Chapter 13: Fire
It was time, Miharu decided. Time to get some spunk and energy into her Fire Sign Senshi! And she knew just how to do it.
"You want to take the girls to an amusement park? Would they even allow a dog to come?" Haruka asked when she heard the Beagle puppy's plan.
"I'm sure! I mean, people know about the magic talking pets that the Sailor Senshi have, so I think they'd allow me in if I talk to them," Miharu pleaded, "Can you please take them?"
"I suppose. I would have to see if Michiru would like to go too," Haruka said with a bit of a smirk. Miharu grinned. Now all she had to do was get Bunny, Stormy, and Emily to come along! As it turned out, all three girls were willing. Stormy and Bunny came since they thought it was part of being a Senshi, and Emily was tempted with the possibility of there being a haunted house. So the five of them, including the dog, took off in Haruka's sportscar.
"Is it time to stop yet? I'm bored already."
"No! Forever! Forever! Ride forever!" When the group of five arrived, they found the amusement park in a turmoil. At least, something was at least a little strange with the small rollercoaster the group passed by after they entered. One of the park workers ran up to them, panicked.
"I can't stop the ride! People are demanding to get off, and it won't stop! Something just keeps making it go, and I hear a strange voice," she cried.
"Can you see where the voice is coming from?" Michiru asked sympathetically. The girl shook her head no.
"Then it's probably supernatural. Transform, Sailor Senshi!" Haruka commanded. Emily nodded dutifully.
"Saggitarius Zodiac..." She stopped, confused, when Stormy put a hand on her shoulder.
"Haruka, why are we transforming? You don't know for sure that it's Senshi business," she pointed out.
"EEEEK!!" the girl screamed, looking behind Stormy as an electric bolt shot towards her. Stormy, not having enough time to duck, was hit, and she tumbled across the pavement dizzily. Niji was behind the girls, smirking.
"Foolish one. She would never think I should have the recognition I deserve for being elegant," she huffed. Luckily, Emily and Bunny realized what they had to do by now, and they grabbed their pendants.
"Saggitarius Zodiac Power, Make Up!"
"Aries Zodiac Power, Make Up!" Oddly enough, Niji backed away from the two Senshi. She waved a hand at the rollercoaster and it glowed. Suddenly, with the sound of crunching metal, one of the cars popped off, dumping the occupants onto the ground. A monstrous face then appeared on the coaster car, complete with champing teeth.
"What's that?! Did she just turn the rollercoaster into a monster?!" shrieked the park worker in fright.
"Of course I did, you inelegant girl. Bertha has given me the ability to send my power into other things, so that I need not damage my beauty with petty fighting," Niji replied coolly before disappearing in a flash of green.
"Perhaps I can short it out. Leo Zodiac Power, Make Up!" called Stormy, who had been able to get up from the ground. The coaster car snarled at her, but then charged Michiru and Haruka instead.
"I shall save the soldiers of the past. Saggitarius Pizza Magic!"
"Leo Fizzy Carbonation!" While the first attack missed and hit Haruka in the face, Leo's attack struck true, and the rollercoaster monster stopped, sputtering a bit from the sticky soda that was now in its gears. It began to spark wildly, and a bolt of electricity flew out of one of the open wires, hitting Sailor Leo, who was knocked back down again. That wire was then covered by the pizza, as Haruka flung it off of her face.
"Watch where you're shooting your attacks, girls!" she scolded.
"Haruka, I'm not sure it's safe for us to be here right now. We should watch them from a distance," Michiru said, tugging on her lover's arm. Haruka let her drag her away as Sailor Aries tried to throw some numbers at the monster. Unfortunately, the monster spun around rapidly, deflecting the numerical energy so that it scattered.
"I do not think we can defeat it. Not without Leo, and she has been killed," Sailor Saggitarius stated gloomily. Sailor Aries shook her head.
"Stormy is not dead, she's unconscious, but she's still alive. When the fight is over, we can get an ambulance to come take her from the park or else call Dr. Mizuno to treat her in the palace," replied Sailor Aries, who then had to jump out of the way quickly as the coaster car charged at her. It crashed into the ticket booth, which, luckily, had been abandoned when the ticket seller noticed there was a Senshi fight nearby.
"The monster is unbeatable. It is only a matter of time before we end up like Leo," Sailor Saggitarius said.
"You need to at least try! Even if you're denying your stellar destiny, you still can't refuse to be a Senshi! At least do that part of your duty!" Miharu snapped. Sailor Aries nodded.
"Yes, we need to try to attack together, or else find some way to use water without Leo..." Aries trailed off. She had noticed the food stand nearby and had an idea. She hurried over to it, and Miharu leaped up on the counter before Aries could even speak.
"Give me some bottles of soda! We need them to fight the monster!" the puppy demanded, "Quickly! Saggitarius is not as fast as her sign should dictate!" Indeed, Sailor Saggitarius had been left to divert the monster by running away from it, and she was quickly tiring. The food seller gulped nervously, but decided that, at least for this time, it was better to help the legendary Sailor Senshi rather than to make a profit, so he set two large bottles of root beer on the counter for Sailor Aries to use. She grabbed the lemonade, shook up both bottles and set them on the ground. She then aimed at the monster.
"Aries Numerical Escalation!" This time, the numbers hit true, and the monster roared, metal pieces falling from it as it clumsily charged at Sailor Aries. She opened the bottles and let them spray at the monster, drenching it in sticky root beer. It began to spark and then it suddenly exploded, sending Sailor Aries, Miharu, and Sailor Saggitarius all flying. While the monster was destroyed, there still were some problems to solve. First of all, they had also ruined one of the roller coaster cars, although this wasn't necessarily the Senshi's fault. As for the Senshi themselves, Aries and Saggitarius were also knocked out, as well as the dog Miharu. That is what Haruka and Michiru found when they returned to the scene of the crime shortly after the battle had ended. Haruka called first for an ambulance for the three girls, since she wasn't sure she should try to drive them to the hospital herself. Miharu, of course, would go to the vet to be taken care of.
Meanwhile, Stormy had woken up, jarred awake by the explosion. She looked around, confused, wondering if the roller coaster monster had been destroyed. She then concluded that it had been taken care of, since she could see the other two Senshi lying nearby and the monster was gone.
"Is it over?" she asked hesitantly as Michiru rushed over to her.
"Yes, the fight is over. Aries and Saggitarius beat the monster by spraying soda at it, but it exploded and it hurt them too," Michiru explained. Stormy nodded slightly. It did hurt. Her head hurt a lot, and so did the rest of her. Bunny and Emily woke up soon, too, just as the ambulance arrived. The three girls were loaded into the ambulance, and Michiru decided to come with them. Haruka, on the other hand, took Miharu to the vet in her car.
In the ruins of the Moon Kingdom, Niji appeared in her familiar green flash of light. She was greeted by a girl who looked eeriely like Hotaru, that is, if Hotaru had rainbow-colored hair.
"Bertha, I believe that my youma was successful. While it was destroyed, I did succeed in injuring three of the Zodiac Senshi," she announced.
"That's good. I was going to send Shirahime to go to the Crystal Palace as usual, but maybe this time I should order her to attack in the hospital, if that's where those three Zodiacs are," Bertha mused.
"Perhaps I could come back to the hospital and attack there? Why are you only sending one of us out at a time? Wouldn't it be easier for us to defeat the Senshi if we all went together?" Niji asked, confused by this issue.
"It could. But maybe I don't want to do things the easy way. Maybe I know that I can win eventually and I want to pretend I'm in an anime where the person who is fighting the magical Sailor Senshi only sends out one of her minions at a time so that the story can fit into a certain number of episodes," Bertha giggled. Niji shook her head, still not understanding, but she wasn't about to disobey Bertha. She would never disobey the person who promised her such an elegant and wonderful future.