Chapter 2 The First of Many

It's been a whole week since Reina had transformed into Sailor Nova, a whole week since she defeated her first monster and saved the day like a super hero. She'd been lucky there hadn't been another attack since then as she tried to understand her power, more importantly why she was able to transform. The more Reina thought about it, the more she couldn't understand why she was able to transform and as there was no one like her she could ask, any hope of finding any answers went down the drain.

She sat on her bed as she kept looking at her transformation pen on the night stand, just in deep thought about the whole thing and how bizarre this whole mess was.

"I'm no hero… not yet at least." She said softly, because after all she'd only defeated one monster and heroes usually have many of them under their belt. Of course that's not to say she wasn't afraid, she was truly afraid of going at a monster again, the first one she had faced was terrifying and how would she even fair against any other.

"I got lucky…" That's what it was right, that's how she survived her first encounter… that had to be it. Was the thought that ran through her mind, she wasn't fit to fight monsters, she didn't have the qualities of a hero… there was just so much doubt in herself.

"Reina, it's almost time for school." Kyoko entered the room to remind her daughter that she would be late if she didn't hurry.

"huh? Oh right, yeah I know." She gave a small smile at her mom and just before she left Reina called out to her, "Hey mom…"

"Yes dear?"

"What… what makes a hero?"

Kyoko turned to fully face her, "oh, what brings this up?"

"Well… I just want to know… for school. They're pretty much fearless right."

Kyoko chuckled softly as she tried to find a good answer for her, "Well a hero isn't always a fearless individual, full of bravery and eager to fight."

"But isn't that a hero?"

"it is, but what makes a true hero is one that is afraid of the danger but manages to overcome their fear and protect those they care about without a second thought. They find the courage to do things that others cannot." She chuckled softly, "I don't know if that does you any good for your school work."

Reina smiled as she giggled softly, "That'll work, thanks mom." She grabbed her transformation pen, her backpack and after a loving hug, Reina walked out the door to head for school.

She walked along the quiet sidewalk, the only sounds of cars next to her and the occasional kids that passed her by as they went to school, course she had been too distracted to pay much attention. She was still on the fence about being a hero, there were so many negatives and many things that could go wrong but… heroes overcome hardships right? So if this was a test, then she had no choice but to keep going and do what she could since she knew no others could do it, it's not like there were more Sailor Senshi like herself she could rely on.

Reina looked up seeing her familiar school in the distance and her mind began to wonder just what she would have to do today…wait, she didn't even do her homework!

"Ah man! I forgot all about it!" Reina groaned, she had been too caught up with this new power of hers that she just completely forgot about it. She took off into a sprint as she needed to go to school and finish her homework before class fully started.

As she was running however, she heard the panicked scream of a few people who were looking behind Reina, "Huh?" She slowed down a little and as she turned around, she was violently shoved to the side, hitting the wall, "Gah!" She gasped for air, it was such a violent impact as she looked up and saw it… another monster rushing towards the school.

Reina gasped as she watched it enter the school yard and many people were screaming for their lives as they ran out while others were unfortunate enough to be stuck with the monster as it began to wreck havoc. She watched for a few minutes, terrified at seeing another one and she quickly ran behind a wall, holding her hand to her chest and feeling just how fast her heart was beating. She continued to see many people running in a panic away from the school and she took a peek seeing that the monster has gone inside the building and… she was tempted to leave as well but she couldn't.

She gripped her transformation pen tightly, "A hero is one that overcomes their fear…" Reina opened her eyes, her mother's words ringing in her head. Reina then ran in between an alleyway and made sure there was no one around and raised her pen high in the air.

"Nova Star Power Make-Up!"

That familiar glow quickly surrounded her, and she watched as her outfit appeared on her, piece by piece till finally she transformed into Sailor Nova.

"S-so this was real!?" Reina for a moment had thought that it was all in her head that she had transformed last time and seeing it happen again was a little unreal.

However she didn't have much time to think as she rushed back out and could still hear the monster destroying the inside of the school while a few others were screaming in terror. She took a couple of breaths and ran inside to confront the wicked beast.

She looked around the school, seeing whole mess of debris, knocked down lockers and doors torn off and she just had to follow the path of destruction and cries for help. As she ran along, this feeling of fear and anxiety just washed over her as she was about to do this, but she knew that she was the only one that could… after all would the police even be able to if she wasn't here?

She made it to the gym and saw the monster, this strange silver looking humanoid; it almost did look human were it not for its monstrous face. However it had cornered many people in this room, teachers and students from the looks of it and she wasn't about to let it have it way with them.

"Hey… ugly!" She shouted, not knowing what else to say and the beast turned around spotting Sailor Nova, even the people looked at her, and wondered who she was and did she have a death wish for being here.

The beast snarled and ran at her, swinging its large arms at her!

"Burst Wall!" She conjured up the wall of energy in front of her as it stopped its vicious attack however the impact was strong as it made her slide back.

The monster however didn't care, it continued to pound her defensive shield then finally upper-cutted her and the force sent her flying through the halls and rolling onto the floor.

"geez! This one is really strong!" She looked up from the floor, seeing it charging at her and swing its fist down and she rolled away, dodging as best she could. It wasn't letting up for a second, each swing was relentless and whenever it missed it would hit a wall or a locker and get completely broken apart, "Whoa!?" she saw the locker just get destroyed.

The beast snarled and grabbed her by her arms and shoved Nova through the door, "Aaah!" the pain was intense on her back and that's when she saw its finger nails grow longer and swing at her.

She quickly rolled around to move but… the sickening sensation of its claws on her back could be felt, "Aargh!" she screamed from the pain but Nova was still able to put distance from it.

She reached behind her and saw her hand with smudges of blood and new this was no good… she had to end this fight quickly…when all of sudden. It was like a vision replayed right in front of her eyes, of what she couldn't tell as it was all dark figures and like last time they were repeating a phrase.

The moment the vision ended, the beast was already in the air going at her and Nova arched her arm back, and opened her palm then, "Bright Star Flash!" An energy orb, the size of a basketball emerged in her hand, cyan colored with a hollow, see through center and within its center many glowing particles could be seen that looked like tiny stars.

Without a moments hesitation she threw her orb at the monster, hitting it square in the chest and a powerful explosion rocked the area, sure it caused some damage to the classroom she was in but to the monster… it was much worse.

It was gravely hurt but still kicking, it made its way to Nova and she wasn't about to use her finisher inside the building… who knows what damage that could cause even if it was contained. So she ran to its side and, "Bright Star Flash!" she threw another orb at it, sending it outside through a window where it exploded once more and Nova followed it out the window.

As she did so she had noticed a small crowd had gathered, teachers and students mostly, all coming to see who this mysterious person was that was saving them. Nova had to admit… this felt really cool.

Sailor Nova turned her attention back to the creature getting up to its feet, "Man… you just don't quit do you!" She extended her hand out, glowing with her energy and trapped the creature in an energy sphere.

"Supernova!"

The explosion erupted within the sphere and it could be felt by all, and even some people covered their ears from how loud it was while others watched in awe.

Once the explosion died down as did the intense rumbling, the monster was gone for good and the people all cheered happily.

Some of the teachers and students quickly rushed Nova, thanking her greatly, "a-aah.." her face turned red, as she was not used to getting all the attention like this.

"What's your name?" A teacher asked her.

"Sailor Nova." She replied.

"Here's too Sailor Nova! She saved our school!" the principle cried out happily as everyone joined in on the cheer which further flustered Reina.

This… would take some getting used to if this is what she was to be expecting in the future.

Since school was closed after this little incident she had gone back home, but not before using her extra money to buy some gauze and bandages. She had snuck inside her home so she could tend to her wound in private and without having to make her mother worry.

She entered her room and took off her shirt then faced the mirror, she had three long cuts across her back which fortunately had stopped bleeding but was still nasty to look at. She managed to apply a few creams to clean it and hopefully dull the pain a little then she began the difficult process of wrapping the bandages around herself.

"…this isn't going to be easy… how many more am I going to get?" She asked herself as she patched herself up, would this be her new life, dealing with monsters and getting hurt like this? Reina hoped that would not be the case, it was only a minor mistake she did today, one that would not happen again.

With that done, she snuck back out and entered the house to allow Kyoko to hear it and as soon as she did.

"Reina!" She rushed into the room, "I just saw the news, I'm so glad you're okay!" she hugged her beloved daughter.

"I am too, I saw that thing rush to school and I just had to come back."

Kyoko led her into the room, "I'm glad you did, I don't want you anywhere near that stuff," she looked at the TV, "But they were talking about this girl, a Sailor Nova… appeared and dealt with the monster."

Reina gave a nervous laugh, "Y-yeah… I heard about her too, she's saved people twice now."

"So I heard, some kids were talking about her in the supermarket today." Kyoko gave a soft chuckle, "I never would have believed this city had a hero of their own, but I'm glad we do… but whoever her parents are, they must be worried sick when she goes out to stop monsters."

Reina was silent for a moment, as Kyoko had no idea how much those words affected the red head then finally spoke up, "…yeah you're right." She could never tell Kyoko about this, she could never let her mother ever know about this, or it would make her worry to no end.

"Well anyway, now that you're here how about I make you your favorite." Kyoko said with a warm, caring smile.

"That would be awesome mom." Reina watched as her mom went to work, as she glanced at the TV with the news about Sailor Nova.

Later that night…

Reina looked over her bandaged back, showering was the most painful thing ever and had to make sure the water didn't touch her wounds. But after that, she was able to re-apply her cream and bandaged up her back once more.

She sat on the bed and sighed, she knew it all too well… it was the first of many on what she felt would be her longest journey as a Sailor Senshi.

Reina laid down on her bed, on her stomach and it took a while till the throbbing pain on her back went away and she finally drifted off to sleep… wondering what the next day would bring.