After facing a Succubus, Chibiusa, Jewel (when she is around), and the Neo-Sailor Senshi started taking Christen's knowledge about monsters a lot more seriously. Jewel had a lot of knowledge about monsters from living in the Dark Kingdom most of her life, but Christen had a bit more. With powers over water (Mercury and Neptune) and fire (Mars), two of the purest elements, most evil creatures should not be an issue.
The original Sailor Senshi still helped out when necessary, and Luna, Artemis, Comet, Asteroid, and Diana backed the girls up from the command center. Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion did not do much in terms of fighting nowadays. Still, they did find themselves having to deal with Elizabeth switching into Queen Beryl now and then.
Not too far from the Crystal Palace, but enough to be considered secluded is an Indian village! These are descendants of the Navajo natives from Earth, made up of 5+ groups of people! Remains of wood, stone and bone from crafting bows, arrows, spears, clubs, lances, tomahawks, knives, blowguns, and shields littered the area!
Eight-sided log houses with earthen roofs populated the place, and the natives wore sheepskin, leather, and buckskin! Usually, these people were not violent to humans, but there is one type who takes more pleasure in the idea of cursing, killing, or harming than sticking to their culture.
The Navajo believe in good and evil places, with witchcraft being a big part of their religion, but medicine men can use it for good like; healing and aiding, Skinwalkers for bad, possession, and misfortune. Skinwalkers are witches who used to be respected healers or spiritual guides but chose to use their powers for evil. They walk among their people during the day and transform under the cover of the night.
Skinwalkers are a secret society, and initiation includes killing a close family member-most often a sibling. After this, they gain the ability to shape-shift into panthers (which are just darker versions of leopards and jaguars), black bears, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and dogs with the help of the animal's skin-thus the name Skinwalker and why predatory animal skins are not allowed to be worn-and a skull, antlers, claws, or teeth of the chosen animal to give them more power!
This power is used to escape as well as the fight...
"YEE-NAALDLOOSHII!" One man screamed as he hobbled onto the grounds, bloody and missing an arm!
Translating out to "with it, he goes on all fours," men, women, and children began to evacuate! Sadly, the people did not get too far before a pack of creatures, resembling were-animals, began tearing apart the village, killing the injured man-and anyone else they could catch-brutally! When the Navajo return to deal with the aftermath of that horrific nightmare, the rest of Crystal Tokyo is setting up for Christmas and planning out Winter Break.
Chibiusa and her team, including Jewel, decided to whip up some Christmas Cookies to hand out because she liked baking. In the shapes of and decorated as Christmas balls, Christmas trees, Santa, reindeer, snowflakes, stars, and hearts, the girls wrapped groups of 9 cookies in brightly colored paper and ribbons to deliver.
"Gracie, Jewel, you're the best to hand these out at the hospital. Crystal, Holly, your area is the residential part of town. Ariel, Trisha, I trust only you with the industries. Emily, Christen, you would do better to stay around here. Alexis, your with me." Chibiusa handed her teammates backpacks stuffed with packets of these cookies!
"Small Lady!" Everyone turned to see Luna, streaking down the hill with her husband and kittens, including Elizabeth and Selina in tow. Jewel was happy to see Elizabeth and Selina looked like they are part of the moon cat family now, at least when Elizabeth is in control of her own mind.
"We'd like to get out and help you, girls!" Artemis informed.
"Cute kittens are always a good edge when trying to sell something, and we have 4: Comet, Asteroid, Diana, and Elizabeth!" Alexis chirped, and she picked up Diana as she should go with her since Chibiusa is her partner.
"I'll go with Crystal and Holly!" Asteroid shouted almost immediately as he liked Crystal since she is skilled with animal comfort, and he scampered into her arms.
Crystal just laughed.
"I don't mind going with Ariel and Trisha." Comet offered in a much more calm way than her brother, and the soldiers of thunder and revolution accepted.
"Elizabeth should stay here with Emily and Christen, just in case she turns into Queen Beryl," Gracie advised.
Elizabeth meowed sadly, but Jewel knew exactly how to comfort her. Stroking her from head to tail, Jewel said, "Don't be sad, Eli. I'll be back before you know it. I'll even have a gift for you when I get back. Think about that." With Elizabeth's mind preoccupied with thoughts of all the things she liked, Jewel turned and asked, "Luna, Artemis, do you want to come with Gracie and me?" Jewel is unsure how the parents of the moon kittens felt about her.
"We would be honored, Princess." Luna bowed, making it clear they all held no ill wishes toward the dark Princess, almost making the young girl cry with joy.
Being the most loving teammates, Gracie and Jewel (with Luna and Artemis) delighted the debilitated and sick with conversation, stories, music, games, and treats whenever they could. Crystal, Holly, and Asteroid knew most of the people in town because they participated in after-school activities with their kids, with Holly being in track and Crystal being in just about everything else! Ariel, Trisha, and Comet had, on occasion, admired many bakers, cooks, gardeners, martial arts teachers, video game shop owners, and hairdressers, so they were ecstatic to be able to give them something for their hard work, something better than money.
Due to letting her do whatever she wants as long as she helped, Christen is pleasant as she handed out cookies with Emily, and Elizabeth got lots of loving attention, so she did not feel as lonely. Next, Chibiusa, Alexis, and Diana journeyed to the outskirts of Crystal Tokyo, eventually spotting the torn-down Navajo village!
Chibiusa and Diana gasped, but Alexis was about to have a nervous breakdown as she saw the Navajo's cleansing and washing blood off themselves and their stuff and burning what could not be completely cleansed and cleaned! Then, suddenly, a young boy yelled "Yee-Naaldlooshi!" and pointed at Diana! Diana titled her head in curiosity as the Navajo approached them with blowguns! Alexis turned to run, but Chibiusa stopped her.
"Wait, Alexis! Let me try something." Chibiusa grabbed Diana and held her tight. "Halt! I am Her Highness, Princess Small Lady Serenity and Neo-Sailor Moon! This is Neo-Sailor Neptune and my kitten, Diana! She is not a Yee-Na...whatever you just called her. We only came to deliver some cookies."
A Navajo man stepped forward and bowed. "Please, forgive my son's mistake, your highness."
"Forgiven, of course. If I may ask, what happened here?" Chibiusa questioned as Alexis relaxed when she saw the Navajo lower their weapons, and Diana was let down to get petted by the little children.
"These are not things that outsiders need discuss. At all. I'm sorry if that seems "unfair," but that is how our culture survives." This Navajo man apologized.
"What if what happened to you happens to us?" Chibiusa countered.
"Run." The Navajo man answered and turned back to work.
"That doesn't help us know what to run from. So let's help out here and give them stamina with these cookies!" Chibiusa and Alexis gave multiple cookie packs to everyone!
However, when Chibiusa gave a pack of cookies to a respected spirit guide woman, something spiked violently through her Sailor Senshi senses! Also, something about the woman's eyes seemed...off. Yet Chibiusa remained poised and polite, as a princess should, and Alexis practiced that same belief as she is a princess too. In time, the other Neo-Sailor Senshi, cats, and Jewel, minus Christen and Emily and Elizabeth, arrived to help. Jewel holds a holed ball with catnip inside that lights up and makes sounds when rolled, obviously a toy for Elizabeth.
Strangely, the woman Chibiusa saw earlier ran away in fear when she saw the toy, even from a distance! OK, she is a bit odd. As Jewel passed one of the walls of a burning house, she saw what looked like...claw marks on the walls? These were much too high for any 4-legged animal to reach, and, though similar, the 5 finger marks are much too separated to be a bear!
"What the hell could have done this?" Jewel thought she took out her brooch and took a picture of the marks like Sailor Mercury's Super Computer. Though the brooch confirmed that it used the bear's claws to do this, it still did not make sense.