I've gone through and edited this chapter more thoroughly after several typos were brought to my attention. It's still a far cry from a masterpeice, but hopefully the changes make the chapter a better read.

Disclaimer: I own nothing as creative as Sailor Moon.

Chapter 10: Normal Beginnings

It began a day as any other day, I believe, but in the end it was truly one of the best and worst days of my life. So much was discovered and lost in such a small time that I am surprised I did not suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome or something of the sort. You see, before this day I was nothing but an innocent, naive child, but after this day I realized my destiny.
-Sailor Cosmos

The soft, pale streams of the day's awakening struck my shuttered eyes like red, hot pokers. My whines of complaint mixed with the chirpings of a stray bird blended horribly with the sound of the blaring alarm clock. Despite all attempts at rolling over to go back to slumber, I could not easily ignore the signs of a new day.

"You had better wake up if you plan on being on time for training," Luna commented from her cozy perch on the window.

Luna's only reply was a faint five more minutes and a hand smacking the alarm clock onto the floor.

...20 minutes later

Completely out of breath and running as fast as I could manage through the crowds would only lead me to one ultimate fate: collision. While internally blaming Luna for everything wrong in my life, externally I prepared to beg for forgiveness. Before I could begin, however, I was interuppted by a male voice.

"I'd forgive you more easily if you'd get off me, Odango-attama?" retored the so-called innocent bystander that had halted my forward momentum.

In outrage, I screamed,"That is not my name baka!"

Mamoru merely shruged as he stood while dusting himself off.

"You're in a bit of a hurry on a Sunday morning. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen you up before noon without school," Mamoru continued questioningly," what could possible be important enough to get you out of bed, Odango-attama?"

"Not my name, baka! And if you must know, it's your girlfriend's fault. She wants to meet at the arcade for trai--I mean...to study for upcoming tests," I finished lamely.

In my outrage, I had almost let Mamoru know about the scouts training session with me. They questioned the intentions of Tuxedo-Kamen with each youma he helped us defeat. The other scouts did not want me to remain dependent on Tuxedo-Kamen, however, and had begun to train me so I could out manuever the enemy solo.

"You? Studying on a Sunday morning? Willingly? Will wonders never end, Odango-attama?" Mamoru chuckled as he turned and walked away from my steaming mad form.

Growling at his back, I stood up on my own and continued my trek to the arcade at a much slower pace. I no longer cared that I was late meeting the scouts. Mamoru had really bruised my feelings this time.

As I turned the last corner before the arcade, a bright light flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance. A terrible storm was brewing and headed straight for Tokyo.

'Great. yet another thing to make my day suck,' I mentally whined while opening the door to the arcade.

High-pitched chimes tinkling against the door alerted my arrival to a fuming table of scouts and the arcade's other occupants. Before Rei could begin lecturng about being on time, a loud siren sounded on the small television Motoki kept behind the counter.

"Attention all! An evil faction has kidnapped our local herione Sailor Moon. She is being held hostage from a tall scalfold in the business district of Tokyo. Police are on the scene trying to persuade the criminals to peacefully return her. We'll be keeping viewers posted about the rescue attempt..."

The news bulletin was promptly cut off by an annoying commercial about toothpaste. The scouts had already begun a casual retreat out of the arcade and I had no choice but to follow. Their destination was obvious to me, however, no one seemed to notice our group was heading away from Rei's temple.

We broke into a breakneck run that made my mad dash to the arcade seem like a jog. We had no idea what we were running into, but we knew we had to save whoever was being held captive.

The closer we got to the scene, the quieter our surroundings became. Two streets from our destination and we could see no spectators, news crews, or policemen.

"It appears to be a well laid trap,"Ami announced,"Perhaps it is best if we transform as soon as possible?"

We nodded our heads and transformed in our respective ways. Immediately following the last ribbon magically tying on my back, a youma leapt from a nearby buildingto grabme.

"Sailor Moon?"the scouts yelled while chasing the youma and my frantic self further into the business district.

Thoughts of a trap were promptly forgotten, it seems, because they ran directly into a forcefield. So our luck could begin to unravel further, the dome-shaped forcefield began to constrict and shock the scouts despite their best attempts to free themselves.

I was held completely helpless as the others suffered. My thoughts raced and I began mentally berating myself.

'This is my fault! Why? Why can't I be a good scout like the others and avoid youma manhandlers?'

Silent tears began to fall from my eyes as one by one the others fell to their knees in pure agony. The clouds overhead took this as a sign to let loose and drench everyone in ice cold rain. The youma's earsplitting laughter entertwined with the thunder of the storm as one of the negaverse generals chose this instance to materialize and further torment me.

" insert venus' attack her. I am sorry to admit I do not know nor can I find what her original attack is called in english. I believe it is something like love me chain...>"

I gasped as the youma released me in shock. Wasting no time to think, I immediately let loose my own attack and dusted the youma. The forcefield disappeared and the scouts started throwing their attacks at the negaverse general.

"Foolish little girls," the fustrating general stated as he avoided and deflected all attempts by the others.

A red rose gleamed in the shadows of the droplets of rain. Its trajectory left a crimson trail on the face ofthe enraged general.

"My face! You bastard! My beautiful face!"

The general hurled an energy bolt towards a spot I could only pray Tuxedo-Kamen had left. My prayers went unanswered because a black mass of material fell only seconds after impact.

"Moon Tiara Magick!" I screamed as I hurled my reenergized attack at the general.

He only just escaped its energy and disappeared with a sneer in my direction. Ignoring his retreat and the scouts questions, I ran directly towards Tuxedo-Kamen's prone form.

"Tuxedo-KAmen? Are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you alive--" I rattled off in my distress.

"Takes more than that to get rid of me, Sailor Moon," he answered gruffly.

I was so thrilled that he was okay that I grabbed him in a ferocious bear hug. I took his grimace to mean he was not used to such affection from me, but I was so happy he was okay that I did not care.

"Sailor Moon?" the newest arrival to the scouts distracted me from my hug long enough for Tuxedo Kamen to pull a disappearing act.

"Sailor Moon!"the rest of the scouts rushed to my side and began questioning me about my injuries.

"I'm fine--"I started to say before Mars cut me off.

"Well then whose blood is that?"

I gasped and realized my hands were covered in blood smears. A glance at the ground revealed similar stains of blood.

'Tuxedo-Kamen...'

"We should take Venus to the arcade before showing her the temple,"Jupiter suggested to ease conversation away from the blood.

My attention was instantly renewed towards the new scout.

"Sailor V? The Sailor V!" I could not control my excitement at the meeting of my teen idol," I love your game and your movies and I bet you're going to go to our school right? Of course you.."

I continued rambling to the exasperation of the others until Minako, as Sailor Venus had let it be known was her name, caught a glimpse of Motoki.

"Woah, he is gorgeous," she announced to no one in particular.

"Who? Motoki-onni-chan?" I asked questioningly.

Minako only nodded as the others forcibly lead her to a booth that Luna was sitting in. Another cat was sitting beside Luna, but I did not get a chance to find out why.

"Usagi-chan? Could you do me a favor?"Motoki began to ask,"Mamoru left his wallet here earlier and would you mind--"

I interrupted him by saying,"Why not ask Rei? They are dating."

"Well," Motoki continued,"I don't think he really wants Rei to know where he lives..."Motoki trailed off lamely.

Not completely sure what Motoki meant by that, I agreed. I felt bad about leaving without telling the others, but Motoki promised he'd let them know it was an emergency and I'd be back before they missed me.

I exited the arcade and began running in the direction I was certain Mamoru lived. The rain was beginning to let up a little, but I still wished I had brought an umbrella or jacket.

I crossed the street and ran a few minutes before stopping in front of an enormous white building. I peeked inside Mamoru's wallet to check the address with the building's. The addresses matched so I walked to the door hoping I did not have to be buzzed into the building.

As luck would have it, I did need to be buzzed into the building and Mamoru did not sound very thrilled to do it. Maybe if I would have told him I had his wallet before I called him a baka he would have been nicer towards me? But then again, if I had alerted him to more I would not have had such a nice view of better assets.

-Sailor Cosmos

Okay that's all I can post for the moment. I'm nearly finished with the next chapter. Adieu for now.