the next century, something that is not likely to happen as long as your 'friend' keeps screwing up!"

Behind Zara, Celeste sniffled and the two combatants turned to look at her.

"I'm s-sorry," she stuttered, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm sorry I'm so much trouble." She ran out of the practice room before the tears started to fall.

Taiki smacked Seiya upside the head. "Idiot..."

He walked out after Celeste, Minako ran after him, and Yaten surreptitiously followed Minako. Taking this as a signal for break time, Rei sighed and headed for the hallway vending machine. Both Seiya and Zara fumed as they realized everyone had left them alone together.

Harrumphing, they turned away from each other, arms crossed over their respective chests.

"I'm not talking to you," Zara announced. "But you're STILL a jerk."

"Fine by me, Princess."

Zara knew he was referring to her attitude, not her actual rank, but it still made her even angrier. Celeste was right, this wasn't her galaxy and she couldn't order anyone to do anything. Not even to be nice.

Seiya was never regretting more that the Three Lights had to have these idiot girls with their band. He glanced at Zara as she flipped her flaming hair in his general direction and felt annoyed that, even as he hated her, he found himself appreciating the way her hair caught the light. Oh, no... He was NOT going to say she looked beautiful when she was angry. Absolutely ridiculous...

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Taiki, Minako, and Yaten found Celeste sitting in a stall of the women's bathroom. At first, Taiki and Yaten had been reluctant to enter, but Minako had convinced them that since they are women at least part of the time, it was okay.

The boys hesitated at the sound of the crying, so Minako knocked lightly on the door of the stall. "Cel-chan? Are you okay?"

"N-no. P-please leave me alone," came the broken reply, accompanied by a hiccup.

Minako shrugged at Taiki and Yaten, at a loss. She was certainly adept at making her friends feel better, but she barely knew Celeste and was therefore unsure what to do.

Yaten took her place in front of the stall door. "Sorano-san? You know, Seiya's an idiot, he doesn't know anything. You can come out of there."

"He's not an idiot, Kou-san. YOU can kick higher than I can."

Unable to deny the truth of that statement, and not sure if he should be proud or take offence to it, Yaten gestured for Taiki to have a go.

Taiki sighed. "Celeste-san... We can't do this concert without you."

"It'd be a lot better if you did."

"No, it wouldn't. Lots of people are expecting to see you and hear your voice. The group's sound won't be as full if you aren't there."

"But I can't dance."

"Yes, you can, you're just not as good as the others." He paused, thinking out loud. "But there may be something else we can do."

"There is?" The voice on the other side of the door sounded vaguely hopeful.

"Yes," he said, his idea of a plan taking firmer shape in his head. "Come on out and we'll talk about it."

After a few seconds, the door crept open and Celeste, her face slightly red, peeked out. Three fellow performers smiled at her.

"Okay," she said.

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The seven performers gathered around in the practice room five minutes later. Seiya and Zara still weren't talking to each other, but that only served for less bickering, so no one really minded.

"All right," said Taiki. "First, I think it's time to stop tiptoeing around an obvious issue here." He took a precautionary glance around to make sure they were alone before continuing. "We all know that we're senshi, correct?"

Zara and Celeste exchanged a look before nodding.

"Good," he said. "Then we can quickly get to my idea here. Seiya," he looked at his sulking compatriot, "you do have a point, rude though it may have been. Celeste-san simply isn't as good as you other three. However," he looked at Celeste, "there is one thing none of us considered."

Everyone leaned forward slightly, wondering what it was they could have overlooked.

"We haven't yet discussed costuming for the Constellations," he said, stunning everyone with this sudden turn in subject.

"Taiki," said Seiya, slightly annoyed. "What does costuming have to do with anything?"

"Plenty." He looked back at Celeste. "You have wings as a senshi, yes?"

Celeste furrowed her brow slightly. "Yes."

"And they give you added agility and grace, right?"

Her eyes brightened, beginning to see where he was going with this. "Right!"

"Wait a minute," said Yaten. "She can't very well go out on stage in her sailor fuku. Why not just go on the news and shout to the world that we're the sailor senshi!"

"That's why I mentioned the costuming."

"And I don't have to be in my fuku to have wings," said Celeste, her excitement growing. She went to her bag and pulled out the Star Wand. "Watch this! Sky Princess Configuration!" In a flash of silver stars, she transformed into Princess Celeste, complete in white silk dress and iridescent wings.

"That's almost perfect," said Taiki, examining the result. "We'll need to change it a bit, though, for performance purposes."

"Change it, how?"

"Well, I'm no costume designer, but I'd say something like shorten the sleeves, add in some sheer pieces, slit it up the sides, and do something else with your hair. But with this as your costume, no one would guess that those wings aren't really fake." He turned to the rest of them as Celeste de-transformed. "You see, since your group's name is the Constellations, we can dress you in costumes corresponding to earth, fire, air, and water. Obviously, Celeste would be air."

"I get fire!" claimed Rei.

Zara made a slight face, but no one could argue why. "Minako should take water, she'll look better in blue than I would."

"You should have earth anyway, Zara; green makes your eyes really stand out."

"Then it's decided!" said Taiki, smiling. "And there will be no more rude comments on other people's abilities." He glanced at Seiya who rolled his eyes. "As we've seen, they slow rehearsals down and we only have two weeks before the concert. Let's get back to work. I'll make sure in the future that we have the building secured so that Celeste can work with the wings and not risk discovery."

Rehearsal continued, with Seiya and Zara both feeling moderately smug, having at least partially won the argument, and Celeste feeling much more confident about the upcoming concert.

However, considering the threat to the universe, dancing should really have been the least of anyone's worries.

To be continued...