After having defeated the monster, Andi was absolutely exhausted, but she
forced herself to stay awake long enough to turn on the news and see what
they had to say about the incident. Unfortunately, she was too tired to
take much in. All that she managed to absorb before passing out on her bed
was this:
"The only victims of the attack were a pair of teenage boys by the names of Kirk Van Cott and Justin Alberts. Both boys are currently in catatonic state and are being rushed to the hospital as we speak. Only time and fortune will determine their fate."
Her eyes fluttered open again and she lifted her head, which felt like dead weight on her neck to look at the clock. It was 3:48 A.M.
She lay down again and closed her eyes, until she felt something moving on the bed with her. She opened her eyes again and saw, about four inches from her face, Apollo, the cat who had given her that weird wand the day before.
"Ahh! What are you doing here?" she cried.
"Shh! Keep it down, would you? It's about time you woke up! You snore like a tractor!"
"Okay, that's it! This dream is getting way too freaky!" She pinched herself, using her fingernails to insure that she'd wake up. "OUCH!"
"Watch it, Andi. You shouldn't do that so hard. Besides, this is not a dream. Welcome to the real world, Sweet Pea! You are Sailor Antares. Get used to it."
"I don't know, Apollo.I always thought that giant monsters, Sailor Scouts, and talking cats in need of serious attitude adjustments all added up to dreaming. But then again, math never was my best subject.My second guess would have to be insanity."
Apollo took a deep breath and sighed so as not to lose his temper. "Okay, look. You are not dreaming, and you're not insane. You are Sailor Antares, destined to be a defender of peace and justice."
"Rrrright.And that would make you.?"
"I'm your guardian, of course! Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus have them, so why shouldn't you? You're as good as they are!"
"Okay.I'm almost following all of this."
"Okay," once again, he had to take a deep breath before continuing. "I'll start from the beginning. Back in the Silver Millennium, when Queen Serenity ruled the Moon Kingdom, you lived in the Star Kingdom of Antares, which was an ally to the moon kingdom. In fact, you not only lived there, but you were their pride and joy. You were the heart and soul of the kingdom. To them, you were so much more than a princess! You were their hope. You were going to grow to be a great leader, like your mother, Queen Antares. She was their most powerful protector, and her beautiful daughter, Princess Antares.that's you.was the spitting image of her. The future was looking bright indeed!"
"Woah, wait a minute! Leader? Protector? PRINCESS? I'm sorry but for some reason, I can't picture myself playing any of those roles!"
"Hey! Do you want me to tell you this or not?"
"Yes."
"Then shut up and let me finish!"
Andi blinked. She was getting seriously annoyed with Apollo and all of his sass, but she wanted to hear the rest of the story, so she kept quiet.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, you were Princess Antares, the only child of Queen Antares, and the last of the eight Star Guardians."
"Star Guardians?"
"Yes. You are not a Sailor Scout. You are a Star Guardian."
"The difference being.?"
"They're two completely different groups of people. The Star Guardians and the Sailor Scouts are very similar, but the Star Guardians are much more powerful than the Sailor Scouts."
"Okay, and what do you mean by 'I'm the last of them?'"
"The other seven, Sailors Altair, Rigel, Vega, Castor, Pollux, Sirius, and Polaris are.well.dead. You, Sailor Antares.You are the last one," he said regretfully. Andi could've sworn she heard a touch of guilt in his voice.
She didn't want to make Apollo talk about anything that would upset him, but she felt like she needed to know. Even though she had no idea who these Star Guardians were, when Apollo told her that they were dead, she felt as though she had lost someone in her very own family, like her foster parents in the next room. She had to ask. "What happened to them, Apollo? How did they die?"
He frowned. She could tell that whatever had happened, he felt partially responsible for it. "When they were just children, no bigger than three- year-old humans,, intruders broke into each of the Star Kingdoms' palaces one night using some strange evil power. They didn't steal anything. They didn't even enter the kings' and queens' chambers. They simply came, murdered the young princesses, and vanished. I was with you, and I sensed their presence and alerted the guards in time to save you, but I was too late for the others, and the other seven Star Guardians were destroyed."
Andi was silent for a long moment, absorbing the news. A barrage of thoughts flooded her mind. Her feelings were so mixed that she didn't even recognize some of them. The only ones she did recognize were grief and fear. For some reason, she felt as if these children had been like her sisters. And for some odd reason, she found little comfort in that in one night, some unknown killer murdered seven people who were just like her.
"So let me get this straight, Apollo," she said, "I'm not only a Sailor Scout.I mean Star Guardian.but I'm the only Star Guardian left who hasn't been murdered?"
"Well, yeah, that's about the size of it."
"And is whoever or whatever killed them still around?"
"As far as I know. No one saw them so no one knows who or what did it. But if I felt that energy again, I would certainly know it." He surveyed her face and realized that he wasn't helping his case. "I guess this wouldn't be a good time to mention then that I sensed that energy today at the football game from that monster?"
"Great!" she cried, "So these people are still around and they took out seven people with the same powers as me in one night and now I have to stand up and face them alone?! Terrific! Newsflash, Apollo: I'm not doing it! I'd like to be alive to get my college degree, thank you very much!"
Apollo knew he was crashing and burning. He'd have to try a different approach. "Look, Andi. Whether you agree to it or not, Sailor Antares is who you are. You are as much Sailor Antares as you are Miranda Kolovski, and there are evil forces out there that need to be battled. We both know that no one else will do it because of what we saw that you were the only one at the football game who tried to do something useful before fleeing for your life. I know you didn't ask for all this, and I can't force you to accept it. But I will say that you only have two options here: You could forget this ever happened and go back to being content with your normal life. But if you do that, the negative forces I mentioned before will be able to run free and do as they please to you, your family, and the entire human race, in which case you could be enslaved or even killed without being able to do a thing about it.
"Or on the other hand, you could accept your destiny and I could train you to be a great Star Guardian so you could get out there and whup those evil forces' butts-or even if you don't, at least you'd do more damage as Sailor Antares than you would as Andi."
He waited a moment to see if she had anything to say, but she merely averted her eyes. So he decided to make a concluding statement. "The one way, you stand a chance, and you get to be a hero at the same time. Not to mention that there's never a dull moment. The other, you're sitting around on your duff while your world along with you and all the people in it are destroyed. A no-brainer if you ask me."
"Well," she said hesitantly, "Since you put it that way, I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?"
"Then you'll do it?"
"I guess so, but I don't know the first thing about being a Sailor.er.Star Guardian."
"That's why I'm here: to coach you. I'll teach you all you need to know. I'll teach you to use your energy attacks, and I can coach you in Ju-Jitzu, and."
"Woah.hold up!" she interrupted, "You know Ju-Jitzu?"
"I followed a bunch of girls around until I fount the right one," he explained, "and I paid close attention to that Shannon girl's Ju-Jitzu classes. So what do you say, Andi? Partners?" He held out a paw for her to shake.
"Partners," She agreed, shaking his paw.
"Good," he said, jumping up onto her dresser and from there onto her head. "Then take us somewhere private and let the training begin!"
"Um.can I at least change out of my pajamas first?"
"The only victims of the attack were a pair of teenage boys by the names of Kirk Van Cott and Justin Alberts. Both boys are currently in catatonic state and are being rushed to the hospital as we speak. Only time and fortune will determine their fate."
Her eyes fluttered open again and she lifted her head, which felt like dead weight on her neck to look at the clock. It was 3:48 A.M.
She lay down again and closed her eyes, until she felt something moving on the bed with her. She opened her eyes again and saw, about four inches from her face, Apollo, the cat who had given her that weird wand the day before.
"Ahh! What are you doing here?" she cried.
"Shh! Keep it down, would you? It's about time you woke up! You snore like a tractor!"
"Okay, that's it! This dream is getting way too freaky!" She pinched herself, using her fingernails to insure that she'd wake up. "OUCH!"
"Watch it, Andi. You shouldn't do that so hard. Besides, this is not a dream. Welcome to the real world, Sweet Pea! You are Sailor Antares. Get used to it."
"I don't know, Apollo.I always thought that giant monsters, Sailor Scouts, and talking cats in need of serious attitude adjustments all added up to dreaming. But then again, math never was my best subject.My second guess would have to be insanity."
Apollo took a deep breath and sighed so as not to lose his temper. "Okay, look. You are not dreaming, and you're not insane. You are Sailor Antares, destined to be a defender of peace and justice."
"Rrrright.And that would make you.?"
"I'm your guardian, of course! Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus have them, so why shouldn't you? You're as good as they are!"
"Okay.I'm almost following all of this."
"Okay," once again, he had to take a deep breath before continuing. "I'll start from the beginning. Back in the Silver Millennium, when Queen Serenity ruled the Moon Kingdom, you lived in the Star Kingdom of Antares, which was an ally to the moon kingdom. In fact, you not only lived there, but you were their pride and joy. You were the heart and soul of the kingdom. To them, you were so much more than a princess! You were their hope. You were going to grow to be a great leader, like your mother, Queen Antares. She was their most powerful protector, and her beautiful daughter, Princess Antares.that's you.was the spitting image of her. The future was looking bright indeed!"
"Woah, wait a minute! Leader? Protector? PRINCESS? I'm sorry but for some reason, I can't picture myself playing any of those roles!"
"Hey! Do you want me to tell you this or not?"
"Yes."
"Then shut up and let me finish!"
Andi blinked. She was getting seriously annoyed with Apollo and all of his sass, but she wanted to hear the rest of the story, so she kept quiet.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, you were Princess Antares, the only child of Queen Antares, and the last of the eight Star Guardians."
"Star Guardians?"
"Yes. You are not a Sailor Scout. You are a Star Guardian."
"The difference being.?"
"They're two completely different groups of people. The Star Guardians and the Sailor Scouts are very similar, but the Star Guardians are much more powerful than the Sailor Scouts."
"Okay, and what do you mean by 'I'm the last of them?'"
"The other seven, Sailors Altair, Rigel, Vega, Castor, Pollux, Sirius, and Polaris are.well.dead. You, Sailor Antares.You are the last one," he said regretfully. Andi could've sworn she heard a touch of guilt in his voice.
She didn't want to make Apollo talk about anything that would upset him, but she felt like she needed to know. Even though she had no idea who these Star Guardians were, when Apollo told her that they were dead, she felt as though she had lost someone in her very own family, like her foster parents in the next room. She had to ask. "What happened to them, Apollo? How did they die?"
He frowned. She could tell that whatever had happened, he felt partially responsible for it. "When they were just children, no bigger than three- year-old humans,, intruders broke into each of the Star Kingdoms' palaces one night using some strange evil power. They didn't steal anything. They didn't even enter the kings' and queens' chambers. They simply came, murdered the young princesses, and vanished. I was with you, and I sensed their presence and alerted the guards in time to save you, but I was too late for the others, and the other seven Star Guardians were destroyed."
Andi was silent for a long moment, absorbing the news. A barrage of thoughts flooded her mind. Her feelings were so mixed that she didn't even recognize some of them. The only ones she did recognize were grief and fear. For some reason, she felt as if these children had been like her sisters. And for some odd reason, she found little comfort in that in one night, some unknown killer murdered seven people who were just like her.
"So let me get this straight, Apollo," she said, "I'm not only a Sailor Scout.I mean Star Guardian.but I'm the only Star Guardian left who hasn't been murdered?"
"Well, yeah, that's about the size of it."
"And is whoever or whatever killed them still around?"
"As far as I know. No one saw them so no one knows who or what did it. But if I felt that energy again, I would certainly know it." He surveyed her face and realized that he wasn't helping his case. "I guess this wouldn't be a good time to mention then that I sensed that energy today at the football game from that monster?"
"Great!" she cried, "So these people are still around and they took out seven people with the same powers as me in one night and now I have to stand up and face them alone?! Terrific! Newsflash, Apollo: I'm not doing it! I'd like to be alive to get my college degree, thank you very much!"
Apollo knew he was crashing and burning. He'd have to try a different approach. "Look, Andi. Whether you agree to it or not, Sailor Antares is who you are. You are as much Sailor Antares as you are Miranda Kolovski, and there are evil forces out there that need to be battled. We both know that no one else will do it because of what we saw that you were the only one at the football game who tried to do something useful before fleeing for your life. I know you didn't ask for all this, and I can't force you to accept it. But I will say that you only have two options here: You could forget this ever happened and go back to being content with your normal life. But if you do that, the negative forces I mentioned before will be able to run free and do as they please to you, your family, and the entire human race, in which case you could be enslaved or even killed without being able to do a thing about it.
"Or on the other hand, you could accept your destiny and I could train you to be a great Star Guardian so you could get out there and whup those evil forces' butts-or even if you don't, at least you'd do more damage as Sailor Antares than you would as Andi."
He waited a moment to see if she had anything to say, but she merely averted her eyes. So he decided to make a concluding statement. "The one way, you stand a chance, and you get to be a hero at the same time. Not to mention that there's never a dull moment. The other, you're sitting around on your duff while your world along with you and all the people in it are destroyed. A no-brainer if you ask me."
"Well," she said hesitantly, "Since you put it that way, I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?"
"Then you'll do it?"
"I guess so, but I don't know the first thing about being a Sailor.er.Star Guardian."
"That's why I'm here: to coach you. I'll teach you all you need to know. I'll teach you to use your energy attacks, and I can coach you in Ju-Jitzu, and."
"Woah.hold up!" she interrupted, "You know Ju-Jitzu?"
"I followed a bunch of girls around until I fount the right one," he explained, "and I paid close attention to that Shannon girl's Ju-Jitzu classes. So what do you say, Andi? Partners?" He held out a paw for her to shake.
"Partners," She agreed, shaking his paw.
"Good," he said, jumping up onto her dresser and from there onto her head. "Then take us somewhere private and let the training begin!"
"Um.can I at least change out of my pajamas first?"