AN: What if the sSenshi were trained elsewhere… What if I hadn't given up the Cowboys project… With apologies to a haphazard homage to Stephen King's The Gunslinger.
"Came into this world
Daddy's little girl
And daddy made a soldier out of me
He said take care of your mother
Watch out for your sister
Oh, and that's when he gave to me...
With his gun, with his head held high
He told me not to cry
Oh, my daddy said shoot
Oh, my daddy said shoot
With his right hand on his rifle
He swore it on the Bible
My daddy said shoot
Oh, my daddy said shoot.
He held me in his arms
And he taught me to be strong
He told me when he's gone
Here's what you do
When trouble comes to town
And men like me come around
Oh, my daddy said shoot
Oh, my daddy said shoot…"
Daddy Lessons, Beyonce (love the version with the Dixie Chicks, TBH)
The power of the senshi was the way of the gun. It was the way it had been, the way it always was and no one could remember otherwise. With steel on their hips and bullets at their waists, the legendary warriors were the law throughout the worlds, across the planets.
And the warriors had been men. With a lineage stretching back centuries, the sons and grandsons were carved of stone, chiseled again and again in the image of their fathers. Their loyalty was renowned, and their word was law.
Until one one day they weren't. Until, in a single generation, an anomaly that no one could have predicted, rather than sons, a quintet of daughters were born. The fathers had no choice but to place weapons in the hands of their girls.
And as much as there were those who wanted them to fail, to prove themselves unworthy in any way, the young woman were all prodigies, born to the gun. Whether the call of their blood or the threat of their legacies, the men defended their girls and taught them the ways, the secrets, and mysteries of the impressive weapons until they could teach them nothing more. Until the daughters found their own paths and attacks and power.
And then an evil tore through the universe… A powerful swarm of darkness swept through and corrupted the men, leaving only the women in a logical state. The daughters were the only ones standing between the malevolent being and the end of their world. They were called to the shining palace of the Moon and arrived in turn.
From the watery shores of Mercury, a cunning young woman - one who, in the matter of a blink of her sapphire eyes, could determine complicated angles and environmental factors to make a perfect shot every time, no matter how difficult or impossible or far away.
From the hot fields of Mars, a warrior sorceress, one who shot first and asked questions later. The heat of her gun was known throughout the universe.
From the largest planet, Jupiter, an Amazon with twin guns engraved with roses, heavy weapons built for destruction and with such force they were said to call down the heavens themselves.
From Earth's twin, a blonde daughter with a gun on one slim hip and a lasso made of stardust on the other.
They gathered in the training yard of the abandoned palace, surprised to see a secret, a guarded warrior no one had suspected - the crown princess wielding a weapon of her own.
AN: Space cowboys! How much fun would it be if I actually continued this storyline?