Chapter 21: Cool, Cool Mountain

Makoto shivered. All she could feel was that it was very cold. Except for one spot, where there was someone else's warm, squishy body. She snuggled up, and then was roughly shoved away. Makoto blinked and found herself staring into a pair of angry orange eyes.

"Don't hug me. I barely know you," snapped a girl's Australian accent.

"You're Rainbow..." Makoto trailed off, remembering that girl from the day she had given out her Senshi powers. Yes, she thought, Rainbow was the one who had rebelled, and only Hotaru could make her accept her destiny.

"Yeah, that's me." Makoto looked around. They were in a snowy land, and not far away a mountain loomed overhead. If she was going to survive here with this reluctant Sailor Senshi, Makoto thought, they should at least get to know each other.

"When I met you, it looked like you were writing a story. I heard that you like to make up your own science fiction books from what Haruka's group told me. Can you tell me about them?" Makoto asked. Rainbow stared for a moment, then she actually smiled. She sat down on a rock and beckoned for Makoto to come near her.

"My stories are about Space Girl Spectra and her crew. They travel around the universe in their magical spaceship, having adventures. Spectra is the star, and she is a true stoic. She's one of the youngest of the group, but she's really huge; she's about the height of your daughter. But unlike Kurumi, she's like the Hulk, she has big muscles too. She's very quiet and never gets angry. She doesn't fall in love or even care to have friends. What she cares about is ecology and the wildlife--she prefers animals to people. A true nature child. Red, the younger of her older sisters, is very tiny, only 2 feet tall..."

"Like Jessica," Makoto thought aloud.

"Yes, like Jessica. I haven't seen Jessica much, but from what I hear about her from Galaxy, they're very similar in personality too. Red is a cold, stern girl, but she's also interested in anime. She is stuffy and proper, well-mannered but not friendly. Orange is the fattest of the girls, and she's like a parody of an evil genius stereotype. She doesn't like Spectra and wants to be the smartest person in the world. She also thinks that she's a dominatrix but not in a sexual way, she just likes to have an excuse to hit people. She's rather immature and often says that she admires evil genius characters she sees on TV. Yellow is kind of like Orange's opposite, because she has a crush on Spectra. She is very quiet, but she lets her emotions rule her. When I showed the stories to Serena, she said that Yellow reminded her of Futaba on Puni Puni Poemi. I don't know who that is, though, because when I went to watch her Puni Puni DVD, Galaxy took it away from me and said it wasn't for children. I think then Serena and her got in a fight over that. Back to the characters. Green is..."

By this point, Makoto was starting to become bored with listening, and so she began to gaze at the scenery. She didn't want to tell Rainbow to be quiet, though, since she was afraid that might be too rude. When she had asked about her "characters," she did not expect to get a description of each one. Frankly, she preferred to hear more about Rainbow herself.

"Red and Spectra's older sister," Rainbow continued, "She is the most emotional of the group and she gets angry a lot. She's also the one who wears really thick glasses and dresses like a stereotypical nerd. But she's actually not very smart. She hates being stupid, so she admires Spectra's genius. I forgot to say that Spectra's IQ is 1,000,000. She's the smartest person in the universe, but she doesn't have an ego about it. That's why Orange hates her so much. Blue is in love with Green. She is clumsy, but not a stereotypical pure, earnest clumsy character like you see on magical girl anime. She likes tricking people with her fast-talking words, and she also has an obsession with the fact that people furrow their brow when they think. Green does this a lot because she's so stupid and emotional, so that's why Blue loves her so much. Green is the oldest of the crew, but Purple is the youngest. Purple is an energetic kid but she's also kind of stern like Red. She likes to do martial-arts a lot and she's a little bossy sometimes. Now these are some of the different planets they've visited..."

"Doesn't that cabin look warm and cozy?" Makoto suddenly commented.

"Don't interrupt me while I'm talking about my characters!" Rainbow snapped. Makoto looked a little sheepish.

"Oh, they were interesting," she said absently. Rainbow perked up.

"What did you like about them?"

"Oh..um...isn't Violet the giant girl who likes anime and furrowing her brow?" Makoto asked, getting them all mixed up because she hadn't been paying close attention.

"Weren't you even LISTENING?! You got it all wrong, and I didn't even say that any of them was NAMED Violet!"

"No, I wasn't really listening. I just didn't want to say I was bored because that would be rude," Makoto admitted.

"It's wrong to pretend like you're happy and content with something when you're not, though!" Rainbow protested.

"Come on, let's get into that warm cabin," Makoto said, trying to change the subject. Rainbow backed away from her.

"No! I will not go with someone who wants me to lie about my feelings!" Before Makoto could respond, they were swept up by a red light that came out of the cabin's chimney. Inside, they found Hikaru standing in front of what looked like a long icy slide.

"Peppermint Power, Make Up!" called Rainbow suddenly, transforming into her dark green Senshi outfit that matched her hair. Upon seeing this, Hikaru began to sob.

"Please don't kill me. I am upon your mercy, powerful Sailor Senshi!"

"Huh?! You're the one who brought us into this cabin with your magic!" Sailor Peppermint protested.

"That's right. Red is most definitely your color," added Makoto.

"I--I just wanted to offer to you to ride my snow slide! I thought you would enjoy it!" wailed Hikaru.

"If it's so much fun, how about you ride it too?"

"Rainbow, she's scared. Maybe she doesn't like fast rides," Makoto said.

"I'm going, no matter what!" exclaimed Sailor Peppermint, eager for the ride. As she pushed past to begin her descent, she grabbed Hikaru's skirt, pulling her along too.

"EEEEEK!!! Let me go! We'll fall off!" Hikaru screamed.

"Then why did you want me to ride it?!" argued Sailor Peppermint.

"Because I...I...have orders to destroy the Sailor Senshi! But I didn't want to do the killing myself...I just can't stand to fight you...you sound so scary and powerful...I just thought...if...you fell off into the bottomless pit, you would die painlessly," Hikaru sobbed.

"Orders?! Orders from a faker from Nemesis!"

"WAAAAH!!! You Sailor Senshi really ARE cruel! Clef was our guide in Cephiro, not a faker from some place I've never heard of!"

"No, I mean that someone has disguised herself as Clef and tricked you!"

"Liar! You evil liar! Get away from me, you evil scary liar!"

"It's the truth, Hikaru. And what's also the truth is that if we die here, then we'll each go back to our own worlds. That's what Hotaru Tomoe told me when I first became a Sailor Senshi," Sailor Peppermint explained as they neared a twisting curve that they just might go flying off of.

"What's that sound?" Hikaru suddenly asked.

"EEEEEYAAAAAH!!!" Makoto screamed as she, too, sped down the icy slide after the two magic user's.

"I think that's Makoto's voice."

"Who's Makoto?" asked Hikaru.

"I'm Makoto!" called the owner of said name as she collided with Sailor Peppermint and Hikaru, sending them all hurtling over the edge of the slide into the endless darkness.

"That's it. We're going to die now," moaned Hikaru.

"No, just be sent back to our worlds," answered Makoto, "I believe in Rei's prophecies."