Chapter 5: Peppermint Rainbow Sparkles

Rei Hino was running through the streets, pursued by Umi, that girl who had attacked the Outer Senshi's house the day before. She spun around and threw a fireball at Umi, who crashed into the bullet train tracks. To Rei's horror, the train ran over her, crushing her into a pile of blue sparkles. As the blue sparkles disappeared, the mysterious Senshi was in her place.

"Noooo!!! She's out of my grasp! How dare you send her back to her world?!" the Senshi screamed.

"Back to her world?" Rei asked.

"Yes, when they die here they return to their world for the rest of their lives," the Senshi said, seeming to be surprised that Rei didn't know this. And then Rei woke up in her bed.

Fuu and Hikaru were frantic. They feared that the Senshi had killed Umi.

"We need to go down there and rescue her! We need her!" Hikaru begged, "And it's your fault! You were arguing with her and drove her away!" Fuu started to protest, but then she sunk down. Hikaru was right, they had to work as a team. That would be their only hope against the Sailor Senshi, because if all 16 Senshi managed to awaken, they would be horribly outnumbered. This was their chance, now that that house only had 3 Senshi.

"Okay. We can't go rushing into the pool now, though, we need to think of a plan," Fuu sighed.

Meanwhile, Makoto Kino had arrived at the Outer Senshi's house and was currently being led by Michiru to Rainbow Sparkles's room, Pierre following out of curiosity. Makoto knocked on the door and Rainbow opened it.

"Hello, um..."

"We're here to give you your Senshi powers!" Pierre blurted out, finishing Makoto's sentence, for which she was grateful.

"I don't want them," Rainbow said quietly, still facing the computer she was typing a story on.

"Really? Is that what you want? Because no one else can have them..." Makoto was cut off as Rainbow spun quickly around, her orange eyes flashing angrily.

"That is why I came. I came to tell the Queen that it's stupid and wrong to send people from other countries to fight her war. If the Magic Knights are trying to destroy the Senshi, then why don't we just give up our powers? Then they won't bother us."

"But it's an honor to be a Sailor Senshi!" Makoto pleaded.

"An honor? An honor to what? Wear a stupid little short skirt and high heels? If I wanted to do that, I..."

"But looking silly is a great way to distract the enemy and make them underestimate us!"

"Shut up, Pierre! I'm not done yet! It's very suspicious that almost all the Senshi are picked when they're young and that most of them are girls. Is there some perverted male out there who's designing the Senshi uniforms and picking his victims to wear them?!"

"You know, I don't know how the Senshi uniforms were designed, but they've been around since the Silver Millennium and..."

"How do you know a man designed it? Although I think you're going to like it here in Crystal Tokyo if you hate men, it's a matriarchy and..."

"I said SHUT UP PIERRE!! Why the **** is Luna sending people into danger on purpose by creating the bracelets? So the lines won't die?! That's a stupid reason, the world would've been better off without the Senshi in the first place because then no enemies would've attacked!"

"That's not true! Some of them were trying to destroy the world, they didn't have anything to do directly with the Senshi!" Makoto protested.

"You know, maybe you're just lazy. Or if we have to be liberal now, 'motivationally challenged,'" Pierre snickered.

"You know, cutesy sayings like that are ambiguous in the first place and also creates a way for people to think that they're being nice without actually doing anything about the societal barriers to disability. Don't give me that, I know that Crystal Tokyo has universal access but there's still some prejudice, especially against girls with disabilities since they're expected to be strong."

"Huh? I was being sarcastic, I agree with you on being liberal..."

"You two are getting off track about the issue of being a Senshi," Makoto reminded them.

"I was trying to distract her so you could give her the bracelet!"

"So you're conspiring against me?!"

"Pierre, get out, you're only making things worse with your comments," Makoto scolded.

"I'm not going to leave! I have free will!"

"And so do I! And I'm not going to be a Sailor Senshi! I'm...OWW!!" Rainbow shrieked as Hikaru and Fuu teleported right on top of her and raced out of the room.

"Umi, we're coming! Without you we can't get the Staff of Wisdom!"

"Hikaru, don't talk about that here! Now they know our plans!" Fuu shouted back as they charged through the hallways.

"The Staff of Wisdom? They can just have it," Rainbow snapped, turning back to her computer.

"I think that might have been the talisman that Sailor Mercury had in the Silver Millennium...please, just take this," Makoto said, dashing out quickly after leaving a dark green bracelet on the floor. Rainbow turned around and picked it up. Maybe she could convince them to destroy this thing or give it back to Luna. She got up to leave, but was halted by Hotaru.

"Please, listen. Makoto didn't get a chance to tell you the whole story. It's not about the Staff of Wisdom, it's about rescuing the Magic Knights from evil," she pleaded. Now Rainbow was curious, this WAS different than she thought the Senshi missions were before.

"What do you mean by saving the Magic Knights? Aren't you saying they're your enemy?"

"No, you see, Rei had a psychic dream, please believe me, she's very accurate. She saw Umi being killed by a train, but then Umi was safe in her own world. The Magic Knights are from the world of their anime show, Serena confirmed this with her knowledge of them. If we kill them here, they will be freed."

"How do I know Rei's not just making that up as propaganda?"

"It's not just that. It's that other Senshi. We need to become the Senshi so we can defend ourselves against her if she decides to attack. You saw what she did to the Starlights, it could happen to Earth too. This isn't just about the Magic Knights, this is about saving the world." Rainbow nodded. That made sense, especially with that other Senshi out there. She did believe in self-defense, after all. She finally put on the bracelet.

"Peppermint Power, Make Up!"

Downstairs, Hikaru and Fuu had found Umi, but were blocked by Sailor Peanut Butter, Sailor Popsicle, and Sailor Cookie.

"Please, Magic Knights! We don't have the Staff of Wisdom! So please just leave us alone and go back to your world!" Sailor Peanut Butter begged.

"Clef told us that you were evil! And Clef doesn't lie!" Umi shouted.

"What if someone was disguised as Clef and lied to you, taking on his image to trick you? We understand those who have been tricked, it's happened to us before. Black Lady, Prince Endymion, Mistress 9, all..."

"Let's just teleport out of here, we can't fight them now, they don't want to..."

"Supreme Thunder!" The Magic Knights were suddenly struck down by a bolt of electricity. They looked and saw Rainbow wearing a dark green Senshi outfit that matched her curly pigtails.

"What did you do that for?! Now they'll never listen to us!" Sailor Peanut Butter yelled.

"What?! Hotaru just told me the Magic Knights needed to be killed so they could go back to their world and be free from the evil Senshi who's controlling them!" Rainbow, or rather, Sailor Peppermint snapped back.

"Let's just get out of here," sighed Fuu, and the Magic Knights joined hands and teleported back to their room.