Buckle up, for it's going to be a real wild and crazy and bumpy ride this chapter, folks. And many will find themselves in quite considerable danger in this chapter. Where and when will they go, and what will be the nature or natures of the danger they'll find themselves in during this chapter? Let's find out!
With no further ado, then, here comes the next chapter of this story! TUS out.
Somewhere Else In The Universe
Crystalion, Katrelomisian Empire, Tarokauni III
September 1, 174 BC - September 2, 174 BC
Some time later, Serenity and several other people borrowed some horses from the royal stables for at least a little while. This was mainly, if not entirely, because Serena and at least a few of the other Princesses that were now in her somewhat large group wanted to explore the area of Moon City for at least a few hours, if not at least half a day or more, of time there. It wasn't easy for Serenity and other members of her group to convince Jason and Eve to let them borrow those horses. But they all still somehow managed to do that, just the same. However, Jason and Eve reminded them that they'd naturally have to be very careful while exploring the local area, and being far enough away from the Imperial Palace. Serenity and the rest of the Princesses that would be going with her on that trip to do some exploring of the local area assured them that they'd try to be as careful as they could all be, while they were away from the Imperial Palace, of course. Then Jason and Eve finally let those members of Serenity's group who'd be borrowing their horses for at least a little while leave the immediate area of the Imperial Palace in Moon City. Though they naturally did so quite reluctantly, for all the obvious reasons, of course.
The Princesses that chose to accompany Serenity on the little excursion elsewhere in the Moon City area then numbered at least two dozen, if not more, most likely. Of course, those Princesses naturally included Serena and the rest of her most common training partners, with the obvious exception of Sylvia. For she'd not yet been sufficiently confirmed to have been whisked out of their own time period into the Moon City area of 174 BC by any of the Scouts from Serena's own time period. She could've been whisked out of the late 10th Century AD into the current time period. But if so, she'd not yet been found in it by any of the visiting people just mentioned here. As far as Serena and everyone else knew, though, she'd not been captured by the time vortex that'd recently brought the rest of them to the Moon City area of 174 BC.
Little did they all know here that they'd all find themselves suddenly whisked away from Moon City's local area. They'd find themselves being brought to yet another place that none of them had yet been to in their lives, but still within the current time period. The time period would stay the same, even if their locations didn't, at least while they were still on their excursion away from Moon City's Imperial Palace.
About four or so hours after all the members of Serenity's current traveling party left the Imperial Palace's grounds, then, a storm arose near where they were traveling in the Moon City area. Before they could keep themselves sufficiently away from it, then, the storm came their direction, and they were soon caught up in it. The storm was a lot like a Terran hurricane, but not entirely like one. And they were all caught up in it, before they could get away from it easily enough.
Once Serenity realized that they'd not likely be able to get out of it before it deposited them all wherever it chose to do so, she told all her current companions who could do so to try to transform themselves into their respective Scout states, if they could possibly do just that somehow. Granted, it might not get them all safely enough out of the storm, at least for the time being. But maybe if they all tried to transform themselves into their respective Scout states of being, they might all somehow survive being caught up in that storm. So everyone who could possibly try to do so then tried to do as Serenity had just told them all to do. Luna and Artemis couldn't transform themselves, of course, and neither could any other cats who were on the trip. But they were still riding with Serenity on her horse, and hanging in a double pouch that Serenity was wearing over her shoulders. They were hanging in that double pouch, and hanging on for dear life to straps inside it. They stayed inside it even as Serenity was double-transforming herself into her Sentinel Serenity state of being as a Scout.
As Serena Moon transformed herself into her Scout state as Junior Sailor Moon, she called out to Raye Hino, "I really hope that this thing doesn't drop us all in a place we'll all never somehow be able to get home from, Raye! I don't want to be away from home forever if I don't have to!"
Raye just barely was able to hear her friend Serena calling to her over an almost-deafening roar caused by the storm now taking them out of the Moon City area on the Moon, and bringing them to a yet-unknown location elsewhere in the Universe. She barely heard Serena calling as they both transformed into their respective Sailor Scout states of being in their own mortal lives. And she called, just as loudly, "I don't think that it will, Serena! For if it does, I think that we'll not have to worry about our enemies ever again, and we'll all find ourselves in the Celestial Palace forever! God willing, of course!"
As soon as Raye called that out to Serena, everyone began finding themselves in one of their respective Scout states, no matter what those states were in their own lives. Princess Amy became Junior Sailor Mercury, for instance. Princess Abigail became Super Sailor Rainbow, and at least ten other Princesses became Sailor Scouts of at least three different kinds, if not more.
The storm raged for at least ten minutes, if not more, as it brought its current captives to some yet-unknown location in the Universe. Eventually, though, it deposited them on a planet roughly about the size of Terra, and this planet was the third planet in an eight-planet solar system, somewhere else in the Universe.
This planet was a planet with no moons orbiting it. And it was in the Tarokauni solar system of a galaxy about 2.68 billion light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy. This system had only one inhabited world in it, and a massive shower of asteroids was heading toward it at speeds quite close to light-speed, if not over it. And if things weren't already bad enough for the inhabitants of that world in the Tarokauni solar system of the Sakori Galaxy, the system's star was quite rapidly expanding in size, prior to its eventual collapse and explosion. The star in question here was, as a matter of fact, already rapidly approaching the orbit of its first planet. And it was now within 240,000 miles of getting close enough to suck its first planet inside it easily enough. If it did so, that planet would, of course, be destroyed by the star, most likely, in very short order.
The inhabitants of the third planet were quite frantically trying to see what they could do to ensure that there were at least some survivors of their planet. They were doing so just in case it was also sucked into the star like they thought at least two other planets in the system would be, if the asteroids didn't eliminate all life on it first, before the star did so. But they weren't having much success in their attempts to do so. For their planet's people were still too divided in their plans to try to save as many of their planet's inhabitants as possible. If any at all, of course. In fact, it might be too late to save anybody at all from the planet. But nobody yet knew that well enough yet, for obvious reasons. They generally expected that the asteroids would start impacting on their world within six months, if not sooner. And that their star would suck their planet into itself within that length of time, if it could possibly do so at all soon enough. They didn't know what might happen first, if both did. But they did know that if either of them did, not many of their planet's inhabitants likely would somehow survive, if any of them somehow ever managed to do that, for any conceivable enough reason whatsoever.
When the storm deposited them on that planet, it deposited them in the capital city of one of the main nations on Tarokauni III. Specifically in the city of Crystalion, which was also the largest city of Tarokauni III's Katrelomisian Empire. When it did so, the skies above their heads were streaked with many different colors, with most of the streaks being bluish, greenish, or orangish in nature, mainly due to the changes that were taking place because of the expansion of Tarokauni elsewhere in the system. It was late in the day, local time. And Tarokauni appeared to be, at least, about the size of a very large pumpkin, if not even larger than that, to anyone who saw it well enough after they were deposited in that area by the aforementioned storm, and who talked about it to the rest of their current companions. It wasn't quite as bright as Sol often was in the lunar skies back on the Moon in the Milky Way Galaxy's own Sol system. But it was still at least a little bright, just the same. It currently had, mainly due to the many colored streaks that were currently in the skies above Crystalion, about four or so percent of the brightness that Sol normally might have for Terrans back in its solar system of the Milky Way Galaxy, at the very most. And it normally had an average brightness of about .0048 that of Sol's normal brightness for Terrans in its solar system, plus or minus about 24 hundredths of a percent, most likely.
When everyone realized, to a sufficient enough degree, that they were all safely enough deposited in their new location, Sentinel Serenity soon accounted for them all. It took her about ten or so minutes to do so, as Serena and others still with her made as sure as they possibly could that their horses wouldn't go crazy for at least a little while, if not a long while. As she accounted for them, she also accounted for their location on the planet they'd just been brought to by the storm, to the best of her ability to do so. She saw a considerable part of a mountain range within two statute miles of their current position. And it was basically in a southerly direction from that location. The first visible signs of the city's main area were about half a mile away, in a mostly easterly direction, but not entirely in that direction. The nearest sign to them was about a quarter of a mile, at most, directly west of their position, and it read, once translated by Sentinel Serenity's Imperium Silver Crystal from about 150 yards away, "You are now leaving Crystalion in the Katrelomisian Empire. We all hope you return rather soon, if you've ever been here before!" That sign was on a post about six feet high. And on the other side of the post was another sign, this one naturally welcoming visitors to Crystalion, for the obvious reasons, no doubt.
Then Sentinel Serenity had her fellow Scouts start looking around for places where they could spend the upcoming night, if the need arose for them to do so. She divided her group of Scouts up into groups of no more than seven at a time, but no less than four in each group, in any case whatsoever. She had Moon go with Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter in a mostly northeasterly direction. Which might eventually bring all five of them to the northern or northeastern outskirts of Crystalion, if they were able to get there easily enough. She reminded them to try to stay in regular contact with her while they were away from her, of course. They promised that they'd try to do so, for the obvious reasons, before they left to scout out the local area in the direction she'd told them all to go.
When Moon had asked why Corona and Eclipse couldn't accompany her and the rest of her group on their part of the patrol, Sentinel Serenity said, "I definitely require them for now, Moon, so that this particular location can remain at least a bit more secure, for at least the time being. I'll be staying behind here as well, at least for the time being, so that we can all return to the same place, if possible, sometime later on. I'll be staying here with Mini Moon, Corona, Eclipse, and Peppermint, at the very least, if not anyone else as well, of course. And quite possibly with Rainbow and Calypso as well. The horses will also stay here. I'll be coordinating things from here to the best of my ability to do so, if possible, Moon."
Moon said, moments later, and just before she left with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus to patrol in a mainly northeasterly direction, "As you wish, Sentinel Serenity. I don't like it, but I won't argue with you about how we should use our people. Or at least not at this time."
"Good, Junior Sailor Moon. Now I think you five girls really do have to go now. May God watch over you all while you're all away from here. And may He bring you all quite safely back here, as well." Then Moon departed the area, for at least the time being, with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, so that she and them could do as Sentinel Serenity wanted them all to do, if possible.
While Junior Sailor Moon and her companions went mainly in a northeasterly direction, Amilaram and three of her Monitors who were also Scouts went in a mainly northerly direction, toward what appeared to be a forest of some yet-unknown sort. Amilaram went there with Sierra, Paquasim, and Onziza. As Amilaram did so, Firehawk went with Enisangob, Sacala, and Ocabirama in a mostly southerly direction, which eventually would take them all basically in the direction of the nearby mountain range that Sentinel Serenity had just seen a while before, of course, if not through it.
Bamboo, Chrysalis, Cinnamon, Jasmine, and Skyhorse went in a mostly westerly direction, toward what appeared to be a river basin of some sort, when Sentinel Serenity told them to check out things in that general direction. Of course, the Skyhorse that was currently in question here was the Moon-born Skyhorse, for the Earth-born Skyhorse surely hadn't gone on the riding trip in the Moon City area of 174 BC back on the Moon.
That briefly left only Saturn Beta, Uranus Beta, Neptune Beta, and Pluto Beta in the particular area of Crystalion where they'd just been deposited, besides, of course, the horses, the cats, and at least five other Scouts. And even they eventually left that area to scout out other nearby areas near that area, heading off in a mostly southeasterly direction. Which eventually brought them to a series of rolling hills, once they passed through a gully about forty feet wide and sixty feet deep, at its greatest extent. They went at least half a dozen miles within three hours of leaving the area where they'd earlier been deposited with quite a few other people, horses, and cats. When they got no more than eight miles away from there, they then began heading back. First over the hills currently in question, then back through the gully, they headed back to their departure location. They arrived back there within six hours of having left it for the time being.
By the time the Beta-level Scouts who were currently part of Sentinel Serenity's traveling party got back, all the other Scouts who'd left their arrival location temporarily had returned to that same place. Except for Firehawk's group of Monitors who were also Scouts, for they'd just been trapped by a thunderstorm while they were still in the aforementioned mountain range for a while. They were sort of pinned down in a cave by that thunderstorm, which periodically dropped what essentially might be considered to be sulfur or hydrochloric acid bombs within forty yards of the nearest opening of the cave that they were now pinned down in. And if that didn't really help them much at all, neither did strong winds that were now threatening to suck them out of the cave that they were now trapped in. It was taking a lot of their strengths to keep themselves from being sucked out of their current cave. But they were still somehow able to keep themselves from being sucked out of it.
Sentinel Serenity conversed with all her currently-present Scouts for a while, just before Corona, Eclipse, Peppermint, Skyhorse, and Chrysalis eventually volunteered to see what they could do, in order to get Firehawk and the rest of her group out of the predicament they were all currently finding themselves. Skyhorse most especially volunteered to be part of a possible rescue party. For she thought that she could help them all get there and back easily enough, and safely enough. After a few moments of consideration by Sentinel Serenity, then, Skyhorse was put in charge of the group that would first try to get Firehawk, Enisangob, Sacala, and Ocabirama out of their current situation. Chrysalis would be her first backup, then Peppermint would back her up, followed by Corona and Eclipse in that order.
Minutes later, the five aforementioned Scouts formed a circle with themselves, and they prepared to leave via teleport for the necessary location near where four of their fellow Scouts were currently pinned down by the thunderstorm. That done, they were soon teleporting, and they teleported to a location barely on the other side of the mountain that their fellow Scouts were currently hiding from the storm in. This was so that they wouldn't find themselves in the storm too soon, if at all possible, of course. They eventually reappeared to each other still in the joined circle formation they'd been in when they'd begun teleporting. They materialized about half a mountain, at most, away from where the others were currently pinned down in their present cave.
They soon began looking for shafts into the mountain that might allow them reasonably easy and reasonably safe access to the cave their fellow Scouts were now in. Of course, Skyhorse was still in charge, as they did so. After about an hour or two more had passed for them all, since they'd come to the necessary mountain, Chrysalis was the first of the five Scouts to find such a shaft elsewhere in that very mountain. After doing so, she notified the rest of her rescue party. She waited briefly for them to rejoin her, and when they did so, all five Scouts entered that shaft in very short order, not yet knowing what else or who else might be in it. The shaft was, at most, about six feet wide, in most, if not all, of the places that it ran inside the mountain. But they all were still able to use the shaft to get deeper inside the mountain, just the same.
It took them at least another hour for them to reach the location where the other four Scouts were currently pinned down. Or at least get within about a hundred yards or so of that place in the mountain, if they couldn't yet get all the way there, due to their path toward there currently being blocked to a significant enough degree. Like by a rockslide of sufficient size, for instance, perhaps. They soon gained at least verbal contact with the trapped Scouts. And they learned that Sacala and Ocabirama were getting colder and colder as time went on, from Firehawk and Enisangob. Even though they had a fire going quite intensely in the hopes of keeping all four of them warm enough in their current situation.
Skyhorse thought for a few moments, and she asked Chrysalis if she had any ideas about how they could evacuate their fellow Scouts from the predicament they were now in. Chrysalis thought for a few moments, as well, then said, "I think Peppermint and I can buy us some time to break through the blockage easily enough. We can use our powers to hold up the part of the mountain that's above our heads while you, Corona, and Eclipse break through the blockage and evacuate the others. If Peppermint and I work together, I think that we can hold up the necessary part of the mountain for about half an hour or so, at most. And certainly not more than about fifty minutes, in any case, I strongly believe. But if we try to do that, you'll have to do what you can to clear the blockage and evacuate our fellow Scouts from their current situation, before we can no longer hold up the rest of the mountain here."
Skyhorse thought about what Chrysalis had just proposed for about a minute or two, and then said, "Do it, Chrysalis. Do whatever you two have to do to hold up the mountain as long as you can. And we'll see what we can do about the other Scouts."
"Understood, Skyhorse." Then, within another minute or two, Chrysalis and Peppermint began supporting the part of the mountain that was now above all nine Scouts' heads, as Skyhorse, Corona, and Eclipse just as quickly went to work on the blockage between them and the other Scouts currently in question. A whole lot of large boulders were quite rapidly tossed behind them as quickly and as safely as the three of them could toss them out of their ways. Where necessary, Skyhorse even used picks and other items that could be used to excavate an area that required excavation, if she currently had them at her disposal. Presently, she had nothing that could be used to cause an explosion, at least not deliberately. So explosives, even of a primitive enough variety, were out of the question for her here. Because of that, she had to use picks and other excavating tools now at her disposal to help clear the blockage now in question. As she and the other two Scouts now with her worked as quickly and as safely as they could, the protection that Chrysalis and Peppermint also spread out through the tunnel that they were now making elsewhere in the mountain.
This spreading out of their protective zone would eventually make it harder for Chrysalis and Peppermint to hold up the rest of the mountain, for the obvious reasons, of course. But hopefully they'd be able to hold it long enough for all their fellow Scouts to get back to where they were, just before they left the inside of the mountain, before it was too late for them all. Chrysalis and Peppermint tried to stay in constant contact with Skyhorse, Corona, and Eclipse, at least, if not any other Scout at the same time. So that if they needed to, they could keep the mountain from collapsing too close to their current positions in it, or near it, of course.
Almost fourteen minutes after Chrysalis and Peppermint began holding up the upper part of the mountain, then, Skyhorse, Corona, and Eclipse broke through to the other Scouts' current cave. A minute later, then, Skyhorse was already kneeling near the barely-conscious Sacala and Ocabirama. She was asking them if they could stand up.
Ocabirama answered for both of them, "I don't think so, Skyhorse. I think that we're going to have to be carried out of here, at least for the time being."
"Understood. Firehawk, you take Sacala. Enisangob, you take Ocabirama. Corona, how much longer do Chrysalis and Peppermint really think that they can hold up the mountain's upper part?"
"Maybe twenty or so minutes, at most, Skyhorse."
"Then we'd better get away from here as quickly as we can. Corona and Eclipse, gather up everyone else's things, if you can. We're going to have to get out of here right now, I think."
Corona and Eclipse moved to the other Scouts' things, and stowed them on their backs. Then they followed their fellow Scouts down the tunnel they'd just made, moments before. They all hurried as quickly, and as safely, as they all could do so down that tunnel. Five minutes after they left the necessary cave elsewhere in the mountain, that part of the mountain began collapsing, as Chrysalis and Peppermint were withdrawing their support from that part of it. As they moved, Chrysalis and Peppermint withdrew more of their support from the part of the mountain that they were now holding up. It wasn't easy for them to do so, of course. But they were still somehow able to hold up the necessary areas of the mountain for a long enough time as their fellow Scouts moved toward them in it. Seconds after their fellow Scouts left an area of the mountain, they withdrew support from that area of it. But not too quickly did they do so, for all the obvious reasons. Only when their fellow Scouts were sufficiently clear of each area did they withdraw their support from each area of the mountain.
28 minutes after they began doing so, they were rejoined in their current area of the mountain by seven other Scouts. When that happened, Chrysalis soon told Skyhorse, Corona, and Eclipse that she and Peppermint probably wouldn't be able to carry all their things out of their current area. So Skyhorse quickly gathered all of Chrysalis and Peppermint's things up in a pile, and dropped all her things on it as well.
By now, Sacala was fully conscious again, as was Ocabirama, after they'd gotten far enough away from the storm that'd pinned them down with Firehawk and Enisangob in the now-collapsed cave. And they were no longer quite cold. For as they got further away from the storm in question, they began warming up again quite easily, until they'd all gotten back to their usual average body temperatures, whatever those temperatures might possibly be, in their respective lives.
When they were both confirmed to be fully conscious without even the tiniest shadow of a doubt, by Skyhorse, Sacala and Ocabirama had Corona and Eclipse drop their personal things on the still-growing pile of things as well. That done, Firehawk and Enisangob soon put their own things on the pile too. Then Corona and Eclipse did the same with their own personal belongings, if they'd not already done so by that time. As Corona and Eclipse dropped the last of their things on that pile, Chrysalis suddenly stated, "We're losing power. I estimate that we have, at most, about eighty seconds to upper part total collapse. We've got to get out of here now!"
Skyhorse had all nine Scouts form a circle around their things. And she had them join their hands. She only took a few seconds, at most, to notify Sentinel Serenity of their current situation. Then Serenity projected some of her own power to where they were, so that they'd have at least a few seconds, if not at least another minute, of more time for them to all get away from the mountain now in question. She projected that power by somehow sending it through her own Imperium Silver Crystal. And she sent enough power to support the mountain's upper part for at least a few more seconds, if not for at least another minute. That done, she had Skyhorse complete the required circle, so that Skyhorse and the rest of her current party could teleport out of the mountain and back to base camp. Thirty seconds later, Skyhorse and her current companions had left the mountain behind with their things. And they were still teleporting back to base camp.
As soon as they arrived there, they began materializing quite near Sentinel Serenity. When they were fully there, in all senses of the word, Sentinel Serenity eventually said, "Good job, girls. I'm glad to see that you're all safely back here, of course."
A little while later, then, if it hadn't already occurred in Crystalion's local area, local midnight arrived. As a matter of fact, it'd come to Crystalion's local area a few hours, at most, before the current time there. Eventually, Sentinel Serenity was sufficiently satisfied that all four of the members of Firehawk's recent scouting party were in reasonably good health after they'd been trapped for a while by a rather intense thunderstorm. Then she soon had all her current companions head toward the main part of Crystalion, no matter who they were, once that was actually true for her and them. For the obvious reasons, she had them all try to stay in their respective Scout states for as long as they could, as they all moved toward the main part of Crystalion.
After another twenty minutes had passed for them all, they all entered the main part of Crystalion, just as another storm was nearing them at the same time. They soon ran for cover, once it started dropping various kinds of precipitation near enough to them as they were entering Crystalion's main part. A farmer and his wife saw them all running away from the storm. And they came out to try to get them all under sufficient amounts of cover. Even though they'd never seen Sentinel Serenity and the rest of her current companions before, they still realized that Sentinel Serenity and all her current companions were strangers to at least some, if not all, of Crystalion's local area, somehow. Maybe because of the fact that some of them didn't have hair like several, if not all, of their current companions. Like Peppermint, for instance.
The farmer ran out to let Sentinel Serenity know where she and her companions should shelter the horses, while the farmer's wife ran out to lead everyone else to some significant cover as well. Sentinel Serenity and four other Scouts made their horses follow the farmer and themselves to an underground stable. While Sentinel Serenity and four of her Scouts did so, Sentinel Serenity put the rest of the Scouts under the temporary control of Sailor Skyhorse and the farmer's wife, for all the obvious reasons, of course.
Within another twenty minutes, then, all the horses were sufficiently safe, sufficiently fed, sufficiently watered, and sufficiently warm in the aforementioned underground stable. Once those things were all true for the horses, Sentinel Serenity and the other four Sailor Scouts that'd gotten the horses underground with the help of the farmer eventually rejoined the rest of their traveling party, of course.
About ten minutes after they did so, the farmer's wife asked Sentinel Serenity, "Where are you all from, if I may ask you this?"
"We're from a place many miles from here. It's a place you probably don't know of in your lives."
"I see," said the farmer's wife, a few moments later. "You don't seem to be quite familiar with this place."
"No, we're not. We were brought here by a strange storm."
"Do you know what kind of storm brought you all here?" asked the farmer, who soon introduced himself as Paritok, and his wife as Katara.
"No, we don't really know what kind of storm brought us here," answered Sentinel Serenity.
"But you do know you're not from here, Sentinel Serenity?"
"Yes, we do, Paritok. Do you have any idea why we're all here now?"
"Well, the Torrents seem to be quite strong of late. I don't really know why, but they are. I wonder if one of them brought you all here from wherever you came from to here." This was said by Paritok, of course.
Sentinel Serenity then thought about that for a few seconds, then asked, "These Torrents you speak of, Paritok, occur fairly often, don't they, by any chance at all?"
"Every so often, but they're not often quite as strong as they've been for at least a little while, Sentinel Serenity," answered Paritok, a few moments later.
"Do they often bring people to this area when they're quite strong, like it evidently seems you think that they could have done here?"
"Not really, Sentinel Serenity. They don't usually bring strangers here to the Crystalion area, at least, when they're quite strong in this part of our Empire. Occasionally, they might, but not really all that often."
Then Sentinel Serenity and the two natives of Tarokauni III conversed for a little while longer, or at least until Paritok said, "You all may spend at least the next few days working out of here, if you want. But I really don't know how long you'll all be able to do that. Because, within the next month or two, at most, it'll most likely start to get quite a bit colder than it has been around here of late."
"We don't want to stay here any longer than we have to, Paritok. For we have to get back to wherever we come from, before it's too late for us to do so, if we possibly can get back there in time."
"Time's short for you all?" asked Katara.
"It may very well be, but we don't yet know that for sure here. We have things we have to do back home. But home is a long way away from here, as far as we can currently tell in each of our lives."
Eventually, Paritok and Katara escorted their guests to several rooms both underground and not underground. Then they left their guests to their own devices, once they were sufficiently sure that their guests knew well enough how things worked in their residence, which was built into the side of a small hill, at least partly, if not entirely. Soon enough, then, each of the Scouts now present there periodically dropped out of their respective Sailor Scout states, as of the current time, so that they could all take turns sleeping in shifts. Not all of them dropped out of those states at the same time, of course, and not all of them stayed in them all the time. All the Sailor Scouts then slept in shifts of no longer than three hours, and no less than two hours, at a time. And the last of them only rose from where they'd just slept about five minutes after local dawn in the Crystalion local area, at the very earliest. And they certainly did that within fifteen minutes of that time, in any case whatsoever. By the time that Katara eventually came to their various rooms in the residence, then, they were all back in one of their respective Scout states, if not their only one. That was so she'd not know of their normal identity or identities while they weren't actually in those states of being in their respective lives, quite naturally enough.
Two hours later, they were already on their horses, and riding to the nearest castle-like building, under highly clear skies mainly covered by orangish or reddish streaks where purplish clouds weren't generally present in them. They were advised to take the main street to that building by their hosts, and to not waste any unnecessary time in doing so. For if they did, they might run into any number of often rather fierce bandits from at least one rather infamous robber bands that mainly operated within five days' distance of Crystalion in the Katrelomisian Empire of Tarokauni III. Of course, as they rode their horses, they all made quite sure that they were each in one of their respective Scout states, if not their only one, if they could possibly be in any of them at all.
They rode until they came to the drawbridge of that building, after which Sentinel Serenity soon called out to the castle's guards in their towers, and told them that they'd been sent there by friends of the Empire's rulers. Some time later, then, the drawbridge was lowered, so that they could enter the castle now in question here.
After they entered the castle, the Scouts, with the exception of Calypso and Chrysalis, who were left temporarily in charge of their horses and all their current feline companions, were all soon escorted to the throne room of the Empire's Emperor and Empress, who were Emperor Yokatuki and Empress Ashihaki. The Emperor and Empress conversed with their new guests for about two or three hours, before they had the Scouts and their companions escorted out of the aforementioned throne room and the castle. But not without first giving them all a map to another nearby part of the Empire, which might not take them more than a week or two to get to, if everything went sufficiently according to plan for them in the meantime, of course. This map could very well lead them to unexpected treasures or to unexpected dangers. But only time would tell which it would be, if it wasn't both. Before the Scouts left the area of the aforementioned castle, though, the Emperor and Empress made as sure as they could that they'd have enough supplies to last them for at least a week, if not longer, as they all then traveled to that nearby part of the Empire. The Scouts checked in briefly with Paritok and Katara, before they left the Crystalion area of the Empire behind, for at least the time being, if not forever. Then they eventually left it behind again, so that they could see where that map might bring them all, and what it might bring them all, while they were using it to see what it could possibly bring them all.
Oh, boy, another alien world for a number of the Scouts now present, but probably the first for many of them as well. What will the rest of the story hold in store for everyone now far from the Moon of any time period, then? Let's see if you can guess, folks.
Until next time, then, I'll close this. TUS out.